Thanksgiving

Sweet Boy, you had your first haircut this month, on the 4th. Mommy saved a lock of your hair, as I'm sure that you'll be amazed by it one day! It's so blonde and fine! You did a good job. You didn't like the feeling of having the scissors cut the hair. It gave you the heebie jeebies. :)

For Thanksgiving, we went to Ghee and Papaw's first. You played like a big boy with Samantha, who is five, and Allie, who is three. It was fun to watch you three take out all of the toys in the living room and make a mess together! You ate Gerber baby food (green beans and sweet potatoes), had a few fingers full of mashed potatoes from your tray, and had your first taste of turkey! Cousin Samantha finished eating early, and then was beside your highchair, doing her best to feed you mashed potatoes and puffs. :) She loves you.
We then went to Grandpa Marple's house and saw Grandma and Papaw Lee and Uncle Davy's family! You had fun pulling up on the coffee table and looking at black Friday advertisements, and you, Paxton, and Sammy played with iPads and iPhones.
We are so thankful for YOU this year, my Angel. I still can't believe that you're ours. You are just perfect in every way! I will, for the rest of my life, be most thankful for the way that God rescued Daddy and I when He gave us you to love. You are so very special to us!
We also told our family today that you are going to be a big brother! You will be the best brother in the world, and I hope that you and your new sibling will always love each other and be best friends! Tonight, when Samantha got home, she said that she can't believe that I am pregnant, and then she said that she needed to pray for me. She said a prayer thanking God for the baby in my tummy, and to please take care of the three babies that I am going to have. She thinks that you and the boy or girl that is coming are all in there together. :-) She's so sweet!
Did I mention you didn't get a nap today? You tuckered out drinking your milk in my arms tonight. I held you for awhile before I put you to bed. It was the perfect ending to our first Thanksgiving together. I love you!



-- Mommy

Autumn 2010!

My baby boy, you are becoming more and more independent every day. You are starting to wean yourself from Mommy's milk (which Mommy doesn't like very much), and you can now feed yourself little snacks called, "Puffs." You're becoming much more mobile. It's time to start baby-proofing the house!

On September 18th, Daddy went into your room to get you up from a nap, and you were on your knees holding on to the railing! We were so proud of you, and we proceeded to lower your mattress so you would stay safe. ;)

We went to the Tulsa State Fair on October 1st. We had so much fun! You rode around in your stroller, got carried amongst the rides and bright lights, and got to go with Daddy to see the animals at the petting zoo! We stayed out way past your bedtime, and you were such a big boy! You stayed awake until we got home, and you never got upset. You love the fair!
On October 24th, you pulled up to standing for the first time at Ghee and Papaw's house on their coffee table. Now, you're pulling up all the time, and on November first, you were standing with your hands on the couch cushion, and you side stepped over to get to Mommy's knees!

For Halloween, you were Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes, and you looked so cute in your costume! You also had a scary skeleton costume that Ghee bought for you. It was your (and Mom and Dad's) first Halloween in Tahlequah with about 500 trick-or-treaters! You and Daddy spent some time on the porch greeting ghouls and cartoon characters, and even played some music for them! You had fun dressing up with your girl cousins and trick-or-treating in their neighborhood, too! The Wicked Witch of the West was even handing out candy across the street!













































We continue to be so proud of you, our little pumpkin!

-- Mommy

Zoo!

You took your first trip to the zoo yesterday! We went with Uncle Davy, Aunt Erica, Sammy, and Paxton. It was a beautiful day! I think that, for this post, the pictures can tell the story. We love you, our little monkey!

Month 8 Happenings

Imagine Mommy's surprise the first time you sat up on your own! I had been always sitting behind you, making sure to keep a hand or a leg propped up against you as you would sway back and be bounced back up. On August 1st, when you were just 7 months old, mommy was with you in the church nursery. you were sitting on one of the colorful plastic mats on the floor, and you sat there by yourself! Good job, Calvin!

As I write this at the end of August, you are sitting up and playing for long periods of time, and you sit up to play more than you lie down to play. You have just this week began to learn how to "inch-worm forward" to get to the toys that you want. You like to sleep on your knees with your bottom high in the air and your head on the mattress, and that's the position you get into when you try to push yourself forward with your legs. You usually flop to the

side and use your incredible rolling over skills to get to what you want, but Daddy and I think you may begin to crawl any day!

On August 2nd, you began to make the cutest sucking sound with your teeth. It's like a kissy noise and a, "What's up?!" all rolled into one.

On August 7th, you started wrinkling your nose when you smiled. It's the cutest, most ornery look that you've had so far. You look like you're having the best time, and that you're in on a secret. As I'm writing this, you're asleep in your bed for your morning nap. Daddy just rode around his "new" motorcycle, and Mommy just took a test to try to be an online teacher so that she can stay at home with you. We are so excited for you to wake up and play with us on this beautiful Saturday! Get ready to go helmet shopping! We love you, Calvin!

Teeth!

Yesterday, I noticed that you were a little more manic about needing something, ANYTHING in your mouth. So, for the thirty-fifth and a half time, I felt your gums to see if there was anything there. To my surprise, there's a tiny point poking through on your bottom right side! You started to get your first tooth the day before Daddy's 29th birthday. Time to break out the teethers!
By the way, the day AFTER Daddy's birthday, on July 11th, I was changing your diaper in the church nursery, and you said, "Dadada." Daddy couldn't believe you finally said it after saying, "Mamama," for about two weeks! He was so excited because he had been saying, "DaDA," to you for weeks trying to get you to say it. You gave him a good birthday present, even though it was a day late. :-)
-- Mommy

Yankee Doodle Boy

Well, Calvin, we got all packed up this year to go and have your first Lake House experience. We got there on Friday evening and had dinner with Ghee, Pawpaw, Uncle Justin, Aunt Jana, Sam, and Ally. Yes, I said WE had dinner! You had your first bananas EVER at the lake house on July second! You were already a pro at eating off of the spoon because you started rice cereal when you were 4 months old.

The next morning, we got up and you played in bed with Ghee and Pawpaw as I worked on breakfast. We were excited to go and see Grandma and Pawpaw Lee in Tahlequah for lunch before we came back for fireworks. We had a good time eating great food, and you and Daddy swam in the pool! Grandma Lee rocked you on the front porch, and you napped there. It was a rainy day, and we found out that we were going to have to head home that evening instead of going back to the Lake. However, when we got back to town, we did go over to Uncle Justin and Aunt Jana's house, and you got to see Aunt Kelly and Uncle Jason and Aunt Sandie! You got a picture taken with your girl cousins in the shirts that Ghee had worked hard to make with her new embroidery machine. You fell asleep in your cousins' room on the floor that night.

I hope that you always remember that the Fourth of July is a day to celebrate the

freedom that we share with the people we love. God bless the USA!

Father's Day

Today is your first Father's Day! You were in the mood to be held today. Any time we tried to put you down, you started screaming. I guess you knew it was a day to be close to family!
Daddy walked you down to the nursery at church. As I picked you up, he gave you kisses and told you, "Bye," as he left to play in the band. At the end of service, I came to get you so you could hear Daddy play on Father's Day. As the band played, you watched, and we swayed back and forth to the music as I sang. When the song was over, I looked down and you were asleep! Rock and roll worship music was just the thing to put you out. :-) Now, that's Daddy's boy!
We're getting ready to go to Ghee and Papa Mike's to swim and be with your cousins to celebrate. We have to wait for you to wake up from your nap first, though. We played when we got home from church, and then you fell asleep while you were eating.
I'm going to put a picture of you asleep at church here so you can see it, and I'll also post some pictures from the awesome photo shoot we did to surprise Daddy for his special day! You did a great job posing. He loves his pictures of his handsome boy!
We love you, Calvin. Today I pray that you will always feel safe and loved by your daddy, and that you, too, will grow to be a Godly daddy one day. You come from a long line of good men!





-- Mommy

Rolling over

There we were, at the end of my stretch of time back at work. We finally gave in and decided to let you sleep on your tummy. It scared me to death, and I checked on you all the time to make sure you could breathe, but you loved it! You slept through the night four nights in a row!
On Wednesday, May 26th, Grandma Lee was watching you. She put you down for a nap on your tummy, and when she came in to get you up, you were on your back! We were so excited that you had learned to roll over. You push yourself up on your knees, so that you look like a puppy dog ready to pounce. Then, you tip your bottom to the side and roll on over.
Mommy and Daddy are having fun playing with you! We like to put you on the floor on a blanket and help you roll around.
You know, when you were smaller than this, you couldn't stand being on your tummy even for a second! You would lie there, struggling to keep your face off the floor, and you would become frustrated so quickly. It's exciting because now, instead of screaming when you're on your tummy, you lift your head, look around, and think about how you can move to a different position. This is a good life lesson about how to assess your situation, change what you can, and leave it to God to handle the rest. I'm so proud that you're learning the, "Change what you can," part.


-- Mommy

Mudder's Day

On this first Mother's Day, Calvin was dedicated to the Lord. What a great way to celebrate this little boy on my first Mother's Day! Eric said a prayer of dedication and thanks, and Calvin received his very first Bible from the church. Ghee, Uncle Justin, and Samantha were able to come and see him on his big day!

Calvin, I want you to know that on this day, we offered you back to God just as he has given you to us. I know that He will watch over you and guide you all of your life. He will help us to be the best parents that we can be for you. You are a precious gift to this earth, fearfully and wonderfully made. You were put here, in this place, at this time, on purpose. You were meant for amazing things! I can't wait to watch you grow into the person you were created to be. I love you, my precious baby boy.

-- Mommy

I...like...CEREAL!!

Calvin had his four month check up this past week, and he's doing great! He's a little on the small side percentile-wise, especially his head. :) (5th percentile) He weighs 13 pounds, which is the 15th percentile, and he's 24 1/2 inches tall, which is in the 30th percentile.
The doc. also said that he's ready to try rice cereal, so he tried his first cereal with a spoon last night. It was adorable watching him try to figure out what was going on. I hope more ends up in him than on him tonight!

He's really started to look at the dogs, and he and Bunny had their first mutual encounter today. This consisted of Calvin sitting on the floor in his Bumbo, reaching for Bunny, and Bunny dancing around him in a play stance growling, and then licking his foot. She has no idea what's going to happen to her once this kid gets mobile.

We also set up what I call Calvin's play station this week. He can't sit up in it yet, but he enjoys leaning forward and scoping things out.

Newsworthy

Now that I have Calvin, it's time for me to be a stay at home mommy! I currently have two weeks post maternity leave down, five to go. The district is about to have to lay off a couple hundred teachers because of a budget crunch, and as a way to save hundreds of (mostly) first year teachers' jobs, they have offered an incentive plan. The deal is that, if a teacher resigns, she will receive eighteen months of health insurance paid for after she goes. This is the deal which I plan to take.
I went to a meeting this week to find out more about it, and I was one of two people there out of about seventy five who was under fifty years old. The news caught on to this fact, and the media was spinning then story to say that TPS is trying to get rid of their older teachers. SO, I received a phone call at work yesterday asking me to tell my story for Fox News. I told them that I didn't feel pretty, and asked if there was anyone else who could do it. ;-) After being told in true Star Wars style that I was the district's only hope, I gave in. The story aired on the news yesterday.
I'm telling you, this incentive is manna from heaven! It has come at exactly the right time for me, and I am BARELY eligible, being employed on the exact cut off date that I needed to be to be considered a career teacher (four years at TPS). We were very uneasy about how we were going to pay insurance once I quit my job, and here it is, paid in full for a year and a half! I don't see any of this as a coincidence. I see it as God's faithfulness, once again. "He has done great things, He is good to me!"



-- Post From My iPad

To blog?

I've never been too interested in blogging, but I've decided that this will be a neat record of Calvin's childhood for him when he gets older. So, this one's for you, Baby Boy! I hope that someday you'll enjoy reading about your childhood. You are a precious gift to us!
As I'm writing this, Daddy just went in to your room to comfort you. You were asleep in your crib while Mommy was setting up her blog and Daddy was picking out songs to play at church on Sunday. We spent a fun, rainy day together. We went to Arnold's to get burgers and, as always, all the ladies giggled with joy when they saw you and said how precious you are, and they love your hair!

Let it all out: The first blog.

This is the first post that I put on a failed blog titled: Let it all Out in February of '09. This was about two or three months before we found out we were pregnant. :-)
I never followed through - I suppose I just didn't get around to it at the end of the busy school year, and then it didn't make sense to continue because of my altered life's circumstances. I'm copying and pasting it here as a testimony of how God was already healing my heart, and where I was at mentally and spiritually right before our lives changed forever.

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I've been holding off on this for a long time. I keep saying to myself: "Self, you will start a blog when." I've realized that, "when," will always be something. I wanted a blog, like many of my friends and family, to keep friends and family up on what was going on with my kids. I will, eventually, move over into that period of my life. For now, I just want to be a voice.

I think that there are too many women who, when life doesn't go according to plan, are too embarrassed and frozen in fear to share their story. I was one of those women for almost five years, but I think that there may have been enough healing now to begin. I've always said, even in the darkest times, that I would use my struggles that began in August of 2004 to be a comfort and strength to other women who experience infertility. I hope that some of these women find this blog and know that what they are going through will not mean the end of the world, no matter how it turns out. I am still on my journey. I don't have a child yet. But I trust that everything is working out exactly as it should.