Walker-11 months

My sweet baby boy,

You, my son, are eleven months old today! Some of the days, especially your first several months of life, have been really long. But mostly, the weeks and months have flown by. You add so much joy and laughter to our family and I really just can't remember what life was like before you came into this world.

You wear size four diapers, size 12-18 month pajamas and size 12 month clothes. You have really chunked back up and I can't wait to see how much you weigh at your one year appointment.

Those meal 'ol teeth have given you a few rough days and nights and still have yet to break through the skin, meaning you are still holding out at six cute little teeth.

You are still eating like a champ and have yet to refuse one single food you've been offered. You drink 4-5 bottles a day, usually only 4 ounces at a time. Your reflux and swallowing dysfunction are barely noticeable anymore and we are in the process of weaning you from your medicine. Praise the Lord!!

You are a great sleeper. You go to bed around 7:00/7:30 and sleep until 7:00 ish. You take two naps a day and your afternoon nap is usually 2-2.5 hours long.

You still suck your thumb but pretty much only when you are sleeping. 

You are cruising around faster now and love walking behind a push toy and sometimes while holding our hands. You seem very content with your mobility and in no hurry to walk, but of course you could change your mind any day now. I'm afraid you are going to be quite a climber. You have recently started climbing on top of the fireplace which means our living room and basement aren't so baby-proofed anymore. You already push toys to a specific spot so you can try to stand on them to help you climb. You are going to keep us on our toes my busy boy, no doubt.

Your favorite things in life are: big brother Gray, Sophie, being outside, taking baths, music, cars, trucks, tractors and a puppy toy that you can push and do all kinds of things with. As soon as you hear music you stop what you are doing and that chubby little body of yours starts to bust a move. I can't get enough of it. You even try to dance in your car seat to the radio. We are still working on your love for books but you have become a tad more interested. Have I mentioned how much you love your big brother? You follow him around and it doesn't take much at all for him to make you cackle. And though he is anxious for you to start being disciplined, he is crazy about you too! ;)

Add caption

Add caption

Add caption

Add caption

Add caption

Add caption

You strongly dislike having your diaper changed, getting your clothes on and being wiped down after meals. Other than very loudly protesting those events, you are still pretty laid back and flexible. 

You have started saying a few new words like "uh-oh" (sometimes sounds like "uh-oh" but usually "oh-oh"), Sophie (which sounds like "Sah-sah"), "brother" (you usually just make the "b" sound over and over). You also have consistent sounds and "words" for puppy (referring to your favorite toy right now), strawberry and bottle. You stare at our mouths constantly and I can just see your little brain trying to figure out this whole talking thing. 

I am trying so hard to soak up what's left of you being my baby because you are approaching toddler days faster than I want to admit. 

Add caption

Add caption

Add caption

I love you more today than I did yesterday but less than I will tomorrow. Life with you just keeps getting sweeter.

With my whole heart,

Mommy

Walker-10 months

Dear Walker man,

You are 10 months old! I can't believe in two short months we will be celebrating your first birthday.

You have had a great month. You have been pretty happy and are becoming more flexible and go-with-the-flow every day. Not that you have a choice, but you sacrifice a good, long morning nap several times a week so we can go to the Y, have play dates, go to church, etc. You like the car but we usually have to be in it for a while before you'll fall asleep.

You wear size three diapers, size two or three shoes and mostly size 12 month clothes.

You still have six teeth. I've been certain for months now that two more bottom ones were going to break through the skin any day now but they are still holding out. I'm so glad you've had a break in the teeth department.

You are such a good eater! At this point I can't even keep up with all the new foods you've tried. You still haven't refused one food that we have offered you. When you're eating table foods it looks as though we never feed you. Bless your heart, I think you are making up for how hard it was for you to drink milk for so long. Speaking of, liquids are still sometimes hard for you to handle. You are loving your sippy cup and have figured out how to use it but often get choked on the water. Dr. Bill said we might even have to thicken your water like we use to do with your milk. Mommy recently stopped nursing you for several reasons. But I am SO proud of you and of us for sticking to it for almost ten months! When I think back to you at just three weeks old and screaming every time I tried to nurse you, I am so thankful we made it as long as we did. You are taking about five bottles a day of formula and/or Mommy's frozen milk. You are getting better with a bottle but sometimes only take four ounces at a time.

You take two naps a day.

You love Daddy, your big brother, Sophie, being outside, music, eating, playing peek-a-boo, dogs, being tickled and taking baths. You also love playing with your tongue and sticking it out. Your personality is really starting to blossom and I think you might be just as silly as Gray with an equally strong will too.

You dislike diaper changes, getting out of the bath, having your face, hands and nose cleaned, when Mommy leaves the room, and you don't care for being read to (this HAS to change buddy!).

You have been pulling up for a while but have recently started cruising a little and standing with no hands for several seconds.

You are pure joy, my sweet boy and I'm just so thankful to be your Mama!

Add caption



Add caption

 

An Interview with Gray

I have been wanting to do an interview with Gray for a while since seeing the idea on the Internet and on a few friends' blogs. So I finally took a few minutes to make it happen one evening last week. 

This interview was conducted on Thursday, March 19, 2015. It was 8:15 (many factors contribute to him being awake at this hour, mostly the fact that he actually napped) and Daddy was out of town. Walker had gone to bed and Gray and I had just finished having a dance party. After the first few questions he got on the floor and started reading his Children's Bible, which really distracted him and made for some answers I know we wouldn't have gotten otherwise. It was still fun though and I can't wait to do it again in a few months.

What is your name?
Gray

How old are you?
2

When is your birthday?
June 10th

What is something Mommy and Daddy always say to you?
No. (Sad! I'm pretty sure we say "I love you" way more than no, but nonetheless that was his response.)

What makes you happy?
Feeling

What makes you sad?
Not nice boy

What makes you laugh?
Lions. (Um, ok.)

What is your favorite book?
This book. (As he flips through his Bible)

What is your favorite thing to do?
Dancing on the ceiling. (We had just finished having a dance party to none other than Lionel Ritchie. Just trying to raise him right.) 

Who is your best friend?
Daddy

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Construction worker

What did you do today?
Go to church (that was actually yesterday)

What is your favorite food?
A sucker

What is your favorite song?
Jesus loves me

What do you want for your birthday this year?
An open truck. (There is a big rig truck with a fork lift that we were trying to hide in the sunroom closest for when he is officially potty trained. But he found it and he wants to "open it".)

What is your favorite animal?
A kangaroo. And I like an elephant and a snake and a tiger. 

Who do you love?

Papa! He's so funny! I get his belly and he laughs!

Where is your favorite place to go?
Haircut store (he gets a sucker every time)

Do you like this interview?

Yes

Do you want me to ask you more questions?

No. No thank you Mommy

Walker-9 months

I got a little ahead of myself on last month's post and said that Walker was three-fourths of a year old. I guess none of my five readers caught that or were too polite to bring it to my attention?! ;) Now that Walker is nine months old I can say it honestly-although, do I really want to? I thought it would be more meaningful and interesting if I did the last few monthly posts in the form of a letter. So...

Dear Walker,

My sweet, baby boy-we have had you in our lives for nine months now! You bring so much joy to our family and we have loved watching you grow. I could stand for things to slow down a little but I don't reckon I can count on that. You had your nine month well visit yesterday and we are so thankful for a good check up. You now weigh 19 pounds, 15 ounces and are 28 and 3/4 inches long. You have made leaps and bounds in the weight department and are now back up to the 53rd percentile! Your height percentile went down a little to the 62nd and your sweet noggin was 45.7 centimeters, which was in the 68th percentile. You are wearing some nine but mostly 12 month clothes and size 3 diapers.

You are nursing about two or three times a day and drinking Mommy's frozen milk and/or formula two to three times a day. You are nursing great most days but still aren't an easy one to get a bottle down. Thankfully you love "real" food though. You are still eating a little baby food but we are giving you more and more big boy table foods too, especially since you are becoming less of a fan of someone else feeding you. You tried a lot of new big boy foods in the last month, including: cheese, pancakes (so syrup yet, sorry buddy!), waffles, cantaloupe, pineapple, wagon wheels, goldfish, shrimp, black olives, rice, chicken, peas, carrots, green beans and pita bread. When we first tried strawberries last month you refused them but I think it was mostly because you were cranky and ready for a nap because you didn't think twice about them after that. And other than being a little weirded out by the texture of cheese at first, you have gobbled up every single thing we've given you without even thinking twice about it. I really wonder if you even have any taste buds. I think God is showing us His grace with you being so good with big boy foods since we had such a difficult time with milk for so long. I don't think we are going to make it to the one year mark with nursing but I consider it a miracle that we made it this far with all the difficulties you had and occasionally still have with reflux and swallowing liquids. Speaking of, you are still taking Prevacid twice a day. We've tried taking you off twice and it didn't go well. Instead of increasing your dose since you are getting bigger, we are going to keep the same dose and try taking you off again soon.


Add caption

You are down to two naps a day unless you doze in the car. Usually your second nap in the afternoon is 2-3 hours long. A few weeks ago we had to make you cry out your once or twice a night waking. We really felt like you had enough weight on you and you'd finally caught a break in the teething department. It only took about four nights and you are now sleeping a solid 12 hours. You go to bed around 7:00 or 7:30 every night. Occasionally when you are really, really tired you will fall asleep nursing or on my shoulder while we are singing and praying. I try so hard to just soak it in-staring at you and studying every little thing about you because I know it won't like this for long.

You still suck your thumb when you are really tired and most of the time you are sleeping. You sometimes take a paci but we really only offer it to you in the car.

You are crawling so fast and pulling up on everything. Thankfully you still like your jumper and exersaucer because sometimes buddy, Mommy's got to go to the bathroom! ;) You moved from the baby room up to the crawler class at church a few weeks ago. This is hard on you because since there is so much going on in there, you don't nap on those sweet old ladies anymore. I'd say getting to ride on the bye-bye buggy helps but it takes a lot to impress you, my little stinker. However, you have been quite impressed with yourself lately for pulling up like such a big boy.



Add caption



Add caption

You love Gray and your favorite time of every day is when he comes in your room with me when you wake up from your nap. I put him in your crib with you and you squeal and bounce up and down as hard as you can. Watching you and your brother play and laugh together makes my heart so happy.

Add caption

You have three words now-"bye-bye", "mama" and "dada". You sometimes seem to be making connections now to those words instead of just babbling them. I could listen to your sweet voice all day long.

You love the bath and have starting consistently taking one with brother. You get SO mad every night when we get you out and throw a down right temper tantrum. You also throw a fit when we take something away from you or don't let you have something you want (mean Mama won't let you chew on the baby monitor or my phone). We have started teaching you "no touch" on a few things for safety reasons or the fact that we don't want you tearing up our blinds (your favorite thing to grab and pull on). You respond so well to "no touch" and almost always will stop. I usually say "Good job" or "Yay Walker, good listening!" and then you clap for yourself. But the other day when you obeyed "no touch" you just stared at me for the longest time with your eyebrows scrunched and then started clapping for yourself, as if to let me know I had forgotten to give you praise. You make us laugh, my sweet buddy!

Add caption

You have a lot more hair than your brother did at this age. It's starting to really lighten up but I'm not sure you are going to be as blonde as Gray. You and brother have many similarities but mostly differences and you both are so special and perfect to Daddy and me.

Gray/Walker

There has never been a doubt that Gray looks just like Daddy but several months ago people starting wondering if you looked like me. After Mugger found some baby pictures of me there was no doubt. Aunt Barbara sent me this picture of me and I do believe you are a mini-me. I even had the same gap in my baby teeth until the rest of them came in.

 

I almost cried leaving the doctor yesterday when we scheduled your one year and Gray's three year well visit, but I really do look forward to watching you grow and learn. 

Add caption

Add caption

I love you with my whole heart,

Mommy

Snow Week Recap

In the south we folks like to make a big deal about white stuff falling from the sky. With any amount of precipitation everybody heads to the grocery store clear out the bread and milk while all the northerners make major fun of us. Last year we got a couple of snow "storms", one of which was pretty big for North Carolina. I'm a spring and summer girl myself, but I do love at least one good snow every winter especially now that we have a certain little boy that LOVES to play in it! We were beginning to think we wouldn't see any snow this winter so even though it didn't turn out to be much we enjoyed the inch or so that fell late afternoon on Monday. The schools got out two hours early and because of the crazy colds temperatures not allowing anything to melt, they were out the rest of the week. Paul has so many days saved up that he said "no thanks" to the optional teacher work days and stayed home for some QT with the fam. The boys and I couldn't have been more thrilled!

Gray had an absolute ball playing in the snow. We got a layer of ice on top which made for perfect sledding. It often takes a lot to impress Walker but we managed to get a few smiles and pictures out of him in the same snuggly bear suit that Gray wore two winters  ago.



Gray found these ski goggles and insisted they be a part of the snow craziness.

Add caption

Add caption

Add caption

And now for the comparisons...

Sweet, chubby cheeked snow babies make me squeal!

 

That picture of Gray on the right still makes me almost pee my pants when I see it.

Add caption

We even let Walker go on a little sled run. He said he would much rather be inside eating a banana.

Gray helped Daddy with some home improvements when they weren't out playing in the snow.

Add caption

And he completely tore his room apart and built book towers.

Add caption

Thursday night Paul and I hosted a table at a dinner our church puts on for engaged and/or newly wed couples. The speaker happens to be THE Dr. Gary Chapman, author of the Five Love Languages and tons of other awesome marriage and family books. We are so blessed to have Dr. Chapman as one of our senior pastors at our church. Paul and I attended the dinner as newly weds about five years ago and got to host a table two years ago for the first time. It was so much fun and it's always challenging, yet encouraging to hear Dr. Chapman and his wife speak. Not to mention it was a kid free night that we didn't have to cook and clean up after!

Friday we were all ready to get out of the house so we spent the morning at the Children's Museum. Apparently all of Winston-Salem had the same idea. Despite the crowds Gray had so much fun. We hadn't been in a coupe months and an added bonus was the Sowers deciding to meet us there at the last minute. I'm really not sure Gray's heart could be any more full than it's been this week!

Add caption

Add caption

Walker once again looking very thrilled about such shenanigans.

It's going to be a rude awakening for all four of us when Daddy heads back to work on Monday. And now that we've had our one snow, bring on spring!!!

Valentine's Day 2015

2013

2014

And this year we had two little loves to celebrate with. 

Paul brought these beautiful flowers home to me yesterday.

My mom and Gram kept the boys today while Paul and I enjoyed a day long date. We hadn't been on a date in waaaaay too long and it was so much fun! We talked without being interrupted and ate without a youngin whining or crying or begging us to share our food. But of course we spent a good bit of our time talking about how we missed our boys and wondering what they were doing.  We feasted out on our favorite for lunch-sushi! We tried a new place that my friend Mary recommended and it did not disappoint! 

Then we piddled around town for a few hours before going to a late afternoon movie-Old Fashioned, which was a little cheesy but for us it beat the 50 Shades of Grey alternative. 

Feeling very thankful for the love from and for my husband and sons and remembering that we love only because God first loved us. 

Walker-8 months

Y'all, my baby boy is EIGHT months old!



SLAYS me I tell ya!

Gray/Walker

 

He and his brother are keeping me busy as ever, which is why I haven't written in a month. Like I predicted in his seven month post, we've got a fully mobile baby. He is crawling everywhere and getting into everything. We've put up a baby gate so he can't fall down the stairs and thanks to Pinterest we found a way to baby-proof our huge brick fireplace. Other than that we don't plan to do much baby-proofing. Once making the house safe we try to teach "no touch", or at least we did with Gray. So we'll see how that goes ;)

Eating habits-Walker is back to nursing well (about 5-6 times a day) but not taking more than an ounce or so from a bottle, if even that. He is still loving his stage 2 and 3 baby foods and we are trying to introduce table foods now too. He loves "real" bananas and sweet potatoes. He continues to put away Puffs and teething crackers, except for the past few days when his teething has been at its worst.

Sleeping habits-I try to always be home for Walker to take at least one good long nap in his crib. He completely fights sleep at church or the Y but will dose in the car some. If we happen to be home all day he takes at least two good naps and sometimes still three. He goes down between 7:00-7:30 every night. He has not been sleeping well at night and is up anywhere from one to three times. I will only nurse him once during the night and unless we know he is in pain from his teeth, he has to cry it out. As soon as he gets a break from teething he is going to have to cry it out completely because I really don't think he is hungry at this point. And Mama is TIRED!!!

Milestones/New Discoveries-He started crawling a couple weeks ago which is almost a month sooner than Gray did. He is pulling up on his knees and will be cruising around things in no time I'm afraid. He had two top teeth break through a week or so ago, two more top ones two nights ago and he has two more bottom teeth coming through too which will make EIGHT total. He seems to be following in the exact footsteps of his big brother in the teeth department (Gray had 16 teeth when he was just 14 months!!). One of my favorite baby milestones/discoveries of all time is clapping! Walker started clapping a week or so ago but he takes his left hand and "claps" it against his stomach or chest. It is the cutest thing and I nearly die every time he does it. The past few days he has started clapping his left hand to his other hand but only moving the left one, instead of clapping both of them together. If we say "clap, clap Walker" or start singing, he pretty much performs on cue. He waved bye-bye a few times early in the month but hasn't done it since.

Practicing his clapping and actually using both hands a little here

Walker was a tired, fussy, teething hot mess last night at church (Gray goes to Awana on Wednesday nights. Paul usually stays home with Walker so I can have some "me" time but we had to meet with some people about something last night). After fighting it for a long time he finally fell asleep and I got to enjoy this slice of heaven for about a half hour. Thanks to my friend Laura for capturing the moment. I sure wish this wasn't so rare anymore but we've got a busy, "I want my bed" baby.

Temperament/Mood-A little less content lately even though he is crawling. He has had some really rough days and nights since he's had like 37 teeth coming in. Other than that he is a pretty happy guy. He still seems to have a lot less animated and more chill personality than big brother.

Likes-crawling, pulling up, chasing Sophie, watching big brother, when Daddy throws him up in the air, being tickled

Dislikes-Teething (duh!), getting in his car seat (fine once in the car, thankfully), having something taken away from him, when Mommy leaves the room, getting his diaper changed (I DREAD every diaper change and feel like I've just been in a wrestling match every time we're done), "real" strawberries

Between teething and a nasty, mean stomach virus last week I'm not too hopeful Walker has made much progress in the weight department but we will have official measurements at his 9 month check-up.