Christmas Fun!!!

We had a great trip to Schoharie for Christmas. We were there 4 days and it flew by. We spent lots of time with family - Tanner was in his glory. He is at his best in groups - the more the merrier (sound like anyone we know - dada?) The first night he tried to get up at midnight for the day. He had only been in bed 3 1/2 hours but apparently he thought that was enough to recharge. He screamed for almost 2 hours that night. The next 3 nights he slept great. Didn't get up at all except for the occasional binky hunt. Over the weekend Tanner said "Balloon" and "Poop" (Balloon sounds more like "Blalooo"). At one point he looked up at me and said "poop" very matter of factly and continued playing. I sniffed his bum and sure enough! He was telling me all about it. Despite his awareness, he still didn't want to get changed! He ran away from me, as usual. And as usual, the diaper change looked something akin to wrestling an alligator. I guess he wanted me to know that he knew he had pooped, but would rather I just left it there! This kid goes a million miles an hour, sun up to sun down. Most of the time "He's wound like an 8 day clock" as PopPop would say...Lately he loves to spin round and round until he falls down. Then he'll try get up...sidestep and crash...laughing hysterically all the while. You can't help but laugh along. He managed to break a statue with his head at gramma va's house, doing just that. He wasn't hurt, thankfully. Take a look at the following picture and count "one one thousand two one thousand..." that's exactly how long he was in this position...

My little guy...

Crazy daddy - what's that about the apple and the tree???

Wanna Wrastle???

Trying on Uncle Jim's gloves...

Opening a present from Aunt Tina - new bath toys! I love bath!!!!

Do again Uncle Jim!!! (Tanner loooooves to go upside down)

Gramma Va

Eatin' Grapes with PopPop - Tanner has been telling me "EAT" all the time lately. He prounounces it very clearly. It is too cute.

Nana Lockwood

The making of the Christmas Card...

If only the camera would take the photo at the right moment and not 5 seconds later...If only Tanner would sit still longer than 2.4 seconds at a time...If only it wouldn't take 400 photos to get one good one...everyone who has children knows exactly where I'm coming from. For your entertainment, following are the "bloopers" of the Christmas photo session...for the one that made the cut, you'll have to wait for the card...which should arrive in your mailbox any day now...
:)





Heads cut off...


Child not looking...

Ummmm....

Freak attack...

Yah........we're done...

A Miracle Morning!

I can count on one hand how many times Tanner has slept past 7:00. Typically, he's up by 6:00 and not a minute later. On a good day, he might make it to 6:30. We've been working on getting him to sleep past the 5:00 - 5:30 mark the whole year...well today the child slept until 8:10! That's right, ten past eight!!! I woke up at 7:45 thinking "what the?" I checked three different clocks in the house before I was convinced it was real. I actually got dressed, make up on, and a basket of clothes put away before he was up. Unbelievable! I would love to think this is a new trend, but its only been one time and I know better...

Trip to Rochester to visit great gramma Jean and gramma Bonnie

Two weekends ago we made a trip to Rochester, NY to visit Grandma Jean and Bob and Bonnie, Vinnie and Danny. It had been 6 months since any of them had seen Tanner and it was well worth the 6 hour car ride. Tanner was FABULOUS in the car (compared to his usual car behavior). Though he slept only about an hour and a half out of the 6 hour trip each way, he managed to stay in good spirits watching Elmo's World 4 times and with just one 40 minute pit stop. This is a child that normally fusses and fidgets on the 20 minute ride to daycare...who I have to sometimes hop in the back seat to soothe or entertain just to make it through an hour long ride in the car...who we have to wrestle into the carseat because he'll fight us with all he's got...so this trip was a first for us. I kept waiting for the meltown and when it never happened on the way there I was sure we were in for it on the way home. He was a gem. How very encouraging for future road trips! We were very proud of him. And it was such a wonderful visit and so good to see my family.

Great gramma Jean getting down to play with Tanner. She let him play with every knick knack he could get his hands on. He was in his glory running around with little porcelain figurines and breakables all day long and I was holding my breath trying to get things away from him as often as possible...Well he only broke two things all weekend, thanks to a thick carpet. Gram

said it was nothing and Bob said "good, now we can throw that away..." ha
I actually remember playing with this same toy when I was little!!! A mini cast iron stove with working parts...

Tanner took a liking to Grandpa Bob too...I found them like this one morning..casually readin' the paper..

Family Photo at Bonnie's house...Bonnie had everyone over for lasagne dinner Saturday night...

Gramma Bonnie goofing around with Tanner

Vanilla ice cream...yum!!!!

Cousin Danny looked after Tanner a good part of the night on Saturday. Tanner loved him and Danny was so great with Tanner. Thanks Danny!

Something New Every Day

So far this week we've learned to blow our nose, say E-I-E-I-O, and climb up onto the table and help ourselves to whatever is there - cell phones, pens, pencils, cookies...Greeeeat.

We didn't teach him to blow his nose, he just started doing it. He's very dramatic about it. Its a riot. He'll walk around with a wipe or tissue just blowing blowing blowing...Well, we should be all set for his next cold!

Funny Little Guy...at 15 1/2 months

Tanner Update:

Still 22 pounds and change (has been since he was 9 months old!)

approx. 32 inches long

Has had 3 colds in the last 2 months

Can now eat almost everything without consequence (yay!)

Still on Neocate (amino-acid based formula) per order of Gastroenterologist - 3-4 bottles a day

In the past couple of weeks Rob and I have seen a social and intellectual growth spurt in Tanner. He has always been very social - even as a baby - smiling at everyone he saw, reaching out for strangers in Walmart to pick him up, at ease in large crowds...loves carnivals, fairs, restaurants...

These days, he's a pure riot. We have so much fun every day. He runs around laughing at everything ALL the time...loudly. He runs (literally RUNS) from room to room all day long dancing, spinning, falling down, climbing, talking non-stop to himself, and LAUGHING (loudly) at everything. He readily gives high fives, claps feverishly when you count to three slowly (only after you get to 3), If you ask him where something is he puts his hands out palms up and shrugs his shoulders up to his ears as if to say "I don't Knooowww?!" He gives us big loud kisses and says"MWAH!"...He even does it to Theo if Theo will let him. He plays "pretend" eating...he'll pick up "food" (nothing) with his fingers and put nothing in his mouth and then proceed to chew nothing. Its hilarious. He'll do this over and over if we play along...and the dancing...he is a dancing fool! We had Christmas music on tonight and we found him in the living room doing the "chicken dance" all by himself. A pur riot...I wish I could have a video camera on him all the time...

He can point to all his body parts (nose, eyes, ears, mouth, tongue, hair, head, toes, belly, and of course pee pee!). This child understands everything I say to him. It baffles me sometimes. If you ask him a question like "do you want a baba?" he'll shake his head yes or no in a very exaggerated fashion and you can't help but laugh. Sometimes he'll stop in his tracks, look at me and blurt out a very clear, unintelligible sentence. "Glick Stim Jish Dot!" all I can say is, "yes, Tanner, that's wonderful!" I wish I knew what he was saying.

Diaper changes are still a battle 90 percent of the time. They always have been. He simply doesn't want to stop long enough to lay down and get a diaper change. (yeah, that's fun, when he's got a load in his pants and he's fighting me tooth and nail.)

This child is 90 miles an hour...sun up to sundown. and IN TO EVERYTHING. There is not one nook, cranny or crack in the floor this kid hasn't investigated, touched, messed with. I'm going to attempt to document it someday...Its wild. I try to make it a "yes" environment for him around here. But there are a few things like a couple of plants and the computer that are still within his reach and guess what 2 things he's into the most? The plant and the computer. We even installed plexiglass gaurds on the computer desk in an attempt to ward him off. He just yanks and yanks them and tries to reach over the top. Rooms full of toys and he has to mess with the two things that aren't for play...that's my little guy. I have a friend who recently took her 9 month old to a MOVIE along with her 4 year old. What the?! At no point in Tanner's life could I ever think about taking him to a movie...I had to time it just right to get him to sit in a stroller for a 30 minute walk....as long as we went after he had been playing hard for a couple of hours and if I brought snacks and entertainment, we'd make it through, with a little fussing for maybe the last 1/2 mile...I have many friends who's babies/kids hang out wonderfully in their strollers, car seats or high chairs...that was never us. 90 miles an hour...

I 'm exhausted at the end of every day and I think "I do have just one, child, right? Right." Hm. He is active enough for two, it seems. And I love it. These days he seems happier than ever, the more independent he gets, the more satisfied and content he seems...He's starting to sit in his high chair for 15-20 minutes at a time without a fit...he's actually riding in the car now for short to medium trips without crying...and best of all he's sleeping so much better. 7:30 or 8:00 pm to 6:00 or 6:30 - up just once most nights. Rob and I looked at each other the other day and said "life is good."

One....twoooo....THREEEEEE!!!!!

Tanner, where's the ball?

The "wresting" stance...thanks to daddy, if you say "Tanner, wanna wrestle???" this is what you get...

We had a great Thanksgiving in Schoharie, by the way. We had a big dinner at Nana and PopPop's (as Tanner has taken to calling Grampa Lockwood).

Tanner's first Thanksgiving meal! The child who usually insists on feeding himself, ate a wonderful pile of mashed squashes, potatoes, and turkey with gravy fed by PopPop! He loved it.

Playing out on the porch!

Get your jacket on!!!

The Last of Fall!

Today is snowing - the drive to work was harrowing - I saw one vehicle off the road crashed into a tree. Another one skidded toward us, crossed the yellow line but didn't hit us. Very scary. I was able to deliver Tanner to daycare and I made it to work safely but it was a nail biter. Just two days ago we were outside playing in the fall leaves! And oh boy do we have leaves on our property...we are late getting them raked up this year, though we put a small dent in it on Sunday. Tanner is a little apprehensive of the leaf pile but doesn't DISlike it. Here are a few pics...

No wonder he's apprehensive, look at the size of it!

This is pretty fun, I guess...

The little helper...

I love Saturdays!!!!

Saturday was crisp and cool here in Western Mass and we decided to stay inside most of the day and bumm around the house together. Tanner walked in with daddy's hat on at one point - so we snapped some pictures. Like most babies, as soon as he could coordinate his arms enough to yank a hat off, he did. Even still, he barely tolerates anything on his head, even in cold weather. I had all these cute hats I thought I'd wear on him and they are all in a nice pile, brand new, some with tags still on. Two things I would never recommend - hats for a child under the age of 18 months (except maybe newborn). Also, Size 1, 2, 3 or even size 4 shoes. I had all these adorable little shoes I thought I'd be putting on my baby. All but Robeez went untouched. I couldn't get regular shoes on his feet and even if I could, they were stiff and uncomfortable. It wasn't worth the effort of trying to cram them on.

Tanner is saying "hello" an "bye bye" fairly often now, although not on command. He is battling another cold - #2 in the last month. We had been on a good roll with sleeping - pretty much every night all night. Then he got the cold last week and BAM! he was up all night long. Once an hour from 1am to 5am. He did that for 4 nights then last night he slept all night again. Still gets up rather early for my liking - this morning was 5:40. Well, can't have it all at once, eh? I'm sure our next baby (if there is one) will be a better sleeper!

This was just a random picture of my little man I snapped the other day. Tanner is doing so well right now. Rob and I were just talking tonight over a glass of Lockwood wine (a delicious wine, for those of you who remember from our wedding, btw). And when was the last time we sat at the kitchen table over a glass of wine together? Oh, a couple of years ago now...pre-pregnancy, I guess. Well things seem to have made a turn recently. We are giving Tanner more foods to eat (and he's been fine with them!), he's sleeping better than ever, and his meltdowns have decreased dramatically. I'm crossing my fingers and toes as I type this - but last night he slept 7:40pm until 7:10am!!! First time ever!!! yay yay yay. We actually got up before him, one of two times in the last 15 months. I had my makeup on and was dressed already by the time he got up. He wakes up happy now and babbles around in his crib, turns on his Ocean Wonders Aquarium, plays binky swap...and calls out for us after about 5-10 minutes. Evenings are happier and lighter since his fussiness has diminished. Its just so wonderful. I can't say that I loved him any less before, but life sure feels better right now. It appears he's finally outgrowing the GI issues/allergies! Here's to restful nights!

Tanner's Halloween!

We debated whether to take Tanner out for Halloween this year. At his age, we didn't know if he would enjoy it much. But a group of our friends with their (older) kids were going to a popular subdivision where we heard trick or treating on Halloween is like Times Square on New Years Eve. So we decided to give it a go. We were so glad we went. There were hundreds of little kids with parents and the houses were done up with Halloween decor like it was Christmas. We met up with our friends - 4 couples, 2 kiddos each, just as dusk was falling and we geared up. We had the stroller, snacks, camera, everything we needed. Off we went. Much to our surpirse, our little guy wanted to truck around everywhere himself, so the stroller went entirely unused! Tanner loved it - he got right into the groove and followed the gaggles of kids from door to door. At times, we had to hurry to keep up with him! Once in a while he would take a candy from one of the hander-outers...and carry it around crinkling the wrapper in his little hands (no we didn't give him any candy)...but most of the time he just walked up to doors, looked at people and went on his way. It was hilarious. We had to steer him in the right direction many times - I'm sure he'd still be wandering in someone's backyard right now if we let him. We were there a little over an hour and he enjoyed every minute of it. He was so cute - he even got a "look at that little guy! that's the cutest costume I've seen tonight" from a passerby. Of course, we thought it was too...

Roarrrrr!

Trick or Treat...
Truckin'

Just meet me back at the car mama...

Oooooooo...they're handing out crinkly things...what fun

Family Photo...