Easter weekend

We had a great Easter weekend. Friday, we dyed eggs. Little guy was not happy when we were finished and there were no more eggs to color. Big tears!

Blue and green were the colors of choice this year!

That night my dad joined us for the Good Friday service at our church. Since it was a special occasion, C sat in the service with us. He did great and really liked listening (and dancing) to the worship music. He's such a music lover! After church we met up with my dad's wife and her daughter for some fro-yo. C also got some Easter goodies from them! He loves his new chicken and plane camera

Saturday we headed to Dallas for our nieces 2nd birthday party at the park. It was a beautiful day and he sure loved running around and playing with his cousin and friends!

Sunday morning he got his Easter basket of goodies. He's really into trains right now so the new Thomas cup and fork/spoon set were the hits. He also got some flip flops, Noah and baby Jesus board books, suckers, stickers and sidewalk chalk. 

Our little stud in his Easter duds, black eye (he had a fight with the coffee table) and Thomas cup that he wouldn't put down!

We met my mom and hubby's family for church at our old church. We had C sit in the service with us again and he slept through the whole thing.

(He was starting to not feel good. 2nd Easter in a row that he's been sick.)The church was taking family pics after the service, so the different families took those before heading over to my in-laws for lunch. 

C wouldn't nap (2nd day in a row) and barely ate because he wasn't feeling well. That didn't stop him from having some fun. His CeCe gave him some Easter goodies too!

After his cousin woke from her nap, we had an egg hunt in the greenbelt by their house and some play time at the park. 

We missed you M&M!!

It was a busy and great weekend celebrating the resurrection of our Savior. 

First trip to the Zoo

My dad and his wife gave us zoo memeberships for Christmas. C is such an animal lover, I knew he was going to love it!

It did not disappoint! He loved making the animal noises when we saw each animal. He even said "rhino" when we walked up to their exhibit. We had no clue he knew what a rhino was! We ate lunch where there are large tanks and fish and alligators/crocs can come up to the window. He that it was so cool he could stand right up next to the croc. I think our family will really get some great use and enjoyment out of the zoo this year! 

      Making monkey sounds

Eating lunch with the croc "ayagator"

He even got cookies'n cream for the first time!

18-21 months

This time frame has been such a fun few months. You are developing at a high speed and it seems like something new comes out of your mouth every day! You also repeat everything that we say. I learned that the hard way saying "oh, crap!" When I dropped something and you said it too. Oops!

 You're very independent but want to know we are right there. We love when you take our hands and lead us to where you want us to be. On the flip side when you're outside and want to walk and run you don't want to hold our hands and say "no" taking your hand from ours. 

You love to run and be outside. In fact, when we come in from being out, you make it known that you aren't happy about it. You are observant and name things that you hear- birds, puppies, bus, motorcycles, cars, big trucks, airplanes, choo-choo trains.  Your daddy taught you how to say "all aboard!" So when you see or hear a train, you say that! It's really cute. 

You can count to 10 in English and Spanish, with little guidance from us, but mostly on your own. You know when you have 2 things in your hands and tell us "two" or "dos" depending on your mood. You can repeat the ABCs and know that certain letters come after each other. Your vocabulary amazes me and I just hope you continue to love to learn new things. 

You are potty training at your own pace. You went for the first time on January 21st!! We didn't expect you to be interested but you are and have done so, so well. We will be pushing it a little harder this month since you truly get it. Those stickers as rewards sure get you excited:)

You are a big eater, but are not fond of veggies  unless it's juiced or in a smoothie. I'm hoping this changes soon. Fruits, you love and could live off! 

Your favorite books are Dr. Seuss' ABCs and Brown Bear. You also love these crayon books that have a bunch of items in a particular color. You love to be asked to find something in them. Your favorite shows on TV are Chuggington and Mickey Mouse clubhouse. You're also really into stickers. 

Some of the songs you like us to sing are Jesus loves me, the wheels on the bus and the Itsy bitsy spider. 

You love other people and are so very friendly to everyone you see and meet. You say "friends...fun" when we go to mom to mom or church.  I think one of the things that gets to me the most is when you ask to hold our hands and say "prayer". Many times you want to pray a good 3 or 4 times in a row. I hope you continue wanting to pray constantly. 

You bring us such joy and laughter. We love you and though we don't want you to grow up, each stage is wonderful!

December 2013 recap

December was a crazy month! My mom had her second knee replacement so C and I stayed 4 nights with her, lots of Christmas activities, my brother and his wife moved to Lubbock, dinner and light looking with friends and of course- Christmas! We drug Christmas out a couple of weeks. My bro and his wife spent Christmas week with her family, so we had Christmas with the hubby's side and Christmas Eve with my dad's extended family then, celebrated with both mom and dad's sides the first weekend in January when M&M came in town.

Fall and Thanksgiving 2013

I've really dropped the ball keeping this blog updated. It makes me sad because I love looking back and seeing what all went on in our lives.

Fall/Thanksgiving seems like forever ago. We had fun taking C to the State Fair- seeing Big Tex, Eating yummy foods, and C riding his first rides. We also went to our neighborhood fall festival, our former church in Dallas had one too that we went to, our traditional pumpkin patching with our dear friends, Trick or treating with more dear friends, and enjoying lots of good family time.

We had a wonderful fall season!

Big boy

We were at a sweet little first birthday party last weekend. Our friend captured some amazing pics of our little guy. He looks so big and oh, so handsome! I keep closing my eyes, clicking my heels and repeating "please freeze time" three times. Unfortunately, I open my eyes and he continues to grow by the minute. 

 

The most precious father/son pic ever!

Oh, these two have my heart!

Frustrations, testing and payback

This last week I was hit with some hard days of parenting. 99% of the time, my boy is the easiest, happiest, smiliest little guy you've ever known! But we've stepped into the world of testing, mild disobedience {compared to what's to come, I'm sure} and some challenges. I guess I just wasn't prepared for it to happen so soon. He's almost 15 months, but I was thinking I had at least a few more months before these things began. I should have known with how independent he's always been, that it would happen sooner rather than later.

Parenting is such a joy and brings me so much happiness, but it's tough stuff sometimes. I feel like I've said alot of "no's" this week. While i try hard to just redirect attention sometimes its necessary to address the "wrong" when it's something that truly could harm him, now or when he's older. We've experienced intentional moments of doing things he knows he's not supposed to, followed by me saying "no", him smiling at my "no" and doing it again, followed by me lightly taking his had and tapping it with two of my fingers and saying "no, mommy said not to touch that twice and you've disobeyed" and explaining why he can't touch it. Yes, I know he can't totally understand everything I say, but I'm practicing for when he really can! Plus, I swear the kid knows way more than I realize!

Parenting is teaching me a lot right now. How to respond in love and not anger or frustration, which let's face it-- is hard! It's humbling, teaching me patience, teaching me to be diligent in praying for wisdom and guidance in this new "world" we are entering. We are getting to a point now where C really does know what we are saying and his communication seems like its increased and expanded greatly these  last few weeks. There are moments of micro-tantrums and yes, even some tiny hands have flown in my face. On purpose. LORD, Help me!

He's also in that wonderful stage of being picky during some meals. I now know some of the frustration my parents experienced while trying to feed me. Worlds pickiest eater! Payback?!{for the record- I'm not very picky anymore! Unless is mayo, mustard, beans or fish! Ha}. Sometimes it takes days about an hour to get through lunch. ALL.HE.WANTS.IS.FRUIT! Things he once would scarf down, he no longer wants. I know this is normal. Our Pediatrician warned us it would happen and he was right!

I know there will be easy days and more difficult days from this point on. I need to pick up a book that I started but haven't finished- Give Them Grace  and be faithful in starting my days off with quiet time, my cup of coffee and prayer.

Just some truths to what is going on in our lives right now.

But isn't this face is the most precious thing?!?!?!

 All hard moments are worth it. Especially when he holds up a book, makes his "question" sound, I ask if he wants me to read to him, he says yes with a big grin, and he crawls up in my lap for story time. Loving little moments like those and they happen frequently throughout the day!

I sure love this sweet boy and am thankful for each moment, easy or hard, we have with him! 

First Birthday- Curious George Style

I'm a few weeks late posting about C's party, but with the 4th, family in town and with a little man on the go, the blog has rightfully taken the back burner.

We had all of our family and a few of our friends with kids over to celebrate our monkey lovin', monkey of a boy-- Curious George style. Yes, we went with a CG theme, but kept it to mostly red/yellow colors with some Curious George books for decorations.

Thankfully, my mom had a lot of the things we used  and helped me out in the kitchen so we were able to keep costs down, but still allow me to have fun and plan this cute little party. I did make a few things that I put to use as decoration in our playroom and the books will of course be read over and over. Thank goodness for Half-Price books!

My momma made this amazing  cake!

Flavor: lemon-raspberry!!

yes, my kitchen was already yellow ;)

 

I made a little piñata style 1 and these banana bites I saw on pinterest. My opinion, not so tasty. They're cute, but so many sprinkles took away the peanut butter/banana/wafer taste. The kids seemed to love them!

 

We had meatballs, little yellow hats {mini corn muffins with little smokies}, fruit kabobs, spinach artichoke dip, quac, pasta salad and cake!

 

 

 

 Month by Month pictures hung over crate paper.

 

Mason jars and straws mom already had from my brothers engagement party and a chalkboard creation for the occasion!

 

 

I made a burlap and cotton bunting with pictures from the books printed on iron on transfers, now hanging in the playroom. I also made the canvas with a Curious George quote and is also in the playroom now. Mom had a bunch of frames and just happened to have some spray paint in the colors I needed!

 

Our little guy was so excited when everyone was signing! Smash cake was made by his CeCe too!

 

his "whoa, all this cake is mine!?" look

And totally PO'ed that we took it away from him. Good thing too, because he did NOT sleep well that night!

 

We decided to do party favors for each family with children instead of each child for his first.

 

I made CD pockets from felt I already had and downloaded an album of Kids Bible songs and burned copies. Only problem, I tested them out on my laptop and they worked, but in cars they wouldn't read. Not sure why when I've burned CD's before. FAIL!  Oh well!

 

Such a fun time celebrating our little guy!