To Disneyland!

As a last minute thing (as in, it was officially planned two days before we left), we finally took our trip to California and to Disneyland!

In the interest of time and pictures (you'd much rather look at pictures, right?), I'll just mention the basics.  We drove to California on a Thursday night, spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday at either Disneyland or California Adventure, went to the beach on Monday before driving back home.

Needless to say, it was a busy, yet still fun and relaxing trip.  Only wishing that we'd had more time at the beach...it was the perfect way to end the trip!

A Chatty Little Jared

Rolling up on almost 18 months old (eep!), you're becoming quite the chatty little guy!  Even back when you were closer to a year old, you had the starts of conversations going on with us and the people at daycare.  You would say something resembling "whatssat?".  From there, you went into the "da-da", but not so much the ma-ma, even though you'd say that sometimes.

Now your vocabulary consists of not only daddy and mommy, but also Daniel!  Perfectly clear and enunciated!  You've also got the appropriate use of "uh oh" and "ta-da!" down.  Recently, you've also picked up "no" (and the head shake to go with it), even though you often say no when you really mean yes.  You tried to say "papa" (for Grandpa) and "gama" (for Grandpa) over the weekend too.  And, of course, kitty...we have three, so that makes sense, right?

Even what you don't say perfectly clear, you manage to get across what it is that you want.  Handing us your cup or bottle to get milk.  You LOVE yogurt, so often times you'll lead one of us to the fridge and wait until we open the door (and try to climb up to get at the yogurt).

You're growing by leaps and bounds!  You weren't a baby that long ago, and now you're really turning into a little boy, keeping up with your big brother without any problems!

Mobility

One of the major milestones in a baby's life is...drumroll...walking.  Mobility.  It isn't like you weren't mobile before, but now you're REALLY mobile.

Your history with being mobile seemed to start early...and we even figured that you might be an early(er) walker.  You rolled over earlier than Daniel (which isn't saying a whole lot, considering that he never cared to roll over).  You did an army crawl, you crawled fairly early and you sat up on your own earlier than your brother.

So your birthday rolled around in March, and no walking.  You could pull yourself up to standing and cruise a bit around the couch, but even that was limited just as you were turning 1.  We were patient though.  April rolls around, and you turn 13 months.  Still, no walking (as a side note, Daniel was walking, officially, a week or two after his first birthday, and definitely before he turned 13 months).  But, again, we were patient.

April 28th rolls around.  Maurice (friend from Reno) comes for a visit passing through.  The weekend prior, you were taking a step here and there, mostly stepping and falling into me or your dad.  But on that day, you were standing up, and taking a few more steps on your own (and not the falling kind!).  As Daddy takes Maurice back to the airport, you and I are playing on the floor in the living room and you take off on a voyage to the kitchen.  About 20 steps later, you look back and realize that I wasn't behind you...but you keep going until you hit the middle of the family room and sit down!  You're walking!

You keep practicing through the week, and on the following Saturday (May 5th), I manage to catch you walking down the hall.  After that, it's like you are walking like a pro!

Now that you've mastered the walking, they started really working with you to eat more table food at daycare, and now you're officially in the toddler room!  Such a big boy!  As I type, you're just over 15 months old...and on your way again up to Montana with us next week!

The latest and greatest of all things Jared...

I couldn't think of a good title, so I went with that.  I really couldn't think of a reason in particular to post today, other than I just wanted to.  So without anything in particular in mind, let's see where I go.

You turned 13 months on my birthday (April 11th), which puts you at 13 1/2 months right now.  I'm not sure if I've updated since your actual birthday, but you had your 1 year visit about a week after your birthday.  You were 18lbs, 8oz, which put you a bit on the smaller side of things (<5% for weight).  That earned you a re-check sometime next week (6 weeks out from the appointment).  Unfortunately, you also had hand-foot-and-mouth again at your appointment.  Ahh!  So your shots were scheduled for later.

Moving on...you're still working on walking.  You love to walk around while someone is holding your hand (you only require one!), and you can take a few steps on your own.  The walking will come, I'm sure, and then you'll be running everywhere!

They're working on transitioning you to the toddler room, and yesterday you were over there for about 3 hours, even taking a nap on the cots!  Walking, drinking out of a sippy, and eating "table" food 100% are the factors affecting your transition.

We went swimming last weekend (your first time in the pool!) and you LOVED the floatie that we got you.  You had a lot of fun sitting on the step and playing with rocks from the yard too.  We thought it might have been too cold for you, but you had no problems (you wanted to go in!).

And that's about all for now!  Getting so big, little buddy!

Happy Birthday!

I know it's almost the end of your birthday, but I wanted to make sure I snuck in a post to wish you a very, very happy first birthday!!!

I'll elaborate a little bit more later on, but you had a very busy weekend, culminating in your actual birthday today (complete with smash cake!)

I still can't believe you are ONE!  Love you, little dude!  And your daddy, big brother, grandmas and papa's love you too!!!

Coming up on 1 year!

It is officially time to start planning your first birthday party!  You turned 11 months old last Saturday, to be exact, and it seemed to happen so suddenly!

You continue to grow by leaps and bounds.  You want to walk everywhere, holding our hands still, of course, or when that doesn't work, you can crawl with amazing speed.  You try to do all of the things that your big brother does (even though he still hasn't fully mastered that whole sharing concept yet).

So far this past month, we've kept fairly healthy, aside from keeping the ear goo at bay with daily ear drops.  It doesn't help that in the past week that you've sprouted more teeth than you had to begin with!  The two on the bottom have been there for a bit, but the top two are fully in, as is one more on the bottom.  But to fill things in, two more are sprouting on the top and a 4th is almost through on the bottom.  8 teeth!

OK...on to the party.  Your grandma and grandpa Stone are coming from Montana the day of your party.  We've already put out the invites to some people that we know from work...so it looks like it will be a good showing!  Mickey Mouse is the theme, and your mommy is super excited to try out all sorts of treats...as much as I'm sure you and your brother will love to try them out!

And of course, it will be time to get your 1 year pics done....so excited!!!  And with that...I'll end things...may more to come as your party planning progresses!

Speeding Through the 10 Month Mark

The Christmas tree has come down, we've moved into a new house and life as we know it is getting back to normal. Mostly.

It's getting closer than I can fathom to your birthday already...less than 2 months away! So here's a quick update on how things are going!

The speed at which you crawl is really...fast. You've definitely come a long way from the army crawl! You are pulling yourself up on everything, and while we don't have a lot of things that are good for hanging on to, you still manage to do alright. In the walking department, you want to hold our hands and walk around, but that might be compromising your "balance" practice trying to stand.

I can remember your brother wanting to push one of the little cars around to help him walk, but you haven't really done much of that. You'd much rather play with the musical instruments on your car instead...it's still very cute!

You are very vocal though! Most of the time, you clearly say "mama" and "da-da" and it's towards the intended parent. We've tried to get you to say "baba" too, but that isn't quite there. You respond to your name, and definitely when we say "Jared...no!" it gets your attention. You started going towards the outlets (which we quickly remedied by buying the covers) and would pause in your tracks when we'd tell you to stop.

Playing with your brother...both of you love Legos! You love cars as well, and you grab one of the cars that you shake (shaped like Mater), shake him and put him on the ground to watch him speed away. Daniel does try to take the cars away (we're working on sharing with him!), but you usually take it pretty well.

Daycare is going pretty well, and you're one of the "older" ones in the room. It'll be interesting (yet a bit sad!) when you get to move up to the next room...that will confirm that you're no longer a baby! But we won't rush that for now :)

Teeth...you've got the two on the bottom still, and you've got one on the top that has erupted, but you also have another that is coming in a little further upwards of where it will probably end up. It doesn't stop you gumming and eating everything you can get your hands on!

And with that...changes abound in the coming months! We're looking forward to it!