Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from our family to yours! Hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday. Shaun had his first Easter  egg hunt this morning and I have to say...I was very impressed at my little man!!! See for yourself!!!

Good morning!

I am so behind on updating the blog! And since it is a crazy morning I will have to write another time. But for now here is a video of our little book worm :)

My tiny dancer

Love this boy so much...

New videos

I've been meaning to post these for a while but have been having issues with my phone so I was having a hard time getting them uploaded. Finally figured it out. So here you go! These are definitely some of my FAVORITE Shaun videos to date! He's getting so big isn't he?!?!

16 month stats are in!!!

It's seems like it's been forever since Shaun has been to the doctor. I was looking forward to seeing how much he had grown because I have noticed that his little belly has slowly been shrinking. Figured he was getting taller and can tell by my biceps that he is getting heavier. I need to find his one year stats so I can see how much he has grown in the past 6 months.
He is 32.5 inches tall which puts him in the 83rd percentile. Mike was very proud of this number since neither of us have height on our side. Hopefully Shaun will defy all genes! His weight is 26 pounds which puts him in the 85th percentile. I'm sure you can tell from the pictures that Shaun is no small boy! Mike thinks these number are leading up to his future as a football player :) His head circumference is in the 83rd percentile. No shocker here as Mike and I are both competing for the worlds largest head!!!
He got his chicken pox vaccine and at our next visit he will receive his last vaccinations until the age of 4. I am so happy to be through all of the shots. As a first time mom you hear all of the debates around vaccines and you never really know what the right choice is for your child. We absolutely LOVE our pediatrician and he suggested sticking with the vaccination schedule so that was what we decided to do. But I have still been anxious each and every time he has gone to the doctor and had to get a shot.
As for other Shaun updates...we finally weaned him off of bottles. He was only taking one at night and I kept putting off getting rid of it. One night I decided to just take it away cold turkey and he went down no problem. It was definitely harder for me than it was for him. I cried as I threw his bottles away. Kind of sad to think I will never sit in that green rocking chair giving my sweet boy a bottle ever again. I tear up now even as I write that. People tell you it goes by too fast but no one can ever truly prepare you for how fast it really does go.
The doctor told us at this point Shaun should have about 5 words. "Does he have that many yet?" he asked. Mike and I both laughed because it seems like lately Shaun's vocabulary has just taken off. I would say he has at least 20...probably more. He knows about 10-15 animal sounds. And a good number of his body parts. He is now saying please and thank you and using them properly. My heart breaks a little every time I hand him a banana and he looks up at me and says "tank you" in that sweet voice. His favorite word these days is airplane. Since we live close to the naval base in Jax there are constantly planes flying over our house. He loves to stand outside with Daddy and look for the "ah-pane" as he calls it. Last night I taught him the word elbow. After I put him down for the night I could hear him in his room saying elbow over and over again. Too funny.
So that's the 16 month update. I'll leave you with some pics from a couple nights ago. Love these shots!!!

Absolutely in love with this picture

Just hanging with the seagulls

Going for a walk with Dada

Spotted a helicopter

Looking for more planes

He wasn't quite sure about the cold water

Still loving these little blond curls

A great weekend!

What a great weekend!!!! It was so much fun having my parents in town. We spent the weekend eating great food, battling it out with the game Cranium, playing with Shaunie and ended the weekend with a mom/daughter day which included brunch (accompanied by mimosas of course!) and an afternoon show of the Broadway musical Wicked. Such an amazing show!!!! As always we are sad to see them head back to Dunedin but we loved every minute they were here! Shaun sure loves his Grandma and Grandpa!

Shaun loves My Gym!

Mike bought Shaun and I a membership to a place called My Gym for Christmas. Shaun's class is every Saturday morning and he LOVES it! Here are some videos from this morning's class...enjoy!

Shaun makes a new friend!

Just had to share this video from our trip to the grocery store today. When we tried to make Shaun leave the store without his new buddy he threw a fit. Needless to say, Shaun now has his very own dog :)

New videos

Haven't had much time lately to make a new post but wanted to add some videos from yesterday so you could catch a glimpse of my crazy boy! Happy MLK Day!!!

Shaun's first haircut!

So I am obviously not very good at this blogging stuff. I swear I barely have a second to breathe these days let along sit down at the computer and gather my thoughts. Shaun is busier than ever and ALWAYS on the go. If he's not pulling ornaments off the tree or playing in jake's dog bowl, he's running down the hallway with a roll of toilet paper or playing in the toilet water. I can't turn my back for one second or he's into the next thing. But I do have to say, despite all the chasing after him and telling him what he can and can't touch, we are having a blast with him. He couldn't be a sweeter little boy and I can always count on him to make me smile.

So let me try and give you an update. Shaun is now 25 lbs. We went to the doctor last week for a double pink eye, ear infection, upper respiratory diagnosis. YIKES! So that was his latest weight. He is doing great in school. Always bringing home another craft that he made for mom to put up on the fridge. He has a ton of words in his vocabulary now. Doing great with all the animal noises and will try and mimic most words if you repeat them to him. He is still a great eater. Not a big fan of peas but loves most other things! Him and Jake have become good buddies ever since Jake figured out that Shaun eats real food. Every morning when Shaun wakes up he says Jakey and looks for Jake. I am glad they are finally getting used to one another. He loves reading books and although his attention span doesn't usually get him through an entire one, he loves to read one after another.
Today was a big day! We got Shaun his first haircut. The kids salon we took him to couldn't have been any cuter. They put on an Elmo video and blew bubbles to distract him. And while he was scared at first, he ended up having a blast. I will definitely go back to this place. They made the first haircut a very memorable experience. So I am including some pics below. Please know that they did the mohawk for fun and this is not going to be his day to day hairdo! I am also including two vidoes so you can feel like you were there right along with us. ENJOY!

Looking a little nervous...

Time to get suited up

The first snip

He was such a good boy! 

Didn't like the tickle behind his ears

Still not quite sure about the whole thing

A view from above

Starting to relax

And finally having some fun!

Silly boy

For the record...I did not request this style

But it's pretty darn funny

Mommy's little man

What a great morning! Love this salon!

HAPPY MONDAY!

Another work week begins. Luckily I have a home office day today so I am looking forward to getting caught up. I have been feeling so overwhelmed lately. Like there just aren't enough hours in the day to get it all done. Guessing this is normal for working moms but being the perfectionist that I am....it drives me crazy to have a million things on my to do list and no time to do them!

That being said, I put my list aside this weekend and Mike and I had a great time hanging out with Shaunie. We went and bought him his first pair of hard soled shoes. And while they are extremely cute, he is still adjusting to walking in them and took quite a tumble yesterday. Poor baby fell right on his face in the street and looks a little beat up this morning. Broke my heart. One of those moments where you seem him falling and it all goes in slow motion. I felt horrible. 

We took him to the park yesterday and haven't taken him there since he started walking well. He was a wild man and had an absolute blast. He has no fear. Climbed right up on the play ground and was ready to explore. We took him down the slide for the first time and he laughed and smiled all the way down. Kept running back up to the top and saying "go....go!" Eventually he appeared to want to brave the slide alone and after multiple supervised attempts we realized that our big boy didn't need our help. Seems he is sturdy enough and brave enough to get down the slide safely by himself. I am including a video below. Don't worry Mom...I assure you he was safe and supervised! He even knows to grab onto the sides...smart boy :) Enjoy!

Shaunie learns sign language!

We have been working with Shaun for a while now on animal noises and parts of the body. But didn't realize he was learning sign language at school until he started doing it a few weeks ago at home. Not sure how much he actually knows but these are the two I have figured out so far! Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

Wow...things have been so crazy. As we speak I am in the middle of doing 5 million things but wanted to post a few pictures of Shaun since I have been so behind. Enjoy! Will be back later this week with more of an update. Hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween!

Trick or treating with Kris and Connor

Family shot on Halloween

Shaun walks up to his first house like a big boy

Trying to be a scary dinosaur

The gang

Shaun with his Gator friends

Mom this pumpkin is just my size!

Such a sweetheart

He LOVED the pumpkin patch

Mommy's boy

Family shot at the pumpkin patch

Love this pic of my boys

And now for some vidoes!

SO FRUSTRATED!!!

So I decided to play around with the design of the blog only to find that once I changed it, I couldn't go back to the old design! They discontinued the design I was using and once it was gone, I couldn't find it again. I liked it the way it was!!! So as a warning, I may be playing around with it over the next couple of days until I find something that I like. Please bear with me!
Wanted to post a little video of Shaun from yesterday morning. Think he is finally starting to dance :)

Officially a walker!

Caught this video of Shaun cruising up the driveway yesterday. Can't believe how much his walking has improved in the past week. Also wanted to include this second video. Love how he says "GOG" after he starts to hear the neighbors dog barking :)

My busy boy

Shaun has turned into quite the handful. I don't know how else to describe it other than he is ALWAYS on the move. We are having a ball with him but boy are we tired!!! Thought I would share a little video of him playing in the driveway today :)

Happy 1st Birthday Shaun!!!

It's hard to believe that just one year ago today I was an hour away from meeting my sweet boy for the very first time. How quickly time passes and how much can change in a year! After Shaun went to bed tonight Mike and I sat together on the couch and watched old videos of him. It makes me smile looking back on the past year. We went into this journey so naive and so scared and although there are still days where we feel like we are new to this parenting thing...we have learned so much and are loving every moment we spend watching Shaun grow. What a sweet little boy he has turned out to be. And what an honor and a blessing it has been to be his mom and dad. I can't wait to see what next year brings for our family!

As for us...it has been a crazy month. Between work, planning Shaun's party and everything in between...this month has just flown by! Shaun has been a very busy boy. He is still into everything and even took his first steps unassisted last week! His birthday party was wonderful! So much effort and planning went into it and it was worth every single stressed out moment :) I think I may have taken the Dr. Seuss theme a little far. But if you know me well, you know I love the little details. So I couldn't help myself when it came to planning this party. I know Shaun won't remember any of it but it made me happy to make his first birthday party a special one. I am including some pics below. Also attached some videos from my day with the birthday boy.

We go to his one year appt in the morning so I will update you on his latest numbers then. Have a good night!!! I am off to bed. Still recovering from the weekend festivites!

Morning birthday bottle with Grandma

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for my new chair!

Taking some birthday steps

Love the wreath I made for him!

The dessert table...YUMMY!

So proud!

Sugary soda :)

Ham sliders...

And of course the green eggs

Shaun digs in

Love this shot!

The birthday boy

Kisses from mom

Love the Seuss family shot

The next day at the zoo

Feeding the giraffe

My sweet angel