I’ve gotten a little behind with pictures, but a couple weeks ago we visited Ian’s parents in Carolina, and we had too much fun not to share a few pictures.  They live on a beautiful ranch with lots of green grass, open space, and ATV’s. It is truly a little boy’s paradise.

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Hi Love Bucket,

You are 7 months old now!  You are the most handsome little boy and you melt hearts everywhere you go.  I have to keep a close eye on you, because, on two different occasions, I have bent down to pick something up, while holding you, and when I stood back up, I realized a little toddler girl had been kissing all over you behind my back!  Both times, the little girls were complete strangers!  You are going to have to turn down the charm, son.

You have the best smile.  Truly. It’s amazing. Your whole face smiles- eyes sparkling, nose scrunched, mouth open wide- sometimes smiling so hard that we can’t tell if you are laughing or crying.

You are now able to crawl backwards (you haven’t quite mastered forward), and you can sit up all by yourself!!  Daddy saw you sit yourself up last night for the first time and it caught him completely off guard.  He sputtered, “Um, you just sat up like an ADULT!  Do you, um, wanna go get a beer or something?!”  Haha. Its pretty cool to watch you flip yourself up from belly flop position. You aren’t that coordinated at any of these new skills yet though, so you kinda remind me of a helpless, flailing turtle.

You have decided that you want to only eat “real” food- actual BITES, no more mashed and pureed baby food.  Your favorites now are humus, prunes, your teacher’s squash soup that she makes just for you, and Baby Mum Mums (Aka- GIANT rice krispies).  I also let you taste a french fry yesterday (I know, I’m a mommy failure) and you went NUTS.

You continue to grow every day.  We are now buying size 3T clothes for you! When I was folding laundry this afternoon, I chuckled as I laid your shirt next to your 5 year old foster brother’s- I couldn’t tell one bit of difference in size.

The red one is yours!

Your hair no longer feels like velvet, and is actually starting to fill in a bit. And, it is becoming more and more obvious that you are a RED HEAD. 🙂 Oh, and you are getting cute little baby hair on your arms and legs!

Your two bottom teeth are getting bigger every day.  It is exciting, strange, and a little sad to see teeth in your mouth when you smile at me.  It is so much fun watching you grow and change, but I still hate how FAST this is all going.  I only have a few days left before you are crawling all over.  I’m trying to savor every last second.

The other big accomplishment this week is swimming! You can float on your back ALL BY YOURSELF, you can float in your tube and kick your feet to “swim” clear across the pool , and when I “superman fly” you under the water, you come up LAUGHING and SQUEALING.  You are part fish, I’m convinced.

If you can’t tell, I LOVE being your Mommy and this is THE BEST summer vacation I’ve ever  had.

Happy 7 months, Grae!

I love you… more and more each day.

Every year I look forward to summer break.  This summer, though, takes the cake.  Spending the entire day with my sweet baby boy?  Yes, please!  It is my first summer vacation from the mom side of things, however, so we are still perfecting our routine. I will say, we haven’t had ANY problems finding stuff to do thus far.  We’ve been taking long walks every morning, swimming most afternoons, cooking dinner every night, and fitting in lots of tummy time (he’s only a few days away from CRAWLING!) and more play dates than I ever imagined a 6 month old could have in between.  Turns out Grae is a pretty popular fella. 😉

We are finally starting to feel a little better around here, and after surviving 9 weeks of a hellacious virus that turned into walking pneumonia, and Grae cutting his first two teeth at the same time, I feel like the next couple months can only get better.

🙂

Grae is teething again… his second tooth is cutting through as we speak.  He’s trying his hardest to be a solider.  However, his hardest means that we cannot even think about putting him down.  As long as we are toting all 21 pounds of him around, he is ok.  🙂 Soon he will have his two bottom pearly whites.  The first one seems to have grown an inch each time he wakes from a nap.  Sorry for the blurry pic- its the best I can do with an unwilling model.

Grae waved “HELLO” to his Daddy today!  I don’t know how these little gestures can be such momentous achievements, but I can’t even begin to contain my pride.  It is the most amazing thing in the world to watch this tiny baby communicate with us… ok, so maybe he’s just mimicking our actions… either way, HE WAVED, dammit.

😉 Completely.Awesome.

Its been a rough week around here- RJ and I have been sick with strep throat and a relentless cough since last Sunday, and if I wasn’t suffering enough with strep, I lost my voice for the first time in life as well.  Then, RJ acquired a nasty case of ring worm, and then the next day, we found out Graeson has pink eye.   On top of all of these issues, Grae had his 6 month check up today, which meant more vaccinations. So, I’m pretty sure that will translate into a super crabby, sore little dude.

On a positive note, tomorrow is the last day of school.  I’m definitely looking forward to summer vacation.

Also, at Grae’s checkup, we learned that he is now in the 94th percentile for weight, 86th for height and 52nd for head circumference.  He weighs 21 pounds, 6 ounces, is 27 inches long, and his little head is 44 cm around. The doctor said he looked great and the nurse couldn’t get over how “smart and alert” he was already.  Grae recognized the person that gave him shots last time and he started crying as soon as he walked into the room.  The nurse explained that babies don’t usually do that until they are 12 months old or older.  That’s our little Baby Einstein. 😉

We hope your week is going a bit better than ours.

Have you ever been scared to share a lifelong dream- to actually say the words out loud?  To make it public?  As if validating that dream may somehow cause the dream to no longer come true? If so, where does this fear come from? Is this some remnant from childhood when you were reminded each year as you were blowing out your birthday candles not to ever tell anyone your wish or it wouldn’t come true? Or does it originate from a much deeper place? A place where the fear of failure overcomes all?

Thoughts?

I have been trying to organize all of the documents on my computer and save them onto an external hard drive, as I’m not sure how much longer my computer is going to hang on.  While doing so, I found an electronic journal that I was keeping from when I was eighteen. The first page was a bucket list- a list of things I wanted to do before I “kicked the bucket.”  How morbid!  I have decided that I hate the term “Bucket List,” and that a list goals, wishes dreams that I hope to accomplish in my lifetime would be more suitably called a Conquer List. 🙂  So I’ve renamed it.  Aside from that, I love looking back- I can remember how I felt as I wrote each entry.  It is fun to see what I have accomplished on my list, what I no longer want anything to do with (that’s what growing up will do to you, I suppose), and what I would like to add to it now, 9 years later.

My CONQUER List
~2003~

Graduate from college (2007)

Marry my best friend (2010)

Jump out of a plane on my wedding day (I’M SO OVER THIS! We had planes fly over our wedding ceremony, I’m going to count it- haha)

Have lots of babies (One down, lots to go ;))

Save someone’s life

Anonymously help a family in need 

Become a foster parent

Become a Doctor by age 30 (Ph.D. is in progress, and I still have three years ;))

Learn to speak Italian (Well I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Italian Studies, but never really became fluent… I’ll have to keep working on it, maybe a few more trips to Italy are in order ;))

Adopt a child (Also still in the plans :))

Fill my home with life and love- children, pets, friends, and family (This is a lifelong goal, but I definitely keep this in mind as we build our life together.  My decorating style- EVERY room in our house must contain something living in at all times-is just one example ;))

Obtain a job that I am passionate about, one that challenges me  (I love my job!)

Get a pet monkey (Someday!)

Now these are all great dreams, however…

My Dad said something when Grae was born that stood out in my mind.  He said, “Grae could very easily live into the 22nd century.”  It got me thinking about what he would see in his lifetime, and what I’d see in mine.  Sometimes it feels like its a race against time to experience these “once in a lifetime” adventures before they are gone, overcrowded or depleted.  Now that I have a child of my own, I hope to expose him to as many of these escapades as I can (as soon as he’s old enough to remember them, of course).

 So, here are some additions  to my list:

See the whales in Hawaii

Live like a local in a foreign village for a month

Grow big, beautiful peonies in my garden just like my Great Grandma Mary

SCUBA dive the Great Barrier Reef

Hold a koala bear in Australia

Teach/volunteer in a foreign country 

Fly a plane

Travel the world, making sure to see all 7 of the world wonders

Homeschool my children

Get my children their English Passports- how cool would it be for them to have dual citizenship like their Daddy?

Learn the art of photography

Cook delicious, healthy meals and eat together as a family as many nights as possible

Start a college fund for my children Thanks so much, Mom and Dad- the significance of this gift cannot be put into words.

and,

Dance with my son at his wedding

What is on your “Conquer List”?