18 Months!

Wow....I can't believe it has been a year and a half since you came into our lives. You are my little toddler boy now and you are crazy. I don't have your stats yet because we haven't gone to your checkup, but you are growing like a weed. I counted the other day and you have 13 teeth. Seems like almost a full mouth, even though you have a ways to go. 

Things That You Are All About Right Now:

* Communicating by pointing and words/signing. The other day you signed that wanted to eat and so we went to the fridge where you pointed to the syrup.  I was quite puzzled as to why you wanted to eat syrup, but you promptly followed this up by pointing to the freezer when I didn't draw the correlation. Once I opened the freezer, you immediately pointed to the waffles. Make no mistake, now when you go to the syrup I know exactly what you want now!

* You walk around all of the time saying "momma momma momma" to get my attention. It is the sweetest word in the world to me because I waited so long to hear it from you.

*Every day at home is consumed with you playing sports, hockey, darts, golf, baseball. I'm getting ready to whip out the bowling set that your great grandma Bev got you , so you will get to add that to your repertoire as well.

* You recently discovered the shopping carts at the grocery stores that have the cars attached to them. Now every time we go to the store you love to ride in it. I find it adorable because you had no interest in it, then all of a sudden one day you were.

* Although you have known body parts for a few months now, you are starting to say the names of the body parts as you point them. I love to quiz you just to hear your little voice say "noos (nose)", "he (head)", "ey (eye)", "toos (toes)", and "mou (mouth)"

Here are some of the pictures we took over the past month. 

A Trip to the Zoo - In Pictures

We went to the zoo today with Dasha and Cameron. It was a blast, here are the pics. 

4th of July

Every holiday we have gets a little more exciting because you are getting out of the baby phase and into really enjoying the holiday. 

The day was fairly hot so we started out with you playing outside on the patio with the water to cool down. You love throwing rocks into water, so even at home this is what you do. 

Your Dad and I sort of have a tradition right now of floating the river and then spending the afternoon at the park afterwards until the fireworks start. We wanted to do this again this year, so you got to spend the early afternoon with Nana while we floated the river. 

You met up with us at the park and we had a blast. Unfortunately you had a diaper rash so we even let you run around naked for a while. Curt and Colleen showed up as well and they have Everett who is a year older than you. The two of you got to run around an play together. It was very cute. 

As for the fireworks, you dozed in and out for them. You were pretty tired but you did stay awake for parts of them. At the very end Everett got really excited and you joined in on the fun and excitement. 

The Oregon Coast

We made a trip back to the Coast with Matt and Tina again. We went three years ago to Beverly Beach and we loved it and so it was time to take you! It was wonderful seeing how much you have progressed just between Hawaii and now with the ocean. You loved the sand about the same, but this time you were much more interested in the water and you weren't afraid of the surf when it came at you. 

We flew kites, played on the beach, went into Newport and ate lunch and walked around, used sparklers and snakes, took a hike, and did the usual camping stuff. It was a blast. You were pretty disinterested with the sparklers, snakes, and kite, but you did love the ocean and of course being outside. 

You were also awesome on the car ride! I was so proud of you. I must admit I was worried about the return trip. On the way out to the coast we spend the night in Bend and so we only had to drive 5 hours on Friday evening and then another 5 on Saturday. On the way home though we made the full 10 hour drive home in one day. We had the dvd player for you only for 2 hours of that 10 and you were very patient and did well. You only napped another 2.5 hrs of that so you were awake for quite a bit of it. What a great little traveler you are becoming! 

I wish we could take you to the ocean every day.