Look Ma! No Hands!!

I know he's been so close for so long, but tonight Canon finally did it... for real.  Canon can WALK!!!  Yay!!  Ok, so he's not really good at it yet, but give him a break.  Balance is a whole new concept for this little guy.  Yesterday during FHE Canon was practicing his walking between Mark and me... but he never quite made it to more than just a few steps before losing his balance and falling over.  Tonight, however, he got it down.  I was standing at the kitchen counter making dinner, and Mark was sitting on the floor in the living room watching TV (about as far as he can get from where I was standing).  Canon was standing at my legs and walked all the way to Mark.

Needless to say, we got pretty excited about it.  We made him practice again and again through the night.  Most of the time he was able to do it.  He's even taken to trying to leave our side, do a little loop and come right back again.  This past week I could see that Canon was lacking the confidence that he needed to be able to walk, and tonight I think he found it.  In watching him, I could tell he was experimenting, trying to figure out new things.  Namely, he's been trying to stand up by himself in the middle of the room.  So far he's only figured out how to make a bridge with his body and place the top of his head on the floor.  He looks like he's getting ready to do a somersault, even though he's never seen one done before.  He finds the upside-down view of the world pretty hilarious though.

I think this walking thing was a huge confidence booster.  He was in the BEST mood tonight.  It was like just looking at him tickled him right to the bone.  He was so giddy and silly... and after his bath he went straight to sleep.  Oh, I hope tonight is a night I will never forget.  Canon seemed so pleased with himself, and Mark and I were pretty pleased too.

Enjoy comparing the videos from last night and tonight!!

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Way to go, Canon!!

It's My Party...And I'll Cry If I Want To!!

Saturday we held a party to celebrate Canon's birthday.  We invited a couple of families from our ward here and a family from our old ward came out too.  We served our classic Philly Steak Sandwiches for lunch and had cake and ice cream.

For Canon's first time opening presents, he did exactly what I expected... more interested in the wrapping, and wanting to take the time to play with the first item instead of moving to the next gift.  The other kids were more excited about Canon's presents than he was.  When it came to the birthday cake, Canon was really mad that Mark strapped into the chair.  But in the end, I'd say he's a  NATURAL.  I can hardly stand how cute he was diving right into that cake.  You can even see the frosting in his eyelashes.  A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!! I think it's safe to say that Canon likes carrot cake and the cream cheese frosting.

Thanks to our good friend Eric Stevenson for being our cameraman, here is a movie with all the birthday party footage.  I won't be offended if you don't want to watch it all because it's about 11 1/2 minutes, but you'll definitely miss out if you don't watch it to the end.  During the present opening, you'll notice that I got a big surprise out of some family news.  (Just pay attention when we're opening the yellow envelope what was mailed to us...)

Enjoy the movie and a slew of cute birthday pictures!  

To watch the video, click here.

I bought a simple cake decorating kit, and this is what I came up with. It was my first ever decorated cake (other than the bunny cakes I did for Easter.  Those were decorated with candy and stuff, so they don't count. It's a totally different ballpark.) I was quite proud of my Tigger Cake.  The brown is chocolate frosting, and the orange and pink colors are dyed vanilla/cream cheese frostings.

Daddy helped Canon open his presents.  He was really interested in the first book.  :)

Canon enjoying the wrapping 

Mmm!  Mommy, this cake is so yummy!

*Gasp* This is delicious!

I think I missed a piece.

Nope, I got it!

Can I have a birthday party everyday?

Can't talk now... eating!

Oh yeah!  SO GOOD!

And my all-time favorite picture...

Happy birthday, Canon!!

1 YEAR OLD!!!

Happy Birthday, Canon!  You've made it through a whole year, and you're just getting cuter and smarter every single day!  He's actually a year old today, but we will be celebrating his birthday with some friends on Saturday.

If you don't mind, since this is my blog and all, allow me to reminisce a bit.

Halloween 2009 was spent in the hospital.  My water broke, but I didn't feel those painful contractions I was expecting.  I was trying to get my delivery on the way naturally, so I was making laps around the maternity ward.  Everyone at the nurses' station were amused at how fast I was going, but I wanted that baby to come out.  After hours of no progress, I was induced to get the ball rolling.  After about 29 hours of waiting, the baby was "in distress" so I was wheeled in for an emergency c-section.  At 10:40AM on Nov. 1, 2009 my little Canon was born.

Before Canon was born I always felt like I was always waiting for life to start... like I was missing something.  Being Canon's mother has filled my life with so much happiness.  I truly appreciated watching the little things, amazed at how excited I would get with each milestone.

It was so great to listen to his first coos...

...see him begin to smile (just in time to get our family portraits in December and for family visits for his baby blessing!!)...

...watch as his head was held up for longer and longer stretches of time...

...witness his discovery of how to roll over (I don't really have a great video of this )-: )...

...see his early morning grins...

...finding his ticklishness...

...finding ways to make him laugh...

...starting with new foods...

...watching him develop his strength from scooting...

...to crawling...

...to walking holding our hands.

There are so many more videos and pictures that I could include, but I will spare your time and just say that I am so happy to be Canon's mommy.  This past year has been a growing experience for me as well.  With all those sleepless nights,  draining days of little energy and little sleep, more dirty diapers than I can count, spit up and other smelly yucky stuff, hours worth of crying and tears- I wouldn't trade a single minute.  Canon makes me smile and laugh every day, and having him in our family has really made a wonderful impact on Mark and me.  We are so blessed to have this little handsome man in our life!

Happy Birthday, little buddy!

Daddy's Office and Trip to the Mall

A quick update on Canon's health:  He's still got a stuffy/runny nose, but he's sleeping much better than that first night.  He's slept all the way through the night every night since (except last night- figures, right?).  He usually goes down just fine for his naps, but you can still tell he's uncomfortable.  It's actually kind of funny because a few times he's laughed at the feeling of his nose getting sucked with the aspirator.  I wish he would laugh every time. :)  Sometimes he still puts up a fight for the aspirator, but he does much better.  Hopefully this cold will go away soon.  (I'm crossing my fingers that he will pop out a couple more teeth at the end of this cold like last time!)
Yesterday afternoon I took Canon to visit Mark at the office.  We got to meet several of the people Mark works with every day.  In fact, Judge Veelas (spelling?) gave Canon $5 to start his college fund.  We tried to decline, but he was too excited about how smart Canon looked... so engaged in what Judge Veelas was saying. It was fun to visit Mark's office.

After the office we all went to the mall to look for a gift for Canon's birthday.  While there we went to a Friendly's restaurant because Canon needed to eat, and I didn't bring any food with me. (I was expecting to just go straight home after getting Mark.)  While at Friendly's, Canon banged his chin on the table really hard and bit his tongue.  He screamed pretty hard and his tongue was bleeding.  I felt so horrible, but Mark handled it all perfectly.  Canon calmed down after a few small spoonfuls of ice cream. :) The poor, sweet little guy!

 After dinner Canon wanted to get down and walk the stroller.  It was pretty cute how he was so determined to walk, but he absolutely refused to hold our hand to walk.  Mark tried to hold his hand to go a little faster, and Canon just hit it out the way and yanked his arm behind his back.  He did the same thing to me.  It was fun to see him wanting such independence, but after a little while Mark started calling him a little punk.  Canon deserved it though because he really was showing a bit of attitude, so we just put him in his stroller.  I never knew Canon had that side to him in there! :0)

Stuffy Nose on Baby = No Sleep for Parents

Canon is almost a year old, and this is only the second time he's been sick.  We had friends over on Monday, and their little girl had a runny nose.  I didn't really think much of it because I figure Canon needs to get exposed to germs at some point, and he seems to have an impenetrable immune system.  Well, last night I was proven wrong.  Mark says that he went to bed pretty easily but was a little stuffy.  Then, after about midnight the kid was up every single hour of the night.  Not only was he awake, but he was crying really hard.  I got the vaporizer at about 3AM to see if that would help.  I got him to calm down and actually fall peacefully asleep at 4-ish, but he was up crying again at 5AM.  Most of the events of the night are a blur in my memory now, but I know that Mark got up once to try to calm him down after I came back to bed and was letting him cry for a while.  Mark came back to bed and asked where the painkiller/teething pills were.  Apparently Canon was asleep in his crib when Mark left the room, but by the time he took the 2 steps through the hall to get to our bedroom Canon had woken up screaming again.  I got up again to get the teething tablets and try to calm Canon down again.  I do know that I got him sleep a few different times, but needless to say, Mark and I had a rough night with very little sleep.  In the later hours of the morning, I got him to fall asleep in my arms/lap, but he woke up (twice) when I tried to get him to his crib.  I was figuring that Mark should just take the car to work so that I could let Canon sleep whenever I could, but by then Canon was pretty awake and not going back down... so I drove Mark to work as usual.

Despite the horrible night, Canon was in a pretty good mood most of the day, and he took a 3 1/2 hour nap today.  He started getting a little cranky, so I went to put him down at 10:30AM and he slept all the way until about 2PM.  (There were a few times when I thought he was waking up, but I guess those were just whimpers in his sleep.)  I wasn't going to let him sleep past 2PM because I wanted him to sleep tonight.  He woke up just minutes before I was going to get him, so that worked out perfectly.

He went down for bed about 7:45PM tonight and so far is still sound asleep.  Canon's nose was runny all day, and he still sounded stuffy tonight, but I'm still hoping that tonight will be a better night than last night.  It's only just after 9PM, and I'm exhausted... and I got a 2 hour nap today.  I can only imagine how tired Mark is.
Good night, everyone!  Wish us luck!  Let's hope Canon will feel better soon, the poor little trooper!

11 Months Old

Canon is now 11 months old.  I can hardly believe that I have to actually start thinking about plans for his birthday.  BIRTHDAY!!!  It's less than a month away! 

Canon has grown so much over the last few weeks.  He's still not walking by himself or talking, but he is certainly showing lots of charming personality.  His hair is also getting a bit long, but I can't bring myself to trim it.  It's just so cute that has a full head of hair.  One little section in the back curls where it brushes against his shirt collar.  He's still the most adorable little boy ever.


What 11 things can I say about my little guy?

1. He really loves to have fun- just like his daddy!
2. He enjoys splashing in his bath tub so much that he will practically splash out half the water of the baby tub.
3. He's cautious when eating new things, but he's courageous and just dives right in and eats everything we give him.  He really likes Mommy's broccoli cheese soup and tuna casserole (in small bits, of course).
4. He still loves everything long and skinny- strings, cords, writing utensils, sticks- things that protective parents don't let their babies play with... but what can I say?  They occupy him and keep him happy.  I just have to pay close attention.
5. He will sit and watch an entire Wallace and Gromit episode, if he's in the mood.
6. He still loves to explore, especially the stairs- which means that we had to rearrange where we put the gate.  (The post at the bottom of the stairs wasn't sturdy enough, so after an online order/fiasco and wooden planks with the extender and giving up our front door, we now are able to keep him out of Mark's office and the stairs at the same time.)
7. He absolutely loves his daddy.  I can still see how excited he gets when he can play with Mark.
8. He is learning to show affection, especially with Mommy.  He can (although rarely on demand) gives kisses on the cheek and likes to cuddle in the early mornings.
9. One of his absolute favorite activities is to be tickled mercilessly while being hung upside down.
10. He's so close to walking on his own, but if you hold his hands he will walk you around until you're tired.  He just loves it.
11. His idea of playing with blocks is knocking down whatever you've built, but at least he does it will full intent and doesn't leave a single block standing.

He's so big, and and I just love having him around.  He brings so much light a laughter into our lives.  The only thing I'd like to change is that he'd have more teeth so that he can actually chew more foods.  I think his little body is ready for more big kids foods, but I'm just worried that he'd choke.  Those 2 little teeth are cute, but more would be nice.   Oh well!  Happy 11 months, Canon!  We're looking forward to your birthday in a few weeks!

A Little More Randomness

I just posted several cute shots of Canon from our trip to Ohio on the family blog.  So you can check them out here.

I just wanted to post a couple things I thought were cute since we returned from Ohio.

I was working in the kitchen and heard Canon making some frustrated noises.  When I looked, this is what I saw... so I had to get the camera.  Poor guy!

When Canon gets really loud in the car, whether he's mad or sad... or even sometimes glad... when I feel like I want him to change his tune to one a little softer, this is what I do.  Usually it seems to work, even if it's just temporarily.  This time it wasn't perfect because he kept grabbing my hand, but you get the idea.

This past Monday there was a Kirby Vacuum salesman that came to our home.  He was a really nice guy, and we were very impressed with the vacuum.  However, we just can't afford to spend over $1000 on a vacuum cleaner, no matter how many awesome functions it has.  One of its functions was a blower, and he blew up a balloon for Canon.  It's been one of his favorite toys ever since.