Twenty One Months (Take Two)

Giving a different kind of chair a try :)



Lately Mitchell has started to become pretty interested in the potty (and stickers as you can likely see 3 on his leg). He's not ready to start potty training yet, but it'll be here before we know it!

He LOVES riding bikes and is actually getting really good with the peddles! We have picked up a few different types at various garage sales and are still working to find the right one for his size.

We had another really nice weekend - even witnessing my FIRST Royal's win of the season today! Too bad it was their last home game! We even got to go down the on the field and run the bases after the game. Despite the long wait (why did we choose a sold-out game to try to run the bases?), Mitchell really enjoyed it! It was a little dificult to keep him off of the grass, but he had a blast stomping on all four bases!

Each time I post one of his monthly chair pictures, I am excited about his new milestones and also a little sad about how quickly the time is passing us by. We LOVE this age. He is so funny with his little quips and sayings! He literally catches onto about anything we say now days, often repeating things that we'd rather him not repeat....today's examples "Oh my God!" and "Glad you liked it".

I literally wish he'd just stay this age forever...but I think I've said that at just about every age :)

4 years and counting....

Jacob and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary on Thursday. I was in Iowa for the week (hence the lack of blogging), but came back into town on Thursday so that we could celebrate.



My dad and Sherri watched Mitchell so that we could hit up a movie in the new fancy AMC theatre downtown. It was really fun! Lazy-boy seats that rumble with the action, in seat food & drink service, etc!

We can hardly believe it's already been 4 years - time flies when you're having fun :)

21 weeks along!

I'm 21 weeks along today -- officially past the half way point! I'm feeling the baby move more and more each day. The strong kicks are much more prevalent than the fluttery feelings that I had more often weeks ago! I'm still feeling great; sure hope it continues!



We did a little garage saleing this morning...although we're set on boy's infant clothes, we couldn't help but purchase a "Little Brother" onesie that we happened upon! Mitchell also picked the new baby a pair of "baseball shoes"..he literally continued to bring them to me and clearly tell me over and over that they were "baseball shoes" until I caved :) We figured that if nothing else, it will increase Mitchell's interest in the new little guy. I think Mitchell is still pretty clueless about what's in store for him! Our friend, Kristen Seager, just sent him a "Big Brother" book today! What a NICE GIFT! I'm hoping this is one book that he will want to read over and over - as it should help prepare him for his new role.

Our plan is to give the new little guy the nursery and create the room next door into Mitchell's big boy room. We've got quite a bit of work to do to get Mitchell's new room ready, including painting the walls, buying new furniture and organizing the closet. Good thing we've got some time! :)

Pumpkin Patch!

We made our annual trip to the KC Pumkin Patch today in Gardner, KS! We had a coupon for a free visit that expired today. We figured it might be less crowded since it was early in the season. Man, were we wrong -- it was packed! Luckily, there are so many things to do, it didn't seem quite as crowded as it was! Mitchell really enjoyed himself, but we played well into nap time...hence the distant gaze on his face below. Upon heading home, he was asleep before we left the parking lot.



He REALLY enjoyed the several slides! He is such a big boy and can do them all by himself...although you notice Jacob standing with a watchful eye from the top of the slide. :)



We spent quite a bit of time trudging through the vines to pick out the perfect pumpkin.


"Oh, man....how will I ever choose?"




In the end, he was very happy with his selection...and we were all very satisfied with the trip!

Dog Park

We took Mitchell and Tex to the Shawnee Mission Lake Dog Park this past weekend. I'm not sure who had more fun....

It was a BEAUTIFUL morning, and strolling through the dog park was a wonderful way to spend it!


Mitchell enjoyed pointing out the "Big Dogs" vs. the "Little Dogs".

And as always, Daddy is sure to spark a giggle from the little man.

On an unrealated note, I've been battling insomnia lately. I have no idea why and honestly think it's Gods way of slowing starting to prepare me for the sleepless nights ahead! It's funny how I literally COULD NOT get enough sleep the first few months, and now I can't make myself sleep. I have no problem getting to sleep, but then wake at 3am or 4am with my mind racing through to do lists. Rather than doing anything remotely productive this early morning, I decided to buy Mitchell some Christmas books on Ebay. I bought him 25 Christmas books and am going to wrap them up individually and put them under the tree and allow him to open one each day...our own version of an Advent calendar. I hope he'll love it :)

Cat Nap and Funny Quotes

Mitchell may have some competition for his baseball glove these days. The cat has become rather fond of it :)



It appears to double as a pillow.

Mitchell is still talking up a storm these days! On Sunday night, we were preparing his things for 'school' on Monday.

Me: "Mitchell, are you excited to go to school tomorrow?"

Mitchell: "Yeah"

Me: "Who are you going to see there? Maybe Ms. Mary?"

Mitchell: "Ummmm......Hudson...ummmm....Piper......Brady....Abby" He really does say "ummmm" - ha!

Me: "Anyone else?"

Mitchell: "Nolan"

Me: "Very good, Buddy. You just named them all!"

I was so proud of him that he could remember all of their names. As we were entering daycare today, we saw Abby's mom on her way out and Mitchell said "Where Abby?" Apparently he knows their parents too!

A few minutes later while dropping him off, he immediately starting playing with the same toy as Hudson (another boy) and when Hudson tried to take it from him, Mitchell said "Stop it, Hudson Weigel". Apparently he knows their last names too! Ha!

Great reminder that we REALLY need to watch what we say around him these days!

Some of my favorite quotes lately...
1. When prompted to stop riding his bike so that we could go somewhere..."In a minute, Mommy."
2. When caught mid-way of climbing up onto the kitchen counter to get a pen to 'color' with....Mitchell, get down from there! Response: "I be careful"
3. Through the monitor each morning, I wake to "Mommy? Momma? Good morning, Momma? Good morning, Momma?"
4. After my dad spoils him with small swigs of soda pop.."Mitchell, do you want water or mik with dinner?" "Mitchell want pop." Yes, lately he's been referring to himself in 3rd person. And no, we did not have pop with dinner.
5. When prompted what he wants for dinner tonight, he answered "mushroom pizza" Where did that come from??? And no, we did not have mushroom pizza for dinner either.

Oh the joys :)

It's a....................

BOY!!!! We had our sonogram appointment today at the doctor. We were extremely happy to learn that we appear to be having one healthy little baby boy! He was very active for the sonogram, kicking and moving all over :) His parts and organs are all in the right places and his little heart had all four quadrants beating at 144 bpm.

We think Mitchell will be very excited to have a little brother to grow up with, and can only imgine the trouble that the two of them will encounter :) Although we would've been equally excited to have a little girl, we are very content with the idea of two little boys. Now the question is....will this be the last one??? So far our gut seems to be tempting us for one more, but we've lots of time for those decisions! Afterall, I've still got 20 weeks left of this pregnancy!

Grandma & Grandpa Bays visit!

My mom and David visited last weekend and we had a great time! Here they are at the Royal's game on Saturday night. They lost AGAIN. I have yet to witness a winning game this season...maybe I'm bad luck?

Mitchell contines to LOVE his books!!!



We made a trip to Fredonia on Sunday for a family Labor Day picnic. It was great to catch up with our family! Mitchell was a filthy mess when we returned ~ successful trip on his part!!!

Mmmmm...watermelon :)


He was a big fan of this caterpillar until he accidentally smashed it...oops! He didn't understand why it stopped moving??? Oh, we'll save those explanations for a later date!


Another great visit, we can't wait to see them again in a month when we visit!

Sorry for the posting delay. I've been travelling for work this week. Up to Ames, Iowa; back to Columbia, Missouri; up to Cedar Falls, Iowa; over to Lawrence, KS and finally back home today! I have spent more hours in the car than I've slept, I think! I did witness lots of corn fields, one of the famous madison county covered bridges, a few horse drawn carriages (Amish?), MANY orange barrels and even the birthplace of Mark Twain! Obviously the main objective was to meet some great college students for potential Ernst & Young employees, so hopefully the trips were worth it. No trips outside of the Kansas borders next week, whew!

Jacob's Dad is visiting this weekend. I'll post some pictures soon :)

Kickin' it

"What? It moves?"

I felt little baby bean kicking around for the first time today. Nice to know he/she's alive and kickin' in there! :)

Jacob finally returns home tonight! He's been gone since last Wednesday. Unfortunately, I'll be on my way to Mizzou for an event when he gets home. I'll be home tomorrow night though to spend the long weekend with both of my guys, and my mom and David who are making the trip down to visit us! We are headed to a Royal's game on Saturday night and family picnic on Sunday. It should be a great long weekend!

Mitchell has been kind of accident prone this week, he sure is a rough and tumble boy. He received TWO accident reports from daycare yesterday! He now has a cut on his nose and teeth marks on his shoulder from another daycare kid, in addition to a bruise on his forehead from an earlier fall that just won't go away! :( Good thing he's a tough guy! They don't slow him down at all!

Self Feeder

We've got a self-feeder on our hands...and it's a mess!

I told you he's independent these days, including meal time. I also let him try to feed himself things that I honestly know will be a mess, but I think it's good for him to explore...and due to a good bib the clean-up really isn't as bad as it looks! Plus, selfishly when I let him feed himself, it buys me 15 minutes to clean the kitchen and due dishes without having to worry about what he's into...I KNOW what he's into :)



He's even got pudding in his hair below causing it to stick up :)

If nothing else, the pictures are worth the mess!

I should've taken a picture of him tonight when he somehow found a red pen as I was hanging a few shirts in my closet. I caught him drawing on his tummy! Good thing he'd only been at it for maybe 1 whole minute...as soon as I didn't hear him talking for 30 seconds, I started to worry. He is a jabberbox until he's really found something to entertain himself!

18 Weeks

Here is a picture of my growing belly.



...and Mitchell's too :)



I'm 18 weeks along today; almost half way there! I can't believe how fast it's going! It seems much faster than when I was pregnant with Mitchell. Maybe I have less time to dwell on it because things are much busier with Mitchell around :)

Mitchell and I had a wonderful day together today, with Jacob being out of town this weekend. We took advantage of the fall weather and spent some time outdoors. We went to my friend's son's baseball game (Taby's son, Dylan) and Mitchell had lots of fun watching! I brought his little glove and baseball along and he performed his leg raising pitches over and over again, getting MANY laughs from the parents in the crowd. He also pretended to run the bases when the boys were running..oh, I think we've got ourselves a future ballplayer!

He's not a teenager anymore!

Happy 20 months!!!

Grandpa bought Mitchell his first Chiefs shirt, which he wears proudly despite the season outlook :) Mitchell is SO MUCH FUN lately. He is talking up a storm and starting to make little sentences. It's always so entertaining to see what's going to come out of his mouth next! He knows all of his little daycare buddies by name "Bye Bye, Brady" or "Good Morning, Piper." My dad thinks Mitchell acts like a politician as he leaves daycare, waving and giving high fives to all of the old people. :)

He continues to say so many things that make me think 'how did he know that?' He saw a number 8 on his jersey shirt the other day and promptly pointed at it and said "Eight". I questioned whether I heard him right the first time, but he was certain to tell me the same thing many more times. He's also learning his colors, the favorite seeming to be blue. He can pick out a few letters too. He realizes that books have pictures and words, but if I ask him what a word says, he always answers "hi". Apparently every word is a greeting :) Books and balls continue to be his favorite toys! Jacob's Mom (Gran) continues to send Mitchell fun new books, which he loves to read over and over! He memorizes little things about each of them, and can barely sit through the first few pages until we get to part that he remembers. And only he is allowed to turn pages now days, hands off Mommmy!

Our house constantly looks like a hurricane hit it. He's into EVERYTHING! He's so adventurous and curious! He's becoming really good at swimming! We visited the local baby last week a few times and he's crazy for the water slides, demanding absolutely no assistance from me...did I mention he's really independent these days? "I do it!" is a common phrase around here!

In the water, he crawls around using his arms and kicking his legs behind him and even tries to float on his back and kick his legs. He has learned what the word "pretty" means and will often tell me when ladies on magazine covers, etc are pretty. We had a cute lifeguard at the baby pool the other day and Mitchell pointed to her and told me "pretty". Of course the lifeguard heard him and got a kick out of that one. :)

He continues to dress himself in my undergarments at least 3 times per week. I have no idea what the fascination is, but we still get a kick out of it :)

He loves driving our cars. He knows which cars belong to mommy, daddy, grandpa, sherri, etc. As we're driving along, he'll often say "mommy is driving", etc and then demands to drive when I'm done.

Fall is my favorite time of year...beautiful weather, beautiful leaves, pumpkin patches, college football tailgates, etc! I CAN'T wait for Halloween this year, we've already started practicing "Trick or Treat!" The only bad thing about my switch into campus recruiting is that fall is now my busy season at work. Jacob's big Omaha job has a 9/30 year-end, which means he's also swamped this fall. We are struggling to merry up our travel schedules...and THANK GOD my dad and Sherri are always so willing to watch the little guy in a pinch! I also THANK GOD that he is so enjoyable to be around right now, so that they continue to look forward to spending time with him. :) Mitchell is also going to spend some of my busiest October times visiting my mom and David...should be a great arrangement.

So Mitchell and I have a weekend to ourselves...and we're going to do lots of fun things outdoors to enjoy the wonderful fall weather!

The new baby is growing nicely..I feel some fluttering now and then, but not yet enough to confidently say that I can feel him move yet! We have our sonogram appointment rapidly approaching (September 14th). I'm still convinced it's a boy, but we'll see! It's hard to believe the pregancy has almost reached the half way point...it's going so fast! I continue to have very few pregnancy symptoms and have had a really good experience again, so far!!!!

Quite the wind-up

Mitchell has been watching a lot of baseball this summer, including attending another Royal's gave on Friday at the K. Starting Saturday morning, he began lifting one leg while throwing his baseballs like the major league pitchers! We have no idea how he even noticed that because neither of us pointed it out to him, but it is hilarious!!! He is so observant!

Take a look at his wind-up in this short clip :) I'm so sorry that I'm not sure how to rotate it for easier viewing!

Air Show

We took Mitchell to the KC Airshow today. We had a really good time and he loved watching the planes! It was GREAT weather here - 80 degrees and sunny.


Mommy and Mitchell had to get a picture by the powercat plane from Salina.

Daddy and Mitchell played with the propellers.





Some kind of miliary helicopter (if you can't tell, I'm cluless about these things)



Right before the exciting, LOUD F-16 exhibition, Mitchell fell asleep. He jumped a few times when he heard the earth shattering fly bys, but he never did open his eyes! How is this even fair? I tried tip-toeing into the room next to his the other morning to iron a shirt before he woke and as soon as I reached the top of the stairs, he woke up and said "Mama????"!

In other news.....we're painting! Jacob and I spent last night and tonight post-Mitchell hours paining our entryway and up the stairs. I'm not a huge fan of the color, but am convinced it's going to grow on me! Almost our entire house is pained in shades of brown now, so I wanted something a little different. I decided to try 'wheat', which I pictured being just a little yellower than the traditional khaki, but this specific wheat shade is a bit more yellow than I'd hoped. I'll post a picture when we finish. Hopefully it'll only take one more night!


All in all, we had a very productive, fun weekend! Jacob is out of town next weekend for a wedding, so Mitchell and I are going to have to find ways to entertain ourselves :) In fact, Jacob leaves Wednesday and returns next Thursday. Long trip :(

Showing?

I wouldn't necessarily consider myself to be "showing" yet. What a funny term?! However, for the very first time yesterday a complete stranger made a comment to me about being pregnant. Good thing she was right!

Jacob comes home tonight from Omaha, I'll have to have him take a picture. I'm pretty good at taking pictures of Mitchell...but he's not so good at taking them of me :)

Kisses and Pillows

Just a few quick stories about Mitchell...sorry no pictures this time!

Lately, when Mitchell stubs a toe or mashes a finger, he will run over to Jacob and I and quickly demand that we "Kiss It"! Ha! Not only does it instantly heal his wound, but it also makes Jacob and I smile :)

The sound that I used to 'call' our cat is a kissy noise. I have no idea why...or why she responds to it, but she does! The other day, Mitchell and I were reading a book and we were going through what noises animals make as we happened upon them. He knows most all of them now! When I asked him what noise a cat makes, he responded with the kissy noise. I literally laughed out loud. Man, he really is listening when I don't think he is!

Tonight, Mitchell and I were playing on my bed. He was laying his head on my pillow pretending to sleep and then going over to Jacob's pillow doing the same. He stared at both pillows for a minute and then pointed to my pillow and said "mommy's pillow", then pointed to Jacob's pillow and said "Daddy's pillow". Then he patted his chest and questioningly asked "Mitchell's pillow?" followed by his cute little shoulder shrug. Ahhh.... He seemed pleased when I told him that his pillow was in his bed upstairs, eventhough he doesn't have a pillow. He'll figure that part out someday :)

Each day's stories and smiles far outweigh the struggles! He is growing up so fast!

Disney with Grandma & Grandpa Bays

I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures of Grandma & Grandpa Bays's trip to DisneyWorld with Mitchell. They agreed it was HOT, HOT, but fun! :)

Here they are on the carousel, Mitchell is a big fan of the horses.

Watching yet another parade - there are constant parades in the Magic Kingdom!

On a train ride....right before he fell asleep for an afternoon nap. You can see it in his eyes, can't you? :)

We are very glad that Grandma and Grandpa got to travel down to Orlando and spend some time with the little guy! He REALLY enjoyed it and it allowed Jacob time to attend a bachelor party that he was really looking forward to. Perfect for all involved!