just braggin' a little...

For your enjoyment today, just a few random photos of my boy...

I HAVE mentioned how hard it is to get a good sharp photo of him these days, right?  Yeah, I thought so.  We were just hanging out in the office/craft room listening to Daddy play his drum one night and I decided to get the camera out.   

 

I think I caught him mid-word here.  :)

 

Just had to share these -- his faces crack me up.  Especially when you look at them all together.  This was the exact order that we took them.  I think maybe in the first (top left) he was waiting for the flash?  I don't use flash if I can help it.  I most definitely didn't in these.  The bottom left is probably where I was trying to get him to smile so I told him to say "cheeeese".  It looks like he did.  :)

 

Y'all would not believe all that this kid can do at almost 2 years old.  This is probably the heart of every mama but I am SO proud of him.  :: heart bursting ::

 

I've always talked about him being a chatterbox and that hasn't changed -- it's just that now we can understand maybe 75% of what he says.  He's still got a little bit of that "japanese" he speaks going on, but he will attempt to say anything we ask him to.  And some things we DON'T ask him to, if you know what I mean.  :: raises eyebrow ::

 

He's close to knowing all his body parts and where they are.  He most definitely knows his first name and is just beginning to say his last name when we prompt him.  The way he says "Wenzel" is so cute.  :)  Well, that pretty much goes for anything he says, in my opinion.  He sings A LOT.  To himself, or with us.  I think his faves at this point are "Twinkle, Twinkle", the ABC song and he still likes "The Wheels on the Bus".  Jeff recently taught him "Jesus Loves the Little Children" and he likes that one, too.  He can finish parts of all the songs we sing together if we stop singing.  Such a smarty.  :)

 

He also knows who the best his fave baseball team is.  If you ask him who his fave baseball team is, he says "yyyyyyaaaaankeeeeees!!"  It's adorable how excited he gets.  We watch a lot of Yankees baseball in this house so he recognizes the Yankees logo and even the MLB logo, hello!  Jeff loves that!

 

He is especially into trains, specifically Thomas, right now.  He likes trucks and fire engines (which are referred to as buses, for some reason -- I guess they do look more like a bus than a truck...), and still loves to sit in your lap and look at books.  He's beginning to let us read to him more than just wanting to flip through the pages as fast as he can and move on.  He's still got that 10 sec attention span, but he will actually point out things on the pages to us, or answer questions that we ask about what's on the page.  I'm so glad he loves books.  :)

 

We FINALLY got him to say the number 1!  Right up until this week, probably, he would NOT say "one".  When we would ask him to say "one", he would skip right to 2.  Well, now he's started counting with 1...2...4...6...7...9...10.  We're missing some numbers, sure, but the important one at this point is 2 and he's had that one for AWHILE.

 

There are so many little things -- triumphs, sweet (as well as frustrating) moments, etc. that I haven't included in my general summary here of life with our toddler but we are enjoying every single moment, watching Deacon grow and change.  I just wanted to share a little of that with you.  :)

 

[22 months]

busy little chatterbox...

Turn up your volume -- you don't wanna miss this!

18 mos old...

SO.HARD.TO.BELIEVE. we have a child who is a year and a half old.

I took Deacon to his 18 month well-check last week and he did great, of course.  The doctor said he was right on track for doing, saying, eating everything an 18 month old should be doing, saying or eating.  He's such a busy-body that it was pretty difficult to hold a conversation with the doctor, but she's a mom, too, so I guess she understood that I WAS listening, even if my attention was on making sure my son didn't flip off the table.

So his stats at this point haven't changed much in the last 3 months:

Weight = 23 lbs, 11 oz (21%)

Height = 31 inches (21%)

He's progressing on his own chart exactly as he has been doing (no huge jumps or lags) so the doctor says he looks great.  And no shots this time, yay!  He'll get his next booster shot at his 2 year appt, and then nothing more for a couple years, I think.

His vocabulary has ramped up a little bit, though he still speaks lots of Japanese, if you ask me.  :)  He can now say/sign or sound the following:

eat (and he does the sign, too)
more (just the sign)
please (just the sign -- which looks a lot like "bath", too :)
ba (bath)
mama
da (daddy)
shh (shoe)
cah (car)
cruh (truck -- it's weird but he looks right at a truck when he says it)
chh-chh (choo-choo train)
chh (cheese)
night-night
nap
nack (snack)
hot (as in "the food is hot" or "the oven is hot")
up
no
uh-oh
whoa
yay
apple
nana (banana)
wa (water)
Deacon (oh, my word -- it is the cutest thing!)

7 months...

Seriously?  Over a month since I posted?  Ridiculous.  You can't just go an entire month without posting something on a baby blog -- too much happens in a month!

Yes, I know.

But things have been busy around here!  These days are just racing by me and before I know it, my child is 7 months old!

Well, now he's almost 8 months old, but let's just leave that for now.

We've had some busy weeks/weekends since I last posted.  The day after Mother's Day, Jeff left for a business trip in VA so it was just me and Deacon for a few days.  We did great but it gave me a whole new appreciation for moms who do it on their own -- whether they're single or their husbands are deployed or whatever the reason that they end up raising their child(ren) on their own.  It's tough.

[27 weeks]

At the beginning of May, Deacon popped his 3rd tooth out.  It's over to the left on the top -- kind of coming in at a weird angle but we'll see.  Not much more has happened with that one.  It's popped through but hasn't really progressed any further than that, that we can see.

[27.5 weeks]

We've tried some more solids here and there throughout the month -- he's just not into it.  We tried sweet potatoes and I really thought he would like those or at least not spit them out.  He did do better with those than the green beans and bananas, but still made faces and stuff.  Later we tried carrots and I guess they were a little less offensive but he's still not gobbling anything up.

Except cheese puffs.

Yes, we took Deacon to another birthday party the middle of May (one of his "brothers" that he stays with Mon-Wed had his 2nd birthday party at the park in Surf City) and Jeff decided to try giving him a taste of cheese puff.  No offense there!  We made sure he didn't bite anything off but he liked the taste of the cheese.  Well, who wouldn't??

[29 weeks]

We've been going to lots of Jeff's softball games.  Deacon loves to be outside so he usually enjoys the games.  And the girls that come out to cheer their men on enjoy seeing him.  :)  The boy doesn't get any attention at all, you know?  Totally ignored and unloved... :)

Right around 7 months, Deacon really started making more and more noises.  Different sounds like "blah" and "bah", long "a" sounds.  He's really becoming more vocal, to the point that we have to shush him sometimes if we're in a public place.  He can get pretty loud...where could he have gotten that from??  :)

Like I said, we've had lots going on so there are more posts to come on those happenings.  Check back soon!

[this cracks me up -- yoga, anyone?]

[7 mos]

4 months...

Truly, I don't intend to let a month get by before I post -- it just seems to take so much of my time to raise a child.  :)  So here we are at 4 months.  Whew.  We've had some exciting things happening the last month...

The biggest news was that Deacon's cousin, Bear Andersen McAfee, was born on February 2.  My brother & sister-in-law's 2nd child.  Cora Beth is now a big sister and a great one at that.  :)  Bear was born an entire month early (Brandi's due date was actually Mar 2) at 6 lbs 2 oz but he's done wonderfully with the exception of a recent case of RSV.  But he's on the upswing.  We got to meet little Bear a few weeks after he was born.  What a cutie!

[Deacon, 16.5 weeks, Bear, 3.5 weeks]

At the beginning of February, Deacon got his 2nd cold and this one was nastier than the first one he had at a month old.  He had some chest congestion and coughing with this one and oh, how I hated to hear my sweet boy coughing!  It took a good 3 weeks or so to get rid of that thing but not before me and Jeff caught it.  :(  We are all well now, though, praise the Lord! 

[14 weeks]

Also, at the beginning of February was the Super Bowl, of course.  Deacon's first Super Bowl.  He slept through the first half and was oblivious during the 2nd.  :)  He was pulling for the Steelers:

[14.5 weeks]

Deacon went to his first birthday party on February 12 (when we got the invitation in the mail, addressed to Deacon, I thought it was precious!) -- one of the sons of the lady who keeps Deacon, Brayden, was turning 3.  Deacon lasted for about an hour before I think all the commotion and noise got to him.  It was a fun time.

[Deacon w/Brayden & Bryceon, 15.5 weeks]

Deacon has really been changing and doing new things this past month.  It hurts this mommy's heart to know that he's growing up (so fast) but that is how it should be and it does excite me to see new things from him.  He's really been chewing on EVERYTHING.  If he can get it to his mouth, it's going in there.  And it's coming out with TONS of drool on it.  :)  We can't feel any tooth buds (and I'm praying it stays that way for a little longer) so we're not sure if he's teething or not.  Just chewing on everything.

[14.5 weeks]

And talking.  My LORD, this child has A LOT to say!  And it is so.stinkin.cute when he does!  I love to hear him making all kinds of noises.  Most of the time he's really happy when he's talking so he smiles a lot and kinda giggles a little bit.  He just recently started this high-pitched thing which I hope will not last too long.  It is cute and it's okay around the house, but it can get kinda loud.  I don't want to have a child that everyone is kinda like, "Oh, that's cute...okay, not so much anymore."  :)

[15 weeks]

Right around the 4 month mark, I took Deacon for his 4 month well-check at the pediatrician.  He got a couple more vaccines (one oral and one needle) and took them like a champ, just like in the past.  Such a brave little guy.  :)  He now weighs 13 lbs 13 oz and has grown almost 2 inches in the past 2 months.

Also around 4 months, we went for a walk as a family and put Deacon in the stroller without the carseat.  In the regular seat.  He sat like a big boy with no trouble.  I think he enjoyed looking around at everything. 

We also tried putting him in the "johnny jump-up" for the first time.  He's still kind of little for it, we have to prop him up in the front so he doesn't lean forward so much.  And he doesn't really know what to do in it yet, but it buys us a little bit of time, if you know what I mean.  :)

[4 mos]

I gotta tell you, Daddy is the one that put him in the jump-up and in the stroller like that.  Mommy would've put him in the carseat to take him on a walk in the stroller.  Jeff is so good about trying new things with him.  I think I just want to keep him little for as long as possible -- he's reaching new milestones entirely too fast for me.

[4 mos]