Florida

Last week we took a long weekend and headed to Florida to see friends Jon & Carrie get married. While there we got to take North to the beach, celebrate Alan's 30th birthday, and spend time with our very best friends.
We drove down with Levi, Sam, Lincoln, and Betsy which was great fun. While there, we all stayed together in a big house along with Erin & Jeremy. It was such a nice treat getting to spend so much time together with our friends. The house had access to a private pool and beach which we took full advantage of.

The room that we stayed in (with North and Lincoln jumping on the bed)
We drank our drinks through umbrella straws-- seemed more "beachy"--even Lincoln joined in the fun with his juice.

The beach!

The wedding ceremony and reception were absolutely beautiful. I can't imagine a more lovely wedding. The day after the ceremony we met up with Jon & Carrie so that they could get some more casual photos taken on the beach and we could all head to dinner together and celebrate Alan's 30th birthday.

North tried to follow Lincoln everywhere...

Somehow Jeremy always gets stuck with the task of chasing after babies..

Jeremy brought a cake with the Canterbury Effect heart on it--which we proudly were able to keep hidden from Alan until his birthday.

Jeremy also brought a few gifts for Alan, including a fake poop, which has led to great amusement.
For Alan's birthday we went to Lousiana Lagniappe. Alan and North enjoyed reading the wine list together.

Driving

Letting the babies get some energy out on the drive

A proper, picture-ful update

With the camera back, we have snapped lots of random pictures as of late and so, I thought I would post a few with updates on what we've been up to.

First up are some photos of North eating some freshly picked grape tomatoes from our garden. With frost nearly upon us I figured it was time to celebrate these lovely plants before we bid them farewell for the winter. North has seemed to really like the garden this summer and enjoys poking around the tomato and pepper plants searching for ripe finds to pick and eat.

And yeah, we know he needs a hair cut. We'll get to it soon enough. We think it's pretty cute and it doesn't bother him so...we're in no big rush for that first big cut.

and speaking of hair...
if we cut it all off, we couldn't do this...or this...
North has become very very talkative lately. Here's a picture of him making declarations at the Indian Restaurant--finger in the air and everything.
He does this super cute thing sometimes where he holds his tongue out a little bit while giggling.
A week ago was Lotus Festival in Bloomington. Alan had to work over the weekend but North and I were able to head to the 3rd street park and watch the free concert in the park all afternoon with 2 of his favorite ladies, Samantha and Jen, his caregivers at CVCCC and their kiddos (Logan & Ruby) and pups (Sasha & Millie).

Distracted by a traffic cone... the amazing stilt walkers...North's angry face...kind of hard not to laugh right? But don't. That just makes him more angry. For some reason we always seem to get a lot of photos of him eating...
Taco cheese...My first attempt at his Max hat. Which for some reason I decided to sew after he went to bed by making up the pattern and guesstimating his head size...turns out...his head is bigger than I guessed. Will have to re-do in a larger size.
This was also the morning we discovered that over the summer North has not only decided he hates sleeves but has also decided he now hates hats. It was cold so we tried to put one on him for school. He was not pleased...

Words words words

The camera is back and so I have no excuse but still I haven't updated the blog...

So, I'm using the opportunity of a brief break to give a small update on all things North.

The biggest question we are asked on him lately is what he is saying now--this changes nearly daily and so I wanted to capture this, at least for the moment, so that we have some memory of what he was saying at nearly 16 months. So, here's a comprehensive list of the things he's saying right now (at least, the things I can remember off hand during a brief break at work):

ball (first word, still very popular)
bubble
dada (sometimes daddy lately)
mama
more (usually accompanied by gesture but not always).
book
cup
up
out
shoe
dogu (for dog--not sure why the u at the end but, it persists)
cat
cow
boo! (when playing peek a boo or hiding and then surprising us)
woof
meow
moo
nana (for banana, still his favorite food)
nose
sit
eat
baby
hat
this
that
hot
car

other things that are fairly new:
he can point to his nose, hair, eyes, ears, and mouth if you ask where they are
he can obey simple commands (like "pick the leaf up off the floor and throw it away") which is AWESOME.
he has a serious temper and slaps the table or nearest thing around when frustrated--also has a tendency to throw whatever is in his hands when he gets frustrated.
he has attempted a few bites but is very poor at this --not stealthy at all
he shakes his head no when he doesn't want something
he is starting to give hugs and kisses
he still laughs a lot. its easy to get him to crack up. even when he's mad, which is great.
he still loves Ender beyond reason and shares everything he has with her (this includes food directly out of his mouth). he also loves Petra but is learning the hard way that she is less inclined to put up with him trying to force feed her goldfish crackers.
he loves to dance. he spontaneously starts dancing whenever he hears music.
he loves the sticky sticky bubble gum song.
he enjoys sitting on our laps and being read to. his favorite book is still "Where the Wild Things Are" which both Alan and myself can now recite from memory.
for Halloween he is going to be Max from Where the Wild Things Are (assuming I get the costume sewn soon).
he hates to wear long sleeves--this is kind of annoying as it's getting cold out and long sleeves on shirts are necessary.
he frequently points to things now and asks "this?" to find out the name of it.

15 Months

Yesterday North had his 15 month appointment (2 more immunizations & a flu shot--ouch).
I have no pictures as our camera broke last weekend and is off at Cannon in hopes of being repaired.
I do have his percentiles to share though:
Height: 30.5" (10-25%)
Weight: 20lb. 12 oz. (5-10%)
Head: 49cm (90-95%)
Hmmmm.....

Blueberries

A few weeks ago North, Alan, and I met up with Sam, Levi, Lincoln, Angelia, & Jeremy for a day in Indianapolis. It was a great day full of blueberries, the farmer's market, blueberries, lunch at Brugge, blueberries, The Children's Museum, and--oh, did I mention blueberries? Here are some photos from the day:

We bought a pint of blueberries at the farmers market. This is shortly after North had started in on them. He finished the entire pint. By himself. In under an hour.

Then we went to lunch and then the museum. North and Lincoln liked playing in the water.

So did Alan.
Water before sand=bad idea.

Around this time we realized there was a lovely blueberry smell permeating the museum. For a moment we looked around for blueberry muffins. Then we realized the source of the fragrance was North. More specifically, North's butt.

So...we took him for a diaper change and found...
So many blueberries! He pooped whole berries. It really was the most impressive diaper change ever. His butt was stained a lovely shade of purple for several days.

Learning about dinosaurs.

Northasaurus on his nest.

Exploring Egypt

Jeremy running interference as the babies make a run for it.