Sunday, February 15, 2015

L.O.V.E.




It's amazing how much changes after having a child.  No longer can you pick up and go at any time of the day, or stay out for hours on end, there's a little one that needs a nap or is hungry and tired of being strapped in a carseat, stroller, pack...but we wouldn't have had it any other way.  In all honesty!  We had a lazy morning eating muffins and fruit, all took morning naps, then packed up for an adventure.

One of my little gifts for Ryan 



San Antonio is right up there with Provo in regards to city planning - or lack of it I should say.  They decided to close off a portion of the freeway on Valentine's weekend, unbeknownst to us.  So, after 45 minutes in a traffic jam on our way to Freidrich Wilderness Park, we decided to mosy our way back to the Greenway trail that runs all throughout the city.  

Recently, we had been talking to some friends of ours that are 4th year Med students, discussing why Texas will never be as beautiful as Utah, or Oregon.  We shared our sincere desires to find what gems Texas could offer while we are here, but that we were having a hard time finding anything close to pristine.  But, after a few minutes on the Greenway trail, we realized that beauty can manifest itself in so many ways.  Beauty in Texas is a quiet, secluded trail hidden from the business of the day, with animals and greenery, and a still, quiet, peaceful feeling.  We found a gem, which was us all together, enjoying the sunshine and stillness.




After those rejuvenating couple of hours, we took our worn out boy home for a good, long afternoon nap.  Some good friends of ours offered to babysit since they went out the night before, so we and another couple left at 5 to enjoy the evening while our kiddos stayed behind.  Ryan and I thought long and hard about how we wanted to spend our precious hours together, and thought of things we never got to do.  So, we packed up our tennis rackets and headed to the courts.  It was perfect.  We are definitely rusty, but it was so nice to move and to enjoy activities that we took for granted before.  
We played for an hour, rushed home and showered, then sped up to the stake center for conference.  On our way up, we laughed when we realized how fast we were able to get ready, without a little buddy boy who needed attention.  At first, we shook our heads thinking wow, think of all the things we could get done! but quickly followed that up with saying how empty our lives would be without him, and he was worth the messy, wet hair and sloppy makeup whenever he's around while getting ready.

After conference, we drove to the nearby La Cantera outdoor mall, and started searching for a good place to eat.  We ended up at Grimaldi's Pizza which was SO GOOD.



Afterwards, we went to pick up Cal (who was sleeping at a friend's house) and ended up talking altogether with the other couples until after midnight.  We talked about spending habits, topics from conference, making friends, keeping friends, parenting, and luck.  We talked about how there seem to be those people who walk on clouds, and stars aline, and every little good thing that can happen, happens for them.  Ryan and I laughed and felt like we were the opposite, and went on to say how unlucky we were.  The conversation eventually finished and we all packed up our kids and went our ways.

It wasn't until I was getting ready for bed, while hanging up clothes in the closet, that I had this sudden thought - why aren't you grateful? have you forgotten the miracles in your life? I felt a knot in my stomach.  There we were, going off about the string of unlucky incidents in our life, without even acknowledging all of the overwhelmingly good, "lucky", blessed moments.  We may have had outwardly, obvious stinky things happen, but we have also had many wonderful things.  And, this Valentine's day was one of them :)

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Recently...

Lately Ryan and I have been feeling so blessed to have little baby Cal in our lives.  We always love him, and are always grateful for him, but lately we have been overwhelmed with just how much love we have for the little guy!  

We can't get over his yogurt crusted breakfast face:


His grubby fingers and busy-ness:


His happy-gappy smile:



His personality, that makes everything fun:



His love for the outdoors:



But really, we just love everything about him:

Monday, February 9, 2015

Christmas Pics 2014

I'm sad I didn't include these for the 2014 blog book - but here are a few!





Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Months 7-9

7th Month:

The months go by faster and faster.  This month he is especially darling, with his cute "bah-bah" babble, and what we call the "inchworm" (the army crawl/lunge/belly flop across the floor).  He can sit without wobbling, loves his yogurt and puff snacks, and can almost get them in his mouth by himself.  But, usually we end up with snacks scattered all around the floor :)  We have noticed he definitely favors his left hand, which will make him both the first blue-eyed grandchild, and first lefty!  Grandpa Thompson is proud.  He laughs when I sneeze and loves to rip off my glasses in the morning.  He can now sleep without the swaddle but still loves his little binky.  When he gets mad he scrunches up his little nose, puts on the pouty lip face, and breaths really fast in and out of his nose!  The hours between 6-7pm are our worst nightmare, as he has been up most the afternoon, is getting hungry, and is hard to please.  It is worth it though, since after his nighttime bottle he is OUT.  After Cal is all dressed in jammies, we play a game called "where'd my baby go?" where Ryan and Cal hide behind the corner of the kitchen and come find me over and over.  It is absolutely adorable.  









8th Month:

Cal has grown up so much these last four weeks.  He started crawling a little after 7 months, and can now stand and scoot across everything!  I think he feels a new sense of independence, and is so happy and curious.  So curious in fact, that Ryan said, "I'm pretty sure this kid has ADD."  Still quiet and determined, but definitely loves to practice his consonant sounds (bah-bah-bah and dah-dah-dah...working on mah-mah-mah!).  He cut his first tooth a few days after Christmas, and it was surprisingly his front, top tooth.  Now, poor fella, he has two basically cut through, and four more on their way.  Needless to say, he has been a very sad little baby for a solid week now.

He is so entertaining!  When he's focusing on something, he likes to make the raspberry noise with air-puffed cheeks.  He loves to feed himself (especially puffs and pouches of applesauce), and has loved tasting all different kinds of foods and juices.  He's a chubby bub, who is nearly grown out of his 9 month clothes, and he's solid and sturdy.  Some of his favorite things are:  mini spatulas, his cozy minky blanket, laying on dad's chest, playing with mama's hair, standing, discovering, cream of wheat.  Our favorite things are: how cuddly he is when he's tired, his rolly legs, how playful and friendly he is with everyone, and finding him in his pack-n-play after a nap, standing and waiting for us to come get him.  Heart bursts everytime.

*Legitimate crawling on December 10th
*Stood up for the first time on December 11th











9th Month:

My goodness is he really this old??  Once six months hit, it's like he decided to grow up :(  Sometimes I am so excited about his growth and the new things he is learning, and then nights like last night I hold him and rock him to sleep, just so I can hang on to these sweet "baby" moments as long as possible.  The next post will be his 10-12 month post - I will have a one-year old!  

This month was packed full of funny memories.  It is harder and harder to keep track of them all!  But he is walking great with his little toy walker, he climbs up on everything (especially the piano - he loves to pound the keys), he can say "mama" and "dada" and started saying "What!" on command!  So hilarious every time.  He is a little needy, and if I go around the corner he stops whatever he is doing, starts yelling "mamamama!" and crawls until he has me in view again - sometimes it's cute, sometimes...not so much.  He is starting to be a better eater, and loves ritz/graham crackers, string cheese, bananas, pancakes, and any kind of fruit baby food.  We had him try a bite of some veggie quinoa and took a video, and I think I personally have watched it 100 times.  He gags, spits, and has the bitter beer face on for about 10 straight seconds! (Check it out HERE)

He lives for baths.  He takes any chance he can to B line it over to the tub.  He just stands there on his tippy toes trying to figure out how to get over the edge, and every once in a while I cave and cancel my plans and bathe him at 1 in the afternoon!  He talks and talks and talks, is always practicing his consonants and whenever he notices me smiling at him or laughing he stops, wrinkles up his nose, squints his eyes, and starts laughing too!  Now that he has two big buck teeth up top, and two little ones on bottom, his smile about kills me!  He is a great sleeper and goes to bed no later than 7:00pm, and wakes up no later than 7:00am (no matter how hard we try).  He is a happy, energetic, messy, busy little baby and we couldn't feel more blessed.

*First word other than "mama"/"dada" - February 2nd - "What!"
*February 2nd - took his first steps to daddy