Potty Reward # 20

This reward came a lot quicker then the last one, but that's about it. He'll only go when it suits him. I'm at a loss with him. Some days he'll go potty multiple times, him wanting too; and then others, not at all. 

I am so ready for him to be out of diapers, but he just doesn't seem to care anymore. I'm hoping that when Gabbi starts school again, he'll be more into it.

William's 9 month check-up

William passed his 9 month old mark. I can't believe my baby is almost 1 years old. It truly does amaze me how fast time goes by.

William went in for his check-up and got great remarks from his Doctor. He said that we are doing great with William and that he is a strong and healthy little boy. He had no concerns for him. He suggested that we start using a sippy cup so he can be winged off his bottle by the time he turned one. Luckily for us, we have started that a little bit. We have tried three different sippy's with him and he only likes one. However because he is teething he uses it mainly as a chew toy.

William is growing as he should be, following the same growth pattern as before. He is small just like the other two, but not enough to have us worry.

William

19.4 lbs   29 % 

27.75 inch   31 %

William at 9 month's, finally has his first tooth coming in. You can barely see it in the picture. I was a little worried that it was taking so long, but my Mom reassured me that he was fine, they would come when they needed to. She also said that it was better that they stay covered as long as possible, the stronger they would be. That made me feel a little bit better. 

Looking at it, I'm glad it has taken so long because he has been a pill. The first few nights that it really bugged him, he couldn't be soothed at all. Nothing made him happy. The teething tablets didn't work, baby oragel didn't work, even Tylenol didn't work. We ended up putting him in his play pin downstairs so he could cry himself to sleep without bugging anyone in the house. I know that sounds bad, but we couldn't soothe him by holding him either. He was an ornery turd. Thank Heavens that only lasted 2 nights. He's much better now.

We have also started feeding him things that we eat. Not just your typical baby food. We have had to blend some of it up of course, but he has eaten pretty much anything and everything we have given him. His favorite has been rice pudding, the way his Daddy makes it. 

He is also so close to crawling. You can tell he really wants too. The other kids have been helping by crawling around him, showing him how. He has gone two crawling movements, but gets stuck and falls to his tummy. Its funny to watch. He gets stuck by dragging one leg behind him. One gets the motion, but the other stays tucked under his bum. He'll get it eventually. 

He does a lot of baby talk. He can say "Dada", "Mama", "baba", but he doesn't really understand who or what they are/is. But his doctor said that was normal and he's on his way to being a very talkative little guy.  

My big boy. A lot has happened in 9 month's for him.

Sharks

At the Aquarium we allowed the kids to pick out a prize for being good. William got a tree frog, Gabbi got Hello Kitty dressed as a mermaid and Owen picked out a hammerhead shark. He was so excited about his shark because he already had one at home. He couldn't wait until we got home so his sharks could play together.

Owen wanted me to take a picture with him and his sharks. I tried to get a nice picture, but he wouldn't have it. He wanted me to take one of the mouths of the sharks. He told me that the red mouth was blood because he just ate something/someone. He didn't have an explanation for the pink mouth, but he didn't care. 

Once we were done with the silly picture, we finally got a nice one.

Funny side note: I have no idea how they figured this out. But one day they came up during quiet time so excited to show me something. He then proceeded to pull both of the eyes on the hammer head shark inward. When he did this it made the head of the shark look like the head of a spider. He told me that all it needed was a few more eyes. 

I was taken back. To my astonishment, it really did look like the head of a spider. I was amazed that they figured this out. When I asked him how he knew it, he told me Gabbi showed him. Then I asked her and she just smiled. She couldn't figure out or remember how she knew it, she just did. Kids truly are funny. 

Aquarium

Beth and Parker bought season passes to the Aquarium and had added our kids to the list of those able to go in on their pass. They told us we could go anytime with them. Finally after almost the entire summer we were able to find a time that worked well for both of us.

We meet them at the Aquarium for a day of fun. The kids especially were really excited. When we walked in they had giant sharks hanging from the ceiling and Owen went ecstatic. He wanted to go see the sharks right away. But we wanted to save the best for last, so we went through the other exhibits first.

We first started in the exhibit that portrayed Utah. They kids were fascinated by all the different animals they saw. Owen loved the snake and Gabbi of course made sure we found the spider.

When we were done with Utah, we went to the tropics where they had birds flying around, exotic birds, tree frogs, etc.

The really cool part about this exhibit was the giant rope bridge. Gabbi as first was a little afraid, but her cousin told her that there was nothing to it and she went without further fear.

Owen was a little apprehensive, he told me that I had to stay right with him. I felt bad for those that were following us because he was going so slow. However they didn't make it any easier for Owen by jumping up and down behind me. It just made him go slower. But he was a trooper and made it all the way across without any help from me.

Once we were done with the tropics, we headed to the Arctic. The kids sat in front of the penguin exhibit for what seemed like forever. They had trainers in there cleaning and feeding the penguins and the kids were transfixed by who active they were.

I do have to admit, it was pretty cool. William even loved starring at them. When ever they would pass by the window he would slap the glass with a big smile on his face.

When we finally dragged them away form the penguins we continued our journey and found the Killer Whales. They of course weren't real, but the kids still had a blast playing on them and pretending they were real. Gabbi kept calling then Willey. I'm surprised she even remembers. It's been a long time since we have watch that movie.

When we left the Whale exhibit we walked through the remainder of the Ocean exhibits, until we had finally reached the Shark tunnel.

When we got to the tunnel, they kids eyes were everywhere. There was so much to see and they wanted to see it all. The funniest part was when I tried to take their picture in the tunnel. Neither of them would look at me because they were looking at the hundreds of fish and sharks that were swimming all around them. Owen almost looked scared at the thought that he would get eaten by one of the sharks if it came near him.

After walking through the tunnel we continued through to watch them from around the corner. It wasn't as cool at eh tunnel, but you could see their whole tank from this angle. There were so many different types of fish and I remember correctly many different breads of sharks, not that I could tell the difference. Gabbi kept asking us if a big one was in there. In all the movies she's ever seen, they are big sharks. She was in disbelief that they were so small. A quick conversation about how she used to be really small once made that conversation stop in its tracks.

After we were done with the sharks, we had seen all that there was to be seen. We were all hungry and decided it was time to get some lunch. We found our way to Golden Corral were we ate to our hearts/stomachs content.

It was such a fun morning and afternoon. Thanks Beth and Parker for thinking of us. We had a blast.

FHE Fireworks

We had fireworks from the 4th of July that we were meaning to light off on the 24th. But that didn't exactly happen. He told ourselves that we wouldn't light them off that weekend, that didn't happen either. We finally broke down and decided to light them off for Family Home Evening.

We didn't have much left over, but the kids were really excited. We had a few poppers, a few tanks, and the Sword of Truth (a glorified sparkler). 

Poppers

Tanks

The tanks were sadly, duds. The had one pop and then shot out black soot and that was it. They didn't even move like they were supposed.

The Sword of Truth

The Swords of Truth were awesome. Definitely worth the money. They didn't last as long as the salesman said, but it didn't matter. The kids loved them and they were really fun to watch. They were designed so that the kids wouldn't get hurt while holding them. So instead of the wick burning closer to your hand, it shoots out in front of you and never shrinks. Plus the sparks were bigger and better then the typical sparkler.

Our little firework show was very short, but the kids had a blast while it lasted.

Drive-in

Ben really wanted to be able to have some fun to, despite having to work, so he planned to take us to the drive-in. I didn't object. We love the drive-in. We planned to see Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and The Fault in our Stars. 

After we had parked we let the kids out of the Van to be able to play around. They had a blast taking turns pushing William around in the stroller. They fight over it, we ended up having to set the timer to ensure that both of them could push William. Luckily for us, they kept themselves occupied until it was time for the movies to start. 

When it was time for the movies to start it worked out perfectly for us to be able to watch our movie while the kids could watch one of their own.

We were parked perfectly for the kids to be able to see both Dragons 2 and Planes 2 from the back of the Van. We figured that they would want to watch Planes 2, since they hadn't seen it yet, so we set the radio station for that show, but they both watched more of Dragons 2 despite no volume. It made me laugh because we already saw that one.

Kids are funny.

Ben and I were both a little bored with the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. I definitely liked the first one better. This one was just too slow to keep me interested. I was fine having to get up and soothe William back to sleep.

I wasn't really impressed with the second show either. Ben thought it was good and I don't dispute that, but it was just too depressing. I'm not a huge fan of movies like that. Ones that start our sad and end sad.

Even though the movies were a little bit of a bust, at least we got to get out of the house and spend some time together.

Lunch at a new Park

Instead of going home to fight the kids to take a nap, I decided to grab some lunch and head to a park. We passed a new park just off 17th on the way to the parade. They kids begged me to stop so they could play, so that's where we went. 

When we got there, we laid out the blanket and the kids quickly ate their lunch. I have never seen them eat so fast. It really surprised me. They really must have wanted to play. That's exactly what they did too. They played on the playground for what seemed like forever. 

Gabbi trying her hardest to play on the monkey bars. Luckily for her, they were a smaller version, so she was able to get all the way across (with help from the ropes on the side).

Gabbi's favorite part of the park was the giant rope toy. It was basically a pyramid of ropes. All different sizes and lengths. She climbed all over those ropes for ever. 

Owen also wanted to climb on the ropes. He was really scared and did't move around much, but he wanted to try it out.

He even climbed over the the hammock type swing and sat there for a while.

William even had fun playing on the blanket with his toys. 

After an hour of playing and the park filling up with a lot of kids, I decided it was time to head home. I was done dealing with crowds. 

Daughters of the Utah Pioneers

Annie and her Mom are members of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. They had planned activities for all those that would visit the House that day. They had Pioneer games for all those that wanted to participate. Each of the kids tried each game and really had a fun time doing it.

Wringing out clothes along with buckets of water you can balance on your head

Ring toss

Ring toss

Spinning button

Spinning button

Washing clothes

Washing clothes

Ironically enough, this one was their favorite. Probably just because it had to do with water.

It wasn't all fun just for the kids, we were able to also take a look around the House Museum. They had a lot of pretty cool stuff there too. Items the Pioneers used while coming across the plains, furniture from their house, and many different types of clothes and misc items.

Annie walked us around and showed us a few different things that meant a lot to her and our ancestors. One of which were two pictures. Sadly I don't remember their names, but they are Ben's Great great great great great great Grandparents. Annie shared a few interesting stories about them as well. 

It was really nice to be able to walk around and connect with Annie on something that meant a lot to her.

When she was done showing us around the Museum, we walked around a little more outside and then decided that we were done with heat and headed back to our cars to go home.