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Friday, May 27, 2011

The big 4!!!

Well son, you have hit the 4 month old mark! You are officially one third of a year old. Wow.......where does the time go?!? You are growing like a weed and mom can't believe all the things you're doing!

At 4 months old, you are:

*weighing in at 17 lbs 11 oz. Holy smokes son!!! Dad is convinced this will make you the number 1 pick for the football line up :) He has dreams and visions of you blocking and tackling and making it to the NFL. Mom has visions of you getting concussions and breaking bones.

*27 inches long. Gonna be tall like daddy!

*wearing a size 2 diaper. Man, we go through those things like crazy. I never believed people when they said to stock up on diapers, but with the next one, we'll start buying as soon as we find out we're pregnant!

*laughing like crazy! It used to take a lot of work to get a giggle out of you, but now you laugh when we tickle you or talk funny. It's really funny because you laugh, but your face doesn't smile! It's crazy, but very cute :)

*have slept through the WHOLE night twice. Mom started laying you down by yourself when you get sleepy instead of holding you until you fall asleep and you've done GREAT with that!! Then I tried just giving you your binky instead of feeding you when you wake up during the night because I was starting to think you were eating out of habit rather than hunger and it worked!!! I put your binky in and you were right back to sleep!

*rolling over from back to tummy and starting to roll over tummy to back. It's silly how proud I get when you roll over. Geez, imagine when you actually do something HUGE!! I'll probably break into tears and call the newspaper to have them print a story about how wonderful my son! I'm not kidding........it's THAT dramatic.

*talking and talking and talking!! You just coo and scream and holler for 30 minutes at a time. You have the best conversations with mom and dad. It's so cute!

*have eaten your first taste of rice cereal. Mom thought it was going to be this cute, fun little video opportunity..........WRONG!! It's actually a very sloooooowwww and messy production. You have this obsession with your hands, so you stick your fingers in your mouth WHILE you're eating cereal and then proceed to rub your fingers on any surface you can get your hands on. Oh brother. You like it, but only if I can get it in your mouth fast enough. I think it makes you mad that you don't get the constant flow like you do with a bottle.

*keep gagging yourself!!! It's the weirdest and most frustrating thing EVER!! As mentioned about, you LOVE your hands. You always stick your 2 fingers from your left hand into your mouth and cram them so far down there that you gag. And then you cry because you're gagging, so you suck on your fingers to comfort yourself and..........are you seeing the cycle here?? We're working on it :)

*still drinking 4 oz bottles, but it seems that's not gonna be enough for very much longer. You drink 4 oz and seem fine, but then you get hungry sooner--so you're eating like every 2 1/2-3 hours instead of 4-5. Oh my.....I can't imagine our grocery bill when you're a teenager.

*make the funniest faces!!












*are obSESSED with your daddy. Like, stare him down until he looks at you obsessed. He'll come home from work and when you hear his voice, your little feet start kicking and you turn your head towards his voice. Then when he talks to you, you just squeal and giggle and smile. It's pretty cute, but is really making me hope the next one's a girl or mom's gonna be lonely :( I see a LOT of father/son time in the future.

*have been to your first graduation!! Your auntie Brooke (aka mom number 2) graduated. Your face in the picture below is pretty much the way you looked the whole time.

****Thomas James, you are the light of our lives.....corny, but true. Your little smile brightens my day and even when you frustrate me, I look at your tiny little face and see the work of God carved into every corner of you! I love you when you laugh, when you cry, when you smile, when you spit up, when you put your sweet little hands on the sides of my face, when you poop, when you rip my hair out with your chubby fists and even when you pee in fresh bathwater. You are growing so fast and I want so badly for time to stand still, but I also want to know what kind of person you're going to be and what you'll look like as you grow. Stay sweet my baby boy. We love you!

Friday, May 13, 2011

My 1st Mother's Day

Well, for a 1st Mother's day, I would say Sunday took the cake. It was such a great day!! Saturday night, Nana asked if Tommy could stay the night with her for HER mother's day gift. I said yes and was kind of happy and kind of sad about it. Happy that I would get to sleep through the night, but a little sad that I wouldn't get to see my little guy as soon as I woke up. But Nana REEEEEAAAALLLLY wanted him to come over, so I let him go. And I DID enjoy my Saturday evening. I got to do some long overdue crafting I've been dying to try but is next to impossible to get done when I'm constantly being interrupted to feed him, burp him, change his diaper, find his binky, make his music bug sing, etc.

You mom's know how it is!!

I finally figured out all the felt flower tutorials I had been watching and made a few cute hair clips and headbands. Then I slept through the whole night although I did wake up once at about 4:00am out of habit. But rest assured, I QUICKLY went back to sleep! I got up early and got ready for church in record time. By this point, I was ready to hold my baby boy!! We went over to my mom's and picked her and Tommy up and headed to church. He was so good! He always is, but for some reason I always worry that he's going to be loud and noisy. And then I stop and think, even when I hear someone else's baby, it doesn't bother me or make me mad, so why do I worry about it so much?!? Who knows.

Anyways, after church, we went to lunch at Gambino's with my momma. Then we went out to the Raft ( a private pond where Nick's parents park their camper year round) and they made fajitas. We were outside most of the time and even though it's early May, it FELT like mid June. It was a scorcher!! Tommy did great until about 2 hours in and then he got hot and tired. We both welcomed an excuse to go into the air conditioned camper, so I fed him and then we caught a little cat nap. The best part of my day BESIDES spending it with my two favorite guys was getting my first Mother's day gift/birthday present ( I have a feeling I'm going to get a lot of those since my birthday is always close to Mother's day)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got a Sony Bloggie Touch!! It's a video camera that takes pictures too.
I just KNOW he LOOOOVES all of mommy's kisses!


I haven't quite figured out how to download the videos, but I love having a video camera. And you can take a picture WHILE you're taping. LOVE IT!! And now I'm going to share a few more pictures that explain WHY I love being a mother so much!




I mean, really. Are words really necessary after you see those squishy lips?!?

Hope you all had a great Mother's Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Because He lives!

I went to church on Sunday with kind of a bad attitude. I was tired, grumpy, stressed, wishing I wasn't "committed" to going to church so I could stay home with my family and do NOTHING all day. It seemed like it took FOREVER to get ready and get all of Tommy's stuff together and I get frustrated with myself because it seems like no matter how hard I try, I can't get anywhere on time. Nobody's fault but my own, I know. Anyways, I sped to Towanda and picked up my cousin Whitney and got to the church as fast as I could. Luckily, we got there on time and got to our seats before anything started. Tommy was wide awake and I was stressing out and hoping he would stay quiet and not throw any tantrums during the service. We sang a few songs and had greeting time and went through all the mandatory "Nice to see you" and "Good morning! How have you been?" stuff. The whole time I'm smiling away to the rest of the congregation, I'm faking it and thinking about how warm my bed was and how annoyed I was with life at the moment. I sat through the service and nodded my head at all the right parts and closed my eyes when we prayed, not really feeling anything that day because apparently, I had decided to give the day to Satan as soon as I opened my eyes (WHY DO I DO THAT?!?!). Towards the end of the service, Chris said something significant (can't remember now what it was unfortunately) that woke me up a little bit and started to make me feel a little convicted and repentent of my attitude. And then..........we sang THE song. It's a song we sing that when I was pregnant, made me cry every time. It really makes me stop and think about my life. It's an old hymn called Because He Lives. There's a verse in there that says:

How sweet to hold a newborn baby
And feel the pride and joy he gives
But greater still the calm assurance
This child can face uncertain days because He lives
 
Talk about a song that takes your breath away. I've always known and appreciated the fact that Jesus lived and died for MY sins and that is a concept that is amazing to me. But since having Tommy, the things and sacrifices that people do for me become SO much more significant when they're doing it for my child. Yes, Jesus died for my sins and for that, I will forever be grateful. But knowing He died for my baby's sins and because of His life, MY baby can face uncertain days.........THAT is something that makes me want to fall to my knees and praise Him. I have heard of a mother's instinct but until you are one, you can't truly grasp what that means. With everything inside of me, I want SO bad to give Tommy a life full of love and joy and happiness and everything he could ever want and to protect him from pain and sorrow and death and misery. I don't ever want to think about him going through difficult situations--But greater still the calm assurance MY child can face uncertain days because He lives. On K-Love today, someone said that their mother once told them that Jesus loved them more than she ever could. And I honestly thought in my head for a fleeting moment, "There's no way anybody could love Tommy more than I could--even Jesus." Seriously, Brady?!? Yeah, did I mention that thought was fleeting? :) God quickly convicted me and let me know I was wrong. And I KNEW that but that's just my first instinct is that as Tommy's mother, I  do the most, know the most, care the most and love him the most. How foolish of me. For as much as I love Tommy, God's love for him is multiplied by a million as is His love for me. Let's just say that song pulled me out of my funk and made me hold my baby a little bit closer. I am going to try to wake up each day and mentally give my day to God. God never promised that as Christians we would have easy lives. But He does promise that no matter what we go through, He will be right beside us.