Birthday Boy

Our sweet boy turned ONE on Saturday. It's hard to believe he's been with us a year now, it's even harder to imagine life without him. We have been so blessed to know him and love him this last year. Some pictures from the big 0-1.

It's my birthday you say? What's a birthday?

The cake mommy made

I like cake...

Hey mom, guess what, I'm ONE!

I like presents!

The favorite present for the day... a yellow ribbon

Look at all this cool stuff!

G had his 12 month well-baby on tuesday. He weighed in at 24.8 lbs (75th percentile) and 32.25 inches long (off the charts). He still has just 2 teeth, but those top 4 are ready to show-up any day. He started giving kisses to things (people) other than books and elmo this week. It's very sweet. Still not walking on his own yet, he could totally do it, he has great balance and leg strength, he just refuses too. I'm choosing to believe the stubborn streak comes from his daddy...

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to those of you who still check this... I am so bad with updates, it's pathetic.

Here is a brief glimpse of what we've been up to the last two months.

Our first trip to the pumpkin patch:

Our little "wookie" on Halloween:

Watching some football (I love him despite his poor choice in teams):

Hanging out with the newest Vawter babies (minus LO, my cousins little girl). G is 3.5 months younger than our niece Hailey and 5 months older than our nephew Jordan... he's a beast:

Smiling for the camera. He LOVES the camera. You can't take candids of him, as soon as he sees the camera, he stops whatever he's doing and gets right in the camera.

Riding the train at Tilden Park with Grandma & Grandpa Skrehot:

Can you tell he liked it???


Sitting with Santa. Note the "toy" clutched in his hand, this is actually an attachment to a bathtub that he decided he couldn't be with out, he crawls with it (yes, he's still crawling, little stinker), eats with it, and sometimes sleeps with it. I don't get it, but it makes me laugh.


Making it's first christmas debut, the much toiled over christmas stocking (for perspective, this started as a plane blue piece of fabric):

I can't believe how quickly the time moves. G will be ONE on Saturday. He's most definitely making the transition to little boy and testing his "independence". If you try to feed him, he ususally turns his head, but put the same food on his tray, and he eats. When he's done eating, he drops his food on the ground for Raja. When he's done playing, he throws the toy. He also does this if the toy is supposed to do something (make noise etc...) or he thinks it should do something. He's figured out how to get off of our bed, but not so much the couch, go figure. He thinks Raja's water dish is his own mini pool. He loves the bath and will crawl at warp speed when he hears the water running. He is still fascinated by fire. When we light the BBQ, he stands at the back door kissing the glass. He's started kissing the animals in his books, but whips his head away if you try to kiss him.

9 months

G is 9 months old today. At 9 months he is:

22.5 lbs

30 inches long

crawling and pulling himself up, he's so proud of himself

teething! he has his two bottoms and more on the way

My silly boy

Back when I was in high school my mom came up with the "great" idea to make counted cross stitch christmas stockings for my brother, sister and I. Since the hope was to have them done while we were all still living at home, she enlisted my help. Long story short, I not only made my brother's, sister's and my own stocking, I went on to make them for my neice and nephew, husband and parents. Making them for my children is no longer an option... it's simply a must do.

So I've had G's stocking for well over 3 years now (found it while shopping for mom and dad's stockings, and since it was being discontinued, I just had to purchase it, never mind that I didn't even have a child on the horizon). Considering the "vast" experience that I have, I know that making these stockings is no easy task as they take some serious time and attention.

Apparently "vast" experience is entirely over-rated. Did I start G's stocking when we found out last September that he was, for sure, a boy (seriously, he flashed the ultra sound tech)? Of course not. Relying heavily on my newly discoverd procrastination skills, I didn't start G's stocking until May.

So now I am working like a mad-woman to get it done. I take it to work with me for lunch breaks. Stay up way later than I should at night after he's gone to bed. And occasionaly, when he's in the mood to entertain himself, I work on it while he's playing. The other day was one such day. He was in a great mood, totally into playing in his jumper so I decided to whip out the stocking and get a little work done. Several minutes in I realized that the house had gone silent. I no longer can hear G in his jumper. I look up from the stocking and this is what I see...

Beach trip & 8 month update

We made G's firts trip to the beach on Labor Day, went to Doran Beach in Bodega Bay. Of course, since there was water involved, G was quite happy. The water was freezing, but he loved it, when we'd lift him up out of it, he'd strain to get back in.

G turned 8 months old on Wednesday. It's really hard to believe 8 months have gone by. He started army crawling this week, getting closer to the real deal all the time, he gets up on his hands and knees and rocks. He started saying "mama" last week, he's been saying "dada" for a while, but "dada" can be anything and everything. "Mama" is mama, he cries for me when he's hungry, tired, needy... I love it! Though it can be a little sad and pathetic sounding at times. Jarrod weighed him Monday night, he came in at a whopping 23 lbs, and is somewhere around 30" long.

Playing is hard work

What a rough life...

Yosemite & Anniversaries

Jarrod and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary August 2, it was also the day we left for our 15th annual trip to Yosemite. Yosemite has been such a big part of our lives for so long (we decided to start dating after a trip to Yosemite, spent week 2 of our honeymoon in Yosemite), it was so exciting to make our first trip as a family of three this year and start building new and wonderful memories with G.

To no one's surprise, G was a great camper. We discoverd he has a great love for all things water (regardless of how freezing cold it is) and is also quite fascinated with fire. He should keep us on our toes!

Grandpa teaching G to drive the motorhome...

Chilling with Grandpa, checking at the scenery... at the gas station

Taking a nap with Little Grandma, camping is hard work!

The most clothing he has ever worn at one time in his life...

Believe it or not, she does like him...

Who you calling bear bait?!?!

His new favorite chew toy... Grandpa's watch

Smiling, despite the duds...

Loving on my grandpa...

This camping stuff is funny!

Grandpa's funny too!

At the river, loving the water

Waiting for the fire to start

Raja almost caught a squirrel...