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.

$500 For the Love of Cash Giveaway

Welcome to the $500 For The Love Of Cash Giveaway!

We've joined an amazing group of bloggers to bring you this great giveaway. One lucky person will win $500 cash.

I'm so excited about this giveaway! I know we could all use a little extra cash right after the Valentine's season leaves us. I know personally I could use that $500 to buy some awesome craft supplies or more cute toys for James. What would you buy? Good luck!

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.

The Eve of My 21st Birthday

If you asked me five years ago what I would be doing when I was 21 having a child certainly wasn't in the picture. I never would imagined five years ago that my life would have turned out the way it did, but in all honestly I wouldn't change a thing. I am completely blessed with a loving family and beautiful son. Not much has changed in my life since I gave birth to James. I am still going to college, I still have the same job and the same friends. What will I be doing for my 21st birthday? That I'm unsure of at this point. I've kind of left the planning aspect up to my sisters and best friend. What do I think life will be like in five more years? I think I will be the mom to an amazing five year old little boy. I think he will have an amazing personality and will be as smart as can be. I see myself teaching kindergarten. I see my family still as close as we always have been and I see myself with the same core group of friends. 

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.

Happy Birthday Dad!

I have probably the best Dad in the world. Anything I ask of him he is more than willing to do. Now that James has been born he has stepped fully into the role of perfect Grandpa. Of course this isn't his first grandchild but it's my first child so the first time I've really seen him in the eyes of a mother. I'm so glad he is so involved in James life. I don't know where I would be today without my Dad. He has sacrificed so much in life just to make sure I had everything I wanted. I don't know how I could possibly express in words how much my Dad means to me. I love you Dad!

James Weekend of Firsts

James and I recently took a trip for the weekend to Daytona for my cousins birthday! This was a huge weekend for James. It was his first time at the beach, and first time in the pool. Of course he didn't touch the sand or water at the beach and only his feet were in the pool.

He did so good at the beach! He slept under a little half tent for most of the time and only got fussy once and was saved by Aunt Kathy with a bottle!
After returning to the house everyone jumped in the pool to get the salt off. I sat on the steps with James to cool him off since he was so hot. He didn't really enjoy the pool and was fussy the whole time but I think that was because he was so uncomfortable. I plan on trying this again sometime soon in my pool when he is in a happy mood. 

What cool things have you done recently? Do you remember the first time taking your child to the beach or in the pool? Leave your answers below!

Happy Two Months James!

I took my two moth pictures of James today, and I cannot believe how much he has changed :(
My newborn doesn't look so much like a newborn anymore. He wasn't in that great of a mood when I took these so I was only able to capture a few good ones.

Dear James,

I still look at you in amazement, James. I cannot believe you grew in mommy for nine months and then exactly on your due date you decided to make your arrival. I was so blessed with an easy pregnancy and delivery, and for that I am thankful. So many changes are taking place with you lately. You really started "talking" to yourself yesterday. It was the cutest thing, you were in your bassinet taking a nap and when you woke up instead of crying you were in there all happy talking away to yourself. Your even starting to sleep so much better through the night, you really are beginning to have a schedule. You finish your bottle around 10:30 then you'll sleep until around midnight and after that bottle you sleep until 3, then don't wake up until 6ish and then you'll sleep until 9. It's so much better now then a few weeks ago when you would be up all night. One of your favorite things to do right now is sit in your bumbo seat, you love looking around the room. You also love being outside, you barely ever cry when we spend time outside, which is really nice. I am so lucky to be your mom and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. You have completely changed my life and made it complete. I love you so much James.

Dear James

Dear James,

I can't believe you're going to be five weeks tomorrow. It feels like just yesterday I was holding you on my chest for the first time. These short five weeks have flown by and I wish I could slow down time. I wouldn't trade all the sleepless nights and baby throw up all over me for anything. Every moment with you I cherish as I know I'll never get it back. Even at this moment while I'm writing this you're patiently staring at mommy on the computer. I love every inch of you.


Things I'm going to miss:

• How you love staring at the light
• The noise you make before you smile
• How you love flailing your arms
• How much you freak out when I change your diaper, the wipes make you make the cutest face
• How much you love your swing
• How you grab onto my finger when I feed you a bottle

• The grunting noises you make when you sleep
• How small you are
• What it sounds like when you cry
• How dependent you are on me
• How much you love the rocking chair
• How bouncing you will always make you stop crying
• How much hair you have
• How blue your eyes are
• How you love to make fists
• Your tiny feet
• How your just starting to look at objects
• Your tiny nails
• How you love "watching" T.V.
• How calm you get when I hold you
• Your smell
• Spending every second of every day with you
• How you love sticking your tongue out

I love you James