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

10 months

We took Perryn for his monthly photo session last weekend. Here's a few of my favorites.

The green sweater was made by my aunt Adeline. She made me a little dress when I was a baby and I had my photos taken in it when I was 10 months old.

From Perryn Studio Photos

In this photo we were playing "chase" around a little couch. We changed sweaters half way through the photo shoot. This was was a Christmas gift from Grandma C.

From Perryn Studio Photos

Cute closeup that shows off his 2 teeth. (He still only has 2).

From Perryn Studio Photos

My favorite:

From Perryn Studio Photos

Cruise

We are back from our cruise and I'll have to say it wasn't the best I've ever been on. The weather didn't cooperate very much. :-(

We left Sunday - no issues. Monday we were at sea and it was cool and cloudy. Tuesday we were in Cozumel. It was somewhere between 73 and 77, cloudy and some rain. We went on an excursion that had us driving some ATV's (fun except for when we got rained on) and then we were supposed to go snorkeling. We decided it was too darn cold to go in the ocean so we hung out in some hammocks on the beach. Based on what the people said who did go, we made the right choice. It sprinkled on us a little bit while on the beach and then rained pretty good on the way back to the parking lot for the ATV's. Wednesday we were in Roatan, Honduras. It was pouring when we got there. It let up a little bit and we went out to meet our planned excursion guide. He gave us the option of backing out because the rain had made the water a little murky and we were going snorkeling. We opted to continue and then it poured on us during the walk to the bus. However, we decided to continue and it actually got sunny and nice. We went snorkeling and kayaking. The snorkeling wasn't as good as it should have been due to the murky water, but it was still cool. Roatan has the second longest reef in the world (second to the great barrier reef off Australia). As we boarded the bus to go back to the ship it started pouring again... so we had just enough nice weather for our excursion. Works for me. Thursday we were in Costa Maya. It rained again. We got off the ship briefly at one point when it let up and wandered around a little bit. We got sprinkled on a little bit, but not too bad. Friday and Saturday we were at sea. Friday was cool and cloudy. Saturday was pretty nice, but still not pool weather for me. We found other things for entertainment on the ship - played cards, watched a cooking demo, watched a couple movies, worked out (yay for us), played mini golf, various other things and of course ate a lot. :-)

It was nice to have a vacation (although maybe in hindsight a little too close to Christmas vacation). We missed the baby of course and we were so excited to see him. As luck would have it he was napping when we got home on Sunday afternoon and then he woke up in a bad mood, so crying. Darn it... didn't get that... "I'm so happy to see you" smile. LOL.

Trip to the Zoo

We made another trip to the zoo while we were on vacation. Perryn seemed to actually notice some of the animals this time - mainly the ones that moved around a lot. Here's a couple photos:

From Perryn - December 2008

From Perryn - December 2008

From Perryn - December 2008

From Perryn - December 2008

And baby falls asleep...

From Perryn - December 2008

Another New Toy

Grandma gave Perryn this "ride and stride" lion. It can be configured as something to hang on to and walk with or to ride on. Here he's checking out the lion's face with Grandma. It makes noise when you push it's nose. (I'm not sure why we want to teach the baby to hit a lion on it's nose, but whatever - lol).

From Perryn - December 2008

A picture of him riding it with Uncle Mike's help:

From Perryn - December 2008

Playing in the Exersaucer

Here's a photo of Perryn playing in his exersaucer, which he still enjoys, but is quickly outgrowing.

From Perryn - December 2008

Picture of the Day

From Perryn - December 2008

Perryn and Grandma C

Grandma C and Uncle Mike were visiting from Christmas to New Year's. Here's a pic of Grandma and Perryn.

From Perryn - December 2008

New Toys

As you might guess Perryn had just a few gifts under the tree this year. This is a picture of him playing with one of the new toys that is keeping him entertained these days. It's an activity table that he can stand up at and play with various buttons and things on top of it.

From Perryn - December 2008

January - wow

Well, made it through the holidays and can't believe it's January already. I managed to get quite a few things knocked off my to do list while I was on vacation. I'm back to work today since it's now January and I didn't want to use any 2009 vacation quite yet. It's a little bit of a slow day though since there are lots of people on vacation. So, I've found myself surfing the web for information on our upcoming cruise. We leave next Sunday (1/11) and I'm getting so excited. I've been looking up information on the ports of call today - we're going to Cozumel, Mexico; Roatan, Honduras; and Costa Maya, Mexico.

The good news is the weather forecasts are looking good so far. It should be around 60 when we depart Galveston on Sunday and although the forecasts aren't far enough out to look at the details for the ports, it appears that they are hovering around 80 degrees most days.

Costa Maya was hit by hurricane Dean in 2007 and just recently opened back up to cruise passengers (November I think), so I'm not sure what to expect there. I've seen some mixed information on the boards I've been combing through. They seem to have been hit very hard and since they were 13-14 months without tourism revenue, things are not ideal. This is a port that was specifically built for cruise passengers, so this has been quite devastating. The good news for them is the cruise lines are forking over a lot of money to rebuild. However, I've read prices have gone up considerably in the closest town to the pier and the locals are so desperate to start making money again they are relentless with their selling tactics. Gary and I are not ones to just walk around and "shop" though so I don't think that will be a problem for us. We have an excursion booked in the morning to "discover scuba diving". We'll have the afternoon to explore if we want, but it could be just as nice to stay on the ship when everyone else is off exploring. We'll see.

I'm also excited to finally get to go on the Voyager of the Seas. I've wanted to cruise on it since I took my first cruise. At that time it was sailing out of Florida and has just recently relocated to Galveston (for part of the year). So, I'm excited about that as well. There are certainly bigger ships these days, but she's pretty big and has some things that older ships don't have. It should be fun.

9 Month Photos

This seems to be one of the favorite photos from the 9 month session (of the people who have seen them). Perryn wasn't very smiley again this time, but he managed a small one in this photo. This was taken on 12/22. I had a heck of a time getting those shoes on his feet. They didn't seem like they were too small, but just really hard to get on with a baby that doesn't know what a shoe even is. I almost gave up, but got them on just in the knick of time. Suffice it to say, they will only be worn this one time.

From Perryn Studio Photos

Picture of the Day

From Perryn - December 2008