Rex's 1st Birthday!

It was Rex's 1st birthday on August 15th. We had a pool party in Andrew's parents new pool and all had fun. Rex got to try cake for the first time and boy did he love it! He had fun unwrapping the presents but when he got one finished, he didn't quite understand why we would take it away because he wanted to play with it! He didn't stay sad for long when we put a new present in front of him! (Thanks to my mom for the cute scrapbook layouts!)

I made these cute little Elmo cupcakes:

 

A few things about Rex:

• He was 19 lbs 5 oz at his appointment.
• He is such a talker! He is constantly babbling! His favorite word is Dada but still no Mama :( but he can now go "Roo roo roo!" which is his sound for dogs/Sasha and say "ticka ticka" for tickles
• He loves the water..It doesn't matter if it is the tub, the pool, sprinklers, the dog's water bowl, he will play in it! He is a daredevil in it too! He will put his face in the water, splash and "jump" into the water from the side. If he wakes up grumpy, we just put him in the tub and we have an instant happy baby!
• He loves fruits and yogurt and anything sweet...He isn't a fan of much else...I can get him to eat other things but I have to give it to him before the fruit other wise he wont eat it! or mix it with the fruit although he is getting good at picking the "good stuff" out.
• He is still always smiling! I have such a happy boy! 
• We got him some giant legos and he loves putting them together.
• He is getting better at letting us know what he wants by pointing at things 
• He loves books! although he is too much of a busy body to let me get through a whole book. But if he finds one by himself he will stop to "read" it
• His Favorite person is my sister Meilin. He will refuse kisses to everyone in the room except her which makes her extremely happy.
• He has 6 teeth! 2 on the bottom and 4 on the top (all 4 of which came at practically the same time! not fun!)
• He makes car sounds when he plays with is cars-Andrew is so proud :)
• He isn't one for cuddling, but just recently he has this new attachment to his blankets and will cuddle for a short while if you have one of his blankets.
• He thinks going on walks with Sasha our dog is funny...well He thinks lots of things Sasha does is funny!
• He isn't walking yet but is getting so close! He crawls super fast though so I don't think he really cares to walk that much yet since it seems so slow to him right now. But he does cruise all over the furniture and can climb over everything! 

So that is basically our boy right now! We love him so much! I can't believe how fast this year has flown by! The 20 days he was in the hospital were the longest days of my life but after that I think time was trying to catch up and they just sped on by. I was realizing as I made this post that I don't have many pictures of me or Andrew with our Rexy...so we will work on changing that cuz I want memories with my baby!

Baby Games

The past week or so, Rex has had a fascination with the doors. He loves opening and shutting them. If we play peek-a-boo while he does it, it makes it a super fun game for him! But most of the time he doesn't care if we are there or not. He will spend 5 minutes or so just opening and shutting a door silly boy! I got a video of him yesterday playing with Andrew. Sorry the lighting is bad :(

Rex is learning a bunch of new things! He can say Dada, Sasha (our dog) however his "s" comes out a bit slobbery, and wave hi/by. Still no mama yet :( He LOVES Sasha! He repeats her name a few times when Sasha comes into the same room and loves to watch her and try and touch her. He is starting to pull himself up to things by himself and loves to walk everywhere (with help still). He has the motions down where if you are holding him, he arches his back to wiggle out of our arms then grabs your hands on the way down so he can walk. I can't believe he is 10 months now! This year is flying by! Here are a few more pics of him lately

 With Aunt Meilin

 Playing the piano with his feet

 Not really a pic of him at his best but I wanted a pic of him "lounging" he often lays on his side and plays. We think it's pretty cute.

 Getting ready to hike with dad

At the waterfall :)

Camping!

Rex and I had the opportunity to go with my family to the Annual Smith trip to Boulder! We just decided to go overnight since that was all I was able to go (and handle) by myself with Rex. Andrew wasn't able to make it:( but we still had fun! He loves being outside so he had a blast! He wanted to see everything and go everywhere. He slept great too which was nice. Thankfully there were lots of people around to help out with him!

Making Noise

As I've mentioned before, Rex is a loud happy baby! He is really social and LOVES to be around people. Church is kind of difficult since he wants to talk and see EVERYONE and if we don't let him, he gets mad. So we usually end up sitting in the back or the foyer where there are less distractions. If he is sitting and playing nicely with his toys and someone new comes near him, he will immediately stop to babble at them and try to touch or reach them. There are a few other families in our ward with young kids/babies who frequently sit in the foyer with us and he loves the little kids! He gets the biggest smile on his face if some other baby or little kid seems to be paying attention to him.

As he gets older, I'm sure he will push Andrew and Me out of our comfort zones since we are both quiet and shy people....sigh. He reminds me A LOT of my brother Jourdan. He even kind of looks like him too. I remember going to the grocery store with my mom when we were really little and Jourdan would talk to every random person he met. I would be so horrified and appalled that Jourdan would talk to strangers! (gasp!)  I'm mean he didn't even know them! lol

Anyway, Rex loves to make noise. Anything that makes noise he loves. From shaking toys to banging his feet on the wall, dishwasher, oven, crib, hitting toys together, "playing" the piano and of course screaming :) Now it's not a angry scream (most of the time) it is a happy scream. And it is pretty funny to watch since he is just exploding with excitement. His hands and feet get into it too, he twirls them around while he screams-it is so cute. I got this video this morning while we were eating. When he gets tired, it does start to turn into an angry scream which you can see at the end of the video.

And then, of course, with his new found freedom of crawling, comes getting into more mischief. Here is some of the fun Rex has done lately (sorry the quality is bad, they are from my iPod)

 

Making a mess with the videos

 

trying to get into Sasha's Kennel

Getting Around

Rex is learning to get around! For the past month or so he has been rolling everywhere! He learned to pivot and would roll in one direction till he couldn't go any further then would pivot and move somewhere else. It has been pretty effective in helping him get where he wants to go. It's not a fast process since he gets distracted on the way and ends up playing with whatever he finds. I have a short clip of him rolling around the kitchen.

This past week he has started crawling! (sort of) It's more like an army crawl but it still works! It's pretty funny to watch since he looks like an inch worm when he sticks his bum in the air and pushes himself forward. It is also a slow process but he still gets around! He keeps trying to climb into Sasha's Kennel. Yesterday he "crawled" from the living room to the middle of the kitchen and back! Here is a clip of his army/inchworm crawl:

Rex now has his 2 bottom teeth! The first tooth came in about 2 weeks ago and the second one came in yesterday. I haven't been able to get a picture of them since when I put my finger in his mouth he sticks his tongue out. Plus they are barely sticking out so you can barely see them anyway.

Standing Tall

You have to learn how to Walk before you can Crawl right??? Oh wait, it's the other way around. Well I think Rex got the memo confused because lately his new thing is standing. He can't crawl yet, or pull himself up to things but when we try and put him on the ground to play he won't bend his legs and tries to stand. He actually does quite well for a minute or 2 as long as he is leaning or holding on to something for support. He wants to be mobile so bad! He is constantly squirming in my lap and trying to dive off and flip flopping all over the place just to try and get somewhere. When he is on his tummy, he is moving his little arms and legs so fast trying to get somewhere that it looks like he is trying to swim :) He sits up really well on his own now and that has helped him feel a bit more independent but apparently that isn't good enough for him since he tries to stand any chance he can get. Once he does start crawling (or maybe he will walk first? hehe) we probably won't be able to stop him since we can already tell he just wants to go go go! We will definitely have our hands full with this little guy!

Solid foods are still going great. He has eaten bananas and sweet potatoes and loves them both. Last night we tried some Turkey baby food and he did not like it at all! He cringed and immediately spat it out so I guess we will wait a bit longer before introducing that and other meats to him and just stick with fruits/veggies and baby cereal for now.

He is such a happy baby. He still loves to squeal and scream when he is excited. He also does this thing were he literally just explodes with excitement! He just explodes in little squeals and screams it is so cute. My mom got a video of it and it is on her blog here. Of course, when he gets tired or hungry his screams turn into screams of anger and frustration. Andrew and I are still scratching our heads on how two quiet people made a loud screaming one hehe. But we still love him...he is probably the balance we needed.

He is also very curious about electronics. You can put a dozen toys in front of him and then a TV remote and with out fail he will always reach for the remote (or cell phone, ipod, etc.) We even have a toy cell phone for him and he will ignore that if there is a remote in front of him or a real cell phone. I guess he came with a preparedness for this electronic age!

First Food! (now with Video!)

Rex tried his first "solid" food today! We gave him some homemade sweet potato baby food. He loved it and kept trying to grab the spoon to feed himself! He got the hang of it right away! Lately he has been grabbing at our food and has been studying us when we eat so we knew he was very curious to try out "real food." He didn't spit it out or anything and got the hang of swallowing pretty fast! His only problem was that he couldn't quite figure out that he needed to open his mouth. He just stuck his tongue at me to try and taste more so we had to maneuver the spoon past his tongue but other than that, he was a pro! I decided to skip the rice cereal since it can give babies constipation and he has already been having problems with that when we switched to formula so I didn't want to make things worse. Sweet potatoes were suggested a lot as an alternative since they are a good source of vitamins/minerals and fiber :) And Rex seemed to enjoy it :)

Ok got the video to work...kind of...I think it is skinny cuz it was from my Ipod...? but it works :)

6 Months old!!!

So Wednesday was Rex's 6 month birthday! I can't believe how fast he is growing up! It makes me happy that he is getting bigger and learning new things but at the same time I'm sad at how fast it is going by! Kids really do grow up too fast! if he keeps up at this pace, he will be married before I know it lol. Here are some things about him:

• Right now he is about 14  1/2 pounds and 23 inches long, he is only in the 5% for a 6 month old but that is ok since he was a month early, but he is catching up! He finally made it onto the charts!
• Rex is such a happy boy! He is always smiling and laughing (except, it seems when I get the camera out he stops to stare at the camera)
• He is rolling from his tummy to his back and is so close to start rolling from his back to his tummy.
• He can sit up pretty well with support, and it won’t be long till he is doing that on his own too.
• He LOVES his hands and constantly has his fingers in his mouth sucking on them and drooling all over :)
• He likes to scream (happily) when he is happy, he is screaming an squealing! I don’t know how we got such a loud boy since Andrew and I are both pretty quiet, (2 negatives equal a positive, so 2 quiet people equal a loud one???)
• He likes to be around people hates when he has to leave to go to sleep. He really fights it with kicking and punching and growling (yes he growls! lol) but he usually falls asleep pretty quick.
• He sleeps between 7-10 hours at night! which I love! He only takes short little naps during the day but I don’t mind as long as he sleeps through the night. It has helped me not be so exhausted at work.
• He is getting very curious. I love when he is trying to figure out something cuz he gets a very concentrated look on his face

Well here are some pictures of him from the last few months.

6 months old!

Rolling over!

   Smiling with his fingers in his mouth

“Tough Guy” outfit

Trying to feed himself

Cute camo outfit at 3 months

Blessing outfit at 2 months (Thanks Lacey for the cute baby tux!) And our family pic on his blessing day. We blessed him at home at the advice of his doctor and only had our immediate family.

All the men who stood in the circle for his blessing: My Dad, Andrew, my brother Spencer, Andrew’s Dad, My Brother Mitchell, My Grandpa Smith, and then Andrew’s brother Alex in front and my Great Grandpa Dalley. My brother Jourdan couldn’t make it since he was out of state for school.
Baby Rex and his Great-Great Grandpa Rex Dalley! So glad Rex was born in time to meet his namesake! Grandpa Dalley just passed away this month and he was such a wonderful man! He was 96 years old and always had a story to tell and knew everyone everywhere! I hope my Rex can grow up to be a least half as great as he was!

I'm a slacker

Ok yes I've been a slacker at posting lately....I promise to get some up but for now, my mom has been posting a lot so if you want to see some more posts about Rex, you can visit her blog :


http://ronandaprilsmith.blogspot.com

Merry Christmas!