ASL is taking hold!

So proud of Pax for picking up sign language more quickly now.

It means mama needs to quickly bone up on her vocab.

Some things are just not very intuitive to me...for instance, cracker. This sign, to me, looks like I am sloughing off an elbow callus....ewwww!!

Grapes is fun,

http://www.signingsavvy.com/sign/GRAPES/1423/1

and he mimicked this immediately :)

So fun to see my little sponge trying to say and do what mama asks!

1st photo w/ Santa

well, it was sort of as I suspected, since he is afraid of balloons, large stuffed figures(ie a giant stuffed rabbit at the Pediatricians office) and anything in costume/disguise, Pax was no different w/ the jolly ol' Santa at Bass Pro.

A classic first shot w/ Santa.

Happy Halloween!

While Pax did not go trick or treating this year, he did sport his muscle man costume at the library's Halloween puppet show. Being thrust into the face of horror and his mama's favorite holiday has not been easy, but I think he's coming around(just not to the Halloween 'witch closet' yet)

Man Overboard!

Paxton decided to catapult himself outta the crib today.
I did not think it would happen so soon.
Apparently the bumpers in his crib assisted him ....so buh bye bumpers, hello Craigslist.
One more step towards manhood  :(

Forks over Knives...

....after watching this movie, Jay and I sort of decided to change some of our eating and DRINKING habits, decreasing our meat consumption in lieu of more veggies/grains and cutting our alcohol consumption...not really influenced by the movie, but our desire to eliminate empty calories.
Jay is sticking to it like a real champ and even wined and dined clients at a nice steakhouse w/ out imbibing himself and dining on salmon...STUD.  He has abstained from alcohol for 2.5 weeks now!
While I have maintained the healthy eating and increased my workouts...I did fall off the wagon after a week of abstaining from alcohol and had a few drinks  :(
But, much better than having a couple of glasses of wine a night, which is were I was coming from.
The empty calories and weight gain do not justify me having a glass of wine a night...cuz, let me be real for a sec, it never is just ONE glass of wine.

My Amorous 16 month old

I LOVE this stage, I wish it would last,  but I know it won't , and so, I brace myself for the day I will hear,  'I hate you'.

Still, I am moved when my son hugs me and pats my back, leans in for a kiss anytime I do something 

Labor DayWeekend!

what a delightful Labor Day weekend!   After a sensory overload outing to Science City on Saturday w/ Paxton, we had our neighbors over Sunday afternoon for a sunny and 70's fajita feast on the back deck, complete w/ Chocoflan for dessert !  Monday was our first trip to the Kansas City Zoo, which was lovely.  Even though KC has some seriously depressed neighborhoods, they spared no expense for the zoo.  Pax was wild for the polar bears, but still quite excited to see a tiger up close and in person.  Still,  while he enjoyed it, I could not help but feel sad for the captive animals and especially  the elephants plucking off bits of painters tape from their cable enclosure and eating them.
Perhaps we will have to take him on a wildlife excursion instead  :)
Daddy, can we go to Africa instead???