Project 366: Week 19

 

Mother’s Day

“Making the decision to have a child - it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ” ~ Elizabeth Stone

I am beyond blessed by these two little ones who call me mom. I am so grateful to be entrusted with the care of these precious gifts. My heart is full.

I’m also grateful for my wonderful Mom, who taught me what a good Mom is. She gives of herself so selflessly for me and her grandkids and I pray that I am half the mom to my kids as she is to me. Thanks, Mom! I love you!

Happy Mother’s Day to all moms – moms with babies in their arms, in their bellies, in heaven and in their hearts!

St. Jude Trike-A-Thon!

This past Friday was the Trike-A-Thon at Ava’s school that raised money for St. Jude. All week she looked forward to her “contest”, even though it was really just the kids riding their bikes all around!

Heading out to the course… she is ALL business!    Trying to figure it all out before she got moving..   PreK-3 class!

Reed’s teachers brought a couple of the babies out to watch, including Reed so he didn’t miss his big sister!!! 

Just ridin’ away!!!!       Can you imagine the chaos? :)

Heading off course a bit when she saw her “fan club”!

She asked everyone and their dog to come watch her and she had a nice turn out. My mom, sister, Reed, Zach, and my grandma all came! She was a happy girl!    Reed and Aunt Stephanie

She had SO much fun!!!! Every time I saw her, she had the biggest smile on her face!!!

Thank you to everyone who supported Ava in this! She raised over $300 and was so proud!! She had the best time!!!   

SEVEN months old!

Another month gone? I can’t believe it! My sweet little boy will be a year old before I know it!!!!  

Reed, you are busy busy these days!

• You now eat 3 meals of solid foods each day. You also eat about four 7 oz bottles. It seems to be a good eating schedule.
• You had many rough nights this month. We are SO glad you are sleeping all night again. Your naps, however, are less than stellar.
• You are about to outgrow your Size 2 diapers.
• You have the worst little cough and nothing helps it go away. :( We’ve taken you to the doctor SEVERAL times and so far, no remedies have worked. It’s sad. (And since I started this post yesterday, we took you to the doctor again today – more on that at the bottom).
• Still no teeth though it seems you have one that is going to pop through any day. You’ve been extra cranky the past couple of days.
• You are playing with toys a lot more! you LOVE Ava’s Little People toys, especially the dollhouse!
• You are starting to push up on all fours in preparation for crying! I’m not ready for this!
• You don’t like to be rocked to sleep anymore. You prefer just being laid down in your bed at nighttime. You pretty much go right to sleep.
• You are a little ladies’ man! I know of at least two girlfriends you have at school – and they are both MUCH older than you!
• You reach out for us every time we walk past you and it is so sweet! I love it!

Sadly, we had to take you back to the doctor today. You just can’t seem to kick the congestion and coughing. We were hoping the allergy meds would help, but you are worse this week than ever! Dr. Fred says you have bronchitis. Poor baby.

We were also told that if the meds don’t clear this up once and for all, we will most likely need to be referred to a pediatric pulmonary specialist in NWA. Please join us in praying for our sweet boy to get better. We asked if this had any correlation to his lung issues and pneumonia from birth and while he said that he can’t say no with 100% certainty, he does feel strongly this is unrelated. We just want Reed better. You can see in his pictures that he has dark circles under his eyes and just doesn’t look like he feels well.

The past seven months have flown by. We are SO blessed by this little boy! Thank you, Jesus, for entrusting him to us!!!! Love you, little buddy!

Project 366: Week 18

You’ll notice a theme in Ava’s photos this week! :)    

Six month check up

Last Wednesday I took Reed to his six month check up. Since he was sick around his 4 month check up, his wellness check was delayed and therefore his others have been pushed back some.

He was happy to be spending an afternoon with his mama….

….until he fell asleep!!

While we waited in the room, Reed had fun looking at the baby in the mirror!!

Then he occupied himself by playing with the paper on the table. I think I had to pull a new sheet out about four times.

Thankfully, we have a healthy baby boy on our hands. He weighs 20 lbs 1 oz, and is 27 3/4 inches long! We also were given the go ahead to give Reed allergy medicine. The poor boy always sounds so stuffy and in the last several days, we’ve really noticed an improvement. We are SO thankful that after such a rough start we have such a healthy little guy on our hands!!

Arkansas Children’s Week!

This past week was Arkansas Children’s Week and both kids’ classes at school participated and celebrated the week. They both got t-shirts and wore them to school and Ava’s class had many fun activities!

Ava a couple of mornings before school!  

One of the activities Ava’s class participated in was Olympics! She was so proud of her medal she got! 

Here is Reed’s class in their shirts! Is this not the cutest thing?

Friday morning I attempted to get a shot of the kids in their shirts together. SO not easy. I even enlisted the help of Reed’s teachers once we got to school and still had no luck. So, instead, here are some outtakes! :)

Later that morning, I went to help with the day’s project, planting flowers! Ava was SO happy I came to help! We LOVE our school and are so grateful for the teachers and staff there who daily influence our children. It is a Christ centered school and we are so grateful our kids will attend there through 6th grade!