Ren {23 Months}

Ren, you are 23 months old! There will only be one more post like this and then we're done with monthly updates. Crazy.

I took some photos of you in our living room right before bed tonight because you were in a good mood, a cute outfit, and this won't be our living room much longer (that's right! We're moving! More on that at another time...)

This is one (of many) ornery faces.

 At 23 months:

*You are ridiculously cute. Like, I know I'm biased as every mom is, but I get comments from strangers all the time. And people we know. So I thoroughly believe you are abnormally cute. Moving on.

*I feel like you have really started communicating more this month. You've started repeating and mimicking what we say. You love to imitate laughing and coughing. Even if it's strangers when we're out in public.

*Your most commonly used words are "UH huh" for yes and "no." You also say momma, dada, eat, snack, drink, donut, nap, bye bye, hello ("hewwow"), squeezie, oh no, home, and cars. You've really been able to show us that you understand what we say because we can ask you things and you'll respond accordingly. This morning, we had a WHOLE conversation after you woke up. It went like this:

Ren: "Eat?"

Me: "You want to eat breakfast?"

Ren: "UH huh!"

Me: "Well Papa is bringing donuts in a little bit, can you wait so you can eat a donut?"

Ren: "UH huh!!!"

It's just very exciting to be able to communicate with you and know that you are understanding finally.

Discovered my lens cap.

*I don't know how much you weigh or how tall you are (I'm just gonna wait til your 2 year check up next month to find those out), but you wear size 4 diapers still, and mostly 18 month clothes. I've started putting you in some 24 month stuff, which fits for the most part, and some 2T stuff, which is still too big.

*We just got back from a trip to Colorado, and while we were there, you slept in and only took one nap per day. But then today, which was our first day back at home, you fell asleep in the car in the morning for about 20 minutes, and then took a 3.5 hour nap that I had to wake you up from. You go to bed at 8pm.

*You've been waking up in the 5am hour and that has been hard on me. I've had to take some naps when you nap which I don't want to do because then I'm not productive! I feel that if we could get you down to just one nap you would sleep in better. But with Sutton's school schedule, it's hard to figure out how to accomplish that (we have to leave to take him to school right when the ideal time for ONE nap would be).

The lighting in our living room is terrible, but oh well. The new house will have lots of natural light in the living room!

*You love your big brother so much. Like SO much. You are constantly watching him and doing what he does. He loves you so much too, and is so good with you. He's always watching out for you and taking care of you. This morning I took you to the Y by yourself since Sutton is out of town with Daddy, and you cried when I dropped you off at KidsZone, which you NEVER do when Sutton is there. You two just run in together, happy as can be. But today there was crying and clinging because you didn't have your big bro.

*You like to brush your teeth but you mostly just suck the toothpaste off and are done then. Sometimes you wiggle it around a little. You hate it when I brush your teeth, so who knows how clean they actually get.

*You have a few little attitude-y quirks. When you're feeling ornery, sometimes you look at us out of the side of your eyes and smile. You also cock your head sideways sometimes just to be weird. If you're proud of something you did, you stick your hip out and walk with it cocked out.

*You love taking your shoes (and socks) off in the car. It's pretty annoying to have to put your shoes on every time I get you out of the car.

*You love putting on your hat and jacket to leave the house. You go to the closet where we keep the hats, find yours, and put it on. When you get to pick your jacket, you always pick your Thomas the Train one. And you like putting on shoes. I think you like all these things because it means we're leaving to go somewhere (and who knows? where we're going could be fun).

*You have what we have started calling spaz mode. You will suddenly get in this weird mood and start spinning in circles, yelling in your baby babble happily, or laugh uncontrollably and evilly. I think it mostly happens when you're tired or slap happy.

*You love to dance. You hear music and you dance. So cute.

*You love reading books. Your favorites right now are Pete the Cat and his New Shoes, Pouch, and Boats & Ships.

*You also love watching shows, though, depending on what show it is and what mood you're in, sometimes your attention doesn't last long.  Favorite shows as of late are Daniel Tiger, Little Einsteins, Julius Jr., Chuggington, and you're kiiiiind of getting into Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

*Our daily routine is this: you get up early (5-6am usually) and I come get you and carry you and your blankie to the couch or my bed. You eat a squeezie (baby food in a pouch) while watching a show. Around 7 or so, we head to the kitchen for breakfast. You usually eat oatmeal mixed with baby food. After breakfast, you play while I get ready to go to the Y and get Sutton up. We go to the Y and when we get back around 9:30, you take your morning nap. I work and Sutton reads and watches shows. I wake you up around 11 and we eat lunch before leaving at 11:50 for carpool to Sutton's school. After we drop him off, we run errands some days; other days we head straight home and play; on nice days I take you to the park or zoo; and on other days I have a shoot in my studio around this time so we have Grandma or a babysitter come watch you. You take your second nap around 2pm and get up between 3:30 and 4:30. Daddy and Sutton come home and we hang out and play before dinner. After dinner sometimes we have a bath. Just before bed we give you a squeezie.

*Your bedtime routine: change your diaper and clothes, read a couple of books, you turn out the light, we rock rock in the dark and I sing to you, then you point to your bed and I lay you down and you usually go down happily.

*Your love language is most likely physical touch. You love to climb on us and sit on us if we're on the floor (what was happening in the above photo). You love to hug and give kisses. (Last week, you were in the middle of playing when you came over to me, said "Kih" {kiss}, gave me a kiss, and went back to playing.) You lay your head on our shoulder when we hold you. You always want to be held.

*We've started holding hands in the car. Sometimes you're sad and I ask if you want to hold hands. You say "Uh huh." So I reach back. Sometimes you hold hands with Sutton back there. Melt my heart.

 

 He was very concerned that my lens cap wasn't on my camera and kept coming at me, trying to put it on.

 I was laying in this exact spot on the floor, then I got up to let Diesel out. When I came back, he decided he needed to lay where I had been.

*You are a whole different ball game than Sutton ever was about being a daredevil and about getting into things.

*You love to be given a purpose. So if I tell you to do something like throw something away, put something down the laundry shoot, take your shoes to your room, etc....you are all over it.

I was telling him to look at me and smile, but he wouldn't. In the photo below, he was looking out of the side of his eyes and saying "cheeeeeeeese."

*You've been eating better lately. Knock on wood. You will usually try everything we put in front of you and eat several bites. Your absolute favorite is still your squeezies. But you also love strawberry cereal, hummus, pretzels, and crackers. Anything sweet is a favorite, so cookies, juice, ice cream, etc. will be devoured.

*You still sit in your high chair at home, but I've had you sit in a regular chair a couple times lately when we've been at restaurants.

*You do the sign for "more" and you say it about EVERYTHING. If you want more food, more drink, more semis to pass us on the road, more lights on, more tickles, more books, more silly noises, more anything. We hear "moe?" a million times a day. But it's still cute.

You are my little buddy and I love you so much! I love your personality and your craziness. I love your cute face and I love the relationship you have with your brother. I love having two little boys and I love that I get to (mostly) stay home with you every day! You are amazing and I can't believe you're going to be 2!!

Christmas 2015

We did things a little differently this year...I didn't take any photos on my nice camera! It was actually pretty amazing to not feel like I needed to capture everything. I was able to just be in the moment and enjoy. Adam got a really nice Fuji this year and has been awesome about bringing it along to big events and being in charge of photos. I wanted to start the post out with this photo of our family on Christmas.



Now for actually starting at the beginning. :) Christmas Eve was relatively warm, so we went to the park so Daddy could test out a plane and the boys could play.



On the drive home, Daddy asked Ren to keep an eye on his transmitter case, and Ren never let go of it.:)



That evening we went to my parents' church for their Christmas Eve service. While we were getting ready, Ren found his stocking hat and put it on and walked around like a little elf for about 20 minutes.

We thought we should take a family photo at church while we all looked nice. I love this of us even though Ren is showing a little skin. :)

After church, we went to my parents' house for our traditional celebration with them. My brother and his family weren't able to make it this year from Colorado due to sickness, so it was just us and my parents. We had a good supper of ham, mashed potatoes, veggies, bean dip, chocolate chip cookies, and some other goodies. Then it was time for presents. Sutton had been waiting a long time for this part. He got a foos ball table that Daddy assembled so he could play a little.

We also played some ping pong on their new ping pong table and tried to teach Sutton to play (to no avail). Ren got hit with the paddles a couple times, poor thing. Ren got a fun barn that plays songs and has a silo that he loved. It's probably his favorite present that he got this year. He also insisted on trying on the socks I'd gotten my mom, and he wore them with no pants for awhile so it looked like he was in little baby leg warmers. He was tired out and it was after his bedtime when we left, so he quickly fell asleep on the way home.

When we got home, Ren had a second wind so we opened our stockings. Then Sutton and Daddy slept by the Christmas tree like they've started doing each year. Diesel was in the photo, but refused to stay there long, so he slept in bed with me.

In the morning, Ren slept til 5:50am, at which point I went into his room and told him it wasn't time to get up yet. He gave us another hour or so, and then we went out and woke up Daddy and Sutton. We made cinnamon rolls and orange rolls for breakfast and then it was time for presents. This year, Daddy and I had a hard time not buying Sutton EVERYTHING. He had the hugest pile of presents.

Ren is so hard to buy for because he just doesn't care about anything that much. He was still happy and excited though.

Sutton got a lot of Star Wars things. A towel, legos, a calendar, an x-wing, a darth vader gum ball machine, a remote control speeder, a notebook, some stickers. Star Wars was definitely the theme of his presents. Ren got a fun beanbag chair, a lion that roars, some wooden tools, a toy camera, and Sutton's old Lightning McQueen 4-wheeler.

Sutton got me some Jamberrys and some green earrings. This is when I was hugging him for my presents. :)

Ren understood the idea of ripping wrapping paper for the most part, but he still needed some help.

The downside of not being the one with the camera is that I get photos taken OF me instead of BY me. ;)

This was my I Carry Your Heart photo this week.

For lunch, my parents came over and then we all went to the Chinese buffet. It was so good.





When we got home, we took the 4-wheelers out. Sutton had gotten his current one on his birthday.

After Ren's nap, we went over to Adam's parents house for dinner and presents.

Baby Amos fell asleep on his Daddy's shoulder during dinner. So sweet.

We opened presents and took a few family photos. The nice one:



And the one that everyone likes better:

The grandkids (that were there...I think we're up to 15 total on this side).



Ren was enthralled by some water speakers someone got.



The babies lost their jammies because it was hot so we had to take a photo of the naked babies together.

The Daddys all took the babies so Bailey, me, Jessica, and Shay could go to the theater to see the movie Sisters. So much fun but we didn't get home til after midnight.

On the 26th, we went over to my grandparents house for supper and to visit. The boys both got in the toy tin my Grandma has.

                        

My other Grandma and my Uncle, Aunt, and two of my cousins were there too.

On the 27th, Daddy went with some of his family to see Star Wars again, and Jessica and I took Sutton and Breegan to the Palace Theater to see the Peanuts movie.

A couple random photos: on the 23rd, we did a Polar Express for all the cousins. Chili and cornbread for dinner, then they snuggled up in their PJs to watch the Polar Express movie. 

And yesterday I found Adam and Sutton watching TV like this:

Lastly...Adam in all his creativeness has devised a way to make a sort of 'moving time lapse' video. So he videoed our main celebrations and made this awesome video!

An Adventure {and Ren at 22 Months}

This morning, we went on an adventure at the campground we usually camp at for Thankscamping. Adam had a little cleaning up to do from Thanksgiving, and the boys will never pass up an opportunity to explore the great outdoors. We climbed, hiked, found sticks, found animal tracks, and got muddy. We even did the labyrinth (Sutton did it twice!). I decided to take some photos and turn this into Ren's 22 month post since today is his month birthday (2 months from 2 years old, how can it be?).

Ren, at 22 months:

*You have become QUITE the handful. No one else believes me, because you are so cute and sweet to everyone but ME. I guess in your defense, you can be cute and sweet to me too, but I'm around you more than anyone so I get to see the other side too. It's cliche to say, but I can't take my eyes off you for a second. One incident that comes to mind is this week, I got out of the shower (like a 5 minute long shower) and found you sitting on top of the dining room table, eating leftover bread crust from lunch.

*You copy everything Sutton does. You make the same noises. You have to go everywhere he goes. You even fall over when he falls over. You love him so much. You even climbed all the way up this hill to where Sutton is by yourself:

*You are SO independent and opinionated. You don't want us to feed you, you will turn your head away if we try.  You get mad if we try to give you a green squeezie (veggies) instead of red (fruit). You often inSIST that I hold you at all times, which means I can get nothing done. Usually it's at the most inopportune time (like when we are trying to get out of the house to go somewhere).

*You are funny. You like to make burping and tooting noise, and you have a ridiculous fake laugh. You also say "cheese" when I point a camera at you, which I don't remember teaching you.

*You love coffee, Christmas lights, birds in flying in the sky, snow, hot cocoa, crackers, music, dancing, and having raspberries blown on your belly. These are all things you have signed the word "more" for lately.

*You use the sign for "more" constantly. When you want more food, when you want to see something again, when you saw snow for one of the first times this week and then it went away.

One of my favorite photos from our time today:

*You have started trying to say more words. You will try to say anything we ask, but you've started using words more instead of whining lately. You will say "more" while you sign it. You can say "uh huh" the positive and "uh uh" the negative. You recently started saying "no." You say momma, dada, Sutton, please, cheese, and oh no. You have started getting really good at saying "thank you" when we give you things or do things for you, but it kinda sounds like "you're welcome" so.... I don't know.

*You wear size 18-24 clothes and size 4 diapers.

*You're still holding onto 2 naps a day. The 1 nap thing just doesn't fly. Sometimes I have to work a bit to get you down for the second one. But if I try to skip the morning one, you are done with life by 11am.

*You love being outside and playing with dirt, sticks, rocks, water. You love swinging.

*You don't eat anything still. You like dips, so you will eat ketchup and peanut butter and Ranch. You ate a whole bowl of oatmeal this morning which was exciting. You love squeezies still and crackers (sometimes). We found out that you like dehydrated strawberries that come in strawberry cereal. You rarely drink white milk anymore because if you see that I don't put any chocolate in it, you yell "CA-COW, CA-COW" which is how you say chocolate.

*You will sometimes ask for bed. Like I change you, and go to rock you and instead you point to your bed and say "beh." Sometimes you go right to sleep and other times you mess around...stand up, sit down, play with the window, play with the monitor.

*You LOVE to feed Diesel and yell at me if I do it without you. Your rate of getting all his food in his bowl is about 15%. :)

*Your favorite shows are Thomas the Train and Daniel Tiger. We haven't watched as much TV lately (which is a good thing!) because we have been so busy.

*You love to scare us by coming around a corner and saying "Boo!" So cute.

*You've started saying "it coe" for "it's cold." And you'll say brrr, cool, whoa, and wow.

*You have this trick of climbing up onto the ottoman under my desk while I'm working. From there, you can squeeze onto my lap. So sneaky.

My brain is fried and we've got a lot going on, so I will end things here. Enjoy the rest of the photos!