Mexico....Here We Come!

Adam can now travel outside of the U.S. with his very own passport! We are going to Puerto Morelos, which is halfway between Cancun and Playa del Carmen, for a full week starting on July 5th! We are going with my family and staying at a villa right on the beach. I cannot wait to introduce Adam to the ocean! He is going to have a blast digging in the sand and swimming!

Doesn't he just look thrilled to have his own passport? "Hey is that me?"Our own private pool at the back of the villa with the carribbean ocean right behind it. Oh man I can't wait!!

Let's just hope we don't get Swine Flu....or worse....Montezuma's Revenge! I think it's worth the risk don't you?

Playing in the Rain

Yesterday we had yet another big thunderstorm (we had a huge storm on Sunday also) and it poured and hailed for quite a while. I took Adam out to our front porch to watch and once it slowed down a little, I encouraged him to walk out and feel the rain. I wasn't expecting him to love it so much! He splashed around for a good 10 minutes in the cold water (I was safely standing under the overhang of the garage) and I kept seeing him sign "rain" over and over again. He also loved playing with the water coming down the rainspout. I had to drag him inside kicking and screaming after he turned purple and started shaking! The promise of bubbles in his bath helped quite a bit and he had fun splashing some more in his nice warm bath. I love seeing the world through his eyes. Everything is amazing, wonderful, and new! He is growing into such a fun little guy and I love spending my days with him!

Hill Air Force Base Air Show

We live about 2 miles from Hill Air Force Base and this year, Hill was chosen as one of the 3 bases to host Air Force Week so we decided Adam might like watching the air show (seeing as we have jets fly over our house nearly every day, we figured he would enjoy actually seeing the planes!). It took us 45 minutes just to drive up the hill to the entrance! And another 30 minutes of walking from the parking lot to the field! By the time we got there it was noon so we looked at a few airplanes and watched a few in the sky and decided to leave around 1:15 because we were all hot, tired, and hungry. Adam seemed interested in the airplanes and Nat and I enjoyed the flying tricks. We wanted to see the Thunderbirds but they didn't have a program of what time certain planes would be flying so we had no idea when to come. We did end up hearing them later in the afternoon though! All-in-all it was a fun excursion. I'm looking forward to my little baby growing up into a boy who loves trucks, airplanes, trains, and cars (at least Nat is hoping he does) that we can take to things like this!

Watching the sky and pointing out the airplanes

We couldn't resist buying this little Tonka fighter jet. Adam flew it around and sucked on it the entire walk back to the car.

18 Months Old!

Adam will be 18 months old tomorrow so today I took him for his check-up. Here are his stats:

15 months:
21 lbs. 2 oz. (10th percentile)
31.5 inches (75th percentile)

18 months:
21 lbs. 14 oz. (5th percentile)
32 inches (50th percentile)

Sigh. My child isn't growing very well! He's been decreasing in percentiles since 12 months. He likes milk, but he just doesn't drink much even though we constantly offer it to him. The doctor suggested feeding him lots of cheese, peanut butter, pasta, and butter. That is so counter- intuitive for me! I know children have much higher metabolisms than adults and need calories and fat because they are growing, but I feel like if I start stuffing him full of fat I'll wind up with an obese child who will only eat fattening things! I guess as long as I'm not filling him up on sugar, fat coming from dairy and carbs isn't all that bad. I sort of feel like I'm failing him. He's struggled with his weight since he was born and we always feed him until he refuses anymore so I guess that's all I can do. Maybe he got a mysterious skinny gene? If only I possessed such gene.

Other than his physical growth, the doctor is very happy with his development. He said with as many words ands signs as he knows (I have no idea what the count is, but it's a lot) he should be putting 2-3 word sentences together shortly. He's done it a couple times but it was more of a string of thoughts, not words. A few weeks ago he found an old car-remote-door-lock-thingy and said, "beep car bye-bye". He knows if you push the button the car beeps and that we go bye-bye in it. How cute!

My favorite thing about my 18 month old right now is how much he loves to sing. He can sing most of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" using "ba" as his consonant and gets the tone of the notes and the rhythm right. He knows ending words/sounds of some of the phrases of "I Am a Child of God", "The ABCs", and a couple of the lullabies I sing to him. While driving home from the doctor today, he started singing a song from one of his Baby Signing Time DVDs. The chorus is, "Outside, Outside" and I listened to him sing "ah-si, ah-si" over and over again with the right notes and rhythm and caught him signing the word "outside" while he sang ! I hope he has inherited his parents love of music!

I will close my bragging post. These past 18 months have flown by and I've loved it all! We have been blessed with an easy-going, happy boy and we are so lucky!

My Dad for Senate

My Dad officially announced yesterday that he is running for U.S. Senate in 2012. He's trying to take Bob Bennett's seat from him and I think it's going to be ugly. Bennett is already running ads (even before my Dad announced) and is already saying some not-so-nice things. I think this race is going to be uglier and harder than previous ones. Oh well. I guess it comes with the terrority.

My Dad's slogan is "Taking Back America" and I love it! We're in for a wild ride but it should be exciting!

I prefer this picture of my Dad!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

4 years ago today, on a beautiful spring day, Nat and I were married! I can't believe how fast 4 years have flown by! We have nothing special planned for today but tomorrow night we are going to dinner and then seeing the production of Miss Saigon at Pioneer Memorial Theatre. My wonderful Mother offered to babysit Adam overnight so we don't have to worry about picking him up late and then driving all the way home. It's a much-needed evening out by ourselves and I'm excited!

A very nice anniversary present was delivered today by way of a job offer for Nat! He applied and interviewed for the Senior Real Estate Representative position in Dallas about 6 weeks ago. Between then and now, 7-Eleven has decided to focus on building the market in Utah so they are opening up a Senior Real Estate Rep position here and offered it to Nat! We have known it was probably a done deal for a couple weeks now, but today he finally got the official offer! We're a little disappointed in the salary they are offering and were hoping for more, but 7-Eleven is having to pinch pennies because of the recession. But, it is still a nice raise and will allow us to finally get our remodeling underway (2 years after buying the house!) and begin saving for a bigger house with a yard in the future. We are also a little disappointed that we aren't moving to Dallas because it would've been a great opportunity (Dallas housing is cheap compared to Utah and they have an awesome relocation package) but we know our families are beyond thrilled we are staying put for a few more years and we are happy to be close to family also.

I am so proud of Nat for how hard he works and how dedicated he is in providing for us. I'm happy that he is excited for this new challenge and it makes me happy to have him find fulfillment in the job he goes to day after day. He's a wonderful man I'm so lucky to be married to him and have him the Father of my son! Happy Anniversary honey and Congratulations!

Nursery!!

Adam still has 3 weeks until he turns 18 months but I couldn't take church with trying to keep him quiet and still any longer so we went to nursery! He was in heaven! I stayed back and watched him for a bit and he played happily without giving me a second glance. It didn't even phase him when other kids screamed their heads off. It was evident that the leaders needed help so I spent time playing with other kids and my own child pretty much ignored me except for the occasional "Mama" and point. He wasn't too happy when it was time to clean up the toys and split into groups for singing and lesson time, but after a little herding along with the other kids, he did surprisingly well during the lesson and singing time. He loved listening to all the songs and even tried copying some of the actions on "Popcorn Popping". When it was time for snack, he looked so big sitting in his chair at the table. I'm hoping we don't have any problems when I try to leave him in a couple weeks. As for right now....nursery is such a blessing!

On a side note....I got these animal magnets a few weeks and ago and Adam loves them! He'll spend quite a lot of time putting them up on the fridge and taking them down and putting them back in the box and then back up again. He carries them around and can identify quite a few by making their noise and the sign if he knows it and loves running to us barking or baaaaing (I think the correct word is bleating right?) or making the sign. What a cutie.

Note to Parents

Please teach your children that it is not ok to throw sand in other children's faces. Thank you.

Adam was having a grand old time at the park today until some brat threw sand in his face! I didn't exactly see it happen because Adam had just walked into a little fort/hiding place but I saw sand flying out of the entrance he'd just gone in and a boy about 3 years old walk out the other side. Adam came walking out rubbing his eyes so I went over to him and he was covered in sand! Hair, face, clothes....everything. He didn't cry but I could see he had a bunch of sand in his eyes so I laid him across my lap and used my water to try and wipe his eyes a little. We packed up, went home, and I gave him a bath to wash away all the sand that was stuck to his sunscreened face and hair. I made the mistake of saying, "Let's get out of the bath and go have lunch" because he was not happy that I was lotioning him up and getting him dressed instead of feeding him. Because he was upset, he was crying....sand! At least he got it all out of his eyes!

I wouldn't mind so much if he got sand in his own eyes from throwing it around, but some bigger kid throwing it directly in his face? So not cool.

Missing Phone

My cell phone was missing for several days and since the battery was dead....I couldn't find it anywhere. Friday morning I came downstairs to find this note from my funny husband...

Apparently he had discovered the phone that morning while putting his shoes on. I wonder how it ended up there?

Picture Tag

Here are the rules:
1. Go to your documents/pictures
2. Go to your 6th file
3. Go to your 6th picture
4. Post it and blog about it (name it)
5. Tag 6 people to do the same

Soccer Chick

So I did this tag thinking I'd come up with a cute picture of baby Adam, but instead, my 6th file ended up being a file of some random photos of my family that my Mom sent me so I could put them on our Shurtleff family blog. I'm actually really glad this was picture number 6 because it shows my awesome sister Annie and her mad soccer skills! This girl is a total anomaly! She is prissy and into clothes, jewelry, and make-up, but she is also a huge sports nut! She actually watches such atrocities as basketball, football, and golf on TV. By herself! Aside from loving to watch sports, she LOVES playing soccer! She is on a competition team and her life revolves around practices, special one-on-one coaching with a soccer tutor (such things exist?), games, and competitions. I told Nat that she is his dream daughter. They argue and tease each other over what team won or lost or what favorite player is faking an injury. If he could have an Annie for a daughter, the man would be in heaven. Someone to watch sports with him and understand all those weird rules and technical vocabulary that I just don't get and don't really care to get. Anyway.....this is my baby sister Annie and I love her!!

I tag everyone!