All in a year

Sean is officially 1 year old now.  I cannot believe it!!!!  Where did my little baby go?  Sean is a little boy now.  He's starting to have strong opinions and will voice them as necessary.  He loves going to class at Gymboree. (thanks Aunt Ali for that one!)  He loves being around other kids his age ( or at least his size).  He's still off-the-charts in the height category and 75% for weight.  This kid is TALL!!  

The latest big development is that I've realized he understands much more than I thought.  He walks right to the books when I ask "Do you want to read a story?"  He goes straight to the door when I ask "Should we go get the laundry?"    It's so fun to see him understand and respond to something I say.  

He's babbling like crazy.  His current favorite 'words' are "da-guy", "duckkk", "yuckkkk", and of course "momom" and "dada".  

My mom came out for Sean's birthday.  It was so great!!   Makes me wish we lived closer to family.  I will always remember Sean's first birthday as the time I TRIED to make a really difficult cake, so sure I could do it, even though it was my first ever cake.  It was kind of a disaster.  Fondant, not so easy!!!  But it was edible, and actually quite tasty once you got rid of the fondant layer.  It served it's purpose--Sean and Collin got a birthday cake!  For those of you who don't know, Collin and Sean have the same birthday.

I'm looking forward to a trip out West in March.  This time of year in Milwaukee just gets depressing.  Winter drags!  

2009 baby!

Can't believe that Sean is almost a year old.  The time has gone by so fast.  We had a quiet Thanksgiving at home.  Went to our bishop's house for Thanksgiving dinner.  I really missed by Grandma Ellis' cooking!!  There's just no substitute!!  Christmas was in St. George with my family.  As my dad so accurately describes it:  "the circus was in town".  It was wonderful, delightful, glorious CHAOS!!  My two nieces are just the cutest things in the world, and Sean just loved to follow them around.  He took his first steps on December 4th, but really started walking "around" over Christmas.  

Since then, it's been more the same.   Collin started a new semester at Northwestern.  I'm helping out with a high school tennis group two days a week which has been so fun!!  I mostly just get to hit in with the guys.  So I get paid to play tennis---I can handle that!!  Sean is just walking everywhere.  Life is a lot easier for me now that I'm not having to hold his hand while he walks around.  Three months of that got really old!!  He is just the most delightful, happy child.  You can get him to laugh now just by looking at him and smiling or laughing.    Collin and I both comment about how he has just seemed to grow up so much this past month.  Partially the walking, partially all 6 teeth now.  We don't know exactly what it is, but he just seems like a little boy now.

It's been a long time. Sean is growing up right before my eyes. Just this week he has turned into a different kid. He pulls himself up on everything!!! He is much more content to crawl around, pull himself up on things and entertain himself....which is nice for me. I just have to stay 2 feet behind him at all times because he still occasionally falls. It's so fun watching him. This is one of my favorite ages. He is starting to eat finger foods. Little pieces of bread got us through stake conference today.

Sean and I went out to Utah to surprise my sister. We had a GREAT trip until Sean got the stomach flu....then I got the stomach flu, then Sean got an infection. Just trying to get up the courage to fly him home while he was sick was a feat in itself. But we made it and Sean finally got over the flu and infection after one crazy week home. I loved seeing my two little nieces. They are the cutest little girls in the world. It's fun to see Sean interact with them. He basically followed them around wherever they went.

Collin goes to school down in Chicago every Saturday and seems to be enjoying it, except for the 5 am wake up call. Needless to say, when Sean takes his afternoon nap on Sunday, Collin does too!! I've been playing tennis a couple times a week. I'm slowly watching the nice weather fade and will be sad when I can't get outside to take Sean for walks.

We'll be heading to St. George for Christmas!! I can't wait!!!

Growing Up

Sean is getting cuter every day. He is growing up so much. He's definitely requiring a little more energy nowadays, wants to grab my hands and walk around all the time. He's not crawling yet but can scoot himself pretty far. He loves to flip over on the changing table so that has made life pretty exciting. He flips over, then scoots to either the end, and looks down to the ground, or he goes over to the side and reaches down to grab the silver knob on the changing table. It's pretty cute!!!

At his 6 month check-up, he was 95% for weight and off the charts for height---everyone that sees him seems to comment on how big he is (when they find out he's only 6 1/2 months old. He is such a joy. I love watching him discover things. He's finally figuring out how to eat. For a while he didn't quite grasp the concept of opening his mouth when the spoon was coming.

Collin finished his first quarter at school. It's not so bad--the Saturday thing. You kind of get used to it. It's been nice having him home the last two Saturdays. He has 3 off before the new quarter starts.

THE BIG 6

Sean is almost 6 months old now. Can't believe it!! He is at such a fun age--so smiley and fun! Still curious about everything--will grab and insert into his mouth anything within his reach. Sits up on his own pretty well now. Loves being outside. Anytime he gets kinda fussy in the evening before bedtime--Collin or I will take him outside and he's instantly happy--just looks around at everything.

Just waiting now for the next big thing: crawling! Can't wait!

Time is flying by

Can't believe he's almost 6 months old. It's such a fun time right now--lots of laughing! He can sit up by himself pretty well now, a couple of minutes before he eventually tips over. He's so curious about everything and is a very distracted eater now-a-days. I told Collin when he came home yesterday and saw Sean with rice cereal all over his face, head, hands, feet, legs, his chair and the table--that I was losing the battle!! That's exactly what it feels like!!!

Went out to St. George this past month and had a great time with my parents and Jenn, Kate, and Leah! Sean slept in the storage room and apparently loved the dark--he slept about 12 hours a night!! He would get a little intimidated by his cousins and their craziness sometimes-not used to so much chaos--it's pretty mellow at our house!

First Plane Ride

First time swimming

With Grammy

Sean's cousin Leah
Sean's cousin Kate

Sean took his first plane ride this past month. We flew out to Utah for Ali's wedding (Collin's sister), to see Eric (Collin's brother recently home from his mission to Madagascar), and to see Collin's parents off at MTC. They will be serving as mission presidents in Concepcion, Chile. We also went to see my family. Jenn and Dave hadn't seen Sean yet. So all-in-all it was a busy 12 days. After I got over my anxiety about taking Sean on a plane and messing with his "schedule", it was a pretty great trip. 3 days before we left, Sean rolled over for the first time(tummy to back), and two days later he rolled from back to tummy. Now won't stay laying on his back for anything. He rolls right over to his tummy. He hasn't quite figured out how to get back over to his back though, even though that was the first way he rolled.

He seems to have grown up so much in the past week or so. He loves grabbing his toes, has started eating rice cereal, reaches for anything in his path, and is laughing more and more. This is such a fun stage for me!!!