9 Months

You have become such a little boy. Yes, that's what you've always been-but you are transitioning quickly out of being our baby boy. You are changing so much just in the blink of an eye. You are also on the other side of the house just in a blink of an eye. Keeping us busy for sure.

What's new in your world.

-You weigh about 16 lbs 7 oz

-You are a crazy fast crawler

-You pull up on everything and will move from one object to the next with ease-which makes us wonder how fast the 'walking stage' will get here.

-You aren't a big fan of pureed baby food. You'll eat it if everyone else is eating, but we've accepted that you are just going to be a table food baby.

-You've tried basically all the fruits and veggies there are and you're good to go there-no extra allergies. *knockonwood*

-Your tooth is coming through more and more...and sharp...you little biter.

-99.9% sure your second bottom tooth will make its appearance any day now.

-You are overall a great sleeper. You go to bed early, around 7pm, and usually sleep through the night-sometimes waking to eat and go back to sleep, and with the new steady routine of daycare with Miss Laura you're catching on to waking up between 6:00-6:30. That's great and all, because it's heartbreaking having to wake your cute little self, but then the weekends come and you are up too early, buddy! Plus your daddy starts summer break in a few days and then your schedule changes a bit too-so we'll see how that goes.

-You are easy going. as easy going as a little dude can be, I guess, but you do well with a variety of people and are usually happy go lucky

-That being said, you are very determined. You know what you want and don't want-which is good, but I do request that once you get older and more disciplining has to take place that you please let go of your strong will and be a good listener. That's a simple request...right?!

-You are awesome. We are having so much fun with you-wearing us out or not-you're curiosity and excitement for life and the simple enjoyments that life has to offer is so refreshing to us (and adults in general) and so fun to be able to experience with you.

 

I have to have some proof for you in the future when you ask 'moooom! why'd you let my hair be so cray cray?!' that I DO try to tame that tuff you rock. It minds its manners best after bath, with slightly wet hair and a bit of lotion-it doesn't last long before it breaks loose though. 

I am so excited  you get to have summer break with daddy. Super jealous-yes-but so excited. And happy that you will have times that you get to go to Miss Laura's while daddy does some projects. I think it's good for you to stay in touch there and she is so great with you I want you to keep in touch with her and your buddies there too.

Well, buddy, that's the wrap-up for 9 months. Excited for this summer with you and all the new adventures you'll get to experience and things you'll learn. Thanks for letting us tag along-we consider ourselves the luckiest parents on earth.

Upside Down

While leaning against Gary playing Candy Crush (Hello. My name is Amanda. I'm addicted to crushing candy. twentyfourseven.) he started to throw in the towel for the evening-which was fine, it was time-but his moving made me fall more into the couch and find myself in the starting phases of being upside down on the couch.

Why don't we try sitting upside down on the couch?!

Okay.

What? Okay...well, sure...lets go then.

Not sure if this picture is just extra excited about the blog topic or if it just wants to test my patience, but I give up and it shall remain excited about the blog topic.

I know it's hard to tell, but the excitement wore off fairly quickly for Garbear. The whole situation, no hesitation on his part to flip upside down, his reaction and staying that way long after he wanted just to appease me-it all had me laughing so hard. We stayed that way for almost five minutes while I took pictures. This is just two of many.

I love my husband. I love the fun (sometimes odd) moments we can have. The carefree nature we try to keep in our relationship. Love my boog to moon and back. and again. and again. and again. Right side up or upside down.

8 months

Life as we know it will never be the same. You are a mean-planking-crawling machine. Still have the best laugh out there and such a strong personality which always keeps us guessing-but thinking that's the just story line of most babies. Never a dull moment.

• You weigh 15 lbs 11.5 ounces
• Tried green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, squash, corn and bananas
• As said before, you're crawling. You turned 8 months on Wednesday and Thursday after coming home from work we had a crawling boy. You were scooting and planking for a while and within a blink of the eye you were crawling...everywhere. It's so exciting, fun, and exhausting all in one
• You pull up and stand any chance you get. Be it the crib (already lowered once and on it's way to another lowering...), person, toy box, ottomans, tv stand (get lots of 'no' and redirecting for that one...)-if you can pull up on it, consider it fair game
• You're vocal. Always have been in some ways, but finding your voice even more now
• Ornery. Definitely already have an ornery streak.
• You seem to fight sleep more, but that varies as other things, and of course it comes to mind as we have already been in your room 6+ times to place you back from standing to laying down and you're showing us your fighting side tonight for sure. 3 more oz of formula solved that problem-guess you were just hungry...our bad-you live and you learn, right?! (and in our defense you refused to eat more of the first bed time bottle so thought you had enough...gah.)
• No teeth. Just realized I haven't mentioned teeth, but you always seem to be 'teething' and having signs of that, but you are still toothless. In due time...
• You still are a great sleeper. It varies sometimes but usually no more than once a night, if even, wake up, eat, right back to sleep.

This was our most trying 'photo shoot'-so curious and such a little busy body:)

You are amazing. Being a parent is so rewarding, challenging (every baby varies so a manual wouldn't even help-and you know what they say about opinions...) and so fun. To see you exploring so much has been an awesome experience and we are excited to see you continue to grow and figure out many new things.

It's so crazy to see how much you have changed and grown. It's so fun and sad all at the same time. My little baby isn't a little baby anymore! You are a joy little man-we're so thankful we get to be your parents and anticipate all the adventures we have yet to experience with you. Love you booger.

Worry Shmorry

‘For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.’ 

2 Timothy 1:7

 It almost hit me like a ton of bricks when this verse was spoken on KLOVE during their pledge drive. I heard this on the Thursday after Easter while driving to work, just after dropping Caden off. He had been going on day five of throwing up again.

Tears come to my eyes just trying to write this. The stress and burden we carry as parents when he's sick has been overwhelming. Unfortunately for Caden he's had a good few runs of being sick.

Dairy allergy. Upper respiratory infection. Multiple stomach bugs of some sort. just.feels.never.ending.

 The snuggles were a bonus. Even big sister MJ provided some for you.

It'd be different if he just got sick once or twice. But he's turning eight months old this Wednesday and it's been multiple things-which then makes us doubt ourselves and sometimes even the Dr's. As parents, and new ones at that, we don't want to overreact and make things a big deal when it's just 'life', but we also do not want to be missing something if there truly is something wrong that we need to be seeing and help him with.

Caden is on a daily reflux medicine, and that seems to help-he normally eats like a champ-but then starting Easter Sunday for five days he could barely keep much down and when he didn't keep it down goodness did everything come up. It is so confusing and made us doubt when it's not our place to do so.

We both continued to pray and turn to God for guidance. But, to be honest, I can't fully say that I felt 'relieved' through my prayers. I still, as a mommy and control freak, held on to the control that I wanted to have over my son and his well being.

It hit me when I heard this verse. I've always told myself that Caden is God's son that we have been blessed with to raise and we need to put Caden and his well being in God's hands. That is a huge pill to swallow though. For me, I want to be in control of my life and if something needs done I'll take care of it. I'll figure it out, I'll make it work, pursue opportunities, protect and nurture my son, care for my husband, work hard at my job, budget and make sure we're smart about our money and get ourselves ahead/out of debt.

God has granted me this life to live in the first place. God has given me the opportunities in my life to pursue. God has blessed me with a child. God has favored me with an amazing husband. God has placed me in a stable job. God has provided our income. God is the source of all these things.

Who am I to question his capabilities? This is the God who saved millions of Israelites from Pharaoh. Who am I to doubt him?

I am human. Doubting in God is a sin that Satan emphasizes every stinking chance he gets-and man does he do a good job. 2 Timothy 1:7 says 'God has not given us a spirit of fear...'-our fear is derived from sin and Satan. We have doubt/fear the size of a mustard seed and Satan takes advantage of that and before we know it it's so big and great we cannot bear the burden.

I have been struggling with this and trying to remind myself daily that it is not for me to over-plan, over-think and over-worry about things that are not mine to begin with. God has given us a wonderful, happy, best-laugh-ever son and it is our job to love him, show him God's love and teach him the wonderful things of this world that God has blessed us with.

There is a much bigger picture than we can see and even comprehend. To have fear or doubt in the things that we cannot grasp or understand is only Satan taking advantage of our sinful and weak nature. I will continue to fight against that. I am knowingly stubborn...thank you mom...so let me be stubborn in my fight against Satan. Not in my will towards letting God use me.

I pray for myself, my family, and our friends that we let ourselves be open and willing to God's plan no matter how hard it may be to understand at times. He is a gracious and rewarding God-he will provide.

Amen. Amen. Amen.

My husband is amazing. He shared this, one of his favorite verses, with me after I shared this post with him. We are not perfect, by any means, but we can strive to correct ourselves and better ourselves-I love him for being my best friend and partner in that daily challenge.

Matthew 6:25-34

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Here Comes Mr. Cottontail...

Oh Easter. It came and it went, and I have meant to document it a million and one times by now. Next year will be a fun experience with Caden, this year it was just another day-minus he started a 5 day series of being sick on Easter.

Friday was a YaYa day so Gary and I both met up there after work where my sister and kids were just starting to color some eggs. Some good family time, coloring eggs, pizza-can't get better than that.

Saturday was a fun family day. We ventured out to Botanica Gardens, the bunny was weird, had a bunny beard and was about to go on break and wouldn't sit to take a picture. Oh well, not the meaning of Easter anyways right? Caden wasn't scared of the odd looking bunny either, he found it funny and that was entertaining for us to see. More so the children's garden was an 'ooo' and 'awwww' for Caden. Again, another thing that will be more fun once he gets a bit older, but it was still awesome to see him explore and see new things.

Saturday night we went to church. Basically any time is kind of bad timing to go to church for Caden. They just all fall in times that he's usually tired/almost done with the day/nap time. But the nursery/child care people have been so good and patient with you. He's always so intrigued by your surroundings, especially when other babies/kids are around so I'm assuming people watching keeps him busy-only thing is when he's at that tired stage he won't be independent. But again they've done great with Caden-and that brings so much comfort to us.

Sunday we relaxed until it was time to go to Grandma Wendy's and Grumpo's house. Little man did get sick first thing in the morning, and then another time at their house-you slept a bit and took some pedialyte but we called it an early day in hopes you would rest better at home. Honestly, the rest of the day is a blur-but overall it was a nice weekend.(You even sported an awesome bowtie-thanks to Aunt Erin! Unfortunately, it didn't survive you getting sick, but we got pictures and you look so handsome. Doesn't matter how long it lasted!)

We were blessed with such wonderful weather for it too. Of course now it's getting crazy with snow in some places, rain in others and sunshine in the rest. Odd. Life is busy. Life is good. We continue to remind ourselves to count our blessings and trust in God. Hate how we have to remind ourselves that, but as Satan would have it-he sometimes gets the best of us. Not for long though, not for long.

Happy extra-belated Easter to everyone. Cheers to springtime!