1 Year Pictures....round 1

One has come and gone. Now my baby is 13 months! He is slimming out and I just had to get some pictures of those little leg rolls before they disappear completely!

My sis and I went and switched off camera/keeping kiddo entertained/ safe/ happy.

He was okay for one second

Okay maybe two seconds.

"Add Done....done..DONE!"

He's finally letting me lead him while holding his hand- I just have to talk to him..."we are going over to the park! Look swings!"

Seeing the park always brings a big smile.

Jean diaper! Look at those rolls! I love 'em.

Well hello there beautiful.

This is his "Shy flirty face". He does this seriously to complete strangers when they smile at him- he blinks and smiles and "hides".

I love it when he does this.

He has to hold on to two pieces of bark- in both hands.

"my bark!"

My precious.

I think he picked this up from us- we always look at him with a gaping mouth- he's doing it too now.

I'm hoping round two will be up soon!

Cloth Diapers...a Quest...

I am finding out there are yucky yucky things in disposable diapers. 

They are so convenient, yes but really? Dioxin? Ah! Terrible. 

So I am in the market for some cloth diapers. Every company is like, "these are so good because blah blah blah". Because I have never cloth-diapered before and there is a language I just don't quite understand yet, "hook and loop" "aplix" "double inner gussets". What the heck?

I just really don't want to invest in diapers unless I know they will work. I might just have to get a few different ones and try them out. Ugh though $30 a diaper? In the long run it will save you money but that initial cost is yucky. Then I have no idea how to clean them. What do you do with poop? I might just start by buying one diaper and trying it out. But I would really love to have enough for a day: so about 7. What is 7 x 30? Ah! Yikes. Okay, we'll just start with one. I have heard really good things about Rumparooz from a friend so I think that's the one I'm going to try. Unless anyone else has any advice from me or just loooovvvves their cloth diapers and convinces me to try that brand. Anyone?

1 Year Celebration

Happy Birthday 1 Year Old!!!

He now:

Brushes his teeth joyfully!

Says "Duck"

Waves at little people

And big people

Can eat honey and peanut butter

Walks and runs confidently

Throws temper tantrums

Takes only 1 nap!!! Yay!

Sleeps through the night preeeetty good mostly

Is cutting some molars- top and bottom- ouchie carumba!

Requests smoothies: 

Yes, he makes the noise of the blender and points at it, 

refusing to eat anything until you make him a smoothie

Will read stories by himself and "talk" as he reads

Knows his way to the park:

 If we go in the wrong direction, he lets me know he knows and he's not happy about it!

Walks backwards (what?! I know!)

Spins in circles

Dives head first down the slide and then proceeds to crawl off the slide head first. 

He tries to do a 'popping' noise with his finger and mouth like daddy.

Dance parties everyday all day

He does so good- he even lets me help him.

I love sandal weather! These are our favorite shoes so far.

Celebrating with the Jensens

I will write a post on why I decided not to do a "traditional party" but for now just know that I would love my kids birthdays to be about a memory. It just so happened that on May 13th, the new Provo Recreational Center would open with an amazing swimming pool. We knew it would be perfect to go and celebrate Grant's birthday swimming our night away.

Oh boy was this the best idea ever or what?

Kid Heaven. Grant didn't care about food or anything- he couldn't get enough of this place.

New super-man shirt from the Jensen Grandparents. 

Doing the "flag" with his hand and making a "whooshing" noise.

"Yay"

Later, dad even bought him a balloon and G says, "Ba-ooon". It got caught around his leg while he was walking around and kept smacking him in the face so I'm not sure that he likes it anymore but he did enjoy it for a few hours at least.

I know Grant didn't understand that it was his birthday, 

but I know he had a heck of a lot of fun. 

A heck a lot of fun.

He didn't even care about food. 

Now, that tells you something right there. 

I love being able to bring him places and see his face light up in excitement. 

What joy it is to have a child and do things for him.

 Life couldn't be better.

 I love my big boy!

Happy Birthday G-Ray!

Toddler-hood

It's like the official,

"Your baby is a toddler now= end baby stage"

It's huge.

 Mandi asked me how I felt about Grant turning one and in that moment I said, "Oh, no big deal, I'm excited" and it's true I am but wow it's difficult to describe how you can be excited and feel overwhelmed with...what exactly?

 Feeling like something is gone. It's like you know he is still there- he is your baby still but while you are gaining an independent, fun-loving, exciting toddler, you are losing a baby. That stage is over and "1" really does make it real.

I picked a book off the library display that said, "Chicken Soup for the Women's Soul".

I love the other chicken soup books and it sounded perfect for Mother's Day weekend to read a couple stories from it.

The first story I read was about a mom who had just become an empty-nester.
There she was, the week after sending her last baby off to college, sitting in the waiting room to see her doctor.  As she glanced around, she noticed several pregnant women sitting in there waiting as well. She lamented about how unfair it was to make menopausal women share the same room and how it felt like she was sitting there just barely waiting to hear her first baby's heartbeat.

That really got to me. How could a lady feel like she was just there after she had 3 kids moved out of the house? Didn't she feel like all that time had past and wasn't it so normal to be where she was?

Then it hit me and I just bawled my little eye-balls out.

I get it. Reading her story, I get it. It goes quickly. I saw this image someone had put together of your child's life. You get a baby for a year. A toddler for 2. A preschooler for 2 years. A child for 5 years. A pre-teen for a few years. A teenager for a few years. A  young-adult for a few years and then boom! They are gone. That really showed how it could pass so quickly and why everyone says that. Because you only get your child in each stage for so long and then they are in the next one.

Time to enjoy this next stage that I will have for 2 yearsish.

11 Months! AH!!! No no no no no!!!

I guess I better post this before he turns 1!



I've been pretty chill with Grant getting older but why does 11 months make me think "1" and make this emotional response to gurgle in my stomach and threaten to pour out of my eyeballs?

This month was for sure video month and way less pictures and they are all really random- so is this post but I'm okay with that, I just have to put it out there.

Creepy Monkey--- brand new at DI---now I know why....evil laugh.

In this video he is acting fine with it but after I stopped recording he was bawling- it just wasn't meant to be his toy.

I am pretty sure he thinks it's a human baby and he's right to be freaked out by it's unnatural stillness and stare.

Now he's creeped out by monkeys in books with the wide-eyes like.

I'm a little freaked by it now, just knowing his response is so scared of it. it makes me scared of it....



Obsessed with the boom box. obsessed. I need to go to DI and get him his own!!! He lovvvvvves it and always points at it- every 5 seconds.

His favorite word?      
                  Ball.
And phone.
             "Bone"

And his favorite thing to do?
Dance!!!!