Also bunny-related, Jack brought his favorite stuffed bunny to church yesterday. It was all cuteness and snuggles until we tried playing "peek-a-boo" with the bunny to keep him entertained and his shrieks of delight and laughter were so loud (during a talk about reverence) that I had to rush him out until he could contain himself. That's his new favorite game, is popping his bunny out from around corners and saying "Boo!" Funniest thing in the world.
Next we went for a short hike near the archery range. Casper Mountain may not be huge, but I'm so glad we have it. This type of mountain feels like home to us. It was pretty chilly because of the wind, plus we have a toddler now, so we hiked maybe 50 yards before turning back. The leaves were just starting to yellow. We'll be back again next week.
This is my first time blogging from my phone! I've always blogged from my laptop because I can type faster there and import all the pictures from our nice camera directly to the laptop. But lately I've been taking most of our pictures with my phone, so I figured I'd try this out.
Over the weekend we took a day trip to Lander, WY. My mom asked us what's in Lander, and really the answer is "nothing." It's just a cute small town right up against the Wind River Mountains. And most importantly, it's "only" a 2.5 hour drive from Casper. We were in need of a family adventure. It's been difficult to have Jared working the night shift this time around. In the past when he's worked nights, he usually has woken up by 3:00 in the afternoon, so he'd have a couple hours with us before having to go to work again at 5:00. This time around he's been sleeping until 4:00, so by the time he wakes up all he has time to do is shower and get ready for his next shift. I'm glad he's sleeping until 4:00 and getting a good 7 hours of sleep in, but it's tough to not ever spend time together.
So anyway, we decided on a day trip to Lander because we've already visited all the other towns within a 2-hr drive of Casper and we wanted to explore somewhere new. There really aren't many towns in Wyoming near us.
The drive up was long. We probably won't visit again for that reason. Jack just doesn't do well on long car rides. But Lander itself was cute! The population is less than 10k, and the homes are old and beautiful and full of character. We stopped at a diner where the service was "eh," the food was just "ok," they got our order wrong, and the waitress was kinda mean. At least the food was cheap. Then we went straight up to the mountains, which was a good choice.
We meant to do a short hike to Popo Agie waterfall, but we missed the trailhead and ended up driving a little further up the mountain to a quiet lake instead. This made the trip worth it. The leaves were just barely starting to change, and the lake had lots of sandy beach to play on without another soul in sight. Jack was in heaven. He threw rocks into the lake, dug holes in the sand, and Jared taught him how to sword fight with a couple of sticks. He got the biggest kick out of that.
We are all happiest out in nature. It was cool to realize that if we hadn't accidentally stumbled upon this random mountain lake near Lander, we never would have even heard of it. And we had the best afternoon there making memories as a family! It makes me wonder how many other hidden mountain lakes there are in this world. In the afterlife I want to spend a day on the banks of each one with my family. Quiet quality time in the mountains is my love language.
After a good hour or two relaxing (and changing some gnarly diapers) on the beach by the lake, we knew it was time to head home. We grabbed some chocolate frosties in Riverton and settled in to enjoy the last two hours of our drive while the sun set. Turns out there wouldn't be a lot of "enjoying" the sunset. Jack screamed himself to sleep for 20 minutes and then RIGHT as he finally drifted off to sleep, a deer jumped in front of our car and Jared somehow didn't see it, so I had to scream at him to swerve. We miraculously missed the deer, but Jack woke up and then had to scream himself to sleep all over again for another half hour. By then the sunset was long-gone and we were on edge expecting more deer to jump in front of us. Now we know why everyone in Wyoming has a truck. We'd have way more peace of mind driving around if we knew that hitting a deer wouldn't kill us.
Anyway, overall it was a good trip. We only have another month of good travel weather before the long Wyoming winter sets in. Glad we took advantage of one of our last free weekends. And hopefully after residency the Evanston thing works out so we can live within a mere hour of the Uintah Mountains and all of their beautiful hidden mountain lakes.
Whelp, that's it for this week. I don't think I'll be blogging from my phone again. Typing this all up wasnt as quick and smoothe as I was expecting. It was a good experiment though.
So anyway, we decided on a day trip to Lander because we've already visited all the other towns within a 2-hr drive of Casper and we wanted to explore somewhere new. There really aren't many towns in Wyoming near us.
The drive up was long. We probably won't visit again for that reason. Jack just doesn't do well on long car rides. But Lander itself was cute! The population is less than 10k, and the homes are old and beautiful and full of character. We stopped at a diner where the service was "eh," the food was just "ok," they got our order wrong, and the waitress was kinda mean. At least the food was cheap. Then we went straight up to the mountains, which was a good choice.
We meant to do a short hike to Popo Agie waterfall, but we missed the trailhead and ended up driving a little further up the mountain to a quiet lake instead. This made the trip worth it. The leaves were just barely starting to change, and the lake had lots of sandy beach to play on without another soul in sight. Jack was in heaven. He threw rocks into the lake, dug holes in the sand, and Jared taught him how to sword fight with a couple of sticks. He got the biggest kick out of that.
After a good hour or two relaxing (and changing some gnarly diapers) on the beach by the lake, we knew it was time to head home. We grabbed some chocolate frosties in Riverton and settled in to enjoy the last two hours of our drive while the sun set. Turns out there wouldn't be a lot of "enjoying" the sunset. Jack screamed himself to sleep for 20 minutes and then RIGHT as he finally drifted off to sleep, a deer jumped in front of our car and Jared somehow didn't see it, so I had to scream at him to swerve. We miraculously missed the deer, but Jack woke up and then had to scream himself to sleep all over again for another half hour. By then the sunset was long-gone and we were on edge expecting more deer to jump in front of us. Now we know why everyone in Wyoming has a truck. We'd have way more peace of mind driving around if we knew that hitting a deer wouldn't kill us.
Anyway, overall it was a good trip. We only have another month of good travel weather before the long Wyoming winter sets in. Glad we took advantage of one of our last free weekends. And hopefully after residency the Evanston thing works out so we can live within a mere hour of the Uintah Mountains and all of their beautiful hidden mountain lakes.
Whelp, that's it for this week. I don't think I'll be blogging from my phone again. Typing this all up wasnt as quick and smoothe as I was expecting. It was a good experiment though.
He also loves to wander around the house finding the most comfortable blankets and pillows, and then he goes and stuffs them in his playhouse to make it ultra comf. Funniest (and most annoying) of all, he now wants to have every member of the family in the playhouse as often as possible. First of all, our robot vacuum that Jared's sister gave us for Christmas. Yes, it is a member of the family, and for some reason we have named it "Beeboop." Whenever Beeboop wanders into Jack's rooms, he gets a mischievous glint in his eye, picks it up off the floor (it's pretty big and heavy so this is impressive), and shoves it into his tent. If Savvy wanders into his room, it's game over for her. He gets the same mischievous look, and then he'll grab her by either the tail or an ear and try to drag her in. This rarely works out for him. When he wants me in the playhouse, he grabs me by the clothes and pulls so hard until I follow him in and have to spend the next 20 minutes watching him jam out on his little music table. Good thing it's super comfy in there.
Another nice moment from yesterday afternoon happened when a little thunderstorm came over our house. We haven't had rain in what feels like over a month. We sat on our patio and watched the storm for half an hour. Every time thunder would sound, Jack would hug one of us tightly around the neck and snuggle in. Jack is not a snuggler AT ALL, so we really relish the moments when he'll voluntarily hug us, even though usually it's only out of fear. Within ten seconds he'd be back on the ground playing with rocks or something, but it was just a really nice afternoon.
Weight: 28 pounds. Yesterday I pulled the scale out to weight him, thinking I'd just hold him and subtract my weight, but when I put it in the floor he climbed on by himself and stood perfectly still until the number "28" appeared, then jumped off.
Height: I just tried to measure him. I think he's 33". He's definitely on the tall side. Doing this post is reminding me that I probably need to schedule him for an 18-month checkup.
Teeth: His teeth have come in slower than the other kids his age, but I've heard that means he'll have stronger teeth in the end. He only has one molar so far, but I wouldn't be surprised if another one's coming in. He's been teething and grumpy about it lately. But he loves to brush his teeth, and this week we taught him how to rinse/spit it out when he's done. He think it's so funny and is now very into spitting.
Hair: Blonde and adorable. It's definitely lightened up over the summer. I'm sure it'll be a little darker during the winter, but overall I think he'll stay blonde at the very least through his toddler years.
Toys: His favorite toys are also the toys that drive him (and us) the most crazy, so they get hidden pretty often. He has an obsession with any toy that is large and has wheels: his walker, his little bike, the vacuum... He gets so excited when he comes across them and he'll wheel them around the house for a while, but then he'll inexplicably start screaming because he can't get the toy to do exactly what he wants, or he'll scream because he wants to take the toy outside, and once the toy's outside he'll run it straight into the road and scream some more when we try to get him out of the road or take the toy away. It's not fun. His other favorite toys are balls, but we often run into the same problem with those so he mostly only gets to play with big balls when he finds them in the church gym.
Shows: I try not to let Jack just sit and watch tv endlessly for no reason, but there are key times when he'll absolutely end up getting some quality screen time in: (1) Long car rides. Or sometimes even short car rides if I'm losing my mind and I know he's going to scream the whole way. (2) If I'm making dinner or working on something that has an immediate deadline that couldn't be finished during his nap. (3) If I'm losing my mind on a bad toddler day and just need him to chill or cuddle up to me for a minute. (4) Diaper Changes. Jack has NEVER cooperated for diaper changes. In fact, I know he's young, but I'm going to try potty training him when winter sets in and we're cooped up in the house anyway because I think everyone (especially Jack) would be a lot happier not to have to deal with diapers anymore. I know it might now work out with him being so young, but he's a really smart kid so we're gonna give it a try. The only way we can get Jack to hold still for a diaper change is if we hand him the phone with something to watch while we're changing him. His favorites are "Kazoops," "Little Baby Bum," and sometimes "Peppa Pig." He also loves watching music videos--especially Beck songs. Jared is very proud of this and they often sing and dance to music videos together.
Nursery: Jack "officially" had his first week in nursery and loved it. I put quotes around "officially" because he has been to nursery probably a good dozen times in the past. Jared and I get asked to substitute in nursery frequently. That has ended up being a good thing though because Jack has been acquainted with and loved nursery for months already. His favorite parts of nursery are playing with the toys (he's not sensitive at all and plays great with the other kids), the bubble machine, snack time (always finishes his snacks waaaay before everyone else, then starts eating the other kids'), and it's funny to watch him be such a good boy during the prayer as he watches all the other kiddies folding their arms. We've also discovered that he's a crayon eater during coloring time. He did great being dropped off by Jared yesterday. No tears at all, and he was happy to see me when I came and picked him up. He did hold my hand quite intently all the way to the car though, which he never does.
Food: Homeboy is a GREAT eater. He can be a pretty difficult kid in regard to most other things, so I am forever grateful that he's not a picky eater. During meals we'll just dump some of whatever we're eating onto his highchair tray and he'll gobble it down. He loves when he can use a fork or spoon. He eats honestly probably as much as or more than I do at any given meal. He spends his entire day running around without stopping though, so I can see why he has a big appetite. Jack's favorite snacks (when there aren't leftovers to eat) are graham crackers, greek yogurt, hummus, avocados, veggie straws, mandarin oranges, applesauce pouches, scrambled eggs, and let's be real--pretty much anything I put in front of him. (Not EVERYTHING, but most things.) Hallelujah.
Sleep: Even more than being grateful he's a good eater, I am BEYOND grateful that my colicky, sleepless newborn turned into the king of toddler sleeps. I largely credit myself for the countless hours I spent researching and implementing sleep training techniques when he was younger and had the hardest time falling asleep. Jack still takes 2 naps a day. If I didn't read up so much on baby and toddler sleep I would probably be second-guessing this and have him down to one nap since all his peers seem to be down to one nap by now. But I know that it is absolutely normal and even encouraged for him to be taking 2 naps until he is 20 months old if he continues to do well on 2 naps and not fight them.
Jack goes down for his first nap between 9:00 and 10:00. Usually he goes right to sleep, but sometimes he'll talk to himself for 20 minutes first. I love that he has that time by himself, since when he's awake he never plays on his own. He usually naps for 2 hours and then is awake for 2 more hours before I put him down for his afternoon nap between 1:00 and 2:00. He usually talks to himself for 10-20 minutes, and then he'll sleep for an hour or so. He goes down for the night between 6:00 and 7:00, and then he sleeps until about 7:30 in the morning. Besides the sleep training, I think another reason he's such a great sleeper is because, again, he doesn't stop moving all day long. He's running around from thing to thing basically 100% of the time when he's awake. I'd sleep amazing if that was my life, too. (Actually I do, and it is, because I'm constantly having to chase Jack around to keep him alive.)
I'm sure I could keep going, but I'm going to cap this update off there. In sum, I'd describe Jack as a busy, smart, dare-devil (his current favorite thing is jumping off furniture), exhausting, fun little boy. We're so grateful to have him in our life!
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