Wake at 18 Months

Just a few things to remember about Wake right now. His first love in life are letters and numbers. He has what seems like millions of foam letters and numbers and gets so pumped when he picks one up off the ground and loves to point them out in his books or wherever he sees one. He knows the sounds for and recognizes a, b, c, d, e, f, h, I, k, l, m, n, o, p, s, t u, x, and y but we're still working on the rest. He surprised me the other day when I asked him to point out numbers 1-10 on his flash cards and he got every single one right. Of course he can't say any of them but apparently he can point them out. The little dude still hardly talks though he says "da", "papa", "na" (banana), "ck" (snack), and "ball." He refuses to say mom and says da whenever he's asked to say mom. He is such a wanderer. Wherever we are he has to be as far away from his current position as possible, especially if we're by a bunch of other people. He is such a good ester and will still eat pretty much anything I give him but has not one desire to feed himself. I kept thinking he would just decide he had to feed himself one day but he couldn't careless to feed himself a meal but will feed himself random snacks. Church has been a nightmare for the last six months on account of the fact that he can't sit still so I usually take him out all of sacrament meeting, Nate watches him while I teach sunbeams and then I take him again through most of primary until he just cries so much that I take him home for his nap but he actually did awesome his first day in nursery and was happy for he whole two hours, so weird...... He sleeps really good and hardly ever cries when I put him down or wakes up in the night anymore and sleeps from 8:30 to 7 with one nap from about 1 to 3 or 4. He knows how old he is and when I I ask him he holds up one finger and then immediately stick it in his mouth. He got really good at "swimming" this summer. He went from me having to pretty much force him to get in to putting his face in on his own and even jumping in by himself and holding onto the side of the pool so we're missing the pool SO bad already. He's really good at the store too as long as I keep moving and get him a banana to chew on the outside of while we shop. He will yell "na" at the top of his lungs when he sees them across the store until he gets one. He has just barely started going down the slide totally by himself and on his butt but still hates the swing. He hates getting his teeth brushed, nails clipped and his hair cut. He also won't even walk by the vacuum if it's out because he's so scared of it. He doesn't care for animals much unless he can grab them so he LOVES cats and dogs and mawls them. He still only knows animal sounds for cow, horse, snake, monkey, and lamb and knows where his tongue, fingers, nose (my nose), and ears are despite my best efforts to teach him all the things ha. He loves to stomp his feet and clap his hands and does it constantly. Our typical day consists of lots of book reading, lots of Super Why watching, lots of park going and a little napping ha. I can tell he understands a lot but him not talking is really about to kill me. I am so desperate for him to interact with me more that some days I don't think I'm going to make it but I'm trying to be patient because he has been a little late doing most things and I apparently didn't talk until after I was two but I really hope that's not the case with him but he is so fun and makes us laugh all the time (when I say we I mean me since Wake is dadless while Nate is in dental school ha) but he is the best little dude and heavens knows this last six months went a lot faster than the first year! 

At the petting zoo taking a walking break

Dental friends at the petting zoo

Crappy picture but he recently just decided that stacking tons of crap up is awesome.

First time swimming summer of 2016

He always has to park it on whoever has food at the time and also he is partial to Nate.

Could NOT get him to stop moving long enough to get a good picture of the bounce house but he had a blast there.

Always parkin' it on Nate

Blanding Summer of 2016

As always we had so much fun in Blanding this summer and any time there is never long enough. Wake and I flew there by ourselves  because Nate wasn't planning on coming because of school and Wake STRUGGLED on the flight. I vowed to never fly alone with a baby or toddler again and I plan to make good on that. So because of that and the fact that I wasn't ready to leave after three weeks I called Nate the morning I was suppose to come home and made him book a flight to Blanding instead and to just make it work but he did and I was so glad to have more time there and to not have to fly with Wake alone again.

Pumped to get on the plane... I however, was not.

Busted out the bunk after him not having one for about five months and it really was useless to me despite what the picture may look like ha.

Papa showing Wake Norma the calf.

Wake's first sno cone at THE sno shack. He loved it.

Wake and Grams Black. He LOVED her and playing at her house.

Wake and Grampa Dick.

Aysia came down for over a week while we were there and him and Brew had so much fun. Brewski got so excited every time Wake was naughty and and would laugh and wait for me to get mad at him. It was literally the funniest.

Cruisin' at Grams Kathy's with Brew.

Love this picture of these three. They'll all be in the same grade and they were the cutest together.

Swimming every. Single. Day. It was heaven.

This is by far the most homeless Wake has ever looked haha. He fell in one too many times and the life jacket kept making him fall (somehow) so Aunty C was kind enough to strip him down so he was nakey nake the rest of the night.

Chillin' with Aunty Money.

And the boys caught no fish. No surprise there.

Wake LOVED Bry and thought she was so funny. Poor Bry is so good to these babies who ruined her perfect little world of having like five adults attention at a single time.

Exhibit B.

Nate had the time of his life slaying coyotes (for once he actually shot some haha). He apparently figured out the secret sauce to shooting them and was stoked. It was kind of fun to see him actually do something besides study for once.

Wake had a love affair with Aunty C's kitties. This one was Aiker's (Blacky Soup haha) and he sure took a beating.

Aik and Wake cruising around Mimi's.

Nate made it to the pool once with us and was a little over it.

Of course Aus couldn't look up from her iPhone for the picture haha. That girl loves her some YouTube.

Wake and Chattum trying to eat their pizza. These two will be in the same grade too and will be best buds.

Probably on of my most favorite pictures. Dick put this floatie on Wake and he proceeded to just sit there by himself eating his pizza haha.

Best picture.

Not the greatest picture but these kids loved Grams Black tramp and check out Aus with that hat haha.

Too bad little (big) baby Stae wasn't looking. Her fat smile is the cutest.

Don't know how I didn't get a better picture of Wake and Mugs but he was obsessed with Mugs too. Mugs would totally plow him over, lick his face, jump up on him and Wake would just keep coming back for more.

More of the car. They had more fun than it looked like they did...

Wake and Grams and Gramps Shumway.

Wake's not in this one but I just thought it was so cute of all of his Einerson cousins up at Dry Wash.

Grampa Dick is so nice to Wake and just followed him around to make sure he didn't eat too much crap at Dry Wash.

One more with Norma and Papa.

Wake's first protest in Bluff against the Bears Ears Monument, hopefully one day I look back on this post and think, "Oh yeah, I remember when that ALMOST happened." That probably won't be the case but one can dream. Anyway, awake aphid the best time seeing grandparents and cousins and I really don't think he (or I) have ever been happier. We just need to move back so bad..... Just over one and a half years though and hopefully that will be the case. 

Not surewhy I'd want to remember the part where we flew home but our flight got cancelled in Dallas and we ended up having to stay the night there (long story short) it was by far the worst 24 hours of my life and Nate felt like he had two kids there because Wake and I were both exhausted and bawling by the time we finally got to a hotel. Word to the wise. NEVER fly United again.

Wake Update, Florida and Tennessee Trips

Wake has changed a ton in the last three months. He started walking at about 13 and a half months and learned out to stand up in the middle of the floor about two weeks ago so he is now an exclusive walker and I'm absolutely loving it. He was pretty late on learning to clap but he did finally learn and does it all the time now. He will usually clap, click his tongue, find his ear, and my nose on command. He has also known what a lamb and a snake say for quite awhile now but we're still working on the rest of the animals. I keep trying to figure out what Wake's "thing" is since he's such an indifferent child but I've found that he loves anything to do with letters. He would play the Starfall letters and numbers app and watch Super Why all day if we'd let him. He always tries to answer when the characters ask letter questions on the tv. He doesn't articulate much though. The only word I know that he says for sure is, "dad." But he points out and says the letter "s" anytime he sees it. He definitely understands a lot of what I say,the dude just can't quite get the words out yet. He also still loves to play hide and seek, loves spotting airplanes, is starting to get way into cars and trucks and is just a lot less whiny overall. He for sure gets more fun everyday. Here are some random update pics:

Yeah,months be fooled. Wake couldn't have cared less about those eggs.

Wake's first Easter basket after all the eggs had been destroyed.

Poor kid has just been jack in himself up constantly the last few months, I'm sure this isn't the last bloody mouth we'll see from him judging by the wobbliness of his gait.

Loves climbing on the slide and watching Super Why.

We recently wen to Destin, Florida on a whim and it was such a fun and needed vacation. It's a nine hour drive so on the way down we decided to leave at 8pm, ended up pulling over and "sleeping" at about 1am and got there at about 10 am. Wake did so good and slept the whole night but Nate and I need to get it through our heads that sleeping in the car is never a good idea ha we slept like crap and were exhausted the next day but it was worth it because Wake didn't cry. It's a good thing the beach was so awesome because we couldn't check in to our hotel until 4 and so we had to kill time there even though we were dead tired. I'm convinced the beaches in Florida are second to none though. The sand felt like brown sugar and the water was perfectly clear and blue. It was a little cold but definitely not painful cold the first of May. Wake was a little unsure about the water at first but by the end he kept running in and out of the waves and it was so fun to watch. We would have liked to have done more than just hit the beach everyday but that's really all we were able to do with Wake but it really was nice to have no other agenda than swimming in the ocean everyday. On the way home we rolled the dice and left at 9 am which meant Wake would basically be up the whole drive and he hardly cried at all the whole time, we were shocked and iPads are the best invention ever. We will definitely be going back to Destin before we leave Kentucky.

We also made a trip to Gatlinberg, Tennessee which is Dolly Partons hometown (not sure whether or not that makes it cooler or lamer) ha anyway, we stayed in a super nice cabin with a bunch of friends and had so much fun eating, sitting in the hot tub, going on hikes in the Smoky Mountains, and walking up and down what can only be described as a redneck Las Vegas strip ha. Tennessee is definitely its own place but I loved it there and would go back in a heartbeat. We only got a picture with one of the other families (The Chappells) but we have found the best friends here in Kentucky.

Here are some more random updates of Wake. Nate's dramaticism is rubbing off on him for sure.

Kick in' it Card style at the U of L baseball game. We love going to these games because they're always free and the perfect place to run rampid.

Wake and his buddy Jack.

At the zoo, not caring about the Tigers.

He was, however, a little more stoked on the gorillas.

First cookie eaten on his own haha he liked it more than he looks.

The King of burgers.

Splash pad days...

This picture is terrible quality but I just crack up at it for some reason haha.