18 months!

Yesterday you turned 18 months old. It feels like we were just celebrating your 1st birthday. I took you to get your pictures taken today and I loved the three on here. They just show you perfectly.

Some of the things you are up to these days:

You run everywhere, gone are the days of walking. And when you run, you make this hilarious noise like you are a vehicle moving.

You speak in "sentences". For about the past 2 months, you say "hi car", "bye bye bus", etc. to EVERYTHING you see. You are so verbal, it's really amusing. You know so many words including-truck, bus, pig, giraffe, duck, bird, plane, juice, milk, egg, waffle, dog, cow, more, please, no, yes, up, down, in, out, run, ride, beans, ball, balloon, outside, pool, wet, dirty, mess, water, nice, baby, monsters


All of those words you say really well and pretty clearly. However, we have noticed (thanks Kelly for pointing it out!) that you speak like you are German, despite there being about 2% German in our family. It is so hilarious, I now find myself responding to you by saying achtung or spekense deutch? (please forgive my poor german spelling).

You are also getting great at names-you know Avery, Joe, Nee (Shannon), Baba (Grandpa), Charlie, Bert & Ernie (yep, the ones you are thinking of)

You love to imitate animals and do a hilarious impression of both an elephant and a monkey. Daddy taught you those and they kept Avery laughing all day.

You love Big Bird, sorry Elmo. Elmo is so 2 weeks ago. You wake up and start demanding the birdie. Thankfully we just found a Big Bird DVD.

Food-you love bananas, mandarin oranges, clementines, avocados, black beans, black eyed peas, corn (most days), cheese, eggs, pasta, waffles, gerber graduates pasta pickups, chips, cookies and ice cream (of course he is Joe's child too!). Oh and juice-you are obsessed. I waited until you were about 15 mos before I ever gave it to you and boy do you demand it every second. You don't get it too often, but you do love to scream JUICEEEEEEEE.

Your new favorite book is the Elmo Lift the Flap book pictured in this entry. Baba & Grandma gave it to you when we were in CA and you read it about 5 times a day.

You love to play Ring Around the Rosy, like to play with your fisher price house, you are very much into throwing balls, playing with cars, motorcycles, trucks and helicopters. You love to swing at the park and climb up everything you can find.

Personality: You are what some would call spirited. You have quite a little fire to you. You're very intense and go 100% all of the time. You are very insistent on feeding yourself (which is messy), but I know you've got to get good at it. But when I try to help you get so upset that you start throwing things everywhere, you tend to have quite the temper. You have been trying to teach me patience, which I seem to be a slow learner at, but I'm getting better each day.

You are quite a joy and even though we do have lots of tantrums and time outs, I love this age. It is so fun when you take my hand and lead me places to explore or play. You have such an adorable personality and you are typically happy and laughing (while sprinting through the house).

I think it's official-you are no longer a baby. But you'll always be my baby.

Happy Birthday Joe/Happy Belated Father's Day

Today is Joe's birthday and of course the other day was father's day. I kind of feel bad for him that they are so close together, that's a lot of golf shirts and golf balls in a few days. I like it though b/c it reminds me a few days in a row what a wonderful husband and father he is. I know, I shouldn't need reminding and I don't, but sometimes life goes by and you just go through the motions of where you need to be when and you forget to think about all the blessings around you. I think you have an idea what type of father your husband will make before you have a baby, but you never really know until your child is born. If I could have hand-written exactly what I was hoping for, I wouldn't have come close to what Joe is. He is the most hands on father I know, he helps with everything without ever being asked. When we are in public, people often comment on what a great dad he is, which he then replies is sad that he's an exception. He really gives so unselfishly to both Evan and me. He is 100% Evan's hero. Evan's eyes light up when he sees his daddy and he goes running for him screaming dada! He wants to be exactly like daddy-wear his sunglasses, his wedding ring, his watch. Drink his cokes, eat his donuts and chips and cookies (I'm praying you also get his metabolism!). He follows him everywhere he goes. Here are a few pictures of him with Evan that I think explain the bond they have. Happy Birthday my love, our 6th together!

The Garr's Visit

This past weekend our friends, Kelly, Joe and Avery came down to visit. We had such a good time relaxing, sightseeing, having the kids "play" with each other and drinking some vino. We miss them so much since we've moved to Florida and are so happy that they came down to visit us! Now if we can just get the Secret Service to transfer Joe down here, then life would be great. Having Avery here was a good test to see how Evan would be if he eventually has a sibling (no, I'm not pregnant). He was a little jealous of his mom and dad holding Avery at first, but he got much better as the days went on. I think he developed quite a crush on Avery, even kissing her while we weren't looking. Since they left today, he keeps talking about the baby and looking for her. I'm glad we'll see them again in about a month when we go to Ocean City, MD for a week to celebrate Kelly and my 30th birthdays.

Elmo Show

Today we took your cousin Maxwell to Sea World with us to see Elmo and Abby's Treasure Hunt show. We met our friends Ms. Irene and Alexis there as well. You loved the show and could not stop clapping and yelling "Melmo". The show was actually pretty entertaining, I'm sure we'll back many times this summer to see it. You only got freaked out by the characters once, when Cookie Monster stood right next to us dancing-Great job! You were good with Elmo in this picture, as long as I held you on my hip, away from him. You wouldn't take your eyes off of him, which is why this picture is so appropriate. Not the best picture, but I couldn't resist the $19 pricetag! Gotta have these memories of you and Maxwell at Sea World together for the first time though :).

Trip to SoCal

Joe, Evan & I headed out to SoCal to visit with our family and to see my cousin Jenna graduate from HS. We had a wonderful time seeing our family and friends, it was such a great trip. Evan loved seeing all of his cousins and being the center of attention. Oh, and did I mention how much we enjoyed all the carne asada burritos that we ate? Why can't they have Roberto's out here???