Just a little Update

One of the thing that keeps me from blogging regularly is that I feel like I need to have pictures to post every time.  With my old computer, that was a problem because it really couldn't deal with holding pictures any more!  Now, in the past few weeks, we've taken a bit of a picture hiatus.  Andrew is just as cute as ever, and he's doing some fun things, but we have not been on top of capturing his cuteness on film.  

So, here's an update with no pictures.  And now that I'm writing, I'm thinking, what do I really have to say?  Andrew had his second night away from home last night.  He stayed with Gigi and Papa (Dan's parents), so that I could work today since I'm going out of town later this week.  I was a little more nervous this time than last time because he's so much more aware now.  He's starting to show some little signs of separation anxiety.  But at the same time, I want him to be used to being over there and staying with them sometimes so that he will look forward to it.  Anyway, he did great last night - no problem at all!  He's such a big boy!  

Speaking of grandparents, my parents are making their big move next week.  I can't remember if I mentioned this last post, but they are moving to Calgary in Canada, and my dad will be the pastor of a church.  We're very excited for them and what God will do, but the reality has definitely been sinking in for me over the past couple of weeks.  I'm sad that they will be so far away.  My mom will come visit pretty often, but my dad won't have as much freedom.  And they were hoping to be able to keep their house in NC (or we were hoping), but they decided it would be best to sell it.  I'm definitely grieving the loss of a a place to call "home" in SC/NC.  We're looking forward to our visits up there, but there is no doubt that it's a bittersweet situation.  Andrew and I will be headed up to NC Wednesday through Friday to see them one last time before they leave.  I'm sure that will be emotional for me!

Andrew is crawling all over the place, and "walking" as long as he's holding on to something. He can walk behind a push toy or walk down the couch while he's holding on.  I spend most of the day following him around the house!  He makes me laugh so much.  It's fun to see his personality coming out.  He's funny and serious, a lot like both Dan and me really!  It's fun to experience how my love for him (and Dan too) grows and grows and grows with each passing day!  It's also amazing to see what God teaches me through motherhood!

Dan celebrated his 32nd birthday last weekend!!!  I always like when he catches up with me!  He got his favorite gift when the Gators won the national championship!  But we also spent his actual birthday at Disney!  They are doing this promotion this year where you get free admittance on your birthday, but if you are a passholder, you have a couple of options. The one that we chose is a free birthday funcard.   It's a $75 gift card that you can spend in most of the stores on property!!!  Free money!!!!!  We had fun shopping for Disney stuff that we normally would not buy.  It was a great birthday celebration!

Our pastor challenged us for the second year to seek the Lord for a word for the year.  Mine this year is contentment.  I find myself consumed so often with things that I want.  Sometimes it's stuff.  Sometimes it's relational or emotional. I know I have a lot to learn about contentment, and what a good lesson to learn!  I have so much to be thankful for and so much richness to draw from in my daily walk with Jesus!  But I miss those things so often when I stay consumed with things that I WANT or that I'm waiting for.  Hopefully, I'll remember to post on here the things that God is teaching me through my word of the year!

Well, that's about it for now.  I mean, I'm sure there's other stuff, but that's all I feel like writing!

New Year, New Bedtime, New Computer, New Resolution?

I'm not really one for New Year's Resolutions.  Never have been.  Dan is!  He make his new goals every year, and I think that's great, but he just hasn't won me over yet!  This year may be a bit different, however!  For one thing, Andrew has a new bedtime!  We had been putting him to bed at around 8, but he had to fight to stay awake. I was afraid to put him down earlier because he's such an early bird that I thought he would end up getting up at 5 or 5:30 every morning!  But one of our friends suggested that we just try it (offering a book called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child), so we did.  It has gone so well!   He now goes to bed at 7ish, and I feel like I have an evening again!

In addition to this, I got a big surprise for Christmas!  My computer has been pretty much dead for quite some time.  That's one of the reasons I haven't been a very good blogger.  But Dan surprised me with a MacBook for Christmas!  It was the biggest Christmas surprise I've ever gotten!  I love it, although I'm sure I'll be figuring it out for quite some time.  So, having said all that, I may actually resolve to blog more often.  I've really made that goal more than once, so we'll see.  

We had a wonderful Christmas!  We spent a couple of days with Dan's family in Leesburg, and then we spent a week with my family in NC!  We made sure to spend some good time up there because my parents are moving to Calgary, Alberta, Canada at the end of this month!  I still can't believe it!  My dad will be the pastor of a church up there for at least three years.  It looks like they will have to sell their house, so we're bummed about that, but we're excited for this adventure that God is taking them on at this point in their lives!

Andrew enjoyed Christmas, although it wore him out!  He's changing so much.  He got his top front teeth for Christmas!  He also got some really fun gifts!  He's crawling and pulling up all the time.  We really don't think it will be long until he's walking.  Although we have to watch him a lot more, he's so much fun to play with!  He's also very talkative - lots of babbling! We surely do love him more and more every day.  He's a really sweet, good natured boy even though he also has his demanding and stubborn side!!

Well, that's it for now.  I'll add some pictures so you can see my sweet little boy!

What a Month!

October has been a full and wonderful month! We visited some great friends, celebrated our fourth anniversary, dedicated Andrew at church, and celebrated my 32nd birthday! It has been full and lots of fun. All the while, Andrew continues to grow and change, which is amazing!

We spent time in Wellington, FL with our friends, Vaughn, Jaime, and Kate Stoll. Dan went to UF with them, and we both love spending time with them! Their daughter, Kate is almost exactly a year older than Andrew, and she is quite a beauty! Andrew had a great time playing with her, and he must have learned a thing or two because, by the end of the weekend, he was babbling up a storm and saying "da da."

I know it's not very original for us, but I LOVE spending time at Disney World for special events! So, for our forth anniversary, we spent the weekend there! Our first night was without Andrew, which actually went quite well! Andrew had a great time with his Grandparents, and we had a great time dining at the California Grill! It overlooks the Magic Kingdom, and we had a really nice window seat! Andrew joined us on Saturday, and then we had some fun family time.

The following weekend was the Parent/Child Dedication at our church. That is where we commit to raise Andrew in a Christ-centered home with the hope that he will also grow to love Jesus and follow Him throughout his life. My parents and Dan's parents came, and we all enjoyed our time together. My parents were here for a whopping 36 hours -way too short! But it was great to see them!

This is Andrew's Halloween costume. Obviously, it's not Halloween yet, but this is when he was trying it on. His costume is really cute, but I think it's going to be a little short. That kid is long!

God gave me a special birthday blessing with some cool weather this week! Oh, how I have loved the crisp, cool air, and Andrew seems to have liked it too! This morning, I felt like I needed to cover his ears when we went out for a walk because he has had a cold. Dan's Grandma Rock made him this hat before he was born, so we tried it on this morning. It was super cute and it's almost too small now. Unfortunately, it was actually pretty warm by the time we got outside, so I had to take it off. Hopefully, he'll have another chance to wear it!

Well, that's about it for now! Enjoy the pictures of my little man!

My Baby is 6 months old!!!!

Well, today at 11:59 pm, Andrew will officially be six months old! I really can't believe it! The time has flown by, and I can safely say that the last six months are basically a blur! But a wonderful blur!

Andrew has done a lot in the past couple of months. He has two bottom teeth, and he handled them coming in very well. He got a cold, and I think that may have been why, but after we got a humidifier, that didn't seem to be much of a problem. He's trying so hard to crawl, and he can definitely get around (sometimes by rolling), but he just can't get it all to work at the same time yet (arms and legs). That's just fine with me! He's making lots of noises, and this may be crazy, but I'm wondering if he tries to say Alli. He's so fascinated and humored by her, and lots of times when she comes around, he makes a noise that sounds like "Aya." Well, I'm not writing it in his book yet, but I just keep listening. It does make sense since we yell her name all the time!! Today, he started sitting up! He's been getting stronger, but we haven't been able to sit unassisted...until today! I still have to watch him, but he can sit there for a few minutes, until he decides to go after something. We got him a walker, and he loves to scoot around the kitchen. And he has had his two first little tumbles. Fortunately, neither phased him! Dan and I are even - one on his watch and one on mine! We are definitely in the process of baby proofing!!

Dan and I are doing well! We've gotten into a pretty good routine in terms of our jobs and family time. We both get tired, and we try not to take that out on each other!! I'd say we do pretty well - he's better than me! We even went on a date without Andrew recently, which was fun! Next week is our fourth anniversary, so we're spending the weekend at Disney. Andrew will stay at least one night with Gigi and Papa (Dan's parents). My mom is a little bit sad about that! We're excited about getting away!

Well, that's my quick update for now! I've been blessed that Andrew has been happily entertaining himself for a few minutes! I better not push it!

We're still here!

First time at the Beach!

I have very good reasons for taking so long to update this blog: 1. I have a baby. 2. I have been studying for my state licensure exam (which I passed two weeks ago today). 3. We have had visitors, travel, etc taking up a lot of our time. 4. I have a baby!

Anyway, now that surely there is no one who checks this, I'm finally taking a minute to catch up a little bit. I'm up at my parents' house right now. Andrew and I flew up last Friday, and our travel adventure actually went very well. I must say, I felt quite accomplished after surviving a flight alone with my four and a half month old! Of course, it is only a little over an hour. We were supposed to be flying home right now, but our flight was cancelled because of the Tropical Storm. That was a good call, I think, since Dan said that it's just starting to get nasty in Orlando. We're scheduled for the same flight tomorrow, but I'm bracing myself for things being pretty messed up since so many flights were cancelled today. I guess we'll see how this flight goes to see what a supermommy I really am!

Andrew changes so much week by week! He is SO much fun, and it's exciting to see him learn and grow and change. And he's taking growing very seriously. At his four month appointment, he was 15 1/2 lbs and 26 1/2 inches (98th percentile for length!). He's rolling over and even scooting around some. He wants to be mobile very badly. The carseat, which was once such a blessing for getting Andrew to relax and stop crying, has now become the enemy! He started eating cereal a couple of weeks ago, and he loves it! I have learned not to try to skip that step on a busy day because he WILL know, and I WILL pay!!! He's sleeping great - I have actually gotten nine hours of sleep on a couple of occasions! And he's definitely starting to teeth. I think I have located where his first tooth will come in, but I'll keep you posted on that one!

The other big news has definitely been taking and passing my state licensure exam for counseling. After three years of being an intern, I'm only some paperwork away from being a Licensed Mental Health Counselor! It's such a relief to be there!

As I'm writing, I realized that I have gone back to work since the last time I updated this blog! That's going well too. I only work on Wednesday evenings and all day on Friday. On Wednesdays, Andrew is with Dan, and Fridays Dan's mom comes to keep him. He doesn't miss a beat when I go to work. I think he likes to be around other people, although I'm clearly his favorite!!! :-) I'm glad to have such a flexible work schedule.

Andrew and I have had a great time with my parents! It has been a pretty relaxing time up here on the mountain. Dan's sister, Megan, is back up here at school, so we've gotten to spend some time with her too. She was busy working this summer, so we didn't get to see a whole lot of her when she was home. It's fun that we can see her no matter where we are!

Well, I guess that's it for now. Of course, I need to leave time to add in the all important pictures of my cutie pie!

At the beach during Melanie's visit!

First time at Disney World on Mimi's birthday!

Pictures!!

These pictures are courtesy of our friend, Andres!

Shhhh...Andrew is Sleeping!

It' so hard for me to believe that Andrew is almost 11 weeks old! Wow! Time definitely flies more and more with every new event!

We're doing great! One of the reasons (aside from finding time) that I don't blog very often is because I want to put pictures up. I mean, that's the most fun part of blogs in my opinion. But the pictures are always on Dan's computer, which is often at work when I have a chance to blog. That's why I'm writing here, but there are no pictures. I'm hoping to put some up later today. Andrew is so cute, so I really want you to see him! I know he's cuter every day!

My maternity leave is almost over, and I can't believe it! We have kept so busy that it has flown by. The week before last we spent the week at my parents' house in NC, and that was great. It was much different than usual because it was not very restful. Life is just not so restful any more. But it was still so nice to be up in the mountains with family. I guess it was restful but just not in the sleep way. Next week, I'm returning to work at the Counseling Center at FBCO, but only for a day and a half a week. I'm not too worried about this step since it's so limited. I love counseling, so I think I will enjoy the "break" and spending time with my clients. Andrew will be with Dan on Wednesday nights, which I think will be great for the two of them. And on Fridays, my sweet mother-in-law is coming to stay with him! I think that will be special too. My mom is very sad that she can't have a piece of that action, but Allegiant flights aren't that cheap!!

So what is Andrew up to? Well, he's smiling and "talking" all the time, which is a great delight! He's also quite the bobble head! The more control he has over his head, the more he insists on holding it up as much as possible. He's not sleeping through the night every night, but we have had a few, and we're headed in a good direction. My biggest challenge now is getting him to nap in his crib during the day. He does NOT like that most of the time. But he did take a two hour nap there yesterday, which was great. Evenings are always the hardest time for us, but the other night he sat happily in his bouncy seat, playing or sleeping, for a lot of the evening. I truly did not know what to do with myself!

Well, time's almost up. He's got to eat soon. But I will try to put pictures on soon!