wordless wednesday {spring colors}

my yard is full of bright spring colors.....

....and one very curious toddler!

we love spring!

linking up with:

bree: his honey and her mommy, my organized chaos,  

tara's view of the world, jenni from the blog, 

and then - she (snapped) & love.bug.blog

wordless wednesday {mr. independent}

my little guy turned 17 months old this weekend.  his attention span has grown significantly, and it is fun to watch him sit and play with the same toy for a long time.

he also likes to start movies all by himself.  (he broke our dvd player, and now we have resorted to watching movies in the playstation)  

elmo is still his favorite.

and he stands at the window begging to go out and play all the time.  we have hardly had a winter kiddo, need you really have cabin fever already?

linking up with:

and then-shesnapped, marvelous mommy, flip flops & pearls, 

love-bug-blog,  jenni from the blog, 

mama to 4 blessings & my organized chaos

wordless wednesday {snow baby}

being an iowa native, i am still shocked that we didn't get enough snow to play in until mid-january this year.  it was worth the wait though, as this little boy couldn't seem to get enough of it!

in fact, his two most used words currently are "side" (outside) and "snow".  he did a great job keeping all his snow gear on, which was good because it was super cold.  

while he complained that he was cold after a while, he was really upset when we came inside.

i am really thankful for hot cocoa,

and a wonderful daddy who is willing to tromp in the snow with our little guy....

happy winter all!

linking up this wordless wednesday post with:

momvantage, my organized chaos, jenni from the blog, flip flops & pearls, and then, she snapped, project alicia, naptime momtog 

& tara's view of the world

wordless wednesday {chocolate pudding face}

self-feeding is worth the extra effort, monstrous mess, and occasional frustration. 

it makes you a big boy.

linking this wordless wednesday post with:

and then, she snapped, naptime momtog, jenni from the blog, 

project alicia, mom to 2 posh lil divas, flip flops and pearls, 

marvelous mommy & my organized chaos 

wordless wednesday {from my family to yours}

happy holidays!

our christmas cards turned out just the way i wanted them to. ;) i was intending to share a link to them on here, but since that didn't work out, here are a few snapshots of them instead. 

i really love this time of year, and wish everyone a wonderful holiday season full of family, friends, laughter, and most importantly the peace and joy that comes from knowing the true meaning for this season.

merry christmas!

linking up this word(less) wednesday post with:

tara's view of the world, my organized chaos, live and love out loud, naptimemomtog, baby baby lemon, the paper mama & project alicia. 

animal lover

hendrix really loves animals.  

his first real animal obsession was about 'dogs' and while he is still interested in pointing out every dog he sees, he has become less delighted by them than he used to be.  

shortly thereafter it was all about "kitties".  he wanted to pull their tails pet them and would chase the one at my mom's or my mother-in-law's until the cat would just run and hide under a bed until we left.  about this time he started to use more words and would also say "meow".

then he dropped both of those animals to become completely engrossed with "horsies" (pronounced hord-EE)  this was mostly initiated by the rocking horse he got for his birthday, but then was reinforced when he started seeing the horses out in the field right behind the house of his baby-sitter on a regular basis.  we had to start going out of our way to see horses (which is a little tricky when you live in town) because they delighted him so much!  

now he has picked up a new favorite animal.  cows.  the funny part is that he doesn't say 'cow' but instead when he sees one he says "mooooooo".  There is one hiding in this yellow peekaboo book (see above photo), and he gets the book out saying 'moo', turns to the page of the cow, finds it and then he is all done with the book.  if we try to read him the other pages, he just shuts it, saying 'no', unless we open it back up to the cow page.  it is funny.

To help reinforce his interest in animals and to encourage him to learn the correct sounds they make, we bought him this really fun farm animal toy for the fridge.  It has been a big hit, and it keeps him busy while mommy is trying to get things done in the kitchen. 

he does know other animals including, ducks, bears, frogs, tigers, snakes, monkeys, birds, chickens, and pigs; but he just doesn't get as excited about these animals.  

i am curious to see what his next favorite will be ;)

do we have a future veterinary on our hands?!?

pumpkin farm

on saturday we took hendrix to the pumpkin farm and let him run around the farm picking out his favorite pumpkins.  it was a gorgeous sunny day and the autumn colors are really starting to pop.

he liked riding around on daddy's shoulders,  

saying hi to the chickens,

and even hopping up on the tractor for a little ride.

this kind of day sure makes me contemplate the idea of moving out to the country.

what a perfect autumn day with our little man!

school of hard knocks

hendrix has had his share of bumps and bruises, but now he has had his first real scrape.  the kind that draws blood and gets puffy and swollen (i think they are called strawberries) and it is right on his face.  

the culprit was the concrete front staircase.

hendrix has gotten really good at stairs, he can crawl up them so well that i don't really worry about him too much anymore.  but now he is trying to get all fancy, and thinks that he should hold onto the railing and walk up them.  i get it.  he is watching us and trying to imitate us, but that is not nearly as safe.   

as you can see from his forehead.  

oh but it makes him so proud of himself to try and be a big boy.  

i finally understand now why there would be some moms out there who feel the only way to keep their child safe is to completely wrap them in bubble wrap. i get it.  

i think my son would find a way to still get hurt.  

he pinches his fingers in cupboards and doors....

he runs too fast that he trips and falls....

he bonks his head on everything.  i don't know if he has had a hard time adjusting to being twice his original height (going from crawling to walking) because he is always trying to walk underneath things (like the dining room table) and finding that he is too tall.  he also cuts the corners in the doorway too close and rams into the doorframe. 

his newest adventure, which has been mostly successful, is coming back down the stairs.  he refuses to turn onto his tummy and crawl back down; instead he sits down (while forward facing) and scootches down them one stair at a time on his bottom.  

it looks kind of scary, but it really does seem to work okay.  

i bought this shirt for him several months back (before he was walking) and i chuckled all day about it while he wore it yesterday.  

i had NO IDEA how many stunts he would do, or how many near-heart-attacks i would have on a daily basis.  i want my child to have a healthy dose of adventure and exploration, and i don't want to smother him, but it is hard to watch him fall down again and again.

and i still have the 'bandaid-fixes-everything' stage to look forward to. 

oh joy!

linking up with: