Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Halloween 2009

I had the cutest puppy this Halloween! On Friday, the day before Halloween, we went to the Fall Festival at church.
For the Fall Festival, I tried to give Mitchell a brown nose. I used my eye liner, but he did not want to hold still. I somehow got it on him, but it did not look the greatest.

Here are some of the girls from my Sunday School class with our babies. Chad and I helped with one of the games. We had to take turns with helping because one of us had to watch Mitchell run around.

I love this picture. Mitchell is looking at his friend Amelia. I wish I could know what was going through their heads.

Mitchell did not really play any of the games or really get any candy (that was our choosing). But he did love walking all over the stage and running around the halls. Next year I think he will really be in to all the games and candy.

When we came home we let him go over to our neighbor's house. Since I live in Football USA, they decided that they wanted all Trick-or-Treating to be done on Friday because Saturday (Halloween) was the big game. Our neighbor had a bucket of suckers on his front porch. Mitchell got to pick one out.

He was so excited to get his own sucker!

I had to get a few pictures with our other animals. This little puppy really loves his kitty!

Oh, puppy love!

On Sunday we went to Chad's parents' house. We put Mitchell's costume on again because none of the family had seen it. We got a few good pics in their backyard. Mitchell loved playing in the leaves. That is something we don't have since we have no trees.

San Antonio

I guess I have been putting off blogging, but I will try to catch up. A few weeks ago we went on a trip to San Antonio. It was really a business trip for Chad, but Mitchell and I tagged along. Chad had to present two papers that he had written at a conference. At first we thought about not taking Mitchell, but I just didn't feel comfortable leaving him. He has only been away from me one night in his eighteen months. Now looking back at the trip, I wish that we had left him with the grandparents. We did have some good times, but there were also some not so good times. Chad and I went to San Antonio on our first anniversary. We stayed in a bed and breakfast then, but this time we were in a hotel right on the river walk. This first picture is on our first night. We ate outside at the restaurant that was in our hotel. You can kind of see the river walk behind us. I don't know what it was but every time we ate out, Mitchell had a melt down. He did not want to stay in his high chair, and then we would just end up getting to go boxes.
On the second day that we were there, we went to Sea World. This trip ended up being pretty good. I think that Michell had a fun time. Here Chad is trying to decide where we will go first.

Mitchell enjoyed seeing all the animals.

We saw an alligator with a turtle resting on top of it. Kind of a crazy site.

We went to several of the shows. Here Mitchell is watching Shamou.

They had Halloween decorations everywhere. Pumpkins were also everywhere. We even saw some in with the penguins.

I guess through this trip we learned that above all things, Mitchell loves to run. He does not like to be confined to a stroller, high chair, or mom or dad's lap. For awhile we just let him run around at Sea World. He had the best time.

We also learned that Mitchell loves water bottles.

He also loved looking at himself in the mirror in the hotel room. I love this picture because it looks like he is posing.

Some of the best food that we got was at Rain Forest Cafe. But again we did not make it through our meal and ended up eating the rest in our hotel room. We just felt bad for the people around us. We did not want to ruin their meal with a crying baby.

One night we met up with my cousin, Josh. This is him with his wife and son Reagan. They live in San Antonio. It was nice to get to see them and meet Reagan for the first time.

Look at these cute cousins!

I guess the worst experience of the trip was coming home. I think it was a mixture of many things, but Mitchell had a major tantrum in the San Antonio airport. Chad had to go up to the counter to see if we could get our seats together. I was letting Mitchell walk around, but I could not let him go far because I had to keep an eye on our stuff. Well, he went to far, and I tried to turn him around. That is when he had a major fit. He threw himself down on the floor and started screaming and crying. Everyone was looking at us, and I was so embarrassed. We did get him calmed down somewhat just before we got on the plane. He did cry a little on that flight, but over all it was not bad. Then came the flight from Dallas to OKC. This was the nightmare! Mitchell was tired of being held and could not take it any more. He decided to cry the entire flight. We tried everything, but he would not stop. I felt so bad for the people around us. What made it even worse was that we sat in the very back seats of the plane. So when we landed, we could not even get off. We were the last ones to get off. So, I just don't think we will be doing any more traveling with Mitchell in the near future. I am going to need some time to get over this trip.

It's Fall

It is Fall and Mitchell and I have been enjoying some time outside. He just loves to run around in our backyard. His new favorite toy is his lawn mower. His grandparents got him this at a garage sale, and he just loves pushing or pulling it around.
Look how big my boy is getting!

He also loves to pull around this other cart that came with some sports equipment. He just can't decide which one he wants to play with. Notice he still has to hang on to the lawn mower. Mitchell and I have also been visiting our local library. We try to go to story time once a week. They also have a music class, but we have not made it to that yet. Mitchell just loves to play with the toys there too. I love to watch him interact with the other kids. He mainly just watches what they do. Nothing majorly exciting is going on. We are going to go on a short vacation in a few weeks to San Antonio. I can't wait, but it is hard work traveling with a baby. I just hope he does not get to loud. Chad is going to be speaking at a conference, and Mitchell and I are just going to tag along. We are going to try to go to Sea World. I will post more after our vacation.

Breakthrough

We had a breakthrough this week. I am almost embarrassed to share it because it seems like Mitchell should have been doing this months ago. I will tell you I have been working with him probably since he was around six months (I really can't remember, but it has been long) on clapping his hands. I see these little babies and they just clap their hands so cute, but for some reason my son would not do this. I would try to do patty cake and sing songs, but he refused. He did not like me to take his hands and put them together. He does like to pat me or the cat and sometimes gives a high five, but no clapping. Then it happened in really a funny way. We were sitting at the dinner table when I was bothered by some gnats. I put my hands together to try to kill one, and then Chad did the same thing. Then Mitchell put his hands together just like we had done. It was so funny you just had to be there. Then after that I said, "Mitchell clap your hands." And he did it! I was so proud. I thought this is just one of those things that will never happen again, but he really has learned it. Now I can tell him to clap his hands and he does it, even if he has a toy in his hands. I know this might sound kind of crazy to you, but it brings me such joy because I have been working so long on this. I don't know what happened, but something just clicked in his brain. Now if he would only listen when I say no! I know he knows what that means, but he chooses to ignore me.

Curious George

My little guy is now 16 months, and he seems to be growing so fast. Along with him growing physically, his curiosity is growing. He is into everything, and he no longer wants to be confined to the living room with the baby gate up. I have started closing every bedroom and bathroom door. As you can see, he does like to look at books. This thrills his "teacher" mommy. He does have quite a library to choose from. You have to understand that I have collected children's books for probably over nine years. I actually have more in my garage.
Part of the game is to see how many he can pull off the shelf at one time.

He loves this book about animals. He can feel each animal.

This is also another favorite. It is Thomas the Train, and it makes music. I read to him every night, and he usually will let me read a whole book to him. Sometimes he gets fidgety, and then I just have to go on the the songs that I sing to him.

This is part of the curiosity that I was talking about earlier. I bought several locks to put on the cabinets. They are the kind that you have to screw into the cabinet. Chad put them on the essential cabinets that have dangerous things in them. We ran out and could not do all of our cabinets. But you can see that we are going to have to do a few more in the kitchen. Mitchell loves to get all of the plastic containers out.

When I finally get a lock on this cabinet, I am going to have to wash everything in it. I know they can't be clean. I actually have bought two different kinds of locks at Wal-Mart, and they did not work. We are going to have to go get some that screw in, even though they are a pain.

This cabinet has a lock on it, and he just can't figure out why he can't open it. Even though he keeps me on my toes or maybe I should say in my running shoes, I love the times that he will let me cuddle with him. My baby is growing up fast, but I love every minute of it.

Spaghetti Boy

The other night I made spaghetti for dinner. I have given Mitchell the noodles before, but not the sauce. So, I decided to give him a taste of spaghetti and meat sauce. He went to town! He loved it, as you can see by these pictures. He took fist fulls and just shoved it into his mouth. Next time I will remember to take his clothes off before a messy meal. It was quite a clean up job, but we did get some great pictures out of it.