Our Fun Boy

Paxton is just so much fun.

This little boy has TONS of energy. I absolutely love our play time.

Here are a few things Paxton thinks are fun...

Of course jumping on the bed made the list!

"One little monkey jumping on the bed!"
Falling down is way fun too.
He loves playing hide and peek-a-boo.
Peek-a -boo!!!
Paxton also loves to dance. He's got some pretty sweet moves.

And finally, he loves to climb...EVERYTHING.

This little daredevil is not afraid of any height.

We love this fun little boy so much.

Grateful.

I took my little Paxton outside to play with the dogs this evening. This is always the highlight of his day. He loves being outside! A lot of the time he would rather be outside than anywhere else. We went outside just as the sun was coming out of the clouds, and it finally started to warm up. While we were out there, I took some time to just sit back and take everything in. As I watched Paxton play with the dogs, I was hit with this overwhelming feeling of contentment. I am so blessed, and I am so grateful for all of it. I am grateful for the wonderful weather, our backyard, the dogs, my little boy, and the simple yet wonderful times we spend together. In that moment I was just so happy. And grateful.

And then the dog peed on my shoe and knocked Paxton over.
He cried and I thought about it.
Haha :)

I'm still grateful.

Sometimes....

Sometimes the weather is so beautiful that you just have to be outside.

So you get on your bike....

And you go for a relaxing ride.

When you get to your destination, you have to get down and explore...

Make sure you hold hands with your Mom though...just in case.

Exploring outside is fun on a perfect day like today.

You can feel the warm sun...

And there is a perfect breeze.

Ok. This post is getting cheesy.... I was just saying that sometimes we have a lot of fun on our bike trips. That's all :)

Baby Music

So today while driving during a family outing, Ben begged me not to put Paxton's music on. He said, "Please not that again! I am so sick of his music. I don't like it, and it gets annoying."

SIDE NOTE: Paxton and I usually listen to Pandora on my iPhone to play all sorts of children's music stations. Yo Gabba Gabba, Nick Jr, and Baby Einstein are just a few of the stations we use. If you have listened to the radio lately you know that it is just plain crap with no redeemable qualities whatsoever. So now that Paxton is getting older I usually just play fun kid music in my car....and we enjoy it.

BACK TO STORY: When Ben said this I was surprised. "Well what else are we supposed to listen to?" was my reply.

SIDE NOTE: Music has always been one of my favorite things. Back in the day I had millions of CDs in my car, and I was constantly downloading new music to make more CDs.

BACK TO STORY: "Natalie, there is more music out there besides Yo Gabba Gabba." was his reply. He then turned the Pandora station back to music he liked. After this back and forth I realized that I actually like Paxton's music too. It is fun, upbeat, and always clean and encouraging. You never have to worry about bad words or naughty topics. However, I also realized how motherhood has changed me.

It's funny how different things are important to me now. I would rather Paxton be learning and enjoying the music than listening to what I would prefer to hear.

It's fun to see that change in Ben as well. Every time a new Disney movie comes out on Blu Ray he gets so excited. Paxton already has a huge collection of Blu Rays for when he gets older because of his Dad.

Man, life sure is different around here now that we have this little guy :)

And we like it that way.

Dirty

Well, it's official. Paxton would rather be outside than inside. He has always been this way, but he has stepped it up to a whole new level with dirt. Two days of a dirty baby.

Day 1:

Ben changed the break pads on my car. It was a really nice day out so I decided to take Paxton out there to play while Daddy worked. So after I took him for a bike ride, I let him down to play. Paxton was not interested in playing. He was interested in Dad's tools, and what Dad was doing. It was so cute how he would get so close to Ben to see what he was doing. He was even trying to hand him tools.

So Paxton loved helping Dad, but he ended up very dirty. The pictures just don't do the black smears justice! His feet and hands were completely black.

So he got a bath....which he loved until he realized he couldn't go back outside!

Day 2:

The very next day, Ben and I decided to put some flowers in our front yard and spruce up our planter a little bit. So we went to buy some flowers...

And then we got to work. In different clothes of course. (I learned my lesson from the car experience.) Paxton immediately went straight for a tool and the dirt. Yes, his mouth was dirty from tasting the dirt.

He was such a big helper! Our finished flower pot! And another bath for Paxton! We have never planted flowers before or taken care of them. We picked our flowers solely based on the fact that I thought they were pretty, and the yellow ones smelled like lemon. So I guess we will see if they stay alive! It sure is nice to have some color in our front yard though!

Big Day

So after you read this post you are going to think, "THAT was a big day for her?? I was expecting something really exciting!" BUT I will have you know that it was actually a huge day for the Benavides house!

So, here it is. Paxton and I have been struggling for some time with his gag reflex. The kid would gag on the smallest foods and end up throwing up everything. I couldn't even give him baby food with chunks in it. I was getting kinda frustrated because I wanted him to be able to eat other things besides liquid baby food. He wouldn't eat anything solid, and if I tried to give it to him he would either spit it out with a disgusting look on his face or gag, and then spit it out.

When it became too frustrating for both of us I just gave up and figured he would start eating solid food when he was ready. We went back to only eating baby food and continued with that for a while. Well, today was the day he decided he was ready!

I had previously bought some Gerber graduate meals that he wouldn't eat, but for some reason I figured I would try another one today.

We tried pasta with meat sauce and green beans. I also decided to try and get him to eat some oranges too. I was feeling lucky!

When I fed him the first bite I was seriously expecting him to gag and cry because he didn't want to eat it. But this time it was different! HE ATE IT! He even chewed the food. He loved all of it, including the green beans. (which I didn't even have to chop up)
He even informed me that he wanted more while I was busy trying to take pictures of this glorious occasion.
I was so proud of him. I am excited for the possibilities now. REAL food! Yay!
Before I would have to put the oranges in those little mesh feeders, because if I tried to give him a piece it would gag him....not today!

The other big thing that happened today was a two hour nap! Paxton has been taking two, one hour naps during the day for a very long time. I was trying to switch him over to one, two hour nap, because I felt like he was ready. He has always been a great sleeper, and so I figured this would be easy. Well, this turned out to be very hard too. Just when I was about to give up, he decided he was ready to do that today as well. If you aren't a mom you have no idea how important sleep is for a one year old. If he doesn't get a good nap/naps at the right time we are both miserable! So yay for today! All around greatness.

(Before I was a mom I would have been appalled at the boringness of this post, but these two things are seriously important things for me now!)

ooooood?

This post is mostly for documentations sake. I need this blog to help me remember things later on. I have recently realized that Paxton has been attaching meaning to more words. He used to just say things that didn't make sense, but now he is actually starting to say things that mean something. I may never get Paxton to say Mama, but here are some of the things he can say right now (He isn't super understandable yet, but these are the things he says the most):

"Da Da"--He has been saying this one for a while, but I think he only recently discovered who Da Da is. We say "Hi Da Da!" a lot and he just gets the biggest smile on his face.

"oooooood?"-- Meaning food. He always says it in a very high pitched voice and like it's a question. haha. I've been trying to teach him the sign for food, but he doesn't sign it ever. I'll always ask him if he wants food, and if he does he'll respond with "ooooood?"

"Up Ups"--Meaning pup pups...or dogs. This was probably the first word he said that he actually knew what it meant. I'm not sure why I started teaching him to call them pup pups, but I think it's super cute, and it's easy for him to say. Paxton loves being outside with the dogs. If he is super grumpy I will just take him outside, and he immediately starts smiling. He goes to the back door window a lot now and bangs on the glass to get the dogs to come see him. He is in heaven if I let our dog Charlie inside to play....Charlie is not. haha.


"oooook"-- Meaning book. Wow. Paxton LOVES books. He is constantly picking them up and handing them to me so I will read to him. All day long I bet I read 20 books to him. A lot of the time it's the same one over and over. haha. I really am glad he loves reading so much, but every time I hear "oooook?" I know I am in it for the long hall and one time/book will definitely not be enough!

"Ch Chs"-- Meaning Patches. This is a brand new one I heard yesterday. Patches is his 'Build a Bear' dog that Ben and I made for him. Paxton has really become attached to this dog lately and can usually be found laying on Patches when he's tired. Patches always makes him smile, and he loves to just carry him around. I kept hearing him say "ch chs," and I was so confused until I found him laying on Patches. I always try to say "Oh Patches!" every time I see him laying on his dog so I guess that's how he picked it up!
Those are his main words right now. My friends and I were laughing today because you try so hard to get your kid to say Mom and then there comes a point as they get older when that's all they say and you wish they would stop! Haha. So I guess he can take his time learning that one!

Paxton's Seuss Party!

Well our baby turned one on Friday, and we had a great day! No tears from me! I was so busy with the party we threw for Paxton that I didn't have time to be sad. Here are some pictures of the fun! Here's the birthday boy himself!

I posted more about the Dr.Seuss theme on my craft blog so click HERE to see more about that!

We had some great people come to the party and Paxton got some fabulous toys! Here are some of them:
Paxton and James playing on the slide Pa and MiMi got him...

He got a rocking elephant from Grandpa and Grandma B!!

And a Batman 4 wheeler from Mama and Dada!

He got a ton of books (YAY!) and lots of other great toys as well.

Here he is with his friends that came to the party! It ended up being an adorable bachelor party!

His cousin Cosette did wonderfully as the only gal baby there. She was outnumbered by a lot, but she didn't mind all the attention! haha.

Here's our happy little family!

He REALLY did not want to wear the hat I made him.

Paxton's cousin Spencer was loving all the toys and his Tia ;)

This next picture cracks me up. Here is Spencer, James, and Paxton playing with his new bike from Uncle Eric and Aunty Priscilla!

Paxton was nakey after his cake eating.

The cake eating went exactly how I predicted it to...
Paxton barely dug into the cake and didn't really make a mess!

We did strip him down just as a precaution.

That is about as messy as it got. Oh well.

I did bake the cake though. I was pretty proud of that! I don't usually bake, but that was something that I really wanted to do for Paxton.

Overall I can only say great things about the party. It was honestly the people that made it great. I was pretty stressed with the idea of all those little ones there, but I loved every minute of it. It was so great to see everyone and just get to be with them. The kids were fabulous entertainment. I am really thinking I had a better time at Paxton's party than he did! haha.


Oh, and I just have to include this picture!

I took it right when Paxton woke up on his birthday. What a cheesy big boy :)

He's a year old, and it gets better every day!