"I'm A Bird!" "I'm A Bird!" .... Our Lil Parrot

Well it has begun. Jay has started repeating EVERYTHING. It doesnt matter what it is, or if you think he's listening or not. Oh trust me, he's listening! Even when you definitely think hes not, or if hes in another room, or on the other couch ... oh trust me, he's listening!

"Ali, stop it!" ... "Stop it, momma! Stop it!"

"Brandon, dinners ready" ... "Dinner ready! Dinner ready daddy!"

"Say "no no daddy" .. "No No Daddy! No No!"

"I'm gonna go feed the fish" ... "Feed fish? Feed fish!"

"Dang it!" ... "Dag it!"

"Crap!" ... "Cap!"

It seriously *amazes* me how much his vocabulary has e*x*p*l*o*d*e*d* ... even in just the last 6 or 9 months. He went from only saying a handful of words to not being able to get him to be quiet, especially if hes excited about something - which is almost anything and everything while we're in the car - and even holding a somewhat conversation while on the phone.

I can't wait to see what the next 6 to 9 months bring us ... everyday is a new adventure!

Routines

Jayden LOVES his routines. Don't get me wrong, I think routines are very important. But Jayden has taken them to a whole new level! Example:

At night, we get him in his night time diaper and PJs. Then we brush his teeth and head upstairs to bed. We then kneel down next to his bed and say a prayer. Every now and then he'll just jump on his bed and I'll say "no prayer tonight?" and he'll say "ut-uh", but the second I start to put his blankets over him, he scoots his little ta-hooney off his bed and kneels down next to me. So we fold our hands, and mine have to be the exact same way every time. If I try to change it, he fixes my hands for me, lol. During prayer we have a list of people we pray for every night - Mama, Papa, Nana, , Grandpa, Uncle Josh, all the aunts and uncles, Tami, Hannah, Sarah, just to name a few - and if I forget to mention someone, oh heaven forbid, Jay will let me know! Sometimes he even has me pray for someone twice if he thinks I haven't prayed for them yet. After we have finished prayer its time to crawl into bed. I have to put his blankets on him. I have to give him his sippy cup. I have to give him kisses. And then he gives me kisses in return, first a kiss on the lips, then on the cheek, and if I've kissed his forehead, he HAS to kiss mine as well. I have to turn off the bedroom light. I have to turn on "moon" ... the night light. If Brandon tries to do any of these, then he says "ut-uh! Mommy do it! Mommy do it!" And trust me, mommy has to do it again, or he wont go to sleep without throwing a fit, lol.

Gotta love getting kids into routines, right? ;) :)

Monkey See, Monkey Do

So last weekend, we had a couple friends over and Brandon was telling one of them that we've been having problems potty training the dog. Seriously, Jay is picking up potty training a WHOLE lot better then the dog is! Anyways, the friend, who works with dogs, told Brandon that if he peed in the corner of the patio that the dog wouldnt pee in the house or all over the patio, he would pee where Brandon peed, trying to re-mark his property - something to do with being the Alpha male :-/

So, not to be outdone and out-Alpha-maled, what does Brandon do? Yup, you guessed it. So Jay and the dog are watching Brandon mark his territory, being the Alpha male and all, with this look on their faces like "what ARE you doing!?" Brandon quickly finishes up before anyone can see him and walks back into the house. I look out the back door, not 3 minutes later, and see a little pair of butt cheeks. Jay is standing right where Brandon was standing with this underwear down around his ankles and is peeing in the same spot. Brandon and I just stare, mouths open, and watch Jay. When he was done, he pulled his undies back up as far as he could, which was just above his knees, and came bounding into the house with a great big smile on his face! He was so dang proud of himself! lol. I had to explain to Jay that that was a ONE TIME THING and that he is never to do it again - but let me tell you, trying to tell him that without a smile on my face is a pretty hard thing to do!

***Sorry if this embarrassed you Brandon, but it was just TOO funny not to share!! ;) :)

My Little Fish!

Jay and I used to go swimming at least twice a week with our friends Sarah and Hannah when we lived in Washington. Jay got to the point where he LOVED being in the water and would seriously JUMP off the side into the water and into my arms.

Since we've moved to Germany, its been a whole 'nother story. We havent been to a pool since we got here - until last Sunday. Our friend Traci took us to a pool that is only about 20 minutes away from our house and after he got reaquanted with the pool and the water, Jay LOVED it. At first he was a little nervous to jump off the side. And the first few times forgot to hold his breath, so when he came back up he looked really surprised! But after a while he was starting to get the hang of it and was really enjoying himself. He was even helping me count to 3 when he was jumping off the sides. :) The pool also has some big and major slides. He was a little uncertain of them at first, but by the end of the slide on the first run, he was running to where they keep the inter-tubes and wanted to go back up again. Such the little dare devil I have, lol.

By the end of the 3 hours that we were there, Jay was having so much fun, i had to seriously DRAG him out the pool with the promises that we would come back. Jay asked me all day yesterday if we could go swimming, So that's what we're doing today! :) I must say, we're BOTH really excited to go!