Mayer Campout*2012

The Weidas 

 Every summer my mom's side of the family gets together and has a campout. All my aunts, uncles and cousins are usually there. Some of us rent campers, some people own their own that they drive there and then we also rent the three cabins at the campground.

It is my favorite "holiday" with the Mayers. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, and the fantasy football fish fry, but camping is just the best. For three days we are just hanging out. The holidays are always so rushed and you don't get to talk to everyone and then it's time to go home, but at the campout there is plenty of time to talk to EVERYONE!

This year was special because it was the first time that everyone was meeting Jaxson. I was so excited for everyone to meet our boy. We were definitely worried about how he would react the crowd, we're talking about 50 plus people he would be meeting. He was a little quiet to start, but it didn't take long for Jax to warm up to everyone.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon and unpacked the car. We sat by the campfire and Jax fell asleep pretty early. We actually had the camper to ourselves this night. We did venture away from the campground a couple of times. On Friday, we went into Decorah to go to the swimming pool.

Jaxson loves his Aunt Stephanie!

Sophie's such a pretty girl!

Steve definitely had his hands full with these two!

Jax was busy while we unpacked the car....he had to make calls and check in on Facebook.

On Saturday, we went to the Howard County Fair. This fair was the one that I went to every year growing up. I remember going on "wrist-band" night and riding every ride 100 times. I remember thinking that the fair was huge and now when I go back as an adult I realize that it really isn't, it's amazing how your perspective changes when you grow up.

We walked around and checked out the animals. It was funny because Ally was Jax's first English word. He has always called our dog and cat Ally, but when we were at the fair, the cows, sheep, horses, rabbits, basically every animal we saw was "Ally."

Sophers was checking out the rabbits.

I love this picture of all three of the grandchildren! Smiles all around!

Jax before the carousel started moving....

And after it started moving....he was not a fan! 

Our beautiful nieces cruising

No caption needed!

Just chilling in their strollers watching the show.

Although we were nervous about how Jax would react to meeting everyone, he did wonderfully and he fell in love with the ladies. My cousin's daughters and my niece were amazing with Jax. They took him for stroller rides, walked him to the playground equipment, and played with him for hours. It was great because it gave Steve and I a break from chasing him and it was nice to see him playing so well with other kids. 

Getting a little push from Maddie

Loving on his cousin, Kayleigh

With Maddie and Ali (the only name he says :-)

Playing with his new bubble mower

These two logged a lot of hours in the stroller! 

Man he loves all phones! 

Jax's favorite part of the park is steering wheel!

Camping really took a lot out of Jax, but he can't wait for next year! 

A little behind....Weeks 2 and 3

Well, it was bound to happen, I just didn't think that it would happen so soon, but I'm behind in blogging. I had the intentions of writing about week 2 last week during Jax's nap, but some days nap time just got away from me and to be honest most of those days I would much rather snuggle with Jax. He's so cuddly when he's sleeping. I just can't help it!

We had a few firsts in the last couple of weeks. We had our first time going to the park with friends. Thanks to the Humphreys girls for wearing Jaxson out, which led to our second first: falling asleep in the high chair during lunch!

Jax is adding to his English vocabulary every day! He has added Ally (our dog, but he uses Ally for the dog and cat), cracker, and No (which he says with a lot of authority). He will say Momma and Daddy, but not all the time. I'm amazed every day with how much he understands! 

I worked last week on teaching Jax his body parts. We worked on nose, eye, mouth, and ears. NEVER did he say the words for me. Sunday we were celebrating Father's Day with our family and my sister Stephanie was sitting with Jax in the back seat. She started asking him where his eyes were and the little stinker says "EYE" and then he said "NOSE." He must really love his Aunt Steph! 

He has started to feed Ally, but it's not feeding Ally by putting food in her dish. He actually walks to her dish takes out two pieces of food (one for each hand) and walks them over to her and feeds her. It's so stinkin' cute. Ally just takes it from him so calmly. We really worried about how Ally would do when we brought Jax home, but she has been so awesome! 

We have now successfully gone to church two weeks in a row and both times a good friend was good enough to document it for us! I got us to church on time, but not with a camera! So far, Jax is doing very well during church. He's a toddler, so he gets a little squirrelly, but honestly, I couldn't be happier with how well he's doing. 

Our first Sunday

Celebrating Steve's 1st Father's Day

It's been very hot in Iowa lately, which means, POOL TIME! Jax is loving his backyard pool (Thanks, Choley) and today we went to the big pool for the first time and he loved that also. It took him a little while to warm up, but once he did he was loving it! 

A few more pictures of the last week:

There are times when I catch myself just staring at him sleeping, just soaking up everything about him that I can. I love the way that he bites his bottom lip when he sleeps and sometimes when he wakes up in the night he'll start sucking on it. I could stare at his sweet face for hours. We're just so blessed that God chose him for us. That we have been entrusted with this precious boy. That we get to be his parents. 

It's been 1 week....

It's been 1 week since we arrived home with Jax, and it's been a pretty great week. I'll take that back, it's been an AWESOME week.  He's an amazing little boy. He's so happy and he's such a little entertainer. I had to go to school Wednesday to check out since I missed the end of the school year, while we were there he was the center of attention and trying to entertain everyone. He was giving high fives and blowing kisses. Quite the ham!

He started playing with toys this week. He hadn't wanted to play with anything in Korea or the first few days we were home. Then Steve and I would play with the blocks or Legos and he would join in. Now he starts on his own.

He has become a much better sleeper. The first two nights were rough. Sunday night was better and by Monday night we weren't grieving at all and we were sleeping between 9 and 10 hours. It's been so great.  I felt so helpless when he would cry and whimper at night, and I'm relieved that it seems to be behind us. We've gotten into a bedtime routine of bath, teeth brushing, book reading and then rocking. It's been working very well.

Jax is a picky, picky eater. He loves fruit and will eat an egg a day, but other than that, he's really not eating a lot. We introduce foods each meal sometimes he'll try them, but most of the time we get a little grunt or whine and then we take it away. He definitely let's us know when he's hungry. We still haven't found any vegetables he'll eat, but we'll just keep looking until he finds something.

While we were walking around the farmer's market Thursday, Jax tried kale chips and loved them. The stand was out of fresh kale, so we'll go early next week and try to get some kale.

Jax now loves his bath. He used to sit and bawl the whole time and then one day, he started playing with bath toys and bubbles and no more crying! He has come so far in such a short time. We are all so thankful for that! Each day is so much better!

We went to the doctor on Monday and Jax has bronchitis, so he has breathing treatments that he has to do. He is feeling much better and hardly coughing, so that's much better! I definitely think the treatments were harder on Steve and me than they were on Jax.

He is definitely a toddler and is enjoying testing his boundaries with us. We are trying to be consistent and set our rules, but with the language barrier, it's sometimes hard, but we'll keep at it every day.

Now for a couple more pictures of our first week as a family of three.....

Our first trip to the park and the slide was the only thing he liked.

He loves to put on Steve's and my shoes, walking in them is a challenge (especially Steve's size 13s).

Welcome Home

We were so happy to be back in Iowa. I was getting teary-eyed just walking through the terminal, but when we turned the corner and saw our family and friends, I lost it! Jax was apprehensive, but just took it all in. Not a lot to say, so I'll just leave you with some great pictures!