Eli's Weekend with Grandma and "E"

A couple weekends ago, Josh's dad, Grandpa E, and Josh's grandmother from Oklahoma came to stay with us. Eli and Grandma Donaho had never met before, so this was a very special meeting for both of them.

Saturday morning began the same way it always does with Grandpa E. Eli and E played with his building blocks. E showed off his engineering skills and made lots of neat things for Eli-a race car, helicopter, and a plane. Eli was very very impressed!


Eli took a late nap so we decided to just do a late lunch at one of our restaurants downtown, Breaud's. YUM! YUM! (Nicki, the tuna was just as good as always. We missed having you guys there to share it with us!) Josh and I don't eat out much because frankly, it's just easier not to with Eli. Usually by the time our food arrives, Eli's sick and tired of being confined in a high chair and wants to "geh down" (get down). Our tag team parenting skills come into play then and one of us plays with him (a.k.a. walks him around the restaurant) while the other eats. Then we trade jobs. It's usually more work than enjoyment, so if it's just the two of us we skip out on the "fun."

This particular day I came armed with lots of distraction items for Eli so we could enjoy our meal. Josh and Eli played cars for a couple of minutes, but that quickly got old.


So E came up with a great toy! He took the paper our utensils came in and folded it up accordion style...


Then put it around his mouth and blew really hard...


And tada! Instant noise maker! Sure to capture a 19 month old's attention for at least 15 minutes!



The rest of our meal actually went really well. Eli did wonderfully! We visited a couple of stores after lunch, but Eli was mostly impressed with the balloons right outside of our restaurant. He and Daddy had lots of fun punching them like they were punching bags.


We went next door to the Bass Pecan Shop and Eli was particularly impressed with this establishment because they seemed to cater to little people like him. The doorknob was at the perfect height for him.


And the rocking chair inside wasn't so bad either.


We finally had to load up and go home. Eli grabbed Grandma Donaho's hand (he's got this grandmother thing figured out!) and led the way to our car. It was another wonderful day spent with family!