It's Christmas time again!

It's that time of year again:  shopping, decorating, wrapping, last-minute trips to the store, baking, full parking lots, spending more money than we should; in a word, craziness!!  We all get "wrapped up" in most of these things, as hard as we try not to.  We make ourselves crazy in the process of getting ready for Christmas day:  opening presents, wrapping paper everywhere, breakfast and off to relatives' houses for more eating, more presents and by the end of the day we're flat out exhausted.  While all of this is fun and memorable, we sometimes neglect to remember why we celebrate to begin with.  It all started with God's divine plan of a Baby in a manger.

And that's where we're starting with our Little Man.  He has his own nativity set that he plays with as we sit and point out the different people that took part in this Holy story.  He gives baby Jesus kisses and pushes the button on the top of the manger to see the North Star shine while "Away in a Manger" plays.  I know he's not very old yet but it's never too early to emphasize the true meaning of Christmas.  We will certainly enjoy waking up on Christmas morning to enjoy some Monkey Bread and watch him have fun discovering what's in his stocking and under the tree (although, the wrapping paper and bows will probably get the most attention out of these).  But will do our best to instill in him what Christmas really is.

One small step for Little Man...

I am such a proud Mommy that my Little Man finally took his very first step today!  I know he had to do it in his own timing and I didn't want to push and rush because that just causes resistance.  We've been practicing and he's been "this close" for so long; I think he's been holding out on us. :)  I swear he did that with his crawling; he army crawled for the longest time, even though we knew he could crawl on his hands and knees.  He probably figured, "If this works for me and I'm faster this way, so there's absolutely no need for me to do it another way."  I think that's where he is now with the walking [although I will give him that he can crawl at super speeds :) ]. If he even feels you starting to let go, he gets instant jelly legs.  He amazes me with how quickly he catches on.  I can imagine him thinking, "They think they're gonna trick me by letting go of my hand for me to walk on my own like they did the first time?  I'll show them. I'm gonna not do it on purpose."  I would not be surprised if he just took straight to running and forewent the walking aspect altogether.  I can imagine there will probably be days when he gets older that I'll want him to sit and be still but for now I'll cherish this accomplishment and the chases that will ensue with those little pitter-pattering feet.

Newsworthy

L, my Little Man, you are so precious to me.  You are such a blessing, one of the biggest in my life.  You are such a sweet boy with a sweet spirit and a big heart, even at only 14 months old.  I love hearing you talk, hearing your giggles and belly laughs.  Your smiles, sloppy kisses and sweet hugs absolutely melt my heart.  Watching you think and learn makes me proud; I can just see those gears turning in your head when you're trying to figure something out.  You're such a busy little guy, going here and there; a non-stop, on-the-go busy little bee.  You wear me out just watching you.  Then you take a nap, get something to eat when you get up and do it all over again.  Even when you (or I) are on the grumpy or defiant side and it's easy to lose my temper or fuss, I wouldn't trade it for anything (I'll be honest, I can lose my cool with the whining).  I'm sorry for when I don't react in a way a Mommy should, in love and with love.  May I not ever take you for granted.  May I never pass up giving you an extra kiss, hug or smile.  May I always take the time and spend it with you, playing with your cars or little animals.  May I do my best to show you how much I love you so that you never have to wonder.

One year...almost

Okay, so it's been almost a year since our blessing made his surprise appearance and we entered into parenthood.  I know, right?  On one hand, it doesn't seem so long ago.  On the other hand, time seems to have just flown by.  To be honest, I'm not really sure how I feel about it.  I'm filling out his invitations for his 1st birthday party and it seems a little surreal to me.  Could it already be almost a year?  I suppose part of what I'm feeling is disbelief; sometimes it seems to only have happened six or seven months ago, but twelve?  I was looking back at pictures of him, ranging from days old to very recently and I'm astonished how much he's changed in appearance: he starts off tiny with his newborn hair, then not much bigger with a little less hair (so blond and fine he looks almost bald), then sitting up (hair starting to grow back in), then crawling (full head of hair), pulling up (Grandpa Munster hair/wings) and now he's even more mobile and just got his first haircut.  I supposed I noticed the change from baby to less of a baby face/more that of a little boy look at a picture taken on Easter.  I noticed it even more when he got his haircut last week.  I believe that is most of what I am feeling is unsettled, but in a good sense.  I know he's still a baby but I know he's slowly growing and changing; that baby face will slowly fade and that little boy appearance will become more and more apparent.

It's Final...Finally!

So, that long-awaited day has come; the legal part of this journey has come to a close.  No more home studies, no more making copies of medical records, no more going by his given name, no more worrying about birth parents changing their minds.  It is done, so says the court.  "I now pronounce you Mom and Dad," he said.  No bang of the gavel, just a few words of sworn testimony and, in less than 15 minutes, it was set in stone.  Not as formal as one might imagine, with all we've had to go through to get this far, but it was rewarding, nonetheless.  It is cause for celebration and celebrate, we did!  Family and friends alike celebrated with us in our joy, and, for those that we able to do so, either helping to prepare or just stopping by for a visit.  I think back in this almost 11 months, in watching him grow, the time has gone by so quickly but in the sense of getting to this point, it seems to have taken so much longer than that.  I guess, in a way, it did take longer, if you count all the years we've waited for this to come about.  But he was worth the wait and we are beyond blessed; our prayers have been answered and, although he has always been our son, it is now legally and officially so!

Teething Trials

Let me just give a big PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH to teething.  Our poor Little Man is just having a rough, ol' time of it.  Those poor teeth (or lack thereof) are giving him (and us) the biggest fit.  He's not taking naps (or very short ones), even though he's extremely exhausted, because it hurts too much to sleep.  He's extremely sensitive and clingy; just wanting a comforting touch, I suppose.  The really bad part is that not one single tooth has yet to come in!  I would be more that happy to help it along, if I could.  I can only give him so many teething rings, cold juice, teething tablets and mesh feeders with frozen fruit to try to help relieve the pain and discomfort.  It's trying to not get aggravated with his persistent crying/screaming and fighting sleep.  I know that he can't help it and he's only expressing how he's feeling but, I'll be honest, it does grate on my nerves and I do have to keep myself in check, having to keep in mind that he doesn't wish this pain on himself anymore than we do.  I'm glad that at least he's too little to remember any of this misery of his...or mine!

Mama Mia!

So, our Little Man gets more and more mobile everyday: Army-crawling everywhere, pulling up on everything, trying to crawl over and under whether he's on the floor or in your arms.  He likes to wave stuff around and sometimes he'll hold it up to you; when you take it from him and say thank you, he smiles as big as he can like he's so proud of himself!  He's been so funny the past couple of weeks smiling at himself whenever he sees his reflection. :) He's also copying more and more, which is so fun!  He's been doing the coughing and saying DaDaDaDa for a while, clicking his tongue, making some throat noise that only him and Walt can do :)  This past Saturday, I clapped my hands and said, "Yea!" and I noticed him "clapping" his hands after watching me do it.  Today, he was in my lap on the couch and he dropped a remote control on the floor so I said, "Uh, oh!" and Walt and I looked at each other because it sounded like he repeated what I said.  So I said it a few more times and he repeated after me almost every time; it was so cute (I know, I know, what isn't cute at his age?!).  Since he was on a roll, I decided to see if he would say MaMa (since every attempt up to now, all I've gotten is a cute smile or laugh).  THOSE TWO SWEET SYLLABLES CAME OUT OF HIS MOUTH FOR THE FIRST TIME!!  He only said it once (with a single "Ma" a little later) and I know he's not associating quite yet but it I am so excited to finally hear little lips speak that word to me!!