Amanda Hagood Photography

Two Years Old

2011-12-19T22:24:00.000-06:00

Dear Anthony,

My little boo-bear, you're TWO years old. Two! I can't believe how big you are, and I swear from one day to the next it seems like just knowing that you were two made you look older, speak more clearly, and....well, your bangs seem longer. We'll have to do something about that.

I'm sorry to say that I couldn't write your letter on your actual birthday because I didn't get to spend much of it with you. We buried my Uncle Dwayne that day, and I couldn't put you through another long funeral trip this year. I'm sad that you didn't get to meet your great uncle, but I know you would have liked him!

We tried to make up for your quiet birthday by having a big party on Saturday. A bunch of friends and family came out to wish you well and eat cake :) You cried through the first hour or so of the party (off and on). Eventually you played outside with some of the kids, but you were happiest when it thinned out a little and you could spend time with your regular neighborhood crew. I'm sure the Holmes boys were happy to hang around and help you break in those new gifts!

Grandpa/Papa Abke (we're still not sure what you will call everyone because all the old men are "papa" right now!) built your new tricycle Saturday night, and on Sunday morning we spent Aunt Brenda's birthday money to get you a shiny new helmet and scooter. You also experienced Juan in a Million for the first time...you were not impressed. Anyway, we had a great day, and we've got some pictures to prove it!

In other news, you are stinkin' adorable. Ok, that's not news, but it's still true. You can use 3 word sentences. I very clearly heard you say "I want choo-choo" today. Well really you were screaming it from the backseat, but I was so happy that you used a 3-word sentence that I didn't care you couldn't make it from Kohl's to the house before opening your choo-choo!

You enjoy showers mixed in along with baths now. You spend a ton of time in there too, but on the bright side, you can pretty much undress yourself so that saves me a little time ;) I think you're also getting your 2-year molars because there has been some serious finger gnawing going on lately. In case we haven't mentioned, you sleep in a tent. There is a tent in your crib. And I think you're finally used to it! It keeps you from climbing out at least.

I'm sure I'll be writing to you about potty training and toddler beds before long, but for right now, I'm trying to cherish all the baby-ness left in you.

I love you more and more each day. I love that you're growing and changing, even though it means you'll leave me some day. I love that even though you're becoming more independent, you still run back to me for comfort from time to time. You are the most important thing I have ever had or will ever do in my life. I love you.

Your Mom

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pictures from your actual birthday before I left town that morning:

From your party:

Big hugs to your Auntie-Cousin for helping with the signs! And we would have had a little photo booth action here, but you wouldn't stop crying and clinging to my leg long enough for me to do it :)

You opened ONE gift, and then it was over. We had to wait until the crowd left to do the rest. You were pretty excited about having only 2 other kids left with a mountain of presents to go through!

You love your Papa so much! Probably because he builds cool things for you :)

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T20:49:00.000-05:00

I wasn't sure how Halloween would go over this year. Anthony was pretty adamant that he should not be wearing a giant, hairy, orange suit. We started by taking him to the Round Rock fall festival, and he got a goodie bag and a chance to run around play with lots of little monsters. That wore him out good so we took a nap break, and then we got dressed up again to head out with the neighbors for some trick-or-treating. This part was right up Anthony's alley. When we go on our walks through the neighborhood I always have to chase him because he wants to go up to every neighbor's door to knock or ring the bell. Hello?! This is totally his holiday! He definitely enjoyed himself, and I hope next year is even better! (Neighbors: I have more of the group shots if you want to dig for one where your child is facing forward.)
I'm so glad we have such an awesome neighborhood with lots of little friends for Anthony!

Napping

2011-10-20T22:40:00.002-05:00

Fiona and Murat

2011-10-20T14:02:00.000-05:00

I'm pretty terrible in general about writing over here that I've blogged something on our Whitney Lee site...but today I remembered! Yay! Go look at Fiona and Murat (and below is a preview)...

22 Months

2011-10-16T23:19:00.000-05:00

Dear Anthony,

Today you're 22 months, and it's happening in the midst of a chaotic season for me. I wish I could spend every single moment soaking you up because you're getting so big so fast that I'm almost scared to blink. You and I are probably a rare twosome that look forward to Mondays because that's when we get our time together. All week, just you and me for the most part.

Today I had portraits to do, and when you woke up from your nap you flitted off to the second birthday party of the weekend with Dada. The hours you were gone that I was at home were miserable. All I wanted to do was scoop you up and love on you, and the minute you got home, that's exactly what I did :) You give the best hugs and kisses! You launched yourself into my arms, and you held on so tight as if you were afraid I would disappear.

You're at such a fun age. Everything is an adventure, and you can communicate enough to cut back on a lot of frustration. You have funny noises (mostly that you learned from me), and you have a cute little sense of humor that just melts me! You have to run everywhere you go, and often times that leads to bumps and bruises. You're quite a stubborn little fellow! It doesn't matter how many times you fall down, how many times I ask you to slow down or hold my hand, you must run.

We've developed a weekly routine that's lots of fun, but I'm going to shake you up soon with some additions to our educational time. I hope you'll enjoy learning as much as I do! Thanks to a tip from your Godmother, I may be adding a little "science and snack time with Dada" to your evening routine. You're basically a sponge right now so I have no doubt you'll absorb every little tidbit and try to repeat it back in your own way. Part of me longs to hear you say full sentences so I can know exactly what's going through your mind. The other part is enjoying your baby babble, knowing it's temporary, basking in its cuteness and simplicity. I love everything about you.

I hope you'll remember one day how you hold me tightly and say "ooooh, mama" the same way you used to reserve only for our special blanket (Dee). I hope you'll remember snorting on me and pushing your forehead up against mine. Remember going in for a kiss and sometimes changing your mind and opening your mouth against my face to make monkey sounds! Remember how much you enjoy doing "butterfly kisses, eskimo kisses" with me. Remember how you go and find my cowboy boots and run up with your demanding little noises until I slip you into them (up to your hips!) and help you toddle around the house. There are so many things about this time in our lives that I hope continues and that you will remember and cherish as much as I do.

I love you so very much,
Mama
P.S. Here are some photos from Saturday. We got up early (along with Granny) to take you out to Sweet Berry Farm for some fun!

Meeting Lilah and Tess

2011-09-27T13:15:00.000-05:00

Anthony got to have a play date with Lilah and Tess this morning, their first official meeting! If we got our family tree straight, Anthony is 3rd cousins with these lovely ladies. I'm actually bummed that we didn't do this sooner, I had no idea how close they were to our new neighborhood. Lilah and Anthony got along beautifully, and they had no problem sharing with each other. Aaaaah, sweet play date bliss (until we had to leave).

I should have taken more pictures of these cuties, but I HAD to get my hands on Tess. She felt like a feather after carrying Anthony all the time. Mmmmm...and smelled so sweet. Baby fever approaching!

Diella and Brian Engagement

2011-09-21T21:59:00.001-05:00

I always forget to tell you people when I've been blogging on Whitney Lee! Well....guess what...http://www.whitneyleephotography.com/photoblog/diella-and-brian-engagement/Every post is better with a picture!

Balllllll!

2011-09-17T12:45:00.001-05:00

Holy moly, I'm in love with this child. We were playing on the patio, and he threw a tennis ball over the side. Rather than use his new found abilities to get on and off the patio without mommy and daddy's help (*gasp*), he decided to call out to the ball instead. I. LOVE. HIM.

21 Months

2011-09-16T23:47:00.000-05:00

Dear Anthony,Today you're 21 months. I thought about all of the big boy things you do, and in order to remind myself just how much difference a year makes, I looked back at a blog post from exactly one year ago. I read your 9 month post , and I laughed while reading about you standing in your crib. I remember that feeling of "Oh my God, I left you one way, and you managed to change it!". After you making your first jail break last week, standing up alone in your crib seems so simple :) I'm sure pretty soon you'll make crib-escapes look like nothing too, but for right now it's a big deal. If nothing else it led to some advanced baby-proofing in the middle of the night! Right now you have ALL of your baby teeth, and you look so different then when you were all gummy. I used to think you were super cute, but I didn't even know this new level of cute was possible. I try so hard to help you make better decisions when you do something "bad" (i.e. throw a toy, throw food, you like to throw things), but then you turn on the charm, and I just melt.

List of cute things you do right now:
1. If you can't see me, you call out "mama?", and then when you find me you squeal "MAMA!" in a high-pitched voice that is so full of joy!
2. When you hear the garage door open in the evening you whisper "dada" excitedly, and when your dad opens the door you screech "DADA!" at full volume! Sometimes you run to greet him and other times you realize he might take you away from me and end up snuggling deeper into my neck.
3. Saying "papa". It's sad and cute at the same time. I don't even know how it's possible, but I love it.
4. Signs! You keep adding more signs, and you're so enthusiastic about doing them. Some words you can say when you're signing them like "car" and "ball", others are still a struggle. You wrinkle your nose up every time you show us "bear"!
5. When we play with the water hose you now chase me with it and try to get my feet wet. I'll stand there and let my mind wander away for a second, and then suddenly I'm drenched while you're laughing your diaper off.
6. Go up and down the porch stairs by yourself. You're so careful in this one aspect, I'm trying so hard to make you safe, you little daredevil! The other day you got a hand full of splinters from holding the rail on your way down, ouch! Bet that didn't inspire you to hold on and be careful next time :/
7. You try to count! We stack blocks, and you make sounds like this "wah, ew, ee, four, (you skip five), sis,...."

You've been extra lovey lately, and I can't get enough! We were grocery shopping recently, and I think we doubled our usual trip time because every few steps you leaned forward and threw your arms around me for hugs. *sigh* I have the best son IN THE WORLD. When we play you just run up to me with arms spread wide and give me a big hug, then it's off to play again. You're just as attached to me as ever, and while that slows me down a lot, I relish every second. If your dad tries to take you away to play in another room so I can work then you stretch your arms out towards me, and there are instantly tears and watery "maaaamaaaaas!" coming from you. Sad! I love your love because it's so sweet. And it's magnificently more special because it's doomed. I know I won't always be your favorite, but right now it's all about mom :)

I'll be thinking about you when I'm working all day tomorrow, and I'm sad that I'll be leaving while you're napping so I won't get my sad good-bye hugs. Oh, and you finally gave me HAPPY good-bye hugs this week! I told you I had to leave, and instead of throwing a fit you just leaned forward for a kiss (then one more!), and you waved and said "bye!". I was happy it was tear-free, but I wasn't sure what brought about the change. It certainly wasn't the case today when daddy tried to smuggle you away for some daddy time.

I love you so much (I frequently walk around saying "I. LOVE. HIM." to nobody in particular),
Mom

Jail Break

2011-09-09T23:52:00.001-05:00

My son is so grown up. He made his first jail break tonight. This means Grande and I officially had our first heart attacks tonight. After finally (I think) getting him settled back down, I watched this video and almost melted. Here we go, late as usual, a video of Anthony and Aunt Mary doing Ride the Horsey. ****Technical Difficulty***** Please follow the link to my flickr page to see Anthony Ride the Horsey: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amandapomilla/6109406865/

Grandparent Visits

2011-09-03T13:51:00.000-05:00

Baby and I took a little road trip to Richardson to visit some of his Great-Grandparents. We're lucky he has 7 Great-Grandparents alive that love him so much! These are the shenanigans from going to visit 2 of them. He also got to meet Aunt Mary and Madeline for the first time. Aunt Mary was a huge hit! And she even brought him 3 of his favorite kind of cars, what a gal :) He's eating the bait!The last part is him visiting with my parents when we got back home. My dad taught him the balls over the eyes thing. He thinks it's hilarious!

Boys in the Backyard

2011-08-27T12:52:00.003-05:00

Boy this summer seems long. We're trying to stay cool by rotating different types of water activities into our day. Friday's choice was to have Nichole, Jackson, and Davis come over to play in the backyard with the little splash pool. We finally got our baby swing up after SIX trips to Home Depot and FIVE clip exchanges. Phew. And we lowered our belt swing so the little kids have an easier time :)

Love our playscape and our big backyard!

Swimming with Gigi

2011-08-03T20:40:00.003-05:00

We had a fun play morning with the Holmes family, and we spent the afternoon sweating our rears off outside. Then...*cue sounds of the heavens* Gigi called and invited us to go swimming. Hallelujah! We had a great time, and this little bugaboo got to sleep an hour late tonight because we completely lost track of time. The camera's being cleaned right now (from the beach trip, woo!) so I'll leave you with a video we shot swimming with Gigi last week.

Summer Vacation 2011

2011-08-01T20:56:00.004-05:00

I was determined to take a mini-vacation this year. I tried getting Anthony (Grande) on board with a trip to Colorado, Corpus/South Padre, among other ideas. We ended up settling on my childhood summer spot, Galveston. Since it's only about an hour from my parents' house it would be easy to make a 4-day trip and hit the beach. We've had a super dry summer in Texas so all seemed well. ...until Hurricane/Tropical Storm/Annoying Don started heading toward the coast. Our plan of heading out early on Friday morning to do a beach day was thwarted. It was gray most of the day, and we decided that our beach trip was canceled and should just head to the local farm where it didn't matter if we got sprinkled on or not.

I like to start my vacations with a picture of the first moment I consider us to be "on our way". In this case, I took a picture of my sleepy baby the morning we were leaving Leander. I woke HIM up for a change. Haha!

Farm time!

BEACH!!

And Nanny finally got to see him. Sadly, she missed him last time we went due to a baby health scare. Yuck!

Anthony and Jaden Monkeying Around

2011-07-26T23:31:00.003-05:00

The boys are at a very difficult age to photograph at the same time. Getting them both looking at the camera and smiling at the same time (which is apparently something grandparents enjoy) is QUITE the task. Theresa and I decided to take the boys to the park again and just see what we got. Enjoy!

I made it into three whole frames! It's not super flattering, but my little cutie wouldn't hold still for anything else.

19 Months

2011-07-20T11:58:00.004-05:00

Dear Anthony,

You're 19-months old! Sometimes you look so tiny, and other times it seems like you're a monster. Your feet seem really big, but I'm sure they're totally normal for your age :) You're over 2 1/2 feet tall, and you weigh a little over 20lbs. You recently got your 13th tooth, and I feel pretty sure you're working on another one. Grow, grow, grow! It's like your little mantra, but I'd be happy if you stayed my little guy just a bit longer.

You've been down to one nap a day for a while, and that seems to be a much better routine for us than your 2 naps (although it is hard to have lunch with anyone now!). Your doctor has given us the all-clear for traveling with you, and we're starting with some small stuff soon. Your first beach trip is coming up next week, and we'll hit up Dallas next month. I'm trying to convince your dad to do these Colorado and London trips so maybe you can do me a favor and make one (or both!) of those words next out of your mouth :) Right now you say Mama, Dada, Papa, and a stream of little-little-diddle-diddle that I'm not sure what it means! You almost have Grandpa, but it needs a little refinement. Adorable!

You could still care less for whole vegetables but still like them in the puree form. Everything else is on track and real "grown-up" food for you. Hopefully the vegetables aren't far behind! All this good eating has given you plenty of energy, and I try to let you run around as much as possible. You're definitely fidgety about getting out of the stroller unless we're on a morning walk (or if there's a snack involved!). We got a BOB stroller this week, and you seem to enjoy this a lot more than the old one. You can climb in yourself, and the canopy blocks a lot more sun for you. Yay! I can't wait for the fall weather so the morning walks don't leave us drenched in sweat :/

You still need your D quite a bit, and we've had an upstairs and a downstairs D for a while now. Sometimes we even have to take it on errands with us, and it's a must-have for all road trips. Besides D, your favorite thing is being outside or occasionally watching Baby Signing Times (I swear you'd watch this every day if we let you). You can sign a lot of things, but they're more meaningful now and actually about what you want at that moment. A few days ago you actually started signing along with the video whereas usually you sign to me when it's not on. It was a cool/funny development when you started signing along with Miss Rachel!

I can't wait to see what the next month brings! You've been quite a rough and tough boy lately, and you've taken a much bigger interest in playing with your cars lately. We'll see where that takes us, especially on vacation :)

I love you more than anything, my favorite little person.
*kisses*
mom
P.S. You give kisses when I ask for them, and it. melts. my. heart.

Swimming, Pizza, Play Date

2011-07-16T13:26:00.002-05:00

Today my little Boogaboo is 19 months! His official 19-month letter and pictures to come soon. But since I'm headed out to a wedding I thought I'd go ahead and post a few tidbits from the last week.

On COUSIN day we went swimming. QUITE the adventure, let me tell ya. We packed a picnic, put on our sunscreen, and headed out. When we got to Villa Bene Stare we realized we had forgotten to bring the key. Not to be thwarted, we went back to grab some towels and drinks since we'd be on our own. We made our picnic right there on the patio, never even made it to the hot grass :)

Swimming was pretty tiring...we were forced to make homemade pizza for sustenance.

Play date with Alex and Leslie was up for Friday morning! I spent so much time having fun with the kiddos and listening to Alex talk about dinosaurs that I barely took any pictures. Hmph. Will try harder at next week's date.

Sliding Alone the First Time

2011-07-10T20:58:00.002-05:00

We had a nice cloudy afternoon so we left our letter/shapes mat in the house to go play outside. Then the baby decided he was going to climb up and slide by himself for the first time :)

Dave and Emily's Annual 4th of July Party

2011-07-04T15:41:00.002-05:00

We have an annual date to celebrate our country's independence, and when you're lucky, it's themed. This year's theme: Yacht Rock. Think nautical 80's attire, delicious food, fun people, and a little fauxcaine. Yeah!

Baby couldn't go with us so he spent a little time with Grandma and Grandpa, but we had to get a big squeeze in before we left!

Party time!

Left and Lucy sharing a cup-cake ice-cream cone!

Friends!

2011-07-01T22:58:00.002-05:00

We were so fortunate to see THREE of our Leslie/ey's last week! (To make matters worse, TWO of them are Leslie J., pffft, what are they trying to do to me?!) In any case, we had a play date with Leslie Ann and Alex on Tuesday (sadly, I didn't take any pictures because it was so short), and it went over much better than I thought. Alex is working his way towards being 2 1/2, and Anthony is 1 1/2 so I wasn't sure how this would go. Alex warmed up to us (or Anthony at least) pretty quickly, and the boys were able to have some fun. Can't wait to do it again!

On Thursday we had an adventure with Lesley and Jordan. She decided to take the train up, and I got the chance to go pick someone up from a train station, woo! It was kind of exciting, not sure why :) I did have to have two car seats in my car for this, and THAT. WAS. SCARY. It did a number on me, and now I'm thinking about another baby....hmmm. Then I remember what newborns are like, and I just want to play with them and give them back to my friends, hehe! Lesley was able to hang out for a good chunk of the day, and I took a couple snaps while Anthony was napping, and we could concentrate entirely on Jordan.

The result of the Lesley/Jordan play date was a little different. Anthony was very curious about Jordan and wanted to "pet" him when Lesley was holding him. When we put him on Anthony's old baby mats and gave him Anthony's toys to play with, no problem. But the minute I tried to hold the baby, WHOA. Anthony started fussing, throwing himself in my lap, whining, "MAMAAAAAAAA!", and trying to push Jordan away. I think he's angling to be an only child like his mama :)

And on Saturday we were able to see our Leslie J. and Joseph for their baby shower! Totally worth the drive to Buda, and we got to find out in the big reveal that they're having a little girl! It's about time some girls started coming around our friend group. We've been on boy overload for quite a while!

Moving on to tonight (Friday), I had a fantastic family date night with my boys. We went over and swam for a while at Hagood Headquarters, and then we dried off to go eat on the patio at O'Leander Cafe. I couldn't believe it felt good to sit outside and eat in July! But then again we had been outside for a while already at that point considering how long we swam...I guess we were used to it. In any case, we had a great evening! Even though little Anthony did try to BITE OFF my finger like a piranha. I almost cried. Right there at the dinner table. OUCH.

Playing in the House

2011-06-30T22:50:00.002-05:00

Lately I've been trying to get us out of the house more. I absolutely DETEST hot weather if I'm not in a cool body of water...preferably with a fruity drink in my hand. But it's not feasible for us to do that every single day, especially if I have somewhere to be that evening where I need to look decent. Ergo, we've been spending a lot of time in the house lately. This dinosaur scooter never gets old to me. And I've ridden it with him :)

Boys at the Park

2011-06-26T12:50:00.002-05:00

This Sunday morning Anthony Grande is working (boo!), so we spent a little time over at Gigi and Papa's to hang out with them and Auntie Theresa and Jaden. It was spur of the moment, so no camera. However, Theresa reminded me that we had unposted pictures of the boys playing at the park from April. Oops! Here goes our April trip (before it was stinkin hot!)

There was probably more baby wrangling than actual park fun, but whatever :)

And it's probably a good thing nobody had a camera today because I had an allergic reaction on Friday night, and I look FANTASTIC.

Breakfast...with whipped cream

2011-06-20T22:16:00.002-05:00

We eat the same thing just about every COUSIN day around here. Pancakes and turkey bacon. Pancakes and turkey bacon. Pancakes and turkey bacon. This one crazy day, we added whipped cream.

And this has nothing to do with whipped cream (I hope), but I <3 Taylor Swift. I do. I didn't think I would when she came out, but I'm a sucker for her and her lyrics. I'm currently trying to see how long it takes of me singing "Mean" out loud around the house before Anthony Grande develops a tick.

Anthony is 17 Months!

2011-05-27T22:37:00.002-05:00

My baby boy is 17 months! Well technically today he's 17 months and 11 days :/ Bad Amanda/Mommy! Anywho, I took some photos him before and after his hair cut so I can see which way I like it. I definitely feel like I like it long. I mean let's face it, he's got those Hagood ears he needs to hide :/

Here we go!...

Dear Anthony,

You're 17 months, and I'm trying so hard to keep up. My sweet little boy, you have become defiant lately. You have big opinions on what you want to eat, do, when you want to be strapped in your car seat, etc. We fight a lot of little battles, but I usually sing songs or distract you so I can win :)
You just got your 4th molar to pop through the gums, and I hope that makes you more comfortable. There's been a lot of drooling and finger biting lately. That brings you up to a grand total of 12 teeth, woo! That's more than some of the adults have in the town I came from (ba-ZING!).
You've been to the doctor a lot in the last month, but we got great results on your most recent test so we don't have to go back for 2 months, yay!
You're my special, sweet, adorable, fun-loving, squealing, pooting, blanket-loving little boy that I can't get enough of!

Love,
Mom

Mother's Day

2011-05-15T12:53:00.002-05:00

I had a fabulous Mother's Day this year (unlike the chaos of last year). I went to breakfast with my mom, came back and had lunch with lots of the family, went to the Pecan Street Festival, and then we cooled off in the backyard with a little pool my mom brought. The Pecan Street Festival was way too freaking hot, and I could care less to go back again, at least not with a small child. But cooling off outside was nice. I didn't know how the baby would feel about it because he's only been swimming a few times, and he's usually in a big pool. At first he was hesitant, but it didn't take him long to figure it out it was a blast! I loved my second mother's day!

Easter 2011 and 16 months

2011-04-24T23:47:00.003-05:00

Wow. It seems like an eternity since I've blogged, and I'm sure you missed me. Oy, time has seriously gotten away from me lately, and since it's uncertain when I'll blog again...this is a two-fer. Easter pictures and a 16-month letter!

Dear Anthony,

As usual, your mother is running behind. By the time you can read, you'll definitely know about this flaw of mine. I take on too many things, but I do stay committed! Lately we've been running around like crazy so your letter is late. I wish we were busy/nervous/scared/researching/praying/holding our breath for better reasons, but our little family can handle it. I hope you always know how much we love you, and we never want to hurt you. Everything we do is for you :)

I hope you can throw out the bad memories and keep trusting us that we will always do what's best for you. And remember all the fun things! I am seriously about to get out the video camera to have you show the world all your signs because you look SO proud of yourself when you get them right. THAT'S a memory worth keeping. The big chipmunk smile with the dimples, oh, it just melts my heart! Speaking of signs, you can "say" milk, wash hands, cracker (this one particularly cracks you up), hat, more, and oh geez, I feel like I'm forgetting one. Aah! You try to do some of the others (like banana and water), but they still look a little funky. We're gettin' there!

You still could care less to say anything but "dada". I think this might be your dad's fault. We've always sat down with you and tried to get you to say our respective names so you hear me say "mama" and then him say "dada". So when I tell you to say "mama", I think you feel the appropriate response is "dada" since you hear them together. Whatever, just me theory. It's ok because you totally said "mama" first (even though you dropped it like a hot potato when you learned "dada"); I'll always have that :) And you haven't signed either one yet so I could absolutely get the first parental signage!

You are the best little Booger/Munchkin/Munchky/Nugget/BabySon/Anfernee/Anthony we could have ever hoped or prayed for, and Son, I pray for you often. Every night. A couple of times I've fallen asleep during it because it goes on for so long. But like I tell you all the time, there's nothing I wouldn't do for you. Except maybe be punctual on your baby/toddler letters...yikes!

I'm excited to watch you learn new things every day, and today at Easter was no exception. I think you started to grasp the concept of the Easter egg hunt pretty quick, but you did spend a while talking to that egg like it was your cell phone. Perhaps I'm setting a bad example :) I choose to believe you're just communicative and creative, haha!

Oh, and you're picky now. Really picky. I hear it's common when the molars are coming in. But you can stop that now, thanks :) In case you're curious, you have 10 teeth right now and are working on 2 more. They're molars of course.

I'm a little sad to tuck you in bed every night, and I'm so happy to come get you out of bed every morning. I love you so much, punkin.

Mama

****************************************************
Here are the Easter festivities! I was so worried about not finding enough fun things to go in the basket that I went a weeeeee bit overboard.

Anthony in Dino PJ's

2011-04-01T13:14:00.003-05:00

I just love this little guy! I'm so sad I'll miss bed time tonight (wedding), but I took some cute pics of him in his big boy jamma jams this morning!

Jordan Newborn

2011-03-26T00:00:00.002-05:00

So many exciting things happening lately with new babies and new marriages!

I was excited that Lesley and Juan invited me to photograph their new son, Jordan. Go check him out on the Whitney Lee blog :)

Rachelle and Ryan Engagement

2011-03-17T22:05:00.001-05:00

I've been posting fairly regularly on the WLP blog lately. And forgetting to tell you fine people about it.

Go check out Rachelle and Ryan on the Whitney Lee blog!

15 Months

2011-03-16T16:47:00.002-05:00

My little nugget is 15 months!

Dear Anthony,

Today you're 15 months. You're a little ball of fun, and you spend the day walking up a storm and playing hide and seek with me. You're a much better seeker than hider :)

Your giggles crack me up, and you love for me to "sneak up" on you and grab you and tickle you until you bury your face in the floor! When you were giggling yesterday I noticed that in addition to your front 8 teeth, you now have a molar poking out in the back! What the heck?! You can't be a big boy with back teeth yet, can you?! Maybe you'll start to like meat a little more when you have more teeth because right now you could care less.

You have become an extremely picky eater. You'll take a veggie for lunch (on most days), and after that it's basically cheese and bananas or you're not interested. Thank goodness you love milk; I know you're mine :)

Now that you're so mobile I take you to the park and help you slide and swing. You love to swing with your mama! I bought you a baby swing at the store yesterday so you can swing at home...we'll see how it goes.

I can't wait to see what the next month brings...maybe some words?

Love,
Mom

(Notice a trend? You're holding something in your hands for every photo. It's the only way you humor me with pictures now!)

Walkin Man

2011-02-28T23:02:00.002-06:00

This little nugget walks pretty well now. If you haven't seen it yet, I've got a nice video for you :) It's hard to capture even though he walks all day because as soon as the camera comes out he has to attack it!

Untitled from Amanda Hagood on Vimeo.

In case you're wondering, there's a lot of snot around here, but he is feeling better. Sad we had to cancel our Dallas trip to see Great-Granny and Great-Grandad :(

The Nugget

2011-02-26T23:39:00.002-06:00

I don't know about you, but this is the cutest little nugget that I've ever seen. And he's sick today :/
(These are from yesterday)

Victoria and Luis

2011-02-26T20:50:00.003-06:00

Engagement post up over at our Whitney Lee blog! Here's Victoria and Luis' engagement session!

Go to the WLP blog to see the whole thing...

Anthony 14 Months

2011-02-16T16:58:00.002-06:00

Dear Anthony,

My little nugget, today you're 14 months. You've done some kind of magic where time just speeds up! Even your Granny remarked on it today. You started walking all of a sudden, and it's so amazing to see. You challenge yourself every day....take more steps, turn around and go back without falling, etc. You're a daredevil in almost every way, and I'm glad that your pediatrician, dentist, and a million other mothers-of-boys told me about this.

You have seven teeth right now, but boy, that eighth one has been aching to pop out. You've suddenly gotten picky on eating, but I did let you discover the delight of an occasional Goldfish cracker so I'm pretty sure you're ruined :) You also LOVE playing with my keys more than ever before. You fuss at me big time when I take them away.

Today at the store you leaned on the side of the stroller all casual with one arm hanging out, just relaxing. It looked so grown up, and I hated it and loved it at the same time! My precious little baby, you're desperately trying to break away and become my precious little boy instead. I'm not ready! I'll do my best to keep up though.

I love you more than you'll ever know and in every imaginable way. You make my whole life brighter.

Love,
Mom

P.S. You weren't loving the camera today. All you wanted was to go and climb stairs because it's dangerous, and danger is your game right now. Here we go...

Mug

2011-02-15T12:46:00.002-06:00

I'm drinking out of this mug right now. And I like it.

I need to refill this thing about 20 more times, and then maybe I'll feel alive.

I had the strangest dreams this morning. I was wronged by someone last year, and I had a dream that she took something from me (something tangible), and I had to break into her house to get it. Dream cuts forward to me being in the house. She comes home, and instead of being mad, we totally became friends again. WTH is that about?! Shouldn't we both have been angry?! Shouldn't I have been more concerned about jail time :) Haha!, dream world, you crack me up.

Anthony's First REAL Hair Cut

2011-02-10T22:24:00.002-06:00

My baby, MY BABY, got his first big boy hair cut today. I was pretty nervous leading up to today. Will he sit still? Will he cry? Will he jump and get poked by scissors?! Will he jump and lose a big chunk of hair?? All of that worry was for...almost nothing. He got a little antsy a couple of times in the chair, but he calmed down as soon as I sang to him. I'm so glad we asked Maegan to be the official haircutter. My sister-in-law already uses her for Jaden, but my nephew is older so I still wasn't sure how my baby would take it. Maegan was so great with him, and everything was swift and easy. We got exactly what we wanted, no more sheep-dog. Instead we have a stylish, well-groomed look to sport :)

(Before we start, let me warn you that there are a lot of hair cut photos. But this is a big deal!)

Before....

Baby booster seat!

Oh, that face =D

Phew, done.

The jacket did mess up his hair on the way home, and, uh, he's not happy about it.

Project for Gigi and Papa

2011-02-07T16:40:00.003-06:00

My in-laws celebrated 29 years of marriage in January, and part of our (i.e. "the kids") gift to them was a personalized frame. The other part...a photo of the grandkids to go in it :) This is more difficult than you think. The boys are on total opposite napping schedules. Mine takes two a day, hers one, but they fit together like puzzle pieces end on end until the day is pretty much done (at least in the early sunset days of winter). The few weekends we've had since this project started have been filled with weddings or Jaden spending time with his dad. FINALLY we got both boys together for some cute photos (which included Anthony staying up a little past nap time!). I think I ended up choosing more of the "outtakes" than the moments where they were perfectly smiling at the camera. I love the silly stuff the most :)

My hippy kid totally needs a hair cut. In the grocery store today people kept telling me I had the most beautiful little girl :) Haha!

Snow!

2011-02-04T10:36:00.002-06:00

Originally it was supposed to snow around 9 last night so I kept running to my window every 30 minutes to look. Nothing. I told my other west side peeps to alert me on FB if they saw anything, and they said they'd been seeing it for over an hour! Pffft. I guess it all stalled 6 minutes down the road :/

But I was rudely awoken by my husband flinging open the window this morning to show me....SNOW!

I photoshopped my address off of my house before I put these up. Is that paranoid? And my neighbor's house because other wise taking it off mine didn't make sense :) Or is it useless since you can already see a picture of where I live?! Aaaaaah!!!!

Changes Afoot

2011-02-02T23:16:00.002-06:00

Do you ever get that feeling that change is coming in? Like an unstoppable force is bringing it closer, and the anticipation makes you want to explode?! Well that's where I am right now. Love it. On the whole, I enjoy change. I like to freshen things up, and that's exactly what I'm going to do! You might also see more experimentation on the blog with my photography. It may not last, but this is a good area for me to test out things I want to do, directions I want to go.

Ahem...on with the day!

It was cold. Again. Rolling black outs sucked, and of course they only happened when I wanted to warm up something for Son to eat. Pffft. Looking forward to more tomorrow, hooray. I really hope my big upload makes it tonight! I am so ready to show this gal her wedding, she's been waiting 6 weeks, and even though that's the time I quote everyone, I hate pushing it to the deadline. But with moving and holidays, yeesh.

You know what? We have a see-through front door. Yep, it's mostly glass. For the most part this doesn't bother me like I thought it would. I'm a pretty paranoid, think-everyone-in-the-world-is-out-to-break-into-my-house-and-get-me kind of girl...I get it from my mom. But it hasn't been bad at all. Tonight I was getting into the shower and realized I needed to get the flash light off my desk in case a black out happened while I was all wet and far away from light sources. Of course I run through the house without re-dressing only to stop like a deer in the headlights when I come face to face with my see-through front door. Gosh, I hope the new neighbors weren't looking towards my front door right then. Must. be. more. careful.

We didn't take any photos of us NOT enjoying the black out today, so enjoy this stroll back to late November when temperatures were nice, and a family could go to the park and enjoy.

Yes, they have goats next to the park when you're in Round Rock :)

(You'll notice only every other photo is in this new style I'm trying out for post-processing. Of course big Anthony hates it because he's a traditionalist...and pretty square :) but I'd like to know our feedback. You can message me offline if you don't want to leave it for the whole world to see. Thanks!

Wagon, Rooster Hair, and Cooooold Weather

2011-02-01T17:27:00.004-06:00

My baby boy can't be big enough for a wagon, CAN HE?! Apparently, he can. My parents got him his first Little Red Wagon for Christmas, but we were "homeless" at the time, so they kept it until we got all settled in the new house. They brought it with them on their visit this weekend, and my dad got it all set up. Fun fun fun! We stuffed an old comforter in it, and he rode around happy as a clam in the back (wait, clams are happy, right?? cause this baby was!). I should say, happy as a clam at high tide :) And when he was finished riding in it, he pushed it. Push push push, all over the yard. It's his little walker.

(Yes, Dad, you're on my blog. DEAL WITH IT! :)

I'd say Hondo is enjoying our new back yard.

Sometimes after naps, this kid wakes up with rooster hair. And sometimes he tries to walk with rooster hair.

It's cold today. Really cold. AND WINDY. Pretty darn windy. Did I mention there was a lot of wind?? Weather.com said it would be here around 3am. I was awoken promptly at 2:57am (darn early wind!) by LOUD wind. It kept us up for a while, but fortunately the baby was able to sleep through it. I got up this morning to the realization that I forgot to clean off my patio table after having fun outside this weekend. Several things are now missing off our table, as well as the invite to our neighbors' get-to-know-you shindig. Guess I'll be RSVP'ing in person to that one.

Anyway, since we can't play outside with our new wagon today (which is insane considering how hot it was when we were doing it yesterday!)...I thought we'd bundle up and run a couple of errands. I got out at the store and had my car door ripped from my hands. Yikes! I brave the wind to try and open the trunk, no can do, the biting wind is pushing against it. Well shoot! I gave up and got back in the car and drove us home without accomplishing one single thing. Except the waste of fossil fuels. I expect a note from a tree hugger on my desk tomorrow.

Here he is all bundled up...

It's attack of the bundled baby!

Not looking forward to being trapped inside the next few days. Hmph.

AHHHYEAHfirststepsYEAH

2011-01-28T15:49:00.002-06:00

If you weren't able to read the blog title then you're blissfully ignorant of Jersey Shore :) I've only seen the second season (which of course didn't even take place at the Jersey Shore), but when Samantha comes over there's a significant increase in shore-speak.

To get right down to the point of the post, our little guy is taking steps! I was folding laundry and eating pretzels in the living room, and of course the baby wants a pretzel if I'm eating one. I don't give him junk food so I thought about just putting the bag away and getting us all a better snack when this kid just lets go and takes 4 steps from one couch to the other in order to get to the fabulous pretzel bag that he just had to have.

I screamed and kissed him and hugged him and cheered! Then I ran for the camera and used a pretzel as bait to get him to do it again :) We only got a couple steps on video, but he was taking more steps at random times this morning so I think full-fledged walking is on its way! (This video is from yesterday, in case I didn't mention.)

Untitled from Amanda Hagood on Vimeo.

Here he was eating breakfast that morning looking all normal, lulling me into thinking this was just another day, no milestones about to burst out of him...

In between breakfast and walking was a little time out in the midday sun enjoying good temperatures. Notice the baby's toy camera :)

(Note: The pictures where I make an appearance were taken by Samantha!)

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to eat some pretzels....they're magic you know.

The Dryer

2011-01-25T21:12:00.003-06:00

Guess what I'm doing? DRYING CLOTHES IN MY OWN HOUSE! I used to take this absolutely 100% for granted. But after all this time (about 6 weeks), I'm finally drying my own clothes, yippee! Sears had the dryer fixed as of Tuesday last week, only for us to discover that the cap was never put on our outside vent that the dryer hooks up to, and one of our sprinklers just HAPPENED to be pointing right at it and filled it up to the top with 12 gallons of water, rendering our dryer useless again. Our builders finally got a plumber out here yesterday, and Anthony washed and dried our new sheets last night while I was at the Jasmine Star seminar in College Station.

I'd like to note that on my trip I saw a car that was clearly made out of several garage doors glued together....that my COUSIN! helped me get through the rough areas only to have my phone drop her right when I get to my destination...and that the whole trip, upset stomach, killer headache, and short short night of sleep was worth it. I had a great time, heard from a photographer I love, met new people, made connections with other photographers that will hopefully blossom into friendships, and lots more that I'm too tired to think about :)

I'm happy!

And excited my parents are coming to visit this weekend!

Back to editing...

The Hole

2011-01-23T21:47:00.003-06:00

HOW did it get there?? WHEN did it get there?? Nobody knows. (Imagine this in Chuckie's voice.) Since we don't have cable in the new casa, I've been catching up on my classic Rugrats episodes :)

Anyway, the hole. Seriously. We don't know how it got there. This is a hole, or should I say two slashes (?) in our sheets. We got to the new house, put the sheets on the bed, and there are two long holes right about where your feet would be. And the spot where they're at looks extra worn and thin. I've never seen this spot before, so how could it look so aged and worn?? Weird. Anthony's feet must have magically eaten through it the last night we were in the house, and then he conspired to cover it up by offering to move everything out of the old house while I went to Houston. Yep, something fishy is going on here.

In any case, we needed new sheets. After an extensive search today, we found 800-thread count Egyptian cotton sheets ON SALE! that match perfectly :) LIFE IS GOOD. On the bad side, there was some stench over Round Rock that would creep in and out as we were perusing the stores. It is definitely from the bog of eternal stench. There's no other explanation. It was so bad that we had to forgo setting up the stroller and strapping the baby in at the parking lot. We put him on our hip and made a mad dash for the doors. And this happened a couple of times in the same general area (La Frontera). DISGUSTING. I don't see how that smell could come out of a person without the words, "You only have a short time to live" not being far behind. *shudder*

Moving on! You've all been patiently waiting for FOUR MONTHS....so here's another video of my baby doing nothing but being cute on our patio :)

Untitled from Amanda Hagood on Vimeo.

Play Time

2011-01-19T16:35:00.003-06:00

Anthony has become quite the little ham, and I think this first picture proves it :)

Since we finally had some nice weather, it was patio exploration time.

I would like to note that the only use that Mega Blocks dump truck (in the top picture) has had is as a walking aid as he crashes around the house :)

Today was exciting (ahem, *sarcasm*). Sears left a comment on my previous post and said they wanted to get in contact with me and gave me some info. I answered them about 5 hours ago, and I've received nothing since. On the other end of things, Anthony called back now that our old ticket is closed (don't get me started), and they said they can send someone back out, but they won't be able to fix it....just do diagnostics again. AAARRGGGHHH!!! So, I spent some of my time driving wet diapers over to my in-laws' house to borrow their dryer. And this evening I'll be driving back to pick them up and throw in some more clothes which I will then have to run over and grab tomorrow while I'm supposed to be sitting here from 8-5 in hopes that a Sears guy will come do diagnostics for me and learn the source of the real problem.

Also, our post office workers out here are having miscommunications. We weren't receiving mail, and when Big A saw the actual carrier out he asked her what was going on. She handed him a bunch of mail and said we had the wrong keys. I drove to the post office and tried to exchange our keys today, but they tell me I have the correct ones and the carrier is the one who is confused. Not to mention that we ran into our neighbor trying to track down his own mis-delivered mail, and he said they've been "investigating" his issue too, but they've never called him or sorted it out as promised. What happened to customer service, people?

In other news, my baby is cute cute cute! All is well :)

Why I Hate Sears

2011-01-18T20:43:00.003-06:00

Sears. I hate you. Wanna know why? READ YOUR CUSTOMER NOTES!

1. You've made us trouble-shoot over the phone several times, redundantly.
2. You advised us that the problem MUST be our ducts and as such you could make no further recommendations because that isn't the actual dryer. You said hire a duct cleaner. We get the ducts cleaned. Still broken.
3. You tell us you can't come in the week before we move so we'll have to call back.
4. We move and call back. You can't see us for a week.
5. You come out and say that the heater is broken. NO, REALLY?! I told you over the phone countless times that it turns on but doesn't heat up. Geez, that was a difficult diagnosis. Don't hurt yourselves wielding all that brain power at once.
6. Parts need to be ordered. AFTER they arrive you may call back and set up an appointment, but it's going to be about a week after that.
7. One. Nice. Thing. Happens. The actual guy (hi, Bruce!) who is working on our machine (note: we like him, just not Sears) goes ahead and makes an appointment for the day after he believes our parts will arrive so we don't have to wait that additional week.
8. Guy comes back out and installs parts. Says it's working fine. He leaves.
9. DRYER IS STILL BROKEN. 2 1/2 hours of drying, and the clothes are so wet that water actually splashes out when I open the dryer door!
10. We call Sears. They said they'd have our guy call us back right after the job he's currently doing. (12:26pm)
11. I get home from shooting (6:00pm). Sears hasn't called or come by.
12. We call Sears. We get transferred over and over and are re-asked our story. These are lateral moves, mind you, not escalations up to management.
13. They can't find the dispatcher, he's off duty for the day.
14. Ok, send someone out tomorrow first thing, right? NO. They can't even guarantee to get him here within the next couple days because someone has re-opened our ticket. And you can't open a new service ticket if the old one is still open so by the time the old one closes tonight at midnight in the system, everyone will be gone. Tomorrow morning they will see it, but it will probably be too late to schedule anything anytime soon. We have been transferred again.
15. I tell the bored sounding lady who answers the phone about our plight, and she reiterates the way the system works as if that will make me feel better. It doesn't matter how it works or what red-tape you need to get through, SEND ME SOMEONE!
16. She says she can't do anything for me and gets upset. I hand her to my husband. She promptly HANGS UP ON HIM. And mind you he is being entirely civil because he works in customer service. She even had the nerve to tell me earlier in the conversation that her Customer Solutions group IS the management and it doesn't get higher than that. So we HAVE to deal with her. BLEH.
17. We call back after she hangs up on us. They tell us there's no way to track who rude lady is. So we promptly ask her an employee identification number on the guy currently talking to us. After giving it to us he is sure to be very nice, doesn't hang up, but still can't do anything for us.
18. We still have on dryer. We have no prospects. WE HATE SEARS.

P.S. I suppose I should be mad at Kenmore for making this bunk dryer that was so expensive, but come on, Sears. Don't offer a one-year warranty with your "fabulous" Blue Crew if you're not going to get me service!

13 Months or 1 Year, 1 Month :)

2011-01-16T20:11:00.002-06:00

Dear Anthony,

Son, you fared well over this last crazy month. The day after your birthday party we went to Houston for a week to stay with Granny and Grandpa through Christmas, and then we stayed with your Gigi and Papa for two weeks while we waited for our new house to be ready. You lived with 6 different people you aren't used to (including another kid!), and you handled it so well. Although I'm sure you were thrilled when you arrived in your new room to see that all of your old things had returned. Your crib was back, all your old toys, the furniture...and your sleep sign :)

While we stayed with Gigi and Papa you suddenly turned around and signed "more" one day. I was amazed and excited for you to be able to tell me what you need! Mother's intuition is pretty strong, but to get a clear signal from you of what you wanted was so awesome! Over the next couple of days you signed "washing hands", learned to clap, and wave hello/good-bye. When I get ready to leave you give me one or two waves, but then your sad little face realizes that I really am leaving, and you dissolve into tears :( I hate it when you're sad, but I love that you love me so much because you're the best little guy in the whole world!

You cruise really fast now, and you love using your little walking-aids. You got a dinosaur from Gigi and Papa that sings as you push him, and that one seems to be your favorite. You stand up by yourself when you're involved in something, but usually once you realize what you're doing then you drop down to the ground again. You've taken one independent step if you think you're really close to me, but you aren't walking yet. Your dad says he can't wait for you to be walking, but I'm sure he'll come to regret that statement :)

This morning you sprouted your 7th tooth! I believe the 6th one came in when we were at Gigi and Papa's, but today was definitely the first appearance of the 7th...your bottom row will be even again!

I think you enjoy baths now more than you ever have, and I was thankful I got home in time to give you one tonight. You are a splishy, splashy little cutie pie from head to toe. And it helps that you think I'm REALLY funny :)

It's been really cold and wet since we moved into the new house, but I promise to take some pictures of you very soon, good weather or bad. We may be doing it inside the house next to the mountains of boxes that we haven't had time to unpack. Yikes!

I love you more than ever,
Mom

Follow Through

2011-01-02T21:06:00.002-06:00

Here are a couple birthday pics I said I would try to post. As you can tell, he got upset pretty quick with 50+ people singing at him, and I don't think he liked the fact that he was "dirty" (frosting). He knows mama doesn't like him to be unclean :) He never ate a single bite of cake; he was simply too upset after this. But he was suffering some serious allergies, maybe even a cold, the doctor wasn't sure. But presents cheered him up, hooray!

Photos courtesy of Whitney!

We're Alive!

2010-12-30T11:03:00.002-06:00

Yes, we're alive. Holidays are busy for everyone, but they've been especially busy for us this year. Since finding out at the last minute that we wouldn't have a house for the holidays, the baby and I packed up and headed to Houston for the 20th through Christmas. Big A had to stay behind and work while commuting from his parents' house. He joined us in Houston as soon as possible, and then we had a wonderful Christmas together! The baby tuckered out half way through opening presents, took a nap, and then got up to finish the rest :)

Christmas Day we shuttled all of our stuff to Big A's parents' house, and we've been here ever since. We're grateful to have a place to stay, but boy it's hard with this many people. Everyone has a different sleep schedule and wake schedule, and there isn't enough room for us, technically speaking. We're camping out on the dining room floor while the baby takes his paw-paw's office. Oy. I'll be glad for real rooms and real beds when all of this gets sorted out. Apparently people at the evil mortgage company don't work anytime near a holiday whatsoever, so we're still waiting to hear if things are going through alright.

I'll be headed down to San Antonio for a wedding on New Year's Eve, and I'll be back laaaaaate. But if I catch up enough on sleep this weekend then I'll post some Christmas pictures. Heck, I still need to post pictures from the baby's birthday party! Aaaaaah! Ok, enough freaking out, time to get back to work.

Love,
The Super-Northy

Anthony - 1 year

2010-12-17T15:23:00.002-06:00

Dear Anthony,

You're a year old. Part of me feels like you've been in my life forever, like there could never be a me without you. And the other part feels like you just got here, all shiny and new. (Remember when you were this tiny?)

You light up our lives and excite us every day. You've taught us how to love harder, for you and each other. Every tiny thing you do each day is important and special to us. For your birthday, we documented you in photographs and video from the minute we crept into your room singing "Happy Birthday" to opening your first birthday present before we put you to bed. I had planned on sharing most or all of it with the world because I could sing your adorable praises from the rooftops all day long. But when it came to writing this letter, I realized that those most intimate of moments we had with you should just be for our little family. I can't wait to show them to you some day. Your little 5-toothed smile will crack you up, and it makes me want to cry for the cuteness.

When I went to bed last night I looked at the clock. It was 11:10. Last year at that time you were 2 minutes old. I had made it through the entire day without actually crying until that point. I laid in bed awake a long time with a little tear or two sneaking out, thinking about your first hours of life and praying for you.

I know you'll have many more birthdays. Birthdays that will bring lots of changes. But for now you're my Little Guy, my Baby Son, and my Buddy.

I love you,
Mom

P.S. Because a post is always better with pictures, here are some less intimate moments for public consumption :)

Impending Hair Cut

2010-12-11T23:24:00.003-06:00

Tomorrow's the day. I'm being forced to give my child a slight trim. Some of his bangs have become unruly, and they get in his eyes a lot...thus the side-sweep that he's usually rockin. Well it's gotten pretty bad. When he knocks his hair straight forward, some of the pieces come down by his nose...eek! Therefore, he shall have those long pieces (AND ONLY THOSE!) trimmed off in the morning. Otherwise, we can go with this hair style:

I stumbled across these photos that I took a week or two ago but forgot to post. This was pretty soon after the "incident", you can still see the busted lip. Thank goodness his handsomeness is all back to normal now! But he's still stinking cute, even if his lip is a little big in these photos.

(Yes, he's making his "concerned" noise in the next photo)

I could be wrong (my mom is the only good judge of this), but I'm pretty sure he looks SO much like his mama at this age :)

For this next photo, I feel like the lovers of lolcats.com will like it the most.
"I iz goin to keel you wiv my James Bond stare"

P.S. Unrelated: I may not have lost all the baby weight, but I'm still slim enough to get behind the dryer to retrieve wayward light bulbs...hallelujah!!

Hat Model

2010-12-09T20:49:00.002-06:00

I realized that I call my son by his first and middle name a lot (seeing as how we have two Anthony's, it makes sense). I had jokingly said that I would call him "A-Dub" before he was born. It actually happened today. Horrible nickname, here we come!!

Anyway, Anthony Warren is considering his bright future in hat modeling.

Oh sad, the picture below was taken next to scary table that did the scary things to his face.

Still sad about not closing and moving next week. BUT excited because it's one week until my little baby turns 1! Samantha and I tried to teach him to hold up one finger to show "how many" he's going to be. He just kept grabbing our fingers and laughing; I think it reminded him of the sign for banana :)

Seriously

2010-12-08T21:39:00.003-06:00

Seriously. It's my word. It's been my word for a long time. Usually I can use it in a fun-loving, half-sarcastic kind of way. But now...*sigh*...I give it to the unworthy...the bank. SERIOUSLY, CITI?! SERIOUSLY?!?!??!?!!?!!

We had our date all set up to move into the new house next week, and then they yanked the rug out from under us at the last minute. Dreams of moving in before our son's birthday and before Christmas...dashed. Well, I guess this means Anthony has to let me decorate the old house for Christmas now. But still, boooooo. And we had to cancel lots of things today like our appliance delivery, moving trucks, etc. Hmph. I know, I know, there could be a lot worse things happening to you. But still. You can tell somebody these things before the last minute so it's not such a blow. And the run around they're giving us??....I say to you, Citi...

SERIOUSLY?!

Seniors and Smiles

2010-12-03T22:19:00.002-06:00

First off, I'd like to say a big, huge, ginormous THANK YOU to my Emily (that's right, I claimed her, she's MINE!). She took a day that I had been slightly dreading and came over with a super sweet surprise. What a fantastic friend!! If you don't have some Emily in your life, GET SOME.

*Smiles*

New subject, I took Samantha for some belated senior portraits. Of course I don't have space to post them all, but trust me, she was cracking up in almost every single picture. We had a hard time keeping a straight face long enough to communicate ideas back and forth. Love it!

And after that was done, I needed to do something with those balloons...

First Trip to the Zoo

2010-11-29T22:16:00.002-06:00

I've been waiting for quite a while to take my baby boy to the zoo for the first time. I knew he wouldn't really get it, but he gets excited and makes his funny little noises and "o" face over almost anything. So it's nice to pretend he's actually interested in the same thing I am! I waited until it was nice fall weather, and my mom and I set out with the babe the day after Thanksgiving while all the crazies were shopping (side note: we used to be those crazies).

I got this crazy feeling part of the way through, "why the heck do I have my baby in a place where little more than chicken-wire is separating him from being something's lunch?!" But it was fun! We spent considerable time with the goats since they wouldn't hurt him, and I was going to take pictures of us inside the barn with the sheep (AND THEIR GIANT EYES THAT FREAK ME OUT), but pigeons started pooping on other people in their about the time I was going to start snapping so we high-tailed it out of there.

The zoo trip pictures make me happy, but alas, I am sad tonight. My little man got his first real injury. I was going through the clothes in his dresser trying to pack away all the things he has outgrown. Big Anthony was in charge of little Anthony. OY. He's a typical Dad, much more lax than crazy-overprotective-mom. He was playing with baby near death-trap table that I can't stand anyway, and then the world stopped. I came into the room with more clothes, and the baby decided to let go of the table (he'd been standing holding on to it) so he could crawl towards me. He fell face first into the hard table, so hard that his face bounced back off of it, and the WORST look of shock I have ever seen crossed his face. Then he fell back (seemingly in slow motion) to the ground. Oh my God, my heart stopped. I know this sounds over-dramatic to someone who doesn't have a baby, but I was devastated. I scooped him up right about the time the shock wore off and he just started to wail. I saw blood pouring out of his mouth and a fat lip. We ran into the bathroom, and he left a bloody hand print on the bathroom door. I was trying to look in his mouth and check out his teeth (I noticed today that tooth #5 broke through), but they were obscured by the blood that was now getting on our clothes and his hands :( SADDEST DAY EVER. We both cried. I'm going to have nightmares about this.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

2010-11-17T15:59:00.003-06:00

Happy Birthday to my wonderful Dad! I'm sorry we can't see you since we live a little too far down the road :) but we're thinking about you today. Can't wait to see you in December!

The baby and I decided to make you a little sign for your birthday, and he couldn't exactly get the whole holding-up-the-sign-thing down. This is what he did instead...

WE LOVE YOU!!!

Anthony 11 Months

2010-11-16T16:35:00.005-06:00

Dear Anthony,

I'm terribly sorry for not getting around to writing your 10-month letter. I hope you'll forgive your busy mama. Due to my slip, we'll talk about your last 2 months. My, how things have changed! Your babbling occasionally sounds like real words, and sometimes you accidentally get a word out like "hi" or "yeah"...or maybe we'd just like to believe that!

Your balance is getting really good. You stand for significant periods of time unaided, but when it comes to taking that first step you would prefer to stick your butt out and let yourself collapse to the floor. That's fine with us, we're not sure if we're ready to chase you yet. You also crawl on all fours way more than you slither now. Of course that's mainly because you have pants on more often now that it's turning colder. The floor used to hurt your knees so you'd slither unless we were upstairs on the carpet. It's all cute no matter what so we love to watch you do it!

We're working on high-fiving and waving, but neither one is that developed. You seem to understand comedic timing and laugh at my jokes a lot (thanks!). We have the best time hanging out all day, and you get really sad when I leave to go to take photos. I pretty much take you everywhere else with me except work, and you love being my buddy. I treasure these days so much where you want to be with me constantly. I know one day you'll be more independent, maybe have more in common with your dad, have friends, or just think I'm plain "uncool". Now is the time for me to soak you all in!

Your top teeth are out! Your top left tooth made its appearance several days before the right one, but I think the right one has just broken through the skin now. I've been calling you all sorts of funny tooth-names because your top teeth were pushing the gums out so far before actually punching through that it was pretty comical!

You try to eat anything and everything that I'm eating. It's cute, but it sure does cut back on how much I can eat! I have to give you a bite every couple seconds or you start raising heck about it. You often get 3 bites to one of mine. But it does force me to eat extra healthy so that's good!

You still make all of your crazy baby sounds, like the whistling sound, the crazy fast-breathing noise, and the sound that makes other people think you're gasping for your last breath of air. I love it, and I try to memorize the way they all sound (since you don't like to do them on video camera).

I love you so so so so much!

Your mom

P.S. You had your first big-kid swing experience today, and you LOVED it!

Hagood Family Pictures

2010-11-11T21:58:00.003-06:00

Hello, 200th blog post!

Internet, are you glad that I have returned? I didn't fall off the face of the Earth, I just dug half way through it to Productive City. Super cute Jewish wedding posts are coming soon after all this hard work!

In all the craziness I realized I hadn't gotten around to posting some highlights of the family photos Whitney took of our little Hagood group back on 10-10-10. You feast your eyes on these while I keep searching the rest of the internet to find a fun rental house for our in-between-house-time (which may be coming up reallllly soon).

Enjoy!

Tie for fave picture! This one...

and this one!!

This will give us some great eye-candy for our new walls! Hooray!

I'm sleepy, but I'm trying to get pumped up for this weekend. Tomorrow I have Nicole's rehearsal dinner, Saturday is Maegan's wedding, and Sunday is Amanda's College Station bridals (eeeek, my poor Longhorn feet having to walk on that campus...aaaah!).

*love and rockets*

Posting on Whitney Lee

2010-11-04T00:01:00.002-05:00

I've gotten two posts up on Whitney Lee lately! Go check out Heather and David's St. Mary's Cathedral and Four Seasons wedding as well as Kristen and Jonathan's fire station engagement session!

Whitney also took some super cute family photos of the Hagood group recently, and there are some of my little nuclear family that I'm just BURSTING to show y'all! Check back soon :)

Halloween!

2010-11-01T16:08:00.004-05:00

I was BEYOND excited for Anthony's first Halloween. I seriously <3 Halloween!

We decided since he wasn't going to be trick-or-treating that long that we should go over to someone's house that we know, especially for his first time out. Fortunately, Leslie and Dustin were already going to her mom's house with Alex so we headed over to their neighborhood (I'm going to miss how close they are when we move).

Random guy's house that we went to; he was King Awkward.

Alex was a pirate, but he didn't want to keep his bandana on for us to see.

Did you know what Anthony's costume was? Leslie and her family thought he was a dragon, and it didn't occur to me until they said that. He does look a little dragon-like, but I guess he would need wings for that to really work. He was a dinosaur. I LOVE dinosaurs, and it's one thing that I have always wanted to share with my son. I hope he enjoyed his giant tail :)

New House Update

2010-10-30T20:22:00.002-05:00

Busy day! I got my hair cut (finally!), went to see the progress on the new house, and then we hit up my nephew's 2nd birthday party. Happy Birthday, Jaden!

This is how the new house is going...

The I'm-Ready-To-Go launch sequence:

TOMORROW IS MY BABY BOY'S FIRST HALLOWEEN, YIPPEEEEE!!!!!

Houston and Pumpkin Patch!

2010-10-29T23:30:00.004-05:00

The Son and I went to Houston last weekend. I was excited to see all of my family, but I most especially made the trip for my Nanny because she's unable to travel here due to health. Think you're going to see a picture of the baby with Nanny? Nope. She doesn't like to have her picture taken. But here's some other stuff from our sick stay in Houston.

While we were there, we picked up his owl blanket, finally! I'll have to post some pictures soon (after I actually take them). It's super cute, just the way I designed it, and Aunt Sheryle even used different buttons for all the different owls' eyes! I love texture and variation! We also got a super cute set of cars from Aunt Brenda. I think Big Anthony and I have had a better time with them than little Anthony! But he's enjoying them too. We've been revving them up and making them zip all over the living room floor. Glad to be back home!

And now...the pumpkin patch! I was thrilled to take him here and glad his mood has definitely perked up during the day (though he still coughs a ton at night). Before I had a child, I would think about all the fun stuff I would do with him/her. And now that I have one, I'm determined to do all these things I imagined, even if I'm up to my ears in work, trying to show a house, trying to build a house, utterly exhausted, and in desperate need of a hair cut! If my little man were older I might have ventured out to Marble Falls and hit up Sweet Berry Farm, but given his young and sicky status I thought it would be best to stick to Austin. Thanks to Jenny (woo!) for telling us about this centrally located patch!

This next photo completely encompasses what I wanted from this day. *sigh*

Realizing there's another baby very close by...

That's right, I took our picture together!

And some guy there with his wife and the interesting baby asked if I wanted him to take our pic. Well sure!

Awww...my sweet boy :) It's your first fall, Son!

This is off topic, but our power went out for about an hour and a half this evening. We hated it, and we didn't know what to do without electricity. I heard things I've never noticed before. Like, apparently, we live near some scary sounding coyotes or wolves or something that howls!! We are also neighbors with an owl or two. We own more candles than I thought we did. I'm glad the power is back on!

We're sick :(

2010-10-25T21:28:00.002-05:00

Well, GEEZ. I took the babe in for his well-checks last week, and somehow he picked up a bug. Then he gave it to me. Now we're sick. Together. Fever, sore throat, cough, etc. FUN STUFF. And he's teething; the universe is so kind :)

But look at this sweet baby's face. SHUT UP WITH THIS CUTENESS.

More to come when we recover.

Busy Busy BUSY

2010-10-21T21:18:00.003-05:00

Miss me yet? I had the double weddings, the Baptism, and then my mom was in town until Wednesday. Today we had Samantha over, and I had to take the babe back to the doc to get his abdomen checked out again. He's fine! And this evening I had an awesome shoot at a fire station, and I've been working and procrastinating my packing for this weekend's trip to Houston.

Oh, and awesomeness (in case you didn't get the cell phone blasted to you!), my baby busted my lip with my Blackberry. I was talking to my mom, and he got all excited and grabbed the phone and bonked me with it. Instant fat lip and blood...it looks terrible. And of course it had to happen on an evening where I had a client meeting and a PUG to take headshots. UGH. Gotta love the kid though, he's so stinking cute. And he cried when I got hit. There wasn't even time for me to wallow because I had to comfort him :)

Until I get a chance to breathe and edit personal stuff, here's a snippet of the babe in his Baptism outfit (a.k.a the Pope) while he's making his whistling sound.

(Thanks for taking this, Whitney!)

In other news, the little man growls back when I growl at him. It's awesome! I hope he can keep it up long enough to do while wearing his dinosaur costume on Halloween. How freakin cute would that be?!

Coral snakes, dogs, and more!

2010-10-13T22:24:00.002-05:00

First of all, this is going to be a very negative post....know this before you move on... (ok, there's some cute baby pics too!).

Coral snakes - screw you! I was walking my sweet baby around the neighborhood on Monday in our awesome jogging stroller (woo!), and I came around a corner and there's a tail stretched across the sidewalk. In half a second your mind can think a million things. My first reaction was to freeze, then I try to calm myself and say it's probably a grass snake, then I go through the sing-song rhyme "red touch black, friend of Jack, red touch yellow...KILLED A FELLOW!!!" Holy crap, it's a coral snake! I backed away as it slithered into some lady's back yard, and then I went to knock on her door and let her know because she has a little dog. She wasn't home, and I could hear the dog inside so all was well. It made me so jumpy. Suddenly everything I saw looked like a snake. *shudder* It's enough to make your skin crawl.

Dogs - screw you! Not all dogs, just the two that live on my street. There's a rottweiler and a pitbull that belong to our ghetto neighbors (I know, that description REALLY narrows it down), and they barked all night on Saturday when we had to get up super early the next morning. Police and animal control were involved, yet the aggressive dogs persist. This morning they chased me back into my house and stood underneath my window and snarled and snapped for hours. I kept calling animal control and police...nothing. Screw you, APD! Thanks for saying you'll come but then not coming! SCREW YOU! I'll be so glad when we move to Williamson County.

On to nicer things, Anthony sports his golf outfit (which he isn't happy about), and there are some more pics of the new casa...

Can't wait for my COUSIN! to get better. We need a visit...but a germ free one!

And and and this weekend is Son's Baptism! WOO! And a double-header wedding weekend. And my parents will be staying with me. Whoa. Lots and lots to do!

New house is coming along!

2010-10-09T21:17:00.002-05:00

Busy busy times! I can't even remember everything over the last couple of days, but I met with a bride last night from San Antonio for like 3 1/2 hours. Whoa. We laughed and laughed and had so much in common. Scary! Today we went out to see how our new house is coming along, and that was thrilling. We can't WAIT to get to our new house and new neighborhood. Come on, builders! After an afternoon nap for the baby we got out and ordered his birthday invitations!!! I can't believe we're already thinking about his first birthday, eek!

Wanna see the new house? Here ya go...

Tomorrow morning we have family photos, woo! Not looking forward to getting up early, but I'm excited to document our lives, as always!

Me and the Babe

2010-10-06T21:47:00.002-05:00

Oh boy, I am sleeeeepy. I tossed and turned all night; probably because Anthony denied me my extra cuddle pillow :/ We had a WLP lunch meeting today, and keeping up with a baby for 2 1/2 hours at a restaurant while attempting to eat and talk shop is not easy. But it was so great to meet Katherine and Amanda Jane in person! It's weird to "talk" to people over the internet for so long and then suddenly have a face and personality to put with it.

Then I had a newborn session this evening. I had done the couple's maternity session back in July (I recall vividly how I was eaten up by mosquitoes, ugh), and their little boy, Bryson, was born this past Friday. He is the most alert newborn I have ever seen. He was awake when I got there, and he was awake for most of the 2 hours that I was taking his picture. Normally I wouldn't spend so long, but he was pretty unhappy about what was going on, and there were some bodily fluid incidents :) Babies! But I know his mom and dad will be happy with the results.

*Yawn* Ok, I'm posting some cutie pie pictures that were taken yesterday and today. Since Anthony can't seem to take awesome pictures of me and the baby, I figured it couldn't hurt to just hold out the camera myself and see what we get! Plus there's lots more good stuff of the little man by himself. Enjoy!

The Jewish Wedding Bonanza! and the rest of my extended weekend...

2010-10-04T21:55:00.003-05:00

Whew, done with a long weekend. What, it's Monday?! Get out o' town! I thought it was Sunday all day today since I had a wedding yesterday and Anthony was still off today. I got my first two Jewish weddings that were mine, mine, all mine! AND they were in the same weekend. The first one was at Camp Young Judaea in Wimberley, and the other was (thank God) close to home at Barr Mansion.

I thought I would be exhausted and hating life by the end of the weekend (thus asking Anthony to take off Monday to give me some relief). But the opposite happened: I was so fired up over all the wedding awesomeness that I was energetic! I took long (power) walks with the baby in our new jogger, and today I got up and let Anthony sleep in while I took my first official jog since the baby was born. I got a bad stitch in my side so maybe I'll just ease into that by jogging one block at a time :)

I can't wait to post these weddings at some point down the line, they were fabulous! And so were the couples! It was worth not getting to sleep until 2am and getting right back up with the baby a couple hours later for two nights in a row. I can do that for great weddings!

I also want to post some pictures of more of the cute items that we've received at our house lately. We got a couple things from Meme and Grandad that they picked up for the baby in Italy, and Mark sent the baby his FIRST pair of Nike's! We're gonna put 'em on the wall next to Mama's pair of pink Nike's, circa 1983 baby, woot!

Oh, and remember how on my last post I mentioned I was editing a maternity session? Well I posted it over on the WLP blog; check out Jori and Adam's maternity session here!

I did have a great time with my weddings lately, but I sure did miss my little man. He's all mine again tomorrow!!

(Having Anthony off today really did confuse me. When I took the baby for a walk this morning I saw some teenagers standing on the corner with backpacks. Rather than assuming that they were going to school (too obvious), I thought a bunch of kids were running away on a Sunday morning :) Maybe I needed more sleep after all.)

Reflecting

2010-10-01T21:06:00.002-05:00

I'm editing some maternity pics this evening, and I started thinking back to my own maternity pictures. Thinking back to being pregnant in general. Do I really need to go through all that again one day?! Can't the stork just bring me a beautiful little baby girl a couple years from now?? Maybe he takes special requests. Maybe there's an internet coupon.

Moving on...

Internet, did you know I made a cinnamon swirl cake last night? I did. All I had was a bread pan though, and even though I didn't adjust any of the settings, it still turned out beautifully. I even got it to loosen up and come out in one giant cake-loaf. Then...it happened. As I was transferring the cake-loaf on a spatula (don't question it, you weren't there!), it started to fall apart. In that split second I got the brilliant idea that if I moved faster then maybe it wouldn't fall apart anymore. Because I'm magic like that. But alas, the thing did fall apart, and at the high rate of speed that I was attempting the transfer, it suddenly skidded sideways across my kitchen counter onto the stove and exploded into several pieces and bazillions of crumbs. Upside? Still delicious :) I totally used my fork to eat it right off the counter. Yeah, that's right, you know you would have too!

I have an insane wedding weekend kicking off tomorrow. INSANE. And all Jewish. Love it! But since I'm so busy, I won't be able to take the baby out to visit Anthony's parents in Leander (Judy just returned from Italy late last night). I made the decision to take the baby out there this afternoon instead. Judy came back with lots of goodies for us! I had just been saying how I needed a purse and VOILA! New Fendi bag. It didn't hurt that I also got a rosary, some scarves, crazy circular dish towel, and lots more! The baby also got loads of cute stuff, namely an Italian monkey hand-puppet that had little baby monkey finger puppets with it. SO CUTE. I made the hand-puppet play a shy version of peek-a-boo with the kid, and he was rolling! He laughed so hard that he tooted! I don't think I've EVER heard him laugh that loud or that long. And...drum roll please...he got a gold bracelet! His first piece of gold jewelry in what (I can only imagine) will be a long line of bling. Now we just have to get him wearing his gold, wearing his track suit, smoking a cigar, and standing outside Satriale's in Jersey :)

Right now I'm waiting for my pizza. They said it would take 45 minutes to an hour. Know how long it's been? About an hour and a half. I'm pacing back and forth like a girl on prom night, unsure if her date will actually arrive. Why the nerves? If I don't head him off before he rings the doorbell then I've got a screaming baby on my hands. This probably wouldn't be the case on a regular night, but he had a super rough time going down for some reason. It took loads of crying and a very long time, and I'm not prepared to do it again this evening.

Since we were reminiscing, here are some of those aforementioned maternity photos. Taken by Whitney Lee!

Come-Uppance

2010-09-30T20:34:00.002-05:00

I wonder why some people who do bad, I mean really bad things, don't get their come-uppance right away. I'd like to witness it :)

Did I mention I put up this post of Ashly and Jeremy's wedding on the main Whitney Lee blog? Well go look!

The family gave me one of the superman capes that they're wearing during the ceremony. I can't WAIT to put it on the baby!

Mark's Visit and More

2010-09-29T22:07:00.003-05:00

As I probably mentioned, Mark came in from Vegas last week to visit with baby. I know he wants to be called "PaPa", but I have to admit that when I talk about him to the baby, I refer to him as "Grampa Mark". I don't know why; I don't even think I've ever used the word "Grampa" before! Anyway...a few snaps...

Completely adorable Longhorn jogging suit that Mark brought. Love it!

This kid can have so much fun with just about anything. He's playing with my 50mm lens hood :)

Shoes! He's finally growing into his cute shoes we bought a long time ago. Size 6 months my Aunt Fanny! He's 9 1/2 months, and they still kinda look like clown shoes. Love all of our Robeez shoes though :)

Show mama those teeth, buddy!

In other news, we finally got his Baptism scheduled for sure! It's October 16th at 10:00am if you wanna come :) Invitations will be in the mail shortly, but we had little choice on the last-minute date. I went to schedule it today (after finally getting all of the paperwork and classes done), and they only have 2 English-language Baptism days for the whole rest of the year. One being the 16th, and the other is in December right next to his birthday and Christmas (and we just decided that was waaaay too much to deal with).

Hope everyone's having a fabulous night!

Ugh

2010-09-27T23:08:00.002-05:00

Lately it seems like there is some big happening almost every week. I thought this morning might be pretty routine, but no. We had a baby emergency, and I rushed off to the doc as Anthony rushed out for work. Son will be ok, but we spent (what felt like) an eternity in the sad-face waiting room at the doc office even though my kid didn't have anything that could possibly be construed as contagious. Anywho, we had to see a strange doc since ours only works afternoons. She was really nice, and after our diagnosis she offered to give him his flu shot since he was supposed to come in for that tomorrow anyway.

Excuse me, WHAT?! I have to be the one to hold him while he gets a shot?! NO! That's what Dad's are for!!! Don't you understand that I can't be seen as an accessory to pain?!?!

No, she didn't see that. They came in and stuck the poor little thing while he was already in pain and unhappy. He was on my hip and loving me, waiting for me to take him home...then STICK! Tears. His. Mine. Tears.

Picked up a prescription, headed home. FORGOT TO CALL MY MOTHER ON HER BIRTHDAY BECAUSE I WAS SO INVOLVED WITH BABY STUFF. OMG. I felt awful when she emailed me and mentioned her birthday. OY. I had taken her out this weekend when she was here, but nobody should be forgotten on their actual birthday :( Sorry, Mom. M.Y.Y. bunches!!! Hopefully that beautiful rendition of "Happy Birthday" on your work voice mail took the sting out of my forgetfulness :)

On an upside, I was incredibly productive this evening. WOO!

On a weird side, the kid has been avoiding his second nap of the day. Just having one morning nap is NOT cool to get a baby through the entire day. Today I decided to try giving him one nap in the middle of the day to see if that would last him. I don't know if he will make it to mid-day because he fell asleep on the way to the pharmacy...that skews my scientific results. But he did go down mid-day, sleep an hour and a half...and then he made it almost all day. He started getting super-cranky when Anthony got home, but I don't know if that's because he was separated from me or because he was too tired or both. We'll try again tomorrow and see what happens.

On another upside, the weather was FABULOUS today. Thank you God for a glorious glimpse of Fall!!! That crispness in the air puts a skip in my step like nothing else. We rolled out in the new jogging stroller for a looooong morning walk to enjoy it. Hopefully we can do it again tomorrow!

Sleeping Late

2010-09-24T23:02:00.003-05:00

There are so many beautiful parts to being a parent. But occasionally there are things I miss from my pre-baby world. One of them: sleeping late. Tonight I have a million things to do, and I feel like I have the energy to move mountains! But...if I don't go to bed soon then when my child gets up tomorrow I will wish I could crawl back in bed. I know one day I'll be able to work whenever the mood strikes me and sleep in a little bit when it's been a long night, but that time is not now. My boy sleeps an awesome 11-12 hour stretch at night, and that's nothing to sneeze at. I guess it's not too big a sacrifice to get up early since he goes to bed early.

My little man can stand up for a few seconds by himself now; pretty sure we got to 10 unaided seconds of standing time today! He is giving me quite the job of keeping up with him. I was trying to play on the floor with him, and he crawled behind me, used the back of my jeans to pull to standing, and then he tried to let go on the scary tile where I couldn't turn around fast enough to grab him if he should fall. I decided to pull him onto my back and give him his first "pony ride". He giggled so hard! It was the best sound ever; I love it when he's that happy! It's one of those laughs where he's happy in the moment, excited about doing something new, and secure in the fact that it's happening with his mama (because he doesn't like anyone else for very long still).

Anthony called me on my way to a maternity shoot this evening and said that the baby had been crying ever since I left. Sad :( I love being important to him, but it makes me sad when he's sad, no matter the reason.

On to happier things! My mom is visiting tomorrow, and we'll be celebrating her birthday early. Woohoo! I see lots of family time and a lot of gelato coming our way!

Also, we made a pit stop by the state while out running errands today. There are a couple people who really go out of their way to play with my baby and fawn over him when we come by (beyond the normal cheek-pinching), and I love it. Before I had a kid, I couldn't even see this side to my friends. But seeing them care about someone who you care about that much?...awesome. Thanks guys :) I love y'all!

Woohoo!

2010-09-22T21:51:00.002-05:00

My father came in today, part of his crazy trip around Texas. My little man took to him pretty quick (this is the first time they've seen each other since the babe was 10 days old), and they were both giggling pretty hard by bed time (pictures coming soon). Once the kid was snug in his bed we took off to pick up some dinner and some new wedding shoes for me, yippee! "New shoes" somehow morphed into new socks and new sole inserts. And naturally, that led to a new jogging suit and shirt. Well once we went that far we HAD to get the jogging stroller to go with it. LOVE IT. I can't wait to get out there!...just as soon as my kid is weaned :)

Things and Stuff

2010-09-21T22:28:00.002-05:00

This has already been a busy week. I feel like I was out and about most of the day yesterday and today. My volunteering went great today, made possible in part by Cousin. I also got to stitch tonight, woo! Now tomorrow I have some serious errands to run before Mark gets here for his whirlwind visit. Thursday, more errands. Friday, photo shoot and prep for mom's visit. Somewhere in there I need to, oh you know, WORK.

Even though I got home right at 9 o'clock, I still missed my guilty pleasure, Teen Mom, because I clean forgot about it.

Photos from around the time of my mom and dad's last visit that I think I haven't shared yet...

I'm in love with this photo :)

Here's a pic from visiting Grandma Abke while she's been in town. She scared the crap out of the baby because of how loud she is :)

Volunteering

2010-09-20T21:34:00.003-05:00

Lately I've been feeling bad about lapsing on my volunteer work. I tell myself that I stay up til all hours working and raising a baby so there's nothing to feel bad about. However, I'm going to dip my toe back in the water tomorrow and see how it goes. If doing volunteer work while trying to make a baby happy about life ends up making me miserable then at least I can say I tried :)

Ooooh and tomorrow is stitching (assuming nobody blows an ear drum).

Have I mentioned how glad I am that my camera is back?! I've been shooting a lot of video to catch up on all the stuff I couldn't film the month my camera was gone. Here's part of our pillow fight the other day...

Pillow Fight from Amanda Hagood on Vimeo.

Tired and hyper?!

2010-09-18T20:40:00.002-05:00

My feet are tired, but my brain is wired! Just got home from an 8 hour wedding for Heather and Dave. FUN! Since my regular gals had the stomach flu I took Darcy and Susie with me (thanks girls!).

I feel like I want to do so so so many things right now! I'm home a lot earlier than usual; my brain is listing all the tons of things I could accomplish before I go to bed!

Watching the Texas v Texas Tech game in the background. The Horns had BETTER pull it out. It can be frustrating to watch us play sometimes.

In other news, Anthony's hearing still isn't back. But since he's got lots of drugs, he's taking this time to play up his condition. If I ask him to do something for me then he says, "Oh sorry, you're talking into my bad ear." Riiiiiiiiight.

Ok, going to go be productive now! And think about crazy wedding guys who jump into the dance circle and try to get their freak-on with my camera!

Hooray, weddings!

Anthony is 9 Months

2010-09-16T22:07:00.003-05:00

Dear Anthony,

Today you're 9 months. Some of the changes you've made are very obvious and easy to point out, while other times it's little things you do, things that are hard to describe, which show me more than ever that you're growing up.

When I was cleaning the house during your first nap today, I heard you start giggling. You talked to yourself, as usual. And after a little while you started to giggle, but it was mixed with a nervous sound. This happy/nervous laugh when on for a bit, and finally I couldn't take it anymore so I went up to see what you were doing. Anthony, you were STANDING in your crib. You were holding on with one hand and trying to tentatively step away while holding your other hand out. MAN. This was insane. I looked at you with a shocked look, and you looked back at me. We both exploded into giggles, and you had that "please come get me" look on your face. We were both so proud and happy about your accomplishment, and we had to hug over it! I hope I never forget the pleased look on your face and the sound of your laughter when I discovered you. I've seen you pull up on other things in the house, but for some reason this was different because I didn't see the process. I left you laying, and when I came back you were standing.

The second nap you had today, you were not into. We had to run around getting your baby food from Lesley and going to your 9-month check up, and you decided that no second nap was needed for today. There was maybe a period of 15 minutes where you were quiet, but after some whimpering I knew you were done so I came back and there you were...standing in the crib and crying, holding your arms out over the bars for me. HEARTBREAKING. I ran and scooped you up, and you are instantly quiet when we get together...two seconds later, giggles. We are inseparable right now.

This evening I had your dad lower your crib to the lowest setting since you are now a standing man. He forgot to do this until you were ready to go to bed so I held you in my arms like a little baby (which you usually never allow), and I hummed to you while Daddy went to work on the bed. You were giggling at me humming, and even though my arms and back were numb with pain from your weight, I cherished every minute of it. I looked at you and tried to soak in absolutely every thing I could. To my surprise, after a few minutes you fell asleep. Your thumb-sucking slowed down, and it fell out of your mouth as you snuggled closer to my body. We haven't done this since you were about 3 months old, and it was amazing. (Of course you then cried when I had to lay you down, but we rocked a little until you got over it.) I had a hard time walking out of your room when I saw the lowered crib. *Sigh* You're getting so big.

Today we played around on the guest bed, and you seemed to understand exactly how to play with me. We pillow fought (you were mainly attacked!), and you would crawl away as I would chase you. There were so many insane laughs, and we just seemed to be on the save wave length. Loved it!

You usually only say "mama" when I have to leave or if you want me...not when I'm close by and prompting you to say it. You say "dada" a lot now. This morning when your dad left, the door closed, and you looked that direction and whispered "dada?". Precious.

After your visit with the doctor today we've got some hard decisions to make, but I know you're a happy little guy so you'll be fine with whatever we need to do. Every time I walk into that office and see parents with newborns I think about the first weeks with you. I had no idea who you were or what I should do with you. Motherhood was nothing like I thought it would be. Now I feel like nobody will ever know you like I do (which of course will change when you grow up), and I can't imagine not being your mother. I was meant to have you for my wonderful son.

I love you,
Mom

Urgent Care

2010-09-14T21:08:00.002-05:00

Oy. Tonight was supposed to be some relaxing girl time at Stitch n Bitch. WRONG. Did I get to hear about Allison's match.com date? No. Did I get to sip lovely coffee and crochet? No. I did get to sit at urgent care for almost 2 hours to get Big Anthony's ear looked at. He came home in a lot of pain after being thrown from an inner tube by some guy who apparently doesn't know how to operate a jet ski. He kept clutching his head and saying his ear hurt. He went upstairs to put some swimmer's ear drops in them because he thought it was clogged with water. WRONG.

I hear screaming and howls of pain coming from upstairs. He can barely talk because he's in so much pain. I took the baby and ran downstairs to call urgent care and get an appointment. When we finally saw the doctor, it went like this:

Dr.: What happened?
Anthony: Thrown from a jet ski about 3 hours ago, my ear hurts.
Dr.: Let's take a look. Hmmm. You have an ear infection, and it's so red and swollen that I can't see if you have a rupture in your ear drum.
Me: Don't forget about the fact that you used ear drops.
Dr.: You did what?! That's pretty much the worse thing you could have done. That's why it's so inflamed and swollen. It's making it impossible to tell if there's a rupture so you'll have to wait a couple days and see if it's feeling any better. In the mean time you need cortizone drops, antibiotics for the infection, and some pain medication.
Anthony: I need something now.
Dr.: I can give you Demerol. (Looks at me...) He's going to be useless the rest of the day. No walking, straight into bed.
Me: Greeeeeeeeat.

Then it took over 20 minutes for the nurse to come back with the shot. They make you wait 15 more minutes to see if there's a reaction. Oh, and did I mention that I have a baby with me who would love to eat dinner and go to bed?! After almost 2 hours there, we finally got to go pick up his prescriptions and head home. OY. I must say that my child did beautifully for the situation. I was able to entertain him for quite a while with puffs, a toy banana, and my awesome personality :)

Anthony's doing pretty bad, and he'll probably be home from work tomorrow. I will be off to visit Grandma Abke while she's in Austin. I hope tomorrow is better than today.

Tooters and a Shark

2010-09-13T22:23:00.002-05:00

If you've spent a significant amount of time around me then you've probably realized that I like to make up songs for things that have to do with my child. The last few days I've been singing a new diddy called Tooters and a Shark. I just cracked up laughing while typing that because it's absolutely ridiculous, and I love it :)

I'd like it if I didn't have a cowlick. Life would be simpler. I wouldn't have a hand-cramp from compulsively trying to fix that section of hair while I work.

Allison and I have formed a new group called M.A.M. All you math-crazed serial killers who think we don't know you're in Jamaica...you're WRONG. Inquire for membership details ;)

Stitching tomorrow, woo!

Samantha

2010-09-12T21:31:00.002-05:00

I've mentioned Samantha on the blog before. My sweet cousin! She comes over and spends time with us, and occasionally is photographed on diapers :)

Last time or the time before (who's counting?!), I snapped a few of her with my baby boy.

This kid can make a bazillion faces in about 20 seconds. Here are some of them.

Lately he's been pulling up on anything and everything. We've had to set the play pen up because I'm afraid of what he'll try to climb on if I have to run into the other room for a minute. What's really funny is if I lay on the ground (on my stomach) he uses my butt to pull himself all the way to standing and says "yayayayayayaya" the whole time. It's almost half-whispered; like he's giving himself a pep talk. I love it :) And if I was bendy enough then I would have a picture of it. But I'm not, and I don't!

Whitney fb'd this earlier, hilarious! Hipster Dinosaurs

Good night!

Friday, woo!

2010-09-10T20:43:00.002-05:00

Glad it's Friday! For some reason short weeks feel like they take forever. Doesn't make sense you say? Well, I think I expect the week to feel super short, but something insane always happens on the short weeks that makes them feel interminably long. Example: today I ran an errand for Whitney that involved going down off Montopolis (NOT my neck of the woods). I hate going anywhere away from the north side on Friday anyway because the traffic stinks. But I left in the morning before lunch so I thought everything would be fine. Little did I know that Google would screw up the directions (THANKS GOOGLE. THANKS.), and that the worst drivers in all of America live/work near Montopolis. You people really brightened my day. The stress level after almost being hit by you...marvelous. Oh, and thanks for throwing in a bunch of construction and detours just to make things a little sweeter.

Mom and Dad are coming tomorrow, yay! Last Baptism class this weekend, yay! Bridal extravaganza this weekend....umm...well, moving on..

James Franco, hot. Sorry, I'm distracted. Spiderman (I have no idea which one) is on right now. Don't like him as much as that guy Henry Cavill, but Henry is hard to beat because he has an accent and shares my birthday. Mmmmm. You try watching him in The Tudors and tell me you don't agree!

*Ahem*

I ran across Big Anthony's birthday pics from last month. He wouldn't let me throw him a birthday party so we just did "the usual" and had cake and champagne over at Meme and Grandad's. I think it's some kind of law. You're out of the family if you don't have cake and champagne at their house on your birthday :)

August 12th...

Young Victoria

2010-09-09T22:39:00.002-05:00

I'm finally watching Young Victoria. I've been meaning to get around to this for a while now, but I haven't excused myself from editing until late tonight (I had exporting and back-ups tying everything up anyway), so now I'm enjoying. I haven't seen the last 35 minutes, but I'm thinking I like it :) It's not from my favorite time period in English history, but it deals with royals nonetheless so I'm a happy girl.

While watching, I saw my phone buzzing to notify me of comments left on my photos. I had uploaded the 8 month photos of the baby to facebook this evening, and every time I look at pictures of him I feel my heart do some flip-flops. How can you love a person so much?! Especially one who is generally needy and can't even tell me if he loves me or not. Like I even need to explain that last ridiculous sentence; he gives me everything I need plus a million more to let me know that we are each other's world. When we were feeding him dinner and prepping him for bed he kept up a steady stream of "mama, dada, mama, dada". Sometimes he likes to call us the opposite names; I like to think this is his first attempt at humor :)

Speaking of humor, I had him absolutely cracking up today during his lunch. Probably not the best idea...every time he laughed I ended up with food all over me thanks to his enthusiasm! But it's worth it to be plastered in pureed beef and vegetables to see that 2-toothed smile.

Not so cool, found what I thought was a blister on the little guy's toe today. Called the doctor's office. Nurse induced panic by telling me it sounded like a spider bite. Mad dash to doctor's office ensued. Turns out it was a laceration. He's been kicking the crib when he's putting himself to sleep (not in a mad way, just a bored way I guess), and at some point he cut the bottom of his toe off. Yuck. Anywho, he's gonna be fine.

Back to Young Victoria, a good excuse to watch Emily Blunt and indulge in my royal obsession.

8 Months

2010-09-08T22:01:00.002-05:00

I know I've been remiss on posting things on time, but I really thought I posted this last month. It wasn't a planned delay, I just didn't hit the dang button :/ Here goes...

Dear Anthony,

You're 8 months, buddy! I had sweet Erica come and take some pictures of us because we're hardly ever in the same photo together. It was hot and sweaty, but oh so worth it. We had a beautiful moment where you leaned over to bite my finger (which you've done a lot since teething), and I suddenly felt your first tooth poking through the gums! EXCITING! I've been feeling around on those gums for months now just waiting for that little sharp tooth, but the feeling was more surprising and thrilling than I could have imagined.

You have pretty much mastered crawling, although you still don't care to get your belly off the ground. You went from the army crawl to the real crawl, just belly-dragging along the way so that now we have to do very little sweeping. I'll start calling you swiffer from now on :)

Your separation anxiety is still going strong, and you prefer your mama to everyone else. While this is extremely tiring, it is sooooo rewarding and special to me. I know it won't last forever. You'll go through phases where you'll like Daddy better, then your friends, then one day *gasp* a girl! Thus, I will cherish this tiring and loving time we're sharing.

We just started Baptism class, and you'll hopefully be Baptized by the end of September/beginning of October. I can't wait for your "Auntie Leslie" to officially become your Godmother! She was/is an excellent sponsor for me, and I know she'll be a fantastic Godmother for you.

Love,
Your Mama

(I love these photos. They're not the best of me, especially the ones with sweat marks! But my cute little boy is in top form :)

Dear Internet

2010-09-08T21:42:00.002-05:00

Internet, I think I'm going to blog more often...or at least give it a try. Right now I try not to blog unless I've got pictures to go with because every post is better with a picture. HOWEVER, I don't always have time to go through everything I want to put up so it gets put off longer and longer. I'm pretty sure that some of my posts from now on will just have words, though I'll strive to use pictures as often as possible.

Things you missed while I wasn't blogging:
1) Anthony tried meat. The only meat dish on Little Vittles at the time was mixed with carrots and Anthony had recently decided he was off carrots again (this is a love/hate saga...ok, more like tolerate/hate). Anyway, I took a batch of said chicken and carrots to my lunch with Mitsi for his first taste of chicken...hoping he'd gotten over his anger against carrots. I put ONE bite in the kid's mouth, and how do you think I was rewarded?
a) with smiles and hugs
b) him swallowing and tolerating it
c) him spitting it back out
d) with baby taking that one bite and using it plus all the other contents of his stomach to throw up all over me at central market cafe so that i was covered in some orange-ish substance the consistency of half-melted cheese?
If you said D, you're correct! He threw up all over himself, me, the chair and floor. I got my son cleaned up and changed (thanks for the help, Mitsi!). But I felt bad that I was too exhausted after cleaning us and the table to get to the floor. I just packed up and left because it was pretty par for the course that day...it ended up being rough later on too. I should just crawl back in bed and hit reset on those days :)

2) New discussion on changing my kid's name. Well not changing, but nick-naming. If you'd like to add something to the hat then let me know. Right now the names being used are "AJ" (of course) and "Baby Tony".

3) Reinstatement of Stitch n Bitch, baby! That's right, once a week I'll be doing something that's for ME. I'll visit with friends, work on my crafts, try new coffee houses, and enjoy life.

4) I've decided that pack-n-plays (much like high-heels and thongs) were only invented to torture people. I'm not saying I don't use all 3 of these things, but they ARE torture devices. Just sayin.

5) I would like to publicly declare that I'm glad my cousin Samantha and I have grown closer as we've grown older. If you had asked me a couple years ago if I thought she'd be the cousin I hang out with the most, I'd have said you were nuts. But she's great. (Love you, cousin!) And she loves my baby and pays him good nephew-cousin attention. Which is more than I can say for one of my other cousins. I won't name names. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.

Excited for my mom visiting this weekend! Good bye!

Anthony's First Visit to Great-Granny and Great-Grandad's House

2010-08-27T10:14:00.004-05:00

I put it off for as long as possible. I told myself that putting my car-hating child on the road for over 3 hours was insane. I didn't have any free weekends coming up, and going alone would be even more insane. I told myself there was waaaay too much work to do to be making trips to Dallas.

Then I realized that all of that stuff didn't matter. The little man needed to meet ALL of his great-grandparents, even the ones who aren't close to Austin. Tuesday morning the baby and I loaded up the car (with some help from Big Anthony!), and we set out for Dallas (well, Richardson). After I picked up my coffee (thank you drive-thru Starbucks!) he fell asleep, and he didn't wake up until around Waxahachie. He was pretty upset, and I even missed my exit for 75, but we made it! Granny and Grandad were so excited to see him!

Granny will probably kill me for those; her patio is usually a lot neater, but I had to post every every every cute pic!

Granny decided to take some bread down to the pond and throw it in for the fish to come up and nibble. We had a good time watching all the teeny little perch swarm like piranhas around the frozen crumbs of bread. Some turtles joined in on the fun too, big bullies. Then some WHOPPER catfish started coming out of nowhere and stealing the bread. Compared to the tiny perch it was like a whale coming out of the water :) Many know my personal hatred of catfish. Granny suggested we get some poles and catch one! We walked back to the house, got some poles, got laughed at by Grandad for thinking we could catch one, and off we went. This is what happened.

(Those purplish looking things would be the fish.)

Accidentally got a turtle :/

Got him!!

Throwing him back. Maybe next time Isaac comes he can catch it with Granny again :)

Granny holding up the fish that I caught. That's right, I'm gonna have him mounted! Just kidding, it was all catch and release. I'd like to add that I caught this goober with a plain jane old hook. No bait, just a hook. That's natural selection at its best.

Sharing Grandad's chair!

Granny has bathed most of the grandkids in her sink, and I didn't want her to miss out on that with the little Anthony.

Look at that face! Don't worry baby, mama hid all the private bits from the internet.

Once the little man would go to bed, Granny and I would sit up late playing card games she would teach me. I had a blast and would love it if we lived closer so Anthony could spend more time with them. Hopefully they'll make it down for his first birthday!

Faith's Newborn Shoot

2010-08-14T11:29:00.003-05:00

I'm so thrilled for my first newborn shoot! Please head on over to the Whitney Lee blog and look!

Teaser...

Thanks y'all!

Shark Week

2010-08-12T21:18:00.002-05:00

I planned to actually put up my Shark Week post during Shark Week, but you know how that goes. Anthony didn't understand my excitement. It's not like it's Christmas or a birthday, and I can't even say how many shows I got to watch since I was so busy, but this has so much nostalgia attached to it. My mom and I have been watching Shark Week for TWENTY YEARS, PEOPLE. That's a long time. And we would get all giddy and watch gruesome shark attack victims talk about their stories, and we'd discuss our fears time and time again. We'd freak each other out and constantly say, "whoa, did you see that?! Oh, did you see the woman who got attacked on yesterday's episode?!.." and on and on.

This is exciting because it's one of the traditions that I can hopefully continue with Anthony. There are so many he probably won't want to do that I had shared with my mom because they'll be "girly". But Shark Week has something for everyone! And I can't believe that Big Anthony didn't even know what Shark Week was or that it existed until we met. What planet has he been living on?! I'm glad he could step into the light, hehe!

I got the little man decked out for Shark Week, but he couldn't concentrate on holding the little shark (from his bath toys) while there was a camera around. That's right, he's got a shark onesie on, and that's not the only one he owns :)

Last Thursday, Auntie-Cousin Samantha came over, and we went out to Leander to go swimming. We were pretty pooped when we got back, and I ended up being a total lobster even though I had 50 sunblock on. WHAT?! Yes. And I'd like to note for the record that Samantha is laying on a pile of diapers :)

Son, drinking and driving is not cool. Not cool.

Trying to Crawl and Standing Up

2010-08-03T22:39:00.003-05:00

My little cutie pie has been trying desperately to crawl the last couple weeks. He can army crawl, but he doesn't seem to want to show it off for anybody :) And every time I get the camera out he doesn't do it! You can see a little scooting in the video I'm posting below, but it's not the extent of what he's capable of doing. He is also now a STANDING MAN. That's right, yesterday he crawled over to his heavy box of books and after much struggling pulled himself all the way up to standing on his own! It only lasted for a few seconds and those legs turned to jelly, but I was so proud!

My next mission is to capture this new face he's making. I'm not really sure how to describe it, it's almost surprised but his face is long and his mouth makes an "o" shape. Weird. At first I thought he was going to burst into tears, but then he made this funny little face and doesn't want to stop. It was the story of the 3 little pigs that did it to him. Warning to other new parents, that story will give your kid a funny face :)

In other news, how the heck did it get to be August already?! Not that I'm complaining, summer in Texas is never that pleasant unless you have 24-hour recreational water access. I dread summer starting at about Christmas, and yet it's being kind thus far and giving little rain showers and easily passing me by. In some ways I don't like the quick passage of time because it means Anthony is growing up so so fast. In other ways I'm glad because even though I will miss all these baby stages (oh how I will miss them!!!), I'm already excited for whatever he wants to do next.

Lately he's felt that nap time is a game. Maybe not the whole thing, but definitely the part where I cover him up. Ever since he had good motion we've used a blanket at nap time (months now). It's always the same, I kiss him, lay him down, insert pacifier if he wants it, crank mobile, and cover him up. Except now he thinks me spreading the blanket over him is a giggly game where he's supposed to kick it off and wait for me to re-cover him so we can do the whole thing again. We both get such a kick out of it, and then I remember that he's supposed to be sleeping and not giggling so I let it lay and lean over the crib to kiss him and whisper "happy nap".

Here's some goodness from a few days ago...
(tune in soon for our ode to Shark Week)...

Anthony Trying to Crawl from Amanda Hagood on Vimeo.

7 Months

2010-07-26T22:12:00.004-05:00

Once again, I've been really terrible about getting the little man's monthly photos up on time. What can I say, I'm so busy playing with him when he's awake and working when he's not that I barely have time for blogs!

Sometimes I wish I could just freeze him in time and enjoy this stage forever. Oh sure, there are some drawbacks (none important enough to even mention), but he's sooo wonderful! He can sit up to play, he's awake most of the day, he's generally happy and smiley (which makes me happy and smiley too!), and I can see him learning things all the time. He's gotten pretty good at holding and manipulating his sippy cup, but he really doesn't like drinking out of it. He gets the water out and then just spits it everywhere! He really needs water in his system so we've been letting him take sips out of grown-up cups. Then we discovered last weekend that he can drink out of one of my soft, rubbery-straw cups (thanks for the freebie, Nuptial Necessities!).

We have been turning up the baby monitor on full volume again at nights like when he was tiny. Since he generally sleeps through the night, waking up only once or twice to briefly make baby sounds, it's pretty nice. I like hearing him make little noises and go back to sleep. If you had told me a year ago that I'd enjoy being woken up at night to hear someone babble then I would have told you to get your head checked.

I'm not really putting this in the letter form it should be in...so let's save the rest for that :)

Dear Anthony,

On the 16th, you were 7 months! I'm amazed at how well you play, the way you can manipulate items in your hand, and how much you want to be with me. When we're playing and you're sitting up straight then you reach your arms up for me. If I don't instantly grab you then you use my shirt to pull yourself up to standing and throw yourself on me! If someone else is holding you then you're still all smiles when you see me (as it has been ever since you could smile), but a lot of times you'll throw your whole body at me now.

You can army crawl, and somewhere on my computer I have a video to prove it. I was ecstatic when I saw it! I know this means the end of my peace of mind for your safety, but it's fascinating to see you struggle and learn as you work your way across a room towards a favorite toy. It's still beyond hilarious to you if you have a toy with the little plastic pages you can flip back and forth (especially on your phone because it changes the song).

You can stand up against something and hold on if I prop you up there, but we're still quite a ways off from you pulling yourself up (although I can tell you want to!). You've gotten especially mobile in your walker-car lately. You look stinkin adorable cruising around the living room in your hot rod that reminds me of a bumble bee! Today you got all crazy with your sippy cup and knocked your whole windshield off :)

You're getting so big, and I don't just mean that as a figure of speech. You were slender and stream-lined at 6 months, but now that you've had a good 6 weeks of solids there is some chubbiness to you! It's totally adorable and not at all over-the-top; your close family might be the only ones who can tell. But I know you went from a 6-months size shorts/pants to 12-months in a very short time span!

I love you more and more every day, if that's even possible. I hold you tight and kiss you all over; I already dread the day you will grow up and replace me (with a wife). Today the storm woke you up after you were only 20 minutes into your nap. Even though it's probably the first time you've woken up from a storm and might have gone back to sleep, your little baby cry at the loud thunder and shaking of the house was so sad that I instantly wanted to comfort you. You would only fall back asleep on me, even though you usually prefer to sleep without being held now. I sat down on the couch, and you slept on me while I read a book for about an hour...then Daddy came home and woke you up :) My arm was severely fatigued, muscles were cramped, but I can't think of anything in the world I would have rather been doing. I love you.

Mommy

I know it's a goofy face, but I couldn't resist.

It's Hot

2010-07-15T19:14:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I was reminded that my grandparents-in-law have a pool at their house. I should visit more. Because it's hot. FREAKIN HOT. I took the kid for a walk this morning, along with Leslie and Alex, and he was a giant puddle of sweat by the time we got home. This is fresh on my mind because I just had a debate with (big) Anthony about whether the baby needs a bath. This is Texas; if he stepped outside today, he needs a bath. Let alone the fact that he likes to wear his food and that he just threw up all over himself and his dad while they were playing upstairs. BATH!

Speaking of wearing his food...the babe doesn't like avocado, and here's proof of him not eating it. Notice the abrupt end of the video when the kid starts choking :)

Untitled from Amanda Hagood on Vimeo.

The next video was made with my mom in mind. We discovered on her last visit that if you fake a burping sound that the little man thinks it's the best thing ever. EVIDENCE...

Untitled from Amanda Hagood on Vimeo.

And lots lots more laughing!! I can't help it, every time he laughs or I see a video of him laughing my smile stretches so wide it hurts. I love this kid!

Untitled from Amanda Hagood on Vimeo.

Babies Work Hard and Play Hard Part II

2010-07-13T11:08:00.002-05:00

Ok, so he's mainly just playing hard here :) But a mean boy was splashing him in the big pool so it might have felt like work!

Look at him, pleading for help :(

Babies Work Hard and Play Hard Part I

2010-07-12T22:39:00.002-05:00

Here we see the Anthony's working hard in the office.

This face isn't so smiley when his secretary (a.k.a mom) gets his morning bagel wrong...

The little man has been working hard lately, and so have I! Today the seat of one of his bouncers came loose and he was hanging half way onto the cold tile, he peed all over the changing table, and he ate prunes like they were going out of style. There you go, you're all caught up on his busy life :)
I feel happy that I've had lots of wedding meetings and portrait sessions in the evenings, but it's been causing me to miss bedtime :( SAD!

4th of July

2010-07-06T22:15:00.003-05:00

We headed over to the Hagood's for the 4th of July and had a blast! I was bummed to miss out on Emily and Dave's annual party, but it just didn't work for the little man. Gary and Judy have a whole baby set up at their house (and a pool!), so we knew that was the way to go. However, an extra family showed up unexpectedly and their big kid played a huge role in my day. At first he was splashing Anthony excessively and his parents weren't asking him to stop...leading to much frustration and then outright anger and rudeness as the final splashing resulted in salt water all in my baby's eyes with still no parental intervention (see first video of crying). Then when he calmed down a little more he decided we should be best friends, and he glued himself to me. Kinda cute, but I already have a cute boy in my life :)

Then we moved Anthony (and eventually Jaden) into the un-heated hot tub and turned it into the official kiddie pool for a while. We swam, ate good food, and watched lots of fireworks. I'm freakin excited that when we do this next year it will/should be right near our new home!

Untitled from Amanda Hagood on Vimeo.

By the way, we tried to introduce broccoli and cauliflower today. His reaction was the same as mine when I was a kid. PROJECTILE VOMITING. OMG. I didn't even know he could throw up so much and so fast. OY. I felt terrible for him. He tasted something disgusting, gagged, vomited several times, was covered in stomach bile, and I know his little tender baby throat must have been burning. Throwing up isn't something he's used to doing. Poor baby :( The doctor says no more broccoli and cauliflower until he's at least a year. Lucky baby!

Stinkin Cute

2010-07-01T16:33:00.003-05:00

I get really behind on posting photos and even taking photos. But today we were trapped inside a lot by rain so it was a perfect time to bust out the camera! And a good day to try and post them because he has actually taken two decent naps today (he's on the second one right now).

He's haaaaaangin out in some of his new clothes that I got a great deal on at the Carter's outlet yesterday (and thank you to stranger guy that handed me a 25% off coupon!! woo!!). You can also see the fashionable paint tape is still on our walls while Jason does his handiwork around the house.

I know this first pic is out of focus, but he's SO STINKIN CUTE. Well, I don't have to tell you that, now do I?.

This would be the shy and unsure look that a lot of strangers get nowadays. Don't know why he's giving it to me!

Enjoying some sweet potatoes for the first time! Yay, Little Vittles!!

Oh yeah, that's sweet potato in the hair. That was FUN to clean up. That's why he's almost naked (just a bib and diaper), because I knew this would end up everywhere.

6 months!

2010-06-30T14:43:00.002-05:00

Dear Anthony,

Please forgive me for writing this two weeks late. Don't worry, I've had what I wanted to say about your recent activities all planned out in my head. Ok, not all planned out...but there were mental bullet points :)

You started solids about 10 days before you hit 6 months. We started you with rice cereal of course, and you were kind of alright with that. We then introduced you to avocado, carrots, and bananas. You've tried more things since then, but let's not spoil your 7 month post! You've helped me to let go of my previous pension for keeping you uber-clean. I let you get as messy as you need to during meal time, and I try to clean you up really well when it's over. But sometimes I still find a little dried-cereal stuck on some crazy part of your body later on in the day.

You are showing your preference for being with mommy more than ever. I love being your favorite person :) We spend all day together, and we try to get out and run errands and visit family when possible so you don't think the entire world consists of just our house. You're better about taking short car rides now, so running errands and visiting people is easier to do. You haven't figured out what your nap schedule should be like, thus you can be a little grumpy in the evenings. Sometimes you nod off during those short car rides and that's it for nap time, no big nap for you! Which means no rest/eating/catch-my-breath time for me. But you're still worth it and then some!

Sippy cups were recently introduced, and I called your Granny when I bought them...almost in tears. How did you get so big?! My little baby was completely reliant on me and my breast milk one minute, and the next you're adding solid foods and drinking from sippy cups!! (Ok, so you don't really drink from them, you bite on them with your gums, but you can hold them up to your mouth pretty well.)

You've continued teething, but you haven't actually gotten any to burst through those little gums yet. I'm in no rush, I will absolutely miss that gummy smile when it's gone. I'm soaking it up all I can right now! You have still been a good sleeper lately, and I hope that continues. You've decided that 8:30 should be your bedtime, and we're happy with that. Occasionally I hear you babbling to yourself once or twice during the night, but it's over pretty quickly and you're back to sleep. What a great baby! :)

And you can also sit up by yourself now. Wow. That was so amazing to me. I had wanted you to be able to do this for so long so we could start really playing together, and who knows, maybe even rolling a ball?! And now you do it! Of course when you reach for something super far or watch someone walk by too intently then you fall over, but that happens to everyone occasionally.

And here you are, my 6-month old baby!

Ok, give me your silly eyes!!

Daddy didn't seem to understand that this was your show, so I asked him nicely to put you down :)

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Father's Day 2010

2010-06-30T14:25:00.002-05:00

This year marked the first Mother's Day and first Father's Day in our little family, yippee!! Since it was Anthony's Day (big Anthony), I told him we could do whatever he wanted. He decided we should spend the day out at his family's house celebrating with all of the Hagoods, multi-generation fun :)

I'll start right off with saying I was SUPER PSYCHED that little Anthony would have the chance to get in a pool (or any body of water bigger than our bathtub) for the FIRST TIME. Let me repeat that so it sinks in, THE FIRST TIME. And here's the kicker, I didn't take photos of it. Why you may ask?? Little Anthony's window of time to get in after lunch and before he had take a nap so we could make the trek home was very small. I had a decision to make...get the camera out, take lots of pictures of him getting in the water with someone else...or actually experience taking him in myself, and knowing that I wouldn't have time to get out and get the camera and have him get in with someone else. I chose LIFE! Experience! Moments with my son! Yeah, it's not on camera, but it's stored in my memory forever :) Would I love some photos of the look on his face when we walked him in?...sure! Next time we'll remember to buy a cheapy-disposable-water-proof-camera. Live and learn!

Big Anthony thought there was no way the little man would enjoy it, especially so close to his nap time. There was lots of preparation involved: sunscreen, swim diaper, swimsuit, hat, floaty with hood for shade...check! He seemed a little bewildered for a minute, and then he was just content and curious. We pushed him around, played with a couple water toys, and we held him. This went on for about 10 whole minutes, and then it was time for a nap :) Not much for a first experience, but we know Gigi and Grandad will let us come back and use the pool anytime! (Right? RIGHT?!?!?!) In fact, stay tuned for pics of Anthony and Alex swimming because Leslie and I are determined to get out there when it stops raining.

Other than swimming, we ate good food, talked with family, and we even visited our lot on the way home to see if anything had changed. We knew they hadn't broken ground yet, but we wanted to see if they started clearing the cedar trees that we knew had to go.

(Below) Left to right: Anthony Warren, Anthony Perry, Gary, Hugh, Jarrod, Jaden

And in case you can't tell what you're looking at next, this is my big head blocking the way of a cute baby using a grown-up cup for the first time. This isn't his primary method of drinking, but he kept grabbing at all the cups so we decided to let him try it. It went well for a while, and eventually there was a big movement on his part, and water kinda got all over my lap :)

Wow

2010-06-27T22:52:00.002-05:00

No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth. On the contrary, I'm making my mark all over the place! I've been busy with weddings (two this weekend - and the one in Galveston made me swoon for the beach...oh how I've missed it!), a cute baby, a husband, two houses to deal with, etc.

I have some photos of Anthony for his 6-month letter that I want to share; I just need to catch my breath first. Things have been so hectic, and I've gotta find a way to slow down for my own sake and all the people who have to put up with me.

I'm pretty sure I already sent this link to everyone in the world, but I'll put it here anyway...my little boy was on the news eating some Little Vittles food!

I love the Little Vittles, and it's been so exciting to pick out new flavors each week for Anthony to discover. We've already determined some heavy-hitting favorites, but I want to keep exploring :)

Without further ado, here's my little man!....

http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/consumers/baby-food-company-opens-in-austin