Just A Day

That moment you've been working on a post, and somehow it didn't auto save and you lose it all. Yeah. So that just happened.


I feel like this has been a really long week. It's probably because our routine has been off a bit since Jacob hasn't been home the last couple of nights until bedtime or after. It just makes the day a little bit longer, but we found some fun today to mix it up a little.

After I picked Daniel up from preschool he asked if we could go to the park. I had already been planning to surprise him with that, so I'm glad it worked out. We went out to the park by the lake. I hadn't been there at all this year, and it was just us, so the boys had a lot of fun! James liked crawling through the tunnels, and would laugh has he was going through them.



They both had fun on the merry go round, slides and swings. Plus there were a million leaves to play it. That was the big hit of the day. So much fun to explore in the leaves!









It was nice to spend time outside with the boys in a wide open space. I can't wait until next year when James will be able to get around more and actually climb things and chase Daniel around! He LOVED the leaves though. My only regret was not bringing my real camera along. I wish we could go again tomorrow, but the rain has arrived and it will be too wet and cold tomorrow.

After the park I asked Daniel if he'd like to get a movie to watch tonight because I got a free Redbox code. Daniel isn't much of a movie watcher because he doesn't have the attention span for it, but I figured it was free so worth a shot. We rented Home. It was pretty adorable. It held Daniel's interest for about half of the movie. Then he would ask every few minutes how much longer it was, and why is was so long. Haha!

James was happy all morning and fell apart as the day went on. I'm not sure if he's teething or what's going on really. He's been on a food strike lately. He shakes his head no to almost any food (baby food or table food) and will throw a fit about it. He will open his mouth very quickly for a french fry or ice cream though. They learn so quickly. He rarely eats breakfast, so that's been off the table this week. Even if I give him a cracker he shakes his head, and throws it. Today is lunch was pretzels and one bite of baby food. Supper I didn't attempt baby food, but he ate some random stuff. One chicken nugget, 3 grapes and half of cinnamon french toast stick. Then he nursed after supper because he was apparently still hungry. Daniel left his M&Ms within reach at one point, so James had a nice little dessert too.

Little mister was grouchy all night and pitched a fit at bedtime. Our normal routine involves nursing, and snuggling on the couch until he falls asleep. Sometimes it happens really fast. Sometimes it takes a half hour. Tonight was a 50 minute battle which ended in me putting him in his bed and letting him cry it out. Broke my heart, but within 10 minutes he was out. Here's hoping for a good night of sleep!

Joy in Every Season

I love living in the Midwest. One of my favorite things is getting to experience all four seasons. Of course, winter should really only last about a month, and fall gets robbed every year,but each season brings some kind of happiness to my life.

Winter comes with warm cozy blankets, hot chocolate (which I always intend to drink, but rarely do). Winter means Christmas! It means college bowl games, and the Super Bowl...which let's face it. I only watch that for the food. Fresh blankets of snow on the ground are beautiful. While I hate ice storms, there is a beauty that comes with them that can be breathtaking.
Winter brings memories of playing robbers in the snow with my sisters, building horrible forts that we could rarely fit into, stomping on "elephant turds" (those brown chunk of snow that clump up under your car and then fall off.), and going sledding with dad. Now, I get to make fun memories with my boys in the snow. Do I love the effort that it takes? No. But, watching Daniel's face light up the last couple of winters makes it all worth it.

Spring always seems to take forever to arrive, but I always welcome it! The snow melts, and the grass starts turning green. Leaves start budding, flowers start pushing up through the dirt, and birds start chirping in the early morning. I love getting to open the windows up after having them shut for month on end. The first time is glorious. It's like I'm letting all the germs of winter that have been cycling through the house out. We can finally go on walks again. The sun feels like it's giving off actual warmth. The first thunderstorm of the season makes me giddy with excitement.  Let's not forget that it also brings one of my favorite days. My birthday!
I've always loved spring, but winter always seems to last a bit longer and summer creeps in earlier than it should!

Summer. Oh summer. I loved summer as a kid. It meant freedom. It meant running through the sprinkler, or "swimming" in our wading pool. It meant countless afternoons at the Cherry Hill pool, lunches out with mom, weekly trips to the public library and of course an Iowa summer could not be complete without a trip to Adventureland!
Summer means baseball games, random adventures, walks to get sno-cones, watching fireworks, going on picnics and having fun at parks!

Fall. Ah. The best for last. To me fall is pure happiness. I LOVE walking outside on a crisp cool day. I just take a deep breath and take it all in. Fall means, cool weather, hoodies, football, bonfires, pumpkin patches, Halloween and changing colors. Watching the leaves change colors is amazing. It makes everything look different. It's like a little gift from God. It doesn't last long enough, but maybe He just doesn't want us to take it all for granted. I love taking Daniel...and James now too on leaf walks. We look for the prettiest leaves we can find. And now as more leaves have fallen we enjoy finding big patches of leaves and crunching through them.

Each season brings new things to love, enjoy and look forward to!

Happy First Birthday!

Dear James,

Today you turn 1 year old!

November 2nd of last year I went to bed and planned to just spend the next day at home with your brother, but God had different plans. I had to have a c-section because of some complications, but it wasn't scheduled for another 2 weeks, although your real due date was almost 3 weeks away!

I woke up at 4am on the 3rd and knew that I would soon be meeting you! I was nervous and excited. I packed and took a shower while I waited for Mimi Elam to arrive, and then Daddy and I drove to the hospital. I didn't realize how soon I would really be meeting you. The doctor confirmed at 7:00 that you would be delivered that day. At 8:02 am you were here!

They held you up so that I could see you before taking you to clean you up and weigh you. You were beautiful. I couldn't see you while they were cleaning you up but I heard your first cry and all I wanted was to hold you! Daddy followed you over with the nurses and came back to fill me in. You were 7lbs 8oz and 20.5 inches long. At long last they brought you to me and laid you on my chest. It was so incredible. There you were. My sweet James. The little boy who ninja kicked me for months and used my bladder as your own personal bouncy house. You were perfect.

Almost perfect. You had some fluid on your lungs and within an hour of you being born you were taken to the NICU because it wasn't clearing up. I was so sad. I just wanted to be with you. As soon as they let me, I got to come up in a wheelchair to see you. I didn't get to hold you though because you were all hooked up and they were monitoring you. I was determined to get back up to see you again that night and I did. I wasn't going to get to hold you because any time the nurses moved you, your oxygen levels dropped. I sat by your little bed and held your hand for 30 minutes, and then the nurse asked if I'd like to try to hold you. Of course I did! I rocked you, and kissed you a hundred times. My heart was so full.

What we thought would be one night in the NICU turned into 6 days and 5 nights. I would walk up to see you every 2-3 hours though because I missed you and needed you in my arms.

When you came home you fit right into our family. Daniel loved you from the very start. He called you brudder and nick named you Jamesy before you were born. That one has stuck! Those first few weeks you slept all the time. Well. During the day. You were a night owl and woke constantly at night, just like Daniel did. It took Mommy awhile to get into a good routine with you and your brother, but eventually it all became normal. We found a way to balance time between you and Daniel.

Milestones. Let's see. You celebrated your first Thanksgiving and Daniel's 3rd birthday with us when you were only 3 weeks old. Your first trip to Villa Grove was right around New Year's. We celebrated Christmas and you got to meet Aunt Rachel and Uncle Micah. You made your first big trip to Iowa when you were 2.5 months old. Rolled in April. Sat up in June. You cut your first, second, third AND fourth tooth in ONE week! The very end of July/first week in August. You were pretty fussy. You started army crawling in June, and just in mid-October started crawling on your hands and knees, and boy can you fly! You also pull up on everything and are starting to "walk" holding onto to things. I'd guess you'll be walking by December.

You are amazing and sweet. You have a big toothy smile that lights up an entire room. You say, Daddy, Mommy and Bubby (which is what you call Daniel). You can also say, "bye", "puppy", "two" (which is how old you claim you are while holding up one finger!), "Who's that?" and I'm sure other words that I'm forgetting right now. Your momma is pretty forgetful! You think it's funny to turn the TV off and unplug the fan. You love to eat crackers, but ice cream is your favorite thing. You go insane when you see ice cream and yell until someone feeds you a bite! You are ticklish and laugh hysterically when tickled. You and Daniel are best buddies and love to wrestle already. I foresee many trips to the ER as you two grow. You also love being outside and cry when you have to come in. You think wind in your face is the best thing ever and will shriek with delight. Oh! And you are attached your lovies. (they're just plain white burp cloths), They give you comfort and you love to chew them and suck on them, especially when you're sleepy.

You have yet to sleep through the night, but maybe one of these days. It's exhausting getting up every few hours with you, but you know what? I love holding you and comforting you. I love late night snuggles with a sleeping baby.

I am so thankful for you and I thank God for you every day. It's amazing that he picked you and Daniel just for us. I can't wait to watch you learn and grow.

I love you so much my little Goose.

Love always,
Mommy

Feeling Sentimental

Today has been bittersweet in more than one way.

This morning my mom and some movers started moving things out of my grandma's house. She'll be moving from the care center on Wednesday, to her knew home in an assisted living center. I am so proud of her and how far she has come since her stroke at the very beginning of June. Even though she's made much progress, she can't live 100% on her own and never will. It's got to be hard. I can't even imagine waking up one day, leaving to go do an activity I enjoy and not having any idea that as I walked out of my home that it would be my last time ever setting foot in there again. It really goes to show how quickly life can change.

The house won't go on the market until Spring probably, so I'll have a chance to say goodbye, but I really thought I was okay. Then my mom posted this:



Suddenly it just hit me like a ton of bricks. The tears started spilling over...and they are again as I type this. This is the living room I would sit and watch cartoons in when I spent the night. This was the living room that we watched the Chicago Bulls play. This is the living room where Grandma and I would sit on the floor and play board games together. This is where Grandpa would sit and roll his eyes at Grandma when she was banging pots and pans around in the kitchen and would laugh so hard the skin under his chin would wobble like a turkey.

Ever since Grandpa died in 2012, I've always felt that the house had a different feel. It wasn't the same, but I still took comfort in it. Soon, we'll have to part with this important piece of our lives. With it though, we'll take so many fond memories. When it's empty it will be a shell of what it used to be, but hopefully another family will make memories there too.

If that weren't enough, today marked another important moment in life. Today is the last day before James turns one. Once again, I can only describe it as bittersweet. I love birthdays! But, the first it always a tiny bit sad, mixed with lots of happiness. He's no longer a true baby, but a one year old. And what an amazingly sweet boy he is.



That's enough for tonight though. Tomorrow will be completely dedicated to this little boy. 

Here We Go!

I've lost touch with writing on my blog this year, but today is the first day of November which  makes it National Blog Month! Most years I blog every day, and I plan to do it this year. Last year I made it 2 whole days, but I think I had a pretty good excuse. The third day, James made his grand entrance into the world!

October was full of fun adventures. It is my favorite month of the year, after all.

There were pumpkin patch trips:









Fun times at the park:







And LOTS of Halloween fun!











Can I just say that I love that my kid wanted to be a door again this year? I tried to convince him to be something different several times, but that boy really wanted to be a door again and I thought, "You know what? Why does it matter? It makes him happy. It's what he wants to be. It makes him who his is. Unique and awesome." Plus, hello! No cost for a new costume either! He was so excited that one night he saw his costume hanging up and exclaimed, "Look! It's my door costume! Some people might think I'm a REAL door!" He was so darn proud of that thing, and that makes me smile. And James rocked the giraffe costume. He spent many hours in that get up and I couldn't get enough of his little giraffe tail swinging back and forth as he crawled.

Today we switched gears. We've reached birthday month! Today we celebrated James' First Birthday! I'll do something small and special on his real birthday, but today was the big shebang.
When Daniel turned one he liked (slowly) opening presents and wasn't too sure about the whole cake thing. James was the opposite. He didn't care for the present opening and wanted to eat the paper. He dove right into his giant cupcake though!

Despite some tiredness and crankiness from lack of naps and the dang time change last night, plus a meltdown from big brother, we managed to have a happy birthday celebration.











 I can't believe that one year has already passed us by! Only 2 more days of having a "baby" But whatever. Both of my boys will always be my babies!