BWE-9 months

• You are crawling!  A lot!  All over the place!  It has been fabulous for you, Daddy, and Mommy.  You are so much happier and you can get where you want to go, like under the table, to the front door, and wherever Mommy and Daddy are.  Right now, we are loving it mostly because you are much less fussy.  Here's to no more getting stuck on your tummy in the middle of the floor and flailing your arms and legs!  

• You have four teeth now: 2 on top and 2 on the bottom.  You are enjoying lots of solid food these days, like green beans, rice, broccoli, bread, potatoes, sweet potatoes, Cheerios, pears, and carrots.  You even had some nibbles from Mommy's waffle fries at Chick-fil-A yesterday.  Maybe this is normal, but you would rather have real people food or really smooth baby food, but don't even think about giving you that textured baby food.  You become very tight-lipped when that stuff comes toward you on a spoon.

•  You don't really care for any kid shows unless you are really sleepy (because that is the only time you are still) with one exception: the Fresh Beat Band.  Thank you Burleys for introducing us to this show!  We downloaded 2 episodes on Itunes and for 20 minutes two times a day, you are totally still and will not take your eyes off the laptop screen.  I usually let you watch right after or before a meal.  I leave you with your finger foods and I can get some dishes washed, clothes folded, and sometimes I just sit down and watch with you.  You really love the songs and sometimes you will just look up at me and grin from ear to ear.  You also swing your head back and forth, wave one arm over your head, and clap.  
• 

We are loving this phase of you.  You are so expressive with your face and we are really seeing your personality come out.  You can play with us or by yourself for extended periods of time, and you enjoying playing with the simplest items.  When I fold clothes on the floor, you love to help me take everything out of the basket and then you play with the hangers.  You also love boxes and Kleenex.  If I really need to make a phone call, I hand you a paper napkin and you go to town shredding it.  You give Mommy and Daddy hugs, kisses, and pats on the back.  I know when you are tired because you will crawl right over to me, reach up to be held, and you will lay your head down on my shoulder.

We love you more every day and as always, our greatest desire is to teach you about Jesus and for the Holy Spirit to work in your heart so that one day you will make the decision to become a child of God.

Our life...in bullets

I saw that someone else did a list of what's going and I thought, well I should do that too!

Here goes:

• Beck is crawling!  It happened overnight...literally.  He has been on the verge for a long time.  I have a friend who is a physical therapist.  She worked with him in the nursery last Wednesday and told me what to do and Saturday night, he crawled.  I am so excited because it has made him so much happier during the day.  He's not moving fast, but he can get where he wants to get and that's all that matters.  
• I rearranged the den to give Beck more room and I'm loving the arrangement.  Everything has a place and it's not in the middle of where we need to walk.  We have an open floor plan and we bought sectional to help separate some spaces.  Well I swung that sucker around and now we are back top openness.  Beck doesn't freak out when I go to the kitchen because he can see me and I can get so much more done!
• We are still working to get our licensing completed for DSS.  We had a class last Saturday (all.day.long) and we have another one this Saturday (all.day.long).  Thankfully, last Saturday we ended the day with a family dinner at Gigi's house (Jeff's mom) and this Saturday we have a family dinner at Mimi and Poppie's house (my parents).  
• Speaking of DSS/fostering stuff, we are now the proud owners of 2 cribs.  Infertile Myrtle me has 2 cribs!!!  Who would have thunk it! 
• We have been celebrating birthdays like crazy.  Shout-outs to Carrie (AC), Alex, Emily, Jason and Camryn.  We love you ladies and gent!
• And finally, Beck is also doing the following things: clapping and swinging his head back and forth (think Stevie Wonder) to music; sometimes he will even throw his hand in the ay-er (and wave it from here to thay-er); he will hold his bottle until he gets sleepy and then he needs to play with his hair; he has FOUR teeth-two on top and two on the bottom. I am thoroughly enjoying this age.  He plays so well with or without me, but my favorite thing is still when he first wakes up in the morning and I get him out of his crib.  He still lays his sweet little head full of curls up on my shoulder and squeezes the backs of my arms.  

BWE-8 months

This is going way too fast.  *sniff*

Let's just get right down to business: you still hate naps.  Or maybe you have perfected the fine art of baby power napping.  I can't even classify what you do during the day as a nap.  It is more like an eyelid rest.  I have spent another month trying some different things that I thought would make napping easier:
1. backing the nap up so you'll just take one decent nap (you slept 30 minutes); and
2. moving the nap up because maybe you are over tired and that's why you don't sleep long (you slept 30 minutes).
We had 2 magical days where you slept for 1 hour and 15 minutes for one of you naps.  I paced the house trying to find something to do because I am so used to only getting 30 minutes by myself.
You do still sleep 11-12 hours at night without waking up and I have been told by several people to count my lucky stars that you do this.  Call me greedy, but I still want a good 2 hour out of you.



















On to eating....you love food!

You are having 3 meals a day with formula from either a bottle or a sippy cup throughout the day.  We are trying to incorporate more real food (as opposed to baby food) into your diet when we can.  I don't always cook "baby friendly" food, but you are a great fan of noodles, green beans, black beans, rice, tortillas, and sweet potatoes.  You do not like textured baby food, the kind that has chunks in it, but you will eat pureed food and whole pieces of people food.  Go figure!  You can feed yourself pretty well.  You love all of those Gerber graduates snacks (puffs, fake cheese puffs, wagon wheels, yogurt melts) and you attack them when I put some on your tray.

Fort Beck-the pillow fort that Jeff came up with to keep Beck contained for a brief moment on our bed (while he was still in the room...no worries, folks)

 hanging with the monkeys

You are on the verge of becoming a crawler.  You will do a push-up, get up on all fours and rock, and you can roll all day long.  It is quite entertaining to watch you roll, twist, and spin to get wherever you want to go.  You don't have any favorite toys, but you have figured out buttons on most of your toys so instead of having mommy or daddy sit with you to make things play music or light up, you can do it all by yourself.  You love phones, remotes, and the laptop, and you get quite angry when they magically disappear behind our backs.  You do like to play "where is Beck?" which is where you put a cup over your face, I ask the magical question, you pull it down, and I say "there he is."  It is super fun.

Where is Beck??

There he is!

You still haven't said any distinct words, but you growl, say ooooo, gasp, open and close your hand, and say "da-da" with your tongue hanging out the side of your mouth.  You have very expressive eyebrows and they speak volumes.  While Daddy is still your favorite, you will now let mommy take you from daddy and you will not immediately scream to go back to Daddy.  You also reach for us with your arms fully extended, which I just love.


You are actually letting us read you books, without chewing on them.  We read a Bible story and two books before bed every night, and one book before naps.  I try to read to you a several times a day between naps, usually when you are most clingy because I know that you will actually sit still.


You are starting to pull up on some of your toys also.  I have found you several times with something laying on you that you tried pulling up on.  Thankfully, it is nothing that has hurt you or I have caught it before it did hurt you.  You will play by yourself for a good bit of time when it is just you and mommy, but when daddy is around, it is a constant battle to keep your attention off of his every move.  You hear every door when it opens and shuts and you immediately want to know who has left or is coming in.  It is more exhausting when there are two of us than when it is just me.

Well, little man, I know that I am trying my best to enjoy you more every day because I know that we will be celebrating your first birthday the next time I turn around.  I am letting things go a little bit around the house because dust, dirty clothes, and crumbs on the floor will be there tomorrow, but you do something new every day and I don't want to miss it.  Your laugh is infectious and Daddy has said time and time again that he can never get those deep laughs out of you like I can (points for mommy).  I know that we are both praying for you on our own, but my most earnest prayers for you are that you will know Jesus as your Savior and Lord of your life.  When you and I say our bedtime prayers, this is how I always end it.  I love you so very much.  

Hi again

So I am still alive.  Honestly I just haven't felt like blogging.  I have been enjoying my little boy and being a mommy and wife.

We have been praying about where our family is headed and (drumroll, drumroll) we are becoming licensed foster parents!  I will go ahead and throw it out there that if it is the Lord's will, we would love to adopt through this process.  This is so very different from adopting Beck although most people seem to think this will be a breeze for us because we have adopted already.  So far the paperwork has been much easier as far as the amount.  Things are moving very quickly and the concept of having 2 kiddos under the age of 1 is quite possible.

I know what you are thinking....this girl is crazy!!!!  Trust me, my mom already told me that to my face.  Gotta love her honesty.

Here's the deal: we spent lots of time trying to grow our family our way and we have learned the hard way to just listen to God and follow His leading.  We truly feel that this is God's plan for us right now, and we send up several prayers a day for this process, the child we may care for, and our family.  We would greatly appreciate your prayers.    

from this morning after he voted with Daddy :)

BWE-7 months

7 months...it makes me a little sad to write this post.  You are over halfway through your first year of life and that means you are growing up, becoming more independent, and becoming less dependent on me.   *sigh*

7 months old on Christmas Eve and snuggling with cousin ClaraRose

In the last few weeks we have seen more obvious evidence of your growth.  You now have two teeth, which made 3 days of Christmas with all of the different family members very interesting and whiny.  Yesterday was especially rough as tooth #2 was really causing you a lot of pain.  I mean A LOT.  Last night you slept 11 hours and you are a brand new person today.  Praise the Lord, and I really mean that.  I am praying more earnestly now for peaceful sleep at night and during naps than I was praying this time last year for you to be with us.  While we are on my least favorite topic, I will confess that we (because I am bringing Dah in on this too) have majorly failed you in the sleep department.  We let 7 months pass without letting you learn to put yourself to sleep.  And doing it now is really rough with being away from home to visit, having teeth come in, and losing a nap.  But we had to do something because we were losing our minds.  I do seen signs of hope:  that full night of sleep last night and putting yourself to sleep with no tears just a little bit ago are very encouraging for this Mama.

Right now your schedule looks something like this:
At 7:00 or 7:30 you rise and shine (with a big ole grin that never gets old).
You have some pears or applesauce with your cereal and play!
Around 9:00 or 9:30 you have a bottle and then you nap around 10:00 or 10:30 for an hour and a half (but we are praying you will do 2 hours occasionally).
And when you wake up, it is lunch time, play, bottle, play a little more and then another nap, and we proceed like that until bedtime.  If it is not too cold, you take a walk with me in the afternoon, which you love.  Right after supper, you have a bath, which you also love.  We love that you do not mind water on your face and you love for us to float you on your back.

your most favorite gift of all: tissue paper

You are sitting up fairly well, but when you get tired, you just lay over and roll to either your stomach or back.  You are not showing any obvious signs of crawling yet, but I'm in no hurry for this one.  You usually just roll until you find what you want.  If you get stuck, you yell for me and I come sit you back up again.  You tend to play very well by yourself when it is just you and Mama.  When Dah is around, it is a totally different story.  You LOVE your Dah.  You cry and whine for him.  You need him to be touching you at all times if he is home.  But, he cannot make you smile and laugh like I can (so there, Dah).  You still love your puffs and you got some yogurt melts for Christmas which you seem to enjoy.  You really want to commandeer the eating utensils and have become quite stubborn at mealtimes about not opening your mouth.  You also love rice rusks and we love 'em too because you can hold them on your own.  You can drink from a sippy cup, but you also just love to fling them back and forth.  At Christmas, you had sweet potatoes and green beans from Mama's plate and we are planning to start giving you more veggie likes that.  Today you worked really hard to pick up the puffs on your own.  You haven't quite mastered getting them from your closed fist to your mouth, but you'll figure it out.

Mama and Beck on Christmas morning

You are a good-sized fella.  You don't look huge, but you are solid and my body can feel it every night when I crawl into bed.  I figure you are definitely at the 20 pound mark now, and you have stayed a size ahead in your clothing since birth.  You love to jabber and pull your socks off, especially in the car.    When you have tossed all of your toys out of your reach and both socks are off, you "dah-dah-dah-dah" and "lah-lah-lah-lah" and "tah-tah-tah-tah" until we reach our destination.

Daddy and Beck on Christmas morning

I am still falling more and more in love with you every day and I think it is safe to say that Daddy is too.  We love watching you grow and learn, but we are growing and learning so much to.  We know that your little eyes are watching us all of the time.  Sometimes knowing you are watching my response to a situation literally makes me stop in tracks and rethink my next move.  What a teacher you are without even knowing it!

Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him. ~ Psalm 127:3

Tooth, the park, and sippy cups

What do all of these things have in common?  They were all firsts that Beck has experienced in the last week!

 His first tooth has popped to the surface.  See that tiny little white dot?  It looks more impressive in person.  It definitely explains some crazy mood swings that we have been experiencing.

 We made our first trip to the big park in town.  I must say that I had a pretty fun time going up and down all of the stairs and ramps.  Beck loved the swing, as you can tell by his wide-mouthed grin.

We have tried to give Beck a sippy cup on and off just to see what he thought about it.  He usually pushes the tip around in his mouth because he knows it is not his bottle.  More recently he has become more independent, trying to take command of spoons and bottles.  On Tuesday night at my parents' house, I fixed him a tiny bit of water and I turned to see this happening at the dinner table.

Our boy is growing up and although I am sad to lose my baby, I have to confess that all of these firsts are pretty exciting.

Lights.....and donuts

I love Meghan's tradition of having donuts and looking at Christmas lights.  Last night, our family of 3 plus my sister headed over to Hollywild.  I had read about it online and had visions of Beck being enchanted with the lights and sweet animals reaching to eat from his tiny hand.  Let's just say, I was not disappointed.  

*Apologies for the picture quality.  I'm not that great normally and certainly not in a moving vehicle.

 Noah's ark

 Loving the lights even as we waited our turn to enter

 Enchanted with lights ~ check!

 Have I mentioned that Beck loves his Daddy??  Please don't leave hateful comments about my baby riding on the console while Jeff drove soooooooo slowly.  It was the only way to avoid a total meltdown from Beck. :(

 a whale...Bekah and Jeff tried to throw crackers in his mouth

 It's the rare owl-zebra.  He only comes out at Christmastime.

 Bekah feeding some goats

 Sweet animals reaching to eat from his tiny hand ~ check

 The fam

 Bekah worked really hard for me to get this picture...what a trooper

 B & B

 Checking out the baby goat

 Nativity on the way out....I was very impressed with this.  There were shepherds with sheep, wise men, and painted pictures of different scenes in the life of Jesus.

We came home a different way....a way that just happened to go by a Krispy Kreme!!!!  And we just happened to have a voucher for a free dozen glazed donuts!!!!   And the donuts were hot!!!!!   (See how the post title works now.)

And Beck completely crashed on the way home.  I cannot wait to do this again next year. :)