1st Day Back

As mentioned before, I returned to work on Monday.  We didn't have to report until 9 due to  Hurricane Irene (which we thankfully had no damage nor did we lose power... we had one huge branch fall on our a/c unit at 5am on Saturday, but again, no damage).  Hunter was super glued to me when we got there, but luckily his friends were there (since I dropped him off later than our normal time).  He was easily distracted and didn't cry.  My day went by fast due to lots of meetings.

Having fun at Mrs. Cathy's!

Today didn't go as well.  He knew as soon as we pulled up where he was and started to whine.  He then gave me the pouty lip as we were sitting on the couch.  And he cried as I handed him off.  Just tear my heart out and stomp on it!  Mrs. Cathy always sends me a text about 2 minutes later telling me he is smiling and happy.  I know he has fun and enjoys it there.  And I tell him every morning that Mommy and Daddy work so he can do all the fun things that he does.

When I looked in the back, this is how he had his leg. haha

I still have to get my kids scheduled.  I've only been able to complete one class so far.  Right now, I have 53 students and 1 pending.  The other full time therapist has about the same amount, and our part time person I believe has 10.  But we still have to screen all the kindergarten students and then evaluate the ones who do not pass the screening (if consent by the parent is given).  So my numbers will likely increase as the school year goes on.

Completing his chore... how cute is that?!

My little surfer dude.  Can you tell we love books?!

iPics

I scheduled this ahead of time since we are going to be hit by Irene this weekend.  We are riding it out at the house.  My biggest concern is being stuck in the house, without power.  We sleep with fans on (for the noise) and we are usually an "on the go" family.  It is also putting a damper on my last weekend before work (boo!).

 Hunter LOVES Peekaboo Barn and Peekaboo Wild.  If he sees my phone, he will either say, "Moo" or "Roar" to tell me which one he wants to play.

 Most meals look like this.  He loves to feed himself and so we have been letting him (most of the time).  Some days we need to eat and run, so we can't let him do this.

 He doesn't quite understand "time-out" yet.

 After our TLG class on Wednesday.  We have been taking advantage of my summer break and going sometimes 3 days a week.  Unfortunately, Hunter is terrified of my old boss Randy who happens to teach the Wednesday class.  He doesn't like to be anywhere near him, lol.

 Who needs toys when you have a box you can wear?

 I will let Hunter play at the dishwasher after I have taken clean dishes out (it isn't often that we actually wash dishes in the dishwasher).  I was putting away the last thing I had taken out and turned around to find him like this.  Silly boy.

 Hunter got his first major boo-boo last night.  He was running around with a bucket over his face and ran into the table.  We think he bit his upper lip on the inside (he of course wouldn't let us see).  It looked fine this morning.  He was only upset until he saw a book and then wanted us to read to him.  Carl took a self portrait to show off the blood.

 Spinning birdies!  Hunter LOVED this in class on Friday.  Some of the kids did not (like little A on the left).

 Enjoying a nice nap.

 We headed to the park Friday afternoon to enjoy one last outing before we were stuck in the house all weekend.  We weren't even going to try to take the car anywhere because traffic on our main road was TERRIBLE (we live right near a I64 entrance and the back road to/from Elizabeth City).

Tough Choices

Do I read "Barnyard Dance"....

or "The Going To Bed Book"...

I think I will read

"The Going To Bed Book"

Some tough choices we are having to make during this hurricane!

14 Months

I'm a day (or 2) late posting this.  I also realized that I never did a 13 month update.

Hunter is growing and changing every day!  I went out and bought him Stride Rite shoes today (he was falling every where at the park yesterday in his big, clunky shoes, so I broke down).  He had been wearing them around the house before bath and Carl took them off in our room.  As I walked in there tonight, I saw them on the floor and realized we have a little boy now.  Sigh.

At 14 months, Hunter:
-is in size 4 diapers, size 5 shoes, 18 month shorts, and anywhere from 18-2T shirts.  Just depends on the brand.
-is really mimicking our words.  I'm very much relieved at this.  Remember, crazy mom?!  He repeated "cake" while we were playing with his toy birthday cake and repeated "read" tonight.
-is trying his hardest to do a forward roll all by himself!  He will get in the position, and then flop on his side.  He claps and claps, then log rolls, then claps again.  Silly boy.
-is climbing on almost everything.  We have a monkey.
-is saying even more animal noises.  I love them.  I love how he will scream them when we are reading books and he sees a picture of an animal he loves.
-is biting... eek!  He is usually just trying to get our clothes to bite and pull back on (hard to explain) and will accidentally get us through them.  But other times, he will just bite us (or hit or pinch).  I've noticed it occurs a lot when he is tired, so we have been working on the sign for "bed" and using our words to say bed or tired.  But other times it is just random and I have no idea why he is doing it.  I'm going to check out "What To Expect The Second Year" to see if there is anything that we can try (stern voices, ouches, and no's are not working). Luckily (knock on wood) he is only biting Carl and me.  I'm not sure what I am going to do if he starts biting other people!
-loves taking things in and out of things.  He could do that forever.  He also loves to read and be read to.  He will grab a book and give it to you and sit in your lap.  I love it.
-is starting to notice when his "friends" leave or we leave them.  He is getting upset and whining.  He is also saying "Emma" when we are with her (usually when she has run off to go play somewhere and he doesn't see her... E-MAH?").
-is getting all 4 of his molars!  The top two have broken through and I can feel the bottom two.  They bothered him at first, but now he just hangs out with his hands in his mouth all day.
-is doing a lot more in regards to dressing and undressing himself, especially the shirt. He is also feeding himself a lot more.  I have really let go of my Type-A personality when it comes to a non-messy meal.  I just take off his shirt and let him have the "wheel" if you will.  He is really getting good at using a spoon and fork.  We sometimes need a morning bath after breakfast, but I would much rather do that than him not learn when he is ready.
-is walking great!  He is starting to speed up, so I see running in our very near future.  His tibia and/or fibula (I say tibia because it is the longer, larger bone) is still very bowed.  His pediatrician said it would straighten out once he started walking, but it still hasn't.  That is on my question list for our 15 month check up.  I guess that is what happens when you're almost 22 inches long and almost 9 pounds in a 5'3/5'4ish mommy.
-has his very first chore.  He feeds the dog every morning and at night.  Once he gets his diaper changed in the morning, he "runs" down the hall to get Koal and the food bowl.  I pour the food into the bowl, and he takes the bowl out to the kitchen to Koal's dish holder.  Hunter will even remind me some evenings when he thinks it is time to feed Koal.  Love it!
-is VERY attached to Mommy and Daddy.  It is taking him a little while to warm up to people (even people he sees often).  This worries me A LOT for this coming Monday.

Just In Case You Were Wondering...

We had a 5.8 (some reports say 5.9) earthquake here in VA.  This is something no one has experienced here since like 1897 (or something like that).  Anyways... all is well, Hunter slept through his first earthquake, I tried to blame it on the dog....

Source

Recent Videos

Here are two recent videos of Hunter.



I was so proud of him!  He climbed up to the slide all by himself.  He asked for "help" when he got to the top of the slide (he needed help sitting down) and then he came down all by himself.  Yay!



Hunter has become quite the independent little mister lately.  I am all for this independence (even if it means a big mess.. I've learned to let go of that part of my Type-A personality).  He enjoys using his forks and his spoons during meal time.

iPics

My summer break is coming to an end (I don't like talking about it), so Hunter and I have been doing lots and lots of stuff.

It wasn't too hot the other day to go outside and play with chalk.  Hunter had a good time "drawing" and going for a walk on our street.  We had to go inside after he made the choice to leave the driveway.  We live at the end of a dead end street, so there isn't any traffic.

 And his sweaty-betty hair is the reason we decided to cut it.

 We went to Fun Forest one morning bright and early.  There was no one there for about 45 minutes.  It was awesome.  Then the YMCA bus rolled in and it was all down hill from there.

 Hunter absolutely loves The Little Gym and he loves Miss Sarah. I'm We are excited because we are going to her and her husband's pool and cookout tonight.

 Hunter will sit and play peek-a-boo barn on my phone forever (you know, like 15 minutes, but that is still a long time in toddler time).  I finally had Carl's phone and was able to take a picture of him.  He even cheesed for the camera, haha.

We headed to the zoo again this morning.  Members get in a hour before they actually open on the weekends in the summer so it wasn't crowded at all.  And we beat all of the smoke from the Dismal Swamp fire (as we were leaving it had rolled in).  He loves to play in these fountains at the end of the Trail of the Tiger.

And, because I'm a big dork, I took this screen shot because I absolutely love that in the instructions it says to hold the phone to your mouth to draw attention to how you are forming the words.  I knew I liked this "game" for a reason!

Crazy Hair

Remember when we got Hunter's hair cut for the first time a few months ago?

It just wasn't cutting it.  He is a sweaty betty and his hair just gets all crazy when he is hot.  We cut Carl's hair at home, so we decided to use a guard and cut Hunter's hair here as well. It took me a few days to totally commit to it, but I was surprised at the fact I wasn't "upset" about cutting his hair.

He did great this time!  We let him touch the clippers and play with toilet paper while Carl cut his hair.  We used the smaller trimmers to get the back of his neck and he kept laughing (we assumed it tickled).  Here are some before and after pictures.

 

Wee!

I just love watching his little face light up when he is having fun!

DIY Canvas Saying

Remember I said I was going to make this into a canvas?

Well I did!  I didn't even procrastinate with this project!

I started out placing sticker letters on the canvas (I used a piece of paper to give me a straight edge, probably should use something a little more reliable next time).  If you notice, this canvas is smaller than the finished product.  I started putting the letters down and realized the saying wouldn't totally fit on this canvas.  Luckily, I had purchased the next size up (because they were having a good sale at Michael's, plus 15% discount for being a "teacher").

I bought two packs of letters, but didn't have enough of some of the letters.  I had to paint over sections, then remove the letters I needed to place lower on the canvas.  Next time, I'm buying four packs!

When I painted, I dotted paint on top of the letters, then smoothed it out.  That way I got paint in all of the nooks of the fancy letters.

I did have an apostrophe in "you're".  When I painted it, the apostrophe came off (boo).  So I had to draw one in there (because no one likes bad grammar.. now there will be something wrong in my blog post, haha).

Once I painted everything, I started to take all the letters off.  The paint bled under some of the letters.  If there was a lot, I was able to wipe most of it off with my nails.  Maybe next time I will try spray paint?

Finished!  This is not its permanent home.  I just didn't have time to hang it up, so I just placed it on Hunter's bookshelf.  It will stay in his room, just on a different wall.  Now that I have 3 other canvases, I have to find more things to do!

I think it turned out pretty okay for my first one.  If I make another one with letters, I will make sure I have all the letters and they will all be one before I start to paint so I can have a nice, smooth consistency of paint.

Typical Anniversary?

You know what Carl and I did on our anniversary today?

Hunter and I made Carl's gift this morning while he was in the shower.  Carl surprised me by staying home from work, but I had planned on making it today.  So we quickly made it.

Then we went to the zoo...

They were so close

Let Hunter nap.

Then went to the YMCA water park.

Isn't that what everyone does on their anniversary?  No?