The World Opens Up

Happy springtime to all from the flowering foothills where life is emerging from every corner of our world! This is by far my absolute favorite time of year and I can't wait to share it with Lyell.

Lyell is pushing 9 months old, and he has taken our house, and any other surface we plop him down on, by storm. He is fully mobile now and has developed his own way of crawling, which you can see on the videos at the end of this post. I am particularly impressed with his discovery of the "helicopter pivot" which he employs to change directions on a moments notice (again, refer to the video.)

It has taken me all of nine months to figure out how to post video to this site, but now that I am savvy get ready for some full length Lyell feature films coming up. I have yet to fully capture the full beauty of Lyell's special relationship to our kitty, Nariz.

I was inspired to post today after a glorious time playing at our local lake and playground. I have been taking Lyell to this playgroup since he was 3 weeks old and he slept the whole time! Now he can swing on the swings and slide down the slide (with a little help.)

Here are Lyell and Matiah on the swings with our lake in the background.

Lyell and Tamzen on the pine needles.

This is my personal favorite picture of Lyell sporting his first Giants hat.

Working on the "traditional" crawl maneuver.

Ready to play!

Like father, like son.

Lyell's "excito-saucer" (as Matthew calls it) where he gives his most expressive monologues to all his plastic friends.

Lyell gets all prepped for the next x-c ski adventure. Thank goodness for our Subaru, which is our home away from home. Lyell christened it with his first car-sickness gift last weekend.

Lyell on our family hike at Trabucco Ranch.

His hair has been sticking straight up and fuzzy for the past month.

Classic Lyell just waking up from his nap. Note the ski pajamas, our favorite.

These last few tiny pictures show us trying out the ski sled at Badger last weekend. We all loved it, although Matthew did "capsize" a few times while taking Lyell off piste in the powder.

The next day I ran a 5 mile race with my good friend Josie down in Hornitos. Triathlon training is going full speed, thanks to the weather, our Chariot with its various attachments, and most importantly the love and support of my incredible husband.

Finally we have a few videos of Lyell in action. His spirit lights up our lives everyday and we are so blessed and thankful to have him in our life. -Kim and Matthew