Joel's first word(s)

Benny and I have been trying to get Joel to either say "Dada" or "Mama" for the past couple months. I didn't really care which came first, but I cannot say the same for Benny. When I would work on mama, he would say things like, "Let's just try one at a time. Let's stick with dada for now." Ha, whatev!

So Joel being the peacemaker that he is decided that he would say BOTH words, TODAY! He has made these sounds before, but today they seemed intentional as he said them when he was going towards us. Benny is more of a "De-de" than a "Dada" and I am very clearly "Mum mum" instead of "Mama", but hey, we'll take it!

Way to go Joel :)

Letter for my baby

Dear Joely B.,
Today you are ten months, 2 days old. You love to crawl around on the floor and "chase" mommy around in the bedroom. You also love to climb all over and under your daddy. Everyone always comments on how beautiful your eyes are. They are these big, blue lights of happiness that make my world better every time I see them.
I love to spend time with you Joel. Every morning I can't wait to go see your grinning face when I open the door to your room. And every morning my heart hurts a little when I have to leave you to go to work.
I have your pictures everywhere in my classroom and my students say, "Aww, baby Joel" when they see your face on my desktop. I have gotten really good at making the most of every free minute I have at work because I refuse to stay past 3:30 so that I can pick you up as soon as possible. I also refuse to take home work anymore. When I'm home, I'm yours and daddy's. Work is the last thing on my mind when I have your babbles to listen to and your belly to tickle.
You have made my life brighter and I feel so special to have been chosen to be your mommy. You have such an adorable personality already. Always chuckling when you see your dad and I laughing, squealing with joy when we play our favorite games, and looking at me over your shoulder with that sly smile when you know I'm about to tell you, "No, don't touch that!".
I know my parents told me they loved me, and still do. But it's so much more than that. You will never understand how much of my heart you have until you have a child of your own. No other love compares, not even close.
I hope our relationship stays close and strong throughout your life. I want to be close with you and be there for you always. I know there will be times when it seems like I don't know what it's like because I'm "Mom", but I promise I can at least be there to listen. So many teenagers become like strangers to their parents as they grow up and that just can't happen to us. We are so blessed to have each other and to have a family like ours. I pray that none of us ever take that, or each other, for granted.
Joel you are the best part of everything for me. The best part of my day is being with you in the mornings as we both wake up together. The best part of my afternoon is coming in and seeing your smiling face when I come to pick you up. The best part of my time at home is playing with you and running back and forth saying, "I'm gonna get you!" and hearing you crack up laughing. And you have made the best part of my marriage be that your father and I have come together so much more since having you. When we're with you, with both play with you and are amazed by your little accomplishments each day/week/month. When we're not with you, trust me- all we talk about it YOU!
Your daddy and I want to give you a loved life, and we will do everything in our power to achieve that. When I was about 8 to 9 months pregnant with you I would listen to my George Strait CD in the car almost every morning going to work. One of my favorite songs is I Cross My Heart. The words in that song remind me so much of you.

Our love is unconditional, we knew it from the start. 
I see it in your eyes, you can feel it from my heart. 
From here on after let's stay the way we are right now, 
And share all the love and laughter 
That a lifetime will allow. 

I cross my heart and promise to 
Give all I've got to give to make all your dreams come true. 
In all the world you'll never find a love as true as mine. 

You will always be the miracle that makes my life complete, 
And as long as there's a breath in me, I'll make yours just as sweet. 
As we look into the future, it's as far as we can see, 
So let's make each tomorrow be the best that it can be. 

I cross my heart and promise to 
Give all I've got to give to make all your dreams come true. 
In all the world you'll never find a love as true as mine. 

And if along the way we find a day it starts to storm, 
You've got the promise of my love to keep you warm. 
In all the world you'll never find a love as true as mine, 
A love as true as mine. 


I love you Joely B. and I hope to spend my life making sure you know just how much you mean to your daddy and me.


With all my love,
Mommy

Happy birthday to you...

I have used this spring break to get some things accomplished and it feels great. I have spent one day spring cleaning each of the major rooms in the house. I have also ALMOST caught up on laundry. I still have a couple loads left, but they are all Benny's clothes so I'm not in a huge rush. I don't mean that in an ugly way, he just has tons of clothes so he'll be alright.
I have also started to work on Joel's first birthday party. I went to Hobby Lobby the other day and bought some cute card stock to make some decorations. I am doing a monkey theme. You know those picture frames with little cutouts for each month of baby's first year? Well I am making my own version of that but using regular sized pictures. Once it's finished I'll post it, but it will be used  for decoration at the party. I'm also doing a banana cake and making "banana cake splits". I saw the recipe online. You get banana cake mix, put chocolate chips in the batter. Then once the cake is made, you cut it into squares and top it with a small banana slice, whip cream, a small scoop of ice cream, chocolate syrup, and a cherry on top. I'm going to make Joel's smash cake in the shape of a monkey.
Tonight I also made Joel's birthday invitation on the computer. I totally cheated and looked online to get ideas, and then I just made one myself with Photoshop. It turned out really cute. I need Benny to add a little monkey to the bottom corner, but I'm pretty proud of it! ( I took out the address and phone numbers since I don't know if just anyone can look at this)

I still have a lot to do, but I am so happy to be able to plan a nice get together for my son. I've already had all our family tell me they will be there, which means a lot! I know Joel won't remember the party, but that's not what it's about as I've said before. I'm not going to go crazy with the monkey stuff, but doing some little extras is fun. :)

Pinches and Kisses

Today is St. Patrick's Day. Joel looks festive in his leprechaun tuxedo shirt. Joel and I pinched his daddy this morning because he was the only one not wearing green. I took this picture of Joel, which is quickly becoming another favorite.

Hopefully everyone had a good day with their babies and/or loved ones. If you haven't taken any pictures of your loved ones lately, I'd highly recommend it :)

Still gobbling it up

Joel started stage 3 food today, which is basically baby food with some chunks in it. Appetizing! I also bought him some toddler yogurt that was really good. The first bite wasn't so tasty because I didn't realize there was fruit and cereal at the bottom that needed to be stirred up. But we got the hang of it soon enough.
Joel has always been such a good eater. From his 2 week to 8 week appointment, he gained 6 pounds. That's when Benny and I were feeding him every time he cried. We way over fed him at that point. He was drinking eight 6 oz bottles a day! That's way more than he eats even now. Now he drinks an 8 oz bottle in the morning, then has four 4 oz bottles the rest of the day.
I can't believe he's already getting close to eating real table food. I love picking out baby food for him. It all looks so yummy (yes I think baby food looks good). I might have to up my game in the kitchen pretty soon to keep up with all the meals he's been getting lately.
He will be 10 months next Saturday. He is cruising around everywhere, but still hasn't taken his first steps. He can give high five now. We cheer for him when he does it and his face just lights up with this big smile.  He's so stinkin' cute. We are on spring break, and since we have to pay for daycare anyway, we took him this morning to Ms. Pat's house. We needed to work on the house so it's just easier. But I just miss him so much when he's not here. I couldn't wait to go pick him up after his nap time. I get it now when mom's cry on their baby's first day of school or when they go off to college. I just pray these next 18 years are the longest of my life!

remembering to be thankful

Today was a crap day. Work is weird/stressful/annoying. The house is a mess and I can't seem to find the time or energy to clean it this week. Joel's babysitter said he fussed all day and just wanted to be held. If he wasn't being held he was trying to climb up her legs, etc. Well he did the same thing when I got home. I was trying to cook dinner and he was in the kitchen with me. I distracted him with a pot and wooden spoon for about 5 minutes, but then he was back to my legs again.
Afterwards, we went upstairs and I tried to sit and play with him on the floor but he just wanted to climb up me- not be held- just use me as a step ladder :).
Benny had to work late and didn't get home until about 7:00 so at that time I was pretty done. I gave Joel a bath and finally sat down on the couch while he climbed on Benny.
I opened up my laptop and checked this blog that a girl I went to high school with writes. I have been checking it everyday since I came across it two weeks ago. It's the saddest thing. Her 4 month old daughter passed away two and a half weeks ago from what they think was SIDS. I don't check it to cry (although it did make me cry A LOT when I first started reading it). I really just want to see how she's doing. I can't fathom that kind of pain. I have had loss in my life, but nothing could compare to the loss of a child. Your  child. So as I'm reading how she is struggling to go to the grocery store because everyone has a baby, I am reminded to stop and be thankful. Was today stressful? yes. But at least I had today. I had today with my son and my husband. I had today with my friends at work and my students that rely on me. I bounced Joel on my knee and made him crack up laughing, and I took some pretty cute pictures of him playing "sous chef" in the kitchen.

I am so blessed to have had today. I need to remember that more often.

Let's go for a walk

Tonight Joel, Benny and I went out for our weekly Friday night family dinner. It was Freebirds tonight (trying to save some cash). Before Joel came along, Benny and I would always go out to dinner and a movie on Friday nights. Always.
I get annoyed with people that bring babies to movies. Not so much because the kid makes noise, I'm used to noise, but I just think it's wrong to make a baby sit in a loud, dark theater for almost 2 hours. So anyway, we don't go to the movies much anymore- which isn't a bad thing. Netflix is our new friend. But we still try to go out to dinner on Friday nights. It's just now it has turned into "family dinner night" instead of "date night".
Joel is such a good baby. He has yet to throw a fit in a restaurant or scream/cry. And yes I am probably jinxing myself and I'm sure it's coming one day, but as of today he's good. He is very content to spend his time trying to grab our food (he is VERY fast) or ever-so-carefully trying to put his cereal puffs in his mouth. He has also developed a habit of being interested in waitresses, not waiters, or any other teenage-ish girl in the restaurant. He will follow them around with his eyes, turning his head to see where they went. When he really likes the waitress he will smile and move his eyebrows up and down. It's too funny.
So tonight, like many other nights, we had a nice dinner and then came home. It was about 6:30 and the sun was starting to set so we decided to go for a walk. We strapped Joely into his stroller, leashed up the dogs, and we were off. Joely sat up in his seat looking this way and that the whole time, very interested in what was going on around him. I remember when he was a little baby and I would take him for a walk around the block to try to get him to stop fussing. He would always fall asleep. Then when he was a little older we would go for walks and  he would mostly just stare up at the sky. Now he sits upright, looks around, and my favorite- turns his head around to smile at me while I push him along.
Benny and I talked a lot, the whole time actually. It was nice to get away from the tv, the noise, everything and just go for a walk together as a family. Joel didn't make a sound. It was like he was just listening to mommy and daddy talk about what's going on with this and that.
I think I would have liked to have gone on family walks with my parents when I was young, but I don't remember doing it. That's not to say it didn't happen, because unfortunately I have a pretty horrible memory from when I was little. But that's a memory I wish I had.
So I think another one of my mommy goals is to make sure Joel has a lot of those kind of memories with his dad and I. Simple little things like taking a walk and talking to each other. I know realistically I won't be able to give my son everything he wants in life, but I should always be able to give him my time. And what better way to spend our  time than getting outside and taking a walk together? It's as simple as that. :)