Does it count?

OK, I'm a little reluctant to type this, but I "think" it really happened, so here goes.....JT took his first steps this morning!!! The reason I'm a little leery is 1) Daddy missed yet another "first" and 2) I'm not sure what the first steps look like. 

Here's how it went down. I went up to my former hang out during the 40 hr work week, aka McKinney Church where I worked :-), to drop off some left over cupcakes we had from a birthday party and to make some copies. (Hey, I figured the cupcakes were payment for the copies, right!?) Anyway, JT's friend Chris (he used to be friends with Travis and I but since JT was born he and his wife Kari always brush right past us and go straight for JT. So we call them JT's friend's now :-) So Chris was playing with him while I made the copies and was just dying to see him walk...on his own of course. I really didn't think JT was ready for it, but Chris was determined to get to see the "first". So he held on to JT's little hands, JT started walking towards me and then Chris let go. JT took about 2 or 3 steps before he started stumbling forward into my arms. I was in shock, really! I think Chris could read it on my face because he kept saying..."he did it, I know you want to call it! He totally walked and I got to see it!" Technically I guess he did take his first steps, but since I have no idea what the first steps are suppose to look like, I just don't know. Plus I wanted Travis to see it!! 

When we left I called Travis to tell him, thinking that he would be bummed, but his reaction was the exact opposite and was even more excited that Chris got to see it too! So I guess we're going to call it.....JT took his first steps today and Chris Freeland got to see it!! (honestly, if Travis would've been bummed I wouldn't had admitted that he did it...hey, can't give Chris that edge, ya know?!)

All by myself!

JT stands all by his self now!! Granted it's only for about 5 to 10 seconds, but he does it! The first time was yesterday morning. I was sitting on the floor with my legs stretched out flat in front of me. JT crawled over, pulled himself into a bent-over-at-the-waist position, and was holding onto my shins for balance. This was no shock because he'll hang on to things while he's standing and bend over to pick up a toy then stand right back up. The shocker was when he just stood up from that position with out hanging onto anything and then just stood there with his little hands clasped together, looking at me like "what the heck am I doing, mommy?". I just stared at him in shock and then I realized he was standing so I got excited and said "oh, my gosh you're standing!!" and it startled him so he fell back on to his tush. The best part.....I GOT TO SEE IT!!

With all the new milestones happening back to back around here I've decided that it's feast or famine when it comes to him learning new things. Maybe he'll learn how to walk and ride a bike in the same week! Hey, you may scoff at that now, but you never know. As JT's Aunt Tammy would say..."he's advanced".

Here's a few cute pictures...

His sit-n-read chair, of course he refuses to sit on it for too long. He likes to stand in front of it dancing and talking to the chair
BUSTED!! Snapped this one as I was coming in the room after he got up from his nap! It's like the minute he wakes up he remembers he can pull himself up. I can hear him waking up and in less than 2 minutes later I'll go in there and he's standing up, bouncing on the mattress and just smiling the biggest smile.

Look at that red hair coming in!!
This one was just too adorable not to post. He stands next to the tub, impatiently I might add, while daddy gets his bath ready. LOVES taking a bath!

Dr Worsley, I missed you

Pretty much that is why we went to visit the Pediatrician today, JT missed playing with him. The little guy had mama fooled in to thinking he was sick and with good reasoning. The past 10 days he has had a raspy voice, then about Thursday he started to frequently put his left ear to his shoulder and then the last 2 nights he hasn't been sleeping well at all, and that includes naps during the day. So I figured he might have an ear infection...nope ears are perfect, nose clear, throat looks great (that isn't to say that it doesn't hurt, cause he does still have the rasp voice). Dr Worsley did mention though that this is the age that they start to mimic what you do and if I happen to hold the phone with my shoulder and ear when I'm chatting on it, that he just may be trying to mimic what I'm doing. I'm so flattered, he wants to be like mommy! The waking up lots at night could also be that now he is crawling, when he wakes up briefly at night, which we all do, he remembers that he can do a new trick and wants to practice. What a busy little boy!

What else did we learn last week? Well on the same day that we started to crawl we also learned another new trick.......pulling our self up on things. How I discovered his newest feat? I had put him to bed that night and he was fussing a little, like normal, when suddenly I heard a giggle come from his room. I walked back to peak in the door and seen a little set of blue eyes peering over the rail of the crib back at me, giggling! So of course now when I put him down to nap or to bed at night the 1st thing he does is flip over to his tummy, crawl to the top of the crib, reach up with his hands and finagle his way to a standing position. Luckily he's figured out how to sit back down so he doesn't get stranded in this position. Still, I'm thinking why does he have to learn all this at once. I wasn't even used to the crawling yet and he's try to be George of Jungle climbing all over his crib.

Well now that he is taking a nap I need to start to get something done. I have truly lost my freedom I think, can't get much done anymore when he's up.


Passed out in the crawling position. This was taken last Monday, a few days before he figured it out
You can see his little bottom sticking up in the air...so cute

I just lost my freedom

Sometimes when I'm getting ready or wanting to get something done really quick with out JT hanging from my hip, I will put him in his room in front of his toy basket and he will playfully pull each toy out one by and one, examine and chew on em a little. It would keep him busy for at least 30 mins. Well today that ended, because my little guy is crawling! AUGH! The worst part is I thought crawling would bring more freedom for me because it meant he could get from one toy to another that was across the room with out me. Well of course I didn't think that he could also get to the electrical outlets, cords, floor fans, pens, tv stand with DVD's and DVD player, trash cans.....of course everything he's not suppose to touch, he's heading right for now that he has figured out that he can launch himself where he wants to go. The reason I say launch is because he's not really crawling per say....um no it's more of the butterfly swim stroke but on carpet rather than in the pool. He just can't figure out his arms, so he'll go from a position on his tummy, work like crazy pushing off his big toes to get up on those chubby knees, be up on all fours with his hands out a little in front of him, push with his legs and then launch himself forward back onto his stomach. Looks like the butterfly stroke, well kind of, but it sure is cute and it gets him were he wants to be, which is to all the places he's not suppose to be :-).

He's still crazy about walking and loves it when I'll just hold his little hands and help him walk all over the house all day, so I think that will soon follow. But for now I need to start crawl-proofing this house.

I'll try and get some video of it the next few days and post it...so adorable.

The heat is on

Dang, it's hot here! I just checked the weather too and it looks like it's not going to stop, that this isn't just some sort of freak heat wave, we are if full blown summer.

The bright side? Our pool is already 79 degrees and considering it doesn't get full sun for more than 4 hours a day AND it's a 9 footer (deep that is), that's amazing the temp is already this high. JT doesn't mind if it's a little cooler, but mommy freezes for the first 10 mins when it's less that 78 degrees. That will make our Thursday Open Swim days a lot more fun. That's right, Thursday is open swim at the Kinley's. The past 2 summers a few of my friends that were stay at home moms would come over and swim with their babies while I was at work, well this year I actually get to be apart of that. So under the advice of a friend who had swim days at her house, I decided to designate one day a week this entire summer to staying home and opening up my pool to anyone who wanted a dip! So thus Thursday Open Swim was born. Just in case you haven't been told about it and you live in Ft Worth, every Thursday from 11 am to 3 pm at the Kinley Casa. Be sure to bring a bathing suit, towel and lunch (if your hungry). The A/C will be running inside in case you get over heated!!

More pics, cause that's the real reason y'all check this blog!!!


Getting it all on camera.....Grandma Sandy thought it would be cute to give JT a dolly, but my boy was only interested in trying gouge the eyes out!! Daddy wasn't impressed with this pic :-)
His little blue chair. He LOVED this thing, would stand in front of it and talk to it for hours. My friend Tara lent us some toys while we were in Wyoming.
Stompin around the house in my cowboy boots!
reading the paper with Papa Mike...he does it his way and I do it mine!!
Hee haw! Riding the horsey at Uncle Steve and Aunt Kate's house

Humane or In-humane?

Our dog, Copper, is going to be 11 this August. We have had him for just about that long and today I am wondering just how long is a good run with a dog?

There's a good reason I am questioning this. You see Travis and I have been trying to get our jungle of a backyard tamed for the past few months by clearing out a lot of weeds and extra trees that we keep popping up. Apparently our backyard is extremely fertile ground and EVERYTHING wants to live in it. Ok, so yesterday it was about 99 degrees here and I decided to get up and out back early to clear out the bed behind the pool so I could get the flowers we bought at Home Depot in the ground. I dug up weeds, pulled a few baby trees, yanked out the newest Oleander bush that was trying to come up and then tilled it with the claw/hoe thingy (not much of a gardener, can ya tell?) before the sun got too hot. Then last night after JT went to bed Travis and I worked into the dark laying the landscape fabric and getting some of the bigger perennials into the ground. I then laid out the Zinnia's in the exact spot where I was going to put them and then decided I would plant them 1st thing in the morning. Well I got up this morning to feed JT at about 5:30 and then decided to just go take a peek at the perennials to see if they took to the ground OK. Well when I walked out back I was shocked to find that EVERY SINGLE FLOWER, planted or not, had been trampled......that freakin dog stays outside at night and likes to run up and down the back fence (which is where the flower bed is) barking at any thing and every thing. I want to just KILL him!! I was seriously think....hmm, it's been about 10 or so years, maybe going to doggy heaven today wouldn't be so bad. I would miss him, but he is just a dog.

Ok, so I won't actually go through with it, but as I sit out back drinking my coffee and staring at the flowers I have to resuscitate, it just makes me angry.

On a lighter note, I am also noticing how much the birds love our backyard too. We have several large trees with tall red tip bushes and they seem to be over run with birds. I have to admit that they are pretty...I think they're blue jays?....but if anyone knows me they know that birds are not my thing. One pooped on my head my senior year of high school and I have had a hatred for all our feathered friends ever since. They just plain freak me out.

Switching gears....JT and I got back from our 2nd trip up to Wyoming about 10 days ago. I do have to brag a little...he is such a awesome little flier. The boy just smiles the whole time and keeps the flight attendants on their feet so they can get another peek at those baby blues and that big toothless grin!

What did we do while visiting?? Well it started with the 2nd night we were there....my mom got married! I am now apart of the 50% of Americans that apart of a blended family. I do have to say that since I'm pushing 30 and have been married for almost 9 years now, I don't really consider him (Rob) as my step-dad, he's my mom's husband. That being said, Rob is a really great guy. Super nice and just what the Lord ordered for my mom. I'm thankful he came along and looking forward to getting to know him better. JT really likes him too. After the wedding shin dig, we got to wake up Friday, May 2nd to a blizzard!! I hate Wyoming in May, it ALWAYS does that. Needless to say, we were trapped in doors for the first few days, which always sucks. I had to have Travis's mom get JT some warmer clothes because all we own for his current size is summer clothes....hello it's May, not the dead of winter! We hung out with grandma's and grandpa's, aunts and uncles, cousins, friends. It was a lot of fun and seemed like JT and I were on the go non-stop. It's really hard to be dragging a baby all over Casper, especially when they are little and you have a nap schedule to work around. The #1 reason we came to Wyoming during May was to see my nieces and nephews track day, but of course the weather didn't cooperate so I only got to see about 15 mins of it before they cancelled it for the day. I did however get to see all of Trent's blue ribbons and watch Katie run across the finish line for 1st place in the 100 meter dash. I guess it was worth the plane tickets to see those 2 glorious moments, just wish it could have been more.

Well need to start reviving the trampled plants and praying that God give me patience with Copper today...right now I just feel like beating him!

Have a good one!
The new family....Rob is a nice addition!!

In my new dud's that Grandma Sandy got me....keepin warm

So excited about the new red wagon Grandma Sandy bought me...I LOVE IT!!
Flying back home to see my daddy.....I'm such a pro!

The new hood

I just found a HILARIOUS on line show all about Motherhood. I've only been able to watch Season 1 Episode 1, but I laughed so hard. It's about the same caliber as The Office (which is where I found the link) but is geared toward the glory days of being a mom.....

Watch it!

http://www.inthemotherhood.com/

By the way...as my friend Brenda kindly reminded me this morning, I know that I haven't updated our blog in a while, which I will do promptly when I return on Sunday. That's right I'm retreating again and I couldn't have picked a better time.....JT is teething! Good Luck, Daddy!! :-)

A few for the road....

Our 1st official swim on Wed......what fun!!
Splashing......
He looks like a toddler in this picture....so grown up and yet only 7 months old