Growing Up

My little guy is growing up. He is getting big. Even though I was beginning to think his sign language ability was going to prevent him from ever speaking, he is trying more and more to say more words. Last count was that he could sign about 50 words, but I have stopped trying to teach him any more sign now that he is verbalizing. I'm trying to encourage him to use his words. AJ is learning his colors and shapes right now. He can say "circle" and likes to point out objects that he sees that are circles. His favorite color is yellow and likes to tell us when he sees something "yeyow". AJ can't say his L sounds. Blue sounds like "boo". And I love you sounds like "ayayu". And we love you AJ!!!

Wyondotte Lake Water Fun!

This summer we got discount member passes to one of the water/ amusement parks in Columbus. Wyondotte Lake is one of the Six Flags parks. There are lots of rides there, but we stick to the kiddie rides and the water slides. I was so surprised at how much AJ loves the bigger water slides. We slide pretty fast and I can hear AJ saying, "wee wee" most of the way down! He wants to go down over and over again. I make him climb up the steps holding my hand, thinking it would tire him out and he wouldn't be as eager to make the climb again, but as soon as we shoot out the end of the slide, AJ either says "again, again, or more, more".

catching up

Over the past couple months, we've had lots going on. In June we had a nice visit from Jeramie, Becky, and Dean. AJ always loves visits from Dean. Though he was so excited during this visit, that AJ kept falling out of bed every night they were here. As soon as they left, he never fell out of bed again. He also woke earlier in the morning than usual and would wake up asking for Dean. We did some fun stuff like a visit to COSI and a visit to the Zoo while they were here. They sported us around in their new stow and go mini van.

Then the day they left, Grandma Kay came for a visit. AJ had a ball with all the attention. Grandma is great about getting on the floor and playing or running around outside. She brought a blow up swimming pool so she and AJ played in the pool a lot too. During Grandma Kay's visit, Grandma and Grandpa Cook and my Uncle Doug and Aunt Gloria stoped by for a quick visit as they were passing through on a whirl wind trip they had taken up the states, into and across Canada and down again. AJ was so excited to see them. Too bad that trip was so quick.

Then we took a trip to AR to visit AJ's mammaw. (speaking of getting spoiled by attention!) AJ learned how to say Mammaw and he made up his own sign for Mammaw as well. As far as I know she is the only person AJ has given a sign to. My mom has deer that come visit her back yard twice a day because she puts out deer corn to feed them. AJ helped every day take a bucket of corn out and he'd pour it out for the deer then we'd go back in the house and watch out the window as the deer would come up. Mom has had deer for many years, but this is the first year in a while that we saw babies. There were as many as 6 or 7 total deer out there at a time. It was fun to see AJ get so excited to see them. When he first saw them, he called them dogs, but then learned deer. We had a family reunion that my mom organized and saw lots of family, but was most excited to get to visit with my cousins Heather, Dana, and Kelly and my Aunt Kathy. We also had a good visit with Uncle Greg.

During our visit with Mammaw, we took a road trip to Missouri and had a quick visit with Dave's grandma Hilda and then a quick visit with Grandpa Eric and Michelle and the family. Earlier this week, they came passing through our way on their way to Michelle's families and spent the night. They shared the happy news that the boys (Nathaniel and Logan) are now legally adopted! I am once again completely ashamed that we did not bust out the camera during either visit with them. I don't know what's wrong with me! I said I would do better and I failed!!!! I'm so sorry! Michelle, send us a family picture and I'll scan it into the computer to post on the blog.

Okay, I think I've updated all the various visitors and visits we have made. Now I'll post a bunch of random pictures of what I did manage to take!