18 Months

My baby is 18 months old today! I've been waiting for this day so that he could go to nursery and we could be active for the 2nd and 3rd hours of church again. But now that it's here, I don't feel like he should be old enough to go. He's still just a baby, right?! But he'll probably love nursery and be glad he doesn't have to sit still anymore.

His hangout on the floor in our bedroom while he
watches a movie and Mom takes a quick shower.

He's at such a fantastic age and is so much fun. He is so inquisitive and smart. It's amazing how fast he learns. Here are some things he loves and is doing right now:

-Saying all the animal sounds. He knows the sounds for cow, monkey, cat, snake, pig, duck, dog, lion, dragon, dinosaur (those last three all "RAWR" so it probably just counts as one but he'll roar no matter which of those three animals you list), and he also will "ARGH" when you ask him what a pirate says.

-Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Little Einsteins. Definitely his favorite shows. He will yell "Oh Toodles!" with all the characters and he LOVES to dance to the hot dog dance. My dad will do the dance with him so whenever the song comes on, Johnny runs to get Grandpa to dance. It's awesome. With Little Einsteins, he will pat his lap with them and throw his hands in the air to yell "BLASTOFF!" It's so cute. (If this doesn't make sense to you, you obviously haven't watched as many of these shows as we have :)).

Watching Little Einstein's and using Daddy as his chair.

-He is trying so hard to jump. He saw the characters on a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode jump and he tries constantly to figure it out. It's adorable. Most the time he just jumps on one foot and then the other. But if he manages to get both feet off the ground at the same time, he lands on his butt and laughs. It's so fantastic to watch.

Trick-or-treating with Daddy.

-He is talking more and more. He understands pretty much everything we say and does quite well at listening to us. Unless it deals with pushing the button to turn on and off the TV, turning on the trash compactor, feeding the dogs, or getting off whatever he's climbing on. Then he feels like he should just be able to do those things whenever he wants. His talking is helpful though because now I can ask him if he wants a certain thing for dinner and he'll actually answer yes or no. And believe me, if he says no, he means it. We've tried making him something he said no to and he WOULD NOT eat it. And the "yes" and "no" extends to going outside, which show he wants to watch, etc. He also says, "more," "please," "thank you," "mama," "dada," "gama," (which is both grandma and grandpa) "ambo," (the dog- Rambo) and he tries to mimic lots of what we say but it's not super clear yet. Every night when we kneel down for prayer, he folds his little hands and starts to try and say a prayer. He also tries to sing the "ABCs." Although the words aren't clear, his intonation is perfect so you can tell that's what he's trying to do.

Our little dragon/dinosaur. Were not really sure which one it
was but he was adorable and would "RAWR" for everyone.

-He's what I call an in-between eater. He's definitely picky about what he's willing to eat and a lot of times he just refuses to eat. But he's not the worst eater and most days he does pretty well.

-Johnny has become quite the monkey! My parents have one of those tall tables and Johnny has figured out how to climb up on the high chairs. It scares me. And he just climbs and stands on everything he can. And he is so proud of himself every time he does it.

-He loves to blow kisses, wave, give actual kisses, high-fives, and yell "bye!" I love his happiness and enthusiasm! He also LOVES baths and anything dealing with water. I think he wishes he was a fish.

-His tantrums consist of him giving you these big, sad eyes and big, pout-y lips. Then he will go sulk in a corner and go "hmph" several times or put his head down in his hands on the ottoman. It's so hard not to laugh when he does it because it's so cute. But I am grateful that he does not have screaming fits. (knock on wood).

-He really is such a happy, loving, sweet, awesome boy. He gets SO excited when he sees people he's really familiar with and it makes you feel so good and important. His current favorite people are really those he sees on a regular basis: Mom, Dad, Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts and Uncles (Especially Aunt Shelby. He doesn't see Aunt Shelby on a regular basis but he sure does remember her from all the times she came to see him and babysit him during his first year of life and he adores her!).

He gets so excited about everything and he teaches me how to appreciate the little things and be more loving every day.

Happy 18 months, Johnny! Your daddy and I sure do love you!

Coming March 2013

Our family will be blessed with a second baby sometime around March 29, 2013.

We just found out yesterday that this baby is a GIRL!

We are beyond excited! 

Johnny will be a great big brother. He gave the sonogram picture a kiss when I showed it to him. :)

We're trying to teach him that there's a baby in Mommy's tummy but every time we ask him where his baby sister is, he points to his own stomach. Apparently he just thinks that's what we're calling our bellies now. It's very funny and cute.

I feel like this pregnancy is going so much faster since I am a full time mom to Johnny. I'm already almost at the half way point and I can barely believe it. But I am still enjoying the beginning of feeling all of her movements and we're getting so excited to meet her!

We are very blessed. 

Happy Halloween!

Johnny was the cutest dragon you'll ever see!

He even enjoyed trick-or-treating. We went to about 6 houses and he would "RAWR" for people.

Needless to say, he charmed everyone! :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Catch-Up

Man I am behind on posting. So here is a catch-up post.

At the end of August, Marcus, Shelby, and I took Johnny to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City. It was so much fun! Johnny has been into animals lately so we figured he would enjoy the zoo and he LOVED it! I can not remember the last time I had such a fun time at the zoo. It is amazing how much joy you get as a parent when you are able to watch your kid get so much joy out of something.

Since he loved the zoo so much, we decided to take him to a petting zoo. Brittany, Marcus, Johnny, and I drove up to Twin Falls to see Marcus' parents and grandparents over labor day weekend. The county fair was going on and they had a petting zoo so it was the perfect opportunity to take Johnny. I haven't been to the fair in years and it was so much fun to walk around the fair with Marcus' family and eat all the great fair food. But the best part was definitely watching Johnny at the petting zoo. I thought he loved the zoo, but he ADORED the petting zoo! He was running from cage to cage to touch the animals. He was so excited, he couldn't stand still or contain any of his excitement. It was fabulous. That night at the fair was one of the best nights of my life. I don't think Christmas will be as exciting to Johnny as that petting zoo was.

Johnny feeding the goats at the petting zoo

We sure do love that boy!

15 Months

Johnny is 15 months old and definitely more of a toddler than a baby. He goes a million miles an hour and gets into everything. And he's definitely too smart for his own good. He has figured out the baby gate and how to open the front door. He has to be watched very closely. But he is the cutest little boy!

 Weight: 20lbs 6.5 oz

Height: 30.5 inches

20th percentile for both. 

He may be small in stature, but he sure is big in smarts and personality.

He says 10-15 words. His favorites are "what's this," "hi," "bye," "head," "shoes," "cheese," "yes," "six," and mimicking animal names like cow, horse, and sheep.

Playing XBOX with Uncle Jordan

 Johnny is so much fun! He can play on his own but he definitely prefers playing with someone. He loves when someone builds a tower and he can knock it down. And he especially loves it if you count while you build it.

Grandpa and Johnny. (with Adrian walking in front of the camera)

 Johnny LOVES to be outside. He goes to the door at least 3 times a day begging to go outside. And the first time he sees my parents in the morning, he has to go on a walk.

Johnny loves macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, lasagna, cheez-its, grapes, pears, sweet potatoes, chips, and desserts. He's such an amazing boy and we love him so much!

BRAZIL! Food!!

Oh how we love Brazilian food. We ate so much food and it was all SO delicious! We ate at 3 churrascos and many other amazing places.

Top left to right: sugar cane juice, peanut candies, grape juice, Italian style  rodizio
Bottom left to right: coxinhas, Brazillian outback, snacks for the movie theater

Sugar cane juice: super sweet. The first sip is good and then it's just way to sweet. But Marcus tells me it's very refreshing on a super hot day.

Peanut candies: the top candy tastes just like the inside of a Reese

Juice: Brazil has lots of awesome juices. So good.

Velho Madalosso: This was an awesome restaurant. Marcus and I took a bus to the Italian district and found this place. It was a rodizio style so they brought around tons of different meats and pastas. It was so delicious. Probably my second favorite restaurant we went to.

Coxinha: There are lots of different types of coxinhas but the one pictured is a chicken with cheese. A bakery down the street from our hotel in Curitiba made them and they are the best Marcus or I have ever had. They were delicious and I have been craving one since we got home.

Snacks: Ovaltine chocolate bar- not very ovaltiny. Passatempo cookies- delicious. They taste similar to E.L. Fudge cookies. The other snacks are little cracker puff things. One is a cheese flavor, the other is sausage. Cheese was alright. Sausage was disgusting.

Marcus and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary while in Brazil by going to this place:

Fogo De Chao is a high end, expensive churrasco in Sao Paulo. We got dressed up and took a taxi to the restaurant. It was so fun to go here and the food was AMAZING! It was the perfect restaurant to celebrate our anniversary.

And that wraps up our trip to Brazil. It was a wonderful experience and so fun to spend 10 days- just Marcus and me.

BRAZIL! American style

It was a bit of a running joke between Marcus and I to see what American things we could do while in Brazil. In pictures:

Outback in Brazil! (Cut prices in half to get the American dollar price)

We went to see Men in Black 3 at a Cinemark movie theater in a Brazil mall.
The movie was in English with Portuguese subtitles so it was really nice for me!

BRAZIL! Site seeing.

Once I got to Brazil and met up with Marcus, we had a wonderful time. We slept in everyday (I forgot what it was like to sleep past 7am!) and relaxed. It was wonderful. One of Marcus' mission companions lives in Curitiba and he and his wife were so wonderful to us. They fed us tons of great food and showed us a lot of beautiful places. It was so wonderful to have them help us experience Curitiba.

The day I got in to Curitiba, The Ribas' took us to the Botanical Gardens. It was beautiful and a great way for me to relax after the previous 45 hours.

Main Picture: A beautiful old church in Curitibia.

Top Right: Marcus and I at the Curitiba temple.

Bottom Right: A park in Curitiba. Curitiba is known for it's parks, and for good reason. They have lots of gorgeous parks.

We also visited an opera house and a couple other parks. Plus, our hotel was right downtown which was a lot of fun to see all the shops.

At the end of our trip, we spent a day and a half in Sao Paulo. It's known as a concrete jungle for a good reason.

View from our hotel room

Sao Paulo is an extremely crowded and busy city but it was fun to see where Marcus lived for 5 weeks.

BRAZIL! Getting there...

As many of you know, Marcus had a 5 week externship (unpaid for school credit internship) in Sao Paulo Brazil. After his 5 weeks, I flew down to join him for 10 days of traveling. My trip down was miserable. My flight down to Sao Paulo was delayed 15 hours. So I was stuck overnight in Dulles without a way to get a hold of Marcus to tell him my flight was delayed. We turned on international calling and finally got a hold of Marcus when he was on his way to "pick me up" in Sao Paulo. My super delayed flight caused me to miss Marcus and I's connecting flight to Curitiba. It would have cost over $400 to change Marcus' flight to Curitiba and then we would also have lost our hotel room. So we decided to have Marcus take our original flight to Curitiba and get us checked into the hotel. Then I arrived in Sao Paulo 12 hours after Marcus left Sao Paulo for Curitiba. I stayed a night in Sao Paulo (by myself- awesome) and got back to the airport really early to try and get on a flight to Curitiba. Six hours of sitting at the airport and a lot of crying later, I got on a flight to Curitiba and FINALLY met up with Marcus. My 12 hour trip to Brazil turned into 45 hours. It was the longest 45 hours of my life.

It's amazing

how much of a difference six months make for a little boy and a puppy.

Dads

I would like to say thank you-

To my grandpa- for raising an amazing son that became my dad

To my father-in-law- for raising the man that makes me the luckiest and happiest girl ever.

To my dad- who has always been so wonderful and loving and taught me how to find a guy who loves and respects me

To my wonderful husband- for loving me so fully and helping me to become the best mom I can be for our children.

 I love you all and am so grateful for everything you have done. Happy Father's Day!

It's Good to be 1

I have loved every stage of Johnny's life, but this is definitely my favorite. He has so much personality and is so much fun! He has so many facial expressions and just keeps us laughing all day long. Johnny also loves to talk. He will hold conversations with you, complete with hand gestures. It's adorable. 

I also call this Johnny's magical age. Johnny was a really bad napper for the second half of his first year of life. It caused a lot of stress and frustration on my part. He would normally only take little cat naps throughout the day and it was rough. Then he turned 1. I weened him off nursing and it was like we flipped a switch. Now, he takes a bottle and then puts himself to sleep for naps and at night. It's absolutely amazing and we're both happier because of it!

Johnny LOVES the water. We will go swimming for several hours (where he tries to swim by himself the whole time and hates that he has to be held) and then he still gets super excited to get in the bathtub as soon as we get home. I plan on him being in the Olympics one day. 

He's one cool dude!

Our best attempt at a cousin picture.

I love this picture. It shows each of their personalities so well.

Johnny is becoming such a little toddler. He is officially a walker. He's a little short for his age so sometimes it looks kind of funny that someone so short can walk around. But it's nice that he's more mobile so that he can keep up with his cousins better. He certainly enjoys it!

Mini Marcus

He is such a sweetheart. While he no longer lets me rock him to sleep, he is super cuddly when he first wakes up or when he's getting tired and I LOVE it. He also gives the best open mouthed, slobbery kisses. And he is just so sweet and happy. I can't remember what life was like before this little guy and I don't want to.

Taking a water break while watching Baby Einsteins

My Birthday Boy

My little baby boy turned 1 today! It's one of those situations where I can't believe he's already one but at the same time, I feel like he's always been a part of our lives. We are so lucky and blessed to have such a happy and healthy baby. Here's Johnny at 1 year old:

• He is so funny. He knows what he can do to get people to laugh and we fall for it every time.
• He is such a flirt. We dropped Marcus off at the airport tonight and while we were waiting in line to exchange money, he was flirting away with the ladies in front of us. He chats to people, bats his eyes at them, smiles, giggles- the whole shebang! And people love it. But seriously, can you blame them? He's adorable.
• He is getting so close to walking. He will take several steps on his own at a time but only if he decides to do it. He won't take steps when I try and get him to and he still prefers to just crawl. But he is getting closer every day.

• Johnny is a Momma's boy. It melts my heart with how much he loves me. But he definitely loves his dad, too. It took him awhile to realize that Marcus was an important figure in his life but now he really loves his Daddy. It is so awesome.
• He LOVES music! He gets so excited when people start to sing and he'll dance to music all the time. It's adorable and one of my many favorite things about him. He loves singing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Patty Cake, If You're Happy and You Know It, and the Itsy Bitsy Spider.
• He inherited his mom's social personality and love of sweets. He loved that everyone was paying attention to him at his birthday party and singing Happy Birthday to him. And he LOVED the birthday cake :)!

 

•  Johnny loves to eat whatever you're eating. He prefers any table food to baby food. He'll eat the baby food every now and then but if you are eating something else, he will beg for your food. He likes cows milk which is nice since we are trying to ween off breast feeding.
• He is a water baby for sure. He loves to take a bath! And he gets super excited whenever we go to a pool. He will get right in the pool and splash around. I have never seen him more excited than when we go to a pool.
• He has 8 teeth but he still takes forever to chew. He will shove a ton of food in his mouth (which can be easily stored in his chipmunk cheeks) and then slowly chew and swallow it. We have to control the amount of food that's on his tray at a time because he will cram everything on his tray into his mouth.
• Johnny enjoys flipping through books but he gets impatient if I try and read them to him. He just wants to keep turning the pages.
• He loves to put things inside of other things. He will always transfer toys to buckets. One time, Marcus went to pick up his drink cup that he had left on the floor and when he picked it up he saw that Johnny had transferred all of his Cheerios from his snack cup into Marcus' cup.
• He is the sweetest, most loving, adorable little boy ever. Marcus and I are so lucky we get to be his parents and so blessed that we get to spend eternity with him

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY, JOHNNY. WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

A Year of Johnny

In videos

A Year of Johnny

In Pictures
(I stole this idea from my friend Kate. I hope she doesn't mind :)!)

Mother's Day

It is my first official Mother's Day. I was 9 months pregnant last year so we pretty much considered me a mom already but now I have been a mom for a year. It is the best, most rewarding, frustrating, loving, difficult, exciting, spectacular job I have ever had. I am so grateful I am able to be a mom and for the opportunity I have to stay home with Johnny. I love that little boy more than I ever knew I could love another human.

Happy Mother's day to the best mother-in-law a girl could ever ask for! I am so grateful for you and can't imagine what my life would be without you!

Why do I not have a good picture of Johnny and Grandma Gilson?!
That will have to be amended this summer!

An especially big Happy Mother's Day to my AMAZING mom! Thank you for teaching me how to be the best mother I can be. I hope I can be half as good a mom as you are. I love you so much!!

Recent Activities

This blog has really turned into a blog about Johnny. But let's be honest, that's who people really care about.

However, on this blog post I'm going to break from the norm and let you know what Marcus and I have been up to. Back in March, we took a trip up to Rexburg with my brother and sister. My sister is going to BYU-Idaho in the fall so we went up to show her the campus and to visit Marcus' best friend and his family.

 We went shooting.

 We convinced Shelby to shoot a gun. We're so proud of her! :)

 We went swimming in the hotel pool and Johnny LOVED it. He is definitely a water baby!

 Johnny got reacquainted with his friend Ryker.

Best friends and their boys :).

In other news- Marcus's cousin Jack got home from his mission on April 4th. He served in Brazil, in the mission just south of the mission where Marcus served. It's been so fun to have him home!

(Jack is the redhead. Brian (Jack's brother) is holding Johnny)

To end this post, here is a countdown of upcoming, exciting events:

-2 more finals until Marcus finishes his first year of Law School. We are so proud of him!

-1 week and 2 days until Mom and Dad Smith get to Utah

-2 weeks until we fly to North Carolina

-3 weeks until we visit D.C.

-4 weeks and 4 days until Johnny turns 1!

-4 weeks and 4 days until Marcus leaves for Brazil

-9 weeks and 4 days until I leave for Brazil

It's a very exciting time! Stay tuned for an Easter post coming soon!