11 months!!

*totally know this is overdue. carry on*

Oh J!!

One more month and then you will be one. I CANNOT handle this. Stop it. Just stop growing =).

Sleeping is still the same. You still nurse twice in the middle of the night. You still like to be held. Nothing new there - ha! You are still nursing 6 times a day and eating two solid meals of lunch and dinner. You still get so distracted when nursing and you eat very little meals before saying you are done. You are really loving to feed yourself and getting better at it. Slimy foods still give trip you but you are doing great with non slimy stuff. You love to eat blueberries and sweet potatoes with cinnamon all cut up! You tried spaghetti sauce this month and you gagged on it at first but eventually got the hang of it. You also tried blackberries. You also tried macaroni (with butternut squash sauce) and LOVED IT.  Puffs are still your jam, and you will go find them in my diaper bag and pull them out to eat them. When I catch you, you just smile really big and continue to eat your contraband. Ha. You now have five teeth. You are starting to grind your top and bottom teeth together (cringe).

You are crawling everywhere and will walk with a push toy. You are into everything! I am constantly having to redirect you from things. You are constantly trying to get into the dog food and dog water bowl. You love to play at the dishwasher while I'm unloading or loading it. You will stand there and pull the bottom drawer in and out, in and out. You will immediately come into the kitchen if you hear me open the dishwasher regardless of what you were doing. You have tried to climb onto the dishwasher lid several times. You can stand by yourself for 15-30 seconds. You took one step by yourself on your 11 month "birthday" and can walk with one hand for about 5 steps. You love to dance to music. You will bounce up and down while standing and it is the cutest thing!

You can now sign "done" and say done. Add that to your words of dog and dada. You are pointing to things and love when I name the stuff you are pointing at. You love to clap. If we say "yay!" you are clapping, if someone is cheering you are clapping, if you see someone else clapping , you clap too. YOU LOVE PATTY CAKE. It is your favorite thing and you love for to say it over and over. You like to take your socks off especially in the car and then chew on them. You can wave bye and give high fives but you hand those out to only certain people. You rode in the wagon for the first time this month and loved it. You leaned your arms back and completely chilled. You would get upset when it wasn't moving.  You also went to the nursery at church for the first time. It's a work in progress. You don't like it at all and scream A LOT and loudly. We have had to come get you because you can't make it through the whole service but  I know we will get there.

Favorite toys this month: You love to push around the bike push toy over and over again. You can now shut all the doors to pop and turn toy and love to shut them over and over again. You love carrying around little hot wheel cars. You love blocks and balls. You even played ball with your sister and would hold the ball up in the air and then drop it like you were throwing it back to her. You would laugh and laugh the whole time you were playing together. You still love Lucye. You love to look at books. Your favorites are the touch and feel books. You could look at those forever.

You are wearing 12 month clothes but a lot of the shorts are still baggy on you because you don't have a bottom. I would guess you are about 20 pounds still.

Next time, I write one of these you will be one. My heart.

 Love,
Mommy and Daddy

This is it...

So I've been a horrible blogger...it's true. Which is sad because I love to blog because it's my digital scrapbook since I need it to make photo albums eventually one day. My brain doesn't remember anything! Anyways, I'm going to kick myself into gear and for the next two weeks I am going to catch up. I will probably have at least 8 posts. Not kidding. Feel free to read as much as you want but it's really for me to get caught up for document purposes. AND THEN I WILL MAKE SURE I STAY ON TOP OF IT!! So don't laugh when you see J's 11 month post up later today, you know, since he is almost 14 months....Ha! Got to get caught up some how. Cheers, my friends

First Week of Summer Fun!

My mom stayed the week after J's birthday party to enjoy some time with her grand babies. We had lots of fun while she was here! On Monday, we went to the zoo because they have membership Mondays in the month of June,  and you can get in an hour earlier AND ride the train and carousel for free all day. Yes, please!!

Waiting for the train

Nana and E

The best picture I could get....sigh....

Little loves waiting their turn for the carousel

E shared her horse with her brother so he could ride the carousel for the first time on a horse

We spent time playing with chalk outside several times during the week

Tuesday I left J with my mom so that I could take E on a special mommy/daughter date. One of the local libraries was having a meet and greet with Paw Patrol and I knew my Paw Patrol obsessed daughter would be excited to see them.

We are so excited to see Paw Patrol!

E become so quiet when she met Marshall and Skye at first and would only go in for a hug. After she met them though she wanted to talk to them again so she was willing to stand in the ridiculously long line to see them again. She gave them high fives and actually talked to them that time.

One happy girl 

Playing a Paw Patrol game they had there

J has decided that breakfast is silly and he shouldn't have to eat it. I'm trying to figure out things that he likes but so far I can only get him to eat fruit. Toddler problems....

We also went to the splash park. It was J's first time to actually get in the water. He liked it as long as didn't get him in the face.

We went to two libraries and signed up for their summer reading programs. We love to read books around here. Right now I have two full book bags from the library that we pull from each day.

Lots of play time with Nana

My cute kids (who hate looking at cameras) rode in the cart together while we were at Aldi. They had fun.

We also broke in our new water table that J got for his birthday. We have been having lots of fun with it!

I was really sad to see my mom go back home but we packed in a lot of fun while she was here! Can't wait for another Nana week again!

Weekend Shenanigans

Since I'm so far behind (that is ever increasing - hello 11 month and 12 month old blog posts!) I'm combining the last two weekends together. We've actually had two busy fun filled weekends.

1. Friday, May 27 we celebrated J's birthday together as a family. We had planned to go to the zoo but it was raining hard that morning so we went instead to an indoor play area that had bounce houses and tons of toys, and a little kiddie size town. It was fun and he enjoyed it.

He loved the little cars they had. He played on one of these most of the time we were there.

Isn't he the cutest little birthday boy?

I have done this every year with E for her birthday. I decorate the table and kitchen area and then decorate their door as well to celebrate their day.

He had his first birthday cupcake and then got to have spaghetti for dinner. He had a fabulous day.

2. On Saturday, E had her dance recital. She did three dances : tap, ballet, and then participated in the daddy/daughter dance that was to a rap/hip hop song. She was an adorable precious dancer and I loved watching her up their on stage. Every time she came on stage, I was beaming with pride. She loves to dance.

3. On Sunday, we went to church and then went to a birthday party for one of E's friends an hour away at Sweet and Sassy. Each of the girls had their hair done (with braids, a princess bun, and spray glitter) and their nails done. She loved it. She has wanted to paint her nails every day since then.

4. On Memorial Day, we went to the McDonalds playscape area because E earned all her cotton balls in her jar (it is rewards for catching her doing good behavior) and that was what she chose. For the record, we never eat at McDonalds. Ever. But I went to get breakfast burritos there for MOPS several weeks ago and she saw the playscape and decided right there that was what she was going to earn for her cotton balls. Judah had fun playing too.



5. The next Saturday, J had his first birthday party. I plan on having my own separate post for it but it was super fun and we feel so blessed to have all our friends come and celebrate with us.

6. E had a party she attended that afternoon after Judah's party. It was a pool party but before that we had cake and they painted the kids faces and played dress up. It was lots of fun. 

 The rest of the weekend we geared up for our first fun week of summer fun!!!

10 months!!!

(It's only a month late! 11 months will be up later this week!)

J,
You are 10 months. Your personality is shining bright this month. You are a joy,  sweet boy!

Let's go ahead and say your sleeping habits are the same and you don't want them to change =). I've tried laying you down on the bed and I lay next to you and within a few minutes you awake. Silly boy. You wake up to nurse about twice a night and are nursing about 5-6 times a day. You are SO distracted when you nurse. It is a constant battle to keep you focused to eat. I know you are hungry but you just think there are way more important things to do than eat. You eat solids at lunch and dinner with us as well. You love food - there are only a few things that you make faces at, but we keep trying them to see if you will get used to them. (Ex. carrots). New foods you have tried this month: peas, spinach, mango, and tomato soup. We have introduced more finger foods this month and you can eat blueberries and strawberries chopped pretty well and you can eat puffs like its your job =). You can even get the puffs out of your snack cup all by yourself. You get very impatient at meal times and you refuse to wear a bib. You pull it off any time I try to put one on you. Blueberries are one of your favorite foods and you gobble them up. You are cutting your 4th tooth now. You had #2 and #3 show up earlier this month, and just a few days ago started cutting your 4th one.

You crawl everywhere and are pulling up on everything. You can cruise the furniture now and between surfaces. You love to pull up to the windows and reach for the blinds and you like to reach for the plugs too. (Don't worry I put a stop to those two things quickly) The day you turned 10 months, you started walking with a push walker or anything that moves consistently and think that is really fun. You have been getting that pointer finger out by itself and use it to poke at things and touch things. You have started doing this thing with your tongue that I can only describe as "rolling the R's". It is hilarious and I like to say that you are just practicing to learn Spanish. Ha! You LOVE to take things out of any box or container. You leave a mess wherever you go because you haven't learned to clean up yet. You have discovered the safe cabinet in the kitchen and love open and close the door and to take my mixing bowls out of the cabinet. You then push them around the kitchen floor. I think you like the noise they make.

You can now move the baby gates that I have that block the hallways. They aren't connected to the wall so we can move them quickly to go to the rooms. You have discovered you can move them too and so now I can't keep you contained in the living room anymore. You basically think if I have blocked it off, it is a challenge for you to get through. You signed "dog" this month and say "da" when you look at the dog. You LOVE Lucye. Love her. You also are trying to say "done" when we are at the table and you are done with your food. You are still a momma's boy.  You get so upset if I leave the room and know that I'm still somewhere in the house. You will cry and scream until I come back even if Daddy is here =). You also have discovered my red mole on my chest, and you love to play with it. It is rather quite funny.

Favorite toys this month: Fabric blocks that we stack so that you can knock them over; the toy drum, and anything that your sister is playing with. You also started liking Mickey Mouse because its the only thing that keeps you still long enough for me to stretch your neck. You started clapping a bit this month too and you love to wave at yourself in the mirror. 

You are wearing 9 month clothing still. No official stats of weight and height but I would guess 20 pounds.