Mr. Copycat

Creighton has become quite the little copycat lately. He has started repeating a lot of words that he hears. He doesn't say them on his own yet, but can repeat: cat, night-night, whoa!, fish, out, cheese, and many more. He also can give a mean high five now. :) Last night my mom and I met my sister and her daughter Amelia at the outlets in Angola. While I was having fun shopping, Chad and Creighton headed over to my parents house. Creighton got to hang out with his grandpa Rutter and go on a long lawn mower ride while Chad left to do an estimate on a neighbors house. Creighton loves riding on anything with a motor that goes "vroommmm."

A few weeks ago, Chad's Gnagey Grandparents came over for a visit. Chad had gotten the tractor out to take Creighton for a ride so we got a few really good pictures of Creighton with his dad and his great grandpa. The tractor is actually Grandpa Gnagey's first tractor. Creighton also talked his great uncle Neil into taking him for a spin as well.

Here are a few pictures of Creighton's latest art project...finger painting! He loved it and really got excited about it. After I got him all cleaned up, he dug through his "art" box and found the tubes of paint and really wanted to paint again...maybe later!

Pooping in the tub...and a little clap

Tonight Chad met Chad Grieser in Ft. Wayne to watch a baseball game leaving Creighton and I to entertain each other. I called my mom to see what she was up to and Creighton and I ended up tagging along with her to Defiance to Lowes and then to the mall for a little shopping. Creighton is a pretty big bedtime routine junkie and loves nothing more than to have a bath at 7, pjs and books and then upstairs for a sippy full of milk by 7:30. I was a little concerned that he might crash and burn while shopping until 8, but he did great and loved every minute of it- flirting with the workers at each store.

Typically I give C his bath, get his pajamas on, and then Chad and I both read books with him until Chad takes him upstairs to put him to bed. Knowing that I was going to need to do all of that tonight, and that it was already an hour past his bedtime, I wanted to give him a quick bath and get on with the process. Creighton, still invigorated from his shopping trip was having none of it and was playing in the bathtub...even after I had drained all the water out. I was getting his toothbrush ready at the sink when I heard the dreaded "i'm pooping" grunt. By the time I walked the three steps to the bathtub the damage had already been done. Laying there, in the drained tub was a nice long turd staring back at me. I knew this milestone would come sooner or later- what parent doesn't have a pooping in the bathtub story...but I thought- of all nights!

Eventually, we made it upstairs to the rocking chair in his room for his sippy cup of milk. He was still acting a little on the wound up side, so I started to sing to him his favorite song "Jesus Loves Me" (Neil and Faith got him a book for his birthday that plays the song when you open it) Thankfully he calmed down right away and started drinking his milk. Each time I got done singing the song, Creighton would look up at me, put his cup down and clap for me. This continued until his milk was all done.

Funny how two sweet little hands clapping for a less then perfect rendition of Jesus loves me can melt your heart and put all the stress and craziness of the day to ease.

I have been doing some 'limited' posting to our blog this summer and doing a bit of cheating thanks to Smilebox. I am a list maker so perhaps I would do better making lists of what we have been up to this summer!

Places we have been:

Iowa- visiting friends Dustin and Mindy Hadley and their 3 year old Kaden

Branson MO- spent time with my parents and my dad's side of the family for a Rutter get together on Lake Taneycomo. We put about 2000 miles on during this trip-and once again, Creighton probably complained the least amount of all of us :) We went to Iowa first "on the way" to Branson....which after I finally looked at the atlas, was NOT a direct route as Chad had earlier convinced me...but it was great to see where D&M live. Here is a picture of Creighton eating crab in MO. He loved it!

The Toledo Zoo- I try to take Creighton to the zoo about every other week. He loves riding around in his stroller and checking out the animals. His favorites include: the aquarium, the primates, and also the new Nature's Neighborhood kids area. Here is a picture of both Creighton and the Orangutan eating.

We are also thinking about planning another quick trip before the summer ends...possibly out to VA to see family and friends.

Creighton's Favorite Things and New "Tricks":

words: "dada", "hi", "what's that?","tractor", "mama", "nana" for banana, and he is starting to say a mumbled "outside"

Creighton loves playing outside. He loves his lambs and will dutifully carry do his chores when he goes out to visit them. As soon as he walks into the barn, he heads for the hay pile, grabs and handful and carries it over to their pen, shoves his hand through the gate and feeds them. This continues on until he is bribed or carried out of the barn. Creighton also loves going for rides on the 4 wheeler. The term "out of site, out of mind" does not apply to him when it comes to the atv. If we are outside, Creighton will walk over to the shop and whine at the door until you either distract him with something equally exciting or take him on a ride. He has always loved the 4 wheeler- even when he was very little.

Chad just recently finished Creighton's sandbox- which turned out to be a very large sand area! Chad and Corey Roth worked on digging it w/ a tractor and then when Chad went to buy the sand his wife wanted, it was going to be $300 to fill it! :) Chad put some dirt back into the sandbox before adding forty 50lb bags of the sand I wanted. Needless to say, it was a bit of an adventure, but Creighton LOVES it and loves to play "knock over the sandcastle" with me.

Other Items:

Creighton, having 4 ear infections in 3 months is going to be getting tubes put in his ears July 29. We are hoping that it goes as smoothly as it should and that they work their magic! We feel very blessed that Chad has continued to be very busy with his eavespouting business and he has 2 great guys working for him. I can happily report that I have not thought about school for the past several weeks, but will need to start devoting a little time to school things as the summer continues to fly by! We are also looking forward to this August when our new pastor Steve and his wife Bonnie Heatwole will be coming to Lockport.

I hope all of you have been having a great summer filled with all the things you love.

Iowa/Missouri Vacation

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Sandbox Time

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Creighton Playing

Creighton loves to quickly make everything on his table disappear...today he did that, and then made himself disappear as well. The video is about 1 1/2 minutes long...wait it out and you will be laughing out loud at the end! Enjoy!

Sauder Village

Today we went to Sauder Village- the highlight of the trip being the farm animals and ice cream...which we have both at home but it is always more fun when you pay for it, right :)

Creighton's Birthday

On May 18, Creighton turned 1! He had a farm party at our house with his grandmas/grandpas, aunt/uncle and cousins. We gave Creight his own cake-a pig...which turned out very fitting for him :) Here are a few pictures from his party.

Make a Smilebox photobook

New Postings

I am posting a SmileBox that I made from the pictures of Creighton this weekend, as well as the link to a book I made this weekend called "The ABC's of Creighton's First Year." I just made it on Saturday and already received an email saying it had shipped today!

http://community.shutterfly.com/gallery/post/start.sfly?postId=/gallery/1/post/GMGDJg2buGbFmyagvbp6dO

David's Memorial

We took Creighton to Lockport yesterday afternoon for a little walk/photo session at David's memorial.