Spencer update

Spencer's developmental updates, for journaling purposes

New words or phrases developed in the last 6 months:

"That's cute!" "Truck" "Tractor" "Airplane" "McDonald's" "Snake away" "Elephant" "Owl" "help" "Swimming" "more ba ju" "Baby bear" "Baby Zeke" "Bike" "Book" "Book..ss" "Shark" "Spoungebob" "Turtle" "Shoe" "Sock" "Church" "Night Night for a bit" "Me" "You"- Plus all of those intermingled with "More" and "Please". Also, after learning "Snake away" which I'll explain, he added "away" to other animals he knows.

Spencer is currently picking up on colors. He's had a color poster in his room for awhile now, But is slowing starting to distinguish the colors. He can't say them, or won't, but he can show you pink, blue, red, yellow, and green.

Favorite songs: Wheels on the bus, which has been a fave for a while. If your happy and you know it. Spencer and I go to a movement and music class at the library, and he usually sits there while I do his hands in the hand gestures, but he will always stand up and do "If your happy and you know it." The Choo Choo Soul Theme song if a favorite, also "Hop up, Jump in" from Handy Manny. Those two songs, he can sing a long.

Favorite books: Franklin the Turtle first, then pretty much any book after that.

Favorite animal: He, like most other kids his age, likes animals. Dogs have always been high on the list. He loves watching birds, accompanied with a "quack" sound. Horses, cows, pretty much any animal. He's proficient in animal sounds, even a lion and an elephant. Spencer also loves dinosaurs.

Favorite food: He'd be happy if he didn't ever have to eat. If it were up to him, he'd live off of juice. The minuscule list of foods that he will eat includes: hot dogs, chicken nuggets, Campbell's chicken noodle soup, ramen, water chestnut, peanuts, chex mix, chips, fruit snacks, chocolate, snow cones, cereal and yogurt. And out of that list, it's still hit and miss. Some days, he'll eat great, then the next he won't touch it.

Favorite athletic activity: Jumping. He loves the trampoline, and loves to jump off of about anything. That's all he does right now is jump. Jumps down stairs, off the bed, off the couch, down the hall, basically any time he's on a raised platform of any kind, he'll jump off of it. The other day, we were at a park that had a climbing rock thing, about five feet high...of which he attempted to jump off. Also, he loves to kick balls....must be related to his dad. And swimming...must be related to his mom.

Favorite movie: Harry Potter. Spencer has never been huge on watching shows. He likes them on, in the background, but he will never sit an watch them. There are 2 parts on the 1st Harry Potter that he loves. We have to skip between them, and watch them back a million times in a row. He loves that part in the beginning, where Dudley is having his Birthday at the Reptile house. When Dudley upsets Harry, Harry unintentionally makes the glass between them and the snake disappear. Dudley falls in, and the snake comes out. This is where the phrase, "Snake away" came from..."The snake is getting away." He also does sound effects, and mimics the people screaming as the snake slithers past them. The other part of the show is where he goes through the barrier and sees the Hogwarts Express for the 1st time.

Favorite place to sleep: Still in our bed, no comment.


Other explanations on his phrases: "Baby Zeke" is my cousin's baby. He calls him, "Baby eke." "More ba ju" - "More ba (bottle) ju (Juice)" He's slowly transitioned into a sippy cup bottle, slightly different from a babies bottle. When he wants juice, it's any combination of more, ju, and ba, as fast as he can.

Favorite thing to do: Watch you tube. This is where his phrase, "Baby bear" came into play. One of his favorite youtubes is called "scared panda." It has a baby panda bear....so anytime he sees a panda bear, he calls it baby bear. And pretty much now, every bear is "baby bear."

Favorite you tubes: Baby bear, cat dancing, the winnie the pooh ride at Disneyland, It's a small world Disneyland, Girl Launched to Clouds, and anything with sharks.

Spencer's physical update: Spencer has always been scrawny, due to lack of interest in food. He has always been in the 75% for height and 10% for weight. However, at his last doctor appointment 4 months ago, he fell down to the 50% for height and 5 % for weight. He's ruffly give or take 23 pounds. Spencer had always had skin problems. He was diagnosed as atopic dermatitis. However, we think it is slowly becoming something worse. It looks like a bad case of eczema. He has dry patches all down his legs, his arms, and the top of his feet. It is really bad in creases, such as his wrists, or ankles, and his cheeks. Then everywhere else, just feels dry. We have to lather him in lotion, and steroid cremes, then put long foot pajamas on him, so it can soak in. He hates lotion.

Spencer has always had rhythm. He dances anytime he hears music. He also gets really excited when he sees a truck, tractor, or Spoungebob.

Swimming!!

Yay, the pool is finally open!! I am bound and determined to teach Spencer how to swim this year. Obviously, having a pool in your backyard can be extremely hazardous, so I want him to know how to swim as early as possible. My sisters and I have always been water dogs. However, I was the 1st out of the 3 of us to learn how to swim:) The 1st time I swam across the pool, I was only 2 years old! Spencer will be 2 in August, so if he wants to beat mom, he better get on it. He definitely takes after me, he loves the water...not that Scott doesn't, its just a lot harder for him to swim:) He sinks, it takes a lot of work for him to stay above the water. I was on swim team for years, was a lifeguard for years, been boating for years, anything with water is great. We bought Spencer a pair of water wings this year, and loves them. He can totally kick around the pool without our help. He also loves to jump in without anyone to catch him.

Can't swim without goggles

Monkey Buziness

Boise has a new indoor playground called Monkey Buziness. Always looking for things to keep kids busy, Lindsey and I, along with kids, just had to test it out. It has a portion that is similar to Planet Kids...slides, tubes, ropes....along with 3 huge inflatable slides/obstacle courses. It's not as large as planet kid, but Spencer had a hay day on the inflatable slides. The largest inflatable slide is huge, and so steep; Lindsey, Natalie, and I weren't careful enough and acquired quite the plastic burns while flying down. My problem was I didn't have any socks. It was amazing, I was holding my socks in the bathroom, and from the bathroom to where we put our stuff, they disappeared. I went back to see if I dropped them, or left them in the bathroom, but they were gone; I don't even remember putting them down. So I was trying to go down a freakishly steep slide while holding my heels up, needless to say, my last time down wasn't successful.

This is Spencer, cousin Alex, and myself getting ready to blastoff (as Spencer would say).

This picture was so funny to me. He's getting use to me taking pictures of everything he does..so when I yell his name, he instantly turns, gives the picture smile, and says, "cheese." I can tell when he's sick of smiling for pictures, because I get this face from him.

"Seriously mom, enough pictures....you want me to smile, this is all you get."

Best Friends

"Cousins are those childhood playmates who grow up to be forever friends."

- Anonymous

California Vacation - Days 5-9

Days 5 through 9 consisted of Disneyland and Newport beach, as follows:

We found it cheaper to get a huge suite that would fit everyone. It had a fully equipped kitchen, so we came back to the hotel for a few meals. This is Lindsey trying to eat her food, but she kept getting hassled by a little naked someone:)

Just wanted his own bowl, for crap sake:)

Playhouse Disney Live:) Can you see the excitement?

The last night we were there, for some reason, Splash Mountain completely cleared out. After going once, there were about 5 people in line, so we ran back around and did it again. Then after that time, there wasn't anyone in line, so they let us stay on, and go again. It was a little past 11 at night, and a little chilly, so I wasn't overly thrilled to get wet, so we made Scott and Nate take the front. Between the 3 rides, they got completely soaked...Since they took the front, most of the weight was in the front which added to the amount of water which sprayed them. Also we cruised through the ride. I don't know if it was because there were hardly any other people on it, or because we had more weight in the front, but we flew. It wasn't a slow drift through the ride, while you look at the characters....we flat out cruised. On the 1st drop, usually the log stops for a minute, to give the people in front of you a chance to get a little ahead. But we didn't stop, we went right around the corner and down the drop.

Overall the lines weren't too bad. We hit it between spring break, and when school gets out. Don't get me wrong, there was still a big crowd, but not as bad as the middle of summer...when we usually go. We did hit the grad night, and a bunch of school trips. But yay for Natalie, who got us up to the front of the lines. Her disability pass could get 6 at a time to the front of the line.

Spencer's favorite ride, by far, was It's a Small World. He's really into Panda Bears right now, there's a youtube called, "Scared Panda" that he thinks is hilarious...so he just lit up when he saw the panda bear on the Chinese portion of It's a Small World. He did really good on everything, Pinocchio and Snow White were a little scary. He would grip my hand and say, "Outside." He wasn't overly thrilled with Matterhorn, yep we took him on Matterhorn. He has a really funny scared face, he didn't scream or cry, just a little scared face. He's not thrilled with tea cups either, he hates spinning. He loved everything else...Dumbo, anything with a boat (Pirates, Jungle Cruise, Storybook, Haunted Mansion), but his other all time favorite was Winnie the Pooh. He was constantly asked to go on Pooh.

Natalie's favorite was Soaring over California. Natalie is a total thrill seeker. Natalie has sensory issues. She never feels like shes grounded, she does a lot of arm flailing, and different things to feel where she is in space, i guess is the only way I can think of to describe it. Anyways, any type of sensation, is a good sensation to Natalie. Lindsey thinks Natalie favorite sensation is adrenaline, anything fast, loud, scary, high is just great to Natalie....So of course, she loved all the rides. She even loved Splash Mountain, and Space Mountain. I've said in previous blogs that Natalie's alter ego is Donald Duck....and it still is. So when we would go on Soaring over California, she was Captain Donald, who would fly us around. And of course, the golf ball that would fly at you, the loud air planes, and the fireworks at the end pf the ride, were absolutely hilarious.

Alex, however, is a different story. He's the nicest, most passive little boy. Loves everything, and everyone. But does get very frightened. He didn't mind going fast, but the dark was very scary. The small rides, Pinocchio and whatnot were absolutely terrifying. Anything with characters and darkness were bad. We heard a lot of, "Too dark, too dark" "I go home" "Alexander scared."

Peace out 4 days of Disneyland, Hello Newport Beach!

Going to the beach was a last minute decision. I was still suit-less and Scott for some reason, didn't wear his suit. But we still went swimming, Scott just ended up swimming in his jeans. Spencer spend a lot of his time chasing seagulls.


While we were swimming, we kept seeing sting rays, and little sharks swimming around...Then we looked to our left, and saw that we were swimming 25 yards away from the pier where people were fishing....geniuses:)

California Vacation - Days 1-4

My entire family got to spend 9 days in California; my group (3) Lindsey's group (4), and then mom, dad, and Katie...10 altogether! The main purpose of going down was my cousin Monica's wedding, and we decided to throw in a few extra perks while we were down there. Day 1 of vacation fun was driving day!! Always a favorite. Driving day happened to hit on Scott's birthday, so he had a fun birthday of driving with 7 people for 13 hours:)

Lindsey and I finally put 2 and 2 together, and made the connection on this trip, that her 3 year old son, Alex, gets car sick. Both of Lindsey's kids have puking issues..acid reflux mixed with sensitive gag reflexes means Lindsey deals with a lot of puke. So our car ride went as follows: Alex puking, the lid on our on-top-of-car luggage carrier flying open, Alex puking again, lid flying off again and a box of easy mac flying out...intermingled with lots of food stops, dry dipe stops, and crying. We also got to listen to Alex play superheros, which was pretty amusing. Scott's sister Jody let us borrow their vehicle because theirs seats 7 and ours seats 6...THANKS Jody!! And don't worry about the puke, because of said issues, Lindsey is the expert on catching puke, I don't think a drop touched your car:)

Tight squeeze for Lindsey!! Can't have much more fun than that:)

The next day, May 16, was Monica's wedding. She and Rhett got sealed in the Fresno Temple. It was very beautiful, one reason I love going to California is the flowers. There is such a variety of flowers and they are everywhere, it smells soooo good. It was very hot, around 100 degrees, which is a slap in the face coming from Idaho. But everything was beautiful, Monica looked Gorgeous, it was a very nice, classy event.

This is Scott, Spencer, and I waiting for the lucky couple to walk out of the temple. I didn't get a chance to take a picture as they walked out. Scott and Nate (Lindsey's husband) were very good sports through the whole thing. They watched the kids so Lindsey and I could go into the sealing, and they also watched them while we went to the reception. Monica's wedding had a vintage theme, and the location for the reception had a "no kids" policy....way to many things that could break.

I couldn't get around people to get a decent shot...but this is Rhett, and friends, serenading Monica to "Touch my Body"....pretty funny (She's sitting on top of the piano).

This picture, of Scott and I, was taken at the luncheon (Obviously before the reception..I put it in out of order).

This was also at the luncheon. Spencer doesn't do that well in the heat:)

From my perspective, everything turned out really nice. The luncheon and reception were very classy, a lot like Monica, and it was a ton of fun.

After the wedding, we spent a few more days in Fresno, to visit with family and relax. My Grandparents have 6 great grandchildren, 1 girl (Natalie) and 5 boys. 2 of the boys are 3, and 3 of the boys are almost 2...they are within 3 months of each other.

You can't tell from this picture, but those 5 little boys are all in there!

Spencer playing with baby Nate.

We decided to go swimming at the hotel, and yes I forgot my suit. Spencer had to sit out for a little bit for not listening....we don't mess around when it comes to the pool.



Our last day in Fresno we decided to hit the Fresno zoo. Spencer's loved the sting rays. They had a large shallow pool where you could reach in and touch them. Spence and I had one sting ray that would hang around us, and slide up the wall coming part of the way out of the water...Spencer though it was great!


I had to throw this picture in, Katie and I always get made fun of for doing the flamingo stance. We both do it automatically, without realizing it. Usually it's done while we are waiting for something. For some reason, we both balance really well while in this stance. If you look closely, there are flamingos in the background.



Whenever it was relatively quiet, at my aunt and uncles house, and Spence was nowhere to be seen, I always knew where to look. This was one of his favorite spots in the house:

Where is Spencer?!?

Thank you Lindsey!!

Linds, thank you sooo much for Spencer's early Birthday present!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Enough said?