Madly in love

Sunday at the Park

On Sunday afternoon Jeremy and I took Holden to the park. I went with some girls and the kids last week and that was actually my first time to go to our city park. I guess I never really had the need to go. But it is actually a nice place and the weather has been perfect for it. It will probably be a little more fun once Holden is more into the park thing. But he sure was into the ducks. He was just staring at them and checking them out.

Look who just popped in . . .

This past weekend was our annual fall weekend with Josh and Amanda. They come to us in the fall and we go to them every spring. I look forward to these weekends like I look forward to Christmas. We never run out of things to talk about and there is always lots to catch up on. It was a fun weekend. Jeremy and Josh played golf on Saturday (this is standard practice) while Amanda and I did some furniture shopping. They do have completely amazing deals up in our neck of the woods, in comparison to Dallas. We went to dinner on Saturday night and to see the movie Fireproof. Great movie! I highly recommend it. Great storyline and delivery. Acting? 2 stars. But still well worth it for the meaning. They really need more movies like these. Jeremy was kind of tied up this weekend with a test for school, which was kind of a bummer. It was due at midnight on Saturday night, so he was working on it off and on throughout the weekend. If they allow you to do a test at home, apparently it is not going to be easy, breezy and quick. I didn’t take near enough pictures while they were here. But here are a few from the weekend.
Cuddling with Amanda.
Holden thinks Josh is HILARIOUS!

Glorious Holden

A few weeks ago I was able to join in a ladies bible study at my church. So we meet on Thursday mornings and we are going through Beth Moore’s “Stepping Up.” Last night, Jeremy was doing school work, Holden was in bed and I was finishing up my last day for the weeks study. I read Beth’s words . . . and it was not necessarily a new thought to me, but it did make me think. I guess she said it more eloquently than I ever could.
He (God) knows when something glorious in the future necessitates something difficult in the present.
Glorious . . . Holden? Absolutely!! Of course that is what came to my mind.
I went on to read:
Because he knows the glory will be worth it, God will risk being misunderstood.
Most of you probably know by now that after a year and half of trying to get pregnant, we began the adoption process. That last year of trying to achieve pregnancy, I shed many tears. It was a difficult time. So desperately wanting to know God’s plan for our family! And even more desperately wanting to have unwavering trust in his plan, even if it included pain. And as I walked through the study last night I just began to imagine God’s words as he sat and watched those tearful times and he listened to me cry out to Him. And here is how I imagine his words:
Goodness Melodie, I know this is rough. And I know it hurts. But I see further down the road and it is completely amazing. You will love what I have in store for you and Jeremy.
I know that God was my comfort during the times of grief. But I wonder if he ever wants to yell at us from heaven so our deaf ears can hear, “JUST WAIT! BECAUSE MY PLAN IS BETTER!”
Holden is completely our miracle as he has turned our lives up-side-down. I feel like we are in the honeymoon phase and I hope it never ends. Days are filled with giggles, smiles, tickling, reading, singing, fun screaming, etc. Life is just so much fun! I know it won’t always be the piece of cake that it is right now, but we are having more fun with Holden than any 2 people deserve.

And here is a very old picture of our glorious Holden. It is such a cute picture. I am not sure how it never made it on the blog!

Tag. You're it.

For the first time in my blogging life, all of about 8 months, I have been tagged. Coming up with 6 random, yet interesting facts that you may not know has been rather tough. And as I begin to type this, I only have 3 in my head. So this might be a process.

1) Since Holden moved to his room, at least once a week I wake Jeremy up (sometimes shaking him violently) unsure where Holden is located. Give me a break because truly I’m asleep. (But to be honest, Jeremy DOES NOT give me break. He gets rather testy and his patience goes out the window at 3:00am.) Sometimes I think he is laying on top of Holden and sometimes I just have no clue as to where he is. Before Holden, I would wake Jeremy up to tell him that I could see a man standing in our kitchen or right outside our window. Now, before Jeremy, I did this to my parents my entire life. But it was normally bugs or wild animals in my bed. Not scary mad-men in the house.
2) Jeremy and I never really liked Mexican or Italian food. For some reason, over the past few years we have decided that we love them both. But I think I would have been better off my entire life, had I never craved pasta, bread, tortillas and enchiladas.
3) I am really bad when it comes to having a sense of direction. After 4 years in Abilene, a somewhat small town that most people considered easy to travel, I could only make it to: church, HEB, Jeremy’s house and school on my own. Anywhere else I needed detailed instructions. Luckily growing up, I had a dad with a great sense of direction. I could be in the middle of Houston and say “I’m on a highway somewhere, and there is a First National Bank on my left and a Papadeaux’s on my right." He would know exactly where I was and help me to my destination.
4) Sometimes I go to http://www.realtor.com/ and search for homes in towns where I would like to live. Nothing fun, like huge dream homes or anything. Just realistic homes that we could afford.
5) When I am water skiing and let go and you know the boat circles around . . . I hate those moments in the water where you are just sitting there waiting on the boat. It seems like I am always waiting forever. I hear JAWS music in my head. And no, I am not skiing in the ocean. And I know there are no sharks in the lake. But sometimes I wonder if something might come and take a big bite out of me.
6) Speaking of skiing . . . I’ll just stay on that topic since I don’t have many interesting facts. Snow skiing. I have tried it 3 times and I just can’t do it. I watch the little kids snow plowing down and they make it look so easy. But then I get on my skis and things go out of control. I have to scream my way down the mountain so the skiers ahead will move out of my way because I literally have no control. It’s really scary to me. And jeremy’s favorite vacation is . . . (drumroll) snow skiing. Which is fine. In the future, the family can ski and I will videotape.

Okay. Now 6 people to tag? Let’s say sisters Amy and Amanda, Alicia, Kristy (you don’t have to Kristy. I know you are busy, but you do have lots of quirks. Email me if you need help with your 6. pillow, feet, cereal – there’s 3), Sarah S and Amanda M.

Sleeping like royalty

You see it right. Prince Holden is now sleeping on Satin-type sheets. I read that the cotton sheets absorb the needed oil from his hair. And that a satin sheet (and later pillowcases once he sleeps with a pillow) would help his hair retain the moisture and natural oil. Made perfectly good sense to me! I searched on Etsy to see if anyone had any satin crib sheets. There were none. But I was able to request them on this site. Many ladies sent me a bid to make me satin crib sheets and I ended up getting 2 sheets for $25 which I thought was a steal. They came in the mail to me this week and I am pretty sure Holden loves that soft, silky satin against his equally smooth skin. He looks pretty happy to me in the pictures.

An Extra Dose of Daddy

Tuesday was an unexpectedly special day. I didn’t know what Jeremy was doing when he climbed back into bed at 6:00am. He had decided that since he had class Monday night and had to do a lot of school work and reading on Tuesday night, that he would take the day off of work on Tuesday and spend it with Holden and I. These weeks since starting school have been pretty busy and he doesn’t get near enough play time with us. So I could hardly fall back to sleep when I realized that he was going to be spending the day with us. But somehow I managed. We hung around the house all morning and then headed to the mall for a Chick-Fil-A lunch and some shopping. I actually bought 2 more Christmas presents and a birthday present for a birthday in May. No I didn’t miss the birthday. I am just a bargain shopper . . . summer stuff is way on sale and so I shopped way ahead. Hopefully I remember that I have it in the closet. Anyways, we had a fun day on a not so busy day at the mall.
I have to say that Jeremy is quite the sacrificial daddy and husband. If you know him, you know that he passionately loves to sleep in. He just loves his sleep. But since starting school he has moved his work schedule earlier so that he has a couple of hours with us at home before going to class those 2 evenings each week. So everyday he is out of the house by 5:30am and home to us at 4:00pm. He also works 9 hours days so that he has every other Friday off with us (which he has always done). But I can’t believe he has done so well with these early mornings.
Jeremy, I appreciate your sacrifices. Not just the super early mornings. But other sacrifices that you have made so that I can be home with Holden. Holden appreciates it too. Even if he doesn’t realize it now, he is going to hear about it for years to come and he will appreciate the man, husband and daddy that you are. We love you and know that you are irreplaceable!

First Date

Well, this is a picture from our very first date ever . . .though that’s not what this post is about. But don’t we look so young? I guess, we were. We were 19. It was almost nine years ago. It was October 23, 1999. And we were just friends. We were at a date function for Sigma Alpha, my social club. Our dates were supposed to be surprises . . . we weren’t supposed to know who they were until we showed up. But I had made a list of prospective candidates and gave them to my big sis (everyone did this – not just me). Jeremy was on the list. The boys on my list were specifically “safe boys”. Boys that I knew wouldn’t think anything of this little date and it wouldn’t turn into anything. JUST FRIENDS! At this point I didn’t know Jeremy too well. He just seemed friendly and fun. I didn’t really want to be in a relationship. Oh how things changed over the next few weeks after this particular night.
Well, this past Saturday night Jeremy and I had another first date. It was our first since Holden arrived. It’s not that we wanted to wait this long to have a night out. We just didn’t know what to do with our baby. But we actually found another couple to trade off babysitting with. That way both couples will each get date nights every other weekend. I think it is going to be a nice arrangement! So Lauren and Blake gave us the first date night as they were at home with their 2, Noah and Kaitlyn, plus Holden. Noah didn’t want to participate for the picture. But he is 3 and I’m sure was a big help with the babysitting. Kaitlyn is just about 3 weeks younger than Holden. They will be buds in no time.
So we started the date with an Italian dinner. It was strange sitting there without Holden. For the past 4 months, we have just toted him everywhere we went and now it was just the two of us. We quickly got over the weirdness and decided to enjoy the night. Dinner was delicious and we were off to a good start. Then we followed our plans and went to an improv comedy club. Before it began we decided it was going to be dud and we decided to leave. Strike 1. We opted to head to the movie theatre and see something there. Well, by the time we got to the theatre, the movies weren’t going to be starting for another hour, which would have put us back at Blake and Lauren’s house much later than what we had promised. Though I’m sure they would have been fine with it, we decided it wasn’t such a good idea. Strike 2. On our drive back towards home, we stopped at a place with go-carts, bumper boats, putt-putt, etc. We decided that we would play putt putt (even though I was in heels). Well, we were told that most of the holes were flooded from the recent rain. Strike 3. Since it was only about 8:30pm at this point and we weren’t ready for the night out to end, we ended up at WalMart. By far the absolute worst WalMart in this city. We needed a few things and decided that it was as good of a time as any. So we left WalMart with: Smart Balance Crunchy Peanut Butter for me, plastic bibs for Holden, chips and crakers for Jeremy, Jet Dry for our dishwasher, and a last minute purchase of Lucky magazine because I noticed Jessica Simpson on the cover. And that was our date. So exciting right? But it really was a nice night alone. We will just have to plan better in the future. Looking forward to many, many more dates with my husband. At least 2 a month to be exact.

More peas please!

Tonight Holden tried peas for dinner. And I think he was impressed. What do you think?

(ok. I don’t really make his life that scary. The green light on the camera just STILL freaks him out!)
He is still not completely sold on this new texture of food. He kind of makes this sucking motion with his tongue like he is trying to suck the food down. But that little tongue just gets in my way as I insert the spoon. He does more damage than good with his technique, as that tongue sometimes shoves the food right back out. But I know he will eventually catch on. I made my first 2 batches of baby food. Looking pretty delicious huh? So I now have an icecube tray of peas and one of green beans, which we will try in several days.

Not sure how Jeremy is going to handle all of this baby food. (He doesn’t do well with the textures.) He was in class tonight when I fed Holden the peas. Jeremy has some weird food phobias. It was a little annoying to the cooking wife in the beginning, but I have learned to adjust (and be sneaky!). Even now as he feeds Holden cereal he has this disgusted look on his face the whole time. Jeremy, not Holden. And I know Holden can’t read those looks now . . . but one day when he is 2 . . . and Jeremy is close to spewing his dinner onto the table as Holden is digging into scrumptious mashed potatoes. I mean, babe, get a grip! And yes, you heard me right. Mashed potatoes is on the list of foods that Jeremy won’t touch. Along with milkshakes, sour cream, mayo, cream cheese, ranch dressing (can’t even stand the smell) and countless others. But that is a whole other blog for another day. And here are 2 more cute pictures of Holden's first sweet pea experience.

Baby Genius

Might Holden be a genius?! I am beginning to wonder. Towards the end of his nap today, I heard music coming from his room. Familiar music. Kind of freaky . . . . like who snuck into our house and is playing music in my baby’s room!!! But I walked in and noticed he had hit the button on his little crib musical toy. So I grabbed my camera so you could see for yourself. See it’s all lit up and playing - the monkey is swinging, the birds are chirping and the waters are flowing.
Then as I was standing there, he turned it off and turned it back on. Could have been a complete accident with his flailing about of arms . . . but I will just assume he is a 4 month genius. I wonder if he will ever sleep again since he knows how to use the thing. At least it keeps him entertained. Thank you Nana and Papa J for the rainforest crib toy! It is a hit with Holden!

Smart-aleck

Here is an email that Jeremy received:
Dear Tom,
May I sincerely thank you for purchasing your insurance from me and Accuquote. You have made a mature and intelligent decision, I was pleased to be a part of it. The goal, at this point, for both you and me, is to place your new policy in force as quickly as possible, to provide your Family with this valuable coverage. We have sent you the new policy today and included a pre-paid Fedex envelope to facilitate the process of placing this policy in force. Simply place all the Delivery Requirements in this envelope and drop it in any Fedex box and you will be covered immediately. I recommend you do this, as soon as you receive the policy, that day or the next morning.
Please call me with any questions and again I appreciate your business, both now and in the future.
Sincerely,
Tony
I removed his last name and other personal info. No reason to completely mortify the guy on the internet.

And here was Jeremy's response:
Tony,
I wanted to thank you for your sincere email. I could tell it was sincere because you said the word sincere AND you called me Tom. Only my near and dear friends call me Tom. How did you know?
"Sincerely",
Jeremy "Tom" (last name also removed, since I keep it off of the blog)

Didn't know my husband was such a smart aleck? Me either.

Stamping Fun!

I love to stamp. In fact I have been in Connie’s stamp club for almost 3 years now. Now, Connie is quite amazing. I am not. I think I may have to retire from stamp club for a bit after this year. I have got rubber stamps coming out my ears and I don’t have nearly enough time to pull them all out and use them right now.
But a few nights ago, my friend Allison came over to stamp. She is in stamp club also. I worked on my old standby – cards. That is my main purpose for stamping – making cards, invitations and then I also use them in scrapbooking. But Allison actually used her creative juices and made coasters. Completely amazing coasters! She bought small stone tiles from Lowes and stamped on them. What a great idea! Such a great idea, that she left her stamps with me and the next night I completely copied her projects. So you might be getting a set of coasters from me for Christmas!

Allison's super cute coasters.

And my old standby.

Swaddleless

I thought maybe Holden was ready to sleep without being swaddled. So I waited for the weekend to try it out in case he cried and cried and cried. But there was no crying. So now he is wearing all his cute footy pajamas to bed and sleeping his normal 11 or so hours. And still sleeping through my picture taking.

Teeth have arrived

Clearly, my 4 month, yet 17 pound boy is growing at rapid speed. Kind of exciting, a tad bit sad. Today I noticed that his 2 bottom teeth have popped through his gums. I didn’t even know he was teething! I mean, I had a feeling he might be, but was told he might possibly naw on things a good month before the teeth came through. So I wasn’t really checking his gums. He has been so fussy the past 4 days or so. Wanting to be held a lot, but even that wasn’t making him necessarily happy. He had gotten 4 month shots on Tuesday and then woke up with a stuffy nose on Thursday. So I really didn’t know where to attribute the fussiness. Maybe it was all of the above or possibly that his little gums were in excruciating pain. Poor little guy! So I just started him on cereal and apparently he'll be ready for a steak soon.
So today I was holding him and as he was crying, I noticed 2 little white spots on his bottom gums that sort of resembled entering teeth. I placed my finger there, and lo and behold – he’s got 2 sharp little teeth. So thankful he is bottle fed! (And no, bottle feeding is not the only option for adopted children.) I tried to get a picture of his little teeth. Now look closely. I know it looks like I have him in a head lock, but when I pulled his lower lip down he just wanted to stick his tongue out. So it was a little tricky. But Holden was not harmed in the taking of this picture! :) In fact, he had a full belly, so he could have cared less.

Weekend with Family

We were able to spend Labor Day weekend with family. Jeremy was able to be off of work Friday and Tuesday, so we had a full 4 days of fun before returning home. Both of my sisters and their families were able to travel to my parents home. We were only missing 1 brother-in-law. (The big and burly one I mentioned in the previous post.) We did a little shopping (the girls), a little golf (the boys), lots of eating, some singing (dad told us Saturday night that we would sing as a family on Sunday morning). We spent Saturday morning in Canton and I actually began my Christmas shopping. You can never start too early! If you have never been to Canton, Texas – just take my word for it and go on a first Monday weekend. One weekend and Christmas shopping is done – I promise. Of course we were toting 5 kids ages 5 and under, so we only shopped for a short time. Anyways, here are a few pictures from the weekend.
All the grandchildren with Papa J and Nana

Carson and Hope putting on a show and Bella trying to get in on the action.

Sweet sisters. Bathed and ready for bed.

Bella and Uncle J

Uncle J is Jeremy’s name to the nieces and nephews. It was much easier to say than Uncle Jeremy back when they were learning to talk. Bella is one of my nieces. She is about 20 months and a complete doll. See for yourself . . .

Now Uncle J and Bella have had a love-hate relationship for about the past 16 months. Uncle J loves Bella and Bella has never been too fond of him. She has been pretty scared of him and normally cried and buried her face when he came close. This has always been particularly funny to me because Jeremy is so innocent. I mean, he is not a big, burly, scary guy. I have always told Bella that her own father looks much scarier than Jeremy. Her father and my brother-in-law Loren, is somewhat big and burly.
I think it all began when my sister came to visit with her girls, Hope and Bella. Bella was only about 4 months old. The girls went to bed that night and Amanda and I ran to a local store and then to Starbucks. Jeremy called me and I could hear Bella crying in the background. He couldn’t calm her down and get her to stop crying. She was probably thinking – who is this guy and where is my mommy. We rushed back to the house and were there within 5 minutes. Fast forward about 4 months. Same exact thing happens. Bella wakes from sleep and the only person there is Jeremy. Jeremy calls with Bella screaming in the background as we are pulling up to the house. So that is a little history. Probably Bella’s only association with Jeremy.
Anyways, this weekend they made amends. My sister had been showing her Jeremy’s picture all week and they were giving the picture kisses. Kind of a warm up before Bella had to face him in person. She was a bit timid at the beginning of the weekend. Notice the forced picture and she is crying with her blankee in her arms.
And then by the end of the week . . . . wallah! She finally loves her Uncle J!
Kisses and all!

4 months already

So yesterday, Holden turned 4 months old. Wow. 4 months. It really does seem like a short amount of time. I have realized how much a life can change in just 4 months. And I don’t necessarily mean his little life, but ours. So much has changed and it has been wonderful. I have learned a new kind of love. The kind of love that I should have always had for others, but probably didn’t. The kind of love that truly expects nothing in return. When Holden entered our lives, I think we got a taste of what this love is like. To love someone so much that doesn’t quite know how to love you back. I still have those moments when I can’t believe that he is our baby. We are still doting and proud parents to this boy. Proud when he mimics our laughter. Proud when he only cries for about 10 seconds after 3 shots. Proud when he contently travels all over Texas. Proud when he grabs a toy. Proud as he learns to swallow his cereal. You get my point. Everything he does is monumental to us and I daily well up with pride for him. We are so grateful for the happy baby boy that God has blessed us with. And here the little guy is at 4 months . . . .
Today we went to the doctor for 4 month shots. He weighed in at 17lbs even, which was in the 90th percentile. And they measured him at 25 inches, which was in the 50th percentile. Jeremy and I think he is longer than 25 inches, because that is what they measured him at 2 months. I may have to pull out the tape measure tomorrow to verify if Holden really has gained 7 pounds around his middle and none in his height. He is doing really well with the cereal and now swallowing most of it. I think he actually likes it. If all goes well this week we may venture into trying some green beans very soon. I have been looking forward to making baby food for YEARS. No joke. So this is very exciting to me. Holden still loves to scream for fun. He still loves to be swaddled at night when he sleeps. He gets so quiet and listens intently when he is sung to. And he is just lots of fun. We are enjoying each day!