Funny Faces

Last week we got some pictures of Colton making funny faces. These were taken just before his 11 month birthday. I can't believe he's getting so old. Plans are underway for the big 1st birthday party - definitely a bigger deal to me than, certainly, to him!

This is the way he hold his mouth 80% of the time now that he has teeth - lower jaw punched out. He also, often, grinds his bottom and top teeth together to make a clicking noise. Ross hates that! Also, look at those beautiful eyes/lashes!

Here are some funny face/teeth shots. 1-1/2 bottom teeth...

2 top teeth...

A shot of all the teeth at once!

The three teeth shots show Colton doing one of his new favorite activities - snorting! He cracks us up when he does it...and we crack him up by doing it back. Ah, the joys of watching a child explore all his little body can do. :)

Evolution

Today Colton is 11 months old. It is hard to believe that in just 1 month he'll be a one-year-old!!! It's amazing how much changes in the 1st 12 months of life. What a miracle that babies go from doing nothing...not even being able to focus their eyes...to becoming little people in such a short amount of time.

This week Colton learned another new thing - it happens often now, it seems. Using the laundry basket, Colton learned to walk! Though he's still not walking on his own, these first steps toward that milestone were a big deal to us.

After playing with the laundry basket for awhile, we called GiGi to ask her if Colton could open one of her birthday presents to him a little early. It's a big Tonka truck that you can use as a walker! Colton has loved every second with it - he plays with it constantly!

Over the past two days, Colton has improved greatly in his walking skills. We'll try to get a good video of him using the truck/walker now and update the blog soon with that.

**If you are on Facebook and want to see these videos, please go to stowersfamilyblog.blogspot.com.**

Make Time for Laughter

Praise the Lord, our furniture and other things we shipped from our house in the States arrived Friday morning! I will post pictures as soon as we get settled.

Ross and I have been super busy unpacking, cleaning, organizing, etc - all while taking care of Colton, 10 months old, in the process. It's been busy and, at times, we're tempted to take it all too seriously. Then Colton reminds us to make time for laughter...

**If you're on Facebook, check out stowersfamilyblog.blogspot.com to see the video.

***If you're on the blog, remember to pause the music player on the right side of the page.

Our New Puppy!

***Before going any farther you might want to turn the music off by scrolling down the page and pausing the music player on the right-hand side.***

Did you know that we got a puppy??? Yup, 10 months ago Colton was born...and I've always said having a baby is a lot like raising a puppy. Never has it been more true than now. :)

Check out the videos...

(If you're on Facebook and want to see these videos you must go to stowersfamilyblog.blogspot.com.)

Colton's 1st Adventure in Florence

Here I sit - drinking a big cup of coffee (and I mean B-I-G!) and watching my little boy crawl in circles around the table. Colton is really growing up and he's so much fun! I'm not sure when he'll try to walk, right now he isn't showing much interest in attempting it. He would rather get where he wants to go as quickly as possible, which means crawling. And boy can he crawl fast! He's cutting his second tooth, his top left one, and the top right will not be far behind. He loves touch n' feel books and books that have something hiding behind a door or flap. He loves to say 'Uh oh!' and seems to use it in the right context about 80% of the time. He also says 'Mama,' again correctly most of the time, and he's just starting to say 'Dada.' Also, Colton is big into waving right now. He waves at Ross and I, new friends that come visit us, and any random stranger on the bus or street that he deems worthy. :) He definitely knows how to make people fall in love with him - though it's really not that hard.

Anyway, Colton had his first big adventure in Florence last night. It all began because my parents e-mailed and asked if we could send them a family picture that we had taken here. Well, we had not taken any pictures of ourselves yet so we decided to head out on the town and do so. First, we went to the Duomo to get a family picture. A nice family from Utah helped us but we were not satisfied with the final outcome.

So, we decided to head to the Ponte Vecchio. Not only is it a good site for pictures but it's also very close to my favorite gelataria - a perfect excuse to stop there after our photo shoot. :) While Ross was getting the camera ready I decided to let Colton sit on the wall overlooking the Arno River. Wait...my kid? Sit? I don't think so! Colton decided hanging out on the wall would be much more fun if he could crawl on it! And so he did...

He also made an attempt at walking on the wall. In person he was stumbling aimlessly, but this picture makes it look like he's got walking down!

I finally got a picture taken with Colton that I really love!

Then we tried for another family picture. Not too bad.

Oh - I had to include this great 'first teeth' shot! Obviously you can see his bottom one and if you click on the picture to make it larger you can see a little bit of his top tooth coming in.

Finally, on our way to the gelataria, we got the winning family picture. We send our love to all of you from Florence!