#BOYMom Box Swap

Myles and I are quite excited about this post and sharing what we got in our BoyMom Box this year! About a year and a half ago, I shared why I love being a boy mom over on Elizabeth's blog for her Boy Mom Series. Since then she has ended the series, but now co-hosts (with Seeing All Sides and Wife Mommy Me) a yearly exchange for all boy mom bloggers. Myles lives for getting mail, especially when toys are inside, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity! Plus, I love getting to know new moms and their blogs... so win, win!

We were lucky enough to get paired with Meghan and Noah from The Adventure Starts Here! I'm really grateful to have been introduced to her and Noah. She has a great blog with tons of great content, and Noah is so smart, sweet, and cute! We talked a little about Myles' likes/dislikes, but Meghan really hit it out of the park with our box.

We got a great sampling of some of Myles' favorite things! My favorite thing to do with Myles is Play-Doh, so of course I was all over that! It instantly brings me back to my childhood. Meghan was so sweet and found a Froggy book for Myles. I mentioned to her that he really loves them, but I no idea she would actually be able to find one! We have been reading Froggy Bakes a Cake every night since.

I have mentioned several times here on this blog that I struggle with finding good bath toys. Meghan was so thoughtful to include two of Noah's favorites: Crayola Bath Crayons and Crayola Bath Squirters. Meghan also added a little something for momma! She got me a beautiful coral nail polish and some cute note cards. 

And within 5 minutes (no joke), we were in the bath playing:

Am I the only one that finds unused Play-Doh fresh out the can so satisfying!?!? 

Thanks again Chasin' Mason, Seeing All Sides, and Wife Mommy Me for putting this all together and Meghan and Noah for the perfect box!

A Year in Reivew: Preschool

My baby made it though his first year of school! I'm so proud and grateful of how well Myles did with his first year of school. Before he started preschool last August, he hadn't been away from me for more than a couple hours once a week or even less. He had never been around that many kids or been under someone else's (besides family) care. The transition was surprisingly smooth and we had no real problems the entire school year. He made some great friends, as did I, that I hope we can keep for a long time. 

Here is a little overview of his year in school via the camera roll:

Me: "Did they tell you to smile?"

 Myles: "Yes, but I made a mad face."

First Halloween at school. He wanted to wear this shirt and be Flash, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make him Sheldon. 

First school made Christmas tree ornament; made everything worth it!

First Valentine's Day at school. We made superhero suckers. He loved it so much, and his Valentines are tucked safely away in a box to keep for the rest of his life.

 Snack time at school helped Myles try so many new foods!

 First time something was sent home with his name written out all by himself (the beginning March.) For a while, he would write only a couple letters, mostly the M, Y, and L. The S has been tricky for him, but he finally started giving it a try and I think it's great!

Last day of school! (yes I know I spelled preschool wrong this time. I, of course, did this in the last 20 seconds before walking out the door when we were already late. No excuses though, that's horrible!)

 We are pretty excited (and a little terrified) to start transitional Kindergarten next school year. But for now, we will be enjoying the summer!!!

 

Boy Mom {Guest Posting}

Hey it's me again.. two posts in one day! 

I know right... never would I have imagined, but it is totally true! 

Well to be fair this second post is just a shameless promotion for my Boy Moms post over at Chasin' Mason today! I was so thrilled when Elizabeth asked me to give my take on being a boy mom! I have been following this series from the beginning and absolutely LOVE reading about other blogging moms' experience with having boys; heaven knows as boy mothers we need as much help/advise as we can get ;) 

A little sneak peak for you:

"I'm 90% sure you are having a girl" said the ultrasound tech at my 20 week anatomy scan. I wasn't at all surprised. Over the last 16 weeks, I had worked myself up to be scared to death to have a girl. I am not at all into girly things and I really have no idea how to be a girl myself, so how in the world would I be able to raise a girl and give her the true girl experience? Because the universe works in funny ways and I was really terrified to have a girl, I was sure I was going to be blessed with a baby girl just to show me that I could raise a girl perfectly well and it would all work out.

To get the full low down on the rest of the story and my love for all things boys, head on over to Chasin' Mason to read my post and check out my great blogging friend Elizabeth!

Myles Monthly: 14

As you may know, I didn't decide to start my blog until my son Myles was about 8 months old. And well... now he is 22 months old! I'm still trying to get caught up with the monthly updates and monthly favorites, so I can get, and hopefully stay, up to date. 

 September 15th- October 14th, 2013

Health

 Absolutely nothing to report this month and that makes me one happy momma! Still on the thinner side and not quite fitting into the waist of 12 month bottoms. He definitely has a longer torso and shorter legs because even some 12 month shirts looked a little short on him, but 12 month pants were fine in length. He still had only 6 teeth (top middle four and bottom middle two). Also happy to say his brain is perfect, based on the fact that he was obsessed with his Packer's book!

 
Totally unrelated to health, but a story I wanted to remember: 
Myles had his first bully experience at the playground. He wanted to play with the water and this boy kept yelling at him saying "no" and "get away". I didn't think he would understand what was happening but he looked at me, starting crying, and ran to me. It seriously broke my heart. And I know this is just the beginning. I hope he is stronger than me.


Eating
I continued to be happy with Myles' progress in the eating department. Slow and steady as usual, but I definitely noticed some positive changes in variety and amount of food he was eating. When he first starting eating solids, he refused to eat baby purees. The only thing he would sometimes eat was yogurt, but eventually he got burned out on it. I pretty much forgot about it being an option for him to eat, until I started buying it for myself again. One day I thought I would give it a try. I gave him a spoon and let him at it. This is how it went down:

Still really liked pasta and rocking the classic spaghetti face:

I also let him try out whipped cream with his jello for a first day of Fall treat. Safe to say, it was a huge success!

He also found a new lifelong food mate in rice. I had never seen Myles eat so much at one sitting in my life. He was all about that rice, literally shoveling it down his throat. It was only Asian rice though and not anything I make either :)

And of course, he was still going strong on the breastfeeding. He was still nursing anywhere from 5-10 times a day. Morning, nap, and before bed were the times that he would drink a significant amount. The other times were short 5-10 minute sessions because he was upset, got hurt, was bored, etc. Some days he would want to nurse all day long. I'm not going to lie and say I was still enjoying it 100% of the time. I had my moments when I was ready to throw in the towel, mostly on the days he wouldn't let up on feeding. On the bad days, I felt like a slave to him, and completely hopeless that he would ever self wean. However even at my worst moments, I knew I didn't really want it to end. It's a very emotional thing, good and bad, so yeah I definitely had my freak out moments. But as always, I am so happy my determined little boy wouldn't allow me to quit. Now if he could just take it down a few sessions....

Sleeping
Still going well in the sleeping department. I certainly could not complain, considering where we were 7 months prior. Sleeping from 9pm-7am, then nursing in my bed for about 30-60 minutes. If we were home for the day (or most of the day), he would take one long nap around 12pm-2/3pm. We would lay in our guest bed and he would nurse to sleep and throughout his nap. If we were out and about during the day, he would usually end up taking 2 short naps (30 minutes each) in the car. At bedtime, he would nurse for about 10-15 minutes, then I would kiss him, and lay him down awake in his crib; no nightlight, but ocean sound machine running. 


Saying

New words this month:

• More, Bye

Outings

• Golden Gate Park: Anytime Mark has to go out of town for a couple days, we always get promised a family day when he returns. So this time, I chose the Golden Gate Park. It was on my list of places we needed to visit and thought Myles would have a blast. There was so much to do just at the Koret Children's Center that we didn't even get a chance to check out anything else before Myles needed his nap. The park also includes several gardens, a science museum, an equestrian stadium, a golf course, and more. It is definitely a must visit if you are traveling in the area. I so badly want to take Myles to the science museum, so hopefully we will be taking another trip there soon. The park also includes hippie hill and an entrance that is located off of Haight Street. Although I think Haight is also a must see, I do not recommend going into the park through that entrance. I was very uncomfortable pushing Myles in his stroller while strange men were asking if I needed any drugs :/ 

Please excuse the poor quality of my pictures. This was when my iPhone camera hated me and decided to only take really blurry pictures :(

Concrete slide that you ride down on on pieces of cardboard. Mark took Myles up and then back down.

They also have a carousal, so of course I had to get Myles on a horse/zebra.
 

Just a little photo shoot with my man. 

They have two huge play structures, tons of swings, a big sand area, and this spot with a lot of plants and some really cool art sculptures.

• Mark had his 30th birthday this month and we had a nice dinner at Skates on the Bay in Berkeley. His cousin lives there and suggested it to us. Stunning view of the Bay, good food, and great company made us all happy campers. Of course Myles wasn't into waiting so I took him outside to check out the rocks and waves. He thought it was the coolest thing ever. He was laughing and smiling every time a wave crashed into the rocks. A lover of the ocean just like his momma.  

• Still going to the park regularly, usually at some point every day we would find ourselves at the park. I just couldn't get over the beautiful weather and since that was the main reason we moved to California, I wanted to take advantage of it as much as possible. I caught this little moment one time and just had to share. He always went for older girls to play with and they would always want to play with him too. 

Milestones/Skills

• Climbing: I talked last month about his rapidly growing climbing skills and this month he continued with his give-my-momma-a-heart-attack ambitions. Couple that with his ever growing need to be doing what the big people were doing and we've got this:

• His ball skills were growing by the day as well. He was learning to kick, throw, and  bounce the ball, however his most favorite was still just carrying it around all day everyday! 

• Clapping: a little late to this game, but he learned how to clap. My mom sang "If You're Happy and You Know" to him a lot on Skype and one day he clapped with her! After that he would do it whenever you asked him to clap.

• Other new skills: wiping his face with a napkin, waving again (he did this when he was younger but stopped after a couple weeks), says bye with the wave (but only after people are gone), splash in the tub when you say "splash", and bring most any toy/book I ask for. However still no kissing!

Funnies

• This happened when I was putting together our Halloween Mantel. Of course Myles had to 'help' and so I wrapped him up in the fake spider webs.

• Ducky party in the bath tub. He had tons of other bath toys, but he always favored his ducks, so one day I got all of his ducks together and gave him a duck only bath.

• Hair: this kid had the most amazing bedhead! I am so jealous of how he pulled it off! I still hadn't given him a first hair cut. Although I sometimes felt like he needed one, I just couldn't bring myself to take scissors to it when he would wake up looking like this:

• Wheelies: this was his new favorite way to ride his bike. He would pull it back so that it was resting on the bucket and steering pole and then get in the seat and just hang out. Somehow he managed to stay in there even though he was at a 90 degree angle!

What are new skills your kid(s) are learning?

 

Come back to check out my favorites from months thirteen & fourteen!

Mommy Moments Blog Hop: Anniversary & Giveaway

Over the past year since I started my blog, I have really been inspired and uplifted by so many wonderful ladies, especially all of the moms that host and link-up at Mommy Moments every week. This was the very first link-up I participated in and have forged some really great relationships with the mommies that host and link-up regularly. So I am very honored and grateful to be apart of their 100th week celebration. To celebrate the hosts and some past co-hosts have gotten together and are giving away $100 in PayPal cash and a $10 Starbucks gift card to one lucky winner! Enter below and don't forget to link-up this week too!

Happy 100th Mommy Moments Link Up & GIVEAWAY!

In addition to winning the $10 Starbucks card and $100 Paypal cash, the winner also gets their pick of a Pearberry Pie headband pictured below!

Looking back over the best couple of years, I had no idea how this link up would change my life. I was just a clueless pregnant woman excited about becoming a mama! Turns out, this link up is where I have met some of my best friends and been so encouraged each week as a mama! 

Because each of you are what make this link up possible every week, we want to celebrate YOU with a giveaway! Enter to win below and then link up your post for the week!

Thanks to all these wonderful ladies pictured below for their contribution to this fun giveaway!

 

                      

 This Marine Wife//A Cowboy's Life// Madly Wish//Foxy Domestic Side//The Life Of Faith// The Not Quite Military Wife//Beautiful Family Affairs//Just A Touch Of Crazy//The Everyday Momma//This Little Light Of Mine//The Peanut's Gang//Eat, Pray, Read, Love//Sounds Of My Pitter-Patter//Crazily Normal

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Motherhood has its seriousness and frustration as well as its laughs. That's why we are here. Life is much easier when traveled with companions! So mamas, let's join together in the spirit of motherhood and share our moments together. We want to hear the happy, sad, tough, terrible, hilarious moments that make being a mother the best job in the world!

 The top viewed link this week belongs to Sweet Country Roots and her post Back To An Old Fashioned Way Of Thinking! I loved this post and the heart behind it. Even though we can't really go back in time, it's so important to instill some of the values from the past even in our current culture. Thanks for the great post Brittany!

The Life Of Faith

 The Not Quite Military Wife


Beautiful Family Affairs, 

 Like A Morning Cup Of Coffee

Now, link up your post!

Post can include anything related to mommy-hood, children, homemaking, pregnancy etc. If you aren't a mom yet, feel free to link up your preparation for motherhood, your journey as you try to conceive, or even a post that would be encouraging to the other moms in the party!

Then, explore some of the other posts in the link-up and say hello to some new blog friends! 

Please, pretty please, we'd love it if you would tweet or share the link up on Facebook so we can all make even more friends!

Tweet

We would also love it if you could add the Mommy Moments button to your post or blog so everyone knows where you are linking up! If you are not able to copy/paste the code on your page, please e-mail one of us and we would be happy to send you the code!

<div align="center"><a href="http://the-life-of-faith.blogspot.com//search/label/mommymoments" title="The Life Of Faith"><img src="http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/k537/faithkonrath/cfa5ba11752f4e898055d03d33cf24e0.jpg" alt="The Life Of Faith" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

P.S. We will be having a new guest host every week! Want to be a guest host of the Mommy Moments Blog Hop? Send Faith a message at farmprincess14{at}gmail{dot}com. We would love to have you!

Colossians 3:17 
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

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