hendri-saurus rex

remember that birthday that we have coming up in our family?

well the theme has been picked, and i am busy in party planning mode....

this year i actually have a little helper though, and he was excited to try out scissors for the first time....

and really, his coloring masterpieces are getting quite good!  ;)

can't wait to see him in this adorable shirt i ordered off etsy!

all the goodies meet his approval, now to explain to him that these are treats to give to his friends..... ;)

31 weeks

31 weeks pregnant.

NOT really a great time to get my driver's license picture taken, but hey, it was time to renew it.  

please don't ask to look at it.  i look fat. real fat.  i guess i didn't realize that i had gained any weight in my face (how could i when it seems to be going all straight to my tummy??), but when you compare it to my previous photo it is pretty clear that i am chubby.  puffy.  swollen.  whatever you want to call it.

blaire you are so worth it, but you are wreaking havoc on my figure.  i am in the stage in this pregnancy when i start outgrowing even my maternity clothes. 

blaire baumgartner - 31 weeks

just for fun i dug around and found a comparison bump of my pregnancy with hendrix, and really they seem pretty comparable.  i still think it seems like she sticks out a little father than he did, and also that she seems to be riding a little lower.  what do you think?

hendrix baumgartner - 31 weeks

i'm still feeling pretty good, though i definitely am running lower on energy, and my appetite is starting to be impacted by my shrinking tummy space.  we ate at noodles & co the other night for dinner (which has probably been the closest thing that i have had to cravings this pregnancy), and even though i was starving, i could only eat about half of what i ordered, which i had easily been able to devour just a few weeks ago.  

oh well, probably not a bad thing if i slow down on the weight gain, as at my dr. appt last week i was up 8 pounds from my appointment the month before.  

speaking of weight, blaire is weighing in at around 3.3 pounds this week, and finally starting to build up a little bit of baby chub on those itty bitty arms and legs.  she is most definitely getting stronger and stronger as her little kicks and somersaults are clearly visible through my clothes.  she is an active lil' gal.....

must take after her big brother!  :)

last week was my final monthly doctor visit, and now i get to start going every two weeks.  doc said that everything looks and sounds good, and i am measuring right on target.

now moving higher on my priority list is getting a carseat bought and installed for miss blaire, and also sorting through all the clothes that i have for her and even getting them into her room.  i need to find a creative way to store all of hendrix's and blaire's wardrobes in their itty bitty nursery.......

we are getting family photos taken next week, and i am glad that i decided to do it relatively early because this bump is about to go from cute and big, to just plain monstrous!  

a two year old?

 so my toddler is now 23 1/2 months old, and as his birthday draws nearer and nearer, i have found myself smoothly transitioning into responding to questions of whether or not i have children by saying, "yes i have a two-year-old".

wow.

when did that happen?

i think it is easier to recognize how grown up your 'baby' is getting when you are already trying to prepare yourself for the arrival of another baby.  And while this makes me a little sad for his sake, i think he will make an excellent big brother. 

he has become much more aware of other babies around us and also just a tad bit more clingy and needy lately....i think there is a part of him that is finally starting to wrap his mind around the fact that our family is changing and there seems to be a tad bit less of mommy (simply just because there is so much more of blaire!) these days.

but in the midst of his needy moments, he has demonstrated a much stronger desire to be independent, verbal and more like a big boy everyday.

his favorite activities still include playing at the park, any kind of ball, creating fabulous artwork, reading books and watching his favorite shows on tv.

some newer favorites involve board games - he especially loves 'hungry, hungry hippos', 'chutes and ladders' and 'memory'. I think dumping all the pieces out and then cleaning them back up might be most of the fun.

his motor skills are really coming along to make things like building with mega blocks and doing puzzles fun instead of frustrating activities.

he has a really keen sense of direction and can usually tell where we are going long before we arrive.  the other day he was really distraught when we drove right past the library but didn't stop......i heard about his disappointment for so long afterwards that i am quite certain next time i will add a couple unnecessary blocks to my trip to avoid that scene.

he has mastered counting to 10 and we are really trying to work on the alphabet, but that is coming much slower than the numbers did.  he likes to sing with us and he gets almost every 3rd letter when we sing the 'abc song', though he is very competent with 'the itsy bitsy spider' 'twinkle twinkle' and 'old mcdonald'. 

his newest passion is dinosaurs, and he is getting very good at labeling the different kinds.....he likes to say 'rex', 'tops' and 'long neck', though he does know the words 'pteranodon' and 'brontosaurus'.  thank you, 'dinosaur train'!

his imagination runs wild as he enjoys things like playing with toy kitchen and food items - pouring us both some coffee, insisting i blow on it because it is hot, and pretending to sip from the cups.  Or running/jumping/waddling around the house pretending that he is every kind of farm, jungle or domestic animal you can think of.  And then his newest one is running and hiding and telling me to watch out because the sharks are coming - in that case every piece of furniture turns into a lifesaving boat.  lol  he really cracks me up!

he knows the difference between 'iron man' 'spiderman' 'batman' and 'superman' (all thanks to gabe) and loves to zoom the action figures around while making shooting noises.  while the violence wasn't really something i would have purposefully introduced so early, it seems pretty impossible to shelter him from it, so i try to relax and hope he learns to be the good guy - the one that saves the world with his superpowers and incredibly good looks! lol

he knows who Cy is and is bombarded with him everywhere around town this time of year......he loves to point him out and tells us about how he saw him at the football game (spring game) so i imagine we will have to do some tailgating this year for sure!

his vocabulary is just explosive with him picking up not just new words, but new phrases everyday.  Some currently overused phrasing include:

me no like it

i do/did it

mommy, i love you

go park, please?

get it

mommy, (are you) coming?

nana's house

uh-oh, mess

mommy, kiss it - all better!

there it is

here you go

and of course the never-ending 'MINE'

he is constantly putting new words together, and has recently developed a love for chatting on the phone.  we talk to daddy on speaker pretty regularly and he freely throws out his 'i love yous' which just melt both my hubby and myself.

i wish i could say that he is a good eater, but quite frankly that is still really hit or miss.  He loves the same things one day and hates them the next. he tries and likes things i don't expect and then he refuses pizza.  he loves snacking and begs for pretzels and goldfish crackers.  milk is a battle and he really likes watered down v8 fusion juice.  he is thinning out and getting taller, but still seems like a healthy growing boy so i refuse to stress out about it.  he does like to help cook, and while he passes on normal kid condiments like ketchup and grape jelly, he loves sprinkling parmesan cheese on almost everything - just like his mama!

he is an expert procrastinator at bedtime and is continually begging for one more story, one more song, one more drink and most recently 'mommy, more snuggles?'. oh gosh, i really have a hard time with that one as i just adore that he still wants to snuggle with me.....

um, potty training? We are going on like month 6 of our off and on again training, and we are no closer to getting it.  

at.  

all. 

each day brings its own new challenges, but also its own new rewards, and i am pleased to have such a sweet, outgoing and energetic toddler.

happy almost birthday, little man!

wedding weekend

last weekend my brother married his gorgeous best friend; and my little family had the honor of being a big part of their special day.

i was the photographer for their wedding, and am still trying to make time to sort through all the photos i took of this fabulous looking group!

hendrix was the ring bearer, just like for my other brother's wedding last summer (here he is being held by my little sister, one of the bridesmaids) and he really did a pretty good job with his role.  he did run down the last part of the aisle because he was excited to see his mommy at the end taking pictures (and when he tackled me, it did make the few photos that i got of him turn out blurry......ooops!), but it was pretty cute! 

and then his daddy was one of the groomsmen.....so he got to spend a good chunk of the day hanging out with my parents and my other sister, while his folks were busy with their duties.  he did a great job being flexible, and had lots of fun dancing and boogeying at the reception.

well, until he hit his wall, about 9 pm or so, when he just came to me and said pitifully, "mommy, night-night, pleeeeeeeeese", which of course melted me!  lol

we were able to capture this special four-generation photo since my grandma, who lives in new york, was here for the wedding.  it was fun to introduce her grandson to her, and he very sweetly told her goodbye, and "i love you" before she left.

now to just sift through the other 1,586 photos that i took of the weekend.......

wordless wednesday {mud bathing}

linking up with:

bree: his honey and her mommy, sarah halstead,  love.bug.blog, 

jenni from the blog, my organized chaos &

tara's view of the world