The Jazz

We took Hunter to his first Jazz game on Jan. 25th against the Phoenix Suns. He was decked out in his little Deron Williams jersey and I even tried to give him a mohawk but his hair is too long (and Josh won't let me cut it...)

We ate at the Gateway food court before the game and Hunter ate McDonald's french fries and drank orange Hi-C. Not a very nutritious meal but he loved it (and I gave him something more substantial before we left home - so don't judge me! :P )

When we got to the arena, Hunter was just in awe. He kept looking around at everything and was pointing at all of the lights and the people. We got there just in time for the starting lineups and we thought he would think it was cool with all the lights off and stuff... but he didn't. He looked nervous and wasn't liking all of the loud screaming. As soon as that part was done though, he relaxed and started to enjoy himself again. He was jabbering and pointing and clapping with everyone and was even watching the game! There were a few times that he couldn't see where the ball had gone, so he would lean forward to see where it went! It was so cute! And he just sat on either my lap or Josh's lap and just hung out! He never tried to get down and run around or anything! He was so good!

He made it through 3 quarters but we decided to leave because he was extremely tired (he kept trying to poke his eyeballs out) and the Jazz were losing by 17 at that point. As soon as we were in the concourse area of the arena, the crowd erupted into cheers. The Jazz were making a run! They had cut the lead to 9 as were were walking out of the arena! I gave Josh a look like, "Ah, can't we stay?" and he said,"We need to go, he's so tired." I was bummed but my little man comes first.

We listened to the game on the way home and the Jazz ended up making a comeback and won! :D When we got home, I went to get Hunter out of his car seat and he was SO asleep! His little head was flopped forward (I haven't seen it that bad since he was a little baby) and he was totally out of it. So it was a good thing we left the game when we did.

We all had a fun time and I'm glad that Josh convinced me to take Hunter with us. I had my reservations about taking him but Hunter crushed all of those reservations... He was a little angel and I wouldn't mind taking him again anytime! He's a true Jazz fan in the making! :)

Walking!

Ever since my post a month or so ago, Hunter has just been taking a step or two on his own terms. We tried to encourage him but he was never in the mood to walk - he would just bend his back and refuse to stand every time we tried. So, we decided to just let him do his own thing and when he decided he wanted to walk, we would help him.

On Friday, January 8th, we were over at our friend's (the Lamb's) house. We were eating dinner and since Hunter had already eaten, he was playing with the kitchen cabinets. I was talking to my friend when out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hunter moving towards me but he wasn't crawling... he was walking! I looked over at him and he had made it halfway across the kitchen! As soon as he saw me looking at him, he immediately dropped to the floor and crawled the rest of the way to me. It was so awesome! We tried to encourage him to walk between me and Josh the rest of the night but he had no desire to.

The next day after church, Hunter was playing in my room. He was opening a drawer that has hats in it and he decided he wanted me to wear one of the hats he found. So, he WALKED halfway across the room to put it on my head! I tried to encourage it again and this time he cooperated! I stood him up at the footboard of my bed (so he could grab something to get his balance) and he would walk from the end of my bed to me! It was like 2 - 3 feet of space!

When Josh got home (he is the ward clerk so he does tithing after church), I told him what had happened, so he wanted to see for himself. I stood Hunter up and had him walk to his dad! It was like a scene out of a movie or something - it was adorable! Both of them were very happy!

In the past week and a half, Hunter has gotten very good at walking. At first he would just walk if I encouraged him to but with every day that comes and goes, he is crawling less and less. In fact, today is the first day that he has been walking around more than he has crawled around! It's so amazing how far he's come in such a short amount of time! He is even walking around with stuff in his hands! That's one of his favorite things to do now... he picks up an object then walks it to me to show me what he found! He also walks around with his arms straight in front of him for balance. He looks like a little Frankenstein walking around the house! It's so cute!

So, without further ado, here is a video of him walking! I "jimmy-rigged" my camera in his high chair so I could record this without Josh being home... pretty crafty, eh? This video also includes a couple of other things too... him doing a weird dance and him laying down next to me when I lay down (he does it EVERY time I lay down - it's one of my favorites). Enjoy! :)

New Year's 2009

On New Year's Eve, we went quite a few places. The first stop was Josh's parent's house. Hunter and I only stayed there for about an hour while Josh set up his drum set at his friend's house for a little "gig" they were playing for friends and family later that night. After our stop at the grandparent's house, we joined Josh for his "gig."

Hunter LOVES guitars and drums (any musical instrument really...), so he thought it was so awesome that there were both in the same room! AND multiple guitars! Josh let him sit on his lap while he drummed and Hunter helped him hit one of the drums while they played a song. I thought that he wouldn't like all of the loud noise but it didn't phase him one bit. He alternated between smiles and looks of concentration as he helped his daddy drum. It was very cute. See for yourself... :)


After the "gig," we went to our other friend's house. By that time, it was about 9:30pm - way past Hunter's bedtime - but he was still going strong! So we let him play with the other kids while we visited and played "Bunco." Hunter loved ringing the "Bunco" bell! After about an hour of him playing, we decided to get him in bed because he was getting pretty delirious and silly. But surprisingly, he wasn't awnry...

We ended up just hanging out until midnight and when the new year rang in, our friend lit off some roman candle fireworks. Then we played The Simpsons Scene It game and after that, we called it a night.

Hunter had a fun night and I've gotta say that 10:30pm is probably the latest he's stayed up since he was a little baby! I wonder if he could've made it until midnight... hmmm... maybe we'll test it out next year! :P

Christmas 2009

Has it really been a month since I made a post? That's bad... :( Well, better late than never!

Hunter had his first Christmas where he actually somewhat knew what was going on. He got that he was getting new toys but didn't really enjoy unwrapping them. In fact, I think he tore open maybe 3 presents total the whole day... the rest we had to unwrap for him and show him what he got. He was very excited after all of the wrapping was off and he could play with his new stuff!

Josh and I decided to each get him something for Christmas and then do a stocking and a big present. Josh got him a Deron Williams Jazz jersey (and it is so cute because he can say "Jazz" - it more comes out "ZZZZ" but it is still adorable). I made him a fleece blanket because he needed a warmer blanket for the winter and he loves blankets with those ties on the edge of them (I tied 2 pieces of fleece together - it turned out way cute). When Hunter got it out of the bag, he loved it! He kept cuddling with it and rolling around on the floor with it! It made my day! :) In his stocking, he got some books, crayons and punching balloons. He loves punching balloons! (If you aren't aware of what a punching balloon is, it is those huge balloons with the elastic on the end of it and you "punch" it...)

For his big present, we got him a big boy car seat. Yes, I know, that is a VERY lame big present for a little kid but he needed one and he didn't really know that he was getting "jipped." Actually, now that I think of it, it's funny that practical gifts for kids are considered lame... well, I guess when you can get away with it, do it! ;) I decided to keep him rear facing because his pediatrician told me that they are suggesting you keep toddlers rear facing until they are 2 years old now because it's safer. Josh didn't really agree with this decision but it turns out that Hunter isn't even 20 pounds yet, so we couldn't flip him anyways! (I will post more about his 15 month appointment in another post). But Hunter enjoyed his first ride in his new car seat to Grandpa and Grandma Nielson's and he looked like a little king in his throne! LOL!

Hunter got a lot of fun toys and some cute clothes. I would have to say that his favorite toys on Christmas day were a fridge magnet alphabet airplane (we had to hide that one so he would accept his other presents), a big yellow Tonka truck (he liked - and still does - to climb in the back of it) and a little Fisher Price desk that has a little chair for him to sit in. Those were the ones he really liked on Christmas day but since then, he loves all of his new toys - especially since they are out of their boxes!

It was a fun day but you could tell by the end that he was spent. I seem to remember him just sitting in the middle of my parents living room just staring off into space... :P I'm sure he was overstimulated from all of the new toys and seeing all of his family in one day. But it was a very good Christmas!

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