I have lots of new pics to add, mostly from Christmas...I know that was a while ago now, but better late than never, I suppose. These are just a few...I have more coming soon. Christmas was a BLAST this year...Walker had a great time opening gifts. He likes the gifts, but I'm sure you can guess that he liked the paper and boxes even more. He still loves to push big boxes around the house while collecting random items and throwing them inside the box. We call him our little worker bee because he is constantly moving objects from one area to another (like from the box to the couch, to the floor, etc.). He was a pretty good helper when we were getting Matt packed the other day, although he mostly took Matt's stuff out of his suitcase. We also found a number of missing items behind our DVD player the other day.
A couple of random updates from Christmas...we had our first real Christmas Eve service at MissionWay, and it was great! We had around 200 people there (the size of our congregation is about 200), so we were pumped about that. I sing with our worship band some of the time (I love it, but I'm also in charge of the flow of the service, so I usually have tons of responsibilities on Sunday mornings), so I had a great time singing. After the service, we headed to my sister's house to celebrate with my family (the Walker's)--about 15 of us. My parents' house burned back in September, and they were still displaced. They hope to be back in the house in about a month. Then we went to the Wilbanks' house on Christmas morning and to my mom's the day after. Busy times! But it was a lot of fun, especially with Walker being so active.
At his 15-month appointment, he was very healthy, so were we thankful for that. He is a bit on the small side as far as weight...let's just say he FINALLY made it over 20 pounds. Yay! We think it's because he is SO busy...he is always running, running, running. In fact, when we saw Matt's cousin's sweet little girl, Kennedy, who is 2, she said to me, "Is he Walker? Or is he running?" Love it! So adorable. I would have to say that even though we called him "Walker," he is always running.
His vocabulary surprises us more every day. He can repeat almost ANYTHING we say...which means we are a bit more careful these days. In fact, he started saying, "Oh shoot!" And we've had to change what we say and try to emphasize, "Oops!" or "Oh man!" He says man like "mon"--like he's Ethiopian. It cracks us up. He has a British accent when he says "box" and "socks," and a southern accent when he says "dog" or "ball," and a Jamaican accent when he says "man" and "hands." He definitely keeps life entertaining. We have literally lost track of how many words he knows now. I think it was around 50 at Christmas. Now he makes connections that are so amazing. He likes to tell us when there's mail in the mailbox when we get home, plus he puts together small sentences like, "mom go" or "dog out" or "socks on." He has dictated which shoes he wants to wear several times now. We laugh because he uses his baby signs a lot, but he doesn't need to since he says whatever the word is while he is signing it to us. I just like to say that even though he doesn't look a thing like me, at least he acts like me...he talks all the time and never meets a stranger.
Walkman looks like a baby gangsta in his puffy coat and hat.
This was his sad face one day when Kyle was leaving.
I love this pic...from our Christmas card this year. Julie and Ashley were excellent photographers. We took this at Janet's because we didn't have any presents under the tree yet. He managed to snatch most of the ornaments off the bottom of the tree, except for that tiny present ornament, which Matt made when he was little.
He looks like he is about to get in big trouble!
Walkman loves his reindeer slippers!
And his Elmo "cell phone"...it's funny how quickly they pick up on things. He picks it up and says "hello" all the time.
He seems to be having a serious conversation with someone...
Here's one of his favorite gifts...especially the mic. He was afraid of it at first, but now he loves to sing into it!
He also got this sweet froggy pillow, which he loves because it's so soft. I kind of wish I had one too.
This was when Walker discovered the ornaments on our tree...
This was on Christmas morning...we arrived at the Wilbanks house (I requested everyone stay in their pj's), and the first thing Walker did was dance with Aunt Ash and Uncle Kyle. He's a dancing man!
This was the sweet little face we got to wake up to on Christmas morning. Precious!
