Potty Time!!

While I am on the topic of how my Tanner loves to run around naked, I thought I'd share my day! Tanner woke up and he was laying in bed with me drinking his bottle. I realized his diaper was dry. He held it all night! He has been fascinated with the potty and always likes us to sit him on it backwards. He pushes his little tummy as hard as he can to see if something will come out. (I guess this is the advantage to having 2 older brothers to watch!!) Well I asked him if he wanted to go potty and he shook his head yes. So off we went.

He was a little unsure but sat there. I walked away to get a book and when I came back he came running out the door!!! He peeped in the potty!!! It was enough to get excited about but I think it scared him. We danced our little potty dance and cheered!! Then we woke up Isaac and Dax to tell them. He  sat down and went more. I was so proud of him!!!

This is how the rest of my day went. Setting little alarms to check on him, no clothes = no shame! He just ran around wherever he felt. My favorite is when he had to go potty he would move his arms back and forth like a train!! I think that was his potty dance. The kid's got moves!

He went potty at least 3 of 4 times. We did have a few accidents but nothing we couldn't clean up. (I love hardwood for that reason!)

I'm so proud of my little man. I don't know if he is ready or if I am ready, but we sure are going to try!!  On a side note, I had the carpet cleaner come today. Does anyone else find it ironic that I had my carpets cleaned on the same day my Tanner decided to possibly potty train?!!

I love this little face. I guess I'll keep him! Good job Tanny Tann! Mom's so proud of you.  Now eat your cookie.

Up Goes Tanner!

I've been on a blogging break for a year now. I've missed it, and I really hope to play catch up and share all the many fun things that has happened this past year. Every time I wanted to sit down and blog I thought, "I can't do that! I would have to blog a million things to get caught up." But I soon decided, I must start somewhere or I'll be so far behind, I'll never catch up! So here I am... hopefully back to blogging.

Life with 3 kids through be for a curve ball. Once my Tanner started moving and getting into everything I could only keep up with what was in front of me that day. Now I seem to have gotten the hang of it... until they are awake again!

Tanner is a spitfire. I mean my other boys were busy... but it's like Tanner has studied them and mashed their energy with his and created this whole new level of crazy! Seriously, this boy has so much energy and so much to see and do in the hours he is awake in the day.

He is almost 21 months old. This past month he has decided he hates clothes and tries really hard to get them off. I tried to button him in a onesie but he would pull at any little thing to get his clothes off and run free with the wind. Well yesterday morning I was getting ready for Preschool graduation. (This is one of those things I will get caught up on, I headed up a Joy School/Preschool for Dax and his friends for this past year.) Anyways... So I was running around like crazy because the little preschoolers were coming in less then an hour. I was trying to get Isaac out the door for school, who was already running late... again (love the boy, but he takes after me and thinks he has all the time in the world to get ready!) Tanner did not care for his clothes... (yet again) and was running around the house bare bottomed with a bright blue pajama top on.

I didn't have time to chase him down this morning. I could hear the garbage man coming down the street and I remembered I hadn't taken out the two stinkiest garbages of the house! The kitchen garbage and the diaper pail. So I gathered those up, ran them out back and made it to the trash! Success! I love beating the garbage man... I even had a few houses to spare. (It's really not a game to see if you can get your last few items out to the garbage can before the garbage man comes... but it should be, cause it's a pretty fun accomplishment!!)

Anyways, I came back inside to see the door to the garage wide open. Oh, did I forget to mention... Tanner learned to open doors a month ago. Yes, I said that right. My youngest child ever at 20 months to learn to open any door. Now he just leaves when it's convenient for him! AH! I knew what he would be doing... climbing up Brett's lawn mower to get to Rosco's collar on the shelf. It was a daily occurrence.

I walked out into the garage to see what my mischevious little son was getting into but instead I found him standing next to the lawn mower.... staring at the ground.... at a piece of poop! POOP! Oh Tanner. He pooped on the garage floor. Why do I have a dog again when I have kids doing similar things?! My quick game skills went into play. I thought to myself, I bet I could scoop this poop and get it into the garbage before the garbage man picks up the trash... One house left! Without hesitation I hit the garage button, grabbed the shovel and started to scoop the poop. Then I heard screaming.

I turned around to see my garage 3/4 of the way open with a little bare bum and legs kicking in the air. Tanner had decided to jump on the garage while it was opening and go for a ride! HOW!? How was he even this strong to hold on so tight and not fall off?! It was one of those parenting moments where you wonder what in the world your child was thinking... and at the same time you wished you could stop and take a picture!! But you can't! That would get me the worst mother of the year award for sure!

I quickly dropped the shovel and grabbed my son and brought his little bare bum back down to safety. I'm sure it was a long way up for such a small fry! I really am just baffled at this story as I'm writing it down. I'm sure your wondering if I made it to the garbage can... the answer is, yes with a few seconds to spare!

And this is my Tanner. I'm not sure what I am going to do with him! Love that little french fry!

Tanners Tales - 8 Months Old

Hello Feather's! I just love you.

Tanner is crazy. He is so busy. He moves all the time. I joke that he had to learn to move before sitting or even eating because he would get flattened by Dax. I'm not joking though. That's the truth.  I feel like he's so little because he didn't get a chance to get nice a chubby from food before he started moving.

Tanner is loud. He likes to be heard. He doesn't want to get lost in the shadow of his brother's. He screams and shouts! And if you have food, you better plan on sharing with him because he will let you know if you aren't. One day at my mom's house my dad was giving my mom a glass of water. Tanner crawled right over to my dad and was hanging on his leg screaming and whining at him. My mom finally yelled, "give him the water Dale! Give it to him!!!"

He always gets what he wants. That's one good thing about being the baby, his brothers give him everything. These boys adore Tanner. Isaac is his protector and Dax is his playmate... though just like any playmate, Tanner has learned to fight for what he wants.

He looks so innocent and sweet... like he could never hurt a fly. But he has got a grip like you wouldn't believe!!! When his little hands get a hold of my necklace, earrings, or hair...watch out! He learned to sit up. He's very strong now. Dax was in his face the other day... (again) and Tanner got back at him. He grabbed ahold of his hair and pulled so hard, he wasn't letting go. Dax whimpered and cried. Brett and I were right there... debating. Should we do something? Tanner puts up with an awful lot. We did do something about it, eventually. But Dax learned his lesson. Don't mess with Feather's!

Tanner eats everything. It doesn't have to be food. He will find the tiniest speck of something on the floor and stick it in his mouth.

When he's not eating dirt, cardboard boxes, or paper... which is another favorite... he enjoys bread, yogurt, applesauce, really anything.

But seriously, paper. The boys shout when he has paper because Tanner just stuffs it in his mouth. I don't know what mineral he is lacking but I'm pretty sure he has munched down a full document by now. He's eaten important papers of mine but how do you tell people, "sorry the baby ate my....."

When he roams the house he is all over the place. He doesn't let anything get in his way. Not even a chair. He crawls right through, goes up over the bar (usually gets high-centered and screams,) flops down and goes on his way.

He makes noises with his mouth. He loves hearing the different sounds that come out. He crawls up to everything. He is usually under my feet hanging on me. If I move, he crawls right over and hangs on me again.

He loves vacuums and dishwashers and gets so excited when I open it. The other day I found him hanging on for dear life as he crawled into the dishwasher, pulled himself up and grabbed a hold of the top rack. He didn't know what to do, but the wasn't letting go and just hung there. He proceeded to do the same thing with the kitchen drawer and the shower curtain! Oh he's such a monkey.

His feathers are out of control... and I love them!!!!!! He wakes up with crazy hair every morning and it makes me smile. He is so happy to see me ... or really anyone who walks in, but I like to think it's just me.

I've been trying to just put him down in his crib for bed. It works and he will eventually scream himself to sleep. Other days you can tell there is no way he is taking a nap. He will scream and scream and scream! Man he's a tough cookie. He does not give up!

It's probably cruel to hold Tanner's hands just to get a picture of him in Daxton's sunglasses, but it made me laugh.

We visited with Grandma Dansie one day. Tanner loved her glasses.

I thought this picture was so cute of Nancy and Tanner. It's rare that he will  hold still and sit with someone.

Tanner keeps me busy. He's into everything. He likes playing with baskets of things.

Isn't he just the cutest?!

He likes to help me with my laundry. Climbing in it and pulling out the clothes counts as "helping" right?

Tanner loves being outside! He loves this little car of Aunt Lizzy's.

Isaac likes to take him on a walk in it. It's so nice to have a kid old enough to help out and entertain the little ones.

The boys fight over Tanner a lot. I have to remind them that he is a baby and not a toy.

One day I was taking in the groceries and Tanner was screaming to get out of the car. I can't leave him inside cause he would crawl out the door, so I asked Isaac to stop playing for a minute and watch his brother. Well he watched him. And so did the other 5 little boys that were at our house. They sat in a circle and stared at him saying how adorable he was. I laughed so hard I had to snap a picture. Tanner wasn't sure what to think of everyone starring at him!

Look at how much Tanner and Dax look alike!

I bought Tanner this little table to play with. I thought he needed a little toy.

Kaz and him get to play once in a while. Kaz is crazy in love with wubanub binkis. Doesn't matter who's it is, because it's his! Tanner never sucks on them but tries to when Kaz is around.

Tanners Tales - 7 Months Old

Tanner is 7 Months Old. He stares like crazy! My favorite thing he stares at are his hands. You can just see the fascination on his face as he waves his fingers in front of his face. He also loves licking and eating them.  I'm a little sad that his hair is growing. It's not as fluffy...but man it's soft! We pet him like he's a puppy. He says "da-da" still but when he says it he reaches for me. Just because he says da-da... doesn't mean he wants him! I love that he smiles so big when he sees me. He can be all the way across the room and just light up if he catches a glimpse of me. Brett hates it because he will be holding him and Tanner will be just fine until he sees me. I feel so bad when I can't pick him up right that second. It looks like poor torture for the boy. But who can blame him? I am a pretty awesome mom!

Tanner decided he was going to start crawling. He really doesn't even sit up well yet. I don't blame him though... I think he's trying to get away from an older brother (eh hum...Dax) that flattens him most days. He can get up on his knees great but them he scoots backwards with his arms and feet. It's really hard to get where you want to go when your moving backwards!

Tanner makes progress with crawling every week that goes by. He is really starting to understand what to do. He get on all 4's and you can see his determination in his face.  He starts to move back and forth a bit and now he is starting to reach is arm out to move forward. Ah! I can't believe it. He's growing up so fast. We were at Nancy's house and my keys were on the floor. He wanted them so bad he inched forward, flopped a tiny bit more, did it again and again and grabbed them. Success!

It can be rough at times learning to crawl though. One day he was scooting forward and he flopped pretty hard and scuffed up his cute little nose.

We goo and gawk over Tanner so much I think Dax feels a little left out sometimes.... He too had to show me how well he could crawl! Look out Tann, you got some competition!

Emilee let us borrow this fun jumper toy. I stayed up cleaning it and making it perfect for Tanner. He liked it the first few times he jumped. Then it became like a torture chamber, he would scream if I would try and put him in it.

Well that and he had to endure Daxton who likes to maul him every chance he gets. He loves to hug him, a little too much. We also have been trying to teach Dax it's not nice to poke Tanner in the nose or the eye.... no matter how cute they are. One day Tanner will get him back.

Daxton is a good brother. He loves to stand up on the crib and entertain Tann for me. Tanner's new thing he does while he lays on his back is he waves his arms up and down as fast as he can! It's like he's ready to take flight... oh my cute little feathers! His name really does fit him.

Tann hangs with me pretty much wherever I go... laundry room included. I finally heard him say ma-ma!!!  I didn't believe it but a week went by and he said it again! He doesn't say it a lot, but I'll take it!

 Dax really does loves to play with Tanner. I think he's excited that he is moving more and not just a fradgile thing to hold. He gave him his fireman hat to wear and ran around yelling "FIREMAN TANN TO THE RESCUE!!!"

It was pretty cute. He decided to be the Dr. if Tann was the Fireman.

Then he gave him a checkup...after he rolled him up in a blanket. Sweet Tanner, your such a patient baby.

 Tanner has gotten to be very loud!!! He has found his voice. He squeels and it's high!! It's very cute.

When Isaac comes home from school he doesn't let Tanner go. I can tell he misses him. Tanner lights up when he sees Isaac or Dax. He really loves both of his brothers.

Tanner got sick this month, again. He had a high fever. I hate when babies are all stuffy and snoggly. It makes me so very sad for them. Brett brought the swing into his room. He couldn't sleep on his back because he couldn't breathe.

Food is still a big interest to Tanner. I let him try chocolate pudding. As I'm writing this I'm thinking how insane I am to give him pudding at 7 months! But he loved it. What's not to love? It's chocolate!

He continues to love anything I blend up for him. He's really becoming a good little eater.

These mesh nets are the coolest things for babies!! He loves eating mangos and strawberries in them.

We had him on the table and he reached over and grabbed pizza crust! I don't like him just chewing things down... he can still choke pretty easily. But he loved it!

It's hard trying to change a moving target... especially several times a day. Tanner is horrible when it comes to changing him. He lays there long enough for you to get his diaper off (if your lucky) and then within a blink of an eye he twists his body and flips to his stomach in hopes to crawl away. Can I just tell you, he is always very pleased with himself! Then you turn him over and it starts all over again!

Look at this face! Look at his baby bird hair... oh I'm so in love.

Later in the month Tanner has really taken off crawling! I was starting to get worried at how fast he was. Brett was going out of town for work and I asked him to put the gate up on the steps. He didn't. He told me, "He's like a snail Ash. I think you can catch him." Well, this snail seriously learned to book it over a few days! Sadly he was playing on the carpet and within minutes I heard him crying... it sounded far away. I looked over the stair well and there he was. Flat on his back looking up at me from the bottom of the steps. Talk about worst mother of the year award! My 7th month old fell down the steps and I didn't even hear him! I ran down frantically looking him over. He appeared happy, a little frightened, but in one piece. Can I just insert this here... all 3 of my kids have had a step incident when they were babies now! NO MORE STEPS CHILDREN! Isaac broke his leg when I slipped down the back yard steps, a gate was left open and Dax sailed down these same steps in a walker and now Tanner magically tumbled down them.  Yes, just hand me that award now please.

Brett felt terrible as he was away, but when he got back in town we re-created how it could have happened. We even had Tanner crawl to me to see how he would have fell. (Yes, I'm basically making him re-create the scene under supervision!) We think he slid on his tummy superman style. He had some rug burns on his knees and arms, so it all added up. I'm so grateful there were little angels carrying him down safely.

Another week went by and Tanner has figured out all he needs to know about crawling. When he wants something he doesn't hesitate, he jumps up on his knees and goes. My other favorite thing he does is he stands on his feet and hands with his bum in the air, like an upside down "V." It's hilarious!

And as a side note, how adorable are these monkey bum pajamas?!!!

How cute are these two boys? Tanner still doesn't have the greatest sleeping schedule... go to bed little friend. Who can put a face that cute in bed and make him cry?

Oh and did I mention Tanner waves?! Cutest little hand, I could just eat it up!! Bye bye feathers!