Makiyah is 15 months...er I mean 17 months old.

Ok ok so this post was supposed to be done 2 MONTHS ago. I wanted to do a post in honor of his 15 months.

So here is that update for Makiyah at 15 months to be followed by one of 17 months below:

15 months:
Mak loves climbing on the couch
He has 2 molars and 4 upper and 4 lower teeth
He loves my phone
He knows when he is in trouble and will run away from me

His words at 15 months:
meow
moo
turkey
oink
duck
apple
ball
boon (balloon)

Recognizes:
cow, cat, pig, dog, duck, monkey

Gives:
Hugs, kisses

Loves playing with his big sister Amaya.
He throws tantrums by stiffening his body and stomping his feet...it's pretty hilarious..when I'm not too stressed. =)
One of my favorite things he knows: how to spin. He will spin, make himself dizzy then try to walk.  It's pretty cute.

At 17 months:
He obviously knows all the above and more.

He talks so much...much of it is just babble language but he can tell you a whole story and look at you like "what do you think about that?"

Right now his absolute favorite thing is: "bubbles"...no not those floaty things..."bubble" are bugs.  He has a great eye and will play with the smallest of ants until it goes out of sight. He loves to play with a daddy long legs spider....can I say YUCK!

He has started to respond better to no but still has his little tantrums.

He has a mouth full of teeth now including two of his I teeth...the most painful ones to come in..I think.

He has a total of 12 teeth (I think). Since he is currently asleep I cannot confirm that.

He loves to climb on things..anything in fact. I've found him standing on the stove door several times (don't worry it wasn't on...but still scary).
He climbs on beds, couches, little chairs (not adult table chairs yet)...he keeps trying and trying something until he finally gets it.
He's climbed in the dryer when I left the door open.
He climbs on Chad or I when we are laying on the floor...(he learned that from Amaya)..she loves a good horse ride. =)
He still has not had his first haircut but I have to do it...it's in his eyes for pete's sake. I just don't want to mess up that pretty red hair and get rid of the little baby look.

words:
I believe his favorite word is Mommy...he now wakes up saying "mommy...mommy...mommy"
He clearly says Reggie
He mimics almost anything...the other day we were asking "where's reggie"...and he clearly repeated it.
He's not as quick to repeat things as Amaya was at this age but he takes in everything!
He loves...loves his Poppy (great-grandfather)...his eyes light up and he drops whatever he is doing and runs to him every time he comes to our house (love it...it's a really sweet thing to see and I think it makes Poppy feel really good) =)
He's finally started to say milk (at times) but still grunts for just about everything....he's not very patient.
He's learned how to navigate our porch steps without help...I think he falls halfway down each one but he's not very patient and doesn't want to wait till I can help him. =)
He's very curious and has many spills but has a way of holding his head so that he never falls on that.

So this post is getting really long...that's it for now...here's a picture of him meeting his cousin for the first time since she's gotten bigger. He's a loving little boy. =)  Love this picture. Look at his little curls...I mean if you were me you wouldn't want to cut them either..would you? Isn't my niece super cute?...she's in a house full of boys too so she's the princess.

Being Thankful

Today I made a pact (in my head)...I am going to post every day until Thanksgiving with my top 10 list of what I am thankful for.  Today's message at church was about being thankful and I realized that I need to be more thankful.  I need to remember what God has done for me and my family!

Today's thanksgiving will be in remembrance of some things that God has done for Chad and I.

1. I am thankful that God supplied a 2 week honeymoon with exactly what we wanted!
story: Soon after we got engaged Chad and I discussed our honeymoon. We decided that we wanted to be in the mountains and on the beach and if at all possible we wanted it to be 2 weeks long.  How we were going to do this was a mystery to me. A week after this conversation a dear friend came up to us and said, "I would like to give you my beach condo for a week."  About a week after that another dear friend came up to us and said, "I would like to give you my timeshare - it's good for a week." In the midst of this discussion, a family member said, I would like to give you $1000 towards your honeymoon.  All that happened within about two weeks after our initial conversation. That had never happened to me EVER! We went to the beach, the mountains and finished in Washington DC.  It was actually a little longer than 2 weeks!

Picture from our honeymoon 

2. I am thankful that God supplied a full-time job for me about 8 months after I graduated from IU. 

3. I am thankful that God answered our prayers for a healthy first child (I was praying for a girl).  Amaya was born in April of 07.

4. I am thankful that God has blessed us with several vacations that we didn't have to pay full-price for.

5. I am thankful that God answered our prayers for a healthy second baby (I prayed for a boy).  Makiyah (Mak) was born in January of 09. 

6. I am thankful that God answered my prayers for red hair (I honestly don't know where it comes from other than God answered our prayers).

7. I am thankful that God speaks to us and let's us know that He loves us.  (When we were praying for Makiyah we wanted a nickname and we asked God to show us one.  He showed both of us a picture of a sky...so Makiyah became "baby sky" until he was born.

8. I am thankful that God sustained us through several months of being unemployed except for a couple part-time jobs.
 

9. I am thankful that God opened the door for a wonderful full-time job that Chad loves while at the same time continuing to some degree his work at the church.

10.  I am thankful that God provided for almost $30,000 of medical bills since last November.

I have a loving and compassionate God! Thank you Jesus!

Some of our recent happenings

Today, I took some pictures of one of Amaya's favorite activities. I got the idea for this in the Montessori

Catalog I get.  It has some fun activities - that I have to buy of course - but who needs to buy anything when a few baby jars and pyrex measuring cup will do just fine.   (Don't get me wrong, I'm sure I'm going to purchase a few things when I start "pre-schooling" Amaya. Right now though, I can improvise.)

After I attending the IU game in Wednesday night, I had some popcorn left which I mistakenly left on the toy box.  Nothing is safe anywhere in this house at the moment with a super busy 9 1/2 month old boy.

Yesterday after church, I wanted to get some pictures of Amaya and Mak while playing outside.  Amaya was a willing participant but Mak not so much.  I'll have to post more pics soon.  She was so cute.  At one point, she had a big stick in her hand and was heading down the driveway to "school."  This totally corresponds with her, "I'm six" statement whenever you ask her how old she is.  (haha)