December 26, 2015 by Stephanie

George-16 Months

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Weight: He is just over 25 lbs.

Health: This kid and teething. Seriously, they are just barreling in. He has 12 so far, 6 on top and another 6 on the bottom. He also has four cutting right now. FOUR. The last couple weeks he has been alright mood wise, but his nose is basically a leaky faucet. He has also had a really bad cough the last week working through this round of teeth.

Diet: Not much has changed the last two months. He eats what we eat for the most part. There aren’t many vegetables that he will eat, so he gets at least one squeeze pouch a day as a snack to make sure he is at least getting some veggies each day. He has started eating meat more regularly which is good. Carbs are still his favorite. He still will change his mind on how and what he will eat at any given moment. He will always eat oatmeal, rolls, and bananas. He actually will eat a banana like an adult by holding the peel now!

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Clothes: This little dude grew this last month! He is basically in 18 month clothes. They are a little baggy, but he is way too big for 12 months, and there aren’t a lot of 12-18 months clothes out there. He also sized up in diapers and shoes, both size 5.

Sleeping: Things have been so different this last month! He is sleeping through the night again-Thank the Lord! And when he does wake up, he usually can talk himself back to sleep. Yes talk himself back-we may have a sleep talker. Last month, I thought he was having night terrors because he would wake up with a bloodcurdling scream and couldn’t go back to sleep. I felt like we were back in the newborn stage. Thankfully that only lasted a couple weeks. We have been phasing out the second nap. It has been an adjustment though because he wants to now take a 2-3 hour nap right over lunch time. We’ll work it out, but I have noticed such a huge difference in his bedtime sleeping. He now sleeps from 8pm-7am. On the weekends he has even slept until 8 (one time 9am)! Sleeping in has never been sweeter.

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Likes: He loves the Tupperware cabinet and taking all of the Tupperware out. He is really into putting lids on things now, so the Tupperware has been fun for him. He loves heights and climbing. Now that he has figured it out, he wants to climb everything. This stage is absolutely terrifying because he is not afraid of anything. I am just waiting for the day where he can climb out of his crib. I am having a panic attack thinking about that. He loves to read, play with legos, dog toys, getting into boxes/baskets, and throwing things. He is also really into pointing to things. He loves to make anything a scarf, but particularly loves putting our belts around his neck like a necklace. He still really loves brooms or anything in stick fashion. He got a little swifter for Christmas, and I am fairly positive he would sleep with it if we let him. He loves Christmas lights and trying to plug them in on his own. He also loves putting things in the fireplace. the other day I found it stuffed with Tupperware.

Dislikes: He does not like to be told no. He doesn’t want to take pictures at all. He doesn’t like when I take him off the couch where he has so proudly climbed and now wants to face dive off of. He hates PDA, so we don’t get kisses or holding hands at all. Hugs are very few as well unless he is super tired.

Milestones: He is “talking” a lot, but not many new real words. He did add night night and uh oh to his repertoire. Mostly, he just repeats the main syllable, like right now he is really into Bs. George now will go brush his teeth when I ask. I don’t know how this happened because a few weeks ago he acted like it was torture. He did have his first dentist appointment. He enjoyed his first Christmas tree. We are working on using silverware. Some days it goes well, and others it is a hot mess. He claps and waves bye bye more regularly now with the right timing too. He gets the concept of drawing and holding a pencil. We got some chunky crayons for Christmas so we are going to do a lot more with this development now.

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Quirks: He has this evil chuckle when you tell him no, which basically means he is going to do it anyway. He sits in the middle of the kitchen when I get his bottle ready or get a squeeze pouch out. He will even sit when I tell him too, like he is a dog. He crawls into our laps and actually will sit really nicely. This is really the only cuddling he will do. When I sing him to sleep he grabs my neck and presses his forehead against my chin and giggles while I attempt to sing like that.

We parents are: We have really enjoyed the last two months with day and midnight shifts for Tom. It has been busy with the holidays, but we have gotten a little more family time. Tom has also been working like crazy to fix up the living space in our basement.

The dogs are: now 5! George and the dogs get along so well. George is now petting them a lot more gently, which is a huge step up from the smacking and intense grabbing that was happening. The dogs enjoy that he is an endless supply of goodies between the spilled milk and food thrown everywhere.

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This little man just warms my heart. He is growing so much and so fast!

October 26, 2015 by Stephanie

George-14 Months

I wanted to still keep up with George’s growth and milestones even though he is now past a year, but I am only going to do it every other month on here. He is still changing so much, and there is a lot I want to remember.

Weight: He is probably around 25 lbs.

Health: This month his health has been all over the place. These last two teeth have been the worst yet. He is at 7.5 teeth. This last one you can see under there but it hasn’t broke through yet. He has 4 on top, and 3 on bottom with another coming through down there. He has had a really bad cough and a few fevers trying to get through this round of teething. And his mood has been at every end of the spectrum trying to break them through. Rough.

Diet: He eats what we eat, however he is starting to be a little more picky. There aren’t many vegetables that he will eat now, and he is not real big on meat except fish. Carbs are still his favorite. The squeeze pouches are like crack to him. He goes NUTS when I pull one of them out. Most days this is how he gets his veggies…He will always eat oatmeal and bananas. We gave him peanut butter for the first time after he turned 13 months, and he was in love. I think the teething has gotten in the way of his appetite, but I have also read that their hunger evens out as a toddler. Things are definitely interesting because one day he will eat something, and then the next day we will eat the same meal and he won’t have anything to do with it.

Clothes: He is safely in 12-18 months. He does still wear a lot of 12 month clothes. He is still in size 4 diapers, and we just recently moved into size 4 shoes. We are trying to wear shoes everywhere since George is wanting to walk everywhere. We even walk from the car to the babysitter’s…very slowly.

Sleeping: For the most part, he is sleeping from 7:30/8pm until 5am, give or take some minutes. These past two months have been a little rough if I am going to be honest though. Seriously these two teeth are the worst. We have had many more days than I am ok with that George wakes up at 4 am. I think he is also starting to protest the second nap, so we may be pulling that soon. We have serious issues when we travel. He doesn’t like sleeping in new environments, so it takes us a lot of work to get him to sleep when we aren’t home. He sleeps on me a lot when we are traveling.

Likes: He loves to make noise. He will bang anything on the floor. He loves our racquetball racket. He is usually carrying it around the house at all times. He has started to climb, so he wants to get to the highest point possible whenever he can. He likes the dog food and is always trying to sneak it before we can put the bowls up on the counter. He loves to sweep. He gets somad when we try to take the broom away from him. He is more reactive to music, and he even dances now. He likes to sleep in our bed. He really enjoys taking every toy out of it’s crate or box. It’s a toy minefield in our house. He loves to play “up down”, which is going up and down stairs or over floor ledges. This would be great if he actually could do it by himself safely. Usually we are holding on to him when he is on the stairs. He also really likes to get in all the kitchen cabinets and pull everything out. He is also fond of putting his hand in the toliet. I never thought I would have to say, “George, don’t chew on the toliet seat.”

Dislikes: He does not like it when I leave him alone. He has started his separation anxiety and screams when we leave. He does not like to be told what to do. Car rides are not his favorite, although I have found the trick of just giving him all the pacys. He does NOT like to sit still. I cannot take pictures of him by myself anymore, which is a sad sad thing.

Milestones: He is trying to run, which is the best thing to watch ever. There is a hop step that happens as he waddles trying to catch himself when he goes faster than he realizes he body can. He dances now which is so cute. He has started talking. This happened the day of his 12 month appointment when the doctor said she was concerned he hadn’t said anything yet. He said “mama” that night just to prove her wrong. His words are “mama, dada, woof, and dah (dog). He points (he points with his middle finger sometimes…). He shakes his head no. He is much more consistent on waving goodbye. He throws things. He thinks everything is a ball. He makes faces now, and we can definitely see his personality coming through. He is generally a happy guy who loves to explore and be around us.

Quirks: He is really shy now, even around people he knows. He will run to us and hug our legs and burrow his head in our knees.

We parents are: Things have been busy. Tom has been on the worst shift this past month with hardly any weekends off so we have hardly seen him. I am excited that he is off this weekend, and we have no plans except to stuff our face with Halloween candy.

The dogs are: doing wonderfully. George pets the dogs now. He just lights up when he sees them (except when they lick his face). I am not surprised one of his first words was dog. He also gives them hugs on their back. He lays his head on their back and pats them. He is only not gentle on their face. He grabs and pinches their jowls. He also loves to play fetch with their toys. And luckily the dogs are really gentle when George takes them back away to play the game. Watching their relationship is so enduring.

Look how much Gdubs has grown! Look at his legs!

We are having such a great time discovering what it means to be a family of 3 (5 including the dogs). We are loving seeing George’s personality develop even more every day into a sweet little man.

How in the world do we have a toddler?

October 13, 2015 by Stephanie

Who Does George Look Like?

Ok, so am I alone in selfishly wanting your kid to look somewhat like you?

Anyone?

I am admitting that I want my kids to resemble me in some way. Call it narcissistic or self-preservation, but there it is.

Tom, George, and Me all around 3 months

So it hurts my heart just a little when EVERYONE says that they only see Tom in George. (Ok everyone is a slight exaggeration, but honestly it is very rare that anyone thinks that this kid looks like me.)

For real, the other day I went to a police wife event, and before I even introduced myself, people asked if we were Tom’s family because George was a spitting image of Tom.

I will admit that George definitely looks like his daddy, which is great because he is a good looking fella.

But I want to get some different opinions to support my thought that while yes George does look like Adult Tom, he does not look as much like Baby Tom. He looks like Baby Stephanie. I know that sounds weird that George looks like me as a baby and Tom as a grown-up, but there it is.

Anyway.

Here is my evidence.

George and I. (And apparently showing that the 80s didn’t have the same views on baby bedding. Put all the things in the crib)

Tom and I both have the same blue eyes that we passed along to Gman, but I feel that I get discounted a lot because I wear glasses all the time. I mean really, do you agree with me? Stroke my ego my friends.

This face below is apparently hereditary. Fortunately that fringe shirt is not.

This is Tom and George, respectively, doing some tummy time.

Once Tom got out of the baby stage though, I totally see George in every picture. Case in point. George is definitely a mini-Tom most of the time (in looks and disposition).

Pretty cute babies. Our families have some good genes.

Top: Me, George, Me Middle: George Bottom: Tom, George, Tom

If this post seems like I am whining, it is because I am. I just needed some validation that George does resemble me some times! Is that too much to ask?

Honesty though, I understand that it can be hard for people to see the resemblance to me when he looks SO MUCH like his dad right now, and it’s not like I carry baby pictures of myself all the time. And fortunately for me, I lost some of the baby chubs so I don’t look like my baby self. I would agree that a majority of the time he does look just like Tom, but I am here to say not all the time.

All in all, Tom and I made the cutest baby ever who just takes my breath away every time I look at him.

What do you think? Do you agree that he looks like Baby Stephanie and Adult Tom? Do you hope that your kids resemble you too?

September 8, 2015 by Stephanie

A Baseball First Birthday Party

For George’s birthday, I wanted to do a classic baseball theme. I found these signs at Hobby Lobby last fall (on sale), and that was what started my thought process of the party planning.

I have been collecting things over the past 6 months, and then the past month we made the last minute touches.

So here is a look at our celebration of George’s first year.

Let’s start with the decorations.

These were our centerpieces. I was able to get a pound of peanuts for $2 at our local grocery store. A pound goes a loooong way. Real baseballs were expensive, so I bought these stress balls instead for super super cheap. I think I got 24 for less than I could get one real baseball. We also had sunflower seed bags and Big League Chew gum that people could take. And of course a little Royals flair had to show up.

I really wanted to emphasize how far George has come, so the month to month pictures with the NICU picture was a must. The tags say “Rookie Year.” We made these with our Cricut and a punch out device.

We printed these large architecture prints at Staples for cheap. I took the first baseball one when he was a couple weeks old. The middle picture is one of our favorites, and he was 6 months then. The last one is from his invitation shoot when he was 11 months old. Tom and I made that dugout sign. When George graduates to a big boy bed, we are going to change his decor to a baseball theme, so this will eventually go in there. I will share how we did that later this week!

That mitt is actually a pool floatie that my sister-in-law found online.

I saw this autograph idea on Pinterest, and it was just too cute not to do. We made the sign using our Cricut and a pre-made scrapbooking sheet.

This is the cupcake stand. Tom made this, and I helped with the baseball stitches. I will share this soon too!

This scoreboard is another piece that will go in George’s room. It is a chalkboard sign, so eventually we see George playing with that as his imagination grows.

I found a picnic table cloth that looks like grass so we could do the cake smash on it easily instead of doing a high chair. My SIL got the idea to have a grandstand behind him once I told her about the grass. She found that wall hanging and the blow-up catcher on Zulily I believe.

For the food, we did hot dogs of course, but I wanted it to be pretty low key and easy to prepare. We also had popcorn, a fruit and veggie tray, cookies, Hostess cakes, ice cream, and cake pops.

We made this sign to make it be a “concession” stand.

We had it in our church gym, and the kitchen opens up nicely to add to the concession ambiance.

My SIL has a cookie lady who does an AMAZING job decorating cookies. Seriously, look at those things! We also found Hostess baseball cakes which are on our nicely made baseball theme cupcake stand. My father-in-law found the KC Royals peanut bags at a local grocery store, so obviously we had to have those added! I found the Royals napkins at party store here, and there are also regular baseball ones.

My SIL, the party planner, also has a cake pop lady, so yep these happened.

These were our party favors. I just made balls that say, “Thanks for Coming! Hope You Had a Ball!” I made them in Publisher and printed them out myself. Easy peasy. I got a bulk box of them off Amazon for like 10 bucks.

Since there are a lot of kids in our family, we knew we had to have something for them to do to get all the sillies out. So we had inflatable balls and bats just thrown all over the gym. They had a “ball.”

My SIL found these online in a 12 pack, which covered all the kiddos in case they didn’t want to share. And same with the baseball beach balls.

So I bought this little bloomer outfit when George was like 4 months old, and let’s just say it’s a good thing he only wore if for a couple hours. It was a tad snug. I mean this shirt was just calling my name. Especially when I got it for $4. He wore this after he dabbled in the icing.

Tom made the baseball cake.

Doesn’t the backdrop look awesome?

The nice thing about doing it at the church was that it had an industrial kitchen with a big sink perfect for hosing George down.

This is George’s great-grandma who is 96.

These are George’s only first cousins, one from my side and one from Tom’s. I love that we were able to have them both there!

Yes Tom is awesome for agreeing to match me in these baseball tees that were basically heat traps. Seriously so much sweat…

Tom and I love this little man. We are amazed by him every single day. We are so blessed, and we never knew how much our hearts would grow to let him in. I know George won’t remember this day, but this celebration was also to thank all of our family and friends for being there and supporting us in our first year as parents.

Can’t wait to see where year 2 takes us. We are oh so curious at what big things will happen.

Like talking. George said his first word this week. He said ‘mama!’

We had so much fun putting this baseball party together and celebrating George!

September 7, 2015 by Stephanie

Let Them Eat Cake

The last couple weeks we have been celebrating George turning one, and the fact that Tom and I made it through a year of parenting mostly unscathed.

With George’s ferocious appetite, I think everyone was hedging bets that he would hulk smash his cake.

Which he did.

During our cake smash photo shoot, George didn’t need any prompting.

He dug into that cake the second we set him down.

He had no hesitation.

And he proceeded to eat at least a third of the cake and most of the icing.

This was the George we know and love.

Then yesterday at his birthday party, we saw the complete opposite.

He didn’t want to have anything to do with that cake.

We tried for a few minutes trying to get him to eat it but he just kept getting up and walking away trying to chase his cousin down with icing.

Here are my thoughts as to why the switch:

He was not feeling well. He had been puking all afternoon.
He is teething, so he is kind of all over the place. Also see not feeling well.
He had a huge audience of people he isn’t so familiar with. While he loves people watching, he doesn’t like to perform on command.
He may have remembered that they last time he ate a whole cake that he didn’t poop for 2 days. I would probably stay away from that food too.
George is George, and he does what he wants. The life of a new toddler. They are unpredictable even if you have the best intentions.

But hey, at least we had the cake smash photo shoot from before!