The church Stryker goes to for Mother's Day Out was having a Halloween carnival last Saturday, so we took Stryker for a bit. They had a toddler zone with mini pumpkins to decorate, a small bounce house, and a little ball pit. Stryker had a great time and although he's still a little young for most of the activities, he enjoyed it. It makes me so happy to think how much more he will enjoy this stuff next year. The older he gets, the more activities we can do with him. I have lists growing in my head of all the things we can do with him when he's 2 or 3.

Stryker in the ball pit (he's trying to smile)


Stryker in the petting zoo area. He is being so gentle with the animals. Makes me proud.


I can't wait to see how he'll do on Halloween.

That night Stryker and I went over to dallastwin's house. She was having other women over with their kids. There is another little boy 2 months younger than Stryker. It's amazing how mellow this boy is. He will sit and play with toys, sit on his mother's lap and eat patiently, or will watch the other kids play. He sits!! It makes me realize how active Stryker is when I see another kid his age. I can't get Stryker to sit still unless I strap him down. Even then, he's not still. I love how smart and curious Styker is, but I get so jealous and wish he would just sit every once in a while.

Tags: stryker
Current Mood: excited

Hawaii was amazing. But really, it was so good to get back home. I loved being away and having a vacation from all my mommy duties, but I missed Stryker tons! Not too much that I drove our fellow vacationers crazy with talk about my little man (feel free to comment if I did), but every once in awhile I'd think about him and wonder how he was doing and if he missed me. I did at least talk to him every day, even with the 5 hr time difference. Stryker did great with my parents. He loves my dad!!! I got tons of comments from different people how Stryker was "Poppy's buddy" and always wanted to be around and held by his grandad. I got stories every day about what they did and how he was doing. When we finally went to pick him up, Stryker looked at Mike and I with a confused look on his face. Almost like although he knew we weren't there, he didn't realize we left him. After that he was really clingy and fussy for a day or two. But now, he's back to normal and I have my brilliant, sweet little man back. He amazes me how smart his is every day. And Stryker is trying to be really helpful now and help me with laundry or the dishes. It also panics me a bit though, because I have to grab everything from Stryker as soon as he touches it so he doesn't break it.

Although I missed Stryker, I'm so glad we didn't bring him with us. There were kids on our plane, and if traveling all day is hard for an adult, I don't how those other kids made it. Plus, we wouldn't have gotten to do any of the stuff we did if we had our kiddo. It was wonderful! We did lots of hikes, which hopefully satisfies Mike's desires for hiking for another few years. We even hiked down to a waterfall and I got to swim in the pool of the falls. That has always been a dream of mine, so it was great to come true. My favorite was that the people from above who were looking at the waterfall from the overlook would see me a wave. It looked like it gave some people a trill to see people way down there.

We did so much in Kauai that there is no way to list it all, but every day was filled. I loved it, but it kinda sucked that we were always on the go. It wasn't a typical beach relaxing vacation. However, I got to live out another dream and learned how to surf. We took surfing lessons one day and it was great! Our instructor was wonderful and I managed to get up about every other time. Some lady commented how great I was doing. Then once we were done, the lady and her husband came up and told me how I looked like I'd been surfing much longer than a first lesson and how inspirational I was. I'm not sure why they singled me out of the 4 of us learning to surf to say how great I was, but it still makes me smile even now.

Someday we will go back to Hawaii, but will try a different island since we saw almost everything we wanted to see on Kauai. But that will be many years from now when Stryker is old enough to enjoy it.

Current Mood: giddy

I'm so excited to go to Hawaii and get away!!! I'm pretty proud of myself for not being stressed out. I usually get a little stressed before a trip, especially with having to pack Stryker up. So even with packing Mike and I, taking care of Stryker's packing, and gathering things for Sypz, I'm doing pretty well. I even managed to finally do my will and signed a power of attorney to give my parents authority for Stryker. I feel so prepared.

I guess I need to go finish packing now.

Current Mood: excited

Technically Mike is back in town. He was supposed to get back last night around 8, but then because of the rain they had to land somewhere an hr outside Dallas and get refueled since they must have been circling for awhile. Then finally landed, had baggage issues, and didn't get home until 1. Right now he's at work for a little while. But at least he's in town. Stryker was so excited to see him and has been very playful and babbling this morning.

Only a week and a half until Hawaii. Yipee!!!

Current Mood: cheerful

It's past 11:30 where Mike is and he's still at work. I haven't gotten to talk to him much today because he's so busy and doesn't have much access to unclass phones. It doesn't look promising that he will be coming home Friday. I thought about flying out to see him with Stryker, but I'm not sure that will happen. The prices are getting expensive now to fly. And with him working so much I doubt I'd get to see him much anyway. And then it will be more of a hassle with Stryker since I will still be alone with him in a strange place, and his routine will be totally off. Anyone want to hang out this weekend?

UGH!

Current Mood: disappointed

Here's an update on what's been going on... not much of it really exciting though.

I finished Mike's Christmas stocking. His only took me 3 months, where Stryker's took me a year and a half. It's amazing how much more I can do when Stryker takes good naps and sleeps better at night. I probably worked on it for about an hr and a half to 2 hrs a day while Stryker was sleeping. I know it's lame, but I really enjoy doing them. It's a great way for me to relax. Here's what Mike's looks like before it's made into Stocking form.




Mike left yesterday to go on a work trip and will hopefully be back Friday. He may have to stay for some of next week, though. I really hope he comes back Friday! Mike's been working so much lately that he's not home much anyway, but it's still nice to have him around though. So far it hasn't been too bad. It's just more work at night because I have to do the bath, feed Stryker, and do the whole nighttime routine myself.

On another note, today was Stryker's first day of Mother's Day Out. He seemed to do really well, like I knew he would. He loves being around other kids and having new stimuli around other than the same old at the house. The most surprising part is he actually took a nap with the other kids. It was only 50 minutes, but I'm shocked he took a nap on the little nap mat we got him with all the other kids. In fact I'm still quite amazed by this. You might be wondering what I did with my time off. I took a shower, cleaned and vacuumed the house, and relaxed a bit. It was a wonderful 5 hrs. I look forward to this weekly time to get stuff done.

Tags: stryker
Current Mood: accomplished

At times there seems to be so much going on, but then at other times it seems like things are so slow and uneventful. A few weekends ago my dad rented a cabin at the lake so we could go camping. It was a really decent cabin and we had as good of a time as can be expected. Taking the little man on trips is never an easy or "fun" thing to do. It's really good we go and give Stryker new experiences, but it is so much work. I have a feeling that until he's older all vacations won't exactly be "vacation" like. Stryker had a good time and loved the boat, except for the life jacket. Whenever we put him in it he reminds me of the Staypuff Marshmallow Man in Ghostbusters. He's very stiff and doesn't move much. But the boat totally relaxed him and mellowed him out. At one point it even put him to sleep and he slept for an extra hour since his nap that day wasn't very good. Overall I'm glad we went.

Here is Stryker in his life jacket. He's not really happy when it's on, but he's still cute.


Here we are boating, Stryker is just so stiff.


Mike has been working quite a bit. And now we've found out that he has to travel for work for a week. I'm sure it will be fun for him, but less fun for me doing 24 hr duty with the kiddo. Honestly I don't think it will be that different because right now Mike isn't home but for a few hours before Stryker goes to bed anyway. I guess it's just nice to have an adult to talk to at the end of the day. There's only so much toddler babble I can take without talking to another adult. I'll probably go hang out with my parents for awhile one day.

Stryker is getting really good and dancing on command and spinning in circles when we tell him to spin. He also just started clapping. It seems like it takes him awhile to do the simple things like wave and clap since he hates to have his hands held and shown what to do. But on anything athletic, he's really advanced. He's my sweet little man.

Tags: stryker
Current Mood: happy

Just a few things that Stryker is doing now...

I'm starting to see Stryker's personality more and his sense of humor. Sometimes when I'm going to put him in his highchair to eat he runs toward me, then runs past me while he smiles. Stryker will then turn around and laugh while he runs past again. It's so cute because he's joking with me and thinks he's being silly. I love it and will let him do it a few times before I grab him.

Stryker is also dancing now, too. He stomps around with a big smile on his face. He'll even start dancing sometimes if we tell him to. I love that he knows what things are and what we want him to do. Not that he obeys much, but I know that will get better.

The little man is such a good eater. He loves fruit and veggies. I'm amazed when he will eat foods like asparagus. I'm trying to get him drinking more milk, so I made him his first fruit smoothie this week and he loved it. I plan to have him fully weened before we go to Hawaii in September.

I'm so excited that Stryker is showing signs of being constructive now and not just destructive. He will now help me stack blocks and build a tower before he knocks it down. He's also starting to put things back in their place. When he takes my hair brushes off the shelf, he will reach up there to put them back. It's so cute that he's putting things back in their place. It gives me hope that he will be able to clean up after himself one day and put his toys away.

I've signed Stryker up for Mother's Day Out once a week starting in September. I know it will be very good for him to socialize more around kids his age. And I can't wait for a few hours to myself once a week. How much I can get done in 5 hrs! I know he will be completely fine, and it will probably take a time to two for him to adjust to being in a classroom setting. But I'm still a bit nervous. It's weird but I'm most nervous about having to pack him a lunch. What do you pack for lunch of a 1 yr old? Let me know if you have any great ideas.

Tags: stryker
Current Mood: cheerful

I've been back home for over a week, and I'm so glad to be home. The trip to ND went well, even though we were really in the middle of no-where. And I mean the middle of no-where. The closest town that was 5 miles away had a population of around 30. We had to drive 30 minutes just to get our nails done for the wedding. It was weird not to have cell phone coverage. I was glad I found an old calling card from college that still worked. That was the only way I could call and check in on the family and my little man. And I know dallastwin was happy I brought that phone card, too. Overall the trip was pretty good, except the bed and breakfast we stayed at. That sucked!!! It was this old house and we were all upstairs. The owner lady didn't have the AC on at night, and it was hot stale air every night. So hard to sleep! We tried to open the windows, but there wasn't enough of a breeze to make a difference and cool off the room. I feel like I hardly slept the entire time. And since the house was so old, you could hear every move the other guests made.

The wedding was nice and a lot different than the ones we're used to down here. Up there the wedding is a county affair and the whole county is invited. So the guest list was over 250, and I'm sure Karen only knew a small chunk of that. Personally I probably would have been annoyed. Weddings are not cheap, and throwing a party for tons of people who don't know you and probably don't even bring gifts would totally suck in my opinion. But the wedding and reception were really nice and classy considering. We had some townies at our table that were in the wedding and they mentioned how this one is different and nicer than others that they usually have. For example, they had some round tables reserved for family and the wedding party. They also had a big table for the bride, groom, bridesmaids, and groomsmen on a stage. The chairs were those hard metal fold out kind, so each seat had a seat cover and bow on it. These are things that are usually not done, and apparently this is very classy in the eyes of ND. So kudos to Karen for making it nice, because it could have been very country.

In other news, things are going fine. Stryker is doing great at sleeping now (at least for the most part). He will sleep for about 10 hrs, then if I feed him I can sometimes get him back to sleep. And his naps are pretty good, too. Stryker finally has his 7th tooth popping out. This kid is the slowest teether know to man. For the last few days he's been cranky, so I'm wondering in #8 is on it's way in the next few weeks. Seriously it takes weeks for it to appear. The hardest part is Mike is working like a mad man and doing tons of overtime. Which I know sounds selfish, but that means I feel like I'm doing overtime, too. It's not like I have much of a life anyway, and dealing with a fussy man all day by myself feels like a lot of work.

I can't wait until September when we go to Hawaii!!!

Current Mood: blah

I'm leaving in about an hour for the middle of no-where North Dakota. My parents are going to watch Stryker Wednesday until Thursday night. Then Mike will take Stryker until I come home Saturday. I know Stryker will be fine, but I've never been apart from him this long before. The most I've been away is the 2 nights my parents have watched Stryker overnight for us. I have a feeling I might be emotional a time to two.

Tags: stryker
Current Mood: nervous