18 Months

Andrew turned 18 months right before Christmas but I took him in for his 18 month check up last week (so now that he is almost 19 months I'll finally get to it).  He was a little shy and absolutely hated getting checked out, weighed, and measured for anything.  But that made me feel pretty special because he just wanted to snuggle close.  I'll take that whenever I can!  He does warm up to people and kids after a few minutes and is starting to play and interact more.  In the grocery store he says, "Hi" to just about everyone we pass.

He is still extra tall for his age.  Here are the stats:

Height: 35 & 1/4 inches (>97 %ile)
Weight: 24.5 lbs (25-50 %ile)
Head: 46.8 cm (10-25 %ile)
Development: 2 1/2 years range

He has progresses so much in his language!  He is turning into a parrot, repeating everything I say all the time!  We have to be really careful now.  He points to everything around the room identifying and pointing out what he observes. He is starting to use 2 words together now and sometimes uses 3.

He's learning to say cheese for pictures.
But most of the time he won't hold a pose long
enough for me to get "the perfect picture"

He loves, tunnels.  He can find a tunnel every where and is quick to point them out.  When I'm doing Zumba, under chairs, with blocks, even when he takes a bit of a banana and turns it upside down and sets it on the table!
He also loves, Thomas (the tank engine), trucks, cars, choo choos, balls, blocks, stacking stuff, and tractors (he loves this video especially).  Because of the cold he has learned how to ask for a show, and either wants Thomas or Cars.  We can't wait for Spring around here!  He still loves being outside and would probably stay out longer if it wasn't for a cold mommy.

He is quite the little spit fire and has so much energy these days.  It is really hard to get pictures of him.  But he is always happy & has a cute little personality.

 As far as food, he still eats pretty good.  However, it can be a challenge to get him to even try new things!
LOVES:
Fruits: Blueberries, Strawberries, & Apples
Veggies: Corn, Peas, Beans, Carrots, and Broccoli
Other Foods: Spaghetti, Stroganoff, Scrambled Eggs, Toast
Snacks: Ice Cream, Chocolate, Fruit Snacks, Wheat thins, Goldfish,  Raisins, Cheese,
Activities: Reading Books, Jumping, Dancing, Running around, helping mom with everything (dishes, vacuuming  typing on the computer, etc)

Hates:
Getting his pants changed, when I tell him to do anything, not being a part of something.

He is still a great sleeper.  With the holidays, and having colds and such we kinda let things slide a little more and he was off his normal routine and had a harder time sleeping. But we are back on track after waking him up early a couple mornings.
He only gets his binkys while napping and bed time right now.  We've begun dealing with consequences and choices.  He throws his binkys out of his crib on purpose, he doesn't get them back.  He kicks the wall (while in his crib) I take his binkys away for a few minutes.  I'm contemplating getting rid of them all together very soon.  He has shown great progress not needing them at all during the day & often throws them back in right after he wakes up.  Hopefully soon.

 It's hard to resist his cute little face.  He just gets more and more cute everyday and I love him so much.  He makes me so happy and I love being his Mom.

Mom, can we please be done with pictures!

The BIG 30

Briant had another birthday, but it wasn't just any birthday!

Briant turned 30!  He's no spring chicken anymore!

I enjoyed decorating the cupcakes he requested.

Of coarse he have to have sprinkles...  as always. 

...the cupcake holders had MVP written on them.

 We could not eat all those cupcakes by ourselves, so we had a small get together with friends from school, church and our neighbors.   It was a lot of fun and Andrew had a blast with his friend Sadie.  She kept picking him up and he loved it every time!  He is getting better playing with friends! Yay!

Happy Birthday, Briant.  I love you so much.  You really are the MVP of our home.  

Christmas Break 2012

For Christmas this year we packed up our things and drove to Pennsylvania to be with Briant's parents (and brother).  It rained hard the entire drive there.  

Andrew had a little cough the day we left, then as the days passed grew into a bigger cough and then welcomed a runny nose to top it all off.  He ended up not sleeping very well some nights which meant we all didn't sleep well some nights.  One night, he just couldn't get settled and I knew something was bothering him.  We had a friend check his ears the next morning and while they was no infection, one was a little red and sore.  So we figured all the congestion was settling there and causing discomfort while he slept.  Ibuprofen made everything better.  Oh the things I have learned being a parent!

We all ended up getting his cold.  My FIL and BIL ended up getting the worst of it! SORRY!!

I think this was taken Christmas Eve

Our first snow!

Christmas was wonderful.  Andrew slept well that night, and woke up around 7:30 am I think.  Since he doesn't really know what Christmas is yet, we were able to enjoy a nice breakfast first!

Santa brought Andrew this fun train.
He also got some cars, mega blocks, and lots of books!

I'm pretty sure the balloons were his favorite present.

As a family we got some movies, books, and a GPS! We got an advent calendar that I can't wait to use next year!  Briant got a Kohl's card, some pretzels, and he got to go to a Bears game!  Melissa got Zumba 2, a new toiletry bag & lots of yummy goodies to eat.

I love this!  This is my temple, forever and always!

The rest of our break was pleasant.  We enjoyed relaxing, going on walks, playing games, going to Chocolate World, and visiting friends in the area!

Andrew loved playing hockey with daddy!

Here is Andrew, watching his favorite movie, surrounded by good toys.

Andrew loves to play with his Pop pop.

Aside from the chapped nose,
this is a pretty sweet picture of my sweet boy!

Buddies forever

We are getting him interested early.

He didn't always like my way.

He has his own style of playing.

Love this happy smiling kid!

We had an awesome snow storm come through.  The flakes were beautiful!
Andrew loved helping daddy shovel snow!

I'm glad I brought my camera.

He loved this shovel that was just his size.

He really got the hang of it fast!

A common word said... "CARS, CARS!"

Reading his new train book.

We got some great pictures before church.

We had such a great time! I'm so glad we were able to visit Briant parents for Christmas!  I'm so excited we are going to be able to see them more often this summer!

December Mobile Moments 2012

The month began with a desire to go to nursery.
I'm not sure that desire lasted.  But hopefully, he will
enjoy it now, cuz I'm leaving you
there cold turkey next week buddy!

Some quality time together in the midst of finals.

It did keep him somewhat occupied at times.  I put it away yesterday,
and Mary is missing along with one of the Shepard's sheep.

At our Ward Christmas Party.  I discovered in
fact that he doesn't hate cake as I previously thought.
He just prefers Chocolate Cake!  I like white cake
so that is what I've always introduced to him.

He likes listening to my Zune!

I wouldn't be Christmas without this treasure from my childhood!

Making a plan for a Christmas table runner.
 I ran out of time, and never really got started
but you can bet I will be making it!

Andrew loves the treasure chest Grandma gave us.  I liked it too!

Mmm yummy corn tortilla enchiladas in the Crock Pot!

Fun games and toys from the 12 days of Christmas!

Spending time counting cars together after school was over.  

Licking the caramel covered spoon.

The product of an afternoon in the kitchen.
This almond poppy seed bread was amazing!

This little boy has an obsession with Cars.
The movie and the real ones.
This really helps with long car trips.

My dad's mission area included this state.
So cool to pass through it.

It coming along..... she'll probably be one by the time I'm finished.

The trip to this state, was filled with rain.  It didn't stop the whole day!
We were glad when we finally made it to our destination.

This made up for the rain.  Relaxing in front of the stove, with my
project while Andrew played air hockey with Briant.

Andrew wouldn't even stand up to see
 if he qualified to be in the miniature height (for the Hershey Park rides).
He was more interested in the waterfall behind it.

Hurrah for GPS.  I was able to drive around two big cities
& be pretty okay with it!  That's big for me. 

Whenever he saw Pop Pop's computer he would say,
"Trucks!"  Thank you YouTube for entertaining Andrew.

The giant house made out of chocolate at chocolate world.

Volleyball with friends in PA.

Briant with his fellow chucker!  Perfect timing Andrew!

Good times with the Giles Family!

I think in all, we went on this ride like 8 times during
out Christmas break.

It's a big candy bar...

It's half his size!

Hey Reese's man!  We've seen you before!

Wow!  He loved playing on this little futon chair.
Hours of fun can be spent on this thing!
Slide, tunnel, trampoline.  You name it!

And you better believe I spent lots of time on my in-laws piano!
I loved every minute of it!  

He loves these little cars!  They are a perfect toy at church too!

Little too much fun with the Pack N Play.