11 Months.

Well. My baby is officially just one month away from being a whole year old. My mind is blown, my heart is bursting, and my silly emotional side wants to cry because it's all going so very fast. This kid is just the most amazing thing in the entire world and I'm pretty sure I fall more in love every day. He's really turning into just the most hilarious, happiest little guy and each day I see more of who he will be. It's so much fun, and I'm trying to soak up every single second of it because, man, it is seriously flying by!

Grayson,

I have so many things I want to say to you, and it's making it hard to get started. For some reason I'm feeling a little emotional tonight, and I think it's because I'm realizing how very big you are getting, and how fast it's happening. You have gone from the cutest, cuddliest, most serious little baby into the funniest, sweetest, silliest, BEST little guy I've ever known. I honestly can't even put into words how obsessed I am with you - I am 100% serious when I say I love you more and more every day.

You are a full-blow big kid these days, and all traces of baby are quickly fading away. Luckily you still love to cuddle your mama, so I'm not too heartbroken about it. You took your first few steps on the 12th of this month, and you are getting better and better! I'm quite sure you could just take off and walk on your own whenever you wanted to, but you prefer to crawl. Daddy and I kind of force you to walk every day, and you're up to, gosh, probably 10-15 steps at a time before you give up and crawl. We are SO proud of you and every single time you walk to one of us we cheer and clap and say "Yay Grayson!!!". I'm not sure if you have any idea why we're so excited, but you really enjoy the praise!

You are a dancing MACHINE these days. If there is music, you will dance. If I hum or whistle, you will dance. If you hear even the slightest hint of a beat, you are dancing. And you have perfect rhythm, no joke. Of course this makes your daddy and I just so incredibly proud since we both love to dance. You have two musical toys that you are obsessed with at the moment. Billy Beats is a little piano thing that dances and plays music when you press the piano keys, and you will get in front of it on your hands and knees and rock back and forth or sway side to side with the music. This can go on fooooorever, and we are so thankful Aunt Rachel gave you that present for Christmas. Mama actually has time to get a few things done when you're busy with that! You're also VERY into your monkey that sings "Can't Get Enough of Your Love Babe". You figured out how to press his paw and start and stop the music, and you will do it over and over and over and over again. He shakes his head while he's singing, and now you shake your head ALL the time when you're dancing. It's the cutest thing ever. I let you ride standing in the cart at Target the other day (probably against some kind of mom-rule) and you danced and yelled at people and shook your head the whole way through the store.

Speaking of that Target trip, any time you are out in public you want everyone to know you are there. You do not have a shy bone in your body, and you LOVE people. Literally anyone that will give you two seconds of attention receives giggles and smiles and waves - and it absolutely makes your day when someone acknowledges you. You stare people down - or just yell at them - until they pay attention. And if they give it to you, you won't let up. I think it's adorable, but I also feel slightly bad once you've roped someone in. But you're a bit of a charmer, so people rarely seem annoyed. And you really love the ladies. It's a bit frightening. We were eating with Daddy and Papaw a couple of days ago, and you set your sights on our pretty blonde waitress. When she leaned over to hand us our food, you reached up, grabbed her arm and gave her a smile while batting your eyes. Needless to say you got what you wanted and boy, were you happy with her attention. Mama's worried for the future....

You are still a very passionate little guy. You get SO excited about things, and also can get SO upset with us if you don't get your way. We're working on teaching you that sometimes you can't have what you want, and it's a tough lesson to learn. You've also become a bit of a biter, but usually it's only me, and it's mainly when you're sleepy or hungry. But MAN those teeth hurt. Your punishment is to be set down away from me while I turn away, usually in your crib if we're in the room, and you do not enjoy that. But it seems to be working, so I'm happy for both of us for that.

Other than the occasional fit or bite, you are just an all-around joy. You are a great sleeper, usually from about 8 PM to 7:30 AM with two night feedings around 1 AM and 5 AM. You nap twice a day usually, but only for 30-45 minutes. I could do with longer naps, I won't lie. I don't get much done. But you're usually just so happy when you're awake I can handle it.

You're turning into quite the little eater. Since you never would take purees, you get pretty much whatever we're eating. You really love chicken, potatoes of any kind, rice, beans, and pasta. You tolerate broccoli, cauliflower and green beans. You aren't a big fan of any fruit. And you love to drink water. You also just had your first few bites of sugary goodness (birthday cake icing) at your cousin Isabella's first birthday this weekend, and you were a BIG fan. I still plan on keeping you away from sugar as much as possible, but man, did you enjoy it.

You and daddy have a pretty consistent bath time routine happening these days. I rarely help out with that, and you guys love that time you have together. You really love splashing these days, so I'm pretty happy to leave that to daddy. You also love riding things. Your Mickey Mouse car, in a stroller, and the moving dolly...pretty much anything that moves, you want to ride it. You still are in love with Addie, but unfortunately she's a little less into you now that you're moving around all the time - I'm still hoping and praying that she comes around and you guys become great friends. Your favorite things to do when playing by yourself are hitting anything and everything with your little plastic hammer and opening and closing things. Anything at all. Doors, cabinets, toys that have lids, your toybox, moving boxes....you just love to open and close things. You're also a big fan of Sherif Callie's Wild West (especially the theme song) and the Hot Dog song from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Much dancing goes on during those songs.

Your least favorite things are diaper changes (ugh, the struggle), your carseat about 75% of the time, and having your nose sucked out with the Nose Frida. You thought it was really fun for like a day and a half and now anytime I get it near you we've got a full-on meltdown on our hands. Like, screaming and kicking and tears. Unfortunately for both of us you've had a stuffy nose for a few days, and apparently you have allergies, so this may not be something we get to avoid.

One of my favorite new things is the kisses you give. If daddy or I say "give me a kiss", you will normally lean in for a sweet little kiss on the lips. If he and I kiss, then you will kiss him, then me. Of course we think it's super cute. You even initiate them on your own sometimes now, which might be the sweetest thing ever. You also can tell us where our noses are, thanks to Nana. She's so good at teaching you new things I don't even realize you're old enough to learn!

You are just the best, sweetest, most charming little thing I've ever seen. I could go on and on, but I know I can't write all day. I truly hope I can hold on to all of these wonderful little memories of our every day lives together, because every single day is such a great one with you right now. I love you more than anything in this world, and I'm so happy you're mine.

Love,

Mama

Oh, Hey!

Hi friends! Just stopping by to check in and say hello. I really hope you all are going to stick with me throughout my little blogging hiatus - I think things are about to slow down enough here in a couple of weeks that I'll be able to get back at it.

Things are going well around here, just a whole lot of packing packing packing at the moment. We did have one exciting new milestone with Mr. Grayson - he took his first few steps on Wednesday! I mean, A and I had to do a LOT of encouraging to get him there, but he did it! Since then he hasn't done quite as many in a row, but he'll get about two or three steps in before he realizes what he's doing and squats down. I can't believe how super quickly time is passing by and what a big boy he is. It's nuts!

I hope you all are doing so wonderfully, and I hope when I come back to this little space full-time that you'll still be here. I had so many big ideas and plans for what I wanted to do here this year, and now it's all been kind of shoved to the side. I'm crossing my fingers that when we get all moved in and organized I'll be able to focus and things will be better than ever.

Until then, have a fabulous weekend/next week/next two weeks - not sure when I'll be back, so I'll just cover it all :)

Randomness from our life lately in very un-edited photos - please forgive me

A Whole Lot of Deliciousness {Texas Burrito Company Launch}

Last Thursday the husband** and I got the chance for a night out - minus little baby - in Dallas. Not only were we out on a real, live "date", but this date just so happened to involve lots of amazing food, beer, and ice cream. Now, I'll be honest with you, I've tried to get the hubs to attend several "blogger" functions with me over the past couple of years. And I always get a "Mmmm....nah thanks." But this time I mentioned that the event involved food trucks and free beer, and wouldn't ya know, suddenly he was more than willing to go! Funny how that works ;)

The event we were both excited to attend was the launch of Texas Burrito Company, the fourth food truck in the Two Trucks family. Not only did we get the chance to try out the amazing food (totally not exaggerating, it was delish), but we also got to sip on a couple of beers and enjoy a massive scoop of ice cream from their What's Da Scoop truck. I mean, Mexican food and ice cream? That might just be my idea of heaven.

We each got two tacos, and whew! They were spicy. Thankfully we had that ice cold beer to wash them down with. I tried the Hanger 9 and the Tejas, and A. had the Hanger 9 and Southfork (see the menu here and start drooling). They were all absolutely delicious, the ingredients were all super fresh, and my mouth is watering a little bit thinking about it. We rarely go to Dallas - that 30 minute drive is a killer, ya know - but I would do it for these tacos.

You're probably well aware of my obsession with Mexican food, so needless to say it would have been hard to disappoint me. Also, the ice cream was amazing. I got a "Cool, Calm and Collected", which was vanilla ice cream with dulce de leche, sea salt and crushed up nilla wafers, and it was so good. Might have to track that truck down again, too.

It was a super fun night, and I ended up running in to Sarah again, which was hilarious and unexpected. We hung out with her and her friend Desirae for quite awhile, and the husband really loved all the girl talk, I'm quite sure ;)

Anytime we get a night out without Grayson I always have a little bit of mommy-guilt going on, but I was actually able to relax and have a really good time (those beers may have helped), and I think stuff like this is so needed in a marriage once a little one is involved! Am I right or am I right?

Well, Happy Friday my friends....I hope you have a good one, and I hope I am able to return on the reg before too long. I miss you guys!

** So my husband has decided that he would like me to refrain from using his name on the blog from here on out. Since we have a super unique last name and his first name is pretty rare also (as is mine) when you Google his name everything that pops up is related to my blog. I think that's fab, but unfortunately he doesn't like the fact that all of the people in his work-world can find out literally everything about him in two seconds. SOOOO....no more using his name. 

Now, my dilemma: what do I call him? The husband, hubs, hubby....that's all going to get old real quick. I thought about the Armenian, but I felt that was slightly inappropriate? I'd like to use something consistently, but I'm just not that creative...so it's probably going to be A.

Also, I think the damage is probably done here....I'm not going back to the last couple hundred blog posts and deleting his name. But if this gives him peace of mind, then I'm all for it ;)

Planning G's First Birthday

This is kind of unbelievable to me, but in less than two months my baby will be ONE. How on earth the past 10 months have gone so fast is beyond me. I see this quote everywhere when people talk about motherhood: "The days are long, but the years are short", and man...I can see it. I absolutely adore every minute spent with this little guy, but some days do seem to last forever. And then I blink my eyes and he's another month older and I can't believe it.

So, needless to say, I should be in the full swing of the whole planning-a-first-birthday-party thing. But surprise, surprise, mama has been 100% preoccupied with all-things house related, and not a thing has been done. Oh, well, I started a Pinterest board. So there's that. 

At first I was thinking a vintage car theme, now I'm kind of leaning toward a vintage circus theme...maybe I'm really just into the whole vintage thing right now? No idea. The strange thing is I have kind of a circus-aversion and feel like the animals are probably horribly mistreated and I don't think I ever want to take my kids to a circus....but yet I think a circus themed party would be adorable. This is what it's like in my mind, people. We're all over the place.

So basically I haven't made even one tiny decision. Other than the fact that it will probably take place at our brand new house, because we're supposed to move in the end of this month!! Woohoo!!! Which would give me approximately one month to plan his party and get the house completely and totally in order...doable, right? Ahahaha, I just love how insane I am. It's great fun. Unrealistic goals? Sure, sign me up!

We also might be doing a two birthday party thing, much like the two wedding thing we did a few years ago. You know those Armenians love a good party, and the husband and I are both quite sure that we won't be able to accommodate the crowd in our house. So we may do a baptism/Armenian birthday party one day, and a regular ole' run-of-the-mill American birthday party another. Who knows. I'm sure we'll decide at the verylastminute. Just to make things interesting.

All I know is my child will most likely be incredibly spoiled, will most likely have a fabulous time with all eyes on him since he seems to love attention, and will probably lose his mind if I let him have a smash cake because he's literally had like two bites of sugar ever. So I'm going to try to convince my over-achieving, unrealistic-goal-setting, slightly psychotic self that no matter what happens it will be a beautiful day filled with love, which is all a little one year old boy needs.

That, and lots of toys of course. Little boys need toys