Holiday Update

Well, this was the picture that made the final cut for the Holiday card this year. There were no pickles, screaming, crazy faces, eyes closed or back of heads. Yay! I think he's pretty darn cute if I do say so myself. Definitely festive and who cares if there is drool on his shirt!

One of Payton's gifts from Granny and Papa was a tool set. This included a drill seen at the bottom of the picture above. Thankfully it also included safety goggles!

Payton is lucky enough to celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas. Every night about 8:00 his internal present opening alarm would go off. He would remind us that it was time for the "lights" and to open a present. He would help light the candles and would get to open one of his presents. After a few nights of this he was quite the pro at tearing into gifts.

Holiday photo shoot- take 1... take 2... take 3.......

O.K. people, Trying to get a decent picture of a toddler can be challenging under the best of circumstances.Taking them of a toddler with a cold and with a point and shoot camera with a delay is even worse. I won't even talk about trying to add the dogs into the picture. It has been our mission over here for the last several days to get just one good shot. I was just about ready to give up when even hours of editing and head swapping with photo shop could not produce a usable print. We decided to forgo the group shot and take individual pictures instead . That made it a little easier. After the 3rd try I think I finally got the shot. You'll have to wait to see that one though. Below I have included the "best of the worst". I know those of you with little ones will identify at the least. You should get a kick out of these.



This one above is my favorite!

Notice the pickle in the shot above. This day he would not sit still without a pickle.
I somehow thought the tie painted on his shirt and the silk scarves tied around the dogs would make these a bit more formal and sophisticated. How wrong I was. In the shot I took after this one he was picking his nose.

1st Dentist appointment

Today was Payton's first trip to the dentist. It just so happened that he was my (and my brother's) childhood dentist. I was very glad to find out that he was still practicing. They actually had to kick me out when I was 19 and did not fit in the chairs anymore.

We prepared him as much as possible and practiced saying "Ahhhhhhhh". Things go a lot smoother with Payton if he has adequate information and preparation.
I would say it went really well. I don't think you could expect any 1 year old to be thrilled with a dental exam but he did great. He got to sit in my lap while the Doc checked out his chompers. He cried but as soon as it was over he gave Dr. Doss a high five and clapped for himself. He has 6 teeth on the top and 2 teeth on the bottom. A little unusual but normal. The official report was "No cavities"! He is good about letting us brush his teeth and thinks it's really funny when we get to spit afterwards.
How do we celebrate having no cavities?...
Chocolate cupcakes of course!!! Which, by the way, Payton helped me make a few days earlier.

Bubbles & Giggles

We had the best time the other day blowing bubbles! Payton loves them but what he really loves the most about it is watching the dogs try to eat the bubbles. He will laugh and laugh until there is no more sound coming out. Of course when you hear a baby laugh like that it is impossible to keep from joining in yourself. Hope you all have fun watching this video clip of our bubble time.

"ALL ABOARD!" chuga chuga choo choo.......

We decided to take advantage of this beautiful day and go for a train ride with Payton!This was his first time on the Trinity Miniature Railroad. It is a 40 minute ride that runs along the Trinity river, through the park and around the duck pond.
Payton was ready to go wearing his uncle Wesley's train conductor cap that he wore as a little boy. He received several compliments on that hat today.
He loves to be outside so this activity was right up his alley. There were so many things to see... turtles, birds, squirrels, water falls, trees and ducks.
The train stops at a little depot to let you stretch your legs and get some snacks half way through the ride. He walked along the river with his dad and played in the leaves. He lost his shoe and we didn't realize it until the train was already leaving. We had to drive back to the park to search for it after the ride. Luckily it was laying right by a tree and not buried in the leaves.

First Steps

Ladies and gentlemen, We have a walker!!! Over the last month or two he has been experimenting with a step here and there. Not enough to really count him as a walker. He is now up to about 10 steps with no assistance. He gets really excited about practicing and will run back and forth in between me and his daddy. You really want to teach/motivate your kid to walk...Take him to Chuck E. Cheese's! We just got back from our weekly play date there with his buddies. He would just take off from one game to the next. I was so proud of him, when he would start to fall down he would catch himself, regain his balance, straighten back up and take off again. It is so cute because sometimes his feet move really fast and he doesn't go any where, just stamping away in place with his arms straight up in the air. With each milestone comes the greatest joy and the biggest sadness. My baby is growing up! My baby is growing up:-(


This video clip is of him practicing with his daddy last night. Sorry it is a little dark. This is my first try using video clips on the blog.

ARRRRGH MATEY!

Happy Halloween! Payton was a pirate this year. We went to the carnival at our church to have some fun. Boy did he have fun. He had a blast playing the carnival games, getting candy (for mom and dad) and eating pop corn. He loves an excuse to be outside anyway. There were games where you had to throw a ball or a bean bag and he would just get so excited he couldn't bring himself to let go. He would act like he was going to throw it and then he would just laugh. It was so cute watching him have so much fun. When we were headed out to the car to leave he kept pointing back to the "fun" and crying. He wanted to stay so bad.
This was his favorite game. You would fish out a rubber ducky and there would be a # on the bottom that determined how many pieces of candy you got. He had more fun throwing them back into the pool. He didn't want to leave this game but he quickly realized that there were more games and more candy every where you went.