June - time for a Jerex catch-up

June has been a long, busy month and we still have one weekend to go! I thought I would take some time and jot some some of Jerex's new developments and favorite things.

New words:
Bun (bunny)
binky
jump
I don't know
all done
croc (his favorite shoes)
plane
bus
dump (for dump truck)
dirt
Jenna (his girlfriend at daycare)
Mooooore (more)
Bubble
keys

Speaking of bubble, when Jerex was sick a while back we introduced a cartoon that we had heard about called Bubble Guppies. Jerex became instantly hooked and is the happiest little boy ever while watching it. A lot of times when it is NOT on, he will find the remote and bring it to me wherever I am in the house and say BUBBLE! and hand me the remote. We definitely try to limit his time watching this and usually only resort to it if he needs to rest if it is too hot outside or if I need a break to cook dinner. So as much as we resolved to not watch TV around him and not have "shows" that he got addicted to, we have found ourselves with a little boy who really likes "Bu-Bu-Bubble Gu-Gu-Guppies"... And knows how to ask for it! Sigh...

Actions:
Jumping! He tries to jump and it is the cutest thing. He sometimes loses control and falls down while doing it. He swings his arms like he means business and then usually lifts one foot at a time off the ground, and looks really proud afterwards. He learned jumping from Cousin Brock who was jumping off of a lot of things when he was visiting in early June. So it's only a matter of time before the two cousins are jumping off things together! Jerex is definitely getting his practicing in before we go back to MO for the 4th of July.

Climbing - this isn't really a new thing - since he was climbing the stairs by 8 / 9 months when he was crawling - but he is just getting so good and so fast at climbing now! He climbs up his high chair, or climbs on the stroller that is parked, or any chair... and thinks he is awfully big stuff. Makes mommy extremely nervous and I find myself saying all the time "sit on your bottom".

Water attraction: Anywhere there is water, Jerex will find it and immediately get wet. At the park there are tons of fun things to play on/around and instead he will snoop around until he finds a little water puddle and then sits down in it or puts his trucks in the water or stomps through the puddle. Such a little boy! And keeping him away from water - forget it! Situations like a water-induced-fits are where Bubble Guppies sometimes come into play to distract him from getting soaked...  We have a sprinkler in the yard and baby pool and he helps me water the pumpkins.. anytime there is water involved, Jerex wants to be involved too!

The truck and tractor obsession continues - he is learning the different kinds of trucks like garbage trucks and fire trucks. We read a lot of books that he picks out and surprise, surprise - he wants to read the truck books! In addition to that, his favorite book right now is "Good Night Gorilla" and I think it is his favorite b/c we went to the zoo in early June when April, Chris and Brock were visiting and so I think he remembers that daytrip.

May trip to MO/IL

Back in early May, Jesse, Jerex and I took a trip to Missouri for a wedding and squeezed in some time with both our MO and IL families while back in the midwest. We flew into KC, had a little playdate with Miss Morley Christie, then split time between MO and IL the whole week prior to the wedding in KC.

In between now - actually posting about this trip and the  trip itself, Jesse and I underwent a major computer / picture reorganization and I'm not actually sure if some of these pictures are from May or from our March trip back! I think the Miller family pics are from March and the Jones family pics are from May. So if Jerex looks magically 2 months older in the bottom pictures that is likely why! I am lucky to keep anything straight these days. He did not age that much in our 1 week trip back!

This picture is actually from March but I don't think I ever posted it.

On the farm with Willa and Duane.

Dad teaching Jerex how to drive.

Papa Jay

All the Jones/Covert grandparents and great-grandparents

Liz, me, Ashley, Jamie, Heather and Lindsay @ the wedding!

It was a fun trip back, minus our little trip to the Albany ER when Jerex was wheezing. He had a little infection and could have been triggered by allergies. We got some meds for him and he perked right up. On the trip Jerex really solidified his love of cows. We went with Papa Burton to feed the cows and he calls them "skeeop" when he's feeding the cows, so Jerex picked up on that and would call in the same tone "skeeop" and it was the cutest thing. Everyone loved hearing Jerex call the cows, and now nearly 2 months later he still does it anytime he sees a cow or we read about cows. Between his two favorite loves - cows and tractors - you can tell he is going to be a farm boy!

Early May 2013

Summer is almost here and we are enjoying being outside as much as possible! Jerex loves being out and about and he really likes riding on his new bike seat on the back of Jesse's bike:

We went to the Crocs store on Mother's Day and bought some Crocs - it was quite a meltdown at the store initially when trying to get him to try them on, but now he likes them and can run really fast in them!

In early May we were on a plane with Jerex and he had a seat all to himself and was quite the happy traveler, luckily for mom and dad!

Happy mother's day to all the moms out there! Jerex decorated our sidewalk with some messages for me: (great penmanship)

Just playing on the deck with our car. 

Other Jerex updates:
- He runs everywhere he goes, is always in a hurry.
- He started dancing to music, and it is so cute!
- In the car every day he will sing along to songs on the radio.
- Dinner time is WW-III, he doesn't want to eat ANYTHING anymore!! He only eats applesauce and crackers! It is the oddest thing.
- New words every day! Recent new words: car, tree, milk, juice, home, cracker

1 year photos & stats

We had Jerex's pictures taken at about 13 months, so we will call it his one year photo shoot. I told our photographer Robin that my only goal was to get one good picture, I only needed one! Because I knew it would be a challenge. And one we did get, along with a few more that I liked too! We were dealing with a very uncooperative subject, but at least he's cute when he's uncooperative.

This is The One! Framed 8x10 on our mantle

Jerex and Bearex, BFFs

This one is my favorite, it was in between outfits, he busted loose during a snack break and made monkey-beating-on chest motions for us, and Robin got it on camera!

serious boy, but a good one of his face.

More monkeying around

Another good one

Our photographer's website: http://robincainphotography.com/

Overall, he was moody and didn't like having to stand still but I'm glad we went through the effort to capture him at this wonderful age!

1 year Jerex stats and likes as of Jan 2013:
Weight: 26 lbs, 8.5 oz
Height: 31 & 3/4 in
First steps: January 10th, 2013
Walking more by:  Feb 2, 2013
Favorite word to say: Hat
Favorite thing to wear: Hats and dad's gloves
Favorite things to do: play in snow, read books, push buttons, cuddle w/ Bearex
Favorite food: Yogurt
Favorite animal: Monkey
# of teeth: 8
First "real" haircut: February 13, 2013
Favorite Book: Hop on Pop (can say 'hop on pop'!)
Other things he says regularly at 1 yr: da-da, uh-oh, snooooo (snow), ahhh ahhh ehhh (monkey noises), moo, mama, apple, na-na (banana), hop on pop, da (ball), deet (boot).
Dislikes: brushing teeth, getting his boogies sucked out of nose

Q1 2013: Where did it go!?

Bad momma for not posting more in 2013! Ok - ANY in 2013! I'm really not sure how I've been able to ignore my blog for this long especially in the middle of winter when it is cold out and I never leave the house past 7:00 PM.. but some of life's biggest mysteries are unexplainable, right!? Toddlers are hard to keep up with and I think every night I either collapse early or stay up cleaning - not enough hours in the day!

Here are some cliff notes for what happened this year to catch you up:

Jerex had a 1st birthday party in LaHarpe, thrown by Grandma Cathy and Grandpa Jay over Christmas so the cousins could attend and since the poor guy has a birthday so close to Christmas we have squeeze it all in. It was a Star Wars theme and we even had a 6 foot tall Darth Vader, light saber pretzel treats, hats, star wars cake, and lots of fun. We learned that Jerex isn't a fan of birthday cake. (will add pics later - just realized they are on my other camera.)

After Christmas, Jerex got sick from all the travel. We made the drive to IL then MO then back to CO so he was just plain worn down. He recovered for his actual birthday on Jan 5th and we again tried to feed him some cake which he refused. He made a very large chocolatey mess in his high chair but we got some great pictures!

Jerex on his birthday

How old?? 1!!

After his birthday, January was the time we decided to enroll Jerex part-time in a new daycare to see how he did and mostly to get him some interaction with some other little kids. Jerex is one of three kids attending this daycare so it was perfect for us to know he was in a very small, intimate group and it is only for 3 days a week until he adjusts, we still use our nanny 2 days a week. The first week there Jerex caught the flu and so was sick for a week straight, through MLK weekend and even after that. So THAT wasn't how we wanted to start out daycare but his immune system has done much better since then thank goodness! And he loves going to daycare to hang with his friends!

February started with a visit from my parents, and Jesse had 3 straight weeks of traveling to LA for work, so it was a hectic time that I don't remember very well. I know that Jesse and I sent skiing on Super Bowl sunday and made it back in time for the game to watch it with my parents!
The other big event that happened end of January while my parents were here was Jerex learning to walk with confidence! He had taken his first few steps on Jan 10th, 2013 but then took a little vacation from walking until my mom and dad were here, I guess he wanted to show off. We got to see him take off tentatively at first and then like he had been doing it forever, there was nothing quite like that experience I'll say! It was so cool and mommy got a bit misty eyed. I'll try to post some videos of the walking progression, was amazing how fast he started getting fancy - as in carrying things while walking and going over ledges, walking outside on uneven ground, etc.  Big guy!

We had several big snowstorms in Feb and early March and this was right around the time Jerex is picking up more and more words, and of course "Nooooow" for Snow is one of them! He points outside and wants to go play in that snow! He likes doing a lot of sledding and crawling around in the snow. And if only we had waterproof baby gloves for outdoors we'd let him play outside longer than a few minutes at a time! (I swear they don't make baby waterproof gloves??!!)

Here are pics of Jerex, cousin Drake, and some other Jones / Covert family from the holidays:

Jerex & Drake

Gma and Gpa Jones and the boys

Jerex trying on Drake's Bears helmet

Great Gma and Gpa Willa and Duane

Happy little guy on Christmas morning!

Here are just a couple of pics from the Miller / Smith holidays:

2 of the 3 are happy

Posing with Aunt Dean

Well I hope you've enjoyed my blog catch-up, that is if anyone still even reads this since I have taken a nice little break from posting!!

Christmas 2012

Jerex had a GREAT Christmas, he was a good boy this year and got lots of nice gifts!

Family Christmas Pic!

Jerex exploring downtown Boulder lights

My favorite one

Who is this strange man holding me?!

There are my parents! Save Me!

Eating some messy Christmas grub

Blog catch-up: Turkey day in CO

Here are some pics of Jerex from Thanksgiving 2012! The Jones Grandparents and Uncle Jensen came out to visit and I cooked a huge turkey and had a large spread of fattening foods. We did some door busting on Black Friday..  and Jesse, Jensen and I went skiing on Saturday at Keystone (I had a run-in with a snowboarder but will spare the details)

Overall we had some good quality time with the family and Jerex liked his turkey hat:

Thanksgiving trip to MO

Jerex and I took a quick weekend trip to MO for 'Thanksgiving' the first weekend in November, and it also happened to coincide with the NWMSU Homecoming. We had some good home cooking, got to see friends, and spend some good quality time with everyone.

I love this shot of Grandma Brenda, balloons, & Brock!

The look on their faces is presh.

Ashley holding a drooly boy!

Jerex finally getting to chill with Graham and Morley!

Group photo: Jerex tries impressing Morley by poking her ear.

That tactic didn't work. Morley chooses Graham to cuddle with

Me & Jerex, Jessie & Graham and Dana and Morley