Happy Birthday Tafton!!!

A year ago Tafton entered the world! He is such a cute little boy and we love him so much!! Here are some pictures from the past year.

Tafton is born! He was in the NICU for four days. We couldn't believe how much hair he had and how long his feet were.

Tafton's kimono outfit from Ben's cousins. Ben said he looked like a ninja in it.

Tafton was so skinny and long when he was first born. Ben thought he looked like an African baby with his skinny arms and legs and big belly.

A week old Tafton with six-seven month old Aiden. Look how much babies grow in six months!

Tafton all dressed up for his first wedding, Uncle Ben and Aunt Sarina. They've almost been married a year now.

After a bath Ben wrapped him up to look mid-eastern with a head wrap. Ben thought it was hilarious, I didn't think it was as funny as he did.

Fourth of July. Tafton was so tiny and patriotic! I can't believe how small he used to be!

Standing up with Ben's help. He fell a few seconds later and was screaming his head off.

Playing with his toys.

Chubby and proud of it! Tafton only weighed 7 lbs. 2 oz. when he was born but at every check up he's consistently been in the 90% percentile for his weight. He weighs 25.9 lbs now.

"I don't know if I like this!"

At the cabin with Grandma hiding from the camera.

Sitting up on his own. Even he looks surprised about it.

Tafton's First Christmas. This is my favorite picture of him from the zillions of Christmas pictures we took.

His first Christmas. He's holding onto my foot.

Playing with the pots and pans

Classic Tafton-face. We love how his forehead makes those lines when he opens his eyes wide. It's awesome!

He LOVES playing with the sponges for some reason. I'm continually putting them away.

The night before his Birthday. He sleeps just like his Daddy did when he was a baby. So sweet.

We're so happy with our little boy even when he can't stand to be put down and is screaming his head off. We love him so much and are so grateful to have him to raise. We're excited to add a little sister to our family this September.

Nothing special has happened this past week with us. We are finally in the last week of this school semester which is so exciting to think we have a break soon! I got my research paper done and turned in so now I only have my accounting test left which I hope to take in the morning. Ben has two finals this week and also policeman testing. Not sure what all that will entail but I hope he does well. It would be a better paying job for him to have, even though it's kind of scary to think of him out on the street with a gun chasing bad guys who also have guns.

Tafton is turning one year old on Tuesday. It's so weird to even think that it's been a whole year, but at the same time so much has happened in the past year that it also feels like it must have been longer than a whole year, do you know what I mean?  He is starting to act more independent. If he wants something he'll reach out and grunt for it and if he doesn't want something he'll push it away or he'll try and crawl away from us when we're changing his diaper. This past week he's been in a screaming mood. He'll just scream really loud and really shrill for no apparent reason. We were at Macey's last Saturday getting milk and he decided to let loose with these ear-splitting screams and of course I didn't have a binkie. I told him sternly, "no Tafton we don't scream like that," he just looked at me and screamed again. So I put my hand over his mouth but that only stopped him for a moment. He seems to save his screams for when we're eating. What I've decided to do is to tell him, "no Tafton we don't communicate that way" and if he screams again I put him in his crib and shut the door and leave him in there for three minutes. After the three minutes I go in and pick him up and explain why I had to put him in his crib. I don't know how much is actually getting through to him but I hope that it'll start to sink in that when he screams he doesn't get his way, he gets the crib. Did any of you have this problem with your kids? What did you do to correct it? I don't want to be the Mom of the screaming kid. 

Anyway, I'm looking forward to this week. I'm going to get my test done so I can focus on fun and house projects. It's Tafton's birthday, then my Dad's birthday, Tafton has his one year checkup on Thursday(we'll see how far off the charts he is) and we have Tafton's birthday party on Saturday. It's going to be fun!

Projects and thoughts of more projects

It's been awhile since I've posted, sorry about that! Not a lot has changed. I think we've all gotten into a routine with me being home. I think Tafton has become even more of a Momma's boy if that's possible but he's starting to get excited to see Ben too. I think he knows that Mommy will pick him up every time and will comfort him and Daddy is the crazy fun one. Tafton is starting to say a few words too. He'll say "a-da" or "da" for Dad and he was saying "bob" for Mom (mostly because Ben thought it was really funny and kept telling him to call me that), but he says Mom now. I don't think he knows that the sounds coming out of his mouth mean anything but it's a start.

I've been letting Tafton have a go at feeding himself as well. I got those suction plates that stay in one place on the table and got toddler utensils. I give him a fork or a spoon every meal and he'll usually hold it and bang on the table while he eats with his other hand, or he'll actually get something on his fork and then he'll take it off with the other hand to eat it. The first time I let him eat on his own, he had rice cereal mixed with fruit and it was so messy!! and so funny! I got a video of it that I'll have to post once we make the time to figure out posting videos.

Ben and I have also been working on projects in our downtime(which there isn't a lot of). A couple of weeks ago he and his Dad put crown molding up in our living room and framed the bedroom windows downstairs. It looks amazing! They did a great job. We're lucky that Doug is so good at carpentry and so willing to help out.

Ben's own personal project is a vegetable garden. He started a bunch of seeds inside which are still residing in front of our living room window. This last week he transplanted the pees outside. I hope they make it with all this crazy snow we got. Ben also planted lettuce, carrots, onions, peppers, and some spices.

School is almost done for the semester. All I have left is a research paper (which I'm supposed to be working on now) and the final test in accounting. It'll be nice to have a break before summer semester starts. I'm registered for two classes but I might sign up for one more. I think it'll be easier to get more classes out of the way before the baby is born rather than after.

The baby seems to be doing well. I can feel her move everyday. It isn't as prevalent as I remember with Tafton but I'm only halfway now so I'm not worried. At my last appointment I brought Tafton with me and everytime I go I have to leave a urine sample so one of the nurses held Tafton. While I was in there I hear Tafton start to cry and by the time I got out of the bathroom he was having a hard time breathing normally. He calmed down pretty quick. I actually got him fall-down laughing in the smaller room they had me wait in. We were walking around, Tafton holding onto a wheeled stool. We'd walk until we ran into something and I'd say "BOOM!" He thought it was hilarious! Once Dr. Boheen came in though he went into shy-mode. She was listening for the heartbeat and I had to hold Tafton curled up on my chest. I kept laughing and making the heartbeat sound all ruffled, but Tafton was being so shy it was funny.

We still don't have any ideas on what we're going to name this one. I feel a little guilty because I don't even seem to think about being pregnant at all. I think with Tafton to occupy my time and thoughts I have little left over for her. I can't believe I'm already halfway through! It's Tafton's birthday end of the month and then I'll only have four months left. It's unbelievable.

Anyway, that catches us up for now. I'll try and post some pictures and maybe videos(!) soon.