Our little guy woke up yesterday, and for the first time in forever and a day he saw the sun!! He was pretty excited, and he knew that he was finally going to spend time in his new sandbox! He ate a good meal to make sure he had tons of energy. He was pretty excited to get his hands dirty and do some heavy duty excavation. Rock didn't even stop to take potty breaks, he just did what he saw the stray cats do in the sand. That's a good boy, cover up your doo doo. He brought the Tonka over to help him haul some of the sand over to the grass.
Doing a hard day's work puts a smile on his face, and his Mommy's face too, since he was outside for well over an hour. That allowed her to watch her stories on TV. Rock is becoming quite the artist. He knows all sorts of songs, and the movements that go with them. He even has the face for performing. Here he is performing the hit primary song, "Once There Was a Snowman".
Here he is performing (kind of) "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam", but he switches things up on the audience to keep them on their toes.
Rock is loving his birthday presents. He got a sandbox from Gma & Gpa Judd (but due to the Oregon sunshine he hasn't been able to play in it...stupid rain) and a train set from Gma & Gpa England. Three days in a row I've woken up to Rock standing next to my side of the bed and whispering "too choo".
We are constantly preparing for Ryker/Stryker Ramon/Boulder/D'M'trius, and part of the preparation is to help Rock get excited for the little attention stealer to get here. He pretends to like him now, but we'll see how much they get along when they are fighting for attention. Isn't she radiant? "Mommy, when you have a new little baby, can I play football with him? I mean, he can be the football, right?" Rock is going through a little cuddling stage right now. Not really cuddly, but extra cuddly on Rock standards. He loves watching the youtube video of his favorite Gap commercial, Derek not so much
The Super Bowl was Sunday, Rock's birthday was yesterday, and Spring Training doesn't start for a few weeks. When you can measure your whole life in weeks, a few weeks feels like FOREVER...poor little Rock feels like he is walking in this landscape, just hoping for something cool to happen. Looking for that tiny oasis of fun, that little highlight of pitchers and catchers reporting...
Well, our little guy is finally turning two, and you all know what that means: It's about time he gets a stinkin' job and pulls his weight around here.
It also means that we take a look back at baby Rock, the early years. Here he is in DeA's uterus, just chilling. Here is what DeA looked like before Rock unsuccessfully tried to traverse her birth canal. The very first picture of Rock!!
Leaving the hospital.
Cuddling with Mommy.
"Um, are we sure about this?"
"Uh Oh!"
In the past two years he has learned quite a vocabulary.
To prepare for his sweet action sweet birthday party, he helped prepare his own birthday cake.
"Mmm...egg beaters." Well, DeA figured that Boulder (or Ryker, Braden, N8 or Stryker Ramon) needs some belly picks before he enters the world. She looks very pretty and very, very pregnant. As usual, once Rock realizes that other people are getting attention he sets out to steal that attention back. In this case that meant he had to pose for his own belly pics. He even knows that turning sideways brings more attention! This poor kid has no idea what is about to happen to his perfect little world. Our ward has church at 1 pm, which means that we have a lot of time in the morning, and DeA likes to watch BYU-TV to help set the mood for church. Rock thinks he found a perfect loophole in the system. "See? I'm watching BYU-TV, so it's Mommy tested and Rock approved!!" The other thing with church being so late is that Rock has to take his nap before we go to meetings. The little guy just won't calm down on his own, so we wrap him up like a burrito so that he can't go anywhere.
So, DeA had the brilliant way to help commemorate Rock's impending second birthday: A list of his favorite things right now. Our little spitball has gone through lots and lots of favorite things, and he likes to change them just before we figure out what they are. But these are what we think are his favorite things right now:
1. Being with his Mommy. He loves having her attention, and he probably has no idea how that belly bump is going to shake his world. He especially loves the daily massages that she gives him. Lately we are starting to get the feeling that he is getting just a tad spoiled. When Mommy tries to watch American Idol he wants to make sure that she's still giving him attention. He pulled out his cutest looks.
"Come on, Mommy! This pose was cute enough for Grammy's blog!"
Sometimes you can get too much of a good thing... 2. Family!! He kind of misses Iowa, but he is really glad to be living close to Grandma and Grandpa Judd and close enough that Grammy and Grappy England can come down to visit!!3. He loves playing outside! We have had some better weather lately, and that has allowed him to be outside more often, and that makes everybody happy. 4. Yogurt! He loves to eat some yogurt, especially with cereal mixed in. Pop is also one of his favorite things. Every time he hears a can open he comes running.5. His Mickey Hat. He looks like he has Antennas when he walks around the house, he'll never take it off and it's starting to stink...but he looks super cute.6. Football!! DeA put on her Seahawk sweatshirt the other day, the one that only has a logo like this: and when he saw it, he pointed and yelled "FOOTBALL!!". 7. Tractors and dumptrucks! When he can't be in the real thing he loves playing with his 'practice' tractors. That helps him prepare for the day that he gets to be behind the wheel of a big rig and he has to destroy the school before they make him learn. Every time we go over to Dave and Lisa's, Rock yells 'dumtuk' and tries to escape out the doors to find it.8. This:9: Photograpy. The kid loves to take pictures of cool and good looking things, so naturally they all look like this:10. Trains! Rock's first 18 months of life were spent in a house next to railroad tracks. His parents always told him not to cross the tracks, because things are different over there. So, one day he decided to see what was so different. What he saw startled him; houses didn't have wheels, people had grass where their dirt patches should be and the cars were shiny and the same color. He realized that his parents were right, things were different on the other side of the tracks and so he never went back.
Oh, and he LOVES the train set that Grammy and Grappy sent him for his birthday that his daddy DIDN'T open early!! We woke up to Rock crying in his crib and saying 'choo choo!' and he's been playing with it all day since. Thank you!!
And these aren't really the same, but DeA wants his favorite words listed too:
1. To too - thank you
2. choo choo - train
3. shoos - shoes
4. joos - water
5. maw ma - grandma
6. bam paw - grandma
7. hnAk - snack
8. bootball! - football
9. maw ma zista -Grandma Lisa
10. buh by - Why don't you take off and leave me alone?
11. Hello!
He was pretty excited to get his hands dirty and do some heavy duty excavation.
Rock didn't even stop to take potty breaks, he just did what he saw the stray cats do in the sand.
That's a good boy, cover up your doo doo.
He brought the Tonka over to help him haul some of the sand over to the grass.
Doing a hard day's work puts a smile on his face, and his Mommy's face too, since he was outside for well over an hour. That allowed her to watch her stories on TV.
Rock is becoming quite the artist. He knows all sorts of songs, and the movements that go with them. He even has the face for performing.
