Our baby girl is 5 months old

Our sweet little Lucy is officially 5 months old as of yesterday. She is such a happy baby. Still spits up a bit, but nothing like it used to be before we started the Enfamil AR formula. She loves tummy time and is already showing signs that she might crawl in the next month or so, yikes! She loves to pull her feet above her head and kick her feet when she is in bed. When she kicks it makes a loud THUD THUD THUD. She appears to be a morning person, she wakes up happy and very content in the morning. Half the time she is awake and we just happen to look in on her and get her out. Very rarely does she fuss when she wakes up. She has been such a blessing. I could talk about her for days, but I know this isn't the place to ramble on and on. Thanks for checking in!

say cheese!

I was attempting to get some pictures of Lucy this morning and Eli decided it was a good time for him to take some pictures with his buzz lightyear camera. He took pictures of me taking pictures :)
Eli is definitely 2! He gets flustered easily and has breakdowns without much obvious reason. It has been quite an experience. As I may or may not have mentioned, he has had some night terror episodes in the past year, but most of them in the past month or two. I did some reading on them and came across articles that addressed terrible twos. I didn't read anything that I didn't kind of know, but I needed to be reminded as I deal with this stage. One thing it said is how at 2 years old children begin wanting to do things that they can't physically or mentally do or handle and they don't know how to handle that frustration so it often times turns into a tantrum. I have had to stop, take a few deep breaths and remind myself of what he is experiencing many times a day. It has helped. Now, don't get me wrong, we still discipline him, but what I was describing is how I keep calm and don't go crazy. It also helps me keep my expectations of him in check. There are days when I feel defeated before we get going and others where I feel very on top of things, but such is life with or without children, right? On a happier note, he is so fun. His imagination is getting bigger and better with every day. He loves to read books and play with his Buzz and Woody and his little einstein rocket. He loves to build things with blocks. He really loves to sing. For example, this morning I heard him singing and caught the verse "for da bi-ble tells me so..." We sing a lot of songs to and with him and they sing at school. Some times we can hear him singing on the monitor when he is going to sleep or nap time. It's fun to try and figure out what he is singing, although most of the time it isn't hard to figure out, he really knows the words well. He is a sponge! He will have seen something once, maybe twice and remeber it's name. Okay, so I could go on and on, but I will stop here. He is such a blessing. God has taught me many things through Eli and I look forward to learning much more in the years to come.

The new bed

I saw this bed on the IKEA website and fell in love! It is so stinkin cool. This is an early Christmas present from Eli's Gramma Gari. Thank you!! Right now it is set up as a single bed, but you can turn it upside down to make a bunkbed. When it is set up as a bunk bed the top bunk comes to my shoulders. It took Nathan about 5 hours or so to put it together and I think Eli's reaction made it more than worth it. He was saying "I wuv my bed mommy" and "Look at my wadder, I climb it" He was running in circles around the bed, on the bed, jumping, peeking out of the tent, it was so much fun watching him react with such excitement. Bedtime and nap time are still a challenge around here, but getting better. He does like his big boy bed, so that has helped. I think it might just be a power thing. He hasn't had any choice about bed or nap time until now, so he is trying out some power and independence. Eli being done with the crib has presented many challenges that we were not prepared for, but we are learning and making it through. I've heard it a million trillion times before and can now join the many that say "Being a mother is the hardest job I have ever done and will ever do" Saying that I must also say it has been the best job I have ever had and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Eli is 2!

Eli turned two yesterday and we celebrated with a party today. Yesterday was quite a day. He was a great example of what some refer to as "terrible twos". Today we had family and a few friends over for lunch and cake. It has been such a nice day. The weather has been awesome and all the kids seemed to have a good time. I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked to of all the guest, but I can't really do anything about that now. Eli got lots of fun toys and books and colors and of course Buzz Lightyear stuff. Thanks to everybody for helping us celebrate. I can't believe our little boy is 2.

Season of Thanks

We started our Thanksgiving in NWA with my side of the family. We ended the weekend right outside of Jasper at a cabin with Nathan's side of the family. It was a nice place and we had good food. Unfortunately we had to cut our stay there short. Eli was having trouble getting sleep which made him very grumpy and since he knew how to climb out of his pack'n'play it was a struggle to get him to lay still long enough to fall asleep. I'll admit, the day we were there was quite stressful, but there were quite a few moments that were very nice. The place was beautiful and the food was o so yummy. Thank you James family for being so patient with us. Maybe we can try again sometime. Sadly I didn't get hardly any pictures at the cabin :( I did manage to get a picture of Monk, the cabin owner's wolfdog, or maybe he is all wolf............either way, he is HUGE and so friendly.

Just in case you cared to know.....

So we have been talking up the big boy bed around here and showing if off to anyone that comes over. I'm happy to report we have had minimal resistance the last 2 nights and none (that's right, I said none) tonight. Praise Jesus! I was really worried about nap time and my mother in law made a suggestion last night that I tried today and it worked great. We were talking about the bed transition and how nap time was really my main trouble time. I made the comment about how he has laid down on a mat at Mother's Day Out from day one without a problem and took a nap. She suggested that maybe I could give him the choice to sleep on a mat in the floor or in his big boy bed. I gave him those choices and he stopped a thought about it for a minute and chose the mat and sleep there for 2 hours and 30 min. It looks like this hasn't been as long of a week as I had anticipated. Of course I know a few good nights doesn't mean we will never have another rough one, but I'm just happy to be able to report the good right now. Now if we can continue his good sleeping and combine that with Lucy sleeping all night we would be all good. She is soooo close. She wakes up between 2-3ish each night and I have been letting her "cry it out". She goes back to bed and has her first bottle around 5:30 or 6. A full nights sleep is soo very close. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Although that makes me a tad weepy cause that means she is getting bigger and before we know it she won't be a baby anymore...........Being a mom is by far the hardest thing I have ever done and I LOVE every minute of it, although I might not sound that way on certain days. God is continually showing me little pieces of Himself through this journey of being a mom. I think I could ramble on and on, but I feel like that is all it would be, so I will collect my thoughts a little better and let this post come to an end.