Camping - Trip #2

So this past week, we ventured out on camping trip #2.  I'll let the pictures do most of the talking!  We had a ton of fun and Amos definitely slept the best of the three of us!  Jason and I forgot our pillows, enough said.

It sprinkled a little while setting up the tent.

Jason did most of the work.

Amos helped from afar.  Until is starting raining and Amos and I watched Dad put up the tent from the car.

Enjoying dinner.

We had some very tasty Chix-on-a-Stix

Good Morning!  Yes I did sleep in my snow suit.

We had a beautiful day the next day for some HIKING!

And that's about it.  In other news, Amos is yelling DaDa all the time.  Sometimes it is when Jason enters the room, other times it is when he is nowhere to be find.  It is definitely his favorite syllable these days.  Also, he waves Hi and Bye about 50% of the time.  That's a big improvement to his 10% about a month ago.  He starting to do short bursts of free standing as he moves from thing to thing.  He's getting a lot better at eating table food, I'm just hoping for a few more teeth before we are solely a table food eater!

The beginnings of Spring Break!

Our week started like any other, with Amos doing so many goofy things!  

We were excited to finally break out some shorts and get outside in this nice weather.  

In fact, I was finally brave enough to take Amos on our first run with the jogging stroller!  He did fantastic!  We both guzzled down a lot of water afterward as we weren’t use to the warm weather.  

It also needs mentioning that Amos has found a new friend to play with.  CHECK IT OUT:

Jason was very busy this week with meetings and parent teacher conferences, but we knew all of this meant that Spring Break was almost here. 

The most exciting part of our last week involved a trip to Lebanon.  We hadn’t been there since Christmas so as you can imagine, Amos and Emma have both changed a lot.  It took some time for Amos to warm up to everyone, but Emma was all smiles from the start!  

I also caught this ornery guy smiling a time or two!  

It was so fun to see how Teigan interacted with Amos.  He treated him just like a little person and they sure had fun playing together.  

Emma and Amos spent most of their time in what is known as “parallel play”.  

While we were there, we helped paint a bedroom and Jason got to go fishing with his Dad, brother and cousin!  We ate lots of good food and caught up with everyone!

We ended the week with hanging out with Alba and Cherry!  My grandparents and parents are visiting The Holy Lands this past week, so their current foreign exchange students spent some time with us!  They were a big help and loved Amos!

We've Got a Crazy Boy!

This week Amos is showing his true colors!  He's LOUD, and SMELLY, and wants to eat all the time.

Most of the time is GO time!

If I call his name, he'll pause just long enough for me to snap a picture! 

He absolutely loves other babies!  His excitement tends to scare them at first.

Now that he is on the go, he can be found getting into trouble...

...brushing his teeth...

... or eating...anything!

He's still a man of many expressions!

And loves to smile!

During his down time, we find him relaxing here, in his new tub!

This weekend we visited Kansas for my sisters first wedding shower!  Amos had fun hanging out with his Aunts and Grammy and Gramps!

Week 35

After about a week of perpetual early rising and short napping, which led to a fussier than usual baby, I think Amos is back to normal.  The cause:  tooth #2?  That's right.  It finally made its appearance yesterday.

He's getting faster with his mobility.  If I'm not watching him closely, I may have to go looking for him.  The other day he was playing in the living room and before I knew it, he was in his bedroom pulling up to  his bookshelf.

Our highlights from the week were checking out the Mount Hope Consignment sale and visiting friends in Springfield.  At the sale, we picked up a new set of toys for Amos.

Obviously he did this all by himself.

 And some bows for his friend Evalyn.  I couldn't resist trying the bows on him.  I even got a picture before Dad removed them.

Amos was great on the way to Springfield, just talking up a storm in the backseat.  We met up with our friends, Ashley & Mearah, Jessie, and Abbey for dinner at Cheddar's.  Amos and Mearah had a ton of fun talking back and forth at the dinner table.  Afterwards we headed over to Randy & Janis' house to catch up.  Amos went down for the night and luckily didn't wake up too much for the move to the car or to his bed!

I'll leave you with The Growl Fest.  This has been happening a lot recently!

8 Months Old

Its that time again!  Another month has passed with lots of exciting happenings!  After just beginning to crawl at the start of last month, Amos has taken off.  It didn't take him long to figure how to pull up to everything - crib, TV armoire, legs, etc.  It took just a little bit longer --thankfully-- to learn how to sit back down. So now he can pretty much get wherever he wants.  This hasn't happened without spills, but luckily,  early on, my mom advised giving him a chance to be OK, without swooping in a saving him from the spills.  I've taken it to heart, and found out we have a tough little boy on our hands.  He face plants, whimpers, and then tries again!

He's a great eater, and quick too!  We are still to a combo of pureed food and table food.  I'm hoping this will be the last month for purees and we can exclusively eat "real" food.  We shall see though.  And his favorite way to drink is from a cup.  Although it caused him a bunch of trouble last week, tooth #2 has yet to make an appearance above his gums.

He babbles quite a bit, but mostly when he is alone, or thinks he is alone.  We hear him carrying on in his crib at the end of naps, or while in his car seat or stroller.  Speaking of car seats, he's actually fallen asleep in his a couple of times.  So hopefully we are past the -"No, I'm never going to sleep in my car seat"-phase.

We're down to two naps a day for the most part.  Sometimes we squeeze in a third, and he still sleeps through the night - Hallelujah!  He's content to spend his days moving from couch, to table, to toy chest and back.  He doesn't seem to have a favorite toy, but just likes the variety.  I just rotated his toys and he seemed rather thrilled to find some new guys in his toy chest.

Its been fun this month, watching him learn things.  I can see his mind working as he decides he wants to do something and then figures out how to do it. The best is yet to come!