My Little Athlete

It never fails. I come home from work and swear that my little boy has grown so much in the 9 hours I was gone. He is becoming a little more independent with each passing day and I wish that I could slow down time so that I could watch him grow every inch of that 27" again. What a big boy he is sitting up all by himself, with the occasional tip to the left or right, and even to the back; and today he is really starting the "Army" crawl. I can see the determination in his eyes to get the object, what seems so far away, and low and behold there he is rocking from side to side on his belly to move himself forward. What an accomplishment! Soon Sam will be cruising our pad, and ruling every inch of the carpet. It pains me to have to leave him to go to work, and soon my commitment to the Navy will be over with, and once again I can be with our boy. I am so excited to play Santa in the next years! Christmas is always the one day that it seems we get more than we ask for on our lists, and to enjoy family, family games, and awesome food. I can't even think of a Christmas where I was disappointed or where I wasn't completely excited of a key gift. How lucky most of us are to enjoy the lavish amount of gifts, or even to just enjoy being with our family. This season, lets not forget our military men and women who don't have the luxury to be at home, or to take a moment and talk to our loved ones that passed, and to share our Christmas cheer with them. I want to take the time to tell all that read this blog that Joel, Samuel, and I are truly blessed that we have you in our lives for one reason or another. Each of you have made some impact on how we carry about with our lives, or have made us who we are today. I assure you that all of you cross our minds throughout the year!

And now for the star of the show, wearing his Daddy's number so proud!

Thanksgiving Feast

My goodness you never know how fast the time flies when you have company or when you go on vacation! So I have some updates. Sam is rolling all over the living room, and doing hundreds of crunches a day to keep his manly baby belly. He will lay on his back, then crunch himself up, trying so desperately to come into a full sitting position. Samuel is also very close to sitting up by himself without any padding to ease his fall; however Sam insists on arching his back. He is loving eating baby food, and gets very cranky when it is.....aaalll gone!
Today at his 6 month well baby visit he weighed in at a whopping 16.5 lbs, and is 27 inches long. His extra weight must be contributed by his upgrade to an 8 oz. bottle. When we came to the second part of the doctor's visit I knew Sam would not be a happy camper. The sweat started, followed by flushing of the cheeks, and tears being held back...then the nurse saw my distress and comforted me through it. :-) I handled his shots as best I could, and Samuel did just fine. Sam is my little trooper. We can now have conversations with our little man by grunting and cooing, waiting eagerly for his response. He has no troubles grabbing a hold of objects, including loose neck skin when a tantrum is about to start, and then bringing that object straight for his mouth. I have always called him my little birdy, and now I can see he is always ready for something new to please his soft gummies.

Grandma's Overalls

Samuel couldn't look cuter in his fine farmer man overalls. Yeehaw! Grandma K. great pick! I have loved Sam in all of his overall outfits that have been bought for him by the family and the long pant ones are just as cute as the short ones. I have enjoyed dressing my little man, as though he was my dolly to play with, oh...wait a minute he is mine to play with! I love this job. I am very excited to send out our Christmas cards this year so you all can see the most adorable outfit Sam will be wearing in our family portrait. I could buy him clothes every day, as the rest of you probably also feel, and would like nothing more for him to cooperate with me mix and matching his clothes to find new combos for him to wear. I'm sure that the little girl cousins will love carting our little one around at Grandma's house this year for Christmas. And I know that Sam will be best friends with Normy, and once they meet will be broken hearted to separate from their newly found play mate. Maybe one day they will be closer so that they can play together and go on adventures of their own. I was trying to get a good shot at the cute little tennies that Grandma L. had bought him but not so much luck. Doesn't daddy look proud?

The other day Sam was fast a sleep, when I heard him starting to fuss himself awake. I was going to go see if he needed his "Nuk-Nuk" to comfort him back to sleep, when I found him staring straight ahead at me, barely peering over his crib at me.
I was feeling very needy of my little one and wanted to snuggle so badly; Sam gave me the go ahead when he quickly laid his sweet little head down on my shoulder. Heart Melter! For the next hour my son and I bonded while I snuggled him safely in my arms, wondering what he was dreaming about, and hoping he would want to snuggle with me for many years to come. Stay tuned for a very mouth watering turkey picture!

Another Monday

Another Monday, and another wonderful day I get to squeeze my little man's sweet little thighs. Joel and I found a shirt that said, "I make chunky thighs look good!" Isn't that the truth? However it was a pink onesie and I thought that wouldn't do well for my son's handsome image, even though Max has a shirt that states "Only real men wear pink." I can hardly believe that Halloween and all its fury went out with a blow of a candle and we are now forced to think about Thanksgiving arrangements and what Christmas gifts to get who! Whoo. My mind has been filled with those notions and contemplations of what my fate will be with the military. My medical board package was FedEx out last Friday, and according to the Admin. Dept. I should have word back within a couple of weeks. In the mean time I filled a claim with the VA of all the medical inconveniences that I have had; all but not limited to: shoulder surgery, gallbladder surgery, the scars I've obtained, the drug allergies I have discovered, etc. Now I am obligated to go through a series of 7 appointments so the VA doctors can give me a once over and decide if they are service related. Today my appointment lasted three hours, which was three hours too long for me. I guess if it's what I have to do to get some extra cash I can suck it up. Coming home to my husband and this little guy will turn my frown upside down every time!It is so amazing what we all can go through. I was fresh out of high school, left everything that was mine in boxes, went into the military by myself, and had to shower with 70 other females (not my most enjoyable experience), and was completely depressed while going through Corps School. Luckily I had my family that gave me the courage and the strength to push forward. If it wasn't for my true love to drop everything to move to Chicago to be with me, I would have been in vast despair and making regular appointments with mental health for deep depression. We all do crazy things when we are in love, and I will try to remind myself of this when my own children leave the nest to find their own way too. But everything works out how it is supposed to; and now my high school sweetheart is my devoted husband and we have a beautiful baby boy who is embedded deep into my heart. Joel and I have done everything on our own, learning from mistakes, and picking ourselves back up laughing the whole way, and that's okay. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

Now when I talking to a few friends back home I realize some of the silly things that worry them on a daily basis, and it reminds me to stay grounded and constantly reevaluate what is really important in the big scheme of things. This is not to take away from anything my friends back home are going through, it's just that once you have been out there on your own (especially more than a state away from family) you gain a whole new perspective, that I believe can only better yourself. Enough of my rambling on, I just wanted to share some of what I have learned through my 4 years in the military. I now give you the star of the show, with grins on his face!