Finally

One promised christmas present.

Hours spent during spring break.

Multiple trips to the hardware store.

And not to mention the moo-lah.

But finally...

Windowboxes.

They just add so much charm to our already quaint home. I love them.

Mischief of one kind...and another.

There's no stopping the Tan-man!

Tanner is now 11 months old. He's a recap of the past month...yes..another long, drawn-out post. But I can't help myself!

Tanner acquired a new smile. And I love it. It's the squinty smile. He usually does it sticking out those two little bottom teeth. It's hard saying no to this adorable little face!

Cupboards and doors while provides plently of entertainment, it's unfortunately been the source of many pinched fingers. We keep thinking he'll learn...but that day has yet to come.

In the bathroom...

Or in the kitchen...

He tries to "help" with the dishes. I'd say he's a little too young.

Climbs everyone and anywhere. I'm now resigned myself to be a jungle gym. When I'm holding him, he'll use me as a bouncing pad. Or when we're sitting, he'll climb all over me.

Magnets on the fridge. He LOVES these letters. He pulls them all off the fridge - one by one - even if it means reaching for them on his very tippy toes. He'll find a way to get it. And he's just now learning how to put them back on the fridge after he's pulled them all off.

Pretty much - anything with lots of peices that can be taken down or emptied is now a favorite pasttime. Books of shelves. Toys in bins. Legos in a bag. Letters on the fridge. Food in the cupboards. Silverware in the Dishwasher.

Chatts on the cell phone. He LOVES to play with my cell phone - and I already noticed him holding it up to his ear just like we do. So smart!

Trickster. He loves to perform. At least for Anthony and I. He'll clap his hands, give power to the people (ie superman arm), raise his hands when you ask "how big our you", tilt his head and smile, or my personal fav, give high 5s.

He loves the attention, and sometimes demands it. When he wants you to look at him, he'll turn you're head for you if you're looking away. He loves to laugh. He'll start laughing himself, wait for you to laugh, and then laugh some more. Such a silly little kid. Anthony brings out all the giggles in him. They've had a good time playing together everyday over the past 2 weeks which Anthony had a short break from school.

One night, I was trying to put Tanner to bed for evening, but he had other ideas. He started doing all his tricks at once. High fives, super intense smile, power to the people, so big, etc.

Chitter chatter. Tanner loves to chat. It's mostly baby talk, but I can make out mama or mom clearly. Sometimes da-da and ba-ba too.

• When you ask him a question, he'll usually respond. Or if he's tired it'll be nonstop chatter. Or when he's wided awake and in a really happy mood.


• His favorite word is by far ma-ma. When he's sad, this is always what he sobs when he's crying. And how can I say no? I don't know to count these as his first "words" cause I still can't tell if he's linked it together.


• When Tanner hears another baby, he has to chirp in too. Or when Anthony asked if he was ready for bed, he responded with a NO as clear as could be. A peer coincidence...but perfect timing.

Reading books. He loves flipping through the pages of the lift-the-flap book. His favorite is a pop-up book that has 3D pages. We read it so much I'm suprised it hasn't been torn to shreds yet. Part of me wished I would never have introduced him to these books cuz he thinks every book has to have flaps or pop-ups and anxiously searches for them on the pages and is disappointed and uninterested if they are not to be found. He's also started pointing - which started out when we'd read and point to various objects - especially the counting books - and now he does it when he sees other things as well.

Spring Training. Football. In Texas, they start training early. They are serious about their sports. We have a friend who has a son the same age as Tanner - and they've already talked about holding him back a grade - for various reasons - but one of which is sports. Ridiculous. I personally hope Tanner NEVER plays football. Any other sport, but football is too dangerous. And now I'm starting to sound like my mother.

We take the good with the bad. Tanner's also starting throwing tauntrums. Basically, when he doesn't get his way, he's wiggle and squirm until there's nothing you can do and it's impossible to hold him. Diaper changes, nap time, taking away a toy, or even just walking down the hall to his room cause bring them on. Luckily, this doesn't happen very often, just when he's really tired. And I'm hoping it's a phase that passes quickly.

He's also become shy and bashful around people he doesn't know. He's like a whole new little baby - and acts like a serious old man - around people he doesn't know very well or really large groups. We need to get him out more often!

Food. Tanner's world of food has brought him a whole new world of satisfaction. A wagon full on pancakes - He'll eat two whole pancake - if not more - by himself - followed by even more fruit. He's growing less and less fond of normal baby food, but we keep trying new things and he loves it all! He loves it all! Pasta, pizza, pancakes, cheese, beans, all fruits and most veggies. Not always a big fan on meat, but mostly cause it's not very tender and hard for him to chew.

Walking around furniture and standing on his own. But I think it'll be at least another month before he starts walking. But we will see!

He generally enjoys playing with his toys on his own, but when I'm in sight, he'll follow me around the house. With doors, drawers, and cupboards in evry room of the house, he always has something that catches his attention.

I just a few more weeks...he'll be 1 year old. I'm still in denial. I want him to stay by little baby and not grow up. But there's no stopping him.

Vacation

Many people have never heard of Branson Missouri. But it's like the Vegas on mid-west, except geared towards families and old people. Clean family fun. Gotta love it.

So this is where we decided to spend our first family vacation together.

Except nothing goes as planned. Of course.

A few of the lowlights.

• One grueling drive. Mapquest said it would take 7 hours so I thought for sure we could get there in 6. But traveling with kids, getting lost in the backwoods of Arkansas, and a few other unpleasanties made for 8+ drive. Nevertheless, it was a gorgeous drive and I miss the endless green rolling hills already. But if or when we ever go back, we're definitely flying. If only we would have known we could have flown on Suncountry for $75/roundtrip...



• We had reservations to stay at Big Cedar Lodge, one of the top 10 travel resorts in the United States. When we got there, apparently they had other ideas. We originally decided to go to Branson cause we got an awesome deal on hotel accomadation...the only catch being that we had to sit through a time share presentation. However, we had paid money to upgrade our reservation to the lodge, but apparently, they had booked on at a sister location instead, but failed to mention this to us. And the lodge was completely booked full, so there was nothing they could do.

But on the positive note, the other location was still nice, although not up to par with Big Cedar, It was over 1200 sq feet and included two sepearete rooms, large kitchen and dining, and the master even had a two-person jacuzzi tub.

And instead of doing all the outdoorsy things we had hoped, like biking on the nature trails, canoeing on Tabletop Lake, horseback riding through the mountains, swimming in the lazy river, etc...we decided to hit up the Branson city life and see a few shows on the "strip". Branson has over 30+ shows to choose from each night. Although it costs a small fortune, we loved the two performances we saw.

Shangai Circus - Acrobats of China. I've never seen anything quite like this before. These amazing acts just don't seem humanly possible (I can barely touch my toes, let alone bend my body in half). And just when you think they've reached the highlight of the show, the next act is ever more incredible and amazing. There's just a few of their acts.

Dixie Stampede - It was a dinner attraction featuring a show with singing, dancing, 40+ livestock - including fancy riding, races, and my personal favorite - pig races. They serve you dinner cowboy stlye (no silverware) and Tanner enjoyed helping himself to all the finger food off of my plate. Avery was practicing her yee-hahs and loved the southern belle dresses - they even lit up just like princesses.

We also had time to relax and unwind.

Tanner loved swimming in the pool. He had his little floatly and he just leaned his head back and chilled. And when I took him out, he had fun splashing in the water.

Avery also got to go on a real pony ride. The guy totally had a thing for Chelsea so not only did she get her own private pony ride for FREE, she also got a cowgirl hat. Tanner was a little too young to ride the pony, but he did get to experience his own version, allbeit the plastic - pay a quater for a ride version. He wasn't too impressed.

We also played mini-golf. I thought for sure Tanner would get bored. As he sat alongside the course in his stroller, he stared intently and would follow the ball with each stroke. And Avery would go ahead and tell us how awesome she was doing, but she likes to play by her own rules. And if no one was looking, I would too!

But all in all, we had a great time. But at the end of it, there's no place like home.

PS - Sorry no pics, camera ran out of batteries. Chels took a few and I'll try to post them later...

Visitors

I'm a little behind in my blogging and this post is a few more weeks...but too important to skip over...

My parents came to down for Chelsea's graduation. We had a good ole time hanging out with the gang.

Chelsea's graduation was in the middle of nowhereville Texas. Athens to be exact. See Chelsea's post here. There's just something about gradutations that always get to me. It almost made me want to go back to college. Yes, I have a masters, but there's always a PhD right? I love the idea of school - learning and progressing towards a goal. Life in school is black/white. But work is anything but that.

Avery was so proud of her mom!
Tanner & Avery - I love how Ave just put her arm around him.
We just had to take a picture!

I love Tanner's smirk with just one eyebrow raised. He's been doing this ever since he was a wee little one...and I hope is always continues.

Afterwards, we celebrated by going out to eat. Everyone in town had the same idea as us as we waited, and waited, and waited. But my mom is still talking about the food a few days later, so it was definitely worth it.

The next day we hung out with the family gang. After tossing around a million ideas, we finally settled on going bowling. I didn't know how much talent my family had. Everyone was bowling spares left and right. Except for me. Tough competition.

The Gang!

Victory - Everyone showing off their strikes...or is some cases...Turkeys!

Afterwards went to see Star Trek. I am definitely not a Trekie and never even watched the show growing up, but the movie was really good. Definitely worth seeing.

My mom stayed a few extra days. It was nice to spend more time with her - and she even offered to watch Tanner while I was at work. He was a sick little boy - AGAIN - with a high fever reaching 104 degrees. I took him to the doctor - but nothing besides a virus. Ugh. A another few sleepless day and nights.

Taking care of a sick little boy is not easy - so to say thank you - we went to go see Fiddler On the Roof at Dallas Summer Musicals. It was by far one of my favorite performances, mostly cause I loved, loved the main character - Topal. He starred in the original movie - and almost 40 years and over 2500+ performances- he's still doing the shows. But I just don't think it would be the same without him!


We only got one pic of just Chels and I before security snatched our camera. Who would have thought - no cameras allowed - even outside the theatre.





The time went by too quickly, and before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye. But we've already got our next visit all lined up. A mini family renunion for my cousin get's married in July. You haven't experienced anything until you get my mom's family all together. Yeah!!