First Book

I have published my first book...well, sort of anyways :)  I found out about this great website called Blurb.  It allows you to turn your blog content (pictures and text) into a book.  I couldn't wait until Ayson turned 1, so we could have his first year made into a lovely coffee table book...now, if only we had a coffee table, or drank coffee for that matter, ha!  

The website is great because it lets you do as little or as much customizing as you want.  You even get to choose whether your book is paperback, hardback with a dust cover, or hardback image wrap.  Decisions, decisions!  

We finally received our book the other day and it looks better than I could have imagined!  We chose a hardback image wrap, and are so glad we did...IT LOOKS GREAT!  "Top Notch" quality as Aaron would say :)

  I cannot wait to show everyone the actual book, but for now, I just had to share a few random pages from the digital preview with you.  ENJOY!

Little Man Wilcox by Amy & Aaron Wilcox | Make Your Own Book

Forever Loves

We had such a fun weekend!  We got to help little miss Makinize Brown celebrate her first birthday.  And of course, Ayson was super excited to see his girlfriend.  (Don't worry, you will all be invited to the wedding :)  Invitations will be sent out in 24 years!)  Look at them...flirting already. 

The last time we had these two together, they were still itty bitty, so it was so fun to watch them interact and chase each other around.

Two little cuties 

Believe it or not, Ayson was feeling festive and kept his party hat on! 

Alyssa and I with our little love birds :)

Group shot...It was so good to see you guys.  Can't wait until next time!

And a few other cute randoms from the weekend.  Ayson likes to look up at me while we are jogging.  His cute little smiling face makes exercising a little less miserable.

Playing at the park after our jog. 

His new favorite hangout is between the two speakers in our living room.  After I took this pic, I realized it looks like he has horns...perfect! He was being a little stinker that day.

And finally...MORE WALKING!  He's starting to walk about as much as he crawls, and is pretty darn steady on his feet now.  He was really showing off this morning.

Getting the Hang of It

I can't tell you how many trips this kid has made back and forth between the chair and the couch...he's wearing a path in our carpet :)  He's on the go go go ALL THE TIME, unless he's sleeping!     

Bumps and Bruises

Ayson has a nice collection of bumps and bruises to show for his new walking skill.  His poor little face has taken a beating the past couple of days.  Despite our best efforts to keep him from bumping into things, he will inevitably fall over and hit something.  All a part of becoming a big boy, I suppose!  Here he is being silly this morning, showing off his battle scars.  Poor kid...the bruise under his eye is from Max, and we still haven't been able to get rid of that stupid heat rash around his mouth.  He's just a mess right now ;)  

Walking from the ottoman to the entertainment center.  He walks between our furniture all the time now, and can even squat down to grab a toy and stand back up with holding on to anything.

Just thought this was funny...this is how he was watching Micky Mouse Clubhouse this morning :)

Theaden and Gavin stayed the night on Friday, and the boys had a blast playing outside.  

Frey loved to push Ays on the swing.  They were both smiling and laughing the whole time...too cute!

And finally, we had a playdate at the mall with Braeden and Sheri on Thursday night.  These two boys are hysterical together now, because they LOVE to talk to each other.  While one is "talking" the other is intently listening, then the other one will start talking away and the other will listen!  It's so funny!  We wish we could understand what they were saying.

Ayson's new fall hat.  OMG, love it!

I had to try on his new jeans with his new hat.  He looked so stinking cute.  He got so many cute fall clothes for his birthday that we can't wait until it cools off so he can start sporting them.  

He will def be the coolest little man in town.

Oh, and Ayson wants to wish his dada a Happy Birthday!  Aaron's birthday was yesterday.  He spent more than half of his birthday at the hospital delivering a baby!!!  If you have to be working on your birthday, bringing life into this world sounds like a good way to spend the day :)  After Aaron got home, Pops, Grammy and Auntie A, were here to help us celebrate...we had such a fun time hanging out with them and eating some yummy food!   

Walking is a piece of cake :)

Ayson is trying to walk everywhere...I foresee many bruises on the horizon for our little kamikaze on wobbly legs.  He will just take off before he has his balance and sometimes make it to his destination, but mostly he will take a little tumble.  Luckily, the ground isn't too far away :)  But, one things for sure...he is definitely getting better and getting the hang of this walking thing.  It's crazy how much better he has gotten in two days!  Here is a little video of him showing off his walking/standing skills.

And this video is soooooo Ayson right now.  He loves to shake his head "no."  This is what we face at EVERY meal time now.  He's a mess already!!  At least he knows what he wants, or should I say, doesn't want.

WALKING!

This little kid is trying to walk everywhere now.  Yesterday it was 3 steps, and this morning he took eight!  Here are some videos from yesterday, where he took 4-5 steps...with a little bit of bribery ;)  Way to go little man...there's no turning back now!

 

Friends Make Life Fun

I can't tell you how lucky we feel to have such an amazing group of friends with kiddos around the same age as Ayson.  It makes getting together that much more fun and interesting :)  From Theaden to Asher to Braeden to Makinizie to Isa to Avery (and all of their fabulous parents), we are never short on good times for both Ayson and us too!!!!

Braden, Ays and their new friend Noah

Braeden and Ays have spent quite a few afternoons at the pool this summer.  In fact, despite all of my sunscreen efforts, Ayson has got a little tan going on :)  It has been so blazing HOT this week that we took the boys to the pool on Tuesday.  Ayson likes the zero depth area the best because he can crawl around and splash the day away.

On Wednesday, Karie, Avery, Ayson and I, took a roadtrip to Prague, Ok, to visit the Fowlers.  They just moved there a few months ago, and we couldn't wait to go check out their new house.  Diane and Isa were the best hostesses and we enjoyed an afternoon of swimming, food and fun ;)  

**On a hilarious sidenote...this is what we saw on our way there.  Yes, he has no shirt on, and yes, that is a little prissy dog in the saddlebag.  I LOVE OKLAHOMA :)

Avery & Ays flirting ;)

Ok, back to Prague.  Ayson had so much fun playing with Avery and Isa.  They were all such good little babers the whole day.

Little miss Isa all ready for lunch!

Karie & Avery...love this pic.  Two beautiful ladies!!!

And finally...Ayson took his first steps today!!!  We were visiting some of my co-workers at TCC, and he just took off and starting walking towards me...three steps!  WooHoo Little Man!!!!  I'll try and get some video if I can get him to do it again, but in the meantime, here are some pics of him standing...he's an old pro at this already:)

Sporting his new back pack from Makinzie.  So adorable :)

  He left it on forever!!!

Playing in the backyard

 

1 Year Check-up

Ayson had his 1 year checkup this morning.  Everything is going super!!!  Dr. Gordon said she has had great reports from the Neonatal Clinic on his progress, and that he is a "shining example of a NICU success story!"  He did get three shots at this visit, which he was not too happy about, but other than that, it was a pretty uneventful visit...which is always a GOOD thing!

Here are the stats:

Weight: 18lbs 

(he's still a skinny booger...<3% non-adjusted)

Height: 30 in

(and tall too...57% non-adjusted)

Head Circumference: 46 1/4 cm 

(got a big ole' melon...46% non-adjusted)

***On a side note...its exciting to finally be on the non-preemie scale in some areas!  When he was born, he wasn't even registering on the preemie scale.    

Even though we need to try and get some more weight on him, Dr. Gordon said it is nothing to worry about.  He is still gaining weight (up over 1.5lbs from his 9 month visit) and is such an active kiddo, that putting weight on him is going to be very difficult.  So for now, we are sticking with Neosure Formula for a couple more months as it is higher in calories than cows milk, and we are adding butter and cheese and anything else calorie dense to his solid foods.  Wouldn't it be nice to be on that kind of diet!!!!

 

Busy Birthday Boy

Ayson has had just about the best first birthday a little boy could ask for!  We had a great time at his birthday party on Saturday.  Thank you so much to all who came to help us celebrate.  You helped make his birthday so special for us...he is one loved little man!

The cake eating went just as I expected it would.  He wasn't interested AT ALL.  He didn't like the taste of it and really didn't want to get his hands dirty either.  He's a neat kiddo, what can I say :)  I tried to help him out a little bit by smashing his hand in the cake, but all he did was stare at his hand and try to shake the cake off of it.  Oh, well...it's ok buddy, mama doesn't like cake either.  Next year we'll make your cake out of mashed potatoes :) 

Happy First Birthday

Cake time! 

Not too crazy about the cake

The cleanest first birthday kid ever

Happy parents, mad kiddo

Now we can chart Ays's growth on his very own chart!

Addi helping open presents :)

Loves his squish ball

Reading his cards

Dada and the birthday boy

Silly boy

• Along with all of his family, Ayson got to see his BFF Asher, who came all the way up from Dallas to help him celebrate.  Poor Asher just wanted to play with his water bottle and Ayson was trying to climb on him :)

• Two little blondies playing with bubbles!!

• To celebrate Ayson's birthday today, we stayed busy, busy, busy!  We wanted it to be extra special.  We started out with pancakes for breakfast...in the shape of a #1 of course!  

• Unlike last time we tried pancakes, he actually ate some of it...and liked it :)

• After breakfast, it was lunch and some birthday shopping with Auntie Angela.  Then we had a playdate with Braeden.  They both look like such big kids now!

• Taking a wagon ride 

After our playdate, we did something we have been looking forward to doing on his first birthday for a long time.  We took Ayson back to the NICU to visit some of the amazing nurses that took care of him.  It was so great to see them again, and they loved seeing him too.  They were all impressed with how well he his doing.  We didn't get any pictures, as they were all very busy taking care of all the little babers who need their attention, but it was so important to us to go back and say THANK YOU.  Their kindness and care for Ayson will never be forgotten. 

Then...yes, I'm not done yet...we went to Hideaway for a yummy birthday dinner.  No, he cannot appreciate the yummyness of their wonderful pizza yet, but he will someday!  He was such a happy birthday kiddo all day.

And finally before he went night night, we measured him on his new growth chart.  From 14.5 inches to 28 inches on his first birthday...he has nearly doubled his length and quintupled his birth weight...WOOHOO!  Now that's something to celebrate :)  

Happy Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!    

 
 

O-N-E!!!

Happy 1st birthday to our favorite little man!  It's so crazy to think that one year ago we were so happy to have you here, yet so scared about what the future would hold for our little 2 pounder.  One year later, you are the happiest, cutest, sweetest, smartest, HEALTHIEST and most amazing little dude we could have ever asked for...and we are the proudest parents. 
 

We've got lots of pictures to share from this weekend, but we have a busy day planned for his birthday, so until I can get to it, here is a little taste of Ayson checking out his cake.

MAMA AND DADA LOVE YOU!!!!

Caught!

Because my summer class is finally over & Ayson went to bed early...two posts in one day!  You're welcome Ayson's Adventures readers :)


We finally caught Ayson on video standing.  He is starting to do it a lot more frequently now.  Of course, as soon as I put the camera up, he stood for nearly 30 seconds, but you get the idea...standing is standing.

The secret to standing...let him get his hands on anything you really don't want him to have.  Here he is reading the instructions for us, so we don't have to =)

He loves to pull his diapers out of the bin.  This is his favorite new trick.  Standing has just added a whole new element of fun to the equation.  Notice how one diaper would not be sufficient...five, now that's more like it!

He also likes his diaper box...I think there is a trend here.  He discovered that he could bang his toys on the box, stand up, then do it all over again.  This went on for at least 20 minutes :)  He's still a little wobbly, but definitely getting the hang of it.