Rohan's Latest Words

We were sitting down this afternoon asking Rohan to say different words and I realized how much more he can talk/imitate than even just a few weeks ago, he even surprises us and names animals, etc in books that we didn't know he knew. It is so awesome to watch how his brain is developing:)

Here is a partial list of words he can say (mind you, we may be the only ones who understand him):

Mom, Dad, Linus, Schroeder, Hi/Bye, Please, Stroller, Water, Apple juice, Milk, Banana (my personal favorite), Tortellini, Cookie, Cracker, Pretzel, Cheese, Bath, Car, Truck, Ball, Soccer, Baseball, Football, Zebra, Lion (Rar!), Kitty (meow), Cow (moo), Dog (woof), Duck, Bird, Airplane (zzzzz---apparently the sound an airplane makes), Stop, Book, Bear, Train.  I'm sure there are more, but these are the most common.  He'll usually try to say most things we ask him to.

He also has said a few 2-3 word sentences with/without prompting; his first unprompted 2 word phrase makes me laugh: Mom, STOP! (I can't even recall what I was doing, but he was pretty adamant about it:) )

Busy weekend always seem longer!

We turned a normal 2 day weekend into what felt like a 4 day weekend...which is good, and bad.  Good because you feel like you accomplished a lot, bad because it wears you out, but the good FAR outweighs the bad!
Other than our normal running and climbing this last week, we met up with Sasha & Tim for happy hour sushi at Ra, followed by a Starbucks run, and followed that by a trip to the climbing gym.  Tim had never been, and he only got 2nd degree burns on this hand (don't grab the rope when you fall...).  He was fine, and he actually wants to climb again!  Rohan was a trooper that night.  We had never really watched much TV with him (aside from sports) so we put on Shrek and watch him space out for almost the whole movie!  He was watching, pointing out birds & trees (see above post) and dancing to all the music.  I think we found our destractor for the flight to London/Germany...:)
Saturday Mara had to work, but they ended up letting her go before Noon (because she's a rockstar!) so we had the whole day open.  We spent as much time outside as possible as well.  While Mara was working, I took Rohan and the dogs to the park and watched soccer for almost 2hrs.  Rohan was having a blast outside. Mara found a chance to chop her hair too (something she's been talking about for a while now).  I think it looks awesome!  I got to be the catalyst, thanks to Michelle's idea.  She said I should cut a big chunk of Mara's hair off so she'd have no choice, and Mara said DO IT!  We took a little video, but for some reason there is no sound, but you get the idea...:)
Sunday was equally gorgeous (80F & sunny!), so we took the dogs to the dog park, hit up some thrift stores for warmer clothes for Germany, and capped off the night with a nice 6+mi run.  We hit up a new coffee shop Mara had wanted to try out (Copper Star Coffee).  They had really strong coffee (a good thing!) and even had a band playing called Dirt Music Express.  They were a really bluesy band, and had some really fun guys.  The music wasn't crazy loud and Rohan was dancing for most of the songs.  I think we'll definitely hit that up next time we are on that side of town.  It's good to have a "go to" coffee place in different parts of the city...:)  Mara and Rohan found some time to bake some more cookies to use up some of the items in our fridge that would spoil otherwise...can't argue with that logic!
Not a ton of pics & videos, but it was a great weekend!  Hope everyone is done digging out! :P


This First Chop:

Pet Expo, Climbing, Parade & Haricut...Oh, And It's Gorgeous Weather Here...:)

This last work week was pretty low key (as usual). Mara had a couple short on-call nights, but was home early enough to get some sleep. We had a couple runs, and found time to climb. Climbing as been good to get back into, but we are having to retrain ourselve again since we had a couple weeks off. We're getting back into it though. Rohan has been wearing a harness and be suspended from a rope a couple times, so hopefully he'll be ready to climb for real this winter sometime!
This weekend we did quite a bit of running around. It has been gorgeous this week (75°F & sunny vs. 55°F last week) so we took advantage of that. Saturday we hit up the Holiday Pet Festival at WestWorld. It was fun, but my god people are insane about their pets, even offering pictures with Santa! Some vendors even offer clergy services for per funerals...too much damn money in Scottsdale. Others just offered insanely expensive pet pampering services. We brought our dogs and they had a blast sniffing and smelling their way though the expo. Rohan even got a couple of stuffed animals (moose & elephant). They were meant to be dog toys but Rohan claimed them for himself. Later Saturday we met up with Heather & John (and friends) for the Electric Light Parade. We went last year, and Rohan had fun, but fell asleep in his warm cozy blanket. This year was MUCH warmer and Rohan had a blast, especially with the marching bands and mucial float. He was bee boppin' most of the time and kept waving to everything too. It was a blast to see him so enthralled.
Sunday was pretty low key. We finished off one of our better crock pot chili dinners and watched some football and relaxed. We found a few hours to climb and work out. The gym was pretty dead, so Rohan was all over the place jumping off mats and squealing. We capped of Sunday with some more cookie decorating which Rohan is a pro at now. We did however transfer them to other containers, which turned out to be too large of holes for the decorations. It led to Rohan burying a cookie in jingle balls...:) The cookie survived, and we salvaged most of the balls, but we ended up taping some of the holes up for the other ones. Mara also gave Rohan another haircut. He wasn't as cooperative this time, but it went well and he doesn't look quite as homeless...:)
The next few weeks will be VERY exciting since we will be headed to Germany for almost 3 weeks! With less than 2 weeks before we leave we got Rohan stocked up on gloves/hats, sweaters, and warmer PJs since the temps in Zweibrücken are MUCH cooler than Scottsdale...:) We came across an awesome ugly sweater for Rohan too. Hand knit, great quality, with mushrooms and 3D gnomes...hilarious...:)
Mara also found a GREAT backpack for Rohan while we are in Germany (For about 1/10 the cost!) on Craigslist. Our current backpack (compliments of Cari & Rob!) is great, but when Rohan falls asleep there isn't much padding and his face can chafe on the front. This one had a "pillowey" area which will be perfect! We've tried it out a couple of times and he loves it. He even pulls it out just to get into. We've checked the mail with him in the backpack quite a few times this last week.
Not much planned this week, just planning for Germany and sorting out all the minor details. We are so incredibly excited for this trip! :D
We have tons of video from the parade, but not lots of pics, but enjoy!:


Rohan Listens To A Waltz (Great-Grandma would've loved this!):


Rohan Dances To Tim & Allison's Song (Moondance). Everyone Else Sings SpongeBob Squarepants:


Rohan LOVED the train floats:


Santa Rides A Firetruck!: