Thursday night

Filson had all kinds of girl action this week. The first few pics show him going in to steal a kiss from his 6 month old friend, Ella. We returned from Raleigh about the same time John was returning from Virginia, so we met up at the house & then headed out to meet some friends at our Thursday night hangout. He is no longer content to just sit in his high chair & relax with the adults, so after running around and digging through the horseshoe pits & mulch, he had to hit the bath before bed last night. He didn't seem to mind!

Sleepover

Filson & I spent Wednesday night in Raleigh with Patrick, Anna Leigh & Vada. Vada has grown so much since we last saw her & she is very alert & adorable. However, she still looks pretty tiny sitting next to the big boy! Filson was pretty excited to have a new house with different toys to explore and was pretty interested in his new little girlfriend. We had great visit & look forward to seeing them all again soon!

Ornery Boy

A couple shots of the little guy before bed tonight. He tried very hard to get into his Dad's guitar case, but was unsuccessful. I'm sure he'll figure that one out before long, every day he discovers something else that he shouldn't be into. The past couple days it has been tearing toilet paper off the rolls. The first shot is of him sporting my headband. He was fascinated with it today & kept pulling it off my head & trying to put it on his own. However, I'm sure there will come a day when he will want me to destroy this picture of him wearing a girly headband!!

Iowa Pictures

State Fair

Growing up, going to the Iowa State Fair was a tradition for our family each year. It happened to be going on while we were there, so Grandpa Steve & Grandma Nancy got to take Filson on his first trip to the fair. He went down the giant slide with Grandpa, took a skyglider ride, rode an elephant & played at the Little Hands on the Farm exhibit. He liked looking at all the baby animals & their mamas in the birthing center and basically got a kick out of all the people watching he could do from the comfortable seat of his stroller. Hopefully he can take his Dad back on his next visit & show him all the fun he missed out on!

Iowa Visit

Hard to believe it's been almost 3 weeks since my post about his new shoes. We have had a very memorable couple of weeks and he has had a chance to wear in those shoes while traveling halfway across the country. Upon receiving the unexpected news that my Grandma Roe has lung cancer which has quickly spread, Filson & I took off on Aug 8 for a 2 week trip to Iowa to visit my family and bring some cheer to Grandma. We are very lucky to have such great family & friends in Iowa & it's always so fun to be there. Filson got to play with his grandparents and both great-grandmas, as well as many of my cousins, aunts, uncles & even some of my parents' cousins & aunts & uncles. Needless to say, he was never in need of attention!! The best part was seeing the smile he brought to Grandma Roe's face each day.

Ready to Run

I thought it would be like pulling teeth to get this boy to wear his shoes, but he proved me wrong. We spent Saturday morning playing at the house while John was in a fishing tournament. As soon as he saw his shoes in the morning, he brought them over for me to put on. He wore them with his diaper for about 4 hrs, then after his nap picked them up & wanted them on again. I think they are surely broke in by now!

We had our monthly playgroup today with about 15 other babies and then his 1 year check up this afternoon. He's a healthy 23lb, 11oz & 29" long. After all the activity & two rounds of shots, he crashed when we finally got back to the house late this afternoon.

Summer Days

A couple more pics from this week. Filson & I stayed very busy, which was a good thing since the house seemed too quiet after all our family left Sunday. On Tuesday he had his 1 year pictures taken in the morning & then we had to spend the afternoon at the house while the phone guys hooked up a new connection. Filson was very interested in their work & tried repeatedly to interest them in playing ball with him. He didn't quite understand that they had a job to do and didn't have time to toss the ball back to him. Wednesday we made a trip to the vet, which is always a big production. Going anywhere with a 1 year old OR a 90 lb crazy dog is a task in itself, but when you put the two together, it's rather intimidating. Thankfully, Cooper checked out just fine. Rather than having any health issues, he's probably just stressed from his family being here & there & everywhere the past year & not giving him enough attention. Now that our little guy is up on his feet, he should be running around entertaining Cooper in no time. Speaking of feet, we finally bought the boy a pair of shoes this morning. He's modeling them in the last shot. He was rather wobbly when he stood up to take his first steps, but I am sure he will get used to them in no time. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Like Father, Like Son

It appears that Filson has inherited his father & grandfather's love for cars. We spent over an hour at Fit for Fun Thursday & all he wanted to do was attach his hands to the steering wheel. As you can tell from the picture, there are endless other activities for him to enjoy, but he didn't want any part of it. I would pull him out of one car when I felt it was time to share with others & he would move right on to another. He also has formed an extremely strong attachment to the red car his cousins handed down to him last weekend. He always loved to ride in it at their house and now he is VERY excited to have it here. The rides are never long enough for him, but I can only do so many laps around the driveway in 90 degree weather!! Thanks for passing it on, Clarks!! He is one happy driver!!