ONE WITH NATURE

My little man loves to be outside. It doesn't matter if it is hot out, cold out, raining, snowing, he will do anything to get himself outside. He bats his sweet little eyelashes at me, he says "mama, outside?" in his sweet little baby voice... and if those two things don't work, he reverts to angry baby mode and throws his little self on the ground screaming and kicking while screaming "Outside! OUTSIDE! OUTSIDE!!!"

When he does get out there to run free [well, sort of], he is the happiest little boy. Ever.

GROWING

My baby boy is growing up, and it makes me happy, excited, and sad all at the same time.


So very many emotions....

I am happy as it is so fun to see him grow, learn new things, and change from a baby into a toddler. I am excited as soon I will not have to deal with early morning wake up calls, poopy diapers, splashing around in toilets, and the whole getting into everything stage. And at the same time I am sad about there being no more early morning wake up calls, poopy diapers, splashing around in toilets and the getting into everything stage. I am sad that this is the last time I will see that first smile, that first step, hear "mama" for the first time. All those "firsts".

This is our last baby. For absolutely sure this time - couldn't even happen if we wanted it to. And believe me, there have been a few moments of temporary insanity where I have said, "I sure wish we could have one more." But like I said, we can't [by our own doing - ahem- snip- snip] and this o.k.

It is time to start a new chapter in our lives. I take comfort in the fact that we will be happy, excited and sad about many other stages in our children's lives, so I won't be missing out on any of these emotions. It will just be different kinds of happy, excited and sad. And I look forward to it all.

IT'S A FIRST!

Nathan had his first haircut today; and I have to say he did very well. Meaning he didn't freak out, scream and flail around wildly in the chair while the poor soul who was given the task of cutting his hair attempted to do just that. He did seem a bit confused as to what was actually going on -

why there was this strange girl standing behind him with a pair of scissors in her hand and a big ol' smile on her face and talking some serious baby talk in a high pitched voice,

but that confusion seemed to fade once his big sister handed him one of those glorious dum-dum's. With sucker in hand, he sat back and enjoyed that sugary deliciousness to the fullest, with no other care in the world. Especially one as little as some girl trimming up his lovely locks.

I was happy, he was clearly happy,

and the hairstylist had to be happy.

All was well in the world.

LOVE ♥

There is endless fighting, yelling, crying, more fighting, back talk, time outs, sass, chaos and more chaos that happens within a single day in the Shelton household. All this makes me stop at times to question myself, wondering if I am being a good Mom; teaching my kids and helping them grow up to be responsible, loving, well rounded adults. But it's moments like this that make me stop to realize that I have to be doing something right.

Just look at the love this little girl has for her baby brother.

These pictures speak a million words to me. Love, patience, and kindness to name a few. All from my three year old daughter. So it isn't me thinking "I have to be doing something right", it is me saying "I am doing something right", and that feels really good.

1

My sweet little baby boy is 1 today. 1! My very last baby turns 1 today - did I say it enough?

I am happy, I am sad, I am feeling all sorts of different emotions. But mostly I am so very grateful for having him - my chubby, snuggly, sweet little Nathan James.

You are loved more than you will ever know my little "Juje bug" - Happy, Happy Birthday!

MOVIN' AND SHAKIN'

Nathan learned how to crawl this past week, and I have to say, it makes me sad. My baby boy is growing up way too fast.

I think the whole way-to-fast thing is all about him being our last baby. The last one to start solids, the last one to start to crawl, the last one to get his first tooth, the last one to take his first step, the last one to say "Mama" and "Dada".... There are lots of "lasts" to happen around here, and it makes me sad. I know this is all normal, but it certainly doesn't make it easier. Nope, not at all.

STYLISH LITTLE BOY

Sunglasses hangin' from the front of his shirt, and a pocket to store his nuk in if he so chooses... What more could a little boy ask for?

BATH TIME

Scrub a dub-dub, 2 of my three little men in the tub!

I love them, and their sweet little matching mohawks.

There you have it - short n' sweet. One of these days I am going to get back to posting on a regular basis. It may not be for a few more years, when all of my monkeys are in school and not demanding my constant attention. But I WILL get back to it. I swear.

NOT DIGGIN' PEAS

So, how obvious is it that my Nathan detests peas? Seriously, you would have thought I had tried feeding him prunes or some other incredibly disgusting baby food. I do wish the Mr. would have recorded a bit longer, as you really would have laughed at how quickly the temper tantrum stopped when I moved the spoon away and offered him an ever coveted mum-mum [his favorite snack in the world.] It literally stopped right when he saw that mum-mum. And just to be sure that is indeed what stopped that tantrum in its tracks, I took the mum-mum away and offered the spoon of peas once again. Can you guess what happened? He screamed, cried and kicked away, letting me know he wanted nothing to do with those dang peas. Again, I took the peas away, and guess what? Once his eyes caught the departure of that spoon full of peas and the arrival of that mum-mum, it stopped immediately.

So I think it is safe to say that my baby boy does not like peas. At all. Which really would not be a problem if he liked other vegetables, but that is so not the case. When I fed him carrots? He gagged with every spoonful I put in his mouth, and followed up the gagging with a look on his face that said "what the heck is this crap, Mom??" I have tried green beans, with the same result. Gagging and all. Now sweet potatoes he seems to be able to tolerate, and for that, I am one happy Mama.

This eating thing has really been an uphill battle with him since he turned 6 months old. First he wouldn't eat anything, not even the good stuff, like bananas, pears, applesauce, and peaches. Weird, right? Then he seemed to get used to that goodness. Now all this trouble with the vegetables, will it ever get easier?

I guess I need to just look the bright side - he may scream bloody murder when fed peas, and gag when fed carrots and green beans, but at least he enjoys his mum-mums, fruits, and the occasional sweet potatoes.

MY BOYS

Lucas loves his baby brother. He loves to comfort him when he cries, play with him when he needs attention, feed him when he is hungry, get him out of his crib after a nap.... all of it. But most of all I think he just loves holding him. ♥

Unfortunately, I am not certain how much longer he will be able to do so, being my chunky little 7 month old already weighs 20lbs. But until that day comes, I am pretty sure Lucas will be holding and taking care of his baby brother just like he always has.

I ❤ LAUGHING BABIES

My baby is growing up so fast. He sits up now, rolls over, plays with toys, interacts with his brothers and sisters, laughs when you laugh, smiles when you smile..... he sleeps through the night, loves his nuky, loves Mum-mums but screams when a spoon full any sort of baby food comes near his mouth, poops up and out the backside of his diaper on average, two times a day, cries when he is not getting enough attention, loves to bounce in his Johnny Jump Up, and pretty much is the cutest darn baby on this planet. At least in this Mama's eyes.

Here you can decide for yourself....

STILL NOT INTERESTED. AT ALL.

A while back, I posted about how Nathan was completely uninterested in trying the whole solid food thing. I would link to that post, but frankly I am just too lazy to go about that....

Anyway, I didn't really sweat the fact that he was not interested in this thing we call actual food, being that he was only 4 months, and he really didn't need anything other than formula until he was 6 months old. So I packed away all the peas, sweet potatoes, apple sauce, rice cereal and the like and left this whole trying out solids thing alone.

That is until today, when I realized holy-crap-my-baby-is-about-to-turn-6-months-old-and-I-need-to-try-and-start-solids-now. Crap.

Memories of last my attempts to do so a few months ago came flooding back. The screaming, the arm flailing, the hitting of the spoon with said arm and flinging peas all over the kitchen walls - all of it. But I decided to push this whole experience to the back of my mind, and stay positive about this go around.

I put a big old smile on my face as I strapped him into his highchair, and oohed and aaahed over the ever so delicious rice cereal I was stirring up in the bowl in front of him. He seemed happy as I put the bib on him, but that ended quite abruptly once I placed a spoonful of that rice cereal in his little mouth. And do I ever mean abruptly. His sweet smiley face went from happy and content to not so happy, and not so content. It was if he was saying "what the hell are you trying to feed me lady?"

After I calmed him down from the traumatic experience of tasting rice cereal, I decided I would give sweet potatoes a shot. 'Cause who wouldn't like sweet potatoes?

My Nathan, that's who.

I have honestly never seen him this angry before. Frankly, he was beyond angry. He was pissed.

After a few minutes of trying to make him happy and convince him that sweet potatoes were very yummy, I gave up. I am sure you can imagine how well that went over - attempting to convince a 6 month old baby that the food you are spooning in his mouth really is good? Yah, right.

So I cleaned him up and gave him his ever coveted bottle of formula. And what do you know? He wasn't angry anymore, actually he was quite the opposite, he was as happy as ever.

What he doesn't realize is that at some point he is going to have to give in to this whole eating solid foods thing. And I am hoping this realization comes to him sooner, rather than later.

Little stinker.

6 MONTHS

My sweet little Nathan James is creeping up on the ripe old age of 6 months, and I can't believe it. He is growing up way too fast, and frankly, I don't like it one little bit. I love him so much I can't stand it.

Take a look at this little boy?

How could you not love him? Those sweet brown eyes, paired with those chubby little cheeks, and the dimples, oh don't get me started on those.... He is just so darn sweet....

So that was a little self - indulgent. Alright, maybe it was really self-indulgent, but us Mom's are allowed to do that from time to time, right?

NOT DIGGIN' THIS WHOLE FOOD THING

When I took Nathan in for his 4 month check a few weeks ago, the last thing on my mind was getting the go ahead to start solids. With all my other monkeys the go date was always 6 months, not 4.

Why the change? They are always changing things.

Messy rice cereal mixed with formula, mashed up peas, sweet potatoes, applesauce, bananas.... The stuff that you put into your darling little babies mouth only to have them blow raspberries moments after and splatter it all over you and any walls in the near vicinity. You know the stuff. Oh the fun of starting solids.

I was told that I could wait until 6 months to start solids if I didn't want to bother with it right now, but for some odd reason I felt an immense sense of guilt for not offering them to my Nathan. Against my better judgment, I ignored my guilt for 2 very long weeks. Every time he cried after having a bottle I imagined him saying "Mom, Dr. Morrissey said I could have food, and you are not giving it to me because you are just plain old lazy and don't want to deal with the mess. You are such a bad Mommy!" I would stare at the food I had bought for him the day after the Dr. gave me the go ahead. The food that had been sitting there ever since then because of my lack of interest in actually feeding it to him. I started convincing myself that maybe Nathan was right, I was a bad mom. [Yes, I let my imagination get away from me from time to time.] So I decided it was time to give in and give my baby what he wanted. So last night I went into that cupboard, dusted off a jar of peas, put Nathan in his highchair and gave him his very first taste of food.

And let me tell you, it turns out that it wasn't what he wanted at all.

Don't get me wrong, he was open minded to the whole idea. I even gave him the spoon. He took some time to check it out, licked it a few times....

But it was definitely a no go. He didn't like it.

At all.

Maybe it was the peas, or maybe it was that he just was not ready to start solids quite yet. I like to think it was the later of those two options, so I am just going to go with it. That makes it a whole lot easier for me to put that baby food back into the cupboard for a month or two without feeling an ounce of guilt.

This makes me happy, and I think it makes Nathan quite happy too.

TOUGH LOVE

These two monkeys really do love each other.

Liv loves giving him all kinds of attention - hugs, sloppy/wet kisses... she hands him toys and shakes them above his head to see if he will grab for them, she gives loving but ever so rough pats on the top of his head, while saying "you are a good boy! Good boy!" You get the idea, it's that all-up-in-your-face kind of attention.

And I have to say, Nathan has been nothing short of tolerant of it. Taking it all in without crying; not even a whimper. That is until recently.

Unfortunately my Miss Liv is not so lucky anymore, as Nathan has learned how to grab at things, and hold on to said things for dear life. Things like toys, nuks, bottles, and hair. Yep, hair.

If you have not experienced the little grip of a baby's hand pulling your hair, then consider yourself lucky. 'Cause it hurts. Bad.

After having 5 kids, I still can't understand how such a small person could wrap their little fingers around a clump of hair and pull with such force. It's not only the strength in which they pull that amazes me -- the inability to get them to loosen their little grip and actually let go is even more amazing.

Liv seems to have tolerated this whole hair pulling thing quite well so far. She has cried on a few occasions, when I have managed to loosen Nathan's grip enough only to find he had pulled out a clump of hair in the process. But she gets over it quickly by scolding him "No, No NATHAN! NO PULL HAIR!!" And then goes right back to getting all up in his face, which results in him once again grabbing for her golden locks and pulling with all his might. I honestly think it may just be his way of saying, "I can't talk yet, but I finally learned how to use these hands of mine and I am going to put them to good use by letting you know when to back the heck off!"

I get what he's "saying", just not sure Miss Liv does quite yet. She will learn.

TUMMY TIME

Nathan has been getting a lot of tummy time lately. You know, working on strengthening his neck muscles, looking around from a different vantage point, playing with toys and the like. And Miss Liv loves having tummy time right along with him, which would not be a problem if she didn't feel the need to be pretty much right on top of him while he practiced this fine art.

He tries to reach for a toy? Liv is right in his face trying to give it to him. He tries to turn his head to look at something, and all he sees is her little mug. He tries to turn his head the other way, and all he sees is the same, her little mug. He tries lifting his head up higher to see the T.V. or Christmas tree lights? She decides to give him a big old bear hug which results in him not being able to hold his head up and having his face smooshed into his blanket. This all results in him crying uncontrollably, and then usually spitting up all over the place. Poor little boy.

As you probably can imagine, tummy time doesn't last very long when she is around. So that is why I was so surprised when Liv actually kept her distance yesterday. Don't get me wrong, she was right next to him pretty much the entire time, but she was not actually on top of him, which was good. It's not much progress, but it's progress nonetheless, so I'll take it.

Turns out she decided to back away a tiny bit when she noticed he had indeed spit up. All over his blanket and all over his sweet little face.

After round two of the spit up, she was no longer in site. Turns out she loves her brother as long as he is not covered in spit up. And it seems as if Nathan is just fine with this. I take that back, he seems downright happy about it.

Not to mention, I think he is on to something - spit up, and my sister leaves me alone.

BROTHERLY LOVE

Anthony has been begging for months for me to buy him and Nathan matching pajamas. Not sure what the obsession was with this request, but he seriously asked me an insane amount of times before I finally gave in and bought them. Thank the heavens above for Carter's - the one store where you can manage to find matching footy pajamas in 6 month [yes, my 3 month old wears 6 month old clothing] and 5T sizes.

Anyway, Anthony is just thrilled with the purchase and can't get over the fact that he and Nathan match. I recently found him chatting with Nathan as they both sat on the couch clad in their matching P.J's.

In his signature high pitched baby talk type voice [seriously so sweet], I overheard him saying,

"Look at us 'Nafan', Mommy bought us the same jammies. Isn't that soooooooo cool!"

Nathan seemed less than thrilled by his brothers in your face I- am-so-excited-I- can't-handle-it attitude, but fortunately that didn't wane Anthony's excitement.

BAPTISM

Today was a beautiful day. Family and friends gathered this morning at church for the baptism of my sweet baby Nathan.

[Godparents Bill and Sarah Serpico]

It was a day enjoyed by all present. But I have to say Nathan enjoyed it the most - but who wouldn't love being the center of attention for an entire morning, right?