What do you do when it's 70 degrees in January?

Go to the park, of course!












- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Let the "real" parenting begin

We've seen quite a bit of this the past couple of days...
Gray has been going through some serious separation/spoiled-ness lately. I truly do believe some of it is separation anxiety but it either turned into spoiled/not getting what I want, when I want it episodes or has been accompanied by it. Whenever we leave the room he freaks out but lately it hasn't gotten any better even when we come back into the room and he sees and hears us. That isn't good enough. He wants to be held. Like ALL the time! I realized we had been giving in way too much and in return, it was only getting worse. If I sit down next to him while he is playing on the floor but I don't pick him up, he throws his arms at me and nuzzles his little face into my chest as if to beg for me to hold him. As sweet and cute as it is, I know that to some degree that isn't healthy for him or for us. So we decided as long as we knew he wasn't in any pain and he could see us, we were going to have to let him just cry it out and deal with it. Friday was going to be day one of that plan. I dreaded it. But then Daddy got home from work early because of the ice storm, which meant I'd have some support with it. Thank you God! There was a whole lot of crying, turned to screaming, going on but he got himself together a lot faster than I thought he would. As soon as he quit crying and started playing by himself, we verbally praised him and clapped for him. Then soon after we went over to him, sat next to him first and as long as he didn't start crying again, we'd pick him up for a few minutes. Just a couple of weeks ago he was doing so good with independent play time and we want to get back to that. I don't want him to be spoiled and too dependent on others, although I know he is a baby and these things are normal and he does have emotional needs. It's such a fine line and I know we will make many mistakes with teaching and disciplining him but we are going to try our best every day to do what's best for him and us.

We did the same thing Saturday and Sunday and though there were a lot of tears shed, he is already doing so much better. He has cried some, but gets over it quicker and has played a lot more by himself. I am hoping we can get back to better independent play time again soon.

It's scary how hard things are and he is only seven and a half months old. I know we haven't seen anything yet but we are praying daily for God to give us wisdom on how to deal with these challenges as they arise. Discipline is certainly not the most important aspect to raising our children, but it is high on the list. Our main reason for that is that we feel like if our children don't respect and obey us, they won't respect and obey God or anyone else for that matter. Some people probably think we are too harsh in our views and even the way we are already choosing to parent Gray but I think children are smarter than we give them credit for sometimes. At seven months, I am certain that Gray was learning that every time he cried, we would pick him up or feed him faster or give him another toy. My own nephews joke about how mean we are and how our kids aren't going to like us. But I am hoping for the opposite. God disciplines us because He loves us and knows it's what's best for us. We feel the same way about Gray.

We have a tough road ahead of us on the parenting end, as do all parents. But I am thankful to be a mama and wouldn't trade it for anything on earth!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A long weekend in paradise

We spent Saturday through Tuesday at Topsail Island. A friend of Paul's dad is a builder and is often is generous enough to give his parents a week at one of his beautiful, monstrosities of a house...
It's right on the beach and all you have to do is turn your head to get this view when you wake up every morning...
We couldn't have asked for better weather. Sunday we sat on the deck in t-shirts and the hot tub was almost too hot to stand. We took a long stroll on the beach and even saw dolphins swimming in the ocean. As many times as I've been to the beach, I never seem to get over how amazing and beautiful it is. Surely it's at least a little bit like how heaven will be one day. Anywho, we let Gray sit on the beach after our long walk. He loved it but of course wanted to eat the sand.

Monday we went into Wilmington for lunch at one of my favorite places on this earth to eat. It's a Mexican restaurant but it's very fresh and authentic and different from any that I've ever been to. They have these rolls that are like sushi but wrapped in a tortilla. They will seriously make you want to smack somebody, as my husband would say.
Gray was such a good boy at the restaurant. In fact, he is so much better out and about than at home (if he can fall asleep at some point for a cat nap). He loves looking around and LOVES the people. He is such a social little guy. I love that about him and hope it continues to be a personality trait of his.
After lunch Nana and Grandpa took us shopping. They bought Gray a few things on the Ralph Lauren sale rack along with next year's winter coat. The only way our children will ever wear Ralph Lauren is if it's a hand me down or Nana and Grandpa insist on buying it. But dang how cute is this sweater?
We headed back in time to take a few more pictures on the beach before it got dark. It was freezing and extremely windy by that time and I'm pretty sure that earned us a "parents of the year" award for having our baby on the beach during such conditions, all for the sake of some pictures. But Gray was as happy as ever and we managed to get a few good pics of our handsome man, so I'd say it was worth it.

We may or may not have taken over 100 pictures while we were at the beach. Here are a few for your enjoyment...
We had planned on leaving mid-morning on Tuesday but made a last minute decision to go to Wilmington one more time with Paul's parents on our way out. We were happy with that decision since they were filming the show Revolution where we decided to shop. They were filming in my cousin's neighborhood back before Christmas and they literally sat on their front porch and watched the filming. They also got pictures on the set and with Miles, the main character of the show. Paul was hoping for the same but instead he settled for a picture with Charlie. Gray did the best yet in the car on the way there and back. He slept about an hour and a half each time and the whining was kept to a minimum. Sleeping the first night was pretty rough. He went down without much of a fight because he was so tired, but he woke up a little after midnight and was up off and on for almost 3 hours. He seemed scared, his cry was different from how it is at home but similar to how it was when we were at Paul's parent's over Christmas. We'd get him settled down but as soon as we'd put him back down he would freak out. We finally had to let him cry it out and it broke my heart into. He woke up a happy baby though-I am so thankful he doesn't remember those rough times. The next night he went down good again but woke up about 45 minutes later and cried for about 15 minutes but then slept the rest of the night. And by the third night, he went down great and slept through the entire night! That was the first time sleeping through the night away from home and we were so proud. He did, however, decide that the beach was a great time to change his wake up time from 7:30 to 6:00. How could I complain though when I had the sweetest boy and most beautiful view?!


I can't wait to see Gray at the beach this summer when he is crawling and/or walking around. I sure hope he loves the beach even half as much as his Mama does!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

If this doesn't make your day...

Then I don't know what will.

I posted this on Facebook two weeks ago but now that I know how easy it is to put videos on my blog through my blog app, I thought I'd post it here too. Gray says you can thank him at any time for making your day ;)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Showing off some new skills

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Gray's first snow

I was so excited with the anticipation of 3-6 inches of snow that they were calling for us to get on Thursday night. School was called off before the rain even turned into snow and knowing Daddy would be home on Friday just added to the excitement. We didn't end up getting much snow at; it didn't even completely cover the ground at our house but it was sure better than nothing. We bundled up baby boy and headed out for some fun and pictures the next morning. Gray loves the cold weather so he was squealing and kicking as soon as we got outside. We didn't let him stay out long because it was freezing and he's had a little bit of a snotty nose thanks to some teething. Plus he kept trying to eat the snow ;)
Our sweet snow baby...


I love how chunky he looks in this picture...



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

We've got a clapper!

And it's one of the cutest milestones yet! Gray just decided it was time to put his hands together the other day. As many times as we have clapped to him and tried to get him to copy us, the first time he clapped he did it randomly and on his own and we barely even caught him doing it. And by the next day he was clapping all of the time. It is so stinkin cute!



This morning he woke up crying (and I'm thinking he must have been awake for a while and we just hadn't heard him yet because this baby wakes up happy 9 times out of 10) and when I got the monitor to look at him, he was crying and kicking his feet, mad as heck that no one had come to his rescue yet but he was clapping at the same time. It was hilarious!

Here is baby boy clapping while holding some plastic to Mama's nursing pads.



Two things in this picture you need not judge. One is the unmade bed. Most days I'm doing good to have the bed made a few hours before we get in it at night. The other is the fact that Gray is playing with the wrapper to my nursing pads. He loves the sound of crinkling paper and plastic and as long as he isn't putting it in his mouth, I'm all about a free, random "toy" from around the house. Another favorite right now is the lid to his puffs. Hey, whatever keeps him content, right?!

And a final funny clapping story...we are in the car heading to the beach as I write this (which would be a great time to interject and mention how much I am loving being able to blog from my phone). Gray woke up from an hour and a half nap (in the car-woot, woot!!!) and literally the second he opened his eyes he start clapping.



I can hardly stand the cuteness!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Rain

It's been raining for 4 days straight now. I'm not saying I wouldn't prefer a warm, sunny winter day over a cold and rainy one, but I can't bring myself to complain about it either. I have God and Kenya to thank for that.

My eyes have been opened to severe droughts and what it means for the beautiful African people. It means their life. It means their children won't get supper. Or breakfast. Or supper the next day. It means they watch their children starving, some to death, and there isn't a thing they can do about it. There is no packaged or processed food or a grocery store to buy it from if there was any.

Most likely, no matter how long we go without rain, it's not going to determine whether Gray gets to eat or not. Every other Facebook status I read is a complaint about the rain and I've said it myself before too so I am certainly not claiming to be better. I've just been blessed enough to see another part of this world and with God's grace, have a different perspective because of it.

If this rain were in Kenya right now, all the people would be out dancing in it, shouting, singing and thanking the Lord that it would help the crops and in return, they would get to feed their children.

So thank you Lord for the rain that you're giving us and please send some to Africa too!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

7 months

Gray had an awesome seventh month of life. Other than some occasional teething, he spent it a very happy boy. He continues to grow and change so fast, often seeming like each day is so different from the one before.

Warning-this is a very long post. Apparently there was a lot about this month that I felt like I was going to want to remember one day. I'll get straight to some pictures in case some of you don't care about all of these 7 month details, although I can't imagine why that would be the case ;)




At 7 months Gray Christopher...

Is sleeping great (at home, of course). He has been going to bed earlier-usually 7:00 or 7:30 at the latest unless we have a weird day and his second nap is later than usual. He sleeps at least 12 hours and sometimes will surprise us with 13. There have been just a couple of times that he has woken up around 6:30 but we have always gotten him back to sleep-thankful for that! Most of the time I have to wake up half way during the night to pump. After I catch up on my blog reading, I watch him sleeping on the monitor. The other night he woke up and played for almost half an hour. He never made a sound and when he was done he just rolled right back to his tummy and went back to sleep. There is no telling what that little booger is up to while we're asleep. Naps are going pretty good. He rarely puts up a fight when going to sleep anymore but he has only been napping about an hour and a half at the most. If we are out and he goes down a lot later than usual, he will sometimes sleep two or two and a half hours but that's even a rare surprise. He takes his first nap around 10:30 or 11:00 and his second one around 3:00 or 4:00. I know it will be a while still, but I will be so glad when he is down to one nap a day so we can stay out and about longer.

Said his first word!!! He is talking all the time and it's starting to sound more like real words instead of just baby babble. Last week he started using his B and D sounds so we tried to get him to mock us saying "Dada" and sure enough he did! Of course we know he didn't have a clue what he what saying or associate the word with Paul, but it was still very exciting and just the sweetest sound. He says it a lot now but it's usually when he is holding his paci or a toy and talking to it. I have started doing a little bit of sign language with him. I know it will be a while before he picks up on it and I may not even always remember to be consistent with it but I thought it was time to start. We are just going to do four signs-please, thank you, more and all gone.

Is very close to crawling, I think anyway. I guess it could be another week or another month or so but he is sure wanting to bad! He can push up on his arms but hasn't gotten up on all four by himself yet. He is sitting up without any assistance but when he sees something he wants, he topples himself over to try to get it and gets frustrated pretty quick when he can't get to it.



Is eating three meals of solid food a day in addition to nursing every 3-ish hours (or when he wakes up and before he goes down for a nap). He loves to eat and gets so excited when he gets in his high chair. I try to put him in his high chair a couple of times a day when I am in the kitchen doing things so he doesn't only associate it with eating. He eats oatmeal and fruit in the morning and then a fruit and vegetable for lunch and dinner. So far the only thing he hasn't liked was jarred baby food meat and this is what he thought about that...


We still give him a bottle at night and he is drinking 8 ounces now! I started giving him puffs about a month ago and he loves those too. One of my biggest fears as a mama is choking so when I first started giving them to him I broke them into about 4 pieces. Now he Mama can handle an entire puff at a time. He loves to pick them up but can't quite get them into his mouth yet because they are so small and get stuck in his little fingers. It's so cute to watch the look on his face wondering where it got off to after he picked it up ;)

Still loves Sophie and his feet! Other favorite toys include an alphabet and animal sit and spin (a hand me down favorite from the Sowers), a crawl ball and anything else that lights up, plays music or fits in his mouth.



He is still loving books and being read to. He has a new favorite truck and tractor book that his Mugger got him for Christmas. He is slowly but surely getting over his exersaucer and I know when he starts crawling that big guy will be sent to storage. Which reminds me to mention that we are taking his swing to be stored at my mom's this weekend too. That was a sad one for me to let go since he spent so much time in it as a baby but he hasn't been interested in it for a long time now. I noticed before Christmas that he was getting tired of his toys quickly and was getting very fussy during play time. I wasn't even paying attention to the fact that when he'd fuss or get bored, I would just keep giving him new toys until eventually there were 15 toys around him and he was still unhappy. Nana and Grandpa let us bring home Paul's old toy chest so we have stashed all of his toys in there and I have started rotating just a few toys out each week. We do not want a spoiled child who does not know how to entertain himself unless he has something new in front of his face every few minutes, or even every day. Dang this parenting business is no joke!

Is going to be a lefty! He uses his left hand almost all of the time and I will be very surprised if he turns out to be right handed. My brother is left handed but neither Paul or I are. It will make him even more of a stand out athlete :)

Started taking big boy baths with Daddy and LOVES it! He splashes so hard that we have to put towels down everywhere in the bathroom. Although he is sitting up without assistance, we haven't let him take a bath without his baby tub or Daddy because he tries to dive face forward in the water and bathing him while trying to avoid that is quite the task.

Is still wearing 9 month clothes and size 2 diapers.

I really can't wrap by head around the fact that our boy is more than a half a year old now. I joked with Paul the other day that I might as well start planning his first birthday party because that time would be here in the blink of an eye. If it weren't for the last 7 months, we might be a little more rested but we sure would have missed out on a whole lot of joy. I can't even imagine life without our sweet Gray.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Christmas 2012, part 2

We headed for Sneads Ferry around 10:00 the day after Christmas. We purposely waited until close to Gray's first nap time in hopes of him sleeping some in the car. And he did! He also whined quite a bit too but it was nothing terrible. We did the same thing coming home too and he even took two naps! He is getting to be a much better traveler and we are so thankful!

The night we got there we had a huge seafood feast. The seafood is fresh out of the water, which makes it even better! Oysters were the only seafood I used to not like but that changed once I became a Hicks. When they are fresh and cooked over a fire, it just doesn't get any better.




Gray fell in love with Jack and Dixie (Nana and Grandpa's boxers) from the second we got there. Dixie was just concerned Gray would take her spot on the couch but Jack felt the same way and they shared several toys, hugs and even a few smooches.




Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Laura had to leave the next day so we soaked up some good time with them that afternoon and evening. We talked and laughed, oohed and aahed over Gray's cuteness and then opened more presents. Gray got even more clothes, books and toys, including his first basketball goal and Jack in the Box-Sock Monkey style.





Paul's parents gave me a super cute scarf and some jewelry and a very generous and exciting gift of my blog in a book. Jonathan and Laura broke the rules of "we aren't exchanging gifts this year" and got us a canvas of our little family. I LOVE canvases and it's one of my favorite pictures from Gray's 3 month photo shoot. I guess we won't be too mad at them for breaking the rules ;)


Night one of sleeping at Nana and Grandpa's did not go very well. For not only Gray, but everyone else too. Their house was built in the 1800s so the floors are creaky and the doors are loud. He had to sleep in our room the first night since Jonathan and Laura were still there. He went down without much of a fight but as soon as we opened the door to go to bed, he woke up. I think it really scared him and then on top of that he wasn't familiar with where he was. We would finally have him calmed down and as soon as we'd put him back down, he'd cry again. We kept picking him back up because we knew Jonathan and Laura wouldn't be able to sleep and it was really late and they were getting up early the next morning to leave. Unfortunately every time we put him back down he got upset all over so we finally had to let him cry it out. Sorry again uncle Jon and aunt Laura! ;)

The next day Paul's parents had a couple of appointments and were going to be gone most of the day so we headed to Wilmington to spend the day with my cousin, our godson and the newest addition to the Bardsley family-Ruby Rose. We had such a great day but I always leave wishing we lived closer to them.




That night Paul and I moved to the other bedroom and Gray slept a little better in the room by himself. He woke up twice and once we had to go in and help soothe him back to sleep.

Nana and Grandpa only live about 6 or 7 miles from Topsail Island so we get as many trips in to the beach as possible every time we visit. Our last day there it was pretty warm so we loaded up the baby Cadillac and off we went. Gray enjoyed the stroll and checking out the waves and the seagulls.







There's just something about an ocean breeze and salt air. Gray fell asleep as soon as we got in the car to leave the beach.


These are the sweetest little hands!

Gray slept even better by the third night-I think he only woke up once. Considering this was only his second time traveling (the first was Thanksgiving) and sleeping in a pack n play, he didn't do too bad. And he napped pretty good the whole time, we just need to work on night sleeping away from home.

Gray didn't have a clue it was his first Christmas but we sure did and it was so special. It's crazy to think about him being 18 months next Christmas and running around everywhere. I am not wishing the time away but I know we have a lot more fun memories with our boy ahead of us. We are SO BLESSED!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone