Holy cow, I haven't been on here in forever!

Holy cow, I haven't been on here in forever! Well, since I'm back, I'll give a quick recap of the last 8 months.... Evan learned how to roll over, he got a few more teeth for a total of 8 now, he learned how to crawl, and now, 2 days before his birthday, he is walking and talking. Evan has been saying adadadada and bababa for forever it seems, even though I know it hasn't been bearly that long, but over the weekend he started saying "bye" and waving to himself, which is super cute. My silly boy is also starting to say mamamama, which I love. We have big plans for Evan's first birthday party, which we are having at a park in town here on Saturday. We have lots of family and friends invited, and we can't wait! Chad thinks we're going overboard but I think it's just perfect! *Hope the weather's nice!*

Chad started 3 months of overnight shift at work this week, which means I 'm doing 3 months of 2-10 at work. It really sucks to be away from Evan at bedtime. I miss our routine; dinner, bath, play time, books, and bed. I miss rocking my baby as he drinks his bottle. Sweet baby smell, sweet baby noises, sweet baby contentment. It will make me that much more thankful, then, when I can go back to my regular 6-2 and have my bedtime routine back with my toddler.

Life goes on at a speed we never expected. Babies grow up in the blink of an eye. Love them up while you can!

It's definitely Monday...

Evan slept great last night after a busy couple of days. He was having a bottle as I was leaving for work this morning. Chad said that he was crabby this morning. I can't wait for those teeth to come through! This afternoon Evan and I played on the floor. He doesn't really like tummy time but I put him on his tummy anyway. It helps strengthen his neck muscles and gives him more control and coordination over his body. He hasn't rolled over yet but I know it's coming soon! We had a bath today too. I washed Evan's hair twice and it still smells like the baptism oil. I wonder how long his hair will smell like patchouli?

Evan is discovering his voice! He plays on the floor and squeals and yells to his heart's content! Most of the time the noises are happy but Evan sure lets us know if he needs something! Evan likes to play with toy keys and rattles and he likes the exersaucer but he is terrified of the clear bead tube on it. Evan also prefers sitting up over laying back.

Last week Evan started discovering his feet at diaper time. He will grab onto them and hold on. I even saw him with his feet in his mouth a few times! Such a silly boy...

Okay, Evan is asleep and I have to head to bed also. I am going to Cheryl's house tomorrow so I will try to update before then.

New year, new month, new goals

Wow, what a long time it's been since my last post! I really need to be better about updating my blog.... Which brings me to today. My birthday was yesterday. I turned 29. Evan was baptised today. And as Chad and I were driving home, with our son in the back seat, I turned off the radio and started thinking about life.

Things change in the blink of an eye. Lives are changed forever. One day you are pregnant, and the next you are in charge of a person. If you are lucky, you are responsible for helping this person live right and grow up with morals and beliefs. You teach him what is right and wrong, you teach him about loving himself and others, and you teach him about God.

If you do your job right, he grows up and holds steadfast to what eh believes, and while you may not always agree with what he chooses, you are proud of him for standing strong against the opposition. You help him up when he needs it so that one day he can stand up for himself and what is right. You love him and show him how you love others so that one day he can have a healthy, loving relationship with another. While loving himself and others, he learns about God's love for him and others, and he shares that message with fellow believers and those who have yet to believe. It is this love of God that will help him understand when bad things happen to other people.

Evan had a beautiful cousin, Rolin Isaiah, who lived and ceased living on January 26, 2010. Rolin was 3lb 8oz and 15 inches long. He lived for 3 hours and 17 minutes. Just a drop in the hat of time for those of us who spend our years doing things that do not bring us joy or honor. But for Julia and Scott, those 197 minutes will be in their hearts and memories forever. One day I will share with Evan the story of his cousin's short life, and I will use this bible verse, that Julia and Scott picked out just for Rolin: Isaiah 26:3 (New International Version)
"You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you."

It is my reflection of Julia's journey through her pregnancy and knowing that her child would not survive much beyond birth, that I realize how precious the gift of a healthy, happy baby is. I know how quickly memories fade so I am going to make an effort to share an update on Evan every day until his first birthday.

To start with today, Evan is just over 4 months/18 weeks old. He is a happy, smiley boy. He has been eating rice cereal for a week last Friday. I have enough milk frozen and am producing enough each day that Evan has had only breast milk since he was 4 days old. Before then he had a little bit of formula, maybe 10oz or so. He is currently drinking 6oz every 3 hours, with 2oz milk + 2 tbsp rice cereal around 2pm. Evan's bedtime is 8pm and our routine is that he falls asleep with a bottle then lights out then we sing a song and he goes into his bed. He will sometimes fuss a little bit about 15 minutes or so after he lays down but will get himself back to sleep. He wakes up around 3 for a bottle then goes back to sleep till 8/9 or so. Evan is a cat-napper, with a 20-30 minute snooze about 2 hours after he wakes up and about every 2 hours after that. Evan usually wakes up happy, and gives big smiles to whoever gets him from his bed in the morning. In an effort to make sure I come back tomorrow, I will leave more details for tomorrow. I work tomorrow so the update will be later in the day. I have heard that you have to do something for 21 days for it to become a habit. Well, here's to creating new habits this new year.