Do As I Do

This month Easton has started talking alot. The other day he was climbing up the stairs and he turned around and looked at me and said c'mon momma.  I laughed and thought where did he hear that. Everyday I talk to him and isolate words to try to teach him but as it turns out he picks up on alot more than just the words I try to drill in his head. Of course, since that day I have noticed that I say c'mon Easton quite often. Forgive me for bouncing around but I will get to my point soon. This morning I was watching a video someone had shared on facebook.  Long story short;  A news reporter had received a letter from a viewer saying that she was overweight and shouldn't be on tv setting such an example. In her segment she addressed the guy who wrote the letter and all of us watching. She spoke about bullying among other things. This really touched me and made me think. Since Easton has been born I have really tried to be the best role model I can be. We go to church every week, we don't say ugly words, we try not to argue in front of him, and etc. Those are things I believe every parent should do for their child, but until I watched that video it never occurred to me that the simplest act I should show my child is how to be kind. Kind to your family, friends, and strangers. I know there has been times that I have said something not so nice about someone. Whether it is someone on the tv, in a magazine, or even someone we know. As a person and a Christian I try to resist the urge to say negative things but too often I lose that battle. I know that this is wrong and a sin, but for the life of me I can't imagine why I have never thought about the example this is setting for my child. He is just as easily mimicking our actions as he is our words and we often wonder why our children do and act the way they do. I hate to break it to you(and me) but everything they are learning comes from the example we are setting. I mean really, I am so sad that this epiphany has just occurred. So I guess what I am saying is that everyone should be thoughtful with their words. The next time you get in your car and another driver is doing something you think is wrong, think about what you say and the example you are setting, lord knows we have all said some mean things behind the wheel. So with the post I pledge that I will set the example of kindness for myself, others, and my child. I will be a "do as I do" mom, not a "do as I say" mom. As Ellen DeGeneres ends every one of her shows I will leave you with,

BE KIND TO ONE ANOTHER!!!!

13 Months..... I Have a Toddler!!!

I am not sure I will keep up with the monthly updates from now on. In my head, I have thought that I would  start blogging more often(as things happen) and about other things. Wait... who am I kidding I barely get the monthly blog finished and my world revolves around Easton ; it's the thought that counts. Moving on to that baby who occupies my whole life, in a good way of course!

Easton's 12 month checkup was several weeks after his birthday but here are his stats:

Weight-22lbs 11oz- 50th percentile

Heightt- 31 and 1/2 inches- 90th percentile

The doctor said he is a very happy, healthy, spoiled baby boy (I added that last part).

Milestones:

• He is walking everywhere now. So far it hasn't been too bad . The only difference in walking than crawling is that he can reach higher, which means he can get into more things. We finally got a gate for our steps so that has helped a ton. I know it will get worse when he learns to run.

• He has learned two new words which puts him at 5 total, well he has said bye bye once or twice but not enough for me to count. His new favorite word is mine but it comes out my. I will credit either his uncle Jason  or the kids at his babysitter for this word. Probably the latter but his uncle Jason is still a bad influence ;). The other word I haven't quite deciphered but I believe it is That or There. There is an app on my phone that shows animals and they make animal sounds. I have noticed the past couple of days that every time they show the horse and cow he says that mystery word. It has me baffled but maybe soon I will figure it out.

• He has learned to dance and this is by far the funniest thing I have ever seen him do. The poor baby has no rhythm what so ever. It is more of a head bang than anything. He does take after both his parents on this one.

• I have tried to figure up how many words he can recognize and I know it's at least 20 but it is probably alot more than that.

All in all he is doing wonderfully. It still amazes me how fast he is growing but I am enjoying every step of the process.

His new favorite thing is climbing. Especially into things as
 you can see in the two previous pictures.

Here he is climbing under the table at the doctors office. 
 I think he was trying to hide so he wouldn't have
 to get shots.

He is reading!!! Well not actually reading but I am so
 excited that he is showing interest in books now.
I was worried for a while.

12 months/1 year/ 365 days...



Getting a bath on his birthday. His Granna said she made a 1 out of his hair .



...Well I guess it doesn't matter how I try to spin it, my baby is growing up:( I did tear up a little today and yesterday if I am being honest. I hear people saying things like "don't blink or you will miss it" and " I don't remember my life before my kids" well I am jumping on that bandwagon because those people know what their talking about. Easton had a great birthday. Unfortunately I had to work but his Granna took off work and stayed with him. When we got home we had a birthday supper and he had a cupcake. I will post pics of that mess! His party will be Saturday and that will have to be a blog all by itself. That's about all I can handle of the birthday talk, I may actually cry again. Let's discuss what Mr. E has been up to this month.

     I will begin by asking, who took my sweet, cuddly, angel baby and replaced him with -baby with an attitude-? This little guy has been a total mess since mommy and daddy got back from our trip to the beach. I think he is teaching us a lesson. That lesson being "leave me again and you will pay!" No, but really, he has become SUPER clingy to me, he pitches temper tantrums, and along with all the hair pulling he has started biting (I'm glad now he doesn't have teeth).Now I have went and broke the cardinal rule in teaching. When talking to parents you are always supposed to tell them three positive things about their child before a negative. I suppose since I am talking about my own child I can say what I want. Now onto the positives....

Milestones

• He has learned to stand up without using anything to pull up on.
• He is drinking from straw.
• Following simple directions. Ex: understands no, will hand me something if I ask.
• Signs "more" on command.
• He is no longer taking formula. He switched to whole milk like a champ.
• No bottle for this big boy. Again we had no problem at all taking the bottle away.
• We are weaning off the paci. I tried to do it cold turkey but that only lasted a day. I decided to cut it down to just nap times and bed time. That went so well that for the past 3 nights he has not even taken it at bed time. Now we just have to pull it at nap time. I am waiting on that one since he is still adjusting to napping at the babysitters house but I am proud of my little guy.

p.s I think I just realized why he is not the same sweet baby anymore. MAYBE it's because his cruel parents have taken away everything that comforts him ;)

  I am going to end by saying that this has been the most amazing month thus far. I have watched him learn and grow so much over the past year but this month feels like a switch went on and he suddenly understands everything. I am sure he understood alot more than I gave him credit for before this month but  now I can see it. It is a great feeling to ask your child something and he is able to answer you, not necessarily by words but by actions. Maybe I am crazy but this is so exciting to me.

   Oh my goodness I must be exhausted because I almost forgot one of the most important milestones. Easton is WALKING. Right after he turned 11 months he took his first steps. Around 11 and a half months he was taking 4 or 5 steps at a time. Now he is taking 10 or more! I am so happy that I was still home to see him start walking. I was so afraid that he would do it at the babysitters and I would miss it. I guess that confirms it. Easton is a big boy. Sniff sniff.


His pre-birthday supper at McDonalds



My first day of work. He was saying "mommy don't cry, I will be fine." :)

11 Months......Short & Sweet

This month has been so hectic that I haven't even taken that many pictures of my sweet little guy. Between two vacations, planning a birthday party, Easton starting the babysitter, and getting prepared to go back to work it has been hard to find a moment to sit down and write this blog. That is why the title of this one is short & sweet, because that is exactly what this blog is going to be.

Milestones:

• Learned to clap and also recognizes the word clap. For example I can tell Easton to clap(without showing him) and he does it.
• Has mastered standing on his own.
• He says mama, dada, and hi all the time now and no longer favors one word over the other. I also believe he is starting to identify me as mama and Josh as dada. Before he would interchange them.
• Easton has become super lovey this month. He will just give you hugs and lay his head on your shoulder. It is the sweetest thing ever!!
• Had his second hair cut and this time we got it cut much shorter. He looks like a little man :(

It is so hard to believe that E will be a year old next month. He is ready to walk, we are just waiting on him to get brave enough to take his first steps. He has went to the babysitter about 3 times and has done great. Well, not so great during nap time but I'm sure that will come in time. I am so sad to be leaving him in a few weeks but I am very excited to get back to work. I am also excited for Easton to be able to spend time with other kids. I know he will learn so much from being around other kids his age. Josh and I also went on our first weekend away from Easton. We were gone for three nights. We had a good time and I know Easton did too but I believe that's all I can handle for at least another six months. So there it is 11 months short & sweet!!!

Faile out!

The Salt Life = The Good Life

Well it happened, Josh and I reproduced a little beach bum. We spent the Fourth of July week at the beach(7 nights) and I have to say it was probably one of the best beach trips I have had. I didn't know what to expect from Easton but he was absolutely wonderful. He loved the sand(he ate lots of it), he did not make a peep in the car on the way down there and back, and we stayed out in the sun all day every day and he still hung in there with us at night time. I am one happy momma. We also had professional family pictures and Easton's one year old pictures made while we were there. I have seen a sneak peek but I can't wait until we get them all (plug for Cherish Walker, she did these fabulous pictures). I bet I can count on one hand how many pictures that we have of the three of us so these were desperately needed. OK OK enough talk, it's picture time!!!

p.s one day I plan on getting a nice camera and never using my IPhone for pictures again :)

This is the first time he was on the sand.                                                                 Nap time on the beach.

                                               

With Mommy and Daddy in the Kiddie Pool

                                                                

                                                                   Play Time!!

 

 

As you can see we

had a lot of little helpers with us. Haley(left) is our future babysitter, she is so good with Easton. Wesley(right) is practicing his big brother skills since he has a baby brother due next month!!

10 Months.. Fun in the Sun

Oh my! Easton Graham is on the move and enjoying his summer.

This is actually 10 months and 1 week old. Now that we are mobile it is absolutly impossible to get him to sit still for pictures.

Milestones:

• Cruising on the furniture.
• Starting to stand without holding on to anything.
• His babbling had kicked up about 10 notches in the last few weeks. He has always been a talker but now even more so.
• He signed dog.
• He says da da all the time now and only says mama when crying or needing something.

We have been doing all sorts of fun things this summer. We have went swimming several times and now Easton has a better tan than me. Easton also went to the zoo for the first time. He didn't really care anything about it, maybe he will like it better in another year or so. We are headed to the beach next week I am excited to see how he likes it. I just hope he doesn't hate the sand. We have also had many play dates, he loves when other kids are around he just sits and watches them forever.

Riding the carosel with mommy




Riding the train with daddy.







Ok so I am going to tell off on myself. I broke a cardinal rule. I had Easton's hair cut a few weeks ago. I really contemplated waiting until he was a year old but I just couldn't do it. It was all in his eyes and I was afraid he was going to go cross eyed ;) I felt like I was breaking the law but then I started to think, who makes these rules that we all work so hard to abide by? I mean it's my kid and if he needs a hair cut before one, well I'm going to give him one(well not me that would be a disaster). Anyways as you can tell this is how I made myself feel better about breaking an invisible law :) So here it is, pics of his first haircut. Oh and he was a very good boy!!!



Being such a good boy during his first hair cut



All smiles after his hair cut!

Ok here goes random picture time!!!



Father 's Day



Tractor Time!



Helping Paw paw on the farm

Man of the house



Eating at Cracker Barrell with his Great Grandmother for her birthday



9 Months......And We're Off!!!

I remembered right before bedtime that I had not take his 9 month picture and somebody was not very happy.

Weight: 20lbs 3oz
Height: 29 1/2 inch.
At this weeks visit we had to fill out his 9 month questionnaire. E seemed to be on par with all of his milestones. I have a happy, healthy baby. The Dr. gave us the go ahead to eat any table foods (mushy or chewable of course) except for honey. My poor baby got 1 shot and I thought this was a no shot visit but since he was given the flu shot at 6 months they skipped out on giving him his Hep B shot. He was a champ though, only cried for a second.

Milestones:

• This month there has been so many milestones and it seems like they all happened at once. Within one week, Easton has learned to pull up, crawl, and stand up in his crib.  I am so proud of my little man but at the same time I know that life will never be the same :).

He actually started pulling up a week before he started to crawl. We also had to move his bed down this week because somebody figured out how to pull up in it and in the process he broke his crib mobile.

• Easton also pretty much eats what we eat now. He has tried all sort of things. He still eats baby food often but if I have cooked something that he can eat that's what I feed him. Here are a few new things he has tried:                                                                                                                          Macaroni and Cheese
  Meatballs
  Pasta
  Green Beans
  Bread
• He signed milk!! He also signed "more" while watching his sign language video but I can't get him to do it again. My child will do nothing on command.
• He is starting to follow simple instructions. If I tell him to come here, he will crawl to me(most of the time). If I tell him to get his ball or his Mickey he will pick it up.
• Changing diapers has become a nightmare. He pitches a fit every time I lay him down and he will not lay still.

All About Easton:
Easton seems to be expressing his own little personality more and more these days. He let's us know when he likes or dislikes something. When we get onto him now it hurts his feelings, of course in return hurts my feelings. He also doesn't laugh at every little thing like he used to, it takes something that is ACTUALLY funny to make him laugh.
Favorite things: rolling a ball, playing peek a boo, and he loves anything with a motor or steering wheel.
Favorite Songs: Jesus Loves Me, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Old MacDonald. He will not let you sing anything else, if you try he has a fit.
Favorite Show: Mickey Mouse
Favorite Word: "Hi" is all this child says, all the time.
E also loves to give love (mostly to women) and he is the most passionate kisser I know. By passionate I mean he grabs handfuls of hair and pulls while sucking your face off. This mommy loves her kisses but it is a good thing the good Lord gave me such thick hair or I am certain I would be bald.




Eating Meatballs

Easton's first time on the lake and in a boat. I have got to say that I think this is the cutest picture ever!

Celebrating my first Mother's Day!

I found this little rascal standing in his crib while he was supposed to be taking a nap.



E giving Mickey love.

E watching mommy fix her hair. This child has a strange obsession with hair.