Toddle Along Tuesday: Mom

Today I'm linking up with Melissa over at Growing Up Geeky for her Toddle Along Tuesday blog hop. The theme today is "your mom." Let me just start by saying that my mom is awesome. She and my dad taught me a lot of valuable things growing up, and when I decided to marry someone nearly 700 miles away and move from Michigan to South Carolina to be with him, she supported my choices and told me how proud she was of me for the person I'd become.

So, in honor of her awesomeness, here are just a few of the things I love about my momma.

1. She's beautiful. This photo from her teenage years makes me smile. Doesn't she look like a movie star?

2. She is such a loving and affectionate mom to my siblings and me. Here we are in 1986. As you can see, she has always loved being a mother. Not only is she loving, but she is also the most patient person I've ever known, which is an important trait to have when you're a mom.

 

3. She has a contagious smile. I took this photo when she came to visit us in the summer of 2010. She knew Justin and I were trying for a baby, and while she was here, we talked and daydreamed about what it would be like to have a new little one in the family (we ended up conceiving Colin the month after this!).

4. She is just as awesome as Grandma as she is as Mom. It has been so incredible to watch her embrace the role of "grandma" with ease. She's a natural, and of course, I'm not surprised. When Colin was born, she stayed for two weeks and was a great help to Justin and me. As Colin has grown and learned new skills over the past sixteen and a half months, Mom has been excited to see the pictures and videos we've taken. We Skype with my family occasionally so that they can see Colin, and they love to watch him play and babble. You can see the love in their eyes when they are around him.

Mom with brand new baby Colin

Mom and Colin, shortly before his first birthday

For everything she does and everything she is, I love my momma to pieces. ♥

iPhone Snapshots of our Week

Clockwise, starting from top left: 

1. Eating a blueberry waffle for breakfast one morning.

2. Rub a dub dub, Colin likes to read in the tub.

3. Popsicles are great for teething tots! Colin is currently working on cutting eyeteeth and molars... at the same time. Amazingly, he hasn't been much fussier than usual!

4. I melted when I saw that he fell asleep snuggling Puppy!

It's been a busy week, but a good one. Today, we spent some time at Mema and Papa's house, where we swam, played cornhole (which I learned I'm actually pretty good at!), ate grilled burgers and dogs, and watched the little ones run and play. Summer is here, and I'm loving it! Especially on the weekend. :)


More to come.

That time we dropped $22 for a new lovey

I never saw Colin as the type of kid who'd have a lovey. When he was sleepy, we popped in the paci and he nodded right off. He's always been a pretty easy going little dude in that regard. However, a few months ago, Justin's parents went away to Charleston and came back with a gift for Colin. It was an incredibly soft, brown and white stuffed dog that we affectionately named "Puppy." Colin and Puppy quickly became BFFs and bedtime buddies. Colin would pull Puppy's string and listen to Brahm's lullaby as he gently stroked one of Puppy's ears. The one time we dared put Colin down for a nap without Puppy, he refused to sleep until the two were reunited. As soon as they were, little man relaxed and readied himself for his nap. Little stinker. At nap time or bedtime, I would go through a mental checklist: Clean diaper? Check. Paci? Check. Puppy? Check. And in the crib they'd go.

Meet Puppy.

Due to all the slobber loving Puppy has received, he has gone through the wash several times already. The first couple times, the process didn't seem to affect Puppy's music box at all. But the third time, we weren't so lucky. Today, I pulled the string to start the music before Colin's nap, and... nothing happened. The string didn't move, and the music didn't play. Whoops. We figured this day would come.

We did a little detective work and found the website of the company in Charleston that made Puppy. After tax and shipping, we paid $22.51 for a brand new Puppy. The plan is to replace Puppy Senior with Puppy Junior, clip Puppy Senior's broken string, and keep him around as a back-up in case Puppy Junior needs to be washed or goes missing.

If your kid is attached to a lovey, you'll understand why we had to buy another. You can't put a price on your little one's happiness, right? You also can't put a price on something that soothes your child to sleep within minutes. Can I get an amen?

Maybe we'll work on getting our next baby attached to a washcloth or something. Those are a lot cheaper to replace.

 

Yes, please!

Last night, as the three of us were eating dinner (grilled cheese sandwiches and strawberries. Yum!), we thought we heard Colin say, "please." I offered him little bites of a potato chip to see if he'd say it again. And.. well, see what happened.

I know they try to teach the kids to say "please" and "thank you" at daycare, but I did NOT expect my sweet little man to be saying these words at 16 months! I am so proud of my little smarty pants and had to do a little showing off. :) There is nothing like being a momma!

Toddler Tears

I don't know about you other toddler mamas, but it seems when Colin went from baby to toddler, his crying spells kicked it up a notch. It happens for all sorts of reasons. You might take his hand out of the dog's water bowl, for example. Wailing ensues. You might tell him "no" when you see him about to put your flip flop in his mouth. More wailing. He might bump his head on something, not very hard, but of course that triggers the end-of-the-world wailing, too.

Poor baby boy. I don't remember what started this, but he was fine a few minutes later.

Poor kiddo. It breaks my heart to see him cry, but it happens so often these days that it doesn't faze me as much as it once did. Especially when I know he's okay, and they're just alligator tears. We do comfort him if he hurts himself, but we're trying to ignore the mini-tantrums he's starting to throw when he's told "no" or has to have something taken away. (Seriously, why does he want to eat our shoes?! Gross!) How do you handle toddler tantrums?
 

Call for sponsors!

Hey y'all! Just a quick word about sponsorship. I am currently accepting sponsors, so if you're interested, click the Advertise tab at the top of the page for more info. I would love to work with you! Right now you can use promo code newclient to get a 20% discount on all size ads. Ads run for 30 days. Or, if you'd rather swap buttons with me, I would be glad to consider that as well. E-mail me at sbuxsweetie at gmail dot com if you'd like to chat about sponsorship, or about anything at all!

And now, a picture of Colin with his big red ball. Have a great day!

Just a little story

Once upon a time, there was a sixteen month old cutie who liked to color with markers. He colored and colored, and had a wonderful time. When he was finished, his mommy turned on cartoons and went to go to the bathroom. A minute later, the little boy walked in to see what his mommy was doing... and he had a red marker open, and in his mouth. He was sucking away on that red marker. By the time his mommy took the marker away (much to his dismay), he had sucked the (thankfully non-toxic) color completely out, and the tip of the marker was white.

Luckily, he did not, as his mommy feared, color on anything except the inside of his mouth.

And then his mommy put the markers away, as she should have done in the first place.

The end.