Walker Update: Eighteen Months

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT! My little boy is a year and a half years old! I cannot believe how fast time flies by. Walker has grown so much in the past three months. He is getting so big that I start to think about what is ahead of me but than just tell myself to live in the moment and spend as much time as I can with my little boy while I can.

Hide 'n' Seek | "Look what I can do!"
How we like to watch TV | feeding himself | Swimming with Grandma Schroeder

Stats:
weight: 23 lbs (10 - 25%)
height: 32 inches (50 - 75%): tall enough to go on Mater Junkyard at DCA but hasn't yet because whenever we try he won't stand up straight. In a couple months it will happen.

He is still cruising on the floor most of the time but getting more and more confident each day to stand up and see what he can do with the new view. He has learned new words and is starting to communicate to me what he wants or if he is frustrated. He loves to point out the birds and airplanes in the sky when he hears them. His new favorite thing to watch is movies, mostly Pinocchio and Toy Story. He still loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Little Einsteins as well as the old and new Mickey Mouse and Donald short cartoons, he thinks they are hilarious! He loves to play with his toys and to be outside doing anything. He loves making towers with his legos and than knocking them down while saying uh-oh. He loves to watch Casey and I play Mario Kart and even brings me the controller so I will play with and he plays along. He loves to climb onto anything he can get up on. He will even push a chair or step stole over to get up where he wants to get up on. He loves to play with his friends. He loves to spend time with his grandparents and swimming at their home. He loves when my parents to come visit.

One thing that we have noticed about Walker is that he is an observer. He doesn't mind just looking around and see whats going on. My mom and grandpa says that he is going to be an engineer because he thinks like one. He is a very smart kiddo. While at my grandpa's house he went up to his grandfather's clock, that is in the glass cabinet so you can see all the gears, and just watched the gears work and the pendulum go back and forth. He also loves to just look around when we go to Disneyland and "people watch" (which is very fun to do at Disneyland. You see many interesting people there).

He loves to play with his toys like a 'normal' kid but also loves to try and figure out how it works. For example, we got his a table that he plays with standing up (or kneeing down because he is so dang tall). There are this balls that you can put in the middle and they come out the legs. He has figured out that if you put the ball down the hole it will come out on of the legs but he wants to know more. So what does he do.. puts the ball up the leg to see what happens. And what happens.. the ball comes out another leg. It is so fun to just sit back sometimes and watch him figure something out. And once he does he is so proud of himself and sometimes looks over at me and claps with a big smile on his face.

Walker has taken about 20 steps on his own and improving each day. He has been a late bloomer in the walking category but has excelled is many other categories. He is very determined and just doesn't want to walk even though he can. It makes his doctor laugh to an extent that he isn't walking because he can and he has the strength to. We have tried everything we can think of to get him to realized that he can go much faster if he walks but he is perfectly fine crawling along. He will just one day get up and take off. He sure is a mover. He loves to move from one place to another all day long, so in the meanwhile I will just enjoy my little boy and have him move at his own pace.

Walker loves to eat sweets and knows who to go to when he wants some. And that is Grandma, but isn't that what Grandmas do. He will turn away from veggies and other foods that he just doesn't like but if Grandma offer a popsicle or ice cream or anything of that kind he won't even hesitate and take a bite. We have tried to even trick him of switching from a sweet and a "healthy" snack and he will still turn away once  he see it but not from the sweets. I think we have a sweet tooth junky on our hands.

Mr. Independent has now entered the room. Walker loves to do things by himself. He will ask for help when he needs it in his own little way. He has became more independent when we moved into our own apartment at the beginning of August. He likes to do things on his own and I am not stopping him. Independence is very good. He even tries to turn on the TV when he wants to watch one of his shows or movies by himself but hasn't figured it out so brings the controller or my phone over to me so I can switch it or turn it on. If he needs help he will bring whatever he needs help with over to where I am and says in his own language "help me mommy. I can't figure it out".

♥ The Schroeder

Something exciting is happening!

Most of you know that after Casey and I graduated we moved to California and have been living with his parents. It has been a little over a year since we have been living here. Casey and I have been looking for an apartment to move into for a while and just hasn't found the right place for the right price. We are on many waiting list for low income housing and we are still waiting for the call that there is an apartment available for us. Casey and I feel like it is time for us to get out on our own again. Even thought we haven't been called for low income housing we still looked for a home to move to.

And guess what?!

WE FOUND A PLACE TO MOVE INTO! We will be moving in a couple week to a 2 bedroom 1 bath apartment in Ramona. It is about 30 minutes away from where we live now but the same distance from Casey's work.

             

                         It's official!

I can't express how happy I am. I am excited to be able to live as a family just Casey, Walker and I. I am also sad because I am moving away from the friends I have made there. But I know that it will all be okay. I am not too far away where we can't still come visit or people can't come visit us.

I am now excited to be able to design our place again and design Walkers room since he will have his own! It will be good for our family to be on our own again. 

I will post pictures of the new designs I am planning on doing once they are complete! 

♥ The Schroeder

Let's just say.. I'm Bringing Sexy Back!

So if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you might have noticed that I have gain some weight that I wasn't planning on gaining after I stopped breastfeeding Walker. I have been trying to get the weight off but hasn't exactly been successful. I have tried diets, exercising by myself, walking with friends, going to the gym early morning with a friend and really anything you could think of that doesn't cost a lot of money. I was really down on myself because I couldn't get this weight off. I wasn't really in a good place either. I really wanted to get out of this runt I was in.

So one day I was talking to my friend, Diana and she said she had the same problem. She suggested that we should workout together and do Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. We thought that we can work out together and check up on each other each day so we can motivate each other to work out and get back into shape. Let me tell you, Jillian isn't joking around. She is hard. I sometimes really do feel like I am going to die after I work out. But it is good! When I skip on working out, those days I am tired and don't want to do much. But the days I do workout I have more energy and feels better.

We decided that we wanted to do this 30 Day Shred in three months, one level each month. At the beginning of the month it is hard to get through the 30 minutes video without stopping but by the end of the month I can do most of it without stopping. It is still hard but feels good. Jillian really knows how to push someone to keep on moving and doing the workout video (that is why she is on the biggest loser as a trainer).

I didn't think that this was going to work or I wasn't going to be able to stick to it. But it really has helped me. It also has showed me that I don't have to spend tons of money to get results. I am still not to what I want to be but I am feel more confident about myself and also how I look in my clothes.

Left: Beginning of June | Right: Mid July

You can't really tell but in the left I weighed about 145 and now I weigh between 135-137. It is slow progress but is progress. I know that I am not going to drop the weight in a blink of an eye. It is going to take some work. And I am still don't have a flat stomach or no pooch or love handles but I am working at it and really getting ready to BRING SEXY BACK!!

♥ The Schroeder

If you don't like me for who I am... good for you!

I have been trying to write this post for a while now and finally decided to just buckle down and post it. and here you go.

I have been thinking about why people judge one another. I normally don't post post like this but it has been on my mind and I have told myself to treat my blog like a journal so if you don't agree with what I say oh well.

Many people judge someone by just looking at them. They see what they look like or what they are doing and judge right away. I am not saying I don't do this because we all do. But what I am asking is why do we do that? Should it matter on what we look like or what we do?

I think to a point you have to judge people from what they look like or what they are doing but that doesn't mean you shouldn't get to know them. I know someone that I thought was very nice when I first met them and then when I got to know them well, that person wasn't the person I wanted to be around. The person made me feel bad about myself and made me feel like they had a harder life than me when I tried to express how I was having a hard time with something. They normally said 'oh well I have this problem that is worse'. My first judgement of that person was nice and kind and then it turned to be mean and plain annoying. I couldn't be myself around them because I kept on worrying about what they were going to say and what they thought or how they had it worser off.

I don't think that judging people is a bad thing but it is when you judge and judge and judge everyone for every little thing they do. The other day I went to a baseball game where a special needs person was sitting behind me. She was yelling rooting for her team. I was thinking that people would probably be annoyed with what she was doing because she did yell for her team a lot. But I told myself why should they judge. What makes them have the authority to judge her. She is just doing something she loves and being herself.

I know that I have been judged in my life. And now it has affected the way I am today to an extent. People probably still judge me today. I am now to at a point in my life where I just don't care what people think. I am going to be myself and if you don't like me for who I am than good for you. I wish I had that attitude when I was growing up. Oh life would have been so much easier!

High school was probably some of the hardest years yet. I am dyslexic and didn't learn like "normal" kids did. I had to work my butt off to get the grades I did. My geometry teacher judge me. I told here I was having a hard time with a concept and wanted to get help so I can understand it before I took the final. She than told me that I wasn't going to pass the class so I shouldn't even try. First off, what teacher would say that to their student. Second off, that just pushed me to try harder. It was hard to really study since I was "going to fail anyways". I made sure that teacher didn't make me fail in life. I have problems learning but really I still know how to learn it is just different. I think to myself that sometimes by her saying that made me want to prove her wrong. I have now gotten my Associates Degree in interior design and also have tutor numerous of students that struggle with school.

I wasn't just judged in my classes, I was also judge outside of class. But what high school student wasn't? In high school there are clicks and groups that are labeled. If you weren't popular you couldn't hang out with the popular crowd...etc. I had a good group of friends that I hanged out with since I was in 5th grade. We were the best of friends. Then my junior year they started to make some decisions that wasn't me and I didn't want to be apart of. So I told them that I didn't want to do that if they are going to do that I don't want to be their friend because I don't want to surround myself with that sort of things. I am not saying this was easy for me because it wasn't. I had the hardest time telling my friends that I have been friends with for years that I didn't want to be friends with them anymore if they were going to do those type of things. They made my life even harder after that. But I just turned my back and took what they were "throwing" my way. I then made different friends and had a great year with people that had the same standards as me. This experience made me stronger. It made me realize that you don't have to fit in to have friends.

When Casey and I got engaged and married I was 18 years old. People told me why are you getting married so young. They talked to each other and said there must be a reason why they are getting married this young. Wanna know the reason?! It is because we are each other soul mates and we love each other. Still today when I tell someone that I got married when I was 18 or I tell them that I am 21 have been married for 3 years and have a 16 month old they have this look on their face.

I am not trying to say feel sorry for me because my life has been hard. What I am saying is that when people judge us or make our life hard because we are "different" or do things a different way it shouldn't matter. That is why I wanted to write this post. I am realizing that it shouldn't matter if someone thinks I am weird or thinks I shouldn't be doing what I am doing or thinks differently than me.

We should express how we feel about something and not worry about not doing something because we think someone will judge us. It just shouldn't matter. You really just need to do what you want and say what you want and if someone wants to de-friend you on Facebook because of that, good for them.

Dr. Seuss said "Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind".

Heavenly Father has created us and sent us down to earth to get our own body and be ourselves. Heavenly Father loves me for who I am and he will never judge me. So I am going to be myself.

Like I said, if you don't like me for who I am... good for you!

Walker's Update - Fifteen Month

So for the first year of Walker's life I posted an update each month about his development and what he has been up to. Since he is past a year I am going to try keep the updates going but only do it every 3 months or so or post when something big happens.

Walker is fifteen months! My first thought is that only three more months until he goes into nursery but that three months so many things can happen. Like these past three months Walker has developed so much. It has been fun to just sit back and watch him play and figure things out for himself.

He has TEN teeth (four on the top, four on the bottom, and two bottom one year molars). He is getting his top two one year molars in slowly. He weight 22 lbs and is 31 inches tall (one inch to short to ride mater at DCA). He hasn't gotten the hang of standing or walking on his own. Walker does know how to walk along furniture or walls and stand while holding onto something for stability. He does walk while holding onto our hand(s). When he does he just wants to go go go. He wants to walk faster than his long legs will let him. He is getting more and more confident each day that passes by. It is more of him deciding himself that he wants to do it because he is strong enough and can if he wants to. Even though he doesn't walk he sure does know how to get around otherwise. Walker is a fast crawler and loves to climb. He can climb up onto and back down from the couch, chair, table. really anywhere he wants to go. He knows how to go up and back down the stairs by himself.

He is a talker. Some words that he says throughout the day are: Mickey (mi-ky), Donald (Doal), Pretty (pety), Yummy (umy), Blue (bu), Belly (bel).  NOTE: We are still figuring out how he says them but we sure knows what they mean and are.  Walker is starting to figure out his body more. He is learning now where his belly button is. He loves to play with his lips and make an "Indian call" with his mouth.

He is starting to eat his veggies, which has been hard and still is hard to get down. With most of his veggies we try to feed him, Walker pretends that he is Baby Hulk and 'smashes' or squishes them in his hands and than throws them onto the floor. The things he loves to eat is popsicles, mac 'n' cheese, waffles, yogurt, any fruit, pasta, anything that is sweet, oatmeal, PB&J sandwich, ice cream, eggs, and broccoli (the only veggie he will feed himself). NOTE: Most of these foods are Casey's favorite foods. Like Father like Son. He is starting to figure out how to use his own fork and spoon. He mostly just hold the spoon while I feed him but he is getting the concept. He loves to stab things with the fork and than he tries to put it in his month and doesn't quite get it in so he takes it off his fork and puts it in his month with his hands. It's a start right?

Walker loves being outside. If I let him play outside all day, I am pretty sure he would have no problem with that. He loves to swim in the pool with us. He knows how to blow bubbles, kick, and splash. He laughs when we splash and than he does. He gets so excited when we head down to the pool. Walker will find water anywhere (and when I say anywhere I mean anywhere!) He loves to play in the water. STORY: We went to the beach this past week and he loved playing in the sand but every once in a while he would start crawling to the water. We put him back where all of the toys were and the kids playing. After a couple of times of doing this he figured out that maybe if he crawled backwards towards the water we wouldn't notice that he was going there. It was pretty entertaining to watch him figure this out.

Another thing that Walker loves to do is put things in and take things out of things. He can do this for a good 20 minutes. He loves to read his Mickey Mouse Clubhouse books. He is starting to like to watch the show 'Little Einstein's' and 'Henry Hugglemoster' on Disney Junior. I have been trying to limit his TV time but some days I am better than others. He still loves to take baths (his favorite time of the day that he crawls over to bathroom door and "cries" until I come over and open it or pick him up). The bathroom is probably his favorite room in the house. He always gets so excited when I take him in it. Casey and I have thought of seeing if we could potty train him now since he loves the bathroom so much but than said he should probably know how to walk first. Walker other favorite time of the day is lotion time. He loves having someone rub lotion on him. Lately he has been wanting to do it himself. So I have been putting a little on his hand and he rubs it on his belly. Since Walker has 10 teeth, he have been brushing his teeth more and more. He loves doing it. I make sure I brush his teeth and than I give him the toothbrush and his does it for a little bit.

Since Walker is now older he has been playing better with other kids. It has been great to teach him how to share and play with others. We play a lot with his friend, Lucas. They play so well with each other even though they are 7 months apart (sometimes 7 months in baby time is a long time). We call them woody and buzz because they resemble Woody (Walker) and Buzz (Lucas). Another friend we like to play with is William. We have gone to Disneyland with William and Lucas a couple times. It is fun to be able to have friends with walkers friends moms. It is always nice to have a play date. Walker loves to go to his friends house and play and have them come over to our place and play. Soon we are going to get all three of these little men together and have them play. It will be fun!

Walker is growing up so fast. This past week or so I have noticed that my little baby boy is growing up way to fast. Time does fly by. I love being able to be a stay at home mom and just watch him play and play with him. He is my buddy and the best little buddy I could ever ask for. He is a smart little guy. He surprises me everyday. I now can't wait to see what new things that he will learn in these next couple months.

I love you Walker!

♥ The Schroeder

Walker's Mickey Birthday Party!

Some say that having a birthday party for your one year old is a little over the top. but i think why not! i love planning parties and thinking of all of the decorations and cute things i can do for the party. sow when it came time to start thinking about walker's first birthday party i couldn't resist of doing mickey mouse. he loves watching mickey mouse clubhouse and disneyland. it was perfect! i saw a cute invite on esty and told myself that i could do something like that myself so i designed it and sent them out. it was fun to use my creativeness again. 

casey doesn't like the super themed parties and i sometimes think they look tacky to be honest. so i did everything in black, red, and yellow to get the feel of mickey mouse without over doing it. we did have some stuffed mickeys for decorations but nothing to crazy. i wanted a banner to hang somewhere that said happy birthday. My friend Aubry helped me with the banner since i am not super crafty but now getting better at it.

we had some food out for people to eat like hot dogs and chips and dip with some mac and cheese and potato salad. I also had lemonade and also fruit punch for drinks with water as well. i didn't mean for all the food to be yellow and red but it turned out that way. we didn't get to take a photo of the food table but i wish we did because it turned out great! i had cupcakes because really i like cupcakes more than cake and it is less messy in my option. I found an idea for the cupcakes on pinterest. they turned out way cute! thank goodness for pinterest!

walker got many presents from everyone that came. most of the presents had to something with disney or mickey mouse. what a surprise. i don't mind though. he loves them. most of his toys now are disney and mickey mouse. he got lots of toys and clothes. at first he didn't really know how to open the presents but once he figured it out he did great. once he opened the present he just wanted to play with the toy so it look a while to open them all. thanks everyone for the gifts.

Many people give their kid a cake for their first birthday to 'dig into'. I decided I didn't want to make a cake and then it just be all over the place. So I made a cupcake for Walker to 'dig into'. Just like the presents it took him a while to get the hang of it but once he tasted that frosting their was no stopping him. He just ate the frosting and smashed the 'cake' part. It was a mess but it was still fun.

Walker got to have some family that is usually not around there for his party. My Grandpa, that lives in Mission Viejo, came down with my parents. Grandma and Grandpa Rozsa came as well. The most surprised person that came was my brother, Alex. He is in Provo going to school at BYU and was heading to China the next month for the summer so it would have been the last time we got to see him before he left for China. It was fun seeing all of our family and friends there. 

Thanks to everyone to came and made the day a great one for Walker and us! We love you all!

♥ The Schroeder

Walker Monthly Update - Month twelve!

I know this is way late but better late than never!!

my little walker is ONE!

can you believe it!

I can't believe that i have a one year old. this past year has just have gone by way to fast! it seems like i was bring walker home from the hospital from after being born. i am go grateful to have such a sweet little boy.

wears 12-18 months clothes.

size 3 diapers

size 3.5 - 4 shoes

takes about a 2 hour nap {on a good day}

loves to sleep with mom and dad {not so fun in a full size bed}

weighs 20 lbs 6 oz (25%)

31 inches tall (89%)

46 head cm

walker is not quite yet a "walker" yet but he is starting to show interest in it. my brother brad and sister in law got him a mickey mouse "walker" for his birthday so i hope that will help. he will walk if i am holding his hands but once i let go he goes right to the floor and starts crawling. i am not saying i want him to walk but i kinda do. i know that once he walks he will probably be running the next day since he is a mover and all he wants to do is go go go!

this past month walker has became a talker! he doesn't say many words only like 'mama' 'dada' 'baba' 'papa' 'dodo' but sometimes he seems like he is actually saying words. {story} one time we were getting ready to go to disneyland and i keep on saying to him want to go to disneyland, he then said something like 'disney'. it seems like it says words pretty clearly. he now puts anything up to his ear and acts like it is a phone. he will just i can't wait to have him talk. but he has lots of different sounds. it is exciting to see how walker is developing and how much he has developed this past year. Walker is starting to recognize things he like. for example he loves Mickey Mouse. He knows his voice when I turn Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the TV. He is starting to know who he is now. For his birthday we got him a stuff Mickey from Disneyland. Actually he is the one who picked it out. We gave him an option of one or the other and he picked the one we got him. Whenever he starts playing with it I tell him ''thats Mickey'' and now he looks at me and then Mickey and says 'meme.' it is probably the cutest thing! He somethings just says 'key' in a whisper but now it is more 'meme'. it is fun seeing his talking skills develop.

this little boy is a sneak. he loves to get into things that he isn't suppose to. he has sometimes even watch me to wait until i am not looking and then beam line it to whatever he wants that i don't want him to have. or he looks at me and then the thing he wants. {story} I was sitting on the bed with him and my phone was next to us. he wanted to get and play with it. i kept taking it away from him and putting it back where it was. and he started looking at me then the phone then back at me and did this for a few times until he thought i wasn't paying attention and went for my phone. he is a pretty clever boy.

walker loves to be outside. when the front door is open he seriously beam lines it to the door to get out there. it makes me feel like i don't take him out as much as i should, which sometimes i do stay inside somedays when i could be going outside. but when i do take him out and stand outside he is just in awe. he could just look and be outside all day if i would let him. and when i do decide it is time to go back inside and bring him in he screams and cries. i am glad he likes to be outside but somedays i would like to just relax inside. this summer will be fun to take him to parks and watch him play. along with his love for outside walker loves water. he could play in it for ever if i would let him. another thing i am excited about is taking him swimming his summer. it will be fun.

it is still shocking to me to say sometimes i have a one year old. to me he is still a little baby. but in reality he will always be my baby. this next year will be fun of new adventures and i can't wait to see what it brings for walker and also for our family.

♥ The Schroeder