Showing posts with label clapping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label clapping. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

2015! It's here!

The first week of 2015...

So 2015 started out with a hang-my-head-in-shame, so-glad-things-weren't-worse, parenting fail.  

We bring Emmalyn into our bed early in the morning when she wakes up to nurse.  We then have her sleep between us.  Well, as you can imagine we were up late for New Years Eve so I was super tired when I brought her into bed.  We both slept for awhile and Peter had gotten up and was letting us sleep.  Then, later in the morning, she was up and moving around and I was trying to stay conscious since she was up.   But I dozed off and next thing I know, I hear her screaming and I jolt awake.  She had fallen off my bed.  My blood was pumping and I moved so fast to grab her and was so worried that I was going to find her seriously hurt - my bed is so far off the ground for a little baby!  Luckily, she was absolutely fine, just scared (like her Momma).  I felt soooooooo awful about it and still do.  I was shaken up for quite awhile.

Making some cool colored goo with Uncle Peter

Mashing all the colors together before making it foam

Perfectly precious.  I can't help but love these sweet times with her snuggled up against me.

Ahhhh - - "family time" - everyone on their phones.  :)  We try to avoid it but at some point it still happens.

The kids were hanging out in Maxwell's room and when they came out, Kaity had dressed them up.  :)

These cousins had so much fun being together.  One of the benefits of Britt living here was that it was nice having everyone in the same house.

Playing games 




Old-man-bitter-beer-face

Movie night


Synchronized eating

Maxwell and Aunt Kimi


Maxwell and his Shelly Belly - we hated seeing her and Kimberly go.  We LOVE having them here.

Playdo animals - I think an elephant?

Maxwell really loves playing with playdo

Out for a walk to the park - all bundled up in her pretty pink coat


Maxwell all bundled up too

Pic courtesy of Maxwell

video - Brittany playing boo with Emmalyn

Playing together

Dipping pretzels with dad

My house all lit up and festive

Video - Emmalyn can clap!

We were sad to have Kimberly leave but we soon had more visitors come to town!  My Aunt Sue and Aunt Leanne came to town.  I really appreciate, from the bottom of my heart, them taking the time to drive all the way here and spend time with me and my family.  I feel their efforts to stay close even after my mom's passing.  I appreciate the way they keep me and my siblings in their hearts.

Emmalyn's first time in a high chair (I think!)
We went out for yummy Mexican when my aunts were here

Aunt Leanne, Maxwell, and Aunt Sue

Video  - Maxwell playing hide n seek with daddy (daddy's way of hiding is pretty funny)

Here's a big update on Emmalyn lately -

  • As you could see from the video, she's clapping now
  • She loves her Uncle Joe and will imitate him when he purses his lips and when he moves his hands
  • I swear that she says "Hi" and has for awhile
  • She's starting to do more sounds like "muh" and "buh" and instead of talking through her coos it's more babbling
  • She screams which is not an awesome development
  • If I set her down and she doesn't want me to she will cry - - WITH TEARS! :(
  • She's definitely a Momma's girl
  • She goes everywhere and finds everything on the floor
  • She gets mad when she's done eating her food
  • She struggles to stay focused when she's nursing which is not very fun for me and then she wants to nurse to sleep (Not gonna happen - that's one bad habit I don't want forming)
  • She has been struggling to sleep from 8:30 pm to 11:30 pm if we aren't in the room with her or she's not in our bed.  We have to keep putting her binky in to get her back to sleep.  After she gets past that, she will sleep until 4 or 5 when she wakes up to nurse quickly and then will go back to sleep until 7:30 or 8:00 am.
  • She loves getting in the shower with Momma and Max and would stay in there forever if we'd let her
  • Maxwell hugs and kisses her more and talks about trying to calm her down when she's upset and will do things like giving her the binky.  I love seeing him be increasingly more brotherly with her
  • She really wiggly!!
  • She is teething and incredibly drooly.
Update on Maxwell - 


  • Maxwell amazing me with the things he notices in the world
  • I'm also amazed with how well Maxwell is reading - he's expanding his ability so fast
  • He's such a polite boy - - he shares well on his own and will also share when we prompt him to
  • I am trying to involve him in as many tasks as possible to expand what he gets to do (cooking tasks, cleaning tasks, etc)
  • We've had a major change in the bedtime routine - - -!  MOMMA is now his choice when we ask him who he wants to tuck him in at night.  It's forever been daddy (or Peter) so I'm pretty excited.  :)  When I tuck him in and then go to leave, he tells me "don't let the bed bugs bite" as I walk out
  • When I went to get him up once this week in the morning, (he still call for us to come get him in the morning and doesn't get out of bed until we do) he wanted me to get into his bed and cuddle with him.  He tucked me into his bed and put blankets on me.  He then gave me his stuffed animals, patted my back (they pat his back at Montessori if he's struggling to go to sleep during nap time), and turned his sound machine on to the lullaby setting.  It was incredible sweet and of course it worked, and I fell asleep.  He is so kind and loving.  I adore him.
  • He's been talking a lot lately about his tummy hurting and also his bottom hurting.  I'm not quite sure what it going on but we are trying to figure it out.  He's had a fever so I know that he's sick somehow but he doesn't have any other symptoms so I'm not sure if anything more serious is going on.  It's so hard as a parent to know something is wrong with your child but not know what, or not know if it's something that a visit to the doctor could help with.  

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Birthday Party

On Sunday August 26, 2012 we had Max's First Birthday Party!

3 months ago I thought doing a kid's birthday party for the first time would be no big deal but when the time was close, I was freakin' out and asking friends with kids for advice. Do you have games at a one yr old party? How much food to have? etc. I have heard of pretty elaborate 1 yr old parties thrown by these crazy Texans (bounce houses, big elaborate themes, clowns, magicians, etc). I knew I didn't want to go that far! So we kept it simple... fruits and veggies, cake, presents, and visiting with friends.

I stressed last night about getting as much as possible unpacked and cleaned up (or at least boxes stacked up neatly). Everyone that was coming KNEW that this party was happening the day that we moved in. I did this on purpose because then they wouldn't have huge expectations and would focus more on the house than the furnishings. Someday my house will be completely decorated and furnished but that is a long way off and will be a slow process...it's a big house! I figure it's better to have our friends see the house and get the "tour" when they aren't expecting it to be all decorated rather than come in 6 months thinking it will be decorated when it won't be. :)

Stinkin' Pinterest!  I have had 0 interest in Pinterest until Max's birthday (I have a belief that Pinterest would really only serve to make me feel inadequate and frustrated since I don't have much free time to cook, create, travel, etc based on the things I pin)... I got on there to look for one thing and ended up with a bunch of ideas that I now had to execute.  (Which also meant staying up late the night before the party getting everything done.  See why I have stayed away?!)
Pinterest Project: I made (with some help from Peter) a photo banner with one picture of Max.  There was one picture from each month from day 1 to 1 year old.  I love how it turned out.

From Day 1 to 7 months

5 months to 1 year

The entire banner

Pinterest Project: I got these white wood block letters to put at the front door with some balloons.  It was my idea to decorate them to match the "theme".  (There was no real theme for the party, just some decorations with polka dots.)

Max woke up in a happy mood like usual.

Decorations

This was Peter's present on his birthday -
we both love this picture of Max and I got it printed on canvas for him.
Decorations on the patio

It was windy outside and the balloons were blowing everywhere.

Max was shy with all the attention at the party when we were singing Happy Birthday to him.

Tyler and Hayden help him blow the candle out (you can see his 2 cakes - the dinosaur cake for everyone else and his brownie bear cake)  You can read here and here about why I went with the brownie cake.

I tried to get Max to wear the hat - no go.

Max trying the frosting on the bear

Yummmm

About to dig into that bear's head

Max loved the brownie.  I tried to get him to try the other cake and he wanted nothing to do with it.

Max watched the other kids while we opened his presents.  :)

Jeff and Andrea

Max was really excited about this little people airplane.

Awesome Aunt Kimi - I was so glad she could be in town for the party. 

Max reading one of his cards.

Cute PJs!

Max's first crayons of his own and paper 

Aunt Kimi got him the cutest outfit from Janie and Jack - look at the hat.

"Which toy do I play with, I can't decide!"

"For now...I'll play with the dump truck"

Max is going to have fun playing with the mega blocks
(in a few months - right now I don't think he gets it)

I was trying to get Max to wave goodbye but he wouldn't do it

The food

I didn't do a good job of getting pictures of everyone at the party.  I will do better next time! 
People at the party:
From Peter's work -
Andrea, Jeff, and S
Tim with his cute kids C and J
Our Friends - Jessica, John, and C
From Kallie's work - Lori and K
Brittany and Kimberly and their families
I thought the party went well.  I am glad we did it even though the timing was crazy.  Big thanks to my sisters for helping get the house ready, plus helped so much with the party too (they made the awesome brownie bear).  I seriously would be lost without them.

After the party all the family went to Olive Garden for some food before we had to take Kimberly and the kids to the airport.

Max was finally warming up to Aunt Kimi

Uncle Peter, Tyler, and Kaity

Cute!

Brittany, Landen, Joe, and Hayden

The whole group - the Nelson girls and their families
At Max's birthday party, C (who is 3 months younger) was clapping.  We showed him jokingly saying, "see Max?  That's how you clap." 

Well, all of a sudden that afternoon at the restaurant, Max started clapping!!!!  We couldn't believe it.  Once he started he didn't stop.  So proud.  :)  (I think he may not have wanted Claire to be able to show him up anymore.)
Video - Here's Max clapping to a song.  Way to go buddy!
Peter grilled some burgers for dinner.  AHHHHHHHHHHHHH finally!

Max has started laying his head down on our shoulders a lot more lately which is sweet and I love.  He is also starting to interact with Landen.  In the past he would play next to him but wouldn't really play with him.  It's fun to watch.