14 Months!!!!

Mitchell is 14 months old today....and he gets smarter and more fun every single day! He is very inquisitive and into figuring things out! He's holding strong at his 10 or so words, but has starting signing lots more lately. He's probably got 15 to 20 signs. It is so fun to watch him start signing new ones! He is more fond of signing things that he likes - banana, book, dog, ball & balloon tend to be the most common signs.



He is VERY social! He LOVES waving and blowing kisses to people - including complete strangers! I've had multiple people say "I think he's going to grow up to be an entertainer of some sort." We'll see about that one! Jacob and I are REALLY enjoying this stage! His own little personality is really starting to shine through!

Current likes: BALLOONS - He goes crazy over them when we see them in stores! Luckily, the grocery store gives them to little kids, which then entertains Mitchell for the next day or so!

Current dislikes - He's at a great stage right now, where he doesn't seem to throw fits about much at all. He is not a fan of changing his clothes though...mostly because it interupts his play.

Favorite shoes

This is Mitchell's favorite pair of my shoes (Yes, they are a bit strange!)

I asked him the rhetorical "Mitchell what are those?" question and he looked right at me and signed and said "Ball". I suppose he's right!?!?

Mommy, I'm not sure why you're wearing these balls on your feet?

Fredonia

Four Generations of Apollos

My mom came to visit for the weekend and we headed down to Fredonia, Kansas (small town in Southeast Kansas) to visit family! My mom grew up in Fredonia and much of my family still lives close! My Aunt and Uncle were kind enough to host us (THANK YOU!) We had a WONDERFUL visit catching up with the family and spending lots of time with the little man! :)


Great Grandpa's boy

When we were little we used to spend LOTS of time in Fredonia playing with our cousins and running around on our grandparents farm! My grandpa is likely one of the nicest, patient men you'll ever meet! See number 6 below!


Meeting Mitchell's Mommy's, Mommy's Mommy

We also took Mitchell to visit my late grandma. She has been gone almost 10 years now and we miss her dearly.
She gave the best hugs! :)

Top ten Fredonia memories
TEN
My grandpa always took us with him to "help" him feed his cattle in the mornings. When dropping off hay, he'd put his truck in neutral and let it glide through the field while he dumped the hay out of the back. Although he needed no real help, he'd ask us to "drive" for him. It seemed like such an important job to us!
NINE
My grandpa would take us to the livestock auctions with him on Tuesdays. Our great uncle Leonard was always there too, and he'd buy us a snack and a pop. We thought it was kind of like a circus with animals coming in and out. Good thing we didn't realize their fate at the time!
EIGHT
I'm sure my mom packed us plenty of pajamas for our trip, but we always loved wearing my grandpa's undershirts to bed! I'm struggling to remember the specifics now, but he had several that said something like "I'm a country boy" on them. We'd sift through his undershirt drawer until we'd find the exact one to put on after bath time. I also "borrowed" a pink and white striped nightshirt from my grandma once. It was so soft! I wore it to bed and then tried to convince my grandpa that I could put a belt around it and wear it to the Tuesday cattle sale the next day! He didn't go for that one! It might be the only time he's ever told me no! I still wear the nightshirt. It's torn and tattered, but I still think of them everytime I put it on. :)
SEVEN
My grandma's cooking! She was an amazing cook! My personal favorites were her "tiger" pancakes with white karo syrup and her sugar cookies. Yum!!! The best part about making cookies with my grandma was that she NEVER yelled at you for eating the dough!
SIX
At ~12 years of age, I decided to "style" my grandpa's horse's mane by cutting it bangs. I mean bangs were all the rage, what? My grandpa didn't even get mad!
FIVE
If we weren't playing on my grandparents farm, there were two other places you could find us....1. my cousin's trampoline 2. the Fredonia pool. I could not even tell you how many hours we must've spent at each! If only I had a $1 for every "crack the egg" game that we played!
FOUR
I LOVED playing in their barn! They had a big barn swing that seemed to stretch from one side of the barn to the other! It was so fun to kick your feet up in the air and lean your head back to dangle your head down and pretend you were a trapeze artist! I also distingly remember grandpa parking his truck filled with soybeans in the lower level and letting us jump off the 2nd floor and land in the soybeans! So fun!
THREE
Have I ever told you that I am directionally challenged? As the oldest grandchild, my grandma asked me to take my younger cousins on a walk to the nearby garden. I went the wrong way and ended up getting the whole gang stuck in a muddy field! We played search and rescue for our shoes that were stuck in the sunken mud and struggled to get everyone back to dry ground. My grandma certainly had "words" with me upon my return! We were all stripped down and bathed in a big metal bucket in the front yard.
TWO
We took lots of fishing trips! My grandpa stocked his pond at the Southplace with fish. We even got to take the little boat out on it now and then. We were sure to be COVERED in ticks upon our return!
ONE
Fredonia is the county seat of Wilson county and they hosted the County Fair and Rodeo each summer. We ALWAYS planned to be in Fredonia that week! Although we loved the fair, the Rodeo was the highlight of our summer! We LOVED it all - the barrel racing, bare back riding, bull riding, clowns and most of all the event where they tied ribbons on the back of calves and the kids chased them around to try to get the ribbons. Each ribbon earned you a brand new crisp $1 bill! My sister got one once....oh, I was so jealous :)

As the pediatrician predicted, Mitchell is now following commands! I've been testing him a lot lately and am surprised by how much he seems to understand! One of my favorites is "Mitchell, can you put this is the trash can for mommy?" Typically referring to one of the hundreds of kleenex that we go through each day with his faucet of a nose.

We played 'hunt for shoes tonight'. As always, we had a few pairs of random shoes (including a pair of Mitchell's) scattered around the bedroom floor. He randomly brought me one shoe. Shoe is one of his favorite signs. I asked him to go find the other one, and he did! Then I asked him to find a bigger shoe, and he brought me Jacob's. Fun game :)

Sometimes when I look at pictures of him, he looks even older to me than he does in real life. This is one of those pictures! There is no denying it, he is certainly a toddler!

Turning over a new leaf at bedtime

Mitchell has ALWAYS struggled with bedtime. He is not one of those kiddos that will doze off slowly in your arms. Usually he'll be playing and having fun, and then all of the sudden he will spiral downhill quickly into a turns into a tired, fussy mess...signaling bedtime! We place him in his crib and he'll cry himself to sleep. So sad! Traditionally, this chain of events occurred right around 7pm.

Lately, he's been stretching out his nights, where he'll reach 8pm and starts to show signs of sleepiness, but no downward spiral. Yeah! We take him into his room, start some comforting lullaby music and rock him for maybe 30 seconds before placing him in his crib.

The last two nights he has started reaching for his crib while I'm rocking him! Amazing! I place him inside and there is no crying...just slowly drifts of to sleep.

This may not seem like much some of you, but it is a major breakthrough for us!

He also gave us 1 1/2 to 2 hour naps both Saturday and Sunday. That is longer than usual. He's usually a 30 min to 45 min napper. What are we going to do with all of this extra time?!?! :)

New toy obsession

Mitchell's latest toy obsession is this little wagon that Aunt Kel got him for Christmas. It's intended to cart around toys, but lately he's discovered that he can also ride it it! He LOVES it. He crawls in and out of it all day long. He will literally sit in there as long as you will pull him. He even ate his afternoon snack while sitting in the wagon yesterday.

I think Sherri introduced the wagon "riding" when she was watching him the other night. He is a big fan! My mom and David got him this cute little Valentine's shirt. We had a great Valentine's day yesterday :)

Jacob plays basketball witht he guys on Sunday afternoons, so Mitchell and I go swimming at our gym pool. We are looking forward to it!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Hallmark holiday or not...we'd still like to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day!
He got some cute Valentine's packages in the mail....thanks so much!



They also had a little Valentine's party at daycare yesterday, and he came home with an entire bag of little valentines and candies. Mommy and Daddy are on the hunt for a singing balloon today. We think he'll love it....we also think that we might hate it!

Kitchen remodel

Am I allowed to blog about things unrelated to Mitchell? :)

We're well into our kitchen remodel. Here are some pics.

Before



After
New granite counter tops, backsplash, gas cooktop and sink
We also lowered the breakfast bar to make the island all one level.

Closer picture of new cooktop, granite counter tops and backsplash

Next up? Stain the cabinets darker and paint the walls a creamy caramel color. Specific color suggestions are welcomed :)

I would blog about Mitchell but I haven't seen him awake in a few days now :( I have not been out of town, but I've left for work before he wakes up (around 6:30am these days) and haven't been home before bedtime (8pmish). It's been a crazy, busy week and Jacob, my dad and Sherri have been sharing Mitchell duties. Unfortunately, I have to be on the road by 6:30am again tomorrow morning, so I'll miss him again in the morning...but WILL be home before bedtime! AND - I'll get all weekend to catch up with him!!! I CAN'T wait!

New hairdo

Mitchell woke up with some crazy bed head hair yesterday. Despite my attempts to get it to lay down, I couldn't get it to cooperate....soooo I decided to just spike all of his hair instead. The first picture is how it looked at first, but I think I put a little too much product in, so I kept playing with it until it calmed down a bit (see 2nd pic).

Is it Halloween or something, Mom?


Is Gap hiring baby models?

The ladies at daycare LOVED it! Or maybe they just said that? :)

Mitchell Bio

Quick bio

A current like:
Riding around on daddy's shoulders



A current dislike:
Having his faucet of a nose wiped with a kleenex

Just plain cute:
When he lays his head on my shoulder, I will pat his back. He will reach his little arm around and pat my back too! :)

New word:
Light - (he's trying to say it anyway)

New sign:
Book

Self-feeding

Daycare claims Mitchell is wonderful at feeding himself with a spoon. They often give him pudding for an afternoon snack and say that he can feed it to himself with no mess. Jacob decided to test Mitchell's self-feeding skils the other night with a bowl of pumpkin soup.

I think the results speak for themselves! :)

Skinny????

A few of you have mentioned that you think Mitchell looks skinny these days. He definitely is thinning out...everywhere except for his tummy!!! His little neck finally emerged and the arm and leg "bands" are slowly stretching out...but his tummy is still in full force! It's kind of funny how adult oversized tummies are not attractive, but somehow I think Mitchell's stuffed belly is the cutest thing in the world :)



Get in my belly!

Ach! I can't believe you're posting this picture!

If you're happy and you know it...

Just a little video of Mitchell. Whenever we sing "If you're happy and you know it", he will clap and throw his hands in the air and shoot "hooray" on the appropriate versus! I think it's the cutest, but you can see for yourselves :)

I caught them in the midst of coming down the stairs in the video. Mitchell has been really good at sliding down the stairs on his own for quite some time. In fact, it was often kind of fun to watch him because he would start his backwards approach a pretty good distance from the first stair and would slide himself backwards for a ways before he'd even reach the first stair. Well...he's over that now. Apparently he feels that he's mastered the backwards slide and refuses to do it anymore. He now wants to either walk down or slide down frontwards on his bottom. He obviously needs a little help!

I'm teaching my JCCC Acctg class on Thursday nights this semester, so Jacob will have to rush home from Topeka in time to "babysit". I continue to remind him that it's not called "babysitting" when it's your own child...it's called parenting :)

Books and Balls

Mitchell is still a "book" and "ball" boy! He loves them! I'm practicing commands with him, "Mitchell, bring mommy that book and she'll read it to you!" He'll do about 1/2 of the time :) He often does it when I don't ask though. He will sit in my lap and let me read him about the first two pages and then he'll lose interest and go get another and another and another... We have stacks of books all over the house that just get transported from one location to another. He's starting to get pretty good at trying to pick things out of the books...dogs, cats, bananas, balls, cheese, etc.

Although he likes playing with his balls himself, he REALLY likes watching Jacob and I throw them up in the air. Fairly often, he will sit in between us and we'll throw the ball back and forth to eachother over him like keep-away. He will just laugh and smile and watch intently, rarely tiring of it before we do! We do our terrible trick attempts like tossing it between our legs and around our backs....we look like a couple of idiots, but the look of amazement on his face makes us feel like Harlem Globetrotters! :)

One for me, one for Tex....

We weighed Tex in at his latest vet appointment and he's gained TEN pounds since Mitchell started eating table food! Hmm.....coincidence? I think not :)


Here, doggy have a cheerio.

Let me try it with out even looking!

This is fun! Have another!

Your tongue is sooo slimey!

Although Mitchell usually just calls him "dog". He also seems to have started calling him "Tex" lately.
He will also say "dog" or "Tex" when he hears him barking outside, so he has started associating bark with dog. :)

The never-ending project

Here are a few pics of our basement....the never-ending project. The inital project began literally 2 years ago, but we've just kicked it into gear a bit in hopes of maybe *actually* finishing it this year. The finished project will include a bedroom, bathroom, office, playroom , family room and bar/kitchen. You're looking at part of the "family room" in the above picture. You're standing in the family room looking towards the bar/kitchen in the lower picture. The electrical will be run next weekend and then we'll have to do the insulation before drywall. Fun, fun!

Just about everything down there is either filthy dirty or dangerous...so as you can imagine, Mitchell LOVES to go down there. He can literally play down there for hours! Look at his dirty bum in this picture. He typically wears jeans with this outfit, but we had taken them off for diaper change when Jacob summoned us to the basement for a consultation/"see what I've accomplished" session.

I found the map to the treasure!


Who needs Lincoln logs when I can build with REAL boards?!

Nice weather!

We were lucky enough to get to be outside yesrerday and enjoy some of the nice weather! It was in the 50's yesterday morning (when these pictures were taken) and quickly climbed to the 70's by the afternoon! We met some friends for lunch at Quinton's in Lawrence and walked up and down Mass Street with everyone else who crawled out of the woodworks to enjoy the nice weather.

I went to dinner with some girlfriends in the new Power & Light district downtown. The food wasn't the best, but the company was great! :)

While I was at dinner, Jacob took Mitchell for a manly shopping trip to.....I'll give you two guesses.....Lowes. He's making LOTS of progress on the basement! In fact he's down there now putting up the boxes for the electrical outlets, ceiling fixtures and light switches. For a guy that literally knew NOTHING about home improvements before hand, he sure has come a long way! We're also doing some work on our kitchen (new countertops, backsplash, etc). I'll post some pictures!