Books, Books, Books

Lawson loves his books. He enjoys having someone read to him (although it has to be a short book for him to sit through the whole thing), he loves to flip through the pages by himself and look at the pictures and "read" to us.

All parents know that anytime your child is in another room by himself and it gets quiet, you should check in them because they are likely into something they shouldn't be. Lately though, when this happens with Lawson, I find him sitting I front of his bookshelf surrounded by several books just flipping through the pages of one if his favorite books. It melts my heart.

Here are some of his favorite books. These are the ones that pretty much get brought out everyday.

So glad my sweet boy loves books. I'm hoping this will be something that continues as he grows up. 

Mandy

Window to the World

Lawson has recently discovered the front window. He loves to just stand on the love seat and stare out the window watching for "cucks" (cars and trucks) to drive by. If one drives by too fast or if it's a really loud truck, he says in a very serious voice, "Whoa, cuck."

Lately when I get home from work, he is either standing at the screen front door or looking out the window at me. There is NOTHING like seeing that sweet face light up when he sees me pull up. Well, except maybe when I get out of the car and I can hear him say, "Hi, Momma!" Sometimes if Jason is home before he, he will hold Lawson up to the window in his room to say hi when I get home. Lawson remembers this and sometimes randomly will stand under the window, point, and say, "Cuck? Cuck? Momma." He just wants to look outside. Luckily it will be (consistently) warmer soon, so he can play outside more and more.

Mandy

Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick

Lawson is a typical boy. He LOVES to be outside and LOVES to pick up everything he can get his hands on. In this case, a stick.



Obviously we need to work on not running with sticks, but the boy was excited to show me that rock in his hand. Doesn't he look like a little boy instead of a baby? I love it and hate it at the same time.

Mandy

Saturday Fun

Last weekend Lawson and I had a busy day. After our breakfast, we headed out to Wal Mart. I have tried not to buy Lawson something every time we go to the store. As much as I love to buy stuff for my boy, I just don't want him to expect something every time. Silly maybe. Anyway, we've been looking for a big truck of some kind for a while. Lawson loves to push his cars and trucks all over the house but some of them are pretty small and it makes it difficult. So, this time I broke my rule and bought the kid a new truck.

We also spent some time outside after lunch. This kid loves to throw things, so of course, when we are outside, he wants to throw rocks. He also likes to hang out in Daddy's shop.

Once we were in for the night, Lawson insisted in carrying Jason's boots around the house. They were filthy, so I kept asking him to go put them up. He would carrying them back to the laundry room and put them right back where he found them, but then pick them up again and bring them back into the living room. So, we decided maybe he would be happy with his own boots instead.



As you can see he didn't want to just carry his boots around. He wanted them on. Probably not great fashion sense, but dang cute if you ask me. When he wears his boots, he tends to pick his feet up higher with each step. I think he likes the sound they make on the floor.

What a great day!

Mandy

ABC's

Last week Jason called me on my way home from work to tell me how smart "my son" is. We (like most parents, I'm sure) are always commenting how smart Lawson is. Yes, we are bias, but I really do think he's smart. :-)

Jason proceeded to tell me that while he was searching the Guide on our TV, Lawson started pointing at the letters saying, "Ah, bah, ooo, ah...." Lawson then ran (yes ran) into his bedroom. Jason was intrigued so he followed. He found Lawson standing in his room facing the alphabet wall pointing at letters and saying various letter sounds, "ah, bah, ooh, ah, bah, eee, ah...." Not only does he do this with the TV and the alphabet wall and the alphabet picture hanging above the changing table and his name on the wall above his bed, he also does it when "reading" a book.

I realize the kid isn't reciting his ABC's and working quadratic equations or anything, but still. He's figuring it out. He has made the association between books and letters and words.

I don't actually have a picture of him doing this, and if you're a parent you know that the second you try to get video of your child doing something amazing they stop. So, since every post should have a picture, here are a few of him "reading" one of his favorite books last weekend.

 I should mention that the book he has is one of those recordable books. I recorded myself reading it to Lawson last year when I was home on maternity leave. There are a few moments throughout the book when you can actually hear Lawson making sweet new baby sounds in the background. Probably won't ever delete the recording.

Mandy

The Dogs

Lawson is very amused by our dogs. He loves to watch them and talk to them (yell at them sometimes) through the patio door. He will tell them to "git" if they try to jump on him or lick him. As he gets bigger I know he will spend hours and hours running with them in the backyard. Here are a few shots from a (fairly) recent playtime with the dogs in the backyard.

That is Abby. Abby lives for attention. I think she would literally rather have attention than food. She just rolls over every time Lawson is outside and lets (or begs more like) him to pet her, which he does. 

That is Miles. Miles was our first child. We drove all the way to Oklahoma City to get him like a month after we got married, which means he just turned 12. As you can tell by the blur he is in these pictures, he still has a ton of energy even at his age. He's grumpy like an old man, but he has enough energy for like five dogs put together.

This last little blur is Ellie. As you can see, she's a miniature dachshund. She's the fasted tongue in the west. She will lick you before you even see her coming, which is what she's doing to Lawson in this picture. 

Silly dogs. 

Mandy

Floors: February 2013

A few weeks ago we were home having a relaxing and wonderful Sunday afternoon. Jason had just finished grilling some amazing steaks and we were about to sit down to dinner as a family. I brought the steaks in and Jason stayed outside to put the grill away. When I came in there was a puddle of water in the floor. I thought I had somehow spilled something, so I bent down to wipe it up. When I did, water came gushing out from under our laminate flooring! I knew something was wrong. After some investigation, Jason figured out that our water heater has rusted out and had been leaking.

We had to have all our laminate flooring pulled up and had two huge fans and a huge dehumidifier in our house for three days....running...loudly. It was unnerving to say the least. Not to mention the dust and yuckiness that was on the concrete floors we lived with for two weeks. I literally think Jason and I almost went nuts. Don't you just love the sheets on the couches?

To help us feel better about how gross the concrete was, we "carpeted" the floor with rugs. It was sort of like patchwork flooring. Doesn't it look AWESOME!?!? Trust me when I say that we were just glad to have the concrete covered even if it did look ridiculous.

This is the new flooring. We love it even more than the old flooring, but most of all we love that we aren't living on concrete floors anymore. And, you'll notice, the sheets are gone from the couches.

To say this whole ordeal was stressful, is an understatement. Thank goodness for insurance.


Mandy

My Sweet One Year Old

Lawson will be 14 months old next week. I have wanted to post his 12 month update for a while now, but since I plan to print this blog in book form soon, I wanted the posts to be in order. Plus, I really want to record every detail, and something new seems to happen every day.

When people tell you kids grow up too fast, they mean it. I have heard this all my life, and I've even said it myself about my nieces and nephews. As the proud Momma of a almost 14 month old little boy, I now have a whole new appreciation for what this phrase actually means. I honestly don't know where this last year has gone. It's happened right before my eyes, but somehow I didn't see it. What an amazing year! What an amazing gift God gave us in our Lawson Jace.

Here is a little review of where Lawson is at this point in his life:

• Weight (as of his 12 month check up): 22 lbs 7 oz
• Height 29.5 inches (as of his 12 month check up):
• Teeth: Almost 5 - Two on bottom and two whole teeth and two just barely peeking through on top.
• Recent Vocabulary (words Lawson says consistently.this is not an all-inclusive list, but covers the most frequentlyl used words/phrases):
• Momma
• Daddy
• Hi (very long and drawn out and sing-song sometimes)
• Cuck = car and/or truck (for a while he would say "tuck" but when we started differentiate between truck and car, it became "cuck")
• Dunt Cuck = dump truck (he has several of these, one of which says, "I'm a dump truck!" He picked this one up on his own. 
• Cup
• Malk = Milk (we started saying milk in place of bottle or nummies when we switched to regular milk and quit using a bottle)
• Aaaahh side = outside (this one is a little sing-song too because that's how Nana says it during the day when they go ooouuutside.
• Monk = his favorite little sock monkey. Monk is now his name.
• Awww Maaan = Oh Man! This is his new favorite thing to say these days
• Eat
• Addie = either Addie (as in my niece Addison) or Abby (as in one of our dogs)
• Sist = Shoe. When he says this it sounds an awful lot like a bad work for poo. I think he may be combining the sounds of shoe and socks some how. Funny either way.
• Sock
• Hot Dog (which is what he wants to eat for every meal)
• Schnacks = Snacks
• Uh-oh
• Bat = Bath
• Dog
• Mike = Miles (our Jack Russell)
• Cack-ca = Cracker
• Bye-bye (usually said after someone leaves as opposed to as they are leaving)

• Nicknames (I'm not sure how some of these came about, but here are some we've used/use):
• Law Dog
• Lawson Jace
• Law-shin
• Bubbers
• Tootie
• Toot-Toot
• Honey Pot
• Snuggy Bug
• Chief
• Bubba-Lou
• Bubba-louie
• Tootie Pants
• Sweet Cheeks

• Favorite Things
• Monk
• Chuck the Dump Truck
• The fast/loud car Daddy got him when he was sick over Christmas. Lawson was terrified of this car for a couple of weeks. Would not go near it. Then the big kids played with it at his birthday party, and Jevin played with it with Lawson one afternoon. It's been one of his favorites since.
• The motorcycle Momma and Daddy got him for Christmas. It plays music, which make his wanna dance!!
• Any ball he can get his hands on, but mostly the blue flashy one Gigi got for him, the basketball Nana got him for Christmas, and the little Navy stress-reliever ball he got from Todd at my office.
• Bottles. Water bottles. Pepsi or any other soda bottles. He likes to throw his head back and pretend to gulp, gulp, gulp.
• Adele's 21 CD. He loves to listen to this in the car. Might have something to do with how much I listened to it while I was pregnant.
• Eating Cheerios out of your snack bowl all by yourself.

I've worked on this post for two weeks off and on. I'm terrified I'm going to leave something out and then not be able to remember it later when I want to look back on this time in Lawson's life. I've decided if it's not listed, it's not the end of the world...really it's not...right?