Bouncing Baby Boy

I am thankful to be the mommy of a healthy baby who is developing wonderfully both physically and mentally. Dax has quite the personality at this point in time and frequently entertains family and friends with his silly faces, babbling, and spastic movements. He's so much fun and he melts my heart every time I look at him!

The other night Ryan and I set Dax in his jumper while we were cooking dinner. He was getting so excited watching us move around the kitchen; he kept shrieking at us and whenever we would turn to look at him or talk to him he would flash us this silly face. It was the funniest thing he's done all week and I had to document it!!

I am also thankful for my own mom! She's done so much for me and I find myself constantly feeling incapable of ever appropriately repaying her. She is my best friend and the one person who understands me best of all. I do my best to imitate her parenting because of what an amazing mother she is and I hope that I am at least half as great of a mom to Dax as my she has been to me. I love you mom!

Appreciative November

Today at work I did a craft with the "school kids." I had the children write one sentence about just one thing that they were thankful for and then draw a picture to depict their sentence. For some reason a majority of the boys picked football, except for one who wrote that he was thankful for pilgrims. After finishing the assignment we all sat together and went around the circle telling the others another thing that we were thankful for and why, and it had to be something that they didn't write about.Most of their picks and reasons were pretty cute, ranging from "I'm thankful for you... Because you are a nice teacher" to "I'm thankful for my mom...because she is nice."

But my favorite "I'm thankful for" today came from little Taylor. She is in first grade this year and is the cute girl that is blunt and silly. When it was her turn she said, exactly, "I am thankful for my grandma. You wanna know why? Because she spoils me." At least she's honest.

Want to know what I'm thankful for?

Story-time with Dax and Ryan every night before we put Dax to bed. We all cuddle up on the couch together while Ryan and I alternate reading the pages to Dax.

Our First Halloween...

was fantastic!!

Dax did so well with visiting everyone in his costumes, yes plural, despite having a cold. He truly is a fun, easygoing baby!

One of his costumes was Thing 1 from the Dr. Seuss book. We dressed up with little Nixon and enjoyed getting pictures taken and spending Saturday morning with Katelin and Nixon. They were the sweetest little 'things' ever!

Dax's other costume was a turtle. He wore this costume to the Mother Goose Halloween party and parade and to Ryan's parents' church party. He sure was the cutest little turtle and everyone was a big fan of his costume.

This is him trying to grab more grass! He had a blast at the park playing with it and pulling it out of the ground. He's pretty strong and talented!

Honestly...

I really dislike being home alone at night. And it's nights like tonight, when Ryan has to work a midnight release, that I really don't enjoy being a grown-up and living on my (our) own.

The biggest problem is that I have become accustomed to sleeping next to Ryan and struggle to fall asleep without him next to me. On rougher nights I will gently take Dax from his crib and set him on Ryan's side of the bed, just so I know

that I'm not alone.

It's funny how many things Dax can and has improved in his short little life....

This was at the ISU Homecoming Parade. Although it was the second parade Dax has been to, we were in the Chubbuck Days Parade for Mother Goose, it was the first parade we attended as a family! While he enjoyed gnawing on his sunglasses more than watching the floats, he was in a good mood the whole time.

Among the list of activities that Dax has improved:

- unproductive afternoons at home (I cherish these which we get to spend together 2x a week)

- waking up early (he is always in such a good mood

and acts so pleased to see us pop our heads over his crib, it's impossible to not feel perky with him)

- lunch dates (we definitely get invited on these a lot more since he arrived and he never allows one to be dull, he keeps things fresh)

- walks (he loves to be outside and has helped us to do these more often; too bad the weather will stop cooperating soon)

- watching Yo Gabba Gabba (for some reason he LOVES this show and it is so entertaining to watch him get so pumped while watching it; otherwise, we can't stand it)

- bed time (we have developed our own little routine and I look forward to bathing, feeding, reading to, and rocking him before setting him in his crib- where he puts himself to sleep- it's the perfect way to end any day and helps cheer

me up no matter how hard of a day I have had)

This was Dax during out first adventure with baby food. It was a couple weeks before his six month mark, but we were getting so antsy that we had to just try it for one dinner. We did applesauce and he liked it. Although when we tried it the next night, adding rice cereal to the mix following the advice of a fellow mother who has been feeding her son baby food for a month, he was very displeased. He kept spitting and razzing it out and growling at me after every spoonful. We are just going to stick with plain old baby food from now on.

Dax will be turning six months old on Saturday. The months have flown by so quickly!

We picked out his Halloween costume last week and are getting so excited to celebrate the holidays with him! (We've already bought him several Christmas presents!)

My mom took Dax to get his six month pictures taken while I was at work today. He was in a great mood all day so we felt assured that he'd be in a good mood during the session. While Dax is normally a very easy going baby, there are times that he can be a little dramatic. His photo shoot today ended up being one of those times. Regardless, we ended up with some excellent pictures. Even when he's upset, he's the cutest little boy with the most amazing blue eyes ever!

TEN

In honor of 10-10-10 here follows three different lists

of ten different things, in no particular order:

Top 10 Favorite Things To Do:

1. Wake up to Dax playing in his crib (cooing and squealing to himself)

2. Look at old pictures and picture albums

3. Pillow talk with Ryan

4. Read (especially in a hot bubble bath)

5. Rock with Dax (in our rocking chair)

6. Ask children for adult advice (best advice I've ever been given)

7. Family dinners (especially at my Grandma Candy's)

8. Early evening walks in the summertime

9. Spend time with my best friend

10. Eat :)

10 Things I Want to Do Before I Die:

1. Visit at least five different countries

2. Run a marathon

3. Zip-line in an exotic location (or skydive)

4. Write a book and get it published

5. Own a house with a wrap-around porch

6. Attend at least one major sporting event

7. Find and aid a cause

8. Own an English bulldog

9. Be an inspiration

10. Meet at least one of my great, great grandchildren

10 Of My All-Time Favorite Objects:

1. Pictures

2. Ballet flats

3. Boyfriend fit jeans

4. Nikon camera

5. Victoria Secret sweats

6. Flip flops

7. Bang straightener

8. Anything Apple

9. Treasured jewelry- from Ryan and family (especially my new wedding ring)

10. Books

Cloud Nine

The wedding day yesterday could NOT have been anymore perfect! The weather was grand, (despite many doubts,) everyone was absolutely amazing (even Dax was very cooperative considering his age and the circumstances,) and everything ran smoothly!

I also had the greatest wedding day surprise that I have heard of yet: a brand new wedding ring! Ryan surprised me and upgraded! I discovered this surprise during the ceremony!! He's so cute!

He also surprised me by splurging on a suite in Jackson! Although we had to drive and were a tad tired by the time we arrived, we had a wonderful one-night honeymoon! (Even though we both missed Dax A LOT!)

The word of the day for our wedding is simply PERFECT! My crafty Aunt Nikki created nearly every one of the decorations and did a splendid job! All of her creations turned out more beautiful than I could have imagined and the venue looked gorgeous, beyond all of my expectations!

My parents and Ryan's parents helped us plan our dream wedding and we couldn't be anymore grateful to them! We have such an amazingly supportive and loving family! We are extremely blessed and appreciative of our support system!! Dax is by far the luckiest too, getting to be spoiled by both sets of families and us!

To sum it up: The Matthews' family is on cloud nine right now!

Fast Five Months

Today, Dax is FIVE MONTHS OLD!!

While it seems that he's always been with us, I still can't believe he is already five months old...

I'm still loving everything about being a mom and can't believe how easy-going of a baby I'm lucky enough to have!

He:

-puts himself to sleep every night (after a story and a good cuddle) and has just barely started to get a little fussy, due to the fact that he is teething.

-can sit without support fairly well, although he still needs supervision for when he gets a little too excited and topples over or head dives forward.

-is able to stand up from sitting using all of his leg strength and only my index fingers for support

-can easily roll over any direction (from stomach or back) and uses this as a method of traveling across the floor

-has recently discovered his toes and is obsessed with grabbing and holding onto them, he

loves to curl up in a little ball and try to get them into his mouth

-enjoys being in his jumper more than anything and is a master at maneuvering it!

-is obsessed with sucking his thumb, and only sucks on the left one now causing some to believe he will be left-handed

-has the most contagious laugh ever and the greatest sense of humor to accompany it

-is super ticklish, especially on his chubby thighs, stoma

ch, and armpits

-can get up on his knees, while on his stomach, and push forward allowing him to scoot across the large blankets that we lay out for him and onto the carpet (which can be too nice of a feeling on his face, which he uses as support)

-is kind of my most favorite thing in the whole wide world

It's also only nine days until the wedding! And my Bell's Palsy is gone! While nothing much will change in our day-to-day routine, it'll be nice to be considered an official/legal family!

Adjusting

Since school has started I have had to work out a new schedule with Dax, while I go to school everyday I only have to go for three hours at the most and I only work three days a week for about four hours each day. All-in-all it's not bad and I still have four long days that I get to spend with Dax. One thing I make sure to do each day I spend with Dax is snuggle up with him in bed and take a nice long nap. It's always the best nap he gets because instead of sleeping for 30-45 minutes like he does whenever I have him nap in his crib, he sleeps for 2 and sometimes 3 hours.

In other news: It's been about 2 1/2 weeks since I found out I have Bell's Palsy. While it is improving, it's a little discomforting to have it so close to the wedding. Ryan likes to tease me because of it and says I look like the terminator. Hasta la vista!