Friday, May 29, 2009

15 months

We went to our 15 month appointment this week. The Dr. said his physical examination was perfect (outside of a bad diaper rash, which he gave us prescription for and it cleared right up).

His stats were as follows:
Height - 32 inches (75%)
Weight - 25 lbs 14 oz (68%)
Head - 19 inches (79%)

You will notice that he has always been above the 90 percentile in height until now. I asked the Dr. about that and he said the first phase of growth is insulin the second stage of growth is thyroid and the this third stage of growth is genes... so I am guessing that he will be right under 6 foot.

Other things this month:

- learned to hold his nose when something is stinky (well at least when I say it is stinky)
- started to jump! so cute - he goes up on his very tippy toes and falls forward
- started drinking from a hard tip sippy cup - only because he learned to manipulate the soft tips ones where he can pour the milk out everywhere.
- learned to say the word "no" as well as shake his head no - although I am not sure he really knows how to use it just yet.
- Starting to say Bailee and Kallie.
- LOVES his reflection, he will play with himself at the 2 floor mirror we have in the house and his reflection in glass doors.
- Same sleeping habits, I think I am destined for the 1 - 1.5 hour nap, still sleeping in until about 8 or so.
- Dropped the night time bottle with absolutely no problem.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Spending time with Grandparents

Wanted to post some pictures from our most recent trips to Grandparents houses.

Monday, May 11, 2009

I love these boys!

Being a wife and a mother is the most precious job there is, I thank the Lord every day for these two!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

The Little Gym - Birds

John moved up to the "birds" class at The Little Gym (10 months to 18 months) - and he loves it even more than the "bugs" class. We changed locations to be closer to home and our new teacher, Mr. Forest is great. John really likes him, but he LOVES his guitar!

In this class all of the kids are walking and very curious. Our intro activity normally consists of sitting in a circle, the hello song and playing with bells. Then the kids help put the bells away - John has this down pat - in fact, he puts the bells up before he is has to - I think he thinks it is a game (I am not complaining). Then we do various walking, running, jumping activities. This is the time where the kids normally watch us parents run around and wonder why we are all being so silly.

Then there is exploration time, which is just another word for free time. John likes the balance beams and then really just walking around and rolling on the various mats. But most every time I have to direct his attention somewhere other than the water fountains and the door stops?!?!?

We also have a "skill of the week" where the teacher will demonstrate some sort of bar, mat or beam activity and then the rest of the kid in class take turn doing it. As John is always in every one's business, he is typically right next to Mr. Forest, so John is almost always the demonstrator. He is such a teachers pet!

At the end of every session there is a big trash can of balls that is thrown all over the floor, the kids LOVE this time. Again, John is very helpful when it is time to put the balls away. The bubble machine is then turned on for a few minutes, followed by another circle good-bye song. During the hello and good-bye song the teacher has his guitar and John is standing right next to him touching the guitar and sometimes even plucking the strings. Mr. Forest has to stand up sometimes to finish the song.

We both love it and have a great time!

Nana and Grandpa came to watch a class last week and took some pictures for us.

Friday, May 1, 2009

First Family Vacation - Islamorada, Florida

We had our first family vacation this month in Islamorada, Florida. It was amazing! We rented a beach house for the week and packed heavy (big mistake)!

I was TERRIFIED for the flight, imagining John screaming the whole time - but to my surprise, it was a lot easier than expected. Don't get me wrong - it was not relaxing by any stretch of the imagination, but it was not the nightmare I had envisioned. He slept for about an hour both there and back, the rest of the time we read books, ate, watched the ipod with no sound, played with new toys that I packed in the carry on, etc. He LOVED the stewardess, and they loved him. His favorite thing was the introduction of stickers! It was so fun to put them all over Daddy, we were finding elmos face in various laundry throughout the week.

The drive down from Miami to Islamorada was long and slow as the majority of the way is a 2 lane highway "A1A Beachfront Avenue" (if you are an 80's baby, you just sung 'ice ice baby' in your head!). We had to stop 30 miles out for the nearest grocery store. Once we finally got to the house - we were floored! The pictures do not do it justice - it was incredible. I posted a separate slide show with scenery pictures below. This house was super kid friendly, not sure if it was by design, or just the lack of nik naks. The safety gate around the wrap around porch outside was the best thing of the whole trip. John was able to run around out there without us chasing him around telling him to be careful. I won;t describe everything - see pictures below.

We spent most of the week relaxing and playing by the pool/beach. Other trip highlights include:
- Carl and John went out to the ocean and caught a crab (see video below).
- Carl caught a nurse shark off our beach the first day we were there.
- Carl and I chartered a boat and went fishing. Carl caught a huge fish and I spent the 4 hours with my head down trying not to add more chum to the water. Who would have thought I would get sea sick?!?!? we were out the 2 days before and I was fine!
- Carl and I rented a boat and went 8 miles off shore in the middle of the Atlantic and went snorkeling at Alligator Reef - Beautiful!
- John started out the trip with a terrible cold, and then mid week I came down with 103 fever 2 days in a row. John got over his, but I had to go to a SHADY Dr. down there. One shot and a whole lot of antibiotics later - I was fine. Thank goodness I had not heard about the swine flu - or I would have sworn to you I was dieing.
- We went out to a few restaurants and sat outside and enjoyed the views. although we had to watch John carefully as he liked to feed the birds, which our fellow diners did not appreciate!
- John will finally wear a hat! Thank goodness! Oh, and the baby sunscreen worked great along with the swim shirts, hats and shaded porch. He did not get even the slightest pink. More than I can say for Daddy!

One of the coolest memories from this trip was the pet that we had for the week. There was 12 foot crocodile that slept in our pool at night! I am not kidding. There was some warning letters when we got there, but then we saw the tracks every morning. We never actually caught her as she would only come when we were asleep, but sure enough, every morning you could see where she had been (there are some pictures of his tracks in the sideshow below)

Islamorada is the sport fishing capital of the world. We heard it described as "spring break without the tourists". That was a pretty accurate description. Everything and everyone is so friendly and mellow. It was an older crowd down there, we found ourselves to be the youngest by at least 20 years in most spots. I am sure there was a nightlife, but we were either too tired, or enjoying our own house too much to venture out. We will be back for sure!

We took over 700 picture while we were there. Here are some of the highlights (sorry, it is long):


Here is the video of Carl and John catching the crab:

Here are some pictures of the house: