Earn Your Keep

We had a Parents as Teachers visit the other morning and our parent educator came in the door very excited to see X pushing around a mop. Apparently this is a big milestone for kids as they learn to imitate adult activities. I just thought I was getting some free child labor to help with the dust bunnies that accumulate. I mean, we provide everything for this kid, he should have to do something around here don't you think??

Here's a little clip of my little worker bee in action. Disregard all the extra furniture and boxes that you see scattered around. We were getting carpet installed that morning in the bedrooms so everything had to be moved into the living room.

On Memorial Day we went to Walter's mom's place in the country. Unfortunately it rained most of the day so the gathering was moved to the garage. That didn't bother X though. He had plenty of space to run the broom. Notice how he is soaking wet and filthy dirty too -- he LOVED walking out in the rain on the gravel driveway!

I guess he thought the chairs could use some sprucing up too!

Think I can teach him to scrub the shower next??

Water Play

In an effort to look for fun and different things to do, X and I took a plastic tub and some toys outside for water play. He seemed to enjoy it. I'm trying to teach him how to pour so the measuring cups came in handy. You'll notice in the pictures one of his new favorite things to do is hold multiple small objects in his hands at once. I hope he isn't going to become a hoarder! And yes, he is still in his PJ's because I knew he would get all wet anyway.

Comparison

Back before we moved I made a list of things to post about "Xavier at 15 months". Well, I lost the list in the move but found it today. So, since he is now 17 months, I thought I'd still post it and do a comparison to see if anything has changed in the last 2 months.

Black is 15 months and Green is 17 months:

• Says "Yes" to almost everything you ask him (True, although he's adding more words to his little collection and still doesn't say NO yet)
• Still loves to roll and carry his sports bottles (ABSOLUTELY! And, he has his very own cabinet to store them in our new kitchen)


• Tries to reach in and sneak Skipit (his pup that he sleeps with) out of the crib sometimes during the day (Currently we do not leave the door open to X's room during the day because we ripped out the carpet. While we are waiting on the new stuff to arrive there are exposed tack strips around the perimeter of the room so he's only in there to sleep right now)


• Terrified of the Frosty the Snowman musical book (Yes -- the book is hidden)


• Sleeps all night 10-11 hours (With all the outdoor play lately he's sometimes up to 12 hours a night!!!)


• LOVES Books (Still a favorite -- he will chase you around the house with a book until you stop and read it to him)


• Takes off socks after every meal (Isn't this weird?? Still does it though!)


• Likes to wander down the street (Now that we live at the bottom of a court it's more like UP the street)


• Wears 5 1/2 shoes and 18-24 month clothes (Now in a size 6 shoe and mostly 24 month or 2T)


• Takes 1 nap a day after lunch (Yep!)


• Weighs 26lbs and is 32 inches tall (Scale at home says he's 28lbs now and I'm not sure how tall)


• Enjoys handing things to people (Yep!)


• Takes the mustard bottles out of the refrigerator whenever it is open (And now that we have an open stairwell to the basement he throws them over the baby gate)


• Fascinated with mommy's makeup (My poor bronzer went into a million pieces last week after he dropped it on the slate floor)


• Hands me my face lotion every morning while getting dressed (Lately he's more interested in shaking the mouthwash bottle)


• Would suck on his Binky all day long if we let him (He'll probably want to take that thing to college with him!)


• Has had 5 haircuts (Now 6)

Here's my boy at 15 months --

And at 17 months --

First Bowl of Cheerios

X has been a long time fan of Cheerios (we prefer the multi grain kind at our house -- little more kick of flavor) but has never eaten them with milk as an actual "bowl of cereal". My real reasoning behind not doing it is that he can't feed himself completely with a spoon yet, so it just means more work for me. Walter was eating a bowl for breakfast and X went nuts over the few bites that he got so I decided to give it a try anyway. Success! Of course I had to help him get the spoonfuls, but it is a nice new addition to our breakfast repertoire. And, the spoon with the holes made it easier too.

And what would this momentous occasion of a first bowl of cereal be without a little video of the action??!!!!

This Face

What kind of expression is this? And, hello, flash in the face -- it's ghost boy!

Do you think my driving makes him nervous?

This is totally Walter reincarnated. There is a picture somewhere (cause ya know, we just moved, so "somewhere" is a very loose term right now) of Walter as a child squinting into the sun that looks exactly like this. I have to find it now!!

No Shirt, No Problem

I cut X's hair again the other day. This was my best setup yet. I put his portable highchair out on the deck and he ate a snack (and actually sat still) while I cut. It worked out well too that it was kinda windy so most of the hair just blew away. Afterward I gave him a spike and let him run shirtless on the deck.

And of course he had to get in some screen door time. His new favorite thing is to open it, walk on the deck, come back in, and close it. Repeat 50 times until there are tons of flies in the house.

Lawn Mowing 101

Step 1 - Gas up your mower. Ya know, with either gasoline or bubbles, whatever "fuel" your mower takes!


Step 2 - Watch the demonstration carefully.

Step 3 - Do a little practice run (don't worry, the mower was not turned on for this!)

Step 4 - Go off on your own. (But decide that you'd rather stick to mowing the driveway instead of the grass)

It's Good to be a Mom

I am so thankful to be this little boy's mom! (Yes, the picture is blurry, but he looked so cute trying on sunglasses and I was determined to get a shot before he pulled them off)


I had a really nice Mother's Day today. Xavier greeted me with a card this morning and then proceeded to help me open it and tear up the envelope. They did a nice blessing for moms at church and for some reason this year it kinda got to me more. I guess it's because X is becoming more and more of a little person each day and to think that he's my little person is just pretty darn neat! I also feel for all the moms that have lost children or who have struggled to have children. I was very aware this morning of what a blessing and a miracle it is to be a mom as well as being thankful for my own mom and grandmas.

After church we rushed home to make brunch for my mom, my grandma, and Walter's mom. I hardly got any pics because I was cooking and I forgot to get out my camera. Here's me, my mom, and my gma (dad's mom). My brother missed the brunch because he was on a plane coming back into town and I somehow missed getting a picture of my dad and his mom.

Walter and his mom.

Xavier gave me the best Mother's Day gift ever -- he took a 3 hour nap after brunch. It was great! I was able to get in a nap as well. I needed it after the enormous plate of food I ate.

This evening we all had dinner with my other grandma (mom's mom) at the nursing home. Unfortunately there were people in the "family dining area" so 7 of us ended up eating Steak N Shake in her little room. It was cozy!! Here's my mom and gma.

Me, gma, X, and my brother. Of course X wouldn't look at the camera!

Happy Mother's Day!

Shhh...Baby Sleeping!

Just a quick shout out to God with some thanks for good sleep....good sleep from Xavier that is!

Before our move I was terrified that X was going to go into a major sleep regression with all the change. Well, he did, somewhat, during our stop over at my parents house. Despite the fact that we brought his crib, rocking chair, and kept his nighttime rituals exactly the same, within the first 4 nights of us staying with my parents X went from an "I put myself to sleep and sleep all night" kiddo to a "you must rock me to sleep and I will get up during the night for anywhere between 1-3 hours and refuse to be put back in the crib" kiddo. I cringed (and cursed) those first few nights. Thankfully within a week or so he was back to his normal routine going to sleep on his own and for the most part sleeping all night.

So, when we got set to move locations again I fully intended to see the return of the sleep regression monster. To my surprise X has kept to his routine, for the most part, in the 2 weeks we've been in the new house. Last night he even slept 12 hours straight! Right now as I type I can hear his slow soft breathing in the monitor as he rests peacefully in his room. With all the exhaustion of moving and unpacking, I am truly thankful for the gift of his sleeping which has allowed me to sleep as well.

And on that note it is off to bed I go.....

Why I Love My New Backyard

This is the view from the side of our deck.

And, there are ducks!

How cool is that!!

Movin In

The first few days at the new house were consumed with painting and cleaning. While we gained possession on a Wed, we didn't end up sleeping here until that Sunday. We had decided it would just be easier to get some things done before we moved in (aka, before X was here full time). Walter and I worked like dogs pulling in 16 hour days Wed - Sunday. We would get up and play with X for a bit, then head over to the house leaving X with my mom. We'd work all day long, then one of us would go back to my parent's house to put X to bed, then come back over to the house to work until the wee hours of the morning. We were only sleeping 4 hours or so a night at that point. We rented a paint sprayer to do all the ceilings. Here's my man with the spray gun. Like the concoction of trash bags I've got going to cover up the ceiling fan??!!

We still haven't painted what were the old owner's kids bedrooms, but I'm torn about painting over these cute little drawings that their kids had done on the wall just above the light switch. See, we knew the previous owners, so I know who these kids are. It's not like they are just random people. What to do?? I've thought about leaving them and having X make a little drawing of his own next to it when he gets bigger.

Here's Walter painting the kitchen. We took it from a golden yellow to a more neutral tan. Can you see all the windows in the background. I love how much light this house gets and how open the floor plan is!

Here's a classy shot. Me balancing between a vacuum cleaner and a step stool with a set of scaffolding on the side. I look like Halloween too with my orange and black paint clothes.

My mom, bless her heart, was nice enough to clean all our kitchen cabinets and put new shelf liner in. It looks so nice and fresh now!

We technically moved in on Sunday. By then the big painting jobs that required massive ladders and scaffolding was complete so it was safe for X to come over. Here he is with his great grandma taking a reading break.

Then he had some lunch and gave a little wave to the camera. Since we now have a finished basement, we were able to set up the pack n play in a bedroom down there and let him nap while we moved stuff in on the main floor. It was great because he was far enough away from the noise that it didn't disturb him. Plus, it was kind of a warm day and the basement bedroom was nice and cool.

A shot of our very messy kitchen on moving day. We have some great slate floors in the kitchen. The door that is open on the left leads out to our screened in porch -- it's soooo neat!

The joys of home ownership....here's me cleaning one of the bathrooms. I had so many different cleaners going it got a little intense so I opted for the mask!

Revived from his nap, X was happy to play in the storage POD on the driveway that was now empty. He thought it was pretty cool that if you jumped up and down it echoed.

I was very diligent in marking boxes with their contents when I was packing up the old house. I came across this when unpacking the kitchen. Kind of an unlikely combination, don't ya think?

Our first morning in the house was Monday, which meant Walter was going back to work after being off for 5 days. He and X decided to share a bowl of cereal on the couch first.

Here's X having some grapes later in the day amongst all the boxes. Poor kid probably wondered what the heck was going on with all this junk lying around.

Actually, he was having a field day with stuff all over the floor. We had to install some shelving in the pantry so for a few days all our food was in Rubbermaid totes on the floor. X took a liking to picking up canned goods toting them around the house, then dropping them on my hardwood floors. Needless to say I quickly remedied that by moving all the food boxes to higher ground.

The remainder of this week has been filled with mostly unpacking stuff. I still have a ways to go, but we're getting there. I'm just thrilled to be here!

The Wedding

Two weekends ago was my uncle's wedding. With the move and all I hadn't had a chance to download my pics. I finally caught up on that today. Despite rain in the afternoon it was a lovely evening. Here's X all freshly bathed and dressed up ready for his fancy night out. Of course puppy had to come along with us too.

I was terrified X would act up during the ceremony. It was a small wedding so his voice would have been heard. We came prepared with snacks, books, Binky's, etc. I managed to keep him quiet by whispering the lines from one of his favorite books over and over in his ear while the vows were being said! After the ceremony, which was inside, there was a cocktail hour outside. We managed to get a pretty decent family photo with one squirmy little boy.

This was during the cocktail hour. The wedding took place at a beautiful old home and they had a really nice back patio and garden area.

Here's mister man with his shirt all untucked after he'd been running around the lawn.

The only problem was that since it had rained earlier in the day the grass was all wet. Well, try keeping a 1 year old, who loves to wander, off the grass. It was impossible. We ended up rolling up his pant legs in order to try and keep them from getting wet. It made for a great look as you can see. By the end of that hour his shoes, socks, and pants were soaking wet. Fortunately I had extra pants and socks in my bag and he just went shoeless during the dinner.

Here's the happy couple just a short while after becoming "Mr and Mrs". Don't they look all in love and stuff!!

This was my fabulous find of a dress. (Ignore my cheesy grin!) I got it at the Goodwill 3 days before the wedding for $4.00 -- and it still had the tags on it! I borrowed a pair of shoes from a friend since my brown shoes were packed away in our storage unit.

I like this "cousins" photo. It's not often that we're all in the same state at the same time!

This was the latest that X has ever been out. I figured he'd fall asleep halfway through the reception, but he stayed awake for the entire thing! We brought his jammies and got him all dressed and snugly in his car seat for the hour ride home. He fell sound asleep in the car and thankfully we were able to just transfer him to the crib when we got home.

Congrats Drew and Susie -- it was a great night for all !