Ren {21 Months}

Ren, you are 21 months old today!! We're getting so close to 2!

We are using this photo because it's the only one I've taken of you today and because I think you look extra handsome in it. We didn't do a proper shoot because thinking about it stresses me out AND I have taken quite a few photos of you lately...see the past couple of posts. :) So without further ado. Ren, at 21 months:

*I realized we haven't really talked on here about all your nicknames! We call you all of the following: Ren, Renny, Renny-roo, Renny-roo-roo, Roo-roo, Renner, Renner Benner, Renner Benner what's for Dinner. Oh, and Baby. You respond to most of them. :)

*Thanks to Grandma Janet last night, we know that you're about 24 pounds.

*You're so skinny because you won't eat ANYTHING EVER EVER. Except your squeezies..which are healthy but expensive. I got you to eat oatmeal for breakfast the past two mornings and ravioli with peas for lunch the past two days, which is like a HUGE success. Way better than peanut butter and ketchup, which is what you normally eat. (You think I'm kidding...)

*You're in size 4 diapers, size 7 shoes, and size 18 month clothes. I bought you some 2T sweats but they're too big. Because you're so skinny. You have a couple of 2T shirts you wear.

*You LOVE Daddy, Sutton, and Grandma. You're starting to come back around to me. I think you see me so often that you just don't get as excited about me as you do the other people. Whatevs.

(I just noticed that I'm doing this as if addressed to you while I've been doing the last several addressed to the masses. Oh well.)

*You love to hold hands or hold my arm while we're watching TV together. Swoon.

*You love playing outside and jumping in leaf piles. You love swinging, running, and going on walks.

*We switched your carseat to forward facing this month. We did it because a friend who is 3 rode in your carseat and then we just never switched it back, but you like it better.

*Every day when we drop Sutton at school, we have to stop at the drinking fountain on the way out. You rarely get a drink, you just like to try to press the button and watch the water. You say "WA WA" on the way in and I always tell you that you have to wait until after we get to Sutton's class. Then when we're done, you say "buh buh wa wa" (bye bye water) and wave.

*You get up around 6-6:30. Sometimes early (like today, boooooo), sometimes late. You nap around 9:30a-11a. And then again 2p-3:30 or 4p. You go to bed at 8pm.

*You love baths. And at bedtime, you've started requesting that stories be read before we turn off the lights to rock and sing. Sometimes you don't even want to rock and sing, you just want to go right to bed.

*Your favorite books are My First Nativity Book, Goodnight Thomas, The Best Mouse Cookie, and your First Words book.

*You like to try to put on your own shoes. You are all about putting on your shoes and jacket because you know that means we're going somewhere.

*You have this face you do where you wrinkle your nose and let your mouth hang open which means your top gap teeth stick out. It's endearing.

*You love to wrestle with Sutton. You love to do anything he does. If you two are playing together, you like to copy whatever he is doing.

*You finally say Momma!!!! You still sometimes default to calling me dada, but usually if I correct you, you'll say Momma instead. So exciting.

*You have started babbling even more. You have a lot of the same words as last month that we can understand but I believe you THINK you're saying a lot more.

*You like to help. You throw things away, clean up spills with a towel (without us asking), put diapers in the diaper pail. You tried to lift Diesel onto the couch yesterday when he wanted up.

*You are very observant. Of course I can't think of any examples right now other than yesterday, you put your toy phone in the phone holder on Daddy's quadcopter transmitter.

I dressed you and Sutton in matching shirts yesterday and had to take a photo. I like this because it also shows your size relative to your brother at 21 months!

Thankful

I felt in the mood to make a post about things I am thankful for. Perfect timing in light of Thanksgiving next week! I'll also include some photos of the boys playing together just to make things more interesting.

1. My sweet little family :: All four of us have been hit with some sort of stomach bug in the past week, but I'm so glad that for the most part we are healthy.

2. Healthy food :: I have recently made a big change and am already feeling so much better!

3. Exercise :: I have been exercising regularly since the beginning of school and am feeling better and faster in that realm too.

4. Our house :: We put up our Christmas tree last week which mean we rearranged some furniture and I just love our home, especially at Christmas time when it's decorated. Adam made this video time lapse that I think turned out so cool. I didn't know he was videoing until he put it on the train for that part!

5. My job :: It was crazy for a few months due to the fall photo season, but now that things are slowing down a bit and I'm getting a normal amount of sleep, I can look back and know that while it's hard when I'm in the midst of it, it's a way to provide for my family while staying home with my boys during the day.

6. Teachers :: I am glad for Sutton's teacher as well as all the teachers out there. The older Sutton gets, the more frustrated I can get when I try to teach him something. So I'm glad it's not my job! :)

7. Learning :: Sutton has been learning so much lately. I feel like he is SO CLOSE to starting to read. He knows all the sounds that letters make (Thanks, Ms. Sharon!) but he can't quite connect the sounds into making a word. But he has grown so much this year with both reading and math, and I'm so excited for him.

8. Friends :: My friends, Sutton's friends (hopefully Ren and Adam will make some friends one day ;)). Friends are a blessing.

9. Family :: We are very grateful to live close to both of our families and are lucky that they can help us with the kiddos sometimes. Especially last week when I was sick and Adam couldn't miss work. His parents came over and kept the kids alive so I could rest.

10. Adam :: In effort to end this without spending the whole day on it, I will give kudos to my rock and best friend. He's the best. Can't imagine life without him...likely because he's been in my life for nearly half of it (and I'm still not tired of him!).

Photos...here's Sutton hanging out with Diesel and watching the iPad while I worked.

Ren loves to sneak into Sutton's room when the door is left open (which is rare). He steals the water bottles that collect in there.

Sutton discovered his little brother in his room and decided they should wrestle.

Ren escaped up the ladder.

Sutton joined him on the top bunk and they found Sutton's treasure jar filled with acorns and leaves. Very interesting stuff, people.

Ren was very excited to get to hold it.

Then it was time for some coloring. I like the way Sutton holds his mouth when he concentrates.

Playing in the Leaves

The crazy Kansas wind has helped us out by making a big leaf pile in a corner of our front yard. The boys love playing in it!

Totally not in focus, but he was so excited to come tackle me. :)

Halloween 2015

I love Halloween so much. I love how everyone in the neighborhood is out and about, I love the costumes, and I love how much fun it is for the kids.

Sutton had a parade and fall party at school on Thursday, which kicked off our Halloween festivities. Then on Friday, I took Ren to Adam's class's party so all the kids could see him in his costume. Sutton joined us there when his school was over, and he got some candy from the kids.

We'll kick off the post with a cute picture of the boys in their costumes. A ninja and a puppy dog this year. Both loved their costumes. Ren kept his on the whole night.



But let's rewind a little. I've been swamped with work, so there has been a lot of me working downstairs in my office and the boys playing in the same room. Yesterday afternoon while Ren and Adam were napping, Sutton was down there playing. Suddenly, it was really quiet. I looked over, and he was laying like this, completely asleep. He had had a pillow over his head that I moved, but yeah.





Little guy played himself to sleep!

He was all rested up and good to go for the night. We got in our costumes, had 50-cent corn dogs from Sonic, and took some photos on the front porch.

           

Sutton's costume originally had ninja stars that attached to the belt, but they were lost awhile ago.



Wanted to compare the boys from last year to this year. Ren is SO much bigger. I was very glad to not have to stop and find a place to nurse him during trick-or-treating this year. :)

Adam's parents came with us, as well as Adam's sister Jessica and her family. So we got a photo of the grandparents with the grandkids. Thanks to Adam for snagging this photo while I was inside helping Jessica with her makeup.



I am just a sucker for comparisons. Here's the last 3 years of me with my babies (Ren was in-utero and unnamed the first year).

 Jessica and I were both hippies without planning it! We realized later on that I was more of a flower child than a hippy, but whatev. I was just glad to have been able to do this costume without having to buy a single thing. And Jessica's was from a party she went to awhile ago. Score.

                 

Jessica's kids.

 Grabbed a pic with my Mario before we headed out.

Grandma pushing Ren. He stayed in the stroller for the most part, begging for candy.

He got out a couple of times, but didn't really know what to do with himself. We stopped at a nearby church's trunk-or-treat towards the beginning and got him out. He totally didn't understand the concept. We had him go to the first trunk, get a piece of candy, and then he brought it back...he wanted to get in the stroller and eat it. He thought he was done. So we had to show him that you put that candy away, and get more from the next trunk. He caught on and thought it was so cool and was pretty confident walking around the parking lot, weaving in between people to get to the next trunk.

Steve and Jessica brought along their new puppy dog Pretzel. She was pretty nervous about the whole thing, but I'm sure she was tired by the end of it!

                 

We let our puppy hold their puppy and neither was comfortable with the situation. :)

Me and my puppy. I just think this costume is the cutest!!!!

We realized as it was getting dark that we hadn't gotten a family pic, so we stood under a streetlight  and got one really quick.

And the Lindsey bunch.