Mom Reminder

Every now and then something little happens that's a big reminder that I'm a mom. The other day I was cleaning up and I picked something up to move it and it lit up and started playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It was Tommy's glowworm and I just smiled b/c I thought how sweet it is to have all these little reminders of our sweet boy around the house. I'm so used to seeing most of them that I overlook them now. But before Tommy there weren't any toys that lit up and played music, so it's pretty fun when they catch me by surprise when I'm cleaning up.

Then just the other day Kyle and I had a date day, just the two of us, Tommy spent the night and day with my mom and dad.  Kyle and I really enjoyed it - the best part was I could tell Kyle was excited about our date day of going to lunch and a movie. He very very rarely gets excited about anything so that was my absolute favorite part about it, seeing him look forward to spending the day with me. It made me feel special. Anyway, back to the mommy moment, we were driving around, just the two of us, and we saw a duck in the road. And I said, "Oh look a duck..." and then I had to stop myself from saying, "QUACK, QUACK" hahaha! This made me laugh so hard and I told Kyle what was going through my head b/c here we were, two adults and I almost blurted out, "There's a duck, quack quack!" I read Tommy books with animals all the time and I always make the animal noises, well apparently it's rubbed off a little too much in my brain.

There are other things that happen from time to time that remind me I'm a mom too - like how I think about how disgusting underneath restaurant tables are, now that my son likes to kick or touch them and then put his hands or feet in his mouth. YUCK! (His hands or feet are always cleaned ASAP if I see this happen). I can't think of all the things that happen like this but I do enjoy the little reminders of how this precious boy has changed my life and role as a person.

In other news Tommy has been somewhat "stuck" in physical therapy lately. He hasn't been advancing very well - he's close to doing a lot of things but has been close for a long time. Our big goal is crawling. He's 13 months now and obviously most babies are crawling by now. But his big challenge was getting him on his hands and knees. He used to absolutely HATE it. He loves to play kneeling and he loves to be on his belly and push himself up high with his arms. But he doesn't like the two mixed. We'd get him on his knees, vertical, and then as we would bend over for him to put his hands down he would arch his back and start crying. He HATED it. And while this boy may have low muscle tone, when he doesn't like something he can fight, and he would definitely fight this. So slowly but surely, through much prayer and hard work. Our sweet boy is finally staying on his hands and knees for a long time, all by himself! I have to put him in position and have a toy in front of him to occupy his attention, but let me tell you I am one proud and thankful mama! It's one step closer to crawling. But I also know him even staying in this position for long amounts of time (by long I mean 1+ minutes, before long meant 10+seconds for this guy) will help strengthen his hands and arms. His DI explained it's very important to try and get him to crawl on his hands and knees b/c it will help a lot in the future with things like handwriting and feeding himself. Isn't crazy how all that stuff is connected and can help b/c it develops those muscles?! I'm glad there's someone around to tell me though b/c otherwise I'd have no clue.

While this may seem like a little deal, it's a pretty huge one for me. It's been a long and tedious road. It started with him tolerating being bent over & actually putting his hands down to support himself with our hand supporting his belly. Then we put a ball under his belly. And like I said he'd stay there for a few seconds and start fussing and fighting. Oh and he'd always keep his head horizontal, looking at the ground, he wouldn't lift it up for more than a millisecond b/c he felt unstable. And now the boy can stay on his hands and knees all by himself, head lifted high! I'm pretty pumped. When Tommy & I pray at night, I ask that the Lord would help him to crawl and He's doing just that. It's one step at a time.

We're pretty sure once he crawls he's going to take off though. He already LOVES to stand, he's been standing since 7 months and can now pull himself up from sitting on my lap to a toy all by himself. This little boy absolutely LOVES to be praised. He sometimes anticipates it, like when he pulls himself up to stand. Oh and another exciting thing is he is understanding so many words and phrases we say. He tries to imitate them or repeat them, but it's hard to tell if he's jabbering or really imitating - either way we eat it up. He knows the phrase, "I'm gonna get your belly" (he smiles and sometimes giggles and will block his belly). He knows, "Stand up!", "Sit down", "Push it", "Pull it", "Roll the ball", "Look at Mama" (this is usually when he's doing something he's not supposed to do, but he's very obedient and looks right at me), "Where's Dada? (or Mama)", "Turn the page" (one of his favorite things is turning pages in books and he's so good at it, he was a natural at this I can take no credit for it). Those are all I can think of off the top of my head. He does use a few signs but only when he wants to use them. He's an independent stinker. He will sometimes sign "more" & "all done". He is still a champion eater and is now very insistent he helps with the spoon when eating. Not so helpful with the bottle or sippy cup though - which I would really like him to be helpful with.  Oh and I don't know if I mentioned this in the last blog but he now gives kisses! And it's wonderful and so sweet. He's recently become more of a mama's boy and is acting bashful around people, burying his face in my shoulder when people talk to him. He is still very much a daddy's boy but at the moment he's favoring mama - I'm sure next week it will be different.

Speaking of his Dad - Kyle is now done with school until fall! YAYAYAYAY! I know Kyle is more excited about this than me b/c he's the one who has to do all the work. But I'm excited for him. Our goal (I say "our" loosely, mainly my goal) is to get rid of the cat and put up a fence this summer. I have been feeling overwhelmed a lot with having to care for every living being in our house - so we made some plans on how to make that easier. I told Kyle the reason I don't feel the rush to have another kid is b/c I feel like I already have multiple children (Kyle included of course, this boy is spoiled rotten). So rather than giving up his rights to be spoiled we came up with those solutions & I am very excited about them.

I'll keep you posted on the crawling & summer goals! Hopefully they will all happen soon :)