Big Boy

I cannot believe how much Leo has grown in just five months! The first picture was taken when we brought him home from the hospital. People always say that he's so small, but he seems huge to us. I guess it's a matter of perspective.

Fun in AZ

I promised myself that I was going to keep up on the blog while I was down here, and so far its been a complete bust. I'm going to try and be better from here on out. Here's what's happened so far. We drove down on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and Leo was a real trooper. We were worried that he would get tired of being in the car seat, but he just spent a lot of time sleeping and was surprisingly happy. Of course, now that we're here he won't let me leave him in his seat for more than twenty minutes without freaking out. I think he's afraid that I'll leave him in there for twelve hours again. Hopefully he forgets in the next few weeks so we can get him back to Utah.

We had Thanksgiving dinner with Ty's extended family out in Tonopah. It was a lot of fun and the food was delicious. (Of course.) Then we had pie later that night with my family. I ate way too much, as usual, but it was worth it. The weather was absolutely perfect, and it made me very happy that we chose to come down.

Ty had to go back to Utah a few days after Thanksgiving to finish up school. He had his last class today and just has to worry about finals now. We're excited that he'll be back down in a week. I've been keeping busy with several different projects. (I'll post pictures when they're done.) So far I've made two quilt tops, I'm half way through a Christmas tree skirt, and I've mended and hemmed several things. We also got the house all decorated for Christmas and threw a post-choir-concert  party for my nephews. It was a lot of fun and is really helping me survive sans husband.

Leo has started eating solid foods on a more regular basis and he loves it! Especially now that we have a high chair for him to sit in.

He is such a good eater and has yet to turn his nose up at anything I've offered him. Usually he gives me a "what the crap" look when I give him the first bite of something new, but then he just goes with it. He's pretty laid back, which is nice. The only problem is that he can't (or won't) stay sitting upright while he eats. And if I try and take a break to straighten him out he freaks.

He also got introduced to the exersaucer and he's in heaven. The king of his own little toy-filled domain. We're going to have to invest in one of these!

Tuna Surprise

Now that Kristen has left me for the warmer climes of Arizona I find that I must fend for myself. Since I have run out of money to go out to eat, I decided to cook up some tuna helper. Behold, attempt #1!

So what I was supposed to do was boil the water in the pot and pour it in the glass dish, then bake it for 35 minutes. What I did instead was light the incorrect burner underneath the glass dish. Then I sat there wondering why the water wasn't boiling until the glass shattered.

I was able to make something edible on the second try, but I don't know how I'm going to make it until Kristen is taking care of me again. Why, oh why did she have to leave me. :-(

Yesterday evening Leo was so cranky, so I started throwing him up in the air and he loved it! He has never laughed so hard before. It was hilarious. Then, all of a sudden, I threw him up in the air and he barfed. And not just a little bit. He barfed so hard it came out of his nose. I felt so bad and he just sat there looking at me like, "What was that?" It was funny.

Speaking of funny . . . Leo and I ran to the mall to exchange something today. They already had Santa there for pictures. As we walked by there was this terrified little girl screaming and clinging to her mother as three adults tried to pry her off and force her to sit on Santa's lap. Why do people do that to their kids? I mean, if they want to see Santa then take them. But why do they want to pay $30 to have horrible pictures of their hysterical kids sitting on the lap of a man who, let's be honest, isn't even really Santa? I don't get it. 

Any how, Leo has picked up two new skills; spitting and kicking his socks off. He thinks both are equally hilarious and alternates between them all day long. Oh the joys of being a little boy.

So the weather here has been absolutely perfect this past week or so. It's been between 60 and 70 degrees and full of sunshine. Leo and I have been taking advantage and soaking up all the sun we can with some long, rambling walks. I swear we've been past every house in a half mile radius of our house. Leo loves to be outside so we're not looking forward to being stuck inside once the snow comes.
Speaking of which, we decided to head down to AZ for an extended stay to keep Leo (and me!) out of the cold for as long as we can. We'll be there from Tuesday until January. (No. I'm not kidding.)

Four Months

Leo had his four month check up on Thursday. He's up to 13 pounds 4 ounces (17th percentile) and is 24 3/4 inches long (42nd percentile). The doctor told us to start giving him rice cereal since he spits up about half of everything he eats. He really, really likes it until he doesn't. (What I mean by that is that he just devours every spoon full as fast as I can get it to his mouth and then all of a sudden he's done and he wants it as far away from him as it can possibly be. Hence the screaming face in the picture below.)

Also, the other day I was trying to look through the mail and Leo kept grabbing it. I gave him a page of the adds to keep him occupied and when I looked down a few minutes later this is what I saw. (If you blow it up you can see a little black mustache. Sick, huh?)

Catch Up

Sorry in advance. This is going to be really long and mostly pictures. There's a bunch of stuff I've been meaning to blog about and just haven't gotten around to it. Here goes!

Sleeping:

Leo has been such a stinker about going to sleep lately. He absolutely refuses to take a nap and just runs a hundred miles an hour until he is so cranky he can't stand it. Then we can usually trick him into falling asleep for a little while.

Last Sunday he kept falling asleep and then waking up as soon as I set him down. I finally laid down with him and just rolled him off of me once he was out. Then he slept so long we had to wake him up so he wouldn't be up all night.

He falls asleep on Ty a lot. Probably because Ty just lets him cry himself out.

This one was taken at about 10:30 at night, which is way past Leo's bedtime. We went through our whole bed time routine and Leo just wasn't going for it. Little stinker!

Hands:

Lately Leo just can't get enough of looking at his hands. Half the time he looks like he's trying to fight you. He's getting pretty good at picking stuff up and, of course, puts everything he can get a hold of into his mouth.

Pumpkin:

Last night we had stuffed pumpkin for dinner and we let Leo feel the guts before we threw them out. He actually seemed to think they were pretty cool. And he thinks pumpkin seeds are pretty tasty too. (Don't worry Raygon, we only gave him a little taste!)

Big Nerd:

I don't remember when this was, a few weeks ago maybe? Ty got Leo dressed and he put him in these newborn pajamas that he's never worn before. They were way too small and Leo ended up looking like a little cheerleader. (Short shorts, bare midriff, writing on the buns. . .) And of course we didn't take him out of it. We just spent all afternoon laughing at him. (I know, we're mean.)

Experimenting:

Do you remember these babies? I used to love taking them in my lunch. I decided it would be a good idea to turn them into these:
Looks good, huh? It really isn't. I mean, they tasted okay, but they were a little too dry for my taste. They did however, end up tasting slightly salty. Unexpected, but not a bad combo. Next time I'll just use more oil or something.

Lastly:
So I washed the lion costume (According to the manufacturers instructions) and Lion's mane turned into an afro. Interesting fashion statement Lion. Very interesting.

Yumminess

Remember TasteSpotting that I blogged about a few posts back? Well now I'm even more in love with it because it led me to this:

I know it doesn't look like much, but it is pure mango, chicken, rice deliciousness! It's filled with good stuff like onions, cilantro and lime which gives it a homemade salsa flavor. Yummy! And it was so easy. (If you want the actual recipe you can find it here. I'm too lazy to type it out right now.) Thank you We Heart Food for making all of my (mango, chicken, rice) dreams come true!

I have some Leo updates too, but I'm on the laptop right now and don't have access to my pictures. Maybe tomorrow.

Snow

It snowed last night. I feel a little like the world is mourning right along with me. (Am I being overly dramatic?) It probably just snowed because it's November and we live by a giant mountain.

President-Elect Obama

I decided this morning that, since Obama is going to be the leader of our country for at least the next four years, I should probably try and find something that I like about him. (Thus far my opinions of him have run along the lines of "condescending," "arrogant," "dishonest," "pure evil," etc.) I thought I would start out by watching his acceptance speech and see if he said anything that inspired me. About 37 seconds into it I started crying and by second 42 I couldn't take any more and had to shut it off. Maybe tomorrow, huh?

Happy Halloween!

Obsession

I have a new obsession. Once Leo's in bed I spend ridiculous amounts of time finding new recipes on the internet. If you've never heard of TasteSpotting you should definitely check it out. (Here) A lot of the recipes are unnecessarily complicated and/or include ingredients that I've never even heard of, but there are some that are try-able. And the layout just looks so pretty, I love going there. Food makes me happy. :)

We're Back!

Sorry I've been MIA. We've all been sick this past week with a pretty nasty cold. It's a whole lot harder to be sick when you've got a kid, huh? I was definitely longing for some kid free time so I could just sleep. (Leo refuses to take naps unless you're holding him, and not laying down either. You have to be sitting up and even then he'll only sleep for about 20 minutes. Stinking kid!) Any how, not much has been going on here though I did do four loads of laundry today. Yeah, if it was fabric and in our house it was dirty. 

Leo had his first taste of rice cereal today. It was pretty hilarious. I literally had to hold his hands down in order to get the spoon to his mouth because he wasn't willing to wait for me to get the next bite to his mouth. He kept grabbing the spoon and shoving it in himself. He's cute. 

Speaking of Leo and cuteness . . . today when he woke up he wasn't a baby any more. I'm not kidding. I pulled him out of his crib and thought, "Man, he looks so grown up today." Then Ty saw him and said, "He looks like a little boy now." So that's that. Our baby grew up over night. I'm a little sad about it, but he's so dang cute and getting to be more and more fun every day. He likes to play "patty cake" and "ride a horsey into town" now. He just laughs and laughs when you do it. If we had a camera that recorded sound I'd put it on here but, alas, no such luck. 

Bad Parents

We let Leo try a sucker today and it was so cute that we just kept giving him more. Oops. :)

Generally I'm not a huge fan of Utah, but the weather is perfect right now. Leo and I took a long walk this morning to soak up the sunshine and enjoy the warmth while we can.

(Leo worn out from the walk)

Uneventful Week

I feel like not much has happened this past week. (Hence the serious lack of posting.) We've actually done quite a bit though. On Wednesday I went with my sister Sheri and my niece Winter to Corn Belly's. (It's like Schnepf Farms for those of you who are familiar with that.) That's what the picture at the top is from. It reminded me of The Carol Burnett Show. Isn't there a bit in that with a giant rocking chair? Any how, Leo was a little young for most of the stuff there (corn maze, big slides, bouncer, wagon rides) but it was nice to get out of the house for a while. Sometimes I really feel the need for some grown-up conversation.
This weekend we exchanged babysitting with a couple that lives up the street from us. They have a 4 year old and a baby who's just a week younger than Leo. We decided that we're glad we didn't have twins. (Ty's not angry, he just kind of looks like it in this shot.) We got to go out to dinner without worrying about keeping Leo quiet, which is always nice. Then we went window shopping at the mall. Sometimes I worry because we think things like that are fun now. I guess that's what happens when you don't get much baby-free time.
On Saturday we cleaned the whole house. Apparently we live on a prime real estate spot for spiders because there have been so many of them in our house lately. It's really starting to make me angry. I sprayed bug spray around all the windows and doors. And the fireplace. I can't wait until we're not too poor to have the bug man come!

I cut Ty's hair on Friday. (This was my second attempt.) It actually doesn't look too bad as long as you don't look too close. And I feel like I kind of cheated because I used the clippers on the whole thing. Oh well. He likes it and I'm not embarrassed for people to know that I did it, so I guess that's all I can ask for at this point.

Leo is learning how to pick things up (always with his left hand. Maybe he'll be a leftie?) He doesn't really know how to control his hands yet, so sometimes it's interesting. For instance, the very first time he picked up his fish rattle he was waving it around in the air and having a great time. Then his hand fell off to the side where he couldn't see it any more and he started throwing the hugest fit. In the midst of his screaming and flailing his hand came back in front of his face and he was happy again. He did that a couple of times and, poor kid, we just laughed at him the entire time.

I also have a new product on my business site. You can check it out here if you're interested.

We drove Alpine Loop yesterday to see all the changing leaves. It was beautiful as always.

A random really nice man took this for us.

Ty went exploring on an overgrown trail we found at one of our stops.

He picked up several little hitchhikers.

*Funny story about our trip. The road winds all around through the mountains and at one point we missed it. (The road, I mean.) I guess we weren't paying attention or something because all of a sudden we were half on and half off and we couldn't get back on the road for 30 feet or so because the shoulder was too steep. We were a little worried because we were scraping bottom, but we made it back on the road again and we didn't even break the car.

I was bored today and this is what happened. Isn't he adorable?

One good thing about living where it's cold? Winter clothes are way cute! (The hats are my favorite!)

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Good:

Homemade caramel sauce. Holy shmoly, it's good. Lick the pan, the spoon, the spill on the oven good. And really easy. I probably shouldn't make it again, but you and I both know that I will. Probably on a day that Ty has school from 8-6 so I can eat the whole pan by myself and hide all the evidence before he gets home.

Bad:

Scones. Now, scones aren't inherently bad I just happened to find a really terrible recipe. (It was the only one that didn't call for 10 cups of flour.) They ended up being really dense, looking like lembas bread and tasting how I've always imagined hard tack would taste. You know, the stuff that sailors used to eat on long sea voyages once they ran out of food. And honestly, I will probably never make them again unless I happen to be stranded in the middle of the ocean with nothing but flour and water.

Ugly:

I actually didn't have anything in mind for this segment. I guess my hair would qualify right now. It's been raining all day so it's pretty humid and when I got out of the shower this morning I just let it do its own thing. Yeah, it's pretty much fighting with my nose for supreme ruler ship of my head. What are you gonna do?

Yesterday was a trial here at the Reber house. The Stink Bottom was so cranky and he wouldn't take a nap for anything. Plus I was cranky because I'd had a migraine and was not feeling up to dealing with His Stinkiness. Part way through the morning Ty says, "Um, babe? You're a little . . ." To which I replied, "Grouchy? Yeah, I know. Stop bugging me." Fortunately Leo and I finally got to take a good nap together in the afternoon.

On Wednesday we went on a picnic with my Aunt Linda and my nieces Winter and Rainy at Bridal Veil Falls. The weather was perfect and it was absolutely beautiful! Fall is probably the best part about living in Utah. (Too bad it has to be followed by snow!)

Back: Linda, Leo Front: Winter, Owen, Me

Rainy, Me, Winter

I just realized that it's been a week since I posted anything, and I don't really remember anything that happened in said week. How weird is that? I mean, what have I been doing and why can't I remember it? I have got to get a life!

A Few More Pictures

I had to add these too. Leo has been smiling like crazy lately.

You gotta love the hair!

Finally!

I've been trying to get a picture of Leo sticking his tongue out for several weeks now and I just can't manage it. Every time I pull out the camera he stops doing it. And the only two times that he kept going the camera batteries died. By the time I got new batteries in he was done, the little stinker. Any how, today I had the genius idea to take a video instead. (Took me long enough, huh?)

Fun Times

Sorry I've been MIA. I went to AZ with Leo last week and, in spite of my best intentions, I never blogged while I was there. We didn't really do anything extraordinary. Just hung out with the people we love. Leo got to meet three of his four living great-grandparents, and he was even nice to all of them. I can't say the same for Grandma and Grandpa Reber. He spent at least the beginning of every visit to them screaming his head off. I don't know what that was about. It was a really fun trip, but we were glad to get home too. Six days without daddy was a bit difficult.

Oh, flying with a baby is great. No one wants to sit by you because they're afraid they're going to get barfed on or something. On the way down we had an entire row to ourselves which made for a comfy flight. We weren't so lucky on the way home since the flight was full. The seat next to us was the very last one filled though. And the best part is that Leo didn't even make a peep.

Leo was really happy to be in AZ!

More Pictures of Leo

Leo got his two month old immunizations on Wednesday. He actually did really well and just slept most of the day. By evening though, he was done being good. He wasn't happy and he let us know it!

I love this picture because I think it makes him look like a little hoodlum!

These last two are just for comparison. Look how much he's grown in two months!