Andrew's 18-Month Update!

Oh, Andrew.  You’re a pistol.  You keep us on our toes!  It’s hard to believe you’re on the downhill to two.  How can it be?!  You have really grown these past six months—really turned into a toddler with a capital T.  Your personality is really starting to come out and you’re becoming a lot more vocal.  Watching and doing whatever Parker is doing is your jam.  You follow him around most everywhere.  If he’s on a scooter, you want to be on a scooter.  If he’s jumping on the trampoline, you want to be on a trampoline.  If he’s playing trucks, you’re right there with them.

You definitely seem to be more fearless—we play pretty rough and do lots of tackling and you’re not afraid to just dive off the furniture and tackle someone.  You trust that someone is always going to catch you.  That being said, you crash A LOT.  You are always tripping on something because our house is never clean and when you run, your head gets in front of you and you end up going down.  You’ve had a full on black eye and too many bruises and scrapes to count.  Most of them on your head and/or face it seems.  You go down hard.

Also, your temper.  We have to talk about that.  When you don’t get your way, you just will flat-line yourself out on the ground and slam your head down over and over.  It doesn’t matter if it’s concrete, wood floors, carpet, tile, etc.  You just slam yourself down and go to town with your head.  Mom’s a bit frightful of you becoming concussed, but we try to ignore it because I think you do it b/c we immediately pick you up and cuddle you.  So, basically, it works.  But, it looks like it hurts!  You also aren’t afraid to hit your brother back or take a swipe at him if he gets in your space (you go kid!).  That being said, throwing things is a problem for you.  You think its hilarious to throw anything and you’ll sit in the car and just throw goldfish around with a giant smile on your face.  I’ve had a few hit me while driving, no lie.  Future baseball player perhaps??

You give the best hugs—you run and launch yourself into the person.  I love this stage of the hugs.  You mean every bit of it.  You can also make kissing sounds with your lips, but don’t understand to kiss someone.  You also say mama, dada, vroom vroom (truck), woof woof (dog), wa wa (drink), and yeah.  So far, “no,” hasn’t entered into your vocabulary and it’s so cute because you nod your head yes and say “yeah” like everything is so exciting!  However, if you don’t like something, you’ll push it away, spit it out or flat out flail your arms around.  We get it.

You can wave “bye bye,” too.  Every night, we play in Parker’s room for a while after bath.  I will say, “Andrew, it’s time to go read and go night, night.”  And you’ll nod your head, say “yeah,” and then wave bye bye.  I’ll say, “give hugs Andrew” and you launch yourself into my arms for the best hug.  Then you grab hold of your dad’s hand and walk with him to your room where he reads you one to two books before dropping you off in your crib.  You cuddle up with about 6 animals like brother does and sleep soundly until about 8:30 on weekends (have I mentioned how lucky I am?!).

Brother keeps asking when you can sleep with him, so I know he’s excited to sleep with you one day.  Overall, you and brother have really started developing a relationship these past few months.  He loves you so much and you two can get into lots of trouble together.  But, I can tell the way he looks at you and says, “Come on, Andrew” that he loves you something fierce.  You guys coexist a lot better and play together more these days.  Pushing trucks around and playing chase are some of your favorites.  You have figured out how to do ready, set, go and you and brother will line up and race.  You also love the playground at the park and you guys race down the slide.  Fearless you are.

January and February were rough months around here—you were sick ALL THE TIME.  And you are a GRUMP when you are sick.  We have gotten you well and you’ve been such a joy these fast few months.  Your nose isn’t as runny and you’re a lot happier.  I’m hoping this summer season will be a healthy one! January/February almost killed me!

You also love to read books.  The “My First 100 Words” is probably your favorite.  You like to point to each picture and have one of us tell you what it is.  You also make animal sounds at the animals.  You will just grab a book and come plop yourself down in our lap for us to read to you.  It’s super cute.  You are also super into mom right now.  You want me to hold you a lot and I think some of it stems from that this is my busy season at work right now and sometimes I have to work late.  That seems to really bother you and make you cling to me more when I’m at home.  We try to make our weekends super fun and all about spending quality time together to help with this. 

We did a beach trip to Galveston a few weeks ago in March and it was just what we needed.  It really was the best weekend.  At first, you weren’t so impressed with the beach—wouldn’t take off your shoes and just wanted to be held.  But, you eventually got the hang of it and slowly started inching your way towards the waves.  And then, once you realized the water was a fun place to be, we couldn’t keep you out of it.  You and brother would run up and down the beach hopping in and out of the waves.  You also loved to push trucks around the sand.  Parker taught you to fill up a bucket with water and then climb into it which you thought was hilarious.  So, we did that a lot at the beach.  It was a great weekend, I hope I can remember it for a long, long time.  There was a lot of yes time and both you kids really, really enjoyed it. 

Easter also came and went and you did so great!  You were old enough to understand how to hunt Easter eggs and put them in your basket.  It was a great story of slow and steady win the race.  You also realized the yumminess of jelly beans.  You were obsessed with tracking down the jelly beans.  You also almost choked on a jelly bean.  You loved the cascarones (confetti eggs) and enjoyed smashing them with your feet (monkey see, monkey do with brother)

So, let’s see… At 18 months you:

•          You weigh just over 26lbs
•          Almost have all of your teeth—your four incisors have all broken the gums, but are not full size just yet.  They are taking their sweet time.  Then we have the two year molars which will come later.
•          Wear a size 6.5 to 7 shoe (W)
•          Wearing 12-18 month clothes, with 12-18 month pants becoming high waters on you.
•          Wear size 4 diapers (P.S.  You also think it’s hilarious to watch brother pee on trees outside.)
•          Love riding in your toy car from Christmas (thanks DD Nana!) and you press the button for the “radio” which cycles through 3 different tunes and you move side to side as though you’re dancing.
•          Sleep 8-8:30 on the weekends (6:45 on the weekdays) with a 2 to 2.5 hour nap in the afternoon.
•          Drink 2-3 cups of milk a day with water in between.
•          Favorite foods are definitely rice and beans, but you also really like oranges, spaghetti, chick-fil-a (who doesn’t?!) and yogurt.
•          Have the best smile, but absolutely hate taking your picture.  If I put the camera in your face, you will not look at it.  There is very little bribery that will convince you otherwise.
•          Very good at pushing trucks around and saying “vroom, vroom.”
•          Are very sweet to cousin Beckett and are itching for him to be bigger so you can be a “big brother” to him.
•          Have blonde, curly-ish hair.  It’s very curly in the humidity and pretty crazy.  I’m not sure how to ‘style’ it honestly.  You also were not good at the last haircutting session—cried the whole time.  Eek!
•          Still suck your thumb--- no idea how to kill this habit.

Mom and dad love you baby boy, always and forever.

I love you.

So handsome.

This is what you did when you saw the camera in my hands. haha!

Boys and their trucks!

We Love Your Daddy

Dear Parker,

You've been with us for almost six weeks now.  Having you here has been such a blessing!  Over these past weeks I've been able to watch your daddy interact with you and help me.  These are moments that I don't want to ever forget.  I can see how easy it is to take him for granted which is why I wanted to jot these things down so that I can come back to them and remember how great he was with you. 

• When he changes your diaper, I usually hear things like, "Don't fire the cannon!" and "O.M.G."  These things make me giggle and sometimes the expression you give back makes it seems like you are giggling, too.
• When you start to tinkle in the bathtub, he's always the first to notice and block the spray from hitting me.
• He always wakes up with me in the night to feed you.  He changes you and re-swaddles you before I nurse you.
• He always tries to give me a "calm" baby back.  He will do anything to keep you from crying before he hands you over.
• He tries so hard to entertain you.  Sometimes, he has three different toys flailing around in front of your face.  I gently remind him that three is probably too much as its already hard for you to focus on one thing at a time.
• He makes a ton of funny faces at you, all the time.  I can't wait until you start mimicking them back!
• He loves to swing you around and bounce you around the house and you LOVE IT!  Dad can always calm you down.  Pretty soon he'll be throwing you up in the air!
• You can stare up at your daddy for hours.  This melts my heart.
• On the weekends, he does his best to do everything for you.  He burps you and when you wake up from your nap too early, he will just hold and rock you until you fall back asleep.  Then, he will just let you lay in his arms.
• He takes you on a walk every day.  He walks close to three miles with you every day.  He does this for me so that I can have one hour without a baby to write blog posts, clean up, shower, and other activities.  Don't get me wrong, you like your walks, too!
• He never backs down from a diaper change.
• When you were first born and we were struggling through the night and I was in tears because you were in tears, he would just sit with me and rub my feet to help calm me down.
• He gets me fresh water and heats me up breakfast at 5 AM when I'm up with you.

Throughout this pregnancy with you, there was one thing I was certain of:  Your dad would be a GREAT dad.  This statement is still true to this day.  It's clear how much your dad loves both of us.  Everything he does for you, he also does for me.  Your dad is my knight in shining armor.  I hope you can take this as an example of how to treat a lady when you get older and as an example of gentleman-like behavior.

Your dad and I both love you so much! 

Getting Ready for our Plus One

Our Plus One is just around the corner!  It's hard to believe that any day now our two-person family will become a family of three.  Sometimes it seems like just yesterday that Rob and I were graduating high school together.  Yes, we've been together that long!  We made it through the throes of high school, the life-changing experience of college, graduating college during a recession, getting married, moving 10 hours away from our family, buying our first home, promotions at work, and numerous DIY projects.  We've officially been married for five years!  What a five years it has been.  Now, we're getting ready to embark on our next big journey... becoming parents.

When I sit and think about it, it's really scary!  How do you take care of a helpless human being?  Better yet, how does this helpless human being travel through the body and come out kicking and screaming?  Haven't made it to that part yet, but women seem to do it all the time, so I suppose it will all work out just fine.  How do you teach that love is patient and love is kind?  How do you show your baby that doing the right thing is not always the easy road?  How do do you explain that the road he is travelling will constantly split, make ninety degree turns, go up and down, hit a few dead ends and move so fast you don't realize how far you have traveled until you look back?  The world is a very scary place.. how do you protect your baby but offer freedom to grow and become independent at the same time?  There are a bazillion things I don't know.  And I hate not knowing the answer.  That's just not me.  Or well, I don 't know a lot of things, but I know how to find the answers.  In this case, there's no finding the answers... no book to tell you just what to do on any given day.  It's having faith.  It's giving it all you've got even on the bad days and hoping that one day, your baby will realize what all you've done for him and he will be the man God intended for him to be.

I know this journey for me and Rob is going to be bumpy, full of sleepless nights, joy, laughter, tears, bruises, but most importantly, I know it's going to be filled with love.  Below, you will see a picture of an elephant sitting in the never been used crib.  To most of you, it will just be this sweet looking elephant.  But, that's not what it symbolizes to me.

This is the elephant that Robert picked out for our baby boy.  It's not even from a fancy place.  It's from Ikea.  But, he snatched it up one day and wouldn't let anyone else carry it.  In fact, I'm pretty sure he used his own separate checkout lane to buy it.  I could be wrong though, but the point I'm trying to get across here is that Robert was very protective of his elephant for baby.  To this day, he goes in and checks on the elephant in the nursery.  He spent several minutes deciding the right place for the elephant to sit... should it sit on shelf.. or maybe the top railing of the crib.. the floor?  Once it was decided, he spent his time making sure the elephant sits just right.  (Yes, we know guys, the elephant cannot stay in the crib once baby is born, but for now, it's the place Rob has chosen).  Literally, every time we go into the nursery (sometimes, we just walk in and stare) and he re-adjusts the elephant and gives him a little pat or light rub.  When I see Rob with this elephant, I know how much he is going to love our sweet baby.  This elephant is his gift to his son and he wants it to be just perfect.  I love this.  Just seeing him this way over a stuffed elephant will bring tears to my eyes.  (Okay, maybe its just the extra hormones, but its precious nonetheless).

There is one thing that I have never doubted and it is how great a dad Robert is going to be.  There is one constant in my life and it is Robert.  He loves me with everything he has and I can tell he is going to love our baby boy with all that he is.  This gives me such hope and joy, just knowing this.  I can't wait to see him hold his son for the very first time.  That will be one moment that I hope I can remember for the rest of my life.  Just please Rob, don't pass out during the delivery!

As far as material items go, it looks like we are all set for our baby boy to arrive.  We've worked so hard to pull everything together.  We've done everything together. We've stenciled a wall, we've painted/stenciled a dresser, we've had the gosh darn laser leveler out for hours on end to get everything straight as an arrow on the wall.  We've assembled Ikea spice racks and turned them into book shelves (or, I'm afraid a climbing wall once he is old enough to walk/climb).  We assembled the crib (thanks to all of our previous Ikea experience, the crib only took us about 15 minutes to assemble--though it did not come from Ikea!), assembled a diaper changing table, painted said diaper changing table and then installed drawers in it.  We're all set for his arrival.  We've got what seems to be diapers and wipes galore (but I'm quite positive, will only last us approximately 1 week in all actuality).  I officially have a stack of baby wash clothes about 50 deep in the bathroom.  We've got the cutest hooded towels, too.  I've got loads of burp cloths, receiving blankets, and swaddle cloths.  All we need is the baby.

Robert and I pretty much do everything together.  We have always been this way.  Even since high school, we prefer to be homebodies and spend our time in each other's company.  That's probably not always a good thing, but we literally just love doing things together.  I ride along in the golf cart when he wants to golf.  He comes shopping with me, no complaints, ever.  He just sits with me when I want to read a book.  It's just what we do.  Some of my biggest fear when getting ready for our baby will be that, that will change.  Our focus will be our newborn child.  I know there will be days where I will be glad that Robert came home from work, but it won't be because we can curl up on the couch together.. it will be so that he can give baby a bath or change a diaper and I can have a few moments of peace.  Of course, there's nothing wrong with those moments or days, but I want to make sure that we stick together.  That our son sees what its like to truly be a family.  That he always sees how much his mom and dad love each other.  So, that when he meets the girl of his dreams, he will know what it means to court her and be the man she needs him to be.

All in all, we're as ready is as ready can be!  Rob's so sweet now.. correction, he is always sweet, but he's even more attentive than usual.  He rubs my back without complaint and he cooks me dinner even if he gets home after me.  He says now, every time I call him or text him, he gets really nervous.. I could be calling because I'm in labor!  So, here's to us and our new adventure, together.  When Rob and Jess become Rob & Jess, plus one.