Little photo shoot

I was over at a friend's house today. They have a pretty spot in their backyard that I thought would be a nice backdrop for a few pictures - and since Stephen was looking rather cute I thought I'd just have an impromptu photo shoot.

Unfortunately, my friend had to get to an appointment and so it was just me and Stephen. Trying to get this kid to hold still for 1 second is next to impossible - especially without someone else distracting him. If by a miracle he was looking at the camera with a 1/2 way decent pose - luck would have it that the shot was out of focus. It ended up being a frustrating 10 minutes with nothing much to show for it except that it had the makings of a good idea. So here are the best of my futile attempts:



This one cracks me up because at this point Stephen decided he was finished with the photo shoot and made a mad dash for the car. So this just shows how desperate I am - I'm running backwards trying not to hit a tree begging Stephen to stop for a second and trying to get the camera to focus on him. Ah, gotta love those times, eh?

A few words

These next two posts are really for the grandmas and grandpas who wanted to hear Stephen talking. Stephen is up to about 50 words ('course, about 1/4 of those are proper names). Anyway, here's a little sampling:

Animal Sounds

Stephen never attempted animal sounds until I was re-reading Sandra Boynton's book, "Moo, Baa, LaLaLa!" one day and then all of a sudden he was saying all the sounds with me except for the duck, for some reason (we're still working on quacking).

BOOK-O!

Stephen loves books! He's been into books ever since I can remember. We find him "reading" to himself all the time. He also asks us to read to him throughout the day. He used to sign book when he wanted us to read but then he learned how to say book and he was rather excited to ask us with his newly acquired word. Lately though, he has begun to add vowels to all the words he used to say perfectly. It's like some kind of latent Italian gene. So now he comes in and emphatically says, "book-0" every time he'd like a story.
There's a 3 minute video of Stephen reading to himself here.

Shoe! Shoe! Shoe!

So Stephen's in that shoe phase where he is overly concerned about what we are wearing on our feet. If someone is barefoot and their shoes are close by - he either attempts to put them on your feet for you or he tries to wear them himself.

My favorite time is when he already has shoes on and then brings another pair and very adamantly demands "shoe!" and throws them in my lap as a signal that he'd like them on. I can say all day long, "you already have shoes on" but it does no good. Bless him. Usually once he gets shoes on then he says, "go-go-go" and heads directly for the front door.

Always on the phone

I realize that children all like to pretend they are on the phone but with Stephen it's more of an obsession.

It started 4-5 months ago when his #1 objective was to play with our cell phones. When his plans were constantly foiled he started to find anything and everything that could mimic a phone: remotes, calculators, door stops, pencils, cars, etc, etc, etc. When we stayed at my parents house, everyone in the family knew if they couldn't find a remote they started to look for Stephen. Sure enough he'd be walking around the house talking on the remote.

Sometimes his conversations are pretty simple - a lot of "hi daddy" and "bye-bye." But sometimes they are far more elaborate as he emphatically explains something with hand gestures and all. Then there are the times when he periodically adds a fake laugh - that always cracks me up.

I started becoming worried that I was setting a bad example - maybe I was on the phone too much. But after evaluating my phone use I realized that I wasn't who he was mimicking - it was daddy! Daniel works from home and is on the phone most of the day with business calls. What little boy doesn't want to be like his daddy? Needless to say - Stephen hasn't yet grown tired of talking on the phone and I'm beginning to wonder if he ever will.

Thanks to friends and family, we've been able to collect a few old cell phones and a few chargers so the phones feel even more real to Stephen. We have a phone in the car, a couple in the diaper bag and a few scattered in various parts of the house. If Stephen ever needs to be distracted from danger or if he starts getting restless - we're covered!

Since it happens all day long, you'd think I'd be better at snapping shots of it - but no, not so much. I did manage to find a few examples:

Baby in the tummy

I realize that Stephen is a little young to understand pregnancy but we thought we'd just try it anyway. I showed him a picture of our ultrasound and said "baby" and he pointed and said that back to me. Then I pointed to my tummy and said "baby in mama's tummy, can you say 'hi' to the baby?" He looked puzzled but went along with it and told the baby "hi" and then I asked, "do you want to give the baby a hug?" He got pretty excited and then came in very gentle and hugged my tummy.

Now when I mention there's a baby in my tummy sometimes he comes up with a sweet voice and says "ohhhh, hi baby!" and then gives my tummy a little hug. I have no idea what he is really thinking - but I do know that we often underestimate what our children are able to handle.

Stephen is offically vocal

Stephen is cracking me up with how fast his vocab is developing. He was picking up new words at a rate of 1 word every 3 or so days but now it's 1 or more words a day. And some of them are pretty hard like "cereal." Right now his vocab is at about 30 words that he uses on a regular basis, although he is entering the stage where he tries copying everything we say that he thinks is interesting.

On Friday he decided that he wanted to say the prayer - it's the first time he's ever shown interest in saying anything other than "amen" when it's prayer time. He basically babbled and then ended it with "amen." He's done it a few more times since and it makes me giggle every time.

Since he started saying more words a month or so ago - we stopped teaching him signs and have just concentrated on speech. The weird thing is that even though his spoken vocab is increasing rapidly - so is his signing vocabulary. He's pulling signs out that I showed him a long time ago that he never really used until lately such as colors. Today he was playing with a toy that had red, yellow and blue parts. I asked him where the yellow part was and he attempted to say "yellow" but afterward he signed it. He's never signed any color other than red. I then asked him about the blue part and he did the same thing.

I'm also glad that most of his words are pretty understandable to those other than just Dan and me which will make it much easier for the nursery leaders ;) I can't believe my little guy is 18 months this Friday! This Sunday he is an official nursery attendee ;)

No more morning sickness!!!!

I wrote this post in my head, I guess - because I thought I had already put it on here, guess not. ~prego brain~ Anyway, my morning sickness is finally all gone. Huzzah! I only had to endure it until 22 weeks this time, instead of 23. It sure makes you appreciate living again.

I did have one little thing that helped a bunch this time around. I sported these lovely little sea sickness bands - quite the fashion statement to be sure (especially when I was wearing a business suit!). But I couldn't let my vanity get in the way. Most of the time they simply took the edge off the nausea, for which I was extremely grateful. But for the last couple of weeks they pretty much took the nausea away. It would come back the minute I took the bands off. I got to the point that I was just never without them. I had a couple sets so I would shower or go swimming with one set and then change them quickly for a dry set. They really saved me. I have no idea whether they really work or it was just placebo - I really don't care and will keep on believing if they can get me through a couple more pregnancies.

Although, I think I will search out better looking numbers next time - my vanity is back ;)

ps church service break is over - but I ended up with a very cushy job: RS teacher. Can't beat once a month lessons!