Monday, January 28, 2013

Toddler Stuff

Paxton and I joined a new mom's group and Paxton made a new friend fast. He found a little boy who was just his age and they played in the sand together and chased each other around.


We went and played at Unpluggits and Pax spent most of his time climbing up the slide. He still isn't a fan of going down.


An unfortunate chain of events: Pax requesting a Blow Pop, us giving him the Blow Pop, him abandoning the Blow Pop after five licks, Scarlett finding the Blow Pop and eating it down to the gum, Paxton finding the Blow Pop and doing his usual trick of putting it on his head and saying "hat"; led to our first gum in the hair incident.


It came out pretty easily in the bath without having to google gum removal.

Pax and I have been sporting our mom and baby Toms a lot lately. I love that the tiny ones have Velcro.


Someone learned how to take self-portraits on the iPhone and is obsessed.


He almost always wakes up happy after naptime.


There are not a lot of things more adorable than watching him crawl around, scooting his cars and making car noises. I just love being a little boy mom.


He has finally mastered the whole picking things up, taking a bite, chewing it up and then taking another bite form of eating. We were having to tear or cut everything up so he wouldn't try to jam the whole thing in his mouth and get frustrated and throw it down. It was a donut that did the trick.


This little boy loves donuts.

He gets really excited when he sees fish tanks. Uncle Josh showed him this one and he was entranced.


Lately he has been really into his blocks. He likes building towers and knocking them down and throwing the blocks (and taking all the books off of his bookshelf and throwing them down). We are going to have to work on the block throwing before his little brother gets here.


I love the concentrating face and how carefully he stacks the blocks to make sure the tower doesn't tip.

We tried Play-doh again and he's a fan now. He likes to squish it and dip it in imaginary dips and then pretend to eat it...then he says "yuck yuck yuck". He usually follows that by acting like he's feeding it to me.





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Tuesday, January 22, 2013

TWENTY-TWO MONTHS!!!

 It hit me last night that after this monthly bear shoot, we only have one more before he is two.  I don't know how that happened!  Almost two is a fun age, but I am just in disbelief at how fast everything is going.  At 22 months, Paxton is:
  •  Starting to babble a lot more.  He will go off on rants of gibberish that only he understands.  We mostly just laugh at him the whole time.  He still hasn't added a ton of new words, but he has learned to sing happy birthday and Jingle Bells.  He has also found a new way to communicate.  He brings us books and when we get to the page with the picture of what he wants, he will whine for it.  This works in some cases (like when he wants to blow bubbles), but not in cases where he points to the little house in goodnight moon and whines...we don't know what that means.  He has added a few new words: he says jump, jump, jump when he's jumping on his bed and he says book, book, book when he brings us a book.
  •  Able to make the sounds for lots of animals now.  He knows monkey, fish, frog, cow, sheep, bird, kitty, goat, pig, and bee.  There are lots of pictures in his book that he can point to and make the sound for, even if he won't say the word.
  •  Very sweet right now.  Every morning when I come in to get him, he gets a huge smile and says "hiiiiii".  Then he jumps on his bed for a few seconds and then is ready to get out.  He will let me rock him while he drinks his milk for maybe a minute and then is ready to get down.  He will also give me a kiss after each diaper change after I pull his pants up without being asked.  When we ask for a kiss, he will either give us a kiss or lean his forehead forward and accept a forehead kiss.  Every night he tells Jared "night night" and accepts a forehead kiss.  Then as I'm rocking him, he sticks his foot in my face for me to rub.  When he's done being rocked, he will tell me "night night" and I will put him in bed. 
  •  Starting to act much better in public, especially at restaurants.  He almost never throws things down anymore.  When we go to dinner with Grandpa, we are able to stay through the whole meal and not take him outside at the end when he's finished.  I think some of the more fussy issues we were having with him the past month or so were teething related, because now that all of his teeth are through, he's a whole different kid.  He is much more agreeable and is happy all the time.  He was never terrible or difficult, but we are definitely noticing the improvement. 
  •  Really starting to like Daddy.  He copies all of Daddy's wrestling moves and is crazy with him.  Jared brings out a side of him that I don't see when he isn't home.  He gets so hyper and excited! I love it. 
  •  Wearing 24 month pants, 2T shirts, size 6 shoes and size 5 diapers.  He sleeps about 11 hours at night and usually takes a three hour afternoon nap.  His favorite foods are mandarin oranges, fruit snacks, grilled cheese sandwiches, bananas, green beans, and cheetohs.  I made cupcakes over Christmas break and he figured out that those are a cool treat.  Now he asks for cupcakes daily.  His favorite book right now is Good Night Moon.  He still loves Mickey Mouse, building block towers and knocking them down, and playing outside.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Outside

In the middle of our winter weather, we have had a couple of nice days. One day, it got so warm that I had to get Pax's shorts back out.

We spent a lot of time outside that day playing with the pets and blowing bubbles.


He thinks Scarlett is hilarious, especially when she's hyper. Sometimes she gets a little too hyper and knocks him down. Just a few seconds after this picture, she jumped on him and he fell over. She definitely needs to learn some manners.


He loves playing outside.


We were driving past the park by our house one afternoon and I saw a bunch of ducks. I thought Pax would like to see them, so we stopped even though it was super cold. He wasn't very interested in the ducks, but I finally got him to approach them. As he got closer they all took flight and I was worried he would be scared, but he thought it was pretty funny.


He did not spend long with the ducks, all he was interested in was running towards the playground.


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Friday, January 18, 2013

Everything but the Kitchen Sink

Paxton's favorite thing right now is the kitchen sink. He asks to play in the water several times a day. If we ignore him, he tries to climb up on his own.


Once he's up there, he splashes water everywhere, tries to drink the water, and scrubs out the sink. The kitchen usually ends up soaked, but he laughs the whole time.


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Thursday, January 17, 2013

Play-don't

Santa brought Paxton some Play-doh for Christmas and we decided to try it today. Even though the first thing I told him was not to eat it, his first instinct was to taste it. Good thing it's non-toxic.


He wasn't really sure about the texture of it or what to do with it.


I showed him how to use the cookie cutters and he was vaguely amused.


Then he took off with his chair and the event was over.


We'll just have to wait a few more months to get the play-doh back out.

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Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Love at First Sight

 I started bonding with Paxton the second I saw the word "Pregnant" appear on the First Response test.  I read multiple books and websites every single week to see exactly how he was changing and developing.  I thought about him all the time.  We announced the pregnancy right away to everyone and Jared and I talked about it constantly.  Way before I heard that first heart beat or saw him on the ultrasound screen, I had a relationship with him.

On a very early morning at eight weeks pregnant, we made the long drive to Ada to our midwife's office.  I had no idea what to expect, but when she told us we would be seeing our baby and hearing the heart beat, we were ecstatic.  As soon as the little gummy bear showed up on the screen, we both felt it.  Not only did the pregnancy become 100% real, the first glimmer of love hit us.  We completely tuned out everything the tech was saying and just watched our baby wiggle around on the screen.  It really was love at first sight.  
Paxton--8 weeks
 With Baby #2, things were a little bit different.  We found out at about five weeks, just like with Paxton and we were definitely excited, but we were also busy.  I had a baseline knowledge about which structures were developing each week from my intense study of Pax's development and I had an app on my phone, but other than that, we didn't really keep track of what was going on.  We waited until about nine weeks to tell family and until about 13 weeks to share it with the world.  I think that had a hand in making it less real to us.

On a not-so-early morning at about nine weeks pregnant, we made the short drive to our doctor's office.  We knew what to expect this time and we were excited.  She didn't make us wait long before she brought the ultrasound machine in.  We watched the screen expectantly, waiting for the little gummy bear to show up.  As soon as it did, it happened again.  The tears flowed as the love struck.  The sound of the quick heart beat filled the room and Jared squeezed my hand, exactly like he did when Paxton first wiggled up on the screen.  It was love at first sight.
Baby #2--9 weeks
As both pregnancies progressed, the love grew.  The gender reveal ultrasound took things to a whole new level both times.  Not only did our tiny people look more like actual babies, we also found out they would be little boys.  We got to intimately inspect their hearts, their kidneys, their tiny femurs, it was definitely magical.

Feeling the first kicks and flutters from both boys caused the love to take another leap.  I was the one who knew them best.  As they got bigger, I could feel every move they made, and laughed every time they got hiccups.  I fell asleep knowing that even when they weren't hearing my voice, they were hearing my heart beat.

Nothing compares to the love leap that happened when Paxton was born.  When they put him on my chest for the first time, my heart was pounding.  Tears were streaming down my face.  He was mine.  A little later, after he cried through his first bath and his first diaper and his first swaddle, the nurse put him on my chest again.  As soon as I said hi to him, he looked up at me and stopped crying.  He knew who I was.  Beyond the shadow of a doubt, he recognized me and knew me and loved me, and I was his.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Yogurt, Elmo and Basketball

This is my favorite thing for Paxton to wear right now...mostly because I think it's hilarious that he has this many pieces of clothing featuring Elmo.


I have been trying to let Pax feed himself with a spoon more lately. I know this is an important skill for him to master, but it's hard to let him do it when he already makes such a big mess during meals, and this is even messier!


The past two days, I have given him a bowl of yogurt to feed himself with his lunch. The first day I supervised pretty closely and it was a moderate mess. On the second day, I made the mistake of doing some dishes while he was eating and I guess he tried to drink it? I'm not sure, but somehow it ended up in a huge puddle in his lap.


We immediately followed lunch with a sink bath.

He got a basketball goal for Christmas from Aunt Teig and Aunt Mal and we put it together for him a few nights ago. His favorite part is cheering for himself when he makes it.

YouTube Video

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Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Random Update

Paxton has been a pretty big fan of his stuffed Mickey he got for Christmas. We thought for a little while that it might replace Lamby, but Lamby still holds a special place in Pax's heart.


Paxton loves playing at Gramsy's work. He is obsessed with the fishies. And he doesn't hate the time spent with Gramsy and Aunt Teighynne.


I had to take Pax to my baby doctor appointment today (142 bpm and measuring right on track...the baby kept kicking the wand while the nurse was looking for the heart beat and it was hilarious) and I thought we deserved a that afterwards. He loves Sonic slushies.


Paxton is a big climber and he thinks it's funny to make a bridge between the couch and the ottoman.


He has taken an interest in unloading the dishwasher. He will take all the silverware out of the basket and put it in the drawer (this was the first time he did it and he was very closely supervised with the knives. Now that we know he does this we keep the knives far away from his hands). Then, he takes the plates and other dishes out one by one and looks at us to ask where they go. We just open the drawer or cabinet and he will put it away. When he's done, he shuts all the doors and drawers and shuts the dishwasher and then claps for himself.


And he has invented a new use for his lawn mower.


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Thursday, January 3, 2013

Shelves, Pretzels and Ice Cream

 Paxton got a ton of new toys for Christmas, and we needed a new organizational system especially since we are about to convert his room into a room for two little Miller boys.  We got him some shelves with bins from Target which helped a lot.  But first we had to move the old furniture out.
(Ignore our crazy hall mess--it was a post-Christmas disaster)
Paxton thought it was hilarious to help Daddy move out the old table.
 Once we got it all set up, he had some play time in his new Mickey jammies from Granny Pat.
 Yesterday morning, I left Pax in his room watching Mickey while I was getting ready.  He was alone for maybe three minutes, and when I came back to check on him this is what I found:
 He was sitting in his chair, concentrating on Mickey and snacking from a bag of pretzels that he had helped himself to OFF THE KITCHEN COUNTER! So apparently he can reach up there now...

Later that day, we hit the library and then stopped at the park.  I didn't realize how cold it was until we saw ice still on the slide.  We were there for about eight minutes, and then I told Pax it was time to go to the car.
 He took off running towards the car, but he was not ready to leave so he started throwing a fit as he was running to the car.  I thought it was pretty funny.

Today we went to lunch at Chick-fil-a with Aunt Maesynne and Aunt Bevynne.  Aunt Maesynne taught Pax to point to himself when we asked "where's Paxton?"  And since he already had the book that came in the kid's meal, we traded it in for ice cream.  Paxton reached out and touched it as soon as I set it down and I think it freaked him out that it was cold.  After that, he wouldn't eat off the spoon when I tried to feed him so I just gave him the spoon.  He sniffed it a few times and then gave it a few tentative licks.  After that he was hooked and kept giving me the spoon back for more.