Choo-Choo Carsen is Two!!

Purchased here

My little guy turned 2 last weekend. It is so hard to believe, but we had an amazing birthday party on Saturday with family and a few friends.

Little Man is into EVERYTHING that moves, any kind of transportation or balls. We watch Thomas and Friends, Chuggington, Chuck the Truck, etc on repeat. I knew I wanted a train themed party this year to honor his love of "Choo-Choos". I contacted our local train museum and set up a party. We had to pay per person instead of per kid like most places, so we decided to keep it small this year. Which ended up being a good thing because the party room was actually in a real train caboose, and there was very limited seating, in fact the 15 of us could barley fit inside all at once to sing "Happy Birthday".

 The party turned out great and the best part was that they had over a dozen real-life trains that you could climb on and explore My heart was exploding with happiness when I saw just how excited he was when he saw all the trains in the yard.

 He is becoming more and more interested in the potty (pi-pi as he calls it). He kept looking down the
whole and saying "I see you". What a Nut!

         



 My friend Melissa iced cookies for me they turned out so cute.



My dad used to make my birthday cakes growing up so I asked him to continue the tradition and this is what he made. I think the clouds are my favorite part. Little Man loves licking the icing off of the trains.

The entire gang.

I purchased these train hats on Amazon for less than $20 and everyone was excited to get to have one of their own. They are advertised as child sized but they have snaps in the back so they adjusted well to fit all of us. 

It was a great party and I would suggest hosting one of your own or even visiting the Great Plains Transportation Museum if you are in the Wichita area.

14 Months Old

Our Little Man has grown so much over just the last month. He has learned to walk, he now signs "milk" and can say "bu-bo" (bubble), "moo" and "wah-wah" (woof-woof for dog). He is so interactive now and so much fun to play with. He loves swimming and splashing in the water, the zoo, and being outside. Recently he has become obsessed with hats. I put one on him for church a few weeks ago and he usually refuses to wear it, but now he puts them on himself and wears one almost constantly.

He wasn't scared at all being so close to the lion. In fact when the lion put his paw on the glass, Little Man reached right for it.

Splashing in the fountain at Botanica

He started walking on his own a VBS, before that he was only taking 5 or 6 steps at a time.

 I can't wait to see what other changes we will experience in the months to come.

To my Little Man on his 1st birthday,

I can't believe it has been a year since I first held you in my arms. You have changed so much in this last year, and have become the most amazing little boy. You  were born at 7:31pm on Thursday, April 11th weighing  7 pounds and 14 ounces. Compared to the 22 pounds you are now it was so tiny.

This year you have learned to crawl and are on the brink of walking. You can say "Mama", "Dada", "Bye-Bye", and "Da Do" (Thank you). You can feed yourself, you love bananas, blueberries, bread, puffs, apples and more.

 You are such a curious little guy, always exploring new things, often putting them in their mouth just in case it's edible. You love to challenge the limits by climbing stairs, attempting to eat dog food, "helping"with dishes, and so much more. I'm sure it will just get worse as you get older.

Some of your favorite things are going on walks with Daddy, swimming (we just started swim lessons), going to Grandma's house, watching your favorite show Yo Gabba Gabba, and just being outside. Ever since you were born taking you outside has been the "magic" cure to your fussiness. You love to feel the wind on your face. I'm so thankful you were born in the spring so that it was nice enough to take you outside. 

We have had some struggles along the way. The first month after you were born was a struggle, you had a major breathing problem and I spent countless hours just watching you sleep to make sure you were breathing. But once your little nose got bigger the issue faded and we haven't really had any issues with it since then.

You got an infection a few months ago and had to have breathing treatments. You were such a trooper and got better quickly.

 Everyone commits that you are the happiest baby they have ever seen. Its true that you almost always have a smile on your face, and you don't have a problem with anyone holding you. Even when your upset it is fairly easy to distract you and your back to your old ways smiling away.You love to be tickled and that giggle is just the cutest thing ever. You are also amazed by other kids, whether bigger or smaller than you, you love to watch them and find them fascinating. Your favorite friend is the one in the mirror. We have one facing you in the car and while I'm driving I hear you talking and giggling with yourself in the mirror. I don't think you have realized that the mirror isn't real and you think its so funny when you wave your hand and the baby in the mirror does too.

You have now celebrated every holiday, and even met Santa. I thought that you would freak out when we put you in his lap, but you just looked at him and wondered who that strange man is.

You had your first hair cut, and sat very still. Since then you have had a handful of them, and still aren't a fan, but do pretty  good.

So here it to you, my baby boy! Happy First Birthday. I can't wait to see how much you will change this next year. I will always cherish our cuddle time, and those sweet slobbery kisses that we have shared.

I'll love you forever and always,

Mommy

My Little Man is Turning One

Its finally here, my Little Man is turning one in less than two weeks. I have such mixed  emotions over how much he has changed in the last 12 months. I have been planning his party off and on for the last 6 months (remember I'm a planner), and I just can't contain my excitement about celebrating my little boy. We are having the party in the children's garden at our Botanical Gardens, I just hope that we have nice enough weather to host the party. I will write a post about the party afterwards.

This past weekend my dad took Little Man's cake smash photos and they turned out amazing. He was very confused at first about what to do with the cake, he just picked at it. Once I showed him he was allowed to actually smash it, well needless to say that was the end of the cake.

11 Months Update

 

My Little Man is 11 months. I can't believe we are so close to his birthday. My tiny baby is gone, and replaced by this little person who decides what he wants and when. 

 Size: I haven't weighed him lately, but he has out grown his infant car seat and upgraded to the Big Boy one. Also most of his 12 months clothing are getting tight. He isn't a very chunky baby, but long, and so the onesies are getting short.

Food: He has started to eat more and more solid foods. He really is  not a huge fan of any "baby foods" anymore. He just realized how to eat out of those squeeze packets and that is the only way I can get him to eat baby food. Otherwise he will have about 5 bites and be done. I have found that Big Lots sells them for as low as $0.33 each (You have to catch them when they have them in stock. Sometimes they only have one flavor of something so I buy it out and go back the next week for whatever they have that time),which is much better than almost $2 that Dillon's has them for. He has a bottle at 7am, 11am, 4pm and 7pm, sometimes there is one more in there depending on when we get naps in. He also has blueberries and bananas for breakfast, and lunch we usually have grains and black beans or peas. Dinner is usually something off of our plate. He still hasn't had any meat and we don't give him any dairy except for occasional yogurt and if he's teething a bit of ice cream. I'm excited to be able to introduce strawberries and peanut butter after his birthday.
Activity: He is getting so fast at crawling. If he sees the dog food bowl, the dishwasher door down, the fridge door open, well basically anything we don't like him playing with, he books it over there. I have to admit there have been more than a handful of times that we have to pull dog food out of his mouth because we don't get the bowl on top of the counter fast enough. Apparently it doesn't taste bad enough to teach him a lesson. 

He is cruising everywhere, but has yet to let go of the couch to stand on his own. He still has that "fear face" when he thinks he's going to fall so he's not risking it just yet, but I know it's coming.

He loves playing with other kids and thinks that he is big enough to play too. One of my favorite things is driving and hearing his cracking up laughing at the other baby in his mirror. He finds it so funny and it makes me so happy.

Now that I'm no longer working as many hours I have been really trying to focus on sign language. He signs "more" by clapping and "all-done" by swinging his arms around. He recognizes if I sign "milk" and "eat" but he won't do it himself. The next word I'm working on is please.

Sleep:He takes a nap from 9:30-11:30 and another from 2:00-4:00 usually. He gets a bottle and goes to bed between 7 and 7:30pm and sleeps a full 12 hours.

He has been teething lately (he has 6 teeth total) but sleeping is actually really good for him and he sleeps more on the worst of the teething days.

Favorite Toys: Bingo (lovie) is still his favorite, he loves to cuddle with him. He has started to pay more attention to the dogs lately and aside from getting their hair pulled and sometimes hit on the head, they are very good at putting up with him. When they have had their fill they just walk away.

He has also really gotten into bubbles. He will see the bottle and grunt, when I ask him if he wants bubbles he says "bu bu".

10 Months Update

Size: He hasn't grown much this month. Our home scale says he weighs the same, and he is right in between 28-29 inches.
Food: Apparently Little Man loves all things that start with the letter B. His newest favorite foods are Black Beans (drained from a can and  rinsed), Blueberries (cut in half), and Bananas. He loves to feed himself and gets so excited.
Activity: He is getting faster and faster crawling around the house. He prefers to stand whenever possible so he crawls to something and pulls up immediately. A few times he has let go for a few second, but I wouldn't say he is standing alone yet. But I know it is just around the corner.
 Little Man learned to clap this month. Its so cute. He is so proud of himself. Whenever he is happy about something, he starts clapping. I am also trying to teach him sign language and when I sign more he does some form of the sign and clapping.
He as also become a Daddy's boy lately. He gets so excited when Daddy gets home and the other day he said "Dada" and crawled right to him. I have mixed emotions, I'm so happy to see them together and love each one more, but I want my Mommy's Boy back.
Sleep: He is still a great sleeper. He is taking 2-3 naps a day ranging from 45mins-2hours. He still sleeps 12 hours at night as well. We really are lucky to have such a great sleeper.
Favorite Toys: He loves Bingo (his dog lovie) whenever he sleeps, but we can substitute another blankie if he needs washing or something. He also loves electronics. He is always trying to grab our phones, the remotes, the Xbox controllers, etc. Oh and Kleenex. We keep some on the coffee table and he tries to pull as many out of the box as he can before I notice.

He wasn't very happy in our photo shoot yesterday so we quickly popped the pacifier in got a shot and went back inside.

Penguin to the Resuce

My Little Man is not feeling too well today. We found out yesterday that he has a bronchial virus and an eczema out break.  So we have to put on special cream and use a nebulizer to help clear his lungs. His nebulizer is probably the most adorable thing ever, and so far the breathing treatments are going really well.

Grainy picture, I hate iPhone photos

We have to continue treatments through the weekend and hopefully he will be better next week. Please say some prayers for our Little Man.

9 Months Update

So I have been terribly busy this month. I'll save you the sob story but long story short, I have started a new job (more on that later) and we started looking for a house (postponed that-more on that later). So I am just now getting to my monthly update of Little Man, only 2 1/2 weeks late.

Size: We had another checkup at the doctor, everything looks great. He is 20.8 pounds and 28 inches. That puts him in the 45th percentile pretty much all the way around. Well except for his head, apparently he has a rather large head at the 60h percentile, but that just means he has a big brain right? 

Food: We have started to venture out into more solid foods lately. Christmas he had a few potatoes, rolls and a couple other thing from our plates. Kix are one of his new favorites, which is pretty cool since that was my favorite when I was his age. 

Activity: Little Man has officially joined the 4 inch high club!! What I mean is that he crawls with his belly off the floor :)

Now that he is mobile he is able to be a lot more independent. He doesn't really mind playing on the floor now because he knows that if he's upset he can come find me. 

Sleep: He really is a great sleeper. He goes to bed at 7:30 wakes up around 7. We usually put him down for a nap around 9 and he sleeps for about 2 hours. Then he takes 2 more naps during the day lasting around 45 mins. At Grandma's house though he gets spoiled because she holds him during his nap time. 

Favorite Toys: He is finally liking his Johnny Jumper (doorway swing) now that he can hold himself up. He also likes to find toys that are unconventional ie. water bottles, spatulas, yarn.

 As you can see he likes to get himself in very interesting positions.

Little Man's First Haircut

My little baby took the first step into becoming a big boy. He got his first hair cut last week. I liked the length of his hair, but it was hanging over half of his ear. So we went to visit my Cousin/Hairdresser in Tulsa.

My cousin Kelley just built a new house (which is amazing BTW) and we went down to see the new abode and to get Little Man a trim.

Before the fun started, he looks a little scared

 He was such a trooper and did so well and held fairly still. He didn't like the trimming over the ears since it tickled so much.

His certificate of completion, we saved a lock of his hair so I can remember this day forever. Little Man celebrated with a cookie, that as you can tell was much more interesting than his haircut. (Sorry the photos are so blurry. My mom took the photos and doesn't have a smart phone)

My cousin has a tiny dog names Abby who became great friends with Little Man. She would nip at his hand and he thought it was the most hilarious thing ever. 

Such a great time and I'm glad I got to share this moment with family. How did your little one's first hair cut turn out?