Things only a mom would get excited about...

1. Rodney learned how to blow his nose!!!
I think I almost jumped for joy! Mark looked at me like I was crazy.
2. Rodney blows kisses
3. Rodney now reminds us to pray for meals and before bed. He is the first one to fold his arms. Even before Mark and I get to sit down.
4. Rodney now knows to say please for help and food and drink. If I say the word "say" he knows to say please. His sign language vocabulary is blossoming! Please, thank you, help, more, eat, drink. He learned how to blow kisses which Mark says is gay...I say it's c.u.t.e.

Pictures!

Hello camera means hello pictures!! But yes Dani, you are welcome to come take pictures anyway!


Pictures all out of sorts. This is Rodney and I at the park. In looking through his pictures since birth I have realized that I rarely have a picture of both Rodney and I together. I am good at taking pictures of Mark and babe. So I have started to take pictures of us. Not the best pictures but at least he will know that I was with him instead of somewhere else... He also figured out after a few tries and looking at them to see if they were any good that the picture is on the other side of the camera. He was pretty excited to see the next picture.

I thought this picture was just funny, he is mid sneeze.

At Grandpa Frieson's house we get fun toys to play with in the tub from the kitchen. Who knew measuring cups and jar openers would be the must have bath toy!? This is the jar opener on his head.

Easter sunday we were up at Grandpa Friesens house. Grandma hid some of the eggs the night before thinking that Rodney wouldn't find them. Willy (the dog) was finding them and chewing them open to get the marshmallows. Grandma then put all the eggs up on the staircase to keep away from the dog. Gratefully Grandma didn't get all sorts of Easter candy. We definately don't need any extras of that... but she filled them with a few chocolate chips and mini marshmallows with raisins. Rodney loved it! His favorite treats! Rodney woke up long before his Dad and Grandpa, and as soon as he was up he spotted an egg. He went over to it, shook it, and gave it to me to open. After he knew there were treats inside he began searching for more. After finding two eggs he saw all the eggs up on the staircase and started pointing at them and wanting me to get his jackpot he just found! So we hid the eggs so they would be just a little trickier. The easter egg hunt was over even before it was supposed to begin! So we stuffed them with more marshmallows and chocolate chips for later when Mark and the rest of the family came up to see. Rodney's smarter than even we thought!

Mark and I really needed to study for our Physics test and Rodney wasn't going to let us. So I put on Madagascar so he would stay occupied. After a while I checked on him and he still hadn't moved. Same position and spot I left him in. After a while longer I looked again. He was in the same position but he had found a tootsie roll. He opened it somehow and looked like this. Since we were in dire need of study time I let it go, took a picture and went back to the bedroom. Rodney just cracks us up.

Rodney likes to eat up to the table now with us. I don't let him do it all the time. Mostly if it is something messy. But, I think it's pretty fun too!

We have gotten the park fever from my good friend Anna. She takes Tatem to the park all the time. We went with her a couple of weekends ago after working in their garden to get it ready for the summer. I put Rodney on the swing next to Taytum. He didn't know what to think of it at first. He looked over at Taytum laughing and decided that it was pretty fun. He started laughing too. So in the hour that I usually kill doing different things I called some friends and asked if they wanted to come to the park with us. This is Amber showing Rodney how to use shovels and put rocks in the bucket. He just watched her do it at first in awe, then grabbed another shovel and jumped right in. It was pretty cute!

Rodney loves the slides. I taught him to slide down on his belly because he can't really stay sitting up all the way down, even on the small slides. This is after he got to the bottom of a tall spiral slide. I wanted to catch his reaction at the end. I did it first try!

This is Rodney when he found me at the other end of a tunnel. He loves those tunnels!

We have been having lots of fun lately! Glad I could finally share it with you!

All about Rodney

This is a post about everything Rodney does that I never want to forget and the info from doctors. No pictures, where's the camera when you need it?! Enjoy!

Rodney had a lot of appointments this week. Tuesday was the big day with an appointment at Children's Hospital and a check-up for his tubes at the ear doctor. Whirlwind of a day between school and doctors to say the least! We dropped Mark off at school and left for Denver. Children's hospital was kind of interesting this time because we met with a new doctor. He was very fast and to-the-point. He couldn't even tell me what the %-ages were. All we learned from that appointment is that he is still short but he is following a curve which is more important. The important part of that appointment is that Rodney graduated from the Clinic. He said that Rodney is "growing wonderfully". We drove straight home and got in town just in time for his next appointment at the ear doctors. His tubes are great! They healed perfectly. We met with the audiologist. They sit Rodney and a parent in the room and make sounds out of speakers. When Rodney looks the direction the sound came from they would light up a toy inside of a dark box as a "reward". Some reward... Anyway... Rodney out-smarted them because I knew that there were toys in the box and just looked back and forth waiting for the toy to light up. He had us all laughing! We found out at his 15 month appointment that he is in the 6% for height, 50% for head circ., and 1% for height (19lb 7 oz.). 19% for his weight to height ratio. (which is what's really good!) Rodney is very steady when it comes to climbing and such. One of his favorite things to do is climb. He loves to climb onto chairs and couches and coffee tables, and then stand up. He is doing better with the sign language. He knows please really well. He got confused when I tried to expand on the drink and eat. I tried to do "more" and it threw him way off. After that signs were a free for all. They all meant the same thing. haha. Please started when I had starburst jelly beans on top of the fridge in the kitchen. I had the gate up so he couldn't climb up onto the kitchen table. I showed him please and he got the hang of it right away. Please got him a jelly bean, genius! The next day I was fixing him some breakfast and feeding him a few bites of banana over the gate. I told him to say please and rubs his tummy with both hands frantically while looking on top of the fridge for the jelly beans. It has taken us a couple of weeks to understand that please doesn't mean jelly bean... He can say all done although he doesn't do it as much anymore. He was doing it lots when we were in North Dakota. He says dog and duck although they both sound pretty much the same. Rodney knows where his nose is we are He looks for Wyatt out the kitchen window everytime we wash up after a meal. He still is eating a TON! Favorite foods are bananas, cheese, pasta (his mama's babe!), and spicy foods. He prefers eggs with salsa, spicy chips, guacamole instead of plain avacados. He's always thirsty. He gets so excited when he sees his best friends Taytum or Liam. Recently he started throwing fits. He will swing at me when I do something he doesn't like. We are working on being soft...slowly I think it is sinking in. He has 7 teeth, 4 on top and 3 on bottom. He loves to give me raspberries. If my lower back shows at all he is right there to blow on me. He is actually really good at them, and boy do they tickle!!! He thinks it is so funny too. He gives me a good one then looks up at me and laughs! He will even lift up my shirt so he can do it, over and over again! When he sleeps he puts his head in the corner of his crib and falls alseep on his belly but when we go check on him he is on his back with his hands behind his head and feet crossed. Every night. One last thing I can't forget is that he has this thing about his belly. He lifts up his shirt and walks around. Or when he gets worn out from playing he will lean up against something and rub his belly. It cracks me up! It's like that is how he relaxes or something. All-in-all, He is growing and learning so many new things! We sure do love him!

Pretty Darn Smart!

I was cleaning the kitchen after dinner and put on Rodney's all-time favorite movie Madagascar so he wouldn't make a mess as I was cleaning. We then put Rodney down about an hour ago for bed at a reasonable 8:30. He wasn't really going to sleep and would whine every 10-15 minutes. After an hour of this I went in to check on him to make sure he was okay. When I checked on him he was sitting up. I picked him up and rocked him for a minute. He climbed out of my lap and went to play with toys. He was wide awake. I opened his door and he went running out. When he saw Mark he smiled and ran faster towards him. Rodney practically jumped on the couch. Mark put him on his lap and Rodney has only moved to get his sippy cup of milk from the coffee table. Mark put his movie back on and Rodney hasn't moved since... oh toddlerhood! I love my little man! Even though he is making it obvious that I need to revamp his napping schedule...

North Dakota!

What?! Spring break in North Dakota!? Who does that?! Mark and Katie that's who! Why?! Amy and Gary that's why! We had so much fun just hanging out really. Because lets face it...there isn't a crazy amount of tour attractions in Grand Forks, ND. But it was perfect! My favorite part of the week was working out with Amy. She is my workout hero and I tried my darndest to keep up with her hour a day workouts! The best part? We worked out 5/7 days. One of those being Sunday. She kicked my trash but for my first week working out like that...well, ever.... I feel like I faired pretty well. I even ran a little bit. Sadly I have had a hard time going since. It just isn't the same going without my sis! We took a tour of the the Ralph Engelstad (sp?) Arena for the hockey. Amy emailed me the pictures they took with their camera but I can't get them out of the email. :( Quite interesting, and I don't even care about hockey! The boys went shooting. Hannah and Rodney did surprisingly well playing together. Hannah had to take breaks every once in a while. But who could blame her. A little boy who will remain nameless came right in and kept playing with her toys! On thursday night we got a babysitter (a first for us!) and went on a double date to Amy and Gary's favorite place called the toasted frog. We tried fried pickles and the fish tacos I have heard so much about. Delicious! I am seriously contemplating trying to make some of those fried pickles. Seriously, probably the best appetizer I have ever had! Judge all you want! We stopped at the grocery store and got the fixin's to make some homemade fried cheesecake because it sounded good on the menu but we didn't want to pay 6 bucks for one.

Yup. Delicious! And another first for me is that I got my hair done. In a salon! Cut and colored. I love it and I am hooked! Amazing what doing your hair can do to get you out of a mommy rut. I splurged and got a nice curling iron and flat iron so I can do something with my hair other than a blow dry. It started to flood towards the end of the week because of snow melt. On our way out we came across the road at the top of the post that I can't figure out how to move down here. But the road was litterally submerged for over a hundred yards. Whoever lives right off of that road had a boat to get across the river and an atv with a tupperware bin bungeed to the back. We had a good laugh about that. We went to an open gym at a gymnastics place and the kids had a great time playing on the trampolines especially. Hannah taught Rodney how to jump on the bed a few days before so he practiced up on a tramp too! All in all it was a great trip and Mark keeps trying to talk me in to moving to North Dakota. If Amy and Gary were going to be staying there for a while I would think about it too! Thanks for the great Spring Break guys! I will do another post with pictures when I figure out how to unzip the files...

Good Day

It's been a pathetically long time since I last posted. I don't know why but I have this mindset about blogging that it isn't worth a post if there aren't pictures. After a while it seems a little overwhelming to play catch up for a couple of weeks let alone 3 months! So I will just post about today and hopefully get back into the swing of things! Rambling post follows:

Started out with some relaxing with Rodney and reading blogs (which I am MUCH better at...) while Mark was at class. When Mark got home we started working again in the back yard. We finished raking up leaves and picking up poop for probably the last 3 tenants dogs...ick! I don't usually clean up after Marks dog let alone other peoples! But it had to be done before we can set up our garden and let Rodney run free! Between yesterday and today we have about 7 lawn and garden bags full of leaves and ... stuff. I am confident saying that we must be the first family to be in this house for a long time. So we had a productive mid-day. I attribute my feeling of a good day to getting the backyard done. Ever since moving into this house I find a serious sense of accomplishment when I organize one section of my house. My new goal has been to make my bed everyday. It doesn't look like it is straight out of BHandG, but at least it is made! One of my friends from Pueblo has been doing this FlyLady.net thing and their whole thing is to do dishes...I hate dishes. So I will start with my bed! Although I didn't do it today. Anyway, we then went to classes this afternoon. I am pretty sure I aced my Sign language test. Tues/thurs are my favorite days because ASL is my only class and I love it! Otherwise I have Physics, or an child growth and Development. ugh. After this semester I am tempted to continue on with sign language and become a translator. BTW this thought just really came to me today so don't hold me to that. (In fact, I mention it on my blog before I even mention it to Mark, hmmm) Mark came to pick me up and we went on a much needed trip for groceries. We went to Roma's for dinner which was a bust, but not too upsetting. Rodney was having a hard time. I couldn't figure out what the heck was wrong. In hindsight I think he hit his breaking point of hunger. He was inconsolable and very loud. I have found that if he doesn't eat before he gets too hungry he is too upset to eat. Which puts us all in a predicament. Anyway, this is a non-informative post that doesn't catch anybody up on anything. But, at least I posted!

To ALL Members of the Sanders Clan!!!

Here's the deal. My Mom just called me with some sad news. Aunt Anita went into the hospital last night with what we now know was a lacerated ulcer. (I think that is what it is called) Anyway, she is most likely in the clear now. Overnight she lost a lot of blood they had to give her 4 pints of transfusions. But they went in and fixed it just a few hours ago. So she is in ICU right now getting better and there is only a 5% chance of having go into surgery to finish fixing the ulcer. Most of the time they can fix it without surgery. They already did that so unless if something goes wrong....well you know. Anyway, Mom wanted to get everybody to send her a get well card to her house. Remember how we did this for Grandma and Grandpa? So I told her I would get a hold of everybody I could. And since a lot of us are bloggers, well, here you go! Your Moms will probably be letting you know too. Anyway, that's what happening in California. Keep her in your prayers!