Oh Blue!

Blue turned one on January 18th and I completely forgot to post something! When we got her last March, she was about eight weeks old and Ryan brought her home in his backpack. I sure miss that little puppy face. I'd like to say that she has matured a lot, but she is still such a stinker!

What can I say about her? She's smart, but that can be a bad thing. She's friendly, but that can be a bad thing too. She makes me so MAD sometimes, yet she can bring so much laughter and delight into our family.

Personality:
Blue is 16 pounds of muscle- part wiener dog, part blue heeler. She has a big personality in a little body. Blue believes that she is everyone's friend and she believes that everyone likes her. She also believes the world revolves around her.

Athletics:
If Blue was on the track team, she would be a sprinter. She plays really hard, really fast, takes a minute break, and she is ready to play again. Blue can successfully catch a frisbee midair one out of three times and she LOVES to play with other dogs.

Quirks:
Blue is easily offended by feet and shoes. She feels it is her duty to clean your face. She has a vendetta against stuffed animals. She can never find just the right spot to hide her bone. She sleeps under the covers. She moves the blankets to make them just right. She growls at her reflection.

Blue is like a toddler. I have to keep my eye on her and make sure she's not getting into trouble. There are things she cannot resist: toilet paper, food, and certain baby toys.





This was not the first time, or the last.

Despite all her misbehaviors, I love having her as part of our family. Cannon adores her, and she is quite fond of him as well. I look forward to watching their bond grow as Cannon gets older.

The second part of this post is unrelated, but I didn't want to make a whole new post. Last Saturday turned out to be a really lovely day! Ryan coaches the young men's (ages 12-18) basketball for our church and he had an early 8am game that morning. Now that Cannon gets up around 7, we decided to go to the game too. By the way, I think I forgot to mention that Cannon now sleeps all the way through the night. He did it on his own for a week, regressed, and then went back. I decided that he did not need to nurse anymore in the middle of the night and I was going to be strong about it. He went another week of sleeping from about 7:30 or 8pm until around 7 or 7:30 am. Then he had one night when he woke up at a random time, so I rocked him instead of nurse him (he thought I was torturing him). But that was the only night! So anyway, back to the original story. Cannon loved the basketball game! We sat right in front and he watched the boys run up and down the court. He was very intrigued by the whole thing. Afterward, Ryan had the idea to stop at this little restaurant to get breakfast. We have had dinner at this place, but we always wanted to try their lemon ricotta pancakes. We had to wait for a while, but they were sooooo good! I know they sound weird, but the flavors work.

Later that day I took Cannon and Blue to the park. The park by our house is also a dog park, so we can let Blue off her leash. We were having such a good time, but Blue had to ruin it! Usually she is good to stay near me, or at least where I can see her. But not today! She saw a man across the street and she HAD to go see him. I saw her start to run and I knew what she was going to do. I kept screaming her name, but she would not listen to me. Let me just say that Blue almost died twice. 1-She almost got hit by a car, 2-I almost killed her because I was so mad at her! Worst of all, the person she ran to see was putting up a dog warning sign on his fence. And that was the end of our good day.



This was taken at the restaurant on Saturday.



This is Cannon's first experience with bubbles. I guess it was also Blue's first too.

Intellectual Growth Spurt

I love how babies all of a sudden start doing lots of new things all at once. This week has been so much fun as I have seen Cannon learns new things.

Object permanence has been completely mastered. I would say that this has been an emerging skill for the past two months, but this week he has really relished in his new discovery. He loves the lift-the-flap books! He knows where they are on each page and he can open all of them.

He now says, "dada," but not discriminately. Before, his favorite sound was ba-ba-ba-ba, with such various as: ba-ba and bob. He also uses other consonants like y, g, k, and h (but he's been using those for awhile). I love to listen to him talk because it sounds like he is either yelling at you or telling you a crazy story! I think he tries to say "beep." He thinks it's funny when I say "beep-beep" and he tries to copy me. Also, I swear he started making "l" sounds. I know that's a sound kids learn late, but I really did hear him. I think he was just playing around with sounds and he discovered he could make this sound with his tongue sticking out. So he's not even using correct positioning with his tongue, and he will probably forget about it anyway, but it was still funny to watch and listen to him.

Now he will transfer a toy from one hand to the other so he can pick up a second toy. He may have been doing this for awhile, but I just paid attention to it the other day. He also drops things off his highchair on purpose and watches them fall. I laughed at him a couple of weeks ago because he was staring at his hands as he would open them to release a toy. He kept doing it over and over again. And he bangs two toys together when he's playing.

The pincer grasp has made its way into things now, which is very useful to pick up things like hair, small pieces of rope, leaves, and bits of paper left on the floor. I guess it also comes in handy for picking up Cheerios, but Cannon prefers to use the raking grab to pick up food because he can get more in his mouth that way.

Cannon has started to realize that music is fun! He moves his head from side-to-side when he plays the music on his exersaucer. He started to do this about a month ago, but now he does it almost every time. And I've seen him do this a couple of times in the car when I had the music on. I need to get a video of it because it's really cute!

And he FINALLY started to move forward on his belly! We have been working with him so much and he finally got it today!

It's so much fun to watch him learn and discover his little world. Oh, I finally found a food that he doesn't like, juice! We let him try apple juice and he immediately spit it out (really he just let it drool out). We usually don't keep juice at home, so I bought some pear juice for Cannon. I thought he might like it better if I diluted it with water. No. Oh well, it's not a bother for me. I would rather just give him water anyway.


And the cutest thing of all, the curls are coming! I am so excited that his hair is starting to go curly!

Having Fun Around the House

Here's some random photos of us just having fun at home.


Cannon is really into sitting in baskets or anything alike. I will put him in the laundry basket and push him around the house. He loves it and it's a workout for me!


A suitcase works just as well! He especially liked it when he found the tag.


For Christmas, I got Ryan a soft serve ice cream maker. We finally got around to using it the other day and we made delicious vanilla ice cream. I am not a fan of vanilla ice cream, but this was really good. But I still ended up putting it on top of a hot brownie and drizzling it with fudge. Ryan put mint Andes in his.


The other day I got out Ryan's guitar to let Cannon listen to me strum (I only wish I could play the guitar, or any instrument). He liked to play with the strings more than he liked listening to the sound. I guess if I was actually playing a song he would have enjoyed it more.

My Baby is 9 Months Old!

Where has the time gone? Cannon turned nine months on the 21st. I can't believe that he will be turning one in a few months. We had his well check on the 22nd and here are the stats:

Weight: 21lbs 2oz - just above 50th percentile
Length: 29'' - 75th percentile

Cannon was so cute with his nurse and doctor. He always has lots of smiles for them. He was such a wiggle worm during the whole visit. If I held him, he wanted down. So I sat him on the table, but he tore up all the paper and started eating it. His weight has really slowed down from his 6 month well check, but he keeps growing tall. Ryan and I think he looks skinny. He's not really skinny, but he is starting to lose some of that baby chubbiness.

He had to get two shots, the polio vaccine and a flu shot booster. They also drew blood from his finger to check for anemia. He didn't even flinch when they poked his finger, but she had to squeeze his finger which bugged him. He whined a little, but then he started watching the nurse squeeze his blood into the vial. It was kind of funny. He cried for his shots, but not for very long. I think he got his feelings hurt because he kept looking at the nurse like he was wondering why she did that to him.

I love Cannon's personality! He is such a cuddler and loves to give hugs. And if you ask him to give you a kiss, he will lean towards your face with his mouth wide open. I love it, even if it is so drooly! He has noticed stuffed animals, or anything else that has a face. He will give kisses to them and talk to them! He has also started to give high fives.

He is a champion eater. I still haven't found anything he won't eat. He is nursing four or five times a day and eating three solid food meals. He also likes to drink water from a sippy cup. He will also take a formula bottle if we want to go out. But I think we will just stick with using a sippy cup when I stop breastfeeding him instead of going to a bottle. The only problem we have with feeding time is the bib. He hates wearing a bib and so he will pull it off. But he looks you right in the eye while he is doing it because he knows he supposed to leave it on. He can't take off the ones that snap in the back, but we only have two of them. Today I didn't put a bib on him for lunch, but he started to tug on his shirt because he thought it was a bib. Silly guy!

He still sleeps pretty well. A couple of weeks ago he started sleeping 11.5 hours straight, from 7:30 pm until 7am. I was excited was pretty excited about it, but then he regressed. He started waking up again at weird times in the night, but I think it was from teething. I don't mind feeding him at 5am, because then he sleeps until 8 or 8:30. He is taking two naps a day, with each one lasting about 1.5 hours. Sometimes he will sleep for two. He is really good about falling asleep on his own, which makes things pretty easy. I have officially stop swaddling him in any way. Now I just lay him on his belly (which is now his preference) and I cover him with a small blanket. He's not a crazy sleeper, so the blanket is usually in the same place when I come to get him when he wakes up.

He definitely has toy and book preferences. He loves balls, drawers, cords, dog toys, tupperware, socks, ring stacker, trains and cars that move, paper, keys, phones, remote controls, animals (real or toys), electrical outlets, and rugs (just to name a few). His top three books are: 1)CAT, 2)So Big, and 3)One to Ten Pop up Surprises. If you are reading to him and he sees ones of those books, he will forget about what you are reading and reach for the one he wants. The cat book has a page where there is a cat hiding in a boot and when you pull the tab, the cat pops up. This is his favorite page and when we get to it he immediately pulls on the boot to look for the cat. And he thinks it's hilarious when the cat pops up.


The weather here has been gorgeous, so we have been taking advantage of this!












No he is not sitting on a cliff and he is not alone! I photoshopped Ryan's hand out of the picture.


This is his first true bubble bath! The first thing he did was try to eat the bubbles.


I think we went overboard on the bubbles and we both got lost!







Cannon loves this fox! We play peek-a-boo with it and he gives it kisses.

Cannon's First Black Eye

It's not a full black eye, but I think it counts. He fell into his bookshelf and got this shiner. He cried, but not for very long. I was amazed at how fast it started to heal. Now there's just a red line where he hit.

I also discovered Cannon's secret. I had a hunch that he had been sleeping on his belly, but I never knew for sure. Last night when I put him to bed, he immediately tried to roll on his belly. I turned him back on his back so I could wrap him in his blanket, but he rolled back over. I left him there and he watched me leave his room. I didn't hear a peep from him, so I was sure he went to sleep. I waited 20 minutes and I quietly went in his room. Sure enough, he was sound asleep on his belly! What a silly guy!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

On January 7th, Ryan and I celebrated our four year anniversary! Since it was on a Thursday, we planned to go out on Friday. So Thursday night we watched the very sad UT game. Let me just say two things about that game: 1)Alabama almost lost to a true Freshman; 2)we would of crushed them if Colt wasn't injured. Although we were expecting a win, we still have a team to be proud of and Garrett Gilbert is going to be awesome! Anyway, on Friday we ate dinner at Flemings. Luckily we had a gift card, otherwise we couldn't have afforded it! We had made reservations, so there was no wait. And luckily we found a good parking spot because it has been FREEZING here (in the 20's)! Neither of us ordered a steak, I had the salmon and Ryan had the pork chop and a side of garlic mashed potatoes. Ryan's pork chop was huge and thick and it was served over shredded apples. We were very pleased with both of our meals! For dessert we ordered the chocolate lava cake. It sounds incredible and it tasted incredible! It was chocolate cake, but when you got a piece the whole inside was gooey, like pudding. It was served with vanilla ice cream, fresh raspberries, and cream. I think this might come close to beating BJ's triple chocolate pizookie (okay, maybe it's a tie!). Since we have been trying to save more money, Ryan and I rarely eat at restaurants now, but if we do we usually have Cannon. So this was such a treat for us! And being the thoughtful son that he is, Cannon slept in until 9:30 the next day!

In other news, Cannon and I have been sick with colds. He got it first then gave it to me. This time it was for real. He had a little runny nose about a month ago, but it was hardly anything. But this was a full on cold with congestion, cough, and lots of mucus. He's had some fussy moments, but he's still been mostly his happy self. He did scoot backwards the other day, but he won't go forward. And I have caught him lifting his hips off the ground when he is on his belly. So's he getting a little closer to crawling. He also started to move his head from side to side when I sing the Wheels on the Bus. It's really cute! Sometimes he does it when he's looking at himself in the mirror. Cannon has also decided that he prefers to feed himself. So now I have to give him small pieces of food in addition to what I'm feeding him. He is getting really good at feeding himself and sometimes he hardly drops anything. He will eat ANYTHING if I put it on his high chair tray. I still give him cereal mixed with fruit as part of his breakfast and dinner. For breakfast he will also have cut up fruit. He is not a huge breakfast person, so I keep the portion smaller. For lunch I make him baby food veggies plus some cut up fruit and something else. I bought some tahini and he likes to eat it on bread, so sometimes he'll have that for lunch. For dinner he has his cereal plus whatever we're eating (as long as it's something he can have). He has a HUGE appetite for dinner and sometimes I just have to stop giving him food because he will keep eating. I still nurse him five times a day.


My little mischief maker!


This is his current favorite toy. It's a Fisher-Price bumble bee, but it's one from a long time ago. Ryan and his sibling had it when they were babies. It's kept at Ryan's parents house, so he only gets to play with it when we go over there.


He likes to stand now. He also kneels and holds onto his toy box.


We watched Cole on Thursday so Kristina could go to her OB appointment. I love watching these two together! Cannon was all decked out in his longhorn clothes, ready for the game.


Cannon scoot himself all the way under the table and Cole wanted to copy. It was funny because he kept crawling over Cannon.

A Year to Remember

This has probably been the fastest year in my life! Once I had Cannon, time froze for me. I feel like we just got out of summer. That's probably why I was completely unprepared for Christmas this year. I can't believe it's 2010! I'm not ready to start a new year, or a new decade! Ryan likes to remind over and over again that I will be turning 30 this year. Ugh. Granted, I have until December, but it's still THIS year. Actually, we never really got to celebrate my birthday. Ryan got really sick on my birthday and it lasted for four days. I have never seen him so sick and he doesn't ever remember being that sick. Once that was over, then it was Christmas. Oh well. We are going to celebrate our anniversary this week anyway. I was in freak out mode for my birthday this year. The last time I did this was when I turned 22 and I felt like I hadn't accomplished all that I wanted to. So I don't know what the problem is this time. I'm finished with school, I'm married, and have a kid. Time just goes by so fast. I feel like I just got out of high school a few years ago. I used to look at people in their 30's and think that they were real grown ups and that they had they act together. But I'm not really a real grown up! I'm just faking it!

Anyway, this was probably the biggest year of my life, next to getting married. I have to say that being married was an easier adjustment than having a baby, but what an amazing blessing!

Here's the decade in review:


I moved to Austin in July 2001. This picture was actually taken in 2005, but I thought it was a cute one of my dad and me.


I caught the record rainbow trout that summer (2001, I think) at Diamond Lake Oregon.


I became a nanny in 2002 for Cade and Carl.


I made new friends. I am the Spartan cheerleader down in front.


I babysat Sydney, the wallaby, for a few weeks at my house.
I went to UT (University of Texas), graduated, then went back, and then graduated again in 2007. I have pictures from my undergrad ceremony, but I can't find them. I didn't attend my other graduation.


I met Ryan in 2002, but we were just friends. We went on our first date in 2005 and got married in 2006.

I have lots of regular photos, but I don't feel like scanning them. We also lost a lot of pictures when Ryan's lap top died.

Here's some highlights from this year:


This is Christmas last year (2007). Look at my little baby belly. We had just found out that Cannon was a boy.


Ryan grew a mustache.


Blue became part of our family in March. She was a spur-of-the-moment idea and Ryan brought her home in his backpack.


Here are the "four" grandkids at my baby shower. We will welcome two more in the next couple months!


Then we got our baby! A little early, but the timing ended up being perfect!


This is our first family photo.


Ryan grew a beard.


After eight flights and six hours in the car (round trip), Cannon went to Utah twice and Idaho once. He also got to meet his new cousin, Kennedi.


Oh how I love to watch this baby grow!





This list could be a hundred times longer! We have had many great adventures this year and we're looking forward to all the new ones this year.