What's Going On

Granny V gave us a huge, inflatable Elmo for our front yard. Paxton loves it and keeps looking at it through the front door. It also prompted him to start saying "Elmo" which does not sound like dada like most of his words. He says ahh-mo! It's precious.


His other favorite person right now is Mickey. A few days ago, he actually threw a fit when I put shoes on him that were not his Mickey shoes. He handed his Mickey shoes to me and was inconsolable until I put them on. Then he was happy.

He has also gotten into the habit of watching Mickey on TV every morning while he eats breakfast. He hops up on the couch and is so excited after I tell him it's time.


Then I turn the TV on, it's usually on a different channel and this happens:


Then I get it changed and he is back to excited.


On Friday morning while I was getting ready, I got Paxton all set up in his room with Rudolph on. I figured he would last about thirty seconds, but he surprised me by staying up there for the entire 15 minutes I needed to get ready.


Yesterday, Jared and I were in another room and things were quiet in the living room. Jared went in to check on him and found this:


Honey mustard covering his face, covering his hands and covering the couch and carpet.

Today, it was finally cold here, but Paxton would not give up his outside time. I bundled him up and he even kept his hat and mittens on while we played.


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It's A.....

Huge!

Paxton is doing so many things lately that just make him seem so big!

Every morning, I tell him that it's time for Mickey and he runs into the living room and stands in front of the TV. If the TV is on a different channel when it turns on, he looks at me with the most pitiful face and lets out a little whine. As soon as Mickey comes on, he gets so excited. He stays in the living room the whole time it's on and watches bigger chunks of it every day. This is the first time he has been interested in doing more than quick glances at the TV and I love that he loves Mickey.





He has also started trying to feed us bites of his food. The first night he did it, we couldn't get enough and poor Jared had to eat way too many Cheez-Its. I love that he opens his mouth so we'll open ours.


He has also started playing Peekaboo under buckets and his toy bin. He thinks his toy bin is hilarious to play under because he can peek out.


And then a few days ago when we were playing outside, he grabbed Sticker's tail and pulled. He looked just like the stereotypical naughty little boy. I loved it.


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Christmastime is Here!

We have a very strict tradition of waiting until Thanksgiving night to put up our tree, but this year we just couldn't wait. We put our decorations up the weekend before Thanksgiving and haven't regretted it.




Paxton also got to break in his Christmas jammies that night too.




We got him a Little People manger scene this year and put it up where our fancy one usually goes. He plays with it a lot.




All over the place...




Especially if by "play with it" we are talking about throwing the characters everywhere and sticking them in the tree.




Three characters are already missing...but, on a more positive note, that's really the only way he messes with the tree. We were surprised because last year he would roll or army crawl over to it every chance he got and pull ornaments off. This year he is much busier so we were definitely expecting the worst, but he is happy just looking at it.




He got to play outside while we put the lights up (which we did wait til Black Friday to do, as is tradition).




Since then, he and Daddy have used the empty area in front of the tree to play lots of tackle football and wrestling.




And we might have taken a few pics...




I was also really excited to find this outfit that he had last year in a 24 month at Carter's.




We started a new tradition this year of watching a Charlie Brown Christmas as a family in our Christmas pajamas. Paxton watched a little bit with us and played a little bit too.




Today, we got Pax his own little tree for his room. We want to use this one for ornaments he wants and things that are special to him. He was in awe of it when we set it up...




After several minutes he reached out to touch it.




This year, he pointed at a train ornament at the store, so we brought that home for him. He said "hmm hmm" (his version of choo-choo as he pushed it around.




He even helped put a ball on:




He's a pretty big fan of his tree. One of my favorite memories each Christmas growing up was bringing in my own tree with my own ornaments and decorating it however I wanted. I can't wait to share this with him.




Christmas is even more magical this year with a little boy who is in awe of Christmas trees and lights and will probably actually be interested in his presents this year.
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It's A....

We find out on Tuesday if we will be having a second son or a daughter. We won't be sharing until Saturday since that's when the big gender reveal party for our families is. To say we're excited would be an understatement. We have been counting down since we scheduled the appointment.

A boy would be great. We have boy clothes, we have boy toys, we know what to expect with little boys (lots of yelling and throwing). Plus, Paxton and his little sibling will be sharing a room for a little while and two boys would be perfect in a room together. I love the idea of having two brothers growing up together, wrestling in the living room, playing with cars and camping with Daddy.

A girl would be great. We would need tons more stuff, but luckily a lot of our big stuff is gender neutral. Plus, how cute are baby girl clothes? And bows? And tiny Mary Janes? Yep, a girl would be lots of fun. It would be neat to see how different baby boys and baby girls are, everything would be new. I like the idea of Paxton and Daddy playing football in the backyard while Poppy and Mommy bake cookies (not that I couldn't do that with a boy, but this is my imagination).

I definitely thought that after Paxton all we would want would be another boy, but I have been surprised by our open-mindedness. I think we will truly be surprised and excited with whatever announcement she makes on Tuesday (although I hope that if it's a boy she says "there's a stem on that apple!" like she did last time).

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Outside

It has been such a perfect fall day today and Paxton has been wanting to be outside constantly. After a quick baby doctor check-up (155 bpm and measuring right on track), we hit the front yard.

He loves this little light-up snowman on our porch.


And he has been carrying around this box of Dots since Halloween. We keep it outside for him...


I love this sweet face...even though I know he'll throw a fit as soon as I make him go inside.


He wanted to bring his car out today.


Ad he climbed on all by himself!


After his nap, we headed to the park that is a few blocks from our house. I let him out of the stroller as soon as we got there and he ran straight towards the playground all on his own.


And as much as he loves climbing up the slide, he still hates going down.


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Thanksgiving!

 I am never as good at taking pictures during holidays as I want to be.  Ideally this pot would be full of pictures of Paxton and all his relatives, but that didn't happen.

On Sunday night, Jared had a bunch of his family in town so we went to Granny Pat's house for dinner and to see everyone.  Paxton knows exactly what he can get away with at Granny Pat's house and he hopped right up on the couch.  Jared's cousin's little boy that is about a year older, hopped up next to Paxton...he got in trouble.  Paxton is already THAT kid that gets other kids in trouble.

 It was a fun night and it was great to get to see everyone.

Wednesday night, Jared was at the Thunder game with his cousin, Caleb, while I was baking, so Paxton got to lick the spoon.

 He loved it.

Then, on Thanksgiving morning, we watched the parade together and had cinnamon rolls.  After finishing up all the cooking and baking, we took some family pictures...they were mostly a failure.

 But I did get an adorable one of Pax and Jared:

My mom and I made Paxton this turkey shirt because I waited too long to order one online.

 It was also his 20 month birthday so we had to take his bear pictures.

After a nap and all the pictures, we went to Granny's house to see Jared's mom's side of the family.  Paxton played outside for most of the afternoon and barked at the neighbor's dogs.  It was nice this year to just give him pieces of everything and not worry about what he could and couldn't have yet.  Last year I think he got some sweet potato baby food for lunch since he couldn't have any meat yet or anything with milk in it...

In the evening, we went to my mom's house and had our second Thanksgiving dinner.  Paxton went to sleep pretty quickly after dinner.  Once the Black Friday sales started, we left Maesynne at my mom's with a sleeping Pax and hit the stores.  We didn't really get any crazy deals, but we did have fun.  We usually put our Christmas decorations after we get home from Thanksgiving, but we had done it the weekend before.  I knew that being pregnant with a toddler this year, I wouldn't feel like staying up until 3 a.m. and I didn't.  It was nice to come home and just go to bed.

It was a great Thanksgiving and we have a lot to be thankful for this year.  We are thankful for our own house for the first time, a healthy pregnancy so far, a sweet and smart toddler and a wonderful marriage.  We are so thankful for having family so close that is always there for us.