It's been a whole year of laughter and fun...

I can hardly believe it but my sweet boy is One! This has truly been the best year of my life. I look back at all the happy times I had as a child and teenager and those were some great years, but this year has truly been the best. All thanks to the amazing and most precious gift sent to me by my Lord, Beau.

So many exciting things are happening in Beau's world right now. On July 4th 2011, we had a birthday party for him. He was so happy at his party until it was time to eat his cupcake (that Mommy lovingly made from scratch for him). We put him in his high chair and sang "Happy Birthday". I helped him blow out the candle and his little hand managed to make it past my guard and touch the hot wick. He screamed and screamed. All of us just standing there waiting for him to discover his cupcake. He never did. We took him inside and calmed him down and tried 20 minutes later to no avail. He was not interested in that cupcake whatsoever. So Mommy didn't get any fun cake smashing pictures but we have some good ones of his meltdown. :) He received some fun presents for his birthday. Daddy gave him his first set of golf clubs, he got a wagon to carry around his blocks, and some race cars. So much fun!

Another exciting thing that happened was that on July 9th, 2011 Beau took his first steps! We were at Mimi's house for dinner and Beau walked from me to his Aunt Jolene and from his Aunt Jolene to me. It was so exciting! I know it will not be too long before he is running and I am chasing.

We recently installed cabinet and draw locks in our kitchen so little hands are unable to get into them which has helped Mommy's sanity a lot. Beau continues to love to be wherever Mommy is. He loves to be held while I am cooking dinner and I have become quite good at cooking and holding baby at a safe distance.

Beau does enjoy playing with his toys as well. He loves to stack up the rings on his ring stacker and play on his music table. He also loves to ruff house with Daddy and tumble all over the furniture and floor.

We have been able to make it to the pool a few times this summer and Beau loves the water already. He has no fear which puts much fear in Mommy. He will crawl right out into the deep water if I let him and dive bomb right off the side of the pool. He loves to splash and cool off.

Sadly, my little boy still has no teeth so he continues to eat puree surprises that his Mommy cooks up for him. He can gum some foods like crackers, cheese and fruit and we usually do that for lunch. Hopefully his teeth are going to be extra strong when they do come in.

I can't wait to see what this coming year has in store for this toddler and his Mommy. I love him more and more everyday.

Joy!

Oh my gosh, this little boy gives me such joy. I can hardly even stand it sometimes! I love staying home and taking care of him. It is a dream come true. Funny how I would so much rather change diapers and read baby books then do any job outside the home.

Beau is 10 and a half months and loves to laugh. He giggles and giggles just to see if he can get Mommy and Daddy to giggle too. If he can, he giggles even louder. He can't say any words yet but I know he understands plenty. He knows what "No" means and "good job" or "good boy". We moved at the end of April 2011 and Beau loves his new home. He is crawling everywhere and pulling himself up on everything. We ordered baby gates right away as there are a lot of stairs. Beau loves to walk in his walker around the kitchen and on the deck. He comes barreling around the corner to get Mommy and Daddy.

Beau doesn't like to go to the grocery store as much anymore. He doesn't like to sit in the cart where he cannot pull things off the shelves. Mommy must bring snacks to keep him occupied to make it through the store. Beau loves to take baths and we are looking forward to many pool days this summer. I think he will be a water baby!

Beau loves to bite toes. If your toes are within reach, he will grab and bite them, socks or no socks. He just lights up when he sees toes, especially if they have pretty polish on them. He then attacks and giggles. So funny!

Beau is such a cuddler. He loves kisses and hugs and smoochies. He opens up his mouth real big and sucks on the side of your face to give kisses. He loves Aunt Allison and Aunt Kelsey because they both give him lots of kisses. He does not play by himself very well. He just wants Mommy to hold him and play toys with him. If I'm the the kitchen and he is in the family room. I know I have about 2 minutes before he will always come find me.

Beau also loves to make lots and lots of dirty diapers. He is so good at it too! I change two before I go to the gym in the morning and another one in the middle of my workout. All before 10am. Beau loves Mommy and Daddy to read him books. He loves all the pictures and colors and he loves to turn the pages.

Sadly Beau is still toothless. Poor baby. So we are still eating lots of baby food. However, he can mush up cheese and little pieces of cooked carrots and he loves toast with butter!

Not too long before he will be walking. Then the chasing will really begin. He is so big already. Sometimes I get sad knowing my baby days with him are coming to an end but I am still so excited to watch him learn and grow.

And we're off!!!

Today, Sunday March, 20 2011 Beau decided he was tired of sitting around and decided to crawl for the first time! He also pushed himself up to a sitting position. What a big boy!

Beau is 8 months and 2 weeks old and he is very busy. He loves to play with his toys. His favorites are his bucket of shapes, his work bench with tools, and his "Dewey" (His green stuffed dog). He also still loves to jump in his jumperoo. Beau is drinking mostly formula now but is also eating lots of different food. He loves peas, sweet potatoes, avocado, and pears. He just recently started to eat yogurt and can't seem to get enough.

Beau loves to be held and cuddle with Mommy. He doesn't like it when Mommy is out of sight for even a moment. Beau is starting to make some consonant sounds like "buh", "duh", and "muh".

Most days when Daddy is at work we wake up and have some breakfast, then go to the gym to play with our friends. After the gym, we come home and Beau takes a long nap which helps him be happy for the rest of the day. In the afternoons we run errands together, go play with cousin Peyton-Ashley or other friends, play with our toys, or play outside. Occasionally Beau will take another nap in the afternoon but not always.

Beau enjoys going to the park and swinging. We have had some nice weather lately and have been able to spend some time outside. He also likes to go to the grocery store and sit up in the front of the cart. There is so much to see at the store!

Sadly, we are no longer able to enjoy a quiet dinner out. Beau is much to busy to sit or sleep during Mommy and Daddy's dinner. Thankfully, we have plenty of babysitters willing to play with Beau when we want to go out.

Since Beau is now crawling, a whole new world of parenting will begin. I anticipate using the word "No" often. We also will be making a trip to the hardware store soon to pick up supplies to baby-proof the house.

Mommy and Daddy love Beau so much. He is our joy and delight. Every single day is a gift with him in our lives.

These are some sweet times...

Watching Daddy play with Beau and hearing those precious baby giggles, is there anything better? I love our evenings when Daddy gets home from work. He walks through the door and Beau just lights up. He starts to coo and smiles so big.



I also love our special quiet morning time together just mom and baby. When Beau wakes up for the day he is hungry! I feed him and then we just sit and cuddle for 15 minutes or so until he is ready to play. I just talk to him and tell him how much I love him. I tell him that Jesus loves him and he is my special, special baby. I cover him with kisses and hug him tight.



Beau is 6.5 months old now and he is changing so much. In the past 2 weeks he went from my little baby who only nurses and take 4 naps a day to my big baby who takes 2 naps and eats solid food. Our schedule is wake between 6 and 7am, nurse, play, eat breakfast, play, nurse and nap at 10:30 to 12:30pm. Then wake up nurse and play until 3pm. Nap at 3 to 4:30. Wake and nurse, play, eat dinner, play, nurse and bed at 7pm.



Beau loves to eat solid food. We started him eating baby oatmeal mixed with mashed bananas. He knew what to do with it right away. He was a little unsure about whether he like it I think but he knew that he was supposed to swallow. At each feeding since, he has eaten a little more and a little more. He also has eaten sweet potatoes and seems to like those as well. I think he thinks the spoon is the source of the food, like a bottle would be because each time I take the spoon out of his mouth to scoop up some more food, he gets really mad like I'm taking it away. I can't scoop up more food and get it to his mouth fast enough sometimes.



Beau continues to loves his jumperoo. As he gets bigger and stronger, he jumps and jumps and bounces and bounces! It is so fun to watch. He gets going and his arms start to flail and his head bobs around. It is hilarious. He is not crawling yet but wants to so bad. Right now he just falls on his tummy from a sitting position trying to get a toy and then he tries to crawl and after a minute of trying to crawl and not moving, he cries as if to say "Mommy, you get me that toy!"



I made some pureed pees today. Funny how making peas gives me such joy. Sometimes I just can't believe this is my life. I love to just watch him and be with him all day. I am so blessed to be living my dream of being a mom.

December 26, 2010

Merry Christmas!!! And truly it has been a very Merry Christmas. Beau is 5 and a half months old. He is truly my love and joy. This is the happiest I have ever been in my life. I am living my dream of being a Mom and it's better than I ever even imagined.

Prior to the week of Christmas Beau hadn't changed all that much since October as far as his ability to do anything on his own other than eat and sleep. Sometime around the middle of November he started to sleep 11 straight hours at night. We put him down at 7pm and he will usually sleep until 6am. Such a good sleeper. Mommy and Daddy are very happy about his ability to sleep all night long. He is of course much bigger than he was in October. I packed away the 3 months size clothes around the beginning of November. He is now wearing 6 month sizes and can fit into many 9 month size clothes. However, he was very stubborn in the fact that he did not want to roll over. I remember his cousin Peyton-Ashley was rolling over by Thanksgiving. Well, Beau is not interested in that whatsoever. So most of the time Beau is either being held, laying on his blanket on the floor or bouncing in his Jumperoo. That is up until this week of course.

Perhaps he was so excited about Christmas or perhaps seeing all his older cousins inspired him but he decided he was going to do some new things this week. On Monday December 20, he decided it was time for him to sit up and he did! Such a big boy! He is still a little wobbly but he loves to sit up and play now. Especially with his new toys. On Tuesday, December 21st he found his feet. Now when he is on his back he loves to grab his feet. He tries with all his might to pull them up to his mouth so he can suck on his toes. He gets frustrated because he can't quite get his toes in his mouth. It is the sweetest thing to watch.

Beau got all kinds of fun toys for Christmas as well as some new outifts. He got his first workbench with lots of tools to play with. He got some books and some stuffed animals. His daddy bought him a big blow up bath tub in the shape of a duck. I'm sure he will love it now that he can sit up.

Beau spent his first Christmas playing all morning and crying all afternoon. I think Mommy and Daddy probably wore him out with all the presents to unwrap and bows and paper to play with in addition to the actual toys! Poor guy, he just got worn out.

We are so thankful that the whole family is home and we all get to spend time together. I know Ol Shep and Mimi are so happy to spend time with Beau as are Uncle Aaron and Aunt Jolene. We had such a fun time this Christmas with our precious baby. I know next year he will be running around, saying some words and generally being a normal toddler but this year, Beau was our precious little Christmas baby. I want to cherish every second of it!

So Much to Say

Beau is 15 weeks old today. Hooray! He is growing so big and so fast. In the past week or so, Beau has found his voice and has so much to say especially when his Daddy is around. For some reason, Dan can really get him to "talk". He mostly talks at night when his Daddy comes home from work. Beau likes to tell him all about his day.

Beau also is getting more control over his arms and hands. He is able to grasp a toy and bring it up to his mouth now. It is nice for me because I don't have to be his sole source of entertainment. I can give him a toy and he will hold it and play with it for a short time.

Beau recently slept through the night for the first time for us. He has consistently been doing 8-9 hrs but the other night he slept from 8pm to 6am! Such a big boy!

We are having a very busy fall. We are up and out the door every Monday - Saturday by 8:30 am. I joined MOPS at my church and am leading a bible study group. I am back at the gym on the other days trying to lose this last 10 lbs that probably won't come off until I'm done breastfeeding. I love my gym and have missed it so much. They have a child care center which is so nice. The workers there seem to like Beau and call him "their serious boy". So true. He is so serious sometimes. I do all sorts of things to get smiles out of him. More often than not, I am unsuccessful.

We are going to go carve pumpkins with our friends next weekend and although Beau can't really participate, I'm sure we'll get some good pictures. We are really looking forward to this holiday season.

Here are some fun pictures from the last couple weeks and a video clip.

Dedicated to the Lord

It has been way too long since I have blogged. So many things have happened. I suppose that is why it has been to long. This little baby takes up a lot of time. :) Over the past month Beau has grown out of all his newborn clothes, went to his 2 month check up and got his first shots, started smiling, giggling, and cooing, and best of all, we dedicated little Beau to the Lord.

Beau is in all 3 month size clothes now. Now that it is fall, he has been wearing jeans and tee shirts most of the time. I love to dress him like his Daddy and I know he likes to look like a "big boy".

At Beau's 2 month check up he weighed 12lb. He is growing so fast. He also had to get his first vaccines. It was the hardest thing I have done over the past month. The nurse laid him on the table and told me to hold his hands. He had to get 3 shots. She did it really fast but as soon as she stuck him, his face turned bright red and a sound came out of him I have never heard before. :( I starting crying too. It was so very sad. It must have been traumatic for him too because he slept the rest of the day all the way until the next morning waking only to eat and go right back to sleep.

Beau is smiling and giggling so much now. When I go to get him out of his crib in the morning, he gives me the biggest smile! It is the best feeling in the world. Dan can really get lots of smiles and giggles out of our little guy. He is becoming more responsive and expressive every day.

The best part of the last month is that on Sunday September 19th, we dedicated Beau to the Lord. The church was decorated with baby blocks, books and bottles. Beau's whole family came to pray and commit to raising him in the ways of the Lord. The Pastor said that the Holy Spirit gave him a word about Beau. He said that "Beau will be an influencer of many". Wow, what an amazing word. Dan and I have the responsibility to make sure he is a good influencer and not a bad one. :) After the dedication, we came back to the house had had champagne and a great dinner with the whole family. It was such a special day!

A few more thoughts for this post: Beau is starting to like taking baths. I can even get him to smile while in the tub. We sing "Splish, Splash, I was takin a bath". He also loves it when I put lotion on him and rub his little body. I think he will like to get massages and facials when he gets big. :) His cousin Peyton-Ashley love to say "hi beau" and give him kisses. Mimi and Grampy have gone back to Georgia for the fall so we will have to Skype to say hello. I have joined MOPS and am leading a bible study at my church this fall so Beau goes to the church nursery to play with the other babies. I think it is very good for him to be in a bright, vibrant room with lots of colorful toys and loud children. He seems to do pretty well in there and the nursery workers all love him of course!

We are looking forward to the next few months so much. Here are some pictures from the last month.