Christmas Morning

Geddy was super excited and a little awed by the pile of presents Santa left him this morning.

His stocking was full of lots of little cars, M&M's and even a miniature Tickle Me Elmo!
Mom and Dad had a hard time convincing him to put the blocks away so we could open even more presents.
Once he discovered Thomas the Tank Engine the blocks were quickly forgotten (for awhile). The next distraction was a huge book with lots of pictures of animals, insects, reptiles, birds and even dinosaurs.
The most enjoyable find for Geddy was his Elmo/Cookie Monster cell phone from Grandpa Bruce and Grandma Lorrayne. He has already had many conversations on the phone and is even learning how to hold a phone properly.

After all the wonderful presents were opened and mom and dad had cleaned everything up, it was time to pull out the other blocks from Santa. Geddy decided to put on his Santa hat and kick the blocks around the living room instead of letting dad build a tower for him.

Oh yeah, we did have a white Christmas. Last night it snowed for a few hours and we got about 4 more inches. These pictures were taken from our front porch. The weatherman said we were supposed to have snow showers off and on all day today, but the sun is actually trying to come it so I don't think that is going to happen.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Christmas Excitement

Geddy is so ready for Christmas. Obviously, he doesn't fully understand what is going on, but he knows something is and he is tired of waiting for it. The past week he has been a crazy little guy. He goes from being hyper and silly to tired and grumpy in just seconds. He has been sleeping extremely well the whole week (10-12 hours straight each night). I guess that is his Christmas present for me. He isn't napping today though. I put him in for his nap 45 minutes ago and he is still in there jabbering away to his stuffed animals (he has three he has to sleep with). I figure he isn't crying, so I might as well leave him there and maybe he will fall asleep eventually. I hope to get lots of good Christmas pictures and video tomorrow so I can update this blog for all the family to see since we aren't with any family this Christmas. Here is another addition to the "Geddy putting everything on his head" album.
I was trying to get Geddy changed for bed last night. He decided he wasn't going to hold still for me to change his diaper or put pajamas on. As you will see in the videos at the end, he kind of had some spaz time before I finally held him down long enough to change him. Earlier yesterday, I was taking pictures and Geddy decided he wanted to take one too. He took a funny one of daddy and then wanted one of "Gaguh" (how he says Geddy). So I sat him in my lap and let him push the button. I held it and hoped it got more of him than me. This is the result. I did tell him to smile, but apparently he didn't want to.

Hopefully the videos all work. I have never done three different ones at the same time before. I couldn't decided which ones to use. The first one he is jumping on the couches. In the second one he is doing some crazy dance (we will get real dance videos on here sometime), including his "fancy feet". The last one you have to have sound for, when you see him jump away from the tree at one point, it is because a branch poked him in the back. Sorry they are a little dark, they are still watchable. I don't know what happens, we have plenty of light on in the room.

Frustration

I have been trying for several days to put an entry on here with some funny pictures of Geddy from the past year with hats and other odd things on his head. For some reason it just will not work. He loves putting stuff on his head. Hat was the third word he could say really well (after mama and dada of course). He usually pronounces it with a mostly silent 'h'. He also loves putting "hats" on Scott and me. I will just add a couple of the more recent pictures to this post and hope it works.

Winter Fun

Geddy was a little hyper this morning. All he wanted was to go "bye-bye" with his "ball-ball". He wanted to go outside in the snow and kick his ball. So we did. It is hard to get good pictures in the snow, so sorry if the lighting is a bit weird. It looks like this was taken at night but it was around 11 in the morning.
He wasn't sure about walking in the snow at first. But once he did it he thought it was pretty fun. He also thought it was funny when Mama went running in the snow too, especially because I was wearing my slip-on shoes (sorry no video clips of that) ;)
He took a couple of tumbles in the cold snow but he just laughed and got back up. Luckily it is so cold that the snow is dry, not wet and slushy.
I finally convinced Geddy it was time to go in for hot chocolate with marshmallows. Though I did have a hard time convincing him it was nap time after that. He must have worn himself out though because he has been asleep for almost two hours. Two hours I could have done the laundry and mopped the kitchen floor. Instead I caught up on e-bay shipments, phone calls, bills and this blog.
Oh well, hopefully the video works for everyone. It's not too terribly exciting, but anything with Geddy in it is at least cute to watch.

First Haircut

I finally gave Geddy his first haircut today. This first picture is from a few weeks ago. You can see how fluffy his hair was getting in back. It was really cute as long as it curled, but a lot of times it just puffed out like this. He also had long hair above his ears that I was always tucking behind his ears. You can see other before shots by looking at previous entries in the blog.
Geddy was very good at sat nice and quietly while I sprayed his hair with water, then combed and trimmed it. These next pictures are the 'after' ones. The first three are right after when his hair was still damp. I kind of liked it when the hair above his ears curled, but he still looks cute without them.

He's telling me "all done" in this picture. I don't think he wanted me to cut anymore.

These next few were taken a few hours later after his hair was all dry. I am glad his hair still curls, a little less fluff and puffiness though.

We had just been for a walk out in the snow so Geddy was a little bit hyper and silly. A nice change from his orneriness the last couple of days. His molars are really bothering him lately. The top two are almost all through and the bottom two are just about ready to cut through.

In the last picture he is telling me "all done" again. This time he is tired of me taking pictures. As you can tell, "all done" is his favorite thing to say.

Christmas Tree

Over the weekend we decided to put up our little Christmas tree. That way Geddy will have plenty of time to get used to it before packages are put under it. He had a lot of fun. I tried to get pictures of him, but he just doesn't hold still for very long. So, sorry if the pictures are a bit blurry.
I had planned on hanging candy canes on the tree, something we have always done. We have candy canes that are about ten years old that we put on every year. Geddy had fun breaking a lot of them. He even tried tasting one (so did I to see why he made such a face), pretty nasty after being tossed around for so many years:)

Geddy approved of the final tree with the lights on. He clapped and clapped and wouldn't put his hands down so I could get a picture of his face.

We did let Geddy put our little angel on the top of the tree. Dad helped straighten it a little bit.

We hope to get outside lights put up this next weekend as long as the weather cooperates. We had too much snow to do it this last weekend. So far Geddy is enjoying the Christmas decorations. He especially likes seeing Santa and Rudolph everywhere.

Geddy's First Photo Shoot

Yesterday I took Geddy to Kiddie Kandids for his first professional photo (we had a coupon that expires tomorrow). The photographers were a little nervous about how he would do when they heard it was his first time being in a photo studio. They were pleasantly surprised with his behavior and smiles. They kept saying what a natural he is and how much fun he was to photograph. There was only one picture where he looked away too soon. Of course, because he was so good all the pictures turned out great and I had a horrible time deciding on which ones to get real prints of. You'll have to wait until Christmas to see which ones I chose. I will have to try and do this more often. A lot of studios offer free 8x10's or other deals to get you in. As long as I can be resistant to purchasing others and just get the free ones, I should be able to get more pictures of him. I guess I should have done it sooner, most people apparently do. At least I have been able to take lots of good pictures at home. He is definitely a fun and easy photo subject.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Geddy had so much fun this past long weekend. He was ecstatic to have both mom and dad with him for five whole days. (Scott was home Wednesday with a bad cold). Geddy spent lots of time climbing on everything, reading books, and chattering. He has started talking some silly talk that doesn't make any sense. It sounds like lots of yabba-dabba-doos mixed with his regular words like mama, dada, up, pop, hat, no-no, ball and Elmo. It is very funny and the more he sees us laugh at it, the more he does it.

He is developing a fondness for sticking out his tongue when I am trying to take his picture. They still turn out cute though. I am always glad to get a picture where he is at least looking at the camera. I get lots of pictures of his back or the top of his head, or even the empty couch because he doesn't hold still long enough for the camera to take the picture.

One day during the holiday break, Geddy helped me clean and rearrange my cupboards so there were some he could play in. All my plastic containers got moved to a Geddy accessible place. He had a blast scooting them all over the kitchen floor. I also put locks on all my other cupboards. So now mama doesn't need to spend so much time saying no-no when we are in the kitchen.

Sunday night Geddy was quite proud of himself because he put all these beads together and then made a necklace out of them. I tried getting him to look at me, but he was having too much fun putting it on and off of his neck. He has frequently put a couple of these beads together, but some of them are harder than others, so he usually gives up in frustration. Yesterday was the first time he did so many and made the ring. He also decided to try doing somersaults. He did one perfect one and a couple of ones that ended up going sideways. Who knows why he decided to try that one, it's certainly never been one of his mother's favorite moves!

Oreo Faces - Need I say more?!

Fall Clean-Up

Last Saturday we finally had decent weather so we were able to get some outside work done. Scott gave the lawns a final mow while Geddy and I raked leaves. Geddy had a bit of fun with his little rake, but much preferred mom's big rake. Geddy has a bit of a cold now, but when he is feeling better I hope to be able to take him out in the mornings and get some more yard work done. My rose bushes are out of control as are several weed beds (should be flower beds). We are supposed to get extremely cold weather next week so we will have to wait and see. In the meantime, I am trying to get our entire house childproofed. Geddy needs a little more room than our living room is providing him. He loves to have the freedom of running up and down the hallway and the kitchen. I don't give him the opportunity often as none of my cupboards have locks on them and there is a lot of stuff all over. He will love it if I can get it done.

Yes, I'm a slacker!

It has been a long time since I put anything new here. Sorry, the past few weeks have been a bit hectic. Geddy had his 15 month check-up last week. He is 26 lb 13 oz and he is 2'8" tall. The dr. was quite impressed with his coordination and his verbal skills and comprehension. Geddy of course showed off by performing his favorite animal sounds as well as drumming on everything with a couple of tongue depressors the dr. gave him. He also entertained us with his lightsaber moves and sound effects (again using the tongue depressor).

Last week Geddy discovered the piano. He opened it up himself and started playing. We now have to leave it open so he doesn't slam his little fingers. He enjoys playing a few notes every time he walks by, but he prefers to sit on the bench and really play.

Another favorite pastime of Geddy's is airplane rides in his toy box (laundry basket). Geddy turns it upside to empty it out and then Daddy lifts him up and flies him around the house. Dad was getting rather tired after 3 or 4 rides and told Geddy he was "all done" (one of Geddy's favorite things to say) and this is the look he got. Needless to say Dad gave in and flew him around a couple more times. Now it has become a nightly ritual while I am at work. And no matter how many rides he gets, Geddy always wants more!

We didn't dress Geddy up for Halloween this year. We figured he is still too little to really appreciate Halloween. Also the cool costumes were all too big and too expensive. However, we did carve a pumpkin. Geddy was not too sure of the whole process to begin with. He was pretty upset when Daddy started cutting into the pumpkin. But Mama was holding him so he toughed it out. Geddy even sampled some raw pumpkin, thankfully he didn't like it. Halloween night I was at work, so Geddy helped his Daddy answer the door for the trick-or-treaters. He thought it was pretty fun to hand out candy to people. He made sure the tray was always full by emptying out the bags. He especially liked seeing our jack-o-lantern on the porch every time he went to the door. The next day he even pretended to open the door and hand pretend candy to people and then wave good-bye to them. Next year we will find him a fun costume and he can enjoy Halloween.

Geddy's Trip to the Zoo

We have finally been having some pleasant fall weather, so we decided to take Geddy to the zoo in Salt Lake. We knew he would enjoy it because he is obsessed with animals and making animal sounds. The elephants were his favorite (something in common with his Aunt Carrie). We visited the elephants a couple of times. He raised his trunk (arm) and trumpeted hello and goodbye to the three elephants there. He enjoyed watching them eat carrots with their trunks.

He also enjoyed the monkeys, bears, big cats and zebras. He became a little concerned when he saw this Arabian Wildcat. He thought it was Spanky and was a bit perplexed that he was behind glass at the zoo.

To finish off the day at the zoo we went for a ride on the train. It travels around a small portion of the zoo and goes right through some of the animal compounds. Geddy's favorite part was when it went through the American Bison part, one of the bison started running right for the train. Geddy thought that was pretty funny. It was his first ride on a train and he loved it. He still points to the door and says "choo-choo" and does an elephant sound and wants to go bye-bye to do those things again. I am just glad we finally had decent weather to be able to do this, considering all of our other plans of late have been ruined by nasty weather.