What a BUSY week we've had!!!!

After getting back from Wilmington last week, we've been busy, busy, busy! We went to Boston for the weekend for a wedding, which was beautiful, and Trey was such a good boy. He hung out with all of us through the entire party (ceremony and reception) and did amazing on the plane to Boston and home to Charlotte. We were so nervous, since we haven't flown with Trey since he's been walking, but he was such a trooper and didn't give us a hard time at all!

We started off our Monday meeting Aunt Shannon and cousin Allie at Jetton Park for a little bit of exercise and playtime. Trey is becoming quite the little daredevil and attempted on several occasions to walk off the top of the playset, even though nobody was there to catch him and it would have been a tough 5 foot drop!

On Wednesday we drove down for a playdate and lunch with cousin Becky and Evan! Those boys are so funny! Trey doesn't really appreciate Evan's love of pulling hair, but once Becky pulled out the animal crackers and played a fun game of peek-a-boo, the boys were best friends.

Thursday brough the last day of school for Trey- he is going to start "summer camp" in a few weeks, and Ms. Amy will be his teacher again, at least until August, so we'll get to see her again soon!

On Friday, we went to Henry's 1st Birthday Party! All of Trey's buddies were there, and he had a great time! Henry is moving away next week, and we'll miss him a lot, so it was nice to have one final playdate before he leaves.

Saturday was the first day of the pool being open here in our neighborhood! We were so excited to go on opening day, but Trey had other plans and took a monster nap (over 3 hours), so we got there a little bit late, but still had a wonderful time. We are so blessed that Trey loves the water so much!

Whew!!! We had a lot going on this week! Even though it was jam packed with activities, it felt good to be out and about again. I've been so tired lately, that Trey has really missed out on having a good time with his little friends.

Trey loves the ladies! 14 Months Old!

Today when I went to pick up Trey, Miss Amy informed me that Trey has been hugging and wanting to sit on little McKenzie's lap all week. I knew it was just a matter of time! This past weekend, we visited Wilmington with Aunt Melissa, Uncle Brian and Rylee, and Trey LOVED Rylee. I've never seen him be so... well, loving, with another child! He didn't particularly want to share his toys with her, although he did occasionally hand her a piece of his food, or his shovel, but he loved "pat-patting" her head and arm, giving her "huggies" and basically sitting on her! I am so proud that he is not exhibiting any early signs of being a bully :).

Trey is also saying words "on command" FINALLY!!!! For months and months, we would say things like, "Trey, can you say Mama?" or "Can you say Kitty?" and this week, in the car one morning, I asked him to say "Mama" and he looked right at me and said it! Of course, I thought it was probably a fluke, so immediately followed that up with, "Can you say Dada?" and he did!!!! Again- not completely believing he was getting it, we practiced a few of our basics: "Trey can you do your clap-claps?" Yep, he could, and "Can you wave your bye-byes", again, success!!!! He is gabbing like crazy all the time now, and I'm actually starting to hear words in the garble, which has been so fun.

He is a climbing maniac and I am secretly terrified of a concussion one of these days, but he gets so much joy from climbing on everything that I try not to say no too often. We are still playing the most annoying game of Trey hiding everything and me finding our belongings in crazy locations, like the Diaper Genie (gross!)- and I'm not even sure how he managed to get that open- and my chapstick inside of his shoe (this was located after about 2 minutes of me trying to force his shoe on his foot)! It makes me smile, but I know that he will eventually hide something critical, like the keys, and I'll completely lose my mind.

This weekend we are heading to Boston for a wedding, and I am thinking positive, happy thoughts that Trey will not have a meltdown on the plane!

Mother's Day Week :)

After coming back from the beach, we've been super busy! Trey caught a small cold after we returned- probably from spending hours and hours at the beach in wet, cold sand! Luckily we are past all sickness and had a wonderful Mother's Day. Doug announced on Monday night that I was going to get a special surprise every day, since I deserve a Mother's Day week, instead of just one day... I couldn't agree more! :) Trey and Daddy gave me special dinners, special presents, my favorite flowers (in the form of a beautiful hydrangea tree), a Family Day at the zoo, and then Mother's Day brunch at my favorite restaurant!

The zoo was a huge hit for Trey- we got to pet giraffes, cows, horses, turtles, bunnies, we rode a Choo Choo train, and walked through the aquarium and admired all the fishies. All in all, it was a fabulous day!

Trey's class pictures came back this week too. I didn't even know they had class pictures, and when I saw it, it cracked me up. Trey looks seriously pissed- probably because ANOTHER person has a camera in his face. Get used to it, bud! :) His classmates in the picture are: Davis, Mackenzie, Trey, and Owen. 3 boys against 1 girl- not good odds, as far as I'm concerned!

Trey's accomplishments include talking ALL the time- I am 100% certain he is doing everything in his power to find his words. He is also pointing to any and every thing, and it is my new "job" to try and figure out what the heck he is interested in! He also has a signature song that he hums whenever he gets tired. It's so funny, we didn't realize that it was actually the same tune until just recently... maybe Trey is a musical genius! Trey is also very sneaky when it comes to his shoes, and I live in constant fear that we will permanently lose a shoe, and that will make me very, very angry- kid shoes are NOT cheap! Trey's teacher, Miss Amy, said she spent an entire hour searching for one of his sneakers this week, only to discover it in a bin of blocks inside of the closet. I feel her frustration! I found the remote control this week in the drawer where we keep our cutting boards- I didn't even know he could reach that drawer! What a sneaky little boy we have!

A Trip to the Beach!

Doug and I had a really tough week (probably one of the hardest either of us has had in a long time), and on Friday we got some WONDERFUL news, so we decided that we all deserved a last minute vacation... so what better place to go than Isle of Palms in Charleston, SC!?!? Doug and I have been here before, and we loved it, so we booked a hotel room and headed on down. The weather was awesome when we arrived, the trip only took about 3 hours, and the first thing we did when we got there was head over to Mosaic, one of our favorite restaurants, and sat outside to eat dinner. Trey had a blast, and we knew right away that this was the perfect way to start a weekend.

On Saturday we spent the entire day at the beach. The weather was warm, but overcast- which made it perfect for us! Since it wasn't super sunny, the beach was almost deserted, and we were able to spread out and let Trey play all day long (literally). Trey did a ton of playing- and he ate his fair share of sand! :) In the morning, we had some "classic" beach family pictures taken by Johanna- a local photographer, who did an amazing job. I've always wanted to do this, and I wasn't disappointed. She was a blast to work with, and even Trey was able to relax. For those of you who have actually done a photo shoot with Trey, you know that this is NOT an easy task! I can't wait to get the photographs back!

It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend, and we couldn't have planned it better! In fact, I'm actually really happy that we didn't plan it, and we just did whatever we wanted.

Some of Trey's new accomplishments include mastering the use of a fork and giving kisses (which basically translate into a head butt with his mouth wide open).

Playing Outside is the BEST

As I progress through pregnancy #2, I am SO grateful for the weather being beautiful! Being able to open up the back door and let Trey play outside for hours at a time has been wonderful! Grandma came to visit a week ago and bought Trey a small swimming pool for the backyard. Trey, of course, loves it, but he has a tendency to crawl right into the pool with everything on- clothes, socks, and shoes... What I have learned is that Trey is just as happy to play in a pool NOT filled with water, and I can breathe a little easier knowing that if I turn my back for a second, he won't drown, and I won't have to dry out his shoes for the tenth time in a row!

Trey is also understanding more and more every day. It is such a joy to watch his little mind expand with all the new things he is learning. This morning I asked Trey to bring me his shoes (which were outside), and he not only knew what I asked him, but he remembered where they were and walked right outside to get them! What a mini genius I have! He has also become quite the little monkey- and this is not an exaggeration. He climbs on EVERYTHING! I've started just letting him do it, even though I know he is probably going to fall and "bonk"his head. How else will he learn to NOT climb on everything? I figure, this is a perfect time to learn cause and effect :). I am also applying this strategy to eating dirt. I tell him over and over again not to eat dirt, rocks, mulch (pretty much everything), but then I realized that he won't know how gross all of those things really are unless he eats them and hates them, so here we go!

The other "new" thing Trey has been doing is using utensils. I wasn't sure when to start practicing with this, but we decided to give it a try. He loves being a big boy and he is surprising good at the fork! The spoon is going to take some time, but that's ok- time is one thing we have lots of!

Our first SECOND holiday- Easter!

My baby 1 year ago, at Easter:

And back to present time:

Baby Allie Lynn:

We had a wonderful Easter this year! The weather was beautiful, we spent it with some great friends, and I was reminded of how much I truly have to be thankful for. I couldn't help but take a few minutes and remember that this was Trey's very first "second holiday"! There won't be anymore "first Christmas, Easter, 4th of July, Halloween...". So, in my nostalgic moment, I did go back and look at some of my favorite pics from last year, at this same time. I think that it probably bodes well for me that I am nostalgic for those baby times- especially considering that I am 11 weeks pregnant with Baby #2!

We've had a busy week around here! Trey got a new cousin, little Miss Allie Lynn was born on March 29th! She is a cutie pie! Again- holding her brought out those desires for little baby things again! Unfortunately, Trey is going through a less than accommodating stage and was a stinker in the hospital. These days, the only thing that can make him stop crying are Cheetos (I know, what parent gives there child Cheetos?- that's an easy one- US).

We also went to an Easter playdate at our friend Hillary's house- she is the queen of holidays, and always goes all out for mini photo shoots with the babies! The neighborhood had their annual Easter egg hunt, which we attended. There were a TON of kids there, so we snatched a few of the eggs and let Trey play and hunt after the crowd cleared out! These days, Trey is spending the majority of his time outside- usually helping Daddy with anything he can. Nothing makes Trey happier than getting to push his lawnmower or ride his motorcycle outside while Daddy does outside things (I'm not sure exactly what outside things are- this is their"man time").

Despite all of this, Trey has been unusually cranky and I'm going to blame it on the teeth. He is shoving his fingers way into the back of his mouth and chewing like nobody's business. We are still trying to wean the bottle- I actually don't think this has been all that difficult, except that the only way I can get Trey to drink a significant amount of milk is to give it to him in a bottle (in the morning). I guess that is our next hurdle we will have to tackle, but for today, I'm not going to worry about it too much. He is beautiful, healthy, smart, and funny, and there is nothing more important that that.

As I mentioned before, Trey is becoming quite the little stinker! Doug and I spent 4 days looking for one of my shoes, which we couldn't seem to find anywhere! We knew Trey was behind the disappearance, but we searched and searched and had no idea where the shoe went! One night, Doug went into one of the lower cabinets to pull out the electric stand mixer. Inside the mixer bowl was my missing shoe! What in the world possessed him to put it there, I will never know... We are still missing 2 picture frames and a candle- I will probably find those years from now in some hidden, obscure location :).

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and spent time being grateful for the sacrifices made for each of our lives!