Discovery Day

While Kevin was flipping through pamphlets from his race's goodie bag, he found that there was a Discovery Day for kids today down on the waterfront as part of the Kentucky Derby Festival (the actual horse race is on Saturday). We weren't sure if the weather would hold out, but it did, so Kevin met Lewis and I down there for an hour or so today. We had a really nice time! 

They had carnival rides, carnival food, inflatables, a zip line, a handful of information booths from local museums/organizations, a soccer clinic, and a local theater company doing storytime. While we waited for Kevin, Lewis enjoyed watching the big whirly rides from his stroller (that made me want to puke just watching them). Once Kevin got there, we each took him on a ride--I rode with him on his first carousel ride, and Kevin took him down the 'Fun Slide' (one of those really, really tall slides with multiple 'drops' that you fly down on a potato sack). They FLEW down that thing--I got a really funny picture of Kevin scrambling to his feet with Lew in his lap. After the rides, we headed over to storytime and got to see three books performed on stage. He seemed interested in the performance, so that was fun to see! Animal crackers and being strapped into the stroller helped, I'm sure. :)

Here are some pictures:

Watching the Big Kids 

He was so interested in the whirly rides--like a mix between "Wow, mind blown. I've never seen anything like this!" and "When can I do that, Ma?"

The Carousel with Mama 

It was (surprisingly really) fast, so Kevin had trouble getting a decent picture while we were moving. We snapped the 2nd one once it had stopped, and here is a short video Kevin took.

The Fun Slide with Papa

Kevin and Lewis were in the pink lane, and Kevin said he almost took out the kid sitting next to them (by accident). Kev was afraid he and Lew might fly off the mat at the bottom and into the barrier, so he tried to spring up quickly to avoid doing so. Lewis seemed to enjoy it! It was a little sketchy, but what carnival ride isn't? :) 

Storytime

Like I said, he was pretty into it! The actors did a really good job of making things silly and/or over-the-top, so it kept the kids' attention. I'm not sure what the first book was because we walked up after it had already begun (there were lots of interactive barnyard noises happening), but the other two they read were Olivia and Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! 

It was a fun outing--I'm glad Kevin was able to meet up with us! 

Storytime, Climbing, Reading, and The Mini

We finally made it to storytime at the library last week, now that Lewis is settling into a one-nap-a-day routine! It was a bit of a struggle to keep him in my lap during the stories (eventually I just let him roam), but he did seem to enjoy singing and dancing in between stories. At the end, while the other kids were doing a craft, he insisted on roaming the room and climbing every chair he could get his hands on. 

He also lost a shoe very early-on, but I'd already wrestled with him at home that morning and had enough shoe-tying-frustration for one day, so I just let him go shoeless. :)

 Conquered. 

 Making music.

He has this same keyboard here at home, and all of a sudden the past week or so, I've noticed he has taken an interest in this and his other musical instruments (especially his maracas). He likes to shake-shake-shake them.

 Topping another chair.

 Really pretty and big and old marble stairs to climb.

I made the mistake of bringing the stroller with us, not thinking about the big, old building, lacking modern accessibility. I discovered a handicap entrance and an elevator as we were there, so we did have an easier time leaving. On the way in, however, I ended up just throwing Lew on a hip and the stroller on my shoulder to get up the stairs because we were running late.

Later that day, still climbing...

 These are our storage cubes that he has been climbing up on top of. Now he has progressed to sliding the lid off and climbing up and inside of them. He likes to hang out in them for little bits at a time. Sometimes he gets stuck, and he (naturally) gets mad until I help him get free. :)

 Pop, Goes the Weasel!

We did some reading at home last week, too.

Looking mighty gigantic, lately.

I tried to take some video of his new skills of reading to himself (nothing vocal, just staring intently at the pictures) and turning the pages himself. The first video is kind of lame because he was already at the end of the book, and then for the second one, Kevin walked in to say hello. Still, cute. 

Finally, Kevin ran in the Kentucky Derby Festival Mini Marathon yesterday and reached his goal of breaking the 2 hour mark! 1:56:52! Kate and Lewis and I found a spot on the final stretch and literally got there less than 2 minutes before Kevin ran by, despite my efforts of getting there early. One of these days, I'll get there with plenty of time to spare! Kevin's parents and brother came down to cheer him on, too, and we had a fun morning. It was really exciting to watch all of the people finishing--such an accomplishment!

Go, Kevin, Go!

Just to the right of the 3rd cone (from top or bottom), white T-shirt/gray shorts

Way to go, babe!

They announced his name on the loudspeaker and everything! It was very exciting!

Way to go, Papa! 

And a happy belated birthday to my niece/Lew's cousin, Juniper Lynn Bergstrom, who turned 2 yesterday! We love you, June Bug!

Our First Weekend Away

We survived my first night/our longest time away from Lewis this past weekend (and had a blast doing so)! We went to Waycross for Alumni Work Camp and ended up painting the entire exterior of the main floor of the Mara House (hopefully other crews can finish the lower level over the next few weeks). There were about 12 of us, I think, and it felt great accomplishing so much and was also great seeing old friendly faces (and eating Waycross cookies).

 Kevin was responsible for painting that upper section

 Kendra rolled the cinder block and I followed behind to trim out the top, bottom, and inside the cracks/seams

We completed the gray on Saturday and then came back and trimmed out the windows in white on Sunday. Saturday evening, we started off with some Euchre, followed by a good ol' game of Kings, and the pictures kind of went downhill from there. :)

 Just getting started.

We had a blast. We ended up playing two rounds of Kings and then some of us went for a night hike down to the beach. We saw a few amazing shooting stars, and I read the next day that it was The Lyrids meteor shower we were seeing! Very cool!

We got back to Louisville mid-afternoon on Sunday, and Lewis seemed happy to see us, although quite fussy from not getting as much sleep as usual and being in pain from teething. Sunday evening was pretty rough, but he woke up Monday morning in a much better mood.

I went to open one of our cabinets Sunday evening and found this:

 I guess he was playing with his grandpa's Diet Pepsi bottle.

During Lew's dinner on Sunday, I was unpacking or straightening things up or something (something other than paying attention to what he was doing). I'd put out cauliflower, turkey, string cheese, macaroni and cheese, and some grapes for him, all mixed together on his tray. When I came back over to check on him, this is what I'd found: his first self-initiated sorting activity! (Or his first sign of being a little OCD. Something!) 

 On his own, he took the grapes from the middle of his tray and put them all in the cupholder spot on his tray. 

(There is one stray piece of turkey that was included, too.)

Lastly, some pictures of his new favorite thing to do--climb on the furniture! In the living room upstairs, he can get up on the coffee table, the wicker storage cubes (which don't have THAT much area on top for him to maneuver safely, so I discourage those), the ottoman, and he's ohsoclose to getting up in the big comfy chair (I give him a little boost on his booty). Yesterday afternoon, he kept wanting to climb up in it, sit for a few minutes, then climb down. Then up, then down, and up, and down.

Here are some photos of him getting down safely:

Little Man in a Big Chair 

And looking like his cousin, Juniper, I think.

 The Slide

 The Flip

And Down.

Last week he really started fighting one of his two naps (sometimes morning, sometimes afternoon), so I took a cue from my friend Rachel who had recently consolidated her son to one nap and gave it a shot--so far, so good! He's been going down for nap right after lunch and sleeping 2 to 2 1/2 (one day even 3) hours.

I'm trying to adjust my/our routine now with this change--I'm getting up early to shower (before Kevin wakes up) and we run errands after breakfast. [I used to take my shower during a.m. nap, and we'd run errands after lunch and before p.m. nap.] Instead of taking a morning walk, we've taken an afternoon walk a few times after nap. So we're making some adjustments.

Tim-berrrrr

We lost the two trees in our front yard (out by the road) last week! The power company's tree trimmers usually just top them off, but this year they decided they needed to go. They cut the trunk level with the ground (so no stump) and took away the branches, but they left us with two trees' worth of big, heavy disks of wood. (Which would be awesome if we didn't already have wood stacked from a big section of tree we lost to a storm a few years ago and a bunch of wood my dad brought to us.)

We were thinking about asking my dad to come down with his axe to split it all for us, but thankfully we didn't have to! Within an hour, a gentleman stopped and asked if he could have the wood, so Kevin helped him load up one tree and the man said he'd be back the next day to get the other. The next day before the first guy made it back by, a different gentleman stopped and asked if he could have the rest, and Kevin told him yes since the first guy hadn't been back yet. The second guy took all but one very big and very heavy disc, so Kevin rolled (flung and flopped, heaved and hoed) that back to the backyard for eventual splittage.

 Lewis, VERY interested in the big trucks and chainsaws

He sat on my lap like this for a good 45 minutes, totally mesmerized. I think we'll have to find one of those Touch-a-Truck events to go to sometime in the future.

 

 Going,

 Going,

 Gone!

These next pictures I took last weekend--when Lewis wakes up, he's instantly rearing to go! Once we get him from his crib, he wants down and usually goes straight to his bookshelf.

 Pointing and saying Da! or Da?

He picks these 'wordy' books out sometimes but usually gets tired of them and prefers his picture books instead.

 

Like here, he switched back to First 100 Words (a fave)

I'm very excited to spend my first night away from Lewis this weekend! We are heading up to Waycross tomorrow morning through Sunday afternoon, so Kevin's parents will be here with Lewis and the dogs. I hope it all goes well! He is suddenly teething, so hopefully that doesn't affect him and/or them too badly. 

14 Months Old

14 Months Old

His stats (from BabyCenter):
Length/Height: 33 inches (above 95th percentile)
Weight: 26.6 pounds (between 75th and 90th percentile)
Head Size: 20 inches (above 95th percentile)


His head size is the same as last month, but he's gained almost 2 pounds and 1.25 inches this month! Whoa! I thought he's been looking bigger.


What he is doing this month:

• Clapping - This is something I kept meaning to teach him but kept forgetting, but now we've practiced and he 'gets' it and does it at random. He also likes to grab our hands to make them clap instead of his own because ours make a louder noise (for now). He also really likes banging a hand on things (like he's drumming)--the couch, the coffee table, etc. 
• Speaking of banging, he has started to kind of hump the floor! :) Not really, I suppose, but it sure looks like it. It's like he's dancing, but dancing laying down. It happens at random (my parents got to see it last weekend). I think he's just happy. :)
• Climbing - On everything. The topless train table (he still climbs up and over the frame and the drawers and support bars), the couch, the ottoman, the coffee table, his wooden slide in the basement (he climbs up the ladder and then falls off the top or slides down face first, butt first, half on/half off), the baby gate (but just off the ground a few inches for a few seconds, then back to Earth). He finally 'gets' how to slide off feet first from the couch and ottoman now (after a few accidental head dives).
• Eating - He is doing better with taking yogurt from a spoon. He is still refusing most green vegetables. I'm going to try to make some spinach nuggets to see if he'll eat them (they have spinach, breadcrumbs, and cheese...people say they aren't bad, though the pictures I've seen look kind of bad/scary).
• Drinking - He LOVES his milk! He's started downing almost a full sippy cup at each mealtime, and then he has water at other times throughout the day. I'm trying to keep water with us when we run errands, go for a walk, etc. to get both of us more in the habit of drinking it (I'm really bad about sustaining on coffee and McDonald's Diet Coke).
• Sleeping - He is fluctuating between 1 and 2 naps a day the past few weeks. Since the time change, he has started sleeping 'in' until 8am. Because of this later wake-up time (it used to be 7 or 7:15), I've been putting him down for his morning nap around 11am--some days he wakes up after 1 1/2 hours or so, and some days he sleeps 2 1/2 to 3 hours. So on days with a longer nap, I just keep him up the rest of the day. On days with anything less than 2 hours, I still put him down for a nap at 4pm, and he'll sometimes sleep for 45 minutes to an hour (sometimes he just lays in there and talks to himself the whole time). 
• Talking - In addition to a few 'words', he has started babbling something like derda-derda-derda-derda (while trilling his tongue a little, too). It's really funny to watch him and listen as he goes on and on. I wonder what he thinks he is saying. I also wonder what his voice will sound like when he talks. His 'words' right now are: Mama, Dada, Hattuh (Hattie), DAHS! (Dogs, and it is always yelled), Na-Na-Na! (said snarkily, is No, No, No!), not to be confused with Nanana (but I don't know what he's trying to say there), and Da?/Da! ('What is that?' He'll point to something in a book and day Da! or Da? and Kevin or I will say what it is).
• Talking BACK - Not really, but when I say 'No!' he has started saying 'Na-na-na' back to me. If I say 'No, no!' he'll say 'Na, na!' with ever-the-slightest snark to his voice. It's pretty funny, for now--might not be so funny as he gets older. :)
• Understanding us, a little - When we say, 'Okay, are you ready to go?' he will run to the back door. When I tell him to put some sort of food in his mouth, he will put it in his mouth. When we're in the basement and say that we're ready to go upstairs, he'll run to the gate.
• Yelling at the dogs - When we go to get the dogs inside, he will run to the door with us and start yelling out 'DAHS! Derda-derda-derda-derda!' Kevin and I both have sort of a fake yelling voice that we use sometimes to get the dogs in (more stern than our usual), and I think Lew has picked up on that. It's hilarious to hear him yelling at them. I guess we need to start watching our tone, in general. :)
• He and the dogs are getting along well. The dogs love mealtimes and snack time because they usually get to help clean up the floor and/or his tray, and Lew or I will occasionally sneak them a Goldfish or animal cracker. Big fans.
• He has started acting out occasionally. If I pick him up, away from something he was doing, he'll throw his head/torso back in protest. A few times he's caught me off-guard and nearly jumped out of my arms and/or arched his back a little scarily. I'm really cautious now about holding the back of his neck when I pick him up. 
• Clothing - He is now in 18 month pants/shorts, 12 or 18 month t-shirts, 18 month onesies, and barely in his 18 month sleepers (ready to jump up to 24 month/2T size soon).
• Current Tooth Count - 12! Four molars finally came in this month!

One last thing--I saw paw prints in our new garden bed this morning and blamed the tomcat who hangs out in our yard (until Peter and Hattie chase him off). Then I looked out the window again and saw HATTIE inside the bed, eating away on the manure! I got her inside and left Pete out--when I went to get him inside, he was at least standing outside the bed, but had his snout in there, sniffing and nibbling away. Soooo, yeah. Might have to put up some fencing. :)

Raised Bed - Check and Mark!

What did I/we accomplish already today?! A raised garden bed! Thanks to a tutorial by Craig and The Pioneer Woman, I was brave enough to give it a shot! I didn't even cuss (okay, maybe a little when I hit a knot in the wood and the screw wouldn't go in, but otherwise, I was cool as a cucumber).

I'd gone yesterday to get all of the supplies at Home Depot and was all ready to get started this morning, but it was raining. I was feeling defeated until (brilliant) Kevin suggested I back the cars out of the garage and get started on the preliminary work in there. Duh! I built the first layer frame in the garage and then braved some sprinkles while I moved on through the tutorial (set corner stakes, leveled it, added additional stakes). I also added a weed barrier like Craig suggested, since we've placed it on top of the existing lawn.

Just around the time I needed a second set of hands, it was naptime, so Kevin came out to hold the second layer of boards for me, and then we secured the second layer of frame to the stakes and added a dirt/manure/sand mixture! I'd called Kevin yesterday from HD to try to calculate how much dirt I needed to buy--neither one of us could figure out how to convert liters of dirt to square footage of finished bed size, so I just guessed on the amount and was about 1/2 the quantity off. So it's back to the Depot we go... 

In a bit of well-we-needed-to-go-to-Home-Depot-anyway synergy, Lewis pulled off some trim from our built-ins in the basement this morning while he was playing, so we need to pick up a piece to replace that, too. :)

Here is our finished product, halfway filled:

Yay!

We chose this spot because this strip of yard (from here to the fire pit) is the only one that gets full sun. I tried a non-centered placement and a long-side-flush-with-the-brick placement (mainly to help with edging/mowing ease), but eventually Kevin and I decided it looked better set off a little bit from the brick. We figured that if we're edging 3 of the sides, why not another?

Easter Sunday

Sunday morning we went to meet up with Mom and Dad after church--to see church people and for Lewis' first Easter egg hunt! While I was getting ready, Kevin took Lewis out in the yard to Dad's swinging chair.

Looking fly in his oxford and khakis

Seems to be a nice place to lay his head

One relaxed little dude :)

Heading in to church with Papa

Picking just the right basket

Hmm...which one is just my size?

Ah-ha...the little white one will do.

Ready to search with Papa

Found one!

Thankfully they weren't super hard to find. :)

Found another!

And couldn't wait to open it up!

Then he started climbing on and off the altar area.

His final takeaway -- a couple of eggs and a few stray pieces of candy.

First Reese's Cup

Big fan! 

After church, we headed back to the house to get ready to host Mom's side of the family for lunch. Lewis took a glorious 2+ hour nap, so I was free to help out and eat in peace before he woke up. The timing worked out well--we hung out and chatted after lunch and then had to hit the road to get back to KY by bedtime. It was a great weekend!

We wish the very best to my mom this week, in her LAST week of work before retirement! Her last day is Thursday, and then she and Dad leave Friday for a trip across the country on Route 66 (Chicago to Los Angeles) in their VW convertible. Followed by a trip up to Boise to see Emily, Joe, and Juniper. Followed by a return trip back to Indiana. Have SO much fun!! We love you guys!