Sweet Times

What is it about this little boy that makes each and every moment with him so special? I really do get excited to pick him up at the end of my workday and see him. I love that he starts kicking his legs or crawling over to me and getting excited to see me when I walk into his room at school. And I love the time we spend with him each evening playing. He changes so much so quickly and I want to remember every second. For example, in the last 2 weeks, he has started playing on the floor again as he did when he was tiny and couldn't crawl. He lays on his back and waits for us to tickle him or make him laugh and then he rolls over and then rolls back for more tickling. Then he hides his face in the rug or under his stuffed dog and just giggles and rolls over and over. Such a funny little boy! He also wants to climb on us all the time whether we are sitting on the couch or on the ground. We just love our mommy and daddy and Atticus time so much.

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day from Atticus! You can see some pictures below as to our "photo shoot" and how well it went. We giggled, we squirmed, we slouched, we ate paper hearts, and we did everything the opposite of what I was wanting for what I pictured in my head to be the most precious Valentines to send out. But, what do you do? I still love them!

First the cute ones....





And now the outtakes...

"Why is daddy holding that blanket up there?"

"Seriously? I have to hold these paper hearts and this big heart and look at the camera and smile? I'm too busy - I have cheerios to eat and toys to play with."

"I'm done with this project!"

Where's Atticus? There he is!

Atticus plays Peek-a-boo now. It. Is. Precious. (how many times have I used that phrase on this blog before you ask? yes, lots. but it's true!). I really do not know if there is anything cuter than two chubby little hands covering up a babies face and that same baby getting so happy and excited when he pulls them away! Just in the past two days, he has actually started putting his hands up to his eyes immediately when you say the word "peek-a-boo". But, prior to that for about a week, we would play "Where's Atticus?"..."There he is!" over and over and over. And, of course this is one thing that is not easy to catch with a camera. But, here was my try at it....

Where's Atticus?

There he is!

Where's Atticus?

There he is! And I think he just found a long lost cheerio on the ground to eat as well.

Also, in case you were wondering: this is what typically happens once Atticus realizes I am taking his picture:

Weekend with Grandpa and Granny Janny

Vic's parents, aka Grandpa and Granny Janny, came into town this weekend for a visit. Since Atticus is going through a phase of slowly warming up to people lately, he was shy at first. But, not too long after a couple of hours Saturday morning and he was very happy to see his grandparents! He played and played and showed off all of his tricks and surprisingly, they just couldn't get enough of him! He splashed in the bathtub, had stories read to him, snuggled with his granny, and giggled and played all weekend.

Atticus is 9 1/2 months

Here are some facts about Atticus at 9 1/2 months:

• He claps but now instead of when the bear sings "patty cake", he claps when he is happy about something or is proud of something he did!
• He started standing right at 9 months. He will pull up on something (or someone) and then just let go and stand there. Sometimes, he will even clap while he is standing or play with something while he stands. We are going on probably 7 or 8 seconds tops but he is getting pretty good at it when he tries.
  
• He is still crawling EVERYWHERE!
• The only "words" or really I guess they are called sounds are "dada" "mama" "baba". These are usually repeated over and over and while we act like he is calling us mama and dada, I think they may still be just sounds.
• He has a couple of different smiles lately - he scrunches up his face on one and grins really big on the other. Both are so fun!
  
• He is still in size 3 diapers.
• He is in 9 month clothes but getting close to 12 month clothes. I bought some 12 month sizes this weekend but he is still a tiny bit smaller than them. I just feel like his 9 months are getting too small. I guess he is "in between" sizes.
  
• He was 28 1/2 inches long and 21 lbs at his 9 month appointment.
• He has had 4 ear infections since December and hopefully, while he is starting to get another tiny cold, he won't get another one. If so, his pediatrician wants us to possibly see an ENT just to have them take a look. If this Texas weather would just stay put instead of going back and forth, maybe we could kick these little colds!
• He still has only 4 teeth; 2 top and 2 bottom.
  
• He is getting a full head of hair, though it's still blonde for now. Not sure if it will go lighter or darker, but we don't think it will be red.
• Foods he likes right now: in baby food, he likes sweet potatoes, carrots, all fruits, and LOVES baby yogurt. In regular food, he likes rice, cheerios, bread (Aunt Jill's banana bread and croissants), bananas, puffs, and that's about it. We have tried green beans, pasta, turkey, ground meat, cheese, strawberries, and peaches and he just doesn't love them more than maybe once. And he's just about done with the baby food that has meat in it; such as chicken and rice, turkey and noodle. I know, I know - why would we feed that to him? But, he liked it for awhile!
  
• He is starting to take a sippy cup but doesn't get too excited about it. He would rather drink water from mama's glass. Maybe daycare can train him....
• He loves door stoppers. All but one of our door stoppers is the kind that has a spring (the other is just metal doesn't move). So, he pulls the spring and it goes back and forth and makes noise. We thought this was so cute. Until he started pulling the little white rubber tip off the end and wanting to place it in his mouth. Then, we had to go around the entire house and pull all of the white rubber ends off of the door stoppers. Therefore, the door stoppers just became less useful. haha!
  
• The toys he plays with right now are blocks and stacking toys and anything musical. He loves rides in his wagon, but we are waiting for warmer weather to take him out daily. He still likes Sophie, his hungry caterpillar and is starting to get interested in books! We have two: "You are my cupcake" and "I love you through and through" and he will sit and listen to them while we read. I can't wait to read him books!!

I guess those are his 9 1/2 month updates. It's hard to believe that this time last year we had not even registered for baby items and now he is 9 1/2 months old!

He loves to take a bath and splash and play. He is probably just about to be too big for this blow-up bathtub but it's just so hard to let him loose in the big tub quiet yet....

Crawling everywhere!

Happy 31st Birthday Vic!

Vic turned 31 on February 5th. However, I had the day off of work on the Friday before (the 3rd) so I decided to cook up a dinner to surprise him and celebrate that night. So, I went to Pinterest for a finger food kind of dinner: crockpot meatballs, pepperoni roll-ups, cheese bread, stuffed zucchini, and brownie and fruit dessert. It was delicious! I had taken Atticus to daycare that day to get some errands run and be able to have time to cook up dinner before Vic left from work. So, as he walked in the door with Atticus in tow, the weather began to get rainy and stormy. And then that storm turned into a tornado warning in Brazos County. To the closet we went to take cover, as the weatherman instructed us to do.

Our food was hot and waiting, but we grabbed our flashlights, computer (since the satellite signal was already lost) and some toys and cheerios and headed to our closet. Fortunately, our closet is like a long hallway, so there was plenty of room for us. My first thought was "how are we going to keep Atticus happy?" I knew he was hungry and really thought he would get bored in the closet. But, that turned out to NOT be a problem. He found all kinds of new treasures in the closet: a belt, some headphones, shoes, clothes. He would eat a cheerio and find a new treasure. He NEVER got bored even after 45 minutes.

We eventually left the closet and fortunately, no tornadoes headed our way. But, we felt it was better to be safe than sorry. We heated up and ate our food, played with Atticus and then put him to bed. Then it was time for presents. Here are a couple of pics from mine and Vic's birthday celebration evening.

Though none of these were hard recipes or anything fancy, they were some pretty delicious appetizers to make a good meal!

Homesick Texan Cookbook....this really was a gift for both of us because Vic is a great cook and I get to taste test every recipe he tries!

I have no idea why I didn't get a picture of this actual gift. But, it's a Yeti ice chest.

And last but not least....tickets to see Reba at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Vic loves Reba. And I like her too. So again, this is kind of a gift for me too!

Happy Birthday Vic. I love you so much.