The Most Special Day of the Year

Christmas is definitely the best day of the year...in my opinion of course!  It's a day to honor our Savior and to do nothing other than spend time with family...and that's just what we did!  This year my mother-in-law, Claudia, drove up from Griffin and stayed with us from the 23rd through Christmas Day.  We celebrated with her in the morning and then drove to Lake Martin to have dinner and spend the rest of Christmas Day with my family.  My Great-Aunt flew in from Florida and my Uncle drove in from Louisiana to be with us as well.  We enjoyed lots of yummy food and had fun watching Tripp open presents all day.  I was pleasantly surprised at how well Tripp did with his gifts.  I thought he was going to open one, get distracted with it and not want to open any others, but this wasn't the case.  He did great opening each gift and waiting patiently for us to take the toys out of their boxes.  Prior to Christmas, Tripp was starting to outgrow many of his baby toys, but now I think the little man has more "big boy" toys, movies, books, and puzzles than he knows what to do with!

Tripp's new train table...I'm not sure if it will ever look this perfect again, but Santa did a great job of setting it up. (Side Note: I see many late night Christmas Eve toy assembling parties in our future. Now I understand why my parents didn't have as much energy as we did on Christmas mornings!)

Seeing all of his presents for the first time.  We didn't put a single present under the tree until after Tripp went to bed...including the presents for us.

Pointing to the "car" wrapping paper.

Playing with his new train table while Mommy, Daddy, and Grammy made our coffees.

Again, he really loved the car wrapping paper.

I know it's not a video, but if you look at his mouth, you can actually see that he was saying the word "car".

I love this picture because his face looks so chubby, but it's really just puffy from sleep.  I love puffy morning face...well on him anyway, not so much myself.

Basketball star

As soon as he unwrapped this puzzle, he wanted us to take the plastic wrap off so he could do it. 

And he completed it...on the first try...ALL by himself...No help from us.  He loves puzzles and the Melissa & Doug Chunky puzzles and peg puzzles are AWESOME!  I highly recommend them.  Tripp had a few before Christmas, but now he's very well stocked. 

Giving himself a round of applause for completing the Safari Animals Puzzle.

Dinosaurs!  His second favorite thing after cars.

Alli and Tripp.  She stayed in town on Christmas Eve and drove with us to the lake Christmas Day.

We finished opening gifts and everybody got ready to head to the lake for round two!

Aunt Verna (my great-aunt) and Mom.  She's more like another Grandmother than an Aunt.

Tripp and Pepere (my Dad)

Opening the Lightening McQueen tent Alli got Tripp

Matt and I showing Tripp how to play in the tent...

Tripp in the tent.  Great gift Alli!  Tripp plays in it everyday and brings all of his hot wheels and dinosaurs in there.

My Sis, Bro, and I...and my little man.

Siblings

This picture is a little blurry, darn it, but it's so cute and everyone is smiling so I thought I'd share it anyway.

Me and my love

Meeting Santa for the Second Time

I wasn't sure how Tripp would do with Santa this year...now that he's a little older and more aware of his surroundings.  Last year he was only 6 months so he just smiled and let us take a few cute pictures of him sitting on Santa's lap.  This year was a little different.  He didn't scream his head off like I expected, but he sure wasn't Santa's biggest fan...

18 Months

WOW...My baby is already 18 months old.  It doesn't seem possible, yet I see Tripp growing and changing everyday.  Oh, how time continues to fly!  Tripp is such a little blessing to Rob and I and while life isn't always easy with a young child, I definitely wouldn't change it in the least.  Here are Tripp's new stats and a few things he is doing and enjoying at this stage in his life.

Weight: 25.6 lbs (47%)
Height: 32.9 inches (68%)
Head Circumference: 19.5 inches (90%) = lots of brains

Around 17 months, Tripp really started talking a lot more and within a few weeks went from saying a handful of words to over 50 words.  He now says atleast 100.  I love hearing him learn new words and think it's great that he's such a verbal child.  Here are a few of the words he says regularly:

~airplane
~car (we hear this one about 800 times a day)
~Meme (Mater from the "Cars" movie)
~shoes (his second favorite word, he will point out everybody's shoes.  He often brings his shoes and ours to us so we can put them on.)
~fish
~cheese (he says this and then smiles with this big cheesy smile...love it!)
~hat
~Mama
~Dada
~Molly
~Layla
~Eggs (eats 2 for breakfast almost every morning)
~pancake
~Apple
~Banana
~hot
~no
~ball
~balloon
~moose (his favorite book is "I Met a Moose in Maine One Day")
~woof woof
~baa
~moo
~neigh
~thank you
~please
~bye bye
~hi
~hello
~hey
~baby
~roar
~dinosaur
~lightening (as in Lightening McQueen from "cars")
~Elmo
~Uh Ma (Uncle Matt)
~Alli (Aunt Alli-- we're still working on the Aunt part)
~yum yum
~up
~ouch
~spoon
~eyes
~teeth
~choo choo
~more
~Ah choo (he saw me sneeze a few times when I had a cold so now he'll throw his head back and pretend to sneeze at random times...totally cute)
~boo
~stop
~uh oh
~oops
~touchdown
~yay
~go (he loves saying the last three when Rob and I are watching football on tv, but he even says go, go, go when basketball is on)
~move (usually to Layla)

AND many, many more...but I won't list them all!

His favorite toys are anything car related.  He absolutely loves the movie "Cars" and points out every car in a parking lot.  So, I hear that word a bit.

He's definitely getting the hang of getting places quickly.  While he stills falls occasionally, he's very steady on his feet and loves running all over the place.

He is a toddler and will throw a tantrum if told the dreaded "NO", but always gets over it fairly quickly.  We've started doing short 1 to 1.5 minute timeouts if he continues to do something he shouldn't after we've already corrected the behavior.

He's always been a great sleeper and this trend has continued, thank goodness.  He naps for about 2 hours every afternoon from 12:00 pm-2:00 pm.  He goes to bed at 8:30 pm and wakes up between 7:30-8:30 in the morning.  The later bedtime works great for us since both Rob and I work late.  We both want the chance to see him everyday, even if it's just for a few short minutes before bed.

He loves to read and will bring us books to read to him all day long.  He always hands me or Rob the book and then backs up and plops right into our lap. 

He just started getting a little separation anxiety and will cry when I leave.  It's very brief and he's usually over the crying after 30 seconds to a minute. 

He gets super excited to see both Rob and I after we've been at work all day.  We both truly enjoy seeing his reaction to our homecoming.  It absolutely melts our hearts. 

I hear every stage of a child's life gets better and better, but so far this has been my favorite.  I definitely don't want time to speed up because I realize I'll never get this phase of his life back, but...I do look forward to seeing him grow and learn new things.  He is really a blessing and I'm thankful God picked Rob and I to be his parents.  We are extremely lucky!

Classic hands down the back of his pants stance.  I promise they aren't down his diaper... just his pants... and I always make him take them out.  ALL BOY I guess.

Loves Layla

Loves to splash around in the bathtub

Mark & Brennen's Wedding

Our friend Mark got married this past weekend so Rob and I headed down to Mobile, Alabama with Ashley and Michael to attend the wedding.  We had such a good time all weekend.  None of us had been to Mobile before, other than driving through on the way to New Orleans, so we enjoyed seeing the city.  Mark moved there since that is where his now-wife, Brennen, is from.  We woke up early the day of the wedding, drove in, and then stayed at the hotel where the reception was being held for one night.  It was a short trip, but LOTS of fun seeing old friends.  I was not a good photographer and only remembered to take a few shots at the beginning of the night so I didn't get any of the bride and groom or any other friends at the wedding.  Oh well, atleast we had a blast hanging out and dancing the night away!