Strong Bonds

This past weekend Austin and I went to a marriage retreat in Estes Park. The army puts on this retreat, called Strong Bonds, 4 times a year and it is held at the YMCA of the Rockies. If you google it you can find some pictures - it is gorgeous. Although the retreat was great, it would have been pretty awesome to just sit outside all weekend and stare at the beauty. Not to mention the weather was perfect! I took lots of pictures but, as usual, they are stuck on my camera still - itching to be shared. I will write a follow-up post later this week just of pictures, I promise.

Austin was supposed to have the entire day off from work, but because he was so busy last week (or for the last 6 months) he said he had to go in for a few hours. I was slightly irritated when I got off work, got William, stopped at a coworker's house to drop something off, and made it home before he ever got off - but he did make it home in time to get the truck packed, drop Layla off, and hit the road by 2:00. So, I guess I didn't have much room to complain.

We've been to Estes Park quite a few times; it is one of my favorite places in Colorado. It is nestled on the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park so wildlife can often be spotted roaming through people's yards and through town, and it offers all the small tourist town charm that you could hope for. (I think I also told you last year on our anniversary trip that they have BLUE BELL ICE CREAM which we, again, indulged in twice) We hadn't ever gone this far through and out of town though, and it was just beautiful. The resort was in a little valley so there were peaks all around and I was in my own little heaven. I think it'd be a wonderful place to have a family vacation or reunion (be on the lookout for an email, Ford Family) because there were SO many options for activities. crafts, horseback riding, fishing, disc golf, putt-putt golf, real golf, sand volleyball, bike rides, hiking trails - if its an outdoor activity, they have it. I loved it!

We weren't there for the activities though, we were there to build a stronger marriage. And that we did. No marriage is without room for improvement, and you always hear that the marriages which start strong and later fizzle are the marriages in which the partners failed to continue working at it. So, when we were presented with the opportunity to spend a weekend learning more about each other and the bond of marriage we thought "why not?" We had a session Friday night, 2 on Saturday morning, a break to spend with each other in the afternoon, a session Friday late afternoon, and one Sunday morning. The meals were all paid for and in the time we weren't in classes we could wander down into downtown Estes, eat at the cafeteria, or do whatever we wanted. (no TV though - they were removed from our rooms)

Friday's session was the most productive for us. It was a class on the 5 love languages. If you haven't heard of it, you should google it just to learn more. I won't go into FULL detail because it is an entire book - and I'm not so good at short summaries. But, the basic skeleton of it is that there are 5 basic ways in which we all receive/interpret love the best. The 5 options are: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, Physical Touch. I would have sworn Austin's was Acts of Service because that is the way in which he shows his love the most, and I would have guessed mine would have been Quality Time. I was wrong though!

My love language is words of affirmation and his is quality time. This brought new light to recent conversations we've had. Last week I told Austin that I was disappointed in how little I felt appreciated for my support of his deployment. I told him that I wasn't really sure what I expected as a "thank you" (well, diamond earrings are a given but beyond that...) but that I just felt like my role was completely overlooked. Not just by him, but by people in his unit and by people in general. I realize that he carries a much greater burden and is laying much more on the line, but I feel like sometimes people forget the sacrifice of the families. I know we don't do it for "thank you" or acknowledgement - blah blah blah - but its still nice to hear. He felt bad that I had felt unappreciated and said that he must just assume that I know he appreciates my support but that he'll try to do better at letting me know. Then when we learned my love language, it made more sense to both of us.

On the same note, we learned more by knowing his love language too. Oftentimes he will suggest that we go play golf on the weekends, and generally I say no. I say no because golf is about a 4.5-5 hour game, plus transportation and getting ready so it could take up to 6 hours! I struggle with spending 6 hours on anything because my mind constantly thinks about the things that I should be doing. I should be doing laundry, going grocery shopping, cleaning the house, etc. I always assumed Austin was suggesting it because he just felt like golfing, so I would give him the green light to go ahead and go. I never understood why, in those instances, he didn't end up going. Then this weekend he said that when he suggests that we go together it isn't just because he wants to golf, its because he wants to together. I explained my side a bit, so we agreed that if there's stuff to do at home but he wants to spend time together golfing that we go for 9 holes instead of 18.

Overall, the retreat was good. We had a good time, refreshed ourselves on somethings we already knew and learned a few new things. Plus I met the spouse of one of the guys Austin will deploy with, so that is probably a good thing too. She was very nice. Right now her husband works shift work like Austin used to, so he doesn't have a lot of free time, but once training starts he suggested we spend some time together so she and I can get to know each other a little bit better. Marriage fuel and a potential new friend? I'd say the weekend was a success.

The Hidden Miracle

As you are already aware, I have volunteered to be the Team Captain for Western Union's Light the Night team. The HR representative who leads the Wired for Fun (social committee) team asked me if I would attend their monthly meeting and speak a little bit about the walk. I'm not big on speaking in front of strangers. I know I've said I'm a talker, and that is generally true, but standing in front of a crowd of people I don't know is not my most talkative venue.

Standing up and speaking in front of 35 extroverts whom I've never met, all waiting for the speaking to be over in order to throw a surprise baby shower for one of the team members, is definitely not my most talkative platform. The good thing about extroverts, though, is that they tend to be very welcoming and excited to meet new people so it wasn't so bad. The talk went well and I think I recruited some more walkers!

On my way down to the meeting I was trying to think of what I would say about the walk, and I had a realization. I knew the HR rep wanted me to talk a little about the walk and a little about my motivation to be the team captain, so I was trying to think of what details to include about my motivation. I ran through the idea of saying "my dad passed away nearly 13 years ago..." when it hit me: this coming February 2 is the one I've been dreading for years. The first was hard, and I knew the 10th would be hard (something about that even number 10). But the one I always dreaded was 13. Why? Because that year would mark the point in my life when I had officially lived just as long without my dad as I did with, and I always felt like from that point forward I'd have less of a connection. As I started dreading the upcoming anniversary all the more, I then remembered the miracle of William's birth. I already knew the blessing that it was, but this was a piece of the blessing that I hadn't realized before. I wouldn't need to dread this 13th anniversary because I have William's first birthday to celebrate.

It's true that with every closed door there's an opened window.

With that being said, I think its time I start thinking about his first birthday party. After all, I don't even have 6 months left to plan it! :) I won't make a HUGE ordeal of it and spend oogles of money (or so I think right now) but it will be a celebration to remember. My friend Robert was born on January 31 and for most of his birthdays I've attended a party in honor of him on Super Bowl Sunday. I won't be able to this year, but what better time to have a party for William? The Super Bowl falls on the Sunday after his birthday, and Austin and I are both pretty big football fans, so why not celebrate during halftime? I don't watch for the commercials or the halftime show, that's when I like to talk and eat...and have William shove his face in a cake. Sounds pretty perfect to me :)

So today I'm thankful once again not only for William's birth, but for the precise way in which God planned it. And for the first time in 13 years, I'm looking forward to February 2.

Scootin', Tootin', and Laughin' up a Storm

Annnnd we're mobile everyone! I wouldn't say William is crawling, but he scoots himself around to get what he wants. He can't go very fast yet so don't expect him to travel far for anything. He does it the opposite way that most people have told me their babies started scooting though. He has no interest in the army crawl - its more like a reverse army crawl. He gets his arms in the army-crawl position, but then stuffs his face in the ground, shoulders down, and butt up as high as it will go. Then we scoot! The farthest he's gone is about 3 feet I think, but he is SURE proud of himself once he raises his head and realizes where he is. Just a few short weeks ago William thought he needed to lay on his belly and have all limbs in the air in order to move. Its amazing how quickly they learn. Here is another Goddard picture of his old form of crawling...I'll have to try to get a video on here of him actually moving. Its a sight to see :)He also has a new fascination with his toots. He thinks they're hilarious! Anytime I hear a toot I no longer have to wonder if it was Austin, William, orr Layla because Austin will look at Layla if it was him, William cracks up if it was him, and no one budges when it was Layla. I'm not sure if the toots are really that funny or if he just likes his laugh because he really seems to enjoy laughing!

His favorite time to laugh is right before bath time, which has been the case for a month or so. We take him in his room, lay him on his changing pad and get him undressed for bathtime. At this point we tickle him a little and he laughs a LOT. It has been so fun to see (hear) his laugh evolve. Now he has the normal huh-huh-huh-breath-huh-huh-huh sort of rhythm, and the breaths are precious. Its like he thinks he'll never breathe again. Every night we worry we're getting him too rowdy before bedtime, but after he expels all of his energy in the bathtub he is ready to calm down, take a bottle, hear some stories and go to sleep.

We seem to rotate between the same books at bedtime, but we try to have some variety. He really likes the pictures in Oh the Place You'll Go and he loves all the board books that he can grab onto. Right now we are in the middle of reading the Bible for about the 5th time. Its the kids version, and honestly I really like how simple the stories are. There have been a few stories that we've read when one of us has said "ooooo so THAT is what it means?" or something to that sort.

On Monday when I picked William up Miss Elise said, "Well, I think William is officially in the spoiled baby category". She explained that he would not allow the teachers to leave his side all day without throwing a fit or taking him with them. He didn't sleep much, didn't eat much, and just wanted extra attention. She said its common for them to have a week or so of rougher days around their mid-year birthday, but yesterday he was back to normal. Hopefully it was just one day for him :)

Tonight I think we'll let him try eating peas. So far he's had sweet potatoes, bananas, butternut squash, and applesauce - and has really liked them all! I'm a little worried about the bitterness of the peas, but I guess we'll see. This weekend I'll have to go get some peaches or other new fruits for him to try. Maybe avocados - he sure liked those in my belly! That may have been me though, it was hard to decipher back then :)

I can't think of anything else monumental that happened this week. He had lots of fun pulling toys out of the toy bin, rolling all around the crib in his sleep, holding the spoon as we fed him, and just being a happy little baby. He loves his Nancy cat (he's warming up to Layla, no interest in Reagan), loves splashing in the tub, is fascinated that he is able to move around to get things, and he loves, loves, LOVES his daddy. I know children go back and forth on their favorites, but right now Austin takes the cake. Its like William idolizes him! Its a pretty incredible blessing to be able to watch the two of them stare at each other with amazement in their eyes - that's enough for me!

Take a Deep Breath, Close Your Eyes...

You can do this.

You've been here before, you've gotten through this before.

You can do this.

This is me motivating myself.

First, let me apologize if this is the first you are learning of what I'm about to write. Generally when things like this come up I run to many, many people for comfort, advice, encouragement, just an open ear etc. I probably go to each person for a specific need as I believe God plants people in our lives to fill different needs we may have. But this time I found myself holding it in. Processing it alone. And with a shocking level of peace. I do apologize though if you are someone I generally run to and now you feel as though I didn't utilize the gift of our friendship. It isn't for lack of needing you, I promise. I think I needed to do this one alone, and honestly - it happened at light speed.

This past week Austin let me know that we had to have a "serious discussion". He told me this in a text message and to any text-lovers reading this: do not send that message in a text message. Ever. Sometimes, when possible, face to face is the only option. He could have left his message at that and I would have known exactly what it was about, but he didn't. His text read:

We need to have a serious discussion tonight. About a deployment. CSM and 1SG asked me today if I can go on a JACKL deployment.

You don't need to know what all the acronyms mean; they're not important. There is only one word in the entire text that is important, and it is the word that I predicted after I saw "serious discussion".

Deployment.

I am an Army wife. I would seriously never have dreamed I'd be an Army wife, but maybe I should have seen the writing on the walls years ago. When GI Joe came out with the larger GI Joe dolls I used to steal my brother's so Barbie could marry GI Joe instead of that pansy boy Ken. I wasn't a fan of Ken. Call me crazy, but I have trouble trusting men who have better hair, better teeth, and take longer to primp themselves than I do. Those men are great for the girls who have better hair, better teeth, and take longer primping than they do, but I'm pretty low key as far as physical maintenance. My first serious boyfriend is now in the Air Force. Lots of guys that I dated or had crushes on are either now in the military or have served already. So why I "never would have dreamed” I'd be a military wife, I'm not really sure. I even told my ex-boyfriend that I couldn't imagine marrying him if he ended up joining the air force because what if our country went to war?

How naive I was.

I never would have thought to myself, "I think I want to be an army wife". I never even thought I was built for that. I don't know what I thought it took to be the wife of a service member, but I was pretty certain I didn't have it. Hell, sometimes I'm still pretty certain. So when Austin's 1SG told me a few weeks ago that I'm the perfect mold for an army wife, I was a bit taken back. Me? First of all, do you even know me? I mean sure we see each other every now and then, and when Austin is working late sometimes I call the office and you answer. Yeah you hear Austin talk about how magnificent I am (cause what else would he have to say?), but do you even know me? How on earth can you presume to know that I was made for this? And please, enlighten me as to why. In any case, I took it as a compliment at the time. I held my head a little higher and walked a little prouder because, as inconsequential as it was, 1SG Keir thought I was a good army wife. ME! Let's relish in the moment.

Well, the relishing is over now. It ended quickly this week when the real test of an army wife slapped me in the face. My husband is asking my permission to agree to a voluntary deployment. Voluntary meaning he can say no. Voluntary meaning he chooses to go over stay with me. Voluntary meaning he has the option to make me a single parent for 9 months or not, and he's choosing the first. What do I do? What do I say? It's very different to hear "Company Commander TOLD me I'm going on a deployment" like he told me 3 years ago. But they asked him? And now he's asking me.

What answer do I have?

I can think of a million reasons why his answer should be no. I can think of one reason why it should be yes. He can think of a million reasons why his answer should be yes, and 2 why it should be no. So its hard to find common ground here. We talked until 2 in the morning and I'm not sure either one of us understood the other side any more than we did going into it. Its important to note that when we have these discussions, I pride our marriage in that we are very productive. We don't resort to name calling, yelling, silent treatments, or other common arguing tactics. I am especially proud to note this because I have never been able to say that before. I was the queen of snide remarks that hit below the belt. I was the queen of bringing up past remarks that contradict current remarks. I was the queen of forcing the other party to cave out of sheer ability to argue regardless of which side may have truly been right. With Austin though, I generally do not employ these tactics. So when I say we were talking until 2 in the morning, I mean we were having as constructive of a conversation as you possibly could have in that situation.

The barrier here is perspective. Then again, isn't it always? If you've seen the movie Dear John you may remember the scene in which John tells Savannah that he is reenlisting and she doesn't have much say in it. She is clearly mad and hurt and frustrated and lost and so many, many other things that I feel but can't describe. He doesn't understand, and in his attempt to calm her he says maybe the worst thing he could say: Savannah, you don't understand. Offensive as it may be, it is true.

It is impossible for someone who is not in the military to truly understand their inner calling. It's impossible to understand their sense of responsibility, loyalty, honor, bravery, and all of the other big strong words that I see posted all over army posts. I can't pretend to know what goes through Austin's head. While I am filled with an overwhelming amount of pride for Austin, Brian, and Jesse's call to service, I do not begin to understand it. However, it is also very true that it is impossible for the soldier to understand the burden left on the spouse. Austin has no idea what all I took care of while he was deployed last time, and he didn't need to know. He has no idea how many times people rushed over to see how he was doing, forgetting that I, too, was going through hell. He has no idea the responsibility of maintaining the house, the bills, the pets, family relations, and countless other things on top of trying to keep a strong front so that he doesn't have to spend extra energy worrying about me. There is a horrible, horrible saying that goes "A distracted soldier is a dead soldier" implying that wives should silently carry that burden. And so I did. I know that not everyone was pleased with how I chose to manage my stress and emotions during his last deployment, but all I can say to that is that I managed it in the best way I knew possible. You show me a way that would be better, and maybe I'll give it a try. Maybe. But this time is oh-so-very-different. This time we have a child. And while I know it tears Austin apart to imagine the things he'll miss, it's no easier for me to imagine raising him alone. No, I won't be alone. I have family, I have friends, and no matter how far away I know I have Austin. But physically speaking - alone.

Two years ago if I needed to curl up in a ball in bed for an entire day I could. If I needed to take 3 bubble baths in a row, changing the water out only as it got too cold, and drink a bottle of wine while staring blankly at the ceiling I could. If I needed to run around town all day, squeezing as many stops in as I possibly could, that was ok too. But its not about me anymore. Its about William. He needs someone stronger than that. Someone who can look at him every day, show him pictures of daddy and say "see your daddy? he misses you and loves you SO much!" with a big grin on my face. He needs someone to wake up with him every day, play with him, feed him, love on him, and help him with all of his development. He doesn't need a wine-o in the bathtub. He makes it SO easy for me to make my life about him because he's so marvelous, but sometimes I hardly know how I made it through the last deployment when my biggest concern was Reagan's bleeding tail. If I barely made it that time, how will I possibly do it this time? And for 3 months longer?

The bottom line here is that though I have no answer I want to give Austin, I do know the answer. And the answer is that he should go. I hate it. It gives me pits in my stomach, wells tears in my eyes and makes my throat ache with a lump the size of a golf ball. I hate that the answer is that he should go, but I honestly never really wondered. I knew the answer before he asked. That is where the shocking peace comes in. I don't want him to go. I want to push him down the stairs so he breaks his leg and can't go. I want this all to be over. Yet, through it all I've known since I got that text message that this is where God has been leading me. He's been working in me for awhile now, and I knew we were headed somewhere. When I got Austin's text, it all became clear. I can't explain it, I just know it was a God thing. And you can't fight a God thing.

Oh, but God help me if Reagan has a bleeding tail.

William Wednesday Sandwich

In high school one of my best friends' name was Amanda, so when people were around us they would often say they were in an "Amanda sandwich". It was irked me because you might say that for lunch you ate a ham sandwich, or that I constantly crave blue bell ice cream sandwiches...the key here being the the contents BETWEEN the bread are what you name. No one says they are having a bread sandwich.

So when I say "William Wednesday Sandwich" I mean that the contents are William Wednesday, the bread is Tuesday Thursday. Because I'm posting about him on the days surrounding William Wednesday. I could have just named the blog something different and not gone into that whole schpeal of my confusion on an insignificant phrase, but this was more fun wasn't it?

Today is all about Goddard updates. Yesterday when I picked William up Miss Elise and Miss Jennifer were busting at the seams to tell me that I have the strongest baby the infant room has ever seen. Why? Well, he's the first baby EVER to pick up "the glitter ball". It is a plastic ball filled with some sort of fluid and glitter that floats around. The babies love to roll it around the floor, but its pretty heavy so apparently no one can pick it up. No one, except William. Mr. Muscle. Man. I thought maybe they were just excited because I happened to come in RIGHT after he did it, but this morning Miss Kim said "Did Jennifer tell you how STRONG William is???" Hmm, apparently he just is that strong.

This month at Goddard the theme is "All About Me". So in William's room they've been taking lots of pictures the past few weeks and this week the teachers started hanging them up. There's a bulletin board with a section for each baby, their hand prints, and a few pictures. Then there are misc pictures hung around the room. THEY ARE TOO PRECIOUS. And it is SO very fun for me to see what he is up to while I'm sitting here writing for your entertainment. I asked Miss Jennifer if she could email me the pictures and she obliged - I didn't realize there were 16! So I'll just share my favorites.

Did I ever write about the lady but hat that hangs from the ceiling? If not - its just this little hat that William loves to stare and and has tried to climb on top of my head in order to grab it. He seems pleased as pop to have acquired it this day:

Or did I mention his love of mirrors?
How about the argument over his hair? I saw this picture and said to Austin "WOW, his hair looks really long in this picture, I wonder why" His response? "Because that was BEFORE YOU LET ME GET HIS HAIR CUT" Hmm. Crap. If I'd realized that I would have kept my trap shut.
And, drum roll please, my favorite. My baby the artist.

It's hard to pick 4 favorites out of 16, but I'll save more for a rainy day :)

The Little Things

I like to cook. I think I always have, though I don't really remember far enough back to be sure. I know in junior high a friend of mine was at my house and we wanted to bake a cake. The ingredients called for 3 3/4 c flour, then the first instruction was to grease and flour the pan so we tried using the entire 3 3/4 c! We had to call my friend MissJan - my answer to all cooking related problems - to ask her how on earth we make all of the flour seep into the crisco. She told us to dump it out, rinse the pan, and start over...which was probably by far the best solution. MissJan has offered me many lessons since then, and I think I'm a pretty decent cook.

In college I developed more of a love for cooking. I didn't have much money, so it was pretty rare that I could cook that extravagant of meals, but I enjoyed cooking when I could and I loved learning all sorts of new recipes, cooking techniques, lessons, etc. I won't say I was the best cook, but I enjoyed it!




I am a Type A cook though. I can't cook macaroni and cheese without measuring spoons, so if I ask you how to make something I'm REALLY looking for a specific, written-out, measured-out recipe. I've done better over the last couple years with trying to just "add a hint of this" and "throw in a pinch of that" but for the most part, I'd really like a detailed guideline. Austin is a great cook, but I would be surprised if he even knows where our measuring spoons/cups are...so in the kitchen, we take the opposite approach. Hmm, I'm pausing here noticing that in most areas of life we take the opposite approach. In the end though, both of our macaroni and cheese delights (we're talking Kraft here) taste equally delicious.


However, I've struggled since William was born with balancing my desire to be physically fit, my work schedule, his daily routine, and my want for cooking. Cooking took the backseat a lot of times as we'd do something fast or simple. Nothing wrong with tostada night or frozen pizza night, but I did grow to miss my full meals.


Enter my birthday present from my mom.

I LOVE it. Love. I don't think I've ever loved a cookbook, and usually I don't do very well with them anyway because there's a lot of sifting through to find a recipe that MAYBE you will like, and I end up with 20 cookbooks while only having tried 3 or 4 recipes from each. When I do get around to cooking I usually go to my own recipe book with a compilation of recipes from family/friends that I know we like. This book, however, rocks. I think we've already tried 8 recipes, and I think we've liked each one. The slow cooker chicken tortilla soup wasn't nearly as good as my homemade chicken tortilla soup...but given the fact that my homemade soup takes over an hour, I'll take the slow cooker recipe and maybe just modify it a bit to add some flavor. (look at ME cooking outside the box!)

The book was written for me, I think. It was written for someone who wants more than just a bowl of cereal, but doesn't have time for an hour of cooking. Most of the ingredients are pre-packaged things like canned beans, frozen broccoli, etc and most recipes don't have more than 10 ingredients. There are also tips for making it quicker. Nothing takes more than 15 minutes of prep time which is perfect, because William happily entertains himself on the floor these days for about 20 minutes before he gets mad that I'm not watching him.

So if you're like me and miss the days of having time to cook delicious meals like chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and fresh green beans, then maybe this book will be a nice fall back. Next weekend maybe I'll go back to the good ol' fried steak meal - its always a crowd pleaser - but tonight, count me in for bacon wrapped pork tenderloin over buttered grits. Yum!

**I forgot to point out the disclaimer: this book is made by southern living. southern cooking is not healthy. so go enjoy some buttered grits, some french toasts roll ups (which are heavenly) and then hit the gym on your lunch break at work. its soooooo worth it.

William Wednesday Tminus1

I've been sitting here thinking of what else to write about today besides William because it isn' t Wednesday. Then I realized how pathetic it is that even when I'M THE ONE IN CHARGE of this thing I still feel like I can't break the rules. I write William Wednesdays. It isn't Wednesday. Can't write today. What kind of lame rule is that? So I'm breaking it.

Only because William turned 6 months old yesterday. YIPPEE happy 1/2 birthday to our baby! We hadn't had a birthday party for him since his 1 week birthday, but we couldn't pass up on 6 months. :) Sunday night I made a spice cake and topped it with 6 candles and some sweet potatoes. Don't worry, the sweet potatoes were in his baby jar so they didn't contaminate the cake for me and Austin! I wanted to get a picture with William and his cake, so I inched it dangerously close to him - and he did what you'd expect, he reached for it. So the first picture Austin got was William grabbing onto the sweet potatoes as I pushed the plate away :) A little distance helped though.

William was MESMERIZED when we lit the candles. It took Austin jumping up and down and waving toys in the air to get him to look up for the camera. Good thing we had already moved the cake away because I'm pretty sure he would have grabbed the flame in half a second. Little did we know, Austin didn't need to jump up and down - we just needed to start singing happy birthday. We sing to him every night, whatever random songs we can think of, but we don't sing much during the day. I'm thinking maybe we should! He thought it was the funniest thing. After we sang to him we gave him his birthday presents. I'll admit, he did get boring things like diapers and wipes but he also got a new outfit and a bath toy. On my birthday he loved playing with the tissue and the bags, so I figured he'd just like to open presents. Austin is more protective with the tissue paper than I am - I guess he's worried that he'll choke himself or something. I just think he's cute when he's stuffing the paper in his face...oops. So, Austin interfered at times while I just looked on and smiled. Then, once the presents were opened, candles blown out (I'd like you to think he blew them out himself because he's a genius), and he powered through his sweet potatoes it was bath time...where he got to play with his new toy!



Other than his 6 month birthday, William had another great week. I have a digital picture frame on my desk and a picture of him when he was a few days old just popped up. He was swaddled in his blanket from Miss Beth with a pacifier in his mouth - the thing was as big as his face! It is so incredible how tiny and helpless he was and a quick 6 months later I have to fight him off of a cake!

He never was one for the pacifier, speaking of - we tried it for the first few days, then grandparents (especially Yaya and Pop) gave it a try periodically to see if it would help but he was never enthralled. The way I see it - that's one less thing to have to worry about later. If it had served its purpose and pacified him, I wouldn't have denied him the comfort - but he'd much rather have a blanket in his fists to stuff in his mouth than a paci, so that's fine by me.

In an effort to make William's diet healthier, make the food taste more appealing, and be a little cost conscious we have decided to make William's baby food. It's actually lots of fun! So far we've made him sweet potatoes, bananas, apples, and butternut squash - but he hasn't tasted the squash yet. That comes tonight! He didn't love the apples at first taste, but now he's a pretty big fan. We bought a cute little baby food maker that steams and then purees the food, so I'm not sure we're actually saving any money all together...but it's still worth it for the other reasons. Have you ever tasted jarred baby food? I used to eat it when I babysat and it all tasted like the same bland cardboard. This homemade stuff rocks - tastes, well, like sweet potatoes! And bananas! And applesauce! Who'da thought? We have some trays of little jars that we use to freeze the food in serving sizes, then just pull a few out and let them sit in the fridge to thaw out...good to go! I'm a pretty big advocate :)

Friday night Kaila and I went to a place called Canvas and Cocktails while Austin got some daddy-baby time with William. He said they had a blast. He picked him up from Goddard which is rare, so I think it was equally special for both of them. Then they went home, played with Layla (who William is growing more and more fond of), played with his favorite balls, jumped in his jumparoo, took a bath, and then daddy got to play some video games. He says his time with William was the best part of the night, but I know he was thrilled to play video games too. He does that about as often as I scrapbook these days, so I'm sure he enjoyed his time.

And one more example of how time flies: when we first took William to Goddard he was one week older than the youngest baby in his class. So basically he and Ethan were the babies. Well, now there are only 3 babies older than him and one of them is out for a few weeks. So he's one of the big dogs! There are 3 new baby girls in the room, so Ethan, William and Diego are now outnumbered 5 to 3. Poor guys :) Miss Kim told me that Helen, Diego and William are all scooting and turning around on the ground - all eager to finally figure out how to move forward but none are there yet. Helen is 9 months and Diego is 8 so I'm guessing one of them will figure it out first, but the way Miss Kim said it generally works when there's a group of them working on the same milestone is that one of them finally gets it and the next day they've all got it. Nothin' like a little competition to spur growth :) It's fun to watch them all trying SO hard to move - I can't wait until the day that I walk in at 5:00 and see them all chasing each other on all 4's :) Little friends are so fun!