Halloween 2012 = A Hole in One!

I just have to say that I always loved dressing up and trick-or-treating as a child; however, the joy I felt then is nothing compared to the joy I felt tonight while watching Jameson go door to door with so much excitement he could burst! We had some friends and family over for dinner and then we started making the rounds about 6:00. Jameson was definitely excited to get outside - his squeals and oohs and ahhhs were absolutely adorable. Braden did such a good job of leading and helping him trick or treat and Jameson did a good job of following directions. He amazed me with how well he did - he would go up to the door, wait for his turn, say "tick-o-teat" and then say thank you every single time he got a piece of candy!  I was one proud Mom and I know I was grinning ear to ear the whole time. He had us all cracking up!

In typical Jameson fashion, he developed a bit of a routine after a few houses. He wanted to hold Uncle Jeremy's hand after every house. So, he would get his candy, say thank you and then immediately ask, "where Jeremy at?".  He would then run down the driveway and grab Jeremy's hand and walk to the next house. At one point, he grabbed my Dad's hand and then looked up and realized it wasn't Jeremy and said, "uh-oh" and then went and found Jeremy. Hilarious. My Mom, Dad and I laughed for a good 5 minutes about it. However, after Jeremy went back to our house with Madison, Jameson gladly accepted my Dad's hand and proceeded to hold it after every house! I always took over when it was time to go up to the door, so I could help him lug his heavy bag of candy up the cement porch stairs. But, he always knew just what to do when he got to the door, so I would let him go. Hearing his little voice say tick or teat was almost too much for me to handle - definitely one of those things I want to etch in my brain and never forget!

I guess in all my bragging about how well J did, I should say that we did have one instance of a little less than stellar behavior on Jameson's behalf. HOWEVER, he just thought he was being funny and meant no harm! One of the neighbors had a big plastic ghost and Jameson proceeded to knock it down...three times! He thought it was hilarious and the guy who lived there actually thought so too...so no biggie! And, the highlight of the night was the "big guy". At one of the houses, a man dressed as a big scary guy in a suit was sitting in a lawn chair at the bottom of the steps. Looked like decoration, but when you got closer, he jumped at you. He was very good with Jameson though and didn't scare him, just talked to him and gave him candy. Jameson was super intrigued by this "big guy" and thought he was quite funny. Talked about him for the next 15 minutes as we continued to go house to house. So, we decided on the way back home, we had to stop and say hi one more time. Dad took him up to the big guy, but this time I think Jameson was a little frightened of him! But, once we put some distance between us and the big guy, he proceeded to start talking about him again and would giggle. Even as I was putting him to bed, he asked about the big guy and I told him that the big guy went night-night.

We had an amazingly wonderful Halloween from start to finish. Jameson did so well all day with me parading him all over town - work, grocery store, Starbucks. His costume was perfect and he loved wearing it. I swear he would not put down his golf clubs, which was so perfect! I just love how much he enjoyed trick or treating with Braden and am shocked he made it at least 45 minutes! He probably would have kept going, but it was getting a bit too cold. It honestly does not seem possible that he would be old enough to be able to understand what to do and actually enjoy it. But, he certainly knew what he was doing once he got the hang of it...except for the few times he invited himself into people's homes :). I am pretty sure they didn't mind though - his cuteness gets the best of you sometimes! I cannot wait for next year - just have to think of a costume that will top this year!


Videos: I apologize for the HORRIBLE camera work and my annoying voice. I was carrying around the video camera, regular camera and trying to guide a very excited 20 month old!

*Video of the "uh oh" incident, as well as one of the first stops on our journey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRW-oHwmUs8

*Probably one of my favorites because it captures his joy and excitement!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qHvz1HCWKE&feature=youtu.be

*Video of Jameson walking right into the Miller's house and good audio of him saying "tick o teat" and "where Jeremy at?" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR0WhWrhtxw

Jameson got to carve his first pumpkin with Gma Debbie, Ray and Braden. Turned out great!

Visiting MSI to show off the costume...and get some treats!



Held onto Aunt Lindsay's hand 90% of the time! The second picture is him grabbing for her hand, saying "hand!".
Then he figured out how to get to Aunt Nicole's M&Ms!

Tried to get all the kiddos. William wasn't having it!



Cousins!



Love this! Will and Jameson!

Ready to Trick or Treat!!

Haha!

Hand in hand with Uncle Jeremy!

Hand in hand with Ray!

Aunt Lindsay got in on the hand action.
Lighting in this picture turned out pretty funky!



Jameson cracking us all up!

Trick or Treat!! Putting that candy in his bag for safe keeping! Braden was such a good leader!  



Anybody home?! Ooooh, Trick or Treat!

Getting the hang of it and doing it all by himself!!

Visiting with the Big Guy once more before heading home!!!

So, you are saying all of this candy is mine?!

Score!! M&Ms!!

Not too shabby! Almost completely full!

He loves his grandpa...I mean, his Ray!

Helping Daddy hand out candy!

Family picture! This kid is a rockstar!



Mmm, candy. Notice that he still has his clubs!

M and Uncle D!

Uh oh - sugar high!

Best Halloween! I loved seeing him so happy!

The sugar crash!

OK, and one more - my favorite of him in his costume!!

Living In The Moment

I decided that because my last (published) post was about how one minute can change your life, I would write about how we therefore must live in each moment since we never know what the next will bring. As a Mom, I am really trying to adhere to this. I want to be certain that I am always present - in each and every moment. I want to breathe in every second that I can, not only with my child, but also with life in general. We cannot dwell on the past or worry too much about the future. It is the present that matters most.

With our busy lives, I feel like sometimes we just go, go, go and then it is time for bed. I know as a working mom, that probably won't really change. But, I need to make better use of the time I have with my child, my family, and my friends during those waking hours. We all know that time goes way too fast, so it is important to make sure we embrace the time we have together. I don't want to miss out on anything because I was too tired from work or because I was finishing a game on Words with Friends or checking Facebook. This is definitely a mental shift that will take some work for me to successfully make. But, I have said it before and I will say it again - I would do ANYTHING for my child and this is certainly an easy "anything" to accomplish. Being fully present is something that I want to make sure I am in each and every moment.

A perfect example of this was a few weeks ago. I had one of those nights where I went from wanting to pull out my hair because Jameson was throwing a fit about something to later hugging him in his crib with tears rolling down my cheek because it was one of the most serene, calming moments I have had in quite some time.  Darin had a double header in softball that night, so the epic meltdown Jameson had at dinner was enough to drive me bonkers. He flipped the switch back to happy Jameson as we started his bath and by bedtime, he was a complete snuggle bug and I did not want to say goodnight. As I laid him down for bed, he popped right back up and walked over to the side of his crib softly saying, "Mommy". I got down on my knees and he came over and we hugged with his head on my shoulders and his sweet little arms wrapped around my neck. I began to sing all the songs I used to sing to him every night when he was an infant - you are my sunshine, rock-a-bye baby, etc. He fell asleep standing there against my shoulders, but every time I tried to break our embrace or if I stopped singing, he would start softly humming (or softly sing the ABCs!). I did this for at least 20 minutes and did not want to leave his little embrace. However, I knew that I needed to let him comfortably sleep. He laid down and I rubbed his little back and sang one more song and when I shut the door, he cried out to me. I knew he would stop within two seconds, but it took everything in me not to run back and scoop him up and hold him all night long.

It is moments like those that completely erase the headaches and frustrations in life. It is moments like those that bring tears to my eyes because I just cannot believe how much I love my child - it almost hurts how much love I love him. These are the moments that I never want to let go. These are the moments that prove how important it is to be fully present at all times. It is moments like those that affect me down to my soul and make me realize how lucky I am.

Living in the moment is being fully present. I have a feeling that I will continually need to work on my goal of living each and every moment...try not to worry about the future or past...just be present.

Perfectly said.

Another good one!

Savoring the sweet, serene moments even when he is asleep!

He doesn't look too thrilled to be in this moment! Stink eye!



I will treasure these moments forever.






19 Months!!

Let's get right to it!

• We finally had your 18 month appt. yesterday - you weigh 27 pounds 8 ounces (75%) and are 34 3/4 inches tall (95%) - holy growth spurt! Your perfect little head was 18in (50%).  At your appt., you were moving around the room the entire time, getting into everything and talking up a storm. Dr. Emm said we are in trouble with you - we already knew that! But, he said it's a good kind of trouble because it means you are smart and healthy - we knew that too!
• You still fit into a few 18 month outfits, but most of the pants are way too short, so we are moving to 24 months and 2T stuff. Your pajama pants look like old man high waters, so you are in 2T and 24 month PJs.
• You stopped using a bib - this was actually sometime after 17 months, but I forgot to add it to last month's post. You do a pretty good job at staying clean, but some meals require no shirts, which you love. You actually ask Mommy and Daddy to take theirs off too. I always have to politely decline, but sometimes Daddy will participate for fun!
• Your top two canines are officially through - finally! Bottom two are still in progress - it's been months!
• At night now, you always pick out which books you want to read, so as soon as Daddy gives you your goodnight hug and kiss, you say "pick" and go to your bookshelf and pick out a book. We usually do this about 5 times per night. Right now, you are partial to Cat in the Hat (or CaHat as you call it) and you actually let me read the ENTIRE book! You also like Go Dog Go, but I think that's because you like to say "Go Dog Go" and say doggie! You also know all of the animals in Baby Bear - which is tough because they are a bit exotic.
• And, when we get to the end of a book, you say, "The End!". You used to get really upset sometimes when there were no more pages, but we curtailed that by celebrating with "the end!".
• Things have to be a certain way with you. Ray has to sit a certain way, I have to sit on the floor or sit a certain way to read, Daddy has to be in a certain chair, doors have to be shut, etc. Creature of habit and it's pretty funny!
• You like to tap your feet a lot now. And, you love to jump! It's adorable. You look like Superman sometimes with one arm up as you jump. You are SO close to getting both feet off of the ground. I think jumping on the trampoline at the Jump Spot has really helped!
• Speaking of the Jump Spot, you are learning your colors because of the classes there. The other night, you were able to put the colored paw prints on the correct colored circle! I was super impressed!
• You started your first swimming class. You get to swim with some friends: Jonah, Reagan and Addison! Daddy has been the one to swim with you most classes, but I love watching!
• Kindermusik started again and man, what a difference a few months makes! Last May when we had our last class, you were really starting to run and move throughout the room, but now, I can barely keep up! And, you are so interactive. I love it!
• You love to walk Hoyt and go see our neighbor, Lynne! You always ham it up for her!
• You rediscovered the joy of spinning in circles. The other night at Kindermusik, that is all you wanted to do!
• You are really good at steering your toys now - like your little lawn mower. And, you can say lawn mower almost perfectly.
• You can open and close things almost all of the time by yourself now (sippy cups, etc.) and you always narrate which one you are doing.
• You got to meet Cookie Monster, Big Bird and the Cat in the Hat at the Worldwide Day of Play and that is all you talked about (and still are). It is incredibly adorable to hear you tell stories about the "people pwaying" and all of the characters you got to meet. You get so excited and really start talking. It makes me excited for when you are older and can tell me all about your days!
• You know almost all animals and their sounds, even exotic ones like peacocks! I think "hee haw" is probably my favorite. And, you always ask us where the hee haw went when you wake up in the morning (there is a donkey in one of your books)!
• You are getting pretty good at telling us when you need to go to the bathroom. Then you get SUPER excited when you go and will talk about it for days!
• You had a bunch of your friends come and play at our house - Cora, Reagan, Jonah, Cameron and Lucy! Oh, and you loved playing with Miss Lea and Miss Kay-yee (Kelly) :). You followed Kelly around all night!  
• You remember things that were said or done weeks ago.  I have way too many examples to share, but it's incredible. One example - there are puppets at Kindermusik above the stairs - some people and a horse. After we were leaving class, we stopped and looked at them and then said "bye bye people". When we pulled into the parking lot for class 2 weeks later, you said "bye bye people" and said "hi horse" as we were parking. It blew me away! Ask me about crayon and "no no Hoyt" as well. Seriously, you remember things that happened months ago!

OK, onto the words. Man kid, you can talk! It's amazing to me how quickly you learn new words and how good you are at putting words together!

• OK, I know this is nuts, but you can sing the ABCs. Of course it's not perfect and sometimes you only get a chunk of the letters, but you have sung the whole thing quite a few times. All I have to say is "the alphabet" and you will start singing! And, when the song is over, you always clap and say "yay!".
• I am hesitant to even post this video because you do it so much better usually, but of course when I got the camera out, you didn't do it. And, you started singing before the song started, so you are ahead for a bit! But, this is still pretty darn cute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IALjDFtwzUQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player
• Also, another thing that blows my mind - you can count to 5! I am sure you don't quite understand what you are doing, but you will point to things and count how many there are. Just the other morning, I heard you counting in the monitor (you had just woken up) and I looked and you were pointing to each of your stuffed animals as you said a number!
• "Mommy hold you" - this is one of my new favorites! It took me a few times to realize what you were saying, but then it hit me that I always would ask you, "do you want Mommy to hold you?", so you started saying it when you want me to pick you up! SO adorable!
• Uppy - you will also say this when you want someone to hold you. Ray taught you this one because Aunt Lindsay used to say this and it was way too cute!
• I started saying to you how I love you to the moon and back. You always giggle and say "Moomaback" to me...so cute!
• "Mommy (or Daddy/Grandma/Ray/etc.) hand!" - you actually like to hold our hands now and this is how you ask for it while reaching up for a hand! One of the best feelings in the world is your little hand in mine!  
• At night when we say our prayer, you say it with me now (bits and pieces)! I always hug you while we say it and then we are done, you always say, "beeg hug" because I give you one big squeeze before I put you in your bed!
• Waining = Raining. We played out in the rain the other day and you kept saying "waining" and then you would say, "burrrrr".
• Happy! - you started to say this the day after you turned 18 months. It is so funny and adorable to hear you say it. But, you were stuck on "Baby's crying" because there is a baby crying in one of your books and you always sounded SO sad when you would say it. Daddy started saying. "baby's happy" to get you off of the crying baby!
• Yeah - I am SO excited you added this word to your vocab in. We still hear "no" 85% of the time, but sometimes you will say yeah. You do say OK a lot now too, which is nice and pretty darn adorable!
• Boyd = bird. Hi-larious. You sound like you are from Boston. The cutest is when you say Big Boyd.
• Another thing you are stuck on and actually have been for a few months - we turn on Led Zeppelin Rock-a-bye baby lullabies for you during nap time. The album cover is a drawing similar to the cover of the Swan Song album and you think it looks like a bat. So, every time you wake up from a nap, you ask "where'd bat go?" and I have to push the button that brings the screen to life so you can see the bat on the iPhone!
• Hoyt barking - whenever Hoyt barks, you always tell us he is barking. Or if you hear another dog barking. Barking is not perfect, but it's pretty close!
• Pengin = penguin. You are starting to gravitate toward penguins now when we read books with animals. I love the way you say penguin.
• Achoo Mommy (or whoever) = you say this immediately after someone sneezes and then say bless you, which is more like "bwey you".
• "Bawberry" = strawberry
• Ham - you like to eat ham now! And, along the same lines, you can say bacon. You LOVE bacon and always ask for "moh bacon peez".
• Geen bean = obviously that is green bean.  
• Tickle - you can say this really well and think it's funny to tickle people!
• Pickle - you have this one down pat too. You are not a huge fan of pickles though!
• "Ningo" = flamingo
• "Beeg Boy!" = big boy! I say this to you a lot and you always smile and get excited. We hear this a lot after you go to the bathroom in the potty!
• Chicken - you honestly can say this almost perfectly.
• Cheeto - yes, I buckled and gave you some baked Cheetos and you loved them. "Moh Cheetos" was all I heard for a good 20 minutes!
• Hoyt is now Hoytie most of the time. LOVE it!
• Tunno = tunnel. You love to crawl through your tunnel and you like to play peek-a-boo with it.
• Yum yum yum - you always smile real big too! Nom Nom Nom is also said quite frequently!
• Hee hee hee - this is WAY TOO cute!! You will do it if something is funny.
• Open - you usually follow this with someone's name as to tell us you want us to open something.
• Bwoken = broken. This has become a regular in our vocab because of the age you are - destruction is quite common! You always sound so very sad when something is broken though..."Mommmmy broken".
• Chug a chug a chug a chug a choo choo!! You say this just randomly. Learned it from swimming!
• "Cacker = nutcracker. You found one in Gma Debbie and Ray's house and carried it around all night (and slept with it...well, fell asleep with it and I went in and got it after you were fast asleep!).
• Moomie = movie! I cannot tell you how much this makes us smile because Braden used to call movies moomies and we called them that forever! Looks like I will start doing it again!
• Banen = Braden. We are getting closer!
• Baby = Madison. You have been saying baby for many many months, but it is the funniest thing when we ask you to say Madison - you immediately say baby with no hesitation. So, for now, Madison is Baby.
• I catch you singing, "Moo moo hee-ya (here), Moo moo they-ya (there)" quite a bit. I know I said last month that you sing E-I-E-I-O, but now you are singing the verses too! But, really only the cow verse!
• You have recently started saying "mine". Oh, let the fun begin!!

19 Month Informal Photo Session!

Start off by blowing a kiss! Love him.

Happy boy!

Goof.

This is a new face he just started doing about a week ago...?!

Pictures from the last month:

Republican Party out at the Wendt Farm - he was beyond excited to see the "amals". He and Braden had a blast chasing turkeys, jumping in the bouncy house, and trying to find goats!

Could not love these pictures more!



King of the Hill!

I totally get it, J - clowns are SCARY.



 I love this picture. The carefree joy it exudes melts my heart.

 

Out to dinner!

Swim lessons with Daddy! Look at how well he can float!



This melts my heart!

I Wanna Hold Your Hand! Best feeling in the world.  

Worldwide Day of Play! Best day of J's life - meeting Cookie!

There can never be too many sleeping pictures. So sweet.

Haha - now for the funny sleeping pictures. Sleeping with the "cacker" (Nutcracker!)

Quite possibly the funniest thing I have seen in a loooong time. I looked in the monitor to find two sets of legs.
Laughed hysterically and had to go check it out! Looks like Jameson wanted to have a slumber party with Ming Ming!

He loves to play with the horses that Discovery Museum!

Uh oh - he knows how to work the iPad.

Having a chocolate milkshake on National Choc Milkshake Day!
And, after our first swim lesson together!

Enjoying some milk and cookies!

Goof ball!

"Eww a bug," says Jameson as he squeals and then goes and picks it up!

Picking  "flowers" for Mommy!



It's amazing how one little person can make your heart so full!



Playing with play-doh at Gma Debbie and Ray's!

Watching Daddy play softball!

Jameson and Willy are buddies!

Bubble Monster!

Future Dr. Weber?!

 

Mmm, mac n cheese!



Jameson LOVES the Jump Spot!




Kids galore!

18 Month Appt...a day before he turned 19 months! He played with EVERYTHING!

He thought the "stickers" were sooo cool! He did so well at his appt, so we had to go to Target and pick out a toy :).

Poor bean fell asleep on the way home from the doc. But, as soon as we got home,
he wanted to eat on the chair and watch Hot Dog. How could I say no?!

Lastly - one of my favorites! Fishy faces!!! Love this kid.