Loving Parenthood

Love

2012-01-18T16:05:00.000-06:00

Constance and Levi,

I love that I get to spend every day with you. You make me smile and melt my heart with day-to-day things.

Levi, I love your kisses. Whether you are happy or sad, you need your mama's kisses. You like to grab my entire head and make a grinding noise with your teeth as you press your entire body into mine. You also know how stinkin' cute you are and grin at me with your eight teeth (by the way, your mama is convinced that you ONLY have 8 teeth. Ever.) anytime you know you are doing something you shouldn't be. You also LOVE to read. You grab a book or several books off the shelf, find me, and walk backwards till your sitting on my lap. You point at everything on every page and go, "Uhhh."

My sweet Constance. You are such a mama's girl right now. I must admit that I rather enjoy it. You have me put you down to bed now (it used to be your daddy) and you want only me to buckle you in the car seat if the whole family is going somewhere. If you have to choose who gets you dressed between mommy or daddy, it will always be me. You always ask me to play with you. I find this slightly amusing because I always play with you, you don't have to ask. You LOVE to read and always ask for one more story. You LOVE to sing. I love when you tell me you love me. You also have a super imagination and always have pretend animals running around.

I love you both with all my heart.

Oranges

2012-01-13T15:30:00.000-06:00

Constance,

You can always make me laugh. Today after devouring roughly two whole oranges you sweetly asked for more. I said, "I'm sorry, we don't have any more. You ate the last ones. We will have to go to the store and buy some more." You gave me your best pitiful look and said, "Well...that's just sad."

Singing Star

2012-01-11T16:27:00.000-06:00

Constance,
I love you. You love to sing your little heart out. At any given moment we can hear you sing songs such as the "ABC" song, to "The People on the Bus" to "Jesus Loves Me." We also hear you singing made up songs. Your most recent one was "Nanny loves Grandpa and I love Jesus. I also love my soapy pony." (You were in the bath with your small stuffed pink pony). To add extra style, you play your pink guitar.

Your daddy and I delight in your songs and hope you continue to sing with passion all the days of your life.

Love
Mommy

My Levi

2011-12-27T14:11:00.000-06:00

Levi. My chunky chunk of a little boy. How I love your smiles and kisses. Mama is having a hard time realizing that you are no longer a baby. You are a little boy that wants to be included in everything and sees everything. Please forgive me for the times I overlook your feelings and wants because I forget that you are almost 16 months old. I had 21 months of practice with a little girl before you blessed our lives. I'm still learning how to manage a little guy!

You are into everything. You run everywhere. Forget about walking. You like to practice jumping. You really haven't had both feet leave the ground but you try. You love, love, love music. I wonder what you will be when you are grownup? I hope it will involve music. I see it in you. Music flows through your veins.

I love you my sweet little Levi toes.

Happy Birthday Constance

2011-12-19T15:44:00.002-06:00

Constance Elizabeth, you are 3 years old today. Wow! I want to rejoice and I feel a slight twinge of sadness. You are getting older. You are growing and changing every day. You started out as a not-so-tiny 9 pound 6 ounce 20 1/4 inch long baby and now you are talking in full sentences, know just about 1/2 of the alphabet and love to sing!

I never knew how much love my heart could hold until I became a mommy. One day when you are grown, I hope you will get to experience that love as well when you become a mommy.

You amaze me Constance. I get to experience life through your eyes. And everything is new to you. The moon and stars excite you! You never get tired of hearing the song, "The People on the Bus." You love to color and make up conversations between your stuffed animals and baby dolls and ponies. And what an imagination you have! Just recently we had to throw on clothes and go outside in the cold because your imaginary baby bird flew out the unopened window! You would not be satisfied till we captured your baby bird and returned him back in the house with his mommy and daddy.

You like to do things the same way every time. If your sippy cup is sitting on one side of your plate and at some point it is moved to the other side it must immediately be brought back to the original place it was. While we work on the computer at your favorite site StarFall, you always pick the exact same eyes, nose, hat, arms and buttons for the Build Your Own Snowman. Always.

You love chicken, bananas, grapes and strawberries. You have such a sweet tooth but especially love brownies and ice cream. You also love pizza.

You can count to 30 and know all your colors. You love, love, love to read. Right now you are into Clifford the Big Red Dog, Maisy Mouse, The Magic School Bus, The Bearenstein Bears and your ABC's books.

You have a few really good friends and ask about them constantly. You think playgrounds are the greatest thing ever and always go for the biggest slide and like to swing really high.

You love to color!

This year I am looking forward to watching you grow and learn even more than what you already do. I love that you like the song Jesus Loves Me and say that God loves you. I look forward to teaching you more about Jesus and His love for you. I look forward to you learning all of your alphabet letters, more numbers and hopefully you will start using the potty soon!

Always remember that your daddy and I love you with all of our hearts. You are such a blessing to us and are a great addition to our family. We can not imagine life without you. You are smart, beautiful, passionate and silly. Happy 3rd Birthday my sweet girl. You are so very special and so very much loved.

Constance's Sayings

2011-10-01T07:37:00.000-05:00

I love how much my daughter can talk! She is so funny and so fill of life. Constance feels everything passionately. This is a very fun time and it also can be frustrating!

Here is some cute things she has been saying lately.

While acting very silly at her great grandmother's house last week, I said to Constance, "You are a mess kido." She looked at me and in a tone of disgust said, "I'm not a mess, I washed my face!"

That same week in our hotel room, it was way past Constance's bed time. She was wired! After I got Levi down I layed on one side of the bed behind Constance and my mom was laying on the bed in front of her. We were trying to get her to settle down by rubbing her back and head. I asked her if I could sing her a song. She asked for one about a bird. I did not know a bird song so I started making one up. It was all about how there was this baby bird who really needed to go to sleep and the mommy and nanny bird were doing all they knew how to get this baby bird to sleep. Constance looked up at me and said, "No! Baby Bird is not asleep, baby bird is awake!" My smart little girl knew I was talking about her.

Just yesterday- Me to Constance. "We need to put on your socks and shoes so we can go outside." Constance, "Me not want to put on shoes, me want to go in just my toes." Love that girl!

Happy 1st Birthday Levi-A day late

2011-09-17T13:28:00.000-05:00

Happy 1st Birthday my sweet, sweet son! I cannot believe an entire year has passed since you came into this world and joined our family. I cannot imagine life without you and your big sister. God has truly blessed us indeed. You are the sweetest little boy and love to smile and giggle and give kisses-and sometimes you try to bite when you’re giving kisses. I’m not quite sure what compels you to do that.
You are walking everywhere and every day you become faster.

You think your big sister is the best and try to do everything that she does.

You are looking more and more like your daddy each day.

Puddles. You’re attracted to them. If it even slightly resembles a puddle you are right there to put your chubby hands in it.

You love to climb. Because of your love for climbing you get hurt pretty much every day. Your little lip sticks out and you let me hold you and cuddle you while your cry. For whatever reason, what comforts you is holding on to my hair in the back of my head. I love holding you close comforting you.

I wanted to write down your birth story before too many memories fade. I realize that as a boy you probably will not be interested in this as you get older but maybe your future children will want to read about it. Yikes! Just the thought that one day you will be a grown man with a wife and children of your own. That kind of makes me sad. Okay, back to your birth story.

When your daddy and I found out we were pregnant with you we really were not too surprised. One of the first signs that lead me to believe that I was pregnant was that I started to feel slightly queasy on and off. I took a pregnancy test a week or so after that started happening and it said I was pregnant. I was so happy! Your daddy, who was a teacher at the time, was still at school and I could not reach him by phone. I wanted to tell someone! So I ran over to our neighbors house with Constance and shared my news. When I got back to our house I tried to send a link to your daddy to let him know I was pregnant. He e-mailed back and said he could not open the song. I e-mailed him back and told him to call me. By that time I think he suspected something was up. I told me and he was just as happy.

Slight queasiness led to full blown “morning (aka all day) sickness.” That confirmed for me that I was having a girl since I was just as sick with Constance. I couldn’t even think about Nutri Grain bars without feeling sick! After about 4 months the sickness went away. We went to a doctor’s appointment for an ultra sound and found out that we were not having a girl, but a boy! I was so happy because I wanted the experience of having a little boy.

We picked out your name, especially for you. We both knew that Levi would be your first name but had trouble with your middle name. One day your daddy suggested that we name you, “Alexander the great.” I told him no way! However the next day I thought about “Levi Alexander.” I looked up what that name meant. We found out that Alexander meant “defending men.” Your daddy and I talked about it and loved it!
Your official due date was September 22, 2010.

On September 16, 2010 I went to a normal doctors appointment to make sure that you and I were both staying healthy. I was a little dilated but not too much. Nanny came up to babysit your sister and your daddy was at a parent/teacher conference at work. After my appointment we went out and ate Mexican food. Part way through the meal my belly started to hurt some but did not think much of it. The pain went away. I dropped Nanny and Constance back off at the house and went to go pick up some bed sheets and then to Walmart to pick up some more bedding (we had just bought a used king size bed). As I was walking into Walmart, my water broke. It was approximately 6:45p.m. Regardless to say I did not go shopping but got back in our van and drove home. I was a little anxious and scared. I kept wondering if my water really did break or not (I had a pad on which absorbed the fluid). When I got to the house I changed clothes and went to find nanny and Constance who had gone for a walk. My contractions had already started to come on pretty strong. I had to briefly stop a few times and wait for the pain to go away. I told Nanny what was going on and headed back in the house. I tried calling your daddy but could not get through.

Back in the house I laid on the couch where my contractions were coming on stronger and stronger. I continued to call your daddy but could not get through. I do not know how many messages I left for him. Come to find out he had left his phone at school and a friend was taking him home. So when your daddy does get home he rushes around the house trying to clean everything. I kept asking him what the plan was and he kept saying to tell him when I was ready to go to the hospital. Nanny and I remember me telling him several times that I was ready to go but he does not remember that. So finally I could not take it anymore and we kiss Constance goodbye and head to the hospital. My contractions were coming on super quick by then. Your daddy turned on the cars emergency lights and sped to the hospital. When we arrived I could barely walk without being in pain so your daddy ran up ahead to get me a wheel chair. We made a dramatic ER entrance and began filling out paperwork. At last the time arrived for me to be wheeled up to the OB ward. We got into one elevator but it would not go up. The doors would close but the elevator would not move! The nurse tried three times for it to go but we finally had to take another way.

When we get to the labor and delivery room the nurses acted like I am probably not really in labor-labor. I lay on the bed and all of a sudden start to feel nauseous. I asked the nurse if that was normal and she said it was if I was in the final stages of labor. I threw up in the trash can that your daddy found for me and the nurse checked to see how far dilated I was. I was 8cm dilated! We went from having one nurse in the room to ten nurses in the room. They started prepping me with IV’s and getting your little bed set up. The doctor on call was called and the head nurse came in to my room. She was great! I did not have to put my feet up but was just able to lay in bed with my legs propped up comfortably. We made it through each contraction. At some point I asked if I was still only 8cm and she said, “Nope, you are 10 cm.” (10cm is the largest mommy will get before giving birth). She asked if I was ready to push, push. As I began I could feel you getting lower and lower. At 9:47p.m. I gave birth to the most precious 8 pound 7 ounce 20 ½ inch long little boy named Levi Alexander Wadley. The nurse delivered you and the doctor walked in 5 minutes later! He missed it all! You cried as they were weighing you and taking your measurements. Mommy cried too because I was so happy you were her! Daddy went over by your side and began taking pictures. I called Nanny to let you know you arrived.

Shortly later they let me hold you for the very first time and I thought you were so perfect! I was also able to nurse you right away and you ate like a champ!
You have been a perfect addition to our family Levi. I love you with all my heart and I look forward to watching you grow and learn and thrive. Happy Birthday son.

Constance and her kisses

2011-08-18T14:48:00.000-05:00

My daughter can be very affectionate. I say "can be" because she is 2 years old and sometimes she will willingly fling herself on you wanting hugs and kisses yet other times if you ask for a hug she will run away, cross her arms and lay flat on her bed to avoid the offensive hug. Ah, my silly, silly girl.

So the other day as she climbed up to her top bunk I followed her and asked if I could kiss her cheek. Surprisingly she said yes and I happily planted a kiss on her right cheek. Constance then leaned over and kissed BOTH of my cheeks! I asked her if I should do the same to her which she promptly nodded her head. So I kissed her other cheek and her forehead.

Not surprisingly she immediately began wiping away my kisses. As I said, she is 2. When she was done, Constance said, "Oh no! Where did the kisses go?" I told her that I didn't know and asked if I should kiss her again. She nodded her head and I was able to kiss both of her cheeks and her forehead once more. I just love this girl!

Fast and Furious

2011-08-09T21:11:00.001-05:00

Levi. Oh my busy, busy boy. He moves all the time. If not his body his hands move or his feet wiggle. I think he even moves in his sleep.

My son is also very determined to get away with whatever HE wants to do. Hey mom, what is wrong with putting daddy's magazines IN the toilet? Why can't I touch or pull things OUT of the trash can? Isn't this wet wipe that was just used to clean me tasty? Gross. I know.

So this evening I am preparing him for Pajama Lama time. After wiping him down I decide to put some diaper rash cream on him. Do I have it with me? No. Is my husband available to get some for me? No. So I rush to the kitchen leaving my half naked child on the floor. I thought I had put some cream on the kitchen counter. Was it there? No. I then look at the medicine bag that we keep in the diaper bag. Was it there? No. I walk back into the living room to find the floor empty. Where was Levi? A sound to my left makes me realize that he crawled from the other side of the living room, down the hallway and was half way in the bathroom by the time I was done looking for the cream. How did I miss him going by?

The chase was on. As soon as Levi knew he had been spotted he made a quick turn and was crawling as fast as his chubby body would allow into the bathroom. As I was getting closer to him I heard these little grunts of annoyance and possibly anger. He did not want me to get him! In no time I picked him up and his legs started kicking and his angry noises got louder! How dare I stop him!! And all this from a 10.5 month old.

I love you son but you can't run around half naked and get into things in the bathroom.

Memories Missing

2011-08-02T09:08:00.001-05:00

I realized that by neglecting my blog I am forgetting some precious memories that I was to preserve. One would think that you could remember everything about the precious, tiring, and exciting baby/toddler days but in reality, you just can not remember everything. That kind of makes me sad. I want to jot down these memories so my kids can one day read them and giggle about themselves and each other.

So in review of the past 5 months-
*Constance is now 2.5 years old.
*She can talk in full sentences and says the cutest things.
*My personal favorites, "That sounds like fun!" "This is tasty." "Come on mama! Let's play with toys!"
*She is 32 pounds and wears size 3T in clothing and a size 8 in shoe.
*Constance loves, loves, loves fruit, especially strawberries.
*Other favorite foods- Pizza, crackers, Dora fruit snacks, and anything dealing with cake, cookies or ice cream.
*She has the silliest personality and loves to laugh.
*She has such a great imagination already and you can often find her carrying on conversations between her toys.
*She is a big help with Levi and is getting more affectionate with him. However she hates having to share her toys.
*Her hair is long enough now to put in pig tails and pony tails and I have started making my own hair bows for them.

Constance, Your daddy and I love having a little girl. You are so much fun and we love seeing you grow and change. We love watching you when we pray over our meals. You hold our hands and nod your head up and down. You are so smart and a huge blessing in our lives.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
*Levi is 10.5 months old
*He has been crawling for awhile now and he is fast!
*He is also close to taking his first step. Yikes! Levi can stand up and sit down without holding onto anything and you can see his little mind working on how to do it.
*Levi has 6 teeth in. 4 on the top, 2 on the bottom
*At last check up a few months ago he weighed 23 pounds and was in the 97%.
*He wears 12 month clothing
*This boy loves to eat! Favorites would be crackers, cheerios, and bananas.
*He nurses 4-6 times a day.
*Levi rarely sleeps through the night. I try not to envy the mom's who say their kids have slept well their entire lives.
*He is soooo happy and has the sweetest smile and giggle.
*His back is very ticklish.
*He loves to play peak a boo
*While Levi is comfortable around others, he is such a mama's boy!
*He thinks his sister is the greatest thing next to his mama. His whole face lights up when she gets up in the morning. No one can make him laugh like Constance can.

Levi, You are such a busy, busy little boy! You love to be in the middle of everything. You are so very curious and never miss a thing. Your daddy and I love your sweet smile and your chubby belly is so kissable. We are so very thankful for you.

The kids

2011-02-21T21:08:00.000-06:00

The Good-
Levi is such a happy baby and loves his big sister. His whole face lights up when she is near and does everything in his power to get her attention.
Constance is So smart. She repeats anything and everything and LOVES to read.

The Bad-
Lack of sleep. I am tired. Keith is tired. We are both oh so tired. You get the point. Levi thinks sleep is for the weak. He is using sleep deprivation to break us.

The Ugly-
I put a fresh, cloth diaper on Levi and put him in his bouncer seat. A short while later after listening to him complain I went to pull him out. As I was getting ready to I noticed that one side of his diaper had come off and poopy was getting on everything! Ugh! I took off the other side and carried my half naked child like he had the plague into the living room to be cleaned up.

I love my little family. The Lord has surely blessed us.

My Kidos

2011-02-09T20:59:00.000-06:00

I am blessed to have two healthy children and should be thanking God daily for that.

Quick update

Constance talks all the time. I can't keep track of all her new words. Yesterday when I was drying off her feet after a bath she giggled and said, "Tickle mama!" When she saw me walk in the living room today she ran behind the recliner. Playing along I asked, "Where's Constance?" A little voice from behind the chair answers. "Hiding."

Levi will be 5 months old next week! My goodness he is growing up so fast. He roughly weighs 20 pounds and eats anything I put in front of him. He has had rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, pears, bananas and green beans. He has no teeth yet but has been teething for awhile.

Keith, Heather, Constance and Levi.....

2011-01-12T18:39:00.000-06:00

is moving to Oklahoma! We found out about this new job for my husband a little more then a month ago and are moving this weekend! While I hate, hate, hate being so far from m family, I think this job will be very good for m husband. We are also gypsies at heart and love to move and travel. This is our first time moving with kids though so it will be very interesting.

I will blog as I have time....

Conversation with an Angel

2010-12-02T21:22:00.000-06:00

For several weeks now my sweet son will give me (people) spontaneous smiles and toothless grins. He also talks/babbles on and off. It is adorable! However the story I am about to share, I have not decided whether or not to be jealous.

It is about 7:30 in the evening and I am getting ready to feed my son for the night. I lay him on the boppy pillow and try to get him to latch. He keeps refusing to and keeps straining his little neck to look up at something. From where I am siting on the recliner, there is nothing, literally nothing, that his little eyes can see that he would find so fascinating. However, he keeps giving the biggest smiles to...something. To top that, he starts babbling, loudly. I have never heard Levi talk so much or be so loud! This conversation continues for quite some time (around 10 minutes or so). He wasn't looking at me and there was no one or nothing in the room to distract him.

Call me crazy, but I think he was talking to an angel.

My heart is full

2010-11-18T16:15:00.000-06:00

When my daughter woke up from her nap, I made her a snack and turned on the television so I could get a start on the mountain of laundry that has accumulated over the past week. There is a station called Smile T.V. and I can rest assured that everything she sees and hears on there will be safe.

So my daughter is watching a show and I am running back and forth between the living room and my bedroom gathering clean laundry and hangers. A commercial of some sorts comes on that I have seen before but not really given it much thought. A pretty song is playing in the background as we watch some organization pass out toys to sick/dying orphans (it is not graphic...all the kids look "normal"). All of a sudden I hear Constance say, "Nap mama?" as she is watching this commercial. I looked up as I was trying to head down the hall and said, "Yes baby, some of those kids are napping." After a brief pause, I said that, "those kids were sick and that we needed to pray for them." Without skipping a beat Constance walked over to me, took my hand and bowed her head! It took me a second before realizing what she was doing! I prayed a quick prayer for the little sick kids and we went back to doing what we had been doing.

Lord, may you always give my daughter a heart of compassion for the sick, hurting and lonely. May you make her strong enough to be able to handle what she sees.

Not a whole lot going on

2010-11-17T13:16:00.000-06:00

Well, there is not a whole lot to share!

Levi is now 2 months old! Wow these two months have flown by. He was supposed to get his 2 month well-baby check up yesterday but the van broke down and we could not make it. The next earliest date that the doctor will squeeze Levi in, is not for two more weeks. Very frustrating as I was looking forward to seeing how big he has become. He absolutely thinks his big sister is something special. Whenever she is near he finds her and just grins and babbles at her!

On a good note, our van is in working order again. The battery was completely shot. I am very thankful that I did not break down BEFORE getting to Keith's work as it was cold, raining, I did not have a cell phone and I had the two kids all by myself. It did die in the parking lot of the school.

Constance is so big and can say so many new words! She can be a demanding little thing! She is definitely a daddy's girl and gets so upset if he has to go somewhere without her. She loves her little brother and has been "caught" several times loving on him without our prompting. I think she is going to have a blast when he is able to interact more with her.

Potty Training Day 5

2010-11-05T22:25:00.000-05:00

This morning I officially stopped trying to potty train. While we had made some improvements this week, Constance was becoming frustrated. Very frustrated. The last thing I want for her to do is to resent her potty chair!

To back track some, we bought her panties thinking that might help her out. She would be more comfortable in them and when/if she went potty she would feel the wetness of the cloth against her skin. However she did not like the panties on her so we took them off.

To go forward again, this morning I asked Constance if she wanted to wear her panties and she shook her head and said no. I then was going to let her run around diaper free, but she did not want that either. So I put a diaper on my moody child and threw in the towel. My plan is to try again in a month or so.

I was telling my husband that I think some of the issues we are having is because Constance does not strive to please us. For example, some children who get extra praise for sitting on the potty, will willingly go to the potty and sit at any given point, waiting for the approval and praise of their parent. While Constance likes praise, she could care less how excited we get for when she sits on the potty.

However, after I officially stopped potty training, Constance kept at it without my prompting. She will still head to the bathroom after she has gone potty in her diaper. Several times she would take off her diaper and sit on on the potty! She also came to tell me when she had a dirty diaper. I was feeding Levi at the time and she kept coming into the living room and pointing to her diaper. I asked her if she had a poopy diaper and she shook her head in confirmation that it was...and then ran straight for the bathroom. This evening, her daddy was able to coax her into her panties and she had no issue with them!

So where does that leave us? For now, we are going to go at her pace. If she wants to sit on the potty, great, and we will encourage her in any way we can.

Sneeze

2010-11-02T20:37:00.000-05:00

My children find themselves hilarious when they sneeze. And when I say children, I do mean both of them, Constance and Levi. Ever since I can remember Constance will just grin from ear to ear every time she sneezes. Now that she can say the word "sneeze" it is even cuter.

Yesterday after feeding Levi, he let out a huge sneeze. I looked down at him to say "bless you" and he was grinning from ear to ear and kept smiling!

I never knew sneezing could be so funny!

Christmas Giveaway Event – 4K in Prizes!

2010-11-02T13:23:00.000-05:00

http://www.faithfullyfrugal-and-free.com/2010/11/christmasgiveawayevent.html

Someone has to win!

Potty Training

2010-11-01T13:49:00.000-05:00

For the past several days, Constance has been showing signs that she can be potty trained. She can go all night without wetting in her diaper. She hates to be dirty or wet and comes to tell me every time she has gone. Once she has gone she wants a clean diaper asap.

I had contemplated trying to potty train in the near future however I started today. Why today you ask? In a very short amount of time Constance had two bad diapers and one wet diaper. She wanted to be changed immediately (which is fine for the poopy diapers but she could have gone longer in her wet diaper). I did not want to change her 100 time that day. So, I took the plunge.

I took off her last wet diaper and risked her being "diaper free" for awhile to see what would happen. Every 15 minutes or so I would have her sit on her potty. I did this so often because I was trying to "catch" her going and she could fully see what I wanted her to do. Sitting on the potty so often was frustrating her however so I will have to space out the times a little more.

Constance went roughly 2 1/2 hours without anything happening. Nothing in the potty. Nothing on the floor. Sigh. She now has a diaper on for her nap (I am not that brave yet). My plan is for when she gets up, I will see if she will sit on the potty so we can make the a habit from here on out. I will attempt the "diaper free" idea again just so I can see how often she would usually go...and of course, hopefully make it to the potty on time.

Now for a slightly funny story. My daughter is playing in her room without her diaper. I wonder to myself if it wouldn't be better if I brought the potty out of the bathroom and into whichever room she is in. She is playing with her Little People and I tell her that is she needs to go pee pee to sit on her potty. My little girl immediately stands up and starts scooting the potty towards one of her Little People Houses. I am getting excited! Is she really going to go potty for the first time? Once Constance has her potty in place she sits down...and starts playing with her Little People again. I quickly realized that she just wanted to have a seat while playing with her toys!

For the love of a sister

2010-10-30T13:31:00.000-05:00

I had Levi in his bouncer seat in the kitchen this morning. The back door was open and I was letting him soak in the rays. He was content and just chilling. When Constance saw that the door was open she went and closed it. Since the door is normally closed I guess that was the natural thing for her to do. I went and re-opened the door however. My daughter sees this and burst into tears and tries to close the door again. I tell her that "mommy wants to leave the door open." She gets upset and is crying again. A small noise behind me catches my attention. I turn to see little Levi's lip sticking out, his eyes are watery and he is whimpering a little. The more she cries the more he keeps sticking out his lip!

To distract Constance I tell her to turn around and talk to her brother. She turns around, and lets out a little giggle. Immediately, Levi stops whimpering and keeps grinning from ear to ear at her! It was SO cute! He was upset that his sister was upset and was happy when she calmed down.

A serious case of...

2010-10-23T14:34:00.000-05:00

"Mom Guilt"

You are right folks, that is what I diagnosed myself with. Is it contagious? Not really. Some moms may have experienced this feeling from time to time during the course of their motherhood. Others may not have.

What is mom guilt you ask? For me, it is when you have more then one child and you have to "neglect" one child to tend to the other child. By no means am I neglecting Constance in a sense of food, shelter, love and security. However, Levi, is...well...a little on the needy side.

At this point my readers may jump in and say, "Of course he is needy! He is a newborn." To that I would reply, "Levi is more needy then the typical newborn needyness." (For all my English majors out there please don't cringe at my made up word). He eats roughly every two hours and really is not content unless he is being held. Holding him 24/7 is impossible and it cuts into my play time with my daughter.

For example, I lay Levi down (who is already fast asleep) and begin to play with my daughter. We are just starting to have a good time when Levi, who realizes he is no longer being held, wakes up crying. I try to ignore it at first and continue to play. Levi gets a little louder. I am getting a bit anxious but once again ignore the complaints coming from this tiny tyrant. Continue to play. The complaints turn into loud screams as I rush over to comfort him. My daughter is then left with incomplete and insufficient mommy time. And so goes my day. I have tried to give him a pacifier which he promptly spits out in disgust.

Do not get me wrong, I do get some uninterrupted time with Constance from time to time. I could just hold Levi while playing with her, but that does not seem fair.

Any advice from veteran mom's would be great!!

Updates

2010-10-19T14:26:00.000-05:00

What is new in the world of Constance you ask?
*She says so many new words now that I can not keep up with them! Her newest word is "Jesus" however. Keith and I certainly have a talker on our hands.

*Her favorite food is still fruit. Every meal she gets fruit and typically it is the only thing she will finish. She is trying new foods though which I am very thankful for.

*She has blonde hair and hazel eyes. I though she was going to be a lefty but over the past few weeks she has been favoring her right hand.

*She LOVES Dora the Explorer and will ask for her by name.

*I am convinced that she is going to be a Veterinarian when she grows up. I have never seen a child so young who is this interested in animals. She loves cats especially.

*Constance has the greatest personality. She has a way of making anything...exciting.

*She loves baths and playing outside.

*She is definitely almost two! We are slowly being introduced into the world of two year olds. She likes to push boundaries and can get upset over the simplest things!

*Constance is also very brave. The bigger the slide the better! She gets that from her daddy.

As for Mister Levi, there is not much to tell.
*He is a little over 1 month old. Wow! When did that happen?

*He acts like he is hungry all the time and usually does not make it past 2 hours during the day before he demands to be fed again. Thankfully at night, he goes a little longer then that.

*Levi is trying to set the record for how many diapers he can go through before he is 2 months old.

I love being a mommy!

Mommy to Two

2010-10-10T21:13:00.001-05:00

Hello Blogger world! Some of my faithful readers may have given up all hope of ever seeing another post from me. I can't say I blame you though. It has been four months since my last post, which was not even written by me, but by my husband. And before that, my postings were very inconsistent.

However, I am making another attempt to begin blogging again. Maybe I should set aside one day a week or every two weeks where I blog atleast...something. Not that our lives are very exciting or anything or that I expect you to wait at your computer every day impatiently waiting for what I will write about next. However, life with children, two small children at that, can provide for some very entertaining stories. Feel free to laugh at me as I attempt this thing called Parenthood. It will take me a little time to update pictures but trust me, they will come.

Before and After

2010-06-08T07:26:00.000-05:00

It is amazing how things change when a little child enters your life. It makes you realize how selfish you were before with your time and money. But now we run into being selfish still with our time and money, but in a familial kind of way. I think that our idea of family is different than anyone we have ever met. We were not raised the way we view family, it just sort of happened. Some people who don't know us (and some who do) think of our actions as selfish, and I think the rest of our friends just know that we are passionate about the home unit. Let me try to put this into a more specific detail.

We do not make plans as an individual without checking with each other first. If I want to spend some time with a friend of mine then I will make sure that I have not been neglecting my wife and child with my school, housework, yardwork, etc... to where this will further alienate me from them. I have a responsibility to my wife and kid(s) to be a husband and a father before I have a responsibility to be a friend to someone else. I do believe in the importance of friendship outside of my spouse, however, my best friend needs to be my spouse and maintaining the health of that friendship is tantamount above all other relationships. If more people thought along these lines then you might see a drop in the divorce rate in our country, but that is not a guarantee considering how many factors go into a decision to separate from covenant vows.

Another example is with our daughter. We do not put her in nurseries or any sort of childcare. I am not going to let a family friend watch her, and barely will we let our own families watch her. People keep telling us, and I believe behind our backs at that, that we need to learn to let others watch her so we can have "us" time or so they can get time with our daughter. That is our call to make. First off, I only know a handful of people intimately to where I know if they are a pedophile or not. Sorry family, but if we don't talk about your vices in advance and only talk about the weather and safe subjects then you are not on the list of approved people. Honesty and transparency are key to watching our daughter. Moreover, I want our daughter to see her mommy and daddy in love and creating a healthy marriage. I want her to learn how to worship, understand the sermon, and fellowship at church (a book that has helped us find support for keeping our kid in service is called Parenting in the Pew). Thankfully we are not the only ones doing this one as is evident by how many others we see keeping their kids of all ages in church with them. If our daughter does not want to come to you then DO NOT pry her from her mother's arms. Somebody will end up with a bloody nose before this over with because my wife's patience is about shot on this one. So if you were thinking about doing this then stop yourself now. We don't want nor need any encouragement for our daughter to get comfortable being away from mommy and daddy. In short, mind your business and let us parent how we want to parent. If something we do is detrimental to our daughter's health and well-being in your mind then talk to one of us about it. That doesn't mean we will agree with you, but I will definitely give you an attentive ear.

On a positive note, I am very pleased with how well both sets of immediate family have allowed us our freedom in parenting. You guys vocalize here and there, but overall you let our wishes for raising our kid be what goes and not what you think is best. I am seriously grateful for this. It makes in-law relations on both sides easier. The only thing I ask is that if you feel like you have to tiptoe on eggshells around us then we need to talk because that is not healthy.

Thanks for reading!

Keith, a.k.a. Daddy Moose

Not so baby Constance

2010-04-22T14:39:00.002-05:00

Whew! One would think that blogging weekly would be an easy task. My time is consumed with a sweet little girl with a big name. Constance. Before she became mobile I thought she kept me busy. Now that she is a walker…a very fast walker…my time is consumed with keeping track of her. Constance’s philosophy must be, “Why stay still when I can walk somewhere…or run.” From the moment she gets up to the moment she lays her head down at night, this child is moving! Her reach has expanded as well. Once we had a small juice glass crash to the ground because I thought it was far enough away on the table where she could not get it. I was wrong! The glass crashed and shattered and thankfully she did not get hurt. Just last night my husband put her in her high chair as we were getting ready to eat supper. He moved the bowl of corn muffins out of the way and went to the sink to wash her tray off. Just as happy as can be she reached as far as her chubby arms would let her and plucked several large pieces off the nearest muffin.

She is also so smart! She knows that keys are supposed to unlock doors and start vehicles. She knows to bring whatever object handed to her, to her daddy (or mommy) when you ask her to. She can point to all kind of animals on books when asked to point to them. Constance has also started making animal sounds. She can tell you what a cow says and can imitate what monkeys do. If you ask her if she is hungry or if she wants a snack she will head for the kitchen. If you ask her if she wants a bath, she will head to the bathroom. If you ask her if she wants to go outside you better be prepared to go because she is always ready to play outdoors!

Constance has discovered the joy of sitting on things. While outside she loves to sit down on the first step or on the curb just because she can. I guess they are perfect size for her and she feels like a big girl.

Speaking of being big. She jumped from wearing 12 month (and sometimes 18 month) winter clothes to wearing 2T! Yikes! She is still in a size 4 diaper. With Keith getting ready to be done with high school for the summer we are hoping to try some early potty training techniques. If it sticks, great! If it doesn’t then it is not a big deal.

We are having...

2010-04-09T16:00:00.001-05:00

A Boy!!!

Sorry for lack of posts. Will blog again soon

My Typical Day

2010-03-17T08:45:00.000-05:00

I will be 15 months old on Friday and this is what a typical day looks like::

-Since the time change, I wake up at 7:15a.m. Mommy sings to me as she promptly changes my diaper. I sometimes like to wiggle and squirm just to make things interesting.

-I eat breakfast after my diaper change. Mommy (or daddy if he is home) fills up my sippy cup with delicious whole milk. I quickly turn that over to see if any spills out of the straw. I then eat fruit, dried prunes and peanut butter toast. I pretty much eat that every morning because I am already a very picky eater.

-Once breakfast is over-mommy becomes mean. Can you believe that she thinks it is okay to wash off my hands and face? It makes me so mad and I do everything within my power to stop her.

- Now it is play time! Mommy puts me on my little couch where my baby doll, Lily, and my teddy bear, Grey Bear, are waiting on me. I grab Lily first, give her a kiss and talk to her while I point out her ears, eyes and nose. I then cuddle with Grey Bear and give him a big hug. After that I go from the living room to my room to the living room playing with and pulling out anything I can. I also love reading my books.

-Between 9 and 10.a.m. my mommy gives me a snack! I love snack time!

-I then play. Or fuss. Or play and fuss.

-Lunch is shortly after 11a.m. Sometimes I eat a great lunch, but usually mommy just has to stuff me with fruit. I am a great fruit eater.

-I then play again for a short time and mommy has my crib ready for nap time by noon.

-Unfortunately, I nap from about 12:20-2:20…on a good day. I personally don’t see why I need a nap.

-I wake up and get another snack! I am usually cranky at this time and don’t want mommy to put me down. So I get extra snuggles while eating. Then, after awhile I play again. Or I stay cranky and give mommy a hard time all afternoon.

-If it is a nice day I get to go outside and play. I LOVE being outside. Now that I can walk I can explore things quicker!

-Shortly after 5 is supper time! I then get to play some more. I also get to play with my daddy now that he is home. I love my daddy. My favorite game to play with him is chase!

-At 6:50 daddy gets me dressed and changed for bed, sometimes against my will. Mommy get my crib in order and makes sure that I have my favorite blanket, stuffed toy and pacifier. Daddy then brushes my teeth while mommy cleans up the living room and turns off all my toys that make noise. We then sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and “Jesus Loves the Little Children.” Mommy or daddy pray and then I get to rock with mommy in the rocking chair for a few minutes before she puts me in my crib for the night.

We Communicated

2010-03-01T09:20:00.001-06:00

My daughter and I went to Goodwill the other day. I had not been there in quite some time and had about an hour before needing to pick up my husband from work. Constance and I started in the front of the store and worked our way towards the back. Very quickly she became tired of sitting in the shopping cart so we went to the toy aisle. I figured I would let her hold something while we were in the store to keep her occupied. All the “nice” toys seemed a little pricey and I did not want Constance to become too attached to whatever object she held. I picked up a little stuffed kitty that looked clean and smelled fine. She loves her stuffed kitty that stays in the car so I figured she would like to hold this one as well. “Constance,” I ask holding up the stuffed cat, “do you want to hold the kitty while we finish shopping?” As I go to hand her the cat, Constance shook her head no and did the sign language symbol for no! So I put the cat down and we finished shopping without any problems. It was so cool though that she understood what I was asking her!

Good to the Last Drop

2010-02-25T14:18:00.002-06:00

This started last week when my parents stopped through town to pick up their dog after being on a trip. My parents arrived, Constance woke up, and I fixed her a snack of mandarin oranges and milk. I am not comfortable with her eating a “whole” orange piece even though they are already small. I would hold up an orange slice for Constance and let her bite half of it, then she could eat the rest. Once she was done eating the whole orange she would suck on a finger or two of mine to get the rest of the juice off! It was so funny. Today I was munching on some leftover fried chicken strips and finished them off before my baby realized I was eating. She came over to investigate and I told her they were “all gone” and used the sign language symbol. She promptly grabbed my hand, smelled it and proceeded to lick the rest of the chicken off my fingers.

Another cute thing that has happened this week is when she kisses, she makes the “smacking” noise. I will have to try and get that on camera.

Lady Constance

2010-02-21T08:16:00.000-06:00

On Saturday night my husband gives Constance a bath. I happily lay on the couch and await their return. When they are done, Keith brings a towel wrapped baby into the living room. Instead of putting on her pajamas right away I suggest we let her run around naked for a few minutes. She does not get much naked time even though she loves it. Keith agrees and sets our fully naked daughter on the living room floor. She squeals and of all things, takes off for her rocking horse. It is even funnier because she has not been very interested in her rocking horse in a week or so. Next thing we know, our naked daughter is happily rocking back and forth carrying a big grin on her face. We tried to take a picture but one camera was dead and the other ones frame is bent. Oh well. She will appreciate us not having that picture when she a teenager.

Leaks

2010-02-09T18:48:00.002-06:00

Well, it finally happened. Constance’s diaper sprung a leak sometime during the night and her onesie and sleeper became soaked. We are not sure when this happened, as we did not know till we went to get her at 7. She has been in size 3 diapers for quite some time and we noticed here of late they were becoming snug in her chunky waist line. So, Keith went out and got us the next size so hopefully that will do the trick!

Ashamed at my lack of posts

2010-02-05T08:26:00.003-06:00

I do have a few good excuses though. One, is that my husband had three snow days this past week. We love having him home but our schedule does not stay the same when he is here. And for those who have not heard yet, we are pregnant with baby #2, due in September. Any “free” time I have, meaning when the baby goes down for her nap, I spend napping. I am doing better than I was a week ago so that is good news. Now if I could just get rid of feeling nauseous then that would be wonderful.

Back to Constance.

She is huge and has given up on walking. She can take up to 4 steps at a time but over the past four days I don’t think she has even taken one! I am not concerned about it though since I know she can walk. She is still a very busy little girl and plays non stop.

A month or so ago she had some fluid on one of her ears and kept pulling on them. Her doctor told us at her follow up appointment that it looked like her ears were clear but to look for signs of her not hearing right. If she stopped talking as much or did not make any new sounds or noises over the next little bit we should bring her back in. I guess Constance is fine because over the past two weeks her sounds and noises have increased and she talks all the time.

First Step

2010-01-25T07:54:00.000-06:00

Yesterday evening, Constance took her 1st step. Keith was holding her hands and had the baby walking to me. He let go of her and she took one step! It was awesome and I am thriled that both of us got to see it!

Rocking horse and a trip to the library

2010-01-24T13:23:00.000-06:00

We have a little plastic rocking horse that is perfect for Constance’s size. For a week or so I would put her on the horse and let her rock away, all smiles. Then she would indicate that she wanted off and I would pick her up and put her back on the floor. Yesterday however, I was in the kitchen making cookies while my daughter played in the living room. I turned towards the room to see what she was up to and lo and behold, she was on the horse herself! She looked so pleased and I wish I had my camera handy. I figured she would rock some but that I would have to get her off the horse. The next time I turned around, she had just gotten off the horse successfully. Wow! She is so big! Now she can get on and off the horse at will.

After a rough night a few days ago I made the quick decision to load the baby up and head to the library. I wanted to have some books to read and a few movies to watch over the course of the weekend. After getting done with what I was looking for, I headed for the children’s section. I had never been in there before and it was awesome! They have a “little kid (toddler and under)” section with soft climbing mounds, and puzzles, toy trucks, puppets and hard books. I went ahead and got Constance out of her stroller and she immediately headed for the soft foam mounds. I tired not to think about all the germs she was being exposed to as my 13 month old crawled and touched everything that could be crawled on or touched. There were a few other little kids as well-one of who would randomly come up and take Constance’s toy whether I was right by her or not. What did the Grandma with the little 2 year old do about it? Nothing. She just chuckled, over and over again. Constance, who is usually not one to be bullied, did not mind giving up a toy every now and then. It irritated me though. Come on people! Grandma or not, you teach your (grand)children how to share! Regardless, Constance had a blast and did not want to leave. The lady who runs the kids section talked to me and convinced me to come and try their next “mom and baby” time. Basically, moms with kids who are infant-18 month will show up-your child sits in your lap and we sing songs, play with finger puppets and read stories. I am not too fond of this but the lady was very, very nice and I told her I would try it once.

A-Z

2010-01-15T13:25:00.002-06:00

Constance is 1 year 3 weeks and 6 days old and she

A. Is wearing 12-18 month clothing
B. She is in size 3 diapers. It seems as if she has been in that size for quite some time now
C. She loves trying on shoes
D. She is now paranoid of me putting bows in her hair and will randomly run her hands over her head to make sure I did not sneak one past her
E. She loves bath time and splashing
F. Constance loves mandarin oranges, raisins, dry prunes, Cheerios, cheddar bunnies, nutria-grain bars, turkey hot dogs, and anything else that mommy and daddy are eating.
G. She is a very cute moocher!
H. She drinks 1-1 ¾ sippy cups of whole milk every day
I. She still has only 8 teeth
J. She loves to brush her teeth with her new toothbrush. Here recently however, she just likes to suck off the berry or bubblegum flavor toothpaste.
K. Constance loves music and will sway he body back and forth when she hears a good beat.
L. She can point to her belly button and head and everyone else’s nose but not her own. If you ask her to touch her nose, she will always touch her ears. Don’t ask me why
M. She sleeps 11-12 hours a night without waking up
N. Constance has the greatest personality and laughs and smiles so easily.
O. She gives free kisses at will to people she is close to
P. She loves riding on her rocking horse
Q. Constance can spend ½ an hour opening the doors to her play kitchen, putting something inside and closing it again…over and over and over
R. She smells her baby dolls feet often and always makes sure that Lily has her blanket
S. She takes one nap a day that usually lasts 2 hours.
T. She loves her two cats and relentlessly chases them. She smells them as well
U. Her back is very ticklish
V. She cackles more then she laughs
W. She wears a size 5 shoe
X. Constance gets so excited when she sees her daddy’s truck pull up to the house. She will usually stand at the door and say, “Hi dada.”
Y. She will crawl from time to time by sitting on her knees and letting one of her feet drag the rest of her to the desired spot
Z. Constance understands the word no and gets very upset when she is told such.

Stinky Toes

2010-01-07T15:05:00.001-06:00

For Christmas, my folks bought a walk behind stroller for Constance as well as a baby doll to put in it. This is the first “real” baby doll for our daughter and Keith and I affectionately dubbed the doll as “Lily.” As Constance has started playing more and more with Lily I have noticed two things. One, I am concerned for her future motherhood as I see her interact with her doll. I do not think that throwing Lily on the floor and dragging her by her head is the makings of a good mommy. The second thing I have noticed is that she will smell Lily’s toes. It is hilarious to watch! When Constance was a little younger we would do that to her-That is, smell her feet and proclaim loudly, “Ewwww, stinky feet!” I guess that is where she gets the idea of smelling Lily’s feet.

Constance must have a sensitive nose though, as her dolls feet are not the only thing she smells. She smells the cats. She smells our hands. She smells her food even if it is a Cheerio. She smells her blanket and the pillows and the carpet… Now I am not saying she smells everything ALL the time but probably 1/2 of the time. As long as she does not start smelling our friends when they come over I guess she will be fine.

Long Time No Post

2010-01-03T17:55:00.002-06:00

I just realized I have not posted since Constance turned one. With my husband being a teacher and us having our first Christmas break, our schedules have been off for the past two weeks.

Let’s see if I can recap.

Constance did very well at her birthday party even though she started out shy at first. We had my in-laws come, my parents and one of my brothers with his wife and two kids.

After changing to one nap for the baby, she went to three feedings (nursing) a day. I had planned on weaning her from her second meal a few weeks after her birthday but by default, she weaned herself from that meal on her birthday. She woke up from her afternoon nap too early and heard all sorts of new voices in the living room. I brought her to my bedroom so I could nurse her and change her into her birthday dress. She refused to nurse and was very cranky. I literally called my husband who was in the living room and had him help me get her ready. Because we skipped the second feeding on her birthday I went with that and tried not to nurse her second meal on the second day. She is now down to two meals (nursing).

A few days after her birthday we packed up the car and headed to KY to have Christmas with my parents. Constance did great, even after my sister in law came with her four kids. She slept a little rough while we were there but overall was fine. The last night we were at mom and dads, the bay had an awful night. She kept waking up and was restless and cranky. At 3 a.m. we took her temperature and sure enough she had a high fever! She battled a fever all that next day. We went home, took her to the doctor and was told it was a viral infection and we would just have to ride it out, while keeping her drugged on baby Tylenol and Motrin.

As for the actual Christmas presents, our baby still could care less. She opened two and she was done! Maybe next Christmas she will be in to opening her gifts-or maybe we will have the world’s strangest child who does not like getting gifts?

I think that Constance has LOVED having Keith home these past two weeks. She is such a happy baby. I have LOVED having Keith home.

At her last well baby appointment she weighed 22 pounds and 1 ounce. She was also 30 inches tall. She can say “dog” now and in reality says a hundred other things but we can’t make out what she is saying yet. She talks all the time. She also might be able to point to her nose when you ask but we are not 100% on that.

Since writing this post, we are now down to one nursing session-her night time feeding. If this continues to go well, in a week or so I will try to wean her off her night time feeding which will be the hardest I think.

Happy Birthday Constance

2009-12-19T06:56:00.001-06:00

Wow! A whole year has passed since giving birth to my sweet little baby. 365 days of breathing real air. 365 days worth of diaper changes. 365 days of nursing…. Who knew that something that started out so small (well sort of) could be a huge blessing?

Constance is such an amazing little girl. She amazes me with how smart she is and how much she can figure out. She has always liked books but over the past few weeks she has really started to notice what is on the pages and will flip through all the books herself. She can even point out a cat in a book and say the word “cat.”

Her sleeping habits have gotten better as well. Sometimes she falls asleep while eating her last meal and we have no problems. However a few times we have had to let her cry in her crib. Thankfully the few times that has happened she only cry’s for about 20 minutes tops and is out for the night. That helps mommy and daddy feel so much better.

We are slowly getting better at solid food eating. Either next week, or when we get back home after Christmas I will try to wean her from her second meal which will have me only nursing twice

Asleep in the High Chair

2009-12-13T11:53:00.000-06:00

The strangest thing happened this morning. It was around 11:00a.m. and I put my baby in her high chair to feed her lunch. I knew she was tired but she does not go down for a nap till 1:00p.m. I gave her some turkey hot dog pieces, some baby granola bar, a banana cookie and some whole milk. I cut the banana cookie in three parts so she could eat it on her own while I did dishes. Constance ate all three bites and all of a sudden her eyes where closing and her head was bobbing. She was falling asleep! I hopped up to turn the water off at the sink and when I turned around, she was done. I made sure she was breathing first and then got the blankets in the crib ready. I then grabbed the camera, took a picture and she did not move. I made sure she was breathing again, picked her up and laid her in her crib. She never moved a muscle. I wrapped her in her blankets, made sure she was breathing one more time and left.

You Know You’re Tired When…

2009-12-09T21:55:00.000-06:00

You have a dream that your baby is sleeping on the other side of your husband-even going so far as to reach over him to make sure she is not going to fall off the bed. Then, hearing the baby through the monitor-literally waking and jumping out of bed because you just knew that Constance had somehow gotten off the bed and was crawling out of the room….AND waking your husband up saying that the baby was crawling out of the room.

To begin with, Constance had been safely asleep in her own crib that entire night. Secondly, there is no way for her to get out of our bed without us knowing. Our bed is up high and if she tried to get down she would have fallen and cried. It is crazy how real your dreams can be sometimes.

I took Constance to the doctor for the second time in one week. She had started to pull on her ears again and we wanted to make sure it was not an infection. However, we wasted an hour at the doctor’s office because they could not find anything. She has gained a whole ounce though in one week-21.1 pounds.

All Better

2009-12-07T14:03:00.001-06:00

Constance seems to be feeling much better and I think the worst is over!

We have gone to one nap a day which has been interesting for all of us. Constance wakes up between 7 and 7:45 in the morning and then stays up till 12:30p.m. or later. I no longer try to “force” a nap on her but wait till she is very tired. That has gone very well for the both of us. Her change in schedule also means that I am down to nursing her three times a day instead of four. She will wake up and I nurse her, then I feed her mid-afternoon and then again at bed time.

Her vocabulary consists of the words, “Dada, Mama, Cat, and Hi.” She can also say a hundred other words but we have not been able to interpret them yet.

Constance’s hair has been on a growth spurt as well. I have a very fuzzy headed child now and look forward to it being long enough to put in pig tails one day.

Strep Throat

2009-12-01T13:14:00.002-06:00

Last Sunday, Keith and I noticed that Constane was very cranky which is unusual for her. Her left ear looked red and she pulled on it some and had a runny nose. Sunday night was a rough night with her waking up several times. On Monday, her ear looked better and we had a slightly better day but she still had cold symptoms. Monday night was really rough with her waking up screaming. Constance woke up this morning a little cranky and I called the doctor and set up an appointment. The doctor looked in both ears, in her throat and listened to her breathing. All seemed fine. She then told me that she would do a strep test even though having strep in a baby so young is very unusal. Sure enough, that is what she has...Strep Throat. I have medicine to give her that should make her feel better pretty quickly. Poor baby!

Hands on Head

2009-11-30T08:35:00.001-06:00

I can’t believe that in two weeks and five days, Constance will be a year old! Looking at pictures taken over the past week I can see how big she is getting.

She also can do some really neat things. Our daughter still claps all the time and is so happy when she does it. She can put her hands on her head when we say, “Hands on Head,” and of course she claps for herself (and we clap with her) when she does this. Constance is not walking yet but we have noticed that she does not hold onto objects as firmly as she used to.

As for her eating habits, she seems to be a bottomless pit sometimes especially when it comes to Cheerios. Give her a small bowl with some Cheerios in there, and she is one happy baby. In a way, she is eating less solid food because she does not let me feed her purees (even the thicker kinds) as much as she used to. She likes to feed herself. That leads into other problems because she does not chew all food items with her teeth. So harder objects such has small bites of raw fruits and veggies or meat she often chokes on. I figured after Christmas I will start the weaning process. I am kind of hoping she starts weaning herself but so far she is not showing signs of doing that.

Leaving to MS

2009-11-24T11:35:00.001-06:00

Heading to Mississippi in the morning. Will blog when I get back home. Have a happy Thanksgiving

Constance the clapper

2009-11-18T08:51:00.000-06:00

Constance can clap now! It is so cute and Keith was able to see it the first time she did it. She claps all the time now-just for the fun of it, when she thinks she did something well, when someone claps on the television, when she is into something she shouldn’t be and when we say, “Yay!”

Meow goes the cat

2009-11-13T09:27:00.001-06:00

“Meroweeeeeee” was the sound that came from the living room while I was fixing my coffee in the other room. That sound could mean only one thing. Constance must be trying to pet our cat, Sugarwafer. Peaking into the living room I was surprised to see that Constance was ON the cat, not just trying to pet him. Her chubby little body was sprawled right on top of Wafer’s and he could not get up. “Constance,” I said in a near panic, “we are not supposed to lay ON the cat.” By the time I got in there a very bitter cat was able to get up and a little girl looked quite pleased with herself.

I wonder when Constance is going to stop looking like a baby? Will it be when she learns to walk? When she celebrates her first birthday next month? When she gets more hair? I am still amazed at how quickly she grows and how fast this year has gone by since her birth. Daily she looks older, masters old things and discovers new things that she can do.

We have had a small break through with our solid food adventure. While Constance is no where close to be able to wean of breast milk, she is getting there. Almost anything we give her, as long as it is a small enough bite she can pick up and eat. She ate a whole muffin top yesterday morning. I have also learned that if I want to feed her a puree of anything I need to do it before letting her feed herself with finger foods. She won’t let me feed her if she already has the ability to feed herself. She is also enjoying whole milk. We bought a straw sippy cup since all the others she had destroyed by her chewing. At first she could not grasp that she had to bite and suck the straw to get the milk. Keith and I had to help her get it started. The next day however, she drank out of the straw like a pro.

While I still hold to the fact that she is an excellent baby she now has a new noise for when she complains. It is the high-pitched squeal that is actually really cute. I do not think she appreciates us when we laugh at her.

Sorry

2009-11-12T08:56:00.002-06:00

I am sorry for my lack of posts. The next one will come by Friday.

The Ducks Who Want Revenge

2009-11-03T14:08:00.001-06:00

I had two pieces of bread left over from lunch and I thought it would be a good idea for Constance and I to feed the ducks. We saw two innocent looking ducks floating lazily in the water and decided to give them the bread. What we did not know was that these two ducks were decoys-sweet little ducks that drew you in- just to have you attacked a second later. Before we knew it we were swarmed by nine angry mallards. From somewhere behind two more ferocious beasts where charging and giving us their best war cry.

The buggy and I were surrounded and there was no sign of the attack letting up. I had already tossed all the bread at them and was yelling at them to get back to no avail. They kept coming like a snake about to strike its victim. I kept pondering whether it was time to play some kick ball with the ducks. It then dawned on me to use the stroller. I tilted the stroller backwards where Constance was not in their line of sight and charged the angry mob forcing them to move. After I maneuvered my way around them I turned to face our attackers hoping that they would not re-group and try a new tactic. While all eleven of them were still yelling at us in duck-ese, they did not come after us again.

Ding! Round 1

2009-10-28T08:43:00.000-05:00

From time to time Constance and I have to wrestle to give her a clean diaper. She hates being still and I guess having a diaper changed is the worst thing ever. She screams and will cry and flail her body backwards. She will push her body up as soon as I get her clean diaper in place. She will try to roll over continuously (even if I have a good grip on her) just so I can not change her.

The other night we were having one of those moments. I had given my sweet baby a bath, which she loves. Bath time was over and I snuggled with her in her towel to keep her warm while we walked to the nursery. I set her on the floor where I had previously laid her pajamas and diaper. I lovingly lifted her ham hock legs and the fight was on. She started crying and tried to roll over. When I would get her diaper in place she would scoot her body and I would have to start all over again etc… I finally gave up and called my husband. “Honey, I need your help NOW please!” Keith came in to the room to see his naked daughter crawling away from me, and me holding the diaper in the air like a white flag surrendering.

We recaptured Constance and he went to work expecting a fight. I had to really look closely but I noticed that a halo appeared above her golden-brown head. She sweetly smiled at her daddy and even stretched out her plump legs so he could easily put the diaper on. Within seconds the ordeal was over and our wee babe was diapered. I think Keith purposely ignored the glare that was coming from behind him.

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-22T08:24:00.001-05:00

Right before we went to Gatlinburg, Keith and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary. We packed up the baby and headed to the pumpkin patch, which is one of my favorite places to go (and of course, Constance's first time). This particular farm has it all-sand box, huge tunnel slides, petting zoo, pig races, hay rides, corn mazes and more. Each person even gets to leave with a small pumpkin.

We all had a great time! Constance laughed at all the animals there (the pigs, goats, baby chickens, baby cow, donkey...). I quickly discovered that pigs have teeth! When we came up to the fence three little pigs came up and all of us were so excited for the photo opportunity. I was holding Constance in my lap with my hand being smelled by the pigs. While smiling big at the camera one of the pigs bite me. I guess my hand smelled like lunch!

We took the hay ride (well, we took a tractor ride, as the hay was not in there yet) but Constance was not fazed. We put her in the backpack carrier and she fell asleep in the corn maze. By the time we made it through the maze and waited for the tractor to pick us up she woke up again-and then it was time for pictures in the pumpkin patch. She was quite fascinated by the pumpkins and kept pulling on the stems and trying to taste them.

Before heading home I wanted to see how Constance would react to to the sandbox. I thought she would love it. However after putting her hands in it once she raised her hands and would no longer touch it! She also went down one of the big slides on daddy's lap. She did not cry but she did not look happy about it either.

Long overdue

2009-10-21T08:54:00.002-05:00

Thinking back over the past few weeks I realized I should have been writting things down that Constance has been doing so I could blog about them now. I guess I will start with the present and make my way backwards.

Twice this past weekend Constance would let go of whatever she was holding onto and stand for a few seconds before falling. The first time she did this, Keith and I both were able to see her!

We also think she can say "mama" and "dada" and can pretty much recognize who we are. For example, we went grocery shopping and we had her in the stroller. I am not sure what happened but she started to cry and we decided to pull her out. She said "dada" as Keith started to pull her out but realized he could not with the tray being in the way. I was able to move the tray on her stroller and reached down for her and she said, "mama." It was really neat.

We had a great time in Gatlinburg with some friends. Constance tried her first lemon at a local restaurant and did not seem to be affected by it. In fact, I think she rather enjoyed it. She also decided that she likes Cheerios as long as we break them in half or thirds.

I wanted to get a few bows for Constance just because I thought they would be cute. My mom and I went shopping and she bought two for her. The only problem with that is that Constance does not like anything on her head. So I have started "bow/hat" training and it seems to be going well.

She is working on tooth number 8...which means she wakes up at night. She gets a shot this afternoon though so maybe we can get one good night of sleep.

Constance is still such a good and happy baby! We love seeing your little personality come out.

She still loves her prunes and yogurt. Once we gave her a bite of hamburger meat and she acted like it was the worst thing she has ever tasted. The other day we gave her a few bites of roast and she seemed to like that. Pretty much anything that Keith and I eat, Constance will want a taste of. It is kind of motivationg to eat healthier because of that.

Vacation time

2009-10-11T20:40:00.001-05:00

Heading to Gatlinburg! Will post when we get back.

Head Injury

2009-10-08T08:24:00.000-05:00

We had our first head injury the other day. Constance and I were happily playing outside on our driveway. She of course was crawling everywhere. At some point she thought I looked like a jungle gym and was crawling over my legs. She has done this several times in the house and has never had a problem. However she fell somehow and hit her forehead. I felt awful and of course Constance was screaming. I brought her in the house and the knot above her eyes started to swell and look bluish. There was a not a way to reach Keith so I gave my mom a call. She said it sounded like she broke a blood vessel and to put some ice on it and keep her up an hour. She was back to her old self later that evening.

"Mama"

2009-10-05T08:36:00.001-05:00

This happened several weeks ago but I forgot to post it. Constance had woken up at 5 in the morning and after trying to get her to back down I decided to feed her. I sat on the couch with her and my husband asked if I wanted him to change her diaper. I told him that would be great and much to Constance's dismay, she was scooped off my lap and taken to her bedroom. She was crying and very upset since she was taken from her food source. Very clearly however, in the middle of her crying she said, "Mama" really loud! She has not said it since then so I guess it was just a fluke but I will take what I can. It made being up so early a little easier!

Constance still loves vanilla yogurt and did not seem to mind the strawberry yogurt that we fed her the other day. I hate feeding her "artificial" stuff though. Another new flavor we started yesterday was prunes. Keith said that was one of his favorite things to eat when he was a little tyke and insisted that Constance would love them as well. So we tried it and she seems to accept it just fine. I have only given it to her in little doses though as I am not sure how they will affect her bad diaper situation.

Update from the month of September

2009-10-01T09:49:00.000-05:00

Good news! Constance appeared one morning with a new tooth in. That is why she was waking up in the middle of the night. Since then she has slept through. That new tooth equals seven.

For my lack of new pictures over the past several posts I will give a slight update from this month with the new pictures.

Pictures 1 and 2- Constance tried spaghetti…and hated it.

Picture 3- I quickly realized that my book shelf had all the paperback books on the bottom and all of her books on top. I switched everything around and she has loved getting all the books out. Looking at them and eating them.

Picture 4- Praise Jesus. She loves dancing to music and this is what she is doing in the picture.

Picture 5 and 6- We visited Cumberland City TN to do some fishing. Constance had a great time playing in the lake water and unfortunately, tasting some lake rocks.

Picture 7- I made a great discovery. While eating a bowl of vanilla yogurt Constance came over wanting a bite. I gave her one and at first she wrinkled up her face but then she opened up for another. I gave her spoonful after spoonful and she loved it. I tried it again the next day and had the same result! Her diet now consists of my milk, vanilla yogurt and anything outside that looks yummy (i.e. dirt, rocks, leaves…)

Sleep....where have you gone?

2009-09-28T07:42:00.001-05:00

In 9 days, Constance has slept through the night once. Typically the only time she would wake up during the night was when she was teething…however we can not feel any new teeth coming in. ¼ of the time I have to feed her and that does not put her to sleep, but gets her sleepy enough to go back to sleep. The other times she just fights it and eventually falls asleep. When we first hear her stirring we wait to see if she will get herself back to sleep. If she does not go back to sleep my wonderful husband goes in and trys to get her to go down. If I went in there first we would have no hope of Constance going down as I am her food source. We have tried everything to include keeping her up later and saturating the baby and her room with prayer. It is not like she gets too much sleep during the day. Her two naps average 40 minutes! We are so tired and this is one of the hardest things about parenthood thus far.

I will post more pictures soon.

The Solid Food Woes Continue

2009-09-23T09:15:00.002-05:00

While at Constance's 9 month well-baby checkup we told the doctor our solid food-or should I say the lack of solid food, woes. She advised that it was possible that Constance just did not like the texture of the pureed baby food and we should consider giving her "regular" food just in really small pieces. Keith and I both felt relived at the thought of her starting to eat solid food which will help, eventually, in the weaning process.

This morning, instead of warming up a homemade food puree, I lightly toasted a piece of wheat toast. I took a portion of the toast and made some itty bitty bites and placed them on her high chair tray. She looked at the bread and then back at me like I had lost my mind. She played with it some but refused to put it in her mouth or let me do it. So I moved onto crushed fresh peach. Constance refused to open her mouth. I then put some of her new yogurt nibbles on the tray and she pushed them away angrily. Trying not to be frustrated I pulled a seedless red grape out of the fridge, removed the skin and cut it into itty bitty pieces. Constance has never seen or tasted a grape before so I thought she would be excited and at least try a bite. When I put it on her tray she loudly protested and frowned. I then put some banana down because for the past two days, when putting banana in her munchkin, she loved it. She loudly protested her annoyance again and refused to touch it. I put the rest of the banana in her munchkin and as soon as she took a bite her face wrinkled up like she hated banana. I half jokingly put my hand on her chest and prayed out loud that Constance would learn to love solid food. She burst into tears and moved my hand. I guess she likes her current situation of being strictly nursed and does not want God to interfere. 

9 months old

2009-09-23T07:34:00.001-05:00

Constance is now 9 months old (Yikes! When did that happen?) and here is what she can do.

-Plays Peek-a-Bo by holding her blanket over her head, waiting for us to say, "Where is Constance?" When she takes it off her head she smiles really big as we say, "There she is!"

-Climbs on anything and everything and pulls herself up to the standing position.

-Constance can hold onto Keith or I with one hand while remaining standing.

-Once, holding onto the couch, she walked (shuffled) from one side of it to the other.

-Dances to music by moving her hands and swaying.

-Giggles easily!

-Throws fits by throwing herself back when we move her from something that she is not allowed to play with.

-Understands the word "No" (we think!)

-She does not associate the sounds with Keith or I yet but says "dadada" and "mamama" and also can make the "b" sound.

She also weighs 20 ¾ pounds and is 28 ½ inches long. She is no longer our chunky monkey! She is tall and her weight has evened out. She is now just slightly above the 50% for her weight.

The Goat says...I'm not sure, what does a goat say?

2009-09-15T09:50:00.001-05:00

Constance was very emotional for the two days that we gave her cow's milk so as a precaution we did not give it to her anymore. We had heard that goat's milk is better for a baby then cows milk so we went out and purchased some. That is when I wish we had a random goat running around our neighborhood! For two days we have been giving it to her and she seems to be fine with it. By "fine" I mean that she does not spit ALL of the milk back out, just some of it.

I still nurse full time with no sign of weaning around the corner. One book I read said to give Constance a partial feeding, give her solids and the finish nursing. One day, after a long nap (Constance's nap, not mine) I decided to give her solids BEFORE nursing. She ate as much as she would have as if I had waited a few hours after her normal feeding. I still make sure she has some sort of pureed food two times a day.

Another new thing we tried was giving her fresh fruit (peaches to be exact) in her Munchkin (it is a safe baby food feeding sack). We usually just throw an ice cube in it and she safely sucks on it and helps when we have teething issues. However she really seemed to enjoy the peach.

Tooth number 6 has broken through and it looks like she is working on tooth number 7. When that happens our baby typically does not sleep through the night. We miss the days of her sleeping from 9p.m.-7:30a.m. without interruption.

We were going for a walk the other day with some friends. I put Constance in her stroller and buckled one side. She started crying/screaming and I just assumed it was because she did not want to be in the stroller/take a nap. While I was trying to hook the other buckle I realized that her skin was pinched in the buckle! I immediately unhooked her and her daddy scooped her up. Now she has a good size round circle on her belly and I feel awful

Look Mom, No Hands!

2009-09-10T08:47:00.002-05:00

The other day I was sitting in our computer chair and saw that Constance was trying to pull herself up while holding onto the couch. She succeeded even though she still had wobbly legs. The next thing I know, my adventurous baby spotted the remote control. She grabbed the remote with both hands which of course meant she did not have a hold of the couch anymore. I made a lunge for her right before she would have fallen. I told Keith the other day that it would be tempting to let her take a tumble or two IF we had carpeted floor. But we don't and my guess is that we will continue to have heart stopping moments.

Another tooth, No Sleep and Homemade Curtains

2009-09-08T08:30:00.000-05:00

Constance is finally getting in her last top middle tooth. Once it is in she will have two teeth on the bottom and four on the top. We did have one stressful teething day on Saturday but other than that she has been doing great.

We have had to set up the playpen (we also have named it "jail") for the times we need her to stay put while we run to the mailbox or bathroom or wherever. She is a fast crawler and every now and then she is not where we put her! At the moment, her play pen is a novelty and she does not mind playing in it.

Last week her schedule was amazing. She would eat her last meal at 8p.m. and be fast asleep in her crib by 9p.m. She would then sleep anywhere from 7a.m.-7:45a.m. Amazing! Last night however she did not get her very short evening nap and I started feeding my VERY tired baby at 7:30p.m. By 8:30ish I thought she was about done. However she opened her eyes and sat up! I got her to lay back on my lap and started rubbing her head hoping to get her to sleep. She stayed still for quite some time however she did not get back to sleep. After awhile Keith tried to lay her in her crib to see if she would go out on her own. That worked for a little while…then she became upset. I finally fed her again a little after 10p.m and by 10:30 she was asleep.

After visiting a couple who just had a baby, and being shown the nursery, I realized the one thing we were missing in Constance's room was cute curtains! My husband and I went to Wal-Mart to look at material and realized that we have different tastes when it comes to design! I wanted to get something a little on the girly side because most of her room is filled with gender neutral colors. Keith was not opposed to something girly he just did not want polka dots. We narrowed it down between jungle animals (which was not girly but very cute) and pink curtains with butterflies. We bought the pink curtains with butterflies. We still have all the work to do on them (i.e. cut and sew them, create the hooks and glue) but it will be worth the effort when we are done.

Wet Baby

2009-09-02T08:38:00.000-05:00

I had a blonde moment last night. My daughter had a wet diaper and I was in the process of changing her. My husband was on the computer and wanted me to look at some pictures that he was looking at. I had not put her diaper back on yet but decided she would be fine, diaper free, for a few minutes. Sure enough she wet again on the kitchen floor. Constance already needed a bath and Keith had just hopped in the shower. I figured that since she had just gone to the bathroom she would be okay for a few minutes to once again be diaper free. I set my naked baby on the living room floor as I was gathering her bath supplies…and you guessed it, she wet again! I just had to shake my head at myself and laugh as I hurriedly scooped up Constance and cleaned the floor.

I'm 25!!

2009-08-31T07:58:00.001-05:00

I just realized it has been about a week since posting on my blog. Last week was busy and now I can sit and write. I do not think I have a lot of new information going on though.

Yesterday I turned 25! Yikes! In some ways I feel old and in other ways I don't. However we had a great weekend. On Saturday my husband, daughter and I went to the zoo. My parents gave me a year membership there so we were able to get in for free. Constance had more fun looking at all the other little children…. we could not get her to touch a goat at the petting zoo…but she did spot a meerkat and laughed at him! We had a good time. On Sunday we went to church, ate out and then went to the park for some fishing fun. When we got home we ate some birthday cake-chocolate chocolate with sprinkles, and started a fire in our homemade fire pit. Enough about me.

Constance still low crawls more then she crawls. It depends on the circumstance. If she is wants a toy she might get on all fours. If she is chasing the cat she low crawls as fast as she can!

Her 5th tooth has broken through and her 6th one is so close to being seen.

Another very cute thing is she is starting to move too music. She has a toy that makes music when she pushes the buttons. She will take both hands and move them up and down while the song is on. When it goes off, Constance will stop moving her hands and wait till it comes back on. It is awesome!

It is official. Constance can crawl

2009-08-24T09:25:00.001-05:00

It has finally happened. Constance has figured out how to crawl, however she is not a full time crawler yet. I watched her this morning get on all fours and take four or five "steps" and then low crawl. She then would get up and do it again. Later in the morning I saw her do both again as she was going from her room to the hallway. I am very excited though, sort of, and wish that her daddy was here to see it. Now is time to not procrastinate on getting the rest of the house baby crawl proof.

Another milestone is that yesterday evening I was sitting at the computer and Keith was watching a television show on the couch. We had put Constance on the living room floor to play. At some point I look over from the computer and see Constance standing up holding onto the couch. For a brief second I look back at the computer like I had seen nothing out of the ordinary. And then it clicked! Constance had pulled herself off the floor and was keeping herself steady by holding onto the couch! It was the first time she had done that. In fear of her falling I lunged out of my chair to get her and by that time Keith had seen her. We were so excited and he picked her up and gave her a hug.

Not that I find secret pleasure in this but after 8 months of parenthood Keith was finally thrown up on. Yes, he has had some mild spit up in his days but never full pledged throw up. We think she became sick from her recent shot that was given to her. It went all over both of them-shirts and jeans. My wonderful husband gave Constance a much needed bath after that.

And last but not least, teeth amount number 5 and 6 is coming in. It is the top right "eye" tooth and the one right beside that. So far she only has one of her top two middle teeth.

Friday Night Football

2009-08-22T08:03:00.000-05:00

I have no pictures to show for it but we went to our first high school football game last night. We met up with some friends and originally Constance was not a happy camper. I guess it was because all the noise and all the people. She cried though and clung to me and to Keith. When we found our seats, Carol had a set of toy keys and let Constance play with them. She sat on my lap and played and chewed on the keys for the longest time. She then got brave and decided to stand up and look around. She did amazing even when the crowd became very loud after our team scored.

Another funny thing is that our baby has now realized that she can low crawl to ANYWHERE in the house…and she is FAST! She went from one side of the living room to down the hall to chasing the cat into our bedroom within a very short amount of time. Then when I went to bring her back into the living room she just cried and cried!

Popsicle

2009-08-20T11:50:00.000-05:00

In a round about way, Constance had her first popsicle. I had made homemade ones out of 100% cranberry juice for myself, but as soon as she saw mommy eating one, she wanted a taste. My baby trustingly opened up her mouth and sucked on the popsicle. Every now and then she would get more juice out of it and make a sour face but overall she seemed to enjoy it. In fact we shared the whole thing! That was the first time she has had anything close to juice.

Constance also celebrated her 8 month birthday yesterday and her 5th tooth has finally come through.

The Magic Vent

2009-08-15T14:28:00.000-05:00

It was so cute! Constance was low crawling all around our living room the other day and just happened to be by the vent when the air conditioning kicked on. It blew on her face and she squealed and kept hitting the vent with her hand. I did not know whether or not to leave her there so I picked her up and moved her to the middle of the living room floor. She immediately turned toward where the vent was and low crawled as fast as she could to get there. Once the air was hitting her again she kept laughing and cackling at it while she hit it with her hand.

I wish we had it on video camera but we pulled out the laser light that our cat Oreo LOVES to chase. When Constance saw the light she kept hitting at it and trying to scoop it up with her hand. As soon as I began moving the light Constance low crawled towards it. When she reached it and hit her hand on the floor we would move the light again. Off she went after the laser light-from one side of the living room to the other. Oreo did not find it as amusing as we did.

We had three days of successful sweet potato eating but once I gave her applesauce again she would not eat anything solid. We also started her on pears yesterday. I hate pears-anything to do with pears actually. The smell of pear lotion, the pear itself, and pictures of pears-Yuck! However I wanted to give my daughter a chance to like the fruit. I think her reaction to them was one of the worst yet!

Misc

2009-08-11T14:01:00.000-05:00

We are not crawling yet…but still very, very close. She try's to crawl toward a toy but after awhile decides it is easier for her to low crawl and get the item! It still surprises me when I walk in a room and she is sitting up after I had just seen her rolling on the floor. Today she was studying the objects on the couch wondering how to get to those. Our guess is that shortly after she crawls she will be up and walking.

Yesterday she ate a whole cube of sweet potatoes and I gave her a little more whole milk to drink. I do not think she has developed an opinion on milk yet. I had an amusing thought this morning. If Constance does not start liking solid food asap, she won't get to enjoy any of her 1st birthday cake! If nothing else, maybe I will be able to stick a candle in some yogurt and we can sing "Happy Birthday" to her that way.

We are also researching what the best (affordable) car seat is for Constance. She is about to outgrow her infant car seat. We might have been willing to just let her use that seat till she maximized the weight and height limit but the straps keep messing up on it.

The other day, Constance gave me three slobbery kisses without me prompting her…and she looked quite pleased with herself. It was great. She has also added a new noise to her vocabulary. "Ba."

Scary Carwash=bad mommy

2009-08-07T14:07:00.000-05:00

I am a bad mommy. Keith has wanted to wash our van for a few months now so I found $3and drove to our nearest car wash. It completely terrified Constance and there was nothing I could do but hold her hand, pray that the wash would end asap and talk to her telling her it was okay. I should have thought about the fact that it WAS loud and scary BEFORE going in. My poor baby. As soon as it was over I pulled over, got her out of the car seat and cuddled with her. That seemed to help. When we got home she was very clingy still so I was able to get some extra snuggle time in right before nap time.

Whole Milk

2009-08-06T08:01:00.001-05:00

I gave Constance whole milk for the first time today in her sippy cup. I know she at least got a little bit because I made sure of that…however she tends to chew on the cup more than drink from the cup.

Our little girl is not crawling yet but gets better every day about getting on her knees. She has become very good about low crawling though and relentlessly goes after the cats, especially Sugarwafer.

Teeth

2009-08-04T07:49:00.002-05:00

Constance now has her 4th tooth in! It is her left middle tooth on the top.

I'm Back

2009-08-02T14:34:00.000-05:00

I am sorry for the delay in writing this week. There seems to always be something else to do-dishes to be done, the baby needing to nap, supper needing to be made, a shower that need to be taken etc… I am very thankful for a husband who does help me with the day to day tasks when he is home. We have also added one more stressful thing to our lives (which hopefully will not be stressful once we get into a routine) a change in jobs for Keith. He is going to be a high school teacher (Yikes!) In the past two weeks I feel like I have seen and talked to him less. We both feel overwhelmed! I know that it will get easier but until then I can whine in my blog!

Constance is growing like a weed. I wonder why we say that? Don’t we hate weeds? Shouldn’t we pluck them from the brown earth when they show their shiny green petals? So let me correct my self. Constance is growing like a…rose? I don’t know. Any suggestions?

It is hard to believe that she is 31 weeks old. She still does not like solid food and I am getting so discouraged (wait a minute, am I whining again?). I was worried when we started giving her solid food on Father's Day that she would be eating more of that then my milk. Boy was I wrong! We did introduce avocado and plain (sometimes mixed with homemade fruit purees) yogurt. I am tired of heating up cubes of food just to see them go to waste. I am not one of those moms who plan on breastfeeding their child till she is five. I do plan on breastfeeding "full time" for a year but we will start the weaning process around, if not a little before, that time.

One success is that our baby sleeps 98% of the time in her own room for the whole night. She is also so close to crawling. Just today she figured out how to have both knees underneath her. I will give her a week to master it!

Much to my dismay she has started saying, "da da da da da da da, " day and night. She does not yet know that the noise she is making actually belongs to someone but it will click at some point. I tell Constance, No da da. Say mama." She will just laugh at me and start saying da da da all over again!

Coming soon

2009-07-29T17:23:00.001-05:00

Sorry for not posting in a few days and adding new pictures. With Keith "in training" for his new job, all of our schedules have been messed up.

So please patiently wait on me for one or two days and I will happily get back into the blogging world.

Dilemma with Church

2009-07-25T08:16:00.003-05:00

We had a mild setback with solid foods the other day. I heated up on green bean cube and one applesauce cube. For those of you who wonder what I mean by "cube"…when I make Constance's food I steam whatever it is I am making, puree it till the food is the right consistency, and then put it in ice cube trays. One ice cube puree is the equivalent to one serving. Anyway, back to my original thought. We had been doing so well for two or three days about her eating solids twice a day. Yesterday however I was able to get her to eat maybe on teaspoon of applesauce and no green beans.

When it comes to our baby and the nursery at church we keep Constance in the church service with us...for several reasons. One of the reasons is that we are not comfortable leaving her in the nursery. One person we more than likely do not know, watching several children of all ages. Those pre-toddlers can be viscous and have no sense of the words, "be careful, there is a baby right there." The second reason is that we are going to implement a book called, "Parenting in the Pew," by Robbie Castleman. The woman who wrote this book did not start this practice till her children where four years old. Here is the insert on the back since I could not find their website:

Sunday morning isn't a success if we have only managed to keep the kids quiet. And there's more to church for kids than trying out their new coloring books. Children are at church for the same reason Mom and Dad: for the privilege of worshipping God.

Burning with an infectious passion for worship, Robbie has learned how to teach children to praise God. She shows us how important it is to take our children's worship seriously. And then, with nitty-gritty advice and a touch of humor, she shows us how we can help our children (from toddler to teenager) participate in the most worthwhile and exciting act anybody can do.

"Worship is a challenge," Robbie admits. "With children it is a bigger challenge." But Jesus promised that the stones will cry out if we-and our children-forget to praise God.

While this is all well and good and we look forward to the time when Constance can comprehend what we are asking her to do; but that does not help us now. Our vocal baby, who is happiest right after she eats (which happens to be right before we go to church), likes to talk in church. In our SMALL congregation her happy babbles are heard in every corner of the four walls. So that she is not a distraction we take Constance out…which means that one of us misses the sermon. As bad as this sounds, I do not necessarily mind missing the sermon. I am tired of myself and my church being "dead." However missing it all together does not help the journey.

Solid Food is making a Come Back

2009-07-23T08:46:00.000-05:00

Up until this past Tuesday, Constance has been on a solid food fast for about four days. We had given her some store bought baby food carrots (the only processed food other than her cereal that we have given her) and they next day she started spitting up most of what she ate. So I did not give her solid food all that day to give her tummy time to get better. Then her Nanny (my mom) came for a visit and I just did not give her any solid food during that time. I do not think Constance even missed it since it was such a struggle before! However on Tuesday I decided to try again. I heated up a homemade applesauce cube and fed it to her. She ate the whole thing! On Wednesday I heated up one applesauce and one peach cube. The peach to her seemed to be sour, however she took several bites anyway. She also ate several bites of her applesauce. On Wednesday evening I re-heated her leftovers and was able to get her to eat several bites of both. I am so excited and hope this trend continues. Today I will try a veggie, probably sweet potato and see how she does with that.

She is not crawling yet but does get on her knees before falling over. We also put her in her walker this week. She hardly moved in it at first or if she did she would go backwards. The other day I put her in it while I was cleaning the kitchen and when I started sweeping she got very excited and immediately walked towards me! She kept tripping over her feat though because it was going too fast. Once she reached me I let her touch the handle of the broom and then I went to the other side of the kitchen and called to her. She figured out how to turn in her walked and came to me again and was thrilled that I let her touch the broom handle. Silly baby.

Shots

2009-07-21T08:29:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was shot day. Constance was given two shots this time but Keith and I were amazed at how well she did. We did give her baby Tylenol before going. When it was time to give her the shots two nurses were there to so they could inject both shots at the same time. Constance cried for maybe three seconds and then was fine. We had a rough night with her last night and we think that was due to the shots plus teething. She has her third tooth in and we are just waiting for the fourth to come through.

The Highlights and Lowlights

2009-07-15T10:44:00.000-05:00

Sunday we had some friends over for lunch. In an effort to share with Constance, their 14 month old son ended up hitting our baby with a big Lego block. Regardless to say, she really did not appreciate that.

Monday Constance gave us a pretty bad diaper. I pulled her out of her exersaucer and knew she was dirty…I just did not know how much. When I laid her on her back the rest of the mess went up her back and all over her p.j.'s (which happen to be one of my favorites). Since she now thinks it is her job to roll in any direction she can when we change her diapers she started getting it on the front of her shirt as well, not to mention it was on the floor. I wiped her as clean as I possibly could and took off all her clothes so I could run some bath water. When I came back for Constance she had decided it would be fun to wet on our hardwood floor which of course was now all over her.

On Tuesday evening while watching a show on television, Constance was playing on the floor in front of us. Our cat Sugarwafer decided to come in and lay within arms reach of the baby. Within a very short amount of time she successfully grabbed his enticing tail and would not let go till we pried her fingers off. Thankfully Sugarwafer did not turn around and swipe at Constance.

Tuesday night she slept from 10p.m.-5a.m. and Keith was able to get her to go back to sleep till 7a.m. That has been the longest she has slept in a long time. I kept waking up wondering if she was alright.

Wednesday morning greets us and I discover that Constance has another tooth that has peaked its little sharp head. Hopefully that means she will start sleeping through the night again. If that is the case, a month long teething session just for one tooth is not going to cut it (Ha! Get it? Cut it, like she is cutting her teeth. I know I have too much time on my hands).

Another neat thing is that she is trying to figure out how to crawl. She will rise up on her hands as far as she can go and then scoot her knees under her for a few seconds and then fall. It will not be too much longer before she figures it out and then we will really have to watch her.

She also waves now…however her hand is always turned towards her when she does it. It looks like she is waving at herself! How cute!

Saturday Night

2009-07-13T10:54:00.001-05:00

In reference to what my husband posted…Saturday night was not a good night. After traveling all day we thought Constance would go to sleep fairly easily and sleep through the night. Our little girl was not asleep till 10p.m. Keith and I went to bed shortly after she did, just to be woken up at 11:30 or midnight with her crying relentlessly. My husband went to her room and got her up. We gave her some baby oragel (I believe I felt a tooth coming in on the top) and I fed her. She fell back asleep after eating her fill and I put her back in her crib. Within seconds, Keith and I fell back asleep. Later that morning (to be exact, 3 a.m.), I was awakened by Keith coming back in our room holding our crying baby. He told me he had heard her start to stir and thought he heard a basketball being dribbled. Sure enough when he walked into Constance's room you could hear our neighbor's kids next door playing basketball. They had woken her up! He handed me the baby and said he was going to go talk to them. So in his pajamas Keith goes out and tells the group of kids (in the nicest way possible) that they woke up his baby and asked if they would stop playing. The group seemed to respond positively even though on his way back to the house one of the kids honks the car horn. By the time he gets back Constance is finished eating, and I am trying to get her to go back asleep. Almost as soon as Keith lays back down in bed we hear that basketball being played with again. We really did not want to call the cops so Keith takes the baby (against my protesting) and goes and talks to them. He tells them that he does not want to call the cops and he is just looking for respect. One of the young men that was standing over there tells Keith that he understands because he has a daughter as well. Keith looks over at him in surprise and asked how old he is. He said he was 18. Keith then asked how old his daughter was. He said she was 3! Keith in not so many words told him he needed to stop doing the things he was doing that made babies. Things went smoother and I think having Constance present helped. They did not playing basketball and we all slept till 7:30ish.

Eat More Chicken

2009-07-11T08:07:00.001-05:00

As I mentioned in my previous blog, we gave Constance green beans for the first time. I had my camera ready so when she gave me a bad look after trying the green veggie, I could take a picture. I gave her the first bite and nothing happened. I gave her the second bite and still no disgusted face. She ended up eating a whole homemade cube of green beans. That has never happened before. That evening I heated up one more cube of homemade green beans and one cube of applesauce. She ate all of her apple sauce and most of her green beans. I am relieved because up to this point she has hated everything we have given her. We will see how she does today with it all.

Last night was cow night at Chick-Fil-A and the three of us dressed up and went to get our free meal. We love getting free meals. We were a bit concerned because when we pulled up to the building, all the families coming out of it were NOT dressed like cows. But we decided to be brave and went in anyway. As we were ordering a family of four, all dressed like cows came in as well as a single guy. The manger also gave Constance her first Chick-Fil-A cow! Our baby also sat in her first high chair while we were at the restaurant. We have one at home but it reclines a little. This one did not. Constance did very well and we had a great time.

Dress like a cow to eat for free? We are in!

2009-07-10T09:22:00.000-05:00

Today is "Dress Like A Cow" night at the restaurant Chick-Fil-A. If you go in wearing cow stuff from head to toe you can get a free value meal (or a free kid's meal if you are a kid). Last year, while I was pregnant with Constance, my husband, sister-in-law, and nephew all dressed up like cows and was able to eat for free. I wish I could find the picture so I could show all of you blog readers. Unfortunately my sister-in-law and nephew moved away but this year Keith and I get to dress up Constance as well. Obviously she will not be able to eat a kid's meal but we might look rather silly if Keith and I were dressed like cows and the only child with us, wasn't.  We will have to attach her spots and ears once we get there…otherwise she might spend the trip happily taking off all the black spots. We will take pictures and put them on the blog later on.

As for the solid's Constance has been trying since Father's Day she has had-Squash, Applesauce, Sweet Potato, Peach/Banana and starting today she will try green beans. So far she has not liked any of them but last night we had a break through. She ate a whole applesauce cube! That has never happened before and we are so excited.

Last night the baby slept longer than what she has in quite some time. She slept from 9p.m.-4a.m. and woke up crying. Right as I was getting ready to get up and get her she quitted down and fell back asleep. She woke up again right before 5a.m. totally miserable. I fed her and she went back to sleep for another two or so hours. She is back in her own room again and we think the birds woke her up. We can not hear there happy chirping at such an ungodly hour but when you walk in the nursery you can hear them loud and clear. I wonder if there is anything I can do about that?

Solid Food

2009-07-07T13:00:00.001-05:00

Our one time success of Constance liking peaches and banana is no longer valid. I fed it to her last night thinking that she would enjoy it just as much as she had earlier. She took one bite and would not eat anymore. Today I heated up one peach cube and one sweet potato cube. She took one bite of sweet potato and one reluctant bite of peaches and would not eat anymore. Will she ever like solid food?

Our dear baby is still waking up in the middle (or sometimes the beginning) of the night. She is doing better about going back to sleep after waking up but it is still not good that she is waking up.

The Good: She is such a happy baby. I love to hear her giggle and daily see the new things she can do.

The Ugly: Since starting solid foods her bad diaper quotient has grown!

Two treats in one day

2009-07-06T13:03:00.001-05:00

Today Constance was able to experience two new fruits, bananas and peaches. She ate about four baby spoonfuls of the peaches (which is far more than what she has been eating with her other baby food). After that she gave me some looks letting me know she was through. I then mashed up a small piece of a banana and added some water. I gave her a bite and she must have liked it because she opened her mouth for more. I fed her about five baby spoonfuls before cutting her off. Yes they are good for her but I read that they can also cause constipation which I do not want to go through with her. It is neat that she likes both fruits since we have not had too much success with the other foods.

Potato Potato Everywhere

2009-07-04T13:38:00.001-05:00

Today was Constance's second day of homemade sweet potatoes. She took two bites and would not open her mouth for anymore. I got the "brilliant" idea to let her see the contents of the bowl. I tilted it her way and she trustingly put her hand in and got the orange veggie all over her hand. At first she kind of moved her hand some, a little unsure of this weird and gooey texture all over it. However it did not take her very long to decide that mommy must have given her a good thing. She hit the bottom of the bowl several times, spraying herself, me, her Bumbo and the floor with sweet potato. Given time she might have put her hands on her head but this time she left it alone and just had it spread all over her legs and hands. It was great! I put the bowl down to go start her bath water and when I came back she was reaching for the bowl, then successfully picked it up and flung it around a couple of times. I would have to say that this may have been the best day of her life thus far!

Potato Day

2009-07-02T07:34:00.000-05:00

Today is sweet potato day! Thus far, we have fed Constance homemade squash and applesauce. She seemed to "like" the applesauce more then she did the squash but it still was not good to her. I will post sweet potato pictures later.

Last night went better

2009-06-30T07:27:00.000-05:00

Last night went better than it has in awhile. Constance, thanks to not having an early evening nap, was asleep by 8:30p.m. She woke up at midnight and her daddy rocked her back to sleep. Once she woke up crying but a quick rub of her belly and she was out again till 6:30a.m.!

Yesterday was also her second "first" food which was homemade apple sauce. While she ate more of the apples then she ever did the squash, Constance gave me some awful looks.

What is going on?

2009-06-29T06:51:00.002-05:00

I am not sure when the last time Constance slept through the night was. I do not know what is going on with her. I do not think she is waking up hungry because I typically do not have to feed her in the middle of the night. Maybe you can solve the mystery behind what is going on with our daughter?

She wakes up crying. Not just once but on and off the whole night. What is odd is that she never fully wakes up. Her eyes, for the most part, stay closed. If we just leave her be, her crying continues and gets worse. We can get her to go back to sleep by rubbing her belly. That seems to help until she wakes up crying again. Keith and I do not think it is gas and we are pretty sure it is not teething (but of course we could be wrong on either of those). Any suggestions?

First Family Sickness

2009-06-26T07:33:00.000-05:00

We have had/are having our first family sickness. Last week Keith developed a sore throat but it went away after a day. This week I started having a sore throat, which lead to feeling nasty and congested and I had a fever one evening. In some ways I feel better but I have developed a cough as well. To add to this week, Constance started having a fever last night. It was 101.7 and after giving her children's Tylenol it went down to 99.7. She slept fairly rough last night and woke up with her temperature still the same. Keith is going to call Constance's doctor when they open to see if they recommend anything.

Pray for us please!

This Week

2009-06-25T08:45:00.000-05:00

I just realized it has been several days since I blogged. Constance still does not like squash. We were supposed to make homemade apple sauce for her second solid food but I have had a cold for the past few days and have not been up to doing that. In a round about way, my daughter has already had an apple. On Father's Day (also the day we gave her her first squash) I was eating an apple and picked Constance up and placed her on my lap. Before I could stop her, my baby reached up grabbed my mostly eaten apple and promptly started sucking on it. I took it from her once but after much protest from her my husband and I decided to let her suck on the apple. She enjoyed that apple thoroughly!

I also went to my first "mom's meeting" at our church. I knew Constance would need to take a nap shortly after I arrived and typically standing with her and rocking with her would have her down quickly. She became fussy and as to not disturb the other women I stood with her and began to rock her. Constance would have none of that. She became louder so I quickly exited the room so I could get her quiet, asleep and be able to join the ladies again. My plan did not work. She just kept crying and crying. I knew I needed to leave but all my things were still where the other women were. There was nothing I could do about it so as quickly as I could I gathered my things and left. I was so embarrassed and frustrated. I do hope taking her places becomes easier.

The Good: It is an amazing feeling when Constance flings herself into my arms, puts her head on my shoulder and lets me cuddle with her.

The Bad: Twice this week she has woken up in the middle of the night. We do not know what that is about.

The Ugly: She had her first bad diaper after eating squash all this week. Thankfully Keith was home and changed her for me. Go Keith! He is such a good dad and awesome husband.

What time is it? Squash time!

2009-06-21T14:38:00.000-05:00

Not only is today Father's Day but it was also Squash day! We gave Constance her first taste of solid food today. By default (meaning the only fresh veggie we had in our fridge) we choose yellow squash as the official first meal for our baby. With the moose bib on and the camera rolling I proudly gave her a bite of the homemade baby food. Her first reaction was not what we expected it to be. For the first couple of bites she showed neither enjoyment or dislike. Then it hit it. She gagged a few times and spit some squash out. She gave some nasty looks to go along with the food. It was great! Once we see that she is not allergic to the squash her next new food will be either sweet peas or homemade apple sauce.

We are making our own bay food if I had not mentioned that before. We will get fresh veggies and fruits and puree them for Constance. We also can puree meats and noodles! It is such a neat feeling to make your own baby food and the money it saves is amazing.

For Father's Day, Keith got his first tie today from Constance. It is green and has fish on it. He also has a shirt that says, "World's Best Father, Hand Down." What is cool about this shirt is that there is safe paint to go with it where we can put Constance's hand prints on the shirt. Later we are going bowling and eating some pizza.

Shots

2009-06-19T19:21:00.000-05:00

Today was shot today and thankfully Constance did very well. To begin with she is still very healthy, the top of her weight range (she weighed 18 pounds 13 ounces) and was average in her height and head size. She does everything she is supposed too! We were also approved to feed her whatever we wanted too. Like I mentioned before we are going to be making our own baby food. We can puree meats-fish, chicken, beef. We can even puree noodles! We can't wait.

Okay back to the shots. We only got her one today, her DTaP. The nurse put the shot in and it took Constance a few moments to say, "Oh wow. That hurts." She cried for a few seconds and then gave some complaining noises but after that she was fine. She slept in the car on the way to the store, ate at Wall Mart and is now happily playing in her exersaucer. Next month we go back for one more shot.

Will it ever end?

2009-06-19T08:37:00.001-05:00

I honestly believe that teething will never end. Seriously. She has been teething (or what we believe to be teething) ALL week long. Constance has not been her normal happy self and to top of our week her teeth have only grown just a tiny amount. Regardless to say I feel helpless in helping my baby feel better. Yes, we use oragel, teething rings, Tylenol, wash cloths etc… but you can't explain to a six month old why she feels the way she feels.

Today is Constance 6 month old birthday! Wow! Where has the time gone? One moment I am cuddling with a 9 pound mass of skin and fat and now I am wondering where my chunky wonder has rolled too.

Today is also Shot Day. She is only getting one, her DTaP. We hate the unknowns about shots. They are supposed to be helpful but more and more research reveals more problems with getting your munchkins these vaccines. Prayer. Lots of prayer is going into our baby.

We are still trying to decided what "first" homemade baby food to give her. Maybe it will be sweet potatoes. Maybe it will be squash. Maybe we will go against the "experts" and start with something sweet. Maybe we won't. Ha!

Not a whole lot

2009-06-16T08:17:00.001-05:00

Nothing new on the home front. Constance's two bottom teeth are slowly becoming bigger and boy are they sharp! She rolls everywhere and is so vocal! She has changed her schedule on me though for the past two weeks and we really do not have a consistent schedule at all. She does still sleep through the night so that is awesome.

At some point next week we will start her on real food! She loves her baby oatmeal when we give it to her and gets so excited. We are thinking about starting her on green beans or maybe squash. We will also probably alternate between veggies and fruits (a veggie the first time, a fruit the next, veggies, fruit…) I am excited about seeing her try new foods but not so excited about the diapers that will follow…

The Good: She is trying to figure out how to make her knees come up when she is on her belly. Crawling will be right around the corner.

The Ugly: I picked my Constance up from her exersaucer the other morning to cuddle with her. As I did that I had this weird wet sensation on my arm. And then I smelled it. Yep. You guessed it. Blow out diaper on the white onesie!

Pool Time

2009-06-12T13:35:00.001-05:00

We pulled out Constance's frog pool for the first time on Monday. We put a little water in it first thing that morning and was going to let the sun heat it up and have her "swim" that afternoon. We did not get around to doing that till after supper. By that time the water was a bit chilly but thought it would be okay. With Keith videotaping and me putting our baby in the water, she quickly let us know that she was not a happy camper. She cried and I picked her up and placed her on her belly. She seemed to do better with that but was still not thrilled. So we ended her first pool time by wrapping her in a towel and outing some warm p,j,'s on her. Next time we will have to do it when the water is warmer!

I love vacations

2009-06-09T07:25:00.001-05:00

We had a great vacation! We left town Friday evening, ate at CiCi's Pizza and drove to camp. When we got to the cottage later on that evening we were greeted with a fresh and clean cabin, a beautiful sunset and fish that were just waiting to be caught. Constance did wonderfully and over three days she mastered rolling….everywhere! One minute she would be on our rolled out blanket, we would turn out back for a minute or so and she would be under the coffee table, or by the door or trying to roll into the couch…. Another neat thing is she is trying to get the concept of crawling. She will push herself up as far as she can go and then try to get her knees to come forward. I do not think that by tomorrow she will be crawling but her brain is kicking into the fact that she has the power to move.

All day Saturday and Sunday was spent basking in the sun, fishing, reading, napping and enjoying time with each other.

Monday morning we woke up to a small surprise. Constance was sound asleep on her belly! What is unusual about this is that I did not lay her down to sleep on her belly. At some point during the night she rolled herself over.

Her one tooth has not developed any more, however, she has another one coming in right beside it!

We are getting away!

2009-06-04T07:43:00.002-05:00

We can't wait! This weekend we get to go stay in a cabin, rest, fish, go for hikes and just enjoy being together. On Friday evening the three of us will load the car and head about 30 minutes out of town, and will be back on Monday!

On the tooth front, you can see and feel a very small sharp point but it is not close enough to say she has her first tooth in yet. None the less it is very exciting!

On a sad thought, right now Constance thinks that Keith and I are the neatest people in the world! It is wonderful! Im some ways I wish they could stay this little, cute and innocent forever. :)

Words unspoken

2009-05-30T07:46:00.000-05:00

This morning my little girl woke up, looked and me and said, "Uga ahhhh mmmm hee." I definitely believe she said, "Good morning, I love you mom." I have a smart baby! :)

She did it!

2009-05-28T08:03:00.003-05:00

For those of you who follow my blog, you already know that for several months Constance could easily roll from her back to her belly. For a few months now she would try to roll from her belly to her back but could never quite get it. Yesterday evening she finally did it! It happened so quickly so I was thrilled that I even got to see it. Later that evening she did it one more time and Keith was able to watch! We are so proud!

We are home again

2009-05-27T08:42:00.001-05:00

After a long trip to Mississippi we are back home again and getting into our normal routine once more. Constance did better then what we thought she would. It took about 5 hours to get down to Tupelo with a break in the middle to feed the baby. From there Constance visited with great grandparents, great aunts and uncles, grand parents, regular aunts and uncles, cousins, second cousins, and friends of the family. Everyone seemed delighted to meet her and spend time with the family. A special treat for me was that one uncle had four kittens who were only a few weeks old, another uncle had two kittens, three puppies and a dozen baby chicks! I will post some pictures of the trip later on this week.

Monday night, Constance was fighting sleep so Keith told me to take a break from trying to feed her and let him hold her. He was in bed with us reading the book, "The Shack." I agreed and placed the baby in the side of his arm. From there Constance started carrying on a conversation. We laughed about it and Keith would ask her to read one of the sentences in his book. She just stared at it, would turn to look at me and talk in her baby talk. I knew she was smart, but a five month old who can read! Wow! Hahaha.

Since being home she has done well in adjusting. She was a bit emotional last evening but for two nights has slept till a decent hour (7 a.m. the first night and 6 a.m. the second night)

Loving Parenthood

Love

Oranges

Singing Star

My Levi

Happy Birthday Constance

Constance's Sayings

Happy 1st Birthday Levi-A day late

Constance and her kisses

Fast and Furious

Memories Missing

More posts coming soon

The kids

My Kidos

Keith, Heather, Constance and Levi.....

Conversation with an Angel

My heart is full

Not a whole lot going on

Potty Training Day 5

Sneeze

Christmas Giveaway Event – 4K in Prizes!

Potty Training

For the love of a sister

A serious case of...

Updates

Mommy to Two

Before and After

Not so baby Constance

We are having...

My Typical Day

We Communicated

Good to the Last Drop

Lady Constance

Leaks

Ashamed at my lack of posts

First Step

Rocking horse and a trip to the library

A-Z

Stinky Toes

Long Time No Post

Happy Birthday Constance

Asleep in the High Chair

You Know You’re Tired When…

All Better

Strep Throat

Hands on Head

Leaving to MS

Constance the clapper

Meow goes the cat

Sorry

The Ducks Who Want Revenge

Ding! Round 1

Pumpkin Patch

Long overdue

Vacation time

Head Injury

"Mama"

Update from the month of September

Sleep....where have you gone?

The Solid Food Woes Continue

9 months old

The Goat says...I'm not sure, what does a goat say?

Look Mom, No Hands!

Another tooth, No Sleep and Homemade Curtains

Wet Baby

I'm 25!!

It is official. Constance can crawl

Friday Night Football

Popsicle

The Magic Vent

Misc

Scary Carwash=bad mommy

Whole Milk

Teeth

I'm Back

Coming soon

Dilemma with Church

Solid Food is making a Come Back

Shots

The Highlights and Lowlights