Things Sutton Says...

Sutton calls his pacifier his "wawa." So today, I was asking Adam where the "W-A-W-A" was. I spelled it. Next thing I know...

Sutton: "Dubya A! Dubya A!"

May 29

Well, I had a birthday this week. 27. I don't know about that. That's definitely "upper" twenties, even if 26 wasn't. :)

But alas, I had an amazing birthday thanks to my wonderful hubby. I took some photos along the way so I could blog about it, but they're only phone photos.

Sutton started my birthday off right by waking us up at 7am. Now I know 7am isn't that early, but he'd been sleeping til 8 or even 9:30 lately, but oh well. I shoved Adam out of bed to go get him and bring him into our bed so I didn't have to get up quite then. Then this happened:

We dragged ourselves out of bed and went to breakfast at Jimmy's Egg. That's kind of becoming our birthday tradition around here, doing breakfast out.

Chowing down on Daddy's cottage cheese.

We took a family photo outside the restaurant...ended up being the only one we got of the 3 of us that day.

After breakfast, we went home and Adam washed our cars while I sat out in the driveway with Sutton. I kept yawning so Adam told me to go take a nap. I said "But then I'll miss part of my birthday! ...okay, maybe just an hour." :) So I laid down and TWO HOURS LATER, I ran outside and said "Why did you let me sleep so long?!" It was okay though because it wasn't even 11am.

We jumped on our bikes and rode over to Adam's parents house to see Adam's sister Shelly before she left to go back to Alabama on Wednesday. We hung out there awhile and then biked to QuikTrip for my birthday Dr Pepper. Mmmm.

Once we got home, Adam had Sutton give me my present. Sutton brought me a little envelope. I opened it and it was a gift certificate for a massage! Wahoo! And then Adam said it was for that day at 1pm (less than an hour away). :) Love him. While I went to shower from my bike ride, my boys snuggled on the couch and were being extra cute.

After my massage, I stopped by McDonald's for my favorite...a caramel frappe and chocolate chip cookies. Mmmm again. Sutton was still napping when I got home (he ended up taking a 4 hour nap that day) so I was able to take a hot bath to get all the oil off from the massage. We got all dressed up and took Sutton to Adam's parents house so they could watch him while we went on a date. They surprised me and had cake and ice cream waiting. So we had a little appetizer before our dinner. :)

Adam's sister took a quick photo of us before we left to go on our date.

We went to Olive Garden, and Adam had another surprise in store. He'd invited two of our other couple friends to join us! This is the girls' side of the table. Me with Val and Risa.

After dinner, we stopped by Target to get me a cardigan because #1 I always get cold in the movie theater (which is where we were heading next) and #2 I needed another cardigan. Oh, and #3 we bought candy because movie theater candy is ridiculously expensive.

Then we continued on to the theater where another one of our couple friends joined us, and we all watched Men in Black 3. It was really good! Here's Risa and I before the movie started and before she had to pull out her teacher-voice on the teenagers behind us who wouldn't stop giggling. Ha!

It was the perfect birthday! I couldn't have planned it better myself. Love you Adam, you're the best!

Sutton {23 Months}

You turned 23 months old yesterday, sweetiepie! Next time we do this, you'll be TWO! AH! :)

You were at daycare yesterday all day and then our evening was jam-packed and it was after bedtime when we got home, so there was no way to take your 23 month photos yesterday. I digress. At 23 months, Sutton...

*You're stubborn! Since you're the product of two youngest children who have stubborn tendencies themselves, I guess we couldn't expect anything else. :)

*You have an amazing sense of humor. You do things just to make us laugh, and we're laughing all the time. You have silly faces you randomly make, crazy noises that you repeat over and over and over.

*Your favorite thing to say right now is "Go away!" That's a remnant from the Sadie days. It's frustrating because you say it to us all the time, to other people, to anything that frustrates you. Even when you don't mean it.

*You've gone through an I-will-eat-nothing-and-starve-myself phase and a oh-my-gosh-I-will-inhale-everything-you-put-in-front-of-me phase in the past month. Overall, you do okay with eating, but you definitely tend to like food that's bad for you over healthy stuff. Except grapes. You love grapes.

Peanut butter face at breakfast this morning. 

*You love chocolate milk and you call it "Mo."

*Ginger has been teaching you some signs, and I love it when you use them unprompted. Mostly you just use the signs for Thank You and More. But you also know Please and Sorry.

*You've begun having manners. You will say "Cue me!" (excuse me), "Sowwy!" (sorry), "Ee oo go!" (here you go). It makes me laugh.

"Chee! Chee, Mommy!"

"Wa wa?" No thank you, baby. Wa wa means three things in our house...waffle, pacifier, water. 

"Mmm...yummy!" 

*You've been sleeping until 8 or 8:30am lately, which has been great. But I've pushed your naptime back to 1pm now instead of noon so you'll sleep longer. Napping has been iffy lately...you took several 1.5-1.75 hour naps this week instead of your usual 2-3 hours. It's a good thing Daddy's last day of work is today because I can't get any work done if you're always awake!

*You're obsessed with watching videos of yourself. You'll ask us to play them "Again! Again!" And then you giggle when you do something funny or loud in the video.

*We've been working on colors and shapes. You know blue and black pretty well. Mostly because you have a "boo mane" (blue plane) and a "ba mane" (black plane) that you carry around all the time. With shapes, you know heart, star, moon the best.

*You love point out tractors, cars, mowers, planes...anything that has a motor you love. How does that happen? You're definitely all boy. If we drive through a construction zone and you see their machinery, you yell from the back seat "Tractor! Tractor! Bye bye tractor."

*You're still always flying your airplanes or fixing them. You find screwdrivers or things that look like screwdrivers and then you'll bend over your plane, very intent on fixing it.

*You hate wind with a passion. You get so mad at it. You yell "Go away!" and ask us to pick you up and you bury your face in our neck so you can't feel it. You just don't understand about wind yet.

 Ohmygoodness. I LOVE this photo. Sums up his personality perfectly. I asked him to put his hands in his pockets so I could take a picture, and after you got them in there, you looked at me and made this smile face and said "Chee!" without me even asking. I was dying laughing.

*You love to help. We ask you to throw things away for us and you do. We ask if you want to go help Daddy with his truck, and you'll drop everything to go do that. It's nice because we can ask you to bring us stuff so we don't have to get up. :)

*You mimic a lot. You repeat everything we say, and you get stuck on certain things. For example, last night we watched Daddy's friend launch a glider (throw an airplane that doesn't have a motor into the sky and watch it glide around). Well today, you decided one of your airplanes was a glider and you ran around the house throwing it up like Daddy's friend for a good 20 minutes.

*Your hair is completely RED. I look back at old photos where it was blonde and can't believe how much it's changed. You're such a handsome boy. You ask me to do your hair in the mornings when I do mine, and each time you wait for me to tell you that you're handsome and then you smile.

*We've started praying each night before bedtime, and you get so excited to say "Amen!"

*Diego is still your favorite show...well, it's the only show you watch. You often ask to cuddle on the couch and watch Diego on my phone. You've learned certain words from the show, such as "Click!" for when the camera takes a photo, "Zoom," to zoom out of the photo, and "Activate," with the Spanish pronunciation.

*No progress with the potty training. It's my fault, I haven't been very proactive with it. But you've begun hating having your diaper changed, which is frustrating.

*When you have to go in a time out, we usually tell you that you can come out of your room when you're done crying. You're really good about staying in there, and then when you finish crying, you open the door, come out and find us and are all happy, asking for a "Neeneh" (Kleenex) to wipe your nose and eyes.

*You push boundaries all the time. We tell you not to do something, and you stare us right in the eyes and do it again. I know you're just learning about everything, but it makes me think you're challenging us, and it's frustrating!

*You have a crazy reaction to mosquito bites. They get really red and big, and then they turn into bruises. That's what's all over your legs in these photos.

*You still love your "wa wa" (pacifier) and "mi mi" (blankie). I think we use them less than we used to, but you still ask for them a lot.

*At the Y, they've started putting your shoes in the same cubby every time. So when I come to pick you up, I tell you to get your shoes and you run over, get them out of your cubby, and bring them to me. After we put them on and go outside, you always have to climb up on this short wall and walk along it, and do a "big jump" off the end. Then we have to jump over the parking lot curbs as well. Just your little routine.

*You're really starting to know other people. You love your grandparents and talk about them a lot. You also know G and Avery (Ginger who watches him on Thursdays and her daughter Avery), Erin at the Y, and Ky who watched you on Tuesdays. You know Michael when we look at photos of him.

*You've finally taken more of an interest in books. You like us to read to you, but mostly you like to look through them (either with us or by yourself) and point out things that you recognize. You yell the words over and over until we acknowledge you. Sometimes it's hard to understand what you're saying if we're not looking at the book too (like if we're driving in the car), so it's almost like a guessing game for us to try to figure out what you mean. You're so pleased with yourself when we finally do. :)

A gnat kept flying around your face and it was making you really sad.

Today when we were taking photos, Diesel got tied to the stroller. Poor guy. 

I love this age you're at, even if it's the most challenging you've been for us so far. We love you, sweet boy!

Testing...

I got a new camera on Monday...I was long overdue since I've been using the same camera for 5 years and have taken tens of thousands of photos on it. I'm loving it! After the battery was charged, I took a couple test shots on the subjects I had handy...Diesel and Sutton. Nothing amazing, but here are the first EVER photos taken on my new baby!

Sidewalk Paint

I'd seen this pop up several times on Pinterest, and I'm always trying to find fun things for Sutton and I to do, so I finally decided to try mixing up some sidewalk paint, and it was a success! Here's the recipe for anyone who wants to try:

Sidewalk Paint
2 T cornstarch
4 T water
6-8 drops food coloring (I used the gel kind and just put a good squirt in there)

It's that easy! I will say that when we started painting, I was disappointed with how transparent/watery looking it was, but as soon as it started drying, that was a moot point. Pretty opaque. But you gotta keep stirring it as you go to keep it all mixed up. I took a few photos on my phone, as I didn't want my nice camera to get splattered with paint. That was a good call since Sutton ended up going straight into the bath when we were finished, and my clothes had a few, ahem, colorful additions that weren't there when we started. :)

As a not-quite-2-year-old, he soon was bored of the painting (I probably liked it more that he did), and he got up and started dancing and trying to get me to give him piggy back rides. I tried for a cute photo...no such luck.

And of course, I instagrammed about our fun, so here's that photo.

Laughing with Daddy

Another video, but it's a good one. Sutton and Adam were hiding from each other and chasing each other yesterday when Adam got home from work. It was super cute.

And a couple cute things Sutton said this morning that I want to remember (I can't believe he's old enough to have manners!):

*I told him we needed to put a band-aid on his owwie, so he lifted up his pant leg and stuck out his leg. I put the band-aid on and asked for a kiss. He pulled his pacifier out, gave me a kiss, and said "Thank you, Mommy."

*We went in his room to change his diaper and clothes. I went to the closet to pick out clothes, and he went and got a diaper out of the box, brought it to me and said "There you go, Mommy. There you go."

He's a real little guy I can have conversations with now! It's crazy to think back to all those months (not that long ago) when I just wanted him to talk, to say "Mama" or "Puppy"...now he's so smart and talks all the time!

So Sleepy...

Usually Sutton babbles and laughs in the jumper while I take a shower. This particular day, I noticed it was a little too quiet and when I got out, this was why. Poor baby was so sleepy. He went straight down for his afternoon nap.

Colorado Visitors and a Graduation

This weekend was pretty busy and pretty awesome. My brother Michael and his wife Sara came into town from Colorado for my cousin Rachel's high school graduation. Friday evening, my parents had a deck party/BBQ as a "Welcome to the Family" for Cooper, and it was great to hang out with the fam. My crazy husband was busy staying up the entire night at a lock-in with some of his students, so he wasn't able to to be there. But we still had a great time.

Below is Cooper, the guest of honor. He's really hard to photograph. Wouldn't give me the time of day when I was trying to get his attention, and the one time I was able to get him to look my way for a split second, he blinked. Ah, well. He was being protective of the sow's ear my dad had given him to chew on.

He's mostly a German Shepard with short legs, haha. But really, he's a Welsh Corgi...the only kind of dogs my parents have ever owned!

My Grandpa Rollie has this little German rhyme he does along with a little tickle on your hand. He always did it to us as kids, and now Sutton LOVES it. He always squeals at the end and says "Again!"

My grandparents on both sides love Sutton so much, and I don't take him to see them nearly as often as I should. One of my regrets with my job keeping me so busy in the evenings. But he's the only great-grandchild on both sides, and I feel like he's so loved! Here he is with his Great-Grandma 'Netta.

Michael and Sara. They're so cute together.

Sutton wasn't too sure about Uncle Michael. Although in the end, he always gave him hugs when we were leaving, so I think he loves him deep down. :)

Michael's really just like a little kid, so Sutton's probably just confused, haha!

My other grandparents. Grandma Norma and Grandpa Melvin with Sutton. He was doing so great taking photos with everyone.

Grandpa Rollie was doing the hand thing again...

Sutton got lots of attention from all his grandmas. It's still so weird that my mom is a grandma. She loves Sutton so much and is so great with him. I'm excited for when he's a little older and will spend the night at Grandpa and Grandma's like I remember doing when I was a kid. Funny story...my Grandma Netta (in the red coat) only had sons. So when I came along, the first girl in two generations, she didn't know how to do my hair in the mornings when I would stay with her! It always ended in lop-sided ponytails.

Grandma Norma had a sugar bowl in her kitchen that she just couldn't keep Michael away from. He'd sneak up on the table, and just eat plain sugar by the spoonful. Gross!

Here's another attempt at a Cooper photo. Blurry, of course.

We told Sutton to sit on this rock in my parents' garden a few weeks ago, and now every time we go over there, he has to find that rock and sit on it.

We had burgers and salad and fruit pizzas for dinner, and then Sutton got a bath and got in his jammies before we headed home. The next day, we weren't able to go to Rachel's actual graduation due to Sutton needing a nap, but we went out to their house for her grad party afterwards. Sutton sweet-talked Grandma Nancy into sharing her ice cream.

He really likes butterflies...every time he sees a moth in our house (which is a lot lately), he gets all excited and says "Butterfly!" about a million times. Just in case we didn't hear him. So when he saw them on great-grandma's jacket, he had to point them out.

Then we took him outside where he chased their farm cats into an old barn and they somehow snuck away. I think he'd like a cat. Not happening. :) We took a few photos with the happy graduate before we left. Rachel is an awesome artist...she's talented in painting and drawing as well as photography. Apparently it runs in our blood. :) She's headed to Friends University next year to study art.

It was really cool to be at her party and to meet some of her friends and get a little glimpse into her fun life. Ah, to be 18 again.

Had to take a few photos of Sutton's favorite cats.

We headed over to my parents house again that evening to spend some more time with Michael and Sara before they left to go back to Colorado Sunday morning. We're excited to take a little trip to see them this July, and then hopefully they'll come back here for Christmas!