We went to the mountains together on Saturday. I will post pictures later.
Today we went to the zoo with some of Alton's friends and their mommies. It started to rain while we were there. :)
Alton learned a new word today, but I am so tired that I forgot what it is. Bad mommy! His little friend Jenelle learned his name today. It was so cute to hear her say Alton, Alton in her little 18 month old voice. :)
I listed some of Alton's old clothes on E-bay today and some other stuff that I had that still had tags on it. Go check out my auctions! I have a link in my sidebar. :)
At least until I finish reading Twilight! I just started reading it today and I finally understand what all the fuss is about!!!
Does anyone know for sure, is the author Mormon? Her book bio says that she has a degree in English from BYU.....
He is OBSESSED with washing his hands and turning light switches on and off. Repeatedly. If you turn on ANY sink in our house, you will soon hear the thundering hoof beats of Alton as he rounds the corner into any room you are in. He screeches, he reaches and points to the sink. When you lift him up, he will immediately dive bomb into the sink and grab the soap pump. After you tear him away from the sink, he lunges for the light switch. Which must be flipped up and down at least 5 times. (Or his family will die.)
His love for trucks continues. He now will go running into the front room to look out the window as soon as he hears the trash, fire or UPS trucks lumbering down out street.
I had to buy him his own Swiffer. He would pitch a fit if I wouldn't let him do it, and he isn't as thorough as mommy, (don't tell him that though!) so we bought him his own (with a couple of pole sections removed) so he can swiffer alongside mommy.
Things are going better than they were. I am calmer, but my goodness the boy can still make a mess faster than your can say Bob's your uncle! (Bob is Alton's uncle, but that is beside the point.)
Here are some photos from Alton's first gymboree class. He LOVES going to class and I am trying to figure out how to keep him going. It's $74 a month, but worth every penny.
So Travis was gone this whole weekend at our church's men's retreat. Which meant there was a lot of mommy/Alton time without any breaks. Alton has a cold, so he has been a little bear and he was VERY clingy and whiny. It was not a good time. So on Saturday night, I went to church. There were VERY few people there and I ended up sitting next to a wonderful woman of God. Marie has FIVE sons. The oldest three are married and doing all kinds of wonderful things for the Kingdom of God. She has to be an awesome mother right?
So I asked her, how do you do it? I can't cope with the ONE I have. She laughed and told me that it was through the grace of God. She said that God shared this verse with her and it made all the difference for her with one of her more difficult children.
So you can ignore my previous post about why I was sad. Kate and I have made up. You can now go back to the previous cuteness and adorableness that is Alton.
Just out of curiousity, who is reading? Please post a "Hey I am here and I read your blog."
Thanks!
Travis and I took Alton to his first Gymboree class on Saturday. He had a REALLY good time, and like his mama, he is not a fan of structure in learning. He had an awesome time playing on all of the climbing equipment though and I thought I would share this video of him on the "noisy bridge".
We went to Disneyland last week for my aunt's birthday and we had a character dinner. Alton is okay with people characters, but the animal characters still make him flip out. I wonder when he will outgrow this fear?
As many of you already know, or might have guessed. A dear friend of mine and I "broke up". We spent some time together "in real life" and even planned an out of state trip together with our boys. Unfortunately, her husband became ill and we weren't able to go together.
We had several things in common, a desire for natural child birth (lucky girl got to have her baby the way she wanted), breast feeding, cloth diapering, and other similar parenting decisions. We also have the same need to feel loved, and and a ferocity for those we care about. While we did have many things in common, we also had several differences. At the time, we rose above our religious and political differences and saw each other as more than just a conservative Christian and open-minded liberal. We loved each other any way, and I for one enjoyed the fact that we could both see beyond the labels and spend time together.
I could sense at times that I was being kept at arms length, but I thought that was just her way. I loved watching her with her son. She is much more patient than I am, and I always learned to appreciate my son a little more watching this momma interact with her son. She has such an enthusiastic and genuine love for her son as well as a desire to do everything she can to make him an exceptional adult.
My friend and I were a part of a message board for mommies who had babies in the month that Alton was born. We were in fact leaders of the board. For the most part, I have always kept my topics on topic about our children. Previously when I had expressed my religious or political views, it started a fire storm of debate that I did not like to take part in. But as it is an election year, that is all anyone is talking about and I felt free to post my opinions political and religious.
Travis and I are conservative Christians. He is actually much more conservative than I am; I tend to be more moderate about certain things, but we agree on most of the same points. I realize that it is not a popular view, but we believe that the Bible is the word of God. Because the Bible is very clear that homosexuality is wrong, this is the stance we take as well. We believe that marriage is a sacred thing, and it was designed by God to bring a man and woman closer together towards Him. (I know that not everyone has this opinion.) We plan to teach Alton that every person should be treated with respect and courtesy regardless of their gender, sexual orientation, or race. But, we do not support gay marriage. We believe that marriage should be reserved for one man and one female.
This is where it gets sticky. I do not claim to know if homosexuality is something that someone chooses, or if they are born that way. People far more intelligent than I have debated this point for years. I do understand that people want equal rights for everyone, but I can't go against God's word. My relationship with God is just as much a part of me as the fact that I am a woman and mother.
When Alton is old enough to understand that people have different views of topics like these, we plan to teach him that he needs to respect people and their views, but we believe differently. To my friend, this is not good enough. It saddens me to no end that this is true, but it is. I can not continue to work with this person knowing that she finds my beliefs so distasteful, that she is unwilling to spend time with me. It was shocking to me that she felt this way, because I have always found her to be a very open minded person, and I have always thought that tolerance should include both religious and world views. Personally, I have no issues with her beliefs, I just respect her decision to believe what she does. At no time have I tried to persuade her to change her mind or make her feel badly that she feels differently.
I would still love to be friends with this person, but as she is unwilling to accept my Judeo-Christian values, I don't see it happening. It is very sad because I really look up to her as an excellent mother and I loved learning from her. If you are reading this, I miss you. I hope we can work through this.
We went to Disneyland on Wednesday to celebrate Aunt Laurel's birthday.
I used the Birthday Bash kit I got from the Faith Sisters digital scrapping web site.
Here we are in all of our vacation glory. The views, the lions, the pool, and the little boy who is the star of the show!
I used Vicki's new kit, Summer Cocktail. It is available on her website located in my sidebar.
Same kit from yesterday. I love this picture of Alton!
We had an accident Sunday night. Alton tripped over his daddy's feet and he split his beautiful little lip open. We went to the doctor Monday and they said no anti-biotics. He was in good spirits during the day on Monday, so I am hoping that he is on the mend and that he won't have a scar. Please pray for healing, I know most boys get some sort of scar in their lives but I hate to think he is scarred for life at such a young age!
Alton has started "dancing" and it is highly obvious he is white. He has no sense of rhythm whatsoever, but it still the most darling thing I have ever seen. He loves books and points out animals wherever we go. He has been trying very hard to use his fork and spoon, and is getting much better about keeping his food on his plate.
He is utterly in love with his daddy, and it makes my heart flutter to see the two of them together. We are so blessed. :)
These were taken a couple of weeks ago. The other little boy is Harrison and his mommy that is in the picture is Rose. They are in our home group.
Rose of Rose and Harrison takes BEAUTIFUL pictures. If I had her photography and a stronger talent for digi-scrapping, I would be unstoppable. Go and visit her blogs. They are a breath of fresh air. She has such a sweet spirit.
I used the Boys Will Be Boys kit from Vicki's web site. The link to her site is in my side bar as usual. The second page is actually a Quick Page that I downloaded from Vicki's site. All I did was pop in a photo and add a caption.
On Thursday, we met the other MOPS kids at the park for a play date. Here is Alton on the jungle gym, looking very serious.
On Friday morning, our across the street neighbors had a delivery from a cement mixer. At 7 Am. While I was dressing and diapering Alton, he watched the cement mixer and when it left, he looked at me and said quite clearly, "More!" then did the sign. So I told him we would go watch the trucks after breakfast and we did.
Here he is watching the constructions trucks in wonder out our front window.
Daddy had his Fantasy Football draft live in Las Vegas. This was the view outside our hotel room of the Hampton Inn and Suites.
While Daddy did his draft, Alton and I took the hotel shuttle to the MGM Grand. We got there just in time for feeding time at the Lion Habitat.
Alton kept calling the lions doggies. I explained that they were called LIONS. So then he started saying "Lion Lion" whenever one came near the glass.
This was one of my favorite pictures. The trainers would throw chunks of raw ground meat on the glass and the lions would lick it off. 
Did you know that lion saliva on reinforced glass makes it REALLY hard to take a clear picture?
Alton also got to visit with his Grandma Patty while we were there. When we were at her house, he was running amuck with a coffee cup, and Grandma Patty asked him, "Can I have that please?" He looked at her for a second like she was crazy and then shook his head back and forth, and then took off giggling. He had never done that before and has not since. We thought it was pretty funny.
After we finished watching the lions, Alton and I walked down the strip.
Sunday morning, the boys and I had breakfast at our hotel, and took a swim in the pool.
Alton is very studious already and used the travel time to keep up on his reading. :)
We had a really good time. Alton even did well constrained in his car seat for long periods of time.
I made a new desktop today with Vicki's Precious Pumpkin kit. I love the fall!
ETA: Since so many of you were downloading this with the September Calendar, I updated it with the November Calendar inserted...
Click on the November image to download it.
The November calendar was made with a paper from Gingerscraps.
