Dallas Blooms Flowers

I also took quite a few flower shots, of course, while we were at Dallas Blooms with the boy. Here are some of my favorites:

So there you have it. Lots of prettiness, for sure. See you soon.

Dallas Blooms Baby

Last month, when the tulips were still with us, S and I set out to go to Dallas Blooms with the boy to get some photos in the flowers. As many times as I've been to the Dallas Arboretum, I had never been during Dallas Blooms. This is because we used to live near the place, and the streams and streams of cars going at this time of year were enough to keep me away. But, now that I have a little boy to photograph, I was tempted to try it. And, sister, it is always a lovely place. But, it is even MORE gorgeous during Dallas Blooms! It is totally, totally worth braving the crowds to go. We will go back every year now. Following are some photos of the boy with the flowers. I took some cool flower photos too, sans boy. I'll load those into another post.

Here we go:

Checking out which flower to grab first...

The outfit LM has on was purchased last fall on clearance at the Strasburg Children's store. We were there purchasing a baptism outfit, and grabbed up some great deals on a couple of cute little baby boy summer things in a 12mo size. The lady said their clothes ran big, and this played out for the baptism outfit, so I was really quite worried this little outfit might be too big. Ahem. Well, it wasn't too big at all. In fact, it was a little tight around the tummy, shall we say, causing issues with it laying correctly and keeping the straps in place. But, we made it work.

Funny face.

It really took a lot of tries to get a good photo of the boy. He was VERY distracted by the people, the flowers, the grass...really, the best photos were at the end of the trip. So, here are some of the good ones, and some funny ones of him NOT cooperating at all.

Very cute...I need to edit out Daddy's hand though.
He was VERY worried the boy would fall from the rock.


Oops...sorry, he got a petal.
I'm sure it was moments from falling off itself...


Confiscated immediately.


The constant "fixing" of the outfit...over the belly.


He was also rather enamored with picking grass.


And eating pansy petals...again, sorry.


Here's Daddy trying to conjure up enough of a distraction to get a smile.


Immediately after that, more grass lost its life.
Distraction fail. We moved on.


In between we made him wear this hat.
He has now learned how to take the hat off.
Sunscreen, anyone?


My two boys. I love 'em both so much!



In the middle of all this "fun" he took a nap.
During that time, we checked out the art show that was going on.
Very nice.


My pack mule - er, husband.


During photos at this location, he was not cooperating SO much
that we were actually laughing out loud at his antics.


Really, seriously, Mom, Dad, are we done here?


The grass killer struck again!


Then there was THIS location. WAIT! Grab the child before he...
That flower survived. Dad to the rescue.


We later came upon this child size bench.
He seemed to like that it was his size.


And, finally, we saw some smiles.


THERE'S my sweet boy.
Suitable for framing.


Eating the bench was also mandatory. Ahem.


Then, right at the end, finally, it was as if he noticed we were there, entertaining him!


And we caught a few sweet shots.


Look! A tooth!


My favorite.


It was a long day for the boy. He was a trooper.

See you soon.

8 months old

This was the first month when I actually have OTHER things to post, because we're getting out and "doing" more. But, alas, I haven't figured out how to get to the actual posting yet. So, I am here with another month gone by to tell you about this boy of ours.

Seven months on Nana's quilt.

LM turned eight months old on Wednesday, March 23rd. He is growing and changing, sometimes, I SWEAR, overnight. There was one morning when I picked him up out of that crib and I PROMISE he was bigger than when I put him to bed. It's amazing.

Our little monster.

He is babbling even more. Mostly with the same words, but also with lots of screams and squeals and grunts too. More range, I guess you would say.

Before the first swim class, that cousin Sophia took with him.

He LOVES to take baths now. He splashes like a wild man! It's so funny to watch him. It's hard to take him out of the bath when it's time because he just having so much fun. He and S took some swim lessons this month, and he was a wild man there too, splashing the water. He had a blast and then some. He would get SO tuckered out by the end of the class. I, of course, took photos, and you can see the sleep creeping up on him as the class progresses as you look through the photos. I'll do another post about swimming soon.

Splashing at swim class.



Toward the end of the first class - TIRED.

He is not crawling yet, but he is mobile. He gets around by rolling or scooting while sitting up or sort of froglegging it. I am not worried about him hitting the actual crawling milestone. I am instead trying to enjoy every last bastion of subsistence where I can sort of control where he is.

A typical sleeping position - butt in the air.


Another sleep pose - I love those thunder thighs!

Little Man finally got a tooth about halfway through the last month! Lower right, but you hardly see it, because he always has his tongue over it. But it's there! And, I even caught one or two photos where he's grinning wide enough where it's sort of visible. (And one photo is in the April header... look very closely and you'll see it too!)

Clapping!

The little big guy has some new favorite things to do. He likes to clap! He likes to bang things together. He likes to laugh at Mommy and Daddy. We definitely are funny to him. He thinks his teacher Ms. Jackie is also funny.

When we put him in the swing, he reaches out and stops himself. Ahem.

He still, amazingly to me, goes to just about anyone. I wonder when or if that will change. He also will stare you down if we are in a public place and you are not making eye contact with him. He wants everyone to look at him and say hello. Of course, most people do. He finds "big kids" fascinating. They are way cooler than adults, and he has figured out that the grandparents will oogle over him more. He saves up the really sweet smiles for this bunch.

I took some more photos for the store at work.
This is one.


And so is this.


And also this.
His wiggliness factor has increased exponentially.
Makes it harder to get a good "product" photo.

His hair is coming in thicker, mostly in the back, but as it thickens up, it is definitely curly. Poor kid. He's destined to have his parents' unruly curly hair of some variety. Changing him has sort of become an Olympic sport. He wiggles and twists and tries to get away when you're changing a diaper or putting on clothes. I try to distract him with something to hold, like a bottle of lotion or a pack of wipes. This works about 80% of the time. The rest of the time, you just better hold on and be fast. At school, they have a wind chime above the changing table. I've noticed Ms. Jackie uses this to distract him just long enough to get that diaper back on.

One outfit I dressed him in before it warmed up.
He's my real life baby doll!

He still likes the pacifier. We try to keep it to a bed only sort of thing, but sometimes we let him have it if he's not feeling well or teething. He hasn't really taken to any other sort of "thing" like a blanket or stuffed toy. It will be interesting to see if he does that or not.

Enjoying Dallas Blooms at the arboretum.
Hopefully another post about this will be forthcoming too...

We are enjoying our playgroup that meets once a month. It is of course at this point more for the parents than the children, but it will be fun to watch the children grow and start to interact with one another more and more.

Eight months on Nana's quilt.
Do you think he was going to lie down for a quilt photo? No WAY!



Sweet boy.

We are still completely head over heels in love with this little creature. It's just great.

I think the quilt photos have irreversibly changed...

See you soon.