LA. . .

Right before he laid down on the ground and started licking the water out of the tiny hole!

Opening the birthday boy's presents!

Putting his shoe back on, so helpful : )

Watching Thomas together, JJ was in heaven!

JJ and I headed up to LA for the weekend and had a great time. We went to Riley's (our friends Mary and Dave's son) first birthday party at the park on Saturday. JJ had a great time running around and playing with the other kids and the toys he stole from them!

After the party, we headed over to Michael and Krista's to enjoy the rest of the weekend and I think it was the most relaxing time I've ever had there since JJ was born. Now that they have the new little boy, JJ always has someone to play with! If Tristan was acting up, JJ played with the new little one and if the little one was acting up, he would play with Tristan! It was really great : )

Busy, busy JJ. . .

Watching the bulldozer; he could have done this for hours!

Katie did his hair : )

First busted lip : (

JJ has been pretty busy the last few days. Katie and I took him to gymnastics for the first time on Thursday at the YMCA which was really fun. He did the obstacle course, the trampoline, the parachute, walked on the balance beam, and had a great time jumping into the foam pit. The first time he sat down on the big platform and scooted to the front and projected himself off, but the second time he stood up and jumped right in! One mom even commented that it took her daughter 4 months to do that! JJ was the youngest kid there, but almost the biggest. It really showed when they were supposed to be following directions, since JJ was the only kid not willing to sit on the line and didn't respond when asked his name. My mom and I decided that we should make him a shirt that says "I'm acting my age, not my size!" The woman that watches him while I'm in school will take him the next three weeks, so maybe he'll get better at following directions; or not : )

Today, JJ got one of his first injuries : ( He was playing outside right in front of our house and did a face plant into the sidewalk. He immediately started screaming and bleeding which I'm not sure if it scared me or him more. I was able to get the bleeding to stop with paper towels and ice, but he cried during dinner and started bleeding again, so really only had ice for dinner. It was his first busted lip, so I'm hoping that we haven't started a trend. When I was about his age, I used to break my lip open all the time, so it definitely runs in the family.

JJ is very adventurous, but mainly when people show him how to be! A few weeks ago when Michael and Krista were down here, their new little one showed him how to climb up onto our tall dining room chairs. Now he does it all the time which he hadn't even tried before his new cousin showed him how! This last week, Katie taught him how to go up the side ladder on the playground to get to the slide faster. It's so funny that he never tried it before, but now refuses to go the "long way" to the stairs! I'm hoping people will stop showing him ways to potentially injure himself!

Growing!

He had to bring his new train that Katie got him on our walk : )

I'm on Spring Break this week and Katie came down for the week, so it's been lots of fun! We've been going for walks, went to Old Town, took Katie to the beach to surf, and lots of fun in between : ) JJ has been slowly getting better, but still pretty cranky, so I'm afraid Katie may never have kids!

JJ has been talking so much lately and is very, very opinionated, but sometimes seems to not know what he wants. Conversation I just had with him in the kitchen -

JJ - "Banana"

Me - "Do you want a banana"

JJ - "No, cracker"

Me - "You want a cracker?"

JJ - "No, cheerios"

Me - "You want cheerios in a bowl"

JJ - "Mmm hmm"

JJ had his 18 month check up with the doctor yesterday and was confirmed to be a "well kid." The doctor said he looks great, other than his skin problems which he will hopefully grow out of. The doctor also confirmed that JJ is continuing to grow like a weed!

Current Stats -

Height - 2'11.25" almost 3'! He is literally "off the charts" statistically for height, topping out in the 98.29 percentile!

Weight - 25 pounds, 36 percentile. He has actually lost weight, but the doctor said it's probably since he has been sick and not eating so it's not a cause for concern.

Head - 49.5 cm, 89 percentile

Still sick : (

After throwing up all over himself again, he continued to eat his apple. . .

It's been a rough week for little JJ. He threw up again a couple of days, then had a really high fever the last few days. After a trip to the doctor today, it was confirmed that he has the flu and an ear infection. He got some drugs, so hopefully he will be all better soon.

Since JJ hasn't been feeling well this week, whenever anything happens that he doesn't like or isn't prepared for, he gets very upset and dramatic about it. His new phrase of the week "oh, no." As in, when he was standing in the kitchen and dropped a water bottle that he was playing with and looked all dramatically at it and exclaimed, "oh, no!" Since he's my child, I'm not too surprised that he has a flare for the dramatics, but it still makes me laugh every time : )

The Weekend. . .

My friend Mary and her 11 month old son, Riley, came down from LA for the weekend and it was really fun to have them here. The boys played together pretty well and JJ only got in trouble a few times for hitting him, mainly "bonking" him on the head a little too roughly! He also tried climbing on top of him a few times, which didn't go over well. We took them to the park yesterday, then out to breakfast this morning. The boys did great at the restaurant and we even got a compliment from an "older" couple sitting next to us at how good they were : )

Now on to the not fun portion of the weekend. . . *Warning, graphic details to follow!*

Tonight when we sat down for dinner, JJ refused to take even one bite of food. I was pretty annoyed, and made him sit with me while I ate. After I was done, he wanted to go upstairs and get ready for bed, which was really weird since it was really early, but I took him upstairs, changed him into his pajamas, and started reading books. After the second book, he coughed a little, then leaned forward and puked all over the floor and his book! He started crying and I ran him into the bathroom, puking the whole way! Once he was finally done, I got him cleaned up, changed, and ready for bed again. I brought him downstairs, gave him some juice, then watched Brian's video.

Now that he was ready for bed again, I was about to carry him back upstairs when he coughed, cried, then puked all over me! Honestly, there was a part of me that wanted to put him down, away from me, but he looked at me with these sad/scared eyes so I just held him close and let him puke all over me over and over : (

After getting us both in the shower, I got him ready for bed again. I took him upstairs, put him down, then started cleaning the additional puke off the floor. While doing this, I heard him start coughing and crying. . . I went back up to his room and sure enough he was lying in a bed covered in puke.

I got his sheets changed, cleaned up again, and sang him a few songs. He fell asleep in my arms and I put him back down to bed. He's been sleeping pretty restlessly since then, so I'm sure it will be a long night, but luckily I don't think there's anything left in his stomach!

This is the first time that JJ has thrown up, so it was pretty eventful for both of us. Hopefully it was a one night thing because I don't want to be doing this much laundry ever again!

18 Months!

6 months older and none the wiser, still eating food off the ground!

JJ and his new cousin : )

Michael, Krista, Tristan, and their new little boy came down this past weekend. It was the first time that all three boys spent the weekend together, so it was fun. For the most part, they did really well together, which was good. They chased each other up and down the hall, shared toys pretty well, and had a great time at the zoo. We took them into the petting zoo, returning to the "scene of the former crime." JJ wouldn't pet any of the animals, but had a great time raking the ground. I think he might be permanently scarred by goats : (

JJ is now 1 and a half! I remember how exciting it was to get the "and a half" when I was growing up, but I don't feel like that now! He's getting so old, it's pretty crazy : ) Not very much has changed in the last month, more words, not more sleeping, about the same amount of tantrums. He seems to be meeting all the "appropriate" milestones, which is good.

So I was talking to Krista this past weekend and she said that by 18 months, he "should" have at least 15 words and I said there's no way JJ has that many, then we started counting and he has way more than 15! I've never really sat down and counted, but it's crazy how many words he's saying now. He still tries to tell me stuff that I don't understand, but it's getting better every day.

Extremely random update - he now wears a size 7 shoe and either 24 months or 2T clothes. He's becoming a giant!

Another random update - I've been able to talk to Brian the last few days and they should be headed home. JJ and I are still counting the days, which will hopefully keep going down. This morning, JJ's first word out of his mouth was "dadda" and he wanted to look at Brian's picture on my phone. I'm so glad that he still remembers and loves him : )

No fitting title. . .

Brian's mom was in town for the last week which was great and JJ had a great time playing with her all week. The first night she was here, she volunteered to get up in the middle of the night with him when he wakes up, but I think she may have regretted it! JJ has been sleeping horribly the last few nights, including waking up every hour one night. Me not having to walk up the stairs in the middle of the night though was great : ) Tonight he's already woken up crying once already, so it should be a long night. Anyone else want to come visit?!?!!?

So, now to explain the title. As you all know, Brian is currently on deployment. In case you don't know, he's stationed on the USS Sterett. And, in case you don't know the significance of that, his ship was the one that was "shadowing" the hijacked American yacht that tragically ended in the Somali Pirates firing at Brian's ship, and missing, and then the pirates murdered the 4 Americans. I have heard from Brian very briefly a few times the last few days and he has been understandably upset. He has only said that he can't talk, not sure if he ever can ever tell me everything that happened, and that they are still planning to come home "on time." He said they still can't say where they're going or what they're currently doing, but that he should still be coming home in two months. It's been a really hard few days and we now count the days even more until he comes home safely.

Random updates -

JJ has become much better at using a spoon, so much fun for both of us : )

JJ comes out with random new words all the time, word of the week - "cheero" aka Cheerios

JJ can now reach the light switches. Unfortunately he can only reach to turn off the lights, so I guess we'll just be walking around in the dark until he grows another 1/4 inch : )