Pax is 11 months!

It's hard to believe that 1 month from today we will be celebrating Paxton's 1st birthday. For whatever reason, he just seems younger to me. Like when Holden was almost 1 year, I thought he was such a big boy. But Paxton still seems like such a baby. He is a baby! What am I saying? But do those words make sense to anyone else? Maybe it's just because I am comparing Pax to Holden now . . .I'm not sure. He just seems too young to be turning 1 year. But I am now officially in party planning mode and excited to celebrate our little guy.

This month has been so much fun with Pax. Goodness, he is smiley and happy and he loves his family. Everyone tells us how serious he seems to be. But there are 3 consistent people in his life that can light up his face with the cutest grin you've ever seen. Daddy, Holden and myself. Holden only has to smile at Pax before he breaks into giggles. Which in turn gives Holden the giggles. Though I often have to play referee with these boys, they sure enjoy one another's company. I love to watch these brothers play together.

Here is one of those serious faces that he likes to flash to strangers.

And these are the sweet smiles that I get to see all of the time.

Pax has enjoyed the water this summer. But he is definitely more mellow about it. Holden went nuts and splashed like crazy at 1 year (and still does). Pax just sits in it and chills. Then occassionally he dips his fingers in and then sucks the water off his fingertips. That's about all the action I see from him in the water.

This little guy just recently decided that he would crawl on his hands and knees. So we don't see the army crawl much anymore. It's ironic that he is actually faster with the army crawl. But now we are seeing more of this:

He is waving and clapping like a champ. Anytime I say "good job", he starts clapping with a huge open-mouthed grin. I love it! Here he is waving hi to the camera:
Pax is finally getting interested in some finger foods. He has been quite a snob to all finger foods with one exception: cheerios. So I knew he could handle some variety, he just wouldn't do it. He would refuse to eat anything but pureed baby food. That has changed just within the last week. He will now eat waffles, bananas, blueberries, rice, beans, bread . . .that's all I can think of right now. Eating transitions have taken time with him. He seems a litttle resistant to change and so it just takes him some time to warm up to new things. I just have to keep offering it. He has turned up his nose to blueberries for a month, even though he would eat them pureed. Then tonight he gobbled down about 30, shoving about 5 in his mouth at a time. It completely surprised me.He is a wiz at the sippy cup and I really have no worries about taking the bottle away in another month. He sucks down the water and has caught on quicker than Holden did.Now if we could only keep him from throwing the sippy cup on the floor. I always give him 1 chance. He purposefully drops it to the floor, I tell him no and place it back on his tray. If it happens again, I put it away in the fridge. This little scenario happened yesterday and today. This is the picture I took when the sippy cup went bye-bye after drop #2.

Not a happy camper.

He still only has the 2 bottom teeth that you can see in the picture above. But he is cutting (and has been for the last week) one tooth on the top. Cutting teeth may just be a slow process for this guy.

Pax is a wonderful sleeper. He still sleeps 12 hours at night. There is never any fussing when we lay him down. I'm pretty sure that he loves his bed. He normally takes a morning and afternoon nap, 2 hours each. If we skip the morning nap due to errands or playing with friends, he still only sleeps for 2 hours in the afternoon. I would think he might sleep longer to make up for lost time. That's what Holden always did. But no, 2 hours at a time. That is all he will do.

This picture was taken about 2 minutes after Jeremy put him down a few nights ago. The picture flashing and clicking didn't even phase him. He was already out, smacking away on that paci, face nestled in those bumpers.

And a few other pictures from our month with Pax:

And 1 picture from today to officially mark 11 months!
Yep, pretty cute boy in his pink.

Here we go!

At our house, we have been having some talks about getting rid of the paci (for Holden). For the record, since around 18months, he has only had it during naps and at bedtime. Well, and of course, the occassional long car ride. But, he is 2 years old. I knew that it was probably time. I just wasn't sure if I was ready to deal with it all. The drama that boy my can throw. And the hours of crying I would have to listen to. It would break my heart if he didn't understand. I overheard Jeremy tell someone during our vacation that we were going to take it away before he starts Mother's Day Out. Hmmmm? That was the first I had heard of this plan. And so that is when the conversations began for us. He starts Mother's Day Out on September 1st. And I do agree that it seems to be a nice idea to send him to MDO without that paci. So recently I've just been thinking that it's now or never. So as we were getting ready for church this morning, I mentioned to Jeremy taking it away today. And so we decided on it right then and there. I took his 1 and only paci, put it in a ziplock baggie and into my purse. After church, we headed to Target. We had been talking to Holden about picking out a new toy in exchange for his paci. We explained that he was a big boy and pacis were for babies, like Paxton. At Target, we roamed around the toy section and he decided on the Fridge Phonics. He is quite excited about singing his ABC's these days, so this choice wasn't a huge surprise. But I have to admit that I was kind of pushing for Alphabet Elmo. So we checked out. Our nice cashier (and mother of 3 children that also loved their paci's) accepted his paci and our payment. And she wished us luck with a weary look on her face. That look didn't fill me with hope, but there was no turning back. He seemed to care less about parting with his beloved paci. We went to lunch. We came home. He played with his fridge phonics. And then it was the dreaded naptime. I carried Pax upstairs and put him to bed first. Holden was already crying because I hadn't carried him up at the same time. (He thinks I'm Super Woman sometimes.) So it wasn't looking good that he had already gone into meltdown mode. I brought his sock monkey down, which seemed to help the crying. And as we walked upstairs he began asking for his paci. This is typical before naps or bedtime. I reminded him that he had given it to the nice lady at Target in exchange for his new toy. And then he started crying and honestly, was acting a little angry. I placed him in his bed. I put his cow Pillow Pal in with him as a pillow. I just thought it would be something new and cool for him to be excited about. He did quiet down with his crying and placed his head on his cow. I gave him his monkey, froggy and covered him with his blanket. I gave him a kiss and told him how proud I was that he was such a big boy. (Sidenote: He knows the word proud and it's meaning. When I encourage him in any activity, he says "mommy proud?") Anyways, I left the room with him crying moderately. Not a full out fit, but not a quiet fuss. Anyways, 30 seconds later, I heard nothing. And now he has been sleeping for almost 3 hours. What in the world?! Could it be so easy?! Here's to hoping that bedtime goes just as smoothly. Seriously, I am in shock right now.

JOY in a water slide

Yes, we returned to the water park. And I left today with a season pass, so there will be many more visits in our future. Word on the street is that Dora the Explorer will be there in a few weeks. That could be a big moment in Holden's little life. We better not miss it. :)

With the encouragement of daddy, Holden finally did the little water slides all by himself. Once Jeremy finally got him on the orange one, we couldn't get him off. Again. Again. Again. That was his simple request of the day.

Oh the JOY in these pictures:

Yes, his tongue stayed out most of the day. Not sure if he is Michael Jordan, or what!

And all of my boys on the slide:
Just a fun little Friday with my family!

what summertime is all about.

Drying out 14 articles of swimwear because we might just need them tomorrow too.

And indeed we might. I think Jeremy has decided that he can't stand missing out on the water park fun, so my family of 4 just might be going again tomorrow. And we just might be purchasing me a season pass (the boys are free this year!). Yes, this late in the day. The end of July. We still just might. Eeek! Yes, I am that excited about the water park. Childish, I know. No shame in that.

a day at the water park . . .

Today the boys and I headed to a water park with some new friends. Someone offered us a free guest pass for the day, so it was too hard to turn down. I did hesitate for a bit, wondering if I could handle 2 non-swimming little ones. But with much convincing by some mommas who assured me they would be there to help, we decided to give it a try. And, oh me oh my! This day was so much fun! Seriously, I couldn't stop talking to Jeremy about it once he got home. Which makes me sound like such a child, that a water park would be right up my alley. But it was such an amazing place. Honestly, I didn't do much as far as the water park was concerned. I watched Holden play most of the time, I splashed in the water with Pax and I rode one "big" slide with Holden. But because there were tons of places at this water park with only inches of water, Holden had so much freedom. And so it was fun to just let him be. He loved the independence. And I was able to have good conversations with some great mommas that are new in my life. Of course our eyes were always on the children so there were many interuptions and distractions. And many of those conversations never found an ending. Doesn't that happen so often during playdates? You leave and then hours later realize you never got to answer that question. It's just the way it is for now. I didn't get a chance to take many pictures of our day. My hands were full. But here are the boys at our fun day at the water park. This place is a 15 minute drive for us. We are definitely going to have to get season passes next summer.

The yellow slide behind Holden, we all 3 went down. I held Pax in my lap and held onto Holden's leg. Then I convinced Holden to do the orange slide by himself. He went all the way down and then stood up and starting walking back up it, which was holding up the line, and was obviously against the rules. I'm not sure Holden really gets "rules" yet, but we're working on it. So the lifeguard had to jump on the slide, turn him around and make him slide down the right way.

And here is my happy-go-lucky Pax. If it looks like he is falling asleep in the picture . . .well he probably was. It was noon and he had been going since 8am. Thus the reason for the paci in the mouth. He NEEDED it, people! Have I mentioned how wonderfully he will breeze through without a morning nap, if need be? Such a different baby than Holden was at this stage! His flexibility has been such a blessing. More on that in his 11 month post (which is right around the corner).

Lately.

Lately we have loved playing peek-a-boo. (Holden calls it peeky-boo.)
Lately we've practiced walking with the push walker. It was awkward at first, but he's getting better everyday.
Lately we have retired the infant swing to the attic, where it will await baby #3. Because let's be honest. . . I'm sure mister Pax has surpassed the weight limit on that thing.Lately we've celebrated birthdays with 2 sweet cousins.
Lately we had our first icecream cone, all by ourself. Handscooped by none other than Granny. (Should have gotten her picture with Holden.) Thanks for the treat, Granny!
And lately we had our first ever Chuck E. Cheese experience with some new people that we are pretty excited about. Holden liked Chuck E. Cheese and of course the pizza. There were tears as we left. Imagine that. All good things must come to an end, Holden. All good things . . .

Working in the heat

Jeremy took off one day last week to work on our shed. I may have mentioned/complained in the past on this blog (or to some of you in person) that we still can't fit our vehicles in the garage. So it's always a bit of a challenge getting everyone buckled in a carseat to go somewhere (when I'm by myself). Sometimes the 2 year old would rather run for the street while my hands are full with Pax. So we bought a shed at Home Depot (for 50% off!) several weeks ago. We did this with hopes to clear out the garage so my car can finally take it's rightful place out of the sun. And Jeremy has finally able to make some time to work on it here and there. So yes, my car is still parked out in the heat, as this little project is still in progress. And I do mean HEAT! Welcome to Texas. It is hot and it is humid. Why don't I remember it being this way when I was 16. Maybe for the same reason it does seem to bother Holden. He decided that he would work on the shed with daddy most of the day.


As for Paxton and I, we stayed inside with the AC running. Ah, I love air conditioning! But we did keep their water cups filled.