Hi, everyone! So this is technically our November post, but since we were on a cruise, and then I was in Berkeley CA 3 hours after that trip ended, I'm not getting a chance to post until now. Our cruise pictures aren't yet developed, so we can't post those yet, but we can post the latest film and pictures of Jaeden! (of course! What else would we blog about?) Jaeden is so excited to see his cousins, and grandma and grandpa... He's been pointing to pictures of his cousins and laughing for several days now! For now, we have lots of videos and pictures of our cute little boy:
This is kind of long, but cute: here is Jaeden right after we got home from the cruise. He is so excited about talking right now that he'll babble in his own language constantly, and any time he hears words (especially from his baby video) he'll happily repeat them!
Here is Jaeden thinking that he is playing mario kart. I was too late with the video, so he just wanted to throw the controller, but he was sure being cute "driving" about 15 seconds earlier.
And here is my favorite... Jaeden snoring. Cute little baby snores... Am I a bad dad because I laugh hysterically at my son??? :)
Grandpa Memmott is famous in our family for his meat (Pot Roast cooked just the right way...) and Jaeden is definitely a fan...
Here is Jaeden's first haircut: we decided it was time when we realized that he had a full on mullet!!
Hope that satisfied your Jaeden Fix. We'll try to take good pictures and videos while we're in Utah. I'm convinced that he should ski BEFORE he walks, but Renee thinks he should start walking while we're there. We'll see what happens!
Jaeden and I had a great weekend visiting family for Julie's graduation. When we came in the door, Ivy shouted, "Jaeden's here! Jaeden's my favorite!" I think this is mostly due to the fact that she gets to be the big cousin and tell Jaeden what to do just like Boman tells her what to do. Although, she doesn't always like to be the big one. On more than one occasion, Ivy insisted on copying Jaeden by either sitting in the highchair or demanding a bottle and laying down like him to drink it. She was very proud of the fact, and would exclaim, "I'm Baby Jaeden!"
Jaeden loved playing with his cousins. Boman would put a blanket over his head and Jaeden would pull it off. Jaeden also loved watching Boman play computer games, and was so proud of himself for being able to get up on the kid's chair all by himself and sit next to Boman. He also got ahold of Boman's apple and proceeded to finish it off. It was so cute-- he held it like an adult and would take little bites. He did a good job of eating it without me peeling and slicing it.
Jaeden also loved playing with Grandma Clark. She played airplane with him while feeding him pumpkin. He loved it! When I tried to feed him some later, he took one bite, realized what it was, and looked over at Grandma Clark and didn't open his mouth again until she came and did the airplane. Julie's graduation was fun to see, and the reception after was great, except it was during Jaeden's nap time, so I spent a good deal of it letting Jaeden wander in and out of the automatic sliding doors because in the reception room he would beeline it for the swinging doors the servers went through... not the best place for a crawling child.
Jaeden was great on the plane, both coming and going. We got our own row, so he had his own seat. He loved playing, and on the way home, the steward gave us headphones. Jaeden loved watching TV and listening. He thought it was quite amazing!
So thank goodness for me, Mom is wonderful, and she fills me in on what happens at home while I'm at work. It's a nice little Jaeden fix. Since I'm gone for 12-13 hours each day, it's nice to get some picture or video of my little boy. Some days, she'll just send me pictures from her iphone like this:
Here Jaeden is pushing his toys down the slide. He thought it was hilarious to push them down, and then watch them bounce across the porch.
Or this, where he is playing in his car with his friend Chloe:
Or even his first postcard from Grandma and Grandpa Memmott (he was in heaven since usually he's not allowed to play with paper...
But most of all, I'm grateful that Mom is kind enough to capture moments like these on the camera:
That's right, it's his first steps (well, technically, this video is of the next day, when he did the exact same thing, but who's counting). True, he's using his toy, but pretty soon here I don't think we'll be able to keep Jaeden from running around.
Do you remember my post from two weeks ago? I made an off hand comment about Memmott Men and dancing, in reference to my brother. Well, despite the influence of his mother, Jaeden has truly inherited the Memmott Man dancing syndrome (meaning we can do it, but it's better for everyone if we don't.) It's not that he doesn't look cute doing it now, but it just won't serve him well later; he won't be a lady killer on the dance floor, unless someone other than dad teaches him his dance moves. Remember the movie Hitch, and the safe dance? Well, daddy doesn't do that, and without my knowing it until it was too late, Jaeden watched, learned, and then copied his moves and style...
On the flip side, Jaeden has a new passion that we learned of last week: I opened the door so that he could crawl out onto the porch and have some fun. He left for about 4 minutes, then came crawling back inside with this truck. He hasn't left it alone for a single day since. He loves pushing it around while he crawls around, and he loves looking at the wheels, as you can see here. Such a boy!
So I had an experience yesterday that I knew was going to happen eventually, but I still wish it was a little later in coming. Jaeden is such a chill kid, but he LOVES playing with his toys, especially his car, as you can see in this clip:
(p.s., I love his stiff-legged crawl that he does, ONLY when he's pushing his toy car... so funny!)
He also loves his slide, which we keep out on the porch.
So yesterday he was playing with his toys, when I picked him up to put him in his high chair, because it was dinner time. I started putting him in, and he immediately started whining, and tried to hold on to me so I couldn't put him down. I finally got him into his chair, he realized that he was in his chair, and he started to squirm and cry. It was then that he looked directly into my eyes, and with a loud clear voice, said "NO!".
(sigh)
It was bound to happen. I'm sure this isn't the last I've heard of his protestations (in fact, when i took paper from him today in church, he said "no, no, NO!!") He's a very smart kid, and thus a fast learner, in both good and bad ways!
Wow. My first order of business tonight? To apologize to everyone for the LONG delay in blog updating. I have been either traveling or hosting visitors nearly every weekend since I last wrote, so I have not had a chance to update the blog in a long time. But, that means we have lots of pictures and movies of Jaeden as a world (or at least a US) traveler... and oh what a cute little traveler he is. He is an amazingly good baby, and he is a dream on airplanes, which made each of these trips bearable. The first trip was back to Utah, where my youngest brother James got married (yeah, that is STILL weird, 1.5 months later). Jaeden was so excited to see his cousins, and to be at the wedding. He still loves bath time, and bath time with Leah (his cousin) is even better! He was such a trooper at the long wedding reception, but I think that's only because he got to crawl on and off the dance floor over and over again. I don't know if he liked going between the grass and wood or if he just was being a goof, but he kept doing this for most of the night.
And a quick props to James and his mad dancing skills. Who knew that there was a Memmott Man in existence who could actually dance (sorry Renee, I missed that rare genetic defect!)
Next we had our friends Erin and Brett with their daughters Aeriana and Zoe visit again. Jaeden and Zoe were instant best friends.
Their favorite activities included eating,
being tickled,
and drinking drinks.
Finally, Renee heard the ice-cream truck one night and took Jaeden out to get something. Jaeden was in absolute heaven: there was a big truck stopped right in front of him (yes, he's a truck boy... favorite toys are the big trucks) played music, and in the end, he got ice cream!
Lastly, we got to go and visit Grandma Clark for her birthday. Jaeden again loved being with his cousins! In fact, the only bad thing is that he misses them so much when we come back home that Renee has a hard time keeping him entertained for a few days after we get home!
Well, actually he has been one year old for two weeks now...
My apologies for the long wait. We temporarily lost the cord to our camera, so we couldn't post Jaeden's Birthday pictures. Then we had to fly to Missouri for Renee's grandpa's funeral. We're back in town, so I'm getting these pictures up ASAP!So Jaeden had a GREAT birthday. We had our friends from New Jersey come, and Jaeden loves their daughters (not sure how I feel about that yet. Nothing againts you, Brett and Erin, but Jaeden is not going to be dating until he's 55! Well, maybe not that old...) We had a fun birthday party, and Jaeden got both chinese food, and his first taste of cake.He's really a cautious little boy: he doesn't like being on something if he feels like he's going to fall, he doesn't like trying new foods, and he's nervous about new games if he doesn't know what daddy is going to do at the end. So he really didn't dive into the cake at first. That is, until he put enough in his mouth to taste it. That was the end. He wasn't the messiest eater at one that I've seen, But he LOVED the cake. It was also at Jaeden's party that we realized that all of our friends (both here and elsewhere) except for a few have girls. Jaeden is surrounded. He'll either be slightly girlish, or a ladies man. I'm not sure how I feel about either option! :) I'm guessing he's going to be the ladies man, though, because he's just so nice. He even lets Zoe eat his food while he's not looking!
We also celebrated by going swimming at a nearby lake. Jaeden loves the water, and anything water related. He also likes being thrown into the air by daddy. That made this the best of both worlds for him.
Finally, my favorite new game, and Jaeden's favorite game: Chicken. He loves to have me crawl at him while making as much noise as possible, and he'll crawl towards me, and then we'll bonk heads. In fact, he was enjoying it so much Aeriana thought it looked like great fun, and tried to get in on the action. Whoops, didn't see Brett behind her... We recorded this at the end of the game, though, so he's not laughing the whole time, but he's still enjoying it a lot.
Isn't he the cutest kid ever???
Happy Birthday Little Buddy.
We can't believe that we are so lucky to have you as our son.
My first official father's day has been awesome! I realized today just how much Jaeden takes after his daddy, despite mom's best efforts to redeem him! :) Just look at all the ways we are the same:
Sleep? I guess I can sleep, but only if I have food...
Don't you dare come between me and my video games! Okay, you can come between us, but I'll ignore you...
Ooooooooooooohhh, fishies!!!
Thrill seeking in the water? I'm there...
Hmmm... how did I get myself into this mess...?
And finally, we're both very willing to smile at mom!
Jaeden had a great time meeting Grandma Clark, and he had lots of fun with Grandpa Clark over memorial day. We miss living close to them, but Pittsburgh is fun too.
For my father's day present, Renee took Jaeden and I to the zoo. We had all kinds of fun. Jaeden loved the animals that moved, and when the animals didn't move, he'd watch all the other kids that were running around. He also really loved the fish, just like daddy. Renee and I loved the penguins, who were showing off and jumping out of the water like dolphins.
It was also fun to go to the sing ray pond, because they let you touch the rays. They felt so weird; not slimy, but very smooth and soft and firm. It was a great weekend, and it made me so happy to be a dad! Jaeden is the perfect little boy!!!
Which reminds me... for those of you who have been wondering about the adoption status, victory 1 of 5 has been claimed... Alabama finally dropped the birth dad's initial case. This means that we have a short window to file to finalize the adoption, and then we'll have to deal with additional filings from the birth dad, which is when we'll probably have to deal with paternity tests, etc. But at least it's a step in the right direction! Thanks for all your well-wishes and prayers... we are humbled and grateful for your thoughts and support!
Jaeden is on the move, and while he's not quite fast enough to outrun Mom and Dad, he is discovering new things all the time.
We thought leaving him in the living room with all his toys would be enough for Jaeden, but he is a people person, and just can't get enough of Daddy, so he decided to join him in the office.
But then that got old, so Jaeden went on to explore even more interesting things.
As for Matt and I, well we have finally made that great couple purchase of our first new bed. You may think that this is an insignificant purchase, but when you have been sleeping on a futon for years, it feels like a little bit of Heaven. We purchased everything new... the bed frame, the mattress, and even the mattress cover, sheets, and pillows. I didn't know what to think turning over and not feeling any back pain. Matt kept asking me what I thought of the bed as we first laid down. All I can say is that it was so comfortable, I didn't even notice the bed and had to pause to think about it-- I was that comfortable!
So there was a few weeks between this post and last, but it was only partly my fault... lots has happened, including the loss of our camera! We got last minutes flights to go visit my family in Utah, so that they could meet Jaeden, and it was SOOO fun! Jaeden LOVES his cousins, and they loved him. Coleman would constantly try to play with Jaeden, and Walker would just sit there and talk to him, play with him, and make him smile, all the time. Jaeden was in Heaven, and had serious withdrawals when we left. He loved being with Grandma and Grandpa Memmott, and was loving the smiles and hugs and kisses from them! We caught Jaeden like this one morning in Utah (fast asleep). Apparently he was praying... or something :).One of the funniest parts of the vacation was watching my Nephews (Jackson and Walker) playing the dancing game on the Wii:
Yes, that is "girls just wanna have fun", and yes, Jackson is getting REALLY into it. (By the way, it's kinda dark, but you can see it better if you watch it full screen, I think...) Renee was also so happy to record this family memory, too, can't you tell?
Grandma and Grandpa Memmott were so wonderful to Renee and I too! They took everyone who was home (sorry James) to the Mandarin (which is my FAVORITE Chinese restaurant, in Bountiful, UT). The kids were getting a little bored, so my sister Kimi decided to play with my sister Hilary's youngest son, Landon. (Landon was the one Jaeden would just watch constantly, totally wishing that he could join in running around yelling). Kimi decided to show Landon a few magic tricks with his cup, and his response was hilarious! He was absolutely AMAZED at Kimi's magic!
And finally a couple last pictures of Jaeden:
Jaeden's two teeth, thanks to Daddy being tricky with him! (don't worry, I did eventually give him his food...)
Um... this is why I'm glad Jaeden is a boy... this kind of love-sick look on Zoe's face is some other dad's problem. Jaeden, the heart-breaker! And finally, the reason I was a bit too distracted to blog last week. Renee and I had just gotten home from shopping, put Jaeden in his crib, and were starting to move to other things. Suddenly, I heard a huge crashing noise, (as if all the cabinets in the kitchen fell at the same time), Renee screamed, and Jaeden screamed all at once. Fearing the worst, I ran into the kitchen only to see Renee, totally shaken up, pointing out the window. Apparently a storm from the week before washed out the roots to this massive tree, and it FELL on our house! Yikes. We got it mostly taken care of, and hopefully the home insurance will cover it. We'll see.
Other than that, life is good, spring is here, and Jaeden is as cute as ever!
I think my new favorite Stake event is family friendly Sunday. That's the idea that one weekend a month (fast Sunday) is devoted to the family, and no interviews or meetings can take place that weekend. I LOVE it. As a result, I have some new videos of Jaeden. This is Jaeden's first experience kicking in a real bath. He's a real kicker anyway (I have lovingly named him "Thumper" because of the sounds that I hear when Jaeden first wakes up and decides it's time to get up... thump thump thumpity thump!) He's having a great old time with the water. We had to censor this a little, since it's supposed to be family friendly, but he was having such a great time, we had to show it.
This is one of Jaeden laughing. To put it in my sister Heather's terms: "He's such a boy". He loves noise, and making noise, and listening to the octopus just made him laugh and laugh. We didn't catch it on camera until the very end when he was winding down, but you still get the idea. We love our cute little Jaeden!!!
I mean, let's be honest, that's what everyone is REALLY here to see, right? Who wants to look at Matt and Renee, or read about their boring life? I do have a new goal, and everyone here can hold me to it. I plan on blogging every other Sunday, even if I don't get home until 8:00 PM (like today). Ready, go! So Jaeden has been very cute lately. He surprised us with two teeth on the bottom, right out of nowhere. The only problem is we can't get him to show those teeth for the camera for anything. He's a stubborn little kid. All mom has to do is touch his mouth (without food, of course) and he clamps up tighter than a clam!
He's gone from hating to be on his stomach (back in February) to ONLY wanting to be on his stomach. In fact, we went to check on him the other day after bedtime, and this is what he looked like.To be honest, he looks like that EVERY night when he sleeps. SO FUNNY! I was laughing so hard I couldn't even keep the camera straight!We also went to NY to visit our friends Cory and Sarah, and had a great time visiting church sites. It was a little cold in the sacred grove, but very calm and peaceful. Jaeden didn't quite appreciate things like we did, though!We have also visited with our friends Erin and Brett a couple of times. They have a 6 month old daughter, who Jaeden happens to love to be around. I have to keep reminding him that he is too young for girls... and will be for 35 years. Jaeden has also become quite mobile! He doesn't crawl, he just kinda rolls, and rolls, and rolls. In fact, just the other day, Renee was doing something on the computer while I was at work, and Jaeden (after being very quiet) was found like this:
Apparently he was able to grab the paper off of the couch, all the way across the room from where mom put him! I guess we are going to have to be more careful from here on out!
First of all, sorry this blog has lain dormant for FAR too long. Sunday used to be the time that I did all my blogging, but a new calling in church has taken all my time. I had the best intentions of blogging each Sunday, but that's going to be a little tougher. "But today is Sunday, and you are blogging!" some of you are saying. Well, that's true, but there is a good reason for that, as seen below!
There was so much snow that we couldn't get out. In fact, even now (Sunday night)we still watch car after car get stuck on the roads in our neighborhood. It was a great fun time. Church was cancelled, and our friends the Wilson's lost power in their home, so they came over and stayed the night with us last night. We had some friends who live a few streets over come to our house today for a devotional with us and the Wilsons since church was cancelled, and had a great time. Apparently, Jaeden is quite the ladies man! I'm not sure where he gets that from. Probably his uncle James. (yes, you James... I heard you went to Mandarin... not fair... mmmphm.. mmm...) Anyway, here is a picture of Jaeden with Chloe Wilson and Brieda Curtis. As Ross can attest, Brieda only liked Jaeden for his toys. Hmmmmm.... imagine that... :)
On a more interesting note, I uploaded all the videos from the camcorder today, only to find this video on there. I had no idea what Renee did for fun when she was home alone all day. And to think I thought I was the one teasing Jaeden all the time! The things one learns from having a camcorder in the home! :)
Well, vacation is now officially over, and it's time to get back to real life! We had a great trip to Texas for christmas to visit my brother and his family, and then to Florida with Renee's family for the week after Christmas. Almost every Christmas Eve in my life before now I went skiing, but now this time we took Jaeden to the beach. Different, but very fun. He loved the waves and the noise (probably because he listens to it each night to fall asleep).
Can you tell that Renee was a little excited about getting an iPhone for Christmas? I was also excited because now I don't have to share mine anymore! Thank you, Santa!
Here's Jaeden in his new outfit from Grandma and Grandpa Memmott (don't mind the weird looking kid behind him who's also in his pajamas... Orlando was very fun. My new favorite movie is Avatar. Absolutely amazing. But see it in 3D... there is no other way! Jaeden's favorite part of the trip was the journey to Gatorland. They had an aviary where you could feed the birds. Several birds landed right next to him, and he loved it. Here you can see him trying to catch the birds that landed next to him. He was so cute, he laughed and laughed when we went to the petting zoo. He absolutely LOVES animals. Looks like we're going to have to get a pet to make him happy. He even loved having the boa constrictor put around him! :)
We got back from vacation late Friday night, and Saturday morning after I fed Jaeden I had to go to the bathroom. So, as we did before the vacation, I put him under the Christmas tree to look at the lights. Well, there was one small thing that I didn't realize. During the break, Jaeden learned how to grab things in front of him. He got good at it too. I came back into the front room to see him covered in Christmas lights, giggling like crazy. Apparently he reached out and grabbed the lights and pulled them right off the tree. He was in heaven, while I had to take a time out to laugh for a good 5 minutes, because he was just so pleased with himself!
