11 Months

OK, ok, oh-kaaayyyy.... I am really late on this one.

I've been wrestling about this post since days before ERP turned 11 months, way back on November 5th. I guess I am in a little denial that my baby is going to be a year, very very soon. At this point he'll be 1 year old in a week and a day. EEEKKK!!!

11 months has been a good one for ERP. Lots of growth. But also lots of sickness. First he had a little cold, then he had hand-foot-and-mouth-disease. Actually all three boys had HFMD. How RR made it nearly 11 years without getting it is beyond me. RR and ERP had it the worst, and ERP actually has some scars on his little fingers from it. Poor baby.

Halloween was a good one. Like his brother's before him ERP was a little lion. The costume was HUGE on him. But cute, none the less. We went trick-or-treating at my Godparents' house. It was a really nice night and we finished shortly before the rain started.

ERP is now regularly clapping and waving bye-bye.

He is still a peanut. My pocket-baby. At a sick child visit a couple weeks ago he wasn't even 18 pounds.

But he does love to eat. Oh does he love food. He still nurses around the clock, but he loves his food. He is eating 3 meals a day, plus 2 or 3 snacks. He crawling all over the place and loves chasing his brothers and the dog. He loves playing with the Little People. And he still loves his jumper and rocks it back and forth getting it off the floor.

He is still a mama's boy and curls himself small into my chest.

Speaking of which things I don't want to forget form the last month:
~ how he curls himself into me
~ his super extra fluffy soft hair
~ how happy he is, nearly all the time; unless he's going through a developmental leap
~ how he likes to have his butt rubbed while he's falling asleep
~ the way his eyes light up when he sees me when I get home from work
~ the way he loves mashed potatoes
~ how blue his eyes are on days when the sky is super blue
~ the way he giggles and crawls away from me when he's playing
~ the little games he plays with his pacifer
~ how he cries when he's on the changing table unless he's holding something -like his lotion bottle
~ the way he wants to take the strangest things to bed with him - like his nose sucker or a medicine syringe

Love you baby!!!

Pictures to come later.... Happy Thanksgiving!!

Repeat After Me

This evening for prayers TT wanted me to repeat after him. Usually he repeats after me.  We've been working on the Hail Mary.  TT's version is a little more stream on conciseness.

He says...

Harry Mary
For the love of pumpkins
Player two
and the footballs
All of the footballs
And in Jesus Christ
We don't say that
For ever and ever footballs
Amen

TT-isms

Here are a couple of TT-isms from today. I swear this kid is all about the "one liners" some days.

~ Both of these happened during church this morning.

After hearing the priest say "Jesus Christ".
TT says as loud as possible in a very quiet church.
"Jesus Christ??? We don't say Jesus Christ"

Deacon says "Brother and Sisters"
TT says "Where are my sisters?"

~ Yesterday TT started being obsessed with having salad for dinner. This was a step for him. He loves veggies, and salad dressings, but he normally doesn't like lettuce. Last night he has a salad with dinner, and to no one's surprise he doesn't eat the lettuce. Tonight he asks for salad with dinner again. And again I oblige. Tonight instead he starts pulling out all of the lettuce and asks me:
"Who put these leaves in my salad?"

Nursing Milestone

With RR I had set myself up for failure (i.e. not meeting a breastfeeding goal I set myself), with one boobie trap after another. So when TT came along I was educated and determined to meet the goals I set for myself. I made small goals, and then bigger and bigger goals. I celebrated them. Two weeks, one month, three months, six months, a year, eighteen months, two years.... I am still celebrating nursing milestones with TT.

I celebrate tandem nursing milestones. I've been tandem nursing for nearly a year. 

But some how I forgot to celebrate the nursing milestones of ERP and ERP alone.

The plans are well under way for ERP's first birthday. And that means, we are well on our way to hitting the one year milestone for nursing. One year. 

ERP's nursing experience has been nothing like my nursing experiences with his brothers. He has been full of unique and different challenges. Most lately we've been dealing with biting. We are working through this most recent (8 weeks worth) series of events. And it will not stop us... we will learn and push through. We will celebrate our one year nurse-anniversary in December. 

Little Moments

Life is full of little moments. Moments of tears and of joy. But more often, life is just full of regular moments. Shared secret smiles with your partner. Raspberry kisses on your belly from your child as you awake. Long nights nursing the baby; wondering if he will ever sleep through the night again. And then moments of wishing you never thought that, because before you know if those moments, days, weeks, months really; are passed. And that baby is no longer the tiny child sleeping with his cheek resting on your breast.

Life is moments struggling, watching your child, makes mistakes. Knowing you need to let them make those mistakes to learn for themselves.

Life is moments of homework and hand holding. Knowing someday they will be gone, off doing homework in their college dorm and holding someone else's hand.

Life is dinner as a family. Saying grace and thanking the Lord for what we have.

Daily moments are the fabric of our lives; and they weave an ever changing cloth. Often times a moment happens and I think I need to capture it, hold it forever in my blog or a scrap book. And while preserving those memories is key I often find it takes me away from creating other moments. Then I need to remind myself that it is important to have moments, time to myself. To think, to understand, to relax and get to a better place that will allow for a greater appreciation of tonight, tomorrow's, next month's moments.