Coolin' at the Playground

I took Rex to try out the swings at the park a few months ago and he wasn't really into it. I tried again yesterday and he loved it. We went again today and he loved it even more! He does not, however, love wearing the hat but mommy makes him because she is afraid that his giant head will get a giant sunburn.

The Next Sir Hilary

As shown in the previous post, Rex can climb like Sir Edmund Hilary. He can't quite walk on his own but he can climb, cruise and walk if he is holding onto someone. He has been able to pull himself up in the crib for a few weeks now but only if he was sitting. As of yesterday, he can now stand up from a laying down position. Uh oh.



Naptime was a little tricky today, needless to say. He was tired and it was definitely time for a nap, but he decided to pull himself up and do laps around the crib. I listened to all the commotion on the baby monitor for a while and figured out what was going on. I finally took him out and put him in the jumperoo, knowing he would be asleep in no time. About 3 minutes later, he was out. So I scooped him out of the jumperoo and placed him in his crib where he is peacefully slumbering now and probably dreaming of his next big expedition.

He has been doing really good with transitioning to big kid food instead of baby food and I think I'm going to stop buying any more of the baby food. We'll finish what we have here but that's it. We also need to eliminate the morning bottle, which leaves just one in the evening and then get rid of that one too.

Well, I have lots of chores that need to be done and I better get to it before nap time is over!

Scaling New Heights

Rex is not quite walking yet but he is one heck of a climber. I left him for just a minute in the living room, playing with his toys on the floor and returned to find this.



He managed to climb up into his chair and attack the bookshelves! The bottom shelf is for his books and toys- you can see that has already been wiped out. Apparently, he decided he needed to get to mommy's shelf and this was his solution. A smart and creative child who has no fear is a scary combination.

Another Quick Recap

I made my last trip to the Des Moines airport yesterday and sent our last summer visitor back to California (unless someone is planning to surprise us with a last minute trip!) . My dad came to see us for a few days and it was really nice- we had not see him for almost a year. We didn't do a whole lot which was just fine. It was nice to just be together and enjoy the company.




We haven't been up to much lately besides spending time with our visitors. Rob and I made it to one of the three movies we wanted to see this summer, Star Trek (this was several weeks ago). We missed Wolverine but we WILL make it to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. We are going to get a babysitter for Rex and both go. Rex has not been left with anyone (other than grandparents) since I quit working so we'll see how it goes. I think he'll do fine for just 2-3 hours. Let's see, what else have we been up to? Ah. Rex and I did a little shopping in Des Moines yesterday after our trip to the airport. I got a new external hard drive at the Apple Store. Lame, but I am totally excited. We picked up a few other things but if you can believe it, those were even more lame than the hard drive so I will skip that.


It rained last night and today but it had not rained for about 10 days before that. I have to share this picture though of the previous storm. Nothing too shocking except this was taken at 9:00 A.M.!!!



The sky got sooo black. It was so dark and eerie- it totally creeped me out. Rob was at work during this and I was really wishing he was at home. As it turned out, the storm passed pretty quickly and was not too bad really. I have more to share about Rex has been up to lately but I will save that for the next post!

Tiny Dancer

Rex will start moving and dancing around every time he hears music. It is always a lot of fun to watch him bebop around. He was really cracking us up tonight, rocking out to the tunes of the Sit to Stand Giraffe, although he stopped for a while until we turned the volume up on the giraffe.

The Past Three Weeks

In the past three weeks, we've had two groups of visitors who have stayed a week each so it's been really, really busy around here as you can imagine. Our first group, Rob's parents, were here for Rex's first birthday and Father's Day. Father's Day was really nice and I think Rob and Pop had a good day. We had a great time on Rex's birthday which included a dinosaur cake and lots of presents. I made him a special shirt for the day, got party hats for everyone and decorated the house with signs and streamers but no balloons because Rob thought they were dangerous (party pooper). Here a few pictures but there are more on Flickr.





We had six days until group 2A, my parents, arrived last Wednesday. Group 2b, my sister and my niece, arrived on Sunday. They all left yesterday but got stuck in Cincinnati on their way home and did not get home until today. It was so much fun to have them here and to meet my niece for the first time! She had a tough time traveling but I thought she was a peach. So cute and just a lot of fun. We didn't do too much- there isn't a lot to do around here, especially with two one-year-olds- but we had a good time visiting. I drove my sister around a little and showed her the corn. I also discovered on that trip that Rex gets carsick if he is not in the middle of the back seat where he can see out. Poor kid. It wasn't a very long trip. Here are a couple of pictures but again, go to Flickr if you want to see more.




Group 3, which is my father and our final summer visitor, arrives next Wednesday and he will be here for 5 days. He and Rob will go golfing but I have to figure out the rest of my plans for his visit. It gets to be tough trying to plan out meals for everyone and at this point, not repeating those meals over and over. I will be busy for the next few days changing out sheets on all the beds, doing laundry and planning menus. It's a lot of work but I don't mind because I get to spend time with my family and we don't get too much of that here. I'm so appreciative of everyone that makes the effort to come and see us and we are just really looking forward to visiting California in November!