Saturday, January 24, 2009

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

My 1-Week Old... WHAT?

Baby Center has been a friend of mine for quite some time. My friend Elly introduced this website to me when I became pregnant. I subscribed to the weekly email updates to keep up with little Brooks as he was growing. Every week I would get an email titled "Your Pregnancy: Week 28," and so on. Once he was born, I received monthly updates titled "Your 1-month old" or "Your 11-month old." Well, just recently I was surprised to read the new title of my updates: "Your 1-week old Toddler."

TODDLER!?! Where does the time go?

Here is an update on my (now almost two-week) old toddler:


- His vocabulary consists of the following words: mama, dada, duck, goose, sit, uh-oh, dog and dude. He also mimicks things we say, words and sounds.
- He laughs at himself while he plays, I guess he cracks himself up!
- He has 8 teeth and I am almost positive he is working on his molars.
- He is officially addicted to the pacifier, but only at bed time. He doesn't really use it during the day.
- The child will eat ANYTHING! And whatever anyone around him is eating is fair game.
- He is almost walking. He has taken steps but has not taken off!
- His new thing is laying his head down on your lap just to be affectionate. He will crawl up to our dog, Goose, and lay his head on his back and will hug him until Goose has had enough. It is his way of saying, "I love you!"



- He loves to dance. Put music on and he is dancing!
- The transition from bottle to sippy cup was a breeze. He is not loving the cold milk but he is slowly getting used to it. He is not using bottles at all. He has developed a preference for Mayfield Whole Milk!
- At his one year well visit he weighed 21 pounds and was 29.5 inches long. He is in the 35 percentile for length and 25 percentile for weight which is a drastic difference from the past.
- And my favorite part of him being a one year old is his new, comfy carseat and the fact that he can sit facing forward! As you can tell, he enjoys it very much!



That is about it for now! John and I have been going back and forth about when we want to have our second child. At first we thought this summer would be a good time to start thinking about it. Over Christmas we decided we wanted to wait a little longer than this summer. Now, we are not sure. We want our children to be close in age but we are sure enjoying Brooks so much. So, we are in between right now, not sure which route we will take. But we will see!

I still need to post one year old pictures, birthday party pictures and a few Christmas pictures. So, I may do a picture post soon!


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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

A Baby Changes Everything

My sister-in-law Jill has a beautiful, solid and very clear singing voice. She sings in the praise team at our church. I absolutely love hearing her sing whether it is at church or at my very own wedding! The Sunday before Christmas the service began with Jill singing the Faith Hill song called "A Baby Changes Everything." We all know I am very emotional, but I barely got through the first verse and chorus of Jill singing this song before the tears started streaming down. Between the struggles she went through to finally become pregnant with the triplets, and the symbolism of the words to the birth of baby Jesus, it was just so beautiful. Jill got a standing ovation and I don't know how she made it through the song with out crying.

Those four simple words "a baby changes everything" are so amazingly true, in SO many ways.

By the time she got to the "Halelujah" part, it was over for me. I was absolutely bawling. I warned Jill after church to never do that to me again with out a little prior warning;)

If you have never heard this song, you can listen to it on You Tube on the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtZd8QMEkZk


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Friday, January 9, 2009

Sweet Cheeks

This very moment last year I was doing the same thing I am this year. Mopping my floor! Shopping, buying, preparing, cleaning, thanking the good Lord for Target! This very moment last year was the night before our sweet Brooks was born. I was nesting like a bird, I tell you, and my house had to be perfectly spotless before I went to bed. Nothing less than perfect for our baby.

Well, here we are again, one year later. Mopping. Getting ready for his big day and trying to make it perfect for my baby! So many emotions come over me when I look back at the day Brooks was born. In celebration of the big 0-1, I thought I would share my favorite memory of Brooks being born.

The day Brooks was born was a rainy one. I woke up before the alarm clock sounded and got in the shower. I got ready in a tizzy, afraid I would be running behind. "I can't be late for my own labor!"

On the way to the hospital I remember fussing at John because he dared to even mention stopping to get breakfast. "What, breakfast? NO!" I had been planning and preparing for this day for weeks (40 weeks to be exact) and I was not to about run behind because of breakfast.

Seeing as though I was scheduled for an induction, my very reasonable husband looked at me and said, "It will be okay if we stop at a drive through. They are not going to start with out you." To this day, I can't even remember whether we ended up stopping for breakfast. I don't remember what items I bought at Target the week before, what the house looked like when I left (although I know it was insanely clean) or what I was wearing. What I do remember is the feeling I had when I woke up in the middle of the night, after Brooks had been born.

Everyone had told me to "put that baby in the nursery and get some rest!" After all, I should take advantage of those night nurses while I had them. So being desperate and willing for any advice anyone had, I sent him to the nursery. I slept very well and very hard!

About 2:00 in the morning I woke up and remembered where I was. All of a sudden it hit me. He's here! Not in my belly, here! I had to see him. I remembered my sweet baby and couldn't get to my camera fast enough. I pressed the power button to look at the millions of pictures we had taken earlier that day. He was the most precious thing I had ever laid eyes on. Pictures were just not cutting it. Without hesitation, I jumped out of bed, put my robe on and marched myself down to the nurses station to get my baby! I remember walking down the hall so excited about seeing him again. I told them I wanted to take him back to my room. They said they would bring him to me when he was ready to nurse, but I took him anyway. I wanted him so bad, just to stare at him and hold him. He had been the little one inside me for all those months. Kicking and hiccupping and rolling around. His little face was just precious. His chubby little cheeks were so kissable. He looked just like John, but smaller! I'll never forget that feeling I had when I woke up and remembered Brooks was here! It was so exciting. It was like a kid on Christmas morning but WAY better!

Sweet little yawn, sweet little cheeks! This is where he gets his nickname from his mommy, Sweet Cheeks!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY PRECIOUS LITTLE BROOKS!

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Josh Darnell

Please keep my friend Josh and his family in your prayers. Josh was a high school friend. I first met him at Watkinsville First United Methodist Church (my old church from my childhood.) My senior year, we got to be good friends. Below is the email I received from Kelli (Miller) Magee today and she received this from another close friend of ours and of Josh's, Erin.

Hey ladies, I hope this finds you having a nice day. I have news to deliver from Melissa. Josh was involved in an explosion yesterday in Afghanistan. He has shrapnel in his pelvis and abdomen, but not near any vital organs. He has some burns on his face, and his arm was shattered. Most of these injuries are on his right side. He has had surgery on his arm and is expected to regain full range of motion in it. He has also had more surgery to clean out his wounds, and he could possibly have more surgeries in the future. He is currently in Kadahar , but they are hoping to move him to Bagram soon. He will then be moved to Germany and stateside after that to either Washington or Texas. Melissa has talked to him, and he said it could have been much worse. Two of his men were killed and many others were injured. I've attached a link from CNN about the attack. Start praying hard and pass on the word to friends and family to pray for him and his men to recover and to travel safely back to the states. I'll keep you posted on anything else I hear today and in the coming days. Love you, Erin http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/01/2009195391166694.html

Thank you, Lord, for watching over Josh. Although he was injured, we are so thankful it was not worse.

Thank you for keeping him and his wife and family in your prayers.

Sincerely,

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Thursday, January 8, 2009

So Much To Say, No Time To Do It

Well, if you are here then you received my email introducing my new and private blog! YAY! I hope you like the new blog design. My mom made me PROMISE I would make my blog private. So this is for you, Mama!

I would love to write more but I have been slammed all day. I have bride emails to return and first birthday parties to prepare! Brooks' first birthday celebration (and I say that as "cel-a-bray- chion) is less than 48 hours away. I can't believe it has been a year! I hope to post a blog tomorrow reminisicing about this very week last year. I remember it so very fondly!

Loves!

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Monday, January 5, 2009

New Blog, Coming Soon!

Let's just go ahead and give a big shout out to Jennisa over at Once Upon A Blog. Because not only is she the BEST blog designer ever, but she has totally put up with me and my crazy chain of emails today.

I love my new design that should be up soon and if ANYONE out there wants to give your blog a face lift , you should get on her list. Totally worth the wait. Right, Suzanne!? She did my cousin Suzanne's over at Steeces Pieces, so of course I picked her because I know Suzanne knows the best about the blogging world. She has been so great through out the whole process. Especially dealing with me and my indecisiveness. Even through the madness of the holiday season, Jennisa is on the ball!

I am certain and have very high hopes that this is the key to my hope of blogging more often. Stay tuned! (All five readers... ha!)

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