Ready to jump in the pool!

I took Makua swimming for the first time a while ago. I just haven’t posted the pictures yet. We went down to Orem to hang with my sister at her pool. He didn’t really like it at first. I think the cold water confused him somehow. After a while, he adjusted and wasn’t whimpering anymore. No dunking that day either. I thought it would probably traumatize him.

White baby…brown aunt.

A couple weeks later, Chris and I took him up to our pool and he liked it much better. No whimpering or crying. Maybe it’s cause Chris was there. This time there was dunking. As long as you blow in his face first, he holds his breath which is good. Hopefully he learns to hold his breath on his own. He’s got the kicking part of swimming down pretty good. I also bought him this floatie ring thing and he liked lazing around in that.

More white baby, brown aunt.

A shot of everyone there. At least most of the adults and the babies.

A couple times a year, we get together with a group of my friends from college to visit and catch up on each other’s happenings. I met all of these folks (spouses excluded) my sophomore year. I would have to say that was the most fun I had in college. Good times. Good times.

We decided to do a picnic at the park yesterday. It was fun to see everyone. It’s always amazing to see how the kids are changing and the families are growing.

The family reunion was fun. We only went to the stuff that was in Heber. Gas is too expensive so we didn’t venture up north for the rest of the reunion activities. The cabins we stayed in this time were nicer than the ones from a few years back, but we had to do everything ourselves- cooking, cleaning. I know, I know. We’re spoiled. The consensus seemed to be that people preferred the not so nice cabins that we didn’t have to clean to the nice cabins we had to clean and the cooking we had to do. It will be interesting to see where we end up next time.

Makua playing in the cabin. It was sooo much cooler in there than outside.

One of the activities we did was called The Swing. I pictured a big playground swing of some sort. Boy was I wrong. Here’s Carrie…the first soul to brave The Swing. I was one of the last people to go. No one before me screamed. Not even the little kids. I screamed. I screamed A LOT. I know- I’m a chicken.

The towline in action. This is how you got pulled up to the top.

Up at the top. You pull the lever to release yourself and start swinging.

Carrie hanging on for dear life. What a brave soul.

Chris suited up for The Swing

The babies (Makua and Abigail) playin’ cards with the big kids.

This is another activity we did. We had to get a container of water at the base of a tree that was surrounded by a log “fence.” We only had a rope and we couldn’t touch anything inside the perimeter of the fence. This is what we came up with. Yay for Madison’s rope skills!

If you know me very well, you know I’m not a big phone talker. In fact, the best way to get a hold of me is to either send me email or chat with me over messenger. That being said, I’m a bad daughter and don’t call my dad very much. So I decided to start doing weekly Makua updates. I realized I don’t really talk about the little things he does that are funny or amusing or new stuff he’s done.

Makua is finally teething. I thought he would be toothless for the rest of his life. His two front teeth (on top) are starting to poke through. He’s been drooling more than normal (believe it or not) and he’s been a little bit more fussy than usual- ok, maybe a lot more fussy than usual- but hopefully we’ll get over this hurdle. Thankfully, I’ve found baby food products that he can eat even with his wheat allergy. Healthy Times makes teething cookies and cereal bits that he can eat. I was afraid I would have to make them myself. Yay for Healthy Times!

*Note: He really likes the teething cookies and cereal bits. This is a picture of him eating green beans which he doesn’t like.

Makua loves to talk and make popping noises with his lips. He also likes to yell, but that’s nothing new. His favorite things to say are bababa, blablabla and dadadada. If Chris referred to himself as dad, then he could claim that Dada was one of Makua’s first words, but around here Chris is known as Papa. Maybe that will be next.

Makua loves to give hugs. He’s hugging the pillow in this picture. He gives good hugs too. He’ll put his arms around your neck and give a little squeeze. Sometimes he randomly puts his head on your shoulder. He likes to give kisses too, but those are still a little slobbery. Hopefully he learns to keep his mouth closed soon. He can do fishy lips so I’m trying to teach him to do those when he gives kisses.

Let’s see- other stuff:

He pulls himself up to the couch and the coffee table.
He loves to smack the tile with his hands- I guess he likes the noise it makes.
He loves to sleep on his stomach.
He enjoys playing with paper. We have all these toys and he likes to play with paper. Go figure

I guess I’ll stop here…until next week. Auf Wiedersehen!

This weekend we’re going to a family reunion on Chris’ side of the family. We only have this reunion every 3 years because about half the family lives somewhere other than Utah. It was lots of fun getting to know his extended family better. Here are pictures from the reunion a few years back.

This lake in the Uinta Mountains is supposed to look like a heart- and it does. The heart is just a little dry at the bottom.

Kid-o’s at the craft table

Hiking down to Heart Lake. Look at all that snow! In July!

A mutant flower we found on our hike.

Snowball fight!!

Kickin’ at the lake with all of Chris’ first cousins once removed. Chris’ mom is the youngest in her family so he has a lot of cousins that are much older than he is. Their kids are closer to his age than he is to their’s if that makes sense.

I’m not positive about this, but I’m pretty sure Makua is behind his peers mobility wise. Up until a week or so ago, he wasn’t really crawling. He would just roll to wherever or whatever it was he wanted. I tried motivating him to crawl by putting his toys out of his grasp or showing him how to crawl, but he wouldn’t have it. If he couldn’t reach his toys, he would just play with his hands or feet. Finally, I just thought, “Fine. You’ll crawl when you want to crawl.” Secretly, I was slightly relieved he was pretty immobile. Our place isn’t exactly babyproof.

Well, we found a motivator. As previously mentioned, he LOVES the TV remote control.  He loves it so much he got over his laziness and actually crawled to get to it.  Well, it’s more like flailing army crawling.  He doesn’t quite have the concept of crawling on his knees.  It actually looks like he’s swimming on the carpet.  Rather funny.

Happy 4th! I should do something patriotic, but the most patriotic pics I have are of our trip to DC and I already did that.

Alright- I know I said this was supposed to be a way to get to know me and Chris better, but Makua turns 9 months tomorrow and he’s changed quite a bit. So I thought I’d do a picture from every month to show the changes he’s gone through.

Home from the hospital.

“Sleep all day, Up all night”- so true, so true

BIG EYES

Maybe it’s the angle, but he looks way different in this picture than the last picture.

“Oohh…look at the pretty lights.” This was the first time we turned the mobile on for him.

He looks really chubby in this picture.

Chillin’ with the pacifier

“I love making noise with my toys!”

“These green beans are disgusting!”

So what do you think? He’s definitely thinned out quite a bit and lost his tan. I think his nose is a little different also and he has less hair. The latter is from it falling out when he had cradle cap though. His hair is definitely lighter. Well, anyway, hope you enjoyed your Makua tour of the last nine months. Eat some yummy BBQ and watch lots of fireworks!

In typical male fashion Makua’s favorite thing is…

THE REMOTE!!

Every time he sees the remote, that’s all he can think about. He cries when I take it away. If he’s crying, I show him the remote and he instantly stops. It’s weird.

I think he totally looks like Chris here. It’s baby Chris with dark hair and eyes.

Makua’s not really crawling yet, but he gets around when he needs to. Usually by rolling. We typically put him down to bed and leave him there to fall asleep. Sometimes he bawls his eyes out. Sometimes he doesn’t. Oddly enough, it’s the times he’s not bawling that I peak more often.

So the other night Chris put him down for bed and left to go home teaching. It was a bawl night. I cleaned up a little bit and was attempting to work out, peaking at him every 5 - 10 mins to make sure he wasn’t stuck or something. He stopped crying for a little while so I thought he had fallen asleep. I finished what I was doing and went to check on him. He wasn’t asleep. What was he doing? He was sitting up in his crib trying to pull himself to a standing position. Little bugger. He would pull himself up just enough to bang his head on the side of the crib. He would whine a little bit, but he kept doing it. I watched him for a couple of minutes and then finally intervened. He’s still a little too short to launch himself over the side of the crib, but I’d rest more easily if we moved the mattress down to the bottom level. Crazy kid….

I know some people love the heat of summer, but I am not one of them. Here is my tribute to Utah’s short season of spring:

beautiful butterfly

I forgot the real name of the plant on the right, but we call it the “petting plant” because it’s so soft. I love “petting” it.

I love the look of mixing plants with different color foliage.

I thought these flowers were just plain cute.

I think this is the Venetian Garden at Thanksgiving Point

lovely daisies

The Secret Garden at Thanksgiving Point is one of my favorites. Someday when we have a yard I hope to create my own “secret garden.”

By the by, all of these pictures were taken at Thanksgiving Point. They, unfortunately, aren’t part of my patio garden.