All the Little Things

Dear William,

You are 6 months old now. It's hard to believe that you've been in our lives for half of a year! Even though you're still a little baby, you are growing so much and so quickly and I find myself missing your tiny newborn snuggles and sounds. I'm so afraid that I'll forget all these sweet things as you grow and change. There are so many little things that I never want to forget.

We are thinking of nicknaming you "No Nap Willie," even though we said that we never wanted anyone to call you Willie. :) But seriously, you aren't a great napper. You sleep really well at night, but even though I can tell that you are exhausted during the day you have a hard time sleeping for more than 30 minutes at a time. You usually wake up happy so I let you play and talk in your bed for awhile before getting you up. I guess I have this silly idea that you might fall back to sleep. Crazy, I know. Anyway, these days your favorite thing to do while you're waiting for me to get you up is to pull off your socks and chew on them. Almost every time I get you up from your nap I find you with a soaking wet sock in your mouth.

You love baby food, especially sweet potatoes. You get so excited when I'm feeding you that you starts shoving your bib in your mouth trying to eat it. Also, at least once during a feeding, I put the spoon full of baby food to your mouth and you blow into it. Food goes everywhere, but mostly up your nose. It makes me giggle to thing that everything probably smells like sweet potatoes (or apples, or green beans, or squash) for the rest of the day.

When I nurse you and you're not sleepy, you spend most of the time grabbing your foot with your hand and straightening and bending your leg over and over in some sort of weird, baby Pilates move. It's cute, but you sure are wiggly and distracted so nursing takes longer than it should.

My hair has become your favorite toy within the last few weeks. You play with it while you're nursing, while I'm changing your diaper, while I'm rocking you before putting you down for your nap...pretty much any time it's within arms reach for you. My favorite, though, is when you lay your head down on my shoulder and run your fingers through my hair as you fall asleep.

You started rolling over really well about a month ago. Since then, you've adopted two new sleep positions: on your right side in a perfect "L" shape or face down on your tummy. And I mean literally face down. You don't turn your head even a little, just bury your face in the mattress. It still makes me a little nervous that you do that because I think you're going to suffocate, but I figure the only thing I can do about it is sit by your bed all night long and flip you to your back over and over again. And, let's face it, I'm not going to do that. :)

Oh, how you love bath time! I think it must tickle a little bit when I scrub your legs and feet because you grin and laugh every time. You are completely fascinated when I pour water over your fingers and onto your tummy. You can't figure out why you can't grab the water like you grab everything else.

I love to hear you laugh. You have this great belly laugh when you really get going. You laugh the most when you're tired and no one can get you to laugh like your Daddy.

You are such a friendly baby! You show absolutely no fear of strangers so far. You are in heaven when you are surrounded by people who are paying attention to you and passing you around. Every once in awhile, though, you'll take a quick look around, just to make sure Daddy or I are still nearby.

You have such a bright and quick smile. You still have no teeth, so your smile is all gums. When you smile really big, you can see the outline of your front bottom teeth that will be coming in soon.

You love music and I sing to you all the time. We sing silly songs mostly, because you prefer tunes that are upbeat. If you're fussing, usually all it takes to snap you out of it is for me to start singing. "You Are My Sunshine" is probably your favorite song, though "The Wheels On the Bus" is way up there on the list, especially Daddy's special version.

Daddy and I think that you will be an early talker because you are already so verbal. Your favorite sound is "ma ma ma ma." You say it over and over again and you make the sound by tucking your bottom lip way into your mouth under your top gums. You look so funny! Even though I know you're not saying "Mama," I always try to respond when you say it so that you'll learn that that's what to call me. :)

It's bittersweet to watch you grow. It's sad knowing that, with each passing day, you're becoming less and less like that tiny little baby that was completely dependent on me and wanted to snuggle all the time. But each new accomplishment is so exciting and I can't wait to see the person you'll become. Your Daddy and I love you so much. Being your Mama is the best job I've ever had!

Mama

Look Alikes

Every couple does it.

You spend hours (in my case about 36) in labor, giving birth to your sweet little baby. The nurse hands him to you, all wrapped up like a burrito, and you begin examining him. Ten fingers. Ten toes. A cone head (thanks to aforementioned long labor). And then you look at each other and ask, "who does he look like?"

William has never really looked a whole lot like Michael or me. When he was first born, I could see some similarities between he and Michael, especially when I looked at Michael's baby pictures. Michael tells me that William has my smile. But the family resemblance has never been overwhelming. It was never really clear who he looked like.

Until now. Check this out:

Yes, my dad is in a dress...

Maybe it's just because I'm with William all day, every day and see all of his various expressions, but I see my dad written all over him! And that's not a bad thing, either. Check out what a cute kid my dad was:

A Letter

Dear William,

I have been your Mommy for two months now. It's pretty unbelievable how much life has changed, how much I have changed, in such a short period of time.

I can't believe that, no matter how exhausted I am, I'm actually happy to see the tiny human who wakes me up in the middle of the night.

I can't believe how captivated I am by you, how delighted I am by your smiles and coos, and how obsessed I can be by little things like how many ounces you eat or how many times a day you poop.

I can't believe that you seem to time those giant poops for 5 minutes after your Daddy leaves the house. Every. Single. Time.

I can't believe that caring for one little person can be so difficult. I can't believe that something so difficult can be so much fun.

I can't believe that I come up with new, ridiculous nicknames for you almost daily. Today it was "Punky Brewster", a take off of "punk", which I believe is short for "punkin'". It's sad that, though your name is William, you will probably grow up thinking that your name is "Buddy" if your Daddy and I have anything to do with it.

I can't believe how much I love you.

I love how you move your arms and legs like crazy whenever you're on your back. I sometimes think that you'd take off crawling if I just turned you over.

I love how you call for me whenever I leave the room. Thanks for calling and not crying.

I love how your eyes cross when you try to see the bubbles that you're blowing out of your mouth.

I love how you try to chew on your clothes as I slip them over your head to dress you every morning.

I love how your hungry cries quickly change to "yum yum" noises as soon as you start eating. I also love how you ball up your little fists and hold them tucked under your chin while you eat. It makes you look so earnest.

After I feed you right before bed, I love how you let out this enormous burp and then melt into my chest in a deep, peaceful sleep. That burp, by the way, seems like it should be way too big for someone so small.

I love how you can now be soothed just by the sight of Mommy or Daddy. It's amazing how quickly your wailing can change to smiling when we peek over the side of your crib. You're such a faker sometimes. :-)

I love how adding you to our family has made me love your Daddy more. I wasn't expecting that.

I am so thankful that the Lord picked us to be your Mommy and Daddy!

Love,

Mommy

Pregnancy Reflections

Things I'll Miss About Being Pregnant

• Not being on a diet for the first time in recent memory
• Related to the above, eating as many hamburgers as I want without feeling (too) guilty
• Also related to the above, eating Nutella straight out of the jar without feeling guilty
• Feeling the baby move
• Michael's pregnancy jokes
• The knowledge that I'm growing a tiny human
• The anticipation of a totally new season of life
• Dreaming with Michael about what life as a family of three will be like
• A new wardrobe
• People occasionally giving up their seats for me
• Planning and shopping for the baby
• Having an excuse to get pedicures
• Ice cream being a perfectly acceptable source of calcium
• Watching Michael prepare to become a dad (a job he's totally going to rock, by the way)
• The cute preggo belly (you know, the non-obnoxious one you have from about months 5-7?)
• Awesome fingernails

Things I Won't Miss About Being Pregnant

• Heartburn
• Insomnia
• Becoming intimately acquainted with the restroom of every store/business I visit
• Maternity jeans
• Pregnancy face (ladies, you know what I'm talking about!)
• Heartburn
• Getting kicked in the ribs, kidneys, bladder, [insert internal organ here]
• Perfect strangers feeling entitled to ask about the ins and outs of my pregnancy, including (but not limited to) whether I'll be delivering naturally or getting an epidural, whether I'll breast or bottle feed, if I'm nervous about having my first child when I'm "so old", etc.
• Perfect strangers feeling obliged to share their childbirth horror stories with me
• My walk being gradually replaced by a waddle
• Not being able to sleep on my stomach
• Heartburn

Ice Day

Two years ago today, January 28, 2009, there was an ice storm in Fort Worth. That day also happened to be the day that Michael and I started dating (for the second time...but that's a really long story for another time). We refer to January 28 as Ice Day. Looking back over the last two years makes me a little dizzy. We've crammed a lot of really fun stuff and big changes into this short amount of time.

• In January 2009 Michael and I started dating.

• In May 2009 Michael and I got engaged.

• In July 2009 I quit my job at the seminary.

• In August 2009 Michael and I got married, went on a wonderful honeymoon to Boston, and I started my last semester of seminary.

• We travelled to North Carolina for a wedding in October 2009.

• In December 2009, I graduated, started a new job at the seminary, and we spent our first Christmas together (Christmas Eve was spent in a ditch on the side of the road and at a sketchy hotel thanks to a freak ice/snow storm).

• A few days after Christmas, we left to spend two weeks in Mali, West Africa.

• In May 2010 we bought and moved into our house.

• We celebrated our first anniversary in August 2010. Later that month, we found out that baby was on the way!

• In October 2010 we spent a week together in Peru (Michael stayed behind for another week to work). Michael is currently in Peru on his fourth trip there since August.

• In December 2010 we found out that we're having a boy, much to my surprise. I also quit my job right before Christmas.

And here I find myself on January 28, 2011. Two years ago, I could never have anticipated all the challenging, wonderful, exciting blessings that were about to come my way. I'm thankful for every bit of it. And I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for the next two years!