Paul walks!!

Finally! He is walking!

He's been getting more and more mobile and gaining his balance -- and wanting to follow around his friend, Jane, who is just one week older and has been walking for months now.

Last Sunday (well, two Sundays ago now) at Grandma and Grandpa's house, he decided to just go for it -- and when he decided he was ready, BOY, was he ready! He was walking all over, between Mark and Grandma and me and then just going right past me to walk clear to the other end of the kitchen.

We just missed his mommy fake-out with the camera, but it was just serendipity that I both had the camera with us and *remembered* that I had it (pregnancy brain, anyone?), so we still caught some good stuff (which you don't have to actually watch unless your name is Debra ;):

Every time he fell, another crotch snap popped open :)

And then it ended like things usually do: kid in tears and Daddy laughing: 

Since that spill he's been a little more hesitant and wanting to hold someone's hand, but he's still doing great and we are SO glad he finally decided it was time to walk. Now he just has to learn to keep up with Jane. :)

Pudge Reports: Our Fall and Winter (so far)

Hello there, Pudge here. Mommy has been majorly slacking in the blogging-about-me department, so I thought I would take over for a bit. She's also been slacking in the picture-taking department, but there's not much I can do about that since my arms aren't long enough for self-portraits yet. Anyway...

It's a good thing that Aunt Dusty takes pictures. I wasn't really thrilled with the leaves, but I guess bad modeling gigs are the price one has to pay as a beginner...

We had a great Thanksgiving with LOTS of family... during which Mommy took no pictures. But I'll be getting a new cousin in May!

Some random December fun:

Mommy let me play in the box that her new toy (her sewing machine) came in.
That's my ornament on the tree!
Our neighbor Mike brought me a popsicle. It was sugar free, but okay.

 

 Another bad modeling gig (I really must get a new agent) -- and this one lasted for TWO days...

Mommy made almost all of those costumes. That didn't stop me
from wanting them OFF my head RIGHT NOW, though...

And then Aunt Dusty took some family pictures. This gig turned out okay by me since I didn't have to wear any silly hats or sit in any decomposing yard matter:

Daddy got a weird birthday present, but there was chocolate so I guess it's okay by me:

And then it was Christmas!

First things first: my morning milk.

THEN we opened presents.

We spent the rest of the day with the grandparents. They spoiled me, of course... but, of course, Mommy didn't take any pictures. However, I love my new present with all the buttons that make noise (but I don't dance for the camera. I have standards.):

We had a super-fun New Year's at Uncle Chad's -- I stayed up sooo late. And then didn't sleep in at all. That's probably why I fell asleep during the two-block drive to the sledding hill the next morning:

(I did wake up later and sled a bit, but it wasn't really my thing.)

I am generally into causing mischief lately:

Mommy bought a strainer which makes a GREAT face mask.
I love pulling all the DVDs off the shelf.
And sometimes when I scoot, my foot gets stuck in my pajamas.

Mommy made me a new shirt, but she only made me wear it once or twice:

Mommy did take a few pictures because she thought I looked so handsome in my church duds and parted (sort of) hair:

I was not fully cooperative.

We had a fun candlelight dinner for Valentine's Day... with no pictures.

And since then, I've just been mostly sick. I threw up all over Mommy 3 times. But not in my new carseat, which Mommy and Daddy were both grateful for. I saved the other stuff for the carseat. :)

Since I have been sick, I haven't wanted to do as much -- just watch MacGyver and eat cereal bars.

So, that's what we've been up to. Catch you later!

For those of you who feel like Paul's summary was lacking in a few specific details (I mean, he's one. He's still got at least a year before he's a fully competent writer): Yup, we're having another baby. I am 15 weeks along, due August 18, and feeling great. We're excited and Paul is clueless, for better or for worse. :)

A Very Nance Halloween

We are not much into Halloween. Last year, we did not put 1-month-old Paul in any sort of costume, not even a cute pumpkin shirt or anything. We stayed home and turned off the lights. When one trick-or-treater still rang the doorbell, Mark went undercover by reading the rest of the night. With a flashlight. In the bathroom.

So, we were all very shocked and surprised with ourselves that we ALL had costumes this year!

Mark and I dressed up for our 10K (6.2 mile) run, the Highway to Hale race for the Hale Center Theater here in Orem. We had a lot of fun, and my time (1:01:something) was close to my goal (of 1 hour) --  miraculous considering how little I had trained and how terrible I felt during the run. At one point, Mark was speedwalking faster than I was "jogging".

Mark was so sweet to stick with slow ol' me the whole race though "so our costumes would make sense." [We were originally going to have our shirts say "Max Hall hates me" (mine, the devil) and "Max Hall loves me" (Mark's, the angel) but we 1) ran out of time and 2) really liked the shirts and wanted to wear them again. :)] Running at my even-slower-than-normal pace did a number on his already-bad knees, since he couldn't hit his normal stride and still match my teeny tiny strides. But he was determined to run with me. Isn't my husband the best??

And Paul looked SO cute as our very own Pint-sized Blue (since I'm not sure he qualifies to be Big Blue yet):

Originally the hat didn't have the A on it, but I had to add it because everyone at our ward trunk-or-treat kept asking if he was a viking. Seriously? The jersey that says UTAH STATE on the front and AGGIES on the back wasn't a big enough clue for you? It must be a side effect of living in Utah County... I even had one person tell me that we were cheering for the wrong team. I can't wait until basketball season...when it's so much easier to be proud to be an Aggie...

But back to the topic at hand... the cutest little mascot on the planet.

Here's the rear view... I love the little tail!

Thanks to Uncle Jace and Aunt Lindsey for the jersey!

Paul was SUCH a good sport about the whole costume thing. He was so good during the whole on-and-off and try-it-on and hold-still-while-mommy-surgically-removes-the-your-costume thing.

Yup, that's right. I forgot to add the seam allowances to the pattern, which meant that the fleece shirt was too small. The bottom of the shirt barely fit over his head... but I was determined... so I literally squeezed him into it. And then couldn't get him back out of it. So I pinned the already-screaming child between my knees and held his hand in one hand to keep it stretched above his head so that I could cut the shirt up one side seam and then the other, which of course only made the poor kid (who is also cranky since he's getting FOUR new teeth right now) scream even harder. 

And then I let him play with scissors to calm him down. (I expect the Mom of the Year award to show up on my doorstep any day now.)

A couple strips of fabric fixed the shirt so it fit and off to the trunk-or-treat we went. And then to another trunk-or-treat at the parents' ward the next night. And then he let me put it on him again this morning to take these pictures in the daylight. Probably just so he could pull faces like this

as he ate my blantantly obvious bribery-so-you'll-stand-still-since-you-hate-standing cookies

 And then scooted away to perform some other mischief, dragging his cute little tail behind him.

Happy Halloween!

In October...

We celebrated a full-salary paycheck by going out to the new and fancy Magleby's here in town... at lunch... for the free chocolate cake...

Mark was SO thrilled that I documented the moment...
the moment that he had been talking about so much with his colleagues
that they asked him every day if we'd been to Magleby's yet. :)

We introduced Paul to Oreos. They hit it off well.

We met our newest cousin, Finn (here with Aunt Sarah).

Paul discovered that he has a new smile style...

We visited the pumpkin patch (and came home with an indestructible 50¢ gourd instead).

And we used our Trafalga/Orem Owls/Utah Flash season passes for some batting practice for Mark.

(Paul was not impressed.)

Finishing up Paul's birthday

Mark's class just happened to earn Baby Paul's visit the day before his birthday... so we went to visit with cupcakes. Paul enjoyed his cupcake very much... more so than he enjoyed his cake the next day at his party. :)

He didn't really get the idea of opening presents, but he loves the toys!

The cake pre-smash (although there was very little smashing). I spent way too long frosting it and making sure the sprinkles were ONLY on the sides... to the point that I forgot to remove one of the paper towels that I used to line one of the cake layers! Paul didn't notice and neither did Grandma Waddoups when she ate a slice later. :)

Paul wasn't really sure what to think of the cake thing...
with everyone watching...

but once he got a taste of the frosting, he liked that...

so he very delicately pinched off little chunks of frosting to eat.

We handed him a spoon to help...

but he preferred just licking the frosting off the candle.

And then he realized that there were cupcakes right behind him, so he turned around and grabbed one of those instead.

Which he promptly devoured

in just a couple bites.

So, next kid... I'm skipping the cake and just making him one awesome cupcake. :)

At one year old...

Paul weighs in at a whopping 19 lbs 10 oz. (In case you were wondering, that's not so whopping. That's 10th percentile, if you're being generous.)

If you look very closely, you can see Paul's first tooth!

Paul has two teeth! One broke through just this week. Even with one tooth, he managed to eat anything he wanted, including chicken nuggets, to the amazement of Mark's 4th graders.

Paul loves food in all its forms. He especially loves treats (we think he's inherited his daddy's sweet tooth for sure!), but he also loves bread and raspberries. He'll only eat strained vegetables (from the jar) and he won't touch kidney beans, but other than that, he eats pretty much anything.

Paul loves to play catch and his favorite toys are anything with wheels and all his stuffed animals. He loves to spin the wheels and give the animals hugs and kisses -- so cute! He also loves books, but mostly when he can pull them all off the shelf and pick one to read to himself. He doesn't love sitting still  yet. :)

But he only gives Mommy hugs and kisses (none for Daddy yet) and only when he feels like it. Wet slobbery kisses are the best. :)

He babbles all the time (just like Mommy!) and is starting to repeat sounds when we will say things over and over again, like "one, two, three!" and "catch" become "un" and "uch"... when he feels like it.

When he feels like it (are you see a trend here?), Paul willl also play peekaboo, wave goodbye and clap his hands.

Paul refuses to walk or crawl or even roll (still!), but he scoots around and gets himself everywhere he needs to go, like back to his high chair to pick up his leftovers, anywhere there's trouble to be made, and to the prime spot: right at Mommy's feet whenever I'm doing anything.

Paul loves the bath and will come scooting as fast as he can when he hears the water start to run. He loves playing in the bath but his favorite toy of all is the drain plug. He pulls it out and puts it back again and again. He also loves pulling clothes out of the laundry basket, movies from the movie shelf, and garbage (especially paper) from the garbage can. He doesn't put those back though. :)

Everywhere we go, people love Paul. Even the crusty cashier lady at our grocery store loves him and will come say Hi to him if we don't go through her line. Everyone tells me how adorable he is and how bright his eyes are and how handsome he is and he's usually nice enough to smile at them while I say, "I know, he's perfect!" (I don't really say that... but I want to!)

We love our little Paul and are so happy he's ours!