Finally! Some Pictures

While at the park today, Monty found the wildlife very amusing. That is, until the Goose started hissing at him...we left soon after.

Playing in our backyard...we really need to mow our grass, lol.

This just gives you a small idea of how HUGE Phoebe has gotten. And only 5 months old, what will we do?

Playing by the old steps in front of our house. He really enjoys cleaning them off because it involves picking up and throwing all the leaves and sticks.

Isn't he handsome?

I planted some Romaine and Head Lettuce, while Monty really doesn't care, I'm happy with the turn out so far!

And finally! He is walking...Yay Monty!

Going for a long distance here!

Enjoying the nice weather at the park

And now I'll take the time to do a short 13-month update. He is currently 32 inches tall. Has now associated Walmart with balls and bananas, and continuously ask for them the entire time we are there. That leads me to his vocabulary. He really does well (of course I have nothing to compare this to) with talking. To add to his earlier list, he can now say: tankyou (thankyou), nana's (bananas) and hi (to everyone). He doesn't really ramble much, like a lot of babies. He usually "talks" with a purpose and gets frustrated if you don't understand. He will point and ask for food, by finding the item and saying "more". Which seems to work well for both of us. I'm currently working on the phrase "more, please" but hasn't said it yet. I'm sure he will soon though.

He has started testing his boundaries lately. Which I'm assuming most kids do around this age. Just this evening he had his first real fit. I found it comical because it was over some frozen chicken breast that he wanted that I was attempting to prepare for dinner. (and by no means was he terribly hungry because he just had FIVE quaker rice snacks and a bowl of applesauce). But he had decided that frozen chicken breast was what he really needed and when he didn't get them he preceeded to throw his entire body on the kitchen floor and scream bloody murder. I simply said "get over it" stepped over him and headed to the living room to facebook about it, lol. It took him at least five minutes to realize I was gone before the fit started to come to an end.

Thanks for checking in, and I will try to post more often.

A Short Update

First I'll apologize for the lack of pictures. I have taken a few, and I will even admit that when I picked up my camera this afternoon that it still had Christmas pictures left on the memory card (ouch!). I had big plans of taking Monty to the nature center today, I even put him in an extra cute outfit, but by the time we had made it to our first "picture-taking-spot" Monty was snoozing away in his stroller. Crap. Two hours and several miles of walking later, I ended up waking him up to put him back in his car seat :-(

So due to the lack of good weather and my poor planning, we are picture-less. Sorry.

Now for a Monty update.

He has really started to mature, and is just growing up so fast. It seems like he learns something new each day. Right now his current vocabulary includes:

• Ready
• More (in relation to food)
• Moma
• Daddy
• Dog (followed by woof-woof)
• Ball
• Nana & Papa
• And a few different words in sign language that he has learned at the baby sitters

His current loves of life are balls, mega blocks and generally getting into things that he shouldn't be in. He loves to go through the drawers in the bathroom, and rearrange everything. He thinks it's hilarious to pull off his shoes and socks. And, has made the leap from formula to whole milk in just a couple of weeks.

He has recently gone through a growth spurt as well. I actually just noticed this today when two pairs of his pants were too short, bummer! He has also outgrown all of his shoes, which has left me in a small frenzy because he still isn't walking, and I'm just not a big fan of buying more crib or pre-walker shoes since he's so big now. Hopefully he'll take the leap into the wonderful world of walking soon.

It's Been Toooooo Long....

I'm awful. I haven't been updating the blog nearly enough. This is mostly due to my latest phase in life - exhaustion. Between working, raising a little boy, training a new puppy and never getting all the housework done, I'm just plain tired. I've recently taken up the new habit of falling asleep on the couch between 8:30 and 9:00, and then waking up and stumbling to bed. How do working mom's do it? I am perplexed.

Enough of my whining though. Monty is still as great as ever. His latest achievements are dancing, opening drawers he shouldn't be in, lifting up the toilet lid to play in the water (YUCK!), playing with the dog, playing "can't catch me" at an incredible speed and still eating more then what is humanly possible. He is also going through this phase of fake-crying when he doesn't get his way. Oh well, I guess it's better he learns now rather then later. He's not walking yet, but he's getting close. He will walk on his knees, walk behind push toys and stand alone. I was originally hoping he would walk by his first birthday but I don't think that will happen. Only time will tell. He now has four top teeth and two bottom teeth - which come in handy for all that eating that he does. When we eat out now I always have to get him his own meal, otherwise I don't get to eat mine. Anyone heard of family night, when kids eat free? That's my new fav.

Soon I'll be doing his one year old pictures, so you can look forward to that, and his birthday is just around the corner - YIKES!

Phoebe

We got a new puppy! Crazy huh? Between working full time, and raising a wonderful little boy, we decided to add just one more to our family. My husband and I lost both our dogs this year, so we decided it was about time to get another one. She is one of the sweetest little dogs you'll ever see, and very calm for a lab puppy. She has a lap dog personality, which although she'll be HUGE, I'm in love with, because the typical crazy lab style is a bit much for me.  I'm more into the calm and lazy type. She's great with Monty too, they love to play tug-a-war with each other, and although she usually wins, Monty never gives up or uses his fake-crying-technique to get her to give in.

Love.

Crazy.

Beautiful.

What a Great Little Man

Somehow over the last month or so Monty has grown up. I'm sure I will be repeating this again in the future, but it just seems like he is such an energetic independent little man now.

He can now sit up straight from laying down, crawl on his knees, pull up on anything and eat as much as a two year old. He still doesn't have any top teeth, but there are six that I can see that are on the verge of popping through. I'll be super excited the second they pop through because that means that he'll be able to eat food all on his own. Not to mention that I'll probably cut out baby food then too, since he already eats off our plates for each meal. To give you an example of how he eats now....my mom watched him the other day and said that he ate a whole banana after eating his normal dinner and an 8 ounce bottle. She was shocked, all I said was "I told you he eats a lot" "that's about normal for him". He can also easily eat a whole baked potato too.

He still just loves life. We went shopping a couple of days ago and he was just an adorable little ham the entire time we were out. He just sat up in his stroller and clapped, laughed and talked to strangers the whole day.

Thanksgiving Day Outfit

This was a relatively easy outfit to make. I simply cut out the letters to spell "thankful" from some matching fabric I had. Appliqued them onto a simple brown shirt, and then added elbow patches to a Gymboree sweater I bought at a second hand store for just a couple dollars. Simple yet thankful :-)

Check out those eyebrows.

 

A Quick Update

Sorry, I've been a little absent lately. Things have been just a little crazy around the house since I started working. Monty has been doing really well with the whole babysitter gig. He really is a people person, so seeing the babysitter each morning actually brings a smile to his face. He absolutely loves her, which has left me feeling NOT-GUILTY about leaving him. My little man hasn't even cried once when I've dropped him off. He usually forgets about me instantly and starts playing with her instead. I am a little sad that he doesn't seem to miss me, lol. But I will take that any day over him crying when I leave.

Posts in your near future......Thanksgiving Day Outfit, Thanksgiving with the Family and Monty's 9 Month Update!

Becoming a Working Mom

So, Monty is almost 9 months old now, and I've finally decided to get a job. I wasn't really planning on it, or even looking. But while shopping at Gymboree a few weekends ago the manager remembered me from applying before, and basically offered me a management position while I was checking out. I went home a little excited about the possibility of actually working. But soon, the ultimate fear hit. Leaving Monty with a baby sitter. It just makes my stomach turn to even think about it, but eventually I knew this day would come, and it might as well be a time when I don't have to actually put effort into trying to find a job and be at a place that I love to shop already. One might be crazy to turn down a job in this economy anyway.

So, after meeting with the manager and talking to the GM I've decided to start part-time, knowing that I can go full time when I'm ready. I figured only working part time in the beginning will give Monty and I some time to adjust. I know thousands of women with babies work, but what helps one get over the fear? Any suggestions?

On a good note. For the first time in a long time I actually went to get my hair done. My hair was getting super long and pretty unruly. Which being a stay at home mom it didn't really matter so much because I just always put it in a pony tail. Anyway, I got about a foot cut off! And I really like it. In person it seems much shorter then it looks in the picture. I also got highlights, but you really can't seem them in the picture - bummer - but, I didn't want them too drastic in case time gets away from me and I don't make it to the salon in time to cover up my roots.

My New-Do and Monty @ 8 Months Old

 

Monty's First Halloween!

 That's a toothbrush in his left hand.....I think it's awesome someone gave them out!

Diggin' in the bucket

People watching.

His first candy.....Tootsie Pop.

 Yummm.

Such a cute little monster.

 This is what happens when you take candy away from babies.

 Sitting with all his candy.

Fall Diaper Bag

I finally did it! It took me a while (actually most of fall) to finally finish the very small amount of finishing I needed to do on the inside of the bag, but I finally finished it last night. Yay Me! I've actually been using it for a while, but at least now when someone asks "did you make that" I can say with a little pride "yes I did" and not feel embarrassed to show them both the INSIDE and outside. It's my first bag/purse/tote that I've made and it turned out pretty well. Sorry I don't have a better picture of it, but sadly I took the picture at night (which equals bad lighting), and I also took it while I had it stuffed full of all of my diaper bagging needs. Oh well, don't judge, I'll admit that I'm lazy. At least I finished it, right?