Still Kicking

I know it's been so long since I've blogged. Chris and made the decision to close the shop. I'm now working at home. So as you can imagine, things have been a bit crazy. We also don't have an internet connection at home. Right now I wanted to at least get on here upload a few pictures. I'll be back soon with a full update and more pictures!

Stranger Danger? Not for Vance

Vance has changed a lot lately. He's started to do new things and he's leaving old things behind. I really thought he'd be walking by now. He's so close! He can take a few steps completely on his own. But it never fails, he always sits back down and crawls. He was going through a growth spurt recently. I can tell it's passed, he slowed way down on how much he eats. I haven't been to the doctor, so I can't tell you how much he weighs or how tall he is. I'm wanting to know that too! :)
Vance is still as people friendly as ever. Today I went to Wal-Mart during my lunch and I bet we had 10 people stop and talk to us. I didn't know any of them. They all want to stop and talk to Vance. Or tell me how cute he is and how good it is to see a smiling baby. Vance has a smile glued on his face just about every time we go anywhere. He's a people watcher. Today, I had an older couple behind me in line that talked to us the whole time. They just couldn't get over Vance. He had a toy and kept dropping it (the new game). The guy thought it was hilarious and kept giving it back to Vance. Normally I would have gave up after about the 3rd time.
Another outing story, I ran to the gas station on my way to work the other morning. The cashier lady thought Vance was soo cute! She helped talking to him while checking out the people in front of us. Finally when it came our turn to pay, she reaches over and grabs a container of cookies and hands it to Vance. She told me he could just have it. Vance isn't quite old enough for Chocolate Chip cookies yet, so Mommy got to eat those.
We've been to see Santa! Vance really wasn't sure what to think of Santa. He was a bit scared at first. I didn't hesitate. I handed him to Santa and he realized it was ok. Then he thought it was fun! We got a great picture of Santa and Vance; a typical smile from the happy boy! We were the only ones there that night. It was nice, Vance got to sit there a while and talk to Santa. Santa did most of the talking. He was a very nice man. When Vance gets a little older, we're really going to have to watch him around strangers. He'll go to anyone!
After getting our pictures. Vance went to play at the kids area of the mall. The mall recently has done some remodeling. They have a nice play area for kids. Vance crawls all around in there. They have a few plastic sea animals to climb on. He mostly watched the other kids. I've taken him back since then to play. It's nice to have a big area that's baby proof.

Baby's First

There's been a few "firsts" happening in the Beaty house. The funniest one yet; last night! We had Spaghetti and Vance got to eat some too! Here are a few pictures and a video.

Doing more than just crawling!

Vance walks himself around by holding onto things. He's getting quite good at it. The other night he figured out the high chair has wheels. He pushed it around for a bit. Then we got out his push walker. Check this out!

The wonderful life of Vance

We're getting ready for the holidays at our house. It's that time of year again! We've moved the furniture around in the living room, making room for the Christmas tree. Originally we weren't going to put one up this year, but I can't go without a Christmas tree. Hopefully Vance stays out from under the tree. (yeah right)
Vance is as busy as ever. He's been going through a growth spurt, we think. He's sleeping 12-13 hours almost every night and eating all day long. I'm gonna go broke buying snacks for him, lol. He's still a really good eater. There is a very short list of foods he won't eat and an extremely long one for the foods a loves. On the top of his love/like list is mashed potatoes. Anytime we go out to eat or cook a nice meal at home, Vance has to have lots of potatoes. You'd think he has hollow legs due to how much he eats. Today we had peanut butter bread. I've read where it says not to feed peanut butter to babies, because of a coking hazard. But Vance doesn't care if he CAN have it; he just wants it, NOW! For those of you that have been around him when he eats, you understand what I mean when I say 'now'. He's not the most patient when it comes to getting food.
One of his favorite things to do is take a bath. Or anything that has to do with water. At home we can keep the toilet lid down, but there isn’t al lid on the one at the shop. I have to keep the door shut; otherwise, he’s in there sticking his hands in the toilet. Same goes for the mop bucket. He can reach it when he’s in the walker. I can always tell when he’s found water somewhere. For example, dog bowls. If there’s a giant puddle around the toilet, mop bucket, or dog bowl, Vance has been there.
Yesterday I tried getting the tub rinsed out while Vance was in my arms. Once I picked up the plug, he went crazy! He immediately tried climbing out of my arms and into the tub. I could barely get his clothes off, he was wiggling so much. He spent almost an hour in the tub. I had some dogs to finish up, so I let him play. It turned into a game of fetch. More like “Mommy, go fetch”. What a little squirt!

Autumn, what a great time of year!

Again, we've been busy. On the 19th we went to KC to Dogtoberfest. We've gone in the past. It's always such a good time. This year we brought Thor and Akira with us. We didn't stay too long. But before we left, we did get a family picture drawn. There's a guy there at does charactures drawings. We had one done when Chris and I went 3 years ago. He does a really nice job.

We also got to visit the Orchard. Chris's family all met out there. We went on a hay ride, and picked apple. Vance also got to swing with me on a big swing set and sit in a train car. Maybe next year he'll be able to actually ride the train. :)

Melanie and Logan came to visit on the 21st. I went at 12:30am to pick them up from the airport. It was nice to see them. We had something planned just about everyday they were here. Thursday was Penny and Mom's birthdays. First we took Vance and Lilly to get pictures taken. Then we all met at Cracker Barrel for dinner in honor of the birthdays. While they were here we also carved pumpkins. We found a farm just south of town that had a nice area to pick pumpkins from. Vance enjoyed his time out there. He loves being outside, no matter where we go. I bought some finger paints for his pumpkin, but they didn't work out so well. Lilly got to use 'em on her pumpkin. After we were done with the pumpkins, Lilly and Vance needed a bath. Lilly was a very good helper and helped Vance with his bath.

I bought Vance's Halloween costume a little early this year. We had his pictures taken at Sears and it was his 9 month pictures all rolled into one. He did really well. He likes cameras. We always get compliments on how he smiles. Gotta love his dimples.

Halloween day was a little crazy. Vance survived wonderfully. We left the shop at about 2pm but by the time we got to our first destination, he was sleeping. So I drove around till he had time to sleep. He visited what family we could. It was great to go around and see everyone. He liked his costume and never complained about having the hood up. Although, this was a very warm Halloween. It was in the 70s and he had a very warm costume to wear. By about 7pm we made it to the Arnold's house for our annual trick or treating. Every year we sit on the front step of their house and pass out candy. Vance was such a good kid. He was up way past his bedtime and still had a smile on for everyone.

Vance sleeping

It's been so fun being a mom. Everyday, Vance always does something to make me laugh. The sweetest thing to see is him sleeping. I think he looks to innocent when he's sleeping. I wish I would sleep this hard.