workin on his kick flip

We had finished shopping and we were walking through the store on our way to pay. Trey would go from one rack of clothes to the next and stand on the bar thing at the bottom of the rack where the wheels are. He would say something each time he was on the bar, but I couldn't quite understand him at first.

Once again he got up on the bar, and I finally realized that he was standing on the bar with both feet and kind of swaying back and forth while holding my hand and saying (quite clearly once I realized what it was!) "(s) kateboard".

it's all about the benjamins

Trey, Auntie Em and I were shopping this afternoon. Emily had been MIA for a while, but when she reappeared, she brought with her one of our favorite babysitters from back in the day to see the Dude.

The Dude was continuing some dance moves and showing her some shoes, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to show Andee some of his vocabulary skills. I asked Trey what I thought would be a cut and dry question "What does Grampie give you?". We had just been at Grammie and Grampie's house on Friday, so I just knew Trey would respond "cone". To Auntie Em and my great surprise, Trey responded "money".

This Dude knows what's up.

generous

While eating dinner last night, Blinn and I were talking amongst our selves for no more than a minute. When we turned our attention back to Trey, we observed him dragging his hand through his ketchup and then hanging it off the side of his chair so Gus could lick it off.

Daddy asked, "Trey what are you doing"? Trey said, "Gussie. Dip".

like father like son

I asked Trey what he wanted for breakfast.

The response accompanied by a strong head nod was, "tacos".

For this, his Daddy is eternally grateful.

don't mess with the dog

We attended Trey's Great-Grandma and Grandpa Farm's 60th wedding anniversary party this weekend. I had packed an assortment of toys in Trey's bag (as a side note, once I got to the party and opened the bag, I saw that Trey had also packed some toys- 1 ball and two hammers) and he had also brought his beloved dog "Puppy" along.

Puppy is a small chihuahua that was sent to him by his Great-Grandma Hazel. Puppy is about 4 inches high and if you turn him on he makes a yipping noise and walks. Puppy gets lots of Trey snuggles, Puppy gets covered in blankets, and Puppy has even gotten some milk poured on his mouth; Trey. Loves. HIS. Puppy.

While at the party, he was off playing with his sweet cousin Blake in front of the table we were sitting at. His older cousin Carsten saw Puppy sitting on the table and decided to turn Puppy on. Blinn and I watched as Trey popped up from his spot on the floor and with his little brow furrowed, hustle over to Carsten. He shook his finger at Carsten and said "DON'T. MINE". Carsten looked a bit shocked at begin told what's up by a 20 month old, but the message was received. Puppy is Trey's.

close, but no cigar

Trey attends Soccer Tots practice every Saturday. Heavy on the parent participation, singing, and running; light on legit soccer skills- we all LOVE it! Saturday morning s were the only day with a time that worked for schedule, so Trey's "playing up" in the 24-36 month group (as of Oct. 15, he's 20 months).

A couple of "practices" (heh) ago the coach was handing out colored balls for the kids to use in the next drill. Our awesome Coach Shareene asked the two children before Trey what color was their ball prior to her giving it to them. Anthony responded "red", JP responded "green", and then next in line was Trey. Coach grabbed a blue ball and asked "what color is this Trey"?

Trey, with arms outstretched confidently answered "MINE".

CASE on the brain

Trey has fallen in love with combines. He was able to ride with his Grandpa Mike (along with his Daddy) in his combine twice this summer for 2 1/2 hours each ride! Trey has become proficient at saying "kawbine" (combine), "trakTOR" (tractor), and "weeeat" (wheat) thanks to his time on the farm this summer. A couple of cute stories have emerged from Trey's first real harvest:

- When heading down to Almira to ride in the combine for the second time, Blinn told me that Trey woke up twice from a nap and would look around in the truck and ask "kawbine"?

- For the first couple of days after his final combine ride of the season, Trey would see Blinn pull up in the truck (that they took down to Almira) and say "kawbine? kawbine?".

- When at Dee Dee's house last week, he was putting on different hats and came across a straw one. He put the hat one and said (of course, I'm getting redundant at this point) "kawbine" to Dee Dee.

- Last night at dinner (after eating an entire ear of corn) all on his own Trey said "kawbine". Blinn and I said something back to him like "yes, you like to ride in the combine". Next, all on his own, Trey said "Mike". Usually when we talk about combines we remind him that he rode on one with Grandpa Mike. We'll work on the prefix. ;)

that's f*!kin teamwork!

Blinn witnessed this exchange of teamwork between Blake and Trey about a month ago:

Trey and his cousin Blake were playing outside at their Grandpa Mike and Grandma Lorie's house with a toy tractor that was on runners.

Blake was driving the tractor around and a runner suddenly fell off. Blake kept right on pushing the tractor, and Trey hurried over and picked up the down runner.

Trey hollered "Bakey Bakey (Blakey Blakey)!" and ran towards Blake carrying the runner. When Trey caught up to Blake he showed him the runner that had fallen off. Blake said "uh oh" which Trey followed up with "broke". Then the two cousins got down on their haunches and examined the broken tractor.

don't get any ideas

July 17, 2010 was my 10 year high school reunion as well as the Pioneer Days parade in beautiful Davenport, WA. We took Trey down to watch the parade and Grandma Lo and Great-Grandma Sherry were watching Baby Brody (Trey's cousin) so he was able to come and watch the parade with us!

A little background for you- Trey, Blinn and I went down about a week after Brody was born to visit him, Blakey, Uncle Justin and Auntie T. Trey liked looking at Brody, but while I was holding Brody, Trey needed to have every.single.piece. of his body touching me. It's true. I have the pictures to prove it. So, needless to say, I knew Trey wouldn't be mean to Baby Brody, but I wasn't optimistic that I would get a lot of baby-holding time.

While I held Brody on my lap, Trey went over and climbed up on his Grandma Lo's lap. He then stretched his little arms out towards Brody and I and said "come. come". It took me a while to realize that he wanted to hold Brody on his lap. Blinn took about half a dozen amazing pictures of Trey looking so proud to be holding Brody!

The Dude will make an awesome big brother someday. SOMEDAY NOT SOON. heehee Until then, thank goodness for sweet cousins!

he doesn't just save the drama for his mama

This story was told to us by Grandma Lo who along with Grandpa Mike took Trey to his first Mariner's game on July 24, 2010.

Trey had grown tired of picking at his grilled cheese sandwich while eating out with his Grandpa Mike and Grandma Lo. He was sitting in his high chair while Grandma Lo was on the phone and Grandpa was observing the situation. Trey looked at his Grandma and stretched his arms out towards her while still in his high chair and said pleadingly "Help me! Help me!".

Grandma wrapped up her phone conversation while Grandpa laughed at Trey's dramatic request to get out of his high chair.

dude interrupted

This morning Blinn left the house early to go work-out. Trey started to wake up at around 5:45 so I brought him into our bed so that I could get another 15 minutes of relaxing, and of course to get some Trey snuggles.

Daddy came home from his work out and laid back down in bed with the now awake Dude and me. Blinn lifted up his arm so I could lay on his chest while Trey was on his other side chatting with us. When Trey saw me in my comfortable position on his Daddy's chest, he began to push me off of Blinn while repeating "mine! mine!". I (as was his Daddy) of course was enjoying this show of possessiveness and was not moving as instructed. Trey's "MINE's" continued to get louder and more adamant and finally the Dude hit his Momma. He was gently reprimanded and told that he can't hit and to say sorry to Mommie and give her a kiss, which he did without fuss.

After he had given his I'm-sorry-kiss, he continued to say mine and now point at me to move. I finally obliged and Trey made his Daddy's morning by laying down with a huge grin on HIS spot.

a routine procedure

Trey's bedtime ritual has not deviated from when he was a very little boy. We take a bath, get our jammies on, Daddy reads us a book, we say our prayers, and then we go to bed.

Last night Blinn was putting the finishing touches on a meatloaf that we had started earlier that night to have for dinner the next night. So I was getting Trey ready for bed solo, and we were towards the middle of our nighttime book "Winken, Blinken and Nod" when Blinn walked through to get his workout clothes out of Trey's room for the next morning. When Trey saw his Daddy trying to leave, he grabbed the book out of my hands with both of his hands, and held it up to his Dad and said (with binky in mouth) "ugh". "Ugh" of course was his directive to his Dad to sit down and finish the story per our usual routine. You can't get much by The Dude.

too young for an allowance?

Here are a list of things Trey likes to "help" around the house with at 15 1/2 months:



1. Refilling Gus' food dish. We ask Trey if he can get Gus some more food. Trey then toddles over to where we keep Gus' food and water, bends down, and with both hands picks up the food dish. As Blinn and I say "Use both hands! Be careful!", Trey seriously (his serious face is his mouth shut, his brows slightly furrowed, and he walks with a purpose- almost stomping his feet) walks over to the container where we store Gus' food and waits for one of us to open and refill the dish. We then hand Trey back the now fairly full dish and he turns himself around, walks over to where the food needs to return, and very carefully sets it down on the mat. He is rewarded with lots of "thank you(s)!" and "good job Trey!". We are rewarded with a very content dude as the mission has been accomplished.



2. Cleaning up spilled beverages. Trey will take his sippy cup off of the coffee table in our living room and proceeds to shake some drops on to the the floor. He then goes over to where the paper towels are and points up towards them, nods his head and says "yeah yeah". That is our cue to get him a paper towel. Once he has one, he takes it to where the spill is (again, the spill HE created) and wipes it up. So helpful.



3. Taking the garbage out. Taking the garbage out at our house is a task done most often (okay, pretty much exclusively) by Blinn. Trey loooooves to be outside and with his Daddy, so it's become a team effort. At first, Blinn would carry Trey and the garbage, but Trey would try to grab the big bag of trash. Blinn had the genius idea of making Trey his own trash bag to take out. This entails me looking for little bits of trash around the house to put in a grocery sack for Trey to take out with Daddy and the big bag of trash. Now when I ask the boys if they can take the trash out, Trey stands by where we keep the grocery sacks and waits for me to fill it up, then he goes and stands by the back door and waits for his Daddy to go take the trash out.

4. Wiping after "going potty". We bought Trey a little toilet so he could go potty when mom and dad do (since he apparently needs to be with us while we're doing our thing, we figured he might as well practice too!). Trey sits on his little potty, points to the sink where the toilet paper is sitting, and we then give him a little square of his own. He proceeds to use the square of TP just like he should and even throws in a couple of grunts for good measure. He gets that from his dad.

heads up

Two nights ago I was running Trey's bath and Trey was being "Naked Baby" and running around the house naked while Blinn was signing a card for me in the living room.

According to Blinn, Trey paused in the living room by the couch and as Blinn was writing in the card, Trey started saying "pee pee pee pee". Blinn then looked up to see a puddle of pee pee on our hardwood floors.

Thanks for the heads up Dude.

tasty treat

I had Monday and Tuesday off from work so Trey and I got to play together both days. It was heaven! On Tuesday we went downtown to take Daddy out for lunch and then we went to Mommie's work to show the Dude off. He was my little puppet and did many of his tricks. For example, he used a paperclip and pretended it was a key and he was trying to unlock drawers with it; when I asked him to brush his hair because it was messy, he'd run his hands over the top of his head; he was our Trey in show-off form. In addition to the above mentioned "tricks", he added a little something new to is repertoire while visiting the HR ladies...

There were three ducks sitting on a file cabinet in one of the HR offices. The lady in the office was gracious enough to let Trey take each one of the ducks (one at a time) from her office to the pod where we were hanging out. He then placed all three ducks into a little bowl that my friend Kris gave him. Kris then told Trey, "You're having some duck soup!". Trey then takes the bowl with the "duck soup" with both hands, lifts it up to his his mouth, and makes a slurping noise. When he was done, he moved the soup bowl down to lap and gave us a satisfied "ahhhhhh!".

holla at yo girl

This story comes courtesy of Trey's wonderful daycare lady DeeDee:

DeeDee was making lunch in her kitchen and she has a 9 1/2 month old little girl who makes Trey no longer the baby of the group. The little girl was fussing at DeeDee's feet while she was cooking. DeeDee heard some movement from the living room and looked up to see Trey carrying Ava's (the baby) bottle to her. Trey set the bottle down by Ava on the floor next to her, gave her a little pat on the head (my FAVORITE part of this story) and then went about his business.

What a Dude.

when you dip i dip we dip

Trey likes tacos. He's just like his Daddy in that sense. There is something about some turkey-taco meat that the Dude digs. When Blinn gets home after work, he usually has a little snack of chips and salsa. He shared his snack with Trey a while ago and the Dude seemed to like the salsa which we thought was pretty funny.

Yesterday, Blinn was having some chips as an after work snack and holding Trey at the same time. He gave Trey a chip and instead the usual happy smile we get for giving him something he usually doesn't get to have, Blinn was met with a little whining and a frantic up and down motion of his hand with the chip in it.

Daddy to Mommie: Do you think he wants some salsa?

Mommie to Daddy: Nah, he doesn't need any.

Daddy to Mommie: But I think that's what he wants, look he's acting like he's dipping the chip!

Mommie to Daddy: Fine, see if it works.

Of course it worked and once Trey's chip had a lil' dip, snack time continued as usual.

come out and play

Trey has woken up a little too early for our liking the past two mornings so we have brought him into bed with us to have a glorious extra hour of sleep. Additionally for the past two mornings, Trey has helped his Daddy with the waking up process. Blinn stores his glasses on the edge of a sweater-storer-thing I have shoved under the bed. It provides him a nice little ledge to rest his glasses on until morning.

Well, the Dude has already mastered the art of scooting off of our bed by rolling to his tummy and inching backwards towards the edge. Now, in his ever so helpful 14-month manner, once his feet have hit the ground, he finds his Daddy's glasses and hands them up to Blinn who is still laying in bed.

Rise and shine Daddy!

thanks bell boy

Trey and I had arrived home from a wonderful weekend in Pomeroy on Monday afternoon. Blinn had been studying for his CPA exam, so it was just the two of us on a mini-vacation to Auntie Bub and Uncle Joe's house. I was bringing in the last of the Dude and my bags and left it next to the front door. I had put Trey's overnight bag in his room already.

After we had lunch, I told Trey "come here, we're going to unpack your bag". I was headed to his room and he was still in the living room. As I mentioned before, Trey's bag was already in his room. I was unpacking Trey's stuff, and I hear him grunting and walking towards his room, but it definitely sounded like the Dude was moving at a snails pace. He finally reached the edge of the living room and I could see him from his room. My sweet and oh so helpful boy had lugged my overnight bag all the way from the front door to the edge of the living room!

The Dude is a little soldier and even though he didn't realize that I had already moved his bag, he heard my instructions and was trying to help. What a sweetie.

chop chop mommie

Trey has lately been pooping in private. To translate, he goes to a different room (still in our view) or over to a corner to do his business in his diaper. This has only been going on for a couple of weeks. So again this weekend while in Pomeroy he went to Auntie Bub's kitchen to have a little privacy and take a poo. After he was done, he came marching back into the living room with purpose.

He walked over to where I was storing his diapers for the weekend, grabbed the diaper package, and brought it over to me. Once I was holding the package (picture the plastic wrapped package containing like 40 diapers smushed together- not a light load!) Trey grabbed a single diaper and then laid down on the floor where I had been changing him that weekend.

It was abundantly clear what he had been doing in the kitchen and what Mommie needed to fix.

primping

Most mornings Trey and Blinn have breakfast together while I'm doing my hair and makeup. I start with my hair, so by the time I've made it to my makeup Trey's done with his breakfast and he usually wanders in to our bedroom to see what's going on. He usually looks through my bag and plays with whatever makeup he grabs.

This weekend while visiting Auntie Bub and Uncle Joe in Pomeroy, I was doing my makeup in the living room so I wouldn't miss out on anything. Trey came over and was rummaging through my makeup bag, like he does, and he selected my eyelash curler. He proceeded to take the eyelash curler up to his eyes and do just what he's seen his Mommie do every day he watches me put my makeup on; try to curl his eyelashes.

No comments from the peanut gallery Uncle Jake.

take a breather

This Easter was chock full of wonderful memories and of course Trey stories; these are a couple of my faves.

Trey a wonderful yet extremely busy Easter weekend. He is getting to be quite a ham, so Saturday night found us watching our son entertain his Grandma Lo, Grandpa Mike, another couple that came over to the farm, and Blinn and I. Trey was a wild-man pulling out all the stops. He was driving his tractors all around the floor, walking from one edge of the couch to another, doing laps around the couch, picking up his balls and throwing them everywhere; he was 100% showing off to the new faces in the crowd.

Suddenly, Trey ceases all entertaining endeavors and grabs the blanket nearest to him and walks it over to me. He handed me the blanket, said up, and placed himself right in between Blinn and I. He then proceeded to cover himself up with the blanket and just.sit.quietly.

Aside from wondering who took the Dude and replaced him with this mellow child, it was heaven.

a case of mistaken identity

We took Trey to the Wilbur egg hunt on Saturday with both sets of Trey's grandparents and his Auntie Em and Auntie Bub to watch the race, *ahem* I mean hunt. A little back story for you: Trey LOVES all sport balls. Basketballs, baseballs, tennis balls, etc, the Dude just loves them all. So, Blinn and I thought that if we showed Trey the eggs that were out on the golf course and called them balls that he gets to pick up, he'd get excited and understand the task at hand better than trying to explain what eggs were.

The plan worked perfectly! The fire engine's siren sounded and our little 13-month old was off with his Daddy to gather up the "balls". He did great, and retrieved six eggs/balls. His Grandpa Terry had brought a couple of real eggs and dropped them on the ground for Trey to pick up once the official hunt was over. Trey eagerly picked up those eggs as well. He put all but one of his most recent retrievals in his Easter basket. The one he saved he took in his left hand and said "ball" and aggressively threw it on the ground.

He definitely got the picture, but Blinn and I paid for our deceit.

you kept driving?!

During the same visit with Grandma Hazel, Auntie Em mentioned to her Dad that she thought there was something "hanging down from the bottom of her car". That was our Dad's cue to figure out and fix what was wrong.

Grandpa Terry got down on the pavement and started to survey the damage. Trey thought he better take a look, so he put one hand on the front of Auntie Em's car and bent down at the waist to really get a good look. Well, he couldn't quite see everything he wanted from that vantage point so Trey proceeded to lay down on the ground, just like Grandpa Terry and look under the car.

After taking a good look, Trey grew tired of Grandpa Terry's attention on the car and not him. He began to growl at his Grandpa and throw himself on his Grandpa in a not so veiled attempt to direct the attention away from Auntie Em's car issue and back onto him.

Dad of course fixed the car and got back to playing with the Dude.

it was a drive by fruiting!

It's another guess that movie post-title! I don't know where this affection for titling posts after random movies from my childhood came from. Deal because you love me, aight?



This weekend Trey's Auntie Em brought Great-Grandma Hazel up for a visit. Grandma Li and Grandpa Terry were also at our house for this visit. Blinn, Trey and I were outside raking up pine cones and pine needles in the front yard when his Grandma and Grandpa pulled up. They walked over to where we were raking and Trey smiled at them and looked them up and down for a bit.



After he was done checking them out, he started walking towards his Grandma with his hands outstretched. Behind Grandma Li stood Grandpa Terry quietly watching. Blinn and I would later say how happy we both were that he was headed right towards his Grandma as it is a well known fact that he and his Grandpa Terry are BFF. Grandma Li bent over to pick him up and said "well hello sweetie". As Trey approached and realized what Grandma was doing, he pointed his chubby finger beyond his Grandma and picked up the pace. He flew past his Grandma Li as only a toddling 13 month old can do and kept pointing that little finger right. at. his. grandpa.



So close, yet so far Grammie.

don't talk about me like I'm not here!

Name that movie Em & Liz!!

This morning Blinn and I were having some coffee at the kitchen table while Trey was enjoying some peanut butter & jelly toast, apples and strawberries. I had mentioned Trey's name and suddenly Blinn said "Yeah! You're Trey" and he was promptly rewarded with one of Trey's smiles. The Dude had heard us talking about him and was pointing at himself!

it's going to be alright

Trey's wonderful daycare lady Dee Dee relayed this precious story to us last week:

Trey has a friend at daycare named Ava. Ava is 3 and calls Trey "her baby". Ava kisses Trey, held his hand when he was first walking, sits by him at all meals, and provides general 3 year-old mothering to our boy.

Last week Ava was placed in time out by Dee Dee and apparently had quite a fit about it. As Ava was screaming in a corner, Dee Dee said that Trey got up, walked over to Ava, sat down in her lap, gave her a hug and put his head down on her. Trey's loving gesture did not go unnoticed by Miss Ava. She calmed down until Trey was removed from her lap by Dee Dee.

You don't get "your baby" at time out.

catering to the chief

We had just arrived home from a wonderful Saturday-Sunday at Trey's grandparents house in Davenport. I was exiting the car with Gus on a leash and gathering some of our bags from the back seat while Blinn was getting Trey out of his car seat and getting some bags as well. Blinn carried Trey to the edge of the sidewalk and set him down to walk the rest of the way to the house. I was halfway down the walk with Gus encouraging Trey to walk towards me.

Trey refused to move from the edge of the sidewalk. It was as if he was standing in a pile of cement. He was making his whiny-grunt sound and pointing towards me.

Mommie to Daddy: Do you know what he wants?

Daddy to Mommie: No clue.

Mommie to Daddy: Do you think he wants Gus' leash?

Mommie walks over and hands Trey the leash (with Gus still attached of course).

Daddy to Mommie: That is exactly what he wants.

The Dude needed to be in charge of getting Gus back into the house. As soon as the leash was in Trey's hand, we received one of his trademarked grins and all was right with the world. He proceeded to walk Gus back into the house and he continued to walk Gus around the house when we got inside.

God Bless Gus.

later mom and dad

After changing his second poopy diaper of the morning (this has become the norm, The Dude likes to eat!) we were looking though his drawers to find some clothes for the day. I gave him a pair of sandals to play with while I picked out the perfect outfit, and before I could pull out a pair of jeans, Trey was off! He had one sandal in each hand and was walking towards his Dad saying "oooes oooes!" (shoes). Once he saw his Dad, he plopped down on the ground and began to put his shoes up to his feet and said "Go".

Guess it was time for daycare.

rise and shine

Trey had woke up at 4:30 and that was just a little too early for his mom and dad, so we brought him into bed with us. While I was getting ready in the bathroom, Trey and his Daddy were catching a few extra zzz's. As I was applying my 2nd coat of mascara, I heard "Mommie you better come see what Trey did". So I opened the bedroom door to see Trey smiling and standing up next to our bed. His Dad informed me that he had gotten out of bed and then stood and watched as Trey rolled to his tummy, scooted backwards, and carefully let his legs dangle over the edge of the bed until they touched ground. The Dude has mastered getting out of bed. Thank goodness he still naps in his crib.