Thursday, January 17, 2013

17/18 months...and a little cousin time


We got to spend some much needed time with my brother and his family at the beginning of the month. Shaw and Easton, who are 9 months a part, really play great together and enjoy each others company. They play a lot like brothers. haha! They could entertain each other for hours but also had some issues with sharing and did a little "fighting".  We love when they get to come into town and pray that one day God's plan for them will include a church a little closer to home.

Helping Easton open Christmas presents.
 
 
Playing with his RaeRae and Easton. 
 
 
Sweet, sweet kids!

 
While they were here, Shaw turned 17 months and since it is already the middle of the month, I am combining his 17/18 month post. Plus, he won't go for his well child checkup until he is really 19 months because I will then be taking two boys to the Dr. for a check up! Holy smokes! He seems to change and advance so much during each month now it is hard to keep up but here goes!
  • He had a small outpatient procedure done last week and before hand, he weighed between 21-22 pounds and was about 31 inches tall. Eager to see his stats at his check up next month! UPDATE: at the Dr. this past week (went for bronchitis) he weighed 22.6 lbs. For those that don't know the average toddler gains 5 lbs from year 1-2. He has gained almost 5 lbs in just 6 months!! The boy is really trying to catch up!
  • Still wearing all the same size clothes, diapers, shoes. Some of his size 4 shoes are getting too small and some size 5s are way too big...just depends on the brand! UPDATE: Just in the last two weeks I have had to put up several pair of pants for being too short. Some were even 12-18 months in size!
  • He has successfully been sleeping in his toddler bed for a few weeks now. Some nights we still have issues of him getting out of his bed and falling asleep by his door, but most nights he lays there and will go right to sleep. When he wakes up every morning he will either stay in bed and yell for us or get up and knock on his door while yelling "mommy, daddy!".
  • His new thing right now is he hates to get dressed or have his diaper changed. He runs from us screaming "no, no, no!".
  • Having issues with discipline this month. Trying to find the thing that works for him. Swats on the bottom work but we are also trying a "time out" spot which he still doesn't understand completely. Being a parent is HARD!
  • He can ID several body parts and will usually say them while he points to them including eyes, nose, teeth, ear, hair, belly, and toes.
  • He can make the animal sounds for a dog and cow. Sometimes he can do a cat, bird, horse, and frog. He also can ID several animals in his books including dog, monkey, cat, fish, giraffe, horse, pig, cow, duck, and donkey.
  • I can no longer keep up with his words. He says new stuff every day and each new word surprises me! I also can't keep up with all his sayings. He says several 2 words phrases and some 3 word. He can usually tell us "want ___", "all done (while he signs it)", "more _____", "no no _____", "thank you".
  • What has surprised me most about his speech is how he actually says the words right. There are only a few things that he has made words up for. For example, bath is "beeba", horse is an "E-I", and fan is "ba".
  • He is into throwing fits right now. BIG fits where he bangs his head on the floor, kicks, and screams! YIKES!
  • Cheese is his absolute favorite but for the last few weeks, we haven't been able to feed him enough! The boy has eaten any and everything we put in front of him. I text my mom a couple of nights ago just to let her know what all he ate and it included, "10 raspberries, 10 grapes, some rice with chicken broth, a fruit/veggie pouch, 5 pieces of broccoli, 2 pieces of cauliflower, and a whole cheese stick". WOW!
  • He loves cars and trucks, and loves to scoot behind them saying "beep beep".
  • Loves to color. I will give him his toddler markers or crayons and he will color in his coloring book and he also loves to color while taking a bath!
  • I saw him walk backwards the other day! He is also doing really good with steps.
  • Today we were playing outside, I looked over and he was half way up the climbing wall of his wooden play set! He was also trying to jump today but his little feet just couldn't leave the ground!
  • He loves being around other kids! I love how social he is!
  • He now has 10 or 11 teeth. He won't let me look to see if both top molars have come in. UPDATE: He for sure has 11 teeth. I believe 12 and 13 are also coming in.
  • Loves to brush his teeth every night
  • Loves our dogs more and more but is also getting more aggressive with them! They don't like it one bit and just run from him!
Shaw Michael you surprise us every single day with the things you do! You are becoming such a big boy. We could not be more proud of you! Mommy also can not believe you are going to be a big brother in just a few weeks. I hope the transition is smooth and you love your "bubba" from the very start!

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Snow Day

Our local Meteorologist had been telling us the few days leading up to Christmas that we were going to have a white Christmas. The thought initially excited the majority of the population in good ole' Arkansas because we hadn't had a white Christmas in 80+ years. Well, they were right. It started sleeting that afternoon, and then the sleet turned to snow. When we got home that night there was probably already 2-3 inches on the ground.....and then our power went out. We had originally put Shaw to bed in his room but knew he would get cold so we put him in the bed with us. That alone means no sleep for Josh or I because the boy is a CRAZY sleeper! We woke up, all tired, to a 50 degree house and knew we had to leave. So, we went and got something to eat and then reports of the electric outages started spreading all over social media. The initial reports were 5-7 days until it would be turned on in our area! Luckily, we were only out for about 48 hours...and that was enough for us! We have very gracious family that let us play at their warm houses during the day and we stayed at my parents' house one night. Shaw loved the snow! Too bad his snow suit made him into a snowman and he could barely move! haha! Due to no electricity, we actually didn't get him out in it until the second day because we knew there would be no way for us to all warm up in a house that was 50 degrees!


  Second snowed in day at Josh's sister's house. All the kiddos in the snow!
Allie, Sam, and Shaw


Sam and Shaw



Daddy showing him a snow ball

Cheese!!

Doing a little "sledding"

The puppies loved it, too!

Loves of my life!

We went a little redneck and put the truck bed liner behind the four wheeler! FYI: Shaw did not ride...maybe next year?!

But of course he got to take a ride with his Daddy


What a fun, not so fun, adventurous, unforgettable time!

Christmas 2012 recap

I have been trying to write this post and several others for the last two weeks and my Blogger hasn't been cooperating so this will be short on words and long on pictures! I just simply want to remember all the different family gatherings we went to this year and some fun memories! We had a great Christmas with all our families!


Watching his daddy put his play set together a few days before Christmas

 At my immediate family's Christmas. He is sitting on his big gift from his Ganna and Pops...not sure what the silly face is about?!

He is such a ham!

It was SO fun watching him open gifts this year...he was a pro!

Beyond excited to see what was inside! 

A bean bag!! My niece has one that he loves so we knew he would be excited! Now, he loves laying and climbing all over it at home!

.....and down he goes!

My love.

For some reason, during all the gift opening, he decided he was going to start sucking on his toes. No, this isn't something he does often and I actually haven't seen him do it since. Good thing I got a picture :)


Cars and trucks are some of his favorite things right now

At my dad's side of the family's get together on Christmas Eve.

He loves his Rae Rae!

On our way to Mimi's house on Christmas day.



Sweet Sam and Allie


I think someone was getting tired! Luckily, we had time to run home for a nap before we had two more celebrations to go to!
I sadly didn't get pictures of either of Josh's extended family and their celebrations or my mom's side of the family! We were all so busy talking and enjoying each other that I didn't get my camera out.

Traditions

The holidays can be a hectic time for everybody and some people feel like they are pulled in a million different directions. For me, I have always gone to two big family gatherings, along with my immediate family's gathering, and Josh is the same way. So, when we got married, we set boundaries for ourselves and for our future family. Christmas morning would be our time together as a family. We also decided to make Christmas Eve full of traditions that we wanted our kids to grow up knowing was "our thing". We started these traditions with Shaw last year and we were blessed enough to do them again this year. I made Santa's cookies earlier in the day on Christmas Eve and we sat them out for Santa, along with his milk. Then, Josh read the story of Jesus' birth and The Night Before Christmas. We ended the night by singing Jesus "Happy Birthday". Like I have stated before, we want our kids to grow up knowing the true meaning of the holiday, but also want to bring in the joyous and imaginative figure of Santa Clause. We had the perfect Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with our little family. Oh, and did I mention that Josh and I woke up at 7 and waited around for Shaw to wake up? We ended up waking him up at 7:30. We couldn't wait any longer!

 Santa's milk and cookies, and the books we have read 2 years in a row.


This little guy decided he needed to try out Santa's cookies to make sure he would like them :)



Josh reading the books.
Christmas morning.
He was pretty excited when he saw his toys under the tree!
Playing with some of his gifts. He got very few smaller gifts this year because we decided to go ahead and invest in a nice play set for the back yard which he had already been enjoying a few days prior to Christmas.


Opening his stocking.

Helping the puppies open their stocking.

Silly daddy!
Loving his new hat!

After we opened gifts we were off to one busy day!