Chelsy's wedding

What a beautiful day (and location) for a wedding!

My little sister was married on Saturday of this past weekend and it all turned out to be so gorgeous!

The view from the balcony at Birch Creek

He had just about had enough.

The three of us.

Sisters... doesn't she look beautiful?

These two are the best of friends! Anders absolutely loves his cousins! With Kenley he seems to feel a constant need to bear hug and tackle her to the floor. The whole time with a big smile on his face and giggling as he goes. He's such a boy!

I have been having a hard time with posting lately. I usually start atleast one post a week and NEVER finish them. I keep coming up with different things that I want to say and then try to figure which order to put things in, and then try to upload photos in the correct order and by the time I get through thinking about it an hour has passed, and I give up. Then I try to start again on another day and I find a "better" way to do it all and start the process over again. Give up again, and then the next time I try I realize it's been a week and everything's outdated and not worth posting.

But here's an update on Anders:

He talks all day long!! Most of the time Cam and I are the only ones who can understand the things that come out of his mouth. Most people will catch a word here and there but I think Cam and I have gotten pretty good at interpreting his language.
I'm planning on posting a video soon of what he sounds like as he goes about his day. It's really quite hilarious. Everyone comments on what a chatter box he is.

I'm so proud of my intelligent little man. He knows all of his letters, his numbers 1-9, his primary colors, and a few of his shapes. In fact that seems to be his favorite thing these days. All he wants to do is tell me what things are. Even in public he points out signs and reads off the letters to me. And he regularly asks me throughout the day, "What's that?" and usually within two to three times of me telling him (he asks me over and over again, almost like he's making sure that it's sinking in), he's got it down. I LOVE that he wants to learn constantly and I love that I get to teach him! He says "wow" to so many things and I can already envision him walking into the living room on Christmas morning and that word coming out of his mouth. I can't wait! I've never been so excited for Christmas in my life!

The main reason that I haven't kept up with my monthly posts of Anders is because everyday he does something, lots of things really, that are cute and funny and just plain AMAZING!! I have no idea which ones I should be writing down and it almost seems like I forget them immediately because I'm so busy being entertained by the next thing he's doing. I just love being his mom. It's the best job in the world!

Oscar!!

This is my friend Sarah's new baby boy Oscar! Isn't he beautiful? We sure love him!

I'm not one to toot my own horn... but I must admit that I'm pretty darn proud of these pictures. Thank you Sarah for letting me harrass your little boy for a while.

Not too bad

Remember back when I was pregnant and I did this post?

Although the hair and eyes aren't right, I'd say it's not too shabby.

What do you think?

One night in the life

I have to write down what happened tonight. I want you all to know what an amazing little dude I have on my hands. Anders was playing around in the living room tonight, he wasn't acting tired at all. I said to him, "Are you tired, ready for bed?" It was almost 9:00. He rubbed his little eyes. I grabbed his bottle and a binky and picked him up. Walking to the bedroom, unprompted, he gave me a kiss on the cheek. I layed him down on the bed and gave him his bottle. He took it and I layed there with him for a minute or two. Anders has to play with my ear every night to go to sleep. After a couple of minutes, he took his bottle out of his mouth, grabbed the binky and put it in, patted me on the face as if to say "I'm okay mom, you can go now" and turned over on his other side. I stood up and kissed him good night and left the room and he fell asleep. I really can't express with words how much I love that kid. He is my heart.
And p.s. this little show of independence, is kind of bittersweet.

14 months

Love this kid... he's more and more fun every day. We will be spending our weekend re-arranging furniture. There is a brick ledge above one of our couches and he has decided that he is a rock climber now too, so there will be changes coming to our living room. And still... he is the cuddliest, most affectionate person that I've ever known. Couldn't ask for anything more.

Tickidah!

Sometimes he whispers it sometimes he screams it! I just wish I knew what it meant.

Trauma!

On Friday while I was at work I got a frantic phone call from Cam. He told me that Anders had been playing in the cupboard where we keep our canned food, he pulled out a can and dropped it on his toe. He said that the nail was split right down the middle and asked me what he should do. I told him to load him up and head to instacare and I would meet him there.
We went into the room and I was so nervous. A nurse came in and asked the nurse who was taking his vitals if she should "get a tray ready." Our nurse replied, "no, I don't think it's that bad."
Waive of RELIEF!!!
Then the doctor came in and took a look and said, "yep he's going to need some stitches." I started shaking and was just sick about what was going to happen next.
I'm very thankful for two different things. 1. I'm thankful that everyone there, doctors and nurses were so good, not only to Anders, but to us as well. And 2. I'm thankful that Cam was willing to stay in the room with Anders so that I could leave. I just knew that I wouldn't be able to handle it.
Of course a child that small is not going to hold still for such a procedure, so they brang in what they called a papoose. It was basically a flat board that they could strap him down to. They had to first give him two needles of numbing stuff (novacaine? I can't remember) shot into his toe and that was the part that I knew I needed to leave for. I'm so glad that Cam was willing to stay with him. Cam did say that it was REALLY tough though.
After that was all over with I went back in the room and we waited to make sure that he was numb. In the time that it took for them to come back the poor little guy was so exhausted that he had fallen asleep in my arms. They came back in and I layed him down on the table but kept my arms underneath him. But as soon as they started cleaning his toe off he woke up.... we ended up having to strap him down again. I think that by that time, he was so tired that there wasn't much of a fight left in him. Which was really hard to see. So although there was no screaming, he definately cried while they were doing the stitches. I was able to stay in the room with him for that part and I'm glad. Cam and I just sat at his head giving him kisses, telling him how much we loved him and how big of a trooper he was.
You can see in the picture the two bruises at the base of his toe, those are from the needles.
Once we got home Anders took a two hour nap. He definately needed it, and I think that Cam and I probably would have benefited as well if we would have taken one.

The doctor cut the part of the toenail that was ripped, off (I was afraid she'd have to take the whole nail off, but she just sewed straight through the nail, it just makes me cringe to think about that). There are two stitches in his toe. The good news is that it doesn't look like anything affected his nailbed and the doctor said that his toenail should grow back normally.

The second that Anders woke up he was off and running again. I thought that he would be a bit sore, but I must have been wrong. A little while after he woke up I went into the kitchen to go get some food for him only to return and see him standing on his tippy toes at the gate waiting for me. His TIPPY TOES! Then he was crawling around and sat down on top of his foot, no reaction. I am AMAZED by him. It has NOT phased him one bit. But us, well by the end of the night we were both just a bundle of nerves. Following him around, worrying about him dropping something, anything on the toe. Worrying about him sitting on it, standing on his tip toes, it was non-stop. At one point I had to run to the grocery store to stock up on Tylenol and Cam called me while I was there and the first words out of his mouth were, "This kid is going to be the death of me." He picked up Cam's xbox controller, raised it above his head, and threw it down on the ground BARELY missing his toe. Then after I got home, he was in the process of crawling onto the couch just like he always does and misplaced his knee and ended up falling flat onto his back again. I feel so bad for Anders and his little toe, but I'm so glad that he's healing and seems to be feeling great so fast.
Let's just say that it was quite the experience for all of us, and I'm so proud of my husband for being so strong (and darnit Cam, stop feeling so guilty about it, it could have happened with any one of us) and of Anders and what a tough little man he is.

P.S....while I was out getting the tylenol I saw the p.j's that he's wearing in the first picture and just could not help myself!