Tucker - 11 Months

Tucker Dean,

You turned 11 months old! This past month Mommy slacked though. Even though I have taken notes like usual throughout the month, I did not take your 11 month picture...or type this up when you actually turned 11 months. To be honest, your birthday is next week....I know, I know, Mommy is a slacker this month. However, I can tell you of all the changes that DID happen over the motnh!

-You absolutely love Roosevelt now. You two are best friends. He even likes to sit on you :) We are still trying to teach him not to bite though. You also love dog toys more than baby toys. Roosevelt has this giant orange pacifier dog toy and that one is by far your favorite. Apparently we just needed to get you a puppy binky instead of a human binky :)

-Speaking of toys, to be honest, you really don't have many baby toys. You mostly play with Trenton's cars and toys more than you play with the little amount of baby toys we do have.

-Also, I have no idea what I'm going to get you for your birthday...! Second child problems....sorry kid. Look at this way, your (future) younger siblings will still have it worse than you.

-You learned how to crawl on your knees this month!! Trenton loves crawling with you and teaching you things while crawling

-You finally started to pull yourself up a lot more too! Not really cruising, but it's getting easier to pull up on furniture.

-You've been saying the syllables of "mama" and "dada" for awhile now, but you've stopped saying dada as often. You do however, say mam when you are mad.

-All you eat is toast. Seriously. Eating is horrible. You eat a lot, but your diet mostly consists of toast, veggie sticks, and grapes. At least you have the grapes going for you.

-You are going to be our little drama baby though! You are so over-the-top too. When you get mad you will throw yourself down starting with your head and letting the rest of your body fall. If we are holding you, you turn into a limp noodle at the same time. And don't get me started on food...

-Whenever we try and offer you food, you dramatically turn your head to the side out of disgust and close your eyes very slowly. We've (mostly me) have decided you are just like Daddy though. You won't do anything unless it is your idea. Take food for example. You have to inspect every piece of food and then you will decide when and how you will eat. Naturally, Daddy denies your stubborn connection :)

-We also took our first road trip as a family of four! We went to go visit my great aunt Sue Sue in Colorado! It was a very long drive but you have slowly been getting better in the car. We also borrowed a DVD system so I like to think that helped a little bit. It definitely did for your brother! Aunt Sue Sue just fell in love with you both  and Mommy and Daddy fell in love with Colorado Springs. Who knows, maybe our next move will be there!


Even though I didn't get your official 11 month photo, we still of course took tons of photos throughout the month!


I love you my sweet, sweet baby! I cannot believe you are going to be a big one year old toddler soon!

 On West family road trips we have picnic lunches in random fast food parking lot grass patches :)

 We went for a little minutes hike through some beautiful giant rock formations

 Aunt Sue Sue took you to an arcade and you both had lots of fun playing on the rides. Every city should have a cheap arcade like this

 Smile with Aunt Sue Sue!

 In Colorado Springs, they had Mommy's favorite coffee shop AND smoothie shop! Two more reasons why we loved it there

 We drove to the top of Pike's Peak! Here we are at a lake toward the bottom/middle of the mountain. (You had an explosion in the car while driving. So yes, you were naked in this picture)

 Me and my naked boy :)

 We made it! 14,110 feet elevation and we could barely breathe, the air was so thin. But it was absolutely gorgeous up there

 You and your puppy!

 One cool dude

 Sometmes Monday mornings are rough....That crazy hair is proof

 

Tucker Dean - 10 Months

Tucker Dean,

Let me tell you a story about the adventures of showering with a toddler and a newly crawling baby:
          Mom puts both kids in toddler's room to play while showering in connected bathroom. Toddler and baby try to craw under the crib. Toddler gets stuck and cries. So Mom takes crib front off. Mom tries to get in shower again when she notices baby crawling toward space heater so she moves that to the next room. Tries showering again only to hear baby choking. Runs to baby who found random sliver of a wood chip in toddler's room to eat. Mom gets wood chip out of Baby's throat then does a complete room search to make sure there are no more choking hazards. Like the popcorn kernels toddler hid under his bed....Mom is finally able to take the quickest shower of her life only to get out and hear Toddler yelling, "NOOOO baby!!!!!' Then baby crying. Baby was crawling toward a toy Toddler wanted and Toddler ripped it from Baby's hands....shower accomplished. Stress level elevated.

whew....That, my dear child, was a true life event that happened this month! Since you started crawling you are all over the place and zooming around stealing Trenton's toys. Most of the time he is really good and sharing with you though. But Mommy really needs to figure out a better showering system......

Some other new things this month:
-You love the grass and pulling grass out of the ground to eat. Extra fiber right??
-You barely started at the end of this month to pull up on your knees and take a few "steps" on your knees :) You are also starting to try and pull yourself up to a standing position!
-It is so funny because you squawk and squeel like you have really bad asthma. When you laugh it's not really laughing; just a bunch of smiley gasps like you have smoker's lungs or something. I love your goofy little laugh. All the boys really think you have asthma. Don't worry, you do not :)
-Another thing you have started to do is to growl. You will just be sitting there and all the sudden start growling and keep going. It is so funny! You love to growl at the puppy the most (don't worry, we will get to this later!)
-You love to play with your brother's cars and can even roll them back and forth! Daddy and I were pretty impressed when we saw you using cars the correct way. Another one of your favorite toys is the gumball machine. You are so good at putting the balls in the machine and pressing the button!
-Throwing has becme a new favorite pastime...much to our dismay. Of course you think it's the funniest thing in the world to throw something out of the stroller and watch Mommy and Daddy play fetch....!
-We had to finally put the baby gate up around the stairs because Trenton taught you how to climb the stairs. Luckily you have only figured out how to stand up on the stairs and not actually crawl up them. You (aka we) are not ready for you to start climbing stairs!
-Even though you sleep from about 8:30pm-12:30am with only an occasional wake up, I am noticing that you wake up more when you roll over and hit your head on the railing. All this time you had just a mesh bumper up in your crib but I decided to try the soft bumper Trenton had to see if it helps your head. Well, I am glad to report tha tit has helped you be able to fall back asleep yourself sometimes! I know, I know, you aren't supposed to have soft bumpers in the crib...causes suffocation,,,blah blah blah.....it works for us though and that is all that matters.


A big and exciting news of this month is we got a puppy!!! At first you were absolutely terrified and would cry from pure fear everytime a dog would come near you. But now that we have had our puppy for a few days, you are warming up to him! His name is Roosevelt and he is an 8 week old labradoodle. He is just so cute! One of the main things we are working on with him (besides potty training) is not biting. Especially you and Trenton. He and Trenton love chasing each other around the yard already though :) You have even started crawling after him and petting him! I mean, tonight you even tried to bite him. Silly baby :)

 Sometimes, eating is hard work

 At first I got the stroller/basket for you. But then Trenton wanted to get in as well. You don't look too happy about it either!

 My little teacher, ready for the first day of school! Say hello to Mr. West, the new math teacher :)

 Trenton taught you how to get up on the stairs......don't worry, we now have a baby gate to block you, Trenton and the puppy!

 Attempt #1 to get your monthly photo

 In anticipation of getting our puppy, you ate off the ground just like one 

 Attempt #2....

 Attempt #16....

 Attempt #27.....

 Then of course Brother had to jump in as well like he loves to do!

 I love both of my boys :)

 Finally after what felt like 10 minutes of snapping pictures, I got one usable one!

 We think you are going to be our next little basketball star :)

 You love to growl at the puppy. Well, really, growl at anything :)

 You are starting to get more used to Roosevelt!

I love you my sweet, sweet boy!

Trenton - 2.5 Years

Trenton,

Boy have you changed in the past few months! Your vocabulary has skyrocketed, your learning has blossomed, and your ornery-ness has exploded. You are SO SO ornery! If someone is sitting in a chair and they get up, it's like a little alarm goes off in you and you run as fast as you can over to that chair and yell, "my chair!!" then laugh hysterically at the person you stole from. You also know how to keep these teenagers in shape! While they are teaching you things I'm not proud of, they are also teaching you good things as well. The teens have to do chores and they have to ask to do everything (even going into another room). So you have started to ask to do your chore, have someone check your chore (you don't actually have a chore but sometimes we give you the broom or a rag to "help" clean), ask to watch TV, ask to take a shower, to go upstairs, to get a sweet snack.....plus you also help Mommy and Daddy keep these boys in check! If it's time for someone to take their medicine, you will run out and yell for [insert name here] to come take their meds. You are our little family teacher in training :)


EATING
-You seem to have digressed in the eating department. At least in the cleanliness department. You are SO gross! At dinner we have to stop giving you an open cup and go back to cups with a lid because you always put your food in your water then drink it up. It makes we want to gag just thinking and typing about it. ack.
-At least you have started to love eating food pouches so I can get you to eat pretty much any veggie as long as its in a food pouch


KNOWLEDGE
-You are a smart little boy. You learned all of the teenagers' names after only a couple days. You just love the guys. They love how you say their names too since it's not usually correct. Still cute though :)
-Your vocabulary has skyrocketed! You are saying more words and longer sentences and even your pronunciation has improved tremendously. The guys have noticed it too. Plus you don't ever really shut up :)
-You've also become quite demanding. You will say things like, "say it mommy!" when you are saying your (stupid) little phrases you picked up on from the guys
-Some things I wish you didn't learn from the guys: "Dang bro", "Whip Eh!!!" plus the entire song and dance, "What??" in a demanding and threatening tone, "got eem!" 
-You are learning your colors, ABCs, and shapes really well and I'm hoping to continue working on them with you by doing other fun activities. Matching is also something you are very good at. Even if you don't know what the shape or letter is, you can match it correctly almost every time.
-Bargaining. You started to bargain with me...for example if you wanted a lollipop and I told you no, you will say, "just one. Just one mommy" and hold up your fingers attempting to show "one".
-I am so happy that you have started reading again. Grandma Kathy gave you a bunch of  books that I had when I was a little girl and I can't wait to read them all with you. Right now you are very particular about which books you read, but of course, your Cars book is one of those favorites. Your others are Brown Bear Brown Bear, ABCs, Love You Forever, Llama Mama, Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, and Franklin the Turtle. Some of these books have always been your favorites too
-The other day you did argue with me. When we saw a picture of mountains you insisted they were "Big Happos" (what you call rocks) and polar bears where "polar doggies"



OTHER
-You still love to growl and make funny faces. You are the king of dirty looks. I'm sure that will get you in trouble in your future....
-Car washes are one of your favorite things to talk about and play with, but when it comes to an actual car wash, it is still so terrifying for you. I really don't understand why you love to talk about them so much
-I don't know what kind of phase this is, but lately you have been so whiny!! You are so helpless and pitiful and the world is just about over. Every bump and bruise "needs an Olaf bandaid" and you are incapable of even picking up a blanket and repeatedly say in a whiny voice, "help please mommy!!" One one hand you are using your manners but on the other hand it is so whiny I just hate it!


FEVERS
After seeing the rheumatologist earlier this year, she prescribed a steroid to try at the onset of your fevers. Unfortunately we were going out of town to Lake Okoboji the day you woke up with your May fevers, so we got to spend our trip with you sick. You still enjoyed the beach for the most part though.  Your next fevers were the day before my birthday. You sure do like getting fevers on special events! At least we weren't in the hospital this year on my birthday. But this time we were able to give you the steroid. We were so excited when your fever went away almost immediately!! You still complained about your head and belly hurting and you were more whiny than usual, but at least the fever was gone. Until Tuesday (three days later) when you woke up with a fever again :( I called your doctor and she said I could give you another dose of the steroid so I'm hoping that it will knock it out completely. At least for the next six weeks.

BROTHER
-Your brother is your all time most favorite person in the world. You have been great at playing with him and trying to teach him how to crawl lately! You love to tickle him and share with him and make sure he is involved in playing with you.
-On the other hand, sometimes when you are in a bad mood, all he has to do is look at you and you scream ,"nooo baby!!!"
-Tucker has many names thanks to you. He goes by Baby, Cookie, Cookie Dane, Cookie Dean, Tookie, and Tucker

FAMILY
-This month has been full of guests! First GigGi, Pimpa, and Amelia came to visit for a couple days.You were so excited! Especially to see Amelia. She is your favorite. You definitely missed them all and enjoyed having them around for a couple days. I know they enjoyed loving on you and your brother. A few days after they left your great aunt Sherry and great grandma Norma came to stay for a week. You didn't really know them since you last saw them when you were six months old, but you warmed up pretty quickly and fell in love. You had so much fun hanging out with them! In a couple months you get to see more of Mommy's side of the family when we go to California for Aunt Stephanie's wedding. Unfortunately I don't get hardly any pictures of you with the family :(

-My birthday was last weekend and Daddy surprised me by driving us to Iowa to visit our puppy (we will be getting a labradoodle in a few weeks when he is old enough to leave his mommy), then we kept on driving to Minneapolis!! Your daddy is so sweet and so caring. I absolutely loved my surrpise. We spent some time at the Mall of America (which is pretty awesome) then we went to Ikea! That is where Daddy and I had our first date. Except in Atlanta :) So not only is Ikea the best store ever, it has sentimental value toward Daddy and I. Your brother thinks cars are actually giant torture chambers but you actually weren't too bad. I let you play with my phone for part of the trip, which only let us realize we need to drastically cut down your screen time since you threw a huge fit when I took my phone back. I can't believe I am saying "we need to cut down your screen time" related to a TWO year old....


We have had such a fun past few months and you have grown in to such a wild and crazy little boy. You learn new things every day and you also do a great job at keep the teenagers accountable since you are a little parrot and repeat every little thing they say and do. So thanks for helping Mommy and Daddy with our jobs :)


My sweet first born son, I love you so much!

 Grandma Norma and Aunt Sherry found a great deal for some pots at a consignment sale so I decided to do a photo shoot for Tucker. Then you wanted to get in the pot as well! Until you realized you were too big.... :) 

Trenton is cooking cookies!! Get it???

Father's Day was also in June. This was the best I could get for you. If you look closely I had to bribe you to hold the D by placing the tablet behind the letter....shhh...don't judge

My friend Sarah, from college, coincidentally happened to be in the next town over. So we drove down to meet her!

Anything Tucker has you have to do too.

I fall in love with that face and smile and eyes every day!

Time to pick up our guys from the airport! You still ask about the airplane to this day

And this was my Mother's Day....you obviously wanted nothing to do with picture-taking

Daddy and Trenton on the carousel 

Brother;y love :)

You had your first matchbox car race and got 3rd place! The beginning of the race you had some major meltdowns though because you didn't want to take turns

You also won at the one mile run we did! After this race you became an avid fan of running. Every time Mommy goes for a run, you always ask to run with me instead of riding in the stroller.

Such sweet brothers....

 My little teenager

Playing games with Daddy with the guys

Silly silly boy!

The zoo is one of your favorite places

Tickle tickle baby!

When we went to Okoboji, you were sick again but still wanted to go on the boat. You ended up taking a nap instead

The guys were working out in the garden, and you wanted to help as well. My bit boy is gardening better than the teenagers already!

Mr. Smarty Pants reading Brown Brown Brown Bear

Sliding on the big slides with Pimpa!

This was Mommy's first attempt at face painting. Even though Daddy couldn't figure out what it was at first, I was pretty impressed by my dump truck :)

The zoo with Great Grandma Norma!

The zoo with Aunt Sherry as well!

You will probably hate me when you are older, but you were doing naked yoga....I thought this picture was funny. I'm sure it'll be one to show your future girlfriends. I'm sorry :)

There was this one time where you fell asleep in the car but kept throwing your head forward. So we decided to improv.

Tucker likes to look out the window so naturally you have to join in everything you do!