18 Month Stats

Rowan had his official 18 month check up yesterday. He now weighs 24 pounds, which is in the 28th percentile, the highest he's been his whole life! He is 33 inches tall (74th percentile) and his head is 49 cm (86th percentile). Developmentally, Rowan is right on or ahead of where he should be. His pediatrician was especially impressed with his language skills.

18 month favorites:

Foods: macaroni & cheese, fruit, hot dogs, meat, spaghetti sauce, milk

Color: Yellow

TV Show: Yo Gabba Gabba

Phrase: "yeah, no"

Teeth: 16

Accomplishment: Sleeping in a big boy bed! Night #3 went perfectly. We are so proud of him.

We took Rowan for some 18 month studio shots. I love taking his pictures as I'm learning more about photography myself but he is SO hard to chase and photograph that I just wanted some pictures where I could relax and enjoy them while someone else ran around and did the work. :-)

Nursery Peek

Here's a peek at some components of Baby Boy's nursery. Hopefully this will hold you over until I actually get it going. I'm super excited to create a special room for our little guy to live in.

WHAT?

So you're telling me that Daddy is STILL in California?!?!

18 months

We continued our 1/2 birthday tradition this year as Rowan turned 18 months. A couple presents, a special dessert and lots of playing rounded out our day.

Rowan has to take ALL of his crayons out before he can color.

Busy coloring.

Contemplating a broken crayon

I just wanted a picture of his new shorts. :-)

Big boy, yet still needs his binky.

A donut and a half = one year and a half.

A sticker book and Yo Gabba Gabba DVD were opened... can you guess which one he liked best?

Here's the big boy all tucked in, ready for his first night in his big boy bed. He went right to sleep... so far, so good.

Wordless Wednesday

Our Morning...

...was spent in the ER. Yesterday, Rowan and Roger were playing their typical games and rolling around on the floor like crazy boys when Rowan twisted his ankle/foot/knee funny. After that he refused to walk on it. He didn't seem to be in a whole lot of pain so we figured we'd see if it was any better this morning. When he got up he still refused to walk on so we figured we'd better take him in. 5 x rays and probably quite a few dollars later, we learned that it was a bad twist, we should encourage him to walk on it, and he'll be fine in a week. We are really thankful for that.

Here is a video of him limping. Its kind of difficult to tell since he doesn't walk very far but he's actually very precious with his gimpy leg. :-)

Puzzle Video

Rowan is really in to puzzles these days. If you listen carefully you can hear him correctly identify an oval (opal) and the color orange (anher). When I ask him to get the red shape he puts his hand over it but then chooses a different one. Little stinker. :-)

I'm not sure why the video is such poor quality on the blog. It looked amazing before I uploaded it. I will look into that.

27 Weeks & Friends

I am 27 weeks pregnant today. For some reason, 27 sounds a lot farther along to me than 26. Maybe because the number 27 sounds so close to 30 and 30 weeks is when I found out that Rowan was actually a boy and then time SPED by. I'm not quite ready for this Baby Boy yet! I did order his bedding, however, and shockingly enough, I went with one that wasn't even a choice on the voting poll a while back. More to come on that later though. I'm still feeling great and this baby is very active. We look forward to seeing him again on ultrasound in a couple weeks. I know what some of you are thinking: Wouldn't it be funny if he turned out to be a girl? I assure you that is not possible. I have many pictures from two ultrasounds documenting his boyness. So push that thought out of your mind. :-)

Rowan had his buddy come over to play today. The boys played surprisingly well. Rowan shared toys without an issue. They played in the kitchen, colored, glued, and rode the Power Wheels together. It was cute!

I can assure you that Joey was happy at this point but I couldn't get a picture of them both smiling at the same time. Since its my blog, I chose to post the picture of Rowan smiling but there were a bunch with Joey smiling and hamming it up and Rowan looking pretty gloomy.

Are You Sure....

we live in the desert?

If you look at the top left of the picture you can see the sheets of rain! Its been like this ALL day.

Here's the pool..... the water is very close to the edge! Hope we don't float away. :-)

ANOTHER Rainy Day

I found Rowan a very entertaining activity today that only cost 50 cents. We went to the mall, I had a roll of pennies, and Rowan threw the entire roll, one by one, into the fountain. He thought that was just the best. It took him quite a while too. I encouraged him to try tossing them in different places. It was the best 50 cents I spent all day! :-)

Seriously Cooper... are you a cat?

Cooper's laziness provided me with a lot of amusement today. He was just so stinkin' tired from his terribly busy life that he couldn't even move the remote control and catalog before snuggling in for a nap.

Here is part of our backyard today. SOAKED. If you look closely you can see giant raindrops falling. Hopefully our pool doesn't overflow... just joking! Actually, I'm really not. I truly hope it doesn't.

The Downhill Slide to 30....

Well, besides being on the downhill slide to 30, I had a wonderful birthday today. I got to spend time with each of my boys (Cooper included). Rowan and I went out for donuts this morning and then headed to the Phoenix Children's Museum. Rowan had a BLAST. I had a pretty good time too.

When we got home, naps were needed by all! Cooper and I snuggled on the couch while the rained poured outside. It was great.

This evening, Roger and I went to see a movie and got some dinner. Rowan played over at Brayden's house. I think the best birthday gift of all is the fact that all 16 of Rowan's teeth have broken through the gums!!! Apparently, he should be good to go in that area until he is almost 3?!?!? We'll see. :-)

The Art Room is really neat. They have a bunch of different tables and supplies. At each table are the materials and directions for a little art project. Families can go from table to table and make each thing.

Rowan loved all the exhibits!

Here is our finished artwork. I was in charge of glue and scissors, Rowan was in charge of markers and sticking things to the paper. We did a pretty good job I think. :-)

Flowers from Mom & Dad

My new necklace from Roger.

Popsicle Time

Just Jumpin' Around

Sitting still? Not typical Rowan behavior. Covered in drool? Extremely typical... especially since teeth #12 & #13 just made their appearances.

I finally found a photography project that Rowan was into... jumping for the camera. Although these shots were not what I was going for, they made me smile anyway. My little boy thinks he is SO BIG since he can actually get off the ground when he jumps. :-)

Big Boy Room!

Its pretty much finished......

View from the doorway.
Rowan's dresser... the picture frames still need some updating. :-)

Dresser view that includes his closet basketball hoop. He has made a total of one basket so far... not for a lack of trying though. :-)

Toy side of his closet.... We put some special toys in his room that he might not want to share with Baby Brother.

Closet shot and a bit of his reading corner.

Bed, nightstand and artwork. A lot of the wall art is from his nursery.

His bed (still missing the guardrail).

Repainted name on the wall.

A closeup of his adorable bedding that just so happened to have an R on it.

I love the baseball bat lamp and the locker box storage container. His CD player will go on the empty shelf.

His room is still missing the rug (in the nursery) and a few misc. items. In a week or so, when its 100% completed, Rowan is going to conduct a video tour of his new room, so be watching! :-)

Toys R Us

Rowan had a Toys R Us giftcard from Grandpa and Deona that was buring a hole in his small pocket, so we made a family trip there today and Rowan had a blast picking out some new toys. He got giant cardboard blocks, an over the door basketball hoop for his big boy room, two cars and two Yo Gabba Gabba stuffed animals.

He REALLY wanted the Yo Gabba Gabba stuffed animals. Gabba, as he calls it, is a show on Nick Jr. that is pretty dumb but Rowan thinks its awesome. :-)

Thanks Grandpa and Deona!

P.S. Cooper seemed fairly excited about the new toys as well.

Just Rowan...

Rowan glaring at Cooper who had stolen one of his balls...

Monday 12/28: Going Home

Before Grammy & Grampy took us to the airport we took Rowan on his first visit to Chuck E. Cheese. He had a pretty good time despite being EXHAUSTED from a long week of travels.

When God led Roger & me to AZ we knew that traveling was to be a part of our lives and as we added children to our family, we knew we would add the challenge/joy of traveling with them too. Rowan has been on 16 flights (take offs/landings) in his short life and has shown us time and time again his obedience and easy going nature. Four hour flights are not easy but Rowan is a true champ. That being said, no matter the cost, coming to IL to visit family is at the top of our priority list. Though we are building our life here in Arizona and feel like we completely belong here, there is nothing like the joy of seeing family. Roger and I truly feel we have the best of all worlds. We have grown up, moved away, gotten jobs and started our own family AND we have the support of family. We truly love you all.

Okay, I know that got mushy and off track but we just want you all to know that you mean a lot to us and you are all totally worth the pain that traveling is for us, haha, just joking. :-)

Rice Krispies! Yum.

Our tired boy riding the Barney "car"

Skee Ball

Rowan's favorite game was basketball. We have better pictures of him playing but this one shows he actually made a shot.

Getting his picture with Chuck.

Climbing in the tunnels...