An Amazing Moment

As a mom, I am sure many of you fellow moms have experienced a moment where you felt like this. This was one of those heart swelling proud moments for me. My little Cody still has trouble talking. He tries sometimes, but his articulation is not so great. It is usually pretty bad. So, sometimes it is hard to tell what he knows and how much he knows. He is just over 2 1/2 years old.

Today I was in the kitchen cooking and Cody came up and let me know he wanted a drink and he wanted juice. This is done by bringing me a cup and standing in front of the fridge. He knows how to get water himself. I offered him water and he said no and tried to open the fridge. I asked him if he wanted juice. He tried to say juice. I poured him a small cup of juice and went back to making chips. A little bit later we go through the whole process again. I gave him a little more juice in his cup than I did before. He said his version of thank you and walked away. I turned back to the stove.

A few minutes after that I hear Cody near the trash can. I turn around and he has moved the trash can out of his way so he can reach the paper towels on the counter. He was standing on his tippy toes and trying his hardest to reach the paper towels. He was actually touching them and doing that finger thing you do when you are trying to get one to come free. He would have been trying all day due to his barely reaching and all. "Cody, do you want a paper towel? What are you going to do with it? Show mommy what you need it for." I handed him the paper towel. He crumpled it up a little, wiped his mouth and walked over to the other side of the kitchen floor and bent down and it was then I saw the juice he spilt. He wiped it up then looked up at me with his beautiful eyes. I was so proud of him.

His eyes that know and see so much. I am amazed and impressed by him every day. His problem solving skills are great. I can't wait for the day he can talk to me and tell me about his day. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful little boy.

Mariana's party and some Rawrs!

Ok, so the 2 blogs before this are with a turtle my family brought home "for me." Haha. It has been taken to a near by pond and set free.

Mariana's party was a lot of fun. We started off with a 2 team scavenger hunt around the house. Then we played a game while people were still coming where we taped a cartoon character to each person's back and they had to figure out who they were by asking yes or no questions. Then each girl got to make personal pizzas with roll dough and toppings. I think big Cody had a lot of fun with that, too. His pizzas were pretty fancy. And even had a story to go with them.
We played more games. Had cake and ice cream. Opened presents. And made t-shirts. Played more fund games and had a great time. And in the morning we had waffles!

Linda, Cody, Cody and I went to the museum the other day. This was the last day of the dinosaur exhibit. It was a lot of fun. Little Cody was afraid of the big T-Rex. He loves dinosaurs. He is so cute to watch. I love him so much. He is awesome. (And a crazy man at church.)
I love my husband!

Team Mantor has grown!

It's a girl! A 15 year old girl! We have welcomed a new addition to our family. For the next 10 months Linda will be staying with us. She is an exchange student from Germany. She got here last night around 9:30pm. She got bit by some strange bug while in between Washington D.C. and Texas. Her first day here and we are battling an injury already. yikes!

We are so happy to have this opportunity to be her host family. She will start school this week. Welcome to Mantorville Linda! Yippie!

Small moments = Big Days

It was a big day in the Mantor house yesterday. Big Cody and I were sitting on the couch and both of us held our arms out to little Cody at the same time and said, "come here Cody." He looked back and forth at both of us and then ran to daddy and leaped into his arm with a giant hug.

Both of my boys were grinning ear to ear. And I have to admit, I was too.

Cody is talking, Little Cody, that is...

Big Cody talks, too but it usually isn't anything to blog about.

I need to get some of little Cody's words down here so I will remember. He has a language articulation disorder. That is what they are calling it. (A few other things we are working on with an occupational therapist and so on.) We have been given a few tips and skills we can do to help him. After the 2+ hour screening appointment he decided he was going to start using some of the skills they were testing him on. So besides suddenly talking after being mostly silent of real words for the last 9 months he is also problem solving, identifying colors, putting 2 words together, and communicating better in general. I am really excited.

His word of the week when the girls were here last weekend was "mine." Everything was his, let me tell you. Mine mine mine mine. I thought he was a Finding Nemo Seagull.

This weekend his word was Gool. I love it. He is saying cool, but it comes out as gool. Sometimes he even draws it out. Gooool...

And today it was car. We went to Target and he pointed to every. single. car. car. car in the parking lot and told me it was a car.

He also has said with out prompting (in parenthesis is what is sounds like when he says it): Elephant, Butterfly (utterfly), dog (gog), please (peese), drink (ink), more, all done.

With prompting he says a lot more: Open, Plane, Amen, Cat (at), thank you, Bella, Stephanie (en-en-nee), gramma (gra-na).

He also will finish these phrases.. Ready... Set.. and he says..Go!! and there is 1...2...he says...reee!!

I am sure there is more. I am happy to see and hear these changes. He is so cute. He is so smart and fun. I can't wait tell he can express to me what he wants. He does say Woody and Buzz, too. This was at the Magic Time Machine Restaurant where all the wait staff dresses like a character. We love it!

And his hair has grown back!!

My mommy and daddy came to visit....

And I had to work!

But we had such a good time. We miss them a bunch!