My First Real Mother's Day

 We headed up to SLC to celebrate Mother's Day at my grandparents'. Aaron continues to be a good traveler as long as someone (me) sits in the back with him. When I have to run errands on my own, well, let's just say we have to turn the sing-a-long music up.

Aaron loves his extended family! Here he is with my uncle, Doug, and my cousin, Beau.

 The boys were learning how to braid hair. Eryn was patient enough to be their test subject. 

Aaron love love loves his Uncle Ian

Here they are blowing raspberries at one another 

Aaron wore this handsome little outfit, courtesy of Grandma Bagley. I cannot believe he is already wearing 18-month clothing! 

Happy Mother's Day to me! This was my first official mother's day, and I couldn't have been happier. Aaron has been such a blessing to our lives and I love every inch of him. He is such a good kid and he will be the best older brother when the time comes. I am so grateful that I have had this year to be home with him everyday. I'm excited to go back to school in the fall but I will miss spending so much time with my little boy. 

Aaron always passes out on the drive home. I love this sweet, little face!! 

Our Curious, Happy Boy

 I showed Aaron how to make an echo with his voice, so Aaron now loves to pick up his block bucket and talk into it and hear his louder voice! He is so talkative and will talk to anything, but takes a few minutes to warm up to actual people. 

A new house is being built next to us, and Aaron loves to stand on the couch and peek through the curtains at the construction workers! He wants to use the couch as his own little race track, but he is a little too fearless and doesn't understand that edges mean falling. 

I just love this sweet little face :)

Aaron continues to be happy 90% of them, for which I am so grateful! He loves to laugh and be chased around the house! I try to crawl after him but my knees are not as padded as his and he is just too fast! 

 Aaron is getting ready to walk, and loves to walk along the whole sectional couch. He has been testing himself by letting go of the couch and standing on his own for about 15 seconds. He also loves to get into everything, so we have to build blockades. He loves crawling into the kitchen and pulling down all of the dish towels from off of the oven. He then puts them under his hands on the floor and slides around on them. Our appliances are black and fairly reflective, so Aaron talks to his reflection in the oven and the dishwasher. 

Aaron is also already in 18-month clothes! He is a tall kid, and really looks like a toddler already! His 9-month appointment is at the end of the month, so I will post his new measurements then. 

Aaron Loves His Daddy

Recently Aaron has become less clingy towards me and a lot more open to just hanging out with dad. This is great, because it allows me to get more things done around the house, Darrell gets to bond more with Aaron, and it prepares Aaron for when I start law school and he will be with Darrell a lot more. 

He loves falling asleep on Darrell's chest now 

Sometimes we'll sit on the porch swing and wait for Darrell to come home. Aaron has started looking out the front window in the afternoons, waiting for Daddy

 And here, Aaron is using Darrell as a tunnel. He did this for about half an hour!

Trip to Hogle Zoo

Last Saturday, we took Aaron up to Salt Lake to go to the zoo! We had a lot of fun and it was nice day to be outside. Aaron enjoyed seeing all of his favorite animals and it had been a long time since either Darrell or I had been to a zoo as well. 

 Chillin in his stroller

 This Golden Lion Tamarin came and ate right up against the window so Aaron could see him really well

 Aaron and Daddy checking out the elephants 

 This Silverback Gorilla lifted up that barrel and ate from it like it weighed nothing. This guy was huge!

 This Orangutan was eating a ton of kale

 Aaron and Mommy on the rhino

 This little baby spider monkey was so adorable

 Ostrich 

 Aaron with his favorite animals: Giraffes! 

 Sophie found her family 

 This zoo had a bunch of tigers

 My mom has pictures of my older siblings and I in this exact same egg like 20 years ago! Aaron wanted to stay in here and play

 Aaron and his new buddies that we busted out of the zoo

 After we went to the zoo, we found a homeless man and took him out to dinner! Just kidding, that's Uncle Ian, growing out his beard for Philmont this summer

We ate at Red Robin and had bottomless rootbeer floats- yum!

Aaron passed out on the ride home, after a long, fun day

New Bear

Aaron's Aunt Meg is from Minnesota, and went she went home for a visit a few weeks ago, she made Aaron a Minnesota Twins baseball build-a-bear! It is his new favorite bear and he loves playing with him!

 He's only glaring because of the flash. He played with him the whole hour-long drive back from SLC

He even cuddled with him as he fell asleep

After we made the bear growl at Aaron, he prowled around the house making this guttural noise which I can only assume is his growl!

The Flu

A couple weeks ago, Aaron got the flu. He sat up at 3 AM and just started projectile vomiting all over my bed. He continued to throw up so we took him to the ER. The doctor wasn't very helpful and said it was probably just something he ate. He gave some medicine and we went home. The next night, the exact same thing happened and so we knew it could just be something he ate because everything was out of his system. We took him to the ER in the wee hours of the morning again and this doctor was much nicer and sat and talked with us for more than 30 seconds. He told us Aaron had the flu. Poor baby. He couldn't eat anything except for pedialyte for almost a week and it was so sad. He was actually pretty happy, except for when we had to change his diaper. He had the worst diaper rash I've ever seen. He is all better now, thank goodness, but not before he got the Crowfoots, Uncle Chris, and Darrell and I sick! 

 On the way to the hospital at 5 AM

 He loves bath time, so we let him soak a couple times a day to soothe his bum and to clean off puke!

 So worn out! He loves to sleep like this now

 In some new jammies, holding the box of culturelle he had to take

 Darrell took a picture of this while buying more pedialyte

 It was nice to just cuddle and watch movies with Daddy home though

passed out from exhaustion 

Little Chatterbox

Here are some videos of Aaron talking away! 

This was on the ride home from church. Aaron loves to blow raspberries and stick out his tongue.

The Pantry

Aaron has discovered the magical place in our house called the pantry. Anytime we're in the kitchen, he quickly scurries into the pantry to bang on the containers of flour, sugar and rice. When we have water bottles on the floor, they are soon scattered around the entire kitchen. Fortunately, he cannot reach the canned goods on the shelves, but I imagine it won't be long until he'll be throwing aluminum cans around. Yikes!

Happy Easter

We had a wonderful, quiet Easter Sunday with just our little family. I played my flute in the Easter program during sacrament meeting and enjoyed primary with my CTR 7s. During music time in junior primary, our chorister asked the kids, "What do we celebrate on Easter?" and a cute little five year-old yelled out "Eggs!". Even though I no longer go to Sunday School or Relief Society, I do enjoy my time learning from the sweet children in our ward. I am always amazed at the great testimonies of such young children. I love teaching the CTR 7s because they are turning eight this year and preparing for baptism. After church, we had a nice roast with yorkshire pudding and veggies. 

Happy Happy Aaron!!

While Darrell's parents were here, Aaron learned to clap! it is so cute! I got it on video for all of you to see! He now claps after he eats a spoonful of food and when we say yay! He is such a smart and happy boy!