Life with a Toddler

Copycat

I adore this age where the littles copycat the bigs. 

Fun out back

 

My nephew, Micah, came to visit the other day and we enjoyed ourselves in the back yard.  He loved swinging and running through our leaves.

 

Brijet and Ainzley so enjoyed jumping off swings while I tried to capture it all on camera.

 

Chaz and Dax are quite the pair. Dax cannot get enough of his big brother and Chaz is just crazy enough to entertain Dax for a while!

 

Happy #1 Mr. Dumpling

 

 

My sweet Dax has gone and grew on me. He is officially 1 year old. How does it seem to go by so fast? One minute he is a sweet newborn cuddling me and the next he is toddling around getting into every single thing he can reach. He has successfully managed to annoy each of his siblings.  Multiple times. That is some sort of toddler passage with older siblings, right?

 

 

He loves being sung to. He thought it was so fun. {That is supposed to be a superman emblem with the letter D in the middle. Dax sure is super!}

 

He is still reacting to multiple foods so we made a vegan cake. Oh, we both loved it!

 

He was so happy on his birthday!

 

Aunt Jenn got him a cute cape and shirt with a super D on it!

 

{super cute sibling love}

 

Cousin Micah came to play. He and Dax loved hugging each other and playing with each other's toys.

 

Love that smile!

 

Dax crawls so fast when he hears Chaz come home from school!

 

Dax can walk across a room, sign more and milk, open the front door, climb onto the couch and coffee table, climb the stairs super fast, and so much more. The kid is so smart!

SIX never looked so good!

 

My sweet baby girl, Ainzley, is 6 years old! She is so incredibly sweet, smart, sassy, and full of life!

Everyone wore yellow to school for the day to support some cause. I went and had lunch with her.

 

This girl loves to bake so we made a cake together when she got home.

    They have to lick the spoons!  The girls just love baking!

 

Then Ainzley's friend, Kyla, came over to play. They iced the cakes and had some then played outside in the wonderful weather!

 

Ainzley woke up singing about her birthday. She was so excited.

 

I have not had a chance to get her birthday photo shoot done. She is not having a party this year. My sis and mom came over the day after her birthday and we sang to her. Then, she gets to take a friend to a fun place to play to help celebrate her birthday! She is so thrilled.

Eleven Months

 

 

Eleven months of this beautiful face. Eleven months of nursing and cuddling. Eleven months of love, giggles, and pure joy. Eleven months of being blessed with being his mama.

 

My baby boy Dax is eleven months old today and amazing me.

Family Fun

I just love when my mom, sis, and nephew visit. We adults (okay, mostly me) use the time to snap as many pics as we can with as many different poses as possible. We learned a while ago that photos in a studio rarely turn out well and we cannot afford a great photographer to help us out so a snap shot with my little camera works out fine. We need documents to hold onto to remember and cherish this age. These littles playing together, running together, giggling together, it all needs documented.

 

 

My 4 kids, me, and my nephew, Micah. Funny how I bring 80% of the children to family functions. I am raising most of the mother's grandchildren. Never thought I would be blessed with 4. Still wows me daily. I am blessed.

 

My sister and her son posing with my four. I cannot express in words the love these two have for my children. It is truly magical how Micah's face lights up when he gets cousin time.

 

We call her Nana. She is The Grandparent around here. The one who comes over and loves on any of her five grands whenever she can. The one who helps Nanasit when one of her daughters needs a break to regain their sanity. The one who gives out no less than 20 kisses and hugs to each and every grandchild every time she sees them. My kids know no other grand in their lives and she is the main staple in Micah's life. These children are truly blessed to have her as a Nana.

 

My sis and I find it amusing to watch her play this Nana role. It is vastly different than her mother role she played all those years before. Now, she is kinder, gentler, happier, willing to learn and improve, calmer, and able to actually relax while enjoying her grands. I am glad we can have documentation of her visit to my house. This is not something of I have much of from my own grandmothers so I hope to one day look through all these old photos with my kids, my mom, and my grandkids all together!

A changing me

I had to post this here. This is me in November 2012 and then me this month. I am working hard at being healthier and getting my body moving. I am feeling better and loving it!

A Really Rough Start

 

 

This sweet girl has had an incredibly rough start to kindergarten. She has spent more time crying over the last few weeks than not crying. We have counselors helping. We have tried all the tricks we can think of. I honestly thought it would last forever. I was feeling so awful for her and like I was failing as a mom. It was really draining on both of our parts. She just said she missed me. She cried from the moment she woke up until she was in school for a while. She was fine coming out of school but the crying would start again in the evening and sometimes she would even wake up crying that she would miss me. It seemed so traumatic.

 

I am happy to report that she had no tears this morning. She just woke up and said she was fine. Wow! I was so relieved. She walked into the school with the counselor and a smile on her face. She happily said bye mommy. Bye mommy. What sweet words. I have no idea what changed. I had a list of counselors/therapists I was ready to call and make appointments with. I was so worried about her.

 

This mama gig is some hard stuff, totally worth it, but so hard on the heart!

Oh My Cuteness

Good or Bad?

 

 

Is it good or bad that my 9-month-old knows just where the food is stored and how to get more? He also knows we keep a few of his snacks in the diaper bag and crawls his way over to bang on it as well. :) Boy knows what he wants and goes for it!

Thinking outside the box

Ainzley has been creative in finding ways to get stuff done with the cast on. I couldn't resist this pic when I saw her chilling with my phone.

Selfies ~ Doin it myself

I love my camera. I love snapping pics. I love editing those pics. I love sharing those pics. It brings me such joy.

 

 Everyone who knows me is aware of this. Everyone knows that my camera is mine and I really don't like anyone touching it. My camera is usually in my hand, pocket, or somewhere near by.

 

 As a result, I have tons of pics of everyone else and I rarely end up in front of the camera. I end up snapping a bunch of selfies of me just to prove I am there most the time!

 

 I also have been trying to snap pics of me with my kids. This is not such an easy task to get myself and the child in the pic and be able to see what is happening. 

 

 I think I succeeded in this series of shots though. I am completely in love with them. 

 

It started one summer afternoon while we sat in the driveway of our new home playing and watching the sisters run around.  Dax was having a blast crawling all over the place so I had fun snapping some selfies.

 

Dax caught me not paying attention to just him so he came to investigate.

 

He happily accepted my loves and kisses.

 

Then he offered his own.

 

He decided he needed to see my sweet eyes so he snatched my glasses.

 

 

He was surprised and happy that he got them off.

 

Then he gave up on me and tended to the glasses.

 

My sweet Dax Evan. He is just growing and learning so fast. He is so stinkin smart and full of joy. I simply cannot get enough of him.