We're Only Mildly Crazy

I realized today that the number of posts that I've published has gone down over the years. Oops. So here is my attempt to write more often.

Things have been mildly crazy around here. David seems to be gearing up (or down depending on how you want to look at it) to do away with his morning nap. I'm still clinging to it, but the other day as well as today he took a horrible afternoon nap even after only sleeping an hour in the morning. By "horrible" I mean he stayed awake at least for an hour after I put him down and then only slept an hour tops after finally falling asleep. On other days, like yesterday, he'll go down for a morning nap, sleep an hour, and then proceed to sleep for almost 2 hours in the afternoon. Consistent he is not.

This evening, David learned, hopefully, why it's not a smart idea to run around with a blanket on your head. It's something that he likes to do sometimes instead of pulling the blanket off his head, and until today, we've been able to keep him from injuring himself. This evening, however, while I was trying to get the blanket off his head and Ashton was trying to hold him, he fell face first into the rocking chair and crunched his nose. It already looks bruised, but I'm pretty sure that it's not damaged in any way. I had a little bit of a scare when following this incident I asked Ashton how you could tell if a nose is broken and Ashton said, "It bleeds." Then a second later, "Oh hey. It is bleeding." Yes, it was, but only a teeny tiny bit and David definitely didn't seem to care too much that I was touching his nose or wiping it. He only cared that I took his pacifier away to do so.

Next week, we get to find out whether we're having a boy or a girl. So place your bets now! We're excited to see this baby.

One Year Old

My baby is a whopping one year old! ...and a week since I'm a little late getting to this post. I can't believe that David has been with us for a year. We love our little boy.

David has learned how to walk and stand up all on his own. He enjoys his new found freedom even though he still thinks I should walk around with him and sit on the floor to play with him. It's funny to watch him just walk around on his own and see where he thinks it's worthwhile going. If the dog is around, that's where he goes. Yesterday he enjoyed chasing the dog around trying to pet her. (We've been trying to teach him to be gentle with the dog, not pet her face, and not share his toys with her. It's a work in progress.)

He climbs the stairs on his own now and has only taken a tumble once. The tumble was due to standing up and looking around while on the stairs. Hopefully, it was a worthwhile learning experience. Going downstairs safely is something that we're working on. It'd help if he stopped trying to climb up the stairs when we're trying to get him to go down.

David is 18 lbs 7 oz and 27 7/8 inches long. Everyone comments on how small he is, which is funny because I never think of him as being small until I see him next to someone around the same age.

We got to have a birthday party the next day with some family that were nice enough to come. He was a little overwhelmed at first by all the people at his house and playing with his toys, he had just gotten up from a nap, but he got used to it after a while and had fun. David got his own cupcake to eat and after he got past the frosting, he chowed down on the cake part.  

The birthday boy on his birthday!

Big dude standing and walking

I'm so proud of how these turned out

Not quite sure what to think of the cupcake or all the people staring at him with cameras

Finally taking a bite

We don't believe in small bites

David has been trying to sit under the coffee table for a while so he was happy when he discovered he could sit under our side table

We're Alive!

We really are alive. It's just been a crazy past couple of months. For one thing, I am pregnant! I'm due in the middle of August, which will mean David and the baby will be about 18 months apart. So far, I've been feeling pretty good. I wasn't very sick with David, but still had my days when I had to lie down for the majority of the day. That hasn't happened this time around so far, and I'm grateful for that. Lying down for a long amount of time isn't possible right now. The weirdest part about this pregnancy is the things that I crave and things that are no good for me to smell or eat. Things that last time I couldn't stand to be around, smell, or eat, are fine this time around and this time around I'm not craving all the carbs and sugars. Actually, I can't have too much sugar without me starting to feel sick. Kind of a bummer, but also a dream come true since it means that I eat better.

Of course, it wouldn't be a blog post if I didn't update a little bit about David. He took his first steps this past weekend, and every day this week he's taken at least a few steps on his own. Some of those have been by trickery, I'll just let go of his hand and he'll keep going for a few steps, but some have been him just letting go and taking off. We've made a bit of a game out of it and he loves it.

Oh, and for more fun, he can climb the stairs. The funny part is that while he can do it on his own, he doesn't want to. He prefers to "walk" up the stairs while holding our hands.  He actually cried when I let go of his hands to get him to go up by himself. Yes, he was going up the stairs on his own, but he was still crying until I took his hands again. It's pretty funny and it means that he still isn't interested in going upstairs without me.

David also loves to tease us. Next to "running" with Ashton, it's his favorite game. For a while now, we've teased him by taking things away and making it a little hard for him to get back. Yes, it sounds mean, but he loved it and still does. Well, it wasn't too long before he started turning the tables on us. He laughs so hard as he's pulling things away from us or as he's running away with whatever he's got. The laughter does interfere with him trying to get away sometimes. 
 

Best Pudding Ever

My sister-in-law Heather shared this recipe with me the other day and I'm a sucker for good pudding. Not to mention, I refuse to buy the store stuff and so when she mentioned this recipe, I was excited! I made it after David went to bed, although he would have gobbled that stuff up like he was starving, and it was fantastic! Ashton said that he thought it tasted more like chocolate mouse than pudding, but I don't think that's a bad thing. So here's the recipe:

2-3 avocados (yes, I'm serious)
1 banana (add more if you want and it's a good use for ripe bananas that you don't want to eat plain)
2-3 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla (I didn't actually measure the vanilla)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 can coconut milk

I put all these ingredients in my food processor, but I'm sure a blender or mixer would work just as well. For those of you who don't like coconut, Ashton hates the stuff and he enjoyed this. You can hardly tell there's coconut in there so don't let it discourage you from trying it. Enjoy!

History

I love history. It was my favorite subject in High School and I took more history classes than I was required to take. Part of my love stemmed from the ease of it. I have a pretty good memory so memorizing some dates and facts for a test was fairly easy. Then there is the part where I viewed history as fact. This is stuff that happened so there's no hedging about what to do about it. It's in the past and that's that right? Well, not so much apparently.

What I didn't take into consideration back then was the interpretation of history, which is all circumstantial. Depending on your viewpoint, you interpret history differently, especially if you leave certain parts of history out. For instance, you can think that the Civil War was about State's rights and that Lincoln only issued the Emancipation Proclamation to boost the war effort of the North and give the troops morale, which is how I learned the Civil War. You can think that until you read the Confederate's Constitution which makes it clear that it was about slavery.

When people make up their own version of history, which usually means ignoring parts of the picture, it ends up being wrong. When I finally learned the whole truth, things started being clearer. My understanding of how our nation functions is much better because it is not our history that makes us, rather, it is what we do with our history that creates who we are. Anyone can sit around and be bitter about the things that have happened to us as a nation or individually. It takes true character and strength to get up, and learn from it. To blame our circumstances on the past is to neglect our future. If we are always looking behind us, we will miss the opportunities and blessings of right now, and the future. Never forget the past so that we will recognize and be guarded from recurrences, but look ahead to our future and start protecting that. 

Always Busy

While I am writing this, David is walking around the coffee table. Well, kind of. He hasn't figured out how to get around the corner yet. This has been his favorite game for about a week or so now. He started crawling a few weeks ago and instead of perfecting that art, he has decided to move onto the next thing: walking. He loves holding our hands and taking steps. He hasn't figured out how to pull himself up to the coffee table yet, although, he's really close. If he's holding our hands he can do it pretty much by himself. To get down he usually either falls down or reaches out to whoever is next to him and grabs them. This morning, however, he sat down. Of course, that posed a problem since he can't get back up on his own. At least he's learned not to try to reach down for whatever he's dropped. Seriously, it's the best game. Load the coffee table up with a bunch of stuff you don't mind him having and then he proceeds to push it all off the table. Repeat.

We've also discovered a love for swings. We also tried the slide, but that didn't hold the same kind of magic apparently.

As busy as he is and as much as I apparently have to be right there with him to play with him, I love my little mover. The solution to walking away from him to do something else is apparently one of two things. Either I have to wait for him to be perfectly happy on his own or sing to him while I'm gone. Unfortunately, neither is fool-proof.

6 Months Old

This morning I tried to ignore everything that was going on to try to sleep in. I ignored the light from the bathroom that was shining in my face from Ashton getting ready for work, the music that was playing to try to keep David quiet and happy, and, of course, David fussing in the pack 'n' play. David chose this moment to say, "Mum-ma." So much for trying to teach him "Dada" first. It was cute and I knew I wasn't going back to sleep.

David has been trying all kinds of new things lately. We've been giving him solid food for almost a month now and he loves the stuff. He goes back and forth between trying to feed himself using the veggie/fruit bag and wanting to be spoon fed. He does well with both though and so far he eats avocado, bananas, yogurt, and applesauce. His favorite thing though is trying to drink from a glass. He's not really interested in straws, and it doesn't help that I can't quite figure out how to get it in his mouth without nearly stabbing him. If only he didn't wiggle so much. In any case, he's decided that drinking straight from the glass is the way to go. He's getting pretty good, too. Doesn't nearly drown himself as much as he used to.

Wanted to do it himself

We expect him to start crawling any day now since he has a determination to get things out of his reach. He's not so much lunging for things anymore; now it's a deliberate "how do I get that?" Guess I better start baby proofing. Can't have his first day crawling followed immediately by his first accident.

One of my favorite parts of his development is that he's started to sleep in his pack n' play, without being swaddled! We've tried about everything to restrict his arm movements while he sleeps and still that's only really achieved if we put him in his swing to sleep, which occasionally we have to do. The kid is just too wiggly and strong. I'm sure he'd give even the best swaddler a run for their money. So a couple weeks ago, we started putting him down in his crib to sleep. He does really well with it and is starting to spend the whole night in there.

My other favorite part is that I don't have to feed him at night anymore. Almost 12 hours free from feeding him is amazing. Sure, it'd be a whole lot nicer if I didn't have to get up at all, but hopefully that will come when he has his own room. As it is, I only had to get up twice last night to give back his pacifier.

Since David is 6 months now, we went in for his wellness check. He's 17 lbs 12 oz and is 25 3/4 inches tall. He's doing great and his motor skills are particularly developed. He had his first shot during this appointment and he took it very well. He cried a little bit afterward, but not nearly as much as I thought he would. He was perfectly happy upon getting his pacifier.