FINALLY getting around to blogging Jason’s first fiesta! 11 months late, but who’s really counting? 😉

We celebrated our sweet baby’s first birthday in April 2017 with, what other than, a Mexican fiesta! (We sure love our tacos around here.) Jason’s small family celebration was everything we hoped it would be…sweet and simple. We invited family over to our (old) house for a taco bar, tasty margs, the obligatory cake smashing, and a little gift opening! What more could a 1-year-old ask for? Jase especially loved having all his girl cousins there to party with, but wasn’t totally sure what to think about indulging in his mini birthday cake. I think he secretly LOVED it!

Now that I am posting these basically a year later, it is crazy to see how much my little 1-year-old baby has changed! What stuck out the most to me is HIS HAIR! It was super red and that has definitely changed over the past few months (it’s a WAY lighter dirty blonde, sorta gold color now!), as has his little baby face, that looks so much more like a toddler/big boy now. Time PLEASE slow down!!!

We love you Jason, and can’t wait to celebrate your 2nd birthday in just a few weeks! xo.

Months 9 through 16 have been a blur around here. And I’ve been seriously slack-a-lackin in the blog department. I’ve literally had “blog Jason’s monthly photos” written on my to-do list every month to no avail. We’ve had birthdays, and vacations, and house sales, and moves, and a new school year, and more. Enough crazy to fill up my daily schedule without room for much else, especially documenting.

Until now.

I finally sat down this weekend to pull some of my favorite photos from the past seven months!

Where should I start?

Jason has officially gone from “baby” to “toddler” as we celebrated his “First Fiesta” back in April (separate blog post to come!).

We took a mini vacation up the road to Sanibel Island with friends this July. As hard as it sometimes is to enjoy slathering sunscreen all over an antsy-pantsy toddler and dragging that one year old to the beach (while remaining on full-time lifeguard duty so no one drowns) and going out to early bird style dinner every night so no one gets cranky, it.was.SO.worth.it. Really, it was! We had an amazing time with our friends and made memories to last a lifetime.

We unfortunately experienced “baby’s first stitches” at the end of August when Jason mysteriously sliced open the heel of his foot while playing in the back yard. We spent the next 4 hours that afternoon at our local pediatric urgent care getting him patched up! He was a tough little trooper through the whole ordeal and has the scar to prove it.

What else? We started PreK-1 this year in Miss Kasi’s class! And are now eating at toddler tables and taking naps on floor mats like a big boy. Jason absolutely adores his school and I can’t say enough positive about how much the ‘busy toddler/preschool/working parents’ type of lifestyle just works for us. We are all so happy.

We sold our beloved first home the first week of September and waved goodbye to the one place that has held so many of our cherished moments and memories over the past nine years. Talk about bittersweet.

We also experienced “baby’s first hurricane” when we had to evacuate to Grandma and Papa’s house (alongside some of our cousins) in September as category 4 Hurricane Irma made landfall and a direct hit in Naples. We were so fortunate not to be majorly impacted by the storm, other than the typical nuisances of hard-to-find gas, no cable for a week or so, and Jason being out of school for 12 days. I hate to admit this publicly, but we never even lost power for more than a few hours at our house!

(stole ^^those two photos^^ from my sister!)

There was also Easter, and Mother’s and Father’s Day, and 4th of July, and lots of visits with family and friends all mixed in between these last few months. And I can’t believe how fast every day, every week, every month flies by. Someone please make it all slow down! xoxo.

Slacker mom here.

We are 10 and a half months in and I am just getting a combo 8 and 9 month post up. Whoopsie.

Anyhoo, these past two months have F-L-O-W-N by! Speed of light style. Ugh. My tiny little baby is not so tiny and not so little any more. How are we only a month and a half shy of 1 year???

At 8 months, Jase stood up on everything and even on his own! He had six teeth (4 top and 2 bottom) and really became a big talker! I love love love hearing his crazy baby babble on the drive home everyday. “Ba-Ba” is our go-to phrase for anything and everything. Eight months was such a fun age. Jason loves playing and snuggling, and really loves getting tickled!

Eight months was especially great because we celebrated Jason’s first Christmas! The holiday season really got a ton sweeter this year with our sweet baby. Side note, I thought the Christmas tree was going to be a HUGE issue for us, but luckily we did okay. A few ornaments got knocked off the tree, but overall I’d say it was actually a HUGE success (minus the fact that our real tree totally died well before the 25th, but we won’t talk about that ;)))!

And we, of course, couldn’t pass up meeting Santa this holiday season!!!

Which went…well…you be the judge…

Classic. :((( Poor little guy. Even though Jase hadn’t really shown any of the stranger danger anxiety that is typical around this age, I guess a big creepy bearded guy in a bright red furry suit will do you in. Even after being rescued we are still sporting our pout pout face…

After ringing in the New Year, we rang in 9 months!

If we thought Jase was mobile before, he became SUPER mobile at 9 months. He is a cruising machine and breezes around the furniture with no problem at all. We finally had to buy proper baby proofing gadgets for our kitchen cabinets since Jason was getting into everything like a little pro. He is SO full of personality at this age. His facial expressions continue to amaze and amuse me, and he talks up a storm (when his paci isn’t in). He is still the sweetest little lovebug and loves giving hugs! He now has 8 teefers (that we can see). And our biggest accomplishment at 9 months (one I am very proud of)…he recently decided he didn’t totally mind eating a few solid foods (peas & carrots) after weeks of being appalled by literally anything with texture. :))) Hip hip hooray!!!

Oh Jason, you are just the very very best!

(A few more photos from Christmas…)

I am going to try really really hard not to slack for our 10 month post. ;))

Sooooooooo… today Jase is officially 8 months, and I am just getting my 7-month post up. #momoftheyear

^^that’s our cute little turkey on his first Thanksgiving!^^

Jase is really just the sweetest, happiest little love bunny you could ever ask for!

Big news this month…drumroll please…he started S-T-A-N-D-I-N-G!!!! Queue the sobbing mom tears. Right around Halloween, Jase began pulling up on everything. Standing in the crib, standing at the dishwasher, standing at the coffee table, you name it. Then, we had our first official “hey-guys-look-at-me-I’m-just-going-to-stand-up-right-here-unassisted-incident” the first week of 7 months.

Someone get this baby to SLOW his roll. Seriously. I do not need a walking 9-month-old. ;))

Aside from his standing shenanigans, at 7 months, Jason…

…Has five teeth.

…Got his first ear infection. Boo. (But was so happy we would have never even known it if it hadn’t been for his regular checkup.) Side note, after being on antibiotics twice a day for 10 days, I think it’s safe to say our little guy absolutely despises taking meds. He basically thinks we are torturing him any time I whip out the plastic syringe. Luckily, Jereme devised a sneaky little trick to where he distracts Jase with a toy and then sneaks the syringe into his mouth. Honestly, I’m not sure we would have made it the 10 days if not.

..Tops the chart at 85% for both height and weight.

…makes the most adorable ‘old man’ smiles and faces sometimes. They are THE BEST.

..Is making LOTS of super adorable baby sounds, with “BA-BA” as his first (not really but sort of) official word for anything he wants. It’s “baba” this “baba” that, “ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba” non-stop around our house. I swear there have been a few “ma-mas” in the mix too.

..Loves getting tickled and makes the silliest hissing laugh when we play with him.

…Also LOVES flopping around on a bed or couch. He basically trust falls onto any pillowed surface and thinks it’s hilarious.

…and bath time and Oliver are still topping his list of favorites at 7 months.

We love you so very very much baby Jase.

How have 183 days passed since we welcomed our sweet baby into this world?

Seriously, someone please explain that to me.

One hundred and eighty three. Days!!!!!!! Unreal. Well, technically 204 days  (183 is exactly 6 months) because this blog post is totally late (slacker mama here!). Let’s face it, he is basically now closer to seven months than six. (Now I’m sobbing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

I can’t even begin to explain how fast these first six months with our precious Jason Leo have flown by.

I am unwilling to accept the fact that my little baby won’t be a little baby forever. ;))) Boy, am I going to miss these sweet baby moments when they are long gone. I just want to bottle up every adorable baby sound Jason makes, his gummy grins, those pudgy thighs, his super soft baby skin, and that contagious belly laugh that I love so very much. Even his snotty nose (since starting daycare it’s like we have a perma-cold/cough around here). Jason is just the best.

^^So this is what it’s like trying to get a photo of Jase + Oliver. It looks mostly like this — me wrangling both of them and trying to get them to simultaneously sit still. Basically trying to work a miracle. Lol. Thanks to my sister Kristi for helping us snap a few photos!^^

^^Always on the move. And ALWAYS trying to grab stuff.^^

Anyhow, at SIX MONTHS our adorable little bunny…

…Officially started crawling (after a month of bear-crawl-style-standing and trying oh so hard to get the coordination down to really get moving) and is now a super speedy crawling machine (even fast enough to dump Oliver’s water dish over if we aren’t on our game.)

…Is making more and more adorable baby sounds every day. I’m pretty certain his first words are right around the corner! (Spoiler Alert!!! The teachers at daycare told me he said “mama” three times last week – which is technically past the 6-month mark, so I’ll save the “official” post for seven months if we start hearing Jason say it too! And let’s not lie, I have definitely “practiced” “MA-MA” with Jase WAY more than “DA-DA”.)

…Wants to touch and feel E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G!!! If he can get his hands on it, he will. Period.

…Has tried a bunch of different baby purees, but I’d say his top favs at six months are pears and bananas! Fruit in general has been a huge hit!

…Loves jumping as hard as he can in the exersaucer…which is not necessarily meant to be a jumper, but Jason apparently didn’t get the memo.

…Is still a SUPER fan of bath time and thinks it’s hilarious to kick and splash in his cutie whale bath.

…Is mesmerized by Oliver and tracks him in and out of a room whenever possible (and given the chance, Jason also LOVES sneaking in a pet or two when Oliver is nearby.)

…Wants to stand SOOOOO bad. I think we are going to have a walker by 9 months, whether we like it or not!

…And TEETH!!!!!!!!! OMG, we went from just the bottom two (that came in at 3.5 months) to now a third toofer (the top right of his two front teeth!).

Happy SIX months sweet baby. xoxo.