We're still here!

Wow, this post is way overdue to say the least. We've had a very busy past few weeks so I'll try to give the cliff note version of all of our activities so I don't put you to sleep. :)

In early June, AJ was traveling for work so Hunter and I flew to Indiana for a few days while he was away. This was Hunter's first trip as an official frequent flier and he did great in his own seat. We had a late flight on the way back so he ended up sleeping almost the entire way. I even got to read a magazine and listen to my iPod for the first time in a really long time. :)

While we were in Indiana, we crammed in quite a few things. We went to the Indianapolis Zoo one afternoon while Mimi was getting their house ready for a showing (if anyone is reading this and happens to be looking for a house on the south side of Indy, let me know! :) ) and Hunter loved it, of course. We even got to spend one night at Aunt Mitty's house while Mimi got the house ready for an open house.
I love this video of him playing piano with Mimi. He looks so proud of himself. :)

Eating corn on the cob for the first time -

Mimi came down at the very end of June and stayed for a week to visit for my birthday. While she was here, AJ's mom, two brothers, and their sons drove down from Connecticut to stay with us as well. We all kept busy and there was a lot of activity to keep Hunter busy and entertained. I was really bad about taking pictures, unfortunately, so I don't have much to post of their visits.

Playing with Mimi at the pool:
After my birthday dinner:Hunter finished up swimming lessons at the Y last week. He is quite the little fish and loves playing in the pool so I wanted to take advantage of his love for water. He was, in my opinion, the best little "swimmer" in the class and he loved every minute of it. It was a Mommy and Me class so I'll spare you the pictures of the two of us in the water, but here he is before his first class.


This boy continues to crack me up every day with the random things he does/says/picks up from others.
- He tells on himself. He'll tell you exactly where something is that he's put down or what he's done, even if he knows it's something that he shouldn't do.
- He moos or neighs quite loudly and repeatedly from the backseat whenever we pass a cow or horse in the car.
- He knows how to make calls on my phone, so don't be surprised if you receive a random call from me with a two year old on the other end!
- He loves "working out" with Daddy...see below...

- He put on a pair of my heels the other day and started stomping around the bathroom floor saying that he was wearing "tap dancing shoes". (Not sure where he learned that!)
- He also banged his head on my knee one day and said "Ouch. Double ouch". I started laughing and asked him where he learned that and he said that it is what Goofy says. (He still loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse)

Here he is enjoying a cupcake at his friend Owen's 3rd birthday party the other day. He kept it relatively mess-free!

This is a pic that I just think is cute. We're at Chuy's and he's eating a push-up for the first time. He had about 4 licks and was over it.

Finally, he's now 2 1/4 years old so I measured and weighed him the other day. He's about 28 lbs and 35 inches. Such a big little guy!

Hunter Says

As Hunter was trying to grab a pen that I had -

Hunter: "Mine!" (It really comes out more like "mys"....as in yours and mys. Makes sense to me!)
Me: "Don't be grabby and don't say mine. That is not a nice thing to say."
Hunter: "Hunter's!"

So, I guess he was technically minding me. :)

Another thing he has be saying is "sure don't". Like...

Me: "Do you have to potty?"
H: "No. Sure don't."

Me: "It's time to take a nap."
H: "No. Sure don't."

Funny boy. :)

Not complaining, but...

File this under the category of "This NEVER happens". Hunter fell asleep in his highchair while eating lunch this afternoon. Yes, this is the same child who took 9 months to sleep through the night and pretty much the same amount of time to start napping regularly.

I'm pretty sure this is a result of him turning two.....I mean, my sweet little cuddly baby has now turned into a full-fledged, wild and crazy, funny and hyper little boy. Andrew was here this weekend and he LOVES playing with Andrew....fortunately Andrew still likes him and isn't quite to the age where it's a nuisance to have a brother ten years younger than you following you around all of the time. But, when Andrew is here, Hunter goes.....and goes.....and goes. He just wears his little self out before it's even naptime!

We had a pretty big weekend. Friday night we celebrated our friend Chris' birthday by going out to the Round Rock Express baseball game. This is a pic of Hunter watching the fireworks after the game -

I think he looks a lot like AJ in this pic!

SPI

We took some much needed family R&R this past week. We made the 6+ hour roadtrip down to South Padre Island for 5 days. It wasn't but might as well have been Hunter's first time on the beach - his actual first time was when he was 6 months old and he slept in his carrier the entire time. When he first tested out the sand between his toes he was NOT a fan. It didn't take too long before he got used to it and loved being able to run around in the open without being pulled in all sorts of different directions like usual. He was very interested in the water and first but then that flip-flopped also. By the end of our stay, he didn't even want to be in your arms if you were standing at the shore. "Get me out of here!" he would say. :) I think the waves coming towards him scared him a bit. Here are some pics from our week...

This is the view from our balcony - Hunter is in the middle and Daddy is lounging at the right.

Relaxing after a long day at the beach -

We had great weather, although it was super windy. It was very cloudy one of the days but the temps were nice. We stayed in a condo which ended up working out great. Hunter had his own room so he could go to bed at his normal time while we stayed up and played games, watched TV, etc. Since we had a kitchen in our condo, we were able to stay in and make some dinners and lunches so we only went out twice for dinner. The last night we went to a restaurant on the water and there was a dolphin swimming around the pier, coming up from the water occasionally. It was really neat to see. I wasn't fast enough with the camera to get a good picture of him.


I got a little teary looking at his little footprints in the sand and knowing that I'll never see his footprints that small again. Do I think too much? Probably! I still had to take a pic to document, though.

Every single time Hunter encounters someone he says "Hi" to them. Which I love and is super sweet, but he also calls everyone "guy". So, it's "What's guy doing?" or "Hi guy", etc. So, we tried to explain to him that it's appropriate to say "Hello, sir" rather than "Hi, guy"....now he says "Hello sir guy". :)

Also, now when Hunter wants you to hold him, he says "Hold you", rather than "Up" as he used to say. So cute.

We had a great week on the island and hope to have many more memories there!

Why?

Well, I knew this wasn't far behind since Hunter's favorite phrase has been "What's that?" lately. The other day "Why?" was the response to every question we answered. It's funny and cute now....we'll see how long we still think that. :)

I've always heard parents say how sad they were when their little ones started pronouncing words correctly that they used to have cute mispronunciations of. Hunter's interpretation of banana will be mine, I think. He says Oh-nana and similarly Oh-jamas for pajamas. I love when he says those. He is also starting to say things like "My Cheerios" rather than "Hunter's Cheerios" or "Yes I am"/"No I don't".

We are two weeks in to potty training and it has actually been going better than I expected. He has been napping in his underwear and only wearing a diaper at night. We've had some accidents, probably around 1 a day, but yesterday we was totally accident free and he even told us that he had to go 3 times!

Potty training

I don't know if I would quite yet say that Hunter is potty trainED, but we are definitely potty trainING. I'm a big believer in letting them stay little while you can and not pushing things on them, but he's been showing most of the signs. Plus, from what I have read and from what Dr. Dan told us in our well check, any time now is a good time to start trying. He especially mentioned that the little ones who are really verbal are usually early to train.

Last week he went potty in the big potty 3 times by asking to, so I figured I'd give it a shot this week. I must say, he has been doing remarkably well. So far this has been WAY easier than I ever anticipated. He's had some accidents here and there but that is to be expected. He's been solely in underwear this week, even during outings, except for naps and bedtime. He's actually been waking up dry from his naps for the past 4 days so I think I'll try to keep him in his underwear for naps next week. I just want to be sure he's ready for it before I take that step. :)

The reason I say we are training, rather than officially calling him trained is because he still isn't stopping play to tell me that he needs to go. He's really great when I pull him away from what he's doing to go, but I guess him taking the initiative to go will be the next step. Regardless, way to go, Hunter! He is doing a great job and I am super proud mommy!

Happy Easter!

Even though Easter is not Hunter's actual birthday, it is always going to be even more special since he was born on Easter Sunday 2 years ago. This boy might just be able to make a birthday week and entire birthday month!

We started out the weekend by going to our friends Joel and Leah's Easter party on Saturday. We had so much fun and it was a fantastic party. The kids got to hunt Easter eggs, pin the nose on the bunny, color eggs and smash cascarones. Hunter just participated in the egg hunt and the cascarone smashing but we really enjoyed the party and all of the yummy food!

Here is my little handsome man before church this morning. Happy Easter!