Daddy's Day

Yesterday was Father's Day. Joel and I sneakily woke up early and cooked Benny his favorite breakfast, french toast and bacon. I had made Benny a goodie bag of all his favorite drinks and treats and we got him a book, cd, and a nice shirt. I can't wait for Joel to get a little bigger so he can be more involved in the present making process. I remember trying to paint his hand for that turkey shirt I made. He hated it. So while those do turn out cute, I don't want to torture the poor guy when he doesn't even understand WHY I'm torturing him. :)
Later that day we went over to Papa and Mackie's house for lunch/dinner. Joel was kind of fussy, but in his defense they do schedule "lunch" at the weirdest times. Two o'clock lunch- but once we get there we don't actually eat for another hour, so it's this weird in-between time that throws our meals off all day. Well 2:00 is also right smack in the middle of Joel's nap time. So he wasn't too happy to be there, but he did his best.
He is definitely a daddy's boy. He's going through I guess a phase where he wants Benny ALL the time. He'll let me pick him up, but almost like, "ok, pick me up and take me to my dad please." It's pretty understandable though. They are spending a lot more time together since I am teaching summer school. Joel stays home with Benny 4 days during the week and only goes to Pat's 1 day since it's summer.
He loves saying "el low" now. He'll pick up phones or anything somewhat resembling the shape of a phone and hold it to his ear and say "el low? el low?" Too cute. Pat told me he also says it right when he wakes up from his nap.
Benny has been taking him to the zoo a couple times a week since they have a pretty cool toddler area there. There is a little beach area with water and then an indoor play area as well. He loves it. I got to go with them last Saturday, so it was neat to have Benny show me around and see all the things Joel has been experiencing.
Joel loves to sit atop his perch on his playscape we have upstairs. One side has a little climber with foot holes and the other side has a slide. Every now and then he'll go down the slide, but he mostly just gets up to the landing area and hangs out. He'll peek around the side of it at us and giggle. I love it.