11 Months!

It's me Knox and I am 11 months old. Well, I was a few days ago but am just now getting around to blogging because I have been really busy. I have really evolved as a person in the last month and frankly no longer view myself as a baby. I am a little boy! I even have the battle wounds to prove it...today I bumped my head on the coffee table and it looks like I might have a bump forming or heaven forbid, black eye...someone was talking to Adele and wasn't a step ahead as most good parents should be so now I look like I lost in Golden Gloves.

I am also feeding myself now. I know Mom was a bit worried about this and turns out I really have been able to do it all along. But let me ask you: if someone would sit in front of you, talk to you, feed you without you having to lift a finger AND you didn't even get any on your hands and face....well, I think you too might act like you were incapable. I'm no dummy.

This also goes for talking. I can say "Mama" "Dada" "Uh-Oh" and my new one "hey-da" (heather)....however, people are always asking my to say these things on command. Do I look like a show pony? I have decided that I have a mind of my own and would like to use it on occasion. Turns out I have lots of opinions about things! For example:

• I LOVE Dogs....except the neighbors have one that is more like a small horse so I am a little skeptical
• I hate tomatos...don't like em..tried them a few times and as of now it's a no-go.
• I love bath time
• I really love Nick Jr but have discovered the cooking channel...move over Bobby Flay!
• I ADORE GanGan...she is hands down the best babysitter ever.
• I DO NOT like being left in a room by myself....
• I LOVE my airplane and my jumper 

I also am about to walk...I have to have a little help with my balance right now but I am almost there. I have grown my very own top two teeth! They look really good even if I do say so myself. However, I am not so fond of this whole teeth growing thing..it hurts and takes me forever to do it!

I am weighing in at an impressive 23 lbs and 30 inches tall. I wear 12-18 month clothes and am still trying to learn baby sign language. Don't really know why I have to when pointing and grunting is actually pretty effective...however, Mom is NOT a fan of it. 

I did get disciplined the other day for the first time and quite frankly, I will be just fine if THAT never happens again. I kept sticking my hand in the propeller of my airplane and it make a really cool loud noise. Mom told me not to. I chose to disagree with her on this because well, it's MY plane. This logic go me nowhere. I did it again to a tragic result. She had the AUDACITY to swat me on the hand!!! Yes, I too was appalled and quite frankly hurt by this. Did I pout a little about this? Heck yes. Don't judge, I'm not even one yet! 

All in all, the first 11 months of my life have been pretty smooth sailing. I know it doesn't hurt that I'm so adorable and easy going. Mom and Dad are pretty much obsessed me and please, don't even get me started on the grandparents! 

Is that a...?

I was running a little behind this morning.. Shocking I know. It's like ever since the arrival of Knox I have become all the things I couldn't stand in other people... Late to everything, scatterbraind and uber forgetful. Yes, God does have a sense of humor.

Anywho, I get Knox all loaded in the car to take him to school and on my way back around the front of the car I stop at the garage mini fridge to get a mini can of Sprite. You know, the little baby cans? So I get in my car, stick it in the cup holder and am talking to Knox while heading down the driveway.

About halfway to school I remember my Sprite, so I pop the top and take a big long gulp... Only it isn't Sprite. It was a baby COORS LIGHT. Awesome, so I'm that Mom chugging a Beer while dropping her kid off at school. Oh, at 9am.

I realize what the heck happened and that I forgot we had those from people coming over to watch the game. Plus I never really looked at the can since I was in a hurry.

Next I realize my predicament... I can either chunk it out the window and litter OR risk getting pulled over with a cold open container, beer on my breath hauling around an 11 month old.

I decide not to litter and to give the moms at preschool something to talk about....

Only kidding, no one saw.. I think.






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Pilot in Training....

Knox had a great weekend! Aunt Heather came to town, so he had her undivided attention and he LOVED every minute of it. I got him a plane for his birthday (a toy one of course and a bit of an early b-day present) and it's hands down the best money I have ever spent. He loves it and it entertains him immensely. In the last two days he has taught himself how to "fly" fwd and backward. It's really cute, he puts up the wings when in transit and then puts them back down to play. We did have a bit of a "crash landing" but after looking up to see happy, smiling faces of Mom, Dad and Aunt Heather, Knox was assured that he was in fact "just fine!"

Life is good when you are almost one and have your own plane....

flying!

watching the Cowboys game...

typical man...wants the kisses but can't tear his eyes from the game

loves him some Auntie Heather

Heather giving him a bit of a nudge

Soooo happy....love this picture

Fashion Police

Knox has learned the word "uh oh" and now it's by far his favorite word. I just dropped him off at "school" and when I got him out of the car there was a little girl walking by who was dressed in a sweet little dress but obveously she was in charge of her own accessories. She also had on a cowboy hat, hot pink boots and what I assume were chaps. Knox looks right at her, turns and looks at me and says, "uhhhh Ohhhh!" but reeally drug out almost like a valley girl and with a look on his face like, what is she wearing!?!

I laughed all the way into school....




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Follow...

I just had a post called "lead me", so why not "follow"? However, this is much different and not nearly as deep/heartfelt.
Here's the deal....according to my site-meter, I have had over 6,000 people visit my blog....I have 27 followers. So either you 27 peeps are VERY vigilant and read and re-read everything or there's lots more people reading than are following...I'm guessing the ladder, but who knows? My reason for asking you to "follow" me is so that I know who is reading. The 6,000 number kind of freaked me out. Obviously, I am very candid as well as putting a lot of info about my family.. especially my child.. out there. Call it to much Dateline, but the high number of readers and the fact that I don't have a clue who the majority of your fine people (hopefully!) are... well it makes me a little nervous. I want to keep blogging, so if you could just  hit "follow" ...even if I don't know you...it would make me feel better. If not, I can just blog about generic things such as wallpaper and the weather....but let's be honest...that won't be nearly as entertaining as my motherly/wifely/womanly blunders that I am so fond of sharing!

Lead Me....

So, I can't sleep..obviously...so why not blog? You might have noticed (or maybe not if your volume is not turned up) that I added a song to the blog. Every once in a while I find a song that just really speaks to me and to where I am in my life, at that moment. I find that lately I have really been praying over Knox about the kind of person I want him to become..among a plethora of other things. No, not wealthy, a good athlete, popular or any of those things but more about the type of man I want him to be. I want him to love the Lord, be kind, honest, empathetic, have high standards for himself and be a man of great character. I also find myself praying about the type of husband and father he is. Then I heard this song...Lead Me by Sanctus Real. I was like, "that's it!" that's my prayer for the "grown-up/ family man" Knox.

I feel that in this day and age we have allowed our desire for equality (which I'm all for!) and independence to take away from some of the basic principles God laid out for us. The man is the leader of the household. I feel that sometimes people take this the wrong way and there is a way to "lead" without an iron fist or in a controlling manner. Slade is really good at this, actually. I am fiercely independent...almost to a fault...or maybe...all the way to a fault. I am sure I am not the easiest wife to be "lead" cause let's face it, I like to be in charge.

I was thinking about Knox's delivery the other day...shudder...trying to figure out what exactly I was supposed to learn from that. I know the Lord uses different experiences to teach us things but, I mean...C'mon! I am in the car when the above referenced song comes on the radio and it hit's me! I realized that before delivering Knox, I never really thought I needed Slade. I knew I wanted him but in all honesty, I thought I was pretty self-sufficient. I won't go into the gory details but let's just say it was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I honestly still might have a baby in there if Slade wasn't there to encourage me, count for me, not mention the fact that I was probably breaking his hand, and make me push when I didn't think I could anymore. He also knew me well enough not to try and "cheerlead" me...probably cause he knew I would despise it and probably would try to "eliminate the threat" and probably by force.

When we got home, I had no idea what the hormone influx, the exhaustion and overwhelming reality that I was responsible for this little person would do to me. Mrs. Self Sufficient here was a basket case. There was Slade....getting up with us in the middle of the night, loving our baby, validating my feelings without judgement..."leading me" until I could pull it together.

This, to me, is an example of "leading" in the way God intended. Slade adores me. He does, he'll admit it. Granted, I drive him batty at times but he always loves me. As a wife, I need this security and affirmation. He gets up every morning at 5:30, works 12-13 hr days and then comes home and takes over Knox duty. Not because he has to, but because he is absolutely obsessed with that little man and wants to spend time with him. Of all the positions/roles Slade has had in his life..from twin brother to collegiate athlete...FATHER, is the one in which he excels the greatest. That's saying a lot.

So as you can see, this song spurred a lot of deep thinking on my part. It not only made me think of what I wanted for my son, but also helped me to appreciate my husband even more. So, if you are married and your husband "leads" you and your children well.. tell him, thank him, and encourage him. I can say this because I am AWFUL at this and am pretty much speaking to myself. (I would put money on the fact that Slade just read the previous statement while nodding his head and it could have possible even caused some type of diva-esque z-snap reaction.) If you are not married, then when you find someone you believe to be "the one" make sure he loves the Lord and looks to him to be lead...this will. intern, cause him to be the leader you so desire.

To Knox:
Take it from me....all women want to be taken care of, adored and "lead". This is why you need Jesus. He can do for you what we need you to do for us. I didn't write this as a "look how great daddy is" but more in hopes that someday you might read this and be able to learn from him as a husband as well as a father. That is why I write this blog, for you, so that you can look back and know us not only as your parents but as people, a couple, and sometimes a blooper real of adulthood/parenthood. But mainly, I just wanted you to see how much your daddy loved you and "us" even before you were born.
However, if your daddy walks in tomorrow with a smirk on his face because a whole blog post was dedicated to him and does that diddy where he wipes imaginary chalk off his shoulder saying, "chalk one up for me" then I will say that it's almost 3am and the only logical explanation is that I was sleep blogging and could not have been in my right mind. :)

Labor Day Weekend

We had a busy Labor Day weekend! Cody and Christy came in town to see Knox again and he was so excited to see them. Saturday we just hung out and then Gan was sweet enough to keep Knox so the adults could go out to dinner. Sunday morning we got up and went to church then he got to spend the whole day with Uncle Chip because we had people over to watch the  Tech game so Slade, Christy, Gan and I were busy in the kitchen. Knox loved having Cody's undivided attention. The Whitmires, Bickings and Bannons came over to watch the Red Raiders and Knox was so excited to see Charlotte, Henry, Bailey and Asher....but I think he did have his eye on Charlotte. He thought she was pretty cute.

Monday, Cody and Christy left but Heather and Philip stopped by on their way back from Lubbock. Knox hasn't seen aunt Heather in forever, so he was thrilled to get to spend some time with her. All in all it was a great weekend.

hanging with Uncle Chip

pow wow

Aunt and Uncle

flying ...thanks for the lift Uncle Chip!

love this!

Clapping for Aunt Heather!

Heather and Philip

Parental Pride....

I am gonna brag a little bit. I am just letting you, dear reader, know this up front AND that I am fully aware that I am doing it. But I figure it's got to be one of the greater perks of parenting! Plus, it's my blog and I'm in charge of the content! HA!

(side note: so I just typed this paragraph above and I have the Today show on in the background. NO LIE...as soon as I hit the exclamation of the last paragraph, Natalie Morales says, "are social networking sites such as facebook and blogs causing Narcissism?" I laughed out loud. However, I do think this is a very interesting debate.)

So yesterday Gan and I went to lunch with Knox. He of course was his charming yet hungry self so pretty much the meal consisted of me trying to get him to feed himself and HE DID! I was so proud as this has been a bit of a battle in my household. I mean I am not going to 1st grade with this kid to feed him lunch... so he needs to learn sometime!

Anywho,  towards the end of the meal a gentleman comes over and tells me that he and his wife were dreading it when we walked in with a baby because they had their last few meals with a small child around and it was miserable. He said he just wanted to come over and tell us that he was so impressed with our little one because he was SO well behaved and interacted without being so loud. Up until this point I didn't think there was a compliment that felt better than when someone says, "have you lost weight?" but turns out ...there is!

Next a table of ladies got up from their luncheon and almost every one came over to say how adorable and WELL BEHAVED Knox was. Gan and I were beaming!

Now in full disclosure, I don't feel I can take total credit for this because honestly some of it is just his personality. However, since we all know how easy going and laid back I am, I totally think he got this from me :)

Towards the end of the meal he did start to get a little restless so being the superb mother I am, I stuffed crackers in his mouth. At least if he was going to be noisy it would be muffled. I mean c'mon, I wasn't gonna lose our adoring public!

I swear sometimes it baffles me how I can adore someone so much, but I DO!!
(yes, I adore Slade but it's different)