I realized that I haven't recorded Cruise talking recently. He has really come a long way since January and it is so fun to hear him try to sing and count and say things that I've been trying to get him to say for the past year and a half. So here are two videos. The first of him counting and the second is of him singing Happy Birthday to himself (and no, it is not his birthday). He LOVES the Happy Birthday song and loves for us to just light a candle and sing to him. Anyway, here is our little man:
Monday, October 25, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
He's 11 Months
I don't know how I feel about that. But shoot, he just keeps getting cuter...and funnier.
Today at dinner, look what this kid did with his banana squash:
Today at dinner, look what this kid did with his banana squash:
Jett is truly a silly baby. He is just a funny funny kid and keeps us laughing all day! Here are some updates on our little Jett-man:
-He now is a pro at going up and down the stairs all on his own.
-The most he has walked on his own is 6 steps. But I think he just figures it is too much hassle. Why walk when you can crawl 10 times faster?
-He has started saying "that" which is CRAZY.
-He loves to be tickled, especially up his back.
-He LOVES LOVES LOVES Daddy! Once Daddy gets home from work, Jett is by his side for the next four hours.
-He still loves to eat but is still super skinny. He did, however, gain 2 pounds in the past two months which means one more pound and we can put him in a forward facing carseat!
-He follows Cruise everywhere. When Cruise runs down stairs to the playroom, Jett is sure to be right behind him headed for the playroom. I will catch both of them in there parallel playing.
-He still thinks Cruise is hilarious.
-He loves pointing to things and seeing if we will point to it too.
-He loves going down the slide on his big brother's lap.
-He is a master of the sippy cup.
-He wants to do everything his brother does, which can be extremely frightful and irritating at times.
-He loves to sit in anything with a steering wheel (I'm so glad I had a boy before him).
-He makes awesome car and boat noises.
-He still wants attention 24/7. What can I say, he's a people person.
One more month and then my baby will be a whole year old! Oh please time, just slow down a bit!
He Wanted Halloween
Saturdays, Cruise has Therapeutic Horseback Riding in Highland. He is always excited to go and just LOVES to ride his horse. However, this past Saturday when we got to Courage Reins, they had decorated the foyer for Halloween. Something funny about Cruise is that his favorite holidays are Halloween and Christmas; only because of the awesome decorations. He has a thing for pumpkins and skulls.
Anyway, I got his helmet on him and out to his horse, but the whole time while he rode, he just kept looking out the window at the pumpkin and skull lights. He couldn't focus and just didn't want to ride. He wanted to play with Halloween stuff! So of course the whole lesson was a failure and ended with him whining and trying to get off of his horse.
Since I just had Cruise with me and Dave was home with sick baby Jett, I decided to be spontaneous and take Cruise to Thanksgiving Point. After all, he wanted Halloween!
We went to the Animal Farm where they were having Barnyard Boo. They had all sorts of fun activities for little kids: face painting, ring toss, cookie decorating, story telling, carriage rides, etc. They also had pony rides but after sitting in the line for a minute or two, I looked at Cruise and said, "What is your mom doing?! You just did this!"
We were there for about two hours and it was one of the best two hours I've had with Cruise in a long time. Sometimes I think not just as parents, but as Special Needs parents, we spend so much time and energy trying to "manage" our children. We sometimes forget that our Special Needs kids are...KIDS! Just like any other typical developing child, they just want some time to have fun, to be themselves, and to choose what they want to do. So I made it a point to just let Cruise do whatever he wanted (as long as it wasn't terribly dangerous or fatal). We had a blast and Cruise smiled the entire time. I didn't take a ton of pictures because I was just enjoying everything that I kept forgetting to snap a bunch.
We started out feeding the animals.
Then goofed around in this little "town" they had.
Then we decorated cookies. Okay, well, Cruise just ate the frosting that he was supposed to spread on his cookie and then ate the cookie, but hey! Who cares?! There was a radio in the room there with some music playing, so Cruise got up and just started dancing! It was pretty much the cutest thing. I love this kid.
Then we bought some water and some mini homemade donuts and Cruise sat and ate while I waited in the line for the face painting. But once it was his turn for his face to be painted, he of course picked a bat and kept saying, "Batman!"
Then we went on the carriage ride which was Cruise's favorite thing. He could've sat on that thing all day. The only time he cried while we were there was when he had to get off.
I don't know why it has taken so long for me to do something like this with Cruise. I think because I feel like I spend a ton of time with him already, that any more time would just be overkill. But the truth is, I may spend time with him, but I am not always with him in his world. We spend so much time "managing" him in our world, that we neglect to remember that what is most important is enjoying him in his. After all, he's only little once.
Since I just had Cruise with me and Dave was home with sick baby Jett, I decided to be spontaneous and take Cruise to Thanksgiving Point. After all, he wanted Halloween!
We went to the Animal Farm where they were having Barnyard Boo. They had all sorts of fun activities for little kids: face painting, ring toss, cookie decorating, story telling, carriage rides, etc. They also had pony rides but after sitting in the line for a minute or two, I looked at Cruise and said, "What is your mom doing?! You just did this!"
We were there for about two hours and it was one of the best two hours I've had with Cruise in a long time. Sometimes I think not just as parents, but as Special Needs parents, we spend so much time and energy trying to "manage" our children. We sometimes forget that our Special Needs kids are...KIDS! Just like any other typical developing child, they just want some time to have fun, to be themselves, and to choose what they want to do. So I made it a point to just let Cruise do whatever he wanted (as long as it wasn't terribly dangerous or fatal). We had a blast and Cruise smiled the entire time. I didn't take a ton of pictures because I was just enjoying everything that I kept forgetting to snap a bunch.
We started out feeding the animals.
Then goofed around in this little "town" they had.
 |
| Of course, fascination with a skull. |
Then we decorated cookies. Okay, well, Cruise just ate the frosting that he was supposed to spread on his cookie and then ate the cookie, but hey! Who cares?! There was a radio in the room there with some music playing, so Cruise got up and just started dancing! It was pretty much the cutest thing. I love this kid.
Then we bought some water and some mini homemade donuts and Cruise sat and ate while I waited in the line for the face painting. But once it was his turn for his face to be painted, he of course picked a bat and kept saying, "Batman!"
 |
| Cruise munching on his donuts and water while I waited in line. |
Then we went on the carriage ride which was Cruise's favorite thing. He could've sat on that thing all day. The only time he cried while we were there was when he had to get off.
I don't know why it has taken so long for me to do something like this with Cruise. I think because I feel like I spend a ton of time with him already, that any more time would just be overkill. But the truth is, I may spend time with him, but I am not always with him in his world. We spend so much time "managing" him in our world, that we neglect to remember that what is most important is enjoying him in his. After all, he's only little once.
You Can't Plan Fun
The other day, I got the idea to buy some dry paint to mix with water to put in a squirt bottle and let Cruise squirt paint on a sheet. So I went and bought the paint and then headed to Savers to get an old white sheet. I got home, cut up the sheet into fourths (so I wouldn't have to buy another any time soon), got the paint ready, and took Cruise outside (you must know that I do dress my child. He just hates clothing). I had hung the sheet on the clothes line and tried to get Cruise interested by showing him how to do it, but he didn't really care at all about spraying a sheet with paint. But after some urging, Cruise decided to humor me. He squirt the sheet twice, turned to me, and said as he signed, "all done!"
He wasn't going to get away with this. So I took the sheet down, took it to the drive way, poured the paint into paper plates, and let him go at it. Jett and Dave came out after awhile and got in on the action.
It wasn't what I had planned, but it sure was a lot more fun!
Cruise's First Field Trip
Last week, the Bridges Preschool held their first field trip: Pumpkinland. These field trips are mostly to provide the kids with experiences outside their regular routine and parents an outing with a little extra help. I took Jett along in the stroller, and Cruise walked by my side. However, Cruise was very unsure of everything and clingy, to say the least. Laurie, the preschool director, was my helper and helped me juggle the stroller and Cruise wanting to be held.
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| Cruise and Laurie (she's pretty much the coolest person you'll ever meet). |
 |
He really loved all the wood pictures with the faces cut out.
And had a little buddy to hang out with.
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| Cruise and his buddy walking backwards. |
And just having fun crawling in, out, on and under everything.
 |
| Dancing |
At the end,
Overall, it was a pretty successful and fun field trip!
Our Fall Crop
So a week or two ago I spent an hour or so pulling all our pumpkins and banana squash from the garden, dragging them to the front lawn, and hosing them down. If you look closely, the last pumpkin on the right has a cage around it...I found it in a tomato cage and couldn't get it out. Check out the crop:
Thursday, October 7, 2010
The Latest and Greatest
Sorry everyone for 1-not writing as often and 2-not commenting on other people's blogs. Life is hectic and I rarely get a second to spend time doing things I would like to do. But, despite our crazy life around here, we do enjoy some laughs and fun every now and then. Sorry I don't have pictures to go with everything. I need to be better about that. But most of the pictures are from our little outing to Bridal Veil Falls a couple weeks ago.
DAVE:
Dave is still working at Backyards, Inc. and doing what he does best: improving everything. Since having built the tree house, he has been playing with the idea of starting a business that specializes in tree houses that wrap around trees. We came up with the name of Rustic Tree Forts. He has started pricing things and figuring everything out. It sure would be awesome!
Dave is also finishing up that tree house and is now in the final stages. He is putting up the little fence that goes around the platform...he figured we couldn't afford to get sued if anyone fell off the tree house.
Dave is pretty much the best Dad and husband around. He is so good about spending some quality time with his boys and I. He makes sure to take me on a date once a week, and he even turned down a free BYU football ticket just to hang out with us this Saturday.
ME:
I hate it when people ask what I'm up to...actually, I think I hate it more when people ask what I do for fun. HA HA HA!!! Any special needs mom knows the answer to that one: SLEEP and SHOWER. But really, life is busy as always.
I am, however, returning to BYU to pursue either a Special Ed or Communication Disorders degree. I'll be starting in January just taking 2 classes, but I'm pretty excited about it.
CRUISE:
Cruise is LOVING school. His private school has really helped him more than anything. He is so social now and wants to play with other kids all the time! Some of his favorite things at school are: the gross-motor room, yoga (which is adorable to watch), snack, and story time. Today he raised his hand when the teacher asked who'd like to pick a song. I was amazed! He is growing to be such a funny little guy and I just adore him.
His language is picking up quite a bit! He tries to tell us stories and explain what is happening in movies. He will yell out the names of things he sees as we drive in the car. He has even started singing songs! I love it!!! A few other words he's picked up just this past week are 'come back', 'hat', and 'blast off!' That last one he learned from school. They were blowing up a balloon and when it was all blown up, they'd say, "3, 2, 1, BLAST OFF!" So the other day I was watching him play with a broom when he said, "2, 3, 1, BLAST OFF!" I love this kid.
Lately his favorite movies/shows are: Ironman (but we have to fast forward to the parts where Ironman is on screen) and Sesame Street Silly Songs video (I love Savers).
Another hilarious story is last week, Cruise went to the toilet to go #2. I went in to help him clean up, when he stood there on the toilet seat, looked in the mirror and pointed as he said, "Eye, nose," and then to his bottom, "poop." I couldn't stop laughing.
A couple days ago, Dave was working late, so I hate to make dinner for just the boys and I, so of course I make macaroni and cheese. I set it out with some apples and called Cruise to the table to eat. He came and sat down as I went to the fridge to get the milk out. I turned and there sat Cruise with his arms folded, ready to pray. At that second I was the world's happiest mommy. I said, "Okay! Let's pray!" As I began to pray, Cruise closed his eyes and began repeating after me not really making much sense. After finishing, he let out a great "amen!" It was the most wonderful thing. So then last night as I tucked him in, I said, "Would you like to say the prayer tonight?" So he folded his arms and once again he repeated after me, only this time he was really trying the words. At one point I said, "and please help us to be be happy," in which he repeated, "be happeeeee." And of course he ended with a great big, "amen!" in which he looked just so proud of himself. I have been waiting for this day for a long time.
Finally, I mustn't forget, Cruise has found a great love, nay, obsession: superheroes. I think all little boys go through this and it never really leaves. For Halloween, Cruise will be Batman. But, of course, Batman can't go trick-or-treating without his trusty sidekick: Robin. So Jett will be playing that part. Cruise has a batman pajama set, so he'll wear that an I'll make him a bat mask. Jett's outfit I'm still putting together, but they'll look adorable.
JETT:
Jett has been getting some molars lately, which means he whines, cries, sleeps horribly, and is super needy ALL DAY LONG. I hate teething! Poor kid. Anyway, he is still pretty funny. He discovered his tongue just last week and it is pretty hilarious to watch him sit there and wiggle his tongue around.
Jett has also become a boy boy. He is now pushing cars around and making car sounds with his brother. It is the cutest thing.
Jett loves Grandma Ybarra's white flowers in the front of the house. Every time we go outside, he heads straight for the white flowers. The two pictures of him on here are of him with the pretty white flowers.
Jett is still a skinny and petite little thing. I am trying to fatten him up but it seems like not matter how much he eats, it just won't stick! So I've been playing with the idea of starting him on whole milk a month early.
Jett is also our little tender boy. He gets his feelings hurt if you even look at him wrong. It is the cutest saddest thing you've ever seen. But just as quickly as he gets his feelings hurt, he is quick to forgive and smile. Gotta love that Jett!
DAVE:
Dave is also finishing up that tree house and is now in the final stages. He is putting up the little fence that goes around the platform...he figured we couldn't afford to get sued if anyone fell off the tree house.
ME:
I hate it when people ask what I'm up to...actually, I think I hate it more when people ask what I do for fun. HA HA HA!!! Any special needs mom knows the answer to that one: SLEEP and SHOWER. But really, life is busy as always.
I am, however, returning to BYU to pursue either a Special Ed or Communication Disorders degree. I'll be starting in January just taking 2 classes, but I'm pretty excited about it.
CRUISE:
His language is picking up quite a bit! He tries to tell us stories and explain what is happening in movies. He will yell out the names of things he sees as we drive in the car. He has even started singing songs! I love it!!! A few other words he's picked up just this past week are 'come back', 'hat', and 'blast off!' That last one he learned from school. They were blowing up a balloon and when it was all blown up, they'd say, "3, 2, 1, BLAST OFF!" So the other day I was watching him play with a broom when he said, "2, 3, 1, BLAST OFF!" I love this kid.
Lately his favorite movies/shows are: Ironman (but we have to fast forward to the parts where Ironman is on screen) and Sesame Street Silly Songs video (I love Savers).
Another hilarious story is last week, Cruise went to the toilet to go #2. I went in to help him clean up, when he stood there on the toilet seat, looked in the mirror and pointed as he said, "Eye, nose," and then to his bottom, "poop." I couldn't stop laughing.
A couple days ago, Dave was working late, so I hate to make dinner for just the boys and I, so of course I make macaroni and cheese. I set it out with some apples and called Cruise to the table to eat. He came and sat down as I went to the fridge to get the milk out. I turned and there sat Cruise with his arms folded, ready to pray. At that second I was the world's happiest mommy. I said, "Okay! Let's pray!" As I began to pray, Cruise closed his eyes and began repeating after me not really making much sense. After finishing, he let out a great "amen!" It was the most wonderful thing. So then last night as I tucked him in, I said, "Would you like to say the prayer tonight?" So he folded his arms and once again he repeated after me, only this time he was really trying the words. At one point I said, "and please help us to be be happy," in which he repeated, "be happeeeee." And of course he ended with a great big, "amen!" in which he looked just so proud of himself. I have been waiting for this day for a long time.
Finally, I mustn't forget, Cruise has found a great love, nay, obsession: superheroes. I think all little boys go through this and it never really leaves. For Halloween, Cruise will be Batman. But, of course, Batman can't go trick-or-treating without his trusty sidekick: Robin. So Jett will be playing that part. Cruise has a batman pajama set, so he'll wear that an I'll make him a bat mask. Jett's outfit I'm still putting together, but they'll look adorable.
JETT:
Jett has also become a boy boy. He is now pushing cars around and making car sounds with his brother. It is the cutest thing.
Jett loves Grandma Ybarra's white flowers in the front of the house. Every time we go outside, he heads straight for the white flowers. The two pictures of him on here are of him with the pretty white flowers.
Jett is still a skinny and petite little thing. I am trying to fatten him up but it seems like not matter how much he eats, it just won't stick! So I've been playing with the idea of starting him on whole milk a month early.
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