Boyd - 21.5 months

It's pretty amazing to see how far Boyd has come since a year ago. I'm just in awe of how much hair has grown since last December! Here are my posts from this time last year. 

• Through numerous books, Boyd has discovered that walrus have whiskers. He feels his face to see if he has whiskers (no), then mama's face (I hope not!) and then he says "Dada!" and I say "yes! dada has whiskers!"
• Sometimes Boyd will hang out in our bedroom while we take get ready. For the last month, I've caught him with a white washcloth on his head after I step out of the shower. I finally figured out that he's been imitating me with the white towel wrapped around my hair.
• Quite a bit of jibber jabber coming out of his mouth. I feel like he may be regressing with his speech a bit though. We'll ask him to repeat something and many times he'll say "yeah" instead of the word. As in, "can you say toothbrush, Boyd?" and he'll respond with "yeah."
• In gymnastics, Boyd has been trying to (hilariously) jump - which basically consists of him bouncing on his feet and sometimes lifting one foot in the air. My mom attended class with us on Monday and he actually participated in parachute time, which is great because the parachute is one of my favorite parts of class!
• This kid gets the biggest belly after meal time - HUGE! We're talking major pot belly. 
• Lately we have reading the same books over and over (toddlers love repetition apparently) while tucked in to the glider with Boyd's favorite blankets. We get "cozy" (ze-ze) and relaxed while snuggling with "Mama Do You Love Me?" and "Where the Wild Things Are." Then he goes into his crib - surrounded by the owl and ladybug pillows, cow and lamb lovies, and covered with his warm blanket.
• Boyd begs to be lifted onto the bathroom counters so that he is able to rifle through the medicine cabinet and flip on the hot/cold water taps. All he wants to do is wash his hands. Over and over and over. He'll lead us over to the sink and rub his hands together with glee. Which is super cute until we pull him away from the sink and a full scale tantrum erupts.
• "Applies" lotion and cream to his face
• Last month he was under the weather with a nasty cold and we discovered that he loves taking liquid Tylenol. He BEGGED for it before bed. 
• I have never seen a more adorable expression than when Boyd's face lights up after we give him something he really wants.

At an event a few weeks ago for members of the construction industry and their families. They offered food, games and prizes. Boyd will love it next year!

Boyd went down for a nap one day and was coming up on 2.5 hours asleep. He rarely sleeps that long and almost always wakes on his own. I went in to get him and found him still passed out and posed like this.

Cruising around Home Depot.

This pose and smile of his is giving off a politician / news anchor vibe.

Selfie. He is surprisingly good at manipulating my phone.

Looks like Superman forgot to ditch the glasses during his costume quick change.

Shoveling Grandma Ann's driveway.

"He did it!"

MUSH, puppy!

He had a huge happy smile on his face throughout the duration of our walk. He was loving this sled ride!

Drift was a good sport as D pretty much buried him under the soft, fluffy snow.

"Helping" daddy make dinner.

Our dog and cat are the sweetest, most patient pets to ever live. They endure kisses, hugs, pats, squeezes, tumbles, costumes and everything else that Boyd heaps upon them. And not once have they ever bit or hissed or barked at him. Here is Boyd applying a cupcake liner to Little Dude's head - it stayed there for at least 5 minutes.

Planking!

Sideways hand washing.

Thanksgiving! It was delicious.

Again, a great example of the extreme patience of our pets.

Another selfie. Why do kids love taking photos like this?

"Cooking."

At least we know he's good at stacking.

At gymnastics class.

Wednesday update

D's company Christmas party was actually pretty enjoyable. You never know with these events, right? I got all dolled up and realized that I still look pretty snazzy (when I have time to actually get ready, put makeup on and curl my hair!) The drive out wasn't too bad and we arrived in time for cocktail hour. Our table was pretty lively and I had some good conversations with the ladies once the guys wandered off. And we won 2 prizes! D came home with a fishing reel and I managed to snag a pair of camo gloves and hunting fanny pack. They're both currently in D's capable hands - I'm sure he can figure out something to do with them. :-)

A couple sleep blips with the baby this week. Getting a little harder to get him down, and last night I was up with him until 11 p.m. People with kids who love to sleep: you have no idea how lucky you are!

It started snowing yesterday and has continued all day today. Yay for the white stuff! We also have warmer temperatures which is a nice change from -10 degrees. 

Happy Thanksgiving, all! We're headed to my mom's to celebrate with her and Risha (Gabe is on the slope). We are responsible for the turkey and stuffing (which I'm making from scratch - first time!)

And here is how I found my son after pulling into the garage yesterday. Daddy parked him in the bed of the truck in order to get some work done and he was happy as a clam!

The Ice(storm) Cometh

Contrary to the title of this post, the ice has already cometh and caused numerous accidents around town, shutting down portions of major roadways. This is the true freezing rain - wet as it comes down from the sky and turning almost instantly into ice. My car was covered in frozen raindrops when we arrived at my mom's house.

What a day it has been already. D and I woke at 3:30 a.m. to hear Boyd fussing in his room. At this point we can usually tell if he'll fall back asleep. When the baby monitor shows him standing up and yelling "BUH" ("up" in Boyd-speak) then it's bye-bye sleepy time for the adults. I sat with him for a bit and then we tried laying down in our master bed while D got up for the day. I was SO CLOSE to getting Boyd asleep but he resisted. So after trying his room again and getting a snack, he finally drifted off around 6:30. That's 3 hours of super fun awake baby time.

We ran a bit late this morning and after I let Drift outside, Boyd and I hopped in the car and pulled out of the garage. Then what do I see out of the corner of my eye? A yellow dog that looked exactly like Drift, just roaming around the front yard! The side gate was open and our poor blind dog just walked right through. So glad he picked that moment to do it, or else it would have been a frantic search after work.

At least it's Friday. If the roads aren't too slick, D and I will attend his company Christmas party on Saturday out in Wasilla. It's a 45-minute drive so I don't want to chance it if the weather is awful.

Happy weekend everybody!

Water play

Boyd is certainly living up to his water dragon astrological sign.

Boyd - 21 months

Here we are, just 3 months shy of Boyd's 2-year birthday! I already have most of his Christmas presents purchased, which isn't much to be honest. He's so little and doesn't care about presents, so we're going to take advantage of that and not go crazy with gifts! Plenty of time for that later.

After a long stretch of no snow, we were rewarded with 7 inches overnight during the weekend. Time to get out and play.

• The verbal update: saying snow "-nooooo", dark "daaaa", love you "ya yu", thank you (these last two only happen when prompted).
• If Boyd and I arrive home before D, I'll direct Boyd to "feed the puppy." He'll go to the pantry, pull Drift's hard hat out and remove the cover to the dog food. After a while the helmet will finally get filled and he carries it over to the dining room, where I let Drift in for dinner. Then we bring the hard hat back to the pantry where the cover goes back on the bucket.
• Loves to say "mama" and "dada" in sequence, multiple times. Will also point to things and say whether it's a mom or dad item - like our rubber boots in the entry way.
• Right now he's obsessed with water play and pouring liquid from one container into another. That tends to keep him occupied for 5-10 minutes (which is an eternity in Boyd time!)
• Oh the toddler tantrums. He wants what he wants, when he wants it. Isn't it comical what kids go ballistic over? I wouldn't let him take the snack container into Grandma Ann's house the other morning and you would have thought I cut off his left arm or something.
• Went through a stage of refusing to put on a jacket and throwing a fit when a shirt went over his head. We're mostly over that. 
• Gymnastics has been really great for Boyd. He's still more observant rather than participatory in class, but he's definitely learning new gross motor skills and interacting with the other kiddos. More often than not, he'll break out a move from class at home and totally surprise us. When we play with the parachute in class, he's one of like 3 babies that totally hates going underneath - which is funny because the other kids love it so much. At the end of class this week he yelled out "BUBBLES" when the instructor started blowing them, and he's always so very patient when it is time for stamps. He sits in front of Miss Angel and waits his turn, even when the other kids push in front of him. Oh and D was able to attend this week's class with us because of the Veteran's Day holiday.
• My baby is need of a haircut, mostly in the back, since it currently looks like a redneck mullet. Business in the front, party in the back! 
• He likes to grab any phone (or phone equivalent) and say "haaaaa" for hi. We even caught him handing D's phone off to Drift, as if to say, "it's for you!"
• Still in the stage of saying "uh oh" if he catches anyone not wearing shoes or socks. Bare feet are apparently a cause for concern. 
• He has memorized many pages in the books we read - as in, he understands what is coming next. He still yells "pipe down" when we get to that page in "Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site."
• Mimics us quite a bit - like when D gives Drift insulin (Boyd will grab the scruff of the dog's neck), talking on the phone, petting the animals. 

Fun meetup at the Library with Risha and her littlest nanny charge.

This also keeps him busy quite a bit - plugging items into their charging cords.

New converse shoes!

New cooktop for the rental - D is interviewing prospective tenants this week.

Risha and I attended a local store's 2-year anniversary and received these scarves in a goodie bag. But they were SO TINY. Boyd figured out that they open up to go over your head - duh.

Cool shades.

Nordstrom lunch and shopping with Auntie Risha and Grandma Ann. Apparently Boyd found a friend.

Video: Trick or Treat Street 2013 - 20.5 months

Strolling down 4th Avenue on a sunny Saturday afternoon for Trick or Treat Street...look at his fox tail wag back and forth. Adorbs!

It was just a coincidence that I picked a fox costume for Boyd, but it's timely in a pop culture sort of way if you're familiar with this song & video that has been all over the internets:

Halloween 2013

Halloween is probably one of the best holidays to celebrate with kiddos! I've seen some amazing costumes for children - some parents go above and beyond. I've already started thinking about what we'll do next year. I think I'll even dress up too!

Last Saturday my mom and I hit up Trick or Treat Street downtown. It was our second year visiting this event and I love it. The organizers don't charge a dime and they have a ton of different activities for the whole family. Boyd walked on his own pretty much the whole way, although we weren't there for a very long time (his nap falls right in the middle of the event). He said "trick-or-treat" ("tree tree") and even held out his bucket.

I dressed Boyd in his Patagonia layers (long johns), an orange sweater, sweatpants and then his fox pants/jacket. He was so awesome about wearing his hat and keeping the fox hood on - we couldn't believe he didn't pull it off once!

This police car had a great Halloween setup: a skeleton handcuffed in the back!

Firefighters and firetruck parked on a side street.

It's weird to not see snow on the ground for this holiday, and for it to be raining as well. The last few years have thrown some crazy weather our way!

We had big plans to attend the Zoo Boo on Thursday, but unfortunately Boyd came down with a pretty nasty cold so we skipped it. Probably isn't a good idea to take a sick baby out in the rain and chill, right? So D and I took advantage of the early hour to zip on over to Moose's Tooth, our favorite handcrafted pizza/beer joint. It's always best to get there before 5:30 or else you end up waiting close to an hour to be seated.

Even being sick, Boyd was on his best behavior. And of course he had to wear his fox costume. He and Daddy worked on a crayon masterpiece as we waited for our pizza. I worked on drinking my hard apple ale. :-)

Afterward we headed home and handed out candy to trick-or-treaters. Our neighborhood doesn't see many kids, which is sort of a bummer. I think we had 3-4 groups? By the last group, Boyd finally got into dropping candy into the other kids' buckets. He was at the door with a little piece of candy, just waiting to give it away - I had to tell him no more kids were coming and felt so bad! He then started    unwrapping the chocolate and then would either wrap it back up or give it to me. I'm loving the fact that he's not crazy about candy yet.

Hope you all had a happy Halloween! Here is last year's post about Halloween for comparison's sake.

Cute little fox tail.

Video: Around and around - 20.25 months

Boyd turns into such a little ham when the camera comes out. He knows what's coming when my lowlight flash turns on:

Fall update

No official snow on the ground as of yet. We had a nice dusting on the second day of autumn, but nothing lately. Wet and windy for a couple of weeks (and unseasonably warm in the 50's) but now the temperature is hovering between a more normal 30-40 degrees.

I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to a new iPhone. I previously had the 4, so my white 5S is a whole three versions newer! So basically it's my first new phone in 3 years. Lots of fun things to play with: Siri, fingerprint scanning, better video and photo capability. However, the photo below is how I received my new iPhone. Apparently FedEx thinks THIS is the appropriate way to ship expensive electronics! I'm just shaking my head over here.

Fall means health fairs. Lots and lots of health fairs. On the weekends. Saturdays AND Sundays. Ugh. But just for a few minutes during each one, I steal upstairs and take in the breathtaking view from the 7th floor where my office is located. It's especially amazing on a clear day.

These particular fairs were for some of the entities that we are preferred providers for, so that meant my mom and D were both invited. And I got to see my baby on one of those mornings! He charmed everyone, as usual - well, when he wasn't fussy. He comes every year so it's neat to see my coworkers react to how much he has changed over time.

D and I are in the process of reorganizing the living room, mainly due to our TV upgrade. We're finally entering the 21st century with a flat panel television, ya'll! I sold our old bulky armoire on Craiglist (to the son of a friend - although I didn't realize it until he showed up) and then picked up a new lower-profile stand on Craigslist for $40. Unfortunately the new stand is too wide for the space, so I widened my search and found a skinnier cabinet at Target. This new setup is really workable now and gives us quite a bit of open space to hang out. I ended up selling the too-big stand for $40 (broke even!) and the old TV went for free. It was a very productive Monday! Now I need to get rid of our big stereo system that used to be in the living room and is now stashed in purgatory (aka my craft room).

Oh hey, what do you think of our new porch? I think it's pretty sweet - D has a really good design sense. This sort of reads mid-century modern to me. He replaced the rotted wood flooring and some of the supports with cedar boards, basically removing almost all of the existing porch. The stairs were already done - a project he worked on a couple years ago. It's hard to tell from this photo, but the roof supports come out at a slight angle to give a little more walking-around space. The panels are painted the same color as our house and give us a little privacy. Our existing roof doesn't quite overhang the whole porch, so D attached clear plastic roofing panels - which also works to let light through while still covering everything. We still need add stairway railing, extend the gutter all the way over, and decorate!

My mom, Boyd and I attended the Korean wedding of a boy I used to tutor during my breaks from college. Holy smokes, that makes me feel old! His wife is super pretty and they make a cute couple. I think my mom said she works at the Korean consulate office here in Anchorage and he is in the Army. Anyhoo, the wedding food was great - all Asian dishes. The cake was delicious! That's kimchi on the left of the cake (spicy fermented cabbage) and duk (rice cakes filled with sweet bean paste) on the right.

My mom has a little crab apple tree in her backyard so this fall we picked most of the apples, divided them up and made crisps and pies. They're tart so the apples make perfect fillings for pastries. YUM. We also end up with a bunch of apples left over from my work health fairs, so there's a lot of baking going on around here in the fall.

Boyd has been a part of two photo shoots so far. Risha and I are friendly with a gal who reports for one of the TV news stations here in town. She is also a photographer on the side and very sweetly agreed to take a few photos of Boyd a month ago. She's pretty busy, so we're still waiting on those pics. And we had a shoot at my workplace 2 weeks ago and needed some kiddos to be a part of the Pediatrics portion, so my mom brought Boyd - and Risha brought the 3 girls she now watches. She ended up finding a new job with a new family - the girls are 11, 8 and 2.

Rainbows pop up more often now. I've seen maybe one a month - that's a lot, right?