20 Months...

Not too much has changed over the past month.  The biggest difference...Praise the Lord...is that Watson has gone back to being the wonderful sleeper that he has always been!  I'm not sure what was going on the past couple of months, but we are ALL thankful for full nights of sleep...especially before baby girl comes.  (Well...Graham and W are getting full nights of sleep...I on the other hand am barely sleeping at all...thank you pregnancy insomnia.)



He cracks himself up all day :)  And me too :)



Watson is repeating EVERYTHING these days and copying every single thing that we do.  It is so much fun watching him learn every day.  He is still the most curious child I have ever met...in my life.  He loves trying to figure things out...anything that he can take apart and put back together is his favorite.  I LOVE this about our sweet boy!

The crazy Alabama weather...freeeeeezing one day, hot the next!


Our make-shift water table one afternoon.  Oh how this boy LOVES being outside!!!


"Cheeeeeeeese"


We are working hard on sharing...hard.  I really hope that having a little sister in the house will help him learn this concept...has this been the case for anyone else?!  He does great sometimes, but then other times he refuses to share or even let anyone get close to the toy he is playing with. He is much more in to toys these days though...like I said before, he is more in to taking them apart and putting them back together, but he will keep himself occupied for long periods of time playing with toys...which is different from before when he seemed more interested in doors and cabinets than toys!

One of my best friend's little girls, Alli...love that Kerri and I are able to go through this time in life together! 


We found Watson...clothed...in the bathtub the other night.  Funny to look back on now, but so scary at the time!  We still are not sure how he got in the tub without going head first, but he somehow managed and was SO proud of himself!


Watson and his best friend, Abby.  Love how much these two love each other!


Whining/fits are in full force these days.  We usually have about one good fit a day...especially when he is tired...but then he goes back to being sweet as can be.  I think part of it has to do with the fact that he wants to be able to communicate more than he is able to right now...but we are working hard on that every day and I am seeing a lot of progression as he is pointing1 asking "whas dat" 800 times a day...literally! :)

Shades are our new favorite thing :)




For some reason Watson has become EXTREMELY attached to his paci lately...or as he calls it, his 'saci.'  We are officially in 'saci' bootcamp at our house...and it is not easy!  He can sleep with it...but that is it :)




Sometimes you have to get creative on keeping this boy entertained.  If it involves water, though, he is content as can be!


We have started doing a more formal family worship time at nights with Watson.  We have always read him a Bible story before bedtime, but we are now sitting down together as a family just before bed and reading a story and really talking through it and about it.  Watson always brings us the Jesus Storybook Bible, then gets another one of the Bibles that we have for him and sits in his chair and 'follows along.'  It is precious.  I love this time at nights and pray that we are planting seeds of truth in his heart from an early age. 



Stud.


Leaving church.  I absolutely love watching my parents with Watson and am so incredibly thankful for the relationship that they have with him.

19 Months...

Toddler...we have officially switched over to this title :)  I think the 'books' start the toddler phase at 13 months, but this is the first month where I have felt that we are in full-fledge toddler mode around this house.  Every day I am caught off guard at just how much Watson is learning and picking up on.  There are times when it is sad to me to see the baby phase fading away with him, but it is also so exciting and fun to venture into the journey of toddler-hood with our sweet boy! 



We finally began the process of transforming the guest room in to baby girl's nursery and changing Watson's room around to a big-boy room.  I call it his big boy room because it no longer has the nursery furniture and rocker, but big-boy furniture and a recliner.  He is..though...still in a crib, so I guess it's not technically a "big-boy room" yet :)  We did go ahead and put a twin bed in the room for guests and for W as he gets older.  I will post some pictures of the rooms as they come together - right now they are far from ready, though!  He has done pretty well transitioning..we have been so proud of him!  He is having some issues getting to sleep lately - I feel like we are having to do the CIO phase all over again...anyone else go through this around this age?!  I have heard it is pretty common around 18-20 months to go through a "sleep regression."  Once he is finally asleep he does fine (most nights...), but we are reallllly hoping to be out of this phase sooner rather than later :)  It was actually so bad that I was convinced that he had an ear infection or something that was hurting him - took him to the dr and he checked out perfectly - bad news for W because that means I didn't feel AS bad about letting him cry it out :)   He does wake up really early these days...like 5AM...are our days of sleeping until 8 or 8:30 over?!  I was really hoping those days would continue when baby girl is born... Surely...surely...this is just a phase! 

He is loving playing with all of the baby toys that we are pulling out...oh what an awakening he is in for in just a couple of months!




We have been keeping busy lately...it's amazing how quickly our days fill up with activities!  Between my Mom Time Bible Study at the church, MDO, and Music Class, we really only have two days each week that aren't already full...and we generally have no problem finding plenty to do on those days as well...especially getting the upstairs transformed! 



The weather has been pretty wet and cold lately so our time outside has been extremely limited.  I hate this for W because as I've said before...there is no where he would rather be.  We are both looking forward to Spring and some warmer, sunnier weather! 




Graham has been traveling the majority of the past two months, so we have missed having Daddy around A LOT!  Luckily that will end at the end of this month so we can return to a somewhat normal feeling as a family.

'Spidey' is our best friend these days.


Sweet boy loves being held lately - and gets extremely emotional when someone leaves him...especially his Mana, Poppa, or "Melly".

W thinks it's hilarious to stay in the bed while I make it up in the mornings...usually I will get it all made up with him sitting right here...then he stands up and pushes all the pillows over and cracks up :)



Brushing teeth is still a favorite activity around our house.


He is not talking as much as I would have expected by this age, but I am seeing a lot of progress with his language each day so I am extremely thankful for that!  He still says "Daaa-deeee" and "Maaaa-meeee" all the time...as well as "uh-oh", "shoes", "outside", "funny", "silly", "bye-bye," all done," "all gone," "more," "upstairs," "Poppa," "no," "mine" and some other phrases that we can understand but may be confusing for others :)  "Where did it go?" being one of them...right now it just sounds more like "as;dlkfasdf go?" but he puts his little arms up like he's asking a question and uses it appropriately :)  He understands everything and has no problem following directions so his receptive language is right on track.  I was beginning to be concerned about his expressive language, but have been encouraged over the past week or so with how quickly he is picking up on more words and repeating everything. 

Painting..he prefers using his fingers over this brush, but he did great with it!


Long story...but he loves his bicycle helmet.  Graham..being the 'Prepper' that he is..bought us all helmets for tornadoes.  I laughed, but we actually pulled it out for Watson this month just in case...he was a fan :)


To say that Watson is a mama's boy is quite the understatement.  He very clearly loves his daddy dearly, but he prefers mommy...especially when anything is wrong or for bedtime. 

In deep thought...in his Christmas PJ's...in February... :)


We love this sweet boy with all of our hearts and cannot wait to see him as a big brother!  To think that I only have 10 more weeks to go is just crazy...we are so ready to meet our sweet baby girl!  Oh how I pray and trust that the Lord is preparing us to be a family of four.  It is completely overwhelming to think that the Lord has entrusted two precious lives to us...we pray that they will never fail to see HIS love and HIS character in us as husband and wife, mommy and daddy, and as individuals.