November kids update

Cody is a busy man and has lots of exploring in mind. He cut four teeth on the top around Thanksgiving. He was fussy but we were glad to get it over with quickly. He chatters up a storm and says several words now. They include mama, dada, dog, hot, bye bye and hi. He is waving to everyone and very out going. He loves to take things apart and is slowing learning that they go back together, most of the time.

Ani is still busy in school, although the last week or so, they have had many late days to school. Her excitement mounts each day. She ALWAYS has her nose in a book these days. It has been difficult keeping her busy since we cannot play outside so much. It is very windy in VA and that makes cool fall/winter days down right cold.

Christmas with a baby

I have so many things I was to write and often organize my thoughts in my head. getting them onto the blog has been challenging. As I watch Cody pulling up beside me, I know what little time I have now is forever changing. He will be a year old soon and there is something magical about a baby's first Christmas. I remember just watching Ani sleep that night. Thinking about Mary watching Jesus sleep and trying to take in the awesomeness of it all. When I think about what a miracle each child is, my brain cannot comprehend.

For now, I am looking forward to Christmas surprises! I have a few up my sleeve and I am anxiously waiting to see what the kids have in store for us. I think we should all put away our hustle and bustle, shopping mania, and travel blues and see Christmas as it was on the first holy night. Full of wonder, amazement, HOPE, and most of all love. Merry Christmas and more to come.

The Daily Grind

Cody is getting bigger (9.5 months) and now eating 3 meals a day. It is expensive and silly to buy baby food when I can make it myself. Or so I thought. I bought a manual food mill and some green beans and away I went. This should be a quick 5 minutes, Ha! The beans were soft as instructed but I did not get very far grinding them. After 1 hour and only 4 baby food containers full, I am heading back to return it and buy an electric. Thank you God for electricity. I do not think I could keep up with little man under my own power.

Halloween 2010

My costumes were not very elaborate this year. Fine with me since Ani was challenging the last two. We still had lots of excitement. It was actually fun to go trick-or-treating to houses we do not know. Ani had a great time doing that but also enjoyed sitting on our porch and handing out candy too. She was a very cute ladybug.


Cody enjoyed carving pumpkins. At the patch, he chose the biggest one he could scoot to. He was orange from head to toe when it was all finished. He also loved watching all of the kids and riding around the neighborhood and mall in his stroller. He was a great turtle.

I will try to post an update for each kiddo this week too. Hope you are enjoying this lovely fall weather. I hear that snow is not too far away for us. :)

Halloweens Past

Halloween is so much fun. When I was pregnant with Ani, I made a promise to myself that I would strive to do 2 things for her every year...birthday cakes and halloween costumes. I have really enjoyed creating Ani's vision over the last 6 years. She has given me many chanllenges, but I think I have managed to give her a great costume and a wonderful time in make-believe.

I thought it may be fun to visit the costumes of the past before revealing 2010. Looking at these pictures all together make me realize just what a creative kid she is and how much she has grown. Here we go...

Twenty minutes

He is so sweet when he is sleeping. The key word is when. I am not sure what to do with my little bear. He really doesn't sleep. He has been sick for over a week and I tried to comfort him by holding him, rocking and letting him sleep in his car seat. Now that he is getting better, I cannot put him down to sleep. Maybe it is a phase, or maybe I have failed him by not teaching him to sleep? I am not sure there is a right answer or that my brain is functioning well enough to figure it out. All I know is that he is not sleep and that is not good for anyone in the house.

I know that babies continue to bond until they are 9-10 months old, and we are almost there. I do not want to mess up now, for his sake. Here are things I have read....(1) Every baby goes through a bonding stage sometime between 9-12 months, the "don't leave me" stage. He does this to anyone (mom, dad, and ani) when they leave the room, even if someone else is still with him. (2) Nursing babies may not sleep as soundly as other babies. (3) There is another theory that says when they learn to be more active (he is trying to crawl and scoot around), they are more restless at night.

We have tried many times over the past few months to let him cry and it seems to make things worse. He wakes more often and cries longer each time. During the day he is much more clingy too and doesn't want to nap. The mom in me wants to go and comfort him when he cries. The sleep-deprived person in me says to let him cry and figure it out. That person loses after 2 hours of dozing off and crying in a 10-15 min cycle.

I am not complaining, but more praying and asking for prayers that we can find peace in sleep and in the day too. The humor in all of this is that I wore my shirt backwards half of the day, and it is unfortunately, not the first time.

New pictures

Cody is now 8 moths old. He is sitting up so well, eating everything in sight, babbling, and rolling wherever he wants to go. Just can't believe time is flying. I am just getting around to getting more professional pictures taken. I think they turned out great and hope you like them. Here are just a few...

Such a handsome man

He loves his big sister

My great kids

More to come soon, but Cody is calling.

Lunch

So many times I did not have time for lunch with friends. They were busy, work got crazy, or someone didn't feel good. Now that I do not have the opportunity for lunch with friends, I really miss it. Cody and I had a nice lunch today at Panera. Fun, but not the same.

My baby is growing up

My mom always said "time goes by so fast." For me as a kid, time seemed to drag so slow. Now that I have children, I just can't seem to grasp the time passing so quickly. Ani is now 6 years old and has started first grade. I am growing, and did not cry this year until Cody and I were safely in the car and pulling away from the the primary school.

It seems like yesterday, I was pregnant and we were discussing names and dreams for her. Now, I am packing her lunch, doing homework, memorizing bible verses and wishing I could really take it all in. I know I am home with them everyday, but I still feel like I am missing it. They will only be little for a short time and she is not so little anymore. She a generous, kind, energetic and curious kid. I often wonder how God deemed me worthy of raising her (and Cody).

This weekend was especially exciting. We finished the long awaited swingset, complete with monkey bars. She has had a blast playing on it. Cody even has a swing too. She played in her first soccer game and scored a goal. Wish I could say it was the winning goal, but we have a few more Saturdays to win. For her, it isn't about winning; at least not yet.


Last, she came downstairs to announce that she has a loose tooth! Yes, it really is loose this time. I do not think that it will be coming out soon, but she is working hard. For those of you that truly know me, you know this creeps me out! I did not intentionally pull a single tooth from my head. I knocked most of them out by falling, running from someone who was trying to pull it out, or by going to the dentist. I am not a "tooth" person but for her I will look every 5 minutes to see how loose it is and watch as it spins a little more than it did this morning. She is my sunshine and I do not tell her enough.

So today, as everyday, I sit and pray for her. I pray that she finds God plan and that I can guide her lovingly down her path not my path. And I try to be ok with chocolate milk, suckers, monkey bars, school bus rides, and a messy room. It will all be gone soon enough and I will miss it. I am sure to give her that hug and kiss before and after school and hang on to the Cody-bear in the middle.

She makes me laugh and makes me cry, and I love her with all of my heart! She is forever my little sweet pea.

At the Beach

To catch you up a bit, we decided to take the kids to the beach for a short family vacation to Virginia Beach. I had planned to spend a day at Williamsburg/Jamestown, the beach, and maybe a day at Busch Gardens. Well, that was too much for one trip. We ended up only spending time at the beach. It was great and Ani loved it. Cody did not. He was not impressed with water or sand, but loved to stroll on the boardwalk in his stroller.

I hope to spend more time at the beach in the future. It was relaxing and not a far drive. If anyone wants to join us, we will meet you. Lots of fun and sun for everyone!

Catching up

I am trying to catch up with my thoughts. We had a wonderful time in Utah with Nana and Papaw. Ani enjoyed school each day while Cody and I kept Papaw busy. We went up on the mountain, saw a "green show" of the Shakespeare Festival, ate ice cream, and went camping. We also celebrated Papaw's birthday a little early. It was the most fun we could pack into our week. I wish we could go more often.

Both kids are amazing travelers. Ani is so helpful and Cody enjoyed the flight (as much as a 6 month old can.) I am so proud to be their mom. I thank God for them. More later...

Home

We are home and safe. It was an awesome trip and I will post details and photos soon. Going to fix breakfast now that everyone is awake. Ani slept in and Cody whined all night. Hope the boy learns to sleep soon.

On the road

Today we are heading to Nana and Papaw's house. "Vegas baby" as Ani says. We are all very excited and looking forward to the adventures that lie ahead. Cody will have to ride on my lap and I am not sure how he will handle the confinement. He wants to go, go, go but has not figured out how yet. I am counting the days that I have left to just sit with him and play. Once he gets moving, look out.

Ani is such a great traveler and a wonderful, happy child. She has her pillow, just in case she needs to rest, and lots of things to do. She knows that I also put a few little surprises in her backpack for the plane too. Now, we wait. A few more hours until we can leave and just going to swim and hang out this morning until it is time. I am looking forward to time with Mom and Dad too. Not sure if anyone is listening, but God bless you all!

Before and After

Cody started cereal last week. At his 6 month checkup, he weighed 20 lbs 14 oz and was 28.5 inches long. He is a very healthy boy. This is just before his first bowl of cereal....


And this is after...he was not as impressed as Ani. I know he will catch on soon. After all, I'm sure rice cereal isn't all that great.

Mommy is human

Last week we loaded the kids up and headed to GA. I got to spend some time out in the field at the 2010 Bat Blitz. My friend Nikki works for GA DNR and invited us to come and participate. After 2 years of planning, it rained the first night. Bummer!

They did catch a few bats but nothing to put a transmitter on (which was my job). The skies cleared for the second night but still no bats to transmitter. This is Lee's Eco-Tech truck. We were ready for anything or going anywhere to find them. It was ok because I got to be a grownup for a few hours and Daddy got some time with the kids.

Here is a picture of getting ready and one from the top of Fort Mountain. That is a beautiful state park and well worth going back.

A first and a second

It has been quite interesting for Cody the last few days. I knew that he was getting close to cutting his first tooth. Little did I know that there were two lurking. The first one broke through yesterday and a second over night. He is making funny faces and rubbing his tongue over his bottom gums. He seems happy and Ani is so proud of her brother. She bought him some rice cereal and is eagerly awaiting the day he gets to eat it! This is a picture of his 5th month "birthday" so you can see the drool has been with us for awhile now. Such a trooper.

Cody is trying to sit alone. He has become quite a raccoon too. Grabbing everything that is remotely close to him. I am not sure how he can already reach things behind his back without looking?!

Catching up

My first post was well over a year ago. At the time, I was facing the last summer with Ani before she started school. I was excited and full of plans and dreams of swimming, sidewalk chalk, ice cream, and our wonderful garden. We planted green beans, carrots, okra, hot peppers, and a million tomatoes. I was going to teach Ani where her food came from, how to preserve it, and how wonderful it was to spend a day in the garden as I did as a child.

Plans changed as we soon found out that a second child, Cody, was on the way. Praise God! I had waited so long and now a baby. How would Ani react? She has been asking for a brother for almost 2 years now. How will I juggle two? Everyone says your heart grows and from the beginning, I could see that too. I did feel so great through this pregnancy, but here are some of the highlights in pictures from the year. I will definately do better now. It just may be random thoughts from 2am.

Here we go....

We finally made it to Yellowstone! We camped for a week with Nana and Papaw. It was awesome and I would love to try to see it again. If we can survive another trip. Ha!Ha! Those of you that know us, know this was our third attempt. I will continue to catch you up on the past year and fill you in on our new life in VA as I can.

Screaming

There seems to be a lot of screaming in my life these days. Not all bad by any means. Ani screams as she chases the dogs around the yard, as she slides at the playground, to alert us of an impending bug, and of course to get what she wants. She is very six now.

Cody screams in shear delight as he watches his big sister dance, as he can now reach the dog, or for some milk. Can't imagine a quiet house or how I have a clear thought, but I watch them grow and discover and change and want to scream myself. Just can't take it all in but am having fun trying, most days.