Happy Mother's Day and 15 months

Jenny's wedding - July 2009

Today is Mother's Day and my little man's 15 month birthday. So Happy Mother's Day to ME!  And to my momma and my mother in law - you two are wonderful examples of a mother's love and I am grateful for the guidance you provide me. Happy Mother's Day to my wonderful sister, step sister, sister in law, friends, family and everybody else out there who is a momma. I am so blessed and very thankful for Trey. He is the joy of my life and I love him dearly. I love being his stay at home mommy and I can't imagine life without him. MUAH!

My little man cub is getting so big! I cannot believe it sometimes. He is a totally different baby since Bruce left. Bruce will be so surprised at how much he's changed. He's taller! Trey can now climb on top of the coffee table and stand up! I have to constantly keep my eye on him. He's always into something. And it seems he always wants to do something I've told him previously not to do. I think he's a bit of a rule breaker. Or maybe that's just the toddler in him and things are only bound to get worse. HAHA! Either way it wears me out.

Here are some of the quirks and twirks that makes my little Trey the precious toddler that he is at 15 months.

He has found, thanks to the laughter and encouragement of mommy and others, that sticking his finger up his nose is funny. He is turning into a comedian. He does it all for show. It seems that he loves to make people laugh - just like his mommy. I try not to laugh but he's so funny when he does it that I can hardly help it.

He has this mischievous look he gets on his face when he is about to do something he knows he's not supposed to be doing. It's like he's saying "Look at me, I'm gonna do it." or "Are you going to stop me?" Makes me laugh, I mean I am really stern with him when he does this ;)

He loves to throw things. It started out with me teaching him how to throw a ball. Which he can do very well. But it has turned into him wanting to throw everything. It's hard to teach a child that while it's ok to throw balls, we can't throw everything. And how do you teach them you cannot throw a golf ball AT mommy? scary moment.

His current vocabulary is slightly increasing. He can now say no, hot, and bath. And I'm pretty certain he knows exactly what they all mean. He usually says no when referring to whether he wants something. He'll shake his head and say "nah." I will tell him it's bath time and he goes to his bathroom and starts turning the water on, saying "BA!" The other day I opened the dishwasher and steam came out and he says "hot!" which sounds like "hop." He sticks his hand out and jerks it back saying "hop" over and over. Other than those 3, no new words to report. He still says mama, dada, and da ma (which is Daddy Mac.) He's not really a "parrot" yet. He doesn't repeat things back to us. They are usually said on his own.

He loves to stand on our bed and fall backwards on the mattress. Then he rolls over, stands up and does it again. He giggles and shrieks when I hit him with the pillow. This came from a recent pillow fight with Daddy Mac in Hawaii. It's a fun new game.

Our morning routine is one of my favorites. I sit him in his highchair, put his breakfast on his tray and we watch his "show" Baby Einstein until he finishes. He loves Baby Einstein - he will not watch anything else. I've tried. And he still only likes Baby MacDonald and Baby DaVinci. I'm really getting tired of those two.

He eats so well in the mornings. His breakfast usually consists of orange juice, yogurt, a nutri-grain bar, banana, and cheese toast. Banana is the only fruit I can get him to eat - and he loves to hold the whole big ole thing and eat it like a grown up. He cries if I cut it up. I'm bad about giving him veggies b/c I don't really eat that many veggies. He will  eat peas and carrots. I need to try something new. Some of his favorite foods are pizza, any type of pasta, chicken, burgers, hotdogs, cheese, any sort of bread. Some of his favorite snacks are goldfish, puffs, crackers, nilla wafers, fig newtons, fruit gummies, and yogurt melts. He still won't really drink milk.

Breakfast - eating a banana

I think he may have a nut allergy. This is no bueno. Not long ago, he had a smidge of peanut butter that was left on my cracker and later when I went to get him from his bed, his eye was swollen almost completely shut. And a couple of days ago I was feeding him ice cream from my sundae which had nuts in it and his eye got red and splotchy around it. Nobody in our family has a nut allergy, so I wonder if these instances are all an allergy or can be explained by something else. Because he has come in contact with nuts and nothing has happened. I really hope it's not an allergy, but I'm trying to be really careful what I feed him.

He has the most adorable and funny run. I've even had strangers comment on how cute he is when he runs. He runs so fast and his feet move so quickly, but they barely come up off the ground and his steps are small. It looks like a wind up toy or something. It's hard to explain, but trust me, it's precious.

He likes music and likes to dance. When asked if he can dance, he will spin in a circle. A-dor-able! 

He loves to put things together. He likes to put lids on and off of things, stick the jack to my earphones in and out of my ipod, stick a straw in and out of the hole in the lid. Tons of entertainment!

He is particularly busy in the kitchen. If I have the fridge open, he wants to move all the items in the door to the shelves in the main part. He wants to play with the magnets on the fridge. He likes to rummage through the cabinets and pull everything out. He is taller and can reach the nobs on the stove. We have a gas stove, so he can't actually turn the stove on, but he can move the knob around and turn it off. The dishwasher offers lots of entertainment. He wants to open and close it; take the dishes out; stand on it when it's open; spin the dial and turn it on; lock and unlock the latch; open and close the detergent slot.

He loves to play on playgrounds. He loves to climb the steps and slide down the slide. Climbing is his favorite thing to do right now. He loves to climb stairs. He can climb up all by himself, but tends to get to the top and wait for my help to get down. He holds out his little hand for me to grab on. Trying to go down stairs/steps by himself usually results in a fall. He's working on it.

He loves the pool and the water. We had such a great time at the pool in Kauai. He would just chill in his floatie and we'd swim around. I think he could have done that for hours. Sadly, kids under 5 aren't allowed in the big pool on base, so we won't be able to do that here. I want to get him some sort of kiddie pool to splash in for the back yard. We also have 2 fun splash pads on base that I have been DYING to take him to. This will be the perfect summer for that. It's not quite warm enough here yet, but soon!

I've taught him how to get down off the couch. He rolls over on his belly and slides off. He's not quite perfected it, and he doesn't use the technique every time, but he does most of the time.  He hasn't quite grasped the idea that when he is up on something high, he will fall off. He's always wanting to stand up on our bed and the couch. And playing on the trampoline or a tall playground is just asking for a broken appendage. He makes me nervous!

I think little man is going through a major growth spurt. Or maybe his running around all day is wearing him out. He sleeps A LOT! He is now sleeping 12-13 hours at night, and still takes 2 great naps - usually 2 hours long. It is insane!! Where was this when he was a baby? I was begging for sleep back then. Now I can actually get things done and even have some free time! to blog! and watch movies! and read! I'm LOVING this phase. But of course, when Bruce gets back in a couple of weeks the phase may end. I'm praying it sticks around for a while.

The boy is obsessed with his paci. He still likes to carry 2 around and swap them out. He now wants to go to sleep with 2 pacis. I think it's a comfort thing. The other day he put 2 in his mouth at the same time. Which is what his daddy used to do. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

He is getting more and more teeth. He now has 3 on top and 3 on bottom, with the 4th coming in on both. He has a molar on top and bottom on his left side.

He has been extremely lovey lately and very attached to me. He wants to be where I am and doing what I do. He wants me to hold him or lift him up to be a part of the action. It's gotta be hard to be so small!! He is constantly giving me hugs and holds on tight. He likes to give Maggie hugs and is starting to love on other things like his blankie and his stuffed animals. He even gave our friend's baby a hug yesterday. This usually consists of him leaning over and laying his head on them while patting.

He is becoming more tall and skinny. No more fat baby! Sad! He is hard to shop for. He wears 12 months in most shorts and they fit him perfectly. 12 month pants fit good in the waist but are too short, while 18 month pants are way too big all around. I've been buying mostly 18 month shirts b/c 12 months are too short.

He has now had 2 haircuts and he needs another.

He weighs 22 lbs and has stayed at that weight for a while.

World Traveler

Trey has been more places in his short little life span than many adults. It's kindof ridiculous. And he is such a good little travel companion. I couldn't ask for a better baby. Our recent trip to Kauai was wonderful! But the traveling part was less than ideal. On our trip out there, we were supposed to meet up with the in-laws in Denver, but of course our flight to Denver got canceled and there were none out that could get us there in time to catch our flight to Kauai. They decided to route us through San Fran, which honestly is a better and quicker route, but we had to wait 3 hours in our own Salt Lake City airport before that flight took off. This gave us plenty of time to get coffee, play in the germ-infested play area, make Trey really tired and momma totally worn out before we even took off. Thank the good LORD Trey fell asleep in my lap - a feat I wasn't sure but truly hoped was possible. When we got to San Fransisco we had an epic 4 hour layover, which gave us time to do just about anything we wanted. Probably could have made it to the Golden Date Bridge and back if I had thought about it. I honestly thought Trey would take a nap in his stroller, but he fought it to the death and did not give in. So I was SURE he would fall asleep as soon as we got on the plane. Thankful we made it through the epic layover, I got my happy butt on the plane, book in hand thinking I was about to get some free time. But alas, United had some sort of dumaflitchy broken and we sat on the plane for TWO!!! hours before we even took off. At this point I think Trey was slightly crazy from being so tired. He was all over me and wanted to sleep or run or jump or anything but sit in mommy's lap while we waited. He wouldn't sleep. There was too much going on. Plus, we didn't have that nice vibration and hum of the engine to knock him out. I asked the flight attendant why in the WORLD would they board us if something was broken. She didn't have an answer and walked away very quickly as she could probably tell I was losing it. I had run out of tricks. I was out of puffs, Goldfish, suckers and yogurt melts. All which were dumped onto the floor, my lap, and Trey's lap. Trey was sick of Baby Einstein - we had reached the point where he was slamming the dvd player shut. Alert! We received updates every 15 minutes telling us they can't fix it, not sure what's wrong...yada yada yada. We were even told we may not make it to Hawaii that day. All these thoughts run through my head like, omg, we're going to be in a hotel tonight and we're going to have to start this day all over again tomorrow. I can't do it! Send me back to Utah! I was seriously considering not going to Kauai. However, the good LORD was looking down on me and had pity on my poor pitiful self. I heard the sweetest words ever spoken by a pilot. "Flight attendants, prepare the cabin for departure!" Praise Jesus! About this time I got a text from Daddy Mac saying they'd landed in Lihue. On the plane we were supposed to be on. FML. Of course as soon as we were in the air, Trey was out. He was wiggly (my lap can't be that comfortable) but he slept for the majority of the 5 hour flight. I read occasionally and watched some of Tron Legacy without earphones - every time I leaned over to grab them Trey woke up. It was NOT worth it. That movie looked stupid anyways. We got into Lihue around 8 pm...this was 12am Utah time. The fam, who was I'm sure just as tired as we were - it was 2 am Katie and David's time - was there to meet us at the airport and even had a large container of Mojitos ready for me in the fridge at the resort. That would have to wait. We went to bed immediately. Sweet sleep.

Now, with all that being said...the rest of the trip was fabulous. I woke up the next morning, which was Easter Sunday, bright eyed at 5:30 am. Go figure. I was emailing Bruce, went out on the balcony and realized the sun wasn't even up and that I HAD to go watch the sun rise. I had no idea when it would happen other than it would be soon, so I threw on some clothes and ran down to the beach - or lack there of - more like a rock face cliff, but it was still a beautiful view and I watched as the wondrous beauty of our LORD revealed itself. It was breath taking.

We went ziplining (while Glenda watched Trey for the day) and that was so much fun! And gorgeous! We were basically in the tropics. At first it was a bit scary to make the plunge and jump, but in the end and on our 7th zip I was comfortable enough to go at it upside down. Thrilling! On Wednesday, everybody but me and Trey went island hopping to Oahu. It gave us a little time to ourselves and allowed Trey to better adjust to the time change. He was still SO tired and slept the majority of the day. I read my new book, Matched, and loved it. We also went to the pool where he pooped in his swimmie diaper/speedo - that was totally gross - and fed the koi in the resort's tier garden ponds. It was a good day.

The rest of the trip was mainly spent at the pool soaking up the sun and playing with Trey in the water. He LOVES the pool.

Katie, David and I went to Poipu beach where Trey saw the ocean for the first time.  He was a bit weirded out by the sand and seemed to want it OFF his hands. And we tried to eat a snack while sitting in the sand. That was fun. He was thrilled by the waves when we got in the water and shrieked when it splashed us. It was awesome to be there for this first-time experience of his.

We went out to eat at Duke's, our favorite restaurant, three times while we were there. My teriyaki steak, coconut shrimp, and BBQ sandwich were all amazing!!

The only thing missing from our vacation was Bruce. However, he was still in Afghanistan serving our country in a time of war. It was one of many sacrifices we have had to make over the past 4 months that he's been gone. We will surely be glad to have him home; he only has 2 more weeks over there. Hallelujah!