15 months!

Someone replaced my baby with a little boy!

He is a super sweet little boy, so I shouldn't complain : ) Here are some random bits about my kiddo after one and a quarter years:

• He loves to give hugs. This positively melts my heart. He hugs me, Jonathan, his stuffed animals, his blocks, the furniture, the cat (or tries to), and his friends. Earlier this week, he hugged one of his friends who is a bit smaller than he is...and he knocked her on the floor : ( She recovered quickly, thankfully. I get a hug when I pick Jon up in the morning, when I change his diapers, when we sit next to one another on the couch, while I'm doing the dishes, while I'm working at my desk...pretty much all the time. He really is a sweetie.
• He loves to read. Jon has started to 'read' on his own, i.e. opening his books and babbling, then turning the page and babbling some more. He is actually behind in his language skills - should have 6 distinct words and he pretty much calls everything 'dada' but with different inflection. The dr. said we'll just see how he is at 18 months go from there. I came home from his check up yesterday wanting to buy flashcards and start drilling him on words. Jonathan says we should probably just keep talking to him, reading to him, and correcting him when he calls everything 'dada.' Jonathan is probably right.
  
• He can now point to his belly button when you ask him to.
  
• He loves emptying the dishwasher. He's actually quite good at it, and I have started waiting until he's up and about to unload it because he has so much fun handing me the dishes and flatware. Jon has actually become so good at unlocking, opening, and climbing on the dishwasher door...that we have purchased a baby gate to keep him out of the kitchen when he is not supervised.
• He is on a vegetable strike again, unless said veggies are pureed. Step back unfortunately, but I am willing to puree his peas and carrots to get him to eat them. Mealtime has become a bit messier, because although the veggies are now mush, he insists on self feeding. Still not a fan of meat, so we're going to have to put him on a multivitamin to make sure he's getting enough iron and B12 and all that fun stuff. He is eating sandwiches, quesadillas, mac n' cheese, pizza, and other 'big kid' food. He wants to eat his sandwiches and pizza like a big person, no more little squares. I think that if I gave him only fruit at all of his meals, he would love me forever.
• We continue to add to our rock collection every day. Jon loves playing in the dirt, chewing on sticks, and picking up rocks. He inadvertently squeezed a caterpillar the other day : (
• He has started saying "Dah!" after we pray...kind of his Amen? See above note about slow language. It is pretty sweet, though.
• We watch one episode of Sesame Street every day. I told you I was going to be one of those moms who didn't let her kids watch tv until they were 4 or 5. I am actually a real mom, so Jon watches Sesame Street while I get work done. Thanks to our small apartment, I am getting work done in the same room as he is watching Elmo and Big Bird, so I can still interact with him. Before we got the baby gate for the kitchen, Sesame Street was the only way I could redirect Jon from wanting to empty the dishwasher of its dirty dishes.
• He is down to one nap a day. I still put him in his crib for a little while in the afternoon for 'rest time.' He will lay down, sing to himself, and play with his toys. This also allows me to take a shower if I didn't get one earlier in the day, clean up a bit, or do some work uninterrupted. He always seems super happy, so hopefully this is not child abuse.
• His 15 month stats are:

33.5 inches (97%)
29 lbs, 4 oz (95%)
20.25 in head circumferance (off the charts, >100%)
This last stat was not helpful when I was trying to buy a sun hat for him earlier today....

That was probably more than you wanted to know, but I wanted to share anyway! Although we are now starting to deal with disobedience, temper tantrums, and some terrible twos possibly coming early, Jon is a super sweet, loving, and generally obedient child. He truly is a gift from God, and I am so glad I have him : )

Here he is showing you what he does most of the day - run around!

Spring Cleaning/Maintenance Help Needed

There are perhaps 2 or 3 readers of this blog who have seen what my apartment looks like most days. Becky...bless your heart...you have seen how I live. Katie M. came to visit baby Jon on a day when I had not done any cleaning, to myself or the apartment, and thankfully she stayed my friend. The rest of you have seen what my apartment looks like after a day or two of nonstop cleaning to get it ready for a gathering of some kind.

I feel the need for a change - NOW! It may be because I work from home. It may be because I want my husband to walk into a clean home when he finishes work. It may be because I want to teach good habits to my son. It may be because when I last went out of town for the weekend, I accidentally left a few dirty dishes in the sink, and now I am having to deal with a fruit fly infestation.

I have a subscription to Real Simple. I have years worth of Martha Stewart Living magazines on my bookshelves. I have checked out organizing books from the library. Believe me, it is not really a knowledge thing but a habit thing.

So here is my call for assistance: Please let me know how you manage your daily/weekly chores so they get done on a regular basis. What has worked and what hasn't worked? Especially for those of you with little ones - how do you keep your homes put together with a toddler to keep an eye on? I know there will never be days when everything is in its place, but I feel like I am constantly doing laundry, washing dishes, wiping down surfaces, etc. but my home is always a disaster. I am obviously missing something!

I will keep you updated on how I am doing : )

Here are some more pictures from daily life around here:

Playing with his kitchen - loves those songs and lights!

Jon has recently taken to intentionally putting objects in various places, whether that is taking all of the cat toys and putting them in the middle of the kitchen, putting his shoes in his toy box, or as you can see here, putting Woody on the kitchen counter to help me fix dinner. Now that he can reach the kitchen counters, I need to be more careful. The other day he was walking around the living room munching on a chocolate chip cookie that he had taken from the cooling rack on the counter.


I suppose it is barely noticeable, but Jon got his first skinned knee (with blood) a couple of weeks ago. I decided to document it while he was taking a nap in his stroller. For the record, this picture was taken at the Pottery Barn outlet. We like to go sit on the couches we wish we could afford : ) It's a silly field trip, but a family tradition nonetheless!


We received season passes to Six Flags Fiesta Texas (in San Antonio) as Christmas presents. We had a slow Saturday this weekend, so we decided to drive down and take advantage of some free entertainment! One of the extra perks of going to San Antonio is McAlister's. I must admit that while we lived in Memphis, I didn't get excited about McAlister's. It was just another family restaurant. But now that we are in Texas, those bread bowls and gigantic cups of sweet tea are very special. We planned our trip to Six Flags so that we could hit McAlister's for lunch. It was even more special because it was the first time we ordered a kid's meal for Jon at a restaurant. I had to take a picture to document his ham and cheese sandwich, steamed veggies, and teddy grahams : )

Enjoying his first McAlister's lunch

Below is Jon's nap progression at Six Flags. While Jonathan was in line and riding a rollercoaster, I took Jon into an air conditioned area to try to coax him into a nap. He was SO tired, but fought taking that nap for a looooong time. I don't blame him - the amusement park was hot, loud, and full of stuff to look at.

I'm not tired!

Well, maybe I'm a little tired

Some Spring Break Pictures

Here are some pictures from our Spring Break trip to Colorado. They are from my phone, so they are not the best quality and they are small. We have a few pictures from our 'real' camera, but I can't figure out how to get them off the memory card. I'm a bit backward when it comes to technology : (

Coming home from tubing one evening, Jon fell asleep in his snowsuit.

Jonathan at the top of the tubing hillJon reading with Great Gran

Jon reading his penguin book while sporting a beautiful sweater made by Aunt Katie.

Standing in front of the bunny slope, where I spent my first 1.5 days of skiing.

G Ma getting some hugs from Jon.

Great Gran and Aunt Jess toasting marshmallows.