Butts, Poop and Everything Gross in Between

I despise the saying "He's all boy", but honestly he is. My three year old, car loving, bug chasing, punches flying, smelly boy is a boys boy. He is not interested in anything mainstreamed as "girly". Although I have tried not to limit his likes and have even encouraged him to do some "girly" things, he has continued to grow up "all boy".
Everything smells.
Everything is dirty.
Everything is broken.
Marks on my walls.
Sand on my floor.
Love in my home.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday!

1. Water

Taken when we went to the beach because my cousin is in town

2. Empty 

My families new favorite thing to do is Geocache. We knew we wanted my cousin to love it as well so we decided to take her on a few trips to Geocache. After opening this we made it "empty" while writing our name on the paper. You can read all about Geocaching here.

3. Fresh

Because my cousin is in town and my nieces and nephews are on spring break we took a trip to Largo Central Park this week. Here is a picture of them in the "fresh" air.

4. Weathered

Again, taken when we went to the beach. I thought the wood the pelican was sitting on looks pretty weathered to me :)

5. Ordinary

These railroad tracks may look ordinary but they are actually made for a smaller train that gives rides to children around Largo Central Park.

Radz: The Perfect Easter Basket Gift!

I was given a really great opportunity to try out the latest candy dispenser, Radz! However, since Radz are 3 and up I had to call in a little help from my nephew who is five and niece who is seven. They had a blast trying these cute things out!

They were so excited when they saw how cute the ones they got to play with were. Chris got Critter and Makayla got to play with Bubbs! There are so many cute characters that are available to play with!!!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

I should let you all know that I took three out of the five pictures on Sunday. How's that for procrastinating? So don't hate me that they aren't that interesting this week!

1. Red

2. Orange

3. Yellow

4. Green

 This was taken at my sisters new house one day this week. We were helping her move in and I decided to snap this shot of James playing!

5. Blue

Blue Eyes! Took this one at my nephew's T-Ball Game! 

I'll try this week to take some during the week, instead of all on Sunday!

Dear James,

You are eight months old(note-blogging a bit late he was eight months February 2). I can't even believe you are this old. To me you still seem so small, yet you're so big. I can still vividly remember the early morning hours of June 2, leading up to your arrival. It still seems so fresh, so new. One of these days I should write your complete birth story so it always is fresh, and detail filled. I'm sure I've forgotten some of the minor details already but I will never forget the major moments of your eventful birthday. Fast forward 8 months and there you are. A handsome young boy with crazy hair! Yet to me you still seem so small.

I looked back at younger pictures of you recently and I cried. My baby isn't that much of a baby anymore. As you get closer and closer to being refereed to as a "toddler" I can't help but cry. My baby isn't a baby. Your hair was so dark, so thick. Your skin was so red. Your face so round. Now as I lay in bed staring at you, your not an infant. You're so old. Now that the sappy things are out of the way, James, I love this stage you're in. You can move baby! You are officially a speed crawler. It's not even like your trying to crawl anymore, YOU CAN CRAWL. Something else that is exciting is you can pull yourself up on things, to a standing position. And just today(2/11), you let go of the couch and for about ten seconds you were standing on your own. Of course once you realized what you were doing you fell, but hey, that's a start!

Your favorite thing to eat right now is....pretty much anything you see someone eating. You strive to be just like everyone else. If I'm drinking a smoothie, your drinking a smoothie. If I'm eating chicken, you're eating chicken. Something you do now, which I adore, is reach for people. If you want Grandpa, you're getting Grandpa. If you want out of your exersaucer, you now know how to express that. Sleeping is now down to a rhythm. You take two naps a day, one at ten and one at two. You fall asleep for the night by the latest 10:30. You are still addicted to pacifiers. Your favorite toy lately is the big legos. You love being able to sit on your own and play with the "big kids". You love untying everyone's shoelaces. You are OBSESSED with shoes. If there is a shoe left out where you can get it you better bet you will. You love going on walks and looking around.

You love being at restaurants. You are a huge flirt now, you love smiling at everyone. You still don't like sippy cups or water. You only get about 5 bottles a day now. You really like paper/magazines and ripping them up. I officially gave up even attempting to get you into your crib. Cosleeping is your top choice, and I don't mind it at all. I love being all snuggled with my baby. You still do not have any teeth. Although just recently it feels like we can finally feel a bump where one on the bottom is coming in, but who knows if I'm not just imagining that. You love my camera, any time I try to take pictures of you the first thing you do is reach right for it. Which has made it increasingly difficult to get good pictures of you lol.

You give kisses. If someone makes the kissing noise(and you're in the mood) you open your mouth as wide as you can and lean in. It's literally the cutest thing I have ever seen. Recently you have started having temper tantrums. If you are playing with something you shouldn't be and we take it away you let us know you didn't like that. By screaming as loud as humanly possible. You hate getting dressed and cry every single time we change your clothes. But you L O V E taking baths, and playing in the water. Which excites me for this summer when you get to swim in the pool. You love books and flipping through all the different pages. You make the "oooo" sound a lot. You are at my favorite stage right now.
I cannot wait to see all the changes that take place in the up coming weeks. I love you forever.
Love,
Mommy

Wordless Wednesday!

SOOC; last week trying to climb up one step.

#WordlessWednesday

Oh, hi!

Where have I been?
That's a question that I wish had an easy answer. Where have I been? I've been living my life instead of just blogging about it. Instead of making a post after every exciting new thing I saw, or experienced, I lived it. I have it as a memory and I actually experienced. I was in the moment I was in and that was it. Did I miss blogging? Of course. Will I try to blog more? Yes. I miss the connections with my online community. I miss having people actually like what I write. I miss people looking forward to a new post. 
I plan on trying to queue up a few posts for everyone, so I don't get so behind. I hate the feeling of being so behind on my blog that there really just isn't a point to catch up.
So what have I been doing?
I recently opened an etsy shop, that you can find here
I've been taking a TON of pictures, I'll post a few for you someday. 
SO MANY HOLIDAYS
Spending time with James and my family
I hope you all missed me just as much as I missed you.
Until a not so long next time,
Patricia

Our Mini Vacation!

Dennis turned 20 October 23. We decided we would go away as a family, the three of us. Partially because we got a really good deal on priceline and partially because we love the area we went to! Well anyone that knows me knows I am obsessed with Disney! Since James is still so little we decided to not go to the parks but to the surrounding area.

Day One: Thursday

My niece had an induction into her Elementary Honor Society at 6:30pm so we weren't able to get to our hotel until about 10 that night, which was okay. We hadn't planned on doing anything Thursday anyways so we were fine with arriving late. We checked into Rosen Shingle Creek and then headed up to the room luggage and all. I had called ahead to make sure we would have a king bed instead of two doubles. The first thing we did once inside was rearrange all the furniture. We wanted to have plenty of room for James to roll around and how the room was set up just wouldn't accommodate. We moved the bed into the corner and actually put one of the end tables in the closet LOL. After we set everything up my little night owl was not ready to sleep and had a ton of fun playing on his Super Mat! We spent the rest of that night relaxing and just watching TV.

Day Two: Friday

On Friday we had a kind of crazy day. We spent the morning and afternoon at Downtown Disney and then drove an hour away to Busch Gardens so Dennis and I could go to Howl-O-Scream! We started the morning off by waking up pretty early, around 8. We headed to breakfast with James and enjoyed a quiet meal. After that we decided we would walk around Downtown Disney, where it turned out most of our trip would be spent. Let me preface this by saying I LOVE downtown disney, or anything disney really. I just love the atmosphere and everything about it. Dennis, not so much. Don't get me wrong he likes it too he just gets bored with it, which I understand. We got to Downtown Disney around 11 and it actually wasn't that busy. We were about to walk around all the shops and even picked out a Christmas present for James! James seemed to really enjoy all the action that took place there. 

After we were through walking through the shops and looking at all the exciting things we again headed back our hotel. Since we were going to be out late that night we decided to just relax and once James fell asleep so did we. We began driving to the Tampa area to meet up with the rest of my family for Howl-O-Scream. We stopped on the way and ate something quick for dinner on the way. My parents were awesome enough to rent a hotel for the night so Dennis and I wouldn't have to drive all the way home for them to watch James. After we dropped off James and got him all set up we headed to the park. Howl-O-Scream was as scary as ever and we really had a great time. We got finished there around 1:30am and decided it would be a better idea for us to sleep at my parents hotel that night instead of making the drive back to our hotel that late at night. We woke up pretty early the next morning and headed to our hotel to finish our sleep. 

Day Three: Saturday

Saturday we woke up around 11 after having a pretty late night out. We again headed to Downtown Disney and walked around. This time we decided to board the Disney buses and head to one of their resorts. We decided to head over to Animal Kingdom Lodge because I thought James might like looking at the animals on the Savannah. Once we got there we walked around the lobby for a while just eating up the atmosphere. James LOVED looking around at everything that was going on, he wouldn't even let us put him in his stroller. James began to get a little fussy so we actually fed him in the lobby. After he drank his bottle we headed for the boardwalk to look at the animals. James was way less interested than I thought he would be, he could honestly care less. We really enjoyed the outside area and spent a while sitting in the beach chairs by the pool. We then stopped for a quick snack at there cafe and headed back for the Disney bus. This trip was actually the first time we have successfully baby worn James. It was perfect for the crowded Disney buses. I could hold James and still have my hands to grab the handrails, and Dennis could be with the jogging stroller folded up. We only had a cheap carrier with us but after this plan on getting a nicer one! I can really see us utilizing it quite often  but due to lack of back support on this one we would have to invest in a nicer one in order to be able to use a carrier for long periods of time. 

That evening we decided to go to the dinner show Medieval times, which was probably a mistake. I didn't take into account just how loud it is in there and it really freaked James out. I had to get up several times and take him into the lobby to calm him down. Luckily we were able to be seated in the handicapped section so it was easier with James in his stroller. The food, however, was delicious! I would probably go again, but definitely not until James is older. And our "team" didn't even win :( After Medieval times we went back to the hotel and went to the ice cream parlor and enjoyed delicious ice cream and smoothies. We stopped at the marketplace on the way back to the room and got some snacks. That night we spent it cuddling with James and watching movies. So amazing!

Day Four: Sunday

On our last day at the hotel we decided to get up early to enjoy a breakfast at our hotel. The hotel marketplace made DELICIOUS breakfast sandwiches that they actually cooked over a wood fire oven, amazing! The three of us ate breakfast peacefully then headed back to the room to clean everything up and prepare for checkout. Once we were ready we again drove to downtown disney. We decided taking the bus to our lunch location would be easier than driving. Per recommendation from my sister we had made reservations at Whispering Canyon Cafe, which was so much fun! The cafe was at Wilderness Lodge, which was cool because I don't ever remember being at that hotel. The resort is SO PRETTY. They have it decorated like you are in a ski lodge in the mountains, complete with a smokey geyser outside by the pool! Whispering Canyon Cafe was so cool and they did a lot of silly things. If you wanted ketchup every bottle of ketchup was brought to you and then when someone else wanted it you had to walk all the bottles over to them. If you asked for too many refills, they brought you a HUGE, and I mean H U G E cup full. Finally, if you dropped something or "caused trouble" they put you in jail. The food was also delicious. I would definitely visit this spot again because of how much fun we had! They even had "horse races" for the kids. 

This was also our first big trip with James and I was a little nervous. Things that I found that helped:

-Pack in a storage tote(much easier that rooting through a suitcase)

-Bring as many toys as you can possibly fit because he will get bored

-Bring 3 times as many diapers

-Bring extra clothes

-Bring any comfort items that will make baby feel at home

-Pack ahead of time

-Be prepared to go back to your hotel at any time for nap time

-Be prepared to stop and feed baby at any time

What trips have you taken with your babies that were really memorable? Share!

Wordless Wednesday

Did a mini photo shoot this past weekend

Stayed at the Tradewinds Guy Harvey Outpost with friends to celebrate my 21st!

The Things They Don't Prepare You For

When I was pregnant, along with most pregnant woman, read tons of information about babies. Everything I looked at online was about my pregnancy and my baby to be. I learned how to swaddle, how to feel even what to do when the babies choking. However, there are certain things the books and websites fail to mention.

1. The amount of spit up- Yes they may mention it to you. Yes you may have read about this, but until you have a newborn you truly do not understand how such a beautiful little baby can create this amount of throw up. It will get on everything. You will go in public with it on your shirt. The scent is your new perfume. You will constantly have it in your hair. And it will never fail, when you finally look decent, maybe you even have makeup on, the baby will throw up on you.
2. Arguing with significant other- The books just so happen to regret to mention how often you and your significant other will fight. Combine the stress of a newborn and lack of sleep and it's just asking for a break down. There will be a point where you step back and look at what your arguing about to find you were just arguing about what speed the fan normally goes on. Just apologize and move on. Just don't hold grudges and pretend he didn't mean it.
3. Pre-pregnancy clothes- These won't fit right for months, if ever. The pregnancy weight doesn't just fall off like you see in the media. It takes work, lots and lots of work. Beware also for body shape change. Weight wise you may weigh much less than pre-pregnancy but those hips don't lie-and they wont be letting you back in those jeans! I suppose this probably does vary person to person, but don't beat yourself up if the weight isn't coming off as quick as you'd like.
4. Sleep deprivation- I don't really think an explanation is needed here. You will be surprised how well you can run on two hours of sleep.

All in all parenting is not just something you can learn from a book. It just happens. You probably will make mistakes but in the end those mistakes won't matter and won't be remembered. All that will matter is the fact that you raised a child. Your child will wind up only remembering mostly good stuff anyways.

Wordless Wednesday(on Thursday)!