Holidays 2009

Well, well, well our Renner bear is almost 2 years old! 2 years old!!! We can't believe it. And he is very close to being a big brother. As you can tell in the picture below, he's been having fun sitting in his old car seat.
Renner had a great time at Thanksgiving with family and has been busy getting ready for the Christmas holidays. He even decided it would be nice to decorate our Christmas tree with panty liners...go figure! ha ha ha
He's been speaking so much. He is saying many words these days. "Star" "Airplane" "Tuck & Ming Ming" (from the Wonder Pets) among many others. He has quite the personality and is so funny.
He is doing very well at day care but is going to be home with Mommy while she is on maternity leave with Rali. We'll have plenty of bonding time but will look forward to visitors as well.
From Renner to you...happy holidays!

20 months old...and 3 more months until lil' sis

Well, it has been way too long since we've posted anything on our darling Renner. What a little boy he's grown into. Renner is now 20 months old and is 3 months away from being a big brother to his little sister, Rali Faith. We're hoping for the best and trying our best to prepare him for the huge change that is going to turn his world upside down.
Over the past few months Renner has learned so much. He now says about 40 words and can locate many body parts such as his head, eyes, nose, etc. Renner attends day care now and loves it. This past week he really started showing an interest in going. Thursday he ran to the back door when I asked if he was ready to go to school. He even walked into class all by himself, as we had to hold him in our arms and have him pried from our grasp for the first 3 weeks. He thinks he's a big boy now and can enter the school with no help (which is so nice!).
We took Renner to have his flu shot today. We're not quite sure what the issue is this year with illnesses going around. Of all my 9 years of teaching I've never seen a year as bad as this one with all of the seasonal allergies, stomach viruses and flu (not to mention the new H1N1 flu). We're hoping that we're helping prevent any serious illness from entering Renner's little body.
Tonight was real nice. Mike had a football game so Mimi and Jayden came over to give Renner a playdate. Renner had a blast! I'm sure Jayden did too as it was a struggle for Mimi to get Jayden to leave with her to go back to her house.
We are having the typical 20 month old issues. Temper tantrums, power struggles, sporadic eating, etc. At least Renner does drink his milk and eat his fruit and doesn't eat junk food. We're still working on getting him to eat protein. The best we can do as of right now is to have him eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and the ever-so-often fish stick or chicken nugget. He eats really good at school, even things he won't eat for us.
A few nights ago we had one of the funniest things happen. I was in the restroom and Renner walks in naked and decides to pee and poop all on the floor. The poop scared him so he stepped back into and ran. Yep! Poop footprints everywhere! GROSS! As I was cleaning it up he was watching me throw it in the toilet and then started crying. In the meantime he steps on me and I too have "poop foot". I wanted to gag but had to laugh instead. Needless to say, I cleaned up most of the mess (leaving a little for Mike that I couldn't get) and Renner as well. That was an interesting afternoon!
I will work harder to post more often. Sorry I have no pictures to go with this post. I need to download some to the computer. Until next time...

I'm a growing boy...give me food now!

Finally, our little man is wanting to eat food! The past couple of weeks he's been eating really well. Since he loves fruit we try to give him a variety to choose from. He's had apples, strawberries, kiwi, watermelon, banana, pear, cantaloupe, grapes and cherries. He loves it all! Mike decided to purchase some expensive fruit (we don't do that too often) that is infused with antioxidants. One of the containers was a package of pears that were purple because they were infused with acai and smelled like blueberries or something like that. Renner loved them. The picture below is of him enjoying that fruit.

After staying with Jamie and Nicole and their kiddos on the way back from Georgia we decided we really need to work more on the use of a spoon and fork. So this past week I fed Renner some cereal for breakfast. He did such a good job of eating it with a spoon that I had to get the camera out for a couple of shots.


Last but not least is probably one of the funniest things we've given him...spaghetti! He tried to use the fork but realized it was much more fun and easy with his fingers!



We are having so much fun watching him learn. Stay tuned to see what Renner tries next...

17 months and always on the move!

I know...it's been way, way too long since I've posted anything for Renner. Let me try and think about what all has taken place over the past couple of months. First, Renner is going to be a BIG BROTHER! We found out a couple of days before Mother's Day so we were able to share the good news on that day. His little brother or sister will be here around January 14th. We've also made Renner's crib into a big boy bed. We had an accident with his bed railing so we converted it into a daybed. He thinks he's hot stuff now that he can get out of his bed and walk into the living room all by himself after a nap. This morning he woke up at 5:30 and walks into our room and climbs in bed with us. Too cute! We've had a very busy summer. We just returned from our trip to Georgia. The weather was wonderful and Renner loved it there. He had so much fun playing with all of his family and playing on the porch at Nana and Pop's house. We also went up to visit family in North Carolina and he loved it up there! We were pleasantly surprised with Renner's ability to travel better now. On the way to Georgia Mike drove through the night but on the way back home we stayed at the Sisk's wonderful home in Laurel, Mississippi where Renner had so much fun playing with his cousins. Since we've been back home we've done a lot of resting. We think Renner went through a growth spurt a couple of nights ago because he slept 13 hours and that NEVER happens. We are lucky if he sleeps 10 hours each night. The next day after the growth spurt he ate like a horse! He's starting to try different foods now and actually likes them. He ate eggs and a biscuit with jelly yesterday. He LOVES fruit and cereal bars. We're working on the meats and veggies. Some of his favorite words to say are ball, tractor, Tom (for Thomas the Train), Daddy, Ryder, Momma and Pop. He also knows to go to the bathroom after he has a pee or poop diaper. We're thinking about trying potty-training since he's aware of his movements! We'll see. That's about it for now. I promise to do a better job of posting more frequently. Until next time...

So much to learn

Renner playing with his buddy, Colton.
Mommy, Daddy & Renner at church on Easter.
Gran, Pa & Renner at church on Easter.
Renner in Great Pop Romig's cowboy hat!

Renner is quite the funny little guy. Renner is climbing on everything, loves being outside, is finally eating really well, loves to look at books, likes to dance and is learning new words constantly.
Mimi, Renner & cousin Jayden hunting for Easter eggs.
We've had to turn all of the kitchen chairs over onto their sides so he won't crawl on them and then fall on the tile. He has really great balance. He enjoys climbing on things that will give him a perspective from a higher level. He can get off our bed and the couch on his own. He prefers it that way.
He whines when he has been outside and then we bring him indoors. He would much rather be out than in. He can walk up inclines with ease and can even walk up small steps on his own. Today Gran took him outside in his highchair for breakfast. She said he loved it and I have no doubt about that. Our back patio is starting to become his second play area.
As for eating, we finally figured out a way to get him to eat meat. Last week I drove through Culver's on the way home and bought a chicken strip meal with sweet and sour sauce. When we got home I put some of the chicken and sauce on his tray and he went crazy over it. Since then we went to the grocery store and bought some chicken nuggets, fish sticks and popcorn shrimp. We also saw some sweet potato fries so we baked those up with a little bit of cinnamon sugar (like they are cooked at Miss Katie's at Stone Mountain) and he really liked those. He also loves fruit and yogurt.
He has about a gazillion books. His favorites being about baseball and Winnie the Pooh. Today his Gran was reading books with him and he has these small board books that are the letters of the alphabet and she taught him the letter "D". When Mommy came home today Gran says, "Renner, what's this?" and he says "D". I was one proud Mommy.
This little boy also has some rhythym. Daddy bought a Happy Meal and in it came a Madagascar figurine that sings "I like to move it, move it" and he dances like crazy. He's just started swinging his arms back and forth too when music is played.
Renner uses so many words now ~ "Dider" for "Ryder", See, Daddy, Momma, bye, hi. Those are his favorites. He constantly surprises us by copying what he hears.
I'll leave you with one final "funny" that happened a few days ago. I was feeding Renner fish sticks with a little ketchup and was letting him watch a little tv. When a segment comes on that teaches children a word in sign language. The word for the segment was "eye". The woman says the word and then points to her eye. So what does Renner do as he has a fish stick in one hand and ketchup on the other hand? You probably guessed it...he stuck the ketchup finger into his eye. At first I didn't make the connection of what he was doing. I just thought he poked himself in the eye and started crying because of the ketchup in his eye. But then he did it again and I realized "Oh my gosh" he's doing the sign for eye but is so focused on the sign that he doesn't even realize he has ketchup on his finger. It was so funny because he kept doing pointing at his eye, putting ketchup in it and then crying. Well, at least he was attempting the sign! Daddy & Renner at church on Easter.

Spring Break 2009 Slide Show

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Houston Livestock Show

Our son definitely has country imbedded in his little body. He loves animals and everything mechanical. We are on spring break so we've had the opportunity to keep Renner quite busy. Monday we took him to his first Houston Livestock Show. It's been cold here in Texas so we bundled him up in a thermal top, overalls and an adorable wool hat that says "Lil Buckaroo" on it that Aunt Paige gave to him.
As soon as we arrived at the rodeo we made a b-line for the petting zoo. Renner went wild petting goats, deer, sheep and his favorite...a pot bellied pig. Then we walked around and grabbed some grub. Mommy had a cowboy burrito filled with grilled potatoes, steak, onions and cheese. YUMMY! Daddy had some etoufee and boudain. Renner was happy with his banana cookie and stars. He tried our food but it was a no-go. We did take him inside and get him some strawberry milk from the Borden's display.
After lunch we walked around the exhibits. He liked getting on the big John Deere tractor with Daddy. When our day was almost done we spotted a child with a stuffed toy snake, so we had to get one for Renner. That was the best $3 we ever spent. He loves his snake. We made one more trip by the petting zoo and then bought Renner some Dippin' Dots for a snack and then strolled back to the car. Our Lil' Buckaroo was exhausted. He fell asleep in his stroller and slept all the way home.

Just A Swingin'

Well, our baby boy is finally over his illness. It took 8 long days to get over, but he's back in action now. We still don't have him around children for another week in case he's contagious but we are so glad that he's back to his old self. He's doing some new things these days. If you ask him if he's hungry, he'll head straight for his highchair. Ryder has a purple squeaky toy and Renner loves grabbing it and then having Ryder chase him. It's their little game they play. It's precious. He's very independent. He would much rather do things and figure things out on his own. He's also quite stubborn (hmmm...I wonder who he gets that from...sorry, Renner...that's Mommy's trait). We are trying to learn what type of discipline to use when we need it. We know it's a time of learning on both parts, but he just doesn't get it a lot of the time. He grabs wires from the tv and we tell him no and give a little spank and then remove him from the situation but he just keeps going back. It's so frustrating. Something else is that he doesn't like mushy food and meat. We try to give him a variety of food all the time but he does have his favorites...breakfast bars, apple, pancake, toast, etc. Recently we tried carrots, pork & rice, egg fritatta and bacon, but he wasn't too keen on those things. I guess we just keep offering until he tries things and ends up liking them.
This past weekend we put up his new swing in the front yard. He loved it! Then we pulled out his John Deere ATV into the front yard and let him play. His favorite thing had to be walking/crawling up and down our sidewalk. That's about it for now. Thank you so much for keeping Renner in your thoughts and prayers during his illness. Much love to you all!

Gastroenteritis

Okay...so what's with the big word right? Well, if you've heard from me or seen me in the past 5 days you know that Renner is really, really sick. He started vomiting Saturday evening. By Sunday night he had a fever of 102.3. So, we loaded him up and took him to an E.R. clinic not too far from our house. He was given an IV to help him rehydrate and he was diagnosed with Gastroenteritis. Mike took him to the E.R. once more Monday afternoon but didn't stay as Renner began to perk up a bit. Well, fast forward to tonight, Wednesday and he's still a sick little boy. Today Mike took him to a new pediatrician. (We loved our old pediatrician and nursing staff, but due to the fact that the receptionist kept double and triple booking people, it was taking us an hour to 1 1/2 hours each time we went there just to be seen so we decided to find a new doctor for Renner.) The new doctor told us everything looked good but that this could continue for a few days. I guess I should say that the vomiting only happens once a day, but now he has diarreah. He probably went through 10-20 diapers today!!! He has also lost 9 ozs. That may not sound like a lot but to a baby, it is. Needless to say, Mommy, Daddy & Gran are exhausted. We are ready for our very active little boy to feel better, stop pooping and play with his toys. He hasn't even had a chance to enjoy all of his birthday presents. Please keep him in your prayers and I'll post another blog when he starts feeling better.

And then there was "1"

Well, our baby boy has turned the big O-N-E! Can you believe it...one! It just seems like yesterday that we never thought we'd have a little one of our own, then we got the news that we were having a baby and then there he was in all his glory.
This little boy is quite a handful I tell ya. He is so unbelieveable. He is extremely independent and headstrong. Talk about being funny and having a way of making us laugh. I guess it's time I get a notebook together to write down all of the funny things that have been happening.
I guess I better write about his birthday party. It was awesome! Thank you so much to everyone that was able to make it out as well as those who sent birthday wishes. On Friday, Jan. 30th Renner's Nana & Pop from Georgia flew in for the big occasion. After a yummy lunch at Chuy's we, along with Daddy, went to Aunt Stephanie's hair salon where he received his first big boy haircut. Mommy got choked up, but held it together. I made sure to keep his beautiful locks that were cut off.
The next morning we were busy getting ready for the party. It was a Winnie the Pooh theme and way cute! After getting all of the decorations & food together it was time for the party to begin. Renner received all types of bath toys, pool toys, clothes, books, DVDS and $ for his car seat. We had about 40 people in attendance. We are overwhelmed by the amount of love that was shown by our friends and family. Along with our family from Georgia we also had friends come from as far away as Austin & Bossier City. Some of Renner's friends were able to make it as well. Thank you Jayden, Alex, Buzz, Colton, Delaney, Sadie & Alyssa for coming to Renner's party. He hopes you had fun! Okay, so the funny parts. Renner received this purple vibrating ball that rolls on the ground. He got scared and all of the little ones starting crying. Poor babies. Then I was thinking Renner would get so messy with his cake, but he didn't. He didn't know what to think about his cake. He ate a little bit of it but it pretty much looked the same as when he started eating it. Who knows...he may be like his Daddy and not like sweets that much.




A couple of weeks before Renner's birthday we took him to the duck pond in Summerwood. He had so much fun looking at and feeding the ducks. We hope to take him back soon. Ryder liked it too!




This weekend we are looking forward to Renner's 1st Birthday party out at his Gran & Pa's in Hardin with his Van Dorn/Rawlinson family! This boy is going to be partied out...but we know he's loving all of the love. Until next time...

2008-2009 at a glance...Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Pictures of Our Renner from Christmas

Make a Smilebox scrapbook