OK... I lied

Okay, so I lied in my last post. I decided to do one more post tonight. I didn't realize how obsessed JD is with climbing into things until I took all the pictures off of my camera's memory card and looked through them on the computer! Here are several pictures to prove my point... I just think they're too funny!... and these were all taken within about a week. He is one busy boy!!

"What? I'm not supposed to sit in my toy box to play??"His new reading "chair" is the basket that I keep his books in....

Goofy Kid

I feel like JD has added a lot to his bag of tricks this week! I don't know if I can even remember all that he has started doing lately!

Let's see.... he now shares his Cheerios with Sammy (the cat). Up until now the relationship between JD and Sammy was mostly fur pulling and poor Sammy running away. Then JD discovered that Sammy likes Cheerios as much as he does and he is SO proud of himself when he shares with her! He'll either drop them off of his high chair for her or he'll walk up to her and put one on the floor. When she eats that one he'll put another one down. It's so sweet to see him doing something nice in relation to the cat for a change!

He has been babbling non-stop the past few days. I seriously think he's said more in the past 3 days than he has his entire life!

He has now discovered how to spin in circles to make himself dizzy. It's so funny to watch. He twists to the right and then spins a full circle to the left.... almost like he has to wind himself up. He does that a few times and then tries to walk but falls down pretty much immediately. I really need to get it on video soon....

Yesterday he learned how to drink from the hose outside. We were "helping" Dave spread the rest of the sand in the yard and JD needed to water the lawn, of course. I don't know why but he decided to put the end of the hose up to his mouth. There was barely a trickle of water coming out but that entertained him for quite a while. I had a very wet child... which is nothing new!

He's also showing interest in dressing himself. Mostly with his socks and shoes and Dave's hats. The other day he got his basket of socks out of his dresser and busied himself for almost a half hour trying to put socks on!
This isn't a new "trick" but I thought the pictures were cute and wanted to post them... Dave and Sarah painted the old computer room last weekend. It will be JD's new "big boy" room in about a month (and then we get to paint the nursery PINK!!). JD was very excited about "helping" them paint. He wasn't in there as they were painting, of course but he had fun with the dry paint brushes!
The room is all painted now and has almost aired out... but I'm not posting pictures until we get the moldings up. We bought them but they need to be cut, painted and installed. The room just looks "unfinished" as it is right now!

This week we're gathering things and making lists for our upcoming trip to see Dave's family in Pennsylvania. It's amazing how many extra things I have to think about for a one-year-old.... sippy cups, baby forks, monitor, formula, the list goes on and on and on! Thank God my mother-in-law has a crib and a high chair. That is saving us a lot of room in the car!

My next post won't be until we return from Pennsylvania. I'm sure it will be a long one as we have a lot of things planned while we're there. Lots of family functions as well as a trip to the zoo!!

It's a.....

G I R L !!!!!!!

Can you tell I'm excited? I'm even more excited that she's healthy! The doctor said that everything with the ultrasound looks "perfect"! Our little girl now weighs exactly 1 pound, which is a little more than I was thinking she would be but the ultrasound tech said that puts her in the 54th percentile so I guess she's right on track!

I have only gained a total of 6 pounds (11 pounds if you count the 5 that I initially lost and then gained back) and the doctor said that's great! I asked her about the very frequent headaches I've been getting and she suggested eating protein of some kind right before bed. She thinks I'm hypoglycemic in the mornings. She also suggested keeping Cheerios or crackers by the bed and having a small snack when I get up to pee at 3:00 AM. So, Dave and I had steak for dinner and I'll eat some peanut butter before bed. Hopefully this tip will get rid of most of the headaches!

OK, enough about me! Here are the rest of the pictures we got today of our DAUGHTER!!!!

You can't tell much by this one.
Her head is to the right and you can see an arm and a leg...

Here is her little footsie!!

This one is a little freaky.... it's her face! It's very skeletal right now because she hasn't really started to put on fat yet. I plan to get a 3-D ultrasound around 30-ish weeks and will get better pictures of her face!

Here is our sweet girl's little profile.
You can see the nose, lips and chin

Here is another of her profile... sort of.
You can see her hand up by her face.

Daddy's Helper

If you know Dave, you know he's very thorough with our yard. And we have a beautiful yard to show for it!

Every year he aerates, dethatches, topdresses, etc. He even rents special equipment to do all of this! Maybe something do to with being in the golf business for most of his life?? Who knows! The latest project is topdressing. Dave came home with a couple of truckloads of sand a few weeks ago and has been working on spreading it around the yard. Well, this week he has a great helper!

Dave has been using the spreader to haul and spread the sand and JD has decided that he needs to help push it. Not only that but he also has to climb up (and down, and up, and down) the sand pile, help Daddy rake and, when I hose the sand off of him, he also feels the need to water the lawn!

JD's favorite place to be is in the yard. Right now it's too hot to go out during the day but we take him out every evening after dinner. I can't wait until the fall so JD and I can spend a lot more time outdoors!

So I take JD to the pool at Dave's work and what does he play with the most? The water spigot! I was surprised. This pool is something you would find at a resort. It has two "grown up" pools, a kiddie pool with a waterfall thingy, a splash pad and a water slide....and my kid wants the water spigot!

We had a great time, though. We met my friends Abby and Brooke who brought their kids Peyton and Walker, respectively. Everybody was exhausted when we left and we were only there for a couple of hours!

Here are a lot more pics of our day:

A lot more pics of JD playing in the spigot.
This was the only time he stayed in one place all day!

Walker joined in on the fun too!
I call this one "Alphalpha"!!

JD and Peyton running around...

Me and my little water bug!

Just hanging out with Brooke (Walker's Mommy)

Wheeeeeeeee! JD's first water slide... he loved it!

Playing on the splash pad with Walker and Brooke

JD loved going under the waterfall in the kiddie pool...
but only if I was holding him.

Finally! Showing off his swimming skills in the grown up pool. JD didn't care too much for the kiddie pool. He kept climbing out and running over to the big pool!

Just to show that he loves all kinds of water... he insisted on carrying around this water bottle. Any time I tried to take it away from him and steer him towards the kiddie pool I got yelled at!

Fun in the Pool!

Last weekend our friends had us over for dinner and a swim in their pool. That, of course, was right up JD's alley! Pair that with the fact that they have an almost-4-year-old to occupy him and we all had a blast!! The Pippin's have a perfect pool. It includes a big pool for "grown ups" a kiddie pool complete with little streams of water that shoot up for the little ones and a hot tub! Here are some pictures taken by Christene:

And since I've started a new post I'll include some other things that JD is doing that I thought of after posting my last entry:

~ He now loves to practice walking backwards. I'll have to get a picture or video because the look on his face while he's doing it is hilarious!

~ He can catch a ball! Yep, you read that right. Our 14 month has been catching a ball for about a month now. He doesn't catch it every time but he's getting pretty good at it. And for those of you who think I'm nuts, I have witnesses!

~ He says "all done" at appropriate times. This is his first two-word phrase and he started saying it around the beginning of July. I don't know when babies typically start stringing words together but I was quite surprised the first time he looked at me and said "all done" when he was finished with his lunch!

Okay, I'll stop bragging on our son who is obviously a genius or something ;-). Tomorrow we're meeting JD's friends Walker, Peyton and Kendall at the pool for a play date. I'll be sure to post pictures.... I know they're going to have a ball!

14 Months

JD is 14 months old today! He's getting so smart. I can't believe how many things he understands and figures out.

He'll tell you what a dog, duck, car, sheep and, sometimes a cow, say. He'll show you where his ear, toes and tongue are. It's so cute when he sticks his tongue out! We're working on belly. He gets it sometimes but not consistently. When looking at a Sesame Street book he'll point to Elmo on each page when asked say Elmo. He'll also repeat Cookie (coo coo), Oscar and Grover when you tell him who they are. He loves to dance, especially to the songs on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He also loves to point. I spend a good part of my days trying to figure out what he's pointing at. Sometimes I get it right...sometimes I hand him 10 things before I finally figure it out! His latest favorite is the piggy-back ride. He'll run up behind me, grab on to my shirt and immediately start giggling. He gets so excited when I stand up and walk around that he squeals and kicks his feet!

He follows simple commands. He knows what "go get your milk (or water)" means. He'll sit down when you tell him to (if he wants to, that is). He also knows what "lay your head down" means and will do it... again, only if he wants to!

JD is also very addicted to Dave these days. As soon as Dave gets home from work it's bye-bye Mommy and "Daddy pick me up!" He stays glued to Dave for the rest of the evening. That's okay with me, though. It means I get to cook dinner without a fussy child clinging to my leg. He has also started standing at the door (front or back) and crying when Dave goes out without him... like this morning when Dave went to work. Poor JD sat on the rug by the front door and just cried! When I tried to pick him up or get him interested in something else he swatted me away!

He still has an obsession with the cat. In the picture above he was trying to share his milk with her. I don't think she was interested! I'm very, very, very surprised she hasn't scratched him yet. The poor thing gets pinned to the floor several times as JD tries to "love" on her. We have a very good cat who is very tolerant of JD. Dave tried to get JD to give her treats the other day and he wouldn't do it. He wanted to eat them himself... so I guess it will be a while before JD can dole out cat treats!

Speaking of treats, JD had his first PB&J the other day and loved it! Now his favorite breakfast is a piece of peanut butter toast and a banana. I wanted to let Dave's mom give him peanut butter for the first time because she LOVES peanut butter, but I kept forgetting to buy natural peanut butter. The regular kind has soy so he can't have that.

JD now weighs 23 pounds on the home scale, which puts him back up in the 36th percentile. Last month he was only in the 19th percentile so he's gained some ground. I also measured him and he's 30.5 inches long (or should I say tall now that he's walking?). That puts him in the 44th percentile, which is also good.

Our little boy isn't so little any more. I'm constantly amazed that he can reach stuff on the kitchen table. Or the bathroom counter! I can't wait to see how much he weighs on the doctor's scale next month!

Beach Day!

JD and I drove down to Pawleys today to spend a little time in the waves. It was HOT, even on the beach so we only stayed about an hour. It was a fun hour, though!

JD saw and touched his very first real, live fish today! My dad joined us with his rod and reel today and did a little fishing by the rocks. He caught a couple of Whiting and JD got excited. He wasn't too sure about touching it but tentatively reached out a finger while I held the fish still for him.

Aside from the fish, JD had a ball playing in the sand and I had a hard time keeping him out of the water. You really have to watch this kid. He walks right into the surf and just keeps on walking. No matter how deep it's getting or how many times the waves smack him in the face... he just keeps on going! When he grew tired of the water he climbed up in Grandma's chair and busied himself by putting the water bottle in the cup holder and taking it out again... over, and over, and over!