2009 In Review

2009 was a pretty good year for this Ellsworth clan, with quite a few ups and just a few downs.

Desi: Desi started the year as a 10-month-old curly-haired Buddha baby, but he thinned out, and ended the year in taller, skinnier, and a little blonder.  He’s a pretty happy baby, although he can throw a decent tantrum.  We’re enjoying watching Des solve puzzles, increase his vocabulary, and, most importantly, learn to start entertaining himself!

Mari: Mari is grateful that she can stay home and take care of Des, although she calls me at work once or twice per day for some adult conversation, even though I’m a lousy conversationalist.  While that keeps her pretty busy, she also works hard to help the women at church.  Also, she enjoys visiting family at her country home in Ruckersville, VA.

Adam: I started the year working at one law firm and ended the year at another.  I really like the attorneys I’m working with at my new firm, and I’m excited to have a successful and busy year at my new firm.  I also started the year teaching early-morning seminary and ended the year as a 14-15 year-old young men advisor.  It’s my dream calling, and I’m loving it.

We’ve also had some great vacations visiting with family and friends here on the East Coast, Kentucky, and once in Texas.

So although things didn’t work out entirely as we would have hoped or planned coming into 2009, we feel that things have turned out for the best, and we look forward to a great 2010.

Crazy Times at Church

Church used to be so boring. Now it’s chaotic. I know that’s pretty pathetic considering we have only one child, but it’s true nonetheless.

We have sacrament meeting during the first hour, and I usually have to help prepare the sacrament and bless or pass it. By the time I get back to our pew, Mari and Desi are usually out in the hallway, so I go to relieve Mari so she can sit in peace and listen and/or prepare for Relief Society.

Last Sunday, Mari was upset because when I went out to relieve her, Desi was just about to grace her with one of his all-too-rare-and-getting-rarer kisses. It was just like in the movies. Mari had her cheek in place to receive the kiss, and Desi was inching his mouth forward for the kiss when I showed up and ruined the moment.

Desi is not a fan of nursery. We aren’t sure if it’s the chaos, or if he’s just very shy. He shrieks as soon as we leave the room, and is pretty unstable, switching between playing and crying throughout nursery.

Mari is a softie, so if she hears him crying, she’ll pull him out and carry him for a while. I let him be.

But both Mari and I are usually busy during the third hour of church-her with Relief Society and me with the Young Men-so we have no choice but to let him cry for a while, at least.
Anyway, here are a few pictures I snapped on Sunday with my Blackberry Bold. The pictures on this camera never turn out well. If I can fix them up later, I’ll update the post.

Chillin'

Mari and I often cross our legs while we’re standing around. Desi picked up on it, although he hasn’t caught on that you can rest your crossed foot on the ground.

Very Mature

I’m not sure where Desi picked this up, since I am too inflexible to rest my ankle on my knee. I always end up with my knee sticking up and it’s uncomfortable and inconvenient for writing.

A perfect fit

The stairs to the podium make great bunk beds for 1-2 year olds.

The Pumpkin Festival and Baby Dragons

Well, most of the summer has come and gone without a new blog post.  Instead of trying to squeeze them all in, I’m just going to post our recent stuff, and I’ll get to the rest when I get to it.

D&J&C were in town last week and we went to the Pumpkin Festival at some place here in Maryland.

We arrived one hour before closing, which worked out pretty well, because most of the attendees had already left.  We snapped a photo near the entrance.

Desi’s new haircut makes him look a year older than he is.

We had fun for a while,

Desi played on a wooden train…

And went sliding with Mom…

That’s when the trouble started.  Imagine my alarm when I saw Desi exploring a giant witch’s mouth (He loves mouths. I think he might be a dentist one day)…

No! Don't do it, son!

So I ran over to save him from certain doom…

It may look like we're having fun, but that's only because we laugh at danger.

And the next thing we knew, we were caught in an inescapable (and rather bouncy) cage.

Noooooooooo!

Des didn’t take the confinement well.  He became hardened, wild.

Before long, the witch took us to our final destination…

It was a close thing, but Mom finally put down the camera and pulled us out of the bubbling pot.

The Baby Dragon

Mari got Des a dragon, or dinosaur, costume for Halloween.  Earlier this week, she heard him fussing in his room, and when she went in, he was pulling on his costume on its hanger.  So she dressed him in the costume, and he played, happy as a clam, for a couple of hours.

Ish! Ish!

Mari and Des just got back from Charlottesville where Desi and Ceseley had their first swimming lessons. Desi loves to swim. When Mari calls him a fish, he says, “ish! ish!”

Last month we had a wonderful week with some friends at Deep Creek Lake (the trip has yet to be blogged by us, but you can catch the Kings’ pics and update here). While at the lake, Desi couldn’t get enough of the water.

The guards were momentarily distracted, so Desi made a break for it. (I love the waving arms)

Desi reaches the shallows, but Dad's hot on his tail.

The perpetrator is taken into custody.

Is it just me, or do those yellow trunks accentuate my butt? I think I need some new swim trunks.

Strawberry Pickin’, Developing Talents, and Babyzilla

The Strawberry Patch

The Charlottesville Ellsworths and the Gaithersburg Ellsworths got together to pick some strawberries.  Mari and Julee made fresh strawberry jam that we’re still enjoying today.

The strawberries are ripe, all ready to harvest.

Geared up and ready to pick...

Strawberry, oh strawberry. How do I love thee...

Desi is soooo helpful.

Look at the size of this berry!

So Mari and Julee picked over ten pounds of strawberries while I took pictures and Dan carried Ceseley and killed black widows.  It was a beautiful and fun day.

Teaching the things that really matter

Mastering the Xbox controller

I was playing a racing and crashing game, and Desi just had to do what Dad was doing.  He played pretty well, too.  We’d tap the controller every once in a while, but he could press the button to drive and he tried to steer.

Babyzilla

We found some cool building blocks while garage-sale-ing this year.

Before...

Look out! It's babyzilla!

Rrrrr

Aaaaaa!

CRASH!

Weeping over the broken toys.

Easter Egg Hunt

This year, we had our Easter Egg hunt on Thursday with the Morgan family.  I enjoyed having an Easter Egg hunt with kids who had fun hunting for eggs (unlike Desmond, who would be just as happy in a pile of rocks).  I also enjoyed splitting the Easter Egg fun part of Easter from the serious and spiritual side of Easter.  If possible, I’d like to do this every year.

Baskets in hand, the kids are ready to go.

Britney shows off an egg with a face design, which begs the question: How is it that the Easter Bunny can lay eggs that were decorated by kids later that day?

After successfully sweeping the deck of eggs, Josh runs to join the other kids in the yard.

Desi is very excited at this plastic thing that magically appeared in the grass directly in his path. What luck!

We used our egg-dar to give clues at to where we sensed the eggs were located.  The real Easter Bunny laid the real eggs and Robo-bunny laid the plastic, candy-filled eggs.  Like I said earlier, Desi is just as happy in a pile of rocks as he was with the Easter eggs (he’s hiding behind the chair).

All this excitement is enough to make a kid vomit.

The next photo is of Desi’s Easter basket in front of some flowers Mari made out of tissue paper.  They were very pretty. (I know what you’re thinking: “Adam, there’s no such thing as a carrot basket car! That’s ridiculous!”  And I agree.  But it would be cool if there were carrot cars, wouldn’t it?)

Next, Desi raided his basket looking for Easter goodness.

Finally, Desi discovered that the yellow duck was made of a milk-flavored substance with the consistency of chocolate.

He seems to like it.

Happy Un-birthday to You!

Last month, the Menzies and the Charlottesville Ellsworths converged here in Maryland for the weekend.  I think it’s amazing that the Becky, Wayne, and family go out of their way to travel so far to be with family so often.  That is not an easy trip.

Once everyone got here, we visited the zoo and museums, and surprised the kids with a great un-birthday party, presented by Becky, Julee, and Mari.  Becky blogged the party very well here, so I won’t repeat it, but here are some additional highlights. (Update: Julee blogged the party here.  (Password required))

Dan went to give Ceseley a bath, and Ceseley gave Dan a present. (If you can’t see it in the picture, he’s all wet)

Dan takes a bath, too. Just not with water

The kids had noise-makers, but you had to blow really, really hard before any sound came out.  (It reminded me of this skit on Whose Line Is It Anyway? (“It’s one of those silent ones.  It really irritates dogs”)).

Blue candy gems turned Caroline’s mouth blue.

I’m pretty sure I told them to smile…

Ghastly!

We got the cousins together for a photo…

And then we tried to get the little kids together for a picture.  We tried clapping, zerberting, and shouting their names, but all we got was a pained look from Desi, Ceseley admiring our lawn (it is very healthy right now, I must admit), and Wesley refusing to sit.

And then they were done.

"I'm outta here. If you want more pictures, call my agent."

On the Hunt

I’m here in the wild outback of the Cullinan Ct, where the grass is tall enough to conceal a very small zebra. I’ve spotted a far rarer beast, however.

It is distracted. I am safe for now.

Is it a fairy? No, no. It’s much too large. A troll? Perhaps, but it is cuter than a troll. Plus, it doesn’t stink (right now). What could it be? Uh, oh. I think I’ve been spotted.

It waved its arms, making it seem larger than it really was.

It is making a territorial warning that looks a lot like “roll it and roll it and mark it with a “D”.”

"Roll it and roll it..."

I’m trying to back away slowly, but it is too late. It is coming for me.

It seems to be sticking out its tongue-whether to mock me, to sniff the air like a lizard, or in anticipation of a glorious battle I cannot guess.

Any hope I had of victory in combat is gone. Look at the size of those teeth!

…End of Transmission…

Birthday Weekend, Part II

The setup:

The delivery:

The result:

At first, Desi didn’t know what to do. He poked at the cake a bit, but he wasn’t really into it. He got a little frosting on his lip, but he wasn’t a big fan. However, over time, he warmed up to the idea of demolishing the cake and throwing it around the room.

He was a bit timid at first

But he eventually realized he liked the squishy feeling of the cake between his fingers.

This boy has been a joy to his parents. We’ve all had a pretty good year. Des is big and healthy. He sleeps pretty well, and he eats pretty well. He doesn’t want to walk without help yet, and he doesn’t like sippy cups. But his laughter is contagious, and he laughs often. Hopefully by this time next year, he can learn to change his own diaper and mow the lawn.

Adam

Birthday Weekend, part I

Desi turned one year old on March 5.  It took me a full month to grasp the full magnitude of the day and post some pics on the family blog.  Or I didn’t get around to it. Part I of this post is fun with the family.  Part II will be the birthday party.

Dan, Julee, and Ceseley stayed with us for a long weekend, and celebrated Des’s birthday with us.  Unfortunately, Becky and cousin Wesley couldn’t make it, because Wesley got sick.   We had a fabulous time with family, hanging out at home, chatting, and playing.

But Desi didn’t like sharing toys with a girl!

"Oh no you don't, little man!"

He did like Uncle Dan’s balloon drumming.

Other than sharing toys, Desi and Ceseley got along splendidly…

Strolling in the park...

"My stroller's pretty boring. What's going on over there?"

Moms and babies

Desi fed the ducks

Ceseley was pooped.

I love the next two pictures.  I have them in my digital picture frame at work.

Finally, Julee and Mari took the kids to a nearby playground.

Des loves the big slide

Oh, hey, fancy meeting you here.

I don't know about that, Mom. I'm pretty high up.

What's the hold-up?

Hey! I'm drivin' here!

Thanks for coming, Charlottesville Ellsworths!  We look forward to seeing the Menzies soon, too!