Christmas Photos

Well we braved the mall the weekend before Christmas and tortured the family with photos in the name of Christmas. Let me just say it is virtually impossible to get one single decent family picture when one or both of you are trying to tickle, talk, play or poke a baby into smiling. Poor Case had a very rough night the day before pictures (his teeth have really been giving him fits) so he wasn’t in the most smiley mood. Anyway the deed is over and we won’t have to do it again until next year. Hopefully we can find at least one to put on the wall.

I was literally jumping up and down and making funny noises in order to get him to smile for this pic. (In order to get Case to smile, not Cody).

Shaking this jingle bell finally shook out some smiles out of Case at the very end.

Why didn't we have this bell at the beginning of the photo shoot! He is all smiles now.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Brother! We love you and miss you up here in Colorado. Hope you have a great day and fab weekend. XOXO!

When Do Kids Get Mean?

Okay, here is my questions to everyone out there. When do kids get mean? Case has been around a couple different kids the past couple weeks and all of them have been older and meaner. I'm talking about smacking, hitting, pushing, taking things out of others hands, spitting, etc. I know small children don't understand that they can hurt another person and they are not being intentionally mean, but it still hurts Case when gets smacked in the head with a toy truck. He has been a victim of all these violent offences over the past couple weeks and his little face tells the tale that he just doesn't understand why someone would do this to him. Knock on wood, but Case does not do these things yet. So tell me, when can I expect his cards to turn or is my baby cut from a different page? And should he be playing with other kids who act like this (I want to prolong this behavior as long as possible)? Thoughts? Opinions? Share please.


Who would want to be mean to this sweetie?!

Coming To Get Ya!

Case is moving up and down the stairs like a pro. I still keep a watchful eye on him while cruising up and down but now I feel a smidge better knowing he has the basic skills to maneuver relatively safely from the first floor to the second.

Thanksgiving Recap

We had a great time visiting friends and family over the Thanksgiving weekend. This was one of the first trips home that actually felt like a trip because we got to take off our shoes and stay awhile. I was able to spend lots of time with family, see friends I hadn’t seen since the wedding, took a trip to the mall, had drinks with my high school cronies, and dinner out at a restaurant. I got to see so many people and do so many fun things I don't have room to post about everything. Here are just a few.

I guess Case wanted to make sure we took him to see grandma because he kept crawling into the suitcase while I packed. Don't forget me please!


Rana, Chad (hubby) and Ayden (pictured below) drove all the way from Arkansas to visit for the afternoon. It was such a special visit. The boys are just a few month apart in age and got along just fine until Ayden touched Case's blanket late in the afternoon during picture time. An eventful day + new environment + unfamiliar sleeping arrangements + someone touching his blankie = too much to handle. Witness the meltdown.

A night out with Jeane (seen below) was relaxing and fun. We cruised the mall and had a great gabby dinner. Earlier in the day I met up with Susan at the mall. She always reminds me to loosen up. Case wanted to crawl at the mall so she let him crawl. That boy crawled down the center walkway from Dillards to Macy's and had a blast smiling at everyone along the way. The scene looked like she was walking a baby dog minus the leash. It was so funny! I miss my girlfriends.

Thanksgiving day. Look at that sexy hunk of mine! He even left the Thanksgiving party early so Case could take a much needed nap and I could stay with my family. What a sweetie. Don't worry, he made it back early evening in time for pie.

Since we won't be home for Christmas, great grandma and grandpa had a mini Christmas for Case after Thanksgiving dinner. Thank you great grandma and grandpa, Case loves all his discovery toys.

Eaten Out of House and Home

Is this normal? We had a couple housesit while we were gone over Thanksgiving and they ate us out of house and home! These two people ate entire boxes of unopened goldfish, vanilla wafers, graham crackers, cheese crackers, 2 lbs of lunch meat, 4 bag of chips, 30 eggs, an entire bowl of Halloween candy, 2 pkgs of Hersheys bars, 1 ½ gallons of milk and half of a gallon of ice cream! Here is the kicker, one is a personal trainer and another one is training for the Olympics! How could they have eaten so much crap in 6 days?!

Moving on Up

Case is moving on up in the world. As you can see he is busy mastering the stairs. Up and down he has mastered both.

P.S. I am not sure I like this Picaso thing. It took forever to figure out how to get this collage things to work and now I can't get my text to stop being centered. I don't know if this thing saves my picture edits or not. I just don't like new things! Help to those who use Picaso.

"Helper"

Remember how I said one of Cases favorite chores is “helping” with the dishes. Just look below to see what a big boy helper I have on my hands. People we are literally talking 3-4 times a day we play this game. Fun, fun, fun.

Here we are digging through the pots and pan cabinet.

Are we ready to cook? I have all the cooking utensils out and ready. Which one do you need mom?

Case even likes to put the dishes in the dishwasher after we are done. Only problem is he likes to take all the dirty dishes out and strew them all over the floor.

Ummmmmm!

I love cool whip!

Big Helper!

Case is becoming so active! He is 14 months old and has decided that ‘pulling up’ is for woosies and he's going to skip that step entirely. Instead he is trying to just flat-out-in-the-middle-of-the room stand on his own. Currently we are working on mastering the stairs. He can go up, but down is a bit harder. He is a crawling machine and loves to be chased and chasing others (sorry pets). He has even started to pretend. Whenever he pretends to drink or eat he makes little chewing noises and ends with a fake a satisfied sigh. It’s adorable to watch! He knows how to give five, wave hi and bye, tell you in gesture how big he is, give kisses (when he wants to), say dog and cat. He can even make snake noises and bird sounds on request.

Plus Case is becoming a big “helper.” Some of his favorite chores are laundry and dishes. But he also loves to throw things away and shut the trash can. He loves them so much that I leave a trash in a pile for him to dispose of whenever we are in the kitchen. His culinary skills are developing at warp speed because I can’t seem to cook anything without perching my baby on my hip. Of course he can turn lights on and off and open and shut doors like a pro. He is eating with a fork and is quite proud of himself. Spoons are a bit harder to manipulate because everything falls off, but a fork, now that is fun.

Other disgusting curiosities include a fascination with the toilet and everything that goes with it. He loves watching “stuff” go down the drain and then shutting the lid. Of course he is still a ladies’ man and is up to 5 teeth. Yup, life is busy and he is a busy bee.

More Please!!!!!

Our second Halloween was full of fun. We went to the mall tonight and had lots of fun watching the other kids. Plus Case was amazed at how people just kept putting things in his pumpkin. Here he is surveying the loot when we got home.

Licking my first tootsie roll. Ahhhhh, heaven.

More please! Look at this big ol mouth trying to get another lick of tootsie roll. I think he liked it.

Peeking

Peek-a-boo! What a cute little mug peeking over the tub wall.

Awwwww's

Move over Amelia. Case is in the house. The kids are dressing up this week at the day care facility so Case put on his pilot outfit and received plenty of awwwwww's.

Dumb and Dumber

While Case and I were waiting for the 3 hours it took to fix my brakes yesterday we wandered over to Walmart. I decided the boy was looking a tad shaggy and needed a haircut. The woman at the store was very nice. She sat him on his little cushion. Put on his little brightly colored cape. Gave him a souvenir comb to play with and began spraying his hair. She had all his hair combed forward when she asked me how I wanted it cut. Before I could reached out to brush his hair to the side and show her how he wore it, she took the scissors and snipped his hair straight across! Gasp!! The hair drama continues.....Let’s just say, have you ever seen dumb and dumber? Jim Carrey sported a very very short bowl cut. That is Case’s exact hair cut. Thank goodness he has cuteness on his side until this butchery grows out.

Ruined Forever

The movies have been ruined for me forever. Last night I watched Slumdog Millionaire. It took me 6 hours to go to sleep afterwards. Was it a good movie? Yes. Will I ever watch it again? No. Having a child does something to you and the tv/movie industry. Two years ago, I probably would have watched Slumdog and thought it a provoking movie, shocking but good. Now after having a baby, all I see is Slumdog and its horribly true depictions of child poverty, abuse and overall injustice which kept my stomach turning 6 hours later. Do I know things like this happen? Yes, but do I want to watch them happening? No, not in this phase of my life.

I guess I will be sticking to romantic comedy for the future.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

This video is actually months and months old, but I found it on the computer the other day and had to post it. The old saying goes, laughter is the best medicine. Well if that's true, a child laughter must work miracles!

Case and Cora

I had a great time this weekend catching up with an old friend who blew through town for a quick visit! We were super close friends in our younger years and lost touch after high school. However we found each other again through facebook not to long ago. Its amazing how similar our lives have paralleled despite having such little contact over the past 10(+) years. Here we were hanging out at the home front. P.S. She hasn't changed one ounce since high school! Lucky duck.


I also got to meet Cora, Kristy's beautiful daughter. Case and Cora were so cute together! The played along side one another the entire time. I think Case was smitten because he spent much of his time trying to find toys and blocks to give to Cora to chew on. As you can see, he was happy to have a playmate and she was appreciative of his block gifts. Adorable!



Kristy it was great seeing you and your beautiful family. Can't wait for another visit!

What are all the moms doing?

Now that Case is getting a bit older I have a couple questions. First of all he is eating with Cody and I almost every evening meal. As a mother, am I supposed to be providing some kind of dessert for him? I have friends with kids and it seems like every time we eat with them or they come over for dinner, dessert is a part of the meal. Just wondering what ya’ll do with your kids.

Second, I have finally finished scrapbooking Cases first year. It was a huge undertaking but the book is complete. And I must say that I am really pleased with myself. Every milestone and development is eternally scrapbooked. In fact every blog entry you all have read has been printed, photographed, papered and put down in the book forever more. I actually don’t know who will ever care about all the work I did except me. I mean really, Case is a boy and probably won’t care one hoot when his first tooth came in, how old he was when he smiled, or what he was for his first Halloween, but I think it is important to have it documented nonetheless. Needless to say the book is pretty large, so in an effort to be a good mom, am I supposed to do a book for every year?

Third, Case is a big boy now, but doesn’t like milk. He still prefers formula. Am I supposed to be pushing milk or is formula okay? Actually his drinking system is off. He drinks milk before naps and bedtime (save your finger wagging, it is what it is) and drinks water throughout the day. I know they say to give them milk at meals, but he just doesn’t want it. What am I supposed to be doing with this situation? Sounds like a lot of books. What are all the moms doing?

Fourth, to baby proof or not to baby proof. I talked to a mom the other day who actually made me feel bad about using baby gates for the stairs and locks under the cabinets. Her tone and look told the entire story. She was like, ‘oh we never used those things. We just taught him not to get in certain cabinets or go certain places.’ I don’t give a flying hoot, we still installed the locks this weekend and have been using the gates since he started rolling, but I was just wondering, did ya’ll baby proof?

Finally, he has lost interest in his books. Before he was all about playing with his books and being read to but now he won’t have any of it. Reading is important for their intellectual growth, so how do I get him back on books or is this just a phase and I should wait out. Thanks for all the help from the moms who are in the trenches everyday.

Try Not To Panic

What would you do if you woke up to hear your baby crying, went into his room and found this…..


What a fright! Surprising enough I didn’t panic. Cody and I checked his mouth to make sure he didn’t lose a tooth or cut his mouth in his sleep somehow. After we both gave the all clear on those things we deduced that Case had his first nose bleed. Needless to say the humidifier is back in action and up and running during naps and night time from here on out. The Colorado air is dry, and Cody gets nose bleeds all the time, but I never would have expected something like this with Case. Needless to say I am glad its over and I hope we don't have a repeat later on in the season.

Big Boy

Case had his 1 year photographs taken today and my what a big boy he is becoming!


Look at my chompers.


Hey baby, how you doin.'


On the move.

And of course, one with his lovey.

Pumpkin Patch

The family had a lovely day at the pumpkin patch. The weather was wonderful. The pumpkins were huge and the fun was even larger. The pumpkin farm was really a fun place for young kids with lots of little tike rides and picture ops. Yee-haw! Ride em' Cowboy!


Playing in a tub full of corn was a special treat, because Case only gets to play in tubs filled with water at home.


Look at me. Roping the doggies.


Ahhh, fun.

Case was interested in the farm animals until this crazed beast bleated loudly in his face. Meltdown city. I don't think Case will be the same around petting zoo's again. Stupid sheep.

If we could of gotten a smile out of him for this pic it would have been my fav.

Moving Forward

Case is moving forward in so many ways. First of all, he is crawling forward. That’s right we finally have forward motion. That is not to say the boy hasn’t been getting around. Ever since he decided rolling was worth his time Case has been making some ground. Just the other day he crawled, scooted and wiggled his way out of his room, down the hall, into our room and then back to his room again. Last week he also has produced his second tooth and is currently working on his third.

In other developments, apparently Case has figured out that the camera has a flash. So whenever we get ready to take a picture and say, "smile" this is the face we get.

Case has also become a stacking pro. The other day I witnessed a tower he produced that was 9 blocks high! The tower below is only a few blocks tall but is still evidence of his brilliant hand eye coordination. And I promise, mommy didn't help build the tower.

Hot Air!

Labor Day weekend was full of excitement. First of all Aubrey came to visit and run in the American Discovery Trail half marathon. We finished 13.5 miles in 2:53 minutes. Don't worry, her visit wasn't all work and no play. We had a great time at the hot air balloon festival, checking out artists at an outdoor art festival in manitou, taking in the scenery at Garden of the Gods, enjoying practice runs before the big day, gorging ourselves on pasta and sitting by and outdoor fire eating victory smores. The weekend was great. Here are some pics of the balloon festival and running fun.

Filling up.

These things were huge!

There were so many!

Ta-Da!

All I can say is wow.


At the night glow.

Proud runners showing off their medals.

Silly Rabbit

Case has begun to develop a sense of humor and he is a card! His favorite prank is to hand you something and then pull it away right before you get it. Hilarity ensues. He even practices his little gag with the dogs. As you can see below, he is drawing the dog in with the idea she will get a tasty piece of cereal only to pop the morsel into his own mouth. Actually after a few gags, he was very generous with the dogs. He fed himself a bite and then the dog got a bite. Jaylynn was appreciative and so gentle with him. I hope his fun loving sense of humor and gestures of generosity continues throughout life.

The Price We Pay for Fun

Gina only thought I was kidding when I said I was going to start feeding Case on the floor because it would be easier to just clean the floor than cleaning up both the highchair and the floor each feeding! However there he is, my little cookie monster, enjoying some banana pudding on the floor. Actually I didn’t start out feeding him on the floor but he grabbed the bowl out of my hands and poof! Instant mess. So I decided to let him go with it and boy howdy did he have fun. I’ve mopped the floor twice and don’t know if it will ever feel the same again. Oh well, that is the price we pay for fun!



If you look real hard you can even see his pearly white. Yummm, pudding.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy birthday baby boy! We are so blessed to have had one wonderful year with you and look forward to a lifetime of more birthdays to come.

Cody and I had a birthday party for Case back in OKC on Monday. Case cleaned house and received drums (oh my), balls, clothes, music and CD player, activity centers, a learning train and money for more goodies later. As you can see, most of his presents were bigger than him!

Case also got to meet his Nana (Cody’s mom) for the first time which made the day that much more special.

The little guy was tired by the end of the afternoon and not pleased about playing in his cake, which is supposed to be the grand finale of any first birthday. He disliked the cake so much he started crying and was inconsolable. We finally had to take the cake away. In fact, any time he saw cake the rest of the day he began to cry. Even through the tears he still melted everyone’s heart because before the cake he was all smiles. And the boys smile is irresistible!

Back in a party mood thanks to some hugs and fun from dad. Happy birthday Case! Mommy loves you!