Saturday, September 8, 2012

17 Months Old!

Hard to believe that in a month our little boy will be one-and-a-half years old.  Yikes-a-bee!  He's truly a wonderful boy.  We can't believe how blessed we are!

Kyle currently sleeps 11-12 hours at night and is down to one nap.  It usually starts at noon and lasts 3-4 hours.  It wasn't necessarily the easiest transition, but now that we are on one nap, I LOVE it.  We have so much more time in the morning to do activities and get things done without having to worry about being home .  And the afternoon nap allows me to get lots of work done around the house so that when he wakes, I don't have to focus on the kitchen and can play with him instead!

He eats 3 main meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and 2 snacks each day.  He eats whatever we are having and usually gets fruit, cheese or crackers for his snacks. He still nurses at wake-up, before/after his nap, and at bed-time.  We haven't started him on whole milk yet because he's still getting the right amounts from me.  He consumes a ton of water with his meals though-- he really loves his "wa-wa".  He prefers to drink out of mommy's cup or camelbak, but willingly takes his straw cup or sippy.

Kyle's favorite day-time activities usually involve the outdoors.  He will bring his shoes to us (and sometimes even our shoes too!) to indicate that it's time to go play in the yard or at the park.  He is an awesome listener.  He will do exactly what he's told (wow, I bet I won't be able to say that for long!) including getting us books to read, going to his changing table, going to the car and his carseat, and bringing us certain toys.  I'm quite amazed by his vocab already; he can even correctly pick up the correct color of a certain toy if we ask.  He says quite a bit, too, but not nearly the amount he understands.  Perhaps my favorite phrase of his is 'nigh-nigh.'  Whenever he's feeling tired, he says 'go nigh-nigh' and marches upstairs.  He loves to shake his head to indicate he doesn't want a food item, but very rarely does he actually say "no no."   We've tried very hard to avoid that phrase (and reserve it for safety issues) and usually shake our heads and say "that's not for Kyle."  I don't want a kid who always says NOOOO (although I'm sure this will be an inevitable, unavoidable phase at some point).


Here's a summary of this months likes and dislikes:

Taking rides in the "go car" (golf cart), finding rocks, bringing us books,
getting his shoes when he wants to play outside, petting dogs GENTLY!,
talking (his favorite words include nigh-nigh, go car, that, ba ba (bath) and all done)
signing (his favorite signs include please, all done, more, shaking his head for no and thank you)
eating anything involving corn or meat, going for rides on his trike,
emptying the washer and dryer, the pelicans and monkeys at the zoo,
chalk doodling, the boat ride at Elitches,
his stuffed dog 'Meeko', seeing great grandma,
playing in the dog house, digging dirt with a shovel,
mowing the lawn and playing golf, playhouses,
dancing at concerts and the Apple store, giving everyone high fives
Dislikes include getting croup (a 3rd time!) and strawberries (still)
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Monday, August 27, 2012

Why you have children

So they can help you with chores right?




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Monday, August 20, 2012

Randoms

Kyle enjoyed grandmas famous lasagna today. Good to know he loves her recipe as much as daddy does.



Silly boy enjoys his scheduled playtime in his PnP. Now that he no longer does a morning nap, this is useful playtime for me to fit a shower in.





Oh, and he found a new "water table" today... In the dog kennel. Silly boy!


He also enjoys helping with the yard work:






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Sunday, August 12, 2012

Kyle loves the Apple store

Future Apple user for sure:

YouTube Video

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Sunday, August 5, 2012

Leftovers

What you do when you have a jar of mod podge leftover from another project:

Christmas cookie plate for Santa
Letter S decorated to match the colors in our master bedroom



The S displayed on a shelf in our room:


Both projects totaled $2. Not bad!

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Friday, August 3, 2012

Mess

What happens when you let Kyle eat his entire meal with spoon and fork with no help. Ha!



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Thursday, August 2, 2012

Splash day!

After work travel and missing my little man, I took a half day to spend some extra time with him. We brought out the water table for some pre splashing time before tonight's luau at the waterpark for Kyle's daycare. It was only in the 70s today so the water was a bit chilly to be enjoyable. Neat park though!







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Saturday, July 28, 2012

Big man on campus

Kyle is going to be the cutest kid in his new toddlers class thanks to the awesome new pottery barn robot backpack he got. It's the perfect size for him and he seems to like wearing it.













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Friday, July 27, 2012

Comparisons

Here are some fun collages for you on this beautiful Friday:


Kyle enjoys the same Chippy turtle that I did as a kid.  Can you tell how short Kyle is?  He's half a year older than me in this comparison

While I do think Kyle gets his love from ice cream from me, I think this is a fun comparison of their personalities.
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Dove Nest

We've got a mommy dove who just built a nest for her eggs in one of the trees in our backyard.  Pretty much the worst location as the tree is huge and the area she's on sways a ton.  But we've got another nest under the deck, so maybe she wanted to keep her distance.  Who knows, but she's got two very large eggs.  I hope they make it!

 
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Monday, July 23, 2012

High fives!

Kyle's big thing lately is asking and giving high fives to everyone. Today, even Belle got one. Hehe. Poor doggies don't know what's I store for them with their little monster of a brother.


YouTube Video

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Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Minnesota Vaca - Day Seven


Our last day at the cabin and of our trip was spent packing and saying goodbyes.  I will truly miss watching Kyle play with his cousins.  They all had such a wonderful time together.  It's really hard to put into words how neat it is to watch them interact.


We're so thankful to Grandma and Grandpa Shoemaker for letting us celebrate Grandpa Bob's 60th Birthday with them up at the cabin.  I hope they had as great of a time watching everyone on the boat as we all did playing on it!

Kyle gave high-fives as his goodbyes and we made the 3 hour drive back to the Twin Cities to catch our afternoon flight home.  In wanting to keep to happy endings, we won't discuss how Kyle was on the return flight. ;)
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Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Minnesota Vaca - Day Six

Our last day on the boat was well spent.  Kyle had a much better day on the lake today.  I attribute it to the life jacket swap.   He had some seriously amazing giggles while tubing.  He LOVED when the tube would bounce up and down on the water.  I can already tell he loves to go FAST.


Jack did some tricks on the tube and had a blast!


Uncle Brian also did some tricks... and had a blast until moments after this when he took a nose-first nasty spill:


Dave did a couple of 360s on the kneeboard:
 
 


And our family of 3 went for another tubing adventure.  Kyle is my awesome little adventure man.  Up for anything with mommy and daddy.
 


After a day on the lake, we all got cleaned up for a nice dinner and pictures by the lake:
 
 


It was a nice way to wrap up our time up North.
 
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Monday, July 16, 2012

Minnesota Vaca - Day Five-o

Dave, Brian and their parents woke early on day 5 to go fishing.  They weren't overally successful, but I'm sure they had a good time bonding.

When the kids awoke, we packed up to go hit the beach and pool.  The conditions were far too rough for boating.

 

So we decided to rent jet skis!

Brian took Jack and Caroline out.  Jack was a fun; Caroline not so much.

Dave and I had a GREAT time.  Okay, so maybe Dave would tell you differently.  Apparently I'm a CRAZY driver and put us in near-death situations, but I thought it was fun!   I might've been the insane one who reached speeds of 52 mph on the rough seas, but Dave was the one who managed to get pulled over by the State Water Patrol!  They seemed to think he had gone within 50 yards of the beach (several witnesses indicate to us that this wasn't the case), but luckily not having our licenses and being close to our rental return time allowed us to escape with only a warning.


Thanks to Grandma for staying in the condo while Kyle napped so we could all enjoy the jet skis!
 
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Sunday, July 15, 2012

Minnesota Vaca - Day Four

Today was our first day on the lake!  Besides the dislike for the constraining life vest, Kyle took the boat nearly immediately.  He LOVED the breeze as the boat hit high speeds.


He even went tubing. 

But it all tired him out pretty quickly.  He feel asleep in Uncle Brian's arms!  It was truly precious.  He rarely falls asleep in your arms anymore!

Lucky for us, Kyle has a great Uncle who held him through his entire afternoon nap so that we could do this:

and this:

okay, so maybe I couldn't do the above, but I did manage to FINALLY get up on waterskis after doing dozens of these:

Persistance paid off though and the reward was this:

Meanwhile, back at the beach, Jack and Caroline were building sand volancos.  Kyle woke from his peaceful boat slumber and wanted to join in on the fun.

Caroline showed him how to fill buckets with sand and water.
 

But it made a serious serious mess.  So it was time to dunk Kyle.  Kyle got several chuckles out of it.  Who knew he would LOVE being dunked?!


After we got cleaned up, we went to the indoor waterpark at the lodge.  The really fun waterslide had no official rules about not taking your baby on with you, so we figured why not? 

Uncle David taught Jack how to make huge water geysers:

It was a fun first day up North.
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