Early Christmas!

I've been searching for toy boxes for several months now. Let's face it, all children must have a toy box! Unfortunately, I'm not the person that is okay with toys strewn all over my house, taking up space in every room, occupying valuable floor space, etc. While I was doing a search I found a blog from a very crafty mother who decided a home made toy box was the way to go. After begging my father in law/husband to build one, they finally said yes :) (really my father in law loved the opportunity do get out of doing house work). I gave him the measurements and the blog link of what I wanted. I will admit to totally stealing this mom's idea, but hey, from the pictures below, I know you'll want to steal her idea as well.

The measurements are 2 feet wide by 3 feed long, yep, HUGE! What can I say, Simon has LOTS of toys! After it was built, I decided I wanted to paint it blue. Here it is sitting in my kitchen floor after I painted:

 

After the paint job was done, I had a friend of mine come over to do a little stenciling for me. The pattern was printed online and she basically just traced it on to the toy box. After the tracing was finished I went in for the hard part - painting the lines. Let's just say I have the most unsteady hand! While I was painting it looked terrible. I was quite worried. However, here is the final result:

 I could not be more pleased with this! It turned out amazingly beautiful and now there is one place for all those toys that are constantly scattered amongst my small but cozy house.

Thank you to all who helped make this possible: My father in law for building this and might I add he kilz'd it, my friend from work who stenciled this like a pro, and for my sweet husband for lifting and carrying this thing all over our house. I'm happy, Si seemed to love it, and now we have something to pass on from generation to generation...unless the zombie apocalypse happens and we have to use it to stay warm...

My empire of dirt

There are people in this world who will literally suck all the life out of you to get what they want. Unfortunately we can't always get away from them, due to extenuating circumstances. You either chose to let them suck the life out of you, or chose to take each experience with a grain of salt and try not to give in.
Every once in a while I feel like I have lived my whole life this way, always giving in to others needs and taking nothing for myself. I've let the people I love and care about the most suck my heart and soul out of me, leaving an empty slate for anyone else who comes along. Its sad really, that until I turned 28 I had no clue what was happening. Twenty eight years of my life, that's my lifetime!
About a month ago I realized it was time to start living for myself. I'm not sure what happened really, but something inside of me wanted a change, and something inside of me knew it could change. You see, it's easy to avoid those types of people if they aren't your family, not so easy when they are.
I have a son who loves me, a husband who would do anything for me, a house I can call mine, a job, an education. I have  life of my own. I can't continue to let others suck what life I have left. So as I write this, and if you read this, no one says it better than Johnny Cash: you can have it all, my empire of dirt - because up to this point, that's all I am.

Toddler Tantrums

Well, the day has come. I officially feel like a terrible parent. I have family members who swear their children never went through the terrible two stages. "It's all about how you, the parent, respond to them", they'd say. So while my child is laying on the floor screaming and carrying on, exactly what am I suppose to do? Ignore that? Walk away? Act like I can't hear the ear piercing screams from my 'sweet little baby'? Seriously! That makes them stop? Prove it!

I have always been the one to hear babies crying, kids pitching fits, or just making noise in general. After you have kids, that's suppose to change, right? It all just blends in with the background noise? Right! I still can't tune out my own kid, much less any other child carrying on. Is there a secret to this 'tuning out' that someone would like to share with me :).  Maybe that would help the both of us.

For the most part, Simon is just finding his place in our family. We don't feed him a lot of sweets or junk food, but I've made the mistake of giving him animal crackers after dinner. He also has a bedtime snack...what? he has always eaten a lot! That boy came out looking for a hamburger! The dilemma now is he eats anything they feed him at school, but he has stopped eating what I put in front of him. Grrrr, dumb animal crackers. We have a hutch in our kitchen where I store his baby snacks, and he knows that's where they are. If he doesn't want what I put down on his tray to eat, he immediately looks at the hutch and starts carrying on about he would rather have some puffs, or a cereal bar, or baby Cheetos (yes, they make those), or animal crackers. By carrying on I don't mean actually talking, its more like he's speaking a foreign language, but I know what he means. Tonight I gave him unbreaded chicken tenders that had mushroom gravy on them (no mushrooms). The chicken was tender, and usually he loves chicken. I also gave him some baked apples and a cheese stick. He took one bite of the chicken, one bite of the apples, then took the cheese stick and threw it in the floor. Don't worry, we have a dog who loves cheese. Then, the fussing began. I had already decided I was going to ignore him tonight to see if he would eventually eat what I'd given him. His fussing turned into a full fledged tantrum. At this point I was pretty sure outside was calling me. This kid may be more stubborn than his mother....he did eventually eat the apples (or either the dog did) but he didn't touch the chicken. Note to self: Si does NOT like mushroom and gravy on chicken. He was all worked up so we snuggled in the rocker for a bit then it was bath time. His little belly was growling the whole time. After bath, he ran into the kitchen pointing at the hutch.

A lot of mommies talk about 'choosing their battles' between their spouses and children. How is it that my 16 month old slaughters me in battle?

Angels vs Demons

I was once told 'Everyone fights demons. Everyone has an inner demon'. That may be a false statement for you, but the more life I witness, the more I believe this statement. At times, we all face a darkness that seems to consume our every movement, our every thought, our state of being. Couldn't this be called a demon? Something that tries to bring us to our knees, something that can make life so difficult getting out of bed seems unrealistic? My favorite definition of the word 'demon' is 'an evil passion or influence'. If I am the only person that has experienced this, then Lord help me! These dark times for me started when I was a young teenager, possibly middle school. I haven't been able to pinpoint an exact time or event, I just remember it coming over me like a dark cloud. Yes, another word for this could be depression. However, during these times I would always remember the song "Oh be careful little eyes what you see, oh be careful little ears what you hear". It seemed everything was much more influential during these times: music, friends, parents. As I've gotten older I've learned to surround myself with the positive things in life, but lets face it, one can't always be positive. That inner demon finds its way up every now and then. There are people who have never experienced depression, and for those of you who are reading this that haven't, you're not missing out on anything, really. Scientifically, it just means all your juices are flowing the way they should be :). There are skeptics who say its all in our heads or we control how we feel, but that really isn't the case. As I mentioned above, I've lived long enough to realize the statement is true. Not every person deals with depression, but everyone at some point has an inner demon they must fight. Some win, some lose. The good news is most people don't have to fight this on their own. Family, friends, siblings, spouses, neighbors, counselors, doctors, etc are all there to help people out during times of need. I call these people Angels. Whether you reach out, or keep it buried inside, someone is always there to comfort you. The definition of an angel is this: a person having qualities generally attributed to an angel, as beauty, purity, or kindliness. All I can say is, thank goodness there are kind people on this earth for me to share my burdens with.  If you are going through something, there are people out there that care about you, open up, let it out, after all, that's why God put angels on this earth.

I realize this isn't my typical post, but I've started a 10 day challenge for myself. Ten days of blogging, ten days of eating better, ten days of consistent exercise, which means ten days of turning my blog into 'my journal'. Writing about whatever is on mind. I only want to continue to better myself for my son, my family. Taking care of me is where it starts. This may be Microsoft word material, filed away and locked up tight, but why hide? I've hidden for too long!

Simons 1st Birthday Photo Shoot

 If you live in our area and decide you'd like some pictures made professionally, look up Stephanie Finch-Hicks. She always does such a great job! I'll let the pics speak for themselves.

Simon Turns One!!!

July 2, 2012 came all too quickly for us. I never understood what other parents meant when, enjoy them while you can, time flies. Boy, were they right! I have to admit, it took me several months to plan this birthday bash, but it came together pretty well I must say. Our theme for birthday number 1 was Dr. Seuss. We had yummy food and a beautiful cake thanks to Casey's Cakes out of Hull, GA. Family and close friends were there to celebrate his special day!

Decorated the fireplace in the theme of the party

 This is the table food, we had lots of yummy goodies. Gotta give a shout out to the other bloggers who posted ideas about this party. Thank you!!!

Truffula Trees from The Lorax

 These were cake pops made by Mrs. Hardy out of Elberton, look her up, you won't be disappointed!

                           Then there was the cake. The top part of this cake was his smash cake.

 Green Eggs and Ham for the infamous book, Green Eggs and Ham. Yes, those are pretzels, but who wants to eat eggs at a birthday party?

             Cocktail weenies wrapped in dough, we called them Dogs in a Blanket for Go, Dog, Go!

                                                               Popcorn for Hop on Pop

 I got this drink idea from a pin on pinterest. Beezlenut Splash,  sprite with different colored jello floating around. Not everyone enjoyed the jello, but it sure made a pretty pitcher!

All of Simon's gifts! He received so many toys and Dr. Seuss books! He also got a sandbox and a lightening McQueen car from the movie, Cars.

 Here are some pictures of Simon checking his cake out. He wasn't so sure about it. Up until this point, we had never given him anything like this. The icing was a bit hard so it wasn't as easy to grab into, but he did want a taste.

Turns out, he was more interested in the fork than anything else. Oh well, guess he won't be like his Mommy after all.

Catch up

Wow, time has flown by and now he's right at 14 months old. Whoopsy! To start things off, this past year has been a hard year but I wouldn't trade anything for the world. Simon is much like his mother and father, very independent, strong willed, and doesn't like to hear the word 'no'. Let's take a glance at this past year.

 Simon started crawling right around the 8 months old mark. He became fond of the entertainment center and then he noticed the dog bed in our living room.

 Then it was the fire place.

 Simon grew to LOVE bath time! Now that he's older, he lets the water out of the bathtub and continues playing.

Back in March, my parents got Si his first outside play place. He was a bit too small at first but now he enjoys playing on it.

 Here is a pic of his first Aquarium trip:

 We took a trip to Savannah back in April to visit with my friend, Marisa. While we were there we spent the day at Tybee Island. Simon wasn't really sure about the beach, not to mention, he didn't sleep well while we were there. Between the sand in his eyes and his lack of sleep, it wasn't the best beach trip ever...

 We spend a lot of time in Atlanta now, specifically on the Chattahoochee River. Simons Poppy and Omi live there. He loves water, so we take him to see the River almost every time we visit.

That's a fast update, but if I run across anymore pictures, I'll post them (in their own blog of course). I promise I'll do better with this :)