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!