ND Family Reunion

We took a long weekend and went up to ND to visit Dan's family. The Fix side was having a reunion and relatives from all over the country enjoyed the cabin on Lake Sakakawea together. It was so great to hang out with Dan's extended family and for the kids to play together. We are truly blessed by such wonderful relatives. We went for a boat ride on the lake, but Greg's enjoyment of that was quashed by his irritation with the life jacket. Grandpa Mike did manage to get one or two little smiles out of him... We also went swimming, which he liked better once he got used to the cool water. But the majority of the time, Greg spent playing with rocks in a bucket of water, and on the slide and swingset, and he was having a ball! Walking is really serving him well, opening up a whole new realm of play opportunities!

We also got to spend some time with the Hogan side, visiting the great grandparents and 2nd cousins on that side too. Its amazing, Gracie is the youngest of the 3 babies, but she is the biggest!! They're all growing so fast! We had fun seeing Grandma Bonnie's new horse, Lily - Greg was a little nervous around such a big creature! They are getting the farm ready to move next year after Bonnie retires, so Rod has been busy with a lot of organizing projects and the place looks good. Up and back, it was a long drive both ways, but Greg was a real trooper, sleeping a lot, and reading a lot of books. He got creative with them and did take a bite or two out of them as well! All in all, it was a great trip!

Officially a toddler!

Gregory has been growing braver every day in his quest to become bi-pedal and master his environment! We have some great videos for you. He has also definitely transitioned from infant to toddler from a social and cognitive perspective as well. In the videos, you'll not only get to see his movement, but also, his development - he's trying to talk, and you can see the little wheels turning in his brain. One of the most exciting things for me is to see him responding to what I say in a way that I know he actually knows what I mean. Greg has always let us know that he has strong feelings and opinions, from birth! But now, he is having more dramatic reactions when I try to distract or divert him from something he wants, or when I refuse him something. How dare I! A friend said to me, you don't want to break their spirit or their will, but you do have to civilize them! That about sums it up right there! He's our little monkey! Guess its time to start reading up on gentle discipline...oh Dr Sears!!



Bathtime


Walking


Driving his car


Going downstairs


Going upstairs

walking and talking - sort of!

As promised, here are a few little clips...I will continue to strive for better ones! I will say, he has a lot of drool and snot going on these days due to a major teething effort underway...

Oh yeah, we had professional pics done...

We have a few prints for the family we'll be sending out as soon as I can get to the post office, but if you see any you want, let us know and we can get it for you!

Sorry no blogging - busy outside!!

Hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable 4th of July! We have been outdoors as much as possible, but its been pretty rainy and humid lately. Actually, on our anniversary (5 years, thank you!) there was a storm with 90 MPH winds that knocked down half the trees and power lines in Omaha! We escaped with very little damage, thank goodness, but our neighborhood lost a LOT of trees, which is sad, and some of our neighbors had some significant damage to their roofs, fences, decks, and cars... Its still a mess with branches, uprooted trees, and busted-up sidewalks everywhere. We did have a glorious day on the 4th though...a whole day out at the park, and great fireworks at night - thankfully one more year of no one blowing themselves up! We also hung out at the lake last week and enjoyed the water together!




Greg, Bonnie (Dan's mom), and I also made a trip to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, for the YMCA National gymnastics meet, to hang out with my mom and Aunt Karen, and see Claire and Audrey compete. Bonnie was a fabulous traveling companion, keeping Greg (and me) entertained on the 9 hour drive! The girls did great too - Claire made All-American for the 3rd year in a row, and Audrey took first in beam and tied with her teammate for 12th overall out of about 180 girls in her category! Their gym also took 4th place in the team competition, which is awesome because their team is tiny compared to most of the others!


The first time Claire has ever landed this full-twisting Tsukahara vault in competition - there was only 1 other girl at the meet who did it too (and Claire scored better...):


Audrey's first-place beam routine:


Since my family flew through O'Hare and their flight home ended up getting postponed a day, we decided to stay an extra day with them in Chicago, and visited Gregory's godparents, Patrick and Keri too. We only wish Dan could have been with us! We had a great time checking out downtown, and the Lincoln Park Zoo. We even saw another babywearer there! I guess it shouldn't have surprised me considering the International Babywearing Conference was there over the weekend too - if I had ever wanted to be in 2 places at once, it was then...but I definitely made the right choice as it was...


In other developments, Greg had his 1 year checkup at the doctor. He is doing great on all his milestones of course, but is definitely on the small side for his age, 16lbs 9oz and 27 1/2 inches. His height and weight match, though, and frankly, he matches my family...we can't be that surprised. And the boy eats like a grown man, so we are not worried. He has been practicing his walking and is getting steadier every day. This week's project is to get video of it. He has also started to try to imitate some sounds - the beginning of talking... For example, on the 4th, Dan was trying to get him to say "Boom" which came out more like "Bouuu" but you can tell he was definitely trying. He also attempted "ball" which sounded remarkably like his "boom"! :) Ok, ok, we'll work on video of that too! Stay tuned...