Something New Everyday

I know I've said it before, but Lawson is changing and learning new things every day. It amazes me how much babies learn and change in the first year of their life. I want to record as much as possible about what Lawson is doing and all that he's learning as we make it through this first year. The problem is that it all happens so fast. Lately, it seems like literally it's something new every day. Here's a run down of some things our growing boy is up to these days.

A few weeks ago we started clapping. All. The. Time. Even in the middle of the night when he couldn't stay asleep: clapping. Too funny.

Crawling began the second week of October. Now he crawls so stinking fast it blows my mind.

Pulling up here and there began the second week of October. Now he pulls up on EVERYTHING. The coffee table, the couch, the shelf in his room, the dresser, the side of his bed, the walker (this one is tricky since the walker moves), the sliding glass door, you name it. In the last two weeks, he has been "practicing" getting up and down from a standing position. He does it over and over and over very carefully and deliberately. Practice makes perfect, right.

Playing cars/trucks. Lawson loves to play with his cars and trucks. The best part is that when he rolls them around and back and forth, he makes the car sound. You know, vroooooommmmmm, vrooommmm, vrooommmm. It is maybe the cutest thing ever.

Uh-oh. This week Lawson's favorite thing is saying "Uh-oh." He says it when he drops (throws sometimes) his sippy cup, when he drops his toy or pacifier, when we drop something, when something falls off the table or highchair tray. It's awesome. Sometimes he says it just before he "drops" his sippy cup. Silly kid.

Dog. This week he has also started going to the back sliding glass door, standing up, smacking his hands on the window and saying, "du. du. dug. dug." It's not exactly dog, but he's saying it while looking out at the dogs.

Tossing the ball around. Lawson loves to through his toy balls. He actually likes to throw/toss most things, but he especially likes to toss his ball up in the air and then go after it. He'll do it all over the house. Toss, crawl, pick up, sit up, toss, crawl, pick up, sit up.... Over and over.

Kisses. Lawson is a sweet boy. He's likes to snuggle and likes to cuddle most of the time. Lately he's started giving kisses. Now, if you know anything about babies you know that baby kisses are mostly their open mouth being planted on your face. Slobber everywhere. Maybe one of the best things ever. Lawson does not give kisses to everyone all the time. Some days he wants to give me kisses. Some days he prefers to give Daddy kisses and not me. You just never know. My heart melts when he leans toward me with that slobbery mouth open and plants a kiss on my check.

As you can see, it's a fun time in the Keyes house. We love every minute of it.

Mandy



The Things Parents Do

Now that Jason and I are parents, we find ourselves doing things we never could have imagined doing: Tripping over a toy car in the middle of the living room floor. Acting a fool in public to try and get Lawson to smile for a picture. Ignoring the show we love on TV because our son is doing something silly. I could go on and on.

Here are a couple of pictures of something we find ourselves doing often...and cannot believe:

At first these look like pictures of Jason feeding Lawson. No big deal, right. Look closer though. Do you see that Jason's iPhone is clipped on the front of his shirt?  What you can't tell from this picture is what's on the screen. It's a video of Laswon laughing in his high chair about three months ago. Why you ask? Well, sometimes, when Lawson is a little...let's just say distracted during a meal, this is what we do to get him to focus and eat. It's the craziest thing. All we have to do is play a video of him laughing or just making noise, and it's like he can't take his eyes off the screen. He finds himself so funny. And, the best part, while he's watching, he just eats and eats. One bite after the other.

Silly boy.

Mandy

Changing Everyday

Lawson has changed so much since just my last post a week ago. I know people always say that it all just happens so fast, and that kids grow up overnight, but I never fully understood that until now.

Last week when we took Lawson for his 9 month check up, he would only crawl (belly off the ground) for a few strides and he had only pulled up on stuff with help. Two days later this happened in the 60 seconds Daddy was down the hall and Lawson was in the living room playing:



Did this all by himself. I'm not sure which he wanted more: the Dr. Pepper or the Reece's Pieces that were on the table.

Then, later that day, he started crawling all over the house and hasn't stopped since. (I'll post a video of this later)

And, this weekend, we put the legs on our favorite toy. Lawson LOVES it.

In addition to these two huge things, we had another first this week....wait for it....Lawson peed in the bath water. Yep! Almost as soon as his feet his the tub floor. It's a wonder this hasn't happened before. He acted a little shocked actually. Guess he wasn't thrilled about it either. Then again, it happened two days later too, so....

We're so proud of our little man. He's growing up TOO fast! At some level, we want him to stop or at least slow down, but we are also proud parents and cannot wait to see what's to come.

Mandy



You've Got the Sweetest Little Baby Face

Spent a little time outside last week in this beautiful fall weather. What a sweet, sweet face.

9 Months

Lawson is nine months old as of Saturday, October 6!! I can't believe how fast it has gone. We took him in for his nine month check up yesterday, and all is well. We had to complete a questionnaire about his development. Stuff like, does he pick up objects with a finger and thumb, does he make sounds like "da-da" or "ma-ma" or "ba-ba", does he pick up one toy in each hand and hit them together, etc. We got to answer YES to every question!! The only one that was questionable was if he stops what he's doing if we say, "no, no." He does this most of the time...not always.

Someone was being big and taking his bottle all by himself while we waited for Dr. Jon.

He weighs 21 pounds and 5 ounces and measures 28.5 inches long. Dr. Jon says he's bigger than six out of ten baby boys his age and that what ever we're doing, we're doing it right because he is a healthy baby! So glad to hear that! Here are some additional updates:

Loves his walker. Especially ramming into stuff throughout the house.

Lawson loves drinking out of his sippy cup.



But also enjoys a big boy cup all by himself.



This picture never gets old! This is something Lawson has been doing in the last month or so. We can't really figure out why he's got that one leg up in the air...balance maybe?

I think he looks like such a big boy playing in the floor with his toys. And, of course, there's the scrunched up nose face again. I'm telling you, he does this all the time. We love it!!



Sits up and plays on his own. Lawson easily goes from sitting to laying down or crawling and vice versa.

Some new stuff Lawson is eating: puffs, crunchies, Cheetos, banana and sweet potato and pancake pieces (by himself), stage 2 and 3 foods.

Most consistent sounds: Da-da, Ma-ma, Na-na. I may be a little biased, but he actually tends to make these sounds when the appropriate person is in the room or he is going to/looking for the person.

Sleeping: Lawson is not a fan of naps. Occasionally, he will take a long nap (hour and a half), but for the most part, it's less than an hour. We are working to get him down to two naps a day. Hopefully that are a little more of a quality nap. Some nights are good: in bed by 8p and sleeps until 6a. Some nights are not: in bed by 8p but up a few times a night briefly. No night time feedings though.

Other: Army crawls a lot, but can also crawl "normally". Has started doing this more and more in the past week. Pulled up to standing by himself in his bed last week. Loves to clap. Loves to through toys up in the air and play with toy cars.

Lawson Jace,

Your Mommy and Daddy love you very much!! We are so proud of all your accomplishments so far. We are a little sad when we think of how quickly this nine months has gone, but we are so excited to see you learn new things and to watch you grow right in front of our eyes. You are the best thing we ever did. We love you baby boy!!

Mandy



Pumpkin Patch

This weekend we took Lawson to a Punkin' Patch at a local church. It was just a short drive from our house, so it wasn't an all day outing, but we sure did have fun. We just love getting our little man out and about.



Ornery little boy.



Sweet little smile.






Silly boy.

 

My two favorite boys.

LOVE this kid!

Look how big he looks standing up there.

There's that silly face again. We're finding it difficult to get pictures of him doing anything else. :-)

Daddy working hard to carve Lawson's first pumpkin. As you can see Lawson is preoccupied. Mostly just wanted to ram the table with his walker.

Such a good Daddy. Even digging out the pumplin guts.



The end result. Super fun pumpkin, but Lawson wanted nothing to do with it once it was carved.

 Such a fun day!! I love spending my time with these two wonderful boys. Everyday just keeps getting better and better.

Mandy

Lessons from Daddy

If you know my husband at all, you know he has a few guns. Here is what I'm sure is the first of many lessons in proper gun maintenance and safety.

Mandy

McDonald's

On August 16, Nana and Addison took Lawson for his first trip to McDonald's. Now, he did not eat at McDonald's. No Happy Meals just yet, but he did get to watch the kids play in the Play Place.

I'm sure there will be many other visits to McDonald's in the future, but I wanted to make sure we documented the first trip...even if Momma and Daddy weren't there. 

Mandy

Labor Day...A Month Late

To say I'm a little behind is a huge understatement, but I am really going to try to do better. The next few posts will be updates from the past month or so.

Labor Day weekend we went to my Aunt Renee's house in Russellville for a family cookout. It just so happened to also be the 18th birthday her twins, David and Sarah. Almost all of my mom's family was there. Lawson was a trooper. He slept literally the whole way there except the first 15 minutes or so of the drive. To be honest, I was a little worried about how he would do with all the commotion that comes with family gatherings. For a month or so, he seemed to be getting super overwhelmed around new/unfamiliar people and especially in noisy places. 

We ended up having such a great time! Lawson ate well, he let a few new people carry him around and love on him. Even let my sister (Auntie Teff...AKA Stephanie) give him his bottle. I was having so much fun I forgot to take a ton of pictures, but here are a few: 

Getting a little sleepy with Aunt Pam. She's a Nana too, so she knows all the tricks.  

Loving on Nana. Not an unfamiliar site.

 Those are Nana's arms holding him over the big pool. We didn't bring our swim clothes because we thought it would be to cool, but that didn't stop Nana from letting him have a little fun. 

This is the, "what do you mean I wasn't supposed to get in the pool?" face. 

Being silly with Daddy.

This is my Aunt Renee'. I spent a lot of time with her growing up. She's the youngest of my Mom's siblings, and even though she was still older enough to babysit me, I think she was probably the coolest Aunt ever. I spent part of my summer with she and my Uncle Doug when I was 15. It was right after she had her twins (the ones who just turned 18!!!). It was a little weird to think we were celebrating the 18th birthday of two kids who were Lawson's size just yesterday (or so it seems). 

This is my cousin Hayley's little girl Brooklyn. She is four months older than Lawson. You'll notice Lawson is almost as big as she is. 

Lawson decided maybe he wanted to give Brooklyn a little pat on the shoulder...

Or maybe a little tug...

As you can see, Lawson now has the water bottle Brooklyn had. She was very nice about him taking it, but you can sort of tell by the look on his face he knows he was pushing his luck. 

This picture will probably get me in trouble if Sarah sees it. She was the birthday girl that day, and was NOT interested in having her picture made. Or, in holding babies. So, being the good and understanding cousin I am, I put Lawson in her lap anyway and took a picture. :-) We love you Sarah! And, that big ole' foot you see behind Sarah, is David. The birthday boy. 

What a fun day!! When I was growing up, my grandparents had big family gatherings for pretty much every holiday. This day was kind of like that. Both of my grandparents have gone on to be with Jesus, but I am CERTAIN they would have LOVED this day! What a blessing!!

Mandy

Silly Face

My sweet boy is making the silliest face these days. The sound that goes along with it is hilarious!! It's almost a huffing and puffing sound through his nose. And, as you can see, he just scrunches that sweet little button nose up.

My youngest sister, Stephanie, used to make the same face and sound when she was a baby. I'm pretty sure her little girl, Addison Grace, did the same thing. My mom thinks she remembers me doing it too. Either way, it's one of the cutest things ever.