Oregon Coast

Mid-April we drove with the boys to visit my brother, sister-in-law and nephew in Oregon.  We stayed with them for almost a week and then the boys and I went down for 4 days to see my parents.  I flew home solo with both boys and the Lord was gracious to allow the trip to me smooth and uneventful!

We had a great time with my family and did some really fun things.  We went to an indoor water park, outdoor parks, and went to the Coast to eat, see the sea lion caves, get some saltwater taffy and most importantly play on the beach!

My mom came up to get me and the boys and on our way down to my parents house we stopped at a Wildlife Safari.  It was sooo much fun!  Pics from that are on my phone and my phone isn't working at the moment, so hopefully I can get those up soon!  It was amazing to see the different animals, as they literally walk right in front of your car!

For now here are the pics from the coast.

It was truly one of the best days we've had as a family.
 


So much fun and so nice being together.



Unfortunately my nephew would disagree as he was sick.



But he was such a trooper and tried to enjoy the day the best he could :)



I think Landon and Blake would both agree that it was one of their best days too!



Blake LOVED playing in the sand.



He sucked the sand off of so many rocks and his pacifier was covered as well.

He didn't mind and just kept exploring,



crawling



and sucking!

Landon ran and ran and ran on the beach!

He also, ran and ran and ran from the waves!

He started out in full clothes and ended up being stripped down to his undies since everything else got wet!

Both he and Blake loved digging in the sand.



My brother was great to dig with them and bury Landon's feet over and over!



Jared got a new kite and was a pro with it on the beach!

Without an afternoon nap, Blake fell asleep within 5 minutes once we got in the car!

It was such a lovely day!

  

The weather was perfect for the Oregon Coast and it was a day that I will remember and cherish forever!

11 Months Old

I am WAY behind in blogging.  There has been so much that I want to blog about to have as a keepsake but time just keeps going and I keep getting further behind!  

I have super cute Easter pics and Easter events that I want to post, we took a trip to Oregon to see my brother, sister-in-law and nephew and then went down to see my parents.  

While we were gone Blake turned 11 months old!  That was on April 19th, so I am super behind in putting up his 11 month post, but I vowed to get it up before he turned a year!

I don't have a ton of pics from this month but there are a few!

But here is what you are up to these days:

* Pretty much nothing has changed in the sleep department.  Still sleeping about 12 hours a night, waking up around 5 or 6 to nurse and then going back to sleep for a couple hours. 

*  You nap about 3- 3 1/2 hours a day.  If you don't wake up until about 8 or 8:30 in the morning, I can usually hold off on your morning nap and put you down around 1:00, so that you and your brother nap at the same time.  We are usually out and about in the mornings anyway, so I'm very thankful that you do okay without a morning nap and are flexible to just take a super long nap in the afternoon.

*  I typically rock you while nursing you before you go down for naps or night.  You are very self sufficient to put yourself to sleep though (as long as you have your pacifier), as you are usually awake when I lie you down.

*  You are becoming more and more picky with food.  You have quite the opinion for what you want to  eat and remain very independent (you rarely let me feed you).  You do pretty good overall, but I can tell you are going to be strong willed, like your brother!

*  You have figured out how to spit food out, so even if by some miracle I get something in your mouth it immediately comes out.

*  You pretty much only eat finger foods now.  You will still eat yogurt and oatmeal, but everything typically comes from our meal cut into small bites.

*  You can drink from a straw (could do that about 9 1/2 months), sippy cup and open cup.  You haven't fully figured out how to turn the sippy cup to drink independently.

*  You still nurse 4-5 times a day and typically take a bottle of formula once a day.

*  You are developing a TON!  You can quickly crawl anywhere and over anything!

*  You are easily pulling yourself up on furniture, walls, toys, etc. and are beginning to cruise on furniture.  You can't quite go fast enough to walk behind movable objects yet.

*  Just this week (May 3rd), you started balancing standing up for about 1-5 seconds.  You are so proud of yourself when you do this and get the biggest grin and giggle!

At the park with friends, you LOVED the swing, could have stayed in there for a loooong time!

*  You are a ROUGH houser.  You love to tumble, wrestle, be tickled, be flipped and roll.  You will dive into my lap so that I can flip you over and then you giggle, giggle, giggle!

*  You still have a somewhat laid back personality, but have a strong opinion and will when things don't go your way.  In other words you can throw huge tantrums when you don't get what you want or when something gets taken from you!

*  You have started to purposefully point at things and will continually let us know your preference.  You are very specific too and will demand what you want until we can figure it out!  This happens all the time during meals as you scan the counter, table and our plates to figure out what you want!

*  You are a pro at going up the stairs but are still learning how to come down them backwards instead of diving down them face first!

*  You absolutely LOVE Addie right now and she is such a saint with you.  You love to kiss her, hug her, roll on her and pull up on her.  She is so patient (you will take food out of her bowl while she is eating and she doesn't do a thing!)

* You also love water, love splashing and will not sit down in your baths (drives me crazy and you think you are hot stuff!).  You also LOVE going outside.

*  You have figured out how to open drawers and are quick to make messes and empty them whenever you get a chance.

*  You are so inquisitive, searching and exploring every part of our house.  It is fun watching you learn and being a part of your little world!

Unfortunately this is what happens when I leave you alone with your brother so that I could run into the garage to get more wipes...baby powder ALL over you!

*  You love to do "patty cake" and can clap, roll and pat all by yourself!  You started dancing to music a couple months ago (can't remember if I recorded that)!

*  You are understanding a lot of words: your name, no, addie, outside, eat, bath, dada, mama, landon, come here, sit down and other simple commands

*  You are babbling a ton and beginning to put strings of babbling words together.  It sounds like you are saying "hi", "up", "mmm" (when eating food) and "Addie" purposefully.  You also shake your head "no" purposefully, give high fives and will wave bye bye

*  You are developing quite the jokester personality.  You will purposefully do things you know are naughty (dropping food for Addie, trying to get outside or go up the stairs without us, playing in Addie's water dish) and then look at us and laugh or smile!

I realized how disgustingly dirty your hands get from crawling...actually excited for you to walk!

*  You decided to get 4 top teeth at once (around April 12th), so you have 6 total.

*  You are wearing size 12 month clothes and size 3 diaper.

*  You just transitioned to a bigger carseat....not exactly sure how much you weigh but I'm guessing around 20-21 pounds.

This was a BIG, BIG month of growth and development for you.  Slowly you are becoming less baby and more toddler.  What a sweet little guy you are, full of love, laughter and joy!  Couldn't imagine our life without you!

10 Months Old

10 months old already...actually 10 1/2 months old already!

Time is flying by and our little man is growing and changing daily.  Becoming more of his own independent and charming person!

Here's what he is up to these days:

* Nothing seems to have changed in the sleeping department.  You are pretty consistent sleeping from about 8:00-8:00ish.  You still wake up around 5:30/6:00 to nurse (although, I don't think you need to eat, it has just become more of a habit).

* Your nap schedule is very consistent too.  You nap about 3 hours a day spread out between 1-2 naps.  You will nap around 10:30 and 2:30.  The amazing thing is that if you miss your morning nap you don't seem to mind too much.  You don't get too grumpy and will then take a long afternoon nap.  I love these days because then you and Landon will nap at the same time!

* You a very self sufficient in going to sleep on your own.  You like to nurse and then get put down in your crib with all your pacifiers and will eventually fall asleep. 

* You can drink out of a straw very well and can drink out of a sippy cup independently!

* You are a good eater and a very independent eater.  You have gotten a bit more picky over the last month.  You like fruit a lot and are beginning not to eat some of your veggies as much.  You love grapes, oatmeal, bananas, graham crackers, pancakes and are beginning to like chicken.

* You have learned how to spit things out and do this with anything I try to feed you!

* You are eating 3 solid meals a day and still nursing about 5 times a day.

* You will now drink a bottle of formula if need be, which has been a life saver at times.

* You officially started crawling when my parents were out here for Landon's birthday on March 7th

* You started pulling yourself up to standing the very next day on March 8th :)

* You are soooo mobile now and are quite the explorer!  You crawl around and pull yourself up on everything.  You get into things you are not supposed to.

* You aren't quite able to cruise around yet when standing but are getting stronger everyday. 

* You have certain obsessions: Addie's water dish, the open dishwasher, drawers, anything your brother has, and his toy swords!

* You are very curious about the stairs, yet you can't quite go up them yet...thank goodness!
*** Update: you officially started climbing stairs the day after I posted this on 4/8, yay for baby gates!***

* You are beginning to understand things, especially "no, no" and when I tell you to "sit down" in the tub.  Although you seem to understand "no", most of the time you will only stop for a minute, smile at us and then try to go back to doing whatever it is you were doing!

* You are also shaking your head "no" which is also so cute!  You will do it in imitation and also when I am trying to feed you something you don't want (hard to tell if it has meaning yet, but it seems to at times)

*  You just started to clap 2 days ago (4/5) and it is so cute!  When we say "yay" you are beginning to clap now!

* You will wave "hi" when watching yourself in the mirror.

* You will sign "all done" after you are through eating when we ask if you are "done"

* You aren't saying any real words yet but are babbling a ton and are saying a ton of sounds.  Occasionally we hear a "dada" or "mama" but unfortunately I don't think you mean it yet!

* You like to giggle and laugh and be tickled and smile at us!

* You still only have 2 bottom teeth

* You are wearing size 9 month clothes and size 3 diaper

* I'm not entirely sure how much you weigh, but I'm guessing around 19- 19 1/2 pounds

So fun watching you grow and change!

We fall in love with you more and more each day!

On another note, Landon got a balance bike for his birthday and is trying to figure out how it works!  He gets a little frustrated right now because he knows what he should do but can't quite do it fast enough for his liking yet :)

3rd Birthday Party!

This year we had a friend birthday "party" and a family birthday party for Landon.

We decided to just do a low key friend party at a bounce place, no cake, no singing, just a lot of little boys running around and having fun.  

 

Landon loves these indoor type play places.  

It worked out perfect to have his friends come there since it was cold outside and I didn't have to think of a bunch of games to entertain 10 little boys for 2 hours! 

I think Landon was a little overwhelmed by his birthday weekend.  We had a bit more tears and meltdowns than normal.  My guess is that he didn't quite know how to handle all the excitement going on!

He also got to upgrade to a booster seat in the car...he seriously looked so old sitting in his new seat instead of a carseat!  And he was thrilled because it has activity lights on it, so he can see in the dark (he is always asking us to turn on the car light when it gets dark out).

My parents came out again for his birthday and we did a family party on his actual birthday!

Landon wanted a dinosaur theme. 

 

A little confession is that I kind of pushed a dinosaur party since I found a super cute cake online that I thought would be easy enough to make :)  

Anxiously awaiting the birthday cake!

And for the record...I think these pics with my dad are just priceless!

Landon did request a blue chocolate cake, I think it was a success!

He really seemed to understand that it was his birthday this year which made it really fun!

He was very excited to see his Uncle Barrett and Uncle Rhonda (what he has decided to call his Aunt Rhonda for now :) 

 

He was excited about cake and presents and requested that everyone wear party hats!

Blakey even got into the spirit of things!

Unfortunately, no cake for him...just peas and carrots!

  

Of course he got spoiled with lots of fun things...clothes, a miniature golf set and toys!

Our future golfer!

Overall, the day was a big success with lots of food, fun, and family!

Happy Birthday sweet boy!