John's first "hair cut"

John's hair is long in some places but still filling in on top of his head, so I was putting off the hair cut a long as I could. Well, it seems I gave in. He had a few pieces of hair hanging in his eyes, quite a bit of hair over his ears (Daddy's pet peeve) and the back was starting to resemble a mullet again..so off we went...

Carl said I scared the lady and she did not want to cut it, so she just trimmed a little bit here and there and just charged us for a bang trim! It does not even look like he got a hair cut! I am not sure how to tell them what I want, because I am not sure what I want his hair to look like just yet. I think we should wait until it fills in more and see what it does naturally before giving it a "style". Apparently I am getting my way. :)

Nonetheless, John did great, they had all sorts of distractions and Daddy held a sucker in his mouth (first time) and he was pretty content. It only took all of 2 minutes for our "hair cut".

See pics below.
BEFORE:

BEFORE:





AFTER:

"More"

As you can see from the picture, John is signing the word "more". It was not hard to capture this picture as he does this ALL THE TIME! I love it - it really cuts down on frustration, but he does wear it out a bit! :) He signs 'more' about 1000 a times a day, some of which you have NO idea what he wants more of.

He uses it most when he is eating; or if you are doing something fun with him and you stop; or when we finish a book; orwhen his songs from the nursery rhyme cd is over. But there are times that he just walks over to you and starts doing it, or when his plate and cup are full and he is still insisting on more....we are still tryig to decipher.

Nonetheless, I love it and I want him to learn more. I really wish I started working with him sooner; I think the 12 month mark would be good, because they can pick it up pretty easily at that point before the parents get frustrated and quit trying (guilty). I know he is right around the corner from talking, but getting a glimpse of communiating with him is too much fun! If any of you Mom's out there had any other key signs that helped you guys, let me know! He has "all done", "eat" (picture below), "more", "milk" and "sleepy".
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Comparison Picture (tag)

I am starting this tag, because I think it will be fun:

The task - post a recent picture of your kids or family and then post one from 1 year ago.

May 24th 2009



May 24th 2008


I am tagging anyone who reads this post that has a blog. If you are reading this and have a blog that I do not know about - please let me know, I am an avid blog stocker! :)

Happy Anniversary Carl!

Today marks another anniversary of the start of our marriage - I love you more today than I ever have! I love growing and experiencing parenthood with you; you are our world!

You proposed to me on Valentine's day and we danced to Martina McBride's "Valentine" on our wedding day. The words to that song say it best - you are my valentine all year long! Although they are not my words, I feel them from in the deepest part of my heart....

"If there were no words,
No way to speak
I would still hear you.
If there were no tears
No way to feel inside
I'd still feel for you.

And even if the sun refused to shine
Even in romance ran out of rhyme
You would still have my heart until the end of time.
You're all I need, my love, my valentine.

All of my life
I have been waiting for you.
All you give to me
You've opened my eyes.
And showed my how to love unselfishly.

I've dreamed of this a thousand times before,
But in my dreams I couldn't love you more.
I will give you my heart
Until the end of time.
You're all I need, my love, my valentine."

I love you! (see slide show at the bottom of page for photo memories of the wedding)

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.

Spending time with Grandparents

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

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!

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.

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:

14 months

It is hard to believe that another month as flown by! If you are a frequent of the blog you have noticed that we have not had many entries this month. Been real busy around here with family, work, vacations, etc. More to come in the next few days.

This month was pretty consistent with last month, not a whole lot of drastic or outwardly changes or milestones, but still SO much fun!

- John went on his first family vacation to the Florida Keys (post to follow)
- We gave him shellfish for the first time with no reaction!
- He is using his words a lot better now and it gets easier everyday to communicate with him. This month he has added the following words to his vocubulary (note: these are just the ones that we can decipher, they are not actually words just yet, but we are well on the way): "eye" (as he forcefully jams his finger into your eyelid), "bird", "bath", "baby", "juice" (he has had this one for awhile, but I don't think I have mentioned in)and "bye-bye".
- He has a pretty nasty cold this month
- He catches on to things much quicker these days, it is pretty amazing.
- He is currently cutting a molar - I KNOW it this time!
- When he is looking for something he will put his palms up as if he is shrugging his shoulders while he looks for it, pretty cute!
- He plays peek-a-boo at the most random times
- Learned to wave and say "bye-bye"
- His sign language now consist of "all done" as well as "eat". I have not worked with him near as much as I wanted to, but he still caught on to these pretty quick.
- He can open the doors with the pull down levers - more baby proofing on the "honey-do" list.
- Went from a size 4/5 to a size 6 in shoes