Where's Daddy?

Matt went out of town this past week. He left Wednesday morning and returned Sunday afternoon. I don't think I posted about that on here for safety reasons. You never know who might blog stalk me. :) There are 2 weeks when you don't leave your wife home alone with a baby... the first week of school and THE WEEK OF TESTING! But he did.... and we survived. I could not have asked for a better baby while Matt was gone. My biggest fear was that he was going to wake up in the middle of the night and then I would be super tired all day... or that he would wake up between 530 and 6 when I planned on getting ready for work.... but he did neither! I think we were even a little earlier than normal for drop off at daycare! Our biggest snafu (sp?) was that the smoke detector in Christopher's room was chirping when we got home on Wednesday.  Of course I cried and yelled at Matt for leaving, but thankfully my neighbors Tiffany and Richard came to my rescue and helped me fix it and change the other ones! We really have been blessed with some good neighbors at our house- Tiffany walked around and entertained Christopher so I could work out on Thursday and then our other neighbors Jennifer and Robert had us over for dinner Friday night. Anthony came up Saturday morning to watch Christopher so I could work out again and then Lindsey came up to help me entertain him the rest of the day!

I think the part of the time with just Christopher and I that was my favorite was when I went in to wake him up for the first time Thursday morning- remember, Matt does everything with Christopher in the morning. He has him dressed and almost done with breakfast so that I can leave with him right after that. Well, when I laid him down on the changing pad, he kinda looked at me all weird... and then looked at the door... and then at me.. and said "dada?" Like he was genuinely confused. Could he have been? Is he old enough to realize that? I don't know. He definitely seemed to realize something was different because I am never there in the morning.

Here are the highlights from our week:

Christopher's first tailgate! I cannot wait to show him this picture when he has a real truck of his own and is sitting in the tailgate with a beer! We took this picture on Monday when Kate was still here.

Morning breakfast without daddy! We had to take a picture to send him.

Who knew the Magic Bullet could be so entertaining!

Christopher pulled out what was in the corner and climbed on in!

This child is obsessed with the spoon! I was eating cottage cheese while feeding him and thought he might like a little taste- well, he loved the cottage cheese! He would suck what was on it off and then hand the spoon back to me to fill it up again. The second night he wanted to do the scooping... That was a mess.

Visiting the guinea pigs at Jennifer's! Obsessed. When I would walk back in the other room, Christopher would fight to get down to go back in there!

The dollar aisle at Target is a dream! Enjoying our bubbles on the back deck.

Do I really need to explain?

A little walking video from Saturday... I uploaded a great one of him falling flat on his face to Facebook but somehow didn't upload it to DropBox. I will put that one on the next blog.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/otoywso7uq1jh7w/Video%20Apr%2027%2C%205%2000%2033%20PM.mov

He has been doing this kind of walking for the past week or so, but yesterday he was really starting to initiate the walking on his own. He would stand up at a toy and then walk to the next or stand from the sitting position and walk to something, while before he would just crawl everywhere. I am sure today at daycare he crawled all over the place and didn't show off any of his skills he learned so that mommy looks like a liar! :)

Have a great week!!

Birthday Weekend

What a week it has been! Christopher and I have been super busy since his birthday... well even on his birthday actually because unfortunately we had running around to do that day too! Things have finally settled down and sadly all of our guests have gone home. We went to the doctor on Thursday for his 1 year checkup and she couldn't be more pleased with his progress. While she was talking to me about his checkup she pulled out a bin of books and it just warmed my heart that he started pulling the books out one by one and opening them, pretending to read. I think she was even quite impressed, especially when he started babbling like he was reading a story to someone.

Sitting in the chair like a big boy waiting to be called. (Can you believe I actually let Christopher out of the house in this outfit?!?!?)

We had to send a picture to daddy of us waiting... NAKED BABY! Christopher weighed in at 22 pounds 14 ounces... and gained an inch and a half... but I can't quite remember what that number was.... I do remember that he is in the 78th percentile though, which is where he was for his 9 month checkup as well. His head circumference continues to top the charts, being in the 89th percentile! My cousin Ryan calls him Mr. Potato Head. :( I think he is growing into that head!

When we got home, Christopher had a card in the mail from his Great Aunt Mary Elda. Here he is reading his card.

And of course, his day wouldn't be complete without standing at the back door waving to the workers!

Christopher's birthday party was Saturday. I tried to keep it small- family and a few friends. After all you know how long it takes Christopher to take it all in.  Even small it took him a bit to loosen up! We had a baseball theme and you would think that I would have pictures of the food and the baseball glove cake right??? I don't. I was busy being the hostess!

Here he playing with his toy from Ms. Jeanne with his buddy Austin. 

I know it's the wrong ball, but at least he has the right idea!

I made Christopher's birthday cake!

I think it was the Devil's Food mix with vanilla icing.

Still singing....

He kind of picked at the cake with his fingers and then Kelly told me to get a fork... so I got a spork :) and he started eating! It was funny watching him suck it off!

Yummmmmmy!

Playing outside after his party. He took a nap for the last hour, thank goodness. You could see that he was really tired and he went right down.

Uncle Anthony got him this truck! Christopher loves being pushed around in it. He is so funny opening the door and climbing in. It was really neat to watch his problem solving skills to figure out how to get in the truck.

Nana and Kate pushed Christopher around alot in his truck! The floorboard does pop out so once Christopher learns to use his feet (and gets a little taller) he can move it himself.

Nana the Scientist picked up a caterpillar to show Christopher. Thank goodness she was there because Kate tried... and then screamed.

Here are a few videos for you! The first is of Christopher walking. I don't know what was going on Friday but he was a walking fool! He would go from couch to wagon, wagon to door, door to table... It was great. And then, nothing Saturday. Big Daddy got a little bit of it on video. And yes we cheered like that everytime he walked. https://www.dropbox.com/s/sgqfdnnbh5j6uf8/Walking.mov

The next video is short and sweet- Christopher and Kate going down the slide!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0mj9nwddblk8kw9/Slide.mov

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Today is Christopher's 1 year birthday!! I don't have any stats because we go to the doctor tomorrow. I uploaded all of his monthly pictures so that you can see how much he has changed over the year!  Months 1-5 were a cinch to take... and after that- we were just thankful to get a picture with him in it and the ball! :)

This is the only way I could get a picture with the ball showing the number and his face looking up.

I know the 12 month ball looks a little dirty... :) I had to use the last clean ball to get this made...

I wanted to have this to put on the door for his birthday, so I had to give away the clean ball. Isn't it adorable? I was so thankful my friend Amanda took on this task for me! She had made one for her house a little while ago... and I hadn't forgotten!

 

I was trying to think of all the fun things that he has experienced in just one year of life....

- first beach trip to Nags Head for a week in July

- 2 plane rides... well I guess 4 actually since we had to come back as well (1 to Pittsburgh and 1 to Norfolk)

- 2 weddings (1 in West Virginia and 1 in Nashville)

- 5 nights in a 5 different hotels

It makes me feel so blessed for all the experiences that we are able to provide for Christopher. Some people don't get to do all those things in a lifetime.

And just some randoms from his birthday...

Before daycare- trying out his new slide! Thanks Aunt Nancy!

We had to get up extra early today to go to Dunkin Donuts to get Munchkins for Christopher to take to daycare to share with his friends. He also gave everyone a Little People car as his birthday party favor.

Waving to the guys out back building us a new deck!

His wagon filled with clothes, books, stuffed animals and blocks.

You can also see his new picnic table from Nana and Granddaddy.

His basketball hoop!

He has one that is attached to the side of his hoop and he stands on his

 tippy toes and puts the ball in the hole!

I hope you weren't thinking this was going to be some mushy post. I am far from mushy as we all know! :)

Happy Birthday, Christopher!!!! :)

My 100th Post!

Here we are ... 100 posts later! Do you feel like you know pretty much everything about Christopher? Probably so. I am going to make this post a little more about Matt and I ... but before I do that, here are some of the random pics I have from the last few days!

I let Christopher eat his snack Thursday in front of the television. TV does not normally hold his interest. When he is playing on the floor, he will occasionally look up at it for a little, and then move on to play. But sitting there in front of it with food was totally different. He would hardly even look down to pick up his Goldfish! Stroonz likes Goldfish too, but he didn't get any. That's probably why he bit him later on.

Just pushing his doggie right along. Christopher has really stepped up his walking game. This past week he has started taking 2 or 3 steps to get from one object to another. He was doing really good Friday when mom got here. Matt, mom and I were sitting in a triangle and Christopher was walking to each of us. I think the most he got was 6 steps. He does the whole lunge forward thing at the end once he knows he is within reach.

Playing Peek-a-Boo out the window!

Speaking of Peek-a-Boo.... Christopher has been playing it with everything. He will get on one side of the couch and squat down and pop back up.... or gets behind a toy and pops back out. Here is a video of him playing Peek-a-Boo behind the coffee table. He had been doing it for awhile and then I break out my camera.... and I get like 10 seconds of it. Better than nothing I guess!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2fcb5gv16z7h9rp/Video%20Apr%2011%2C%207%2044%2005%20PM%20%281%29.mov

And another Peek-a-Boo video with the help of Matt...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/s2z0xjpdrgs1fhz/Video%20Apr%2011%2C%207%2046%2026%20PM%20%281%29.mov

This next video is a 2 parter...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/m425kgv7cu253b4/Video%20Apr%2011%2C%204%2001%2021%20PM%20%282%29.mov

And the ending....
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0b7ipqrhvad2l0o/Video%20Apr%2011%2C%204%2001%2055%20PM%20%281%29.mov

And now... onto our weekend!
Mom came in Friday... after being delayed for 3 hours :) to babysit Christopher so that Matt and I could go see Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean at the University of Georgia! We have had this planned since August. Matt's rock star cousin got us tickets and we are soooooo appreciative! He never disappoints! It was the perfect little trip away. You can't beat an hour and a half away and your mom (and brother?) watching your baby! The concert was amazing and so was the weather!

These are the "arches"- whatever that means! :) Apparently, it is important or memorable to UGA people. We went to the concert with Matt's sister Cindy and her husband Mark.

After awhile, ole pale boy had to reapply.

My friend Kelly was there looking all cute in her new cowgirl outfit!

And I am rocking one of my new chevron scarves by Sweet Designs by Maryum!

Luke Bryan was AMAZING!!! Definitely entertainer of the year!

Yes, our seats really were this close. We had seats 1-4 in our room and seat 4 was the edge of the catwalk. Thank you, Patrick!!!! :) :)

Luke came back out to perform with Jason Aldean.

And then came Ludacris!

Such a fun concert!!!

Spring Break is now officially over. Back to reality tomorrow. We have a super busy week... cramming the last few standards into my kids brains all week before testing which means stressing about everything they forgot along the way... Christopher's birthday on Wednesday... out of towners coming on Friday... and Christopher's birthday party on Saturday!