my little punkin.

we had yet to take any fallish pictures of stetson this year...so i had a little photo sesh with him yesterday. he was pretty cooperative. he's looking more and more like a little boy every day. he wanted to go outside after james left yesterday morning so he crawled into my lap and kept saying "bye" (which is a very country sounding bye). we don't have any stairs in our house so he loves to go up and down the front steps...over and over and over. even if there are wet leaves and mud. he was filthy by the time we went inside. (grandpa dan would've been proud!) he learned last time we were at my parents' house how to go down stairs by turning around and putting his feet down first...when he crawled to the first step i reminded him "feet first" and he said "otay". so every step he went down after that he would say "otay". so cute! and then he had picked up a little acorn hat and was studying it...so i picked up a hatless acorn and showed it to him. when i put the little hat on top of the acorn i told him "see this little acorn hat goes on top of the acorn" and he looked at it and gave me a long, drawn out "oooooh". i don't know if he actually got what i was saying but i love when he answers me like he does.

these feet are made for walkin'.

just wanted to mark it down before my swiss~cheese~of~a~brain forgot...stetson took his first steps last night...3 times he took one step...and then today he took 2 steps a few different times. we're so excited to see him FINALLY trying to walk. a couple of weeks ago he started standing up in the middle of the room (without pulling up) and can dance not holding on...so i'm pretty sure he could walk if he wanted. he is doing and learning more and more every day...it's so much fun to watch him developing. he now can say mama, dada or daddy, hey, hi, byebye, otay (ok), nuh nuh (no no), pee pee (please), ah duh (all done), uh oh, baby, guh (milk), ha (hot), yeah and wow...he can also tell you what a dog, cat, and cow say. he is still obsessed with trying to stand everything up on it's end and he loves to try to put lids on containers. he has a riding firetruck that he loves to play with but has just gotten into sitting on and tonight he was able to get off it by himself without falling. we're still working on getting on. he has a cold right now...it's sad but it's only the 2nd cold he's ever had so it's been over a year. we've been fortunate in that area. also, his 2 bottom molars have finally broken through in the last week. ptl.

my two mimis.

james has been on an 11 day trip (he gets home today!) so my mama and james' mama were both able to help me with little man. my mama was with us from last sunday to friday...keeping stetson on tuesday and wednesday while i was working and then just keeping me company the rest of the time. and then marti kept him on saturday for me. it was such a treat to have our moms here to help! it made the long trip much more bearable, although it was still hard. but we made it. dada's plane just landed and we are about to go pick him up! i can tell stetson has been missing him...he says dada alot..especially when he's going to bed. and i think he's a little tired of just being with me. james is really busy these days, so he's only home for 3 days and then he's off to california next weekend.

marti took these photos last saturday...the top on is at our house...my mom bought him a tunnel from ikea and he loves it! and the bottom one is him at a bookstore...apparently he crawled around like a maniac in there!

busybody.

yesterday morning i finally got to witness stetson standing up by himself...not pulling up but just standing up in the middle of the floor. his mimi marti had already seen him do it a few times. every time he does it i clap and make a big deal out of it...so last night he was standing up over and over...for just a few seconds....and then he would stand up and clap with me. but he is, so far, NOT interested in taking any steps. and he certainly doesn't want any help...he still won't really let you hold his hands and walk him. i don't so much mind that he's not walking yet...except everywhere we go he doesn't want to be in his stroller but i can't let him crawl in just any ol' public place. i mean, i have let him crawl in places i didn't think i ever would...such as target and the mall. but the main problem with that is that when there are a lot of people around, we're either in the way or i'm afraid somebody is gonna step on him. not to mention he won't crawl in the direction you want him to.

which brings me to the fact that he hasn't been to the nursery yet at our church...i just haven't wanted to take him...it just makes me anxious...BUT i decided yesterday that we're gonna try it next time we go (we'll be in vidalia this coming weekend). he's so busy and all over the place that i was chasing him all around the perimeter of the church and if i picked him up to get him out of the way of people or keep him from getting hurt, he would kick and scream. needless to say, i was feeling a little frazzled when we left yesterday. i've just never left him with people he doesn't know and just thinking about it makes me start having anxiety. but i've got to do it. i'm never going to be able to actually pay attention to what is going on if i don't. and it's just for the preaching. the kids stay in there for worship...which is good because he loves the music. he gets his groove on.

and his bottom 2 molars are FINALLY breaking through. praise the Lord. he has been miserable with them.

precious moments.

awesome photos courtesy of wonderful uncle E.

lately.

i can't believe it's been a month since my last post...the days fly by.

stetson is growing so fast...still not walking on his own, still cruising the furniture. he's very cautious. he loves trying to stand various objects up on one end (remotes, hairbrushes, etc), closing things (doors, sippy cup, things that have lids), putting blankets over his head and/or back, throwing things from his high chair or car seat and saying "bye bye", and tearing tiny bits off the toilet paper roll. a couple of days ago he tore about a 6 inch piece of toilet paper off and i said "let's not do that buddy" and he picked it up and laid it on top of the roll. so cute. he also figured out how to the flush the toilet yesterday and he now knows how to pump lotion out of the bottle. we're also starting to notice how quickly he can ransack the entire house. i guess because he wasn't mobile for so long, we're just now having to deal with that. he's also in the process of getting his molars and it has not been fun. but thankfully he has been sleeping fine. he is a funny little fella which sometimes makes it hard to get on to him. we've just started doing time outs because on the occasion that he gets mad, he has started trying to pinch or grab at me and not in a cute way. yikes. i wasn't expecting this so soon. but the majority of the time he is so sweet and precious...giving kisses often. a couple of new words are "work" (when james is gone and i say where is da da? he says a slightly modified version...more like wor) and just this morning he said please without me asking him to (which sounded more like pee pee). james is on an 11 day trip to ireland and england right now and we miss him terribly. thankfully my mama is coming today to stay with us for a few days. she's going to keep stetson while i work and just help my feelings in general.