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 :)

1 WONDERFUL YEAR!!!

In 2 days our baby boy will be a hold one year old! It has been an amazing, life changing, & fast year! I don't know how many people told me "they grow up too fast" before I had Tommy but you never understand what they mean until you have your baby and the time literally flies by.

So here is what Tommy boy is up to these days. He loves to play ball & has started to make the "buh" sound a lot. It's super cute b/c he curls his lips in and closes his eyes when he does it, it looks like he has no teeth (which he only has two but still if you saw it you'd know what I mean).  He loves his mama and his dada - still not saying mama but he's starting to put his lips together to try to make the "mmmm" sound when I do it to him.  He's beginning to try and mimic us more than he used to and it's really sweet. He loves remotes, cell phones, anything with lights and music.  He loves his dog Maggie - he reaches for her to lick his hands and sometimes will talk to her to try & get her attention. He pivots when he really wants to and he'll get on his hands and knees with assistance if there's a mirror on the floor so he can look at himself and mama.  He's a tough one to make laugh and giggle, he smiles really easy, but the laughs are hard to get. So no matter what it is that I do that gets a giggle, no matter how high pitched and annoying I'll do it over and over and over again until he gets sick of it and stops laughing. He is 19 lbs and 28 inches long. Tommy loves for me to hold him and jump up and down say "BOOM". He loves his daddy's ears and mouth - he stairs at them so close until he's cross eyed. He loves for Kyle to throw him in the air. He loves to eat - we're just starting to do more real food and are going to do less baby food; which I know he'll LOVE. He uses his sippy cup for juice and now we're going to work on using it for milk. His favorite song right now is the Itsy Bitsy Spider, I tickle him whenever the "down came the rain" and then the "dried up all the rain". He loves Peek-A-Boo and initiates playing it. He loves his gloworm and tries to share his paci with him. He's really good at reaching for people. He loves older people and instantly warms up to them - smiling and reaching for them. He loves his cousin Eliza - he was originally not too interested in her but now he smiles at her and strokes her hair. Speaking of hair...he LOVES long hair. He's a pincher and a cuddler. Overall he is just a wonderful, happy, sweet baby boy. I love watching his personality coming out and I love spending time with him.

The latest update on his heart is that the hole is still there. We could see it really well on the echo this time, the cardiologist said it isn't that the hole has grown it's b/c his heart has grown. Anyway the dr. doesn't want Tommy in the hospital during RSV season so from November to April. He said he wanted to see us back in six months & I reminded him that Tommy would be 2 next April (they want to do surgery before he is 2). So he told us to come back in September and he'd take pictures of Tommy's heart & send it off to the heart board. So if the hole is still there, which medically speaking, it will be we're thinking they'll do surgery in October. But we still pray that the Lord will close the hole and perform a miracle but if that isn't His will then to strengthen Tommy and to allow the surgery to be successful and safe. We'll learn more details about the surgery when it's being scheduled. We'll keep you all updated and would appreciate your prayers. I can't think about it too much or it makes me nervous and sad but I'm thankful when I remember the Lord is sovereign and in control.

My sister Julie called last Wednesday and reminded me in exactly one week Tommy would be 1! She asked what I was feeling this time last year - I was scared & excited. I remember thinking "how is this kid going to get out?" and I just felt like I'd be pregnant forever and he'd live happily in my belly; also I wanted to know if he was a he or she and what he looked like! We watched the video of Tommy right after he was born and Kyle said "Aww it's our little blue alien!" haha poor baby had a lumpy head and was a tad blue but he was the absolute cutest lumpy blue baby in the world! (by day 2 his head was perfect) He's such a handsome boy, especially considering he looks like his daddy. We love that kid, he is a joy!

Happy Almost Birthday Tommy!

What I love about...

What I love about being Kyle's wife:

• He's a stud. I am married to one goood looking man and I love that!
• He keeps me very entertained - he makes me laugh, he picks on me/flirts with me.
• He makes me feel safe. I'm a very fearful person. Mainly I get scared at the idea of someone breaking into our house. I love how big Kyle is, it makes me feel very safe.
• I can be embarrassed around him but not be worried about being embarrassed. If I do something stupid or gross and he makes fun of me, I feel embarrassed but I don't care that I feel embarrassed because I know he doesn't really care about whatever it is that I did. And we're usually both cracking up about it.
• I can completely be myself and be comfortable with him. He knows more about me than any other person in the world, and I think that's pretty neat. He loves me despite my sins.
• He's smarter than me, which means I can learn from him. He's a very good teacher. (This ranges from things like the Bible to just being logical about every day things)
• He's made me a more laid back person. Kyle's suuuuper laid back. But sometimes a little too laid back and I feel like I feel emotions for him.
• Overall the Lord has used Kyle to make me a better person in general. He's very patient, logical, giving, kind, funny - to name a few.
• I know that he loves me. It sounds like a simple statement but that's a pretty huge thing. It's amazing to know you are loved by someone else, and especially when you admire that someone.
• I get to be a stay at home mom. He is very intent on letting me know he has no expectations of me going back to work (but he's also told me if I wanted to work part time so I could get grown up interaction he was fine with that too) - all that to say it takes a lot of pressure off of me.
• I love being parents with him. He has amazed me in the past almost 10 months to watch how he's transformed into such a loving and wonderful dad to Tommy.
• I love sleeping with Kyle. I love to snuggle. Not only that but when you wake up from a bad dream and you have your spouse next to you to hold you and make you feel safe - I greatly appreciate that privilege of marriage.
• I love watching movies and tv shows with him. We like to find shows we really enjoy (i.e. The Office, Bones, Monk, 24...) but haven't kept up with and watch full seasons of them in like 3 days!
• I love to play games with him, when I can be on his team. I don't like to play against him because I like to talk smack. He eventually talks smack back...and wins. And I get mad. But together, when I'm on his team, I win too :)
• I love that I can talk to him about the Lord and my faith.
• Date nights. Kyle takes me on a date night every Tuesday night. It was his idea that we started over 2 years ago now.
• Having him to take care of me. He provides for me, he cares for me if I'm upset or have had my feelings hurt, he is very good at taking care of me when I'm sick.
• He doesn't baby me - he doesn't give me everything I want. This is something that really attracted me to Kyle because I wanted someone who would spoil me in sweet ways and romance me but not someone who was a pansy and gave in to everything I wanted all the time. And I love this because this is what challenges me and helps me to change me for the better.
• And I love that I could keep this list going, but I'll stop...for now.

What I love about being Tommy's mom:

• Showing him off to people because he's the cutest and sweetest baby boy in the world!
• How he knows my face and my voice.
• The way he smiles when I say certain words like what, who, how, sing, jump...
• Holding him when he sleeps.
• Seeing him do something for the first time. Oh man I get suuuuper excited! It's kind of ridiculous.
• Watching him change so much as he's growing - his face looks so different then it did when he was first born.
• How much more grown up and confident I feel now that I am responsible for this little life.
• How it has grown my faith and reliance upon the Lord. Never have I understood better that the Lord is sovereign.
• When he falls asleep while I'm holding him and I walk back to his bedroom and I catch a glimpse of him asleep on my shoulder in the hallway mirror. I LOVE this. I always loved when I'd see parents in public and their kid had fallen asleep and they were carrying them. Aw it melts my heart, it seriously is a little dream come true. Sounds dumb I know, but I can't get enough of it.
• Of course - HIS LAUGH! His laugh is by far the most wonderful sound my ears have ever heard - it cracks me up.
• Watching how much Tommy loves his dad and his puppy Maggie. He's crazy about them.
• I love that he's mine. As much as everyone else loves on him and plays with him - he's coming home with Kyle and me!
• How good of a baby he is. I pray our future children are as easy and fun as he has been.
• Watching him sleep.
• Watching him get startled and cry. You think I'm mean by saying that but if you seen it, you know it's one of the funniest and cutest things you've ever seen. He has a very delayed reaction when he gets startled (which usually happens when a man laughs loud) - his eyebrows go up, stretching out his face, his lower lip slowly comes out, then he squinches his eyes and lets out a high pitched noise that sounds like a tea kettle boiling! Oh man I'm laughing thinking about it. But it is sad too.
• Waking him up in the morning and from naps - he is all smiles! All he has to do is hear your voice, he doesn't have to see you, but once he hears you he is smiling ear to ear.
• I love that he needs me.
• I love that I truly feel that I am serving God's purpose for my life.

And the list goes on...

Thank you Lord for my family! I am so very blessed!

AAAAAH!

Sometimes I LOVE being a mom so much it makes me want to SCREAM! In a happy and excited tone!

But who could resist such a feeling when you have this little guy as your son! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

What's been happening...

Well there's been a lot going on since the last post. Tommy is now a champion roller - he's been rolling back to belly since November & has just started using this new skill to try & get different places.  He's a little peanut for his age, I'm not sure of what percentile he is in but I know he's small - but right now it will help me when it comes to carrying him around.  He can sit all by himself but doesn't prefer to, he usually throws himself back b/c he wants to be able to grab his feet.  His feet are by far his favorite thing, he likes to eat his toes. Tommy has become even more social, he's sharing more smiles with family members and friends. He wants to crawl and talk REALLY bad! He's making all kinds of noises and chatting without real words. When it comes to being on his belly he holds his head up high but can't get his legs up at the same time.  So what he does is he lays his head down and then gets his legs up but can't get his head back up.  I feel so bad for him when I watch him do it b/c you can tell the wheels are turning in his head like "What am I doing wrong here? It's not working." He'll get it soon enough.

Christmas was absolutely wonderful! Every year we go to St. Louis for Christmas (job permitting) to see Kyle's family b/c it's their big holiday, and we spend every Thanksgiving with my family b/c it's our big holiday.  So we celebrated with my family on the 20th and it was so much fun. It's definitely more fun to celebrate before Christmas, rather than after, b/c then everything is over and all the excitement has passed. But my mom was so sweet to make my favorite meal, she makes these fancy/yummy sloppy joe type sandwiches, with her delicious macaroni and cheese! MMM! And she made ham delights - another one of her top requests from Kyle and my oldest sister Jennifer. I love food so this made me very happy! We opened our presents and gave our presents to family.  Tommy was spoiled rotten - he got lots of cute clothes, books, tons of penguin stuff, your baby can read dvds, and lots more. That night Tommy spent the night with my parents; we plan on making this a tradition so my parents can get special time with him since they don't get to see him Christmas day. My mom loved having him and has already asked when he can stay again. I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would - I feel more of a purpose taking care of him and I missed waking him up in the morning b/c he's always so happy and sweet. But it was definitely nice to have time with just Kyle and me.

Our trip to St. Louis was really fun too; the drive there and back were great - no road work, no big delays - that always makes everything nicer. I felt bad for Tommy having to sit in his seat all the way though, but we stopped once to eat and feed him and play with him. He traveled really well. I love getting to see Kyle's family in St. Louis - I miss my family a lot but I'm thankful we get to see them so much through out the year.  I told Kyle I would hate if I didn't like his family, it would be so difficult to be away from my family if that were the case. But thankfully his family is really loving and fun to be around.  Tommy got some more good presents, some toys, cute ugg boots, a music and picture night time machine, more clothes, his first piece to his first train. 

The only thing I didn't like about Christmas is that I didn't remember to be thankful for Jesus being born. I thought about it a ton during the week and was so thankful in my mind and heart but on the actual day, there was so much to do and we were having fun with family, that I didn't even stop to think about the real meaning until the late hours of the night.  Kyle and I were trying to be so intentional about the way we celebrated but we failed this year.  We did read Luke 2 that night in bed and it's a sweet memory that I'll always cherish for Tommy's first Christmas. Just as I got in bed to read with Kyle, Tommy woke up in his pack & play.  So I figured he wanted to hear it too (and we intended to read it with him earlier in the day but it didn't happen). I got Tommy out of bed and put him in our bed between us and Kyle read Luke 2. It was pretty great. We let Tommy lay with us for a little bit and then put him back in his bed.

Next year we will have to change the way we're "intentional" about remembering the real meaning of Christmas. We want to have sweet traditions that Tommy can look forward to & that will help him to understand what we're celebrating.

On another note - Kyle is now working part time so he can go to school more & ultimately finish quicker. Right now it's really fun b/c he isn't in class so Tommy and I are getting lots of quality time with him.  And it's such a blessing for me to watch Kyle be with Tommy; they really are good buddies already and I'm so thankful for how great of a husband and father Kyle is.

2010 was an amazing year and will always be embedded in my memory. It brought with it the sweetest baby boy, a whole new role in my life, the feeling of being a "grown up," and so very many moments of joy! To God be the glory!

50 Free Cards from Shutterfly What What!!!

So Shutterfly has this amazing offer to get 50 free Christmas Cards if you're a blogger and you post about the offer. Ever since I saw a friend's blog post about this I've been checking out their cards, and let me tell you, they have some super cute stuff! My favorites are in order as follows.

My favorite is the “Rejoice the Lord is King” because it is centered around the Lord. And also because this fact, that the Lord is King, has been of the greatest encouragement to our family this year. I think the Lord has matured me more in this year of my life than ever before. He has reminded me in both challenging times and joyous times that He is in control. And I am so thankful that He is! The Lord is on His throne!

My second favorite is the one with the last name initial in the middle. I think this one is very classy and elegant. It's one people could keep on their fridge and it would look cute all year round, not just at Christmas. That's why I prefer it in the color black over the red design.

And my third favorite is the one with the polka dots. I like this one a lot, but I don't think Kyle would. He might think it's not manly enough. But I love the colors and the polka dots. I think it's very festive for Christmas.

We're going to use the family pictures that Cara Croft took for us in the card. I'm sooooo excited to put the card together. This is an extremely generous offer from Shutterfly and I'll explain the process of what you do. First you go to this link: http://bit.ly/sfly2010 and fill out the information. Then in a couple of days you get an email that tells you what to do. Then you write a blog of 200+ words, follow the instructions, and they'll email you the promo card.

Some of the other neat things Shutterfly offers are things like, desk calendars, personalized thank you notes (with pictures, I saw the wedding thank you notes and thought that was such a cute idea), and of course they have many different styles of Christmas cards. Here are some links to get you to these products:

calendars:

http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars

thank you notes:

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/thank-you-cards

Christmas Cards:

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

I hope you're able to take advantage of this great deal too! Thanks Shutterfly!

Shutterfly's 50 Free Holiday Cards with Blog Post

I am so thankful to have some beautiful family pictures taken by Cara Croft. And now there is this awesome opportunity to get 50 free Christmas Cards from Shutterfly if you post about them on your blog. I have seen it on several of my friends' blogs and that's how I heard about it. Can't wait to pick them out and order them. Thanks Shutterfly for such a wonderful gift!