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Saturday, September 25, 2010

Oregon!

Grandma, John and I were in Oregon for 12 days last month visiting John's Aunt Katharine and Uncle Jarey. Katharine and Jarey live in Corvallis, where Jarey is a grad student at Oregon State University. Katharine works for the state of Oregon in the capital city of Salem.

Having just come back from Texas, John and I were THRILLED to experience the cooler Oregon temperatures. (It was actually very, very chilly there in the mornings -- in the high 40s -- and we soon figured out that we hadn't packed enough cool-weather clothing. I'd checked the 10-day forecast for the area before we left but really only paid attention to the daily highs, which were in the low 70s.) I was so happy not to be sweating all day long, and John got to wear some of his new fall clothes!
We did quite a bit of sight-seeing, I would say, considering we were doing it all with a 19-month-old. The first weekend we were there, we hung out in the Corvallis area, visiting the Farmer's Market on the Riverwalk, hiking up a trail that gave us great views of the town, and harvesting our own blueberries at a blueberry-picking farm. Here are some pics from those first few days:
Jarey carrying John on his back at the beginning of our hike.....
Mom and John at the top of the big hill.....
Grandma, John, Sarah and Katharine at the top of the hill.....
Katharine, Jarey and Grandma trying to get John to smile for the camera.....
Jarey teaching John how to play the mandolin back at the apartment.....


Jarey and John admiring the goats at the blueberry-picking farm.....


John pointing at the goats.....


John getting ready to harvest some blueberries.....


Dumping out the few blueberries he had picked.....


Jarey helping John pick some more blueberries.....


"Boy, this harvesting stuff is hard work!"


John has had a difficult day of harvesting already.....



During the week while Katharine and Jarey were working, Grandma, John and I took a day trip to the Oregon coast. We visited the town of Newport, which had a really nice aquarium and great seafood. It was extremely foggy and damp for most of the day, but it cleared up right before we had to head back to Corvallis to pick up Katharine.
John and Mom at the water birds exhibit at the aquarium.....


Grandma and John at the touch pool.....

John and Grandma in the sharks section.....
John admiring the big sharks (which he called whales).....

John and Mom posing on a bay along the coast.....


Happy to be out of the car - look at that genuine smile!

Grandma and John walking along the water.....


And here's a video of John wading in the water of the Pacific Ocean back in Newport.

Walking in the Pacific Ocean from Sarah Schuchard on Vimeo.

Unfortunately, the camera we were borrowing from Katharine and Jarey stopped working in the middle of our trip, so these are all the photos we have from it! We don't have any photos at all from our trip to Portland during the second weekend we were there. Oh well.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Elise and Stephanie's visit to "Cago"

It's hard to believe, but it's already been more than a month since Elise and Stephanie came to visit us in "Cago!" We had so much fun hitting up all the kid-friendly places Naperville and Lisle have to offer, including the DuPage Children's Museum, the Children's Garden at the Morton Arboretum, the Sea Lion Aquatic Park, and the Naperville Riverwalk. The kiddos had a great time playing at "Grandma's house," though, too. They loved chasing each other from room to room, playing in the basement, and feeding Halley her dinner.

Here are some adorable pics I took (with my new camera!) of John and Elise sitting on the step in the kitchen:

John making his squinty-eyed face.....

Elise trying to protect her purses from John (John was OBSESSED with her purses).....


John holding Elise's "credit card".....


Elise trying to decide whether she wants her credit card back.....


The lovebirds showing some affection.....
"Hey, Mom, look at my credit card mustache!"
And here is a video of John and Elise chasing each other around the house. John is laughing hysterically the whole time!


The lovebirds chasing each other from Sarah Schuchard on Vimeo.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

The latest Toys R Us catalog.....

The other day we got a Toys R Us catalog in the mail, and I showed it to John to distract him from doing something I didn't want him to do. Now John can hardly put it down. It's definitely his new favorite thing to do in the car. I love to look in the rearview mirror and see him browsing the pages of toys. He often gives away which page he's looking at through his sound effects.

I know he was on the page for Thomas the Tank Engine in these photos, since he was making his "cha cha" noise (he says "cha cha" instead of "choo choo"). Don't worry, I wasn't driving when I took these.....we were waiting in the Starbucks drive-thru line :)

Monday, September 13, 2010

20 months old!


John turned 20 months old on September 8th! He has changed so much since I wrote his 18-month post, especially in terms of language. At 20 months, John:

- is at least 33 inches tall and weighs between 25 and 26 pounds. I haven't measured him myself, so this is just a guess based on his measurements at his 18-month doctor's appointment on July 13th. At that visit, John was 32.5 inches tall and weighed 24 pounds, 10 ounces. The doctor said John was in the 50-75 percentile for height and the 25-50 percentile for weight, which is pretty much what he has always been.

-wears the 18-24 month, 24-month or 2T size, depending on the clothing item. Amazingly, some of his 12-18 month pants still fit him well! John may have a big belly, but his waist is very narrow.

-fits into size 5 shoes comfortably. He could probably wear a size 6 if he had on thick socks.

-has very light brown hair that often looks blond in the sunlight and solid brown eyes.

-has 14 teeth. His top two incisors just started breaking through in the past month - finally! Before this, John hadn't gotten a new tooth since March! The teething process is obviously still in full swing, since John has his fingers in his mouth all the time.

-has the same daily schedule he had at 18 months (wakes up between 6 and 7, eats lunch between 11 and 11:30, goes down for a nap between 12 and 12:30, eats dinner between 5:30 and 6, and goes to bed between 7 and 7:30).

-eats a lot more "adult" food now. I generally feed him exactly what Grandma and I are having for dinner, which is very convenient. His favorite "adult" food is "pi-pa" (pizza), but he also really likes lasagna and macaroni and cheese.

-is pickier than he was at 18 months about eating cut-up fruits and vegetables on their own. He will eat fruit and vegetables much more readily if they're mixed into or cooked alongside something else, or if I make him a smoothie with a bunch of different fruits and yogurt. A big thank you to Grandma Kay Ellen for suggesting the smoothie idea!

-is a social butterfly. He LOVES being around people, especially men! If given the choice, he will opt to go to the guy in the room before the woman every time. So ladies, don't be offended -- it's not you, it's him.

-scrunches up his face when asked to smile or when he's being photographed or filmed (see photo above). What a ham! He started doing this right after I wrote his 18-month post.

-greatly dislikes being strapped into anything, whether it be his car seat, stroller, high chair or a store shopping cart. I have to fully distract him to get him to get into one of these things without him making a fuss. The very worst is having to put him in a shopping cart. If we're at a store that has special kid carts (in the shape of a car or something), then John's usually excited to get in, but otherwise, he puts up a huge fight.

-is a seasoned traveler! To date, John has been on 8 round-trip flights and 1 one-way flight. He's taken two cross-country car trips (from Alabama to Texas at 3 months old and from Texas to Illinois at 17 months), and has played on the beaches of both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. He's visited, or at least driven through, 13 states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin.

-has expanded his vocabulary by at least 20 words (or phrases) in the past two months. (I only count words that he will say on his own without prompting.) His new words include: ah-cah-go (avocado), ah-non (all done), baby, bee, beeg (big), boy, bye, Cago (Chicago), cha-cha (choo-choo), cock-oo (cock-a-doodle-doo), chiss (cheese), dee-doh/hee-go (here you go), Eese/Lise (Elise), girl, ish/pish (fish), Naan/Naan Naan (John), na/nack (snack), out, oh no!, pi-pa (pizza), toy, wah-ffle (waffle), wawa (water), whale, wheel, and wow.

-shares Elise's love of the phrase "bye, bye, baby" and says it constantly! The other day I played the Four Seasons song "Bye, Bye Baby" for him in the car, and now he asks for it by name whenever we're driving.

-is now very cooperative when I brush his teeth. He looks forward to it, actually! His favorite part is when I let him hold the toothpaste container, which has Thomas the Tank Engine on it.

-likes to have a stuffed toy or his Daddy doll with him when I put him to bed. After I leave his room, I sometimes hear him say over the monitor: "Daddy........roar!" or "Daddy........quack!" (depending on which animal he has).

-recognizes and names himself and others in pictures (i.e. "Naan," "Mommy," "Daddy") and recognizes and names his and other people's things (i.e. shoes).

-collects items while taking buggy rides outside. His favorite things to collect are sticks, but he also likes to collect hickory nuts and pinecones. Most of the time he just holds them in his hands, but sometimes he'll put everything in the front compartment of the buggy.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

John loves his Daddy

John is always pointing out photos of his Daddy around the house. His favorite photo of Daddy is the West Point one, so we will pick it up off the bookshelf and tell Daddy we love him by giving him a kiss. Stephanie got our routine on video when she and Elise came to visit a few weeks ago. You'll notice that John is a little confused about where his baby sister is growing.....

Telling Daddy "I love you" from Sarah Schuchard on Vimeo.

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