The Party

Grayson's birthday party was so much fun. It was a pirate pool party and the weather turned out perfect for swimming. It was so great to see all of our family and friends. Grayson had a blast - he smashed his smash cake, opened gifts and played in the pool. It was a great day.

We had a taco guy serve lunch and my Mom made banana and lemon cupcakes for dessert. Yum.

Grandpa dressed up as a pirate :)

He smashed his cake so well, but he would not eat a single bite. 

Video of G smashing his cake:

Video of his birthday song at brunch the next day:

Happy Birthday

Twelve months. One year. Unbelievable. I think back to when we first started trying to have a baby, back to all those failed cycles and failed treatments, back to the day I took my first positive pregnancy test, back to that first time I felt him move and back to the most amazing day of my life, July 28, 2012, when I delivered him. What a journey. It still feels so surreal that he is here. I feel so lucky and so happy. I couldn't ask for anything more.

Grayson has changed my life. Nothing is the same as it was before he was here. Becoming a parent, becoming a Mom, it changes you. All good changes, of course. I appreciate every single second of this life. I am more patient. I am kinder. I understand things I never did before. About love. About family. About life. I have never loved someone more than I do Grayson. I love my husband, so much. And my family too. But the love a mother feels for their child cannot be put into words. It's insane.

This year has flown by. I am so thankful for my iPhone. I took thousands and thousands of pictures and videos these past 365 days. I love to look back at them, although they make me weepy too. I remember how tiny he was, and knowing I will never have those moments back is tough on a Momma. Can't he stay tiny forever?! Instead I try to focus on watching him grow up and taking great joy in watching him learn new things. 

Happy birthday, my son. You will always be my baby boy, no matter how old you are. I love you so, so, so, so much.

One year video montage. Thanks to my wonderful husband for putting it together.

 

xoxo,
Megan

p.s. I will be back soon with his birthday party pictures, family photos and a full 12 Month Update after his doctor appointment on the 30th :)

  

Landscape and Pool Project

We are SO excited about this project! We wanted a pool when we were house shopping, or a house under our budget that we could do our own pool. We definitely preferred doing our own because most of the houses we were looking at had old pools and none of them were our style. It worked out perfectly with this house.

The front is almost complete. The landscaping is done, but in the future, we want to paint the exterior {pink?! eww} and put new lighting up. I have been looking at rustic/industrial copper fixtures, like this or this. We asked for a drought tolerant landscape with a natural, but modern feel. They did a fantastic job!

The front yard...

Before:

 

After:

 

 

 

 

And the back yard...

Before:

Demo complete and pool hole is dug.

Steel, plumbing and electrical

Shotcrete

Planter walls are in, stack stone is started, new concrete patio decking is poured and pool tile is in.

Another view from the other side of the yard.

Mini pebble plaster finish complete and filled with water. Tom, the desert tortoise, lives in that planter to the left, that wraps around the back of the pool. He has so much room now and it's planted just for him :)

After:

We would eventually like to stucco the walls and plant more plants, but we love it! I have always dreamed of having my own pool after swimming in everyone else's all my life. I am a fish and now Grayson is proving to be one too, so it's worth every penny to us :) 

We are having Grayson's first birthday at our house so everyone will be able to enjoy the pool. Stay tuned for pictures at the end of this month.

xoxo,

Megan

Eleven Months

Today, Grayson turns 11 months old and I turn 30 years old. Wowza.

Milestones and Firsts...

• He is waving hi and bye now. He understands how to use that wave instead of randomly waving. He was able to practice it a lot last week while we were on vacation and meeting lots of new people.
• He points at things a lot. If he's not waving at it, he's pointing at it. Or just staring, but that is mostly at people. I sometimes think it makes people uncomfortable because he stares for so long, waiting for them to look at him, talk to him, anything.

• He has four teeth, two on top and two on the bottom. He also has two more coming in, one on each side of his top front teeth. The drool just pours out.
• He can crawl up our staircase at lightning speed. It only took one quick trip to grab something out of my car and come back to find him halfway up, to put up a baby gate at the bottom.
• He loves to dance. If we turn on the music or dance for him, he dances along with us.
• Not walking yet, but he will stand unassisted for quite a while. He also can stand up on his own without holding onto anything. He was standing in the river on our vacation to Utah. In the water, of all places!

• He had his first real play "injury" :( He was bouncing around in a box and tipped over. He hit his lip or maybe bit his lip. It swelled and bled a bit, but two minutes after that he was playing and laughing and totally fine. I am sure it's the first of many for this active boy.
• He is still a fabulous eater and feeding himself everything. If we sit down to eat separately from his meal, he comes straight over to one of us expecting us to share with him :) He hasn't refused anything we have given him. I hope that lasts! His favorites right now: chicken, raspberries and broccoli. He also had his first taste of ice cream and chocolate cake {we have been eating pretty strict Primal, so these were big treats!}

• I started giving him whole cow's milk in his sippy cup. He seems to like it so that is good. I am going to continue transitioning this next month off of his formula.
• He still says "mama" all the time. And "baba" when he wants his bottle, I think. It's hard to tell sometimes. His vocabulary hasn't expanded much from last month.
• He went camping for the first time. My Mom and I took my Grandpa's truck and camper to the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park. We slept in the camper some nights, a cabin one night and a hotel for a few nights. SO MUCH FUN and Grayson was wonderful.

• The only way he will go shopping with us.... if he can walk and push the cart around the store! He gets pissed if we don't let him or when it's time to go. My little determined kiddo :)

Other tidbits about being 11 months old...

• He is a great sleeper. 11-12 hours every night. He is down to one or two naps a day. 
• He is wearing 12 month and 12-18 month clothes.
• He is still wearing size 3 diapers.
• No idea on his weight or height. We go back to the doctor next month for his one year check up. 

Daycare

Wow. What an emotional roller coaster the last few weeks have been.

To start from the beginning... I love our current daycare. The teachers are wonderful and I love them all. Grayson loves them and has always been a happy baby there. In the last few months, I started to notice that as Grayson aged, he needed and wanted more out of daycare. He needed more room than they have {the room is small - okay for a 4 month old, but not for G}, he needed sensory activities {they just have a small pile of regular toys on the floor}, he needs to go outside {they don't go outside until they move into the next room}. He would push the lunch table around because they have no walker toys for him to use. I began to realize that Grayson needed more than this daycare was providing and I started feeling extremely guilty for not noticing these things sooner. I don't think there was any harm done by having him at his daycare. Like I said, I love them. I trusted them with my 5 month old baby when I had to go back to work, one of the hardest things I ever did. They have a piece of my heart and meant a lot to me considering how much time G spent with them. And that is why it was so hard for me to make the decision to find a new place. I cried. Heck, I sobbed. But I knew it was the right thing to do.

I found a new place, another Montessori school, that has an opening July 1st. The room is huge, and once Grayson starts, it will be six kids aged 3 months - 18 months and two teachers. They have a ball pit, all kinds of sensory activities {painting, bubbles, water table, shaving cream}, musical instruments, two walker toys, very creative homemade toys, a couple climbing toys, story time every day and they go outside on a walk or to the grassy area every day. It's perfect. We went for a visit yesterday and Grayson had a blast. I would have never thought or known to look for these kinds of things in a daycare's program, at least not when he was just a teeny thing.

He starts at the new center on July 8th. This change is still really messing with my emotions, like I didn't expect. I want to burst out crying when I think about the last day at his current daycare. That is going to be a difficult day for me. I think I have finally let the guilt go that I didn't move him sooner. Change is good... I have to keep telling myself that :)

xoxo,
Megan

My First Stitches, or why you should go to the doctor

Technically I had internal sutures and staples for my c-section, but I digress. The real point of this post is simply a reminder to all of my bloggy friends, or anyone who stumbles across my blog.

A few months post-partum, I noticed a freckle on the side of my boob. It had always been dark, but it was beginning to look bigger. I thought maybe it was because of all the stretching that breastfeeding does to you, so I sort of put it off. About a month and a half ago I looked at it again and I was pretty certain it had grown and darkened more. It seemed unusual to me because that spot never, ever sees the sun and I always assumed that sunburn = skin cancer. I decided to call up a dermatologist I really liked and used to see in my teens for my acne. She did a once over of every inch of my body and agreed that the one freckle I was concerned about was worth a scrape biopsy. A week later the nurse called and said there were abnormal cells in the biopsy and that they recommend further removal of skin in that area. I freaked out. But the nurse reminded me it's not cancer. Yet. It could turn into it though if we don't remove all of those cells. Yesterday they removed more tissue and stitched me up. I know that a big hesitation for me to schedule this appointment was my fear of a removal like this. A fear of stitches. Mostly a fear of passing out because I always get myself worked up when it comes to medical stuff. It's all mental and I know that. But I will not let that fear stop me from going in. I will now schedule two skin checks every year, forever. The doctor told me that things can change in just a few months so it is important to come in twice a year, or sooner if you notice any changes on your own.

And that's why you need to go to the doctor. Don't skip your annual well woman exams. Don't put off asking your doctor about a suspicious freckle. Take care of yourself. Your family and friends love you and need you.

xoxo,
Megan