Life of a 14 month old boy

To say life with Colter is busy would be an understatement. On April 21st, Colter learned how to stand up on his own in the middle of the room and from that moment forward, he has been a full blown walker. Now that he is upwardly mobile, he wants to constantly be exploring things that are now at his eye level. He has also become absolutely obsessed with being outside. I'm not exaggerating when I say that we barely play with toys inside any more. During his morning awake time we normally go for a walk and listen to the birds and soak up the quiet that morning brings. During his next awake time, we normally venture out to a play date at someone's house, meet up with friends at the park or beach, or run errands. In the afternoon, you can usually find us throwing rocks by the mailbox, looking for the kitty in the window across the street, or walking up and down the street, with of course stopping at the storm drains to look at the water down below. Colter almost always has a rock in his hand, and this month is learning how to throw forwards instead of behind his head. His poor fingers have multiple scrapes on them from falling because he refuses to let go of the rock when he falls.

                             

Some of the other things that keep him entertained at this age are watching the screensaver that has bubbles on it, blowing bubbles (he actually would rather dip the wand in and out of the bubbles himself instead of actually blowing bubbles), watching caspar babypants videos, playing at his water table, trying to make friends with every dog in site, sitting in the dirt pile in the backyard, pretend driving in the car (this was his #1 past time until we realized that it was draining the battery like crazy and I was left with a dead car and had to call roadside assistance to get a jump), crawling under the bar stools and some how managing to get out, playing hoops, and occasionally indulging me in a pinterest activity like water beads, and bath time fun with color tablets and submersible lights.

His vocabulary is exploding. He rarely says a word on his own besides ball, mama, "bubb" (bubbles) and "keee" (kitty), but he will mimic a ton of different words. Some of the recent ones are diaper, danger, bopper, J (James), bath, clock, and choo choo. It is so crazy to see how quickly he is learning new things. Just today I noticed that he has figured out how to put an Easter egg together, and can put lids on containers. 

Life is not always rosy with this little toddler man. He has recently started full blown tantrums that can be a little overwhelming. If he doesn't get to do something he wants, or we have to go inside early, or if he is just plain frustrated he can put on quite the show complete with dropping to the ground kicking his legs. Not the first moment where we have had no idea what to do, but we're trying different things and by the grace of God, we'll get through this stage like we have with others. 

One thing for sure is that Colter is ALL BOY!

Welcome to our living room

Colter was very chatty at dinner tonight.



Here is Colter showing his walking skills. Please excuse the potty break mid video



Colter is aspiring to be like his cousin James on the drums



Showin his handyman skills

Toot Tooooot

The "toot toot" park has been a long standing favorite of the Heaviland family. Now that Colter is starting to be upright quite a bit more, parks are getting a lot more enjoyable. Not that scooping bark out of his mouth wasn't my favorite past time, it is great to hold his hand and walk around. He is pretty adventurous with climbing up the play structure and sliding down by himself.

We have been having some beautiful days lately, so we met up with some friends at the "toot toot" park for some fun.

Easter 2012

Look into the mystery, see the empty cross; See the risen Savior, victorious and strong. No one else above Him, none

 as strong to save; He alone has conquered the power of the grave. 

Just a few changes since last year :)

When Colter and I opened the front door on Easter morning, we were surprised to find that we had been egged! I think this was the most enjoyable egging possible :)

Colter loved throwing the eggs through slots!

My attempt at a bunny pancake that turned out a little frightening. I couldn't find my heart cookie cutter!

All dressed up and ready for church!

I seriously can't believe this is our little man. 

 We got him a few things for his Easter basket including the construction trucks and the etch-a-sketch pictured. Some of the stuff he is a little young for, so we'll tuck it away for a while. 

Ben's reward for holding off on sweets for the last 6 weeks. Nutella filled coconut maccarons. 

On Saturday before Easter, went to Country Village the " Hop around the Village." Ok this was a serious bust. The "story time" and "fun & games" that were advertised consisted of a scary bunny walking around handing out eggs saying "one per customer" and a magic show that was basically a man wearing a cape doing a book signing. It was so sad to see all the kids dressed in their Easter best walking around with empty Easter baskets. We tried to make the most of our time by crawling through this random tunnel and eating lunch in the sun. 

On Saturday afternoon we met up with Jill/Jackson and the Camerons. We had an awesome time blowing bubbles, eating animal crackers, and finding sticks.

Colter had a little "moment" with a little girl that the Camerons were watching. That is until Colter tried to grab her coat button and she smacked his hand.

13 month favorites

Things I love about Colter at 13 months:

When I ask him to throw something, he lifts it up by his ear, and then drops it backward. 

Whenever he sees something he really wants or when he gets excited, he will screech/scream really loud and it always catches me off guard. Some of the things that will always make him screech are when we throw stuffed animals into his crib, when he sees his cousins, and when he sees the plastic cd cover to our blank cds. 

He really loves his rocking chair this month and can climb up into it all by himself. My favorite things he does are when he tries to climb into it with a book- it takes him forever to figure out how to hold the book and sit down and when he stands up in the rocker and gets so excited because he can touch the top. 

I love watching him sit with a book in his lap, turning the pages back and forth (a lot of times the book is upside down).

Anytime he sees a dog or a cat, he makes the funniest noise. He makes the "K" sound for kitty. It almost sounds like he is saying key. 

When he is really excited about something or hears music he likes, he will either nod his head up and down or shake it from side to side. 

His language is really developing. Whenever he is exploring something he'll say "wow" "woah" or "oh." 

His first word is officially "ball" He usually screams it because he is so excited and will usually say "a ba!!!!" as he holds it high in the air. 

When he wants to touch something out of his reach, he will hold his hand up in the air. He is usually wanting to open the curtains in his room, press the garage keypad, or go into the laundry room to push the buttons. 

UW Blossoms

The sun came out again on Sunday which made for a spectacular trip to the UW Cherry Blossoms. Colter enjoyed them much more than last year (he was pretty much crying in the ergo last time). He loved examining the tree moss, crawling around in the grass, chasing after Saisha and James' soccer ball, and spotting every single dog around.