At this point in time:

At this point in time:
H loves his Mama and Daddy, and basically anyone who loves him!

Every time when I get him up after a nap or in the mornings, he likes to get a pacifier and blankie.

He loves to stand in the storage space of his step stool and make faces in the mirror. Sometimes he even gets little props (like old pacifiers and books) to see how he looks with them in the mirror.

Waiting for Daddy to come home from work is the most exciting time of our day!

He really likes to clap his puzzle pieces together and hear the loud noise. (He does this with his eyes closed tight - just in case he accidentally hits his face?)

He cries every time we come in from playing outside.

He likes to go push Leonard down and love on him.

He loves to climb on our bed and throw himself on the pillows.

He loves playing peek-a-boo and sharing his snacks with family on the webcam.

He still does not like vegetables, he likes fruits and most kinds of meat, he LOOOVES cheese and goldfish crackers.

He gets apples and peanut butter for snack time, and will eat off the peanut butter and spit out the rest of the apple.

He has discovered the joy of closing doors.

He can say uh-oh, stuck, duck, "arf," mama, dada, ...

He can sign, pacifier, blankie, water, bath, apple, banana, cheese, daddy, meat, more, finished, please, thank you, I love you, fish, Leonard, milk, clean, 'brush off,' bubbles, phone, dog,...

I know that was a lot, but I don't want to forget them!

Playing with blocks while Mama puts her make-up on

A little owl that keeps the door open.
Modeled after this

Peeking under the table skirt
I'm glad it wasn't a woman's!!!

A little light reading: Cats, Money Managing, and cheese

Becoming a little man

This little guy is coming into his own! Becoming more stable at walking, trying new foods, more vocal about his likes and dislikes. It is so fun to see his little personality coming through! I can't wait to see the young boy and eventually young man he will become!

We have discovered that he loves meat! One night, just to see what he would do, we put some kibbeh (lebanese meat dish) on his tray, and to our surprise - he loved it! He now likes french toast, cheese, and will tolerate cooked carrots and bananas, but he loves meat! Breakfast sausage, meatballs, steak, curried chicken salad, and ribs! He learned to sign 'more' while eating ribs!




He also has taken an interest in things with loud motors: vacuums, blow dryers, and drills. Here he is helping his Daddy install a child safety lock to keep our wedding crystal safe!

Becoming a man...becoming like his Daddy.... and uncle, and grandfathers....

those are big shoes to fill!

Then and now

Just a few pics we've enjoyed looking at since H has been growing, and growing out of things!

Then:

First car ride in infant car seat


Now:

First car ride in big boy car seat!
(We hope it will last us until he is about 10 years old!!!)




Then:
Snuggling with Leonard


Now:

Snuggling (harrassing?) Leonard.

Leonard accepts the attention now,
but he tolerated it a lot more when H would just lay there!

I Love SweetHart and PopHart!

My parents came into town for 'the big event' - H's birthday! We enjoyed every minute of it! Here are a few pictures of the visit - I guess it is a lot of pictures, but so much happened!

While running errands before picking them up from the airport, some smoke started to come up from under the hood, so, with a brand new radiator and AC fan, we started with weekend with a bang! It was smooth sailing after that....

Reading before bed.

Bath time with SweetHart
We had to be careful because Nanny's tub is a lot more slippery than ours!

Waking up from nap time in his pack and play. He likes to put his whole pacifier in his mouth, I guess it must feel good? It made us all grin!

Opening his gift from SweetHart and PopHart. Open it quick!

A stool! One that he can use as a seat now, a step stool later, and a storage place any time! Both he and Leonard really liked it!

YAY!

Clapping with Pop

Reading with SweetHart
Have I mentioned that this boy loves to read? He really does!
Thankfully he got some new books for his birthday, I needed a change!

At the airport - we will miss you!

(If you look closely, you can tell that he also got pink eye this weekend....It didn't seem to bother him, it just looks terrible!)




And, he took his first solo steps! N and I thought it would be fun if he took his first steps while my parents were here, but we thought we would have to practice and coax and coax some more, but about 20 minutes after we got to Nanny's, he was playing with SweetHart and took off walking to PopHart. We didn't catch his first steps, but his second - walking to Daddy.

He still crawls to get around, but is beginning to walk more from object to object, and even steps on his tip-toes!

A good day in the world:

A day to remember!

H's first birthday went much like any other day in our lives, except that instead of getting just one taste of ice cream....

He got one whole spoonful!

And he enjoyed every bite of it!


I can't believe this first year has come and gone already!
He has come so far from this:


Nathan realized that we only get about 18 years with them, and one of those is already gone! Slow down, time!



It was a good day

A few of our favorite things...

I have definitely been a little behind in posting lately!  With a Christmas Market behind, a little boy who crawls faster every day, I sent off my last Etsy order yesterday, trying to get Christmas together for our little family, I haven't had much time to do things like blog posts, or if I do have the time, I just want to sit still for a few minutes!  Last week was a crazy one too!  I realized that within one week, N and I had 6 performances, 4 rehearsals, 6 church services, and I'm sure a few other things - which is very normal for us at holiday time, but this is the first time we have gone through all of that with a baby!

So, here are some of our favorite things:

Chewing on celery with Daddy

Discovering ornaments for the first time!

This is one of Mama's favorites:

That little sliver of light that comes through in the mornings.

Mama's favorite 'green' cleaner:

Hehe!  I couldn't resist!  This is a recipe for my favorite all purpose cleaner...

(all measurements are approximate - I don't measure mine, and it works fine every time!)

1/4 cup vinegar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 Tablespoon borax (optional)

a dash of dish soap

2 cups of hot water

A few drops of tea tree oil (optional)

(this just smells nice, and has disinfectant properties - we had it for the diaper wipe solution that we use for H's cloth wipes)

Put all ingredients in a spray bottle, and happy cleaning! (I just pour everything in a squirt bottle - unmeasured - and fill the rest with hot water)

I love using this as it is - 'green,' I don't have to worry about chemicals if I use it around H, and it does a much better job than other cleaners!  I use this to clean the counter tops, tables, and even mop the floor with it!  There were some spots on our OLD kitchen floor that never would come up, and I put a little of this on it, and the spots came right off!

Because cooking/doing the dishes/etc has become difficult due to a baby who likes to try to get into the dishwasher, pull things out of cabinets, and use drawer nobs as teethers, I wanted something in the kitchen that he could play with.  I eventually want to make a set of alphabet letters for the fridge, but for now, we have a jungle!

My mama (H's SweetHart) drew these little monkeys for H as a little artwork for his room, but I took them and scanned them, printed them on some fabric paper, and sewed them together with a little batting and felt, and voila!  A jungle!  The tree and leaves are made out of felt and two layers of batting, the critters (5 monkeys, two owls, a mama opossum and her babies, and two snails) all have one layer of batting and felt on the backs.  They all have between one and four magnets (depending on their size) sewn into them (no parts to come off and become a choking hazard).

 

H likes to take them off, bring them to Leonard, chew on them, and look at them.  For now, this is enough, but I hope that one day he will actually play with them and create stories.  Mama also sent me some sheep, deer, and a camel that I think will be used in a forest in the future....

Other things Mama loves:

 

squeezable baby cheeks, arms and legs, N, seeing Leonard sleeping on the bed 23 hours of the day, having home-made bread (I'm going to make a sour-dough starter today), egg-nog ice cream with our ice cream maker, Christmas trees, making things, tutorials on the internet, the fact that N will be off work for two whole weeks!!!

What we have been up to:

H is officially crawling now, and getting a little faster every day!  Therefore he has been getting into a lot more!  Pulling books off of shelves, going for Leonard's litter box (he's never made it there, and the room will soon be blocked off), he shows a particular interest in my sewing box, likes to pull up on the dishwasher, tries to play with the VCR, likes the trash can in the bathroom, pulls up and chews on the rosking chair handle, and the list goes on.  So, my question is this:  How does a mama of a crawler (or a walker) get anything done without losing her sanity and without keeping the baby in their crib all day?

Exhibit A:

H in 'jail' while I do the dishes

Exhibit B:

SNOW!!!!

If you live somewhere that it snows often, don't laugh too hard!  Of course it melted before it touched the ground, but they were real snow flakes!!!  We had snow about like this two years ago, so it was very exciting!

Exhibit C:

 Monroe's Downtown Christmas Market:

What has been taking up a lot of my time for the past few weeks.... I had a booth set up with all of the wares from my Etsy shop:  pacifier clips, portable high chairs, shopping cart covers, stacking rings, pillows, cloth balls, nursing covers, scarves, bibs, burp cloths, onesies, slings, loveys, blankets, and more!  It was fun, and I met some wonderful women who are also mothers and crafters, but I was sooo cold by the end of the day.

N was super daddy again - getting me set up, taking care of H, bringing me lunch and baby, getting H to babysitters, and helping me sort it all out at the end of the day.  I am thankful for him!!!

Exhibit D:

I think that 'butt in the air' sleeping is simply the cutest sleeping of all!  Especially while using a stuffed animal as a pillow and with the blankie scrunched up under!  He looks so serious too!

This is how we all felt after yesterday!  This is how I feel everyday after chasing him around!

Army crawl no more!

H and Stella (during their visit he stole both her sock and pacifier)

H and AvaLee (He kept trying to grab her face!)

So, we are still working on our social etiquette.

We went to Alabama to visit N's brother and sister-in-law, sister, nieces, and grand niece!
We had a great time, and H reached a new milestone - crawling! We realized that it was easier to do the army crawl here on our hard wood floors because he would just slide, but there they had carpet and he would get stuck if he tried the army crawl, so.... he had to crawl! It's pretty cute! It still takes a little bit of effort, but he can get around!

In the army now!

I wanted to try to capture this before he actually learns to crawl. In the video he is trying to get to Leonard, but then Leonard left... but then you can see him sit up! It is surprising how much work it takes to crawl and sit up! Makes me tired just watching him (and staying one step ahead!!!).

Veteran's day happenings

Well, we started off the night before with a little hide and seek! N and I were eating our supper and heard H making a little noise, but couldn't see him. Normally he is right in the middle of the floor in plain sight. After looking a little further, we found him on the other side of the coffee table underneath it, happily playing with a giraffe!

We went for a lovely walk on the levee after lunch. The water in the Ouachita river is VERY high right now. about 48 feet high. I'm not sure what the norm is, but in this picture you would normally be able to see lots of grass, a river bank, a road, volleyball courts, and the whole structure that you can only see the roof of in this pic... I hope it goes down soon!

Taking a break from the stroller to ride on Daddy's shoulders. If he stays in the stroller too long, he'll fall asleep, and I'd prefer him take a good nap!

Reading with Grandpa Harry and GrandMissy before bed.