Paxton's first year movie

My husband is such a wonderful, caring, loving father to our sweet son.  A few months ago he came to me with the idea to make a cover of Darius Rucker's song Wagon Wheel with the help of another extremely talented couple, Matt and Chelsea Brunoehler. Brad took care of the guitar, bass and drum parts, Chelsea came in to help with the vocals and Matt also did vocals in addition to the banjo and mandolin parts.  I love how it turned out!

Brad has been asking me for months now to make this picture slideshow video and I finally got around to going through my massive amounts, I'm talking thousands and thousands, of pictures to pick just a few that would go into the short 5 minute video.  It was my first time attempting to use iMovie and while the program was great I had no idea what I was doing and probably could have spent a year learning the details and massive capabilities of that program.   While it's not perfect it does the job of taking us through Paxton's first year of life and I can't help but get emotional to see how much he's changed and grown in just one short year. 

And now here we are.  Already one month into his second year!!  This sweet boy has brought an enumerable amount of love, joy, happiness into my life and has enriched my world beyond imagining.

I hope you enjoy!!

11 months

Ok this post is way overdue.  But, it's only because I'm in complete denial that I will have a ONE year old in just 2 weeks.  We are in full birthday mode over here and I'm making a huge, gigantic deal out of Paxton's first birthday.  Our house may already be fully decked out in multiple Happy Birthday signs and decorations.  

But, of course I can't let Paxton's 11 month birthday go by the wayside.  So, here he is all his huge, chunky glory. 

 

This kid is in full exploration mode.  It took Pax longer to crawl than most babies due to his massive bulk, but he's on the move now.  He is so big and strong and anything and everything doesn't stand a chance in his wake.  He has pretty much destroyed his playroom, ripping down shelves, his magnetic chalkboard and pretty much anything else that he can get his mitts on.  He's in that awesome "puppy stage" as my sister calls it. It's his world and I'm just living in it.  All my things are his, especially my phone, remote, electrical cords, food (including the cats food), the trash cans, plastic bags and trash inside the trash cans ... oh the list could go on and on.  I am overjoyed and beyond grateful for the playroom that I can just put him in there, close the gates and let him go to town on trying to cover every square inch of the floor in toys.

 Last month I joined a gym.  They of course have a Kids Zone otherwise I would never be able to go work out.  After a somewhat up and down rough start it seems like we are on the upswing again at the Kids Zone.  He seems to just LOVE it and really has a good time crawling all over the floor, exploring all the different toys and "playing" with the other kids. 

In the last month Paxton had his first cold (which he caught from me) and then a few weeks later he had his first fever that ended in a rash (which I then caught from him). Sick babies are the saddest things ever and taking care of a sick baby when you are sick yourself is a whole new kind of miserable. I took him to the pediatrician for his strange fever illness and he weighed in at 28.1 lbs and 31.3" long!!

I've moved him to one nap a day.  This is a huge deal and I feel like it gives me SO much more flexibility and time to go out and do stuff during the day. 

 He's eating big people food like a champ. He loves yogurt, bananas, broccoli, egg yolk, spaghetti, and pretty much any fruity squeeze pouches. He of course loves puffs and mum mums and creamies.  He's pretty easy to please at this point.  He's down to getting 2 bottles a day, one right before his nap and one before bed.  I'm still pumping, but am down to only 2ce a day!  I feel ready to be done, soon.

 Seriously, this boy is such a joy.  He's so much fun and his personality comes out more and more every day. 

In addition to getting ready for Paxton's first birthday party next weekend, we are getting excited to head up to Maine to visit my parents at their lake cabin for 2 weeks.  We are going to spend Paxton's birthday, my 30th birthday and the 4th of July there and I can't think of a better way to celebrate. 

My first Mother's Day!

 The day didn't exactly go as planned. Standard.  I'm sick with a cold.  Pax has a cough and I'm worried he's getting sick.  He took the longest nap ever (probably fighting off that cold) and we completely missed the organic, vegan brunch we all had been looking forward to.  We were all dressed up with nowhere to go, so I decided I'd like some pictures with The One Who Made Me A Mom to commemorate the day.  And yes, I totally coordinated our outfits so we were all in blue and white stripes.

There is nothing I love more that getting to be this boys Mommy!

 We captured some funny timer shots with the help of our mailbox.

My day finished off with a trip out to the horses and a great ride followed by enjoying a bunch of awesome, yummy organic snacks delivered that morning from my amazing sister and then Brad picked up dinner from a local Italian place so I didn't even have to cook. 

I hope all you mama's out there had a wonderful day too!

10 months

 We are in the double digits!  Ahhh time slow down!

 This is really such a fun age.  Paxton is really expressive in telling us what he wants/doesn't want and I'm learning so much about him. I am loving getting to know his sweet personality.  He loves to say Dada and has said Mama a few precious times.  I'll never forget the first time that sound came out of my sons mouth.  I cried.

 He's doing all kinds of fun things like playing peek a boo and clapping his hands and even his feet.  He is on the move and we really have to keep a close eye on him because he can get around surprisingly fast.  He prefers to just roll around to get to wherever he wants to go, but does get some forward motion dragging himself along the floor.  He's so big that real/traditional crawling isn't exactly his style.

 Pax is still a fantastic sleeper.  He usually will take a good morning nap, sometimes a short afternoon nap and goes to bed at 7 and sleeps till 7 or even 8. On his 10 month birthday he slept in until 9:15! 

 Pax loves to eat.  He's starting to prefer small chunks of food rather than just purees.  He loves yogurt, bananas and kiwis the most!  He seems to have a sweet tooth like his mama.  His nursing strike turned into him just weaning himself super early. So nursing has sadly ended, but I'll keep pumping until he's at least 11 months and then I'll start supplementing a little bit with milk and be able to cut back on the pumping. 

 We could not be enjoying him more.  It makes me sad that this short baby time with him is going by so fast, but it's amazing that I've gotten to be with him the whole time and enjoy every little baby thing he does. Brad and I have started working on a project for his first birthday and it's so fun and emotional looking through all the of pictures I've taken this past year. 

Easter Bunny

 

 My little bun bun would like to wish you all a very HOPPY EASTER!!

 

 

 These pictures were actually taken right at the beginning of April.  That 18 month outfit was already too tight and I knew if I waited he probably wouldn't get into it at all and plus the azalea bushes were blooming all over our yard. 

 Mom, if you see this, then I know you do not approve of these pictures.  She says it's hard for a little boy to be so cute and that people will feel sorry for him if I make him look ridiculous.  But, I hope/think wearing some bunny ears on his very first Easter won't cost me too much in therapy bills.  I adore this adorable child beyond belief and I hope that by sharing these with you I can share my overwhelming joy and love and hopefully my darling baby boy will give you yet another reason to make you smile today!

Wishing you all a day full of Jesus, love, pastel colors, dyed eggs and jelly beans!  

Springtime!

 Easter is almost here and we are all about it.  This whole first year of firsts with Paxton has been so incredibly special and every holiday that comes around has to be documented with copious amounts of pictures.  Spring has pretty much already passed here in Pensacola, but we are getting lots of sunshine and warm weather, so it's been perfect to get outside and get lots of fresh air.  One of Paxton's favorite things is sitting in the grass, pulling out the grass and trying to eat leaves.  We spend a lot of time swinging in his tree swing and going for walks and runs.  I am already kind of dreading the summer heat, but I'm also really excited to finally be able to get in the pool again.  

I hope you enjoy these Springtime and Easter inspired pictures I took today of my 9 1/2 month old hunk.