16 Months...A December to Remember

    Boy oh boy this has been one heck of a month. I left my last post saying I hope we don't get sick anymore this year, well that didn't work well for us. In the month of December Easton cut 4 teeth, got a horrible cold, and had a double ear infection( and still has one) all at the same time. I would take croup over all that in a heartbeat. Not to mention Josh and I both got a cold and then several weeks later I got a stomach virus (on the way to New Orleans). As a result of ALL the ear infections the last two months we have an appt. with an ENT Friday to see about getting tubes put in. I absolutely hate when Easton is sick but overall we have been blessed with good health in his 16 months. I try to keep things in perspective, after all there are parents out there who have to watch their 16 month old go through chemo or worse. So this is just another reason to thank my GOOD Lord for all he has blessed me with.

    Easton is growing and learning at such a fast pace now, I can't keep up. I can't even begin to tell you how many words he says but it is alot. I will do my best to record some milestones this month.

Milestones:

• Putting two words together consistently- want down, want that.
• Signs fluently- eat, more, all done, hat, cracker, dog, bath, milk, book, ball.
• Can identify- head, hair, ear, eye (on me not him), belly, feet, hands, teeth, mouth, nose.
• Says animal sounds for- duck, cow, tiger, chicken.

OK that is all I can think of for now.

   We had a pretty good Christmas, even though the sickness put a damper on it. I enjoyed my time at home with my hubby and little guy. Josh and I even got away for a mini vacay to New Orleans. I definitely will be going back there. I only had a day to really enjoy the city but there was so much to do.  I walked for 12 hours and still did not manage to see a quarter of the city. It would also be a good place to take a little one and do a family vacation. Josh and I both have a passion for traveling and seeing different cities so I am glad we were able to knock this one off our list. Hmmm... now where to go to next??? Any recommendations?

Woohoo!!! I found another way to add pictures, the only thing is they are all from my IPhone. Here are a few snapshots from the Holidays.

Santa brought E a John Deere Recliner!

Waiting at the ENT

This big boy can climb on furniture all by himself

15 months...Exhausted!!

   My little walker is now a little runner and I am one tired mommy. Do not mistake this for complaining because I get a much needed workout out of this. This time of year is normally when I start packing on my "winter coat". That is what I refer to the ten pounds I tend to gain EVERY winter. This year, so far, I have not gained a single one and I owe it all to my wild child. We have also been extremely busy this fall and we are just now getting to slow down a bit. I normally hate the winter time but this year I am welcoming it with open arms. With the Holidays, football games, birthday parties, and etc. there is not a lot of down time. Again,I am not complaining. I enjoy getting out and doing things I am just very excited for a little R&R. One more month of craziness and then the Faile family will go into hibernation.
  
  What's Easton been up to this month? Well I am glad you asked. He is growing and learning and making messes faster than I can blink. I am so surprised at the rate in which he is learning. I went back and read my previous blogs before I wrote this one and it was just two months ago that I said he could identify around twenty words. There is no telling how many he can identify now, it seems that he understands just about everything we are saying. I also posted that he had taken an interest in books. Before he would sit, look, and flip through them but now he is starting to let me read them to him. He is not much for sitting still but we can make it about halfway through a book before he is bored. Also, he went from climbing into things to climbing on top of them. I am really praying that he at least has some walking around sense after all the blows he has taken to the head lately. He is not the most graceful child, half of the time he walks around like a drunk man.

  OK I know I have told most of my friends this but I am certain that my child is addicted to soap, shampoo, and lotion. He will get the bottles and bar of soap and suck on them without even making a face. I joke and say that we will see him on that show My Strange Addiction. You know the one where the people eat chalk and corn starch. I am really worried about this. Someone please tell me this is normal and that your child is as weird as mine :)

Milestones:

• Pointing- I have to say I was worried about this one,He was late reaching this milestone.
• Can identify feet and belly.
• Can point out certain things/objects in a book. For ex: where is the dog?
• Gives Eskimo kisses-my new favorite
• Uses bye-bye regularly. 
• New words: down, Nonna(Granna), paw paw, tractor, sh(fish) does that count? bite bite (also signs this regularly), hat, and ball.
• blows kisses
• He is starting to put things back and clean up after himself.
• Let's me know what he wants. When he wants a drink he will go to the refridgerator or when he is hungry he will get his snack bag.

  He starting to cut his fourth tooth. Luckily this one hasn't been as bad. I also forgot to mention that he had croup and an ear infection this month. I hate when he is sick it breaks my heart. Luckily we are all better now and hopefully we can make it through the winter without getting sick again.

1st Corinthians 13 for Moms

***I borrowed this from another blog. I needed to hear this so I thought it would be an injustice not to share with other mommies!! God is good all the time,all the time God is good.


1st Corinthians 13 for Moms

If my child speaks in the tongues of men or of angels, masters sign language at six months and Spanish and Mandrin Chinese by six years, but does not learn to love, she is only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If he has the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge-ABCs at a year, reading by two, writing chapter books in Kindergarten-but does not have love, he is nothing. If I volunteer for every mommy ministry-MOPS, AWANA, Sunday School, and if I give all I possess to the poor (or at least bring loads of groceries to the foodbank), but do not have love, I gain nothing. 

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy other mother's lifestyle choices or possessions, it does not boast in the areas of my children’s natural strengths (while covering for their faults), it is not proud of the way my child potty trained before your child. It does not dishonor others by insisting that my method of parenting is the best, it is not self-seeking-hoping that you’ll notice how smart, talented or well rounded I am raising my child to be. It is not easily angered by perceived slights or misjudgments, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth that all of parenting is fueled and driven by God’s grace. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails-even where I have fallen painfully short of God’s best for my children. But where there are competitions to see whose body bounces back best after childbirth, they will cease; where there are verbal fights over the correct methods of discipline, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge about the best way to feed and clothe and nurture a child, it will pass away. For we know in part and we parent incompletely, but when they are fully grown, what we thought we knew about raising our children will disappear. When I was a new parent, I thought, spoke and reasoned with immaturity and without grace. As my children grew, I asked God to give me the wisdom to put these childish ways behind me. For now we see our children’s future as only a reflection as in a mirror; one day we will behold their adults selves face to face. Now I know in part; then we shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

14 months....Word Explosion

Wow this month my little babbler has had a word explosion. Easton has learned a plethora of new words. Some of these words he uses on a regular basis, others he will throw out there only every once and a while. Here is what the little man has been saying:

dg (Dog)- he will only say this when he sees a dog. There is no getting him to say it on command.
Bye bye- only says occasionally
dat (that)
nanna (Banana)- one of his new favorite words.
Maw maw- for his great grandmother which he just adores
Mae Mae- his cousin
Grandad
And of course his old favorites: Hi, Momma, da da, mine.

Now there are a million other words he says that sound like something but of course it is probably just baby talk, so I will not get ahead of myself and start making up words ;)


Other Milestones:

• Can give five
• Shakes his head yes and no
• Waves
• Grabs his feet when I ask him where they are.

His new favorite game is "this little piggy". He is so funny. He will take my hand and put it on his foot so I will do this with him. Easton also does this new thing where if he is playing with something he is not supposed to i.e. the remote, he will act like he is bringing it to me so that he won't get it in trouble.

He is also working on cutting his third tooth. Now he will have both top fangs and one bottom tooth. We will have a little vampire on our hands just in time for Halloween :) I think I might have been crazy to think I wanted him to go ahead and get them all in at once. This will be his third tooth in six weeks and it has been a little rough. He is whiny, runs a fever, and we can not get rid of his runny nose.

We also went to the pumpkin patch this month and the entire time we were there he could not take his eyes off the tractor. While he was riding the horse and in the petting zoo he stared at the tractors the entire time and said mmmm(that's his tractor/lawn mower/gator noise). Typically his favorite was the wagon ride, although he did have fun picking pumpkins. Josh and I really enjoyed this too. This is our first family outing that we feel like Easton was old enough to really enjoy. Minus the teething, I am really enjoying this age.

He is happy daddy is home!

The only picture I could get of his tooth.

Oh Noooo!!!

   Uh oh I have started catching myself looking at babies and thinking "oh, I might could do that again". Don't get me wrong, I do not have baby fever. I repeat I DO NOT have baby fever. It's just this past year I almost had myself convinced that I did not want another child. All of my friends were starting to get baby fever and I thought they were just downright crazy. There is something about your child turning one and becoming a little man(or woman) that makes you miss those days when they just laid there and cuddled. I mean they had that new car baby smell and everything!!
    I am an only child and I hated it. Still to this day, I hate it. I would loved to had a sibling and I swore that I would not make my child an only child. Don't get me wrong, if you only want one kid or no kids,to each his own or in this case to each her own. Some kids that are only children love it, that was just not the case with me. After having Easton it has been very hard imagining how it is possible to take care of more than one child. Even though Easton was a very good baby, parenting is the hardest job in the world. Not to mention I did not want to get fat again :) So I guess what I'm saying is I can see it now. I can actually imagine having more than one child. It will be several years until we are even in a place to try again but it is foreseeable
     Now that I have said all of that my husband is likely to have a heart attack when he reads this. He says he is never having another one but I know that he secretly wants a little girl. He gets shafted when it comes to all the hugs and kisses. It seems Easton has reserved those for just his momma.

P.S This post is thanks to all the cute maternity and baby stuff on pinterest. So thanks pinterest for my excessive eating, blowing the budget with new crafts, and wanting to have another child. Come to think of it pinterest almost makes me want to get married again ;)

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.