Old Friends... New Clothes

A few weeks ago we were invited to dinner with two of Tim's old roommates.  We had a great time but Arlo had an even better time with one of his best friends... Caleb.  Caleb is Rob and Alexa's son who is 1 day older than Arlo.

Do not look too close because if you do you will see how naturally dark Caleb is and what a white boy Arlo is.... He has his daddy's complexion.

Once again I did not get a single picture with both boys looking at the same time.

This is the sweetest picture... Caleb was walking then, and Arlo wasn't so Arlo was hanging onto the chair mining his own business when Caleb came up behind him and gave him a hug and a kiss.  It was the cutest thing!!!!

The boys getting into trouble!

I just love watching Arlo play with other kids!

On another note... Easter was last weekend and believe it or not I did not get any pictures.  But we did get Arlo a new Easter outfit!  It looks so cute and I do not care what anybody says because sweater vests are the CUTEST!!!!!!

Last but not least... Arlo is officially a walker!  He started walking in early March by taking 2-3 steps before falling.  Mid March he was taking 5-6 steps before falling.  Then towards the end of March he would walk if you made him but he figured it was too much work because he would rather crawl than walk.  Then on April 1st (Aunt Niki's B-day) Arlo finally made the transition from crawler to walker!  I am so proud of him.

Bronco for Sale!!

The time has come...  Bronco must go!

You might be wondering why?  Well I will answer like all people who want to give away their best friends...

We are in a two bedroom condo.  We have no yard.  He is stuck inside all day.  I can never find time to bathe him.  He sheds.  He sheds.  He sheds.  I am tiered of picking up his poop.

So now you are wondering... why would I want him if you do not?

Correction... I do want him.  I LOVE HIM.  But sometimes when you love something you have to let it go. (corny I know... but it is the truth)

Here are all the great things about Bronco.

1. He is great around children, babies, and basically everyone!
  (he is not great with other dogs)
2.  He listens
  (he is a people pleaser... he will do anything to make us happy!)
3.  He is trained
  (He can do all sorts of tricks like rolling over, keeping a bone on his nose, barking on command, catching a ball and bringing it back, as well as all the simple ones like sit, lay down, stand up etc...)
4.  He is potty trained
  (I am not proud of this but once Tim and I had work days where we could not get home to him and let him out and he went almost 11 hours without an accident!)
5.  He is crate trained
  (We just recently took away his cage, but now he is pillow trained.)
6.  He is a great watch dog
  (he is big enough to scare just about anybody if you tell them he is mean and he has a bark that will scare anybody who comes to the door.  Yes he barks when people come to the door... we trained him to do so.)


If you do want him or know somebody who does let me know.  I WILL NOT GIVE HIM TO JUST ANYBODY!!!!  Here are the qualifications.
1.  You have to have a yard.
2.  You have to let Arlo and I come and visit him!
3.  You have to love him as much as we do.

Bronco is literally Arlo's best friend.  Bronco was the first one to get Arlo to laugh for the first time and since Arlo has been able to get around... Bronco has been running for his life, or he gets trampled on!

Look at this face... isn't he the perfect puppy?

I get so mad at myself.  I always wait too long to blog about our exciting life and when I finally get around to doing it... well my blogs are long and rushed... it makes me so mad!  Because let's be honest, when someone posts a long post... you look at the pictures and thats about it.  So if that is all you do then I totally understand.  But if you are patient enough to get through this... well... good for you!  (I love reading about my family too!)

Let's start off with some good news...
I have officially submitted my letter of resignation to Mesa Public Schools.  I couldn't handle missing 9 hours of my precious baby's life each day.  Tim and I agreed that I could stay home next year but I still NEED to work.  I am going to try to watch a few babies out of my home.  So...... if anybody know somebody who knows somebody who needs a babysitter... I am available starting June!

Now some bad news...
My baby boy is throwing tantrums!!!! (insert my own tantrum here)  When I tell him no that he can't do something because it is dangerous or dirty or whatever the reason, he arches his head and back he screams and screams and puts on the waterworks like you wouldn't believe.  I want... correction I NEED advise!  I don't know what to do.  But before the advise here is my dilema.  I KNOW that you are supposed to ignore tantrums.  I KNOW that you are supposed to make sure that they are somewhere safe and then just walk away.  I KNOW that you are not supposed to give him any positive or negative feedback.  But knowing all this, has not helped me AT ALL!  It is a major case of easier said than done. I feel that there are so many factors.  The biggest one being he follows me around screaming and collapsing on the floor and pulling at my legs.  I will pick him up and move him onto the carpet and then he just comes screaming right back.  Of corse there are other factors as well (being tiered, hungry, etc.)  but I am still clueless.  HELP ME!!!!!!!

NOW FOR OUR FUN LIFE!

Back in February we went to the McKormic Ranch Train Park with Arlo.  I have been waiting till Arlo was older to take him somewhere that he would be able to understand and love and have a great time.  We picked just the right place.  Our entire outing was about 4 1/2 hours without a nap and Arlo was nothing but smiles the ENTIRE time.

We started out the day with a big red balloon.  We could have gone to the park just for the balloon and Arlo would still have been the happiest boy in the world... but we continued on with out day.

Next up was the carousel.  Another big hit!  He was so cute.  At first he did not know what was going on with the horse moving up and down and going round and round.  But after a few times around he finally got the hang of it and loved it!

This was just a part of the museum.  It was a cute photo opp.  So here is a picture of the cutest little engineer!

Of course there were swings.  And Arlo loves to swing and since this day was all about him we spent a while at the swings.  And if you notice that there is a huge cut on his forehead that has not been there in any of the other pictures... well you are right!  I photoshopped the monstrosity of a cut (which I gave to him) out of all the pictures, or so I thought.  Oops!

Here is the moment we all waited for.  The train ride.  Arlo had so much fun, he got to ride the train twice.  Once with mommy and once with daddy!

After the train park when we got home, Arlo played with his red balloon for the rest of the day.  It really was a perfect day.

Spring Break is finally HERE!!!!!!

Friday was my last day of school for a whole week!  I cannot even express how excited I am.  Tim and I kicked off my spring break by going up to Sunrise.  We spent friday night in Greer, Az and then on Saturday morning we woke up ate breakfast and spent the rest of the day on the slopes.  I had a blast!  And I got to use my new snowboarding boots that Tim got me for Christmas!  They were awesome!

This is a pic up at the top of the mountain.

The day could not have been more perfect.  Sunrise had received 36 NEW inches of snow that week.  It was a warm and sunny day.  I had the best company.  Life is perfect!

This is a picture of me landing a sweet jump.  No I do not jump high... but I do try and I love it!

Now for the finale... An Arlo update!

This is just a too cute picture.  You cannot see his hair very well, but it is sticking up in all sorts of directions.  He loves his yellow ball and will roll it to you.

This is my little german boy.  Don't you love the fat rolls!

I am having a hard time feeding Arlo right now because he is on a "I can do it all by myself" kick.  So I give him a spoon and put a little bit of food on it and then I sneak in a bit when I can.  But as you can see we still get it EVERYWHERE!

Yep that's right we can climb stairs.  But I have been able to do that for a LONG time.  Here is the important part, I can climb stairs NAKED!

My favorite thing to do...

Tonight for the first time Arlo took 2 steps all by himself.  I still think it will be a while before he starts walking, but he is getting braver by the day!

Arlo has also said his first words... up, please and rock.  

Can I just say that my baby boy is growing up way too fast!

I am so blessed! I love my family!

The most interesting hour... and catch up!

So, most everybody knows I am a working mom.  By the time I pick up my precious baby and get home it's about 4:30.

We get home, I make dinner, I feed my baby, I clean up and before I know it, it's 6:00.

Then I get it... I get one precious hour to spend with my bundle of joy, doing the things that he wants to do.  Fitting a whole day of fun into one short hour.

So what do we do in that hour of fun?  Well today it was the greatest!

First Arlo got ahold of Mommy's hands and wanted to walk, so in our little home Arlo walked his Mommy from the couch to the door one, two, three, four, five... times.  Each time we walked to the door he would stop and look at the two holes in our floor (We have travertine tile and Tim wanted to get the unfilled travertine so we could do it ourselves and when we installed it we filled in the top of the travertine but we did not think to fill in the bottom and now we have two holes that have caved in from the bottom and I am just to lazy to re-grout them).  Then on the way back to the couch he would practically run because the faster he went the more Bronco would wag his tail.  Arlo would just laugh as he turned around to walk the same track again and again and again.

After about 25 minutes of walking back and forth (about 14 1/2 laps) Arlo was walking past the kitchen when he suddenly became distracted by the spoon he had dropped earlier (from dinner, the one mommy looked and looked for and couldn't find.)  So for the first time in what seemed like forever we got off the track we had been on to go get our spoon.  When Arlo realized he had to actually let go of my hands and get down on his knees to get this spoon he decided it wasn't worth it and got right back on the track.

After about 15 more minutes of the same routine Arlo finally decided he was getting tired of walking, so we walked over to Arlo's play area where he proceeded to smoosh his face into a big fluffy pillow and pick up his arms so he was literally laying on his head and screaming into this pillow.  Every time he would look up from his pillow and see me, I would smile at him and say "Peek-a-boo"  and then he would put his head back down into the pillow pick up his hands and start screaming again.

This game lasted for about 15 minutes and then we went back to our toys and regular games.

Seriously?  This is what he wanted to do for our hour of fun? My kid cracks me up!

Here are some cute pictures of Arlo on the swings.  He has to wear a bib right now ALL the time because he is teething and we go through 3-4 of them a day!  He soaks them.

We also went to see the fishes at Bass Pro Shop.  He LOVED them!

Arlo really loves being outside!  But when he cant be outside he will do everything he can to at least look outside. :-)

And what finishes a blog post like cute bathtub pictures?  He is just to cute!  And don't even ask about the cut on his head.  Yes I know it is there.  Yes I did it to him.  No I do not beat my child... it was an accident!

9 months;-)

9 months here we come....
Actually Arlo was 9 months last month on the 30th, but I still want to give my update!
We went to the doctors and found out lots of great information like...
Arlo is 31 inches tall, 22.5 lbs and has a 18 inch head.  He also has an underbite which means we are going to have major orthodontic bills.

The past few weeks have been filled with new tricks and new sides of Arlo that we have never seen before!
For example, Arlo is now clapping all the time!

He used to clap and not really know what he was doing... now he is clapping for the result of everyone around him clapping at him... it is soooooo cute!

He is also learning to blow bubbles in the bath!

It is hard to see in this picture but there are bath bubbles all over his face because he thinks it is so cool to act like a spaz and fall over in the tub (on his tummy) and then freeze... put his face in the water... and blow.  He comes from a family of swimmers and he is proving that he will live up to the Boone expectations for him! I am one proud, proud mama!

He is also learning to hold his bottle all by himself!

He is in his box right now (the shadow), and he loves being independent and holding his bottle.  The only problem that I am having right now with Arlo holding his bottle is that as it gets to the end he likes to shake it all around and get milk everywhere (which is why he is in his box;-))

His biggest accomplishment as of yet is standing up all by himself without support.  I know I posted about this before, but that was when he would already be standing and let go for a max of like 5 seconds before he fell down.  Now, he pushes up from the ground to stand up all by himself, he also pulls on everyone and everything to stand up, let go and then clap for himself because he is standing all by himself.  He has gotten so good at standing up all by himself that he can do it for about 20 seconds clapping and shaking his head in excitement.  I would post a picture of this, but I have realized that I do not have any pictures of him standing on his own, I do have about 10 videos of it, but I do not know how to get them from my Sony camcorder to my mac (HELP!!!)

This past few weeks Arlo has really been showing his wild side.  He really, Really, REALLY loves stuffed animals and when he sees them... all he wants to do is give them love.

 Wow! An animal, I love these!

 Look how excited I am!

  I want to give it love!

 More, More love!

  Okay, that was fun... What's next???

ON A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT NOTE:

We went to the Chocolate Festival this weekend... Tim hated every second, but the weather was perfect and I ate some wonderful chocolate!  And while I was there look who I saw...

   yes that is right, Captain Jack Sparrow himself!!!  The festival was actually filled with a bunch of dirty hippies (which is why Tim was so miserable!)  

After the Chocolate festival, we went to my Moms to play and I made a bet with my step dad that the Colts will win the superbowl and as many of you now know... I lost!

Peyton I am so disappointed in you!  Not because I lost money, but because you let me down.  I trusted you and you broke my heart! I am done with football!

I'm done!!!

I'm done teaching!  I have been trying and trying to get through this year!  I wake up and put on my happy face.  I hold back my tears when I drop off Arlo at the babysitters and then I go to work and try to put on a big show while trying to teach 27 five and six year olds to read and write.  I think I have done a great job so far.  We just received our yearly projections comparing my class this year to my class from last year and I am doing just as well as I did last year but the only problem is that I am DONE!  My heart is not in it any more and my happy face is getting harder and harder to put on.  My only saving grace is that I do love my class this year!  I have one of the most loving classes that I have ever had and I honestly think I get over a hundred hugs a day.  But even though I love my class this year there is nothing more that I want than to stay at home with my baby!  So if there is anyone out there that has millions of dollars that they want to give away...I will be happy to take it off your hands!