Long Update

I haven't been very good at updating this blog lately and Hunter has been doing so many new things... so here's the scoop!

He dances! It started a little over a month ago when he started shaking his head "no." At first I thought he was mimicking me when I would shake my head "no" at him when he was doing something naughty. But then I realized that every time I sang a silly song to him, I would rock my head back and forth and that's what he was actually mimicking! Now he is a dancing pro and he's even developing some awesome new moves with the rest of his body! His favorite song to dance to is on Josh's phone - The Beegies "Stayin' Alive." LOL!

He's got his own opinion! Man oh man, these past few weeks, has he been expressing that opinion! It probably doesn't help that he has four molars growing in right now but he definitely is a stubborn little boy. But on the flip side, when he is being adorable, he's EXTRA adorable, so I guess I'll take the two extremes... :P

On Sunday, November 29th, Hunter quit the binky! Or should I say, the binky quit him... lol. Josh had put Hunter in his bed for his nap and bedtime that day and later that night told me, nonchalantly,"FYI, I didn't give Hunter his binky for his nap or for bedtime today." This surprised me that he had taken the initiative himself and had gotten rid of the binky - something that I was meaning to do but hadn't yet... I was very impressed and just said, "Okay." So, for the next few days, I followed suit... and Hunter didn't care one bit! Later that week, Josh asked me where Hunter's binky was. I was very confused by this question but played along saying that Hunter didn't use it anymore... He was taken a back and asked when Hunter had stopped using it. Now I was really confused and explained that he stopped using it when Josh took it away on Sunday! He was surprised and said that he didn't mean to take it away permanently; he just didn't give it to him because he didn't feel like it! So, ultimately, Hunter stopped using his binky because of a misunderstanding! LOL! I guess it's for the best though because Hunter really only used his binky whenever he slept or if it was a dire situation - like when he is screaming/crying (i.e. sacrament meeting)... that's when I really miss that "plug!"

He has quite a vocabulary! He is so smart - it just amazes me. Some words he says a lot and some he's only said once or twice. So, I wonder how many words he actually knows... I'm sure it's quite a bit. But some words that come to mind that he has said lately are: milk, cookie, broken, light, bath, cracker and I swear he has said "I did it" a few times!

Here's a cute story about the "broken" word... Josh was letting Hunter play with his phone about a week ago. The phone ended up dieing while Hunter was playing with it, so Josh turned it back on and handed it back to him. It lit up, made the T-Mobile start up sound and then died again. Hunter handed it back to Josh and Josh turned it back on again and handed it back to Hunter. It did the same thing and then died again. This sequence happened a few times - but one of the times when the phone died, Hunter said, "Broken?" It was so clear when he said it and it totally shocked me. I had one of those "mommy moments" when you have to choke back tears... You moms know what I'm talking about!!! ;) I would have let them go but I didn't want Josh to make fun of me... :P

He climbs down the stairs! I think I mentioned in an earlier post that Josh taught him how to climb the stairs (or at least I hope I did). Well, a month or so ago, Josh decided that he would teach him how to go down the stairs too! It didn't take Hunter very long to figure it out and now he is a pro. He knows to flip around and go down legs first and he just slides down on his little belly. It makes me very nervous but he's pretty good at it. We have a gate at the top of the stairs, so thankfully that keeps him from practicing his new skill 24/7. But I do let him do it almost every time we go downstairs. When he realizes I'm leaving the gate open for him to climb down, he giggles and gets really excited... it's really cute. Climbing down the stairs is probably one of his favorite past times now...

He growls! Josh has been growling at him probably since birth but lately, Hunter has been growling back! I'm not sure how long he has been doing this but it's really adorable. It's funny because it sounds more like a duck quack than a growl...

And last but certainly not least, he took his FIRST STEP last night!!! He was playing with his little toy that he walks behind while we were in the living room. (Side note - he has really gotten good at that toy and can even pivot it to wherever he wants to go). He was cruising between the living room and kitchen - just laughing and having a good ol' time. He stopped at the coffee table and "transferred" to it and then started walking around it. As soon as he was bored with the coffee table, he decided he wanted to walk behind his toy again, so he headed towards it. It was within arms reach from the coffee table but not for long! I moved it away slowly as he was reaching out for it, so he HAD to take a step in order to reach it... and he did! His first unassisted step! It was amazing - and he had no idea what he did! I honestly think that he has the ability to walk by himself but I think he is too busy developing other skills right now - as listed above... :P

I'll keep you posted on what's happening with the walking front! ;)

I Am Lame...

Okay, so I totally wrote up a post about Hunter's Halloween experience but didn't post it! I saved it as a draft, with the intent that I was going to add pictures to it and post it later... but that didn't actually happen until today! SO LAME! Well, it's up now - with pictures - but the date on it is actually November 3rd, so you'll have to go back a couple of posts to see it... :P

Last Bottle

I totally forgot to mention that Hunter is weaned from the bottle! He now drinks everything from a sippy cup! HURRAY!

It really didn't take that much effort... just a lot of dishes. :P I would give him a sippy cup full of milk - cold - and let him drink a little. Then I would warm it up and give it back to him and he would drink a little more. After that, I would transfer the warm milk to a bottle and he would finish it off.

I did this for about a week and a half and as the days went on, he would drink more and more from the sippy cup. And then on October 16th, he drank the whole thing of milk from the sippy cup! So, I figured that he was over the bottle and could definitely get all of his milk from the sippy cup, so I didn't give him a bottle after that. He didn't cry for it or anything! It was definitely a lot easier than I thought it would be.

One minor set back is that he will only drink the milk warm. I have tried the same weaning technique with cold and warm milk but it doesn't work too well. But I would gladly warm up his milk in a sippy cup than have him walking around with a bottle when he's way too old to have one! No offense to parents who have kids that were a little more stubborn letting go of their bottles... ;)

Now, we just got to take away that binky... but that's going to be more difficult because that "plug" comes in handy in sacrament meeting! :P

The "Official" Halloween

This year, Hunter got to experience what I am calling his "official" Halloween. Last year, he was only a month old, so he really didn't know what was going on. I also didn't go all out with a costume last year either because he was so little (I just put him in a little onesie that had a ghost face on it and put a white cap on his head - you can go back to that post if you want to see.) But this year, we did the whole "shabang." We got a real costume, went to Halloween parties and even went trick-or-treating!

Hunter's cousin Robee LOVES Scooby Doo. So we decided to dress up the kiddies as the Scooby Gang: Robee was Shaggy, Hunter's young aunts - Rebekah and Hannah - were Velma and Daphne, and Hunter's 2nd cousin - Cameron - was Freddie. So, what does that leave Hunter as? SCOOBY DOOBY DOO! :P

I ordered his costume online and expected it to be just "okay" because I didn't want to spend too much on it. But when it arrived, it was a TON better than what I ordered! I was very impressed!

A week before Halloween, I took Hunter to a pumpkin patch up in North Ogden and got some pictures of him with his cousins on my side of the family (like we did last year). They turned out very cute and Hunter even got a picture with "Pumpkin Man!" He would not take his eyes off of him... he just stared him down! It was really funny...

On Halloween, we went to Josh's parents house. We carved up some pumpkins (Josh did one and I did one - a Jazz one) and Hunter didn't want to touch any of the pumpkin goo but he seemed to enjoy watching us carve. Later on, we had a potato bar. I had Josh try to give Hunter some of his potato, thinking maybe, just maybe, he would eat a veggie for once. Unfortunately, Josh did not check the temperature of the potato before he gave him a bite and as soon it touched his tongue, he freaked out because it was too hot and it burned his little tongue. The only thing that would calm him down was homemade root beer and peaches. Not a very nutritious meal but what can you do? Josh felt really bad though...

After we ate, the kids got their costumes on and we took some pictures. Hunter didn't want to stay still for his "Scooby Gang photo op," so he just crawled around their feet. It was so adorable though because you couldn't really see his face when he was crawling around, so he really looked like a little Scooby Doo!

After the pictures, we went out trick-or-treating. Josh didn't really want to go but I made him because I told him that it was Hunter's first trick-or-treating experience and that I needed help carrying him when I got tired. I think he just wanted to stay at the house and get in the hot tub and sauna (which he did first thing when we got back). As we went to each house, Hunter caught on to what we were doing, so when we would leave one porch, he would point to the next house and kick his feet in excitement. It was very cute. We only went to about 20 houses because it was kind of cold but it was definitely fun.

We ended up with a good amount of candy and I should've split it between the other kids but that candy looked too good! So, I selfishly kept it for myself, so I can rot my teeth out of my head. :P I even give Hunter a tiny piece of chocolate occasionally - I know it's bad but he loves it!

H1N1 Vaccine...

I thought I should document our little adventure with the H1N1 vaccination...

My friend Shelbi wanted to get her little daughter a swine flu vaccination because of obvious reasons and wanted me to take Hunter to get one as well. I had my reservations and basically believed what most people did about the vaccination - that you would be worse off if you went and got it. After speaking with Josh and other family members and doing A LOT of research, I decided that it would be best to get one for him.

So, on October 22nd, we woke up at 6 am, got ready and then met Shelbi off the freeway on 21st street. She transferred her daughter Aubree and her things to my car and off we went! We pulled up to the Weber-Morgan Health Department office and looked at the line. It didn't look too bad! So I dropped Shelbi off to go get in line and I went to park the car. I saw a spot towards the end of the parking lot and noticed that there was another car wanting that spot too. The parking lot was pretty full, so desperate times call for desperate measures... I had the better angle on the spot, so I totally stole it from the other car! I felt bad but then I noticed that another car was pulling out of a spot a few rows away and the car I cut off got a parking spot, so that made me feel better.

I got Hunter in his stroller and got all of the baby accessories and headed towards the building. I called Shelbi to see where she was at and she said that the line we saw was just the beginning of it! The line was clear around the back of the building! Oh boy!

They only had 400 injectable shots so we knew that our position in line was going to cut it close but we figured we would take a chance. I knew we would need to "hunker" down because we were going to be waiting for a while and it was kinda cold. So I bundled Hunter up and prepared for a very awnry baby. I brought a bunch of toys, books, snacks and even a portable DVD player... but he didn't need ANY of that! He just sat in his car seat in the stroller and was a perfect little angel! He may have been a little lethargic because I woke him up so early but he was still way good!

By the time the line moved up to the front of the building, we had been waiting in line for about 2 1/2 hours. When we got closer to the door, a lady had a paper with little tally marks on it and told us to "hold on a sec" while she counted them up. She looked at both me and Shelbi and said, "you guys are good" but then told the lady behind us that there was no guarantees for her! My stomach just dropped! We had been talking to this lady the entire time in line and she was so nice and had tried to get her little daughter a shot a couple times before but wasn't able to, so I felt so bad!

We got into the building and got to where the nurses were and they were trying to figure out how many injectable shots they had left. They checked with all of the nurse stations and the nurses kept saying, "I'm out! I'm out too!" I was panicking at this point thinking that they had just ran out but then one of the nurses was like, "We have a few left, come on back." So, I took Hunter into one of the rooms and got him ready to get the shot. I looked at the supplies and noticed that she was holding one of the last vials of vaccine. I said, "Man, we cut it close, didn't we?" She said, "Oh yes, VERY close." She gave Hunter the shot and he started crying but then I gave him his binky and he was fine.

I met Shelbi and we got ready to go (she was able to get her daughter a shot too) and we saw the lady that was in line behind us. We asked if she was able to get one and she said yes, that they had found a case of more vaccine, so they were able to get about 20 or so more people vaccinated. Phew! SO close!

I'm glad that I was able to get Hunter a vaccination but he still needs a booster because he is so young, so I hope I won't have to go through that again. But I still can't believe how AWESOME Hunter was throughout the whole process. We ended up being in line for about 3 hours and he was so good that the only time I gave him his binky was AFTER he got his shot! I definitely underestimated my little man! What an adventure, I tell ya!

A Few "Firsts"

On Monday, Hunter decided that he wanted to explore his walking skills. He has been cruising around on furniture and such for a while now but I guess he wanted to venture out. He has this little toy that he can walk behind and we have tried to get him to do it in the past but the thing always moved faster than his little legs could go so he would just fall down - until now. He stood up behind this thing and walked across the room! He thought it was so much fun - you could tell by the huge smile on his face - and it was so cute to see my little guy walking around! I know that he'll be walking without the aid of furniture and toys soon... and it's definitely exciting yet a little scary! :P

That same day, I decided that I would let him try to drink from a straw. We've given him drinks from a straw before but we would put our finger on one end and lift the straw out of the cup and then "release" the liquid into his mouth from the end of the straw (you know what I'm talking about - I hope...) But this time, I wanted to see if he could actually suck something out of a straw. The only straw I could find was the little tiny straw on a Caprisun. I put the straw into the Caprisun and tried to put it in his mouth. At first, he tried to push it away but then he decided that maybe he would just chew on the end of it... and then he accidentally sucked some liquid up. His eyes got all wide and he got excited (I could tell by the kicking of his legs) and then he wanted more - more of the yummy sugary drink inside of the curious silver container and more of the curious way to drink liquids. It didn't take him long to figure out how he had gotten the liquid out and he just started slurping away. I ended up having to take it away because I didn't want him getting TOO much and he didn't like that one bit. But it seemed like he really enjoyed it and now I know that he's got the straw skills!

Yesterday, Hunter was eating his afternoon snack in his high chair. I was doing the dishes and when I turned around, his left arm was out of his sleeve! He was just sitting there like nothing was wrong and I just started busting up! I didn't even see or hear him try to get halfway undressed! I put his arm back in his sleeve and he didn't like that, so he just took it right back out again! And it only took him a half of a second! He apparently wanted to get his right arm out of the sleeve too, so he could take his shirt off, so he started tugging at that sleeve too. I decided it was time to get out the camera and record this funny moment and here's what I witnessed... It's kinda long but very funny and if you don't have sound, it's fine - you just won't hear me chuckling in the background... :P

Hunter's first birthday - part 3

After we opened presents, it was time for cake. I had made a cake that looked like a light bulb - to go along with the theme of the party - using a round pan and a bread pan. I cut the bread pan cake in half and used one side for the light bulb and the other for a special cake for Hunter. We gave Hunter his cake and sang to him. I ended up having to blow out his candle because all he wanted to do was touch the flame. I thought he would dive right into the cake, as I have seen several other one year olds do but he didn't! He just sort of looked at it, confused. I gave him a little taste of frosting and he thought it was good but didn't start feeding himself. Instead, he decided that he would smack the cake with the palm of his hand! Everyone started laughing and since Hunter enjoys making people laugh, he continued to beat the cake over and over! It was so funny because he didn't like the feeling of the cake on his hand, so he tried to shake it off everyone once and a while but would then continue to smack the cake. And he was just screaming the whole time! We were all laughing so hard! And boy, did he make a mess! But it was definitely worth it!

As I watched Hunter turn his cake into a pancake, I heard Josh yell, "who wants cake and ice cream?" I looked at the light bulb cake and realized that Josh had cut into it and had started serving it onto plates. I looked at him and said, "Oh PLEASE tell me you got a picture of that cake before you cut into it?!?" He looked at me with wide eyes and was like, "OOPS..." He put the few pieces of cake back where they came from and I took a picture of my now not-so-perfect cake. I had Josh's brother taking pictures during the party and he ran over and said, "JOSH! You cut into it before we got pictures?" Josh felt bad but there was nothing else we could do... I was definitely bummed that I didn't get a picture of my cake in one piece, nor did I get a picture of it with Hunter, but I guess you learn as you go!

Since it was now completely dark outside, the kids decided to go into Hunter's room (where it was REALLY dark) and play with their glow sticks. My dad decided to be the chaperone of this event and the kids thought it was so fun! Josh's brother got really good pics of the glow party in Hunter's room!

After awhile, everyone started to go home. The kids were amazed that they got to keep their glow stick swords and wands and they were very happy to get a present at someone else's birthday party! After mostly everyone was gone, we turned off all of the "lame" lights that we had turned on for present opening and cake and that's when the real party started! My parents, Josh's parents, my niece and a few of Josh's siblings were still at our house and we had a blast! Hunter was being very hyper (no doubt on a sugar high from the frosting) and kept screaming at all of the lights! It was so funny because he pulled himself up to stand at the coffee table and with one hand, he was holding himself up and with the other hand, he raised his yellow glow stick in the air and just screamed! It was like he was screaming, "All hail the king of lights!" It was hilarious! Josh's dad was really enjoying the disco ball and the 70's club feel that we had going on, so he decided that he wanted to liven things up! He pulled out his phone and started playing some Beegees music on speaker! It was awesome!

It was getting way past Hunter's bedtime, so everyone left. We turned off all of the lights and put Hunter to bed. He was very tired from his big day, so he went right to sleep. Josh and I made no attempt to clean up because it was a disaster... so we ended up going downstairs (where it was clean) and watched a movie. It felt good to relax and not worry about baking or decorating or entertaining guests. Man, throwing a cool shin-dig takes a lot of work! But it was worth it because it was a very fun party and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves! So it was a SUCCESS! :D

Hunter's first birthday - part 2

For Hunter's birthday party, Josh and I decided that it would be fun to have a "light" party. As mentioned in earlier posts, Hunter LOVES lights and he enjoys flicking the light switch off and on. I tried to Google some "light party ideas" but I found NOTHING! This idea didn't exist! We were on our own! So, we decided to gather as many weird and interesting lights as we could from friends and relatives. We had lava lamps, Christmas lights, black lights, a siren, a stoplight, a disco ball and an electricity ball (you know, the one has bolts of "lightning" and you put your hand on it and the bolts go to your hand?) We also got a ton of glow sticks that looked like swords and wands for the younger kids in our families and a ton of glow bracelets and necklaces. It was awesome that we could find that kind of stuff because of the time of year that he was born! :D My sister came over the day before the party and helped me get everything decorated, so I didn't have to worry about it the day of. Hunter thought it was very interesting when he saw her up on the tall wall putting up Christmas lights (as demonstrated in the pic).

I decided that I wanted to make Hunter a shirt that said, "I'm one year old," so he could wear it while eating his birthday cake. I thought it would be cool to get a darker colored shirt and have the writing be white or glow in the dark, so it would look awesome under the black light. So, I got the stuff to do it and it turned out pretty good...

And now back to what happened at the party...

After Hunter got ready for the party, we decided to give him his first taste of milk before the party guests arrived. I didn't give him any throughout the day because I wasn't sure if you just say, "Here's your milk - drink up!" or if you give them a little at a time. I found out that it doesn't matter, so we put some in a sippy cup - cold - and he didn't really want anything to do with it. It was probably because he had just eaten a little before that...

Everyone started arriving and we passed out the glow swords and wands to the kids - and they loved them! We even got Hunter a yellow glow sword as well. (On a side note, yellow, we have discovered, is his favorite color... hmmm, I wonder why? What else is yellow that he loves? LOL! If you don't know what I'm refering to, think about the theme of the party... :P) We also gave the adults the glow necklaces and bracelets and the "light" party was on! It was still a little light outside when we started but the lights still looked cool. We started eating and I expected some people to go downstairs and hang out because my upstairs isn't THAT big for the amount of people we had at the party. But no one did! They all wanted to be where the lights were! (I didn't decorate downstairs, just in case anyone wanted to get away from the lights...)

The food was very yummy and the pasta bar was a success. Everyone commented on the yummy alfredo sauce (made my Josh's mom), chicken, breadsticks (Hunter really liked those - as displayed in the left picture), salad and meatballs (made by Sam's Club - hehe). I felt bad because Josh's grandpa is somewhat blind, so this whole "light" party made it very hard for him to see because it was dark. So, we ended up cracking the blinds in the front room so he could see what he was eating. He kept joking about it, so it seemed like he was okay with it... I guess we didn't think that part of the party through very well! Sorry grandpa!

After we finished eating, we decided to do presents because Hunter was getting a little awnry because it was getting close to his bedtime. We turned on some lights, so the pics would turn out and sat him on my lap. He kept squirming and trying to get away because he didn't want to sit still but as soon as he saw his first present - the Lightning McQueen toy I mentioned in my last post - it definitely caught his interest. And not just his interest but the interest of EVERY child at the party! They all gathered around as Hunter tried to check out his new toy and they started to fight over it! Josh wanted to bust out the new toy so everyone could play with it and I warned him not to because there wasn't time to open every single new toy that Hunter got... but he opened it anyways. Later on at the party, the kids ended up beating each other up over the Lightning McQueen toy, so we had to hide it so the kids would stop fighting over it... I guess it was a cool toy!

We continued to open presents and had to hurry through them because Hunter was very impatient. Any time that I tried to show him anything other than a toy (clothes in particular), he would push it away and try to escape off my lap. I felt bad because we were rushing through the presents and I thought it seemed like we weren't grateful for the gifts and time that our family spent picking them out for Hunter. But I'm sure that everyone understood that a 1 year old's attention span is very limited!

To be continued... (because after I typed up this whole thing, it ended up being THREE pages in Microsoft Word! Guess I have a lot to say!)

Hunter's first birthday - part 1

Hunter turned one year old last Friday! It seems like just yesterday that I was taking him home from the hospital... it's nuts! He is such a big boy now - definitely not my "little baby" anymore...

Hunter decided that he wanted to start his birthday celebration early, so he woke up at 3 am and started to cry. He NEVER wakes up in the middle of the night crying, so I went in to soothe him. For the life of me, I could not find his binky anywhere and we only have one, so I had to set him down to look for it. He started crawling around and he thought that was the best thing ever! I finally found it under his crib and noticed that he didn't want to sleep, he just wanted to play. That wasn't going to fly - even on his birthday - so I ended up putting him in his crib and running out of the room. To my surprise, he didn't even cry and fell asleep after awhile.

When he woke up, he was a very happy boy! I got him breakfast and then got him ready to take a bath. I undressed him in his room and had only gotten the diaper off when he bolted for the bathroom... with his bum exposed! I guess he was very excited to take a bath! I got a picture of him crawling towards the bathtub with his little bum showing but I'm sure Josh wouldn't want me to post that... and Hunter probably wouldn't either... :P

We ran to get a few last minute party supplies and also to get Hunter his birthday present from me and Josh. I wanted to make sure that he liked it before I bought it and he sure did! He was laughing and cooing at it! It was a Lightning McQueen car that he could push around and ride on it. He loved it!


After we got home, he took a nap while I got the rest of his party ready. We were going to have a pasta bar at his party, so I made the breadsticks, the marinara sauce and the cake. I decided to make his birthday cake because I wanted a specially shaped cake (which I'll explain in my next post) and it was a lot harder than I thought! The cake was supposed to "slide" right out of the pan because I greased and floured it - but it didn't. So I had to piece it back together and hope that the frosting would cover my mistake. After speaking to both my mom and Josh's mom, they told me to freeze the cake and it would make the pieces freeze together - and it would also be easier to frost. So that's what I did... and it worked! It was much easier to frost and the pieces held together! PHEW!!! But man, frosting that cake and making it look good took A LOT more time than I thought it would! I swear I was frosting that thing for like 1 1/2 hours! But it was worth it because it turned out really cute!

Josh came home from work a little early to help get things ready. Hunter was really excited to see him! They played for a bit and then it was time for Hunter to take a little cat nap before his party. Josh helped me get the rest of the food ready and helped me finish up some last minute details. After Hunter woke up, we got him looking all cute and after I did his hair, he decided that for his first birthday, he would learn a new trick! He opened my cupboard door! Time for the safety latches...

And that leads us up to the party! And since there is so much to tell about that, I will make another post tomorrow! What a cliffhanger! :P

Part 3

My grandparents have an old cat and Hunter thought that thing was hilarious. Every time the cat moved, Hunter crawled right behind him! I’m sure the cat was getting annoyed but it never tried to bite or claw him. At one point, Hunter was trying to pet it and he pushed his hand through the back of the cat! The cat was really skinny, so his hand went straight to the floor! I was horrified because I didn’t want him to kill the cat! The cat didn’t even flinch – it just sat there like nothing happened!

My Aunt Kelly met us one of the days and we all decided to go to the Santa Ana Zoo. The zoo is small compared to the San Diego Zoo but it was just the right size for Hunter’s attention span. There were a ton of monkeys and Hunter’s favorite was the Lemur. I think that had something to do with the fact that it kind of looked like a cat… There were a few exhibits with small waterfalls in them, so instead of looking at the animals, Hunter just stared down the waterfall. (Remember the post about “wild” water?) We would be like 20 feet away from the exhibit and you couldn’t even SEE the waterfall but you could HEAR it, and he would start to get all jumpy and nervous. It was sort of sad but also kind of funny...

My Grandma left a little earlier than we did from the Zoo and when we got back to their house, there was a little t-shirt and book on their coffee table. She had bought Hunter some souvenirs at the Zoo! How nice!

My Grandpa has a little room right off of his deck that used to be a storage area. He put a window in it (overlooking the golf course they live on) and turned it into his little "hideaway." Hunter apparently needed a little break, so we got one of his Baby Einstein programs out and me and him went in my Grandpa's little room and watched a DVD! Hunter thought that was interesting...

We also went to a park right by their house. There were lots of ducks there that Hunter could look at. He wasn’t too sure about them but he didn’t cry… which is always a good thing. The park had a baby swing, so Hunter was very happy about that!

After the park, it was time to make our way to San Diego. We had lots of fun with our family and we were glad that we were able to spend a few days with them.

To be continued…

Part 2

We continued our drive to Cali on our new battery. Since Hunter was awake now, we had to keep him occupied. So, we hooked up the DVD player that I had borrowed from my grandpa and turned on a Baby Einstein program for him. He thought that was awesome!

We made it to Cali and got checked into our hotel. They had put us on the top floor – the 14^th – so when you looked out the window, you could see the whole city of Anaheim! (We stayed in Anaheim because my sis gave us a free 2 night stay – thanks Kara!) Hunter thought it was so cool! The windows were low enough, so he could crawl right up to them, pull himself up and look at his awesome surroundings!

We met up with my grandma and grandpa who live in Irvine. They had never met Hunter, so they just thought he was the cutest thing! My grandma’s mom also lives with them and she kept saying how adorable he was!

My grandma had Sprite on hand for us because she had asked what we liked to drink before we came. She poured the Sprite in red plastic cups each time we had it. Josh made the mistake of giving Hunter some of his, so every time we had a red cup in our hands, Hunter knew that it had some yummy sugary Sprite in it! But that’s not the end of the “big boy” food that Hunter had while at my grandparents… Josh had decided that Hunter could try any and every food that we had! The things I can remember off the top of my head are quesadillas, guacamole, spaghetti, garlic bread and of course, the Sprite. He loved all of it! So, I guess any inhibitions I had about what foods Hunter could eat went out the window!

My grandparents had a ton of wind chimes, which Hunter loves to play with at Josh’s parent’s house. So, we had to walk around with him and let him play with all of the wind chimes. He would coo and kick his legs in excitement every time we would even get close to them! It was so cute!

They had this rope mat that was by the door to their deck. They would just leave the deck door open so we could go in and out of the house. Hunter was inside playing while we were on the deck and he decided to join us. He had to cross the rope mat and when he got onto it, he apparently didn't like how it felt on his skin, so he got into this "froggy" position. It was so hilarious because he wouldn't move... he would just sit there in this position! By the end of our time with my grandparents, he got over the "weird" feeling of the mat and was crawling back and forth between the house and the deck...

To be continued...

A Side Note...

Before I continue with the rest of our trip, I realized that I never posted an important detail about Hunter that will affect some of the stories that I’m going to post later… The beginning of August, we went up to Bear Lake with my family and took him to the lake. We thought he would like it because he loves taking baths and swimming in pools… but we were wrong. He kept squirming and crying and really wasn’t having a good time. We figured that maybe he just didn’t like it because the water was so cold…

A couple weeks before our trip, we decided that it would be a good idea for us to take a test hike with the backpack we would be using in Yosemite to carry Hunter. We hiked up Farmington Canyon to a little creek. Hunter was fine with the hike until we reached the creek. As soon as Josh got him out to get closer to the water, he freaked out. He was crying and was squirming to get away from the water.

After the incidents with the lake and creek, we decided that Hunter doesn’t like “wild” water. He’s fine with “tame” water – i.e. pools and bathtubs - but doesn’t like lakes and rivers…

Road Trip - Part 1 "The Beginning"

From Sept. 6 - 13, we took a family vacation to California. We drove to Irvine, San Diego and then went to Yosemite. Since it was such a jam packed trip, I will have to post our travels in a few posts. So, I guess I should start from the beginning...

We left at 2 am on Sept. 6, so Hunter could sleep for a lot of the drive down. We were doing great... well, I don't know if I can say "we" because me and Hunter slept thru all of Utah while Josh drove and I know he was exhausted... But we stopped in Mesquite, NV to get gas. Because of the time difference, it was 6:15am. We hadn't accounted for the time difference into our calculations but we figured something would be open for breakfast. Well, we filled up and went to start the car and... nothing. Didn't turn over at all - just clicked. We were like, "WHAT?!? This car is only 3 years old! Why isn't it starting? CRAP!"

By this time, Hunter was awake, so we were trying to figure out what to do. We had just bought jumper cables for just an occassion, so we had someone try to jump us... again, didn't start. It was getting hot and we were parked in the sun, so Josh decided that we should push the car into the shade. Josh told me to push on the front of the car, so I did exactly as I was told - so I thought. He just sat there and stared at me and said, while laughing, "Uh, you have to push in the direction that the wheels are going, not against them..." Well, that made sense looking back (duh) but since I have never "pushed" a car before, I had no idea what I was doing! The attendant at the gas station could see we were obviously having issues, so he came out and helped Josh push the car into the shade.

Now, it was decision time. What do we do? There was an Auto Zone a half a mile down the road that could check out our battery for free, but it didn't open for another hour. And we would have to push the car down there - and since I am apparently a "car pushing" dummy, that would have been disastrous. OR we could call someone and tow the car since the problem was possibly an alternator or starter - which would take who knows how long to fix. Well, we decided that a tow was the best option, so we called the only place open. The guy came and towed the car to his shop about a mile away. The drive in the tow truck was interesting because Hunter got to ride in Josh's lap - which he thought was the funnest thing ever!

Well, we get to the shop and they test the battery and it was completely dead. So, they replaced it (which took all but 5 minutes) and we were good to go. Apparently, when we plugged in the GPS into the car about 5 minutes before we stopped for gas, that had thrown the old battery over the edge... lol.

Josh went to pay for everything while I strapped Hunter into his car seat. Josh came out of the shop shaking his head and got into the car. This is obviously not a good sign after coming out of a mechanic's shop, so I asked, "How much was it?" He said, "A rape... $250." SAY WHAT?!? They charged us $100 for the tow (for 1 mile of towing - ridiculous), $40 for labor (for the 5 minutes of labor - also ridiculous) and $110 for the battery (not so ridiculous but whatever...)

We arrived in Mesquite at 6:15am and left at 7:30am - not bad for all of the issues we had. We decided that it really sucked that we had started our trip with that huge unexpected cost but we were determined to not let it get us down. So, we just put it out of our minds and continued on our journey. Looking back, the cheaper option would have been to wait for Auto Zone to open but how were we going to get the vehicle down there? What a conundrum...

To be continued...

Lights and Climbing

Last month I mentioned that Hunter knows what a "light" is and would sometimes point at it... Well, now he LOVES lights! When we ask him where the light is now, he starts looking up and around and when he finds it, he points right at it! He has gotten so good at flipping the light switch on and off and can do it repeatedly without ANY help! His favorite light in the house is the one right over the front door because there are three different switches that turn it off and on... and that just amazes him! He loves it! If I am carrying him up the stairs and we don't stop to turn on/off the light, he just stares at it and kicks his legs in excitement, like he's saying, "Mom! We gotta turn that on!"

And he climbs up the stairs now! He thinks it's so much fun! He started climbing on things on August 13th... I was on the computer and he was playing on the ground around me. He LOVES the router (because of the blinking lights on it), so to keep him away from it, we put this file box in front of it. That deterred him for a while but then he figured out that he could climb! One minute he's on the floor and the next he's sitting on top of the file box! My mouth just fell open! Thankfully, I had my camera handy while he was in the act! :) He's so freakin cute!