"pahhhk"

Sorry it's taken me a few days to post again. Here are some pictures of Raleigh that I took last week at a playground near our house.

Raleigh absolutely loves going to the park. When he says it, it sounds like "pahhhk". He's actually become quite the little jabber mouth lately. We have a toy cell phone that allows us to record our own voice...and a few weeks ago I recorded myself singing, "A B C... It's easy as 1 2 3" into the cell phone.

So yesterday, Raleigh picks up the toy cell phone, pushes the play button and I hear my own voice and then Raleigh says "Mamma singing". It just amazed me that he put those two words together. It also amazed me that my voice was still recorded for that long on the toy cell phone.

He already puts other words together like:

"Mamma go?" for Where did Mommy go? He'll also say "Gamma go?" for Where did Grandma go?

"nilk fridge" for Please put my milk in the fridge, or Please get my milk from the fridge.

"tank u mamma" for Thank you mamma.

"ball get" for Get the ball please. He really can put "get" after any item that he wants us to get.

"bovfer going" for "Bother Gorden" which is a quote from his Thomas the Tank Engine video.

"Happy saahhn" for when he wants us to play the Thomas the Tank Engine Happy song video for him.

It's hard for me to remember them all right now. Oh, one other one that I'll always remember because Sweet Mary Sunshine's little girls said it first is "crinkle crinkle" for "Twinkle Twinkle".

It's very difficult to image what we did to amuse ourselves before Raleigh came along. We're enjoying him so much...except for those times when he takes whole plate full of spaghetti noodles and drops it on the floor of course.

More Zoo Pics

Trip to the Zoo - Part 1

It was a nice cool overcast day today, so we went to the Red River Zoo. I'm ashamed to say that this was Raleigh's first time to the zoo this summer. He loved it so much, I think we'll get an annual membership. It pays itself off after only 3 visits. I'm sure we can manage to visit the zoo three times in one year.
Above: Raleigh admiring the "Nemo" and "Dory" fishes.
Below: Raleigh checking out a goat.

Above, Raleigh reaching to pet the Horse on the nose. Daddy in the background taking video. I'm sure we'll post that some time soon.

More bouncy pictures

This weekend, we spent some time at my parents. The ultimate goal was to get one last swim in at Tioga Pit. The weather had a different goal: turn cold and rainy and cloudy for the whole weekend.

Oh well, we had fun like normal at their house. We played dominos on Friday night after Raleigh went to bed and until 1 am. Yikes! It was a late one. I won the game, but I happened to be the only sober one :)

We also learned that Raleigh doesn't like the Pack N' Play anymore. He would only sleep on the big bed with me at night, and he'd fall asleep on the big bed for naps only if I layed with him for a few minutes at first.

So, Friday night, I was kicked in the head, slapped in the face, and head butted while I was sleeping. I didn't realize how much that little guy moves around. Finally, I put a body pillow between him and I so he could sleep.

Where was Josh during all this, you ask? He was sleeping on the couch. He likes it much better on the couch.

Anyway, I don't have pictures from the weekend because "GASP!" I didn't bring my camera. I forgot it. I know. I often thought of my camera sitting on top of my computer back home when Raleigh was doing funny stuff or when Sam was being all adorable. If you do want to see pictures of my weekend, visit http://www.northstar26.blogspot.com/.

At least my mother had a camera. :)

Happy Birthday Steve!

It is my father-in-law's birthday today! I think he's 51.

Here's a cute pic of him and Raleigh together some months ago.

Homemade movie projector

Josh made his own movie projecter today. He ordered all of the parts weeks ago, but the last one finally arrived.

Above is a picture of one of Josh's X Box games projected onto a large white sheet in our living room.

Wedded Bouncy Weekend: Part 1

Last weekend we were down at Josh's parents. Instead of visiting with Josh's parents, Josh and I were attending the groom's dinner on Friday night and the Wedding of Bobby Clark to Grace Pellow on Saturday.

Unfortunately, Josh was actually an usher in the wedding, which, I thought, meant that I was doomed to loneliness for the reception. This was not the case, however, as I met someone who as also doomed to be as lonely as me. Her name was Kristin, the wife to another of Josh's football buddies. It turns out that she had played softball at Bethel, while I played softball at Concordia. I knew she had looked familiar. :)

Anyway, I wasn't as lonely as I thought I'd be. And Josh and I got two nights in a row out together without Raleigh.

We were lucky that Josh's parent's lived so close to the wedding and that they were so willing to watch our energetic little boy. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Above: Raleigh using a fork to eat the french toast that Grandma Deb made him.
Below: Me in a maternity dress, that according to Josh, made me look like strawberry shortcake. Thanks Josh!

Above: There was a balloon artist at the wedding reception. He made me this stork caring a baby in a basket.

Below: Raleigh in the bouncy blow-up thingy that Steve and Deb set up in their living room for Raleigh.

Above: Raleigh inside the blow-up thingy looking out.

Below: Raleigh mowing the wood floor in his skivies.

17 weeks along

Finally, an updated belly pic. Please ignore my hair, I didn't care to fix it before I took the picture and I look like an old school marm. :)

Our Annual Redhawks Game

Luke, Karla, Josh, Raleigh and I attended a Redhawks game last Thursday night. The company that I work for handed out free tickets to employees. It was Raleigh's second Redhawks game. He did so well. He entertained all around him, and when he got restless, I took him down to the playground. He climbed up the big slide and slid down on his own about 10 times.

Last weekend, Josh and I took Raleigh to Yunker Farm. Here are some pictures from that day. Raleigh made his first painting.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

I didn't realize it until I got to work, but today is my 3-year anniversary. We'll see if Josh remembers now :)

Above is a pic of us when we were first dating.