The Little Gym

A friend recently told me about a place called the Little Gym and I decided to try it out with Tristan. It's an hour long class with kids his age and they do tumbling, hanging and different exercises. He had so much fun! I'm trying out another place this weekend so we'll see which one he likes better before deciding which one to take him to.

Playing with bubbles

So many things to play on/with and this is what fascinated him the most!

Learning how to hang on his own. He loved the teacher... even went and sat in her lap at the end of class!

Of course playing with the one girl in class.

No fear... he was off and running without me.

And the end result of all this fun? Asleep before we were even out of the parking lot!

Bike Trip

Chad had somewhere to be today so I thought I'd take Tristan on a bike ride. We rode from our neighborhood all the way to the Jordan River Parkway off of 9800 South and then took the parkway up to the play ground. Since it was past 5, we were the only ones there but it was fun just running around with him. He had his first experience on the slide and he loved it. He figured out really quickly that if I set him at the top of the slide, all he had to do was push forward a little and he'd go flying down... giggling and smiling the whole way!

Here he is at the top of the slide (I of course forgot the camera, so my phone had to do the trick... thank heavens for camera phones!)And at the bottom.And headed back to the slide as fast as his little legs could carry him.

He also discoverd that woodchips are fun to play with. Personally I'm not sure why cause they kept poking me so I'm sure they were poking him too, but he loved grabbing them by the handful and tossing them into the air.Examining the woodchipsI love this picture! He is so happy... you can just see the joy on his face!He thought it was great fun to have me chase him through the grass. He would turn around and see where I was at and then turn around and run.Our new duck friend. This duck is quite funny. We've seen him on more than one occassion at the parkway. He has absolutely no fear of anyone. The last time I saw him, I was rollerblading and pushing Tristan in the jogging stroller; the duck was sitting in the middle of the path and just expected us to go around him... didn't even move a bit when we rode past him.

Tristan liked the duck and thought it was funny when I fed him some animal crackers. The dang thing about took my fingers off, he didn't even wait for me to toss the cracker, just jumped up and took it. He then followed me around begging for more. Smart duck!

Child Locks... Schmild Locks!

We were good parents and child proofed the house. Not anything over the top, just enough to keep him from hurting himself. That lasted about a month!!! He has no trouble pulling the electrical outlet covers out of the outlets and he's now figured out how the child locks work (as you can see in the video).

And now he's figured out how to take off his diaper. That was one I figured would happen... but so soon? Damn smart child!
Off with the diaper!Bum cleavage! Just can't resist!
I love this picture! But he suddenly looks like a little boy instead of a baby! Where has the last year gone? Oh and you can see he's actually getting some hair, light though it may be!

State Fair Fun

Chad always says that football and the State Fair really kick off fall for him so of course we had to go to the fair this year. I was mean and didn't want to go last year since I was fat, swollen and rather uncomfortable. But this year was much better and a lot of fun. We went with Jen and Brandon and the boys and Chad's brother Jeff and his wife Jen and Chad's BFF Jake. We ate, walked around and of course looked at all the animals. Tristan loved it! He was so excited when I let him walk around and pet some of the animals. We'll definitely be going again in future years.

Tristan trying to reach the goat but it was just not cooperating.

Another goat... this one was more friendly so I had to hold Tristan back or he probably would have tried to hug/wrestle him.

He's starting to learn to pet "softly" which was a good thing for this sheep. A month ago the poor thing would have had its ear pulled and probably been smacked on the head a few times.
Mama and baby piglets... so cute! Almost makes you want one, until you take a good look at their mama and realize that's what the babies will look like shortly!

My little cowboy and a demon cow!

WATERMELON!

One of Tristan's favorite things is watermelon as evidenced by the video below. I think he would be perfectly content to exist on a diet of watermelon, bananas and cheerios! He's also learned to clap and will do it at the most random times, especially if we say "Yay!". He thinks it is so much fun!

As I've said before, Tristan also LOVES bath time. I didn't really want to give him a full bath so I stuck him in the sick to hose him off and he thought that was the greatest thing ever!

Smarter than the average bear...

As you can see by the video, the suction cup trainer plate didn't stay suctioned very well. This kid is too stinkin' strong! It came up a whole lot easier the second time (of course when I was videotaping it). The first time he had to pull pretty hard and basically just took it apart piece by piece and threw them all on the floor... including the spoon. Fortunately, there wasn't any food on it because I wanted to see what he would do with the plate. He needs to learn to eat on his own with a spoon because half the time he refuses to eat if I'm trying to feed it to him. He wants to eat things that he can pick up on his own, which is fine, but I can give him only so much watermelon, bananas, cheerios and toast. :)

Attempt Number One

STEP 1: Take spoon with food already on it from mom and try out this whole feeding myself thing.

STEP 2: Bang spoon on my tray to listen to the fantastic noise it makes and then try getting a bite on my own.

STEP 3: Get bored with all that, grab the bowl full of food and shake it until all the food dumps onto my tray!

This is the result of Tristan's first attempt at eating with a spoon. It didn't go so well. He understands the concept but eating with the fingers is SOOOO much easier! He took a few bites with the spoon and then grabbed the bowl and literally shook it so that all the mashed potatoes would fall out onto his high chair tray. He continued to play with the spoon but when that got boring he started throwing it, once at me! Then it was on to finger painting with said potatoes. He would occasionally suck them off of his fingers but would promptly go back to pushing them all over the tray. At the end we had a tray caked with mashed potatoes, a belly covered in potatoes and a mohawk with potatoes holding it up. But at least he had fun! We'll try this again, but this time we're a little smarter and have purchased a "trainer" plate that actually suctions its self to the tray so there will be no more dumping the contents of his dinner out.
I love the bottom left picture because you can see how truly BLUE his eyes are.... beautiful! (click on the pictures and they will blow up so you can see them better).

Walking Man

So this post is WAY overdue. Tristan really started walking on August 8th but I haven't gotten a video until now. He's still pretty wobbily but he's getting better. He was so tired when I recorded this and didn't feel like cooperating so it's just a quick preview. I'll get a better one when he's in a happier mood.

Field Trip

Chad and I just bought season passes to the Aquarium here in SLC. Odd place to have an aquarium I know but it was pretty cool and we figured Tristan would like it especially as he gets older. And since paying twice pays for a season pass, we just bought the pass.

Here's Tristan in front of the Anaconda's tank. He loved watching all the fish swim around. His favorite was the Shark tank. We sat and watched the sharks and sting rays swim around for at least 5 minutes and he was enthralled the whole time. He kept touching the glass whenever one would swim by the window. We'll definitely be going back again and once he gets a little bigger he can touch the sting rays in the touch pool (they feel like wet suede).

Standing Man

Tristan has been able to stand on his own for a few weeks now but try as a might, I can't get a picture of him doing it! When he sees the camera he either plops down on his butt and crawls to me to get it or literally lunges at me. And since our camera is way too slow in taking pictures I haven't been able to get one of him actually standing, just ones of him half way down to the floor or coming at me like a monster. :D The other night I finally got a picture (see below) but of course... he blinked!!!! Bloody hell! HAHA I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunities to get an actual picture without him blinking, falling or attacking but it's still annoying! He's started using his little walker toy that we bought him because he realized he can walk if he pushes it - walk without falling that is. He's taken a few tentative steps but hasn't gotten more than 3 or 4 without falling down. But it won't be long before he suddenly takes off in a dead run I'm sure.

Don't mind Chad's head, he was ducking trying to get away from the Godzilla baby. If you lay down on the floor, Tristan takes that as a cue to attack you. He thinks it's quite hilarious... and it is, when it's not you he's attacking!

This picture just made me laugh so I had to share!