Memorial Day!

Our good friends the Ingram's had a Memorial Day BBQ and pool party this weekend. Ford of course loved swimming and watching all the big kids swim around. It was such a fun party, and so funny how different parties are now that we all have kids.....fun, but very different!!!

 Ford loved playing on his friend Jessie's little car. He looks so big!!!

Oh how I LOVE this sweet face!

Little Book Worm!

In the past month Ford has started to love to read books. I have always loved to read so I am excited that he is becoming a budding bookie too! He already has his favorites and only wants to read the same ones over and over, but we are trying to branch out. I keep all his books in a basket and sometimes it is way more fun to just pull all the books out and chew on a few of them. Before I put him down at night we read a few books, and he will actually sit still for a few moments while I read him a book. He knows once he finishes his bottle it's time to read books, and he gets turned around in my lap in book reading position. It's so crazy what little creatures of habit babies are!

He gets his puffy morning eyes from his Mama!!!



Crawling Lessons

Ford is almost 10 months old and still can't crawl, so Erik and I have been giving him some crawling lessons. To say he dislikes crawling is an understatement!!! I am starting to think that he is just going to skip crawling and go straight to walking. He has the strength and is rocking on all fours, he just can't seem to put it all together. He has also figured out how to go from sitting onto all fours, but he only goes backwards from there! He wants so badly to be mobile, but not in the form of crawling. He would much rather be standing, or hold onto our hands and walking. The funny thing is that he thinks he can walk, but has no idea that we are balancing him and if he lets go he's going to face plant!!! Poor little guy is so frustrated being trapped in this body that doesn't do what he wants it to!! Here are some videos of me trying to encourage him to crawl!!!

Bad Habit????

Before Ford was born Erik and I had firmly decided that we were going to follow the Babywise method of sleep training. I had several friends that had done it and had great success in getting their babies to sleep through the night. I am proud to say that we followed it and too had great success, albeit there were times that I was wondering if I had lost my mind waking up my sleeping baby in the middle of the night!! Ford was pretty text book and fell right into step with what the book had said. One of the most important keys to the sleep training is teaching your baby how to fall asleep on their own. This one can be tough because it can mean having to listen to your baby cry. I am not a big believer in letting your baby cry it out, especially a newborn, but there were some times that we let him cry. When Ford was about 3 months old, and his spitting up was in it's prime, our pediatrician suggested that I "top him off" before his nap either with a bottle or nursing him. This worked great except that I started to love snuggling him tight and watching those sleepy eyes sink into a deep sleep!!! I kept telling myself  "this isn't what the book says to do you are creating a bad habit!!!!".

All that being said, more than six months later I still rock him to sleep for both of his naps and at night......I know, I know bad habit, right???? Although it is time consuming, inconvenient and at times frustrating it is almost always the sweetest moment of my day. It is the only time when he is awake that he is perfectly still. He loves to have his hair and face stroked as we glide back and forth. He will hold onto his last waking moment as hard as he can, his heavy eyelids fighting off sleep. Sometimes when I am rocking him, and I am in deep thought of what I "should" be doing instead of rocking him, I look down and he has a huge smile sticking out of the sides of his paci with the sweetest look of adoration!  My ability to love him unconditionally is at it's peak when I feel his warm little body wrapped up in my arms, and hear that certain rhythmic breathing that means he is asleep. No matter what has happened up to that point in the day somehow I look at him through an angelic lens and all is good! It is in those sweet moments that I think to myself THIS is how God intended it to be!

So, bad habit???? Probably, but for now this sweet moment never gets old!

The Many Faces of Ford

Ford has so much personality and is such a ham especially when I am taking pictures of him. I have no idea how he knows that I am capturing all his personality on camera, but somehow he does. Everywhere we go he gets attention because he is so friendly and outgoing. He really knows how to turn on the charm!!! This morning after breakfast I just started taking pictures, and this is what he gave me! I was just snapping away, and he was giving me every face he has in his bag!! This kid keeps me laughing!!!

 It's crazy how much he is starting to look like my baby pictures! I finally see myself in him!

 Here is a close up of his second tooth that came in on 5/10! He handled it like a champ! 2 down and a lot more to go hopefully the rest will be as smooth as the first 2!!!!

Weekend in L.A.

We had such a great weekend in LA, and loved being able to spend time with Auntie Anna and Uncle Adam. Ford of course LOVED them, and was such a good boy all weekend. His second tooth was cutting through this weekend, and he was still such a sweet boy. We took Ford swimming for the first time and he loved it!!! I thought he might be a little intimidated, but he took right to it. Here is some video of our little fish!!!

Erik was such a proud Dad!!!

Ford's punk LA look!!!

If you look close you can see his newest tooth!!

We have to hold his arms down so he won't pull off his sunglasses....he's not a fan!

such a happy boy!!!

LOVE

Ford loved Anna and was always checking to make sure she was watching him! He is such a little flirt already!!

His face cracks me up in this picture! What do you think...... does he like swimming???

We went out to Malibu on Saturday and it was a little foggy, but we still had fun!!!

Wathcing Erik be a Dad never gets old! Next to being Ford's Mommy nothing melts my heart more than watching Erik's total adoration of Ford. He is such a great Dad and is completely in love with his little boy. My heart could just explode when I see them together!!!

I just love this little face!! I still look at him and think "where did you come from!"

I had a wonderful 1st Mother's Day this year. We went for a hike in Topanga Canyon and then had a picnic!!! It was a little bit of an intense hike to do with a 9 month old (Erik and Adam basically carried the jogging stroller up most of the hike), but Ford was a trooper and did great!!! Being Ford's Mommy is an unmatched happiness. I had know idea how deeply you could love a child. I absolutely love being a mom, and being able to share this incredible journey with Erik!! I feel unbelievably blessed to have the honor to be a mommy to Ford and a wife to Erik!!! Thanks Anna, Adam, Erik and Ford for making me feel so speical and loved on Mother's Day!

One day....

....He will probably not be so happy with this post, but I just couldn't help myself this is too cute!!!

He loves to stand up now and hold onto his crib, and I thought why not let's just take his diaper off!!

Look at that little snaggle tooth!!!