My first baby started kindergarten

Doesn't seem possible that 'my' first born, Henry, started kindergarten today. Wasn't he born, like, yesterday? Time seriously flies.  Before I realize it, Jones will be the one starting school. 

He walked right in, asked his mama why she was taking so many pictures, hung up his bag and started doing a puzzle.  Fearless, that one.  He has never met a stranger and is so very, very smart.  He will do great and I am so proud to be his aunt!

I love my sweet nephew and niece like they are my own. I mean, please look how precious...





Birthday fun

We had fun celebrating Jones' big day!

On his birthday, he woke up to balloons and blew out birthday candles in a banana. How can it be more fun than that?!

Then Trey and I took cupcakes to his class. We were there when Jones woke up from his nap and I think it confused him. He cried for the first ten minutes of his class party! He never cries. He got over it when he saw we came bearing cupcakes. We took off the rest of the afternoon and just played together - the three of us. So fun!

That night we celebrated three birthdays at our house: Jones (April 17), Uncle Bobby (19th) and my daddy (20th). So much fun!


We ended the birthday celebration today at the Doctors for his 2 year check-up. No shots today - Just reporting in what we thought: he is huge. 95% for height (37 inches) and 90% for weight (32 lbs.).

My big boy.

words.

Jones' speech is improving every day and never ceases to amaze both me and Trey. There has been a drastic change in his speech since he first began speech therapy a few months ago.

He will be two on Tuesday, the 17th.

That's a whole different post. (Where did my baby go?)

He now tries to repeat most things we say. It is pretty hilarious, and I don't want to forget a thing.

We are not sure where this child came from - Germany? China? England? His accent is hysterical.

He can put several words together now. We can understand him, but I am not sure others can.

Some of my favorites:

"Heee Ma!"
Here, mama. Or Da. He does this when he hands us something.

"Tantu, Ma!" "Tantu, Da!"
Thank you, Mama! Thank you, Daddy! He says this for everything and is always unprompted. Sweet!

"Wheres Russ?"

Ever since our friend, Russell, came to visit a couple of weeks ago, he will randomly look at us and ask where's Russ? He says it perfectly, but does have a precious lisp.

He also recently started asking "wheres Ray?" I found out that the little man that cleans his school his named Ray. Every time we see Mr. Ray, Jones lights up and says HEY RAY. My friendly child.

"E-E how" (china?)
Henry's house. He says this a lot. It's his favorite place to be.

And just the other day he said his longest sentence:

"where E-E go, da?"
Where did Henry go, Daddy?

He adores Henry so much. Talks about him all the time. He calls Henry "E-E" and Noelle Adams "Baa-bee".

Jones can also say the following colors:

Boooo (blue) yeeeoooo (yellow), pink, geen (green), white, black, red, and brown. He tries orange, and it is funny. I am not sure I can even attempt to spell it.

When asked what color something is, he more times than not answers with BOOO. But if you ask him to point to yellow, blue, etc. he usually gets it right.

He can pronounce most letters. This week the letter at school is C. I should record him trying to say C C C C over and over. Again, not sure where this kid is from. It's for sure not Mississippi.

He likes to count with Elmo, but just says Teeee (for three) over and over.

He still refuses to call Sophie by name. Only "dog". He will call Laura and Kristen's dog by name, but not Sophie. I think he does this on purpose, out of spite. They do have a love/hate relationship.

He also calls all dogs "BUULLDOOGS", which I love.

His favorite thing: DA. Or DAAA-DEEEE!

Weekend recap

What a busy, fun weekend!
Trey was out of town serving at a Happening retreat, but even in his absence, the weekend did not disappoint!

1) Friday night I went to a ladies night downtown called UnWine. All of the boutiques stay open late and there is wine and cheese tasting at every store. Plus discounts on all of your purchases! You know I love a good deal.

It was a fun night to celebrate Laura's birthday. One store snapped this picture of me and my friend, Sara. Fun times!

2) Saturday morning, I ran in the Historic Starkvegas 5K/10K with Kristen. I am not sure why I thought it was a good idea to run with my large toddler, but I did. He is heavy. And my time showed just how heavy! But the weather was gorgeous and it was a lot of fun. After the race, there was a family fun run. Henry and Rob ran in it; Henry was so excited. What a fun morning. I am ready for another race....without pushing 45 lbs.

3) After the race on Saturday, Jones and I headed to my sister's house for lunch with my cousins who came into town from Alabama. They had a sweet baby girl in November and we have yet to get out hands on her! I was dying to show some lovin' to baby Josey. Get a load of those cheeks. I love her!

4) After lunch, while the rest of the family went to the MSU baseball game, Jones and I headed to campus for a work event. Jones was happy to accompany me to work - there was a kid's village set up! He was fascinated with the bubbles and the sweet college girls gave him lots of attention.

5) Once we finally made it home, we were able to play with our guest: our best friend in the world - Russell! Jones is fascinated by all things Russ. He was in town for work, so stayed the weekend with us. We welcomed the company! Jones' speech is improving every single day and over the weekend he mastered "RUSS"! He called for Russ all day. So much fun! We love any time spent with "uncle" Russ.

6) Saturday night, the whole family got together at my sister's house for her birthday dinner celebration. It is always wild and so much fun when we are all together. I don't have any pictures except for this one - me loving on baby Josey. I couldn't put her down!

7) I finally got Jones home and bed Saturday night around 8:45. He was up all day with NO nap. I was one tired mama. At this point, I was ready for Trey to get home. Again I say: props to single parents!

8) Sunday morning, as I was in the kitchen getting Jones' breakfast ready, I looked over to find this:


No diaper. Cowboy hat.
Naked cowboy.

Once I got him out of the hat and dressed for church, I put Elmo on and went back to my room to finish getting myself ready. I came back to the kitchen to find the pantry door open and a trail of crackers that led to this:

He helped himself to a snack!
There is no telling how many he had already eaten by the time I got to him. I asked him if he was hungry and needed a snack and he nodded enthusiastically and said "snack!". He was very proud of himself.

9) By Sunday afternoon I was REALLY ready for Trey to get home. Jones recently started this awful thing where he says "no" very disrespectfully whenever I ask him to do something that he doesn't want to do. I can't stand it. So after telling him over and over that we do not talk like that to mommy, I put him in time out.
I turned around for 2 seconds and when I came back to check on him in time out (the pack-n-play) I found this:

Oh my! Time to rethink our time out method.

10) And finally, Sunday night before bath time, Jones used the potty for me for the first time! He has been using it sporadically at school, but never for me. Sunday as I was running his water, he ran to the potty and said "tee-tee!". I freaked out.

Yes, he pulled the whole roll of toilet paper into the toilet. I didn't want to distract him by making him stop. He was concentrating!

And, yes, I did a freak out dance and song for him when he finally went potty.

And, finally, yes. I did have to plunge the potty to get a whole roll of paper to go down.

Now, bring on the week. We have a 2nd birthday party to celebrate on Saturday!

ready or not.

Yesterday was day 1 of potty training at Jones' school. He is the youngest by about 4 months and I just don't think he is ready, but his teacher assured me she would not force it, she would just give him the opportunity.

Well, wouldn't you know it. My child went #2 yesterday in the big boy potty. His precious teacher called me right after and told me the thrilling news. We were both laughing at the thought. We are pretty sure it was a fluke and she caught him at just the right time, but she said he said "yay! yay!" over and over. He likes words of affirmation, so I am sure the clapping and cheering his teacher did was enough for him to keep trying.

Yesterday was also the first day of Jones' speech therapy. Big day for the little man! We had him evaluated a month ago for his speech and he qualified for a speech teacher to go to his class 60 minutes a week to work with him one-on-one. He was not what they call "significantly delayed", which would be a 25% speech delay, but he was at about a 17% delay. They did a full evaluation on him. There were no surprises - he was at 30 months for gross and fine motor skills. I could have told you this. He has been using a fork like a man since he was 12 months and can throw a football longer, straighter and harder than I can. He was also above average on cognitive skills. The kid loves a puzzle! But his speech is a bit lacking. He wasn't even trying to say words. He knew about 8 words at 12 months - and he pretty much still says just those 8 words.

However, I can already see an improvement in his speech since he has been at his new school. The kids in his class all talk and it seems to be helping. Jones talks a lot more, even if it is in his own language.

Sweet Jones will be 2 next month. So hard to believe. Lots of changes going on for the little man!

OK. Let's get honest.

Truth is, I was going to make this blog private. Truth be told: I probably still will. But, people, I got to email #200 of people asking to be added when I was told that only 100 people can be added to your private blog. And I wasn't even half way through the list.

So, if we are all perfectly honest right now, I have to tell you I feel pretty darn loved. If ever you feel down, tell blogland you are going private. That will perk you right up. Thanks, readers. I love you too.

A few things have happened since we last spoke.

Namely, we are no longer residents of the coast.

Just know we are starting a new life in a new town. It's neither here nor there. (What does that even mean? I just felt like it fit there. )We are both so excited to see what God has in store for us. It has been amazing to see His hand in this move already.

And, yes, we are appreciate your prayers.

However, from the responses to my "going private" post, I now know that none of y'all come to this blog to read about us. Jones, as it turns out, is far cuter than I will ever dream of being.

So with that said, here are his latest ever-so-exciting tricks at almost 17 months:

- Gives zurberts. Come on, you know what that is. Don't act like if I spelled it correctly that it would change things. Raspberries on your check, leg, or his personal favorite, stomach. He pulled my shirt up in a store once to give me one right smack on my belly. We are still learning what is appropriate outside of home behavior.

- Refuses to try to say Sophie. He simply calls her dog. I will say "Jones, say Bye Sophie!" and he will say "Bye, Dog!". I have tried to sound out her name while pointing to her. "Sooo-feee." To which he replies, while pointing to her, "dooo-ooog". As if to say "why is this idiot calling this dog a sophie when clearly it is a dog?" We will work on proper nouns at a later date, I suppose.

- At 15 months he weighed 26 lbs (71%) and was 33 1/2 inches tall (97%). When I hold him on my hip, his feet dangle to about my knees. We look awkward.

- I have never seen a child so obsessed with balls. He sleeps with a football. He wakes up saying ball and he goes to bed saying "night-night ball". It's all he wants to play with, throw, kick, hug, etc. He loves a ball. Which is a perfect lead to...

- The other night we were watching the first state game (go dawgs) with some friends who have a 7 month old that is so precious and still and quiet. Jones kept throwing a football at his sweet little head. (no fear. it was soft. I don't promote abuse) When Jones got sick of the sweet baby not playing his games, Jones picked up a toy laptop and chunked it at the babe's face. Game over, kid.

- He loves to wear caps, get muddy, tackle his mama and daddy (and random sweet little girls at the library) and play ball. And to think I once thought I would want a prissy princess. I love my all boy little man. I can't imagine anything better.

Here are Jones' precious one year pictures taken by the ever talented Tricia Butts at Betty Donne Photography. He was actually closer to 14 months when the pictures were taken due to Jones having the fever virus around his birthday and busy schedules.

Seriously, this girl is good. He doesn't sit still for more than half a second at a time. The fact that she is able to capture good pictures of a running monkey never ceases to amaze me.

(Check out all of them on her site. )

Jones' Frog Prince First Birthday Party

We had a wonderful celebration of Jones' first year on April 2nd. We were so blessed to be surrounded by our families and incredible friends.. I have prayed and prayed for friends since moving to the coast and the Lord has certaintly provided me with a group of wonderful stay at home moms that love my child like their own.

We had the party at our fabulous neighborhood park and could not have asked for a better day. It was beautiful weather all day.

Here are a few pictures. I had the best time planning his party.

This is one very loved little boy. I can't believe he will be one on the 17th!

My little family.

What? He needed a haircut?

It was a long time a-coming. The boy's got some hair.

It was getting in his way of everyday activities. Like eating and seeing.

Proof:

So while in Starkville during the weekend of March 25-27, hair stylist Aunt Stephanie got her hands on my baby's head in my parent's backyard. He did great (with the distraction of crazy grandparents and food) and I did better than expected. In an instant he became a little boy. But a little boy who can see, so it's all good.

My big, handsome little man.

11 months

In hindsight, I should have just edited the month into his pictures each time. Or bought those shirts with the months printed on them. But I started with the sign and I am committed to finishing out the year with them. This is seriously the only one I got from his 11 month pictures. He destroyed this sign in record time.

Playing outside on his 11 month birthday:

One more month until my baby is one. Unreal.

At 11 months, Jones:

* Is an eater. Big time. Loves anything I put out there for him to eat. Loves avocados, bananas, eggs, and grilled cheese the best.
* Sleeps from about 7:30 - 7:30

* Very chill. Except when it comes to his food. I can't feed him fast enough!
* Loves to snuggle and give open mouth kisses

* major loves: his daddy, Sophie, being outside, baths, the park

* Is so close to walking. All he needs is some one's pinkie holding his and he can go. He stood up this morning for about 5 seconds without holding on to anything before he realized it and slowly sat down. Once he gets confident, he is going to take off.

* Will snuggle on the couch and watch Baby Einstein before bedtime. It's my favorite thing to do. It's the only time of the day he is still.

* Can climb up the ladder to his slide by himself. Loves to slide.

I love this sweet boy more than I could ever try to express. As a friend once said, it is love redefined.

one for the books

Jones and I spent the night away from each other. Three actually! Do you know me? This is a big deal. I have a bit of an obsessive/paranoid nature. This used to not be the case, but my mother instincts are a bit much. At any rate, we did it. My sister's 30th birthday party was planned months ago, so I knew Jones needed to be on a sippy cup by the time I left. My child never took a bottle of anything, so I thought it would be an uphill battle. It wasn't! He was perfectly OK with my milk in a cup. I was the weak one, not him. But with me out of town for three days, he had no choice but to take the cup. And he was perfect. What a relief. He slept great, ate great and played hard. And since I knew he was with Trey and my mom, I was able to relax and have fun. Can't thank those two enough!

So in my opinion, this trip was one for the books in many ways. Yay Jones and the sippy cup!

10 months - double digits

I promise there was once a sign involved. And that sign said ten months. Those signs stopped working months ago.

I wish I had this on video. He was laughing so hard at Trey laughing. Seriously. Trey would get tickled at Jones then Jones would get tickled at Trey and they both couldn't stop laughing. Hilarious.
(Trey was trying to help...)



How did we spend his 10 month birthday? Well, when it's 70 degrees out, you spend it outside! Only Mississippi do we have sleet one week and spend the day at the beach the next.

We went to the park with Hope and Hayes after his morning nap: (pictures taken on my phone)

Then we ran errands. On our way home on HWY 90, I looked over and saw how pretty the water looked so I swerved over and let Jones play in the sand for the first time. Poor baby has lived at the beach for 10 months and never touch the sand. He wasn't sure at first, he just sat there, but then he got in to it and loved it. Anything outside and he is game.
(more phone pics...)

Then after his afternoon nap Hope and I wanted to take the boys back to the beach. It was getting a little windy by this point so we didn't stay long. Plus, we were at a different part of the beach. There was trash. And way too many sea gulls. But the boys had fun!



At ten months:

* Jones' personality is becoming more and more apparent. He is so chill and so funny.
* Some days he is a good eater, some days not so much. I don't worry too much about it. He is still a good nurser so I know he is getting all the nutrients he needs. This past month I have introduced chopped hard boiled eggs, avacado, fruit smoothies, pieces of boiled chicken and organic yogurt. He loved it all.
* Bath time is his favorite...still. He tries to climb in while I am getting the water ready. Cracks me up.
* He started this smirk thing recently where he tries not to smile at you. He gets teased and tries his very best to not smile but then can't take it any longer and smiles so big. It melts my heart.
* He can say mama, dada, and nana, which of course makes me tear up. I know he is trying to say banana, which I say to him every morning at breakfast. He looks at it and says nanananana. Nana would love it. He has no clue he is saying mama and dada, by the way. And he never says it on command.
*Can cruise along furniture and can take a few steps if you are holding both his hands, but seems pretty satisfied with his crawling. And why wouldn't he? He can move.

Side note: We are going Wednesday morning to the pediatric orthopedic surgeon for his feet/legs. I am a little nervous, but know it will be fine in the end. The nurse told me to expect to be there for at least a few hours. It's going to be a long day! I am just thankful we aren't having to go to New Orleans. He is from Tulane, but comes to the coast once a week for referrals.

Little man has hit double digits. Got to start planning that 1st birthday party now! I don't think I could love him more if I tried.