A 'weekend' at Auntie Cindy's

My mom has been absolutely swamped with homework this week (but she's almost finished with school - completely!) so she couldn't watch Ares on Wed. Auntie Cindy, Uncle Mike and Aunt (cousin) Kassi took him for both Tuesday and Wednesday where he had TONS of fun. Unfortunately, he got very fussy in the evenings, but I think it's cuz he's cutting a few new teeth. They said he was great though. Here's some pics that they took. (They visited Great Grandpa Walters and Great Grandma Marion).

New words: Cloud, cheese, please, belly, and now I think that I will stop writing new words as he seriously has 3 new words a day. I can't believe how fast he's growing up. He's getting at least two incisors in, so he's pretty miserable. These two teeth are the worst that he's gotten so far. He still smiles, but he whines a lot more than normal. Because of this, we'e more apt to give him pickles, applesauce and yogurt for dinner if that's what he asks for. He's a spoiled kid, at least the things he likes tend to be good for him. We are really missing our family in Cinci/Corydon, hopefully we can visit soon! Thanks so much for the care package! We LOVE the monkey stuff. Ares now 'speaks' monkey. "E- E- E- E- E"

Mama Didn't Panic...

... but she sure came close. Blood doesn't usually bother me. In fact, it has never bothered me at all. That was BEFORE it was gushing out of my son's head after a fall down the steps (between 2-4 steps). Unfortunately, a display case was there to catch his fall... the corner of the display case.

When I picked him up, the skin on his head was folded like an accordion, and there was a deep deep gash. It bled like crazy, bad at first, after a couple of hours the bleeding really slowed, but didn't completely stop, even with Adam's quick clot stuff he used. It will leave a scar, but chicks dig scars, right? He cried for 1 minute, and mostly because Adam was putting a compress on it. Once he was given a juice box, all was good, and he just wanted us to get out of the way so he could play. lol This kid is SO funny! In fact, I had the hardest time taking a picture of it, because he was running around. I ended up getting a great pic of him smiling though, lol. I made him sit and read some books with me (where's the sheep? Where's the cow? What's that? (butterfly, lawnmower) etc. He did fine, we kept him up until around 9;30 just to make sure he was our normal kid. And yes, he's a goof.

Oregon Trail

My longest business trip to date since I've had my son. I was gone for 2 nights, 3 full days, but my aunt had ares the night I got home, so I went almost an entire 4 days without seeing him. It was killer.

the state is beautiful. I really wished that Adam could be there with me. I flew into Portland, then drove up to Vancouver, Washington for lunch (It was .5 miles from the rental car place, and I had never been to Washington before). Now, I have been to 47 of the states. After lunch, I had a 3.5 hour drive through the Mt.Hood National Forest/Park to Redmond/Bend Oregon. It went like this.... City, Forest, Mountains, Forest, burned trees, trees destroyed by bugs, hills/mesa's and dessert. It's funny how it works. It's like. there's a line, and BAM Trees, and then all of a sudden, no trees and dessert, there's no gradual change to the landscape, it's all so sudden.

I took tons of pics while I was driving, don't worry, I never looked at the camera, just put it on the steering wheel and 'click click click'. Once, I did turn around into a pull off to get some great pics. I had the time, why not!

He went on the PIRATE POTTY

Ares' ultimate favorite book is the Pirate Potty book. We read it about 30 times a day. The other 10 times, we just go through and look at the pictures and point out the different objects and animals in the book.

So today, Adam was reading the book to him while he sat on the potty before bath time 9and he went. Mostly coincidence, but I'm still very proud of him. Here's a spread from the book. He's swinging on the rope to his pirate potty. After he goes potty, a few pages later, everyone is on deck with juice boxes celebrating, hahaha. It's a pretty good book. He reads it to himself and uses the different tones of voices like we do (when we use our pirate voices) lol. Silly parents, I know!

I picked him up from school today, and the director and 3 teachers were all at the door to his classroom staring in. Ares was walking around the classroom pointing everything out. "Butterfly, Bee, Flower, Ball (it was actually an orange), Car, moooooo, Duck, roaaahhhhh (dinosaur)" The director is very impressed and says that he's making animal noises and using a vocabulary that is much older than what he is. She says he's very good with his signs too, and loves it when he signs "more" and "please" right next to each other. He is very polite even when he's signing.

When the phone rings, he says "hello.... hi" That's exactly what I do. He's such a little monkey see monkey do!

Butt er fly

Yes, another word emerged this week. I had forgotton that I taught him butterfly last week when my pajama top had butterflies on it. I had it on again this morning, and when I pulled him out of bed, he pointed to one of the butterflies and said 'butterfly'. Almost perfect English, with no cute baby talk added in. Such a smart boy. I think he learns 3-4 new things each day.

He loves to give people their shoes - and it's nearly impossible to get him to come in the house once we're outside. Even if it's 90+ degrees out.

This kid sweats. A lot. It could be 75 degrees out, and 10 of us outside, and he'd be the only one sweating. You probably get that from your mom's side, as Uncle Justice was the same way as a kid.

"bee and cup"

More Words!

This kid is crazy, we just found out he knows, "bye bye, hello, apple, baby, eye, ballpark (our dog), duck and duckie" He has tried to 'quack' but it doesn't quite sound right yet, *grin*. I also learned that he is not obsessed with his tongue like I originally thought. Sticking his tongue out and panting is the sign for 'dog'. HA!

Success!

Day 1 of sleeping on the cot at school was a success. He and Matthew (the other little boy who is 3 days younger) were both transitioned to the cot on the same day. I seriously thought Ares' ADHD (undiagnosed of course, but undoubtedly there) would have him all over the room when not contained during nap time. But he had two, long naps at the normal times. Good boy!

Kissing - He's at that age where he loves to dole out kisses. I can seriously change diapers the rest of my life if he would stay this age and give me 3 minutes of kisses every day like he has been doing.

List of Words - 16 months

I was busy this weekend with posts, so make sure you scroll down to see the videos and photo that I posted. This week was awesome. Adam drove to Cinci to get his Jeep and drop his convertible off for my cousin (so for the rest of this summer we're only a two car family, which is fine by me) and Ares and I got to bond. We played all morning Saturday, and then went to my parents' house and to the park. He can pretty much do all of the big kid slides and stairs by himself, which makes me nervous. he's already outgrown the baby slides.

We went to Red Robin for dinner, where he was a little fussy, but it was great when he literally gave me about 3 minutes of kisses. It. was. AWESOME! *muah* muah* muah* muah* muah*. The best part was after the first 15 kisses, he remembered to keep his mouth closed, so they were mostly dry kisses. It was so great, I was laughing so hard I was crying. There were other people around to see it too. I'd say, that was the best part of being a mom thus far. 3 minutes of kisses. I hope I can experience that again, but even if I just had it that one time, it was great. I'm trying to get a list of all of his words together. I know I can't remember every one of them right now, but here's a good start.

pickle
more (and he knows the sign)
mama
daddy (and he knows the sign)
papa
book
ppp please (or 'ppp peas' which is funny, because he doesn't say 'peas' when he's eating them)
balloon
bubble
blue
red
green (geeen)
car
cycle (when he sees motorcycles or bicycles)
cheese
Kassi (my cousin who watches him once a week)
cookie
pooh
he knows the signs for
-all done
-sleepy
-play
-daddy
-more
-milk (which he uses for all liquids)

My New Favorite Pic