I was in the bedroom putting my jewelry on when I heard water running? I walk into the bathroom to find this:
Yep, he learned to turn the water on and off. . .and on and off. . and on and off. . . He learns something new everyday, too bad most things are things we don't want him to do!!
Ok, is it just me or did we completely skip the season called SPRING?! I am not ready for summer. Or at least not the heat part! It has been smoking hot the last few weeks and it isn't even July?! This time last year we were in Florida. . . .sigh. . .
But, I do love that summer time means: Longer days (I don't feel like I get home from work and immediately have to go to bed!), we get to spend more time with family and friends, life seems like it's just a little slower, there are shaved ice stands open for business and best of all . . . POOLS are open!!
Since they don't have school anymore, Isabella and Alexandra got to go with us after church Sunday night to eat with our group at Lazzari! They were quite the entertainment! And Stratton loves the company and attention! The girls wanted to stick their heads out the sunroof while we were driving back home. . . I know they think I''m pretty "cool" about things, but I'm not insane?!! So, when we got back to their house, completely stopped in the driveway, I let them try it. Isabella was standing on the console, head and half her body (she's tall!) sticking out of the sunroof when Christina came out the door and Isabella told her "this is how I rode home, the whole way!" Ha-ha. Very funny. Uncle Brian and Christina may never let them go anywhere with us again! I hope they know we have better sense than that. . . for the most part anyway.
Monday evening, I ran a few errands when I got off work- mainly just to Target. I used to LOVE Target. Now I am beginning to hate it. Every time I go I drop at least $100 if not more?!!! Diapers, baby food, disposable bibs, ect . . . all that small stuff adds up quick! Man, babies are expensive!! Anyway, my Mom was in town running some errands of her own so she went and picked up Stratton at Daycare and took him back to the house and fed him supper and changed his clothes. So when I got home we jumped in the car and took off to Alexandra's T-ball game. It was actually really nice outside! Stratton wanted NO part of his stroller. All the sudden he doesn't like it? I don't get it he used to love it? Next time we are taking his wagon, maybe he would ride in it better! (And don't make fun of me if you see me at the mall sometime pulling Stratton in his wagon. He loves it and I can't carry him! I call him my "Chunky Monkey"! He's so big and just crawls and climbs on and over everything!!) Al's game was so cute! Those little girlies running all over the place cracks me up! I got a blue raspberry tropical snow (I LOVE shaved ice!!) while we were there and I let S's have a small bite. Not sure he really knew what to think he made the most awful face! But then of course he wanted more!!
Tuesday evening, I took S's swimming for the first time! Our friend Amy's mom (Mrs. Cindy, who is also S's Sunday School teacher) and dad have an awesome new salt water pool! Amy and I went from about 5-7 pm and it was sooo nice! It wasn't swelteringly hot, and there were no bugs! The water was a little cool at first, but once you were in it for awhile it was fine. Stratton seemed to really like it! I thought he would since he loves his baths so much! Now, I just have to find a baby floatie! He let Amy hold him some but he wasn't a fan of me getting very far away! And it's hard to "swim" holding him the whole time. We are going to Memphis this weekend, so maybe I can find a neat one at Toys-R-Us.
This weekend we are going to Memphis! Friday night we are meeting Meghan (Jonathan is out of town this weekend) for dinner and then she and I are going to finally see SATC2 [Kristen,we will miss you!!]. Then Saturday morning we are having Stratton's 1 year pictures taken with Daisha Sheets (D'Lifeful Photography) at Audubon park at 10:00am. Hopefully, we can do them early enough we won't get beat down by the heat! Then we will probably stick around and do some shopping. I have got to figure out what we are going to get Stratton for his birthday!!
And speaking of his birthday. . .it will be here before we know it!! I am doing a first birthday announcement and a separate party invitation. It's kind of weird, I know but I realized that we cannot possibly invite everyone we want to his party. Just family alone has us at about 30ish people!! We could easily add another 30 or more with all our close friends, so the party will be mainly just the family this year. However, I want to send something out to ALL of our friends (especially since we are having new photos taken) so they can see how much he has grown and how cute he is! : ) And we have several friends that live far away and it wouldn't make sense to send them an invitation to a party we know they can't come to?! The announcement is already designed, just have to get those new pictures drop them in and I'll be set!! And I am currently working on the invitation. Since we are doing an airplane theme, I think I am going to make them look like airline tickets!
After a couple of months of feeling just fine, my Dr. decided that it was time to start backing off the meds I have been on for my stomach "issues". Well, it's only been a few weeks and my stomach problems have again risen. I have been in misery for about 2 weeks (I even threw up at work the other day- so humiliating!!) So, I went back to the Dr yesterday. He thinks at this point I need to have some more tests done. {Yay, just what I wanted to hear! Who doesn't LOVE tests!!} They are setting me up for a endoscopy and colonoscopy both! Seriously, both!? At least I will get them done all at one time. His thinking is that if they don't find anything from those tests, we might have to go ahead and have my gallbladder taken out after all. ugh. All my pain is still on the left side, but I could always have "referred" gallbladder pain. He said it's rare but does happen. {and of, course it would happen to me} We won't know anything till after the tests and they are going to get back to me when it's scheduled. It won't be till the end of July though- NOT before Stratton's birthday party, I have WAY too much to do!! It should only put me out for a day and a half, so it's not too bad. And I have talked to several people who have recently had it done and they say it's not as bad as it used to be. Still. . . I am NOT looking forward to it at all!
Stratton has started doing this funny "mean face" or "growling" thing. It started when he would get food on his nose, then we noticed him doing it when he had a runny nose and now he just does it to be silly! I guess he figured out that when he does it we laugh hysterically, and likes the attention! I finally got him to do it for me on video last night, too. I will be posting that later!
He is such a sweet boy! I love that he wants, and tries to make us laugh! That is one thing we are not short of in our house- laughter! We are constantly cracking up at the things that our little man does! Most of the time it is followed by a "No!". It is so hard to punish him for things that make us laugh, but it is in his best interest!
He is FINALLY, drinking out of his sippy cup really well! I thought the day would never come and was worried we'd have a toddler still clinging to his bottle! The ones he likes the best are the ones with the straws. He isn't a fan of the regular ones yet. He hasn't figured out that you have to turn them up to get anything out! We have been giving him some watered down baby juice and he seems to really like it. I'm sure it's much better than plain water. He looks like such a big boy drinking out of them. Where has my baby gone?!
We had a really busy weekend! Friday morning we went to Searcy to see the new baby and stayed in Searcy most of the day. Saturday Jarrod worked on the farm and took Stratton to my mom's. I cleaned and cooked most of the day in preparation for our dinner guests Saturday night. Our friends, Brian and Amanda Coats and their son, Landon were in town visiting from North Carolina so we had them and Amy and Dustin over for dinner Saturday night. I wish I had taken some pictures!! Landon is getting SO big! He is almost 2 years old now?! Can't believe how these babies are growing!! We had a great visiting with them! I wish we could see them more often! We may go visit them in the fall sometime- I hope!! Sunday after church we went to Hickory Ridge and had lunch at my grandparent's house. We left Stratton to spend the night with my mom and dad. We got back into J town and ran a few errands before church. After church we went to eat at Fat City with our friends from church and had another good visit with Brian and Amanda before they had to leave early Monday morning. Monday we got up and Jarrod mowed the yard and I did some laundry then we got around and went to eat lunch at Olive Garden. Yum-O! Then we headed to Pangburn to visit with Daniel, Jennifer and Archer. We made a detour by my mom and dad's to pick Stratton up. We got to see where Daniel and Jennifer's new house is (not that I will ever find it again on my own it's out in the middle of nowhere!) it's so pretty! They have a pond and it's in a really wooded and secluded area. We mostly hung out at their house and got hold Archer! Stratton isn't very impressed with him. He doesn't even pay attention to him at all. I bet all that changes once Archer get's mobile, too! Daniel and Jennifer are doing so great, they already have him on a schedule and he is sticking to it like clock work! I'm telling you BabyWise is the best thing ever!! We headed back home around 7pm and got home gave Stratton a bottle put him to bed and then we went to bed! Whew! I need a day off to recover from the weekend! haha!
His shirt says "My Aunt Rocks" - Love it!!
He learned to go up and down the small stairs in grandma and grandpa's rec room Sunday. He also learned what a glass door was. Should have got that on camera, his nose was all smushed up on the glass-too funny. He really likes playing in their rec room there is so much room to crawl around!! But once he tried the stairs he went up and down and up and down!! Why do kids find stuff like that so amusing?!
He is on the move!
Let's try climbing stairs. . .
. . . one stair. . .
. . . two stairs!
Can you see my mom and grandma in the doorway?
Mom found a turtle out in the yard and thought for sure he'd be scared of it- Nope! He wanted to hold it! She had to take it back out, because he got mad that she wouldn't let him touch it. Ewww! I guess he is 100% all boy!
