Ending Florida Adventures

One of the evenings we were in Flordia the conference we were at had a banquet. We took the opportunity to get all dressed up.

I think we all looked GOOD - but Jaden was especially cute. I am ESPECIALLY proud of this little guy's outfit because it cost....a whopping $4.38 at Kmart. I knew it was clearanced (shirt, jacket, pants and tie -not shown)...but even I was surprised it was THAT cheap at the register. I had been okay with $12!!!!

Finally dressed...
Playing with Daddy at the table

Hamming it up for the camera

Me and my SUPER handsome guys!!!!

Big Red Balloon

Back to posting.....

We were still in FL and Tiffan had brought a bunch of fun little toys over for Jaden to explore. This was a HUGE favorite!
This is just some of the fun (and shouts of glee) captured for you to see!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Word Update

words of the day
Tomato - said "mato" (one of his FAVORITE foods)
and
Bread - said "ed" - I didn't know he knew this one either!

New Words

Jaden is in a vocabulary spurt I think. He seems to be coming up with new words everyday. I'm not sure I can keep up. Since the last "words" post he now says:

Pickle - said "ickle" - This apparently is one of his new favorite foods. He saw a jar of them on the pantry shelf to day and gasped "OOOOOOOOOHHHH" and shouted "ICKLE!!!!" He got to eat one from the jar in the fridge!
carrot - said "at" or "arat"
Alleluia - said "you-ya" or "ya-you" if he gets going to fast. - His new favorite song is the mariachi's Resucito (He is risen). The chorus goes "resucito, resucito, resucito, aleluya. Aleluya, aleluya, aleluya, resucito. He OFTEN (like 25 times a day at least) requests this song by saying, "itO?" (resucito). I watned him to learn the other key word so now every time he says "itO" I say, "alleluia". I started to get him to repeat it. Now sometimes he asks for the song by saying "itO you-ya!"
Popcorn - said "uh-corn" or "pcorn"
Star - said "tar". This one was brand new today. We were shopping and I had brought a shape book along for entertainment. First he surprised me by picking out a circle when I asked him to, and then a square. Then he pointed at the star and said "tar". Hmmm...I didn't know he knew that!
Tractor - said "a-toh" or "da-doh". His MegaBlocks tractor became his new favorite toy for today. I didn't want to take the Little People bus (a favorite of the last several days) to the park and since the tractor is an outdoor toy I switched it out. At first he wasn't impressed but, before long, he wanted to take the "da-doh" everywhere - in the car, in the house, in the crib.....
Pato (Spanish for duck) - said "tato" - In an attempt to NOT sing Resucito ALL day EVERY day I limit it's use during bath time (although it is still used as dancing music for the frog and the turtle). Instead I try to come up with songs for all the squirt toy animals. I have him give me one of the animals and then I sing that one's song while they do a little dance on the side of the tub. Well, Rubber Ducky has become one of his favorites. He's been saying "duck" for awhile now and at his checkup the Dr. mentioned that since he is talking so much it would be good to start using Spanish around him more so - when I remember - I tell him the English and Spanish name for things. So today when he gave me the "ducky" to sing the song I said "this is a duck, un pato." He repeated "pato?" and the rest of the bathtime would give me the "pato" and then request the "ducky" song.
More - said "mo". He has been signing this for a LONG time. Today there were several times when he was in a different room and he would come up to me saying "mo, mo, mo, mo". I couldn't figure out what he meant. I guessed "milk",, "water", ????? Finally tonight he came up to me, grabbed my leg, as I bent down he looked me right in the eye and said "mo. Mo. Mo?" I told him I didn't know what he wanted but to show me. He led me to his room, pointed at the CD player, said "mo" as he signed "more" and then it clicked. Silly me...not recognizing a spoken word because I'm used to SEEING it!

I know that each new stage seems like the cutest thing you've ever seen/experienced but...I think new words, the revelation in a little one's eyes when they know they are communicating in a way you can understand, and the cute way in which they say the words......
Currently, I think that NOTHING could be cuter!

Yummy Stir Fry

I have more to post about our travels but...

I made this for dinner tonight and HAD to share.

If you like Chinese food or stir fry this is really good.
Sometimes I think sauces in recipes like this can be really strong and overpowering. This was not. It was light but tasty and GOOD! Jaden loved it too! He had already eaten dinner at Grandma H's house but he ate a whole plateful and kept asking for more! Meat AND veggies! Usually he's more a veggie guy!

Sorry I don't have any pictures to post of the goodness. Our camera is on the fritz again. I think we're buying a new one THIS WEEK (maybe tomorrow!)

The sauce
5 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2 tomatoes, sliced
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons soy sauce

Directions: In a bowl, stir together olive oil, onions, tomatoes, ginger root, and garlic. Season with sugar, salt, and soy sauce

The directions on the Allrecipies website don't tell you what else to do but....I put the sauce in a skillet over med-high heat for about 5 minutes. I added 3, 1-inch think pork loin chops cubed and cooked for probably about 6 minutes - until they were browned all around. Then I added 1 bag frozen stir fry vegetables and cooked according to package directions (about 8 minutes).

YUM!!!!!!!!!!

Disneyworld

So...there are so many pictures from this day that it might be boring for anyone who either doesn't LOVE LOVE LOVE Disney or LOVE LOVE LOVE their grandson Jaden.....

As a new blogging experiment I made a video with Smilebox (thanks for the idea Kayla). Rides were rated - Jaden style as "more", "MORE", and "all done"! some not pictured were Peter Pan (ALL DONE), and the Carousel of Progress (Jaden - MORE; Mommy and Daddy "all done"). Mommy and Daddy also got to go on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain. Space Mountain was out of commission so we missed that one....

After the pics will come some videos if you still have the heart to watch! :-)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Not much action but grandma K will enjoy the song. Jaden was mesmerized in It's a Small World

Outside of Ariel's house (we didn't go there) Jaden discovered these pads of squirting water. He was pretty interested in playing with them until he got a little TOO close!

The Dumbo ride in action

All in all...an amazing day! I can't wait to go back when Jaden is big enough to remember and we can spend more time! :-)

Day Two

After church on Sunday we spent some time hanging out at the hotel. Tiffany brought a "bag of tricks" that included some FUN stuff.
Woah! STICKERS!? Those look COOL!

I'll take that one, and that one, and THAT one....

Jaden had a GREAT time sticking the stickers all over himself and us. The most fun was putting them on the laminated card of telephone numbers from the hotel. That way he could take them off again!

Then we hit the pool. Jaden has always loved the water but been a bit intimidated by big pools and deep water. I think the FL heat had him convinced it was fun though. He's finally getting the hang of it!

Here he is riding on an innertube.

And, he finally let us get him this far away from our body (i.e. he loosened the pool death grip) and actually started kicking his feet! This face tells me he's having fun! :-)

And, there was a little park at the hotel. He was really quick at climbing UP the slid as well as going down but....we was getting a little tired by this point so he struggled at the top. But....you get the idea.

A Trip to Orlando

Beginning our month of travel (4000+ driving miles and 2500+ flying miles) was a trip to Orlando for the National Lutheran Hispanic Convention. We got to visit a great friend Tiffany there before she moved back north. WAY fun!

Here's Jaden when we arrived in Orlando, sill a little sleepy after a good nap of the second flight. Without even planning he happened to match his stroller nicely!
We thought we would have all kinds of time after arriving at the airport to check into the hotel, go to dinner and play at a park, go grocery shopping, etc. before picking daddy up from the airport at 10:30pm or so. But, due to traffic and an EXTREMELY long ordeal at the car rental place trying to argue that a "standard size" car cannot possibly mean a 2 door Sebring when the webpage showed a 4 door sedan (DON'T rent from Payless car rental if you can help it) and Friday night tourist district Orlando traffic meant that we barely checked into the hotel and got a bite at McDonalds before running to pick up daddy!

The next day we decided to hit the beach. We drove a little ways over past Tampa to go to one of Tiffany's favorite spots - I think it was called Honeymoon Island State Park. Anyway, it is a nice long stretch of beach NOT dotted with hotels and vendors. So, it is nice and natural.

Here we are getting ready to go. Jaden got some OJ with Tiffany's help.

He decided that he was NOT into the Mickey hat that mommy had bought him to keep out the sun. Granted...Stephen says it will fit him when he goes to Kindergarten it was so big. I couldn't help it....it was the smallest one I could find!

Jaden had a blast playing in the bright, white, soft sand (the truck, bucket, shovel and rake that Tiffany brought sure helped!)

We rented an umbrella and chairs for a little extra comfort

Daddy and Jaden hit the water (or the water hit them...however you want to think about it). At first Jaden wasn't too sure. But, the water was REALLY warm so he got into it with a little encouragement (and a death grip on daddy!)

As he got used to the waves he got a little braver although he never let go!

They kept getting bigger....and so did his smile! Here's a sample of a bit of the fun...and a few little shrieks! I LOVE the "OOOOhhhhh" face he makes somewhere in the middle of the video. Of all of Jaden's expressions, it is one of my favorites!

After getting wet it was time to get DIRTY. Daddy did a good job of burying Jadens legs.

And, Jaden had fun playing "King of Daddy's Mountain"

A bit of the sand action.

At Long Last...

I know, I know, I KNOW.....

It has been a million years since I have posted some pictures. I decided that I am TIRED. After driving 4000+ miles and flying another 2500+ we are TIRED of traveling. We are SO glad to be home for awhile.

I don't know if I have the stamina to post pictures today or not. My house is a MESS (even though we have hardly been here), I STILL have piles of laundry to do (still 4 days after we got home), I have STINKY leftovers in my fridge to get rid of, and I feel like sleeping.

HOWEVER......

Stephen and I were marveling at how fast Jaden is learning and growing the yesterday and we were (in preparation for a question I know is coming at his 18 month doctor's appointment coming up next week) counting the number of words that he says. Let me tell you at about 40 words...he's a little communicator! Lately, he's been mixing the words that he knows with a bunch of babble and facial expressions that make you think you really SHOULD understand what he's talking about. Camilla (a little girl at the office) was babbling right back at him on Thursday so....they must understand each other!

These are the ones we have been able to think. This isn't counting the things that we are sometimes able to get him to repeat even if he probably doesn't know what they mean.

*I'll put an * next to words that repeat categories (like spoken and signed)

Spoken Words: (said pretty much perfectly)
Up
all done
Mommy
Daddy
bubble - one of the words in one of his favorite songs
pop - meaning the popping of the bubble
baby (bibi)
*poop
ice - a new word learned because of his love for eating it (Grandpa H introduced it)
no
apple
taco
ball

Spoken Words: (as his parent we know what he means based on context or what he's pointing at)
*fish - said "shhh"
oatmeal - said "meal"
bus - said "ssss"
cake - said "cahke"
duck - said "cuck"
yes - said "ma"
banana - said "nana"
Resucito - said "tito" (the name of his new favorite mariachi song)
whoops - said "ooup"
buckel - said "uckle" or "cuckle" (one of his new favorite activites in shopping carts or high chairs)
Mariachi - said "chi" (his favorite type of music)

Sound Words:
choo choo - said "too too" with a little nasal "unk" at the end (train)
moo (what a cow says)
Meeeeow (what a cat says)
ruf (what a dog says)
quack - said "cak" (what a duck says)
vroom (what a car or bus says)
oink - said "unk" with a little snort at times (what a pig says)
Neigh (what a horse says)

Signed Words:
more
bye bye
please
thank you
*fish
lion
giraffe (sometimes)
*poop
hungry/thirsty

I'll let you know if I think of any more! The first time we counted we only got to about 30. Then today he reminded us of several more! :-) Gotta love that little guy!