Wordless Wednesday

party time!

Hampton's first birthday party was last Saturday, and we had such a great time. We did an Atlanta braves baseball theme, and, if I do say so myself, it turned out pretty darn cute! Hampton refused to go to sleep that morning, and after fighting it for over an hour, he finally went down...and we had to wake him up for the party~go figure! He had lots of little friends come and play, and everyone had a great time-despite the crazy HEAT! After eating, sliding, and eating cake (which he didn't hesitate doing on his real birthday OR at the party-little piggie!), we went inside to get a break from the heat and open gifts. I can't put into words how thankful I am for the love that my friends have for this little monkey. We truly are so blessed!

12 months

Happy FIRST birthday to my little monkey. You are my world, little guy!

::picks myself up off of floor::

1 year. How? When? You may think, come on, you take pictures every single month, how is this in any way surprising to you? Well, it IS! I don't feel like a whole year has gone by. It is just surreal. I am very excited to enter this "toddler" stage, though. He's getting to be so fun, with his little personality and HILARIOUS faces! My SIL made a comment yesterday about how smart he is. She said she can't get anything by him. It's true. He watches our every moves!

This past month:

-We have a walker! He's been walking on his own for several weeks now, but over the past couple of days, he has really taken off! Exciting, scary, & time to re-babyproof! :/

-Still has 6 teeth, but more seem to be getting ready-he's been a drooling maniac

-He's a wonderful sleeper. I really love that he still takes 2 good naps a day and sleeps so well at night. Some days, he only takes one nap and seems to do okay with it, so I guess it won't be TOO bad when we transition to only 1 nap a day permanently!

-He's a professional waver and clapper. It's so freaking adorable!

-He loves looking in the mirror and kissing the baby :)

-Pushing things around is the best-the dog cage, laundry basket, his toy bucket...you name it, and he wants to push it!

-And probably other stuff that I will have to add on later b/c I'm forgetting!

So, that's it, I'm the mom of a toddler! :)

this weekend...a teaser

I can't believe the time has gone by so quickly, but here's what we'll be doing this weekend...

Eeek!! I can't wait! :)

Imagine It Kids Museum

When I was in the very early stages of IF, I stumbled upon an online forum when doing some research on MFI, IVF, etc. At first, I thought, I'm never going to introduce myself and talk about such personal stuff to complete strangers on the internet. That's crazy! I stuck around for a while, but only lurking. No one knew I was there until one day, I finally introduced myself through my very first post. I'm so glad I did, b/c here I am 3 years later, and I have been able to make several friends across the country (and in other countries!) that know exactly what I went through to get my little monkey, because they did too. And some of these amazing women are still trying. We're a community who celebrates in the happy times and mourns in the sad, but through it all, we are sisters.

I had the pleasure of meeting up with a few of the ladies on the success side of the spectrum and their little ones last weekend. We went to the Imagine It Kids Museum to play for a bit, took a stroll through Centennial Park, and had lunch at the CNN center. I'm so glad we were able to do it, and I'm so thankful for these unexpected but special friendships I have formed!

busy, busy, busy!

Wow, life has been so crazy recently. If it's not a sick baby, or a messy house, or driving back and forth to Atlanta--which we have done 3 times in the past couple of weeks, it's family coming in town, and birthday parties being planned, and, oh yeah, every once in a while, I like to sit down and hang out with my baby boy and the hubbs. I need more time in each day. I don't feel like I can get it all done. And I'm tired!

This past weekend, Jordan's older brother and a friend had a surprise 30th b-day party. The day was spent going from challenge to challenge that their wives had set up. From a beauty contest to mini golf, baking cakes and rock climbing, it was quite a day! Jordan's grand parents, Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin, and brother, wife, and their little girl all came into town, and we had a lot of fun just visiting and catching up. Hampton loved playing with his cousins Anna and Harlee Ann!

Sunday, we went up to the Imagine It Kids Museum and played with some friends for a little while. Hampton isn't quite big enough to participate in a lot of the activities they have there, but he seemed to have a good time pushing a shopping cart around, playing with magnets, and "playing drums" on the stools at the sand station. We had a great time, and when I get my act together, I'll post pictures. ;)

That's a smidgen of what we've been up to recently...and it's not slowing down any time soon!

oh poop

Literally. My little monkey has had some amazing poops this weekend. Sunday afternoon, he sat in his stroller while I had lunch with some friends. He ate, played, talked and was happy as could be. When I got him back to the car, I realized that he had an explosion at some point and it was all up his left side. Seriously, I'm not even sure if any was IN the diaper. Awesome.

That was nothing, though, compared to the night before. I had put on a dress and put Hampton in a cute little outfit, and we headed out to the lake for Jordan's bro's surprise b-day party. Once we got there, Jordan had to take the car up to the entrance to where we were to guide his mom in, but they wouldn't let both cars come back in so he hopped in the car with his mom. Of course, the diaper bag was in our car, and we all know what happened next. My child's insides exploded--all over his cute outfit, all down his leg, and all over my left hip where he was perched. Double Awesome. My SIL had an extra diaper that we put on him, and he went around in that for the rest of the night. My other SIL, who was staying and camping out after, found some gym shorts and a t-shirt for me. Lesson learned-bring extra clothes not only for the baby but for yourself. Oh, and make sure you can get to said extra clothes if need be. Oh me oh my.

sippy cups

Well, it's been decided, my child will go to college drinking out of a bottle. A little dramatic? No, I don't think so at all. I have offered him sippy cups for a while now with water or juice in them, and he promptly throws (actually CHUNKS) them to the floor. He has no interest. They annoy him. & they are so incredibly difficult in comparison to his bottles where the milk just flows.

Yesterday, I tried the old switcheroo trick. I gave him half of his milk in the bottle and when that was done, I quickly slipped in the sippy that had the rest of his milk. Y'all, he. freaked. out. I'm talking flinging himself backward, red-faced, screeching. He could not get away from that thing quick enough, and he could not have cared less that it had milk in it!

We've tried several different brands: gerber, baby einstein, 2 different types of nuby with no luck. If anyone has some sort of miracle sippy advice, I'm all ears!!

Oh me oh my...this is going to be quite the adventure. The "good" news is that my mom said my little brother didn't stop drinking out of his bottle until he was 3, and he turned out just fine!

braves game and aquarium

This weekend, we took Hampton on his first trip to Atlanta. He is such a good little traveler, and we are so thankful for that! Friday night, we went to the Braves game. When we first walked in the stadium, there was music playing and people screaming and having a good time. The little monkey was taking it all in-eyes darting from one thing to the other. He loved it!Once we found our seats, he was very interested in the vendors coming up and down the sides of the aisles to even notice the huge field in front of him! The game started out with a homerun on the very first pitch and went downhill from there, so I spent my time snapping some pictures & walking around getting inspiration for his birthday party! Hampton was asleep by the fourth inning, but I can see many games in our future. With his dad, I don't know how he couldn't like baseball!
Saturday we went to the Georgia Aquarium. This place is just awesome! Hampton would get right up to the glass and just stand there, mouth wide open, oooing and ahhing. He could have been there all day, I'm sure. He's just so interested in seeing it all and taking it all in. We saw lots of pretty fish, sharks, whales, and he even climbed in the tunnel to see the penguins up close! Now that we've been to 2 aquariums with him, I can't wait to take him to the zoo! I know he'll love it! I'm gonna need it to cool down a few degrees or 10 before we do that, though!