He's the best.

I'm not going to lie, and anyone who has/had a child this age knows, this can be a rough time! There are days when all he does is whine, cry, hit, throw things, and is in general a miserable mess of a toddler. Plus the added bonus of him learning how to climb out of his bed. Add in teething and/or a cold and you have all the makings of a VERY rough day, night, week, month, ect!

BUT

He is awesome. Plain and simple. 

From the very first moment he wakes up and jumps up looking around to find me in the morning to the last little wave he gives me as he's going to bed. Pure awesomeness. 

He is quite the dancer, in fact ANY music he hears you better believe he is dancing to. My favorite dance moves include the point, the shoulder shrug, the running man, and the sway. He also has a love affair with shoes and socks. He tries so hard to put them on himself, it's hilarious. But as soon as I put them on for him he wants them right back off. He thinks the dog is his BFF and tries to hug and kiss him all the time. He loves to go on walks around the neighborhood and check out all the sights. He loves to play outside in the backyard and people watch as well.  My favorite thing is when he grabs my face with both hands and plants a big kiss on me and says "muah!" I could go on and on about all the fun, silly, special, amazing things that he does...but we'd be here all day.

Sure there are rough times, and REALLY rough times, and times you want to pull all of the hair out of your head. But at the end of the day all you need is to take one peek at your child asleep in his bed with his arm tucked around his Grover stuffed animal to know that it's all worth it. Every little bit. 

Easter Day!

I have been so been looking forward to this day. Shawn was only about 3 1/2 months old last Easter so for obvious reasons the day was a lot more mellow. We went to church dressed in our Easter best and Shawn was moderately well behaved, about as good as you can expect a 15 month old to be during a 1 hour mass. He fell asleep in the car on the way home so the festivities were postponed for a bit.  Naps have been such a fight lately since he's discovered how to escape from his bed so no way was I passing up this opportunity.

Once he woke up we headed straight outside and I'm not sure who was more excited for him to open his gifts. I set up a background for him to sit on while he 'opened' up his basket. He got a coloring book & crayons, some bath toys, rubber balls, bible books, bubbles, a stuffed bunny & lamb and a big chocolate egg! He was very excited about the chocolate egg and subsequently became a chocolatey mess! Then it was time to hunt some eggs. I filled them up with puffs, yogurt melts and goldfish. He was quite distracted on this hunt though. Every time he picked up an egg he sat down to shake it, open it and try to eat what was inside. It took a while but he finally got all the eggs, and even shared some of the loot with the dog! He had a couple gifts from his Great Grandma to open and he was particularly excited about this Easter Bunny book.

We had a lovely ham dinner followed by Stocks cake, mmmm!!! Then it was bath and bed time for the bug! All in all it was a good day!

A then and now shot!

Easter Pictures, part 1

After the disaster that was the Easter Bunny, I knew I'd need alternate Easter/Spring pictures. It's becoming increasingly more difficult to photograph Shawn however so I just have to be quick, creative, and crazy. Today was possibly one of the hardest I've ever worked to get pictures of him. It was worth it though, and he had TONS of fun running away from me and the camera. We both got quite the workout! I'm sure the other people in the park and in cars driving by must have thought I was a total nut job (not that I disagree per say) but you have to do what you have to do! Tomorrow I'll take some more in his Easter outfit as he's opening his gifts, basket and goes on an egg hunt in the backyard!