Sno-bliz!

I know there are many reasons not to visit us in New Orleans during the summer. But here is one mighty powerful reason why you should: Hansen's Sno-Bliz. They're only open during the summer, this is their 69th year in business, and they still shave their ice on a machine built by Ernest Hansen in the 30s. These are nothing like a snow cone; the ice in a Hansen's sno-bliz is light and airy, and the syrups are made in-house, using Mary Hansen's original recipes, and they are just heavenly.

Elio loved his first New Orleans sno-ball. He made a face every time he tasted mine because it was so cold, but he kept reaching for more.

Ahhhh

Us on our front porch.

Elio and Grandma Nancy:
We had brunch this morning with my former boss, Paul (on the right) and his boyfriend, Rolando, who were in town for the weekend. Elio did okay in the restaurant, but was really excited by the sprinklers outside.


Cuteness around the house:






Concentrating so hard on the ping pong ball/pandeiro interaction:


Feet!


I love having a camera again.

Back in action

We're back! My mom is here visiting, and she brought a camera! Yay! And we have been gifted with a temporary replacement camera until ours inevitably turns up as we continue to unpack and settle in.

We finally let the cats go outside, and Elio seems to really like opening and closing the backdoor to help them.

Sunday afternoons = music class. Elio's primarily interested in the drums and shakers.

Bipedelio!

So Elio's new nickname these days is Christopher Walken. This weekend he has really figured out the perambulation thing. Very exciting! Sometimes he looks like a tightrope walker, aware of his balance with every step, pausing to right himself before continuing on.

Arriving

Hi all. We live in New Orleans! Neat. So far the city has been treating us well. People are incredibly friendly, and there are lots of great things to explore. Cats and kid did really well on the road trip, and the movers brought our stuff yesterday, so we've got lots of unpacking and arranging to do. Our house is super cute and we really like the neighborhood we're in.

Sadly, my camera is still missing in action. Dan thinks he packed it in a box, so I'm hopeful of finding it with each box we open. That means, no pictures of our first week adventures here. I'll rectify that with blow-by-blow re-enactments as soon as I can. During our first week here, we went to the zoo, which is amazing! We got a membership so we can go all the time. It's six minutes from our house and really really neat.  We still have to go to the aquarium and the newly opened insectarium (though I don't know how well I'll handle that!). We went to our library branch to get cards. The branch near us, the Latter, is absolutely beautiful -- it's in a grand old decrepit mansion, and it feels like quite the event to go there. 

Send good thoughts for the return of the camera. Dan is inflating Elio's kiddie pool as I type... what a shame not to go take pictures of Elio in there!

Leaving

Tomorrow will be our last day in Williamsburg. Wow. It's been a busy, and bittersweet, couple of weeks.

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and Dan was kind enough to sneakily arrange to have Elio go hang out with his buddy Charlie so that we could go see a movie. Here's Elio and Charlie riding in the stroller and plotting to escape to the great outdoors...

My Dad came to visit last weekend. He put some stuff in boxes for us, and we went to Jamestown to explore.


Charlie's dad, Danny, is an archaeologist at Jamestown (coolest job in the Williamsburg area!), and he showed us the nifty bag of stuff they'd dug up that morning. Looks like they were digging up babies that day.


In Elio news land, he's taken his first steps! He can only take two or three steps by himself before he falls down, but he's super close to really taking off. This picture captures one of those early steps. You can see he's busy moving a cable from one part of the room to another.


Better than walking, though, is going for a wheely bug ride.

Just as fun as a wheely bug ride is crawling through a box tunnel!



Or climbing over stuff to get into the forbidden, non-babyproofed zones...


So, next post will be from New Orleans. Wish us, the cats, and the kid luck on the drive.

NOLA

Whew. We just returned from a grueling weekend of house-hunting in New Orleans. We must have looked at over 25 places--the historic, the slanted, the crumbling, the too expensive, and the downright appalling. Luckily, we ended up landing a terrific little rental house that was head and shoulders above the rest. It'll have a guest room waiting for you all to come visit (subtle hint hint).

Elio was a trooper through it all. For the most part, he was a patient little guy as we drove up and down just about every street in Uptown New Orleans, looking for "for rent" signs.

The best part of the trip was staying with our friends Edie and Justin. Elio got to play with their son, Mose, who is super adorable and who was kind enough to share his toys.


After a long, sweaty day of apartment hunting, a drink by the pool is very refreshing.





The kitchen in the house we rented! So beautiful!


Elio in the New Orleans airport. The arty-80s sculpture only looks like it's going to topple on him.


One more thing: Pasta. How does this stuff work?