Project 52:2

Technically this is last week's photo, it just happens that I took it this week. Oops. I kinda love it. This is my life in one quick snap. A little crazy (Mason screaming) a little sweet (Sutton's suprisingly innocent face) and a little wanna-be hot mamma, as evidenced by my attempt to look 'hip' with my tangled, ratty-looking t-shirt scarf. Wow.



Project 52:1

So I have no idea how it started or what it means, but Project 52 is apparently where you take a picture of something every week for a whole year. It apparently revolves around a theme. What an amazing idea! So, here I go. Pic one of 52 for 2012:

Of about 15 pics of us, this was the best. :\

My theme for 52 pictures? Me and the boys. I'm the picture taker in the family. Therefore most of our pics are of one or both of the boys or Rusty with one or both of the boys. By the end of 2012, I will have 52 pictures of the boys with their Mama that they will (hopefully) treasure. This is such a wonderful time in my life. I get to stay at home with our two beautiful, intelligent sons.
On a non-Project 52 note: Uh, we obviously had another baby since my last post. Mere days after my last post, Rusty forced me to put down my beer and take a pregnancy test. Much, much, much to our suprise, we were pregnant after less than a month of trying! Since it took a year to get pregnant with Sutton, we were certainly not expecting it to happen that fast. Fast forward through 9 months of a very easy pregnancy, me quitting my job at UTSA, Sutton's 1st birthday and an amazing delivery and overall birth experience, we have Mason Hayes Brown. Red-haired, blue-eyed Mason. I'm sure people see me with this baby and my brown-haired, brown-eyed mini-me, Sutton and think I stole this baby.
He's such a happy, easy baby. He loves to cuddle and eat (and eat and eat and eat and eat) and smiled for the first time at only 5 weeks old.
Sutton is almost 2 now and is soooo much fun. And knows exactly when to stop being a turd and give me a kiss when I'm about to lose it. Here are some fun things about him:

•  He calls Mickey Mouse "Hot Dog". I'm assuming because they sing the "Hot Dog Song" at the end of every episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
• He loves hotdogs. He calls Sonic "Hot Dog" every time we drive by.
• He has an amazing vocabulary. He picks up about two words a week and doesn't forget them. We rarely have trouble understanding what he wants or to what he's referring.
• He's in the 93rd percentile for height. He must get that from his grandparents, because he certainly didn't get it from Rusty or I.

I am so excited about my Project 52. At the end of the year, I'm hoping to put together a book for each of the boys with all the pictures. Until next week!

Swings!

So we tried swings with Sutton a while back and he was having none of it. He got the same look on his face as he did when he met Santa. Like he knows he's SUPPOSED to be happy and he's trying really hard for Mama and Dada's sake, but he's just not feeling it. Since the weather has been GORGEOUS, the evenings have been longer and I've mastered the easiest, quickest meals imaginable for supper, Sutton and I have been taking walks around the neighborhood and down to the park, just exploring and checking out the scenery.
Last night we headed over the park/play area on the block behind our house. I thought I'd try Sutton in the swings since I saw my friend Linsay and her son Owen enjoying them so much on her blog. (Shoutout to Linsay, the most amazing, put-together, fashionable SAHM I know.) I plunked Sutton down in the swing (one of those baby/toddler swings that he can't fall out of) gave him a little push and....

HE LOVED IT!!!!

Oh thank Goodness. I was really worried that I was going to have one of those big, brawny boys who are afraid of something ridiculous. Like a swing. Seriously, he was laughing and kicking and squealing and flapping his hands all crazy-like. It was so cute. We were both just cracking up! Apparently we were just being REALLY goofy because all of a sudden a little 6-7 year old boy on the swings next to us says, "You and your baby both laugh the same. Really loud." Um. Thanks? Of course, I didn't want to leave the conversation on THAT awkward note, so I just threw out, " I know, we're having so much fun!" And that child (bless him) says, "Your baby is really cute. But he's wearing a diaper." To which I respond, " Yeah, he's still a bit small to go potty on his own. He doesn't quite walk yet, but he can crawl REALLY fast!" Yes, I felt the need to justify (to a 6 year old) that my 10 month old doesn't use the toilet. Here is the rest of our conversation:

Boy: "How does he crawl so fast?"

Me: "Well, you know how you can run really fast because you run and play all the time and the more you run, the faster you run? (Like that makes ANY sense at all) Sutton crawls a whole lot so he's really fast!"

Boy: (jumps off his swing) "Yeah, I can run really fast like THIS!" and proceeds to stand in place, but pump his arms like he's running one million miles an hour, all the while making what I'm sure is the same face he would make were he to actually run one million miles an hour. Something of a the-wind-is-blowing-my-face-skin-back grimace.

It gave me a nice glimpse into my future as a mom of a crazy little boy.

Sutton Update

Oh my goodness. I am completely ashamed of myself for going so long between posts. I can only attempt to justify this lapse in blogging by saying that I would much rather be living life than blogging about it! Here are some random updates about Sutton:

• He eats pretty much anything now. We started solid table foods at New Years and he LOVES it! He'll eat whatever we're eating for supper and usually has oatmeal and fruit or yogurt for breakfast. Still loves crackers and one of his new favorite snacks is Cheerios.



Cheerios!

• He crawls like no body's business. The kid is FAST. He would much rather crawl than walk right now, since it's easier and faster for him to just crawl to Mama and Dada than practice walking to them.
• He's starting to associate words with the items they correspond to. 'Dada' is Rusty. If I'm ever the one to pick him up from Phyllis' at the end of the day (it's usually Rusty,) he doesn't say Dada until Rusty gets home from work. He also says 'Dog' (well, really is 'Duh!') but it means 'dog' and, just recently, 'Gizzy' which is what Phillis calls her teacup Yorkie, Gizmo. Sutton gets so excited when you say Gizzy and he starts looking around on the floor for the little puppy. Oddly, he says 'Zaza' too, which has absolutely no meaning other than it's the name of his calf out at our family farm, who only is named Zaza because it's a word that Sutton says. Zaza can sometimes be used instead of cow, too.



This is Zaza.

• He's cruising! He pulls up on anything, and I mean ANYTHING. He tried to pull up on a pair of pants I was hanging up (or trying to hang up) in our laundry room this weekend. He can pull himself over the edge of the bathtub, which isn't great, because he just falls in head first and then starts to cry because he bonked his head. If he pulls up on something, he doesn't stay in one position long. He holds on with one hand and walks as far as he can then crawls to the next piece of furniture, pulls up and resumes cruising. Of course, this is all done without letting go of his favorite toy...
• A dirty sock! He loves dirty socks. Ewwww! So gross, I know. They're his own dirty socks, so it's not like he's handling anyone else's dirty feet germs. He likes to hold onto one and crawl around, or sometimes he puts it in his mouth and crawls around like a puppy. Crazy kid.

It's pretty much like this, since he usually gets his dirty sock right off his own foot.

• He waves and gives high fives. Oh my goodness, just thinking about him waving his hand up and down and the way he laughs when he gives high fives just warms my heart! It's so stinkin' cute. He flaps his whole arm and hand up and down for a wave and high fives are basically the same action, but slapping your hand and laughing hysterically. He's said 'Buh!' a few times while waving bye-bye, so we're thinking that may be 'Bye!' but he hasn't done it enough for us to really think that he's associating it with bye-bye.

Those are the big updates! Of course, there are so many little things that change every day with him. He's just growing up right before our eyes. In less than two months, he'll be a year old! I guess we need to start thinking about themes for his first birthday party!

Tis the Season!

"Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at yo...GRANDMA GOT RUN OVER BY A REINDEER!" These are the jumbled Christmas songs that have been floating around our house lately. I love singing The Christmas Song to Sutton because it's so soothing and pretty; Rusty loves to jump in with Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer because it's fun to sing and makes Sutton laugh.
The holiday season is here! Cold weather, Christmas lights, trees and decorations, pictures with Santa and plans to visit family far and wide.
Sutton is 7 months old now and I couldn't think of a better age to experience a first Christmas. He's sitting up, scootching around (not quite crawling,) laughing and smiling at so many things and responding to us in so many new exciting ways. He makes the funnies faces when responding to certain words. He makes his guppy face when we say Paw Paw (which is what we call my stepdad, Jeff) and this completely cheesy grin when we're playing with him and being silly. Oh, and our baby doesn't giggle sweetly. He guffaws. His laugh goes something like this, "Huuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh, ah huuuuh, huuuuuuuhhhhhhhh, uhhhhh!" It's so funny! He's also becoming more accustomed to his Gerber Puffs snacks that we've been feeding him for about a month or so, now. He still makes some pretty funny faces while eating them, but he'll no longer just spit them out. I think his new tooth is helping the chewing process. We've known that one of his top teeth is close to coming in, but last night, I actually heard him grinding his top tooth and lower teeth together. So apparently, it's broken through the gum. We are now a three-toothed baby boy! I'm thinking about moving him onto Stage 3 food now, and seeing how he does with a few soft pieces to chew on.
Since it's Christmas -time, we of course had to take Sutton to have his picture made with Santa. We went last Saturday and it was a great experience! I can totally understand all the fun of taking children to do children stuff in a setting where there is absolutely nothing to do for adults other than watch their kiddos have fun. Sutton was a bit fussy (it was about his nap time) when we first got to the mall so I was a bit worried about him just being a toot when his turn came. We didn't have long to wait as we got there early (of course) and were third in line. However, once Santa showed up I think Sutton could feel all the excitement because he just went totally goofy and started cheesing and laughing like crazy. He was flirting with a mom behind us and I kept telling him that she was married and her husband was going to get mad. The couple had their little boy with them to take pictures and the dad was like, "Don't worry, kid, I'm not the jealous type!" Cute cute cute. So Sutton's turn came and we plopped him down on Santa's lap and went to stand by the camera. Sutton just kinda sat there. He wasn't smiling, but he wasn't freaking out (I didn't think he would throw a fit, he's still pretty good about going to total strangers at this point.) So I started making faces and saying, "I'm going to get you!" which always makes him laugh. And he smiled! Not a full-fledged Sutton smile, but a smile nonetheless. We'll take it where we can get it!

Sutton's first  picture with Santa Claus!

That whole afternoon was a whirlwind of tinsel, trees and lights. We picked out our tree (I'm pretty sure Rusty would have bought the 12 foot Noble Fir if I wasn't with him. He joking pointed at it and we laughed, but  I'm pretty sure I saw a little longing in his eyes. We ended up with the 6-7 footer.) bought some ornaments and lights and headed home to decorate the house. We had only about an  hour to put up lights outside and get the tree in the stand before we had to start getting ready for Rusty's office Christmas party, so we brought Sutton's pack n play outside and went to work. Rusty and I took turns working on the lights, but he did most of the work and we got them all up and looking just lovely!

Goofing around with some reindeer antlers we bought him.

Since Rusty's company Christmas party is a pretty serious affair, we opted to get a babysitter for Sutton rather than bring him, although he would have been perfectly welcome at the party. Mommy and Daddy needed a night out, too! Our sitter was actually the granddaughter of Sutton's everyday sitter, Phyllis. AND her name is Kali! I'm sure Sutton was so confused, hearing someone else called by my name PLUS she looked so much like my sister, Brooke. He did great with Kali and Rusty and I had a great time!
We have lots of plans for the holidays: We're flying to DFW Christmas Eve to be with Rusty's family and I have off a whole week between Christmas and New Years, so we have lots of time to spend with our sweet boy!
Till my next blog! And I PROMISE it won't be a whole month from now!

6 mos Check Up

This morning was Sutton's 6 month check-up and it could not have gone better! Well, maybe if he didn't have to get his shots, but we know those are for his own good! Sutton is right where he should be developmentally. Our regular pedi, Dr Jones, was out, so we saw one of his associates, Dr Austin. She was great! She asked about any new things he has been doing (pulling up on all fours and 'rocking', eating stage 2 baby food, getting better at his hand-eye coordination when reaching for and picking up objects,) his sleep habits (about 12 hours at night, hardly any naps during the day,) how often and how much he eats (5 times a day, nursing, breastmilk and formula and baby food,) and whether he's sitting up on his own (almost, but not quite.) Sutton is 19 lbs even, in the 75th percentile in weight, 27 3/4 inches long, 75th percentile in height and has a 17 inch head, which is in the 50th percentile. He got his 6 mos immunizations and also the first of his two flu shots. So he's truckin' along just as he should be!
Here is our happy baby boy showing off his new skillz at the Dr's office:

1/2 a year gone already!

Happy 6 month birthday to our sweet little man! We love you so much! We prayed for you for so long and felt more blessed than we ever could have imagined when we met you. You have shown us that our love for each other could grow even stronger each day and that we would still have enough love left over to love you to the moon and back. You are our sunshine, our tootie-pie, our stink-pot, our booger-butt, our baby boy, our son. And that means more than we could ever express.

Six months old!