Governors' weekend

For those of you who are local, you know it was an absolutely gorgeous weekend.  It was peak color to the day in my yard, with temperatures in the 80s.  We took advantage of it.

 

Saturday morning Elias edulged in one of his favorite things:  watching videos of himself.  He just cracks himself up!  I finally decided, rather late, to bring Elias to the Fitchburg firestation open house then proceed on to some driving around to appreciate the scenery and season.  I threw in some snacks and off we went. 

The open house was a much bigger deal than I thought.  They had lots of vehicles to climb around in, "Sparky" the mascot, balloons, food, hands-on firehose demos, and firetruck rides.  The problem was, I unwittedly had WAY overdressed Elias for the hot weather, and it was naptime, so he was unusually cranky.  I tried to leave after making the rounds, but he insisted on riding the firetruck, then proceeded to cry continuously in the long, long line (Why, but whyyy do we have to wait?).  Fortunately for everyone, we got to skip ahead after ~15min (with ~15 more to go) because we were only 2, and they needed to fill up the trucks.  He loved it...then cried again when we left (Why, wwhhyyy do we have to leave?  Why can't I ride again?  WHY?).

My hope was that he'd nap in the car.  I found another shirt for him in his diaperbag from the day before--dirty, but at least cooler--then we hit the road.  I drove maybe 4o min to Governor Dodge State Park.  He mostly entertained himself, then fell asleep after ~25 min.  It was indeed beautiful.  He woke up also and I think enjoyed the drive.  We stopped at a lake to sit and snack.  He really wanted to swim, but I had no extra clothes and didn't think skinnydipping would be welcomed by the other familes there.  I said he couldn't get wet, so kept edging right up to and a little bit in the water.  The last straw was when he stepped back, put his head down on the wet sand between his legs, and summersaulted into the lake.  Sigh.  Maybe I was asking for it.  Well, at least I had plenty of pull-ups.

Sunday morning as usual we went to church and grocery shopping which included granting his weekly request for a "white, square" doughnut.  I made sure he napped, and in so doing blissfully fell asleep myself.  Then, largely because Saturday I'd said we could play in a lake that day, we packed up again (this time with lots of extra clothes) and went to Governor Nelson State Park, nearby:  a surprisingly lightly-used, beautiful park with views of the Capitol across Lake Mendota (or "Lake Minnesota" as Elias says).  He had a great time on the playground (with refreshingly steep slides and no annoying rubber safety stuff on the ground) before having a great time playing in the lake.  I waded in up to my waist, but he was all-out gung-ho, running in and out so that he fell & went under, practicing his backfloat, chasing ducks, and just showing lots of general exuberance.  I couldn't believe we were in the lake on the 10th of October.  I think my first year here it snowed on that date.  He did start to get cold though, so I wrapped him in a towel and we sat on the edge of the grass with feet in the sand, being quiet, cuddling and gazing out across the lake.  Then, in a clear, thoughtful voice he said simply, "It is beautiful."  So true.

preach it, Brother!

I finally posted a video of Elias "reading" a Bible story to me.  He's a very dynamic orator.  He loves these Bible stories...I just wish his favorites weren't the "bad" ones:  Adam & Eve eating fruit they know they shouldn't; Jesus getting mad at the temple merchants and throwing them out; Pharoah defying God; and, the arrogant, selfish rich man, here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCaAmBMqtSs
It's long, but just SOO Elias.
He's showing indications of a gifted, inspired preacher (or a raving charismatic crazyman--but let's just concentrate on that other path.)

Lame catch up intro

It’s been a long time but at last I have a good blogging opportunity.  I have the first fire of the year blazing away in the fireplace with Elias snuggled up besides me, excitedly watching a Thomas the Train DVD—a rare treat at night.

...

OK, now it's 3 days later.  Don't really recall what derailed me that night.  There's been so many instances over the last month or two where Elias did something sweet or surprising or spectacular that just needed to be shared with the world, or at least recorded for our own benefit, but the access wasn't there, and I soon forgot.  Living in the moment is good, but I do wish that my memory wasn't so poor.  I can barely remember any of my life before yesterday.  I'm left with vague and sometimes strong impressions, but little detail.  I guess I'd make a terrible courtroom witness!

Let's see, reviewing my pictures I can jog loose some of the things we've done over the last couple months.  I'll separate those out in the following "bloggettes" covering various September events, AfricaFest, and his birthday.

September days

September went by so quickly! Here are some snapshots:

Discovering worms!  (after so much handling I started to feel sorry for them, and switched them out occasionally as I was planting.)  Later he came up to me with a closed fist and said "Bug, Mommy!"  When I asked to see, well, there indeed was a huge live bug.  That's my boy!  He closed his hand again and said "Ukky!  I throw bug away." and led me over to the garbage can so I could open the lid for him, he threw it away, then returned to what he'd been doing.

Sept 02 is the anniversary of Elias U.S. adoption, and Sept 11 is Ethiopian New Year.  We made cupcakes with Ethiopian colors for daycare treats and Elias wore his special celebration clothes given to him by the orphanage (they were a bit large back then!)  Entukatash 2003, everyone!

Of course, there's Farmers' Market on the Square all summer...

 

...and we had a good time visiting the Vilas Zoo...

 

...and an even better time at the new Madison Childrens Museum.  Wow; amazing place.  Elias LOVES it, and we really haven't seen it all yet.  The first day he participated in a percussion "class" for kids <5.  I was very impressed the guy could keep a large group of little kids on task and even starting and stopping in unison (well, mostly).  This coincided with the week that Elias suddenly "got rhythm," or at least, I noticed him clapping his hands with the beat on Rich Mullins CDs.  He did pretty darn well with the drums at MCM, too!

We also fit in a trip to Cheese Days down in Monroe.  We got there a little too early for a lot of the events, but at least we didn't have to wait 2.5 hrs to get some of the best cheese curds on earth.  One of these pictures is of Elias licking his curd--he doesn't really have the proper technique down yet.

Race

Late August was AfricaFest, an annual event here in Madison.  It was larger this year, and for the first time preceded by a charity race/walk, to build wells in Ethiopia.  How could we pass that up?  I opted for the 5k walk; Elias opted for the 5k ride--he sat in his stroller virtually the entire time!  We proudly came in last.  He got a medal.

My favorite things at AfricaFest were the African dancing and having real Ethiopian food.  Elias liked the dancing but wasn't crazy about injera and wat this time.  He LOVED, however, being allowed to climb around in a real police car.  The officer assured me he couldn't hurt anything in there, but he did, to her surprise, find something that he was able to turn off or mess up somehow. 

He really likes police cars and police officers.  A Madison officer is usually there after church to direct traffic.  Upon sighting him every week Elias yells "It's a police man, Mommy!  He's helping all the cars!  He's helping, Mommy!"

Devil's Lake

Elias' 3rd birthday was pretty low-key.  It fell on a Monday.  Saturday was his daycare's picnic, so that sorta took the place of a party.  I brought a cake, but ended up bringing much of it home.  Elias enjoyed repeatedly blowing out candles over the next couple days. 

Monday I took off work and we went to Devil's Lake State Park.  It was a gorgeous day in a gorgeous place.  We had a blast swimming in a lake--one of the few times I've swum in a lake, and a first for him.  The north end has a wonderful wide, even, sandy, gradual dropoff that was perfect.  Elias is fearless in water, and has been taking swim lessons, but still hasn't mastered the backfloat.  He kept walking out deeper and deeper until it went over his head and he'd cling, sputtering, onto me...and ask me to go out further.  He loved being thrown high into the air and plunging down into the water, coming up laughing and yelling, "More, Mommy, more!  Higher, Mommy!"

We enjoyed a picnic lunch and several swimming sessions.  I got perhaps my most painful sunburn ever, my whole back, although I hardly peeled.  All in all, well worth it (although, yes, I should've put sunscreen on me, too).  Elias fell deeply asleep shortly after loading him into the car, giving me the chance to stop a few times on the way home to snap some pictures of the beautiful countryside.