11 months

{posted 9 days late - oops!}

This past Friday you turned 11 months old - as I say every month (and probably won't stop any time soon) OMG!

I LOVE your profile - so cute! Those cheeks are scrumptious! 

Let's recap what you have been up to lately.

We took swim lessons which you LOVED! You even went underwater and didn't even mind. Everyone in the class noticed what a happy little man you were and how you seemed to really enjoy swimming.  The only thing you weren't a fan of was called "Turtle Pow" and that was probably because it involved climbing out of the water, but once you figured out that you jump right back in you were ok and by the end of the session that was one of your favorite things to do!

 Here we are on your last day of swim class!

Swim classes lasted for two weeks - and during these two weeks you HATED bath time. I have no idea why this happened but basically the day you started classes was the day you decided to scream through bath time and it was like that every day for two weeks. Tonight was the first night since swim lessons ended that you enjoyed your bath - YAY!

You were sick for most of this month - a crazy cold in the middle of summer. I thought it was a result of teething but your runny nose just wouldn't go away. I thought it cleared up before we went on our trip to Houston, but while we were there it took a turn for the worse - your eyes started getting all goopy and you developed a horrible cough. You looked so miserable and I just wanted to fix you but didn't know what to do! We went to a pediatrician there and she said it was viral and will run its course. She gave us eye drops and a decongestant. A week and a half later you STILL were sick and you started pulling on your ears. We went back to the pediatrician and found our that you had your first ear infection. The odd thing was is that the ear you pulled and tugged at most was not the one where the infection was! Anyhow, we got you antibiotics and after about a week things have finally started to clear up for you. Whew! I am not sure what you had but you managed to pass it on to mommy and Yia Yia - we also had horrible soar throats (which I am sure you had and I didn't even know!) We both have been struggling with this viral infection for weeks now too! So in summary this is what we were dealing with this month:

Medical:

2 horrible diaper rashes

1 nasty cold

1 ear infection

LOTS of eye gookiness

eating some grass

No new teeth this month but I am pretty sure you are working on some. You LOVE to brush your teeth and LOVE to watch mommy and daddy brush our teeth. I just gave you a real toothbrush and you try to use it - it's so cute. 

You go to bed at 8pm and have been waking up at 6:20am. I try to tell you that it would be so much better for the both of us if you could just sleep a little longer (then you wouldn't want to take a nap at 9am), but you haven't bought that yet. 

Your naps are all over the place. Somedays you take three, somedays you take 1. Sometimes they are long and sometimes they are short. I really never know what is going to happen but I always appreciate a nice long one :)

Stats:

18lbs (we got a weigh in at our doctor visit)

9-12 month clothing

Size 3 diapers but you can wear 4

Likes:

Destroying toys that are stacked up

Your push buggy

Your red wagon

WATER - the pool, your water table, your blow up pool, the hose

Bob

The dishwasher - you hop up on the door and mess with all the stuff in the silverware compartment. Usually pushing all the bottle nipples down like it is some sort of game

Puppets on baby einstien DVDs

Dislikes:

Toys that are stacked high

bath time? (well for a two week period)

Antibiotics

Waking up (alone?) You are not happy when you get up in the morning or from naps - you scream and scream until I come and get you. You usually give me a BIG hug then put your head on my shoulder - then everything is ok!

I think you really are saying Bob now - I mean that's what is going down as your first word. PLUS another thing you started doing this month is identifying people in pictures!!! If I hold up a picture and ask you "where's mommy" you point to me in the picture! You can also find daddy! It's so fun and we practice all the time now.

what a handsome little man you are!

loving Bob

I know this next month is going ot fly by - we are going to the lake house for July 4th, then headed to Montana and then prepping for your party! You have lots of friends that are coming - your Uncle Nick is even flying in from Florida! Yay! 

We love you so much! 

Happy birthday Kevin!

We celebrated Kevin's 31st birthday at Eno's Pizza Tavern in the Bishop Arts district with friends. We had a great time and loved catching up with everyone. Thanks for coming!

One side of the table complete....Aaron, Kelly, Andrew, Heather, Terra, Bryan and Kevin. Thanks for coming to celebrate!

Thanks for looking at the camera guys - Lindsey & Colin

Me and the birthday boy

Stacey & Jacob (Little Jack snoozed the entire time!)

Kevin with his awesome gift from the Pearson's

Just like old times...or the first time Michael met Sarah's parents. lol :)

Bottermans with the birthday boy

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful husband, my dad and my father-in-law! I hope everyone had a wonderful day yesterday! I'll speak for Kevin and say that we had a great day :)

I made this adorable sign using the father's day free printable from Shindig Parties. It looked super cute and fit perfectly in the opening between the kitchen and dining/living room area. Kevin expected nothing less. lol.

Considering Kevin didn't even know Father's Day was this weekend he didn't have any big expectations. In fact, at one point he told me the one thing he wanted to do was go up the the office and clean up his space for about 2 hrs. He eventually rethought that plan and we were able to spend the entire day together as a family. 

Kevin is a typical guy - he never wants anything so buying a present for him is always difficult. He never wants anyone to make a big deal of anything (birthday included) but he knows that I will try to so he has started to accept it.  I knew I wanted to make him something because he would appreciate that more. So for Father's day Ryan made him a gift for his new office. We found a frame at Michaels with three slots for pictures and put a recent picture in the middle and then got his foot print and hand print - which was not an easy task! 

I also ended up buying two things, but they were small, so it was ok. On one of my many trips to Homegoods I came across this mini burger grilling tool that I thought was cute and fun - besides who doesn't love sliders?  Lastly, if you know Kevin you know he LOVES to sip tequila. I noticed he was a little low on the tequila supply so we replenished his stash. I think he was happy - but I also know he would have been happy if there weren't any gifts. 

I also made this AMAZING (if I don't say so myself) cake. It is a recipe that I got from my neighbor and it's so yummy! I will post the recipe soon and I highly recommend making it!

We had some friends and family over to celebrate. Kevin's sister and their two oldest kids are in Seattle visiting friends so Michael and Audrey came over to join us. They got here first which worked out great because we were able to Skype with grandma and grandpa. Here they are enjoying some apps and skyping!

Next up was playing outside in the 100+ heat in our little blow up pool. We huddled into the one section of our yard that was covered in shade. It was pretty funny how squished we were but I think the kiddos were entertained for a little while, so it served its purpose. 

I think Audrey expected a real pool but she was still happy. 

Our neighbors came over as well - so much fun!

Ryan being all serious staring our Johnny.

SWEET little Jack made an appearance!! This was my first time to meet him and he is adorable!

Audrey was very serious about her goggles

Stacey and her little man. Stacey looks amazing - it's hard to believe she had a baby two weeks ago! And ugh I cannot get enough of the little man - he is so tiny - how quickly you forget!

I got to hold him for a little while - Ryan was not thrilled with this. He was definitely JEALOUS!

Johnny feeding little Madelyn

Sweet Jackson! 

Audrey was a fan of the balls and the wagon. She packed it up and then decided to rest - so cute! We had such a great time and are so happy our friends were able to come over and hang out for a while. 

Next up --> kevin's birthday! He turns 31 on Thursday!

Pool Party

This past Saturday my friend Susanne had a pool party so we headed out to Carrolton to sizzle in the sun with everyone. Technically kids weren't invited, but I didn't actually read the evite - so that was totally my bad. Luckily Ryan isn't considered a KID so it wasn't really a problem. BUT I do know for next time! Plus we were there during he day when everything was rather tame so it wasn't much of an issue. We had good time and Ryan loved Susanne's dog Roxy - who was actually super nice, which is always a PLUS!

Below is Ryan playing with Roxy

Loving her!

Playing with d-lo!

Loving Lindsey in the pool!

Kevin took this picture and failed to tell me I looked like a naked 80's giant - lol, good stuff. But little R looks adorable in in sunglasses!

And lastly Ryan found the door stopper - and loved it. What a fun day! Thanks Susanne!!

Swim Lessons

This week we started swim lessons with Dolfin Swim School and it has been so much fun. It is a two week program and we go from 10:30- 11:10 Monday - Thursday.  It is a mommy and me class (obviously) that teaches aquatic skills in a fun way. The instructors use songs to entertain the kiddos while we learn our lessons. They also use toys which is always a big hit! One of the things I love is that it is held in someones backyard pool and it is a small class. It just feels so much more natural. Once again he is mesmerized by his instructors - he just loves them so much. If he could swim I am sure he would swim right up to them and just hang out.

We start the class off by sitting on the ledge and splashing hello. There are a few rules that mommies are suppose to follow - like we aren't suppose to say "under" or "under water", or wipe our faces when we come up and also are not suppose flinch when being splashed. If we retrieve toys we can't use our feet - we make a big deal about putting our faces under and getting with our hands. I guess our little guys pick up on our habits and will start doing them as learned behavior. Anyhow, mommies enter the pool and our babies are suppose to sit on the side until we are ready. Oh man that is hard for Ryan. He sees me go in and he just wants to flop right in. He is getting better but usually needs to be distracted.

We hold them in front of us (can't remember the name of the pose) instead of letting them clutch to us and holding them on the side. Ryan doesn't mind it at all and loves to swim around in my arms. I won't go into the details of each exercise but I will mention that DUNK day was this past Wednesday. The instructors kept telling us it was coming and I didn't think much of it.  Oh my I think I was more scared than little Ryan. This isn't just a push him down underwater and pop back up - we had to basically dive down to the bottom and swim with them!!! ahhh it was crazy! Even so all of the kiddos did great - including Ryan! There is even a little 4 month old that didn't even flinch. Goodness, it is crazy to watch!

We are having so much fun in class and when its time to leave Ryan is always trying to crawl back over to the pool area. He loves to swim! After class the teacher gives them a little snack - goldfish or animal crackers. The picture below is Ryan and his buddy Ford sharing some of their snacks! so cute!

I'll have to get some better pictures next week. Next Thursday (June 23rd) is friends and family day. Everyone is invited to come watch and see everything they have learned. Unfortunately Kevin has a day trip to Houston planned, my parents live in Houston and his grandparents are up in Montana, so no one will be able to come and watch. :( I hope I can get someone to video tape it with our camera so that we can share it with everyone!

Ryan's Christening

This past Sunday was a very special day for our family. Ryan was baptized at our church during the 9:30am service. It was a special time for us and we are so happy to celebrate with friends and family. Kevin and I both decided that we want our children to grow up with God in their life and to feel the community that a church can provide.  We thank God for the wonderful gift of our son and have made a promise to raising him in a Christ-cenetered home.  Below are some pictures from Ryan's big day!

Ryan was one of two babies being baptized during the 9:30 service - the other little boy was only 7 weeks! So sweet and little! 

We are so happy that our family and friends were able to join us on Ryan's special day. 

Here is little Ryan afterwards with his cousins. 

Can't celebrate without a cake :)

We had a wonderful brunch afterwards at Lakewood. Ryan slept most of the time - he was pretty exhausted from being the star all morning long!

Little R woke up just in time for some cake!

Beach Weekend

The Aston's invited us and another family (the Meeks) down to Jamaica Beach in Galveston for the weekend. We all went to San Antonio in December so it was fun to get all the kiddos together again. We had such a great time - the weather was perfect, the beach house was adorable, and obviously the company was awesome!

Ryan, Caroline, Thompson & Caleb ready to go to the beach!

Matching swimsuits!

So cute!

Mk & her boys!

Walking to the beach

Loving the water

Hanging with mommy

Thompson, Kevin & Ryan

The boys!

Love!