I'm A Little Obsessed...

    With this little guy. I mean how can you not? Look at those eyes!

I spend every waking moment with this kid, and I will admit that sometimes it is rocky. I don't have enough sleep, I haven't eaten, or I don't want to play. 

But everyday, doesn't matter how I am feeling, this kid always cheers me up.

Recently when he is upset and complaining, he will see me, yell "MA!" and scoot (we call it crawling even if its not really.) as fast as he can from where he is at to were I am. Lay on tummy and airplane while yelling "MA" until I pick him up.

Being a mother is exhausting, but its also very rewarding. there are many times that I have been upset with my little guy, and he will come over to me, pat my leg. Give me hugs and loves. Your heart just melts when things like that happen. You can't help but love them.

It seems that kids know when you are tired and don't want to move, what buttons to push to get you to move. The other day it seemed like I swept three times, and still my son was managing to find things to eat. I was a never ending cycle of pulling things out of his mouth.

Last week, I was working on something, and James had gone quite, I look over and he has something in his mouth that he is playing with, so I say "James, what do you have?" He looks at me, shoves what he has into his mouth and tries scooting away as fast as possible.

Babies keep you on your toes. Babies have good days and bad ones like everyone else. It seems though that they can't decided what kind of day it will be till its almost over. 

James will be really grumpy all day long, and as soon as dad comes home then he's fine. He doesn't need to be held all the time. He is fine playing on the floor.

Or they decided that because they didn't take a long enough nap that its your fault and you will pay for it.

One of my favorite things about having a kid is looking up all the fun things you can do with them now, and what you can do with them in the future. Right now James can't have dairy, but I am counting down the days when he can, so I can make edible finger paint. I look forward to the days when we can do crafts and make messes.  

One thing I don't like is when other parents tell you how to raise your kid, and when you decline their help, they act like their kids are the greatest, and your will never match up. 

(when really your wondering if they live in a different life, where their kids are perfect.)

I love coming up with things for my little guy to do. I try to come up with things he can do on his own to build confidence and self- reliance. Like this idea I saw on pinterest. I love it! 

Before he was having trouble sitting up because of the slipperiness of the tub and the angle. 

Now he can sit up on his own, is a lot more happy, and it builds up the muscles.
(it is also a huge stress relief for me.)  

Having a family is hard, but all very worth it in the end!

Sensory Play

    I feel as though I am putting my child second when he should be first recently. And while I was browsing Pintrest for some fun things to do with him, one site suggested addable paint, which uses yogurt and koolaid, which I am so excited to try, but James can't have yogurt yet, so that one will have to wait a little bit longer.

    But I did try this one.

You will need:

• a tray or glass pan
• ice cubes
• warm water
• bath toys
• towel

 The site I got it from said to do it indoors on a drop cloth and towel, but that was a lot more clean up then I wanted to deal with, so I did it outside on a towel in some shade.

First:

you put the ice cubes in the pan and let them feel them. 

I told James what he was feeling as he played with them 

"These are ice cubes, and they are cold"

Then:

you pour the warm water in the pan and have them feel the difference between the hot a cold.

"Feel the water? its warm."

After: 

I gave him some toys to play with in the water, he loved this bottle lid the most, he figured out how to pick water up with it and then pour it out. 

He had lots of fun and was very wet afterwords.

But boys will be boys and this didn't hold his attention long.

He saw some very tasty looking grass, thankfully he had his pacifier in his mouth, or I would be cleaning mud off him too.

I decided to turn the sprinklers on and see how he liked that.  He didn't mind it hitting him, but he didn't like the sound it made on the blanket.

     After all this excitement I decided it was time to go in the house. I can't wait to try some other games with him.

Till the next one.  

Here is the link http://www.funathomewithkids.com/2014/07/50-creative-activities-for-babies.html

Half Way to a Year

James turned 6 months on Sunday, he is getting so big I can't believe in another 6 months he will be a year old, it doesn't seem real. 6 months ago I gave brought James into this world, it is so amazing to see him grow up and learn.

My friend posted about her little 6 month old on her blog, and had these super cute pictures that she had taken of her. I thought "oh I can do that!" well boys will be boys, and they don't sit still for anything. Here is my attempt at pictures

I still think they are super cute, and I love them, but it wasn't what I was trying to get. Oh well.

What James loves:

• daddy
• mommy
• eating solids
• trying to crawl around

• Being read to 
• singing
• playing outside in the pool
• being outside

• his bunny
• chewing on things
• shoes
• the color yellow

New things James has learned:

• planking
• getting up on all fours
• moving across the floor (not quite crawling, but hes getting there)

• spitting
• spitting with food in mouth
• he can get into things he shouldn't

Things that are new in his life:

• Libraries
• cats (its the neighbors)
• teeth

Things that he really doesn't like:

• pants (prevents him from crawling)
• things taken away
• strawberries
• watermelon

And there is out little guy in a nutshell.

Here is a link to me friends blog, she is the best! http://ourhappytalk.com/

Parade. Fireworks. Food.

Are the things that James got to enjoy, some of them for the first time.

I was very thankful to my aunt for buying him a super cute outfit

The Parade

I took James to the parade in his front carrier so that my arms wouldn't get sore holding him.

In San Diego the parade is very short, this one lasted an hour and a half. crazy long! 

I was worried about the noise of the cop cars and firetrucks, nut he didn't flinch at all, totally composed. We couldn't find the baby sunscreen, so he did get a little red, but it went away the next day.

Fireworks

Now I wouldn't let James hold the sparkler, but he did find it interesting. The big firework show didn't hold his attention, about two minutes into it he was bored. Also very tired.

Food

We tried our luck with some new, turns out he loves blueberries, honeydew, and peaches. 

But not watermelon or strawberries.

This is the awesome cake I made, its a banana raspberry, with cream cheese frosting. I thought it was super cool looking, turned out a lot better then I thought it would.