Baby's First Blanket and Cradle -- Written and never published from June 2009

Aunt Brenda hosted our first baby shower where we were able to celebrate and visit with many family members and friends. It was a beautiful shower with delicious food and great company. We were definitely "showered" with love and gifts that day. Our baby boy was given some very special gifts at that shower.

A beautiful cradle fit for a prince was one of those special gifts. Aunt Brenda, we are so thankful for this gift! We plan on keeping him in our bedroom for the first few weeks in this cradle.



Another very special gift was a quilt hand-made by my mom. This was more than just a hand-made quilt, though. It was made of fabric from Alan's mom's favorite robes. Alan's mom, Cindy, died in 2005 and we miss her dearly--especially as we anticipate the upcoming birth of our first child. We didn't know that Aunt Brenda had saved her favorite robes for something as special as this gift.

I knew my mom wanted to make a quilt for our son, but I had no idea how sentimental that quilt would be. The quilt made from Cindy's robes is just perfect. I don't know how to put it into words how much that quilt means to us. Alan's sister, Amy, was surprised when she got a quilt, as well. It was such a sweet moment at the shower, I couldn't hold back the tears! Mom and Aunt Brenda, THANK YOU!!!

A good Daddy...

Yesterday, I Sam and I went for a "run"...which really means we go down the street and he sprints, walks, skips, bunny hops, runs and what ever else he fells the urge to do :)  I'm trying to teach him to pace himself.  He's not interested in jogging unless he can run fast.  Anyway, I have found that when we go out for these little excursions, Sam is more open in conversation and tells me things that he normally wouldn't think to tell me.  

As we are walking, a lady in our neighborhood passes us and says, "oh what a cute little girl!"--about George who is bundled up in the stroller.

She passes by and a minute later this is what Sam says:

Sam:  Mommy, we are an all boy family!  There's only one girl in our family and that's you.

Me:  Yes, Sam.

Sam:  I have a good Mommy and Daddy.  Mommy, you picked a good Daddy to marry!

... and that was the sentence that made me smile.  I wanted to be sure to put this one in writing, so someday when Sam may not feel the same way, I can remind him how he felt when he was a wise 5 year old. He so right...I picked a good Daddy and I'm so thankful for that.

Just waiting for Daddy...

I love it when Patrick is eagerly waiting for Alan to come home from work.  

He says, "I'm going to go wait for my Daddy!" and then he goes to sit on the curb at the front of the house and just wait.  

He loves his Daddy!

Our Morning Dose of Sunshine

That's Patrick on most days.  He smiles as he says, "Good morning, Mommy!  Good morning, Daddy!"  He can't wait to go downstairs each morning for his breakfast...easily his favorite meal of the day.  Here we are on the way to school one morning. I couldn't help not to snap a few photos of him smiling and laughing at George, who was sitting beside him in the car.  

Quality Time with George

George has a stomach bug.  Poor little guy.  I am so thankful that I was able to take today off work to stay home to take care of him.  I hate that he is sick, but I have to admit that I loved having the opportunity to pamper him and spend some quality time with him.  I hate to admit this, but since my maternity leave, I haven't had much one on one time with sweet George.  I guess that's par for the course when you are baby number three.  It's just that I'm always distracted and being pulled in so many directions that I rarely have moments to just sit and watch him, play with him, and snuggle with him.  Well, today, I did all of those things.

George has the most contagious laugh and smile.  He is so playful!  As I was folding laundry, he would come up to the pile of folded clothes and push them off the table.  He'd laugh.  Then I'd laugh.  I'd pick up the clothes and seconds later he comes back with a smile on his face that tells me he is coming back for more games and we continued this little game again and again.  He has such a good-natured and lively spirit!

I love the way he smiles and sticks his cute little tongue out sideways.

Usually I carry him in the wrap when we go to the grocery store, but today I put him and Sam in the race car cart.  It was hilarious.  George was literally squealing in delight for most of our shopping trip.  He finds such joy in so many little things.

Keep in mind, this was all while he was sick!  We are so blessed by his sweet and joyful spirit.  I pray that these attributes stay with him all the days of his life. 

Sam the SWIMMER!

   The pool has been his happy place this summer.  At the beginning of the summer, keep in mind it's still only June 16th, Sam couldn't swim more than 5 feet without grabbing on to the rope or the wall.  We had heard many friends say that swim team was the best thing for teaching youngsters to swim--I have to agree.  We signed him up for the swim team thinking it may help him learn how to swim.   He has already far exceeded my expectations.  At practice every night, he swims in the lap lane, but one of the coaches is always in the water with him helping him.  He was stopping on the rope or wall every 4-5 feet.  It takes a long time to make it across the pool when you stop that often!  

     At Sam's first meet, he walked in and started to panic and cry.  He absolutely did NOT want to swim in front of all those people!  For the first time, he wasn't interested in racing anyone---I think partly because he knew he would never win and partly because there were so many people watching.  He cried the whole way up to the podium.  I hated it.  I wanted to just scoop him up and tell him he didn't have to do it.  Alan talked to him about his own fears when he races and that seemed to help get him at least to the lane where his coaches would take over the encouragement.  Alan and his coaches must have said something right, because somehow Sam made it to the podium and jumped in the pool.

     The announcer said, "Swimmers, take your mark, ready, set..."  and the horn went off.  My focus was fixed completely on Sam and I could hardly believe my eyes.  Sam swam the ENTIRE LENGTH of the pool without stopping once!!!  HE DID IT!!!  HE DID IT!!!  We were so proud of him!  Here is a picture of him after that first swim all the way across the pool.  

Little Biker Boy

     This cute little fella loves his bikes.  It started with a fascination with motorcycles, thanks to Grandpa Dean.  Then he started riding anything and everything with wheels that he could find in the garage, minus the adult cars and bikes.  Recently, has been interested in the bike in this picture with training wheels.  He calls it his "big bike".  He was nice and cautious for a few days, and then a couple of days ago, he decided he wanted to go for a big ride.  He had been so cautious that I thought it would be okay to go down the street a bit.  Well, as soon as he got a taste of the freedom, he took off!  The scary part was that he really doesn't have much control on the bike yet...he just goes fast!  I found myself running after him yelling, "Stop!!!  Patrick!!!  Stop!!!".  I eventually caught up to him and he had a grin on his face from ear to ear. "I ride my big bike, mommy!!!"