He did it!!!

He did it, he did it, he DID IT!!!!!!!!!!! He slept through the night!!!! I'm so excited I could just do a little jig right now (but I won't because it would look rediculous). I feel like we have accomplished some HUGE feat.....climbed Mount Everest, gone to war and defeated my enemy. Okay, that's a little drastic, but it really does feel good that we tried solving a problem and it actually worked.

He went to sleep around 10:15pm (due to my crazy schedule yesterday, he had a prime opportunity to take a little cat nap in the car at 8:15pm, so it took him awhile to get tired again). I tucked him in tight, made sure a paci was in his crib and crossed my fingers. I slept soundly until about 3:00am when I heard him rustling around a bit through the monitor and then heard him cough. I held my breath and just waited to hear the first cry. And I waited.............and waited..........and waited. And it never came!!!!!

He slept so good and didn't wake up until 8:15am!!! So not only did I get to sleep all night without getting out of bed, but I got to take a shower and get partially ready without a baby clinging to my leg :) It was a good night! Here's to hoping it continues and this isn't some fluke chance!!

8 months old

Son, you are 8 months old. All I can think is that in FOUR SHORT MONTHS, you'll be 1!!!!!!! Holy smokes. This last month has been so full of new things for you. At 8 months old, you are:

*weighing in at 23 lbs. Are you ever gonna slow down?!?

*28 1/2 inches long. All your 6-9 month pants are highwaters, so you're in 9-12 months--which are big in the waist and constantly falling down :) It drives you nuts when you're crawling.

*have 4 teeth and I'm pretty sure you're working on 2 more. The 2 on the top that have come in are on the sides, so you look like you have fangs. They're not ALL the way down yet, but they've poked through the gums. Now, I'm pretty sure I've seen the beginning of 2 little teeth coming through the top in the middle and you have started chewing on your fingers again. Oh, how I LOVE teething.

*wearing size 3 diapers. We're running into the same problem we had with the 2s. Your size 3s fit around the waist, but they're not going up high enough on your tummy and back so we're having some leakage. The next box we buy will be 4s!

*eating stage 2 baby food and I think you're ALMOST ready for stage 3. You've recently discovered beef and vegetables and I think this is your new favorite. We also gave you these rice sticks (for lack of better terminology) called Baby num-nums. We laughed at the name until you started gnawing on them saying "nummmmmmm." After the great banana puff catastrophe of 2011, I've been nervous to give any solids, but you're done well with these and crackers, so we might try the puffs again soon.

*wear mostly 9 month and 9-12 month clothes. The 9 month stuff fits you better, but a lot of the shirts are too short, so we have to go up a size. You are really hating having to wear clothes. You were in a diaper most of the summer (unless we were going out of the house) so now that it's getting cooler and we put you in clothes, you freak out. The first time I put jeans and a long sleeve shirt on you, you started pulling at it to try to get it off. Then you started trying to crawl, but you just as far as getting on your knees and then just looked at me in confusion and started crying! Hilarious!!

*crawling ALL over the place. You're so fast and when you get excited, you just laugh and crawl as fast as your little legs will carry you! It's pretty funny, but sometimes frustrating because it is SO hard to keep track of you and you can't even walk yet.

*already gravitating towards money :) We have a huge change jar in our bedroom and you do whatever you can to get to it!

*have FINALLY said mama!!! Loved it! No, you don't understand the meaning yet, but it's still so cute to hear you say.

*loving the dog. To my dismay, you giggle every time you see Brutus. Yuck. But that's okay. To each their own, right? And I swear you said dog last night when we were at your grandma and papa's house. Maybe you were just making noise, but it sounded an awful lot like DOG-UH!

*really showing your personality!! You laugh all the time (usually because you see us laughing!), but definitely let us know when you don't like something. When you're tired, you're TIRED! When you're hungry, you're not waiting on anybody. But you have the sweetest little personality most of the time. You've finally started letting us cuddle with you a little bit more and I love it.

*dancing!! It's the funniest thing. Whenever you hear any type of music, even if I'm just singing, you start bouncing and if you're standing, you grab tight to whatever you're holding on to and "drop it like it's hot!" (drop your hiney VERY low to the ground and then bounce back up again). It's so funny!! But whenever we laugh, you stop doing it, so we try not to let you see us :)

Tommy, you are the  most challenging thing I've ever done in my life. When people say they put their blood, sweat and tears into something, man is that the case with you! I love watching you grow up and it makes me sad at the same time because everything just changes SO fast. You are a lot of work, but so very worth every moment of it! Your little face is the best thing to wake up to and the best thing to see right before I got to sleep. We love you and are so excited to see the person you become!

It's my bedtime and I can cry if I want to

So lately, I've been doing a lot of questioning about Tommy's night time schedule. I'd heard a lot of people saying their babies were sleeping through the night at 6 or 7 months. And trust me, I know every baby is different, but I have to admit, I was jealous. Totally envious of parents who didn't have to wake up at 3 in the morning to feed their crying infant. Also, I was 99% sure Tommy was waking up out of habit and not out of necessity. I talked myself out of trying the "cry it out" method a million times by justifying that if he goes to sleep at 9 and wakes up at 3 for a bottle, that's 6 hours of sleeping, so just MAYBE he REALLY is hungry.

Or maybe, as my cousins Cara and Darci reminded that my aunt Becky used to say, "If someone was feeding you a steak dinner in the middle of the night, wouldn't YOU keep waking up?" Okay, point taken. But I was still really dreading it. I can handle when he's just doing a whiny cry, but if it gets to the sobbing and gasping stage, I'm a goner. And I had a feeling that's where this would lead.

So Monday night, Tommy stayed the night with my mom. She offered to take him because he has been EXHAUSTING us and no way on earth was I going to say no to that offer. Mama needs her sleep folks! And Daddy didn't mind either. Don't get me wrong, we miss him when he's gone, but it is so nice to be able to catch up on sleep. But I digress. So the next morning, I asked my mom how he slept and she was super hesitant to tell me. She avoided the question until I threatened to beat the answer out of her (an empty threat that never works, but always makes her feisty). She said she was really sorry, but that he slept through the night...........sigh. Why? He sleeps through the night every time he stays with her. But nope, not at home. So I told Nick we were going to suck it up and try to let him cry it out.

He fell asleep in the car around 8pm and slept for about 30 minutes. Then we fed him some baby food and let him play until he was worn out--which was 10:30pm. This kid has energy you would not believe. But he was being sweet and playful, so we let him stay up. We layed him down with an 8 oz bottle, which he drank ALL of....and then we got ready for the night of a lifetime. Nick got earplugs out for himself and a pair for me just in case I couldn't handle the crying. We layed down and for about 30 minutes before I went to sleep, my stomach was all twisted up and nervous. Ridiculous, I know, but I did NOT want to think about him crying all alone out there. We slept for about 3 hours before I heard the first little cry. I tensed up and tried not to move or make a sound (why? I don't know. It's not like me laying incognito a bedroom away was going to affect his crying).  I kept waiting and he just kind of whined for about 10 minutes. Then it's like a light switched on in his head and he thought, "Holy cow, they're really not coming for me." And then it happened. The full blown wailing, gasping, sad cry of a child in despair. My momma-heart was broken. I turned to Nick for comfort, but his earplugs were in and he was snoring. Oh to be a man in that moment. I started praying hardcore that he would be comforted and just give up and go to sleep. He would stop for awhile, giving me false hope that he was done and then about 30 seconds later, it would start up again. This went on for about 20 minutes. I just kept picturing this little face the whole time...........

.......being sad that his mommy wasn't coming to help him. Poor guy. But after 30 minutes total of whining and crying, he stopped! He gave up and went back to sleep!!! And this morning, he didn't hate me or be mean to me. He held his arms out to be picked up from his crib and gave me a big smile. I hope tonight he doesn't cry as long as last night. It wasn't quite as hard as I thought it would be, but I certainly don't think I can handle it for very many more nights. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that this cry it out method works!!

***And a little side story from last night that made me the happiest mommy EVER........I've had a little mommy jealously lately and worried that my kid loves his baby-sitter (aunt) and Nana more than he loves me. Monday when I sent him off with my mom, he screamed when I kissed him. Then yesterday when I picked him up, he was happy to see me, but kept reaching for her and giving her big slobbery kisses. Brooke and mom told me I was just being crazy, but it still hurt my feelings (has anyone noticed I've been totally over-emotional lately?!? :). Anyways, last night I was laying on the floor playing with him and he looked RIGHT at me and said, "Mamamama" and then gave me a huge kiss and cuddled. It totally healed my jealousy (which was stupid in the first place)! It felt so good to hear him say that, even though I know he doesn't really understand that I'm his mama and to him it's just a neat noise. Just thought I'd share that!!

Lately.....

Lately, I have been going crazy. Like, literally want to lay down, close the door and just be by myself for like THIRTY seconds kinda crazy!! Don't get my wrong, I LOVE my life, but I kinda miss the days when I could do what I wanted, when I wanted. My little guy is keeping us SOOOOO busy!

Lately, I've been seeing a LOT of this......

.....climbing on things, trying to get out of whatever he's in and trying to get into whatever he's not supposed to be in.

Lately, my kid has gone from this......

........to THIS.........

in about 5 seconds flat.

Lately, this young man has NOT been minding at all. I know 7 1/2 months old is a little too soon to have a perfectly behaved child, but due to previous incidents, I KNOW he knows what the word NO means!! And yet, he's choosing to ignore it.

The bathtub has been a prime example. He keeps trying to stand up and I keep sitting him down and saying no. So he looks at me, smiles and stands right back up. Sigh.

Lately, I've had to really stay on my toes. Because if I don't, I see a lot of this........

(yes, that's my 7 1/2 month old kid climbing the stairs)

..........and this..........

(his tail end disappearing around things--a cute tooshie, but hard to keep up with).

Lately, I've been trying to get my boy to keep his clothes ON! He's been naked all summer, so when I get him fully dressed, he pulls at everything and tries to take it off.

Lately, I have been watching my boys doing a lot of this................

..........hanging on the couch, watching football together. As much as I hate football, I'm glad they have something to do so I can get caught up on laundry and trashy reality tv shows.

Lately, I haven't been as grateful as I should be to see this little face popping over the edge of everything.

Oh my.........when I look at this kid, he's so worth going crazy over........but LATELY, I've been thinking he might be an only child ;)

Antibiotics and hotdogs

See my poor little baby's sad eyes in this picture? Awwww, so sad :( He's been extremely congested and had a really runny nose (green snot included). While he seems to be getting a kick out of licking snot off his upper lip all day, he's been tired and grumpy and sick. He screams when we touch his nose because he just KNOWS the Kleenex is coming. We've become quite good at orchestrating surprise attacks on him. We've gotten it down to an art form almost. You hold his head with one hand while you smile and say, "Oh, you're SUCH a BIG boy!! Goooooood boy!!!!" He wearily smiles and you can tell he WANTS to believe what you're saying, but he never quite relaxes all the way. Just when he starts to get caught up in the fun of smiling back, you have to use the other hand to pinch the little baby nostrils and squeeze all the snot out. He has finally given in to the booger sucker, though. He hates the wiping much more than the sucking. He sees the green bulb coming at his face and it's almost like he rolls his eyes and gives up. If it wasn't so sad to see his sick little eyes and runny nose, it would be kind of funny.

We took him to the doctor yesterday and after listening to his chest for approximately 0.5 seconds she said he didn't have an infection. But she went ahead and prescribed him amoxicillin, claritin and wants advil given around the clock. We've only given him 2 doses so far and he's already doing much better. I am so glad because he's teething on top of having all that congestion and we weren't sure if we were supposed to give cold medicine AND ibuprofen together. So this remedy seems to be helping both problems. I just love my little baby boy and I hate it when he doesn't feel good. I'm so glad he's getting better and back to his normal, happy Tommy-ish self.

Speaking of him teething, it's really quite cute :) He has two top teeth coming in. But not the two I expected. I thought the middle two would come in first, but the two side teeth (the fangs, as I like to call them) are coming in. It looks really funny! I told Nick we could just put a black cape on him and call it good for Halloween because he looks like a little vampire. I can't wait for Halloween with him. Not that he's gonna have any idea what's going on, but I think it will be fun. Now I'm on the hunt for the perfect costume. I want him to be something different--not the typical clown or pumpkin, etc. Any ideas?!? I want him to be a hotdog, but can't find a costume for his age. They're all 3-6 months. Um, don't they know some 9 month old babies want to be hotdogs too??

My Baby Boy and Me

It's three AM, they're all asleep,

And no-one's here to see.

As we rock slowly back and forth,

My baby boy and me.

His little hand is feather light,

Tucked up against my chin.

I hold his tiny hand in mine,

And stroke his baby skin.

The house about us creaks and groans,

The clock hands creep around.

He snuggles closer to me still,

And makes his baby sounds.

I love these quiet hours so much,

And cherish every one.

Store memories up inside my heart

For lonely nights to come.

All too soon he'll be grown up,

His need for mama gone.

But until then I still have time

For kisses and for song.

Time for quiet hours like this

With him cuddled in my arms,

Where I wish he'd always stay

Protected, safe and warm.

And yet I know the day will come

When his tiny little hand,

Will be bigger than my own.

He'll grow to be a man

But until then he's mine to love

With no one here to see.

As we rock slowly back and forth,

My baby boy and me.

...Author Unknown

3 short years and already a lifetime of memories

Dear 4th grade Brady: See that guy jousting with your brother at the medieval festival in the gymnasium at school? He's scrawny and a little dorky, but remember him. He'll be important in your life some day. Oh and hold onto that picture of them fighting in spray painted armor with cardboard swords--it'll really come in handy some day ;)

Dear college freshman Brady: Keep that page in your journal about how you have a crush on Nick Wilhelm but you don't think it would ever happen. You'll laugh later and realize you should've just gone for it instead of wasting 3 years! But when he asks you for advice about his current girlfriend, go ahead and give it to him. She turns out to be a loser, so don't be jealous that you're giving dating advice rather than actually dating him!

Dear 21 year old Brady: Be careful! He will come into Gambino's and tell you that you have nice legs (and believe him when he says it! Because your legs get WORSE but for some reason he really does like them!). You will fall and you will fall hard. And he will break your heart. But don't worry! He WILL be back. Stick by him and let him know you still want to be his friend. And don't worry about feeling like a stage 4 cling-on because you do that. It WILL pay off.

Dear 22 year old Brady: SEE! I told you he'd be back. He just needed a little time to grow up and realize what a catch you were ;) Don't sweat the night that he's so grumpy you think about walking away. He's just quitting smoking and didn't want to tell anyone :) He'll apologize later. Oh, and don't say anything about the cell phone on the commercial. It turns out what you're thinking is REALLY stupid and he will make fun of you for the rest of your life.

Dear 24 year old Brady: CHILL OUT!! He is going to propose. I PROMISE! But at Christmas time, go ahead and talk about how lucky the lady on the Zale's commercial is, even though you know you shouldn't be harping him about marriage and it starts a big fight. Oh, but make sure to say yes when he asks you to dinner in the middle of the fight. It's SUPER annoying and the last thing you want to do when you're fighting is go out to eat with him, but turns out he has a ring in his pocket and he gets down on one knee that night!

Dear 25 year old Brady: It does not matter if your reception tablecloths are linen or plastic. Nobody cares. Everything will get done in time for the big day and you'll have a million people willing to help. And it doesn't matter if nobody RSVPs. They'll still come, so just calm down. The wedding was beautiful and the honeymoon was even better, but the best and hardest years are yet to come. Relax while you can. Oh, and start cleaning the house now. It will NEVER be clean in the future. Seriously.

Dear 27 year old Brady: You are the luckiest woman alive. Do you realize that?!? You have everything you dreamed of in the palm of your hand. Quit waiting for the bottom to fall out of every situation. It's not going to. You and Nick have gone through a lot and surely there is better AND worse to come, but know that God is taking care of all of it, even the things you think you are in control of. Your baby won't be a baby for long and you and your husband won't have much alone time for like, 30 more years. So dive into life and make the best of everything you can! If you ever get off track, just look at this picture and know how good you have it.

So here's to 3 years of wonderful and praying for many more. It's been a beautiful ride.