Phone picture time!

Once again, it's time for me to post pictures from my phone. I've said before, but I love phone pictures because I always have my phone with me and I'm able to capture things I normally wouldn't with a camera.

I'll try to be somewhat chronological, from the most recent this morning. This is a first, Vince climbed onto the counter... all because he wanted a cup of milk (don't know how he planned on getting the milk from the fridge after). He's always grabbed chairs/step stools to reach items on the counter, but this is the first time he has succeeded in getting on it!

Vince is starting another swim class that goes through January 2011! This is the 9th straight month that he has been in swim classes and it's important to us that he knows about the water because we have a pool. It's a big committment on our part, but I'm so glad he's graduated to a "super water babies" class and I no longer have to get in! He's doing amazing. He can swim 8 to 10 feet and uses both his arms and legs well. We are now working on him trying to lift his head to get breaths. He can also pick something off the bottom of the pool (if we help push him down), and he pushes off the bottom of the pool with his legs to pop up and get a breath. We've also been working on him getting out of the pool alone by using his elbows/tummy/knees which is why I think he was successful in getting on top of the counter.

Random picture... at Buffalo Wild Wings on a Wednesday night where kids meals are 99 cents! I just so happened to get a kids meal that night too. Talk about a cheap meal!

Next, we celebrated my sister's step-son's birthday a couple weeks ago... notice how Vince doesn't take his eyes off the cake!

And here's Mr. Woody and his Buzz Lightyear. We went to see Toy Story 3 at the movies and followed it up later that day by watching Toy Story 1, then the next day Toy Story 2... A little out of order but it doesn't matter... we all enjoyed it! Can you believe I hadn't seen any of those movies before??

And we went to the see Toy Story 3 with our friends Abby and Ethan. Here Ethan and Vince are acting silly sitting in a basket together!

And one more random photo... look closely... can you see who's that cute little girl on Vince's shirt?? It's me it's me! That was my shirt when I was in preschool. I love that I have it and Vince can now wear it for PJs!!

That's it for now! I'll try to get some good phone pics for the next phone pic post!!

Circus

We had a great time taking Vince to the Circus recently! It's the Greatest Show on Earth!!

Not only did we see a fantastic show, we took a train there. Vince absolutely loved it, although I don't think he understod at first that we were inside the train... he kept wanting to get on others that we passed and would act excited when he would hear the train whistle. Eventually he did get it and almost everyday since he asks if we can go back and ride the train. Sometimes he says he wants to ride it to the circus.

In reality, it was a fantastic show, but I think David and I appreciated the majesty of it more than Vince. They had great magic tricks and illusions that we couldn't figure out. We were entertained from beginning to end.

As for Vince, he was much more interested in anything having to do with animals (the people not so much). He loved watching the elephants, tigers, & dogs. They did some awesome tricks. Vince did make me laugh though when he asked when the cows were coming out. I was very impressed by the elephants, who could do so many tricks as well as stand on their heads!!

And after the circus, the fun wasn't over, as we had to ride the train back home. That definietly won't be our last train ride on the TRE... I think one day we'll just ride it all day long...

My Lefty

Recently, my dad shared a video with me about the Top 10 Most Powerful Lefties in the world. It was very interesting.

When Vince was 15 months old, I blogged that I thought Vince was left handed since that’s how he ate and wrote.

Over a year later I as he begins to draw more, I can definitely confirm it, he’s a lefty! He’s starting to draw people, with hands and legs coming out of their heads :), really good for a 2.5 yr old!! Here he’s helping grandpa paint the house & helping my mom frost a cake, both with his left!!

In the lefty video, I was amazed to see who was left handed, current leaders like Barak Obama, David Cameron (PM of the UK) and Felipe Calderon (President of Mexico). Four out of the last 5 Presidents were lefties, including Bush and Clinton (Regan was ambidextrous). Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez are also lefties, not a good association, but they must be smart to be where they are. Other noteworthy lefties in today’s society, Oprah, Michael Bloomberg, and Bill Gates. And lefties from the past include Albert Einstein, Michael Angelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Picasso, and Alexander the Great.

Vince is extremely smart and amazes us everyday at different things he has picked up. It’s interesting that he’s a lefty and I wonder how much this plays into his “smarts”. But as I told my family, I’ll take credit for his intelligence since being a lefty is genetic. David argues with me on that one, but if he gets it from both of us, it’s a win win!!

OUR train collection

Vince brought all the trains from Grandma's house over... since we haven't ever had all of them, I took the opportunity to arrange them in number order (yes there is a number order) for pictures. Now that we've been collecting trains for a year now, we have quite the collection (some came from cousin Warren). It's pretty funny that David and I now take pride in our collection. We like buying rare trains now and then on the internet. Vince loves them all and plays with them all. I'm never giving/selling this collection... my grandchildren will play with them!

he's 2 and a half...

Vince is officially 2 and a half. I thought I’d document a little about where he is in life so we can come back and reflect on it later.

At 2 ½, he can say his ABC’s. He’s had that down for a few months now. Although LMNOP sounds more like Elmo and JK is KK. Before bed every night after we finish reading several books (to which he always says, "one mooorreee" with one finger up), David and I sing twinkle twinkle to him and then Barney’s “I love you” song… you know, “I love you, you love me, we’re a happy family”.. it makes me appreciate that we are a happy family every night. He also counts to 20 but skips 15.

Vince is still in his crib. Only because I tried a toddler bed and he showed up in our room one too many times. In fact, I made David put the crib back together at 10pm one night. Right now we are working on him sleeping alone all night which we just recently started being successful at (previously, mommy showed mercy on him and would walk over to sleep in the futon in his room at 4am every night when he cried). He also says goodnight to everyone he knows most nights. When he wants us to come visit him in the crib, he yells “I have a problem”. When we ask him what’s his problem he usually tries to get his foot stuck in between the rails, and today he answered “I’m sad”. He’s a funny little guy.

We’ve started potty training over a week ago. Things are going well. In fact, today I took him to the grocery store with no diaper and he didn’t have an accident!!

He’s still obsessed with trains. We currently have over 20 motorized different trains and endless freight cars. Half his stash is at our house and half at my parents. I try to keep his tracks on the train table but he loves to make new tracks on the floor. He thinks all overpasses are train tracks and can hear a train from a mile away. We still want to take him on the TRE to Fort Worth.

He’s starting to be a great swimmer now that he’s learned to use his arms (do scoopers). He can swim about 6 to 8 feet under water and can go 10 seconds. We have had him in swim classes from when he was 7 – 13 months and then again from 24 months - 30 months (now). For the summer it has been a treat to get a swim teacher to teach us in our pool instead of me driving through traffic. Just yesterday she brought pennies and put them on the 2nd step. Vince wore his goggles (or boggles as he says) and would hold his breath to get them all. Right now we are working on him taking breaths in between swimming.

My parents are watching him for the whole month of August and in September he’ll be going to a mother’s day out program that is 4x a week. My parents are loving it (I think or hope) to have one of their grandkids running around. Most days I pick him up and he is naked in the backyard with a hose watering plants and playing in a baby pool. He has so much fun at their house. In fact, he likes it more than our house. When I pull into our neighborhood he says most of the time “I don’t want to go hone, I want to go to grandma's house”.

Other little things…. When he wants to get something from a countertop he runs to the bathroom to get his stepstool and pushes it where needed. Some of his favorite foods are chicken nuggets, mini corn dogs, yogurts, pancakes, eggs, pizza, and most fruits. Everyone says he’s a spitting image of David although I see myself in him a lot… especially his big bug eyes and round face. He loves his cousins and 2nd cousins and learns some not great things sometimes... currently he goes around singing Sir Mix a lot's song, "I like big ....'s". What ever we say, he repeats int he form of a question... For example, "Vince, let's go outside"... "let's go outside???". He's left handed, and can already throw well. Anytime we lay on the floor, he likes to sit on our heads. And he likes to push his shopping cart around while David vaccums.

He’s one smart fella that keeps us on our toes and we are looking forward to what the next several several years has in store for us with him.

Cruise to the Bahamas!

David and I were fortunate to take a last minute cruise to the Bahamas with Vince and my parents... we literally booked 6 days before departure... it made for a fast, exciting 6 days leading up to the trip!! Vince had so much fun spending time with mommy and daddy..

and grandma and grandpa...

A lot of the activities of on the ship were geared towards adults, but Vince managed to have all sorts of fun in all sorts of ways...

like playing trains next on a windowsill at happy hour...

dancing the night away by the pool...

admiring towel animals and playing with the phone, "hello, is anyone home??" ...

checking out the sights on the boat deck...

visiting the boats comedy show... he laughed at every joke David laughed at... it was hilarious..

and lastly posing for pictures at one of our stops...

My favorite favorite stop on the cruise was at Grand Stirrup Cay, the cruise lines own island, where we spend the day at the beautiful beach. I love hanging out on beautiful beaches and don't get the chance often so I cherish every chance I get!! We had to take little tender boats out from the cruise ship because of the shallow waters, so we got some great pictures of the boat! David and I had a chance to snorkel and we all spent some time relaxing, playing in the sand, and playing in the water. Vince even fell asleep IN the water on my shoulder... awww...

And here's some extra pictures I couldn't fit in the stories above but were too cute to not post..

Atlantis

We visited the world renown Atlantis hotel in Nassau, Bahamas on the 3rd day of our cruise... here are some pics of the resort from our ship, the Norwegian Sky..

I really wanted to buy the "Aqua venture Pass" which gave access to all the pools/slides and the beach but unfortunately they were all sold out of those passes. So we did a tour of the "digs", which is the aquariums and the Lost City of Atlantis exhibit as well as the Casino and other aspects of the hotel... everything was awesome... especially the aquariums/digs... check it out

Of course we travel with at least 2 trains at all times... here Vince is playing with Edward while checking out the shark tank...

The fish were amazing, much different than I had ever seen... look at this big one next to Dave.

Didn't look big?? Look at this fish next to Vince!!!

Our shoulders were Vince's mode of transportation... it was quite a workout... David did the most lifting, but I shared in the misery.. I mean joy of carrying our baby around!

The Lost City of Atlantis... pieces shown here..

Our big boy has nothing on the size of this stingray... who spans 8 feet wide!! These grow to 30 feet wide... wow..

And some more pictures of the grounds... you can see the man made beach that goes into the Lagoon in these pics..

All in all it was a great trip and we saw some great sites. One day we'll stay here and get to enjoy the all the grounds, with water slides, lazy river, pools, and beaches included! Until then we'll treasure the memories we made here with just the three of us :)