The Fair

I decided to take the day off on Wednesday and my mom and I took Jason to the Arizona State Fair! Since the gates don't open until 12pm, Jason was ready for a nap as soon as we got there. So he slept in his stroller while my mom and I explored. When we arrived at the petting zoo area, I tried to wake Jason up and he was still sleeping soundly so my mom and I wandered around in the zoo playing with the animals ourselves.

Then Jason finally woke up:

And, just as I'd figured, he really loved the animals in the petting zoo:

This baby goat thinks my pants are tasty. TOO CUTE!!

Then we wandered around looking for a ride that would be baby friendly enough for Jason. We came across a Pony Ride and I was so excited when they said he could ride! He did SO good! He loved it and he held on tight and sat up straight and didn't wobble or anything. I walked around with him of course, but he rode like he'd been doing it forever :-)

This carnival dude behind us was super nice but wouldn't quit talking...

Such a fun time at the fair!!

He Waves!

Jason's newest trick is waving...at everyone and everything. The past couple of days when I picked him up from his dad's house, he started waving bye to everyone before I even told him it was time to go home! I don't know if it's just because he likes to wave or because he realizes that I'm going to take him bye bye. His dad mentioned that he will wave at you when you come into a room and often will wave to you when it looks like you're going to leave as well.

He also waves at himself in the mirror, waves at stars and airplanes, the faucet in the bathtub, the ceiling fan, etc.

Other noteable things:

He gives hugs and kisses, although the kisses involve attempting to bite your bottom lip and then pull it off. Hugs are better, they come complete with grunts of effort :)

His top two teeth are coming in! He's going to look adorable with four front teeth.

He learned to climb the stairs recently so we had to install baby gates at the top and bottom of the steps. He stands and rattles them like prison bars.

He also has learned the art of pretending to choke. He makes gagging noises and when you look at him he smiles and laughs. Not funny little booger!

Jason at the Zoo

Last weekend Jason and I went to the zoo with a very special friend of mine. This isn't the first time we've taken him there but it was the first time he was really awake and paying attention.
The Phoenix Zoo just recently opened a new water play area for the kids in September. We decided to take Jason there to check it out before the weather got too cold. He enjoyed crawling around and playing in the water. Then we took him over to the children's area so he could go into the petting zoo and see the goats. Here's some shots of Jason enjoying the animals:

I really did try to keep him from pulling hair and poking eyes...

Then we took him over near that Spider Web climing thing so he could play around in the sand. He had fun watching the other little kids play as well as staring at other babies:

My Week

I don't really have a whole lot to blog about this week so I thought I would just write down a bunch of random events...hope that's amusing to someone:

- I had a really crappy week at work.

- One of my sales reps was mean and made me cry :(

- Did I mention the week was crappy?? On top of the crying thing, several people in the sales dept. have taken interest in me and a friend I have at work...and think it's their business to tell me whether or not we can eat lunch together.

- I spent a bunch of time cleaning up crap and messes I didn't make because we are having a big Groundbreaking event on Monday and the owner of the company and all sorts of other important people are showing up.

- The sales office hasn't looked so pretty and clean in the entire 2 1/2 years I've been working there.

- My review is coming up soon and I think I deserve a raise. I don't think they think I deserve one and I'm afraid I won't get one.

- I went to the company picnic on Saturday and I was really bored. There is nothing for me to do with an 11 month old at a place like that. We talked to people and played in the grass. It rained a little.

- I'm done talking about work now...

- Jason is totally into sticking his tounge out. He can also twist his tounge up and he sticks it out at me all twisted. I can't do that...I'm jealous ;)

- Jason also farted in the bathtub last night and scared himself. I laughed so hard I almost fell into the tub. Jason laughed as well...apparently it's funny when mommy laughs so hard she snorts!

- My weekend has been much better than my week. I'm thankful for quality time with my son and others...

- I washed my car today. Go me! I haven't done that in...3 months? Despite the horrible damage to the side, my car actually looks really nice when its all clean. Just stand on the driver's side and you'll think so too ;)

*AHHH* Done venting. Need a shower now, I got all stinky washing that car...lol ;)

Tagged!

I was tagged by Amanda :)

Favorite person (outside of family)? They know who they are...

Favorite food? Pizza and steak yum :)

Quirks about you? I do this funny little hiccup thing, a bit hard to explain

Any regrets in life? Not exactly

Favorite Charity/Cause? Breast Cancer Awareness

Favorite Blog recently? Amanda's is the only one I read lol

Something you can’t get enough of? Pomegranate Mojitos

Worst job you’ve ever had? Receptionist at a door company...those people were mean!

What job would you pay NOT to have? Construction work

If you could be a fly on the wall, where? Hmmm...

Guilty Pleasure? Black Licorice

Got any confessions? Try me after a few drinks...

If you HAD to spend $1,000 on YOURSELF, how would you spend it? Clothes, shoes, and all the other things I haven't been allowed to buy for myself much over the past 6 years...

Favorite thing about your house? My parents are here :)

Least favorite thing about your house? Having to share a room with Jason. Don't get me wrong, I love my son, but he and I both can be light sleepers. We wake each other up dozens of times at night... :S

One thing you are bad at? Handling high amounts of stress

One thing you’re good at? Working on computers

If you could change something about your circumstances, what? I would have gotten myself out of a certain bad situation sooner...oh and the lottery would be nice too ;)

Who would you like to meet someday? Living or dead? Gotta agree with Amanda on Wentworth Miller (DROOL) but maybe also Jack Johnson

What makes you feel sexy? New underwear...and tight jeans ;)

Who is your real life hero? My mommy

What is the hardest part of your job? Let's not name names now...I deal with several of them on a daily basis...

When are you most relaxed? Friday for sure. No work the next day and I have Fridays to myself since Jason is not with me

What stresses you out? Trying to plan for the future

What can you not live without? My baby boy and my cellphone

Do you agree or disagree with the recent article that reported that blogs are authored by narcissists? Guess I missed that one

Why do you blog? To try and keep everyone who doesn't see Jason and I on a regular basis updated on how my little guy is growing :)

Jason at the Park

I took Jason to the park this weekend. Well actually I took him to several parks before I gave up and settled on the one in the pictures. We drove to this big park by my house but there was some kind of event going on and tons of people there. Too hectic for just the two of us! Then I drove to a little playground by my parents house hoping there was a baby swing there, but there wasn't so finally I drove to another little playground that I knew of and even though there still wasn't a baby swing we stopped to play anyway:




Lost his shoe :)



















What is this stuff??









I also got a little video of him playing in the sand. My mom's camera doesn't have sound so it's just a little clip:

Also before we went out that day I discovered that the camera took video in the first place. Here is the original video I shot :)

Happy Birthday!

Saturday was my 24th birthday. I can hardly believe that. It seems like it was just my 23rd birthday and I was anticipating the birth of Jason. Now I'm 24 and he'll be a year old in 2 months...crazy.

Anyway on Saturday I lounged around the house for part of the day and dragged Jason through Target on a shopping spree for the other half. My dad (Keven) bought me gift cards there as a birthday gift so I bought myself some new clothes for work and some underwear and stuff ;) (bet you really wanted to know that, huh dad?)

After that I went out with a friend of mine for the night. My parents agreed to watch Jason for me so I did a little partying. We went to dinner and then hopped a couple of bars...and when I say I did a little partying I mean I did a little TOO MUCH partying. I was pretty sick that night and most of Sunday as well. Yuck...lol.

On Sunday evening my parents took me to dinner at Olive Garden (YUM!). Luckily I was finally feeling like a human being again so I was able to enjoy the food. My mom and I also got our nails done on Sunday afternoon. I'm all excited cuz they make cool clacking noises on the keyboard when I type at work. Makes me sound really busy. Not that I'm not really busy anyway ;)

Thanks everyone for such an awesome birthday! :)

Maroon 5 Pics

OK I decided to post these. I took a couple of pictures of the big screen close to where I was sitting. My cell phone camera sucks and doesn't zoom very far so I couldn't take shots of the stage. Also it's blurry...









Eh you get the point ;)

Maroon 5!!

CRAP!! I just typed this whole thing about the concert and then Blogger had some stupid error and I lost it all :*( Try this again...


WAXIE Tempe Sales all chipped in a little and bought me some kick ass tickets to Maroon 5 for my birthday! I had some really great seats and a really awesome view. Plus Amanda and Chad were right in front of me, just ahead two rows.

So I just rocked out and enjoyed the heck out myself. My parents were kind enough to watch Jason for the evening so I partied a little bit ;) I didn't get home until 1am and was a little tired today trying to work after only sleeping for 4 1/2 hours. But it was totally worth it!

I tried to take some pictures with my cell phone but my camera really sucks. It doesn't zoom very far so I could take shots of the stage, I had to take pictures of the big screen. Which came out a little blurry...maybe I'll get around to downloading and posting them sometime ;)

Kisses

Jason has learned how to give kisses. He doesn't always shut his mouth and he occasionally licks you but usually when you ask him to give you a kiss he will lean in and let you kiss him.

I LOVE THIS!! He is just the cutest little thing and he gets better every day.


Some cute pics his grandma took of him recently:

He Speaks!

For the past couple of weeks Josh has been telling me that Jason says "HI!" I haven't heard him say this. Then about a week ago he said it to my mom...when I wasn't in the room!

So when Josh texted me the other day and claimed that he was saying "Ma Ma" I was a little sceptical. Then I brought him home and sure enough he says "Ma Ma Ma Ma!" And although he has a little more of a tendency to say it when he is upset, he will say it other times too. I have yet to determine whether or not he is aware that MaMa is me.

Today he also added "Ba Ba" to the mix. He said that a couple of times this evening for no apparent reason. He could either be talking about his bottle or the rubber ball we were playing with.

By the way, he loves to play with beach balls and rubber Super Balls and the noisy flashing ball that Grandpa Esper bought for him all of a sudden. He chases them all over as they roll around. And tonight while my mom and I were playing on the floor with him, he was cracking up when we bounced the Super Ball in his face. He even threw it a couple of times too, when he wasn't too busy chewing on it!

Photo Shoot!

I happened to mention to my mom tonight that I have absolutely no idea what happened to my digital camera. I lost it somewhere in Jason's dad's house on the 4th of July. Truely strange...

Anyway it prompted her to pull out her digital camera. After showing her how to remove photos from the memory card, she decided to take some pictures of Jason. I've decided I really love her camera because you don't have to wait between pictures, you just keep snapping. I love it!






See my teeth??

Moving

Yesterday was the big day...I moved out of Josh's parent's house and back into my parent's house. It actually didn't take as long as I thought it would. I'm almost all unpacked already too, just a few boxes full of my random clutter left.

Jason's crib is all built and the furniture in my room is all arranged. We actually fit in there a little better than I had envisioned. There is still plenty of room and last night Jason didn't wake me up any more than he normally does. This could be due to the fact that he was sleeping in his own crib and not in the Pack N Play. He woke me up about 10 times a night while we were in Indiana, shuffling around in that Pack N Play. Of course the poor little guy had a stuffy nose to boot.

One of the best parts about living on this side of town is that once WAXIE's new building gets built I will be literally 5 mins from work. Currently I have to drive about 40 mins. Tempe is so close yet so far during morning rush hour! Plus Jason and I will get to spend a lot more time with my parents and my sister, which we haven't been doing much of in the past. I'm excited for them all to get to see Jason growing since it happens so fast! Although I normally would bring him over here at least once a week, I feel like there is so much they missed. So hopefully they all get a little bit of catchup time with me staying here.

Indiana!

Jason and I just returned from spending the week in Indiana with my dad and brother! My dad lives in a little town called Nappanee...and it is right smack dab in the middle of Amish country. It is absolutely gorgeous there and so we spent the week relaxing and enjoying the company :)

Some highlights include:

Eating out at some Amish resteraunts
Watching Jason try Reubarb Cobbler
Seeing my brother Aaron change a diaper ;)
Visiting Amish Acres, a historic Amish community (a touristy place, but neat none the less!)
Seeing my dad chase a goose with Jason in the baby stroller
Lightning Bugs!!!!

Here are some pics:

Big Boy

So over the past week Jason has changed a ton. Not only did he get those two bottom teeth (which you can see more and more every day) but he's also started crawling on all fours more now and he's pulling himself up on things as well. It was exciting to see him zoom across the floor for the first time. Now he's doing the 'army crawl' less and less and normal baby crawling more and more :)

As for pulling himself up...

This was exciting at first because its so cool to see him standing up and he gets so very excited and all. The bad part is he's started doing this in his crib. We lowered the mattress so that he can't fall out, but that's not the problem. Since he's figured out he can stand up in there, he's been resisting naps like nobody's business. Instead, after you leave the room, he just stands up in the crib and starts yelling to himself or crying if he's angry enough that you left him there. So you have to coax him into sleeping quite a bit. Otherwise you get a cranky pissed off baby...

We leave for Indiana to visit my bio father and half brother in a week. I am so looking forward to not working for a week...but not particularly looking forward to traveling with an 8 month old on a plane. This should be interesting...

TEETH!!!!

Today I was out with Jason and he decided to chew on my finger...and I felt something sharp! I haven't looked in his mouth in awhile (this can be difficult to do anyway) so I checked it out.

He's got two teeth coming in on the bottom!! I can't believe it, I'm so excited!! I thought he had a tooth coming in several months back that turned out to be nothing. I'm still not sure what we saw in his gums.

But these are definitely teeth!! ACK!!!!!! I'm going to jump around now...

Swimming with Grandpa

I went out the other night and when I came home Jason's grandma had taken an adorable video of Jason in the pool with Grandpa :)

Randoms

I don't really have anything new to write about, so here are some cute pictures that have been taken of Jason recently:



Here he is playing with bubbles:














Here are some other ones of him and I playing in the yard and in the pool:








That's all for now! :)

Changes

So for those of you who haven't already heard, I made a huge change in my life this past weekend.

I decided to seperate from Jason's dad. I hadn't been happy for a very long time and things weren't getting any better for me. I don't really want to get into too much detail but I think it was for the best.

I'm still living with him and his parents for the meantime, I've just moved into the nursery with Jason. Hopefully soon we'll have him moved into another room so I don't have to tiptoe around at night trying to get into bed without waking him up. I'm extremely clumsy and have already tripped over the Diaper Genie doing this. Luckily he sleeps heavily most of the time.

Josh and I are getting along just fine which I think is wonderful. I still want to remain friends with him obviously for the baby's sake. I'm sad things had to turn out this way but I'm also very excited to be starting a new chapter in my life. I can only hope it will get better.

New Car Seat!

So thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Brown, Jason has a brand new forward facing car seat. I was very excited to get it installed and see how he liked it. In case I haven't mentioned this before, Jason HATES riding in the car and will often cry hysterically during car rides. I was hoping that facing him forward would help with this problem. It has, mostly. He does seem a lot happier, talks to us and laughs at nothing while we're riding around. But once he's been in there for what he deems to be 'long enough', the whining and eventually the hysterical crying return. I'm hoping this continues to improve as he gets older, otherwise any sort of long car trip would be very out of the question!

By the way, Amanda if you are curious we got the Evenflo Triumph Advance Deluxe Convertible Car Seat. I don't know if you found one for Brynn that you liked yet, but I like this one a lot :)