13 months old!

Summer is in full swing, and I definitely feel like I'm in the groove...Trey wakes up at 5:30am most mornings and by 8am I have usually done the dishes, done laundry, vacuumed, fed Trey breakfast, eaten breakfast myself, caught up on really important news on the Today Show, checked my email, checked Facebook, played with Trey, and accomplished a few other random chores before Trey even goes down for his first nap.  Between naps usually includes a walk, errands, or sometimes a coffee or lunch date.  After the second nap is usually when we have playdates with my friends.  While I have fully acknowledged that I don't have it in me to be a full time stay at home mom, I am enjoying my summer routine.

We had Trey's one year doctor appointment last week and when she said, "Do you have any concerns you'd like to talk about?"  I said, "Ummm, yes, NAPS!"  I don't know if Trey is getting readjusted to being home full time (although one would think he'd adjust by now), going through a growth spurt, recovering from our trip to California (although we've been home for almost a month), or teething, but he has been fighting the nap like crazy.  It can make for some really difficult days.  Today was the first day in what feels like forever that he took both naps in his crib without any crying.  Amazing what a difference that makes in my mental health during the day.

Trey has been on the move and currently is not really interested in any of his toys.  All he wants to do is crawl from one end of the house to the other, pull himself up on furniture, and stand at a variety of spots around the house.  His newest interest is to try and climb from the couch, chair, or bed to the side table and pull anything and everything off of the table.  I told him today I'm okay with him pulling off the coasters and books, but the lamps need to stay.

Trey finally discovered the bottle caps.  

I can't believe it took him this long. 

Helping Mama "organize" the tupperware is one of his new favorite activities.  

Sarah Long came up last week to visit with her son, Curtis. Trey and I spent the day over at Sarah Kopplin's with the two of them, Zander, and Kai (Sarah Kopplin's sons).  It is such fun to spend time with two of my favorite people and our children.  I can't believe we are this old.  

Zander (6.5 years), Curtis (3 years), and Trey (13 months)

Randy has rediscovered his float tube and has been using it the summer.  And not only for fishing...

Trey likes it too...

One of the things I am loving about Trey right now is that he is starting to establish his preferences and make his opinions known.  This, of course, is a positive AND a negative.  One of Trey's favorite things is the dog's water dish.  Last Friday when we had the Withycombes over for dinner, Trey discovered the outside water dish and I let him go to town.  Needless to say, when I finally picked him up, he was absolutely soaked.  

My boss Lee Ann gave me this wonderful Elmo basket for Trey.  I don't know what it is about Elmo and babies, but he can't get enough.  I think it's the eyes.  Sarah calls Elmo "baby crack".  She might be right.

I have really grown to love vegetable gardening and over the past six years have found a lot of joy in it. However, the past two years I have become a total slacker.  I was shocked when I went out to the garden after book club on Wednesday night and discovered that there are actually tomatoes on my plants.  Shocked.  

I'm trying to take advantage of my full time mom status and do things with Trey during the day that we won't be able to do when I'm working.  On Monday we went to the zoo.  Since we have a membership, I was able to just be there for a short time.  We saw the giraffe, the hippos, the tiger, the lion, the zebra, and the elephant.  What I loved was while I was showing Trey the hippos, he was completely fixated by the bolt on the windowsill, and while I was trying to get him to look at the giraffe, all he wanted was to get in the pond.  

On Tuesday Trey and I went on an adventure and went to the beach sans Randy.  We went to stay with our friends Adam and Jenny and their two girls.  When I came home I told Randy that I don't realize how much he does to help until he's not there.  It was exhausting.  (Although I find myself using the word "exhausted" or "exhausting" a lot this summer whether Randy is around or not.)  Trey had a great time on the beach, and the weather was absolutely fabulous.  I think my favorite parts of our short trip were watching Trey on the beach and enjoying gin and tonics with Adam after Trey went to bed.  

My sweet boy is so happy on the beach.  Funny thing is that the other two times I brought him down to the beach, he wasn't nearly as thrilled.  Go figure.  

Here is a short video of Trey crawling on the sand.  He loved digging into the wet sand and finding little pebbles.  I was really impressed that none of it went in his mouth.  

Now, one of my absolute favorite moments of the day is first thing in the morning when Trey is lying next to me in bed drinking his bottle.  When we are at home, I'm often in a rush to get up and vacuum, get my coffee started, etc. but when we are away (or sometimes at home) I love the cuddlefest.  On Wednesday morning, when Trey woke up and started making his noises in the pack n play, I leaned over the top from the bed and said good morning to him.  You should have seen his eyes open wide with shock that I was in the room.  It was awesome.  Then after he ate, we cuddled and giggled and he was so sweet.  Just reminds me how lucky I am to have such a loving boy who loves his mama.  

This was after attempt #3 to put Trey on the sand and he wanted no part of it.  We went up to the sidewalk and I sat on the bench with Trey in my lap drinking from his bottle.  He was so relaxed and mellow and cuddled into me.  I sat there and thought, "Yes, naps are hard.  Yes, he's fussy and whiny.  Yes, you wish Randy was here.  But, Kristin, just sit here and enjoy the damn beach and ocean and sun and love of your son."  Sometimes a reality check is a good thing.

Summer fun

Finally, it feels like I am in my summer routine.  After we got back from California, it took a few days to get Trey back to a napping routine which made Mama a little nutso.  But we seem to be in the groove again and are able to enjoy our summer days.  There are a lot of pictures in this post, but if you are like my husband, that's all you look at anyways...

One of Trey's new delights in life is to have the windows down in the back of the car.  He giggles and waves his arms and smiles the hugest smiles...it might be one of my new delights in life too.

It is hysterical to watch Randy eat breakfast in the mornings.  He has two willing helpers ready to pitch in at any time.

Here are a few pictures from our CA trip that I didn't get downloaded for the official CA post.  One day we went hiking with Doug and Carmen.  We were turned away from the waterfall we wanted to hike because of a full parking lot, so we continued to drive up the windy, windy, windy road to find a short hike with some nice views.  

Here are a few pictures of what Randy has been doing this summer.  If he isn't working some long hours at the Primate Center or playing with his son, he is on the river.  

On fourth of July weekend, we went hiking/walking through Washington Park.  Afterwards, we met Kris and John at the new Hopworks by our house.  I am delighted to find that they have outdoor seating and are only 2.5 miles away.  Yahoo!!

Oh, and this walk is an attempt at one of the hill walks from my book.  We didn't make it very far into the walk in part because my husband doesn't have a lot of patience for my reading of guidebooks on our hikes.  Go figure.

After a quick stop at the Swap n Play, Randy, Trey, and I enjoyed an afternoon at Breakside, our local haunt.

So, if you read my blog, you may remember that I am trying to do all of the hill walks in Portland Hill Walks this summer.  I have quickly learned that these walks are not stroller friendly.  I haven't tried to use our new hiking backpack by myself, but if I want to achieve this goal, I will need to do that.  This picture is from the St. Johns walk I did last week.  I only had to take Trey out of his stroller once to lift the stroller over a gate.  Big improvement over last time.  And I also think that I need to either a) read the entire walk description before I go or b) listen more closely to what the author says because when she said "Walking alone, especially for women, is not a good idea," I should have paid attention.  Someday one of these hill walks will be enjoyable.

Here is Trey with Dominic, Sarah Falcon's son, at the Swap n Play.  If it sounds like I spend a lot of time there, it's because I do.

Yesterday we took Trey to his first swimming lesson.  As you can tell from the pictures, he loved it!

Later in the afternoon on Saturday, we went to the Mississippi Street Fair with Kris.  It was packed!  Luckily, we were able to stop and rest in the shade at Muddy's which is owned by my friend Dyer.  The banana bread I got for Trey was DELICIOUS, and Randy said that the sandwich he ate had some of the best egg salad on it that he'd ever had.  

Neil was doing a tasting of Imbue at Pastaworks.  

This is his vermouth that he makes and it is fantastic.  

Look for it in your local wine stores, New Seasons, liquor stores, etc.

Relaxing at Muddy's

The day ended with some short ribs from Gartner's and a great summer dinner on the deck with Kris and John.  You can't get much better than that!  

Today Randy is fishing with Adam, and my dad and Sandy are coming up for a visit.  Should be another great summer day!  

Crawling! Scooting! Pulling up!

Trey is finally crawling on all fours!  He's been doing the army crawl for about a month and a half, but on the fourth of July he started doing the real crawl.  Here he is going to one of his favorite spots in the house.

He also loves to stand, and it doesn't matter if it is against the couch, the ottoman, the tv stand, the chair, the train table, and now the crib.  He's getting better at pulling himself up (he can do it on the ottoman because it is shorter) but often needs a little boost.  He's also working on cruising along the furniture which his PT said is an important step in learning how to walk independently.

Train table at Swap n Play 

Tupperware drawer 

I came in to this a few days ago.  

He's on his knees, but it's only a matter of time...

Here he is on his new scooter from my dad and Sandy.  I learned the hard way (as did he) that he's not ready to be unsupervised just yet.  Oops.  (I have a bad feeling this video is going to be sideways and I don't know how to rotate it. )

Now that Trey has figured out how to move, he does not like to be still or be on the floor in one place.  This makes life a lot more fun for him and a lot more exhausting for Mom and Dad.

First haircut

Why is the first haircut always such a rite of passage?  Is it because they go in looking like a baby and come out looking like a little boy?

Trey's hair went from cute and curly in the back to shaggy and out of control overnight.  I went to Little Klippers with Nyree to get his first haircut.

Shagmeister waiting with his Aunt Nyree 

Sitting in the firetruck.  

As a slow motor kid, I'm super impressed by his balance. 

Looking pensive...and unruly

Not too sure about what is going on... 

I was afraid he was going to leap out of the seat at this point.

Luckily, they are pros and distracted him with lots of new toys. 

What are you doing to his sweet curls?  

Oh, that's right...making sure it doesn't look like a mullet. 

My baby, all grown up 

Look, Mom, it's a huge comb!

A few extra random thoughts:

So on Saturday I was at our local park which is not an off leash dog park.  I admit there are times that Randy and I have let Tango off leash, but we always leash him up if we see other dogs or children.  I was mostly amused and slightly annoyed to see two people in motorized wheelchairs with their dogs off leash.  My first thought was: "How are you going to be able to restrain your dog if it goes up to another dog (even if that other dog is on leash)?" and my second thought was: "How are you going to be able to pick up your dog's poop?"  Maybe their dogs are really well trained.  Who knows.  I still think it is weird.

Secondly, I find myself more and more annoyed by the people who stand at the end of off ramps with signs asking for money.  The thing that almost bothers me more is that my annoyance with them and my avoidance of eye contact makes me feel like a bad person.  Am I the only one who feels this way?

Tomorrow is my least favorite holiday of the year.  I'm glad Randy gets a day off and all that, but I HATE fireworks.  I hate what they do to Tango, and I hate how people in the neighborhood continue to fire them off until the wee hours of the morning for DAYS and DAYS after the fourth of July.  It's one night, people.

Just for kicks, check out what our life was like a year ago:  7/4/10 blog entry.  Wow, look how we've all grown.