Texas & Family

Here's a video of Elijah and Morgan's dads dog Toby. Elijah is pulling and abusing Toby and the dog is just taking it. What a good boy.

Some pics to highlight some of our time in Texas:

Elijah playing with Toby. See him sticking out his tongue doing his baby sign for "doggie"

We finally put Elijah in his Halloween costume (a little late) and took some pics. Our cute little monkey!

He usually tries to pull hats off, but he didn't mind this one.

Riding the horse at the park. He has such good balance.

Daddy trying to show Elijah the big fish in the pond at the park.

Elijah fell asleep on Nana

Elijah with Grand-dad and the Texans bull

Elijah is officially a "toddler" now -- he's walking everywhere, only crawls about 5% of the time (if he trips while he's walking). But he has good balance and really doesn't fall much. He just walks around the house in circles, carrying his toys from one area to another, closing all the doors as he goes -- he sometimes closes himself in a room by himself. Good thing he doesn't know how to lock the doors yet. I have a video of him walking all around and following the dog but it won't upload for some reason - will work on that.

Raisins!

Because a few have commented (in real life and on the blog) about the raisins picture, I thought I'd share the whole sequence with you -- I know you'll get a kick out of it too. Be sure to scroll down and check out the 4 posts of our road trip extraordinaire (I added the pics from Nashville just now).

So here's the situation. Bruce and I are laying in bed trying to get a few more minutes of shut eye while Elijah is running around the room exploring and entertaining himself. He usually talks to himself as he runs around, but we don't hear anything for a few minutes, so we look over and he's literally taking handfulls of raisins and shoving them in his mouth. We grabbed the camera and snapped these pics.

Score!

Raisins...my favorite!

Ahh, this is the life.....

I think I may have overdone it.

Road Trip Extraordinaire (Part 1)

WOW! It's been a long time and A LOT has been going on here -- I'm planning on doing a lot of posts with lots of pictures here, so be sure to scroll down and see them all!



We left Boston on October 27th to drive to Texas for our big move. For those that don't know, we are moving overseas in February, but before we go we are spending a few months in Texas with our families. We won't post too many details on a public site like this as to where we are going or with whom for security reasons, but you can email us (morganteague@gmail.com, audiosq@gmail.com) if you want to know more.



We stopped at LOTS of places to visit friends and family along the way (and took lots of pictures) -- so I'll do my best to get some of them to you who have been missing us.


Our first stop was in New York City (specifically Brooklyn) to visit Bruce's childhood friend Reagan -- who was Bruce's "groomsmaid" in our wedding. We left at 5am and drove in the early morning hours so that Elijah would sleep - he did great. We stayed with Reagan for 4 days and did a lot of exploring in the city. We went to Prospect Park in Brooklyn and walked around, let Elijah play in the park -- it was a nice day, but kind of chilly. We walked over the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan and went to the "hot dog place" where they have bacon wrapped specialty hot dogs (yum - and I don't even like hot dogs!) And we went to Max Brenner's for THE BEST chocolate ever (Thanks Reagan!). We took Elijah to the biggest Toys 'R Us ever = and he had a blast looking at all the doggies and big colorful toys. We did some relaxing around the apartment -- after spending a week and a half at full force packing mode, it was nice to just be still for a little bit.



B&M about to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge - you can see the bridge and Manhattan in the background.



Bruce & Reagan walking over the Brooklyn Bridge




On the other side




At Toys 'R Us





Playing with the wall of doggies - Elijah LOVED it!

Road Trip Extraordinaire (Part 2)

On Halloween we drove just outside of DC (to Rockville, MD) to visit 2 of Morgan's college friends Helina and Mariam who are working in DC. We didn't dress Elijah up for Halloween except for this cute pumpkin hat and little black trick or treat outfit. We had a monkey outfit that we borrowed from a friend, but we were on the road and never had a chance to put it on. Maybe we'll put it on now and take some pics and pretend it was on Halloween.

Bruce and I spent a day touring around DC while H and Mar were at work on Thursday. We were so tired after a full day of walking - we saw the Washington Monument, the White House, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Lincoln Monument, Korean Memorial, WWII Memorial, the Capitol -- phew, what a day! Then we spent a lot of the day on Friday at the Zoo (which is FREE since it's a Smithsonian). Elijah loved looking at all the animals and he was such a trooper with the long days. It was so cute, he thought everything was a "doggie" - he kept panting like a dog (his baby sign for dog). Here's some pics from our time in DC:

We found a USPS Jedi Master! Bruce thought it was cool.

Elijah got tired of being in his stroller and would try to climb out! Then he fell asleep on Mar on the Metro on the way home.

Just a couple pics from the zoo - Elijah with Helina and the panda bear. The second one is us with the lion on the left in the background. We got to hear him ROAR and he walked all around, which I guess is rare because they sleep or lay around like 90% of the time.

Road Trip Extraordinaire (Part 3)

Next we drove to Raleigh, NC where we spent 2 days with our friends Steph & Adam who moved from Boston to Raleigh last February. We had some GOOOOOOD home cookin' from Steph. She made from scratch cinnamon rolls for breakfast, homemade yummy tomato soup and grilled cheeses for lunch, and balsamic marinated pork chops with creamed spinach and corn for dinner. SO SO DELICIOUS!!! We played a game of Settlers of Catan where Adam won (again). We went to the Duke Gardens and walked around, and got the tour of the Durham/Raleigh/Chapel Hill area - very nice! Very Southern! We definately crossed the Northern/Southern line by driving from DC to Raleigh. We also got to be part of their first church service in a building, which was so fun to be part of -- there was about 15 people there. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics on my camera from Raleigh, but they are coming so I'll update later.

Next we drove on to Knoxville, TN to visit our friends Greg & Allison who moved from Boston to Knoxville to be part of starting a church there. We got the grand tour of Knoxville from Allison who grew up there - it was nice. Bruce really likes Tennessee -- he says it's his 2nd favorite state (obviously the first being Texas). We walked around the mall and took Elijah to the play place in the mall and to this big park one afternoon. He loved it!

At a store in Knoxville

Elijah at the park in Knoxville - he liked picking up the rocks and dropping them again. And he loved the slide because it had some turns in it. We have a video of him going down it where he's laughing going down the whole time.

Elijah snuck into the snack bag and somehow opened the raisins and was eating huge handfuls of raisins at a time - in this pic his cheeks are full of raisins. I don't think you understand how much this kid loves raisins. He will always pick out the raisins first out of anything you give him.

Road Trip Extraordinaire (Part 4)

We drove on to Nashville, TN next where Bruce's extended family on his mom's side lives. Bruce spent a lot of time in Nashville (specifically Mt Juliet) growing up, so this brought back lots of memories which was fun to share with Elijah. Bruce's PePa used to buy, fix up and sell automobiles and moving trucks before he passed away 4 years ago -- and they are still trying to clear the 12 acres of land. Bruce did a lot of exploring to look at the old cars and trucks. We stayed with Grandma and had a lot of grandma's home cooked meals (yum!) We also got to see Bruce's aunt and uncles and their families. Cousin Milana turned 7 while we were there, so we got to go to her birthday party.

Updated: Able to add the pics, see below.

Bruce and Elijah on his PePa's property

Elijah and Dixie...loves dogs.

Uncle Jim is fixing up an old truck

Elijah and his great-grandmother

Pushing around a tractor

We got to see our friends Matt and Emily Bryant, who moved to Tennessee for Matt to go to Vanderbilt. Emily used to watch Elijah for me when I went to work for a couple hours. I think she loved seeing Elijah again. :)

We ate at this yummy restaurant Calypso Cafe - Elijah enjoyed the beans and rice (as you can see by his messy face)


SOME BIG NEWS: Elijah took his first steps in Nashville last week! Here's a video of his first 2 steps (re-enacted). By now he's up to 6 or 7 steps - he's gaining confidence in himself every day with practice. Updated Sunday 11/18: His new record is 20 steps by himself -- he's turning into quite the walker, especially when he's motivated!