Falling off the blogwagon

You may wonder why? Perhaps this picture will partially answer it... The other answer is a small reason called the flu that landed in full force last week.

Now I am feeling so much better, I hope to have all sorts of posts soon--including the "after" shots of the study.

On the other hand

Two weeks ago, David and I went to an indoor jump place. I had been forewarned that D might be a bit scared of the blow-up stuff. However, when we arrived, he did just fine and really seemed to enjoy it. I, on the other hand, came out a bit sadder but wiser. First off, we climbed up the two story slide. It was quite a challenge to get up to the top in the first place and with a child and socks, it was even more incredible. (a challenge I don't recommend. take off the socks) I was not prepared for quite how fast it would go. 3/4 of the way down, I had my elbows down against the slide and could not get them out fast enough to avoid the heavy "rug" burn that I got from the slide. I am still healing two weeks later. I also had Michael's voice ringing in my ears the whole time as I went through an obstacle course with David. (Michael is currently working on a case where someone sued after a fatal accident with a blow-up obstacle course.) Last but not least, I walked out of the building feeling a little queasy and unsure of my steps. The motion sickness from simply "jumping" around was bit too much for me.

David had a great time!

You've come a long way, baby...

Glamour Shots, that is.

When I signed my mom and myself up for a free photo shoot and 10x13 I thought I knew what I was getting into. A night of crazy hair; loads of caked on, over dramatic makeup; and feather boas accessorized with loud jewelry. That, at least, is what I remembered from my high school days.

I was rather surprised (and secretly a bit disappointed) that they aim for natural pictures now in your own everyday clothes. The experience was fun and the picture of my mom and myself a special reminder of this fun. I did get the free 10x13 of just me, but when ever will I want to hang such a large picture of myself on the wall???

1.1 (aka, 13 months a la Ami)

(Yes, I did teach math, and I do know that 1.1 is not the same as 1 year 1/12 months.)

This month was a catching up of sorts from the long month we had last month for your first birthday! It was actually midway through this month that you celebrated your birthday via pool party with family.

This month also brought to light a glimpse of the months ahead. We had many very sweet days with a cheerful chatterbox ;), but was also had many challenging days with a very cranky, whiny boy for no apparent reason...or sometimes too many reasons. Your separation anxiety upon being left in the church nursery sometimes overflows into homelife again when Mama leaves one room for another. You have cut one upper tooth and the second is not far behind (just under the surface). You had an ear infection at your last doctor's visit. At times, you do not like being told what to do--whether it is by your parents or merely slightly overly helpful older cousins. You also do not like the more frequent spankings that come as a result of direct disobedience. But on the days that you are the cheerful chatterbox??? Nothing is like the joy that you bring to those around you!

You really are very chatty at times! Even when you are not saying a clear word (which you have several), you look at us with a very serious face and say so many different verbal sounds in different patterns at once that I have a hard time from suppressing a laugh. (You say all sorts of things with the appearance of every expectation that we understand and yet it is still babble!) I would be surprised to find that you are not quite the linguist as you age! As to your clear words? You will use the sound for "mama" in play but the instant I ask you to say "Hi, mama," you look at me with wonder and perhaps will respond with "hi, dada," sometimes something else but never "mama."

You seem to have slowed down from a recent growth spurt, so eating is far less important to you. A few new foods though--fish sticks, animal crackers (yeah for this lifesaver!), tropical fruit, and blueberries. Still ever the same old standbys for lunch and dinner with only a little variation: grilled or breaded chicken and veggies (the veggies are your favorite).

Napping is not quite as long anymore either although you are on a fairly consistent schedule for afternoon nap. Mama can generally only count on about 1 1/2-2 hours of nap now though.

This recent growth spurt gave you a new wardrobe too. You now wear almost all 12-18 month or 18-24 month clothing. You also switched exclusively (well sort of) to size 4 diapers this month. However, Mama bought ahead and had far too many boxes of size 4 diapers, I think. After being in the new size for only 3 or 4 days, she realized you were leaking too much at night again. Now, you wear size 5 diapers at night!!!

You are very comfortably walking everywhere now! Translation: you are running Mama ragged with all your activity. I suppose (reluctantly) thankfully, even tv does not slow you down. You want to be into everything everywhere. You love exploring and will roam as freely as allowed. Thank goodness for baby gates! The baby gates on the stairs seem rather superfluous (though still heavily used) since after Mama showed you once how to come downstairs backward on your tummy, you decided that was pretty good and have very unexpectedly managed to go up and down on your own all the time.

We tried to give you your first haircut this month (you are getting a bit straggly around the ears). We have pictures to prove it, but you were so squirmy that night that we gave up for another time--yet to be determined. (update: you got a first trim, just around the ears right before this went to press. Very butchered, but what can Mommy do when you are squirming?)

1st attempt

2nd half-successful attempt

Your favorite toys are (as always) balls, books phones (Aunt A gave you a real house phone), remote controls, and the odd non-toy you can stick in your mouth. You often walk around the house with the phone held to your ear, talking. Why you know to do this, I am not sure. We commonly use speaker phone around here and rarely hold it to our ear... You also love chasing the cats...also, as always. However, you have not given up despite being clawed twice by Squeak, the orange tabby--who is now scheduled for declawing later this week.

This love you show for the cats, you also show for those around you~ You absolutely go wild with joy when your Daddy comes home each day. You also have started trying to give kisses to your Mama. After she kisses you several times, you will open your mouth and press it hard against Mama's cheek. So sweet (and so slobbery!) :)

This month brought lots of family time--both for your birthday party and just in family visits. You got to see your grandparent Browns again (last seen at 3 1/2 months), and I think they find you far more enjoyable that then. You are rather fond of playing with your Gdaddy. You have had fun playing with cousins too. You enjoy the older kids, and watching what they do, but often find yourself preferring to assert your independence as they try to ferry you around the house kindly keeping you out of mischief. You also went to a ballet/tumbling class this month. Don't get angry with Mama for the little black ballet slippers you had to wear. You were still ALL boy! In fact, you tumbled across the floor better than anyone else, and I think the instructors were impressed with your strength. This month, we went to a couple of pools as well--one of which had a big Noah's Ark and slide. And it was fast...perhaps a bit too fast! We also climbed to the top of a 2 story treehouse at the McDonalds play area...then the fun of going down the slide together!

Life this month has been rather more ordinary but full of those special, sweet moments that are pure joy!

We love you!

More than a blurb

This week I received my book that I created using Blurb (as suggested by my friend April). I was very happy with the results! It turned out to be a cute, little book. I ordered a 7x7 hardcover with dustjacket. This book included all blogs from the 9 months before David came through his first full year. Not too surprisingly with all this info and pictures, it came out to be 230something pages. Despite the number of pages, I still only paid about $50 for the hardcover book and shipping. The book is very professionally put together and looks fantastic! The only complaint I had in the making of it was that the Blurb software is so "professional" that I had unlimited ways to put together each page and at times spent far too long designing each page. I was able to use their templates as a basis and change them to add/delete/move etc... text boxes, picture boxes etc... It really does provide almost unlimited possibilities. For those of you who want to just import and have Blurb lay it out, however, that is possible too.

All in all, a fantastic product that I will be using again!!!

Labor Day in Victoria

We went to visit my sister in Victoria for her birthday (which happened to fall on Labor Day this year). The time there was fast but sweet. We celebrated her birthday on Monday by going kayaking (a first for me since camp in middle school), grabbing a free chicken sandwich at Chick-Fil-A due to our various sport logo jerseys, and eating a yummy but rather funny birthday cake. Funny? because the cake is supposed to be a gourmet, sophisticated cake, and it looked far from that. While it seemed rather unsophisticated to begin with, the hot pink icing added to the effect. The gal who piped my sister's name did a great job but instead of "Happy Birthday" or something like that, she just did "Anna!" We all especially liked the exclamation mark at the end!

Last Miscellanea

To be added to this year's book for David:

David shows strong tendancies toward being a leftie. He throws all balls with his left hand...even switching hands to throw left-handed when necessary. He also eats with his left hand, even when food is inconveniently placed near his right hand. As a probable home-schooling candidate though, I will likely encourage him to learn to write right-handed.

His spoken vocabulary has grown amazingly in the past week or so. It now includes the following words- most of which are spoken on a pretty regular basis: "Kitty Cat", "Uh-Oh" (his second word after "Kitty Cat" and by far the clearest and most regularly used), "hi", "Dada", and "ball." He is a jabber-mouth and is constantly saying many other things but as yet, unidentifiable.

David is exceptionally strong! Not only are his arm and leg muscles in plain view, but he can perform all sorts of stunts on pure power alone. For example, he regularly hangs from the kitchen or bathroom counter and pull himself up to a chin up. This has also been true on the baby gates, the side of the bed, the couch and other items just out of reach. Also, often reminding me of an ant, he carries around household objects that are far heavier than him-- tubs and lids, baby gates, chairs, heavy toys, etc...

How I am constantly amazed by this little boy that God has blessed us with, but most of all, I am overcome by the great and precious gift he truly is!!! How much above and beyond did God provide in answering our prayers!