One Year - how the time has flown.

So sorry I'm slacking on my posting - life has just been hectic.  Cash turned one - yes, you read that right - he turned ONE on Saturday the 23rd and we had a party for him.  It wasn't a big party - mostly family and a couple of friends.  We didn't want him to get too overwhelmed and be a grouch.  It was "scheduled" from 2-5 and at 3:00ish he decided he needed a nap.  Normally, Cash takes ~30 minute naps, so I thought this would be no big deal; we would all be able to eat while he napped and then we could get on with the pudding finger painting I had planned for the kids and then the cake.  WRONG.  He took a TWO HOUR nap.  Party didn't end til about 7.  Of course those that needed/wanted to leave - left and those that wanted to stay - stayed.  But it just was so "prince" of him.

The theme of the party was "mustache bash" and I made all the decorations myself.  I started about 6 weeks ago.  I can't be more pleased with how everything turned out, but I'm still exhausted.  I'll have to forgot about all this hard work before I consider doing this again.  HA.  After everyone left and I had it all cleaned up I told Trey - "no more birthday's".

Thank goodness my friend Sunshine was there taking photos for us because I NEVER once had a moment to get my camera out.  Here are a few from the day:

The sweet birthday boy himself.

The "entry" table.  The basket was the party favors (a mustache t-shirt I made which was a "smock" shirt for the fingerpaint pudding that the kids could also take home with them), I also had different size photos of Cash's tractor photo shoot laid out with envelopes that the adults could pick through and take with them.

These cookies came from an Etsy shop - All Things Exquisite, and they were delicious and very reasonably priced!

Silly dad/papaw!

The fingerpaint pudding fun!  (it came out a little runny - I forgot to account for  the liquid  all natural dyes when I was pouring the exact amount of milk it called for - OOPS!  lesson learned.  

It doesn't matter because he LOVED it.  Eating it.  Playing in it.  Dumping it.  Whatever.  It was worth it.  

"nevermind the cake, I see creme brulee!"

and he ate just about all of it!

Leah used the wheels from Cash's Kozy Truck to "pimp" out his mini cooper.  

He even tried to help open his presents.  Sometimes.  

11 months - OH MY!

My baby is growing so fast.  Please make the time stop!  I'm already planning his one year birthday party and I can't stand it.  He is just the sweetest, most loving and happy little guy in the world, but I hate that he's growing up so fast!

This weekend we took 11 month photos AND did a one year shoot for him so that I could send out photos of him with his party invites.  He was a superstar.  Other than not really diggin' the cupcake, he did amazing!!  And I need to shoutout to my good friend Bobbie Byrd at Clumsy Crafter for so kindly letting me use her Nikon D-series camera for this photo shoot.  I've been wanting one of these cameras for a long time now.  It's no longer a want.  Now, it's a NEED.  I had so much fun with this beauty, and I didn't even do much with it out of fear.  I can't wait to have one of my own to play with!!!  Thanks again Bobbie, you're the best!

At 11 months, he's:

• FINALLY over his ear infections/drainage
• feeding himself his meals (with his fingers) - and doing a REALLY good job of it.
• LOVES the heck out of hotdogs
• eats primarily table food
• snacks on mum mums and puffs
• drinks LOTS of water out of sippy cups, so transitioning to "milk" should be a piece of cake - I say "milk" because he won't be allowed to have cow's milk as that's what was determined to be the cause of his ear infections (an allergy to it.  He's not lactose intolerant, he just has a milk allergy-so he will have to drink soy or rice or almond milk)
• He crawls everywhere, and fast!  He also cruises the furniture and uses his push toys very well.  He is also good at re-directing them when he runs into something.  
• He says: mama, dada, bottle (ba-ba), water (wa-wa), more (moh), neenee (which is paci), and hi (ha) - and constantly babbles, which I wish I could understand!
• He sleeps completely through the night
• naps 2-3 times throughout the day, usually in 30 minute increments, sometimes he'll surprise us with a long one
• LOVES bath time and splashing all about in the tub
• LOVES brushing his TWO teeth, and only the teeth - he re-directs me to the teeth if i try to brush his gums
• still loves giving wet slobbery kisses and cuddles and I LOVE getting them!
• I'm really not sure how tall he is, but he's just about 19 lbs.  He's wearing 12 month clothes for the most part; but he's still pretty short, so he can wear 9 month shorts.  

That's about all I can think of for now...

my happy little guy playing with his chomp n clack!!

a favorite photo from our session for "one year"

Hobby: Scrappin'

I've decided that I want to start scrap booking in order to keep fun memories of Cash as he grows up.  I've subscribed to a company called Studio Calico to get monthly kits so that I can build my stash of embellishments/papers and all the other fun stuff that comes along with the hobby.  I add on additional stuff some months and of course supplement by going to Hobby Lobby.  I've discovered many other scrapping sites in the meantime and have built up quite the addiction.  I've done all of ONE layout so far, but I did make all of my "thank you" cards for our Christmas gifts this year.  Danielle keeps asking me why I haven't made any layouts and I've finally figured out why - I'm scared of how to make them "boy-ish".  :/  So, I've logged in to all the scrappy sites to get some inspiration, found a layout I love and started picking through my supplies to get one going.  Of course the one I found that I wanted to "lift", I have NOTHING that can mimic it, so I've ordered some stuff.  I'm waiting on it to come in.  In the meantime I've gotten the basics of it started and laid out everything else I DO have.

Here are some photos of the cards I made:

I will try to update some posts with photos of the layouts I do as I get some done.  

10 Months.

Cash is 10 months!  Already.  I can't believe how fast time has been flying.  At 10 months, Cash:

• can finally feed himself puffs.
• walks behind his Melissa & Doug "walker".
• still only has 2 teeth, which I think is adorable.
• has mastered eating table food with only 2 teeth.
• sleeps erratically because of the ear issues he has; the left ear continued draining after the tubes were put in 12/26 so he was put in a study at his doctor's office, which has somewhat cleared it up finally, but we are still midway through the study so haven't seen a complete turnaround yet.  Hopefully the end is near and some resolve will come to all of us - especially sweet Cash, because he just doesn't understand.  (and he used to sleep sooo good.  :/)
• loves sleeping on the couch when he wakes up in the middle of the night for a bottle, in fact, prefers to sleep here.  Pitches a fit if we put him back in the crib.  So, whoever gets up with him ends up spending the rest of the night on the couch.  yay
• LOVES all the ride-on toys he got for Christmas.  
• still gives the sweetest, wettest, sloppiest kisses and I live for these.  <3 li="" nbsp="">
• loves to cuddle

*I have a couple videos to post here, but I can't get them to upload, so I'll have to add them later.  :(

He LOVES to eat..

I've been a slacker and I'm sorry!  I was finally able to get some video of Cash eating - something he LOVES to do.  And he's not too picky about it either.  There's not much he won't eat.  He's not a fan of plain bread, avocado (but loves guacamole), pineapple (will suck the juice out of the pieces and leave the remaining "skin"), or white potatoes.  Some favorites are: chicken, black beans, steak,  and garlic butter bread.  The kid loves anything though.  I can't even describe how excited he gets when it's time to eat.  We say he's doing his "Gangnam Style" dance.

Cash is Crawling!

As of yesterday, Cash is crawling!!!  We have been semi-baby-proofed for a couple weeks now.  I guess this means we need to get fully baby-proofed!  Let the fun begin!  :)

He has been chasing Jill around trying to get after her bone.  Once he gets it, he just waves it around in the air, the same way he does with toys - as if to show them off.  He enjoys crawling on top of her and rolling off.  He thinks this is just hilarious.  And Jill could care less.  Oh, Jill is the ham in the camera.   :)

Nine Months

Wow.  I can't belive my little man is already 9 months.  He's growing up so fast!!!

At nine months, Cash:

• has his 2 bottom teeth only.  But eats everything under the sun - and lots of it.  We do a mix of baby food and table food.
• will not feed himself - will only push puffs around on the tray of his high chair or bat them out of the container.  If you hand him one to feed himself, he just fingers it and looks at it like "what's that for?"  Same with table food.  
• drinks from a sippy cup on his own.  
• scoots, but doesn't crawl.  Will army crawl if he falls over on his belly.  Gets on all fours, and tries to crawl by doing the rocking thing, but one leg gets stuck behind the other and he gets confused on what to do with it.  If we try and show him, he gets more confused and sits back down.  
• tries to pull up on the coffee table.  **Last night we found him screaming in his crib, standing up, and holding on to the corner pillar having knocked off the monitor.  Needless to say, we lowered it tonight before bed and will be wall-mounting the monitor this weekend.  
• he LOVES his puppies and kitty and can't get enough of them licking him.
• says "mama" sometimes, "dada" all the time, "hi" regularly, "i love you" back, "more" randomly, & "water" occasionally.
• shakes his head "no", but I'm starting to think that has more to do with his ear infections than actually meaning "no"... (he does a lot of cute things that have to do with those - poor thing)
• his sleep has gotten erratic since his ear infections.  He used to be a super good sleeper, but now we just never know what we're gonna get.  I'm hoping that it'll get back to what it used to be now that we have the tubes.
• loves to have his teeth brushed, hair brushed and ears cleaned out with q-tips (pre-ear infection - now we have to clean them differently and he's not too fond of this method).
• has quite the paci addiction/obsession and can maneuver that sucker quite well.  He only likes the Nuk ones with the little handle on it.  Always has.  
• loves wheels.
• daddy is definitely his favorite.
• however, he LOVES to grab your (anyone he loves) face with both hands and give big, wet slobbery kisses.  These are so sweet and my heart melts every time I get them.  
• he still weighs approximately 18 pounds and is about 26 inches, wears size 3 diapers, and 6-12 month clothes, depending on the brand.  He's my little runt.  

**This post includes updates as I think of them.