I Miss Him

I miss Him! I miss my biggest boy, my first born, my blond hair brown eye little companion of mine!! I miss his big brown eyes that allow me to see into the depths of his soul. I miss his silly faces and smirks and the attitude that is often exhibited with these goofy grins. I miss his sweet little hugs and his nonstop jabber!! While I miss this guy with all that I have in me, I know he is having a wonderful time in Oklahoma with Grandma and Grandpa Voda, Aunt Kim and Austin, and Uncle Brandon and Aunt Ashley. While I am pleased as punch that he is having so much fun (he's been to see Disney on Ice, spend time at the fair riding rides and eating yummy yummy fair food, he's been to the zoo, seen Thomas the Train at the railroad museum, been to the park, eaten chicken nuggets french fries and ice creams and whatever else he can convince his grandma and grandpa/aunts and uncle to let him do and he has been loved on my everyone within reach). I love that he is getting this time with Brad's family, but I sure do miss my big man!!

 

Laugh

Laugh: (\ˈlaf, ˈläf\ ) : to show emotion (as mirth, joy, or scorn) with a chuckle or explosive vocal sound.

 to find amusement or pleasure in something 

to become amuse or derisive

  

Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”

Psalm 126:2

Happy 5 Months Paxton James

Wow Mr. Paxton you are now 5 months old as of September 20th. I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone and I am praying for you (and your brother) to slow down a little and continue to be my baby for much much longer.

What are you up to these days Mr. P?

You wear size 3 diapers
Size 6-9month clothes
You have rolled over from front to back and back to front
You love to have something in your hands, a blanket, an extra paci, a toy, a teething toy, ANYTHING your hands are always very very busy
You have currently discovered that your big brother is hilarious and he makes you laugh a lot
You talk, smile, laugh and coo constantly
You have started to sleep in your bed at night time...unfortunately you are NOT a huge fan of this at the moment, but we have made a lot of progress this week. I have discovered that you are not a fan of being alone in your crib, so you now sleep with a sock monkey and you cuddle that thing ALL night long. (Even in the womb you liked to cuddle, you snuggled right up to the placenta in every ultrasound.....the two selfish things I prayed for when you were in my womb were Blue eyes and for you to want to cuddle....isn't it amazing how God listens to even the smallest of prayers!!)
You ate rice cereal for the first time on Monday and you have done really well learning how to eat "solids"

You are a really good napper for the most part. You take at least an hour nap in the morning and a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon (most of the time)

Current nicknames: Pax, PaxMax, Little P, HapPY, Smiley, P-Nut

Oh sweet Pax, these past 5 months have flown by, you are still the sweetest little guy and we love you so much!!

Our Sweet Maddox

Oh sweet Maddox. On the 8th of this month you turned 32 months old. Goodness, you are way to close to being 3 years old and it kind of freaks me out a little!!
What are you up to these days Mr. Maddox!?!
You weigh 32 Pounds
You are wearing 3T shirts and jeans (although, length wise the 2T pants fit better, but just barely...you are so close to being too tall for them)
You are 100% potty trained and we have not had a single accident since we started this entire process and you had your first "taking care of business outside" experience with your daddy the other day. (they were riding the 4 wheeler and he had to "go" so outdoor peeing was experienced for the first time...luckily you have not asked me to do this again yet)
You love your little brother and are so sweet to him. The other day we had to use that nasty nose sucker on him to help him breath and it obviously made him very upset....YOU started crying with him because you didn't like to see him so sad
You are so kind and smart!!!

Fun things about Maddox at 32 months old:
Maddox is such a big helper. He loves to help. Loves to be in the middle of everything I am doing and longs to fix ANYTHING. He is  most certain that all things can be fixed with a hammer and a screwdriver and he is even more certain that anything broken can be fixed by his daddy! In fact, there have been several toys that I thought were long gone because the plastic was broken off of it, but daddy came to the rescue and fixed it again.  Maddox had a very hard time understanding that daddy could not in fact fix a cracker that was broken into several pieces, but can you blame him...Brad is one handy man and if it is fixable, he can most certainly fix it!
Maddox also loves to help me clean. He likes to wipe things off with a wet rag and would spray the entire house with something if I would let him use the cleaning spray. However, I have come up with a compromise and he now gets his own spray bottle of water while I am cleaning and he is allowed to spray every square inch of the shower/bath tub and inside the toilet. He has a blast spraying and "cleaning" with me and I can only hope when he is big enough to really help me he will be as enthusiastic about it....hahah...yeah right!!! But for now, I will cherish the time I have with Maddox cleaning spraying the crap out of everything he can get his hands on!!
Maddox also likes to help me cook. When there are things he can help me with I let him. He gets to stir, pour the seasonings and sit on the cabinet while I cook. However, lately, the easiest way to keep him occupied while I am cooking is to fill the kitchen sink with soapy water, give him a cup or two and a brush and he is in little boy bubble, water, filling and pouring heaven!
When he is finished with the "dishes" we often play with the magnetic letters on the dishwasher. He has gotten so good at knowing what all the letters look like (even upside down). I am trying to utilize the time I have when Paxton is napping or content playing to soak up as much time with the Madd man as possible!! I am constantly praying for more and more patience and a gentle and understanding spirit as I raise this super smart, spirited, spunky and sweet little boy.
I am trying to encourage all the wonderful things he does during the day. He is such a great boy most of the time and I realize it is my job to guide him and his little boy energy in the right direction. We have sticker charts in his room that help encourage the things he is already good at and praise him for doing some things he is not so enthusiastic about. There are six charts:
"Helping Mommy with Paxton"
"Eating my Meal without Complaining"
"Being Kind with my Words"
"Going to bed without Fits"
"Going to School without Crying"
"Picking up My toys"

He gets a sticker every time he does any of these acts and he really gets a kick out of it. It has seemed to help encourage him and it is a great reminder for me throughout the day to point out when he does some super amazing things!! He has several stickers on every chart and when he finally gets 10 stickers on any one chart, he will get a prize! When he gets 10 on ALL the charts, he will get a HUGE prize!
He is doing a fantastic job and we are so proud of him!!

Roll With It

I would like to start this post off by thanking my wonderful Mom for keeping the boys for us a couple of weekends ago, so that I could get away, host a bridal shower, and have some fun girl time with my best friend Sarah. Thank you mom so so much for your help and sacrifice of your time this weekend...I know it is a lot of work and the sleepless nights are difficult especially if you aren't "used" to them (do we ever really get "used" to sleepless nights?!). Thank you thank you..the break was much needed and I feel refreshed and ready to conquer another controlled chaotic week in the Voda house!!

That is a perfect way to describe our days here in the house: Controlled Chaos!! We are learning to just roll with it and make things work. We adapt, adjust, revamp, distract, and do things together all the throughout the day. For example, I have adjusted bath time to whenever dinner is cooking. Both boys take a bath together, Paxton in his little bathtub that is set in the big tub, and Maddox chillin in the big tub "helping" me wash Paxton. Bumping bath time to before dinner has certainly helped with evening meltdowns for Mr. Maddox and after supper, Paxton is pretty ready for bed so it has worked out beautifully (well, for the past week or so) we will see if it continues to work well, or we will find a different way and continue to roll with it.
I have adjusted bed time for the Madd man to about 7:30 every evening because he just has not been sleeping all that well (come to find out he has a horrible ear infection...so hopefully the middle of the night tear fests will cease once this ear infection is all cleared up). Once again, we find a way to roll with what obstacle is in front of us and it has worked pretty well. A well rested Maddox is a much happier Maddox (aren't we all!!).

Paxton has been spitting up pretty frequently and just pretty restless when it comes to night time sleeping so I am still in the process of finding out a way for him to rest at night that best suits him and helps his tummy. Currently the swing is the best way he sleeps, but if we could get him to keep that dang pacifier in his mouth we would all get a lot better sleep. Pacifier or not, he is still the sweetest little guy and his smile is worth all the sleepless nights!!
We are learning to roll with the changes that occur and adapt to whatever suits our family best in the moment! It gets crazy at times, and it gets loud at others, but it a perfectly controlled chaos and I'm loving this adventure.
We are so proud of our sweet little Paxton. He ROLLED over from belly to back for the first time last week!! Yippee! Way to go Mr. P!!