Happy New Year!

So Aunt Wendy came to visit and watch me today.  Mrs. Lusine went on vacation so Aunt Wendy drove up yesterday to help mommy out.  Otherwise mommy would have to take leave.  She would love to take off and be with me but she's trying to build up her leave in case she has to use it on a rainy day.  So mommy went to work and I got to hang out with Aunt Wendy all day.  I wonder which one of us will take a nap first?  I'm going to wear her out!

So mommy came home from work.   Aunt Wendy said I was a good boy all day.  I ate all my food and took my nap as usual.  We ate dinner,  mommy gave me a bath and put me to bed.  I wanted to stay up.  I had such a fun time today but I was really tired and quickly fell asleep.  

Believe it or not, I actually stayed up to ring in the new year.  I guess it makes a huge difference when you have someone to talk to to pass the time.  Before I knew it Wendy and I were counting down the last 10 seconds of 2008.  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! 

Let's hope that 2009 brings a happy and healthy year to everyone.

Seriously???

After having a really nice Christmas and weekend with mommy and daddy, turns out daddy has to goto Macedonia again.  I was really enjoying the time with him and he has to go again.  So we took him to the airport and I waved goodbye.  Looking forward to you coming home soon daddy.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

TODAY IS CHRISTMAS!   MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Since daddy just flew in last night and he's been gone for the last 2 weeks, mommy and daddy decided to have Christmas at our house.  We didn't visit any family and we decided to have a quiet day together, just the 3 of us.  It was the best day ever!  

It's me in my PJ's.  What is all this under the tree?

Hey dad, what is this???

A baseball bat.  COOL!

Mommy and daddy made turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, and rolls.  It was so yummy.  After we ate, daddy put the rest of the turkey - bones and all in a big soup pot.  Daddy boiled it and made turkey soup with it.  It has carrots, celery, and potatoes in it.  We are having the soup tomorrow for lunch.  I can't wait.

Christmas Eve

Yippee-skippee!  Daddy's coming home today.  Mommy dropped me off at Mrs. Lusine's house this morning.  She took off 1 pm.  She picked me up and we headed out to the airport.  Mommy thought it would be fun to actually meet daddy in the airport instead of picking him up at the curb.  So we got to the airport, mommy pulled out the stroller and off we went.  A few minutes later we got a call.  It was daddy.  He made it thru customs and was looking for us in the luggage area.  Here we are daddy!  I had the biggest smile.  My daddy's home just in time for Christmas.

We went home and hung out together.  Mommy was getting things together.  It was just a matter of time before santa arrived.  

On a side note**  Since Ken flew in from Macedonia, he was super tired.  So I ended up playing Santa this year.  While Ken and Cody were upstairs sleeping, I was busy downstairs pulling out all the presents.  I had to burry Ken's big present so he wouldn't see it immediately the next morning.  The size might give it away.  Anyway, I put the presents under the tree, tidied up and headed to bed.

Good night!

  

Look at us!

So like I mentioned in the last post.  Quinten and I had some fun.  We liked to touch the Christmas tree.  We gave each other a few hugs, in fact, we gave each other such a big hug that we fell down together.  Quinten took the most of the fall hitting the floor first and me falling on top of him.  We were both crying.  Mommy and Quinten's mommy immediately ran to us to comfort us.  We also had a fun time checking out what was in the cabinets.  Hopefully we'll be able to get together again real soon. 

Checking out the hallway.

Hey, what's in this cabinet?  I don't know, lets check it out.  Hey Quinten, pass me that tape.
A cute hug.  Too bad they weren't facing the camera.

It's Quinten time - 1 year later

Mommy and I were invited to Aunt Mary's annual family Christmas gathering.  We were in Winchester that morning and mommy was going back and forth on whether she was going to take me.  She was really tired but also really wanted me and Quinten to see each other since it was almost 1 year to the day that we visited last year.  Mommy really wanted to get a photo of us since we've changed so much.  So we left Winchester and headed toward Aunt Mary's house.  To mommy's surprise, it only took us 1 1/2 hours to get there.  It was great to see Quinten.  We were having fun together.  Mommy will talk about some of the things we did in her next post. Here are some photos of us in the last year.

Quinten (2 months old) and Cody (1 1/2 months old) - December 22, 2007

Quinten (almost 5 months old ) and Cody (4 1/2 months old) at Kathy's house (Katie's b-day party)  - 3/15/08
Quinten (8 months old) and Cody (7 1/2 months old) at Virginia's house - 6/23/08
Quinten (almost 11 months old) and Cody (10 1/2 months old) at Aunt Mary's house - 9/13/08
Quinten (14 months old) and Cody (13 1/2 months old) at Aunt Mary's house - Dec. 20, 2008

So, it turned out to be a very nice visit.  We stayed about 2 hours.  I'm glad I got to see everyone.  Merry Christmas!!  

What's up Aunt Wendy?

Today mommy took me to see Grandma and Aunt Wendy.    Mommy wants me to get to know Aunt Wendy better because she's going to be baby sitting me in a few weeks.  We had a good time. Right now my new fascination is potatoes.  Grandma has a basket that holds them and I found them in the pantry.  So I carried all around the house.  I even tried to put them in my mouth but mommy stopped me before I did it.  I also decided just recently to put anything I can find in my mouth.  My teeth are killing me.  I think some more might be coming in but mommy doesn't see anything yet.

Anyway, I had a fun time at grandma's house.  Good night!   

More Yummy food!

Mommy's co-worker Barbara went to Wegman's grocery store and got me some gluten free blueberry waffles.  Mommy microwaved it and cut it up in little pieces.  Holly Molly!  That was so good.  I've never tasted something so good.  Mommy is so excited to see me eating real food.  She is so tired of feeding me cream of rice cereal.  She wants to widen my food choices and she's so pleased that I liked the waffle so much.  Now she has something to give to sitter too.  And for lunch she added smoked turkey to my grilled cheese.  Mom, what are you cooking?  These meals are fabulous.    

YUMMY!

Today mommy made me a grilled cheese sandwich with my gluten free bread.  It was so tasty.  The bread alone is a tad dry but when mommy grilled it, it was so good.  I chomped down and before mommy knew it, it was all gone.   Thanks mommy!

Oh no, not again!

Not again!!!  Daddy is leaving for Macedonia today.  Mommy just got home and daddy is leaving.  When are we all going to be together on a regular basis???  Anyway, we went to lunch together and since we had some extra time daddy took us to Whole foods.  Mommy is desperate to find me some gluten free food.  It seems like she can't find anything that doesn't have wheat.  So luckily mommy and daddy found me gluten free bread and soft cookies.  She's excited to see if I like them.  But unfortunately, after Whole foods, we drove to the airport and dropped daddy off.  He's flying out and by the time he gets to Macedonia, it will be tomorrow morning for us and tomorrow afternoon for him.  He'll be 6 hours ahead for the next 2 weeks.

Miss you daddy! 

Mommy's back!!!

Today I was hanging out in the kitchen with Grandma and daddy when someone appeared out of no where.  It was MOMMY!!!   She's home.  I ran to her and she swooped me up and gave me the biggest hug.  She even had a few little tears in her eyes.  She called me during her trip but I guess she didn't really realize how much she missed me.  So now, mommy, daddy and I are all together again.  YEA!!!

On a side note:  I'm actually really surprised how I felt when I left Arizona on Friday morning.  I thought it would be really hard on me.  It felt weird.  Almost 4 years ago, Ken flew out to Phoenix and we drove across the country together.  This time I was helping Wendy.  As I left Phoenix, driving pass Sedona, Flagstaff, Winslow it seemed like I was ok with it.  I think I really wanted to get home to be with Ken and Cody and leaving Arizona didn't bother me like I thought it would.

Am I healed???  Am I finally accepting Virginia???  Hummm.....we'll see when the 1st snow falls.  I'm sure I'll change my mind.  :)

Virginia

Oh my, what a long day of driving.  You know, the 1st day was fun.  Looking at the beautiful scenery as I was driving thru the desert and  watching the scenery change as we were getting closer and closer to the east coast.  It's amazing.  The weather was great the entire trip.  We only had one hiccup and that was stopping in Oklahoma to get the flatbed at U-haul.  We stopped when we had to for food and gas and it was nice driving together on day 2 and 3.  

Today we started off in Tennessee around 7am.  We drove, and drove and drove.  It felt like we were never going to get out of this state.  Once we turned off I-40 and got on I-81 it was like I could feel the end coming.  The home stretch.  It was great.  But now that it's winter, it get's dark so early and it became difficult to drive on I-81 thru the mountains with all the semi-trucks pushing you only the windy highway.  I didn't enjoy that at all.  Finally we got to Winchester at 9:30pm.  We were home and I was ready to crash!  It didn't take long to goto bed.  I was so seriously tired.  We drove about 12-14 hours a day.  It was exhausting but so hard to believe that the trip was over.   The days did truly go by quickly and now that I'm home, it's hard to believe that I really just flew to Phoenix 3 days ago.  Well, I'm glad to have Wendy local and I can't wait to go home tomorrow to see Ken and Cody.     

Texas to Tennessee

Ok, so we get up early this morning and head out.  On our way, the check engine light came on in the Saturn.  Although Wendy had the Saturn completely serviced, I really didn't feel comfortable driving for the next 12 hours with the check engine light on.  If I was local I wouldn't care but from all the previous trips across the country when it gets dark out, it's really dark.  All I could think about is what if I broke down in the middle of no-where.  It just wasn't worth it to me.  So I called U-haul and found a location in Oklahoma to pull over, load up the Saturn on a flat bed and tow it the rest of the way.  So we got to Oklahoma City and did just that.  U-haul was so busy and it took forever.  I was surprised that there were a few very rude people there.  Like one lady was angry that she was sitting in line for 20 min waiting to be helped yet she could clearly see that the 2 girls who were working the counter were helping me.  So I had to say something....like ummm, you're local.  I just drove in from Amarillo, you need to wait your turn.  I put her in her place.  And they were having problems loading the car onto the flatbed because another customer was sitting in his car in the parking lot.  He told the 2 U-haul girls that he did not want our u-haul blocking him.  I was like what????  So I walked right up to his car, knocked on his window and said I am pulling my u-haul behind your truck and I am loading my car on the flatbed.  He was shocked and said ok.  I'm so done with Oklahoma City.  Never will I come back again.  2 hours to get a flatbed is unacceptable.  But the girls did everything they could to get us in and out but they just didn't have the proper manpower for a Saturday morning.  Anyway.....adding a flatbed to a 14 foot U-haul really changed the dynamic of driving.  I got us out of the U-haul parking lot which was a challenge and onto the freeway.   Thank goodness the weather was good because it made it much easier to read signs and allow for error.  Good news, we got out of Oklahoma and the best part is we got to ride together and chit chat during the rest of the drive. 

Since we wasted so much time in Oklahoma we didn't get to far into Tennessee.  In fact we only made it to Brownsville, but I'm happy that we at least we made it there.  Tomorrow will be a long day but it should be our last day on the road.  Thank goodness!    I can't wait to get home to Ken and Cody.

Goodbye Arizona!

Wendy and I got up early this morning.  We wanted to get on the road as early as possible so the trip wouldn't take more than 3 days.  I got off the plane last night and boy was the jet lag setting in.  Thank goodness the time difference is only 2 hours so it's not to bad but to get up at 5am cause it's already 7am Virginia time.  As everyone knows, I love Arizona and to see the landscape from PX to the border is just beautiful.  I miss living in Arizona but this time I felt at peace when I drove into New Mexico.  My life is in Virginia now and I miss Ken and Cody so much.  I actually can't wait to get home to see them both.

Anyway, Wendy drove the U-haul and I drove behind her in her Saturn.  I was able to snap a few of these photos on the way.

Let's go!

Goodbye AZ, Hello New Mexico

Just before the border

Near Sedona

Just before Flagstaff
About 20 miles north of PX
Coming into Flagstaff, Arizona.  The snow on the mountain makes me want to stop at snowbowl.  I had some good times there.
We drove and drove and drove.  We made it to Amarillo, Texas and called it for the night.  We will certainly get up early and do it all over again tomorrow.  

13 months old today

Today I'm 13 months old and I got to celebrate it with my grandma and granddad.  My mom flew to Phoenix today for a very important mission.  She is helping Aunt Wendy move to Virginia.  The last time Aunt Wendy saw me was when I was 5 months old and she felt like she was missing out on me growing up.  I've certainly changed a lot in the last 9 months.    Let's hear about their adventure!

Aunt Wendy and Mommy

To my friends and family:  I'm sorry I didn't have time to visit with you all.  I don't have much vacation time saved up since I used it all during maternity leave.  My sole mission was to fly in and drive out.  I didn't want to be away from Cody to long so I made it a quick trip.    I wish I had more time cause I don't know when I'll be back to Phoenix and when I think of it that way, I get mad at myself for not taking time off and making it a mini vacation so I could see everyone but I didn't.  So hopefully in the future Ken, Cody and I will  be able to come out to sunny Phoenix and spend time with everyone.   

Say goodbye to the bottle!

Today mommy and daddy left PA without me.  Daddy has to work and Mommy was taking a trip so grandma was going to watch me for a few days.  So while I'm with Grandma, I'm going to say goodbye to the bottle.  Daddy said once the formula was gone, it's gone.  From then on it's sippy cups all the way.

What is this?

Today when I woke up it was snowing.  I didn't expect this at all.  This photo was taken from Grandma and granddad's back yard.  The snow didn't last long but it was really neat.

 

So mommy and daddy took me to see Santa today.  Mommy wondered if I would be scared but I'm such a big boy.  I sat right on his lap and they took my picture.  Then mommy asked if she could get a little video footage.  They said yes.  So you wonder why I didn't get scared on Santa's lap.   Thank god this santa has a list of what little boys and girls want because he didn't say a word to me.  Check this out.  

20th High School Runion

Grandma watched me tonight because mommy and daddy went to daddy's 20th high school reunion.  They had a great time.  Daddy bragged about me all night.  Most people had kids but they were way older than me.  But it didn't matter, mommy and daddy met later in life and thank goodness they did cause I'm loving life right now!  Plus I have the best parents ever.  

Mommy told me she was dancing to old school hip hop.  I love to dance too.  She said daddy didn't want to dance but the prom queen told him he should dance with his pretty wife. Mommy laughed.  Mommy also won a t-shirt, lottery tickets and 2 baseball hats when she answered a 1988 trivia question which was "What was the number 1 song in 1988?"  It was Don't worry be Happy.    They had a great time at daddy's reunion!  I was totally asleep when they got home but before they went, we took a family photo.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving.  Yea!  Mommy and daddy are taking me to PA to celebrate.  Plus I'm going to see my Great Gram, Grandma, Granddad, Uncle Rick, Aunt Christine and my cousins Tracy and Ethan.  

Thanksgiving was really nice.  My grandma made a really great dinner.  We had turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, corn (couldn't eat it) stuffing and dinner rolls.  I was so stuffed.  

Picture time!

Mommy's at it again.   She's taking multiple photos of me for our Christmas card.  None of them worked out but here are a few.  I just wouldn't co-operate with her.  Only the last photo was the closest to a smile that I would give her.  That's ok, I know she'll get a good photo of me soon.

BABY

Today I said the word "BABY"  Mommy pointed to a baby picture of me and said look Cody, it's a baby and I said...."baby"  Mommy's jaw dropped.  She wanted me to say it again.  But I wouldn't.  I just smiled and laughed.  

Happy Birthday Aidan!

Today is my cousin Aidan's 2nd birthday.  It was lots of fun.  We got him some dinosaurs and after his party, he chased me around the house with them.  I wasn't scared, I just love it when people chase me.  It's so much fun. Mommy's cousin made me some wheat free/egg free cupcakes.  I got them all over my face.  It was so yummy!  After the party we hung out for a little bit.  I started walking around the house a bit when I noticed my most favorite thing of all....STAIRS!  So mommy got her workout in today.  It was up and down up and down.  I'm trying to learn how to go down the stairs.  I've perfected going up but not going down yet so I needed the practice.  Lucky for mommy, chair magically appeared in front of the stairs and my fun of climbing up and down them ended.

Say Cheese!

Today my mommy took me to Portrait Innovations to get my 12 month photos taken.  She picked out 2 outfits and off we went.  She even got there on time but screech......huge backup at the photo place.  Apparently one photographer called off sick and another got into a car accident that morning, nothing severe but enough to keep her out of work for the day.  Anyway.....5 hours later we finally got to leave with photos in hand.    I was really good for my mommy.  Thank goodness she had some food with her because every few hours I started to get bored, frustrated and hungry.  She had food to get me through it.  She was really proud of me that I was so good.  But the good thing was there were a lot of kids to play with too.  These are a few photos.  Because mommy was so patient, they gave us all these pictures for free.   Yea! 

I fed myself!

Today I fed myself with my spoon.  Mommy was shocked!  Don't get to use to this mom, I really like it when you feed me too.  Unfortunately mom didn't get it on camera.  I usually don't show my skills on camera.  

What's going on?

Today daddy flew in from Houston but tomorrow he's flying to Macedonia.  What's going on???  He just got home and now he's leaving again.  I want him to stay home and play with me.  Well at least he got to see my 7th tooth coming in.  I tell you, these teeth are really popping in.  I had chicken and rice for dinner today.  Yummy!

YES!!! THE HELMET IS OFF!

This is the last photo you will see of me in my helmet.  Today I got my helmet off.  After 8 long months it's finally over.  Mommy made my appointment 1st thing today at 8:00am.  She didn't care how much traffic she had to sit in to get me there, she just wanted me to get in as early as possible.  So they took the final measurements, took the final photos for my photo study, gave mommy my head molds with my helmets (all 3 of them) and gave me a certificate for graduating and off we went.  Mommy loved the fact that my head was now round.  Here are my results:

This is the building that I went to for 8 months.  It's near INOVA Fairfax.
Here I am with Ms. Sheryl.  She worked with me the entire time.  

My tooth is coming in.

My 6th tooth popped up today.  So far, I've done really well.  Mommy said some baby's get really fussy but so far, I'm hanging in there.  Since I'm getting more teeth, mommy is trying new foods for me.  Today I had some ground beef and black beans for dinner.  Yummy!  It sure does beat those stage 2 and stage 3 dinners.

1 year doctor appointment

Today was my 1 year checkup with Dr. O'Mara.

Election Day and my Birthday!

Today is Election Day.  Mommy and daddy took me with them to vote.  They stood in a really long line.  I was amused with all the people.  Voting is really important.  We'll see who wins later tonight but wow was it a really neat experience.

Also today is my real Birthday.  1 year ago, mommy was in the hospital with me.  She can hardly believe that it's been a year but everyone tells her to enjoy it because time goes by so quickly.

***From Mommy and Daddy***

We love you Cody.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE!!! 

Birthday photos

Here are a few Birthday photos taken at our house.  Just mommy, daddy and I.  Boy this cupcake is good!

MY 1st BIRTHDAY PARTY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CODY!

My birthday cake and gluten free, egg free cupcakes!

I get to blow out my candle dad?

1-2-3 Make a wish and BLOW!!!
Is this a fire engine book?  NEAT!  It has wheels.What's in that big box?  I don't know mommy, I'm still checking out this book with wheels.
A rocking chair from Grandma and Granddad....Thanks!

Photo of some of my guests.  Thanks for coming everyone.

Today was my 1st B-day party.  It was being held at our local community center.  Unfortunately, the community center messed up and did not have us on their schedule so no one was there to let mommy and grandma in at the time they reserved the room.  Mommy had to goto the community gym to have someone try to call the people in charge so they could come let us in.  Luckily, someone came but 10 min before my party was suppose to start.  Mommy was really upset.  She worked so hard to make my party perfect but with the help of friends and family, we were able to get it semi decorated and the food out.  Once set up, it seemed to run smoothly. When everyone was done eating, they gathered around my cake and sang Happy Birthday to me.  I got to try to blow out my candle but I think mommy and daddy actually did it for me. I got to eat my egg free/wheat free cupake while everyone else ate cake and ice cream.  I then got to open all my presents.  I had tons of fun.  I'm so glad that everyone could make it to my party.  It made it a very special day.  Thank you.

IT'S HALLOWEEN!!!!

So here are a few photos of me in my Lion costume.  The 1st few were taken outside before Halloween so mommy could make photo cards of me to send out to family and friends.  It was a really nice day out and I had tons of fun crawling around, ROARING and laughing.

But on Halloween since my birthday party was tomorrow, I had both my grandparents, my great grandma come visit and my daddy flew in from Houston so I had a house full of people.  Mommy got me all dressed in my costume and granddad went to the metro and picked daddy up.  He got home just in time to carry me around.  Mommy held my pumpkin and we were off to walk in the parade.  In our community, before everyone trick-o-treats, all the kids and parents line up and walk once around the block.  That way everyone can see us.  Mommy took some video of that but we have it on the cam corder not the camera so she can't post it.  Anyway, we walked around once.  There must have been 50 kids.  Afterwards, everyone scattered to go get candy.  I can't eat any of this stuff but mom and dad can so they went from house to house and I got to pick out a piece of candy.  After a while they decided to push me in my red car.  I guess I'm getting a tad heavy for them to carry around.  But like I say, it's good exercise for them.  So as we walked around, we waved to grandma, granddad  and gram.   Grammy G was walking with us.  She thought it was so cute to see my reactions to picking out candy.  This was so much fun!  Can't wait till next year.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!