twenty-one months

Trooper is 21 months old! I can't believe it's time to start thinking about his second birthday party. CRAZY. We've had an awesome summer. Troop has grown a ton and is so much fun to have around. He's a little daredevil and loves to get out and have fun, so my days are filled with trying to keep him busy and happy. Here are some of our daily activities...

Troop's a water baby and loves to play in his pool outside. This day, he couldn't even wait to get his swimsuit on.

Looking at the bubbles on the cement.

He's crazy about bubbles.

He hasn't quite gotten the hang of it. But don't worry, the bubble bottle clearly states that they're non-toxic. :)

He loves to take his little bike outside.

Stopping to smell the flowers.

I finally got a toddler seat for the back of my bike. And Troop got a studly new helmet to go with it. He wasn't so sure at first, but once we got going he absolutely loved it and asks to go on a bike ride everyday.

He's my shopping buddy too.

He does pretty good in stores as long as we can find something to keep him happy.

His friend in Old Navy.

With Kellen Close and McKenna Pence at the Boise Zoo. This was the best picture I could get of the three cuties.

If I don't keep him busy, he finds things to do on his own. Look how pleased he is with himself!

Being cool like daddy.

We miss daddy when he's at work so picture messages get us through the day.

Trooper loves his cuddly stuffed animals. Especially Pluto that Nana and Papa brought him from Disneyland. He asks for Pluto when he's sad or tired and is so happy to see Pluto when he goes to bed. It's pretty cute.

Sick day. :(

He's even studly when he's sleeping.

Trying out his new tiger headphones for the trip to Hawaii.

I know I've said this before, but Trooper is such a talker. He'll just talk and talk to anyone who will listen, though most the time it's in his own little language. But because he talks so much he has such a large vocabulary and has started putting words together into little sentences. He'll say things like, "Uh oh! There's a ball" or "Where'd daddy go?" I've noticed him echoing my phrases, like "Oh, what did you find?" or "What are you doing?" 

He's also a tease. He likes to do things just to bug me. He knows he's not supposed to throw his food on the floor, so when I look at him he'll grab a handful of food and hold it over the floor, waiting for me to tell him no. Then he'll smile and move it back. When I'm folding laundry, he'll pretend to grab the folded piles one by one like he's going to mess them up, just until I put my hand over his to protect my hard work, then he'll smile and move to the next pile. When we're in the car, whenever I look back at him he'll grab his hair like he's going to pull it, because he knows I don't want him to do that. Oh man, what am I going to do with this kid? It really just makes me smile, but I think I'm in trouble:) He has his ornery moments and has started this screaming thing when he doesn't get his way, but he really is such a sweetheart most of the time. He says "thank you," "you're welcome," and "bless you" like a pro.

Trooper loves reading books and is really into Sesame Street (which he calls Elmo Worldee), Handy Manny, and of course Curious George still. His list of animal sounds has gotten bigger and here's his newest trick.

Smartest, cutest kid ever. He knows a few more, but I just couldn't think of them. Impressive though, right?!

Hawaii was also a huge part of the last three months, but that gets its own post. Trooper is definitely a Hawaiian boy and loved returning to his birthplace. ...Stay tuned.... 

(Oh, and those 18 month pictures are still coming someday...I hope. They're super cute so it's worth the wait.)

Troop's Got Skills

I finally got a somewhat good video of Trooper showing off his animal sounds. We got almost all of them in there before he decided he was done. I still need to get his cute little bumblebee on video, but for now, here's what we've got. Enjoy! 

..18 Mos..

Little man turned 18 months old on May 6. He went to nursery on May 5 and only cried until they pulled out the snacks:) When I picked him up after church, the nursery leaders told me they were very impressed and he did great for his first time. While I was super happy to be able to sit through the entire lesson in RS for the first time in a year, I admit that I missed having my little blonde buddy by my side and constantly thought about sneaking out to spy on him in nursery. We were happy to see each other afterwards and I promptly put his scribbled artwork on my fridge when we got home.

Trooper is growing and learning new things every single day. I'm amazed at how quickly he's adding new words to his vocabulary and his understanding of their meanings. He's gotten really into his letters recently and says "A, T, O, P" whenever he sees writing. He can sing certain parts of his "ABCs" and is learning to count as well. He can recite animal sounds with the best of them (which I need to get on video) and can now tell you what a dog, cat, monkey, elephant, lion, bird, duck, horse, cow, car, and truck say. He can also tell you  what a turtle says, which is a sound he made up himself but it's so cute that I can't help but encourage it, even though turtles don't really make sounds. He is just such a talker. We have so much fun together.

He loves watching Signing Time and is quite the little "sign-er." He enjoys dancing, climbing, singing, and reading books (especially with Daddy before bedtime). He lives for our daily jogs to the park and is fearless on those slides. He loves to be outside playing in the dirt, jumping on Nana and Papa's trampoline, splashing in his little pool, or helping Grandpa with yard work. He likes playing with his cousins and is so soft and sweet with babies and dogs.

He's still taking 2 naps a day on most days. He has all his teeth now and loves crackers, bananas, and water. His favorite words are 'okay' 'more' 'Brent' 'Gramma' and 'Maya'. He says 'no' to every question you ask him, which usually turns out to be quite amusing. He pretends everything is a phone and loves having in-depth conversations with Daddy and Grandma. He still won't cuddle, but he'll at least give you a quick hug or kiss if you ask for one. He has learned to fold his arms and close his eyes for prayers (which usually only lasts for a second) but he pays enough attention to add his 'amen' at the end. At his 18 month appointment, he weighed 22.5 lbs (25th percentile) and is 32.25 inches long (50th percentile). The doctor is very pleased with his growth! He's wearing 18 month shirts but still fits in 6-9 month shorts... He's skinny.

And here are some pictures from the past couple months. 

(Stay tuned for his adorable 18 mo. pics. Coming soon!)

He loves roaming the backyard.

He wanted to wear my socks and talk to Grandma.

Watching Signing Time in his awesome box.

 

New favorite way to walk around.

First merry-go-round. He wasn't so sure at first...

 And all the latest instagrams...

Happy mornings!

Tuckered out on the hike to Water Canyon in Southern Utah.

So unbelievably cute, right?!

Trampoline hair at Nana and Papa's.

We took Troop to play on a baseball field for the first time. He loved it! Especially the red dirt. If he's anything like his dad (and we hope he is) the field will become his second home:)

Fun with Daddy. Thanks to Brent,Troop has become quite fearless.

From his first day in nursery. Melts my heart.

Went to Jabbers Play Place with Ailee and Maya. So much fun!

Dinosaur Tracks

Back in January, we went down to St. George for some family time. While there, we visited Johnson Farm where they have discovered and preserved real live dinosaur tracks and fossils! 

The coolest part was when we stopped to watch an archeologist who was sitting behind a glass pane as she drilled pieces of rock out of a dinosaur bone. An old man who worked there noticed us watching her and he grabbed us and took us behind the glass to stand over the lady's shoulder as she drilled!

 

 Then she stopped drilling and told us about the hip bone she was working on. She had us weave around big boxes of fossils to show us another bone that connects to this hip that they've been working on for a few months. 

Showing us how they'll all fit together.

Then she took us outside and showed us where they had found these bones in the ground! It was awesome! (And also a little nerve-wracking standing by all the ancient/precious dinosaur bones with a squirmy toddler in my arms).

Who'dAthunk? Dinosaurs in Utah. It was so cool to think that I was standing exactly where dinosaurs once roamed. But really, we're doing that all the time. They discovered the tracks as they were preparing to build on the land, then decided to preserve the land and continue digging instead. It really makes you wonder how much history we've covered up and will never know about just because we've just built on top of it. Interesting.

Snow!

A few weeks ago, the schools in the area had a snow day. Because Brent was supposed to work with a school client that day, he got an unexpected day off. We decided to take advantage of the day and let Trooper play in the snow for the first time.

All bundled up.

He didn't last too long outside, so Grandma brought him in. Then he just wanted to sit and eat all the snow that fell off of him.

 Last weekend we took a day trip up to McCall for the Winter Festival. Brent and I both have fun memories of going with our families when we were younger. It was a beautiful day and the sun kept us relatively warm. We saw some awesome snow sculptures.

15 mos.

Trooper turned 15 months old yesterday. Unfortunately, it was a terrible day for him as he's the sickest I've ever seen him. Poor little guy woke up Monday night with Croup; he didn't even sound like himself. He'd let out a few barking coughs then would get so worked up that he could barely breath. We talked to an on-call nurse who told us to take him into the ER since he was having so much trouble breathing. Trooper was so tired and unbelievably uncooperative (not that I blame him, but it's strange how strong and wiggly this 20-pound little boy can be while 3 adults are trying to hold him down.) Anytime a nurse or doctor would come into the room, he'd immediately turn away from them and start screaming. It took more than three tries to get his vitals and I won't even go into the fiasco of trying to look in his ears and throat. Anyways... they gave him some steroids to open up his throat and we came home at 2am. Now he's dealing with the fever, cold, and earache that usually accompany Croup. It's the first time since he was a newborn that he actually sits still on my lap and falls asleep on me. (I'm kind of loving that!) He's usually too busy to even look at the TV, but the only thing that has kept him from crying the past two days have been cuddling with mom or dad, his blankies, and watching some Curious George or Arthur on NetFlix. It's cute how much he's been loving on/needing his blanket "muk" these past couple days. We'll see how long that continues.

Other than that, the past few months have flown by and been so much fun. Trooper learns so fast and it's fun to watch. His latest thing is climbing. He climbs on anything he possibly can, even if its a small box that will get him just a little bit off the ground and give him a tiny thrill. Luckily, he's got great balance. His new favorite thing to climb on is the kitchen chairs and, if I forget to move the chairs away, the kitchen table. He's learned to walk, crawl and slide backwards, and also to turn in circles. So we see all of that quite often. He loves showers, baths, going through grandma's cabinets, and like I said before, his "muk." He hates having his teeth brushed. He talks a ton and often has in-depth conversations with us in his own language. He's 10th percentile for weight at 19 lbs. 15 oz. and 50th percentile for height at 31 inches long. The following lists may be boring to you, but I want to remember, so feel free to skip to the pictures if you'd like. 

At 15 months, Trooper says:
Mama
Daddy
more
milk
apple
cracker
cookie
ball
cheese
please
brush (toothbrush)
hi
bye
ow
yuck
yummy
eye
no
whoa
wow
pretty
book
Jesus
ready..
..go!
yeah
shoes
what?
uh-oh
eyes
nose

He signs:
more
all done
milk
please
cracker
apple
cheese
grape
banana

And makes the sounds of:
a lion
a dog
a cow
a monkey
an elephant
a car/truck
and does a perfect fake sneeze

Now for some pictures.

Happy cousins eating lunch. These two have become great friends.

Playing peek-a-boo.

 Learning to use a spoon.

 Loving some nutella.

 Sick day:(