Toddler Yoga?

Davis does a mean downward dog! Haha :) I try and stretch in the morning before we go to the gym, and I think he's picked up a few things. Check out his moves!

Oh, Transitions

Davis is slowly still adjusting to being in Houston, and the poor guy is taking a little longer than I thought. Every day he asks me when he is going to go home. He even brought up his buddy from McKinney, which was house #2 for him. And that was also about 8 months ago. If you're just starting to read, we have now moved 4 times in a year. Yes, freaking shoot me in the face. This week, Michael had to leave to go out of town VERY expectantly. And when I say VERY, he came home in a tizzy, saying he had ten minutes to pack a bag and a car was waiting for him outside. He has yet to come home. So now, Davis thinks we have moved to a new place, and daddy is never coming home. Needless to say, this week has sucked like major! We had to go by the new house this week to pick out fixtures, flooring, etc (which by the way, Davis was awesome, especially being there for FOUR hours!) so overall, was a trooper! I've been trying to explain that we will be moving in soon, and that's our new house. Davis is so confused and last night, asked me if daddy was going to be at the new house when we move. My poor little guy.
I also haven't been able to leave Davis at the gym for very long to go workout. And I mean, like 10 minutes, and they are paging me over the speaker system to return to the childcare room. He's beat red, in hysterics, and screaming for mommy. While on one hand, it's sweet he wants me, but worries me at the same time. He is used to going to the gym everyday. This whole move has set him over the edge. I can't put him down, leave his sight, and he hasn't been wanting to eat as much since Michael has gone out of town. I have that helpless sense, of not really knowing how to handle this at the moment. It's frustrating, tiresome, and of course, worries me. I hate that my little baby is having a rough time right now. He just seems worried and scared. Like he's afraid I'm going to turn the corner and run off and leave him.

All I know to do is talk to him and tell him everything is going to be okay. That mommy is here, and daddy is just at work. And don't worry, we are going to get settled next month. Everything is okay. And to pray and pray hard. I don't want my little baby scared.

One Week Down....

The first week in Houston, I have to say has been pretty successful. We've stayed pretty busy, and I think (I say think) that Davis is slowly starting to understand that we are staying here. I did take him by the new house the other night, and tried to tell him like 50 times that 'this is our new house.' What I'm sure didn't help was that we didn't stay, there were a ton of people working, and why was there dust all over the floor? And wait, if this is our house, where is Dexter? I'm just glad that little man is so young, that he won't remember most of it. Someone told me a few days ago that this is all harder on me than it is on him. I totally agree, thank goodness. My heart just cries a little when he asks me to go home.

I did find a Mother's Day Out program for Davis this week, though. Yay!!! It will be Tuesday and Thursday only, for a few hours a day. Perfect! I have my first spray tan appointment booked during his first week of school. Another score! (don't forget if you're in Houston, I have specials going on. Sorry, had to throw that in there) We also activated my membership again at LifeTime gym. Have you ever been to one? I swear, it's perfect for moms. I could spend the whole day with Davis there! They have an amazing childcare center, pool and kids pool, cafe, spa, amazing classes, and new equipment. It's a dream. We went there yesterday and spent like 3 hours there working out, having lunch, and Davis throwing a tantrum.

Our house is coming along great. It's just awesome. Goodness me, I'm just a little excited! So they painted samples, and went ahead and did the master bedroom to give me the full effect. DROOL!!! I chose a deep gray and it has a purple tint to it. Trust me, I know it sounds weird. But it AMAZING!! Even the designer was like, I think this is what you wanted, but umm, not so sure. I'll just have to take pictures soon and show you, but just take my word for it!

I even got to have a girls night out last night! What?!? Yes!! I know someone in Houston! Shut yo mouth, I know! It was fun to get out for a few hours for dinner and drinks, and no public tantrums. I'm hoping this is a good sign of things to come. This week has been pretty stinkin great for the most part, and I'm praying everything will be fantastic! I'm excited for work, although a little nervous at the same time. Houston has so much competition, so it's getting that first handful of people to start the whole word of mouth going. Slowly but surely. I know it's going to take time and will happen eventually. Plus, I have to remind myself I've only been here a week!

Date night tonight with my lovie, and children's festival tomorrow! It should be a great weekend!!! Hope you have a fun filled weekend, as well :)

As a side note, what the heck happened to blogger?? Why can't they leave good alone? My list is gone...can it be recovered? And the format? What in the world? I'll have to take blogger classes, now. haha :)

What A Trooper

Dear Davis,
I can't begin to tell you how proud mommy is of you right now. We've packed up, and moved you around so much lately that you are becoming a pro. Not that that is anything to be proud of. But you are being such a big boy about it, and I couldn't be more proud of you. I know you're confused, and you have no clue what is going on. I try and tell you everyday that Houston is our new home. That this apartment is where we will be for the next month. And that we are finally moving back into a house! You look at me with your little raised eyebrow and just say, home? Yes, baby. We are going to have a home. I know this is a lot to take in right now, and it's okay. It's been a lot on everyone. You do such a great job of smiling, and helping mommy smile, too. You have been asking me several times when we are going home. It makes my heart hurt a little, because I know you are so confused. The first time you asked me, I tried not to cry because it took me by such surprise. Then I wonder if you want to go back to our last apartment, because you actually seemed to hate that place. (Well, as did we all)

Little man, just know that things are going to be back to normal in no time. And you have my word on this. You are getting so big, and you amaze me more and more everyday. Just today, you went with me to look at a new Mother's Day Out program, and jumped right in to start playing with the other kids. It was a proud moment for mommy, as I watched you fit right in. You are becoming so independent, and learning so much, so fast. You have even begun potty training. You get so excited, and run across the room to show daddy or I what you've done. Such a big boy!!

Tomorrow, you get to go see our new house for the first time. I'm going to try to take you by there as much as possible, so you can get used to seeing it. But....it's mommy and daddy approved, so I'm pretty sure you'll think it's  awesome!

Davis, you are one amazing little man, and I am so proud to be your mommy. You melt my heart, make me laugh, and you have made this moving process so much easier being the trooper that you are. I love you, monkey.

Look at that cool kid, in his cool shades!!

A Horse, A Little Begging, And A Cook.

Thursday, Thursday. Is it just me, or does this week seem to be dragging on? Maybe it's just me. I feel like I'm counting down the days in excitment until the big move. If you can't tell, I am so ready to get settled. I have like 1000,000000,00000000 ideas that I want to do when we get there. Mostly thanks to pinterest. I think I may need to go to pinterest anonymous. But things like organziation ideas for Davis, the house, the pantry. Oh dear, it's bad. Well, that part is good. My obsessive pinning is bad.

This is a little video clip of this really funny leg thing Davis has been doing lately. I can't tell if he's dancing, or if he thinks he's a horse. Either way, I find it pretty amusing. If you're not family, you most likely won't enjoy it as much as I do. **And I have no idea why it's so small!**

I also want to beg you to follow me through email or RSS feeds. As most of you know, stupid google will no longer be having GFC. Why do they have to do this? No, that is not a rhetorical question. I want answers, Google!! Sheesh. So, I am begging you, as a blogger to a fellow blogger. Please don't leave me. I will curl up in a ball and cry. It will be sad. I may be in the closet again, meaning there will be wine involved. Please save the mascara from running down my face, and simply put in your email, and press enter. I will seriously love you forever. That is all for now, for the begging. Pleeeeeeeeease! Okay, that is all.

And the cutest little pictures of Davis playing at my dad's house last week. They have such great learning toys for him, and it's so cute watching him. He went and got his 'kitchen' toys and set up his own little tea party. It. Was. ADORABLE!!! Espeically because no one prompted this, he just dragged the chairs in the kitchen while we were all hanging out.

You may notice that Pooh bear is wearing a diaper. Yeah, Pooh bear is also potty training.



 

I also want to urge you to linkup with Kelly & I next Monday, as it is imparitive that you do. For all of you that keep forgetting, (shame on you by the way) you know who you are. hehehe But don't worry, I have a life too, so I'll forgive you. But just this once. :) So get your posts ready, and show some linky link love next 'Make My Monday.'

Have a great day, everyone! Almost the weekend!!!

28 Month Update

It's Davis update time and I have really gotten away from doing these. My last one was about 7 months ago, but at least we haven't had any earth shattering changes since then.




SLEEP





I think for most moms, this one is such a biggie! How I do not miss the days when I was walking around like a zombie. Davis' schedule hasn't changed much...yet! Thankfully!





Wake up: 8 am (earliest would be 7:30, but reads until I get him out of bed)





Nap: 2-5 (Nap may vary 30 min more or less, depending on the day. Again, if he wakes up early, he reads quietly in bed until I get him up.)



**The quietly part is changing lately because it is TEETHING TIME! As you know, this is such a barrel of laughs, and is just the time of your life. Now please shoot me**





Bath, Book, Bedtime: Starts around 7:20 for a bath, then a few books, then off to dreamland. Michael usually takes over at night, and does the night time routine. Mama gets a little break. Plus, it's "their time" together, and they really like it.



FOOD






I think Davis has the appetite of a high school quarter back. What am I going to do when he actually is in high school? Goodness, me! He eats everything, and anything. Bread is "pizza" and I have no idea how this started, but it's cute. Pizza is his one of his favorites though, which is funny, because that was pretty much my first word. Cottage cheese, cauliflower, V8, greek yogurt, grapes, salmon, and goldfish are his most favorite foods. I can't seem to keep enough V8 in the house. It's his "special" juice. He also still consumes milk like there is no tomorrow. We go through so much milk, I need to buy a cow!


PLAYING




All aboard! Anything choo choo is his current favorite! Dinosaur Train (whoever came up with that show is a genius) or Thomas the train. I still limit his tv time to about 30 minutes in the morning, and he loves, loves the choo choo. Other favorites are of course trucks. He seems to have moved on from the ball phase, which is really weird. Fine, he's allowed to change. He also does a lot better about playing by himself and having quiet time. We are getting there. (I think school is helping-2 days a week-MDO)

POTTY TRAINING

PUH-LEASE! At this rate, he'll be 5 before I can fully potty train this kid. I seriously need potty training for dummies, because it just isn't working. He's gone a total of three times, over a span of several months. If only we could settle down and stop moving, I think I could go in full force! So for now, his dinosaur is the one who goes potty on Davis' potty. Good times.



HELPING AROUND THE HOUSE




Davis loves to help me with everything. Sometimes this is a good thing, sometimes his helping isn't so helpful. But, it's still one of those things that is so cute. He loves to help me cook!! I'll put the pan on the floor, and after I've chopped all the veggies, I hand them to Davis to be placed in the pan. It's so cute to watch him get excited. I've also found this is a good way to teach him about new foods. Of course, I did tell him pears were apples because he was looking at the funny...but he devoured them. Clorox rags are another big interest right now. He cleans anything he can reach and then wants to do "more, please." Why yes, you can clean as much as you want! And laundry! This has to be my favorite! He strains to get the cloths in the wash or the dryer, and doesn't stop until it's in.

He's just getting so big!!! :( If only I could bottle up time!!

Have a great week, everyone!

Santa Came!

Being that it has been the holidays, this will be several days crammed into one post. But I'm sure you don't mind, so I'll cram away!
What are the holidays without being silly? Tis the season, to be be jolly, right?! So I bought Michael, Davis, and I matching pajamas. Yes, that's right. We all got footie pj's with the flap on the butt, and our names. Well, actually, they said- Mama Cortez, Dada Cortez, and Lil Britches.


Why do I have my jacket on, you say? I had to do some last minute grocery shopping! Of course! I only got about 20 funny looks, and it was pretty awesome! But never fear, I made Michael wear his to shine in public as well! It was sheer greatness!

I couldn't leave Santa left out, so I had to give him some love!

Nothing beats getting all dressed up and going to a Christmas party. I actually wish we had had more to go to. I do have more dresses to wear, people!

We had a lot of fun, ate too much, had some drinks, and still managed to go home before the sitter was supposed to leave. I'm so lame!
Davis was really excited to leave cookies out for Santa this year. I know he still didn't understand at all why he was leaving a plate of cookies out and he wasn't allowed to eat them. Maybe next year. But he did bring the plate like a big boy to the table and didn't ask any questions. I checked my pulse!

Davis was a little spoiled this year and I have to say, I was pretty excited about it. He has had no new toys to play with since everything is boxed up. So new 'big boy toys' are everywhere! This face just says it all!

He was screaming YAY over and over. Absolutely priceless!!

I hope everyone had an amazing and blessed Christmas!

Baby Boarding School?

I can't begin to describe the copious amounts of stress I am under right now, that I actually feel like I'm going to break. To add the cherry on top, Davis is none other than a awful, very bad, no good, terrible two year old. Is there a cure for this? Can we hypnotize him? Baby Prozac? Something? Anything? Being around a two year old is like living with someone that is bipolar. One minute, he totally loves me, and the next, he's in the midst of the 100th tantrum. By the way, it's only 9am at this point. (Right now, he's kicking the walls. I just want to fill you in on every aspect right now. Found a cure, yet?)

Take this morning for example. I had finally made it to the gym on time for the first day this week, for a class. (It's been one of those weeks with Davis) To help him with the transition of everything that has been going on, he is beyond attached to his Pooh Bear right now. While this is very cute, it makes things difficult when we are out in public. I was letting him bring the bear into the kids area the first few days, to help him get used to being in there. I noticed that when he has the bear, he wasn't wanting to play with anyone or anything else in there, so I cut that off. Today he decided to show me how upset he was about this. I was talking to someone outside of the kids area, and she was saying how cute Davis is. Ha! If only you knew lady. Cute on the outside, flames on the inside. Out of left field, SMACK! Right across my face. I was so in shock that I had no clue what to do. Put him in time out in the middle of the gym? I didn't feel like making an even bigger scene than we already had. I told him no, had a talk with him, and still didn't know what to do. I'm sure some of you are thinking that I should have spanked him. Me wanting to spank Davis is crossing my mind more and more as the minutes go on. But we don't spank. I have my reasons, but that's another discussion. All I wanted to do was go to the sauna and just cry. I feel defeated. Defeated by a tiny two year old. I'm at a loss and am praying that I can figure out something to do with this child before things get worse. Please say they get better!

Seemingly overnight, my son has transformed from a kid we could take anywhere—WOULD take anywhere thanks to his perfect restaurant behavior—into a child that can’t handle sitting in a shopping cart for five minutes while in Target because all he wants to do is squirm and run around and knock things over.


It’s a tough stage. It’s a stage that makes you doubt yourself as a parent. It pushes you far beyond your patience limit and then back again. It’s a stage where one parent is pitted against the other at times, just desperately trying to find a way to make it through our cheeseburgers on a Friday night out in public.

Time-outs work pretty well, but my husband and I are still frazzled and on-edge after a particularly difficult tantrum session. But, thankfully, we’ve found a way to cope—we laugh. We joke that living with our son is like living with a very tiny, very loud, very destructive drunk person–emotionally unstable, extreme mood swings, wobbly gait, copious amounts of drool, liquids spilled on the carpet and a predilection for running around naked. It’s like living with a college student.

So, here’s hoping that this challenging stage passes soon—although it’s sort of the-devil-you-know-versus-the-devil-you-don’t. Because I’ll probably look back at this post later on in life, after he’s totaled our car or something similar, and wish time-outs still worked.

But, I’d love to hear any other suggestions or comments—even if it’s just to express shared misery!

And remember, you may want to share something fast, or googling baby boarding school is in my near future.

My Heart Melted

Like any parent, when you have such a wonderful, tremendous, sweet little moment with your child, you can tend to overlook the food flying or screaming at dinner time. Call me hormonal, but last night, Davis turned me into putty as he was going upstairs for bed.
Every night, Michael takes Davis up to do the nightly routine. Bath time, book, and bed. If he even tries to skip bath for just one night, that won't happen because Davis will just stand by the tub until water starts getting poured into it. The other night wasn't different from any other. Michael was on his way to take Davis up the stairs, and Davis just stopped and stared at me with this sweet little expression. He comes running over to me and threw his whole body around me, giving me kisses. Oh, it was precious. He runs back over to the stairs, but looks like he forgot something, and quickly runs back to me. He probably did this a total of seven times. This is where the hormonal part came in. It was the sweetest thing that I actually started tearing up. Sometimes I feel like whenever Davis is actually feeling lovie, that I actually have to grab onto it and not let go. This is something he had never done before, and I probably could have been showered with his hugs and kisses all night long. As Michael started to see me tear up, was when he told Davis it was time to get things moving. Oh, I can't explain to you how it made my day.
Earlier that afternoon I had found several old videos of Davis that I couldn't help but watch over and over. I watched some of him learning to crawl, his first babbles, holding a sippy cup, and other moments that I feel like I have forgotten. So to get these kisses from my sweet little boy who is quickly growing told me for now, he's still mama's boy!
Shortly after we put him to sleep, I thought I heard him upstairs talking to himself, and figured I would go check on him. He just lay there, looking up at me, with this huge smile on his face. I gave into everything I have ever done with him before and picked him up out of that crib and held my sweet baby. I rocked him, hummed to him, and felt his sweet baby soft skin. For the first time since he was a newborn, Davis fell asleep in my arms. It was a moment I didn't want to let go of, but will be sure to not forget.
Davis, you melt my heart son, and I love you more than you will ever know.