Super shopper

Stuey is now helping out Mom at the grocery store. Greenwood Market has tiny shopping carts for their younger shoppers. He had a blast running around the store crashing into a few things along the way. His loot on the day was a box of arugula, a stuffed animal, and 2 lemons.

Stuey's true nature

Happy Halloween!

Is it a Dragon? Is it a Dinosaur? Is it Barney? Who knows! Who cares?! It's adorable! Stuey had a blast yesterday going to Daddy's office and Trick-or-Treating. His favoite "treats" were a toothbrush and a toy car! Oh, and the Crunch bar he chewed through the wrapper to get to! Today we were going to go to Greenwood Ave up the street to Trick-or-Treat at the businesses but alas, in true Seattle form it is raining so instead we're staying home to carve pumpkins!

Craft time and Bath time

Two more favorite activites are bathtime and "craft time" (aka, coloring with crayons on a the table!). Bathtime is always a splash and various rubber duckies (farmer duck, pig duck) plus Star Wars figurines make great friends in the tub!

We've also taken to coloring and are VERY excited about it. We like using multiple crayons at one time and the drawing ends up on the paper most of the time. It's so sweet seeing him sitting at the table, concentrating on his art.

Bus

Stuey's now identifying all things with 4 wheels as "bus"! His favoite book is "100 First Machines" which has LOTS of 4-wheeled vehicles to point to! Other favorite words are "ba" (ball), "butts" (just about anything), "whassthis?" (what's this), "uh oh" (when he has thrown something on the floor!) and "mama" (Mom and Dad are both mama)!

Fall is here!

The little man is having a blast this fall picking up leaves and rocks up and down the street. He likes also likes to point out all airplanes and trucks he encounters on his daily walks. He usually says "bye" to people,trucks, and dogs when they are out of earshot.

Goats and Boats and Blueberries

This summer was also filled with exciting adventures outside of the city! We took a day trip to go blueberry picking, which Stuey loved (the eating part, that is, the picking part we'll work on for next year). We also took a ferry to Whidbey Island and spent a weekend on "island time," wandering around the little town of Langley (Stuey made plenty of friends by flashing his smile at everyone we passed), walking in the woods, hiking down a very steep path to the beach (Ben got the ultimate workout with Stuey on his shoulders!) and most importantly, feeding some goats! By the way, did you know goats love oats?

Summertime Fun

These 2 pictures represent our "average day" summer activites. We spent lots of time in the water, often at the Greenlake wading pool and we spent lots of time playing at the park. The wood chips on the playground happen to be Stuey's favorite part of the park!

Long Lost Lake fun

Back in June, Stuey took his first summertime trip to Long Lost Lake in Minnesota! He had a blast splashing in the water, riding in the boat (first boat ride!) and playing with Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie Maureen and Uncle Matt. Horray for lake fun!!!

Just darn cute

I mean, really?!?! He's too much...

Cool Rider

That's right, Stuey's got his first set of wheels! We got him a little trike a few days ago and he has spent the majority of his time since riding and pushing it around...he LOVES it! Rumor has it, his Dad loved his first "motorcycle" too. We've only had a dozen or so "incidents"- Stuey falling off the bike, the bike falling over on Stuey, Stuey falling over the bike...but he's always back on the saddle in no time!

I'm ONE!

Well, the little man is 1 year old. Hard to believe! We had a wonderful backyard BBQ Birthday party and as you can see, Stuey enjoyed himself thoroughly. He had lots of friends over and they went swimming in the backyard baby pool. He enjoyed some cake too, baked by Auntie Sarah (see top picture for the cake-face)!

Happy!

In honor of Stuey's first birthday, his Auntie Sarah taught him to say "Happy!" I think their next lesson will be on how to say "birthday!" Stuey has also taken some huge steps (not literally...yet) in his level of comprehension. Yesterday I asked him where his ball was and he went and found it. Then I asked him to bring it to me and he very happily did! Imagine what this means for Ben and I...we never have to get up off the couch again! But really, he is an absolute blast these days, chatting away and getting into everything!!!

singin' and belly dancin'...

...or dancing on your belly, I should say. This video is a treat because not only do you get to see Stuey singing along to a bluegrass song, you get to see Ben playing guitar and singing too! This is becoming almost a daily ritual at our house. It is so sweet to see Stuey watching his Daddy singing and playing and he always adds his own soundtrack too, of course.

Also, Stuey made his first phonecall the other day! Dad left the room for a minute and Stuey got ahold of the Blackberry and called his Mommy! Awww...he missed me so much he just had to call ; )

Flashin' that Svobodny smile!

I thought this picture was so cute. He is getting so good at flashing that winning grin. He uses it to his full advantage! When we are out and about, he will look at people and smile at them until they give him some attention! If they aren't responding to his smiles, he will yelp to get them to look over at him. Amazing how early he's learning to work a room!

oral hygiene

So now that Stuey has 2 teeth, he has decided it's time to learn brushing! His method includes gnawing on all sides of the toothbrush and then tossing it to the side. I guess we'll wait awhile before introducing flossing ; )

On the Move (no foolin')!

Put up the baby gates and childproof the cupboards...we have a crawler! This April Fool's Day Stuey took his first crawls. His daily workouts of "sit-ups" and "push-ups" have finally paid off! I almost cried, I was so proud of him. Watch out world, here he comes!

we got a tooth!

Stuey officially has his first tooth! It popped through a week or 2 ago. You can see it (kind of) in this picture. We have had a couple rough nights lately, possibly due to teething but overall the lad is handling it very well. He's so incredibly good-natured. I love the eyebrow in this picture. Again, looks like he's up to something...good-natured AND mischievious? We'll see!

7 month pictures

This (and the previous picture) are from our most recent "in house" photo shoot. Mom has taken on the role of photographer and stages inpromptu photo shoots to document Stuey's ever-evolving cuteness.

Opinionated

Well, it's official. Stuey has an opinion! He has recently been stating his preferences for toys (usually he wants that piece of paper you're trying to read), when and how he wants to be held, where and with what he would like to play...This is the first we've seen of this, actually crying when he doesn't get what he wants. Oh boy, we're in for some fun! We have a boywho knows what he wants and he won't settle for anything less!

By the way, doesn't he look mischievious is this picture?!

He's walking! (well, almost)

Stuey and Dad go for a "walk" on a sunny Seattle day in January.

Men in the mirror

Here's a quick video of Stuey and his Daddy taken last week.

Not quite honest

So...in the first post I realized the picture of Stuey's "first food" was not quite honest. That picture was taken about a week into trying bananas. This picture is ACTUALLY his first attempt. Priceless.

We're officially a blogging family

Well folks, here we are. Our lives on the world wide web for all to see. I mostly want to keep all the Stuey fans updated on his latest and greatest (and oh, is he great!) and I figure this can function as a sort of "baby book" for him too. Who needs scrapbooking when you have a blog?

So what is Stuey's latest and greatest, you ask? Bananas! He has been cautiously tasting bananas the past week or 2. He mostly likes rubbing the banana into the table and onto his clothes and playing with the spoon. He has really only had maybe a small banana morsel in his mouth so far and once it's in there, he seems pretty happy about it. It's the getting it in the mouth that's tricky! But like with most things, he's cute while he's trying.

The other exciting new skill is swimming! That's right, he's a genius. He's 7 months and he can swim (with a little help)! He had his second "swimming lesson" tonight and he LOVES the water. He kicks and waves his arms and doesn't mind too much when water gets on his face or in his mouth. We've been having a blast and look forward to this summer when he gets to hit the lake for a swim!