Merry Christmas, Love Frost "C"

I really wanted to jump on the Pinterest bandwagon this year and get a really cute shot of my 8 month old and some Christmas lights in his diaper only. I went to Target and got some oversized colorful Christmas lights and spread them around the floor for my son to play with while I snapped away. Where do you think those lights went? Straight in his mouth!! Needless to say, I was not thrilled and I was terrified of something breaking or shorting out... Not fun. So my husband and I had to come up with something else. This was so simple and much more relaxing to capture! The hat we borrowed from a friend (but I did see some at Target after we took the pictures), the scarf is just one of mine, and the shirt is just a onesie with felt circles. How easy is that? And yes. That is a real carrot... Which he dislikes eating as a puree, but was loving on the solid form. Merry Christmas!!

 

Enjoy the out takes! :)

8 months

omgggg I'm 8 months old and have no teeeeeeeth!!

Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a picture of this mobile child!?

put me in coach :)

Sweet boy,

Every morning when I go into your room to get you I say good morning, pick you up and give you a kiss and tell you I love you. A few weeks ago, I went into your room, said "good morning, booboo" picked you up... But before I could give you a kiss, you grabbed my face with both hands and laid one on me! I nearly cried. You are really becoming your own sweet little person. You give the best possible greetings! Another day when I picked you up from Miss Natalie's, she lifted you off the ground to hand you to me, and your feet were 'running' so fast like you couldn't wait to get to me. You are such a friendly baby and love talking with anyone and everyone. It still amazes me how much you are absorbing of this great world around you.

You got your first "booboo" this month. You can kind of see it in the picture under your eye. It's not too bad, but I have no idea how you got that. You went to sleep pristine, had an uneventful night, and woke up with the scratch under your eye... just in time for your photos :( You're still the most handsome guy I know though.

Love you always <3

your handsome face: month 8

Last year at this time, I was thankful for the little bean growing in my belly. This year, I am incredibly thankful for incredible little boy I've been blessed with! Look at all those smiles!

7 months

Caleb,

I know what they mean about not rushing you to grow up. And I wish every day that the world would stop begging you to do so! Stay young and adorable and carefree (and dependent on your mommy) for as long as you want. I know the time is coming soon (too soon) that we will be chasing you around the house, feeding you everything on the table that we eat and listening to you actually tell us what you want... But for just a while longer, it's okay for you to be my baby. I love watching you wiggle across the room, taste test a new food, and I know your little mind is working to memorize every object you come into contact with as you turn things over in your hands and gum on them ;) You will do things at your own pace, which is just fine with me, my toothless little man. It's okay for us to slow down and enjoy each and every new taste and touch and word together.

I love you always,
mommy

your handsome face: month 7

Look at this happy boy! You've become such an active and amazing little boy. You smile at everyone you meet and love to carry on conversations with anyone who will listen.

my baby in...

a pumpkin!

your handsome face: month 6

6 months

You were so sick on your 6 month bday. :(

Baby boy,
How is it possible that you are 6 months old? So fast? I feel like just yesterday you were kicking away in my tummy and now you're giggling and wiggling all over the place! You still amaze me every day with the things you do. You have a favorite TV show (which probably doesn't say much about the amount of TV you watch...) Your face will light up as soon as you hear the intro for Bubble Guppies. You still have your adorable gummy toothless smile and have yet to start on true solid foods... but I'm gearing up for our Adventures in Babyfood this month. You're somewhere between 6 and 9 month clothing, but have definitely moved into size 3 diapers. I probably should have switch you sooner... We had quiet a few accidents before I decided it was easier to switch into size 3's rather than use up the rest of our 2's. The holiday season is coming so quickly and so excited for your very firsts!

Love you always,
mommy

your handsome face: month 5

Sweet boy,
We are having so much fun lately! More and more you're showing your personality and I just can't get enough! You finally returned to my angel boy who sleeps long stretches at night ans wakes up singing sweet babbles in the AM. Your handsome face sometimes looks like a little boys and not a tiny baby's. I cherish every second of looking into those baby blues <3
love you always,
mom

5 months

5 months!? No way!!

This picture progression didn't work out exactly how I planned. It's a 12 month jersey and you're pretty much fit into it. lol

Caleb,
Well, after 5 months... mommy finally got into editing your pictures! You're amazing and oh so adorable! I feel as though we're past some infant hump at this point as I'm watching and learning more about who you will be as a person. I can see your crabby cranky side and other times your incredibly happy and squirmy side. You've become so enamored at the world around you, it seem like you have little time for anything except exploring and taking in the world around you... The clouds in the sky, the dogs sniffing around, the cashier at the grocery store. They are all so infinitely amazing to you! I'm really looking forward to the next couple months because fall is my favorite season. Halloween, Thanksgiving, pumpkin picking, hayrides, playing in the leaves, apples (hmmm, maybe a first food!?) I can't believe in another month, you'll be half a year old... Let's slow down, okay?

love you always,
mommy

Happy Grandparents Day, Babcia!

letters to baby: mad at God

I came across this blog post when I was searching for a "letters to baby" blog challenge. The woman who writes it is a devout Christian and shares a lot of her beliefs with her readers on different subjects.This particular post is written straight to her child, which I figure is only a few months older than my son. It is probably the sweetest letter I've ever read and although little C is not quite to the point of throwing tantrums, I'm sure we'll see that side just around the corner. I tried to just snippet a portion of the post, but I think you need the whole thing to get the real effect of the words she's written. This is exactly what I want to tell my little boy. Thank you Chrystalf.

Sweet Son,

As I write this, you are cuddled against my pillow on your tummy.  Though you sleep most of the night in your crib now, you woke up early this morning, and when Daddy brought you into our room to try and get you back to sleep, you were not content until you’d pulled yourself over to my side of the bed and could rest your little body against me.

Recently, Daddy and I watched the story of a man’s spiral into violence and rage resulting from a fractured relationship with his mother, who never wanted him.  The story drove me from my bed this morning to write this letter to you–though you cannot understand these words now, I may forget the message when you’re old enough to listen.

First, know this: you are a treasured, unexpected, deeply wanted gift from God to both your daddy and me. You are not a burden.  You are not a financial strain.  You are not a complication.  You are our greatest adventure together so far, and our source of great joy.  You are accepted just as you are, even though we must correct your behavior sometimes.  You belong to us and with us, and we are committed to doing whatever it takes to keep it that way until God calls you forth into your own life adventure.
Second (and the point of all of this, really), although I can’t picture it in this season where your greatest source of upset is when I leave the room and don’t take you with me, there will be times when you disagree with us–times where you may think we don’t understand (and will probably be right in that thought).  There may be times where you are very angry with us.  These are natural emotions that are part of the perfection of love in any family, and both your daddy and I went through them with our parents as we struggled to learn to conduct ourselves as Christian adults.

Just as you may clash with us over what seem like arbitrary rules you don’t understand, you may sometimes find yourself mad at God.  Again, Daddy and I have both “been there.”
The thing about disagreeing with God is this–unlike the humans in your life, He doesn’t argue back.  You can yell at Him, cry to Him, deface what He has made, swear you’ll never let Him in your life, purposely do things contrary to His law to cause Him pain, and almost never do you hear His voice justifying what He told you to do (I don’t just say “never” because anything is possible with God and He doesn’t like it when I mislabel Him).

It’s okay to be angry.

Recently, you began throwing tantrums.  When I do something you don’t like, you respond by arching your back, flailing your arms, kicking your legs, and screaming; and I (admittedly with very little patience at times) tuck all your limbs against me and say, “shhhh” in your ear until you quiet down.  Although your kicking and flailing make me uncomfortable and unhappy, I am big enough that your kicking doesn’t hurt me–yet.
God is big enough to handle our tantrums.  He allows us to rage against Him without fighting back for a season so that we have the opportunity to come to Him.  For me, sometimes the greatest source of my anger with God has been the fact that He allowed others to rage unchecked for longer than I wanted Him to.  He has infinite mercy and patience, and He knows the right amount of time we all need to put off our emotions and come to Him.

We have to come to Him, though.  There is a point at the end of your tantrum (which usually doesn’t last very long when I hold you) that you heave a big sigh and relax against me.  We must have the same reaction to God.  It’s okay to not understand Him always, and to ask “why” or “how long” just as David did throughout the Psalms; but it is vital to understand that He offers a rest that we must strive to enter (Hebrews 4 talks about that).  It may not be easy to get to that place of trust where you push everything onto God’s shoulders and relax in the knowledge that He has a plan and purpose for your good.  I admit that your daddy is better at this than I am.

Fight for it, little one.  Use your anger to burn down the sources of confusion between you and God.  The rage you may feel against Him would not originate with Him–it would come from the enemy of your soul who will never stop trying to bring division in your relationship with the Father.  He is a loving, patient, kind Father, and any anger you may feel against Him did not come because He is any less kind or loving.  Don’t ever let anything you’ve said in anger keep you from coming back to Him.  You are never too far from Him to come back to Him no matter what you might think, and He always accepts apologies.
I love you, my precious child, and I pray the Lord will continue to protect our family and give Daddy and me the privilege of teaching you these things in person.

Love,
Mommy

memories

What was your most memorable vacation?

My mother is going to LOVE this post.

I have TONS of good memories of family vacations growing up. I don't think I would be able to pick just one, but definitely our trips to Walt Disney World stand out the most to me. Probably because we went there at least once a year every year... until I was too cool to go with my parents as a teenager. And again when they came to visit when I was working there in college. And pretty soon, we'll be going with my own little man. I know he won't remember a thing about this trip, but I'm so excited to start the tradition for him, the pictures and the memories.

1995?

1994?

November 2008

June 2007

mellow yellow

Post pictures of something yellow. My favorite color and my favorite guy :)

What's in your purse?

What's in your purse?

First of all, it's my bag. Not my purse, and definitely not my pocketbook. I can definitely understand why some women carry around designer diaper bags now because I've had to retire my real bags since C was born. At work, the only bag I'm sporting these days is my Medela Pump In-Style Shoulder Tote. Fancy isn't it?!

On the right side, there is a little cooler tote that carries milk and a freezer pack for after you've pumped. I usually just carry this separately so I can keep my wallet, checkbook and whatever misc. bills I might need to reference that day.

There are two side compartments and I took that stuff out so you could see my "essentials." Keys, gum and no less than 3 lip gloss flavors at any given time. I have two of the VS Candy flavor right now. Apparently that's my current preference.

when I grow up, i want to marry...

Who was your childhood celebrity crush?

Please refer back to Day 6. I was a little obsessed with NKOTB and 90210 and let's not forget Melrose Place.

you're my favorite part of the day

What is your favorite part of the day and why?

Between the hours of 5 and 7. Because I pick up little C at around 450ish and then we have fun time just us together. Sometimes we cook dinner, sometimes we play on the mat, sometimes we play with the puppies... and sometimes we have photo shoots. Wouldn't this be your favorite part of the day?!