Only One Month to Go

11 Months Old. Tomorrow starts the countdown to our baby turning 1. I have tried & tried to slow down time but I can't so instead I'm going to embrace it & celebrate our baby boy.

Playing high five with daddy
Completely amused by your brother in the car
Following Johnnie all around the house
Scrunching your nose in amusement & annoyance
Sleeping through the night for 11-12 hours
Still very hungry & crying when we don't feed you fast enough
Smiling all the time even though it's hard to catch in photos
Starting to walk- 2-6 steps at a time
Crawling up the stairs

And so much more. Here are some of the photos I took today.

Walking with daddy. Resting. Tired of photos so you tried crawling away, but for now I'm still faster than you. And then finally your signature face. You are always crawling toward someone with this giant grin on your face. Happy 11 Months my baby boy. We love you!

Knotts Berry Farm

Every year Knotts Berry Farm honors Veterans during the month of November by allowing them & a guest in free to the park. This year Rick & I went with Johnnie & brought along Auntie Kim & Kayci as our guests. We met up with Katie & Kelsea for a day of fun.

1. Here we are entering the park. Johnnie is already interested in something else besides photos. Right after entering the park we found Snoopy. Both Kelsea & Johnnie wanted nothing to do with him so he had to settle for a hug from Kim & Kayci. 2. Up first, the Red Baron. The two looked miserable. It was one of many photos where Johnnie looked like we were torturing him by making him ride the rides but when each one ended & it was time to get him off he would either say again or run to a different plane, car or truck & try to climb in.3. Rocky Road Trucking Co. All of them loved this ride. 2 cute kids & 2 adult buffoons.4. Kelsea was so brave. She really wanted to go on the scarier looking rides & kept talking about how she would go on such things like the roller coaster when she gets bigger. This ride went back & forth & really high for a kids' ride. She loved it & even raised her hands when Kim did.5. Johnnie & Kelsea started off pretty shy with each other. Barely any words spoken. But as the day went on they started talking more & more. They also wanted to sit next to each other on rides & even held hands walking from ride to ride.6. Johnnie & Kelsea wanted to keep riding the carousel. They rode a horse (twice), a boar, & an ostrich before we could convince them that we were done with the ride.7. Kelsea & her mama enjoying the Carousel.8. Here are just 2 of the rides the adults (Kim, Kayci & Rick ) got to go on. Supreme Scream & La Revolucion. Thrill rides that looked so fun. I will have to go back next year when I'm not pregnant to try them out myself.9. Katie & I really wanted to go on the Log Ride but they saw our pregnant bellies & said NO. Oh well. Kelsea & Johnnie got to go with my sisters & Rick (not shown because as soon as the ride stopped he had already started to exit before I could take the pic). As you can see only the girls were patient enough to pose for a photo.10. The pregnant mamas couldn't go any rides but they did allow us on this one. The Calico Mine Ride. While going through really dark mines on a train I decided to take some photos of Johnnie & Kelsea having a great time. Well when I got home & downloaded this pic I couldn't stop laughing at the fear on both of their faces. So much for a parents' intuition.And last but not least. We knew it was time to head home when we looked in the stroller & saw this. Johnnie completely relaxed & fast asleep. So we made our way towards the exit with just one last stop for funnel cake for one hungry mama.

Words I Want to Remember

I take a ton of pictures so I can hopefully look back one day when my boys are all grown up & remember not only what they looked like but what they were like. And to help remember Johnnie's personality a little more here is a list of some of my favorite things he says. And two photos (of course) that highlight his personality right now.
Crazy & Fun!Defiant & strong willed!

1. JUICY. This is what Johnnie calls his orange juice/water mixture. A lot of times we will ask him what he wants to eat & he says "Juiceeeeee."

2. YOU TROUBLE. YOU TIME OUT. I don't think he quite gets the concept of adults ONLY punishing him. If we do something that he thinks is wrong, like telling him he can't have something or raising our voices, he points to his punishment corner & tells us we're in trouble. He also tells his aunties too. We keep explaining that only children get time outs, but it hasn't sunk in yet. The cutest thing about this is that he gets all serious & squints when he's telling us to go to time out.

3. COME ON. Johnnie tends to get really excited about things like going downstairs in the morning, playing with his trains & basically most things. When he wants you to participate he will say come on as he pulls you up & tries to get you to follow.

4. HEY GUYS. Whenever more than one person walks in the room together, Johnnie likes to greet them like this. A very new term, but used often especially for my sisters & me.

5. TANK YOU. Johnnie's way of saying thank you. We usually have to remind him to say this but sometimes it comes out all on his own & melts my heart.

6. Blesh You mama. I have been trying to teach Johnnie how to say bless you after a sneeze & within the last month he started saying it on his own but as blesh instead of bless. So cute!

7. I SEE YOU. Johnnie's favorite greeting. Used all the time whenever we walk in to the room. When we go to get him out of his crib in the mornings & after naps he will usually cover his face with his blankie & then pull it down & say I see you. Johnnie had his 1st visit to the ER last night after hitting his head & getting a gash right underneath his eyebrow that almost required stitches. We were able to convince the doctor with my tears that trying to glue the cut closed would be a better option & all is better today. Well to get back to his saying... He was laying on the bed when the doctor came over. He covered his eyes shyly & slowly moved them away & greeted the doctor with I see you. Made all of us smile.

8. NO ________. I always heard that most toddlers love the word NO, but Johnnie takes it to a whole new level. If you ask him if he wants something, it's "no like it." When you make noises or say terms he will often repeat them back with no in front of them. Some favorites are, " No vroom." "No And then." (Auntie Kayci's favorite) "No night night." And so on.

9. AWESOME. He doesn't say this very often, but Rick will sometimes say it & Johnnie will repeat it. It puts a great big smile on Rick's face & therefore mine.

10. Not so much a saying but something he does. Rick refers to it as a Jedi mind trick. Johnnie will whisper or mumble when he wants something & thinks you might say no to it. We will all try to figure out what he's saying & once we say what he wants he replies "Okay." Here is a common conversation. Johnnie saying something in a very low tone. Us- "Johnnie did you want food? (No answer) Did you want toast? (No answer) Did you want chicken? (Johnnie says okay with a big smile.) And off we go to get him chicken because I don't have the heart to tell him no after I basically just offered. Smart little one. You win this time, but we're catching on.

10 on Tuesday

1. My friend Katie recently posted photos of her "other kids". Her pets. I thought it was a good idea so I decided to showcase my kitty cats this week.

2.Shadow. 7 year old female we have had since she was 4 months old. She is a typical kitty. Friendly at times & a complete loner at other times. She loves Rick & tolerates me. 3. Oscar. 4 year old male that we have had since he was 4 weeks old. A really big cat with the heart of a kitten. He loves to be cuddled, he loves to eat & he loves anyone willing to pet him. 4. Batty. Oscar's brother. Our most frustrating kitty. And our most lovable kitty. He is constantly begging for food & doing whatever he can to get it. He wants to be held like a baby with his fronts paws wrapped around your neck & his head on your shoulder. And boy does he LOVE Joey. 5. Johnnie is really starting to enjoy his train table & will even make train noises as he walks in circles around the table moving his trains along the track. 6. The reason our Christmas card photo was not taken this past Sunday. Too much wind. A consequence of all the wind. Tree down. Saturday night there was a crazy amount of wind & we came outside to find this. Our tree fell down in to our neighbor's driveway (luckily his car was in the garage), got tangled up in electric wires & lifted the connection to our house right out of the roof. Luckily we still have power but a lot of work to get rid of this tree. 7. So while we were stuck trying not to get blown away Rick taught Joey how to play high five. After a while he got it. 8. And during Joey's nap, I convinced Johnnie to sit at his table with me for quiet time. He colored while I labeled pictures in a photo album. 9.45 Week Photo. Joey loves sitting on the rocking puppy. He doesn't really rock back & forth yet but just happily moves around giggling. And he took one step Sunday. Only ONE but it was his 1st & many more are soon to come. 10. Had my 24 week OB check up today. Baby J is doing great. Heartbeat between 155-160 beats per minute. Happy Veteran's Day! Thanks for all your service.

More Halloween Pics & Playdates

1. Here are some more pics from the Halloween parade at the daycare center. Basically all of the kids march around the center in their outfits going in & out of the rooms to show off their costumes. After 2 rooms Johnnie decided he just wanted to be held. First by grandpa. 2. Then by his mama. 3. And last but not least his aunties. 4. When we got home I put both boys in their costumes & put them in the yard to get some photos. It was Joey's 1st Halloween so Johnnie showed him the ropes. He was helping him with his costume by adjusting the zipper. Oh & he decided the antennae should point downward instead of up. 5. Just a little hug. Okay so it was more of a sweet tackle.6. And I know you can't see their faces, but this was my favorite photo. My two bugs crawling through the grass.7. The Vuoso boys came over for a playdate today. A very eye opening experience for Johnnie. They had just as much energy as he did & they wanted all the toys spread out on the floor so they had lots to choose from. 8. And Adam rearranged things. Flipped the teddy bear chair over & moved all the toy holders to different spots in the living room. He also chased Johnnie the way a big brother would but since Johnnie doesn't have one of those he didn't quite get why he was being chased. It was a really fun afternoon & it tired him out enough so that he slept for almost 3 hours during his nap. 9. After the Vuoso's went home & Johnnie went down for a nap, Joey got to enjoy playing alone in the aftermath of toys all over the living room. 10. Rick FINALLY came home today & we all are so happy to have him back. Johnnie has been running around the house very excited since he came home. A whole new level of hyper. Yay! I made it out to vote. Hope you did too.

Is it just me

or does my baby boy eat A LOT of food? I feel like the only thing he does all day is play & eat.

6:15a Nurse
7 Cheerios (1/4 cup)
8:30 Pancake
10 Nurse
12p 2 Chicken Tenders (not chicken nuggets but 6" long by 1" wide breaded white breast) & French Fries
1:30 Nurse
3 Yogurt
5 1/4 cup Rice Puffs (on our walk)
6 Banana, pureed sweet potatoes & pureed mango
6:30p Nurse
7p Bedtime The list makes me full just reading it. When he's not eating, he's walking along the furniture, pushing toys around & trying to keep up with Johnnie. Guess this explains why he has to eat so much.