Category: Kids & Parenting

10 Months

Published by dee on April 26, 2006

Dear Zachary,

I cannot believe that you are already 10 months old. You are quickly reaching that one-year mark and it is going by entirely too quickly in my opinion. Every day I watch you grow more and more independent and I am so proud of you. It is so amazing to see you develop into a little person. It is absolutely the best gift I’ve ever been given.

I thought that you were moving fast before, but you have become even more mobile over the last few weeks. Daddy and I can barely keep up with you anymore. Besides the crawling at the speed of light, you are now cruising around the room with your hands barely touching the furniture. Sometimes you even let go completely and stand for a few seconds before landing on your butt. As soon as you figure out that balance thing, I’m sure you will be walking on your own.

Besides the crawling and cruising, you have also started climbing on everything. We have caught you climbing up on your rocking chair, climbing on and through the bottom shelf of the end table, along with using various toys as steps to reach objects that you aren’t supposed to be able to reach. Then, last weekend at the park, you showed me that you already know how to climb stairs. I guess you just applied your furniture crawling techniques to the steps. I put you on the steps leading up to the slide and you started climbing right up with no hesitation whatsoever. We have never turned you loose on the stairs at home and to my knowledge that was the first chance you ever had to try them out.

When you actually stop moving long enough, you like to use those four teeth of yours to bite everything in sight. Soon you should be gnawing through almost anything because you have another four teeth quickly on the way. You stuff absolutely everything in your mouth, including strings, fuzz, and various other things you might find on the floor. You are eating mostly table foods now, but every once in a while you refuse to eat so I feed you a jar of mushy baby food and you scarf down every bite. I guess it must taste better than the dog and cat food that you keep trying to sample when you get loose in the kitchen.

A few weeks ago we started giving you a little bit of whole milk and gradually increasing the amount. You are now completely switched over to milk during the day. I’m still giving you some formula when you wake up in the morning and just before you go to bed at night, but soon we will be cutting those out as well. Before long, my baby will be gone and in his place I will have a big boy who eats regular food, drinks regular milk, and walks all over the place on his own.

You are growing up so fast that I can barely keep up, much less remember all the details that I want to treasure forever. Each time I sit down to write you a letter I wonder if I am leaving out something important. I do know I’ll never forget that ornery smile you give me where you wrinkle up your nose, stick out your teeth, and scrunch up one eye. I know that’s not a very good description, but every time you do it I can’t help but smile back. Your little grin lights up the room and Mama’s heart.

Love,
Mama

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Happy Easter!

Published by dee on April 17, 2006

Holidays are so much more fun when you have kids (or in my case, a kid). I have always loved Easter, but the years in between when I was a kid and when I had a kid of my own just weren’t quite as much fun. We spent the entire weekend with my sister and her family and had a really great time.

Friday night we attended the Good Friday service at our church. It is always a rather somber service, but you certainly couldn’t have figured that out by the noise our kids were making. Between Zach, my two nephews, and the other little boy behind us you could have sworn you were standing in the middle of a playground during recess. They were all hyped up for some reason. After church my sister overheard a couple of older church ladies being negative nancies and commenting on the noisy kids. It’s a good thing the preacher doesn’t seem to mind.

After church, my dad went with us to our new favorite eating establishment, Granite City Brewery. The food there is great and from what I hear the beer is too. Too bad I can’t stand the stuff. After dinner we went back to my sister’s house, where my mom met up with us and watched movies until we were all falling asleep.

Saturday morning we took the boys to church for the annual Easter egg hunt. They all seemed to have a good time. Zach figured out how to pick up the eggs pretty quickly, but every time we made him put his eggs in his basket, he got really upset and started crying. He didn’t quite get the concept that he had to put one egg down before he could pick up another one.

After the egg hunt, we had lunch and then went bowling. It was interesting trying to bowl while passing two babies back and forth in between turns. I think I bowled the worst two games I have ever bowled in my life. My 6-year-old nephew even had a higher score than I did. Of course, he had the benefit of the bumpers though (that’s what I keep telling myself). I don’t even remember what my score was now because I’ve been trying to erase the memory from my head ever since it happened.

Sunday morning we got up and went to church. Apparently the Easter Bunny decided to visit the boys at my dad’s house, because when we got there after church, there were Easter baskets and eggs everywhere. Again, Zach didn’t really like putting the eggs in his basket, so the other two boys ended up with most of the loot. Zach didn’t seem to mind though, he was much more interested in the toys and books that were in his basket.

We had a nice dinner and a relaxing afternoon at my dad’s house. Zach and I even got a quick nap in. Then we headed back home and back to reality where there were dirty dishes and a ton of laundry to be done. I sure do miss the days when I got the Monday after Easter off and could sit around being lazy and eating chocolate all day.

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Re-Thinking the Breeding

Published by dee on April 5, 2006

Before I got pregnant with Zachary, I had many dreams of what the perfect family would be like. I wanted to have two babies (preferably a boy and a girl) spaced about two years apart. To me, that made perfect sense and was balanced just right.

In order to have my perfectly spaced kids, that means that I would need to start working on kid #2 by about the time that Zach turns a year old. That would give us three months to work on getting pregnant in order to have the second baby by the time Zach turns 2. It did take 2 1/2 years to get pregnant the first time, so I have no idea how long the second time will take.

Recently I have realized that Zach’s 1st birthday is coming up REALLY quickly, like in less than three months, and suddenly I’m not so sure that I’m ready to start working on baby #2. I was very lucky with Zach and for the most part he has been a very easy-going kid. But, lately he has become more and more demanding and is testing my patience on a daily basis. I’m not so sure that I could even handle being pregnant and keeping up with him, much less having another baby to take care of. On top of that there is the whole financial thing to consider as well. Two kids in day care and diapers is a scary thought.

Plus, I still have about 20 more pounds to lose to meet my goal weight. Originally I wanted to be at my goal weight before getting pregnant again in hopes that it would make losing the second baby weight a little bit easier. I’m still losing weight, but not as quickly as I was before and I’m pretty sure that I’m not going to get rid of those 20 pounds in three months. It is possible, but I will have to get very strict again on the diet and for me summer and dieting don’t work so well together.

A friend of mine had her second baby two weeks ago. As I watch her and her husband deal with their new little girl and 21-month-old boy, I think it might be possible. Then I wonder if I might miss some of Zach’s baby days by rushing into having another one so quickly. Would he miss out on some of those precious moments that I want to give him because I am too busy or too tired to spend time with him? Or, would having a little baby brother or sister around enrich his life even more?

I always thought I had it all figured out. Now, I’m not so sure. I know I want to have another one, but now I wonder if my perfect timing that I always dreamed of might just be all wrong.

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9 Months

Published by dee on March 28, 2006

(originally written March 26, 2006)

Dear Zachary,

Today you turned nine months old. Up until now, things have been relatively easy with you. When a mom chooses to have a baby, they understand that there will sometimes be bad days. But, when you have nine months of having a mostly pleasant, cheerful baby and then three days of having a baby who completely tests your patience it kinda throws you for a loop. The last three days (all on the weekend of course) have been, um, let’s just say…unpleasant. I’m totally blaming it on the teething right now, but even I don’t believe that’s all it is. I only hope that we can find a middle ground sometime soon or I am certain that I will go completely crazy.

I don’t blame you too much for being on edge because the last month has been anything but normal in our lives. The day after your 8-month birthday your daddy got a very sad phone call. We found out that day that your Uncle Josh had died. The news was quite a shock to me and Daddy. We packed up everything we needed and left the next morning to go to Louisiana to be with our family. Mommy’s boss was very nice and let us take the company plane down there so you got to experience your very first airplane ride.

Even though we were there for such a sad occasion, it was really nice to see all of Daddy’s family again. You got to meet your Uncle Matt and Aunt Maria for the first time. Just between you and me, I think you charmed the socks off of them. We even went to a Mardi Gras parade, which was a first for Mommy too. When we headed back home, everyone came to the airport to see us off. We kinda felt like rock stars haivng such a crowd there (Daddy really liked that part).

I spent a lot of time that week thinking about how much Uncle Josh loved you and how much he enjoyed holding you and playing with you. I wish that you were old enough to remember those times, but I know you aren’t. They are wonderful memories for me however, and some day I will get to share those with you.

Right after we got back from Louisiana, for some reason you started sleeping. I don’t know how or why because you barely slept the week before. The day we got home you decided to give Mommy and Daddy a great present and slept ALL NIGHT LONG. Since then, it comes and goes. Some nights you sleep all night and other nights you wake up around 3:00 or 4:00 wanting a bottle…yes, I said bottle.

That is another big change that we have recently made. As of this week, we are officially done with the whole breastfeeding thing. I had been gradually reducing the number of feedings and replacing them with bottles of formula, but all of a sudden you busted out a couple of teeth and I quickly figured out that teeth and boobs don’t mix well. You now have two teeth on the top and two on the bottom and they are all quite sharp. Last weekend you started getting frustrated when you were nursing and I figured out that you just weren’t getting enough milk from me anymore. On Monday, I decided that it really wasn’t worth trying anymore and started fixing you bottles instead. You didn’t seem to miss it much until today when were wanting comforting and grabbed at my shirt.

Speaking of needing comfort, for some reason you decided that you wanted to try out the stairs at day care last week. I got a call from Aliesha right after I got to work one day saying that I needed to come pick you up. Apparently one of the other kids had taken down the baby gate and you decided it would be fun to take a tumble down the stairs. You were very lucky and only ended up with a small cut in your mouth. I looked you over for a couple of days and didn’t find a single bruise on your body. So when you started heading for the stairs at Grandpa’s house today I may have overreacted just a little bit and yelled a little too loud. You just move entirely too fast.

Even after nine months, you still have me so intrigued every day. I could sit and watch you forever just to see what you are going to do next. Today I sat you down in a laundry basket and pushed you around the floor while you laughed and laughed. For a few seconds I forgot just how cranky you had been all day.

You are growing up so fast that I can barely keep up. It is amazing that you have learned so much in only nine short months. Today I held a baby that was only one week old and was reminded just how far you have come. Just thinking of it now almost brings a tear to my eye…almost.

Every day that I am with you I am so thankful that God chose me to be your mother. You are so perfect (even when you are cranky). I don’t think a minute goes by that I don’t think about you in some way. I hope that you never, ever forget how much I love you.

Love,
Mama

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Morning Panic

Published by dee on March 21, 2006

Today started out like any other weekday. Zach (thankfully) slept all night, which means that I slept all night so I got up on time, showered and quickly got ready for work. We actually left on time for a change. I dropped Zach off at day care and went on to work.

Here’s where the fun part started. About 20 minutes after I got to work my phone rang. For some reason, no caller ID showed up, so I picked up the phone not sure what to expect. As soon as I said hello the voice on the other end said, "You need to come pick Zach up right now. He fell down the steps and he seems ok but you better have him checked." So, I said I would be right there and rushed out the door to go get my baby.

On the way there, which is about a 10-15 minute drive, I’m thinking of all kinds of terrible awful things that I think could happen to a kid that falls down a big flight of stairs. Then I started picturing all the movie scenes I’ve seen where someone falls down a flight of stairs and snaps their neck and dies. By the time I got there I was totally in a panic, not sure exactly what I was going to see.

Of course I had really over-dramatized things in my head. When I got to day care, I could see him sitting in the high chair in the kitchen playing with some toys. He had a cut in his mouth that had already stopped bleeding. He was a little fussy, but otherwise seemed just fine. I packed him up, stopped at the house to grab the diaper bag and a bottle and brought him to work with me.

I haven’t gotten a whole lot of work done today, but I do have to say thank God for noggin.com or I wouldn’t have gotten anything done at all. All I had to do was turn on the Jack’s Big Music Show videos and he was entertained. We went out for lunch with my mom, and now he is all snuggled up sleeping in his stroller. Hopefully I’ll get at least another hour out of that nap to get some work done. Ugh, he’s starting to squirm. So much for that hour.

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Shhh…don't tell

Published by dee on March 14, 2006

I’ve been afraid to say anything because I’m really scared that I might jinx everything. So, I’m not going to tell you that Zach has been sleeping through the night on a pretty regular basis for about a week and a half now. Or, that lastnight he slept for an amazing 11 hours straight without a single peep out of him. I certainly can’t tell you how my body is reacting to the whole getting to sleep thing and that the more sleep I get the more I want. And, no, it sure isn’t me who has been falling asleep at 9:00 or 9:30 every night and actually sleeping until 6:30 the next morning.

I’m also not going to tell you that I am almost done with the whole breastfeeding thing. That would make me too sad. Not sad in that I want to continue breastfeeding, but sad because he just doesn’t seem to need it anymore. Sure, he still yanks on my shirt when he is hungry, but that’s just because he has learned to tell me like that. He’s perfectly happy with a bottle…or sometimes even a sippy cup…of formula. I will miss that quiet bonding time with him.

I’m not going to tell you how my baby is almost 9 months old and is not very baby-like anymore except for the fact that he cannot speak in full sentences or walk upright without holding onto something. And, I’m not going to tell you how sad it makes me that he is getting so big and has a mind of his own. I don’t want to admit how he no longer needs all of the snuggling and cuddling that we used to do because he would rather be in the floor playing with his piles and piles of toys. I don’t want to talk about how he has become such a picky eater and I can’t just shove a jar of mashed up baby food down him in ten minutes when I’m in a hurry. I definitely am not going to talk about how watching him learn to be more independent almost has me in tears.

So, I’m not going to tell you all about any of that. You’ll just have to wait until I’m ready.

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