Sweet Moments

Just wanted to share these sweet moments I had with Nathan the past 24 hours before I forget. This morning I had gotten him all ready for the day and I still had a few things to do before going downstairs.  He asked if he could go downstairs to play and I told him "Sure" and I'd be down in a minute.  As I was letting him through the baby gate he said "God will be with me so I won't be alone."  I had to double check what he said and yes that's exactly what he said.  I said "You're right bud!  God is with us all the time so we're never really alone."

It was so sweet and special.  Especially because lately he's been telling me that he doesn't like to be alone--when he has to take a nap, when he goes to bed, or when he has to play by himself.  So I'm glad he's learned and realized that God is always with him so being alone doesn't feel so scary.

I'm learning that sometimes my best conversations and sweetest moments with Nathan come right before he goes to sleep as I'm doing the final "turn out the light, sing 1-2 more songs, and say goodnight" routine.  I've really been trying to be a good listener during these times because he lets me in on things he's thinking about, worrying about, wants to know about, etc.  Last night we were talking about courage and being brave.  It came up because he was brave when he saw the Mariners moose yesterday.  Last year he cried the whole time and he was determined to be brave and say hi to the moose this year and he did great!  He was asking me other times when he's been brave and I started rattling off a long list--riding the roller coaster, swimming, riding his new bike, going to school, meeting new friends, swinging on the big boy swing, going down the slide, playing by himself, trying new foods, etc.  Then he asked me when I'm brave.  And I had to think a minute and really couldn't come up with too many things.  It was a good challenging moment of thinking about my life and am I stretching myself enough and doing new things or expanding my horizons?  I guess being a parent is pretty brave every day huh?  Anyway it was really late and it was the hardest thing to stop the conversation so he could go to bed.  In these moments this great quote keeps going through my head:

“Listen earnestly to anything [your children] want to tell you, no matter what. If you don't listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won't tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them all of it has always been big stuff.”

​  -Catherine Wallace

9 Months Old

And here we are at the 9 months old milestone already!  What a fun time this is!  Cameron is so cute and so fun right now.  And growing up way too fast.  He makes us smile many times a day and really brings so much joy to our household.  His smile is the best thing to come home to after a long day.

*Cameron is crawling all over the place.  And also pulls himself up and holds on to furniture.  He can walk all the way around the coffee table holding on.  This morning I held one of his hands and helped him walk so I'm thinking he might be an early walker.  We'll see.  He's had a lot more falls and bruises with his new mobility, but he's a pretty tough kid.
*He started clapping this month!
*Still no teeth
*Unfortunately he had his first ear infection this month--and it was a double one.  Being a day care kid it feels like he's constantly been sick with some kind of cold or another.  He's pretty resilient though and hangs in there.  Hopefully this summer will be a nice break from sickness.
*He weighs about 18 lbs and 12 oz.
*Cameron's been a little slower taking to solids than Nate.  He eats 3 baby food containers a day--at breakfast, lunch and dinner.  And is slowly taking to little pieces of solids, but it takes him awhile.  He loves the mum mum crackers and puffs.  And so far has really enjoyed strawberries, crackers/bread, chicken deli meat, etc.
*He started swimming lessons.  I'll have to do a separate post about swimming lessons because both boys are doing them at the same time.  He loves the water.  Nothing phases him--he's not scared of it and when we dunk him under it's like nothing happened!
*Speaking of water he can take regular baths now and the boys frequently take baths together which is both fun and way more efficient.
*One of his favorite toys is our play kitchen.  He loves to get into the plastic utensils and plates.  And he stands up at the kitchen "cooking" for us very often.

Ok stop growing up Cameron--it's happening too fast!  Please can you stay this cute always?  We love you!  (sorry not many photos--it was kind of dark when we took these so not many turned out)

8 Months Old

Playing catch up again on baby updates.  I wanted to try and capture Cameron's 8 month development before he turns 9 months. Fail.  Seems that I'm always a month behind.  Oh well. It's still fun to go back through these and remember what was happening every month.

Here are the 8 month highlights:

*Cameron is very mobile.  It seemed like he started crawling, pulling himself up and walking around holding on to furniture all in the same week!  We think he's anxious to try and keep up with big brother.  He is squirmy too.  It's really hard to change his diaper right now because he wants to roll over and crawl on his merry way.  We've lowered his crib because who knows--this kid would probably crawl right over the railing if we weren't careful!
*Nathan and Cameron are significantly playing together more.  I can now walk away from the room and Nate will keep an eye on Cameron and very often they will actually play together either with the play kitchen or with some toys.  It's very sweet to watch.  Nathan is really good with Cameron, but occasionally I'll hear a request to take Cameron with me because he's "messing everything up."  I'm pretty sure that won't end any time soon.
*Here are Cameron's current interests/loves: balloons, the color red, his little mini toy bin of rattles and baby toys, the bouncy chair (although not as much because it's too restrictive), turning pages in books, cuddling with us and giving us open mouth kisses on our cheeks, mirrors, anything he can chew on, and the Rockativity toy that plays music.
*He is sleeping through the night occasionally but definitely not on a consistent basis yet.  I'm still feeing him 1 time in the night, but will probably start to wane that soon.  I'm hesitant though--I love those sweet cuddle times at night.
*No teeth yet!
*So far his favorite baby food purees are squash, apples, bananas, sweet potatoes, and carrots.  He gets solid foods twice a day--at lunch and dinner
*Weighs about 18 lbs

Happy 8 months our sweet boy!!

Please ignore the spit up stain in these photos.  We didn't want to miss the moment he was actually lying still.  Real life captured here.  :)

Such a happy kid!

Love this one.  What a ham.

6th Wedding Anniversary

6 years.  6 happy, blessed, adventurous, stretching, learning, overwhelming, sweet years of marriage.  On the one hand it feels like I've known and been with James forever.  On the other hand it feels like 6 years has flown by and only just yesterday we were going on our first date.

This anniversary I've been reflecting a lot on how much I've learned and grown in our marriage.  James himself and my marriage to James continually helps me to be a better person.  I witness grace first hand every single day for my quirks and downfalls--being talkative, talking too much before I think, my tone, my tendency to overplan, my anxiety, my controlling nature, etc, etc, etc.  By some miracle James endures these every day and still loves me.  And not only that he helps and supports me through these areas for growth.  He is so patient, consistent, and leaves so much room for my authenticity.  James complements me in so many ways and I observe and learn from him.  I've grown leaps and bounds in showing respect for my husband, processing before I speak, working on my tone (but not always successfully), being mindful and empathetic of where James is and what he needs--when and how it's best to communicate or work on plans, partnering together on parenting, and identifying James' love languages and providing for those.  I see God molding me and working on my heart in so many ways through our marriage and through James' service and love to me.  Yes I would admit that marriage is hard--it's "raw, see me at my worst, life is overwhelming and you still have to love me" hard.  But man so so so worth it and so life giving and so rich.  I wouldn't want to be on this journey with any other person in the whole world.  I love you so much, James.

On a lighter side note, James and I have observed the traditional wedding gifts in all our years of marriage so far.  Here's a record of what we've given:

1st: Paper
    Wrote letters to each other

2nd: Cotton
     New sheets and pillows

3rd: Leather
     Black leather purse for Megs
     Leather slippers for James

4th: Flowers/fruit
     Flowers and hanging baskets for the yard

5th: Wood
     Megs put together a care package in a wood box for our trip to Victoria
     James took me to Butchart Gardens on our trip to Victoria

6th: Candy
     Assortment of candy and chocolate given to each other

Next year is Wool....hmmmm gonna have to start thinking on that one.  Any creative ideas?

Nathan's 3rd Birthday

Wow I can't believe our little boy is 3 years old already!  He officially turned 3 on May 10.  It's been a fun few weeks of celebrating.  On May 3 we had his birthday party with friends and family.  It was Construction Theme (his obsession love of trucks & machines continues) and we held it at the Si View Community Park in North Bend.

The day couldn't have been more beautiful.  Mid-70's and not a cloud in the sky.  All our family and several of Nate's little friends and our family friends were in attendance.  We had folks "build their own sandwich" for lunch.  The kids played at the park and then we had some fun activities planned.  We had a dump truck pinata which actually turned out to be an epic fail.  A hilarious epic fail though.  It was a pull string pinata. One of the dads went to help his daughter pull one of the strings that was being stubborn and the whole pinata came crashing to the ground.  All the kids burst into tears.  And then they realized that all the candy had poured out on the ground and they scurried to pick it up.  Amazingly they felt better after that...go figure.

The next activity was a relay race where the kids had to run down the grass, put on the
"workerman" hard hat, vest, tool belt and boots and then race back to the finish line.  This was pretty hilarious too.   And so much fun.

Next up was cake.  Grampa Jay made an amazing construction cake which Nathan loved.  And it was delicious.  He is so talented!

And then we finished out with presents and favors.  Nathan got some awesome gifts including some new machines, fun games, and a couple books.   Here are a few more shots (photos courtesy of my brother and mom)

The celebrations continued the next weekend when the four of us went to the zoo as a joint celebration for Nate's birthday and Mother's Day for me.  We haven't gone through those photos yet, but it was a really fun day as well.

Happy birthday Nathan!  You bring so much joy to our lives and we just love you so much!  Hope you have a fantastic year!!

7 Months Old

So I'm recording Cameron's 7 months milestone and he just turned 8 months.  But I don't want to miss the fun things happening a month ago.  Better late than never right?

Here are the fun things happening at 7 months:

*Cameron has started eating solid food!  His very first food was sweet potatoes which he liked and then he moved on to carrots.  He did pretty well and is skilled with eating from a spoon although he often likes to steal the spoon from us to chew on it.
*James and I did our first trip away from Cameron when we went to Friday Harbor (earlier post).  And of course while we were gone he decided to sleep through the whole night for the first time!  Seriously?!?! Hopefully this will start be a trend soon though.
*He is almost crawling.  He gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth, but can't quite figure out moving his arms forward yet.  He also has this funny army crawl that he does across the floor.  If he wants to get to something he will figure out a way to get to it.  He loves to be on his tummy playing with toys.
*Cameron has started sitting up on his own!  It took a little bit of practice and then one day he just continued to sit for long periods of time without falling over.  He loves being able to sit and observe his brother or play with toys in a more fun way.  I think he feels like he's more part of the action with everyone.
*I've noticed that Cameron is very drawn to the color red.  He loves his Elmo doll as you'll see below and any item that has a bright red color on it, he's drawn to it, wants to touch it or play with it.

We are having so much fun with Cameron and can't imagine what life was like before without him.  Love you buddy!

Love this photo sequence.  Happy....sad....curious....hungry...

Yay for sweet potatoes!  Nathan is such a great helper

Mmmmmm....

Easter in Pictures

Not much time lately to blog, but I'm trying not to get super behind.  I wanted to capture our Easter holiday so I'm going to do it through photos (which let's face it are much more fun than reading my descriptions anyway).  So here goes...

This year we did some serious egg hunting.  And Nathan learned the "hot and cold" game!

Having a blast and feeling pretty proud of his hunting skills

The stockpile of jelly beans, chocolate, and fruit snacks

Basket time!  And Nathan is using my old Easter basket--so special to me and brings back good childhood memories

Ah trying to get a good family photo with little ones.  At least one is looking at the camera!

We enjoyed a lovely brunch with Nana & Pops and Ryan & Carly

Cameron's First Easter and egg hunt!

Love these brother moments!

Nathan's helping explain all the great stuff Cam got in his basket

Cameron was really most interested in the grass

Wonderful Easter dinner with Gramma & Grampa and Aunt Jacky and Uncle Johnathin.  So happy to get this great family photo!  Everyone is looking and smiling at once.  It's a miracle!

Sweet picture of Gramma and Cameron

It was a nice holiday with both families.  And we also had a great sermon at church that helped me think about Easter in a new way complete with tears.  Not a big surprise with our amazing church.  Feel so blessed with family time.  And most importantly feel so blessed to receive Christ's love, grace and to celebrate the Resurrection that never ceases to overwhelm and humble me.  He is Risen!  He is Risen indeed!