Mitchell's 2 year check-up

Mitchell had his 2 year check up at the pediatrician this week. Here are his stats:

Weight - 33 lbs; 90-95% percentile
Height - 35 inches; 75% percentile

The doctor was very impressed with his ability to put sentences together,annunciation and vocabulary. (He pointed out Sting Rays, Dolphins, Sharks, Fish and Manatees on the acquarium like wall as he was being examed!)

Our pediatrician has FIVE boys, so she gave us some words of encouragement on shaking up Mitchell's world with the new baby. She also said to hold off pursuing potty training until we're all settled with the new little baby to avoid too many changes at once.

Since this blog is basically my babybook, I wanted to document some of Mitchell's recent accomplishments as of 2 years of age:

• Counting to at least 10 in English...and working on Spanish
• Singing the first part of his A B C's
• Identifying some letters (M, B, P, etc) - we're working on them!
• Knows several shapes (circle, star, square, triangle)
• He has gone potty in the big boy potty maybe 1o times now! He is not consistent yet, and we only put him on there when he asks...but we're hoping he'll continue to show interest!
• He LOVES coloring with crayons, markers, pens - really anything he can get his hands on. If you ask him what he's drawing, he'll use his little imagination and come up with something like "a barn with a cow" or "an octopus swimming". They never even closely resemble what he mentions, but we don't let him know that :)

He is growing and learning each and every day! Keeping us on our toes and constantly challenged :) Life is great!

Mitchell's Birthday Highlights!

Mitchell had a WONDERFUL 2nd birthday! Jacob and I literally don't think it could've been any better :) Here are some highlights....he certainly had a TRAIN filled day!

Jacob's Dad and Diane sent us a riding train with tracks that we set up in a figure eight around the living room. They were ready to go when he woke up...he was so excited (although you can't tell by his face in this picture)! He figured out quickly how to ride the train and was infatuated with it all day!

We took him to Fritz's for lunch. It's a local restaurant with trains that deliver your food. He LOVED it!

Here's our little birthday boy engineer :)

He got a chocolate sundae as a free birthday treat. He liked the whipped cream better than the icecream - silly boy!

We had lots of help celebrating from family, who joined us for ice cream and cake...and lots of present opening!

Aunt Kel and Mark made the trip from Minneapolis to celebrate with the little guy!

Aunt Darci came from Dubuque, Iowa to see her nephew :)

Dad and Sherri bought him this cute Birthday Boy shirt (among other things) and joined us for the festivities as well!

My mom and David spoiled him for a week straight...including Christmas and his birthday! They headed home yesterday morning. Mitchell woke from yesterday's nap asking "Where's Grandma? I want to play with her." Luckily she'll be back when the new baby arrives!



We all sang Happy Birthday and the little guy blew out his own candles on his train cake.



It tasted as yummy as it looked!

As if he wasn't spoiled enough from everyone else's birthday presents that we had already opened, we saved his new room for last. We finally let him come in and despite our efforts to get the entire room ready for him, he had eyes ONLY for the new train set! I have never seen him play with a toy for as long as he has played with his train set! He LOVES it!

After an hour or two, he did finally start checking out the rest of the room...including his new big boy bed. I am PROUD to report that he is soundly sleeping in his big boy bed for the very FIRST time as I type! After laying him down the first time, he got up once and came to the top of the stairs shouting..."Mommy & Daddy, I'm awake." Jacob took him back in again and we haven't heard a peep out of him since. We both realize this could be a long night - we'll see!

A Gift From Above

Twinkle, twinkle, my little star

Do you know how precious you are?

Our little teapot with his handle and spout

Getting steamed up and letting it out!

Reminiscing about my little man

Is sure to bring about a smile

To think of how you've grown this year

In your own, very unique style.

I think about your beautiful red hair

Certainly your most unique physical trait

Typically mild mannered and a crowd pleaser

But often stubborn and strong-willed...oh, great!

You are Mr. Independent

How dare I try to assist!

"I can do it" or "Just Mitchell"are heard often,

I think you get the jist :)

Late at night, tucked in to rest,

We are certain to get request after request

for One more book, One more song

One more hug, 'cause the night is so long!

As we rock, your sweet head resting on my shoulder

I realize tonight that you're one year older

Quiety we rock to and fro

I begin to face the truth I know...

Times like these will soon come to an end

And you will say goodbye to your childhood ways

Your innocence and sweet little voice will mature

And we'll all have a hard time remembering your younger days

So grow up little boy, you have my blessing

to continue learning and growing, trying and testing.

And Daddy and I will do our best to catch you when you fall.
With God as our guide, we'll give it our all.

That's all we can do, to Love with full measure

Our precious child, one earthly treasure

That's you, little one, and soon another

For it's only a few weeks before we welcome your brother!

So Happy Birthday, my two-year old love

You certainly are a gift from above.

We Love you,

Mommy and Daddy

Merry Christmas!

We had a very, Merry Christmas! It was Mitchell's 2nd Christmas and the last one where he was the complete center of attention! He loved opening one present after another :) We enjoyed having my mom and step-dad here for the celebration, and my Dad and Sherri too! Here are a few pics!

Yeah, it's Christmas! Come on down, Mitchell and see what Santa left for you!

The excitement is building as he reaches the bottom of the stairs :)

Believe me Santa....I'm nice!

We ventured outside to sled...he didn't make it too long! It was COLD!

Grandma and Mitchell in their Santa hats.

Mitchell's reaction when he told him that Christmas only comes once a year!

The holidays were VERY happy this year!

We're celebrating Mitchell's 2nd birthday today! I'll post our pictures later!

Trip to Oklahoma

We took a short trip to Oklahoma this weekend! It was really nice to spend some quality time with Jacob's Mom and step-dad and Jacob's grandparents too. We celebrated Christmas and Mitchell's birthday...he was very spoiled with presents!





Singing happy birthday to our almost 2 year old :)

Gran is well aware of the disadvantages of having a birthday around Christmas. Her birthday is TODAY (Dec 20th!)
Happy Birthday, Gran!



We Granny & Papa (Jacob's grandparents) while were in town. We also visited his Dad's Mom, Lois...but I neglected to get a picture.

Mitchell behaved even better than we expected on the 6 hour trip each way!

That was our last pre-baby trip! Now we're staying put 'til little brother arrives! We are so excited to celebrate Christmas and Mitchell's birthday this week :)

Folks' Fast Fixin' Fudge

Jacob's Dad has a yummy recipe for quick fudge. It's become a family tradition to make around Christmas and Mitchell was so helpful this year!

Chopping the nuts

One for the fudge, one for me....

First taste...very cautious as always!

Carefully considering whether he likes it or not...

He likes it!

Unfortunately, Tex was also REALLY tempted by the fudge and managed to eat an ENTIRE tray of it while we were away! :( Chocolate is poison to dogs, so obviously we were worried how he'd fare. He vomited most of it up (and have a nice new chocolate stain on our carpet), but otherwise he has been doing just fine. We had to unload him onto my dad the day after he ate it because we were headed to Oklahoma and he nursed him back to health....making him special rice to eat and everything. Thanks to many consulations with my "might as well be a vet" sister and Dad, Tex will be just fine :)

San Antonio

We're back and had a GREAT time! Mitchell was a joy MOST of the time and Jacob and I enjoyed spending some quality time together...unlike most of our evenings spent catching up on DVR'd shows on the couch while simultaneously working away on our laptops. :)

Here are some pics and trip highlights!

The riverwalk was all decorated for Christmas! Apparently 2 men do ALL of the decorating by using a bucket truck. It takes them 3 months to get it decorated and another 3 months to undecorate, so essentially the riverwalk is atleast partially decorated over half of the year!

No trip to San Antonio is complete without a trip to the Alamo. We quickly learned that it was a little confusing for Mitchell to see "Elmo" one day at SeaWorld and the "Alamo" the next. I think he was a bit disappointed with this old building :)

We all enjoyed a guided tour boatride through the riverwalk. It is beautiful scenery and landscaping - lots of restaurants and people. Mitchell enjoyed the waterfalls and ducks! There are no railings on either side of the riverwalk, so we tried to keep Mitchell confined to his stroller as much as possible!

My Kansas City men on the San Antonio riverwalk boat. The weather was really nice on Saturday...70s and sunny. It was chillier (60s) and overcast the other couple of days, but still beat the 13 degree weather we came home to yesterday!

The riverboat ride wore our little boy out; he was sound asleep by the end of it. We were often in the middle of activities at Mitchell's bedtime or naptime, but he adapted so well...usually by either falling asleep in my arms or in his stroller. Twice (once on the bus ride home from SeaWorld and on the plane ride home) he alerted me that he was ready to crawl up in my arms and take a nap by asking me "Mommy, can you rock me like a baby?" What mother can refuse that sweet request?! :)

While at SeaWorld, Mitchell visited the real Santa AND Shamu Santa...I'll leave it up to you to determine which is which :)

We visited the dolphins at SeaWorld. Mitchell loved watching them and we all enjoyed being able to get so close to them and even pet them!

We bought some dolphin food (fish) to feed them. Mitchell really enjoyed watching me feed, but wasn't quite so sure about picking up the dead, slimy fishies. Can't say I blame him!

We all really enjoyed the Shamu show...actually so much that we watched it twice. Once during the day and also caught the last show of the night too. Given the overcast weather, there were NO CROWDS at SeaWorld! There are literally maybe 1,000 people in the entire park. We never waited a minute for anything - it was great! We did avoid the 3 or 4 water rides though (many of which Mitchell and I couldn't have gone on anyway). There were some brave families doing them though....and I could already picture Mitchell and his little brother dragging us on them at age 10 or so.

Daddy and Mitchell with Shamu in the background

Two whales jumping - aren't they amazing creatures!

Here is Mitchell on one of our many of bus rides. We chose to take public transportation rather than rent a car or take cabs. It was a little slower and a pain to figure out all of the routes at first, but a huge money saver.

A little transportation story......

We had connecting bus routes to get us to the basketball game (see below). It was rainy, chilly and getting dark that night. One bus dropped us off at the bus stop, and we were pleased to see that our connecting bus was already there! We quickly unloaded and ran towards our connecting bus only to inhale fumes as it took off as we were waving furiously in their rear view mirrors. :( A police man happened to be at the bus stop and quickly approached us and offered to take us where we needed to go. We rode safe and sound to the basketball stadium in the back of the police car. We told Mitchell that this was the only time we wanted to see him in the back of a police car! He called the man a "very nice police man", which the police man got a big kick out off :)

We took Mitchell to his first professional basketball game on Friday night. The Spurs took on the Charlotte bobcats (sorry, Celeste, the Spurs won). He REALLY enjoyed it! He was VERY entertained by the game, sitting so nicely in our laps to enjoy it!

We calculated that we spent a grand total of ~$500 on our 4 night, 5 night vacation. We used frequent flyer miles to book free flights and hotel points to get a free hotel stay, so the $200 was merely meals and entertainment. Although we were thrify, there really wasn't anything I wished we would've done that we might've avoided due to cost. We really had a great time!

First snowfall

This was taken on our last "nice" weekend in Kansas City! We now have 2 inches of snow covering the lawn! We bundled Mitchell up last night and ventured out into the snow covered yard - he LOVED it! He was so fascinated by how he could see his own footprints in it! He did figure 8's all through our yard and around into both of our neighbors yards, laughing and giggling while he walked. Our next door neighbor called later and said "it looks like Mitchell enjoyed the snow" :)

I just thought I'd share a few of my recent favorite Mitchell quotes....

1. "I want to pet Tex. He is sooooooooooo cute."

2. Jacob and Mitchell picked me up the other day in the car. I asked Jacob "How are you doing?" Jacob responded "Good." And then this little voice piped up from the backseat and said "I'm good too!"

3. Mitchell and I were reading a book about a whale who ate a fish and Mitchell looked over to Jacob and said "Daddy, can you believe it?"

4. On my 3rd try at getting Jacob out of bed the other morning, I said "Jacob Folks, get out of bed!" Mitchell said "He's not Jacob Folks. He's Daddy."

The 32 week check-up went great on Monday. I'm measuring right on target and the little guy remains active! He's not 'head down' yet, so the doctor will monitor that over the next two appointments and hope that he'll move in that direction!

The doctor was fine with us travelling to San Antonio for our last pre-baby vacation! We leave Friday morning and return Tuesday afternoon. We are really excited for our first professional basketball game, SeaWorld and to see the Riverwalk all decorated for Christmas! We're also a little anxious for slightly warmer weather!

Visit to Santa Claus!

Mitchell got to see Santa Claus today! He was excited to sit on his lap...not the least bit scared :)

~
Cheese!

Is that beard real?

Do I have a beard?

Christmas Book Advent

On December 1st, Mitchell started his Christmas Book Advent! We wrapped up a little Christmas story that he can open each day until Christmas day. I missed the first two days due to traveling to Des Moines for work, but Jacob took some pictures of his first book opening.


What's this here under the tree?

Let me carefully rip off this paper to see what's inside!

Oooh...it's a Santa book!

Let's read it!

I can't wait to open tonight's book with him!