Happy Thanksgiving

Here are some photos of our Thanksgiving.

First, I try to sneak up on Perryn reading to get a photo, but of course he put the book down right before I got there.

From November 2009

We head over to Auntie Bert and Uncle Dave's house to go to a Thanksgiving buffet with Dave's brother's family. Perryn immediately checks out the kitty toys.

From November 2009

Our best attempt at a family photo

From November 2009

Perryn cheers on Auntie Bert and her soon to be niece, Katie.

From November 2009

Everyone's favorite Thanksgiving pasttime... especially for a toddler after a long day with no nap.

From November 2009

Perryn Learns to Play with Molly

Perryn has been very interested in the kitties since he first noticed them at a few months old. He always tries to chase them and they are just plain faster than him. He has very rarely had the opportunity to even touch them and that would only be with mommy or daddy helping.

Recently I let him feed Molly treats (she's the only one of our cats that eats treats). Although mommy almost had a heart attack thinking Molly might accidentally bite his little fingers, Molly actually ate the treat out of this hand and Perryn was thrilled.

This weekend I decided to play with the kitties and Perryn was quite excited about this. I don't think I've ever played with them in front of him. I handed over the cat toy and although Molly was a little nervous at first (remember she normally runs from him and doesn't let him catch her), she did eventually take a couple swats at the toy while Perryn dangled it in front of her.

Here's a pic of Perryn enjoying this game:

From November 2009

Molly takes a swat at the feather:

From November 2009

Now of course, Perryn did chase Molly around the house trying to play with her for quite awhile after she was "done", but I think it was a great first step at making friends. I know our kitties don't get enough play time with us since Perryn came along, so maybe we can entertain the toddler and the kitties at the same time by continuing to work on this. :-)

Momma

Perryn said "momma" to Rachelle for the first time last night. You should've seen her face light up.

Halloween

Perryn had fun on his first trick-or-treating adventure. Here's a pic of Perryn and Mommy getting ready.

From October 2009

Auntie Bert and Perryn headed out to trick or treat

From October 2009

Wondering why this person is digging in a big bowl of candy and what exactly is going to happen next

From October 2009

"OK, I got it now, let's go to the next house. And thanks for taking that hood off that kept falling over my eyes"

From October 2009

Best shot of the full costume

From October 2009

Checking out the loot

From October 2009

Helping Daddy

My jeep has had a recurring problem over the years. The rear power windows quit working and then they fall and won't stay up either. This has happend 5 times since I've owned the car and only once was under warranty. Unfortunately, this is a $400 repair at the dealer. This time around they BOTH decided to break at the same time, so Gary did some research and discovered that Jeep makes a cheap, plastic part that causes this. He found another solution and fixed it all up. Yay Gary for saving us $800!!

This is a picture of Perryn "helping" daddy fix the problem.

From September 2009

Playing catch

The latest video that we shot ...

Special moments

In the past four days, I've learned the following about my son:

1. He prefers to walk up the slide and down the steps.
2. Even though he doesn't want to eat his dinner, he doesn't want you to eat it either.
3. He knows how to wave bye-bye; he just doesn't know the appropriate time to do so
4. He's even more special than I'd previously given him credit for.

Love ya, kiddo.

A tale of two hats

Rachelle bought one of these hats. Gary bought the other. Any guesses as to which is which?

Rough-housing with daddy

Perryn loves to rough-house with me. If I just lay on the floor, he'll come over and start beating me up. Here's a clip of him in action from August 22.

Gary and Perryn's Excellent Adventure: Day 1

Rachelle headed up to Fargo for the weekend, so Perryn and I are hanging out together.

Today started with some waffles for breakfast, followed by a trip to the splash pad and play ground. It must've tired him out, because he was just about falling asleep as I drove home. That wasn't good, because I didn't want to put him down for a nap in his swimsuit. So, I tickled him a little and kept him awake for the short drive home. We had lunch (I made grilled cheese sandwiches) and then he was out like a light.

After his nap, we had a little snack (of course, I had to join in) and then headed out to run some errands. We dropped by the bank and did some shopping at Target.

I decided that my birthday dinner would be my favorite fast food restaurant: Chick-fil-a. I headed over the mall, because I figured we could walk around or play on the playground before and after. I ordered him a kid's meal (nuggets and waffle fries), and I brought some cantelloupe along, too. Perryn saw me dipping my fries in ketchup and decided he wanted some too. He started handing me his fries and I'd dip them and hand them back. Then he started handing me his chicken nuggets, but I just couldn't dip them in ketchup, now could I? So, I dipped them in some barbeque sauce.

Now, here's the thing I learned: you've got to watch Perryn as he's doing this because sometimes he just licks the barbeque sauce off and hands the chicken nugget back to you.

As we walked out of the mall, I bought Perryn a toddler-sized baseball cap. It's time he had one of his own.

I got him home, gave him a bath, and we read some stories together before bed.

No pictures from today, but here's a recent snapshot.

When did that happen?

After we got home last night, I sat Perryn down on the living room floor to take his sandals off. I then handed him the sandals and said "Could you put these away, please?" He stood up, took the sandals, walked out of the living room, through the kitchen, opened the coat closet, put the sandals away, closed the door, and then came back to where I was.

Holy cow. He actually understood and acted on the request. I wonder how long he's been able to do that, and we just didn't know it because we haven't been asking him to do things.

I then tried, "Can you please make me a sandwich?", but it didn't work. One step at a time.

Splash Pad Adventure

We discovered there is a park nearby that has a splash pad... which is a slab of concrete with a bunch of different squirting, showering water. I have to say, it's way better than what we used to do as kids... makes running through sprinklers a whole new thing.

Perryn wasn't too sure at first. Here he is just taking it all in, in the safety of daddy's arms:

From August 2009

Then, he started to get into it:

From August 2009

And here he is having fun, trying to catch the water:

From August 2009

It was fun. They had a nice playground area with a toddler section too.

Using a Spoon

Here's a video of Perryn having breakfast

New Video

Here's a video from tonight (yes, I actually got it posted the same day I took it!).

Trip to Rhode Island

I took lots of pictures of our trip to Rhode Island. We had a lot of fun. Here's a couple and if you click on one of them it will take you to my Picasa album where you can see more.

Visiting Grandma's Office

From June 2009

First Carousel ride at the mall

From June 2009

Perryn and Cousins at Uncle Michael's Cookout

From June 2009

First Beer (just kidding - he was digging in the recycling)

From June 2009

Feeding the Ducks at Grandma's

From June 2009

Father's Day

Gary went out of town on Sunday, so we celebrated Father's Day on Saturday. We went to the park for a picnic. Perryn had his first Subway sandwich. Then we played a little bit on the playground equipment. Here's a couple pics of Perryn and Daddy swinging.

From June 2009

From June 2009

Ahhh

Here's Perryn in his coordinating outfit - tshirt and matching dog hat.

From May 2009

Video from Garage Sale Day

Here's a quick video I shot during the garage sale on May 16th

Great day for a ballgame

We had a nice time at the ballpark today. The weather was nice and the home team won.
Here's a shot of Perryn with the team mascot.

Baby finds a new toy

It might be a little cliche, but I had to take a photo. This is probably Perryn's favorite new "toy" when he's in the bathroom with us. He heads right for the drawer and pulls out the box, then proceeds to pull everything out of the box.

From May 2009

Future Soccer Player?

Maybe

From April 2009

Our Little Farmer

"OK, you wait right there, I'll get the hose."

From April 2009

Picture of the Day

I like this one.

From April 2009

Tippy Toes

I would say he was rather determined to see what was in this drawer... look at those toes work.

From April 2009

Another pic from the egg hunt

I got this photo that someone else in my mom's group snapped of Perryn and me. I thought I'd post it as well. I think this is when we were just starting out. Notice his interest in the basket.

From April 2009

Easter Egg Hunt

We did several Easter egg hunts this year. I recently joined a mom's group and that was the first one we went to. The second was at the daycare and the third and final was in our neighborhood. I actually thought that Perryn would have no idea what to do and that he'd get better as they went on. The opposite actually happened. He went nuts picking up eggs at the very first one and then we couldn't really get him interested in the others. Maybe, just maybe, he figured out after the first one that mommy was going to eat all his candy - lol. OK no, I don't really think he realized what the eggs were anyway, but truly most of them were not toddler friendly. (I did give him the treats from the ones that were).

Here's a few pics:

From April 2009

From April 2009

From April 2009

What block?

Somehow Perryn got a block stuck in his collar... we thought it was funny so had to capture it.

From Perryn - March 2009

Nap Time

One weekend, Gary and I were having lunch in the kitchen while Perryn was playing in the living room. Suddenly we realized we didn't hear him anymore so went to investigate and this is how we found him. I guess he was tired. He slept there for about 2 hours (longer than a normal nap).

From Perryn - March 2009

Cute Pic

I took this photo when Pepere was here and we were enjoying the outdoors.

From Perryn - March 2009

Perryn's Birthday

Perryn was really sick on his actual birthday, so we didn't get to have the party that we had planned. Pepere (Gary's dad) was here for the weekend. On Sunday (Perryn's actual birthday), Roberta and Dave came over. The five of us had some cake and opened some of the gifts that we knew Perryn wouldn't have as much interest in (i.e. clothes -lol).

He was feeling better on Monday, so Gary, Pepere and I had a little "party" for him with the traditional mash the cake in the hands routine. We also opened some of the other presents, which Perryn was more interested in. This picture is from that day.

From Perryn - March 2009

Click on it to go to Picasa and see many more shots.

We're going to have Perryn's birthday - take two this weekend on my birthday. Roberta and Dave are going to come back over... we'll do the cake thing again and open the rest of the gifts. Then Roberta and Dave are going to babysit so Gary and I can go out for my bday.

Perryn with his lion

I'm continuing to go back in time with the video that I recently copied to the computer. This clip is from Feb 6th of Perryn walking with the push toy lion that Grandma C gave him for Christmas.

Perryn Playing - Part 2

This is a continuation of the previous posting from Feb 21st.

Perryn Playing

I'm a little behind on videos, so I will go backwards in time now. This is from Feb 21st, the weekend before grandma and grandpa left for ND.

Perryn's Wish List

For those who have inquired, I updated Perryn's Amazon wish list with some ideas for his upcoming birthday. They are, of course, just ideas. :-)

I added a link to it on the right side of this page.

Look out now

Perryn started walking in the last week or so. He was almost there while grandma and grandpa were here and I have a feeling that seeing the other babies do it at daycare quickly pushed him along. Here's a short video from the weekend:

Back to Daycare

I have no photo for this post, but just thought I would share that Grandma and Grandpa headed back to ND and Perryn is off to daycare again. It took him exactly 3 days to get sick... Gary took 4... and I took 5. If anyone had any doubts about germs in daycare, this should prove it. :-)

When Gary picked Perryn up yesterday, he was told that he "had a good day"... Let's see... first he fell down and hit his face on the toy shelf on the way down... and then he was stepping over another baby and somehow this baby bit him. Good day? I'd hate to hear what a bad day would be! lol.

Ahhh - the joys of daycare.

Building with Blocks

Here's Perryn and Grandma building a "house" with the blocks he got for Christmas.

From Perryn - January 2009

Learning to Walk

Here's a couple photos of Perryn walking with grandpa

From Perryn - January 2009

From Perryn - January 2009

Contract Signed!

My parents officially signed a contract to have a house built down here yesterday. It's about 4 miles/8 minutes from Gary and me. It will take about 6 months to build so it will be ready for them at the end of summer or in the fall.

Auntie Bert Tries to Get a Kiss

This picture cracks me up. Although Roberta told me to delete it, I thought it was too funny. :-)

From Perryn - January 2009

Cruise Pics

I posted cruise pictures if anyone is interested.

Rubber Ducky

First, the story of the rubber duckies... In November, when I took Perryn for his monthly photos, the photographer was using a rubber ducky to try to get his attention and get him to smile. Perryn seemed to like the rubber ducky. Grandma B. came with us that day so she set a mission to find him a rubber ducky for Christmas. Amazingly, they are not as easy to come by as one would think. She finally found a set of three little ones and ended up buying those. Well, turns out Perryn does really, really like them.

Now the fun part... They are actually little "squirters". When you hold them under water they fill up and then you can squirt the water out. In the pictures here, Perryn was figuring out how to do that (all by himself). He had seen us do it in the past, but we weren't doing it this night. He did actually hold it under water, then squirt his own belly more than once. It was pretty cute. :-)

From Perryn - January 2009

From Perryn - January 2009

From Perryn - January 2009