Who's your Daddy?

Amos was saying "Dada, Dada, Dada" over and over again in his bedroom yesterday morning, so I went in to see who he was talking to.  I found him holding The Giving Tree and pointing to none other than Shel Silverstein on the back.

I told Jason at least Amos will still love him if he loses all his hair!

5 Weeks to Go

I haven't mentioned much about being pregnant, but believe it or not, we only have 5 weeks to go until due date.  This pregnancy has been so similar to Amos' that its a little weird.  One major difference has been how well I'm sleeping.  I completely attribute this to the fact that I'm visiting the chiropractor on a regular basis.  She was recommended by another friend and loves working with pregnant women.  I had some hip pain with Amos that kept me awake a lot of nights and stuck around after he was born.   She's kept me aligned and believes that remaining aligned will contribute to an easier delivery.  That makes sense to me.  Also, she's assured me that she can turn the baby if he is breach, so no need to worry about a surprise c-section.

My plans for the next 5 weeks:
- Finish a few minor baby room projects (art, crib skirt, organize the closet better, fix curtains, etc)
- Catch up on pictures for our family album so that I'm ready for the overload of newborn photos I will be taking!!
- Finish Amos' first year video.
- Double every dinner I make and freeze the second one.  I just don't have the energy to do it all in one day.
- Go on a hot date with my hubby!!  We have reservations to a dinner theater down in Branson to see a Murder Mystery.
- Order some additional cloth diapers!  I am so excited about this that there might be an entire post about it.
- Keep the baby inside of me the entire 5 weeks.  My plans for this involve at least one nap a day, no extra walking, and entertaining myself with a puzzle on the couch.  Basically avoiding everything that has been known to induce labor.  Wish me luck.  I'm not a very good rester.
- Hold Amos A LOT.
- Hit up a few consignment sales and garage sales looking for some baby items.
- Decide on a name (yeah right!)

I'm sure it will go by fast.  At this point, maybe a little too fast.  We'll see what I think in a few weeks.

Hats & Jackets

What is it about a hat and jackets that makes kids look so old?  It turned chilly (LOVING IT!!!!) last Thursday and we broke out a jacket and hat and big boy shoes for the mall.  He thought he was pretty hot stuff in his duds!

Amos has a weird relationship with hats.  He'll bring me them to put on his head all the time and then spas a little to keep himself from immediately pulling it back off his head!  If he makes it through the first few moments, it'll stay on his head for a while.  He also likes to pull the hat down so he can't see  He then starts walking around and has twice walked directly into furniture, soundly knocking himself over.  He's weird.  What can we say?

This weekend we broke out the bike again!  He can now stand on his own and even make it go forward.

He then loses his balance and Dad helps out.

ABC book at Shutterfly

Just made this ABC Body Part Book for Amos on Shutterfly!  I had a free 8x8 book and didn't know what to do with it until I found this really cute ABC template.  I've been wanting to do a book of body parts and this seemed like the perfect way!

Click here to view this photo book larger

You'll love Shutterfly's award-winning photo books. Try it today.

He's Mine too!

So, there's a little bit of Mom in there somewhere. 

PARTY!

It's a party at our house today because this little angel made her debut last night at 1:07 am.

We were so glad to welcome her to world last night.  Don't worry, I didn't steal the bouncy ball from the laboring woman.  This was after Priscilla was already here.  Three and half hours of sitting on waiting room chairs did a number on my hips!

The cousins are having fun playing together!  We even caught them in the bath!

14 month Summary

We’ve got a 14 month old on our hands now.  Even though he’s gone through the largest growth spurt of his life – the first year – every month brings lots of new things!

Here’s both my boys at 14 months!

EATING:

Amos has become a little bit of a pickier eater these days.  His pickiness comes in the form of loving a peanut and butter sandwich one day and refusing to eat it the next.  He still eats most things, I just have to catch him on the right day.  The only main change to his diet is introducing peanut butter, and he is finally starting to like sweets.

PLAYING:

Amos has loved balls and saying ball or balloon for a while now, but I would say this month he has been obsessed with them.  A balloon can entertain him for quite some time.  I’ve stored up a few in the car for extra long car rides.  Amos will even run to me with a book that he’s found a ball in and repeat “Ball, ball” over and over again.  He’s obsessed.  He’s doing such a better job playing with other kids and sharing toys.  He has his moments, but I see large improvement from this time last month.  It really helps that he has daily practice.

His other awesome trick is picking up his toys.  For a few weeks, we’ve been working on it together and just the other day, he picked up his toys without me even saying anything.  It was too cute.  After he was done, he went over to his blue chair and kicked back as if relaxing.

I can't forget to mention Amos' fascination with his belly button.  Its the only body part that he will consistently point to when asked.  Poor guy can barely find the thing though because his belly is so big!

He is also started to like to crawl up on things.  He wasn't too interested in it until Asher came over and showed him how it was done!  I'll catch them like this quite often.

PERSONALITY:

One big change this month is that Amos gets excited about things and starts laughing and waving his arms up and down.  The main things he gets excited about are drinking his milk, putting on his shoes, going outside, eating, and from time to time, change his clothes.

Early this month, Amos started giving kisses to his stuffed animals, which has since changed to him giving kisses to Daddy and Mommy.  He doesn’t give them every time we ask, but giving them at all is a BIG improvement.  He’s actually become a little more lovey these days.

COMMUNICATION:

Amos still carries on mainly to himself, but is trying to interact with us more and more vocally.  He is becoming a very good mimicker and will repeat words we say.  His favorite animal sound to make is a dog, but he moos pretty good too!  He’s got Asher’s name down pat, so we hope he’ll pick up Little Brothers too, whenever we decide what it is, that is. 

DISCIPLINE:

We’re still at it.  One thing I’ve noticed is that he seems to mind better when we are somewhere other than our own house!  I guess that’s a good thing!  Something I’ve been working on is being consistent with him following through with commands I give him.  For instance, he used to throw his milk on the ground when he was done taking a drink.  Because none of our sippys are completely spill proof, I didn’t want milk spilling everyone and began asking him to give me his milk.  Sometimes he would, sometimes he wouldn’t.  Sometimes I would be lazy and let him get away with not giving me his milk.  Lately though, I’ve tried the whole being consistent thing and actually getting up and walking him through the motions if he chooses not to do it on his own.  And I’m finally beginning to see some fruit from my labor.

His "Is Mom watching?" face

SLEEP:

Still a great sleeper although it seems like he may be getting ready to drop his first nap.  I’m really hoping that’s not the case, as I would love for him to keep it until Little Brother comes along.  However, he normally only has one good nap a day.  He still takes two, but one of his naps, he ends up spending more time playing in his crib than sleeping.  One Sundays, he never gets a morning nap and has been taking close to a 3 hour afternoon nap.  I think only time will tell when he’s ready.

SPECIAL EVENTS:

The olympics were a fun part of the beginning of this month.  Up until they started Amos had watched very limited TV, but with them only happening every 4 years, we through our no TV watching rule out the window for two weeks and had it going practically 24/7.  Surprisingly he was hardly interested it the them, he'll be ready to fully experience them the next go around.

OUR SCHEDULE:

7:30 - Wake up and eat breakfast

8:15 – Activity with Mommy and Asher

9:30 - Morning nap

11:45 - Lunch

12:15 – Independent playtime

1:45 - Afternoon Nap

4:00 - Daddy Time

5:30 -Dinner

7:30 - Bed time

Playing Outside

We finished out the weekend by grilling and playing outside!  I love that Amos loves to play outside!  I also love that Amos has a wonderful Daddy who will take him outside, especially when this pregnant Momma doesn't want to spend anymore time outside than necessary right now.  That's normally the thirty seconds it takes for me to get from the car to wherever I'm going!

We had one sweaty boy after all that outside playing! He was ready for some water!  Check out the belly sucking in going on below!  He just figured out he could do this.  It helps him find his belly button.

Also, you may not have noticed, but Amos is sporting a new do!  Excuse the crazy face.  This is the best picture I could find to show off my skill!  Luckily the curls hide all the flaws!

Labor Day

On Saturday, we went down to the lake for the last time of the summer.  We've all had a lot of fun at the lake this year, but I'm looking forward to next summer when I WILL NOT be pregnant and can actually enjoy water activities.  And can enjoy taking Amos on the tube, he may even learn how to ski, ha ha!  The joke of the lake for years is how my dad can not control himself while driving people on the tube.  He has this insatiable desire to throw someone off.  However, now that he is Grandpa, he has supposedly turned over a new leaf.  The only problem is that sometimes that leaf turns back over, especially when driving sons and son-in-laws!  You can ask Jason about that.

On this particular trip, Amos caught a short nap on the way down.  I always love when he falls asleep in his car seat, because I rarely "see" him sleeping so I'll practically watch him the entire time he's sleeping.  Its amazing how big his eyes look when they're closed.  Once we got there, he was ready to get out and explore.  A lot of my family was already down, sitting on the deck enjoying the cooler weather.  Amos had fun eyeing the dogs, but didn't want to get too close.  They're a little too tricky for him.  I didn't even need to bring him any toys because of all the new stuff to check out in the cabin.  

There's window watching...

Large bear riding...

Running away from the large bear... (he couldn't decide if the bear was a friend or a foe)

The couch slide...

The challenge of wearing a life jacket and staying upright...

And Grammy!

I didn't get any pictures out on the water, but Amos had a fun time on the boat and in the water!  He was worn out from his day and has slept good ever since!

Notice anything about this picture??

And I had to share this one as proof of 55 years of wedded bliss!  That's Grandpa giving Grandma  foot massage!  And no, this picture is not posed, it actually happened!

We enjoyed spending Sunday at the park with our church for a picnic. And this took place Sunday evening!  More pictures to come!