Hats...

For my Valentine's gift, Drewry set up a photo shoot for the family last Saturday. To my disbelief, it was a huge success. We had lots of fun, despite the fact that it took a couple of hours. And we came away with a COPYRIGHT RELEASE of all our pictures. Yea! And as a bit of a teaser...I will say that there may or may not have been a bunny involved.
For now, here we were playing around with a couple of hats. His favorite is his Daddy's beat up old straw cowboy hat.

 
 
 
 

...and a couple of misc pictures from the weekend.

Growth chart...

By request...here's a copy of Fender's growth chart since birth. Hee hee...probably not going to be the tallest in the class. An interesting observation, however, is how he stayed in the upper range on the height chart the whole time I was breatfeeding (first 6 1/2 months) but rate of growth seemingly declined almost immediately when we switched. Was it the milk switch or a normal decline in growth after 6 months that I'm not aware of. I'm sure I could debate this one for years. :)

 
 

Pa Pa gets a tiller...

 
 
 

Fat tuesday...

Fender prepares for Mardi Gras...
 

Today is Shrove Tuesday (a.k.a Fat Tuesday, a.k.a. Mardi Gras as most of you may know it better). It is the Feast before the Fast. Today is "Pancake Supper Day" and some choose to binge on anything and everything before settling into a period of fasting, prayer, and spiritual reflection for the next 40 days and 40 nights (not counting Sundays...which are considered Feast days and apparently nearly anything is allowed on Feast days...weird, huh...so say you give up Chocolate and Cokes for Lent, you can "cheat" on Sundays and have your fill.) Okay, so I used to love that as a kid, but I have tried to be more disciplined as an adult and make it all the way through to Good Friday with my Lenten discipline. (Bring on all the chocolate bunnies and caramel filled eggs of Easter!!!!)

My downfall has always been chocolate and cokes. I'd say my entire youth was comprised of giving up one or the other every lent. That eventually evolved into trying to give up both for lent where some years were more disciplined than others. :) Recently however, I have been inspired to look at the season in a different light and for the past couple of years I have tried "taking something up" instead of giving something up. Things that I feel will help make me a better person inside and out. This year, I think I will try to combine the two concepts...give up something that doesn't spiritually nurture me in any way and take something up that does. For those of you who are about to enter this period of spiritual reflection, prayer and fasting with me...may each of you be inspired and guided through your own personal journey.

Other than Mardi Gras bead play (above), Fender slept through a much needed hair cut last Saturday.
 

And has been quite the guitar hero...like father, like son. :)And speaking of Daddy, Congratulations to Drewry on passing all his recent exams. He has now earned the ASA and EA credentials after his name after a very long, difficult journey. In a very real sense, it is a second graduation. No more studying...yea! Congrats Daddy, we are super proud of you!
 
 

Baby signs...

Please keep in mind he signs on his own when he sees things or wants something, but being the loving and caring mother I am, I absolutely manipulated and coaxed him into signing for these videos just for your viewing pleasure. :)

Fender makes his sign for bird (thumb and pointer finger move up and down like a chirping bird)


Fender shows his sign for milk.

Sponge for knowledge...

Well, I promise to try to capture Fender doing one of his signs so you all can see. But for now, I just wanted to say that I added a link to the left, for a website with 100 basic signs. These are not "Baby signs." They are actual ASL signs, but I have found that I pretty much use ASL and if Fender prefers something different, he'll show me and we'll do that instead.

There is an ESI teacher who comes to work with one of the kids in Fender's class who is several months older but not speaking at all. And I get reports about how impressed the woman is with how well Fender communicates verbally and with sign language. She is trying to help teach the little girl both and Fender helps too.

Verbally, Fender can now tell you that a cow says "noo" instead of moo and a cat says "now" instead of meow", but a sheep actually says "baa". He just absorbs everything he sees and hears. He is such a little sponge.

This morning he was showing me his sign for "bird" with his little index finger and thumb opening and closing together like a bird chirping. I almost didn't realize he was doing it. I got his big blue bird down from the shelf and he smiled real big and kept doing his sign.

He also signed "grandma" this morning (yea), but this one is different than ASL because I made it up on my own before looking it up. Just for future reference...signs for females are typically at the cheek or chin and males are at the forehead. I used to know that. Oops. :)

A little dinner for a guitar hero...

Fender was having a lot of fun at dinner.
 
 

And we caught one of his favorite new expressions... he's started to make a surprised face and sometimes says "oooh" or "oh" with it. It makes us laugh.
 

Yesterday we worked in a little guitar hero. Rock on.
 

Cold days...

Not taking as many pictures lately. I don't think he changes much now, but when we visit family who haven't seen him in a few days or a couple of weeks, they say how much taller and more grown he looks. So here are a couple of pictures of us getting ready to go out in the cold this past week.
 
 

And one of el perro, because we still love him too.
 

Play gym videos...

Obstacle course training. First he must escape from the tiny pit of plastic balls. Then he must make it down the slippery slide; knock down the Fantastic Four punching bag; figit with the fun box; repeat a seemingly random word after Momma, and make it down the slide again...extra points for a belly slide... all to win a fleeting bit of attention from the dog.

Ready, set, go...

15 months...language

For our friends out there with younguns of your own, thought I would give an update on some of the things our "biggin" (as I affectionately refer to our boy) is up to at 15 months so you might know what to expect. Primarily he is developing his communication skills. He now says: Mama, Dada, uh-oh, nana (for banana), upa (meaning up), Dah (meaning dog), and kitty (in some kind of crazy roll your tongue noise thing, but he is consistent to only do it for the cat). He can say bye-bye too, but typically does so with toys and waves a late bye-bye to people.

Even more cool, he can say: elephant, monkey, more, milk, and music with sign language. My lack of early commitment to baby signing with him is the only reason he doesn't already know more. About 14 months is when I realized just how ready he was for sign language and if I introduce a new one, he generally reproduces it immediately or catches on at the very least by the next day.

He also seems to have a favorite book that he brings me to read him and will sit through the whole story on my lap. It isn't a pop-up or interactive book, and he only got it for Christmas, so he'd never heard it before, but he sat through the entire story from the first time on. It is called J is for Jesus and is a story about candy canes.

I took him in for his 15 month check-up and immunizations today. He weighed 27 1/2 lbs and was 31 inches tall. He is big enough now that they stand him up against the wall to measure height instead of laying him down. :) Unfortunately the appt went terribly awry when he developed a fever of 101 and was congested when we got to the room. Even at the docs office he was happy and playful, but wow, am I glad we had that appointment because he went seriously down hill after we filled his prescriptions and got home.

One thing Fender rarely does is sit still! Only when he feels bad. And this one was bad. He napped in his crib, then he just sat on my lap and watched tv, fading in and out of sleep, never moving. Eventually I made a palate for him next to me on the couch, sat him there, wrapped him up, and he stayed there for two hours and never moved. Didn't want to eat or drink. When Daddy got home, he woke up from a nap for a few minutes so he could hold him, but then he laid Fender down on a blanket in the floor and he slept another couple of hours before I finally moved him back to his bed. :( Poor boy. I hope he gets better soon. Work antibiotics, work!!!!! We are scheduled to go back for immunizations in 10 days.

A mississippi christmas...

Rare photo opp for the three of us.
 
 
 
 

Fender's Paternal mother's mother who turned 95 this month.


Fender's Godmother and cousin, Manassa.


Great Grandmother's wild bunch. :)


Much love to all our family and each of our friends! We wish you a simply fantastic 2008! Happy New Year.

Christmas morning at home...

What a difference a year makes...Fender really enjoyed this holiday season. We emptied stockings, opened gifts, and Dad put an entire play center together complete with ball pit and a slide (Thanks Nana and Pop).

 
 
 
 

Auntie L was there with her dog Polly; and Sebastian had a good time too. I played with everyone.

Christmas eve at papa and grandma's...

Well, here they come. Pictures from the holidays. I'll try to keep it to a minimum.

We're headed out for some fun.