Christmas Festivities 2012

Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday. I love the excitement, the cold weather, the lights, the music...I love it all. Charlotte, you are becoming a Christmas Junkie as well, and were very into the decorating and the tradition. We had visits from Happy the Elf, Sky the Angel, Santa Claus himself, and you were a pretty good little girl this year and I think your list of hopefuls was fulfilled by Mr. Claus. However, just like the smart girl you are, insisted that Mrs. Claus was the real work horse behind it all...You are learning fast ;)

Bland, you have had a lot of changes this month and we are so happy to watch you begin communicating and gain independence. Those big brown eyes on your sweet face brighten our days and we adore you, even though you are an absolute, 100%, bonified, wild mess. When we ask you what Santa says, you will say "ho ho hoooooo" and it is the deepest, raspy voice that comes out. 

Christmas with the Forrest Fam

Christmas morning, I met you are the stairs, and you and Teddy were ready to go!

Excitement. Bland is behind you trying to run too.

He brought you your Princess Scooter!!

Bland's new playhouse.

I think he likes it!

Sorting through all of the new toys!

This has by far been the favorite toy this year. 

Grammy and Grandaddy brought this over to you and you are on it daily.

The most priceless Santa Picture ever.

Sweet brother and sister moment. Charlotte, you love to hold Bland's hand...all the time!

Bland meets Santa for the first time, and he was infatuated.

Attempting to eat a yummy brunch

Attempting to get an 11 month old, 2 year old and 3 year old to take a picture.

The Many Faces of Bland: 11 Months

I have only known you for 11 months, and just like the men of your namesake, you are handsome, full of strong will, and VERY curious. AND just like your daddy you are buck-wild, dark skinned, eyed, and haired--all kinds of gorgeous--, quite the charmer, loud, and very, very funny. You climb on any and everything, which you subsequently fall off of any and everything. Your taking a few steps here and there, but still prefer to hold on to something for balance. The poor little things we call knees are red, purple, and very bruised. 

In the past month you have also found your voice and what a loud sound it can make. The shrills and pure screams that come out are ear piercing and somewhat entertaining (when at home). I definitely get the looks when we are out in public and you share these noises with the world. The only syllables you have down pat are mama, dada, lala, and baba.

These days we get the looks anyways as I am carting you, Charlotte all with an XL belly for your brother. But that is a whole other story.

You are still having some ear troubles, and we are keeping an eye on your right ear in particular for fluids, and infection. You also still have signs of Reflux and discomfort but we are pushing through without meds for now. I am in the process of switching you to whole milk and so far you prefer it over formula...who wouldn't!

You weighed in at 26.8 pounds a couple of weeks ago, so you are growing very, very well. No meals skipped here ;)

I finally got you to sit still for some pictures by taking them in the bath (your favorite activity).

My sweet faced baby

Excited face, we see this often

Your "Hey Ladies" face. Always trying to charm...spitting image of your daddy.

Those lips, those cheeks...devourable

I did not do it.

Wide eyed. Almost all of your puffy-eye symptoms have gone away.

Talking with Sissy

Sissy squirting you in the face...she always finds a way to get you.

9 Months Old

Unfortunately I have one picture from your nine month Birthday! Our entire house has been hit hard with sick, sick, sick and you got the worst of it all :(!! Monday I took, you to the doctor and you screamed your head off. By the time we left, you had fallen asleep and been diagnosed with a double ear infection, double pink eye, and "strep-like" throat. You were plum pitiful. We went that Thursday for your 9 Month Check up and Dr. Clifford looked at your sister, and after a quick check, we found that she had an ear infection too. The next few days as your ears cleared, you both got a raging case of croup. Mommy and daddy have it all as well. I can not stand when my babies are sick. It is hard when I can't fix it immediately.

This is your pitiful face state:

That is all I have to document this momentous occasion. 

Besides all the sick, your nine month check up went well. You weighed in at 25.6 pounds, and 30 inches.  You are 100% on the charts, just like your sister. You are cruising around everything, crawl at 90 miles an hour, go up and down the stairs, try to climb into the toilet (not kidding here), and are trying to stand and bounce on your own. You do a lot of babbling of DaDa, baba, and maaaaa, but no actual words. 

When we ask "How Big is Bland" you will raise your hands over your head, and you love to give high fives. It is SO much fun to see you interact and grow into a little person. I can tell you are going to be a handful, and every night after I break a sweat getting you bathed and dressed i.e. wrestling a Barracuda., your daddy or I will comment--you are lucky you are so cute ;)!!

I love you, my precious boy.

Fall Trip to the Busted W

This weekend we went to the mountains with Grammy and Grandaddy Bland. Daddy was working the fair. He literally worked for 2 weeks straight and we saw him maybe 3 times. It was insane for him, and it was insane for mommy. So to end the crazy experience, I thought I would take you two rascals up this big hill for some fresh cool air, and a trip to the corn maze and pumpkin patch.

It was so wonderful to have so much help and I got to stand in the kitchen and actually cook a supper without anyone crawling under my feet. I am a horrible cook these days and I totally blame it all on lack of focus ;) Your daddy is a serious trooper as he has handled 8 years of my terrible cooking. My sweet Charlotte, you and I made a delicious chicken pot pie and fresh salad. You are very in to the cooking these days, and being a helper, with everything.

Bland did a lot of watching, getting in to things, and taking it all in. We had a busy Saturday and went into "town" to Nancy's fudge factory, the pumpkin patch and then returned home for an afternoon marshmallow roast :)

Charlotte and her Teddy with the Pumpkin decor at Nancy's Fudge Factory.

Driving the Tractor.

Corn Face.

My Little Scarecrow.

Bland hanging out while his sister ran wild. It was a seriously windy day, and wind makes her go crazy.

Hey Y'all, don't forget about me....okay!

Charlotte was in search for the "littlest" pumpkin because she did not want it to get left behind. We are reading the book, "Littlest Pumpkin". Needless to say, it was a long search.

Showing her brother the finds.

Caught.

Trying to escape.

Charlotte in my old sweatshirt and Bland in (believe it or not) his Grandaddy Bland's old sweatshirt. Carolina had just beat VA Tech, it was a good afternoon at the Busted W.

Eating Marshmallows.

Cutie Pie.

The Big Man, he chews everything...including Four Wheeler Wires.

Not long before he got a visitor.

Cooking in the kitchen.

Getting some sugar from my girl.

Eating.

We had a wonderful time as always, can't wait to go back in a few weeks.

The Little Lady turns 3

You are my first child. My child that taught me the mind blowing and unconditional love a parent feels for their child. You brought magic into our days and loud laughter into our house. Your soul is old and deep. Your intuition and impressions are mature and surprising. The will in your little body is stronger than iron and stronger than mommy on some days ;).

My first experience at parenting, trying to get it all right. Our first tears of exhaustion and late nights. Our first churning worry and skinned knee screams. The first little face to look at me and say "ma-ma". All of these treasure we hold together. A little bond you and I have that no one else can change or take away.
You have grown and changed so much in 3 short years:

9.21/09- 2 days old

9.19.10- 1 year old

9.19.11- 2 years old

9.19.12- 3 years old

This year as I watched you blowout your candles with ease, I asked you to make a wish. Without hesitance or thought you said, "I wish for a healthy baby brother." You have no idea the power your little voice has and the impression you make on our family each day.

We spent your third birthday by celebrating for about a week solid. We had a Princess Bounce House birthday party with your friends, a Mexican Fiesta birthday dinner with more friends and a sunday lunch birthday party at Grandma Charley's with family. It was worth it, and it was so much fun.

Your brother gave you several My Little Pony's because they are your "favwit". He enjoyed the fun and got a little sample of ice cream and cake ;)

The day after your birthday, we went to Dr. Clifford for you 3-year-old check up. You weighed in at 39.7 pounds and measured 39 1/2 inches (way to be exact right ;) ) You are very TALL. and we already knew that ;). You got your Flu Mist and last immunization for Hep. You did not shed a tear, but looked up at me like "what in the world was that". It was both pitiful and strong.

You are very healthy, but have some trouble sleeping and settling at night. I think this may be a universal "kid" problem, but I thought I would talk to the doctor for tips as you are starting to get dark circles under your eyes because of being tired. We are working on some different techinques, and all in all I would say you are making progress, but you will always be my early riser.

At your Princess Birthday Party!!

Posing with Grammy and Bland.

Grammy and Grandaddy Bland.

Opening presents with your BFF Maddie.

Your buddy.

Blowing out your candles with Lucy and Alice.

Family Shot.

My favorite little girl in the WHOLE WORLD!

You love to blow out candles...I can't keep one burning in the house because you blow them all out :)

If I had written out a specific request to God titled, "What I want my daughter to be" you would be the answer. While we spend another Fall preparing for another baby brother, I look at you daily and think about how absolute our love is in this little medium sized family ;). Happy Birthday my precious Sweet Thing.

I love you to the moon and back.

Momma

8 Months Old-Bland

I am going to be brutally honest with you buddy. Your first 5 months of life were rough. There were days that we sat and held you as you screamed and cried and refused to eat, and wondered, "will he ever be happy". Obviously the sleep deprivation and stomach churning worry did not help our overwhelmed and a bit over dramatic concerns, but we are parents and that is what we do.

And as life seems to do, or maybe its a God, or maybe it is just time. The storm begins to clear, and slowly but surely the crying becomes less and less, the bottles become emptier and emptier, and before we know it, we are staring in the face of a happy, smiling, giggling baby boy.

 Chunky baby thighs.

My baby boy Bland, on a daily basis I look into that toothy grin and feel some pretty amazing amounts of love. It is a new feeling of pride because you have really "made it through" some tough times. Your body is starting to agree with you and the GERD is calming, your only sign of Laryngomalacia is when you get excited and inhale quickly, it sounds like a loud frog croaking. You take most bottles awake, but drifting into sleep, and you gobble food three times a day with a snack in the afternoon. I started you on table foods early because I know it will take longer for you to learn to swallow comfortably. So far you love green beans, spaghetti, Cheerios, and bananas the most and will eat and eat and eat. Feeding yourself has become a new hobby.

No mom understands the JOY of watching your child gobble food, until you have a child with a feeding aversion. It is like my heart will burst when I see you willingly and happily eat.

Physically, as I have said before, you are rather large ;). You weighed about 23 pounds a month ago, so I am not sure what it is now. I tried to measure you with a tape measure but I couldn't get you to stay still. You are in 12/18 month clothes and your foot is a size 4.

You are pulling up, standing, and trying to cruise, but still trying to figure out your coordination. You say "da-da" over and over and over and over again....then when you get really, super upset (which you still do and continue to have a pretty large temper...eh hem, thank you daddy) you will push out a "ma-ma-ma". I like to pretend these syllables/noises pertain to the given parent, but I know they don't ;)

You sleep really well (compared to your sister AKA the worst sleeper...ever.) Bedtime is 7pm and you are up between 6-7 am. Then you nap 9-10 and 12:30-3. So as you being to cut out your morning nap, hopefully your afternoon nap will stay consistent. This all sounds very rigid, but honestly the days you get "off schedule" you are kind of a wreck. You and your sister are very dependent on routine.

Sitting with your sweet Grammy.

Happy 8 months Blandy Boo, as Charlotte calls you ;)

Look Alikes

 Your daddy has very distinct features, and I have said it many times. He has the "tall, dark and handsome" look going on. 

As our lives revolve around Disney princesses these days, I find he looks mostly like Eric from Little Mermaid or even Aladdin...:) 

So it goes, you two have lots and lots of your daddy in you. Bland is often called Little Eddy. However, your daddy and I think you both have a lot of mommy in you too, it is just less noticed.

I wanted to show you, for the record ;), just how much you look like mommy and the "Worleys", too. xoxo, mommy                          

Life's BIG Surprises

Sometimes the story of your life is bigger than you could have ever planned or imagined. I, your crazy mother, am quite the planner. I wanted to graduate college early, I did it. Your daddy and I wanted to marry young, we did. We wanted to start a family young, we did.  Everything felt natural and life had its hard times, its fun times and its learning moments. We seemed to truck right along.

That is when fate, God's plan, oopsy moments...call it what you want. That is when our sweet thing became bigger than we could have dreamed.

On May 6th, exactly one year since I found out I was pregnant with Bland...I found out I was pregnant with baby number three. I had a sort of "mother intuition moment" where I was in an MRI machine for some scans to prepare for a spinal surgery that I need to have...again. But that is another story.

At the beginning of the MRI, I had a major minor panic attack and as the sweat beads poured over me...I made them pull me out, I quickly got dressed, and said I am sorry, but I will have to reschedule.

This surprised me, because I am usually the strong, bull headed one. The one that will get through anything, even with innate fear, just to prove I did it. I mean I deliver almost 10 pound babies with a broken Harrington rod...I can certainly do an MRI. Well not that day. And apparently for good reason.

A day later. There I was, standing shell shocked yelling Eddy's name through the house. I think he thought I was dying. But there I stood, with a "there's two pink lines panic". Boy I thought the MRI caused an attack...I was wrong. I sat there and began to take deep breathes, mainly because I was about to hyperventilate...I thought, "I just got done consoling my colicky 14 week old for three hours, we just got out of our hospital trip a month ago..."And maybe for a second, I selfishly thought, "I just put all of my maternity clothes away, and invested in a shelf full of wine." Just being honest.

So, after 3 more tests, and a sleepless night, I woke up the next morning (after a few times through the night to feed Bland) and fixed Charlotte breakfast while Bland cried and my eyes blurred from exhaustion. I went to hear the heartbeat that day and guess due dates as I was apparently clueless.

Later that day, with the help of my husband, who is obviously meant to be a coach of some sort, I started to breathe. He called me after lunch with a friend and said, "Obviously this is all part of our life's plan, this is what is supposed to be, there is a reason you did not go through with that MRI, there is a purpose for us learning so much from Bland's health issues, our faith is pushing us to the limits, and we need to believe that everything is going to be just fine."

FAST FORWARD.

That was all 4 months ago. Now I can sit here and say it has all soaked in. I have heard the strong heart beat loudly, and I feel the kicks and stretches daily. I also know that "it" is another sweet boy. I knew he was a boy from day one. I felt it, I thought it, I just knew it. Everyone around said it was a girl, but I knew different. He will be exactly one year apart from big brother Bland, and 3 years and 3 months younger than big sister Charlotte. This will be a crazy journey for our family, and all I can say is I love my babies with everything I am, and this family that we are creating is every inch of my world.

My heart is full, overwhelmed and anxious. The idea of having the chance to be a parent to three blessings makes me ask all kinds of questions, "How did I get this lucky?", "How will I get everyone in the car?", "Why is God trusting me with all of these lives?", "What if there is sibling rivalry, jealousy, competition?", "Will I ever sleep again?", "Am I a good enough mom to do this?", "What if I fail?". I have played all kinds of scenarios and worries in my head until I drive myself crazy.

But the one thing I keep coming back to is my kids faces. The love I feel when I hold them. The fullness I have knowing I wake up to them in the morning. The gratitude each day brings me knowing that they are healthy and happy (most of the time). The hope and new found faith I have gained from the little one I carry now. Amazing what happens when you let love take the lead.

to be continued...

Bland 7 Months

You are the Army Crawl Master.  You can also crawl "normally", but your belly is so heavy and large you opt for the army crawl. Totally understand, my arms hurt from holding you 24/7 so I feel your pain!

I must say that for the "hardest baby ever" you have been a pretty cute, fun, sweet, did I mention cute little guy. Your crying is few and far between, unless you are tired and then its all over. When you are done, you cut off. So, a pretty strict schedule works wonders for you and your sister...and mommy and daddy. I am proud to say that although you still have to be 1/2 asleep for most bottle feedings, you are starting to at least be somewhat awake, and comfortable with swallowing. You are also enjoying all sorts of baby food, and Puffs. Funnies part, you will eat any vegetable but don't love any fruit but peaches. Needless to say you weigh in at 23 pounds, so we are doing something right.

Changing your diaper is like wrestling a bull to the ground, and getting you dressed or washing your face follows suit. I am serious here. It.is.impossible. This deserves its own award to anyone who can successfully get you changed without ripping the diaper, starting over, giving up, etc. You may live naked until you are at least 2. ;)

It is becoming harder and harder to hold you because you try to flip out of my arms to get to whatever you want to "get in to" which is usually something that could hurt you, or break, or spill. You have successfully swiped the counter top of a bouquet of flowers and full glass vase, chewed on a power cord (yes I saved you), almost climbed out of your crib, fallen off of the bed, bumped your head on the coffee table, hmmmmm, what else, almost gone down the stairs in the walker, thanks to your sissy having a "race" with you...I think the title for this situation is 100% BOY. I would also like you to know that I was present for all of these and none were because you were unattended, I just literally couldn't get to you fast enough. Out run by a 7 month old.

I am totally in love with you. Your handsome, cute and have delicious cheeks. You break out in laughter when your sister has a tantrum (and I sort of want to laugh with you), and it freshens the moment. Your six toothed grin is irresistible, and basically you are just all around awesome. I love you my sweet little bland.

This is your 7 month picture...It is all I got buddy, I tried to get some others. But this is the one shot of you completely still and scrumptious. :) XOXO, mommy

Charlotte Said...

Charlotte: "Momma, come here, let me tell you a secret"

Me: "OK, what is it?"

Charlotte: (In my ear, loudly) "Ain't no thang but a chicken wang"