The Poop Incident

Every night, as part of his nighttime routine, Jeffrey gets a few minutes of naked time. We're big proponents of naked time because it's just too dang adorable to watch those little buttcheeks run down the hall. Sometimes, it's just the short stroll from his room to his bathroom (bath is the next step), but sometimes it's a bit longer. Such was the case on Tuesday night. He'd finished nursing, but Jony was still doing something and wasn't quite ready to get the bath ready. So, I just stripped him down and let him go. I was planning on showering during bath and story time so that Jony and I could watch Glee together after the wee one was in bed, so I went to get my stuff together. Every so often, Jeffrey would come visit me to see what was going on. I also heard him playing with our bathroom door and the door jam. About five minutes later, I was ready to get in the shower and Jeffrey's bath was all set up and ready to go. Then, I saw something real nasty looking on the perch into our shower. I made Jony investigate. It was poop. Just a tiny piece, though, so we knew there had to be more. We found another small piece on the floor in the bathroom. We checked his booty and verified that a poop had definitely occurred. He had his first wipe with actual toilet paper at that time. Then, the search begin. Luckily, we found it pretty quickly. It seems he hadn't been just playing with the door jam. It was a pretty hilarious experience. I'm pretty happy that I saw that tiny little piece because who knows how long it would have taken to see those little turdlets behind our bedroom door?!? I was excited afterwards that he peed all over the bathroom floor. Why? That means that there wasn't also a puddle somewhere randomly in the house.

So, there we have our first poop incident. A nice little foreshadowing of things to come in our potty training future!

In case you're wondering, I DO have a picture of the poop. I'll save you from that, but, yes, we're those parents. Our only regret is that he's not in the picture. It could have been great for a senior slide show ;)

Wordless Wednesday

Time to Catch My Breath

Our weekends have been SO hectic lately, and I love it. I've always been one to thrive on being way too busy, and Jeffrey is at such a great age that it's easy to do that. When you have a walker, all sorts of new doors open up! He can now do anything he wants- play outside, truly play at the playground, go wherever he wants to go to explore, and I don't have to just hold him or carry him around. Mr. Independent is even more independent now. He's also Mr. Social with a calender that's more full than mine could ever be. My 11 month old has made more friends than me in 24 years, lol.

Friday night was date night, and we finally tackled the first date of The Great Date Experiment. It was SO much fun and so needed. We had great conversation (that didn't involve Jeffrey, for the most part!) and truly enjoyed each other's company. I'd highly recommend participating. We can't wait for the second date- hopefully sometime within the next month! With Jeffrey not nursing as much and eating solids so well, it's so much easier for us to just drop him off at the grandparents and have ourselves a good time. Did I mention how much I love this age?!?

Saturday morning was low-key, but in the afternoon the three of us decked ourselves out in purple and (along with my dad) headed out to the Battle of the Piney Woods, which is one of the oldest football rivalries in TX between Stephen F. Austin (where Jony and I went) and Sam Houston. It was a great game, and Jeffrey loved all the people and music and excitement. I searched high and low for a purple shirt for him and the ONE onesie that I managed to find without ruffles or sequins ended up being perfect! We even ironed on "Go Jacks!" to really get him in the spirit. He's a lucky charm, too, because we won! My mom made us a celebratory roast, and Jeffrey got to chase his MeMaw around all night.

Sunday? Phew. Sunday was busy. It started with working in the church nursery, which Jeffrey loves. He has a 3 year old buddy there that he adores. They were making car noises the whole time together. Adorable. Then, lunch with my mom and dad. That afternoon, Jeffrey and I were off to one of his good friend's 1st birthday parties. He had so much fun with the balloons (he managed to sit on one and pop it, haha!) and munching on strawberries, crackers, and grapes. From there, we met Jony at a friend's birthday BBQ. By the time we all got home last night, we were exhausted. Thus, Jeffrey has managed to skip bath time three nights in a row. Little stinky is definitely going to get scrubbed tonight!

After a long and busy weekend, it's nice to get back to the somewhat slower paced week.

Wordless Wednesday

11 Months!

Wait, what?!? It's unbelievable to think that he'll be ONE YEARS OLD in just a mere month. Yikes.

It's been awesome at our house. He is incredibly fun. We're constantly running around and chasing each other; he makes the silliest faces and just basically loves his life. My favorite thing that he does is sign "hug" while he's running at you then when he's almost to you, he squeals and runs off. Freaking adorable. On the flip side, though, he's perfected the whine and the tantrum. Bummer.

11 Month Stats:

• 19.2 lb and 29 inches (approximately)
• mostly in 9 or 12 month clothes, although it ranges from 6-18 months
• He's getting 6-7 hour stretches at night! Sometimes longer. He's transitioned to one nap a day for about 2 hours, and it's just getting better. We also nightweaned, although he still eats about 5am on some days.
• He eats great and is not longer throwing his food. Meat has become #1 in his life, especially chicken. He's now eating all 3 meals and also requests some snacks throughout the day.
• 3 teeth with one about to pop through at any moment
• walks 100% of the time and is attempting to run
• has added bath, hug, water, cat, hat and a few others to his signing repertoire
• can actually "say" dog and night-night
• loves to throw and kick balls
• initiates hugs and actual kisses
• will pull up his shirt if you ask him to show you his bellybutton (usually accompanied by a squeal and running around in a circle; he gets really excited about it
• turns the pages of his books and reads to himself

A Weekend at the Farm

My parents own a farm in East Texas that we get away to every once in awhile. We were actually free this last weekend, so off we went. It's always fun- filled with relaxing on the porch swing, eating good food, and lots of quality time with the family (my parents and my sister's family were there, as well). The boys usually like to wander off and get into trouble: mowing, cutting up trees, etc. Since Jeffrey is not quite ready for all of that yet, he decided to do all that he could back at the house. This weekend just about killed me.We messed with his schedule both Friday and Saturday, so he didn't sleep very well. This makes for a tired baby. A tired baby means a baby that is extremely accident prone. This is what my poor little guy went through:

• slammed his head down into the concrete porch (he does downward facing dog a lot when he's being shy/coy, and he was excited about my parents' dog paying attention to him so he did it pretty hard)
• stood up underneath the table and smacked the top of his head since he's too tall for it, apparently
• fell on top of a fence prop (for photos) and got his thumb stuck in the part that folds, skinned his knee, and got a long scratch on his forearm
• fell on the corner of a shoe box and got a big scratch above his eyebrow (right underneath the big scab from the concrete incident)
• other smaller, miscellaneous normal falls

He's also teething, poor thing. That fourth tooth is just about to pop through the skin. So, it was a rough weekend for him. He, however, managed it all quite well and still had a fantastic time. He loves being outside, so it was a great time for him in the big field with the two dogs and his cousin. I, on the other hand, am still recovering.

his concrete boo-boo: before it scabbed over and was joined by the eyebrow scratch

It doesn't help that today he ran into his room and climbed underneath his crib. He then hit his head when trying to stand up and scraped off his scab. I had to pull out a crying little baby (not easy. at all) from underneath the crib and tend to his bleeding head. Ugh. 

crawling under his crib, right before the craziness occurred 

The Invites are Out!

Talk About Productive!!

I'm very proud of myself today. I have gotten SO much accomplished. Usually, it's amazing when I'm able to do the laundry or put a load of dishes in the dishwasher. Today, though? Wow.

• finished/ordered Jeffrey's 3-6 Month photo book
• reserved the park for Jeffrey's birthday (yay!)
• addressed all the envelopes for Jeffrey's birthday invitations (which will be completed tonight and mailed tomorrow. Finally)
• made an appointment for Coco the dog to go to the vet for her annual check-up
• made Jeffrey's 12 month appointment (what.the.crap)
• fed/entertained/enjoyed my almost 11 month old son

Phew. Where did I find the energy to do all of this? That would be from Jeffrey sleeping through the night! Yes, that would be choirs singing in the background that you're hearing. It's amazing. 9pm-7am. Plus, I nursed him in bed when he woke up, earning me an extra hour of snoozing. Awesome.

Let's keep this up, Tiny, and who knows how much mommy can accomplish?!?

Wordless Wednesday

The Countdown Begins...

I have to face the music: my baby is turning 1 next month. What comes with that? My baby is having a birthday party next month. Yikes. I guess I really need to get started on that! I started getting things together about a week ago when I hit a snag. The location that we want to have the party at doesn't make reservations until 3 weeks beforehand. WHAT?!? How am I supposed to send out invitations?!? Not like we have the invitations made, but it stresses me out. It's only about four weeks away now, so I'm hoping that they'll just go with it. It's only a park, after all. How strict can they really be? We're planning on taking the invite pictures tonight and getting that started; hopefully, those will be out next week! It's kinda short notice for me, but I have to remind myself that it's only a child's birthday party. Not a wedding. It's going to be a big (well, not really) casual affair, so it's nothing to get stressed over.

I'm not sure that I've mentioned our party plans already, but we're doing a primary colored "theme." I have all the plates, napkins, silverware, etc. in primary colors. I've ordered his birthday shirt in primary colors, and I plan to make all the decorations the same. We're having cupcakes and a smash cake for Jeffrey along with some fun little things for the little ones to play with: a tunnel, balls, etc. I'm hoping that I'm able to pull together what I have in my mind and make it a fun, successful affair. If anything, I just have to make the pictures look good so Jeffrey thinks that it was ;)

Look at him go!

I took this video last week, and he's already faster and better!


Hallway Fun from imavera on Vimeo.

A Day in the Capital

We found out late late last week that Jony's work was hoping that he would be willing to get to Austin for some interviews at UT that Monday. Since they were covering th hotel costs, we figured why not?!? I didn't have any plans, so we packed up and left Sunday early afternoon towards the lovely Austin, TX.

Since we didn't have anywhere we needed to be until Monday morning, we took our time getting there. There's a pretty awesome outlet mall about an hour out, so we decided to stop there for lunch and to get Jeffrey some shoes. Since his old Robeez had worn out, we figured it was a sign. We knew we needed to get some shoes for outdoor wear, as well, since he was really starting to walk. It was a beautiful day, so we ate outside. Jeffrey LOVED that.

We got to Austin and settled into our swanky hotel right on the UT campus. We lounged around in the room for a bit so Jeffrey could get his play on and then decided to just walk around a little bit- both to just see the campus a bit and to test out Jeffrey's new kicks.

For dinner, I went and say one of my greatest friends who abandoned me and moved to this crazy place (it's actually a really cool city that really fits into Jony and I's lifestyle). It was so good to see her, and I'm looking forward to being in her wedding in January (even if that's the reason that she left me).

Monday, Jeffrey and I just lounged around the hotel and on the green in front of the belltower on campus. A lazy day with gorgeous weather. We even got videotaped by an amateur filmmaker student just interacting outside. Pretty interesting. We were able to have lunch and dinner with Jony.

After dinner, we attempted to go to Zilker Park to play. Jeffrey, however, passed out on the way, and the park was all closed up to set up for ACL (Austin City Limits- kind of a big deal there) anyways. We had to stop about an hour later for Jeffrey to nurse. So, we did his bath routine (sans the bath, obviously) in the car. Including his bedtime story. He fought going back to sleep, but, with the help of some Veggie Tale friends and the iPhone, he passed out.

Overall, a fun and relaxing trip. Even though we really didn't do anything, it was fun to accompany Jony on his business adventure. Much better than the alternative of just staying home by ourselves and doing nothing!

Wordless Wednesday

These shoes were made for walking...

We had an impromptu trip to Austin this weekend for a business venture (another post about that coming soon), but we had an even bigger adventure on our way up there! There's a really nice outlet mall along the road that heads towards the capital of TX, so we decided to break up the journey a bit/wear the little guy out so that he could sleep the rest of the way there. While there, we got Jeffrey his first pair of actual shoes. He's been sportin' the Robeez for quite a few months now, and we're a really big fan of those. However, his cute little puppy shoes had the elastic break in one of them. It was a sad day. We took it as a sign that we needed to hit the shoe store, especially since he's really starting to pick up on the walking. He was so excited, and I just think it's too adorable. He was measured to be a size 3.5, so we got him a 4. We also got a new pair of Robeez (with aliens on them! adorable!) for when he'll be indoors primarily. He looks like such a little boy in them!!!

I did it!

It's no marathon, but for someone who doesn't run/work out and only managed to train for one day, running the ENTIRE 5K this morning was a pretty big accomplishment for me this morning. Yup, I actually managed to do it. Now, it wasn't super fast, and I definitely didn't win any awards. But, I did it. It was a goal I set for myself to do this year, and I accomplished it. That feels really good.

What doesn't feel good, though: How sore I already am. The fact that my knees hurt because I should have bought new running shoes at least a year go. This weird pain with my right hip.

Oh well. It was worth it to get that sense of accomplishment. Give me a week, and I'll be over the hurt.