8 Months!

Well in three short days Dax will be 8 months old! Wow! We'll be in Bixby painting the new house then so we're doing his 8 month update now :)

* Boy does this little man love his food! He's having a 6 oz bottle every 4 hours, 2 cubes of fruit and cereal for breakfast, 2-3 cubes of veggies at lunch, and a protein for dinner. The protein switches between tofu and a veggie, or yogurt and a fruit.
* He also munches on Organic Mum Mums and Organic Puffs, both of which he LOVES. We're working on picking things up with his finger and thumb and actually getting it to his mouth. He picks it up pretty good... but getting it in the mouth isn't quite there yet.  He does really good with the Mum Mums and will hold it all by himself and take bites off of it.
* He's drooling and fussy at times like he's teething... but no teeth poking through yet!
* Sleep is going really great! He's been going to sleep at about 6:30 or 7:00pm and sleeping until anywhere between 5:45-6:30am. He'll usually wake up at about 4:45am but the desperate side of me wishing for one more hour of sleep before I have to get up for work puts him in bed with me and he goes right back to sleep.
* He's officially a crawler! He's so stinkin fast! He still rotates between the lizard crawl and actually crawling but whatever he does it's quick. If I want to see him crawl all I pretty much have to do is open the front door and he takes off as fast as he can to it! This includes climbing up a small step from our living room to entry way! I was way impressed the first time this happened... who am I kidding... I'm way impressed every time this happens!
* He likes to spit now. lol.  Another little one in his class at daycare started this and now Dax does it all the time! It's really cute right now but I'm sure the first time he does it with food in his mouth it wont be so cute anymore!
* Makes all sorts of crazy sounds... but still has yet to say Dada, and only says Mama when he's crying.
* Naps are going awesome and all of them are in his crib now! We turn on his sound machine, pat his butt for a couple minutes, and he's out for the count! We actually just packed the swing away and it was sort of a sad day :(
* Dax wants to stand up all the time! He has pulled up successfully a handful of times on his own but is constantly trying to pull up on anything and everything he sees! Even when he's crawling he gets his legs under himself and tries to stand up.
* Bob Marley still works miracles for him...
* His favorite toys right now are baskets that his toys go in, plastic Easter eggs that I put beans in and sealed, Scout (of course), his sensory bottles, and a small tin bucket I found the other day. Who needs all those fancy expensive toys when you have things like buckets, baskets, and water bottles??
* He has had mango, pears, applesauce, peaches, banana, plums, avocado, butternut squash, sweet potatoes,  tofu, parsnips, zucchini, green beans, peas, broccoli, yogurt, and blueberries. Up next are honeydew, carrots, and some new fruit... any suggestions??
* He's in 6-9month clothes and size 3 diapers during the day and 4's a night. His pants are starting to get a little short... but the next size up are still too big in the waist... so lets just say if a flood comes through Dax is prepared :)
* And possibly the most exciting part for me.... I def. recognizes when I sign "All done"!!  A couple days ago when I signed it he automatically started reaching for me to get him out of his seat. I thought that maybe it was coincidence... but he has done it a couple more times since them! yay!!!

 Well the next couple weeks are going to be sort of nuts for us! We'll be making trips to Bixby this weekend and next to paint and clean the house, next week is my last week of work, I'll have one week at home to finish up getting things done, and then the big move! Eek!   Continue keeping us in your prayers as we face all of the changes coming our way!

Happy Wednesday!!!

Weekend Rewind...

What a beautiful weekend!! Boy were we busy.... but boy was it fun! Here's a glimpse of our weekend that included things such as Easter egg hunts, birthday parties, baptisms, and lots and lots of family!

Dax's first egg hunt!

All of the family at the hunt.... with approx 10,000 eggs!

He's a mover!

Dax's first Easter Basket!!! Complete with a book, bunny rattle, sippy cup, mum mums, teething cookie, bubbles, and plastic eggs turned rattles!

My niece Cheyenne getting baptized!!! Such a special day!

 

And her daddy got baptized too!

Our first Easter!

Happy Sunday! Hope your weekend was as beautiful as mine!

27...26...25...24.....

The count down is on..... 27 days until the big move. YIKES!  This is coming way too fast and I'm not ok with that! And I'm sure those 27 days will go just as fast at the last month has....  *big breaths*

Starting with last week we have so much going on all the way until the move! Thursday I went to my adorable nephews t-ball game.

He's pretty darn cute in that uniform... but I think he rather find every rock on the field than play ball itself. His nickname is Rocks because that's all he does when he's in the field... search for rocks. You can usually find a back pocket full of rocks by the time the game ends. Thursday night while we were there he hit a home run and was very proud of himself... as was I :)

Dax loved watching the boys run around on the field.... maybe we have a future ball player on our hands??
Friday was, well Friday... therefore, we busted out the ole' moon bounce in the Superstar room...

 

With my time quickly coming to an end as their teacher I'm doing as much as I can to get lots of smiles and fun memories in with these kiddos... boy how I'll miss them!

That night we had dinner with some amazing ladies that I work with to celebrate baby Teagan coming soon! We had so much fun and lots of laughs... plus good food... what could go wrong??
Saturday my wonderful husband watched the baby for  a little while so I could meet a couple girls that I went to school with for lunch! The last year in college I got super close with 3 special ladies and would have gone completely insane without them! They also gave me the cutest baby shower when I was pregnant and I thank them so much for that!  Anyways, I got to meet two of them for lunch at the old stomping ground (The Mont) for lunch! It was SO much fun to catch up with them, reminisce on good times, and talk about our crazy lives we're all living now. I also found out that there will be a new little on come November and I couldn't be happier for Mr. & Mrs. Martin :)     It was really refreshing to get out with friends and not worry about all of the stresses going on right now in life!

So this week includes Easter festivities at work all week, completing my applications for Grad School in the fall, getting the house clean (the landlord is showing it to a potential renter Thursday), Easter egg hunt Saturday morning, niece & nephew birthday party Saturday afternoon, my going away party with work ladies Saturday night, and Easter on Sunday. Man oh man! After that is my birthday, a week of work, a weekend in Tulsa painting the new house, my last week of work (tear), and then the big move! Wow!

Dax is handling all of this chaos like the little trooper he is! Since the last post he officially got his first haircut!

 

BEFORE...

 

and AFTER...

His aunt Kelly did such a good job! My little baby is becoming such a big boy!

He also now how mastered the lizard crawl. For those of you who are asking, "what exactly is a lizard crawl?".... I like to think of it as a step up from the army crawl. Unlike the army crawl.... all four limbs are moving in the correct motion instead of just his arms... but it isn't quite a crawl because he just drags his belly on the ground while doing it. It's surprisingly effective and he gets around pretty quick. Today he actually crawled like a normal child for the first time for a few seconds... but then quickly went back to the lizard.

He's also now making all kinds of fun sounds and is really quite funny. He makes me laugh.. a lot. Especially when he does things like this...

We've also started some snacking/feeding ourselves in the last week! He does so good chewing on his puffs, frozen yogurt bites, and mum mums and LOVES getting to eat them. The mum mums he has mastered eating on his own but we're still working on picking up those tiny puffs and yogurt bites on our own. And I'm one happy momma because I was able to find all three of these things in organic form.... I was like a kid in a candy shop!

Also, a big "winning" moment in the Freno house right now is that all naps are now in the crib!  YESSSSS.  Before he was only napping in his swing when at home and he was quickly out-growing that!  Now we lay him in his crib, tell him night-night, turn on his sound machine, he plays for about 15-20minutes, and then he's asleep. Every once in awhile we have to go in there and pat his butt for a minute but usually he does pretty good just going to sleep. 

Happy Sunday!!

Life in the Fast Zone

Man time has been flying!!  (hence the extremely cheesy title).  We now have a chunky 7 month old that is in full on teething mode (yay for a new milestone... not cool for mom and dad and baby). We took Dax to the doctor again this week for what we thought may be another ear infection. He had gained a pound in two weeks! WOW! He's up to 19lbs, 5 1/2 oz! Such a little chunk! Luckily there was no infection.... only allergies and teething. He now takes allergy medicine everyday so hopefully that helps out! We've also been chewing on lots of fresh frozen or cold fruits to help out with the sore gums and Dax LOVES it!
Also since the last post... we found a house!!  This was such a weight on our shoulders and finding has made things much less stressful! It's a three bedroom, 2 bath house in Bixby, Oklahoma. It's on a half acre lot with a big back yard and lots of trees for the dogs. It has a fireplace (a must for daniel and I) 2 car garage, and a big covered patio. We're pretty excited. Finding this house has definitely made the idea of moving an easier one for me so hopefully as time goes I'll get more and more comfortable with the idea.
So my very best friend in the entire world is a pretty awesome blogger ... you should check it out ourlovelystory .  She does a ten on ten where on the tenth of each month she post ten pictures from that day. I LOVE this and plan on starting it myself. Since I don't have ten pics from today my first ten on ten will be ten pics from the last month ... ready.. set... go.

 

A couple weeks ago our theme in my class was Bugs. One day we made bug eyes using egg cartons and pipe cleaners. The kids LOVED them and it was pretty darn cute to see them running around the playground with them on :)

 

These are the other two rugrats of the house, Sophie and Sadie. They're my other children and I love them as if they only had two legs and didn't stink.  Look how cute they are?? They're def. enjoying all this spring weather!

 

Hopefully this is a sign that getting Dax to do chores will never be problem. He loves the vacuum cleaner. He'll jump out of your arms to try to see in and just smiles at it. Oh the little things...

 

This was Dax's first experience with frozen fruits and as you can plainly see he loved it. He was quite the fussy baby and pulling on his ear this evening so I assumed it was his teeth hurting. I put some frozen cherries in his mesh feeder and he went to town! He was quite the sticky red mess afterwards but his little gums felt much better.

 

Such a man... such a man. Two of his favorite things... being naked and the tv remote.

 

We had our first zoo trip Friday and had so much fun! Dax loved it! He and this gorilla had quite the stare down for the longest time. His favorite animals were the monkeys, deer, and sea lions. 

 

This was after our zoo trip lol. Daddy and Dax were both pretty wore out and I walked into the room to find this cute sight :)

 

More soothing of the gums went on yesterday. We went for the less messy alternative of a fresh cut pear from the refrigerator. Dax was in heaven! He loved this just as much as the cherries.

 

We're in the process of transitioning Dax from taking his naps at home in his swing to in his crib. He takes his naps at daycare in his crib and will soon outgrow his swing so crib it is! He does really well! He'll usually play for about 15 minutes and before he ends up falling asleep. It's a lot of fun to watch

him over the video monitor. During his 15 minutes of play time he has figured out how to pull the bumper down so he can peak through the bars of the crib and take a peak at what else is going on in the room. Today he got caught in the act.

 

The beautiful sky this evening! I really think Oklahoma has some of the most beautiful evening skies possible! This evening after Dax went to bed Me, Daniel, and the dogs enjoyed the perfect weather outside and I caught this gorgeous picture! What a way to end the day!

Hope you enjoyed my first ten on ten! Next time I'll try to get ten pics from that day.... try at least :)

Homemade Toys

So Daniel and I are both big fans of simple toys. The less flashy the better for us. The old wooden toys... awesome; bright flashy lights on a toy.. ehh.  But what could get more simple than homemade toys?? Not to mention they're cheap! So I throughout my years working in learning centers I became a pro at making Discovery/Sensory bottles and decided to make some for Dax for home!  I'm WAY excited about how they turned out and Dax LOVES them! Not to mention they're super cheap, easy, fun to make, and eco friendly (b/c you're recycling items that would normally get thrown away). Here are some pics of my journey of making Dax's Discovery Bottles!
1. First... you need empty AND DRY water bottles. The little ones are perfect size for little hands but the big ones work best when doing liquids. I also used some old empty small juice bottles that we had here as well.

2. Gather your goodies!!  I have a ton of random art supplies at my house from being a teacher so most of what I used was that. You can also use rice, beans, noodles, aluminum foil, buttons... pretty much anything you can think of that would make noise in a bottle.  Cheap baby oil as well as shampoo or corn syrup are also good to have on hand.

3. Start throwing whatever you would like into the bottles. Think bright colors, noise, movement... anything that a baby that uses all 5 of their senses to learn would love to see. Here are a few different things I did!

Just small multi colored beads in a small bottle. I only did it a little less than half full.

Different bright colors of tissue paper torn into small pieces. This is a quiet one (would be perfect to throw in the bag for places like church) but Dax LOVES the bright colors and watching the paper move around.

I had a small bag of bells left over from a class art project and they worked perfect for the bottles. It makes a different sound than the beans or beads so it's a nice change from the norm.

This is just a hodge podge of a ton of different bright colored items. I think there's a mix of beads, buttons, sequins, pipe cleaners, tissue paper, felt, balloons, ribbon, and letters that spell out Daxs name (if this bottle could last until he's like 3 finding the letters of his name would be a fun activity). I like that this bottle made noise and had a lot of bright colors in it.

This is one of the liquid ones. I did half baby oil and have water and added some glitter to it. The oil and water separate so it's fun to shake it up, watch the glitter move around, and then watch them separate again.

Another liquid one. With this one you fill it almost to the top with shampoo or corn syrup and then add some confetti. The thickness of the shampoo lets the confetti just sort of float around inside. It also bubbles up when shaken so that's sort of fun!

And this one turned out to be one of my favorites. It's the same idea of baby oil and water as mentioned above. This time I added a drop of blue food coloring along with silver and blue confetti. It's really pretty and Dax seems to really like this one too.

4. Glue the cap on.  I put a ring of hot glue on before twisting the cap on and then finish it off with a layer of hot glue around the outside of it. If you want to get fancy you can also over this part with a piece of ribbon or a bow but I passed on that this time.

 

5.  The finished products!!!  There are the ones listed above as well as one with rice, one with beans, one with pieces of aluminum foil, and one with buttons. I made enough where I could switch them out ever so often to Dax doesn't get bored with the same ones all the time.

  

6. And the test run.....  

I'd say they were a success!! :)