A Birthday Tea in the Park

 

We helped celebrate a sweet friend's birthday this morning & all the ladies involved did such a cute job decorating, I just had to share some of the details.

 

The birthday girl & all her favorite munchkins!  Hope you had a lovely day, friend :)

 



15 months old

 

Mama is posting this kind of late...just another week and a half and you will be 16 months old, but better late than never!  I feel as though you've grown and developed SO much in the past month & it has been so fun and amazing to watch you.

 

I haven't done a monthly post since your first birthday, but here are some noteworthy things from the past 3 months:

 

You've started to sign a WHOLE lot more.  You sign words like: baby, popcorn, please, water, milk, and of course, more & all done. You also hold your hands in the air and shrug your shoulders to say, "where'd it go?" and you like to give lots of high fives! 

 

You are also saying a lot of words these days (and jibber jabbering in between): your favorite words are: Bob, Car & More.  But you also like to say: Hi, Bye, Ball, Kitty, Tractor, Cracker, Mama, Dada, Side (for outside), Nana (banana), Cado (avocado) and today you said Baby for the first time.  You are loving your newfound ability to communicate with us and soak up new words and signs all the time-  We love it too!

 

You are practically running these days & love to play outside & with friends.  You also LOVE to eat.  And your sweet little belly is proof that mama is feeding you lots & lots!  You love Bananas, Avocados, Smoothies, Popcorn and Strawberries best, but will eat almost anything--except for raw veggies. Mama is sneaky though and hides them in your smoothies.

 

You give sweet little hugs and kisses and even try to give Bob and your stuffed animals some lovin' on occasion.  Bob isn't a huge fan of the hugs though.  :)

 

You love to dance & bust a move whenever you hear music playing.  It's pretty darn cute.  You and your mama have been known to have dance parties when no one else is watching :)

 

You are doing a great job of feeding yourself with a fork and spoon.  Some foods are more successfully brought to your mouth than others but you love the challenge of learning this new skill.

 

You have NO idea that you are going to be a big brother in 5 months (ha!) what a surprise that will be, but I have a feeling you will be a great big brother and will probably want to be VERY hands on.  Love you little mister :)

20 week bump {baby boy #2}

Confession. I've been really bad about taking pictures of the bump this time around.  I still love you just the same baby boy, but I must admit, I have a lot more to keep me from getting to photo taking & blog posting this time around. 

 

 

But the good news is that the bump really just started to get big enough to be picture worthy anyway, so my lack of documentation up until now really hasn't mattered THAT much. :)

 

 

I have felt pretty much exactly the same this pregnancy as the first.  Not sure if it's just because it's me or if it's because it's another boy.  But I'm not complaining because I really did have a blessed & smooth pregnancy last time & would love a repeat!

 

The main difference this time is that:

 

1.  My hubby is not deployed miles and miles away. 

 

&

 

2. I have a little 15 month old to chase around.

 

Two very good improvements upon last time, I think. 

 

So, now onto little mister in the belly...You are quite the squirmer.  I felt you for the first time around 15-16 weeks. And you get stronger each week!  We had your 20 week ultrasound today and you are still a boy, so that's good!  You also would NOT keep still.  All of our images are a little on the blurry side because someone was wanting to have a boxing match with the sonographer's tool.  Every time she pressed on my belly, you matched her with a punch or kick.  It was really funny to watch/feel :)

 

I love this picture with your leg propped up in the air--almost right up to your mouth.  You definitely love the acrobatics and maybe a little toe sucking? ;)

 Big brother was not very excited about the ultrasound...in fact, he cried nearly the entire time--perhaps a first glimpse for him of what sharing the lime light will look like?

I know he will love you.  And we've taught him to say baby, so although he has no idea what's in store when you arrive, at least he will know what to call you :)

 

Weekend Hiking

 

 

Although our weekend didn't actually fall over the Labor Day weekend (my hubby works crazy hours), we did enjoy a nice weekend together right before Labor Day.  Weekends together are the best.  It's amazing how Ephram even knows that weekends are WAY better because daddy & mommy are BOTH home. 

 

I am usually  not a great consignment sale hunter, but I happened to score this AWESOME hiking baby carrier at a sale recently.  Brand new & 1/3rd of the price--yay!!    Ben was really excited too because for a while now, Ephram has not been able to sit comfortably on his back in the Ergo.  I think it's because my husband has a ridiculously long torso, so rather than being able to see from a high perch on dad's back, Ephram was getting smooshed down in the middle of his back & couldn't really see anything.  *I still love my Ergo though* and Ben has no problems using it forward facing, but I think as Ephram got bigger (he takes after his daddy in the height department), he needed a big boy solution. This fancy pants carrier has a torso adjuster....awesome.

 

ANYWAY, all that to say, we were happy for the find & decided to hop on over to the state park to give it a try.  Little mister & his daddy both loved it and we had a great time at the park.  Minus the part at the end where we got back into the car after feeling nice & accomplished with our hike and had ticks ALL over us.  Ughhh...

 

I may have  been a hot mess the rest of the day, trying to pick phantom ticks off my body.  Yeesh. 

 

I think we may wait a month or two more for our next hike...I'm still recovering from the trauma. 

 

 

what a cute little peanut.  I love both of these guys.