I'm one of those parents.

Well, not one of THOSE parents...sort of... I confess, I entered my son in a baby photo contest! Ah well, I've never been against shameless attempts at glory. I was (am?) and actress after all and see no problem with making profit off your looks or ability to say things with feeling. (I'm snickering at that last part)

Ben and I have even talked about getting Whit some headshots made, and mine redone, to send off to agents in Nashville. And I straight up told Ben if we had a girl she was doing pageants. Don't worry I'm no Toddler and Tiaras mom, but I'm not against winning savings bonds to add to the college fund. I mean, I did a few pageants growing up and I'm fine! I still just as much a tomboy, hate wearing makeup and don't care how I look or what other people think of how I look. BAM, no body issues here, thank God!

Anyways, here's my shameless begging: if you've got two seconds in between cute baby animal pictures, send a vote Whit's way here: http://www.parents.com/photos/parents-cover-contest-2013/2013-04-22/x3oi

He's technically a cute baby animal?

52 Weeks: Week 16

This week was spent mostly just hanging out and marveling at how quickly Whit is growing and mastering new things. He's so much more fascinated by the little everyday things than his toys. As I type this he's squealing, crawling around the kitchen carrying a dish towel and pushing Foster's food bowl across the floor. He'd much rather those things than his blocks, cups or his talking puppy, which has apparently fallen so out of favor he cries at it now. Ben had Whit for two days by himself this week, so after I got out of work Monday we tried the playground. Whit wasn't too impressed at first, he does already have a swing at home. But he did enjoy sliding quite a bit, here's an action shot:

He also really liked swinging in that contraption Ben's using. I've never seen anything like it and can't figure out why it exists. When we came to it I felt like I was discovering a new land like the first time I had escargot or the time I discovered a female urinal (yikes). 

Anyhoo, his favorite activity was watching the big kids play. I have got to find him some other babies to play with. Hopefully we'll get to do a water babies class here soon and we're going to try Gymboree, so we'll see how those go. 

Okay, wow, I can really ramble if given the chance. The top left pic is from Whit's first taste of edamame, which he's still not sure about. And the bottom right I am in love with. I took a bunch of pictures of Ben holding trying to wrangle Whit and every expression is different. And it's so amazing because I see both of us distinctly in him. One picture will be of me when I was little, then the next is a face Ben makes now. Now I want to scan some old pictures of us as babies and compare!

Oh, and this happened...

heart melter.

Gardening... glorious, glorious gardening!

Ha, sort of. It's been so nice lately (with the exception of the past two days.. freeze warning tonight!) that I've re-caught my gardening bug. I already potted my yellow cherry tomato, mint, and lemon balm for the year and got a strawberry plant to try. I've tried before without success, but I think I have an idea of what I'm doing now, so wish me luck. I also got to pruning some of our shrubs, including one particular monster...

Originally I was going to just take down the entire thing. Clearly the previous owners thought it was just a shrub a planted it a mere SIX INCHES from the house. Well, turns out it's sort of a tree and is eating the nursery's window. So I start chopping away trying to figure how I'm going to do this without a chainsaw, and then I noticed a robin's nest. With eggs. And being the damn hippy I am, I can't destroy the entire tree until the little ones have left. So now we have this...

52 Weeks: Week 15

Ooh, that summer is trying to show up way too early! We had a couple days this week of 80+ degree weather, but I'm fine with that since I lurve warm weather. So out came the snoball trucks, which has become a recent sign of warmer weather here. I grew up in Mississippi where there were always snoball places, but since it's warm during most of the year they were open pretty much all the time. Here, there's an actual winter so the past year middle Tennessee has acquired a couple of cute snoball trucks. I got mine with "creme" (really it's condensed milk... and people wonder why the South has such an obesity problem) and the guy making it was surprised, since only real Southerners know about creme in their snoballs.

Whit has become only happy while in motion... or when smearing food into his hair. He's still obsessed with the dogs' houses and opening and closing their doors. And he's recently become fascinated with the washer and dryer. He can sit and watch our Laundry TV run for 5-10 minutes, and that's a long time for him! The main picture this week was from this morning. Ben fed Whit his morning bottle today and Whit started stroking his beard. It was so fascinating/delicate/cute/adorable. I love pictures of my two guys together.

Happy Eight Months!

At eight months, Whit...

...weighs in around 22 lbs... I think. The last time we weighed, three weeks ago he was almost 21 lbs.

...is wearing 12 months in Carter's and 12-18 months in Old Navy/Gap clothes... and those are most of his wardrobe. Honestly he's not long enough for any of it, but his shoulders are so dang broad anything smaller looks like he's wearing muscle shirts!

...is still wearing size 4 Swaddlers.

...may be teething again! His bottom gum looked a little funny tonight and he's been chewing his fists again. Poor thing is going to have a full set before his first birthday at this rate!

...is CRAWLING, STANDING and CLIMBING like a madman! The past two weeks my only job has been keeping him from killing himself. And believe me, we've had a few close calls. When he finally figured out how to crawl it was on! Within two days he was pulling up on the furniture, trying to stand. Two days after that he pulled himself up and sat back down by himself (I've read that some kids have a tough time figuring out how to get down?). And as soon as he was standing, he's lifting his feet trying to climb over whatever it is he's holding onto. Oy, so this is what having a son feels like!

...is in love with the dog's room. If I don't corral him somewhere, he'll bolt to the dog's room. He loves using their crates to stand up and he LOVES opening and closing Foster's crate's door.

...another reason he loves that room? Laundry TV. This past week I've sat him in front of the washer or the dryer in his bouncer and he loves watching the colors. Plus, we have high-efficiency machines so they make some pretty weird noises.

...has started waving! It occurred to me that we could probably be teaching Whit how to do certain things. He picks up on stuff wicked fast, so why not? I had him waving in a day and a half! I'm trying to get him to blow kisses or do something helpful like, sign when he's hungry, but no dice just yet.

...knows what "No" means. Thankfully he only has to be told once before he stops. Except when it comes to the dogs' food and water bowls. I may need to do some creative problem solving for those.

...says "dada" A LOT. In fact he stopped saying "mama" almost completely... until today. He kept wanting to say it when I was feeding him so today was pretty messy, not that I minded!

...makes yummy noises when he eats. This is totally my fault. Four months of feeding him solids and still I can't not open my mouth when he does and I can't not make yummy ("nom nom nom") noises while feeding him! But it's so cute when he does it.

...is starting to show some emotion... and a temper. Normally, Whit is a very easy-going baby. But lately, he gets mad at diaper changes, if his bottle is taking too long (and he can see it) or if you take something from him. Ooh, that last one has been a little tough since he doesn't move on to the distraction well. He's also cried a few times when I've scared him. Not on purpose! I was trying to play with him and I guess I was a little too loud and I surprised him. He looked like someone had shocked him and just started bawling. Once he bit me and I told him No, but I guess I did it a little too sharply and he just cried. Oh I felt horrible and started to cry too. So I'm learning to quiet down a bit.

...has thoroughly enjoyed all the outside time lately: in the swing, in the grass, on blankets, whatevs.

...snores. Loudly. His sleeping habits have become a new source of entertainment for me and Ben. Thursday night it was butt in the air, on one shoulder, mouth hanging open, in the corner of his crib, snoring. His favorite has been wrapping his blanket around his head, making a cocoon as soon as you put it on him.

...is such a chuckler. And has started fake laughing. I don't remember what Ben and I were laughing about, but Whit was watching us, confused, and started laughing. Sort of. It sounds a little like a laugh, a cough, and his dying duck noise. Oh gosh, this kid cracks me up and melts my heart!

52 Weeks: Week 14

We've had Awesome Weather here lately. Spring has definitely sprung (and Summer peaked it's head a little on Sunday... 80 degrees, sheesh!). So Wednesday we celebrated with happy hour oysters on a half-shell and sweet tea. Most of the pictures from this past week are self-explanatory. We saw a cool car, which around here is a sign of warmer weather, Whit is still in love with his puppies and that bottom right is a picture of our friend Wess enjoying a tiny mug of milk. We tried a swanky new restaurant in Nashville called Urban Grub and it was currrr-azy good. But any time there's bacon ice cream is a win, right?

Hanging out outside

I have nothing particularly insightful or funny to share right now, so I thought I would share some pictures of the wonderful afternoon we had Monday. Ben's been on vacation the past few days, so it was nice coming home from work to two boys... especially since they were weeding our front flower bed!

 

This was Whit's first time sitting in the grass and he didn't know what to think about it. He would sit there, brush it with his hands, then get the heebie-jeebies. He'd start to crawl on it and decide he didn't like it and start grinding his teeth instead. It was quite entertaining. 

 
As were all the faces he made. Seriously, y'all, I have about 60+ pictures of just the faces he was making, but I figured you had better things to do than stare at my adorable baby all day!

Mommy and Me... and Oh! The Things You'll Do Once You're a Parent

Today's picture is currently my favorite of Whit and myself. I saved it from my Easter post just for today, so it's a tad old, so sue me! But holy cow, that is a couple of good looking folks!

And by the way, I'm going to have to start a tag for all the weird shit I have to do now that I'm a parent. My latest conundrum: how do I go to a public bathroom with a stroller by myself... and there's a legit handicapped person in line. Thankfully she was totally sweet and sympathetic to the issue. She told me the stall next to the real handicapped one was a bigger than normal one. Au contraire! Btw, don't worry, this is the before, I'm-trying-to-figure-out-exactly-how-this-is-going-to-work picture.

Doesn't he look like, "Mom! Wtf, mate?!"

Easter basket goodies...

... a week later! That's okay though, it's the last day for me to link it up with the good life blog and share what was in Whit's first Easter basket. Wish I had taken pictures of it sooner, it's not like I didn't already have it put together weeks before Easter!

So what all is in it? The basket, letter "W" gift tag thingy (it's tied onto the left side, but I forgot to take a picture of it... oops) plush book, stuffed bunny, eggs, melty creme snacks, and maracas (which you can't see) all came from Target. The books both have different textures inside, which Whit is totally digging right now, both came from Sam's Club. And the bubbles came from Toys R Us. 

The snacks have been a huge hit. They are really tasty, I just wish they made adult sized bags! Whit has also been crazy about the maracas. I really thought he wouldn't care since they're basically big rattles, but hey, they were a dollar. Best dollar spent! Last night he was shaking them around, shaking them above his head, beating them on the floor, each other, showing them off to us, the dogs, the cat. He's hilarious.

I've got to admit, I'm not a huge fan of the basket. But I didn't want the typical looking one, because I remember them being really hard to carry when going on actual egg hunts. I guess my competitive nature came out subconsciously, because he'll be able to carry SO MANY EGGS when it comes time. Mwhahaha!

52 Weeks: Week 13

This past week the big deal was Easter and Ben took some time off work to spend with us. We've never really celebrated Easter in our little family because we don't go to church and one of us was usually working that day until this year. And no matter how many times I asked, Ben wouldn't hide Easter eggs for me! Guess I should've taken out an ad on Craigslist, duh! (And yes, that's my town being repped there... face palm.)

This year we I decided that was going to change. I asked Ben's mom if we could go to their church for Easter service and she almost passed out from shock and glee. So we got up early to go to the service and I was a little taken aback. Not sure if it's because I grew up going to a little Baptist church in the sticks or because Methodist are really that different? Not only were the alter-people and talking back new to me, but there was a brass quartet and the whole thing was being simulcast to the rest of the congregation in a building across the street! After church, we went to the in-laws and had lunch and took pictures of us in our "Sunday best", then we came home and let Whit rummage through his Easter basket.

The other two pictures are our random life right now. Now that Whit is crawling he likes to follow me from room to room, even when I vacuum. He just plays with the cord occasionally. And the rather dim picture is of Ben and Whit hanging out one of the nights he refuses to sleep. Not sure why he's given it up lately. My sister offered that he gave it up for Lent and no one told him Easter is already over. Or that we're not Catholic.

Mommy and Me... now in color!

Grabbed a quick picture after walking/jogging The Color Run Saturday morning. If you get an opportunity to participate in this 5k, get a bunch of friends and do it! It was a friend of mine, her three kids, Whit and myself all together and we had a great time. Basically it's a fun 5k, so it's not timed and there's no pressure to look like you know what you're doing. They were throwing free stuff at us at the starting line and every kilometer you reach there's a different color thrown at the runners. I don't know what the color is exactly, but they said it's similar to corn starch. Anyhoo, there's so much of it that it left huge plumes above the stations you could see in other parts of the city. We got to walk through the fun part of downtown Nashville and saw some pretty interesting places I didn't even know existed. Here's a few more of the few pictures I got with my seriously dusty phone:

Ahhh, all nice and clean.

The before. Just please ignore my looking so raggedy!

The batman building... and yellow!

The after. So many people told me how smart it was for bringing the rain shield. Ha, like I would have brought him without one!

He made it out mostly clean. He refused to keep his socks on, so his feet were blue.

The after-party at the finish line.

Oh my gosh, it was soooooo fun. I can't wait to do it again next year. I told Ben he has to come with us next time, even if he doesn't like running. It was really more like a leisurely walk with about a thousand other people and one unicorn. Oh yeah, their mascot is a unicorn they call the Runicorn. AH, love it! And Whit loved it too. He enjoyed the first half of the ride and the second half he squealed and babbled at everything. Then when I got him out for the after party he looked at me like I was a crazy woman he was ecstatic to see. I could just see him think "Mama! ... What is all that on your face?! ... I love it!"