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JDRF Winter Ball

George and I had the wonderful opportunity to go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation of Austin's Hope for the Holidays Winter Ball. That's a mouthful, huh?

It was an absolutely wonderful night!! The food was amazing, the entertainment was super fun, the company was great and the cause was near and dear to my heart as my late Uncle Jimmie had Type One.

I was amazed and encouraged to hear just how far Diabetes research has come and the incredible hope there is for the children and families living with Type One. My heart hurt as I watched Mommies and Daddies cheer and cry as we heard about clinical trials that were doing well and what that could mean for them. I was astounded by just how much money was raised and so blessed that we got a glimpse of it all.

I surely wouldn't mind going to fundraiser balls a little more often. :) This was pretty much our best date ever. We were having so much fun, that I didn't get to take too many pictures. Also, I didn't want to be that lame girl attached to her phone!

 

 

 

 

Bullet Points of Azaletey Life

• Thanksgiving was fabulous. I think it may have been the best Thanksgiving we've had in many, many years!
• Gigi and Pops gave the grandbabies matching Christmas jammies...we bathed the three kiddos together and dressed them up in their new nighttime digs. It was total cuteness overload!!
• We moved last week. In the 34 degree rain.
• Did I mention Makafui had a tummy bug during our crrrrrazy move?
• We switched apartments and are paying a lot more for it, but the stress of double bad neighbors and concrete stairs with a toddler has been relieved. Totally worth it.
• I am content living in an apartment waiting on God.
• Sometimes I want a more permanent home.
• This is not my home, I am working on living for Heaven.
• Makafui has taken to slapping his bedroom door with both hands to let us know he doesn't want to sleep. This pretty much rattles our entire side of the building. He also decided that being disciplined for this is totally worth it because it means we go into his room to do it...over and over and over again. Today, I got the upper hand. His door has about 10 layers of bubble wrap and a crib size duvet taped to it. He doesn't think this is funny.
• Makafui is in a big boy bed now!! A real bed with a twin size mattress! Woohoooo!
• In addition to battling out going to bed, M has started night waking and is very, very upset when he wakes up. I'm sad for him and stumped about what to do about this to help him. I'm hopeful this is just because of all the changes that have happened lately and we can just ride it out and get back to normal.
• Unfortunately, I've been breaking in that new bed each night between 12 and 3.
• I chopped off my hair! I've wanted to get a pixie for years and I finally went for it. I will post a pic later.
• I am getting an AWESOME phone for Christmas from my sweet, sweet hubby. It has a 42 megapixel camera on it. Prepare to be overloaded with Makafui pics on Instagram. :)
• I went shopping on Black Friday with my mom and it wasn't bad at all! So many people shopped on Thursday that the stores weren't packed. I got a little green carpet cleaner and cleaned our grout with it the other day-worth every penny!
• I briefly thought about getting Makafui a beta fish for Christmas. Nope. We really aren't pet people...a fish is a big commitment.
• I am excited for Christmas and am already having so much fun watching M get excited about the trees and lights and ornaments. It's just so much fun!
• The Little Man is speaking in longer and longer sentences and it is presh!! I had pretty bad bedhead the other day and he told me, "Oh Mommy! I like it, your hair!" It cracked me up.
• I hear, "I want to sit Mommy's lap, please." and "I wanna HOOOLD you, Mommy!" about 20 times a day...I think it's ridiculously adorable 19 of those times. ;)
• He counted to 10 ALL BY HIMSELF the other day! Whhhhaaaattttt?!
• He is a sneaky little boy. He loves to say GO AWAY, but we've told him he can't say it to people. He'll say, "Go away!"...then we look at him and he'll add something ridiculous, like tractor to it. Ha!
• I have no clue what I am getting about half of the people on my list for Christmas. No. Clue.
• I always say I will be better at blogging, but I kind of suck lately. Makafui really needs a lot of stimulation, so we run around and are busy most of the day.
• Happy Christmas season to you!!

Fall Fun!

Here are some of my faves from all the fun we've had this month...they are in super random order.

Deep Thoughts from Board Books

There's this book called The Runaway Bunny.

It's about a bunny who [for no real reason] wants to run away. His mama tells him she will come after him because he is her little bunny. The story continues that the little bunny will turn into a fish in a trout stream, but his mama will be a fisherman and catch him, it goes on and on, he keeps turning into something else to run away and his mama catches/finds/goes to him each time. In the end, he decides not to run away and her response is, "Have a carrot."

I used to read it as a nanny and it really bugged me. I thought the little bunny was just a brat.

Now that I am a mom, and now that I have walked some dark roads and maybe wanted to run away a few times, I truly love this book. I just HAD to have it-so I went out and bought it the other day and have started regularly reading it to Makafui.

The bunny is not a brat. The Mama has some crazy love and patience for him. She will not let her boy just run away. She will be there. She will climb the mountain, she will become the wind, she will be the tree he comes home to.

That is how I fiercely love my boy.

But more than I can possibly imagine, that is how God fiercely loves us. Each day as I get deeper into this hard and wonderful parenting thing I realize that, and it's like, whoa!

I don't know what's around the corner, but God does, and as He fiercely loves me, He will be there for me, step by step.

And He will give me a carrot, too.

Talkies

G has a work thing and The Dude is finally asleep, so I guess it's finally time for a blog post.

I wish I was taking more pics and videos to post because Makafui is flipping hilarious.

Today, he took the rest of my breakfast, when I said, "Hey! You took Mama's breakfast!" he turned to me, smiled real big and sarcastically dragged out a "Saaaahry!" and laughed and ran away. We can thank Uncle Jon for teaching him that!

He says the most random things just moments before falling asleep. Tonight, he laughed. Yesterday, he said, "Daddy! Babe! Nama peeeeease." (banana please) and the night before, he told me, "Good job, Mommy." It's the cutest and I have to try hard not to laugh.

He learned the phrase Happy Birthday not long ago and often walks around the house saying "Happy Birthday, Jon!"

After weeks of having no clue what a specific word was, we finally figured out Makafui is saying Daniel (Dan-oh). We don't know who Daniel is, there isn't one at church or in his MOPS class. An imaginary friend?

He LOVES to say his own name. We play a game to see who can drag out the MUH sound the longest. I just love hearing him say, "Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhh-COPY!!"

At the pumpkin patch a couple of weekends ago he got to paint a pumpkin. He had painted pretty much the whole thing and was just globbing paint onto one spot. Then he paused and exclaimed to the whole table, "Diahyaya!" If you didn't catch it, that means diarrhea. Lovely.

In other verbal leaps. Aunt Tiffany is finally Timmy. Until recently, she was Cake Nuh-nuh...which means Hannah Kate's Nursings.

You will hear, "I suck!" quite often over here, because Makafui gets stuck a lot. Yes, it is just as funny as you think it is.

I'm really loving that Makafui is able to communicate better. He is very good at telling me, "My turn, Mommy," rather than just freaking out when I have or am doing something that he wants.

He sings Twinkle, Twinkle very well and often, as well as Are You Sleeping. He has also started working on parts of What Does the Fox Say...hateee hateee hateee ho, is his favorite part. And yes, he watches that video on YouTube.

Next post, pumpkin pics...I hope!

For the record...

Health Insurance makes my head spin!!

Open enrollment for G's company is November 1st and we got the information about the plans today. Ugh. Grrr. Ugh.

In an effort to see what our other options are (again) I got on healthcare.gov. Two hours later and I got nowhere. NOWHERE! I was in a focus group earlier this year about this very website and let me tell you, they did not take my advice. Like, at all. I'm pretty sure 'user friendly' was on the top of my list, but I could have accidentally written 'infuriating'.

I waited and waited to even be able to create an account. Then, the site shutdown just as I finished my profile. I didn't even get to see any plans or pricing.

Maybe tomorrow, after I enjoy my 3+ cups of coffee at MOPS and some chatting with my Mama, I will be able to wade through the options.

But for the record, I hate this stuff.

Peek-a-Boo....Like a BOSS!

Yesterday, my sister and darling niece were over. Naturally, Makafui took his duty to entertain Hannah Kate very seriously. So he began a rousing game of peek-a-boo...in the curtains...like a boss.

This is the result.

 

You see that bracket? It used to be a right angle.

 

And that rod? It used to be straight. Our drapes now have a lovely sag...or smiley face as my sister put it.

 

 

I laughed so hard that I cried. This is just soooo Makafui! He was just having fun, being sweet and totally cute, and destroyed something in the process. Pretty much life around here for the time being. I am so glad this happened at our house and not someone else's!

 

Between Extreme Peek-a-Boo and the like, we have really been enjoying long walks at the San Gabriel river, which includes feeding the ducks and geese for about 5 seconds...they are aggressive little beasts. We are super excited that things have cooled off a bit and are really looking forward to real fall weather...there was even a morning last week that M wore long sleeves!

 

We finished off the month of September with another sick visit to the Dr...this time, it was Makafui. He has his first ear infection. In case you were counting or placing bets, that's 4 sick visits and 6 prescriptions in one month. I declare October the NO SICKNESS month! :)



Well and Growing!!

We are finally well!! It took 3 Dr visits, 5 prescriptions and nearly a month, but we are finally getting back to our normal! :)

M is growing, growing and changing sooo much!

This week, he has really started to string together more words and speak in sentences. It's so adorable and I'm very impressed with him. My favorites of late are:

Wait Daddy, Mommy's coming.
I do it, Mommy.
Good job, Mommy.
I pyoud of you!
I love-o, Mommy!
Hi Cake, I nice.

He is always very concerned about who is coming. Gigi coming? Cake coming? Daddy coming? He always needs to know who is coming and when. He also soothes himself when we've been in the car for too long by saying, I know, I know. Too cute! Of course, no toddler can say this many sweet things without also saying things like, No! Mine! and Chuchee, shut up! (Chucky, my parents' yappy little left-over dog).

Discipline has been a big thing lately. We have good days and bad days. M has a very sweet and happy disposition, but he's still a toddler! We've been working on figuring out what needs disciplined and how...like do we just say no and walk away or is this a more serious offense that requires more strict discipline? Our small group has started a study about parenting in the toddler years and I we are very excited to learn more!

M has been eating a TON this week which has me shocked since he just went through a pretty massive growth spurt. He will just eat and eat! Like 2 pieces of pizza at a time, 2 waffles, an entire bag of pretzel crisps in two days, a pound of strawberries a day...it's crazy. I think he consumes as many calories as I do.

I'm really looking forward to Fall, such as it is in Central Texas and to the weather cooling off a bit. Boy loves to be outside and I hope we can spend lots of time outdoors over the next few months.

Here's to a change in seasons and taking more pictures and blogging more!!

One Day at a Time

It's been a while since I've blogged. We've been busy being sick...for weeks.

M had an upper respiratory thing that only lasted about 3 days. He gave it to me and it turned into a BIG FAT MONSTER of nastiness. We went to Houston anyway because we miss Jon and Emily and we HAD to get away (it was a great time and  I'm glad we went). When we came back and I still wasn't feeling better (after a week) I went to Doc in the Box...they said it was a cold that gave me an eye infection. Two miserable days later I went back and finally heard that I had a sinus infection and got antibiotics. I'm better than I was but still have a lingering cough/cold/hoarse voice. You know how that makes you fell just run down?

Last night M started up with a fever and has just been "off" and sad all day. :(

We're kind of having a rough time over here. We have never been sick like this and we're not catching a break. M hasn't slept through the night in a month and G is still being a rockstar through this challenging transition at work, but it's still been tough.

You could totes pray for us.

Makafui Tid-Bits

My boy seems to have grown leaps and bounds lately!

At his 18 month appointment, they measured him twice because he had grown so much in just 3 months that they couldn't believe it. He's 34 inches...that's in the 90th percentile!

He got a REAL haircut this week! No matter how many times I styled his hair, it seemed by the end of the day, he had 3 dreads sticking out from the back of his head! Also, he started to get this weird 80s Black Man mullet where his curls laid down in the back a couple of inches down his neck. It had to go...about 4 inches, but we kept some fluff and sweet curls! :)

We were having a helluva day when I got M ready to go to the Barber, then it hit me-this is going to be one fat dramatic fail. So I put him in his highchair with the tub of Nutella and a spoon and cut his hair myself! Crisis averted!!

Things you will hear most often around here are... Daddy work!, No! Makafui. (As in, No! That's Makafui's...which comes out copy, coffee, man-copy, ma-coming or other variations). Yay! I did it!! and of course, Mommy, are you?! (As if I'm ever really out of sight. Ha!)

In the grocery store yesterday, Makafui rode in the car cart and was very loud throughout the entire trip. He exclaimed, "Beep beep. Konk konk. DADDY WORK!!" up and down the aisles and when we got to the frozen breakfast foods, he took one look at the Jimmy Dean Scrambles and shouted, "Ewwwwwwww! Poopoo!!" Goodness.

He is really into running laps around the loveseat or kitchen.

He is especially loving cars right now and plays with them the most. He says "konk konk" instead of honk, it's hilarious, like his honk has a French accent.

He is no longer a Curious George purist. He asked for choo-choos the other day when I got on Netflix. I let him watch Thomas on mute, because I really don't enjoy the Thomas stories and all he cares about are looking at the trains. So far, it's a win-win.

Daddy's headphones are a hit-even when there's no sound coming through them!

I hope his current love of clean continues into his teen years! He would brush his teeth 20 times a day if I let him, asks me to clean his hears often, wants to vacuum constantly and loves when I let him use the Method spray! Ha!

We are trying to visit Daddy during the day to help with the separation issues and all that yuck. It helps a little. Mostly, I'm just figuring out how to cope, and drinking LOTS of caffeine. I'm also praying my butt off for a big change.

I am very grateful for my sweet boy and precious family...even on days that I'm too exhausted to think straight!!

Did You Know...

...that there is this super common, pretty infuriating thing called The 18 Month Sleep Regression (a.k.a. Hell on Earth)? Yeah, neither did I. Until now.

After things settled down a little with G's job change...about two weeks, we had a couple of good nights with M. Now, it's baaaaad. Today I found out that there really is an 18 month sleep regression, that I'm not going crazy, imagining this or doing something wrong. That this is completely normal and most importantly, THIS WILL PASS!!!

So, another excuse for not blogging so much. I promise I will pick it back up when I'm not a zombie and my Sweet Boy has become a sweet boy again.

Adjusting

G has hade a change in his position at work, it's a positive career change, but hard for family life and Makafui especially.

He used to work down the street from the Y, so everyday when we went to workout, we would stop on our way home to say or bring Daddy a treat. Most days G came home for lunch and since he had a pretty short commute, there was time for M to eat breakfast with him in the mornings.

Now he works further away and has more responsibilities so has to get to work earlier and leave later. We don't see him during the day at all and only get a little time before he heads to work in the morning. M should/usually goes to bed before he gets home. :(

This is VERY hard on Makafui and he is definitely acting out because of it. We are having a rough transition this week. I am hoping and praying that Makafui continues to be his resilient self and will handle everything much better by the end of next week. We will have lunch with Daddy during the week sometimes and I've tried to keep him up later, but it's pretty torturous for all of us.

Not to whine, but this has been hard for me too. I miss seeing G of course, but on the parenting side it's been very difficult. I still do all my wifey things (like packing his lunch at 5:45 this morning) but I don't have my partner to help me parent at all during the day...it kiiiiind of feels like I drew the short straw.

This is more growing for me spiritually. I am constantly checking my heart and attitude about this transition and leaning hard on God so my family can lean on me. I am thankful for G's job, thankful I get to be home with M, thankful I have a car to putt around with my sweet boy and thankful for our great little life. This is just a tricky transition and we will find our new stride soon. :)

This would however, explain my lack of blogging. M has not been himself and I haven't been on the computer much because of it. After throwing a pretty epic fit at the Y, he fell asleep in the car on the way home and I am choosing to rest instead of clean!

And there is a Brightside! Since M goes to bed before G comes home, we have quiet wonderful evenings just the two of us, just hanging out and sharing life. THAT is wonderful!

For The Love of Appliances

Makafui is completely obsessed with the vacuum. He says it bAq-MMMmmm!!

The boy wants to play with it every. single. day.

He spots vacuums wherever we go and when we come home, sometimes he starts to talk about it before we even get to the front door. On occasion, we even lay the vacuum down, drape a blanket on it and put it to bed for the night.

The boy cracks me up! He tries to actually use it, but he's so short that when he holds the handle the front lifts off the carpet. Haha!

 

Cheap thrills. Love this kid!!!

Wedding Weekend Wrap-up...

The weekend of Jeremy and Avery was wonderful and packed and sweet and exhausting! We are still recovering and trying to get back into our normal groove. (M woke up at 3:45 this morning!!)

I didn't take many pics because I was busy with Mr. Adorable. Thanks Tiffany, for capturing these great memories-every non-crappy, non-phone pic is from her!

The rehearsal dinner was at County Line on the lake and it was fabulous! Makafui did really well! He definitely wanted to feed the thousands of turtles rather than be in the dining room, but he sat in his high chair for the entire meal eating and playing with his plastic dinosaurs (dinosaurs he named Lion and Puppy...Lion got potato salad from M's fork and Puppy was offered orange juice-it was all very entertaining).  G took him out for the speeches (which were great) but I was very, very impressed with his little 17 month self and his awesome behavior.

My full skirt just makes me look full!

Besties x2!!

Wedding day was packed and wonderful! M woke up at 4:45 so we killed time for a while and then went to the family brunch at Mom and Dad's. Great company and filled with everyone's favorite breakfast foods! M totally enjoyed all the attention and kolaches. Mom and I set off to get our hair done and decorate the venue so G and M were on their own. The rest of the afternoon leading up to the wedding was a whirlwind!

M got a chance to do the VERY important job of testing the microphone...

Makafui was flipping adorable with his skinny jeans, high tops, suspenders and bow tie. I think he should wear that outfit everyday.

G didn't even try letting him sit in for the ceremony which I soooo appreciate because a toddler can only handle so much!

During cocktail hour music was playing and the adults were drinking Mommy and Daddy Juice, which left the dance floor WIDE open! Makafui took advantage and certainly cut a rug!

If only you could see this sweet move in action! It's pretty awesome.

The reception was a blast, the food was delicious (Truffle oil fries with garlic and parmesan? Um, yes please!!) and the company was fabulous.


I think it was definitely the best day of Makafui's life. He was dressed super cute, he got to dance like crazy, eat all the French Fries he wanted, have people ooh and ahhh over him, tried his first virgin strawberry daiquiri, ate M&Ms without having to go potty, stayed up late and PARTIED hard with all his favorite people. Oh, and he was glad to get Avery as his Aunt, officially!

(I will try to post more pictures when I get some.)