A Boy and His Bath

Easton you LOVE bathtime. Seriously. Love. It.

You get SO excited when I start to run the water. You bounce up and down on your sweet little legs and grunt and reach for the water. Oh man...you are seriously almost too much. :) I am so thankful that you love your bath time so much...you are a messy little boy! Ha!!!

I am so glad I grabbed my camera to snap these pictures of you. I know (with such certainty that my heart hurts) that you will never again be the size you are today. These moments of laughing at your enthusiasm over a simple bath are the important things. They are the things I want to remember.

Every day I see more and more of your personality. Most of the time I get to see this sweet smiley face. ;)

or this silly one....

Yes, you are growing up. These pictures show me that you are not the newborn you once were. Yes, it hurts my mama heart to leave that in the past. I just thank God every single day (even in the midst of some rough ones) that God made me your mama. That he has given me another day to watch you grow, to teach you, to love on you, to cuddle you, and to play with you. For that I am so blessed.

Sweet Love

Meme and Papa came by to see the new house the other day and I caught a few precious pictures of their time here. :) Lauren always wants Meme to hold her....even though she weighs a ton Meme always gives in.

The next two pictures crack me up because we were trying to get a cute picture of the four of them. As you will notice Easton was just a tad bit obsessed with his sister...

...and Lauren kept doing these weird poses! Haha!!!! Oh well!

Lauren showed Meme and Papa her magnetic nativity scene and they played together for a while.

We got this precious picture with Easton but by this time Lauren had had enough and was off playing with something else! :)

I love my Meme and Papa SO much and I am more than extremely thankful that my kids get to be loved on and spoiled by them as well. It is almost too much for my heart.

Happy (late) Eight Months, Easton!!!!

Dear Easton,

Well, technically this post is late as you turned 8 months on December 4th. Sorry, buddy. For one, you've been sick and I have been waiting to take your pictures when your nose wasn't all runny and full of junk. Finally today I just decided to take them...sick boy and all. At least it is a pretty good representation of how you spent the first weeks of your eighth month!

Taking pictures this month was hard! You are so funny and busy and you were not interested in sitting still at all! :) Plus, I forgot to comb your hair so you have a sweet little angel wing behind your left ear. Haha!

You are really such a happy baby. I LOVE your smile. It melts my heart every single time. You are still a really big mama's boy. But that's okay with me. I know that one day you'll be more interested in daddy and all the stuff that boys are into so right now I will enjoy all our sweet cuddle time. Even if my arm feels like it is about to fall off! :)

You are a big boy! I think I've said that every month but you are just so strong and big and boyish. I love it! You weigh 19 pounds!!! You wear size 9 to 12 month clothing and a size 3 shoe. I love dressing you like a little man and think you look absolutely precious in jeans and a long sleeve button up like your daddy wears.

You are crawling like crazy! It seems you make a bee-line for anything you aren't supposed to have. The outlet, the Christmas tree, the drawers, daddy's tools, Lauren's little toys, etc. It's like you know you aren't allowed to touch those things and so you race as fast as you can to get it before we notice.

You have been pulling up on furniture for a little while now, but today you cruised around the coffee table! I was so proud of you!!! And also a little sad for me...where is my baby going?

You love your sister. She fascinates you. You love to chase her around in your walker and she is so sweet with you. When you wake up from a nap she is the first to run upstairs and open your door to check on you. She always says, "hey handsome!"

You are still nursing, but not as much. You really LOVE table foods. Just this week you have had grilled cheese, pieces of cheese, black beans, green beans, little pieces of chicken, bread, muffins and more! You are SO cute feeding yourself and I think you are kind of over the baby food texture now that you've had a taste of the good stuff. :)

Son, I love you so much. Words will do it no justice, I know. You completed our family in a way that still baffles us. We really didn't know what we were missing before you. Now, it feels so perfect. So right. We love you more than you will ever know.

You are doing better with sleeping. You usually go to bed around 7:15 and then wake up around 4 to nurse. You are up for the day around 6:30 most days and then take two good naps throughout the day! You are the most precious thing when you are sleepy. As soon as I walk into your dark room and turn on your white noise you lay your little head on my shoulder. It happens every time and I love that you feel so comfortable in your room. Your daddy still checks on you (and sissy) every single night before we go to bed and he will often call me in there to see how cute you are and how peaceful you look. 

I love you to the moon and back fourteen million times. 

Love,

Mama

Pulling Up

Oh Easton. Just a few days shy of your 8 month birthday you decided you were done sitting. Yep, you pretty much just made up your mind and then grabbed hold of your walker (it was wedged against a door) and stood right on up. No hesitation, no fear, no trouble.

Since then I have loved catching you enjoying your newfound freedom. Your favorite time to stand is when you wake from sleeping. I walk in and you are seriously beaming with joy and pride. No matter what kind of day I am having when I see that sweet smile (even behind that binkie) I melt into a huge puddle.

Also, I absolutely ADORE your hair when you wake up. I really don't think you could get any cuter. :)

I love you so much little man but I have to admit that I am getting more and more nervous about how big you are getting. It won't be long before you are using those sweet legs to walk run!

And PS.... we are lowering your crib tonight! :)

A Sure Sign Things Have Changed

As we were decorating our tree this year Shawn and I stopped and smiled at the way our personalized ornaments have changed over the years....

We started with this one:

Then a sweet little girl changed our ornament to this one:

And finally, this year our little man made our ornament look like this:

I LOVE THEM!

And I love how they love each other. 

One Last Piece of Fall

A couple of days before December 1st, Lauren and I pulled out her Autumn sensory bin again and had the most fun playing and sorting and stringing beads. We love sensory bins around our house and I especially love finding all the fun items to put into ours. It has been a goal of mine for a long time to switch them out monthly and I think since we are starting to settle in a little more I might be able to accomplish it!

We usually play with the bin while Easton is sleeping since there are small pieces and we try to keep it all in the bin. However, on one particular day he was awake and in the playroom with us and Lauren and I decided to let him do a little exploring as well. I had to keep a VERY close eye on him since he is pretty much at that automatic put it in the mouth kind of stage but man were they cute playing together. :)

*Sorry for the naked baby doll in the background...such is our life*

The beautiful necklace Lauren made from the pretty beads in the sensory bin.