spoons and applesauce

For about the past 2 months, I will put some food on Seth's spoon and he can put the spoon in his mouth. Well yesterday, I put a cup of applesauce in front of him and he scooped it out all by himself and put it in his mouth. He also tried to do it with the other foods on his plate, but after failing a few times, he just picked the food up with his fingers and tried to put it on his spoon.

Bye, Bye Bottle

Seth has been weaned from all of his bottles, except for the night time one, for about 2 months now. I have always heard that the night time bottle is a difficult one to get rid of. When we weaned him off the daytime bottles, he was fine unless he saw a bottle on the counter or if he was at daycare and another baby had a bottle he would want one too. I thought for sure Seth would have a hard time letting the night time one go, but for the past week when I feed him before bed, he only takes a couple of sips and then goes to sleep. Last night we decided to try and just give him a sippy cup with some water and it worked!!! He didn't seem to care at all. I was very excited, but at the same time kinda sad. My little boy is growing up so fast and the night time bottle was probably the last thing that was keeping him as my "baby". He truly now is a toddler...walking around (and running) every where, problem solving, trying to talk, and now only sippy cups to drink out of. Oh it goes too fast! I love seeing him grow and learn new things every day, but I will always want him as my "baby".

Ladies Man

At Seth's Daycare, he is in a room with about 4 girls that were all born around the same time as he was and they absolutely LOVE him! :) Everyday I hear a new story from his teacher about Seth and one of the girls. A little while back a teacher told me that Seth kept putting his feet on one of the girls and she would giggle at him everytime. Yesterday, the teachers took the toddlers outside for a buggy ride and Seth was sitting next to a girl named Miranda. They said that Miranda kept softly tugging at his ear and giggling and finally Seth had enough so he just grabbed her hand so she would stop and they held hands for a few minutes. When I dropped him off this morning, another girl who is a day older than Seth, ran over and gave him a big hug. Then they started laughing at one another and chased each other all around the room. It is so cute to watch!

Live for the moment

I am part of a group called cafemom.com. It is a great group and I have met some really cool mamas and have received a lot of help with questions I've had. Well as I got on today, a mama wrote a post about how she just lost her 3 month old daughter to SIDS. She was with her baby all day, and as she was holding her, she realized that her baby gasped and then stopped breathing. Paramedics couldn't revive her and just like that her baby girl was taken from her. One minute she was holding her precious baby girl in her arms and the next moment she was gone. The replies of sympathy for this woman were incredible, but I also noticed that so many women replied that they too lost their baby in the same way. It absolutely broke my heart and totally put things in perspective. These women would do ANYTHING to be able to hold their babies again and here I sit complaining when Seth has a bad night. Seth didn't want to go to sleep last night until 9pm which is very strange for him. He just cried and cried and wouldn't stop until I went in the room with him. So for an hour and a half I cuddled with him and we even laid on the floor together where he finally fell asleep. I remember walking out of the room thinking how my night was shot and I didn't get to do anything that I needed to do. After reading these stories, it got me thinking that I really should start enjoying the moments more. I find myself rushing bath time or dinner time just to get to the next thing. For now on I am going to slow down and live in the moment and try to find joy in everything I do. Looking back, last night wasn't that bad...after all, I got an hour and a half of "cuddle time" with my little boy. Those are the moments I live for!

first haircut

So I decided last night that it was time to trim Seth's hair a bit. His hair has gotten so curly and long, so I just wanted to trim the back a bit so he didn't grow a curly mullet. I must say that I think I did a pretty good job!

uh oh...bad mommy

I think that i just taught Seth something bad!! I will put a toy on his head, and then he will mimic me and try to put one on his head all by himself. WELL...last night at dinner he decided to put food on his head. (pictures coming soon) He was covered in pasta and mandarin oranges and he thought it was the funniest thing. Guess I won't be doing that anymore!

"all done"

Whether it be after meals, diaper changes or bath time, Jerry and I always tell Seth "all done" when he is finished. Well yesterday after Seth had finished his snack, very clearly he said "all done". Jerry and I were both so excited!

Peanut Butter

This past weekend we decided to let Seth try Peanut Butter. I had the phone next to me in case we needed to call 911, but turns out he's not allergic!! Thank goodness. So far no food allergies. The things we have to worry about as parents...the list goes on and on.

"Mama"

Okay, so Seth says mamamamama and dadadada, but I'm not sure he really means it yet. You know, when he says "mama", I'm not sure if he's directing toward me. Well, yesterday when I walked into daycare to pick him up, he ran over to me (yes, he is attempting to run now and I'm a nervous wreck) and put his arms around me and said "mama" just as plain as day. Even his teacher was excited to hear him say that! What an icredible feeling, I will never forget it.

Our silly Seth!

Here are just a few cute things that Seth has been doing lately that are just too cute not to mention:
1. Since he was born, he has had this baby einstein turtle on his crib that plays music and has dancing fish. He has always loved it, but just recently for the past week, when he wakes up in the middle of the night, he will push the button to play a song. This has been happening anywhere between 2:30 and 5:30 am. He will push it several times and then lay back down and fall asleep to the music.
2. The other day Seth was eating cheerios, so I took one and threw it up in the air and caught it in my mouth. (i know, i probably shouldn't teach him that but...) He thought it was so funny, so I did it again. He started laughing and then started handing me cheerio after cheerio so I could do it over and over. When he ran out of cheerios on his tray, he started pointing at the cheerio box so I would get some more and continue doing it.
3. When in the tub, Seth likes to put his toys in my mouth. Well I guess without knowing, I make an "ahhhhh" sound when he does this. Well the other day while in his little swimming pool, he grabbed a toy and held it up in the air and said "ahhhh". He was trying to tell me to open my mouth so he could give me his toy. He's so cute!

Landscaping Project

I finally completed landscaping the front of the house. I thought you might enjoy the before and after pictures. I couldn't have done this without Eric. He gave up his weekends, worked diligently and put up with my obsessive compulsive demands. I also need to thank Lindy who was patient during this process, brought us cold drinks to overcome the heat and took care of Seth by herself while we played in the sun :-) Please see the following link for before and after pics:

Father's Day

For Jerry's 2nd father's day, I got him a custom made shirt with Seth's pic on it (see link below). We also went to Seth's first ever Cardinal's baseball game. It was so much fun, but unbearably hot!!!! The game was at 1pm and it was 93 degrees. We didn't stay too long because we didn't want Seth to get too hot, but we got some good pics and had awesome seats. We were about 5 rows up from the dugout. (again, see link below) It was a great day and Seth was such a champ. With all the noise and people, he just seemed to take it all in. I love seeing Seth and Jerry together. Jerry is such a wonderful father and absolutely loves Seth with all of his heart. You can just see the pride in Jerry's face when he is holding him or playing with him. Seth's face lights up every time he sees his daddy, especially when Jerry has been out of town on business for a couple of days. I love my boys so much! Here is the link to our Picasa web albums where you can view more pics from Father's Day...

My 1st Post

With help from my sister, I finally have decided to start a blog page for Seth so that our family and friends can keep up with what's going on in our lives. Thanks Lauren! So where do I even begin? Seth turned 1 on May 25th. We had a huge party for him with family in Georgia. It was lots of fun. I found myself looking back on his first year and realizing how fast it went. I remember bringing him back from the hospital and not knowing what to do with this little person! He weighed 9 lbs 6 oz at birth, but he was still so tiny. I remember the hard nights with little to no sleep and just trying to make it through those first couple of months. Most of all though, I remember his first smile, his first laugh, the first time he rolled over and the first time he reached out for me, the day he started crawling, the first time he gave me a "kiss", and now we are celebrating his first year of life and with that came his first steps. It has been such an amazing journey and we are so blessed to have this sweet little boy in our lives. I am so amazed by him every day. Just recently it's like the light has been turned on and everything is clicking in his little head. He learns something new everyday! He points at everything, waves, gives "kisses", claps and gives "fives", dances everytime he hears music, says mama, dada, momomo for "more", uhoh, ca for "cat", and good. He is so sweet and "loves on" everything especially his stuffed animals and Simon, our cat. When reading books, if he sees a cat on the page he will lean in and kiss the book. He is a very active boy and never sits still for a second, but when he is sick he loves to snuggle with momma. He has 4 teeth but is working on 4 more at this very moment. He currently weighs 24 lbs 6 oz and gained 10 inches since birth. He loves taking baths and although he rarely cries, he does cry when I take him out of the bath tub because he loves it so much. He has always been a good sleeper 11-12 hours a night since he was 2 months old and is just everything we could have hoped for and then some. Currently his new thing is learning to hold more than 2 objects at one time. He will try to hold as much as he can in his little hands and is figuring out new ways to do just that. Sometimes he will grab 1 object and put it in his mouth and then pick up other objects with his 2 hands so he can carry as much as possible. He amazed me yesterday when he was carrying a cup in each hand when he stumbled across a toy in his path. He wanted so badly to pick it up, but his hands were full. After a little thought, he dropped one of his cups he was holding, picked up the toy on the ground, put the toy into the cup he dropped and then picked up the cup with the toy inside. I am convinced that our son is a genious!!! :) Okay, well I could go on and on, but I had a years worth of catching up to do and I'm sure I have left out so much, but I will now continue to update this page as often as possible! Please follow the link to pics and videos of Seth's 1st birthday!