Milestones

Aaron turns 18 months old and has become a whole new person over-night. The day after his year and a half mark, he started doing new things that took us by surprise. The first thing that we noticed was that he started telling us his colors. He has some colored blocks that we play with and I have been working with him for months now saying the color as we put them on the stick and he never showed any interest, so I stopped doing it. Low and behold, out of the blue when we were playing with the blocks again he repeated the colors one by one as we went through them!!! I guess he was paying attention.

The next thing that happened was so adorable and I missed it. Ron was playing with Aaron on the floor while I was putting his clothes away in his room. Ron told me that Aaron ran away for a minute and then came back, grabbed Ron's cheaks in his little hands and then gave him a big ol' kiss right on the lips!!! How absolutely adorable is that?!!!!!! I was sad that I was in the other room when it happened, but he rewarded me by giving me kisses later. This is quite momentous mainly because he has never been a love bug whatsoever. He never wanted to cuddle or give kisses as he was older. If you asked for a kiss he would turn his head away from you and laugh. So now he gives kisses and even cuddles a little bit once in a great while!!!


Aaron amazed both of us by showing us that he could get on and off of his rocking horsy all by himself!!! He would get on and rock back and forth and say "ah, wee, ah, wee". So cute!!! I was beginning to think he was never going to be tall enough to get on and off. He sure loves it now!!! I got a video of this too and I'll put it on here once I figure out how to do that. If anyone has any secrets on that topic I would love to hear them!!!









And as you have already found out from the last post, Aaron has been permanantly separated from his plug. I dreaded this day from the very beginning, and it was as bad if not worse than what I had imagined. But, on a possitive note, by God's grace it is getting better and I thank Him so much for that!!!








And Aaron very much enjoyed his very first lollipop!!! He of course shared with Dad and Mom even got a lick or two in there somewhere. I was having too much fun taking pictures. He was so sticky afterwards it was straight to the shower for him!!!

Any Advice????

Sorry for the delay in posting. I do need some advice though. Aaron has been addicted to a pacifier (or "plug" as we call it because it plugs him up when he's crying) ever since he was only a few days old. Well, Wal-Mart stopped making the particular kind we were using and so did the company aparently. We had three and were trying our best to keep track of them. Ever since he's gotten his teeth he likes to chew on them. They started cracking right at the base of the bulb and we were scared that he'd bite it off and either choke on it or swallow it. We lost one quite some time ago and then the second one we kept as long as we thought was safe, then we got to the point where we HAD to toss it. We were down to our last one. By the way, about four or five months ago we finally got it to where he only used it for naps and bedtime. The other night we noticed that that one was cracking as well. Ron just didn't trust to give it to him anymore so Monday night was the first night without it. It actually went better than expected, but that may be because he was super tired that night. Then Tuesday we layed him down for his nap and only cried for a few minutes and then fell asleep. Then the night-time was about the same as naptime - falling asleep after only a little bit of crying. Well, naptime today is a completely different story. He's been crying for about an hour now and I know he's exhausted but refuses to go to sleep. I think he sounds like he's going to finally give in to sleep soon. Hopefully tonight goes better than naptime. Does anyone out there have any advice or do I just endure to the end and pray this only lasts for a couple days???

Tribute to my little man!!!

Tribute to my little man!!!

Aaron turns 18 months old tomorrow!!! Kind of unbelieveable and a little sad that time's gone so fast. I put together a little slideshow to show you what we've enjoyed for the past year and a half. Hope YOU enjoy!!!

96 Days till Christmas!!!

Is anyone else getting excited about Christmas yet? For whatever reason I have been in such a Christmas mood lately, don't ask me why. This year we plan to stay here for Christmas and have our own little celebration. This will only be the second time we haven't gone back to be with family for Christmas. You would think this would make me sad, and it probably will once the realization truly hits me. In Wal-Mart just the other day, I saw that they had started putting up Christmas decorations already in the back of the store. I said to Ron, "It's not even Halloween yet!" I'm really not sure why I made that comment. Normally I would have said, "Yay, they are putting Christmas stuff out!" I guess maybe to make my husband feel better. He's made a rule for our household that absolutely NO Christmas decorations can be put out until the day after Thanksgiving. If it was me, I'd just leave them up all year round!!! I guess this blog is just a little reminder that Christmas is coming. Even though I look forward to it the entire rest of the year, somehow it inevitably sneaks up on me and catches me off guard. So, Merry Christmas to you all, in 96 days!!!!!

Microwave Mayhem

I'm not sure if I should tell you about this story or not for fear it might return to haunt me later. But, I think this is pretty important to warn everyone else NOT to do what I did.
I was being a nice little mommy and wanted to fix French Toast Sticks for Aaron for breakfast the other morning. I pulled them out of the freezer and put them on a plate and proceeded to put them in the microwave for about three minutes. I turned them over halfway through and when they were done I pulled them out. I figured they would be done since they were sizzling. So I went ahead and put some syrup on them, but when I tried cutting them into little pieces they wouldn't even budge. I just figured they were still a little frozen. I put them back in the microwave (you haven't forgotten the part where I already put syrup on them) for about four more minutes. I went into our pantry to get something else and when I came back into the kitchen I thought it smelled a little odd. I looked at the microwave and all I saw was white through the little window (aka SMOKE!!!). I immediately stopped it and opened the door. Smoke literally billowed out of the door along with an overwhelming burnt smell, so I shut the door again and I noticed the smoke was coming out the back of the microwave. Not really knowing what to do next I went ahead and opened the door again, hoping and praying that the smoke alarm wouldn't go off and scare Aaron to death. I also turned on the fan above the oven which proceeded to suck the smoke away. I am so very thankful that the syrup didn't actually catch on fire. So, the moral of this story - do not, I repeat DO NOT put syrup in the microwave, at least not on French Toast Sticks that are going in the microwave. Aaron was just standing there watching the whole thing in amazement, probably thinking to himself - "Mom, why did you do that?" And "why does it smell so bad in here?"
So, my secondary reason for exposing my stupidity - does anyone know how in the world I can get smoke smell out of my microwave????????

New Old Pictures - figure that one out!

I know these pictures are clear back from Easter, but some friends of ours took them and just gave them to us yesterday. I liked them so much that I thought I would share them with you!!! Hope you enjoy!!!

Too much time with Mom?

I guess I like to think of it as creative curiosity!!! If Dad saw this he would probably have a fit though. He was just trying to be helpful and get Mom's shoes for her. I'm sure he'll hate me for this picture someday, but I couldn't resist!!!

Tribute Day

First of all, I know we all were affected by this day in history five years ago, but today I would like to pay special tribute and remebrance (especially in prayer) to those families who were affected tragically. The men and women who lost their lives in the plane crashes as well as the twin towers, the police officers and fire fighters who gave their lives courageously to try to save someone else's life, and last but not least, the military men and women who have been fighting since then allowing us to continue enjoying the freedoms we have. I know we get busy in our every day things and do forget to think of them let alone pray for them, but on this anniversary, let us take at least a minute to think of all those who were impacted by that fateful day.





Secondly, I would like to pay tribute to my grandpa Gwynn. He passed away just over two months ago now, and today is his birthday. What a special man who taught so much, and really didn't talk very much at all. He had Parkinson's Disease for over 30 years, yet he never complained about anything really and if he did it was something pretty serious. He was a very strong man (even if it was just his will) who never ever stopped trying. Thank you grandpa for living a life who anyone would like to emulate. I love you grandpa!

Finally Done

Here Aaron is helping Dad clear a spot for our new shed. He wanted to help in every little process as you will see. We were blessed to have a cement slab already here. There actually used to be a shed already here, but hurricane Ivan took care of that for us.

Aaron, again, was trying his best to help Dad build that shed. It was so cute!!!

Here he was actually more of a hindrance than a help, but Dad didn't mind too much.

Here is a picture of progress!!! Just waiting for the roof.

Here is the final product, complete with stuff in it and everything!!! What a blessing already!!! What a project too though. I guess there is a reason why the directions suggest at least two people to build this thing. Pretty much a one (and a half I guess) man product, so it took just a little bit longer. Hopefully no more hurricanes come anytime soon because I highly doubt it could stand a beating like they give!!!

Great Weekend

Our friend's dad owns a 1930 something street rod, and it still runs too. Aaron thought he should be able to drive it. He couldn't quite reach the pedals. We all got to take a ride in it later. It was definitely one of the highlights of the weekend!!! Aaron even gave a big ol' smile when he tried burning out!!! Thanks dad Switzer!!!

We also got to play in our friend's backyard. Aaron, again, thinks he should be able to drive already. Not quite yet buddy boy!!!

























One day we took a picnic lunch to the park. Aaron got to play on all the playground equipment, which he thought was pretty fun!!!
He's swinging with his friend Gavin who we went up to visit (you too mom and dad!!!).

Over all we had a great weekend visiting our friends. We wish we lived closer so we could have times like that more often, but sometimes we have to go where life takes us. Hope everyone else had a great Labor Day weekend!!!!

We're back

We're back from our little trip. Sorry if we scared anybody about Aaron being so sick. He is doing much better now and pretty much on the mend. We decided to go ahead with our trip because we thought maybe it would even be better for him to sit still and sleep in the car rather than try to play around when he's not feeling well here at home. We had a great weekend - short, but very sweet. I'll post some pictures and tell more about it later.