Politically Incorrect Toy!

You don't expect to win Miss America first thing in the morning, but you also don't expect a toy to insult you either...

When I woke up (early) this morning, I was looking way less than attractive. I had baggy eyes, mascara flecks all underneath them since I hadn't washed my face the night before. I was wearing totally mismatched pj's since all my matching ones were in the dirty clothes, thrown in there after being covered with J's snot, drool, and who knows what else. I was definitely not pageant queen quality, but hey, it was 7:00 am and I really didn't care that much.

Anyways, I plopped Johnathan in his pack 'n' play and decided to sit a spell on the couch to sort of ease into the day..."MOO, COW!" As soon as I sat down, unknowingly on one of J's toys, it decided to insult me! Haha! I probably wouldn't have thought anything of it, but I guess I was already on edge about feeling a bit frumpy, and the talking toy summed it up!

This afternoon I got dressed up (jeans, t-shirt, and some make-up!) and Johnathan and I headed out to the mall. I bought a couple of cute shirts (75% clearance sale!), and one of these days when I'm not covered in baby goo, I'm going to really get dolled up and give Miss America a run for her money! Haha! That'll be the day! :)

My Baby is Brilliant!

I may be a bit biased, but Johnathan is really showing signs of extreme intelligence these days! (I might be stretching that just a tad!) Maybe he is just doing "normal" baby things, but I still think he's a smartie-pants! Here are just a few signs of his baby genius:

1) When handed his hair brush he tries to brush his hair, and will pat himself on the head with the brush.

2) After waking up from sleep, I tell him to "put your paci to bed" and he will drop his pacifier into his bed. Then we wave bye-bye to the paci, and tell it goodnight. (We have been trying to wean him slowly from the pacifier, so I was surprised that he caught on so quickly to letting it go, and keeping it in his crib until nap time).

3) I will walk out to the mailbox with him, while he's holding the outgoing mail, and when I open the box he will put the mail inside.

4) After I take off his shirt, he will grab it and try to put it on top of his head to get it back on.

There are a lot of little things that we work on throughout the day, just little things to teach him about every day life. I talk to him all the time, and I will explain to him what I'm doing...whether it's changing out the laundry, putting up the dishes, making his dinner, dressing him or changing him, etc. I'm always talking! Maybe he is actually catching on to some of these things that I'm teaching him...which means that I really need to watch it! Obviously he is paying attention to me, so I need to be the best example possible for him to learn from! :)

Johnathan has continued to pass his developmental milestones. Just in the last couple of days he has started to cruise along the couch. Before long I suppose he'll be walking! I can't believe how quick he is learning everything. He is really starting to phase out of babyhood and enter toddler-ville. *sniff, sniff* At least I can look at it this way, pretty soon he'll be able to take out the trash...something his daddy is apt to forget!

New Look, Same Great Blog!

After one year plus of writing on my blog, I figured it was time for an update on its look. After all, Johnathan is a "big boy" now, and the pastel baby colors just don't quite fit him anymore. You can still expect the same wonderful quality of writing, haha! So no worries y'all, we may have changed our look, but we're still the same great blog! (Wow, am I patting myself on the back or what?!)

I'm Climbing!

This week Johnathan has learned to crawl on all fours, pull up onto things and to climb! The funny thing is that he's been sick since last Wednesday, but even through that hurdle he has really tackled these developmental milestones with gusto! I no longer have a calm little baby who is content to stay in one place, oh no, he is a baby on the go now! Life has suddenly gotten a lot busier with me chasing my sweet little rug-rat all over the floor. He is fascinated with every little thing...especially the "forbidden" things like power cords, Aaron's laptop, my cell phone (as you can see from the picture), the fireplace and the list could go on and on! It is so exciting to watch him learn and grow. I absolutely love it!

A Week in the Life of Johnathan

This week has been filled with many things that are quite common in a baby's life. Playing with doggies, bath-time fun, hide & seek and snuggling with Dada after a long day's play. Common or not, it is these ordinary moments that make my life a joy to live. Each day, no matter how routine, is a day that I look forward to waking up to. This morning for example, Johnathan was eating his bananas by sucking them up directly from the tray on his high chair. They were just a little too slippery to pick up with his fingers, so he improvised and came up with a solution to get those yummy little bites into his mouth. He would face-plant onto his tray, suck with all his might, and then come up victorious, banana in mouth and smeared all over his forehead! Too precious, and just another reason that I love my life as his mommy. Here are a few snapshots into Johnathan's life this past week:

Moron Mommy Moment

Yesterday I felt like a real moron after making a really stupid mistake. Here's the scoop...

...walking through Target, just grabbing a few things needed at home, Johnathan started to get really fussy in his stroller. I picked him up, and headed back to the dressing rooms, figuring I'd nurse him and hopefully calm him down. Well, on the way to the back, he started to get really heavy. So, I just put him back in the stroller for the short distance we had left until we got to the changing rooms...and here's the dumb part...I didn't buckle him in! DO NOT DO THIS!!! Long story short, I'm pushing him down the aisle, talking to my sister Gail on my cell, and all of a sudden I see Johnathan slipping out of the stroller and sliding across the floor on his back with his eyes wide wondering how the heck he got there! I felt like the worst mom in the world as I picked my crying baby up off the floor. Thankfully the foot rest on the stroller broke his fall, and he didn't end up with any bumps or bruises. I however have a huge X on my mommy-who-keeps-her-baby-safe card, and felt awful for the rest of the day yesterday.

Anyways, there it is. I'm not the perfect mother that I thought I was (just kidding, I never thought I was perfect, I just wanted to be!). I do have a renewed sense of keeping Johnathan out of harms way now, and will be keeping an eye out for my own stupidity. I'm sure we've all been there, or will be there someday, so watch out mommas, these moron moments happen when you least expect them!

Simple Life

I am amazed at how quickly Johnathan is changing...he is NOT listening to us when we tell him to stop growing up so fast! :) It is a joy to watch though, and each day it seems as if he's learning something new. His latest thing is to pull up onto things, as you can see in some of the pics below. He loves crawling all over the floor, inspecting every little thing that his baby eyes can see, and boy, do they see a lot! I am constantly pulling him away from this or that to keep him safe. My job as a mom has started to get a little more demanding, that's for sure!

At his 9 month appointment earlier this month he weighed in 2 ounces shy of 18 lbs, was 27.5 inches long and was right on track for all his developmental milestones. All in all in was a quick visit, and J's doctor was very happy with how he was doing, which in turn made me happy too.

Our days here are still pretty routine, in a good way of course! It is a simple life that I am really falling in love with. There is just something so fulfilling about taking care of this precious little life that I'm in charge of. It has its challenges for sure, and I am learning a lot about myself in the process, but I wouldn't change my life for anything in the world. I am finally living my dream, and it's wonderful!

Thank You, Jesus!!!

I'm not going to go into detail because of privacy reasons, but some of you will understand the title of this post. Let's just say that I got some great news today about a dear *friend* of mine, and that she made my day with her phone call. All I can really say is, Thank you, Jesus! You certainly answered some major prayers! I sure love you, sweet *friend*!!!

-Gracie

Babyaholics Anonymous

Hello, my name is Grace. It has been one night since I last slept in the same room as my son. I am a babyaholic.

Okay, so I did not make it two nights in a row sleeping apart from Johnathan. Despite the positive outlook that I started with yesterday, the desire to sleep in his room again was just too hard to resist...especially when Aaron was the one who asked me right before bed "do you want to sleep in his room again tonight?" Maybe this whole giving up of our room sharing was harder on more than just me! There is however a reason as to why Aaron asked that question. I know, I know. You're thinking that denial is one of the first signs of an addiction, but let me explain!

Last night we attended a birthday party for a few of the residents at Aaron's hospital. It was a casino themed party, and a local game company came out for the event. The party started around 8 and we were going to just stop by for a little while to say our hellos, talk to the birthday girls, etc. When we got there they had a caricature artist set up to do portraits, so Johnathan and I had ours drawn...see pic below...it's so cute! Aaron started to play at the Craps table, and by the end of the night he was the big winner! He came out with several thousand dollars worth of coins...all "play money" of course, but he did get some pretty cool prizes.

Anyways, to the whole point of Aaron's question. He figured that after being out later than expected that it would be easier on Johnathan and me if we were in the same room. Johnathan has been consistently waking up 3 times per night to nurse for I don't know how long. So, Aaron didn't want me having to trek across the hallway (albeit a very short hallway) to go get our little Monkey when he needed to eat. How thoughtful of him! Of course as soon as he posed the question I said "okay" in about 0.5 seconds. So you can see that I have not completely given up my room sharing tendencies. Oh well, old habits die hard!

I Have Survived!!!!!

After 9 months, 1 week and 1 night of sleeping in the same room as Johnathan, I decided to take the plunge and, yes, wait for it...let him sleep in his own room, alone!!! The first step toward this goal happened months ago when we moved Johnathan out of our room into his...and then we moved into his room! Haha! I just wasn't quite ready to "let go" back then, and that was about 5 months ago! Last night though, as decided by Aaron, we "moved" back into our room and let Johnathan stay in his. I wasn't sure I could last the whole night away from him, and luckily I didn't have to since he still woke up to nurse 3 times...yes, he still loves his nighttime nursing! I did however go back into my own room after each of our little rendezvous, which surprised even me. The switch wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be, but I do have to admit that when he woke up for good this morning, I sure was happy to walk into his room and see his sweet little smiling face. It was like Christmas morning all over again!

For those of you who know me well, you know what a big step this was for me. So be proud of me...I survived!!! Now we just have to see if I can make it tonight as well! I have a good feeling that I'm going to make it! *wink*

Going Green(er)

Happy 2009, my blog-reading family! I hope you all were able to ring in the new year in style...which would somewhat make up for my lack of style as 2008 melded into 2009. Thanks to Bo's (our dog) extremely scaredy-cat nature when it comes to loud noises (such as people setting off fireworks for New Year's Eve), I was cleaning up his, uh-hem, urine, uh-hem, and actually watched the clock turn from 11:59 to 12:00 while throwing away a soaked paper towel. Not exactly what I had in mind to bring in the new year, but what can I say, life happens 24/7, so I just rolled with the punches!

On a brighter, and much happier note, Aaron delivered the first baby of 2009 in Corpus Christi! A beautiful baby girl, named Ava, who originally was due Christmas Day but came New Year's Day instead. There was an article in our local paper about it, and even though the baby's mother wanted Aaron's name to be mentioned as the doctor, the paper pretty much just focused on the baby and didn't mention his name...too bad, that would have been cool! Haha!

I'm sure many of you have thought about your resolutions for the new year, I know I have. It's just a good time to re-evaluate what you're doing, make some changes, start some new things, stop old things, etc. One of my resolutions is to "go green"...at least in some areas! The main thing that I have been focusing on at the moment is more natural type cleaners in our home. As Johnathan has made his way from the pack'n'play to the floor, I have been a lot more conscientious about what type of treatment I give the floors in order to keep them clean. Before Johnathan I really enjoyed products that smelled nice, pretty much disregarding what was actually in them. But, now that Baby J. is making his way all over the place, I have really started to want to make his environment be a more natural & healthy one. Yesterday I took a trip to our local health foods store, and bought some essential oils to use in some cleaning products I'm going to make (thanks to my friend, Lynsey, for that idea!) and I also purchased some other eco-friendly products for use in my home cleaning. I also de-paper-toweled my kitchen. I have been so addicted to using paper towels, but I am going to try to cure that and have another option in my kitchen now for when I feel the urge to rip, wipe and waste.

I'm not sure how far my whole green living is going to go...probably not as far as I'd like because Aaron already thinks I'm turning into a wacko, but we'll just see what 2009 has to offer my newly acquired sense of environmentally friendliness. Hopefully I'll be able to have a cleaner, safer home and maybe even save some green on the way. Whatever happens, I am really pumped about having a resolution that I think I can stick with! What are some of the resolutions y'all have??? I'd love to hear them!

Blessings in 2009!