Happy Mother's Day

Much like a birthday, today is a celebration of life. Over the past 24 years I've spent this day celebrating my mom and over the last 6 years this celebration has also included my mother-in-law, Gilbert's grandma, and his aunt. Last year we celebrated my first Mother's Day with Matthew developing in my belly and we looked forward to when he would be in our arms. It's only been a year... and yet so much has changed.

This year I will celebrate my son. It is because of him that the term "mother" now applies to me. I never thought the words "I'm a mommy" would bring tears to my eyes with just the thought of them. I've endured sleepless nights, dirty diapers, fussy days, and the physical pains of creating and sustaining life through labor, delivery, and now nursing (my pregnancy was wonderful). It's only the beginning. I was one of the lucky ones who didn't get stretch marks during pregnancy, but I know that I cannot avoid the emotional stretch marks that the years will bring.

My son is beautiful. I know he is. Everyone tells me he is. In the end, though, the most important thing is that he's mine. The privilege and the responsibility of raising a godly man falls upon Gilbert and I now and a lot of time will be spent on our knees asking for wisdom. God's been good to us and has blessed us with this incredible little (or not so little at 21 lbs) miracle. Over a year and a half ago I was told that it would be difficult for me to get pregnant without the use of fertility drugs. Three months later I was pregnant without them. Who knows when God will decide to bless us with another little miracle. When He does, we'll be excited. For now, though, I'm going to enjoy my boy and being his mommy.

Matthew - "Gift of God"
Ezekiel - "God will strengthen"

"Love is the answer
At least for most of the questions in my heart ,
Like why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it's so hard?
It's not always easy,
And sometimes life can be deceiving,
I'll tell you one thing, its always better when we're together"

"Baby mine, don't you cry
Baby mine, dry your eyes
Rest your head close to my heart
Never to part, baby of mine
Little one when you play
Don't you mind what they say
Let those eyes sparkle and shine
Never a tear, baby of mine
If they knew sweet little you
They'd end up loving you too
All those same people who scold you
What they'd give just for
The right to hold you
From your head to your toes
You're not much, goodness knows
But you're so precious to me
Sweet as can be, baby of mine"

I'm not a country fan. I've managed to avoid most of it while living here because I don't really listen to the radio. However, I downloaded the Alison Krauss version of that song the other day. In case you don't recognize it, it's from Dumbo. Well, last year a friend of mine got married and she and her dad danced to this at her wedding. It stuck out in my mind and I decided to look it up and ended up downloading it. I ended up in tears after listening to it. Matthew was in a horrible mood all day that day and he was only happy if I held him. So there I was, listening to "Baby Mine" and holding my little boy. Goodness, I'm an emotional wreck.

Something about Mother's Day being right around the corner has me incredibly emotional. It's insane. Matthew smiles at me and I lose it. Gilbert might not know what to do with me on Sunday.

I had to post again because I have some new pictures to share. Matthew has also figured out he can get across the room by rolling. I'm in trouble. I can't leave him in the living room while I go into the kitchen to do dishes (they're right next to each other and I can see him from where I stand). He's a bit whiney in video and it's a little long but it's fun to watch. Here's the video:



Matthew showing off his bling



My mom gave Matthew a plastic toy photo album when she came out and the only picture I've been able to put in it is an old picture of my brother. Matthew loves staring at my brother and he tries to eat his picture. I need to put more pictures in it.







He's so cute in hoodies



Darth Baby and Darth Daddy

I know everyone knows that being a parent is a 24/7 job. Sometimes I find myself justifying watching TV while he naps as my "break". The truth is, I shouldn't have to justify it in my head. My house is kept up (with the exceptions every now and then), my family is fed, and I am always showered and dressed (hair is a whole other story). Matthew may not need me to keep him entertained all the time because he's very good at keeping himself busy with his toys, but he's not a fan of having me out of his line of sight. He has his cranky days. He has his sleepless days (thankfully not nights). Unlike those who leave their homes to go to work, I never leave work. Work goes with me everywhere I go and will continue to do so until he's in his teens (unless he stays home with a sitter and at which point I'm sure he will have partners in crime). When it's all said and done, though, I have the BEST job in the world.

Well, I'm hoping this tooth will break through soon. For both our sake. He's been whiny and he hasn't been napping well. Luckily, nights are still going well. Poor little guy.

Last weekend we had some friends over to watch some basketball and Matthew got another chance to play with Elijah.





Matthew had a great time with his Grammy. He had a playmate the entire time she was here and they both thoroughly enjoyed each other.



This is Matthew right after I told him he had to try prunes.



He didn't quite know what to think at first:





He ended up liking them more than he liked peaches. I did not end up liking the diapers that followed, however.

We got to have lunch with Auntie Rachel before Grammy went back to California.







I'm a mean mommy. Matthew was grumpy the other day and I had him playing in the living room while I was doing laundry. Well I made the mistake of walking away (*gasp!*) to switch loads and I came back to this:





Of course, like the mean mommy I am I took pictures of it before I picked him up. He stopped crying about .5 seconds after I picked him up. He know how to get what he wants.

Yes, he rides in the shopping cart at the super market now. He's getting so big.



He has also recently discovered Mommy's laptop:



We have several places in our area that have interesting names. This is one that Gilbert took the time to take a picture of:



Well, Matthew and I fly out to California on May 27 and Gilbert will join us out there on the 30. It will be a busy week and I am going to do my best to enjoy my brother in his last days as a single man. I'm excited for the next season in his life. I wish we had more time to get together with everyone on this trip but it will be a short, busy trip. We plan to spend time with as many people as we can when we fly out in June.

Other than that, Matthew is not much closer to crawling. I think he's just lazy. He's almost 7.5 months old and he FINALLY realized he is completely capable of rolling from his belly to his back. Silly boy.

THE END

Term of endearment? Not anymore...

We've all heard the term "lovebug" and people use it frequently as a term of endearment. Well, for some reason this term has never sat well with me. Now that I live in Texas, I know why.



That is a love bug. They are all over our house. apparently there are two "flights" that take place yearly. One in late April/May and the other in late August/September. They typically last 4-5 weeks. The good news is they're not capable of biting or stinging. The bad news is that their bodies are so acidic that cars need to be washed regularly because if one of these love bugs dies on it, it can ruin the paint.

Why are they called love bugs?



Because this is how they live. They even fly like this. It's weird too see bugs mating all. the. time.

For more info check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovebug

Oh, and we had some serious thunderstorms last night. Thunder so loud it startled us awake. I'm surprised Matthew went back to sleep after all of that. So all that last night and now it's clear and sunny.

Welcome to Texas.

So this week has been all about basketball and the Boston Celtics. Living in Houston and with the Rockets being in the playoffs, Gilbert's been getting all kinds of crap from our friends. The humidity is rolling in. Last week the weather was perfect. In the 70's, sunny, and dry. This week it's in the 80's and humid. Matthew's hair has been big all week and Gilbert keeps apologizing to him saying he wishes we could have given him cooler hair.

Apparently I don't feed him enough. He has to gnaw on his feet in between meals.



Here's Matthew wearing his daddy's Paul Pierce jersey:







I wish I had gotten a better picture of this but this is his bed/humidity head yesterday morning.



He's obsessed with his plastic drum:



I had a sappy Mommy moment and I wanted to cuddle with him so I held him through one of his naps yesterday:



Daddy and Matthew have matching Celtics jerseys now.







Matthew's Grammy gets in tonight and she'll be here until Tuesday. I'm not going to know what to do with myself while she's here. I won't have a baby trying to keep my from doing things for a few days. It'll be fun.

Well, he's waking up from his nap now!

My poor little guy has been grumpy all week. I think he's teething. I've been doing whatever I can to keep him happy but that also means I'm not getting a whole lot done otherwise. Luckily the house doesn't get too bad with just the three of us around. He even woke up crying last night. I got up and gave him some teething tablets, tried soothing him a little, and then put him back down hoping he'd put himself back to sleep. Luckily he did and he woke up at his normal time this morning.

We went to lunch with some friends on Sunday and Matthew sat in a restaurant high chair for the first time. He enjoyed it.



Gilbert bought this outfit before we even started trying to get pregnant. The shirt has Darth Vader on it and says "Sith Happens". The little shorts have "Dark Side" written on across the butt. He wore it to our friends' daughter's birthday party on Sunday. The weather was great and the little shorts were perfect.





Here he is playing with his Leap Frog Learn and Groove table from Grammy. He LOVES it:



With our transition between California and Texas taking longer than we expected it to there were several shirts that I thought he'd never get to wear. He grew so much during that time that he outgrew everything I had packed for him and there were things in his boxes he hadn't even worn yet. It has also been in the 80's for a while so I couldn't put any long sleeves on him. Lucky for me, it was in the low 60's the other day and I got to put this onesie on him. Gilbert bought this when I was pregnant:



We went to Bruce and Vicki's for dinner the other night and the boys got to spend some time playing. I only got one picture of them together and they weren't all that close to each other. I tried to get one of them together when they had their pj's on but Elijah got excited and smacked Matthew in the face and that put an end to the moment. I think Bruce got some good pictures. I'll post them when he sends them to me.



This is his little taggie blanket that he likes to chew on. Someone gave it to him for his 1/2 birthday.



Mean mommy took a picture of grumpy baby but this picture makes me smile a little.



I left him playing on the floor after he ate while I was doing laundry and when I came back I found him using his bib as a cape:



I also caught him mid-drool:



Teething baby gets his hands on his burp cloth:



One of his happy moments this week:



We got this tub as a gift at one of our showers and I've been waiting for the chance to use it. Well, now that he's sitting up on his own we can finally use it! Here are some pictures of him in it. I didn't have a wash cloth or any toys handy so I had to censor it after the fact and I thought I'd be a little silly about it.





My friend Valerie gave me this t-shirt the day we found out we were having a boy. I can't believe it already fits him. It's size 12 months.



Here's another gift we got at our shower. It's a toy drum that has other musical instruments inside it. We let Matthew play with it for the first time yesterday and he enjoyed it. Here he is playing with it this morning:





Here are a few new videos, too.

Matthew LOVES bananas. Here's his first taste of them:



Here he is playing with his toys in the living room:



So while Matthew has learned to roll over. He hasn't figured out how to roll back onto his back. He gets stuck on his belly and then fusses and squirms because he can't figure out how to get out of that position: