February photos...

I picked the wrong album and am starting with February.  The month for lovahs!

...a glimpse into what we have been up to (I will cycle back around to January.)

Valentime's at the Driskill.  There was a proposal right next to us!  squeal!
(I got bangs too....which I love!)

Been trying freezer cooking.  I think I've narrowed it down to doubling 2 GOOD recipes a month.  I've been trying all these different new recipes and most of them come out BAAAAAD, so I have to toss out all this food that is not good.
I'm better at chopping up extra stuff and saving it though.  Now I want a food saver!

The kiddo in his new Cozy Coupe truck!  He was scared at first, but now he's a pro! 

I'm waiting on some pics from my dear friend, Cecily, but here are a few from  the shower that I helped toss for the loverly Cecilia Fritts.  Ainsley is now here, and I get to meet her on Saturday...finally.

Guessing game from the shower.  Cici added a couple of our friends guesses after the shower, and the big winner is....Erin!  I need to send her a prize.  

This looks fancy, but it was a snap! Plus, it was a great gift for AJ and decor for the shower.  
Cici loves elephants, and babies love taggies. I'd say, win win.

The little mister.  I can't even handle this grin.

And this.  I get it from my grandmother, people.

April?

Yikes, it's April!

Kai has pink eye, and another ear infection.  Which makes three ear infections since December.  Come on kid, let's get it together.  No talks of tubes or anything yet, just treating each one as it comes and moving on!  Luckily, this time it did not include a fever.  Last time, he had a virus as well that was a 6 day fever fest.  

Build up that immune system little boy.

Things I'm enjoying these days:

1. rain
2. thunder
3. Sonic runs
4. Getting pictures of my newest goddaughter, Ainsley Jane.
5. Wheel of Fortune (never gets old)
6. Cross word puzzles
7. Friday Night Lights (we are on the last season!)
8. Kai's new haircut
9. Candy Crush

Things I'm not enjoying:

1. Candy Crush
2. Applying for jobs
3. Wanting to create Shutterfly albums, but being overwhelmed by the fact that the last one I made was Kai's baby book.
4. My lack of blogging
5. Pink eye (which I'm eleventy billion percent sure that I'm going to get...)

Status updates

Scott bought some new bibs for Kai and this one made me think, "If Kai had Facebook/twitter/instagram what would his status updates be like?"  

• Hey peeps, just eatin some cheerios.  Don't hate.
• Mommy and Daddy just put me to bed, they think I'm asleep, but I'm sitting here making my plot to rule the world from my crib.
• Bath time? More like splash time!
• Where's your nose?  Where's your ears?  I'll show YOU where my ears are!
• khjbkjyg.  Learning to type is hard, especially when my fingers only reach to the letters, GHTYJ and K.
• My fingers taste like bananas.  My hair tastes like bananas.  It's probably just a coincidence.
• Mommy said 3 cuss words today. She doesn't know that I know.  For shame!

Kaaaaaaaai, siiiiiiiiiit down

The kid is learning to climb!  So, in our home we are now saying, "Kaaaaaaaai, siiiiiiiiiiiit down." quite frequently.  Otherwise, he just stands on something, takes a step backward and collapses an extra 8 inches downward onto the floor.  Luckily, his big boy chair is on carpet...

on the other hand...

The bottom stair that was left over past our baby gate is a great place upon which our dude likes to climb. I caught him standing straight up holding on today and said the requisite, "Kaaaaaaaai, siiiiiiiiit down."  He looked at me, and just slowly squatted down like the example below.  He did not turn around slowly onto his bum as I was hoping for, but just into a nice squat.  What did you say?  My toddler isn't a drone just waiting to comply to mommy's every wish?  

Way to test your limits, child.  I'm bracing myself for your inevitable future of falls and bruises from climbing up to much higher and much more dangerous feats.

Crackin' me up

So there are two days left in November, and I've only posted a handful of times this month! Blerg.  Right now, I want to write to Kai.

Dear Big Baby,

You are doing the funniest things these days.

Every time I give a big belly laugh, you laugh right along with me.

You started clicking your tongue yesterday and we will have nice long tongue clicking conversations together.

You have, fairly successfully, moved over to sippy cups!  We didn't use a paci very long with you and have tried to keep the bottle time-span short as well.  It makes a mama and daddy so happy to put those bottles away, especially since we bought the ones with 5 parts a piece.

You are still "reading" every chance you get.

You are playing a version of peek-a-boo.  We thought you understood the game because you played it multiple times with a blankey but we quickly realized that you didn't quite get the rules.  All you do is lift a blankey or toy up over your head and then pop it back down quickly.  When you first started doing it the item was hiding your face, but now you will just play with anything.  I can see your face, but I still say, "where's Kai?" because I just can't bear to not play this silly game.

Whenever you wake up from a long nap you sit up quickly, but then proceed to tip over as you fall back into a nap induced stupor.

Your smile always makes me melt, even when I know you've been a stinker at school.  I feel bad for your teachers because I come in being all cute with you, when they have had to deal with your moodiness all day long!  You hide it well when mama's face shows up in your classroom, my dear.

I posted this on Instagram the other day, entitled: little baby, big world.

Love you!

Halloweener

This year for Halloween, our big baby isn't old enough to trick or treat so we opted to host a Halloweener at our home!  It was such a great idea.  We had neighbors come visit that we hadn't met yet and just generally got to know our area a little better.  I would say about 40 people showed up not including the friends and family I invited.  Scott grilled hot dogs and we had a few side things thanks to some thoughtful neighbors that stopped by and asked if they could help with anything in the days leading up to the party.  Everyone said they wanted to do more events like this! So that is perfect.  I can't wait to get to know everyone even better.  There were some really nice folks.

I didn't take great pictures so here are the four that I did take!

Kai with a neighbor's grandson. 

Big baby in his ball pit!

 Neighbors and food!

Auntie Em's amazingly carved Puss 'N Boot's pumpkin! Impressive.

This was Kai the next day after baby school, he fell asleep within 3 minutes of being in the car...this was his second outfit of the day BTW!  He had pictures that day and may have been wearing a plaid shirt and a striped bow tie.

Quitting nursing.

This is on my 30 before 30 list.  It was kind of one of those things that I put on there just so I could cross it off.

We are right in the midst of quitting!  I read a lot about quitting but in the end it's another one of those nebulous things that can't be explained in a checklist.  Everyone does it differently and from what I have found there is no perfect way.

A few notes:

I HATE the word wean.  Cici hates the word panties.  What word do you hate?  This is why I'm just saying quitting nursing.

I started quitting with 3 nursings spread through the whole day (6am, 12:30ish, and 7:15pm)  I left the 12:30 in the dust first last week.

We have been doing sippy cups with straws, which he likes... but he still hasn't mastered those so we are reverting to the bottle for a week or two so that I can make sure this kid is getting his daily need.

Going with cold milk.  Doc said to try that first and hopefully he would take it, and then we wouldn't have to warm our milk.  He's doing well with this especially since we changed back to a bottle today.

I'm slightly uncomfortable.  yikes.

I thought it would be hard to let go, but Kai has been sick this week so we have gotten a lot of good cuddle time!

I'm also hoping that this may help my back pain a little.  Being a nursing mom keeps your hormones out of whack so keep your fingers crossed that this strengthens and heals me some!

Lastly, I'm ready to not have any dietary/medicinal/adult beverage restrictions.  I'm not some crazy indulgence type of person, but just having freedom back is a great feeling.  I found out I was pregnant in January of 2011 so almost two years of being restricted.

I should be done by 10/27 and at the very least by Halloween. 

Kai's first birthday

Well, Kai's first birthday was...good, but then...kind of a drag.

On the day of his birthday (Wednesday), we all got our shots!  Not thinking that we would have reactions to them...so it's like Oprah, "YOU get a flu shot, YOU get a flu shot, EVERYBODY gets a flu shot!"  That's how Wednesday was.  Scott and I both were feeling a little bit allergy ridden that day, but just brushed it off.  We went to Luby's that night with my parents which was awesome, because last time we went Kai L-O-V-E-D the mac 'n cheese and fried chicken etc, etc.  The next day we started feeling bad and all three of us were congested.  Things went progressively downhill and we decided on Friday to call off the party.  In the end, we weren't sure if we all just had serious allergies, colds, reactions to the Flu shot or a combination of the above.  ( I know you can't get the flu from the shot anymore...)

We have such amazing friends, and there were going to be people driving in from other cities, and across town so we just figured it would be better to call it off.  Also my mom got really sick!  Grams can't be sick too!!  No party.

We let him open his presents from us that morning.  I followed the rhyme that I've seen all over pinterest.

Something you want (bath toy)
Something you need (straw sippy cups, and snack cups)
Something to wear (new shoes)
and Something to read! (nursery rhyme book)

New Shoes!

new bath toy!

New sippys with straws!

Scott's mom and step-dad came over so we were given some serious toys for Kai to play with from daddy's side of the family!  What a fun afternoon Kai had on Saturday.  I could tell he was sick but that kid just keeps going and loves attention from his Nana so much, that he just wouldn't stop even for one moment. 

We were able to reschedule his party, though the Wheel of Fortune theme has been nixed.  (I had some cute stuff too!)  We are going to have a costume/cupcake party for his birthday and hopefully lots of friends will be able to come.

pics from Luby's:

Dear Kai,

You are almost one!  I can't even believe how fast this year has gone.  Every time I think about the fact that I only have 17 more years until we boot you out of the house I get a little teary.

Quickly, you are turning into one spirited little individual.  You ability to walk is coming on slowly but surely and I think, is giving you more confidence and more desire to get into anything you aren't supposed to.  You are still using a little push toy to walk or holding onto our hands, but your father and I are seeing you let go of a toy or the couch a little more often so you are getting those little balancing moments a few times each day.

As for personality, there is not a shortage!  You are starting to yell way more often (you get those rants from daddy).  You are yelling/babbling things like "adadadada" (I think means dada), "tat" (I think is cat), "amamamam" (mama), "noou?" (combined with a very demonstrative hand clap means more...I think this is you doing a sign...I have been trying to teach you that one, but I'm not terribly consistent with it, so I can't tell for sure for sure.)

They told me at baby school yesterday you started trying to steal the other kid's bottles.  For shame!  I don't send a bottle with you because, amazingly enough, we are still nursing and I'm very low on our stash.  But that is coming to a close!  My doc said I shouldn't supplement any cow's milk quite yet, so no bottles until 10/10, sorry my love.  I think you are going to want other people to share with you as you grow, but I don't know if you will be so ready to share with them.  When I hand you a little snack, you grab it out of my hand like, "This is mine! And by the way, MOM, if that is your real name, why didn't I get this 10 minutes ago???"  Maybe sharing won't be so much your problem as just over eating.  I don't think you will be terribly chunky though, because you like to move!  Sometimes to get your energy out, I just put you on the floor and follow you around the house while you crawl/army shuffle.  You get the biggest kick out of it.  Stewie pretty much hates these sessions but you are determined to get that fluffer! 

We are getting ready to put your jumperoo away, but you can't figure out the walker one with wheels. You just keep going backwards then you get stuck and just honk the horn till I come save you.  presh.

Some stats:

Weight as of today- 24.8 lbs

didn't get your height measured today...you went to the doc b/c you tore this little piece of skin in your mouth while you were playing.  Lots of blood=sad mama.  But you are napping now, so evidently you aren't hurting too bad!

Clothes size- 18 months!  

Sleep- through the night consistently, but you wake up anywhere in the 5-6am range.  Please push that back! Naps are good usually a short one in the morning while we are on a walk, and then an afternoon marathon of 3-3.5 hours! Baby school is the BEST.

Favorite toy-Push popper thing, has a button and the little balls pop up and down inside or books to pull off the shelf, or pretend cell phone.

Favorite food- You tried spaghetti for the first time a few days ago, and you couldn't get enough!  You can plow through a whole banana easily, and you love mum mums or wagon wheels.

Conversations with Kai

This happened yesterday in the car.

Me: Kai, say, mama.

K: Dada.

Me: say, dada.

K: Dada.

Me: good job!  Say, ball.

K: Dada.

Me: Kai, say, dog.

K: Dada.

Me: Awesome.  I feed you 3/4 of the time, change your diapers 3/4 of the time, read to you, cuddle with you, teach you cool stuff, and talk about you most of the time I'm away from you, but you just keep talking about daddy.  See where that gets you!

Bittersweet day.

Today is the day that tons of my friends sent their kiddos off to school and many of my friends are starting back to work as teachers and administrators. I have been nervous about this day for the past few weeks.

The bitter: I left my career in PR after just a few short years to go back to graduate school.  It was a great decision because I knew that education was where I wanted to be, however, I never thought that I would struggle so much to find a job!  After I was most of the way through the program I started looking for a job, in the mean time I had a great part-time job at a church, but needed full-time employment at a school.  After 2 years of calls/campus drop-bys/ resumes/interviews/networking I finally found a position in November of 2010 in Irving.  I loved that job so much (I got it through the stimulus money BTW...)  However, I found out after the year was over that my teaching certificate didn't go "standard" after a partial year teaching.  (It's complicated, but I'm still not a fully certified teacher!)  So anyway, I got preggo and would have been laid off anyway, so I stepped down and we moved to Austin.  I only got to teach for 7 months!  And when I got back I have to explain my whole story about why I have taught for a year, but I'm still on a probationary cert.  Boo.

The SWEET (and it is very sweet): I have my little man!  He brightens my days everyday and is just the biggest light in my life.  Being a mom has been so rewarding and I get to see the fruits of my labor every day when Kai smiles, laughs, stuffs his face with yogurt puffs, learns something, or gives me a sweet baby hug. I also get to spend quality time with my hubby.  I know that I would be grading/creating after I get home from school, because teachers work so hard these days!  So now when Scott comes home, we get to have family time and then even relax or do projects around the house after the little dude goes to bed.  My being at home is a sweet time for our family.

Even though I'm taking some time to be home with and I get a little lonely or feel like I went to graduate school (at an expensive institution) for nothing... I try to remember that I have plenty of years to influence the brains of the youngsters of tomorrow in due time.  I could potentially teach for 30 years after I go back into the workforce!! That is a lot of years!  One step at a time.  Right now my steps are with my little boy.

A Rose by any other name would smell as sweet...

Thought I would document Kai's nicknames at this point for posterity's sake...

Kai-Dude
Kai-Man
Big Baby (used the most)
Doodle
Big Cat (b/c he roars)
Kai Kai
Chunker Monker
Mini Scott
Godzilla Baby

Scott, Can you think of any others that we need to remember?

Workin' on Walkin'

I love how he pauses to smile at me...

Dear Kai...

I had a conversation with a friend today about her two little girls.  We were talking about how fun it is to watch a child's attitude, personality, and actions develop as the grow.  She asked me a little about your personality and then told me how fun it would be to watch the little things you do now and compare them to when you grow up to see how you are communicating with the world now and we don't even know.

I decided I wanted to record that for you as best I can, but in a simple way.  So here is my first description of you that I hope to refer back to as you grow up.

Dear Kai, (at 9 months and 3 weeks)

You are, at first meeting, a serious little dude.  The majority of times you meet a new person you stare and stare and stare at them.  Your little tongue hangs out of your mouth and your little brow is furrowed.  Usually, you give a hint of a smile that then lets us know you are okay with the new person.  Some days you are just so silly and happy that a smile and a giggle comes quickly when you meet someone new.  There's the occasional day where when I even hand you to someone you know, you stick out your big bottom lip and start to cry like a big fat cry baby!  I always laugh, but it breaks my heart just a little...for you and for the person holding you.  (ie: Grams, Mutti, Nana etc.)  As you grow, I think this will just show a discerning tendency.  I think you will take a moment to gauge your surroundings/people that is good.  It can show maturity that you don't just dive right in and start spouting your opinions.  (We'll see on this!)

You love to attack food with a wild abandon.  This is mostly relegated to cheerios (we call them cheer-me-o's) or banana pieces etc.  I can't just pour anything on your tray or else you will pile it ALL in your mouth.  You did this once last month at Rudy's.  I gave you a bunch of cheer-me-o's and you stuffed them all in your mouth and then yakked all over yourself and me.  Awesome.  On the other hand, when you dislike a food you just spit it right back at me.  That is mostly vegetables and those nasty pureed meats (so I don't blame you).  My friend and I discussed that this tendency to dive into your food could spill over to life in general.  I'm wondering if you will end up being a vivacious child that is hungry for more to do, more life. 

When you wake up in the morning, usually we get to hear you talk and babble until one of us wakes up enough to go grab you out of your crib.  You will occasionally give a scream, but once we get you up it's all smiles and sweetness.  Hopefully, this means you will be a morning person...You can help out your mommy and daddy.  Neither of us were blessed with that gene.  I also think this just shows your graciousness.  You have faith that we will come get you, and when we finally do stumble into your room, there is nothing but happiness and thankfulness that we are there to be with you.  You kick your legs so hard, you just want to grab our noses, roll around on our big bed, and make cute  grunting noises.  I love it.

That's all this time around, I'll check in a few months from now!
Your momma

Father's Day 2012

Pics from the mister's FIRST real Father's day!

 Got this idea from Pinterest!  I traced all our hands and cut them out of cardstock, easy and super cute!  (look at Kai's little chubber hand!)

 This was not from Father's Day, but it was right around then, and I love this pic of father and son.

 We met up with my fam for brunch at the Nutty Brown Cafe, which we had never been to, and it was AMAZEBALLS!  Kai had fun hanging with his Gramps, and checking out his watch.

 Thought this was cute... the bottom reads: All others vehicles will be raffled as door prizes.

 After Nutty Brown we were off to Zilker!  We played 9 holes/baskets of disc golf in the crazy arse heat, but it was fun!

 Then it was train time!  Well first a snow cone was in order and then we got a ride from the Zephyr!

 The fam.

 Daddy is weird.

 Baby is the best!  (he has some yellow going on there due to my pina colada snow cone.)

Happy first Father's Day, Daddy!  I wuv you!

Thinking back...

My little lovey!  He was so tiny in this picture.  That was my gift to you, my readers, today.

I'm watching the Hatfields & McCoys with my hubby.  This show is ridiculous, there is so much killing and drama.  It's so crazy to think that some of this stuff actually happened.  I'm sitting here on the couch and my husband doesn't know that I'm also BLOGGING!  It's a secret remember?!?!  It makes this a little more fun.  I even just put a new funky background in place.  thankyouverymuch.

I've made it two days without a Coke (yesterday and today)!  I may have replaced them with fudge, from a stop at The Berdoll Pecan Farm.  So that is awesome.  I'm so good at dieting, don't be jealous.

Baby's asleeeeeeeeep.

Off to Katy today to see the in-laws!  Every time I take Kai somewhere to see people he hasn't seen in a while I'm reminded of how quickly all this goes.  He's starting to kind of say, "maaaaaaa" which is awesome!  He is also pushing up high on his little hands to work on getting his big honking legs underneath him so he can crawl.  He'll get on his hands and then fall down on his chest, and then get his legs under him and then stretch them out and start over with the hands again.  He does this little rocking boat number for a while and then puts his head down on the floor to rest.  So cute!  I'm so smitten with him.

Need to start picking up the house, and packing for our departure.  Then I have to take furball #2 to the kennel.  Wish we had someone who could come keep her at our house.  I should look into that over the summer.  At least we know that furball #1 roams free with no dog chasing him everywhere!  I can't even imagine his inner monologue...poor kitty.

Secret Blog...shhhhhhh!

In the morning my son, Kai, likes to sleep!  Really, he likes to sleep most of the times he is supposed to... which is pretty awesome for a first time mother like me.  We usually get 10-12 hours out of him at night, then his first nap in the morning is anywhere from 2-3 hours! (Hence the 3 hour naps title...those are my favorite!)  His afternoon nap is a little touch and go, I'm really trying to make it consistent, but I like having a little flexibility in the PMs because I'm a prisoner in my own home in the mornings!

This is Kai:

I'm starting this blog as a secret.  I've tried to keep up with a blog 6 times previous to this, so I do not have the best track record!  I'm going to try to post 20 out of 30 days in the month of June and if I succeed, I will launch it to the world!  (The world being, my husband, mother, Mother-in-Law, blogger friends, and then just general internet creepers.  Got to love the creepers!) 

Cheers to getting another hour of nap time!