Theo's 1st Birthday

Theo celebrated his first birthday on January 22nd! We had a 2 day celebration with a party on the 23rd celebrating Theo's, Scott's, and my mom's birthdays.

Theo's latest development since turning 1 is nodding "yes" and shaking his head "no". Along with the few signs he knows, communicating with him has suddenly become much easier since he consistently answers questions. All those months where I felt like I was talking to myself have finally paid off! He certainly seems more like a toddler and less like a baby every day. Before we know it, he'll be walking and talking!

Christmas, part 2, and early January

Here are the latest photos from our second Christmas celebration with my family and from early January. Coming soon - Theo's 1st birthday!

Christmas... so far

We spent a fun-filled 5 days with Jay's family at Buffalo Lake for Christmas! Since returning home, we've gotten to spend some time with my high school friends who are in town. Later today, we'll be celebrating Christmas with my family. Merry Christmas!

December 2010

Merry Christmas! December has brought lots more firsts for Theo! Between Christmas parties and Jay's travels, it's been another busy month! One of the highlights for me was the day Jay took the afternoon off from work and let me go Christmas shopping all by myself. It was perfectly timed and an awesome break for me. I think I'm going to try to make it an annual tradition! There are lots more fun times ahead with our families in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois!

Thanksgiving and early December

Happy Holiday season! In the past few weeks, Theo enjoyed his first Thanksgiving and watched us decorate the house for Christmas! He was quite interested in the tree at first, and still occasionally pulls an ornament or two off the bottom of the tree, but now he ignores it for the most part. I think he was mostly excited to find some new things around the house to look at and play with. We almost attended Theo's first Christmas party, but we didn't quite make it... (explanation in photo caption). Jay and I are looking forward to the JCI BE party - a night away from home with food, drinks, and music!

In other news, Theo has 5 teeth and is working on the 6th. He pulls up on anything and everything, and has started to "cruise" along some furniture. And best of all, he says both "dada" and "mama"!

10 months old!

Today Theo turned 10 months old! His favorite activities include reading books, throwing balls, crawling around, and pulling up on anything & everything! This month we had a fun visit with Sarah and Megan who took the train down from Minneapolis to spend the night with us. The next day all 5 of us drove out to Fort Atkinson to have dinner with the Nelsons. It was a great visit! Click below for the latest photos.

Happy 7th Anniversary to us!

Today is our 7th anniversary! Jay celebrated by working in Wuxi, China for the day and enjoying a Korean dinner in the evening. I celebrated by taking Theo to Kindermusik in the morning and going for a jog by Lake Michigan. North Beach was beautiful and deserted this afternoon. Theo enjoyed his time in the stroller and promptly fell asleep on the way home. Tonight we are going out to dinner with a friend.

Click below for the latest photos. There are a lot of them, but I wanted to post extra for Jay to see while he was away.

Highlights of this month include:
- a trip to Chicago with Gary, Deb, & Gary's parents on 10/10/10.
- watching Alex learn to ride a bike without training wheels.
- Elliott's birthday party at My Gym in Aurora, IL.
- a 4-day visit to Naperville, IL to stay with Alina, Steve, Elliott, Rosemary, and Gretchen.
- Theo turning 9 months old!

Theo's likes:
- standing at his Leap Frog table.
- crawling.
- clapping.
- waving.
- reading his peek-a-boo books.
- making silly noises.
- eating.
- talking on the phone to Daddy.

Dislikes:
- being hungry.
- having paper that he was eating taken away.
- his daddy being in China.