trick or treat

Happy Halloween!!

Pax had such a great night and really did much better than I expected her to. She only melted down once towards the end of the night and was such a trooper.

We started out the festivities earlier in the afternoon at our church-which is just blocks from our house. Cody was still working, so Nannie and Poppy came over and we all walked down to the Halloween festival that was going on.

Most of the activities were geared towards older kids, but there were a few things Pax could enjoy. She & I did the cake walk-but, unfortunately we weren't lucky enough to win a yummy dessert. (Probably for the best, there...) And we also took the hayride. She really must have enjoyed the short little ride because she pouted when we had to get off. And I suffered some lovely allergy eyes the rest of the night. :-/

After a quick dinner, it was time to get ready for trick or treating. I had managed (up until this point) to keep Pax away from candy. Even when people gave it to her today, she just played with it. UNTIL-Cody showed her what was UNDER the wrappers. Gotta love daddies. ; )

Pax had a lot of fun trick or treating. She never actually said trick or treat...after months of practice. But she looked cute and that warrants a ton of candy from anyone.

Cody showed her how to ring the bell and wait for her treat. I think he had just as much fun as Pax, if not more. ; ) I'm secretly excited about all the candy Pax scored for us. All in all, it was a great first Halloween (with trick or treating) and I am already thinking about next year. =)

wooo pig

After months and months of working on this, she's finally getting it! Still got to get the "pig sooie", but "woooo" is there.

I figured this was more important for her to learn than her ABC's, right? ; )

GO HOGS!!

Happy Halloween

I wanted to take this outside with all my Fall
decor, but it was POURING outside. I'm just happy she let me put it on her!

Hope you all have a safe and HAPPY Halloween. =)

p.s. Since it's Friday-you can head over to Kelly's blog, and see her "Show us How YOU Live" costume day!!

miss noodle

I used to use Productive Parenting here and there when I taught preschool, but was reintroduced to it after my friend Courtney started mentioning it. I like having some variation to the activities I do with Pax-since she is home all day with me-I don't want her to get bored or miss out on learning experiences that might be used for her age group in a school setting. The website is great and they send you an age appropriate activity each day if you sign up. It doesn't get any easier than that!

This activity was just a sensory one-feeling the noodles, transferring them from bowl to bowl, scooping/stirring, etc. I'm sure you could use cornmeal or sand, but noodles were our choice of the day! (After we had a "come to Jesus talk" about NOT eating the raw noodles, she was good to go.)

It really doesn't take much to keep her entertained, thank goodness!! Anything that isn't an actual toy is always WAY more fun for Pax. Maybe she will have a great imagination as she gets older. =)

smart little cookie

Pax is really into discovering her body parts these days-and other people's, too. She scopes out my ears and nose daily and her belly button provides her with a guaranteed laugh every time she pokes at it.

I tried to get a good video of her telling me all her "parts", but it was after lunch and she was getting tired. It's still pretty cute (what video of her isn't-;) ) and she can always crack me up. I couldn't get her to do mouth this time, but that's my favorite one she says. SO southern. "MA-OUTH"...=)

p.s. I am really into videos here lately-so enjoy, while the obsession lasts. =)

excuse my singing

and enjoy cute, little Paxi, instead.

This was one of the first songs I taught her-along with the Itsy Bitsy Spider. I still sing it all the time- when she has to get shots and I need to distract her mind away from what is going on.

When I filmed this, she wasn't walking great yet, so there is no "stomp your feet" section for us. And she was also trying to color, so excuse her paper thrashing. Poor little diva-always has a camera shoved in her face. ; )

high 5

It's so fun what you can teach kids when they get old enough to understand you. I taught Pax this today in about 5 minutes. I just hope she doesn't use it as an excuse to "hit" everything...

She didn't giggle as much when we videoed as much as she did the first few times I taught her. She would laugh SO hard the first few times we did it. Simple pleasures. =)

sometimes, you're just too little

I think by this point, my love obsession with Fall is no secret. Hayrides, Halloween, football...I love everything that comes with the season. I could not wait to get to carve our pumpkins with Pax-which was one of my favorite things to do when I was little. My dad had his pumpkin and Pax had her little one-and since my dad is the pumpkin carving extraordinaire-I thought they could do theirs "together."

Poppy had a cool white pumpkin. He wanted to make a "girly" pumpkin for Pax.

So, everything was set up and ready to go. I got Pax a front row seat so she could check out the top coming off, the guts being scooped out, and then finally the face as it was made. I didn't, however, plan for what happened next.

She. Freaked. Out.

And not just a little scare. She absolutely came UNGLUED about the knife going into the pumpkin. She started screaming NO! and was literally shaking. Her whole body-just shaking. I had no idea what was wrong and thought that maybe she was just a little upset that Poppy was "hurting" the pumpkin...???

But bless her little heart, she didn't want to have a thing to do with that pumpkin after that! I pray that we haven't traumatized her for life. I think that maybe she was just too little to understand what was going on. And apparently she harbors some fear, unbeknown st to me, of knives.

So, after the knifing was all done, Poppy wanted to paint some accents on his pumpkin. Pax wasn't as afraid of that activity.

She just got mad because she couldn't hold the paintbrush!

So, I let her paint her pumpkin. But, alas, even that wasn't good enough-she wanted to paint herself. So, we called it a bust and gave up. Sometimes, you're just too little. =(Here's Poppy's finished pumpkin. The lips kill me. I teased him that it looked like a blow up doll. LOL!

And here is what Paxi managed to accomplish with her pumpkin, in between crying fits and freak outs. Maybe next year-good thing her pumpkin was only $2. =)

meet witchy

Yesterday was one of those GORGEOUS Fall days that you just can't help but love. It was so nice outside-Pax & I took a drive with all the windows down and went for a walk with Nannie. I wish the weather would stay like this forever.

While we were waiting for Nannie to get home from work-we visited with the neighbor's grand baby, Emily. Pax was fascinated by her toys and wanted to show Emily her new witch.

Meet Witchy.

We were at a local children's boutique shopping and Pax wouldn't put the witch down. I knew it was going to have to be ours. The owner, Sonja, was so sweet and gave Pax the witch and told her to make sure she loves her and gives her a good home. =)

And as you can see, Witchy goes where we go. She is Paxtin's new best friend. Witchy definitely got a good home. LOTS of love.

Pax is keeping up with her walking so good. She still prefers that we hold her hand-she can walk faster that way, but she wobbles around the house quite a bit. I had to invest in some new socks with traction-wood floors and socks don't mix well. HA! She's getting it though-and I can tell she is loving the world from so high up. (as is Witchy.)

pumpkin patch 2009

So....we made it to the pumpkin patch!!! It was a GORGEOUS day-the rain stopped, the mud dried and we headed out. =)

Pax LOOOVED the animals. The pigs and ducks....

BUT-she demanded that goat come out to see her.

and it worked!

she liked him the most of the animals, I think.

The cutest little witch and cat ever!

So, I thought that the pig, ducks, and goat would be the hit of the day-UNTIL...we rode the ponies.

she's. in. love. =)

Cody said she squealed and screamed the whole time they went around! I got a little video of it below.

We took a scenic hayride down to the AR river.

Pax preferred the hay...

but she LOVED the cows. See a theme here??

Although, she called them all kitties. :/

Before we left, we chose our pumpkins...

and Daddy helped Pax find hers.

We had SUCH a great time today and this will defiantly be our patch for many years to come. =)

(the pony video) =)

practice makes perfect

I wanted to make sure and get a frontal shot of Pax walking-which is a little hard since she is into walking between two people and I am always the photographer. =) BUT-I got a short little clip of her one day last week at my parents' house.

Since this weekend-she has really gotten into the walking and gets a little more brave each day. Saturday, my mom and I went to a local holiday shopping event and she didn't make it in the stroller long! She wanted out and walked all around (with my hand) like a big girl. I think we will start taking a daily walk down the sidewalk to practice and also talk about nature. =) It is so cute to listen to her little shoes clunk along as she teeters around. I think I am more excited than she is about her new found mobility. And I could care less if it takes us 30 minutes to get 5 steps up the sidewalk-it's worth every second of it.

16 months

Paxtin is 16 months old!!! Where as the time gone?

I know I say this every month, but Cody & I couldn't have been more blessed with a perfect baby. She's funny, smart, sassy-everything I dreamed she would be.

She has made some minor progress in her walking and is taking independent steps between Cody and I. Of course, I bawled. She giggles like a crazy woman while she is trying to take off. It excites her so. I am so proud of her.



She's still got her funny little personality and the word of the month is BY FAR...NO. We say it all. the. time. It applies to everything. Cody and I actually mess with her and ask her funny questions that we know she will say "no" to. She has also started saying LOTS of words after me-apple, Abby (my parents' dog), Nannie, pumpkin...if I could just get "trick or treat!"


She grows and changes so much everyday and I have to stop myself and think about how far we have come. I am enjoying this age more than any other and I know it will only get better. =)

Happy 16 months Lambie. We love you.

dont stop believin'

Just when I was starting to lose hope again and get frustrated because Paxtin still wasn't walking-she does this. I wish I could get a better shot of her face because she giggles and smiles the whole time she is walking to something. I am in love! Such a precious face. She is only walking in between two things...(people or from me to her chair), but she's finally taken off and we are all just SO excited.

This past week especially, I have been so very worried about her and concerned that she wasn't walking at all. And just like everyone told me, she did it on her time. When she was ready. Thank you all for being so encouraging to me and making me feel better about Pax. It is just a momma's intuition to worry! But, seriously, thank you.

So, now a whole new world opens up to me...as I have no idea what to do with a kid who can RUN away from me. LOL!

"no"

The word of the month. No. And of course, we don't make it fun for us, at all.

=)

my many faces

happy

snazzy

surprised

Show us Your Life-Baby Gear

It's Friday, so time for a Kelly's Korner Blog tour! I haven't done one in awhile, so I wanted to jump in with both feet on this one. BABY GEAR! Something near and dear to my heart. I feel like I tried it all with Paxtin and wanted share some things that we loved and the things I wished I never opened. HA! The thing to remember is all babies are different - so what worked great for me - doesn't mean it will work for you but I am still happy to share my experiences!

BABY ITEMS THAT WORKED FOR US:

• A vibrating/bouncer seat. I had the knockoff Boppy one...that was from Walmart, I think. the best feature for us was the vibrating seat. Paxtin actually napped and slept at night in this seat for the first 6-7 weeks of life! It was a life saver.
• A pack and play. Pax had the basic one made by Graco that we kept right next to our bed for weeks and weeks. We STILL use it when we travel and it was one of the best investments. Make sure to buy extra sheets to fit it-the ones provided are rough. Also known as play yard sheets.

• A good, sturdy swing. Paxtin spent HOURS in her swing-while she slept, while we ate, or just for plain ol enjoyment. It was a MUST for those horribly cranky days/nights when I wasn't sure what else to do with her to make her contentent. Pax was able to use hers until she exceeded the weight limit and I got nervous. This is the swing she had:
• A stationary jumperoo. I was leery about using the exersaucer-heard too many bad things associated this their hips-so after she grew out of the swing, we moved her to this. She LOVED it. And it lasted us for several months. It had adjustable straps so that it could grow with her.
• An endless number of burpies and onesies!! I bet I washed burpies 3-4 times a day and found myself running out to walmart for more. Same went for crib sheets and receiving blankets. Babies are messy, messy and it is always nice to have extra EVERYTHING!

• 2-3 good swaddling blankets. My personal favorites were these from Target. I couldn't find a better one that kept her snug-other than the hospital blankets. =)

• Car seat stroller system that works for you and your budget. We received the Graco Travel System and it worked perfect for us. It comes with a base, infant seat, and foldout stroller. We used the car seat in the stroller for walks when she was tiny and now use it without-facing her forward.
• A baby tub. I actually purchased Paxtin's tub at a local Rhea Lana for $5!! It was simple and it worked great. You can spend a lot of money on a fancy tub, but hers did the trick perfectly. I do recommend that the tub has a thermometer and strap with it. For extra safety.
• BabyEinstein DvD's. These were sometimes a life saver for us. The beautiful colors and classical music were so entertaining and soothing to Pax when she was cranky or getting bored with her previous activity.
• my favorite book: The Happiest Baby on the Block by Dr. Harvey Karp. This book was a complete lifesaver for us around week 4 and after following the steps and using the techniques, we had Pax sleeping through the night by 8 weeks. I LIVED by this book. =)

• Bumbo Seat. Once Pax could sit up-she was in that Bumbo ALL THE TIME. I fed her in it, she played in it-everything. It was so useful when no one was available to hold her and we needed a way to feed her before we had bought the highchair.

Update:: I completely forgot to add our tummy time mat from Tiny Love! Pax played in this for hours and learned to roll over in it. It has tons to keep them stimulated and this one played music. A definate lifesaver for me when I needed to do a few chores.

THINGS WE DIDN'T LOVE:

• Boppy Pillow. I might have used this item ONCE since I brought Pax home. I propped her up a few times in it, but she looked very uncomfortable and she wouldn't sleep in it-EVER. I wasn't a breastfeeder, so this could have been why I could have lived with out this time.

• Sling baby carrier. I just could. not. get used to this. And I tried! I always felt that Pax was sliding out or was suffocating. She would never sleep in it like she was supposed to and would end up wanting out 5 minutes in. A lot of babies do love these-so you never know!

• Baby wedge sleeper cushion. I thought this would help keep Pax in one spot at night and it wasn't what I thought. It was elevated and hard and she hated it.
  

Crawl or walk on over to Kelly's Korner and share what you loved or hated!