Bumps & Bruises...

That pretty much sums up what the last couple months have been.  Adler is officially walking, although he is anything but graceful about it! He has had several bumps and bruises already.  It is getting easier on this mama, but not so easy for Adler.  He currently has a bruise on his forehead, where he opened a drawer and hit himself in the head with it.  That was followed by falling into the kitchen cabinets and biting through his bottom lip. Needless to say, there has not been  a dull moment around here lately. 
We went to the hospital a couple weeks ago and got to meet Miss Quinn. While there Adler and Reese (Cassie's little girl, that is a few days younger then Adler) finally got to meet each other.  They were absolutely adorable together.  They each wanted what the other one had.  It was a good day getting to see everyone along with getting to meet a beautiful baby girl.
The last couple of weeks I have been ordering things to celebrate Adler's 1st birthday! It has been bittersweet. I can not believe that time has gone by so quickly.  We will be celebrating with a farm animal theme.
Adler and I have made several trips with Jared to check cattle.  Adler absolutely loves the cows, he will stand up in the cab of the pick-up, beating on the windows and squealing, full of excitement when he sees the cows.  He really loves getting out of the pick-up and walking through the cows with daddy. 
When we aren't setting at home in the nice and cool air-conditioned house, we have been taking in the sun at the pool.  Adler absolutely loves the water.  He loves splashing and kicking his feet like crazy.  
Adler is trying to tell me that it is nap time, so I better get going...

Adler & Reese

Checking the cows with daddy.

Adler's 1st Haircut

4th of July

My guys

Summer is Here...

Summer is here, and that means the fun is just beginning at the Bates' Household.  Harvest is among us, and things are going to be crazy for a few weeks.   Adler and I will be making several trips to the field to visit Jared,which I am sure Adler is going to absolutely love. 
Adler is changing more and more everyday...he is officially mobile!  He is crawling all over the place and getting to be pretty quick at it!  He is also pulling up to everything and letting go and standing alone!  It won't be long and my little man will be walking.  Every night when it is time for a bath, I go get the water started and then go get the necessities.  Before I can make it back to the bathroom, Alder has crawled as fast as he can to get into the bathroom and is standing beside the bathtub going crazy in anticipation of getting in the water.  He loves bath time!
Adler has learned to wave "bye-bye."  Every time he hears the words "bye-bye" he is waving like crazy.
He is now the proud owner of 6 teeth!  He has handled "teething" rather well.  We did have a few rough nights, thanks to these teeth!  But can't complain, it wasn't long at all and he was back to sleeping all night.
Adler rode is first horse this month with his daddy.  He absolutely loved the horses.  Every time we would walk up to one he would giggle at them.  One of the pictures of him and Jared was published in the Oklahoma Living magazine this month, for Father's Day!
Today we played in the pool outside.  Needless to say Adler was in love with the water.  He splashed like crazy, playing until he was absolutely worn out!  He is napping now, trying to recover from playing so hard.  I had better keep moving and get a few things done before he wakes up.  Happy Summer Everyone!

                                                        

                                                                   

8 months old...

Time only seems to speed up as the days pass by...my baby is already 8 months old.  It doesn't seem possible that in a few short months we will be celebrating his first birthday!  I wish that I could "stunt his growth."  I don't want to keep him from growing, just slow it down.
It has been very busy around the Bates' house hold.  Jared and I both are staying very busy with work, and when we aren't working we are busy playing with Adler. Jared is busy working baby calves, and patiently waiting to see if we are going to have a wheat crop.  We are very thankful for the wonderful rain that we received this week and are hoping for more soon.  A couple of weeks ago, we both got to sneak away for a little while.  I went to OKC Jodi's personal shower for some much needed girl time.  It was so good to get together with all the girls and catch up for a little while.  Doesn't seem like we get to do that often enough with all of us going in our own directions.  While Jared went with Dad and Stephen to Grand Lake and went Fishing.  They all had a wonderful time and caught their limit Saturday and Sunday!
As for Adler, he spoke his first word this month.  "Ma-ma" I never knew that those words would melt my heart the way that they do.  Although Jared wasn't too impressed that he wasn't saying Da-Da.   It was only a few short days and he was saying both.  In fact there are very few moments that Adler is not saying something.  He is quite the talker! If we only knew everything that he was trying to say.
Adler is now "army crawling" everywhere. He is all over the place.  I am slowly baby proofing the house.  He loves to be able to get where he wants to be and do it when he wants to do it.  He gets up on all fours, in the crawling position and rocks back and forth but hasn't quite figured the whole crawling thing out yet. (Which is quite alright with mama.)
I took him to have Easter pictures taken a couple weeks ago.  At first, he was only wanting to wrinkle his nose up for the camera.  That is until they brought out the bunny and he was all smiles.  He loved the bunny! In fact he loved the bunny so much that he was grabbing its ears and handfuls of hair and not wanting to let go! (Poor bunny.)
Adler loves being outside, it doesn't matter how warm or cold it is, he loves it.  I got him a new pair of sunglasses that he absolutely loves to wear.  He is so funny when I put them on him he looks around like he is pretty big stuff! 
I think Adler is trying to tell me that it is nap time, so I had better run!

Monkey'in Around....

I think the title of this post pretty much sums up the past month...to say the least we are starting to become mobile, and I'm not too sure that I am ready yet. 
The past month has meant a lot of changes for Adler.  He has started rolling around all over the place, if he sees something he thinks he needs he rolls to it (and is very proud of himself for being able to do so).  He has become quite the mover in his walker, I have about broke my neck a couple of times when turning around to go do something and finding him right under my feet.
He is also setting up, although sometimes he forgets and stiffens his body and throws himself backwards.  Needless to say no one is impressed by that move! 
When Adler and I go to Wal-Mart I have started taking him out of his car seat and setting him up in the cart, he loves it!  You would think that I had never taken him out in public before. (It's adorable)  He loves taking in the scenery in Wal-Mart including the ceilings. His new found love is ceiling fans, he is amazed by them and they don't have to be moving.  We will walk under  one and he about break his neck and my back to look at them by leaning backwards as we are walking away from them.   I also have to be careful when putting him in his bouncy seat, before now he has never tried to get out of them.  I have found him a few times almost out of it.  I will post a couple of picture below, of  how I have found him after just leaving the room for a few minutes.  He now gets buckled in every time he gets in his bouncy seat!
We are quite the eater now too, he is eating out of a spoon without any gagging!  He is like a little bird at times, especially if you aren't feeding him fast enough.  He will lean forward as far as he can with his mouth open and grunt at you, as if to say "hurry up!"  This past week we went to Enid and when it was time for Adler to eat I discovered that I didn't have a bottle!  So we ran to Wal-Greens to find they didn't have any bottles that would work, so Adler got his first sippey cup.  I was dreading giving to him, my thoughts were that it was going to be a disaster and he wasn't going to be impressed.  Needless to say I was wrong!  I put his milk in the sippey cup and he drank out of it like it was no big deal...of course I wasn't impressed, that means he is growing up and doing it way to fast!  After thinking about it a while, I decided that I have been very blessed with a baby that takes change in stride.  I told my mom on the way home from Enid that I fear that my next child might not be as easy going.  I told her God knew what he was doing by giving me an easy baby first or else he would probably be an only child!!!
Adler loves to "show-off."  He is definitely not my child in this aspect.  Any time there are people around to watch he is he biggest show off.  His favorite thing to show people is how bad his "cough" is.  It is hilarious, especially if he hears someone cough he will cough back at them.
Adler is now sleeping in his room in his crib.  This was a harder transition on me then it was on him.  The first night he was in there, there wasn't a sound out of him.  In fact he was so quiet I kept turning the volume up on the monitor to see if I could hear him.  (Of course the only thing I heard was noises that were being picked up from outside, and since I was paranoid about putting him in there to begin with, I was always running into his room seeing what the noise was!!!  Of course it was nothing.)  Then when I wouldn't hear him I would turn on the video and see hat he was still sleeping soundly, so soundly that I went in and made sure he was still breathing a couple of times throughout the night.  Thankfully after doing this for a couple of nights we are ALL now sleeping soundly.
Well nap time is about over so I better keep moving...

My first cowboy hat...

Look at me in my new bath seat!

Hanging out....

My little monkey!

New Year...

Well the new year is here and so far it has been very good to all of us.  It has snowed a couple of times this year already, thank goodness because we have needed the moisture and could stand to have a little more.  Everyone in the Bates' household has been keeping very busy with the everyday rush...Jared is keeping busy at the farm, with the snow that means extra time spent with the livestock, putting out feed for them and breaking the ice so that they have water too drink.  I am keeping busy with work and the everyday chores of being a wife and mother, but I wouldn't change either of them for the world!  I'm loving every minute of it.  Adler is becoming quite the little busy body, as he thinks that he needs to be doing something all the time.  His jumperoo, that he got for Christmas has been a life saver as he loves to be jumping up and down, it keeps him entertained for hours on end at times.  He has jumped himself to sleep in it a couple of times.   He has become quite the talker, or so he thinks!  When Jared and I set down at the table to eat supper we put him in his high chair and he plays with toys.  When we are having a conversation, or if Adler thinks we aren't paying enough attention to him he will start talking too...and if we try to talk over his talking, he will raise his volume louder. We find ourselves being unable to hear one another and we will stop and look at Adler and he will giggle, as if that is just what he was trying to do.  He is spoiled rotten, just the way we like him. He has found his feet and loves playing with them, he has at times had both feet in his mouth, sucking on his toes but of course I can't get the camera out fast enough to get a picture of it.  Im afraid he is starting to teethe, he has been kind of cranky and has had a couple of low fevers.  But, thanks to his Aunt Shanna he now has a new toy that he is in love with...it is a hand held teether that looks like a cluster of grapes and when he bites down on it, it vibrates.  He giggles when it vibrates.  He also loves to have his gums rubbed.Well I think he is trying to let me know it is time to eat....speaking of eating we tried feeding him some cereal with a spoon and to say the least he was not impressed (I will post a picture below).  Well I better run...my motherly duties are calling!

First time eating cereal with a spoon...not going so well...

Not going well at all...he gagged constantly until  I got the cereal out of his mouth.

Jumped himself to sleep...

Look mom I have two feet...

Playing hard...

I love my new teether...

2010...

Well the holidays are almost over, and a new year is upon us. This past year has been a wonderful year with a lot changes taking place in the Bates' house hold, and this excites me because I know that 2011 will only have more blessings in store for us!
The past month has flown by as it always does with all of the Holiday "hustle and bustle." We started the Christmas celebration by going to Grandma & Grandpa White's the weekend before Christmas, where we spent the day eating, and playing games all afternoon and ended the day by going into town for the Christmas parade. December 22, we all went to Grandma Laura & Grandpa Joe's house where we enjoyed a delicious supper, and the traditional pictures of hanging our "mouse" on the tree. On Christmas Eve we celebrated with my family at Mom & Dad's house. We spent the day opening gifts and watching Christmas movies while lounging around and watching Adler enjoy all of his Christmas presents. Unfortunately this year we missed out on Christmas at the Semmel's on Christmas day due to me having to work. Then we spent the day after Christmas celebrating with Jared's family. We are blessed to have all of our family close enough that we can celebrate with everyone.
Adler had a wonderful first Christmas to say the least. I'm afraid that we are going to have to add an extra room onto the house to store all of his toys. He wasn't real sure of what to think when getting all of these gifts, but he is enjoying every last one of them!
The past month has meant a lot of new milestones for Adler. He has discovered his tongue. He loves putting his little fingers in his mouth and feeling it, and of course this means that we slobber all over everything! He has also figured out how to spit, and thinks that this is the best thing. His biggest milestone this month is rolling over! He loves rolling over, but once he makes it to his tummy the fun is over. He doesn't like to be on his tummy, so I roll him to his back and we start the process all over again. His latest thing is scratching, he scratches at anything and everything within reach.
Yesterday was Adler's 4 month check-up. He got his second round of shots, and acted like such a big boy. He only cried for a minute, that was it. He has handled them well, no fever or fussiness. Wahoooo! He now weighs 16.09 lbs and is 25 inches long, putting him in the 75th percentile in weight and 65th percentile in length. He is growing like a weed! I haven't figured out a way to slow this down yet, but I'm working on it.
Well I think that is all for now, I hope that everyone has a Blessed and Happy New Year!

Adler's First Picture with Santa...

He is so proud of himself for rolling over...

Adler's gift from Santa...

Thankful...

Thanksgiving this year gave me a whole new meaning to the word "thankful." I have always been thankful for everything that god has given me. But this year, Adler has given a new meaning to the word. I am SO very thankful god has blessed our lives with this little guy. I have no idea what we did with our time before he came along, but I hope that we never had to find out because life doesn't get any better then this! Everyday he amazes me with new little "quirks" that he is learning. Words can't explain how it feels to walk into a room and he sees you and smiles from ear to ear. He is getting quite the little personality. He doesn't like to be where he can't see someone, if there is no one in sight he will start fussing, that is until someone walks back into the room and then he will giggle. Despite our every attempt at trying to keep his tiny little thumb out of his mouth, I am afraid he is going to be a thumb sucker. He sure does think it is something special. May the good lord help us when it comes time to try and break him of sucking his thumb. Although I am not giving up yet, I still take his thumb out of his mouth and replace it with his pacifier. He has figured out that he can stand up in our laps and he thinks that is the best thing ever. He is changing so fast!
This year I experienced what "Black Friday" shopping was like first hand. I got up and went to Wal-Mart at midnight for their sales, and everyone else in Northwest Oklahoma had that very same idea. It was a mad house. Then the next morning I set out for Enid, and it only got worse from there. There are too many "crazies" out there for me. Although I did get a new washer and dryer at a great price (thanks to Sadie), I'm not sure I will be doing any Black Friday shopping ever again! Instead I am thinking the "Cyber Monday" experience is so much better, as I set here today and do all of my Christmas shopping with no long lines, or inconsiderate people here to run into me.
Well my first day back to work wasn't too great. I cried all the tears I thought I could have possibly cried before going to work, that is until I got to work where I continued to cry through out the day. But I am happy to say that it is getting easier to go to work. I didn't say easy but easier. :) I am very thankful that I work in a profession that I don't have to work 5 days a week, or else I think I might go crazy. I am very thankful for the 4 days a week that I get to spend with my little man.
Well I guess I better get to moving I have a lot to get done before nap time is over!

Thanksgiving 2010

12 weeks...

It's official, Adler is 12 weeks old, as of yesterday.   Grandma Sandra and I took Adler to Enid yesterday to have his 3 month pictures taken.  He was perfect, acting like a "pro".   He was full of all kinds of smiles.  We got to pick up the proofs before leaving town, and they are adorable.  He looks so handsome.  I will post pictures soon.
The 12 week mark also means it is time for me to return to work.  My first day back is this Saturday.  Grandma Sandra is going to come stay at our house for a few days, just in case I might need to run home and get a "quick fix."
This last weekend we took in the Turnip Festival in Cherokee.  It was a beautiful day for it and we had a really good time.  Adler had a turnip race car that competed and did quite well (that is until Aunt Sadie's car beat his)!  Dad, Jared, and Stephen had a blast shooting the turnip guns, and were successful as nobody got hurt. The best part of the whole day was Adler slept all night long when we got home, and has been ever since (I hope I'm not jinxing it)!
Well I think Adler is trying to tell me it is time for supper, I better get to moving because he isn't very patient when it comes to eating!

My little Man

12 weeks old

Adler & Papa with the Turnip for his car

Adler's car

The three of us (Adler is all snuggled up)

Jared shooting his turnip gun