Weekend...

The holidays were wonderful...but fast and furious. We thought things would settle down in January, but we seemed to get busier and busier. (Not to mention that we got 2 stomach bugs.) Thankfully, God blessed this weekend and we got to relax a little and work on getting our life settled back into routine. We exercised, completed house chores, worked on getting our new year finances in order, got some fun time as a family and Scott and I even got a date night!

Thank you, Mimi & Pops, for taking care of J.

Here are some highlights below:

 J (and his parents) really enjoy good Chinese food. This is our favorite Chinese place near Scott's work. We met Scott for lunch on Friday as he had been out of town for a few days. He and J were missing each other terribly.

 A little blury, but I couldn't resist. J was leaning in to give his Daddy a hug! 

While we were there, J enjoyed fried rice, sweet & sour chicken, melon, pineapple, green beans and cookies, his favorite! He also flirted with all the waitresses and had them wrapped around his finger before we left.

 Have I mentioned that J has a massive sweet tooth? He loves anything sweet, especially if it is chocolate. Therefore, we are positive he is related to his mom and great-grandad! It is not rare for me to walk into his room first thing in the morning, to be greeted by my cheerful baby asking for "chocolate cake, cookies and chocolate raisins" (what he calls raisinettes).

Above he is at a wonderful bakery picking out his treat...

 And enjoying it, immensely!

Then, we took him to our favorite park to burn off some calories. This is my new favorite picture!

(P.S. I do not know why I can't get it to rotate. Fellow bloggers, please leave a comment if you know how.)

 Climbing a climbing wall that J dubbed the "hippo".

Sliding down the big slide all by himself; preferably on his tummy!

Woohoo!

The hippo! Who knows why he decided this was the hippo. Gray color, maybe?

Notice that he is by far the youngest child climbing this thing. AND, he wanted no help from us.

(Of course, I stood right behind him the first 50 times he did it. But, he earned my trust.)

 The smaller playground equipment that J would have nothing to do with. I think that comes from his Dad!

 Next, we visited great-Grandmom to celebrate her birthday! What fun she is and J knows exactly where the toys are at her house.

Hugs for Granddad!

 A little clearer this time. Do you know that J has 7 living Great Grandparents!

What a great weekend! We pray for many more in 2011. Hope yours was great, too.

18 months!

My baby is a year and a half already...and still a blessing each and every day! We went to J's 18 month check-up last week and he is doing great, praise the Lord! He weighs 27.5 pounds and is 34 inches tall. And, he cried the entire visit. Two reasons for such a fuss: 1. His stranger anxiety (especially to men) gets greater by the day and 2. He is way too smart and remember that this was the place of "shots" as soon as we walked in the exam room. So sad. Thankfully, I learned from last visit and brought M&M's. Let me tell you, I was his favorite person again once I pulled those out! :) Here's a pic of our precious little man...

 A couple of 18 month highlights:

• J is a little parrot and can repeat most anything he hears. It is outstanding to hear him try to say new words and associate their meaning. We also have become keenly aware of what we say. Some things just don't sound right coming out of an 18 month old!
• He loves to play "dress up"! (In boy fashion, of course. His Dad wouldn't have it any other way.) He thinks all hats are hysterical,  and he loves wearing coats, mittens and his new "pack pack". Yesterday morning, he wanted to wear his tie... 

 His favorite hat!

• Thanks to these fridge letters, his ABC Book and Elmo's ABC song, J can correctly identify 20 of the 26 alphabet letters. It is so fun to see him spot letters everywhere. His favorite is O!

•  He adores all of his stuff animals and treats each one as his best friend. Ok, Mickey Mouse and "Ditty", a blue monkey, are his best friends, but the others are all a close second. Above he is watching Elmo on his couch with Pooh and "lovie". He will actually come close to carrying on a full conversation with his stuffed friends!

•  He has the best smile and laughs in the whole world! And yes, we are still wearing bibs. He is currently getting in 4 new teeth and we earn each one by drooling at least 100 gallons of drool per tooth. After talking to Scott's Mom & Grandmom over the holidays, I learned that this may be genetic (can drooling be genetic?). His granddad had to wear bibs until he was 3 and his Dad wasn't far from that. I guess we are halfway there?

•  He loves to hide and be found or pop out at you. We play this game EVERY single day, sometimes for hours.

•  See how happy he is when he is found or returns?! Also, he loves his Batman shirt and can hum the tune for you!

•  His biggest fascination is still cars, trucks, tractors, diggers, bulldozers, airplanes, helicopter, trains or anything that moves! Bigdaddy and Nanny have a great collection of cars from over the years, and he always has the best time playing at their house. I think they enjoy it too!

•  He really enjoys "drawing" and "writing" and breaking the crayons. We still owe ChaCha a new box!

• He does not like the snow, but he sure looked cute in all of his snow day attire!
• Oh, and my favorite, J SINGS! Not whole songs, but words and phrases from his favorites. It is the sweetest thing in the world and makes me cry every single time! I am blessed!

I could write about J forever, but I'll stop there for now. Love you all!

My favorite Christmas present...

I was very blessed to receive many wonderful Christmas presents this year, but my favorite was unexpected and I can't  wait to use it. One of the top three Bible teachers that have influenced my learning about Jesus Christ just wrote a book about Revelation! It is called Revelation: God's Final World by David O. Dykes. Dr. Dykes is the pastor at my parent's church and is a dedicated student of God's Word. I had the opportunity to teach Revelation to a group of college girl's while at Texas A&M and used his sermon series as one of my main references of study. I am excited that this information is now presented in a concise, well organized book. Thank you, Mom, for such a thoughtful present!