Adam and Pregnancy Updates

I feel like Adam has grown up so much in the past few weeks and I want to document some of his fun characteristics. He is now 21 months old and his vocabulary has exploded in the past few weeks. It seems like he's saying a new word almost every day and I'm constantly amazed at what comes out of his mouth!

Just the other morning I asked if he wanted waffles for breakfast and he responded with, "Mmmm faffles. Syrup!" I've never heard him say syrup before! Another day I was driving with him and he said, "buckle" out of the blue. I glanced back and he was playing with the buckle on his carseat. He has recently learned the colors yellow and green and gets brown and black right about half the time. He can also identify stars and circles. I would say his favorite thing to do right now is playing his drum. My brother Tommy has a drum set in his room and Adam loves to go play Tommy's drums. When he's home, he bangs on his drum and says, "Ta-Tom brums" over and over again. I've heard him say "brumstick" a couple times too.

I think the cutest thing he has ever done was just last night. We had been at my parents' house for dinner and games and were driving home around 9:30. Adam started talking in 2-3 word sentences about everything he had done. We heard, "Barney dancing...Annie dancing" (he had danced with Annie to a Barney DVD) and "Sit chair brums....Ta-Tom brums" (he had sat in Tommy's chair and played his drums). We then started asking him about things and he talked about the dogs and cats, coloring with DeeDee, and playing in the fort with Papa. I'm amazed that not only can he talk in short sentences, but he can verbalize his memories! I don't think there is anything more amazing than giving birth to a tiny infant and watching them literally transform into a person right in front of your eyes! I can't wait for the coming months and years to see this little guy grow and develop.

One more funny thing....he used to pronouce the word fork, as "fortz". Just in the past few days it has started coming out as a perfectly pronouced f-word. Dinners at our house are filled with stiffled giggles from Nat and I! What can I do though? I can't tell him not to say it because he thinks he's saying fork! So last night at dinner with my family, the table had grown a little quiet and out pops the f-word from my toddler, rather loudly I might add! The look on my 15-year old brother's face was priceless! I quickly explained that he was saying fork and everyone had a good laugh. The strange things was that later that night while Adam was playing in a fort with my Dad, he was saying a perfectly pronouced "fork" for fort. Go figure.

Now for an update on our second child. I had an appointment last Thursday and unfortunately, Nat wasn't able to come so I had to tell my doctor not to check for the baby's gender. It was so hard to resist the temptation! I made sure to schedule my next appointment at at time when I knew Nat could be there so we'll find out what we're having in just over 3 weeks! I can't wait! I'm pretty sure I am starting to feel the first little movements from this baby. They are sporadic and light, but sometimes I can feel a few little taps and sometimes it feels like a little fish flopping around. I am so looking forward to feeling the baby move every day. It is my favorite part of pregnancy! I am still trying to hide my growing belly. I know I should just embrace it but I feel like it's too early to be looking so pregnant! And if I were to wear maternity shirts, I would look much more pregnant than I am. So for now, I'm wearing maternity pants and skirts for comfort and going with the fat-look rather than the pregnant-look. That's probably not the best approach though! :) All-in-all things are going great and I'm feeling more like my self rather than a slug who can't get off the couch.

Sorry for the long, journalish post. I guess I'm just a proud Mama!

Counting

Adam has been counting from 2-10 (apparently since I always prompt him by saying "1...", he doesn't feel the need to say that number) for a couple of months now and I just got around to filming. Of course this particular evening he was more interested in the camera, but eventually I got him to count. He also decided he didn't need to bother with the number 2 so here he is counting from 3-10.

Take 1

Take 2

Take 3

Adam's Big News

Adam has some big news to share:

Yep, that's right. Adam is SUPER excited to be a big brother! Ok, maybe I tricked him into that pose, but WE are super excited to be adding another member to our little family. I thought I was due February 24th, but according to my ultrasound today, I'm due February 20th!

Ultrasound at 8 1/2 weeks
Ultrasound at almost 12 weeks

My morning sickness is pretty much gone so now I just need to kick the exhaustion and I'll be a happy camper. Nat thinks this baby is a girl, but I'm not sure. I would love to have another boy so that Adam can have a brother close in age to grow up with, but I also really want a girl eventually so having one 2nd would take the pressure off of future pregnancies. My doctor told me today that if the baby cooperates, we could be able to tell the gender at my next appointment in 4 weeks! I'm loving that the clinic I'm going to does ultrasounds at every visit. It's amazing to see how much the baby grows in just a few weeks.

Oh, and just to clarify my last post about our trip to Mexico...I was miserable! Morning sickness doesn't agree well with travel and especially boats and snorkeling!

Mexico!

We had a great vacation a couple of weeks ago (yes it has taken me this long to post) with my family in Mexico. We stayed in a beach-front villa in Puerto Morelos (about 20 miles south of Cancun) and had a blast! Here are a bunch of pictures.

The view from our balcony

Nat and Adam swimming in the pool
Swimming with t-shirts on....gotta love being sunburned!

This was the first time Adam went to the beach....he squealed with delight each time the waves came up. Sadly, this face was never to be seen again. For whatever reason he decided he was scared of the waves and refused to go near the water.
Playing in the sand

My Mom and I swimming in a cenote.

This area of Mexico has fresh water pools that come up from the ground and form cenotes. We had fun snorkeling and swimming in them. They are pretty cold which would've been perfect any of the other 6 days of sweltering heat we had, but the one day we chose to go, it was cold (relatively speaking) and stormy. Oh well.

We took a boat called a catamaran to go snorkeling off of Isla Mujeres. Adam seemed to enjoy the boat and kept saying "boatz boatz" as we sailed. He didn't like getting in the water however, so Nat stayed on board while the rest of us snorkeled.
This picture with Adam's tongue sticking out is actually him saying "boatz". Don't you just love the color of the water?

Adam's hair was so cute and curly from a combination of humidty, sweat, and sunscreen. If only he had those curls all the time! This is how Adam spent the trip back.....happily snoozing away in Daddy's arms

My Dad relaxing on the boat. Yes, that is the real color of the water!
Just after this picture, the boat driver purposefully hit a wave just right so that water rushed up the front of the boat and practically right over the top of my Dad. It was hysterical to watch!

We went to some Mayan ruins called Tulum. We heard you can request a Mormon tour guide when you get there so we did and it was awesome! He explained all about how the Mayan's built their temples and holy sites so that on certain days like the summer and winter equinox, the sun will shine through some window or hole at the perfect moment. What was even more fascinating was that they also had several buildings that were built to have the sun shine through on April 6th...the day of Christ's birth. In the squares above the pillars in this picture, each one has a carving. The first is of a man (God), a man upside down (the descending God/Jesus Christ), and the 3rd one is empty (the Holy Ghost). Had we not had our Mormon guide, who's name happened to be Moroni, we would've never learned any of this or even noticed. It was a real testimony builder for me to see first-hand that the Mayan people were descendants of Lehi and knew of the gospel and worshiped the same God and Jesus Christ that I worship. It was so cool.
We went to a place called Crococun Zoo where we got to see and touch lots of native animals.

Here is Adam standing with a deer. We were able to feed them grapes and nuts.

A crazy monkey with a chunk of banana in its mouth

Adam and Nat looking at a lizard

Adam and I holding a crocodile!

Adam is trying to kiss this macaw.

Nat kissing the macaw

We had a wonderful time with my family and although traveling with a toddler is quite exhausting, it was worth it and we have lots of great memories!

Wheeler Farm

I took Adam to Wheeler Farm yesterday for a play date with my friends Katie and Heather and their toddlers. We had a lot of fun! Adam was the only one brave enough to pet the horses and get up close to the other animals. I think he was a little confused to see real farm animals as opposed to ones in his books, but he happily made all their sounds. This was the first nice day in a really long time and it was wonderful to be out in the sunshine! Adam had a blast running around with Lexie and Dallin after lunch and it's so fun to see him interact and enjoy playing with kids his age. And the best part about Wheeler Farm? It was free!!

I don't know what posessed him to do this, but he laid on the ground and kissed it!

Girls Night Out

My friends Heather, Lisa, Katie, and I got together last night for some fun girl time! We went to Color Me Mine and painted ceramic things (I chose to copy my dear friend Heather's idea and make a special birthday plate for Adam and future kids to eat off on their birthdays...cute tradition right?). We then went out to eat and it was a wonderful 4 hours of creativity and talking and feeling like I was back in college, although the topics of conversation have greatly changed since then!

This is my completed plate. I just hope it turns out well after its fired. The cute girl in the store promised me that the black marker outlining the balloons that I drew to guide me in my lacking painting skills will vanish during firing. I sure hope so!

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!