Bauer and dad were playing in the backyard the other day after it had snowed. It was about 2 degrees, but Bauer just wanted to stay outside. Nice.
Here are a few movies from last night of Bauer doing various little things just after his bath and before bedtime.
For Thanksgiving we came to Hilton Head Island, SC where Ginger's grandmother lives. Bauer and his cousin, Chase (from ring bearer fame a couple months ago), had fun playing in the leaves...
Here are some of my favorite pictures from this Fall. http://gallery.mac.com/tj.friesen#100038&view=mosaic&sel=0
[Posted by Ginger]
In case you were wondering why the lack of recent posts, it's because I've been working on my new blog which is located at wordsandbirds.com. For now, we will be keeping this Vox blog, too, to show off pictures and videos of Bauer, and maybe to write a few updates on things we do and places we go. I had really been feeling I wanted a place to write about being and about feeling instead of just about doing, so that is why I started the other blog. Take a look if you please.
Bauer is doing great. He loves standing on the stool in the kitchen and helping me cook. He also loves cooking his trains in the one pot I let him take all around the house. He cooks the "en" for engine and "boo" for caboose and then serves them to me and TJ on his big plastic spoon.
Bauer always opens the fridge on his own and takes out a cup of yogurt and brings it to either me or TJ to ask if he can have it. Mostly I have to tell him no because we give him that more as a treat instead of an everyday thing. But you should see how happy he gets when the answer is yes. Today I bought a plain lowfat yogurt to try with him since I really hesitate to give him those ones with all the sugar.
Bauer loves his carrot juice. I've been trying to juice carrots about twice a week so that we can each have a jar first thing in the morning, TJ included. Bauer wants to listen to the shaking song while we all shake our jars of carrot juice. That song is "I'm Shakin'" by Rooney. Bauer wants to hold the jar all by himself and drink the carrot juice out of his straw. He does quite a good job at it, I must say.
I have started mixing a DHA supplement into the carrot juice for Bauer. It has a strawberry "essence" as the bottle says and the first time I gave it to him, he took it right off the spoon. He doesn't seem to mind it in his carrot juice or in his smoothies. After re-reading Dr. Fuhrman's book Disease-Proof Your Child, the DHA is one thing I felt I needed to add to Bauer's diet. I also would like to add a multi-vitamin but I want to do a little more research on that first.
Bauer still loves his trains. He loves all things "choo-choo." When I say to Bauer in the morning, "Do you know where we are going today, Bauer?", his first response is "Big choo-choo?" He can sometimes hear the train from our house and then he says "See big choo-choo?" even though we can't see them from our house. We can see the trains from our garage though, so sometimes when we get home from an errand and pull into the garage, we will stand there by the open door and watch the train until it goes "bye-bye choo-choo."
Bauer is speaking plenty these days, although most of his words are first syllables. He definitely puts together a string of first syllables. Last night we were teaching him how old TJ and I are. You should have seen him saying "twenty-eight." So cute. He also says "sweet tea" ever since our recent trip to SC for Holly's wedding and then he claps for himself.
We still attend playgroup each week, and next week I'm going to take Bauer to a trial class for Kindermusik to see how he likes it before I decide about signing up for next semester. In the past, Bauer wasn't too keen on the Kindermusik class setting but he sure does seem to enjoy the library storytimes I take him to once in a while (today for instance). He is so attentive and really listens to the stories and the songs and does the actions to the songs.
Bauer loves his bus CD. TJ's mom, when she was here a few weeks ago, gave Bauer a "Do-Re-Me-& You" set called Wheels on the Move. It came with a book, a CD, a foam mat with a track on the mat as well as all the places mentioned in the book, and a toy car to push on the track. Bauer absolutely loves the bus song, track #2 on the CD. It's the "Wheels on the Bus" song and he does the cutest motions during the song, which TJ's mom taught him. I think he might like Kindermusik again.
The nap is over, and so is my time to write. But there's more at my other blog, although it's not so much about Bauer.
Yet another new way to view pictures of Bauer. In case you were getting bored of Picasa, now you can try out this new service from Apple. I think it's really cool. Check it out at http://gallery.mac.com/tj.friesen#gallery.
We were in Greenville and Clemson most of last week with Saturday being Ginger's sister Holly's wedding. Check out these videos of our little man Bauer...
Video 1: He walked down the aisle with his cousin Chase, everyone (including us) was amazed how well he did. Toward the end dad sneaks up front and gets the little critter.
Video 2: Bauer really ripped up the rug at the reception...he definitely stole the show!
Video 3: At the rehearsal dinner by the Clemson golf course, Bauer is trying to follow his cousin Chase by doing jumping jacks. Nice vertical, Bauer!
Video 4: Running down Bowman Field at Clemson.
We ventured downtown this morning on the 8.33am Naperville train and arrived at Union Station in Chicago at 9.45am. It was just in time to see some of our friends run through the half-way point of the race. We walked around and saw them at mile 17 and mile 25. What was really cool is that we signed up earlier to get text messages that were linked to the runners' chip in their shoe so we knew where they were and what their split times were. Pretty sweet since there were 45,000 people running it and who knows how many people cheering. We had a great time!
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Here is a little fun from this morning in the living room. It's funny the things that little boys pick up on...
My friend Gretchen tagged me to share 10 random things about myself.
1. My first car was a 1992 Nissan Stanza.
2. My most recent purchase was a sweater from Express.
3. Our family eats 5-8 bananas on a typical day.
4. We spend $30-$40 on bananas per month.
5. Obviously, we eat a lot of smoothies.
6. My pet peeve is when people call me back without first listening to the message I left on their voicemail.
7. TJ and I loved that TV show "6 Degrees" that was on last fall, but it didn't get good ratings and ended right in the middle of the season.
8. We started watching "Kid Nation," "Survivor," and "The Office" this fall, but I think "The Office" is the only one we'll stick with consistently.
9. At Starbucks, I get a Tall Decaf 2% Vanilla Latte with 2 pumps of vanilla instead of the usual 3.
10. I have one sister and she's getting married 2 weeks from yesterday! Yeah for Holly!
This past Friday night, TJ and I went to a high school football game. We'd been talking about wanting to go to a local ball game of some sort, and then we thought how cool it would be to go to the football game that is between the 2 high schools in downtown Naperville. Cooler still is that a couple in our neighborhood (whom we had not met before) organized a tailgate before the game at their house and then offered to walk to the game as a group for anyone who wanted to go. TJ, Bauer and I went to the tailgate on Friday evening and met the host couple as well as several other families from the neighborhood. After eating and hanging out for a while, we came home to leave Bauer with a babysitter, "Aunt Gina," and we walked to the game with the other folks. It ended up being only us and the couple who hosted the tailgate who actually went to the game, but it was really fun to be able to get to know them. We got to the game 30 minutes early but it was already standing room only when we arrived. So we ended up standing by a fence on the sideline and we really couldn't even see very much of the action because all the players who weren't on the field playing were right in front of us. We stayed till halftime and then decided to go hang out at Starbucks.
I don't think I ever wrote about Bauer's birthday party. We did a digger theme with digger plates, cups, and napkins. I got little yellow construction worker hats for the kids to wear during the party. I made smoothies for everyone to drink from their digger cups, and I got a big chocolate chip cookie cake from Cookie Dough Creations. I had them write "Happy 2nd Birthday Bauer & Tucker!" I was wondering if they thought I was having a party for my twins. The invitation I sent out to invite people to the party was a picture of Bauer holding his favorite bear Tucker and running up a grassy hill at the Arboretum. I had TJ help me put words on the front of the picture so that it said "Me and Tucker are turning two." Then on the back of the picture, I wrote out the invitation (time, place, etc). So that is why I wanted the cookie cake to celebrate Tucker as well as Bauer.
Four of Bauer's little friends came to his party. It was Bauer, Nico, Branton, Rohan, and Drew. The mommies came too and we had fun chatting. Bauer got a lot of presents for his birthday. His favorites are his big yellow dump truck and his wooden train track, but he always likes his new books and toys.
Bauer has the eczema back pretty bad on his right arm. We think it's because he always holds Tucker in the crook of his right arm. He totes him around throughout the day, gives him "noses," which is nose to nose kisses, makes Tucker's hands clap together, and sleeps with Tucker for naps and at night. Very adorable, but what to do about the eczema flaring up?
This morning, we as a family went to the Arboretum for the Fall Color 5K. It was a beautiful cool morning that turned into quite a hot day (84 degrees around 4pm). The race started at 8, so as soon as Bauer woke us up, we got ready and headed there. TJ ran the 5K, while I walked the race and pushed Bauer in the stroller. It was nice to be outside getting exercise and just being around all the other participants. The t-shirts we got are actually nice with a cool design and they fit well too. We got goody bags too that included a gift certificate for a free burrito from Chipotle. I know we'll use that soon! After the race, we walked around and looked at "Scarecrow Trail," which was a bunch of different scarecrows designed by Girl Scout Troops and spaced out around the lake near the front of the Arboretum. Bauer enjoyed that, but he mostly enjoyed running on the grass and picking wildflowers. TJ got some great pictures, so look for those soon.
We are enjoying the last bits of summer left before the cold weather comes. This week it's supposed to be hot again, 70s and 80s, and so I think I will still get to wear my shorts and tank tops just as I did today.
Hip Hip Hooray.
