Prayer for baby Stellan

The little baby who I had written about a few weeks ago, Stellan (McMama's youngest)is very sick again. He has been diagnosed with RSV, basically meaning what started as a common cold has progressed into a very serious and threatening illness for the little guy. So, if you think of him, say a little prayer for this beautiful little family. You can check out McMama's blog (My Charming Kids is linked lower on the left hand side of the screen) for updates strait from the source.

Sigh... Another one has come and gone.

I think the whole world is joining together is a collective SIGH. The Christmas season has past us again for another year. Farewell to 2008, hello 2009.

I love this time of year, and I love spending time with all our family - but wowza I'm beat. We hosted my side of the family this year, and it was SO much fun. The meal turned out fantastic, which considering it was my first time hosting, I was pleased about. We played game after game, which honestly is probably my favorite part of Christmas. Even after being told "I stink at spelling" I showed them all by whooping them all in Upwords! Pit was a loud roaring good time also.

Once again, Grady was showered with gifts. My only "not me" for this Monday is that I definitely did not succeed in "not spoiling" him! But, we are beyond thankful for everyone generosity and are encouraged by the fact that he is a much loved baby.

As promised, here are a few pictures of our celebrations for your viewing pleasure.

Better late than never right!

Its been a busy, but good week in the Falk house hold. We had our Christmas #1 with the Falk side of our family on Sat, which was a very good time. Of course, G-man and cous Jackson were showered with gifts, all of which they loved and will love for quite some time. Grady seemed especially taken with the lovely silver bow that adorned one of the first gifts he opened. He played with that silly bow until it completely fell to pieces. One highlight of the day (besides the fantastically amazing meal Gwen put on) was that Jackson and Grady seemed to get over their shy feelings, and behaved like buddies! We even caught them conversing in baby language a time of two. The battles over toys even stayed at a minimum! I will post pictures of both Christmas shin digs when they are both over. You can look forward to a cute one of Grady and Jackson sitting like such big boys in their new lazyboy chairs that came from Grandma and Grandpa F.

Christmas #2 is coming up starting tomorrow and we are very much looking forward to it!
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It was brought to my attention that I missed my "Not Me's" on Monday (I apologize). It would seem that my silly stories are actually read by some people.... So here they are - better late than never!

I definitely did not spend the better part of an hour crawling around the house "chasing" my nine months old around. And his silly laughter and frantic high speed crawling was defiantly not just as much fun for me as it was for him!

And I surely did not lapse in my supervision skills one second to long, which was definitely not just enough time for my baby to push the bathroom door open, find the toilet paper and proceed to unroll nearly the entire thing. I then definitely did not simply roll it back up in a haphazard form for future use...

I also have not given into the fact that Grady generally only likes to play with things he can't have. I surely did not stock the lower kitchen drawer with all the wooden spoons, spatulas, measuring cups and more simply to let him "think" he's gotten into something he shouldn't. And I don't smugly enjoy the good 45 minutes that his sneaky discovery buys me in the kitchen.

To add onto the above "not me" - I surely did not discover that he had figured out how to pull open a drawer by the discovery that he had cut himself on the cheese grater... oops. Maybe I shouldn't have typed that one... oh well - it wasn't me
anyhow.
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Until next time - Have a happy happy Christmas and New years. I hope you find peace and love in abundance during this time.

Happy birthday to.... Me!

Another year older, and another year wiser... right! Who knows if that is true, but I can say that my 25th year was a year full of change and growth for me. I entered this year knowing that my life was going to change ten fold with the arrival of our then unknown baby. What I didn't know was how MUCH it would change, and how much growing it would require. I think in a lot of ways, I grew up last year. Becoming a mom has asked that of me.

I think my hope for life in the coming year, is that I will have the courage to know myself and the strength to be the women I know I can be.

When I think about next year, I have NO idea what is in store for us as a family of three. But, I do know this. Life is good! No scratch that - life is GREAT. I love who I am, I love my family, and I love our life. So here's to 26!

More Not Me Monday's

Without further build up, more Not Me's. A time when women across blogger world admit their shortcomings and live to smile about it.



This past week, while visiting my Grandmas house, I surely did not watch absently as my son crawled over to the table, and began to pull himself up on the back of the thick wooden kitchen chair. I did not think to myself "hmm, I wonder if that chair is solid enough for him to yank on it like that" only to have my thought finished by the vision of my baby tumbling backwards, followed closely by the large, very heavy wooden chair. And I defiantly did not get there too late, only to see that the chair had landed smack on his face. When I did remove my screaming baby from under the wreckage, there was surely not a large nasty bruise right under his eye...

And when we arrived home, Dan surely did not high five our baby and say "way to go buddy. Your first shiner". That was definitely not us.

I surely don't laugh every time our baby refers to him dad as "Diddy". I must not think it is just the cutest thing ever.

When taking Grady to the health unit for another weigh in, I did not see the nurse sceptically looking and my bruised baby thinking who knows what in her head. I surely did not hug my little man closer and proceed to tell the story only to assure myself and her that I am a good and safe mama even though my babies face might not look it at the moment... We then did not share an awkward giggle, knowing without saying it, that she was asking herself if she believed me.

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Here's a pic of the damage. It healed quickly, and really wasn't that bad.

I noticed today that its been almost a week since I posted. Technically, I have an hour and half before its Monday again - but I thought I should at least post something in between my "Not Me's". What to write.. what to write... oh I know. I got Grady weighed last week (on Monday actually) and he was *drum roll please* a whopping 23 pounds and 13 oz or so. Technically he was 24 pounds even while wearing his shirt and diaper, so when you factor that out I would guess he was around that weight. At seven months, he was 23 pounds and 4 oz, meaning he's only gained nine or so ounces in two months. However, he did grow a little under an inch in length coming in at 29 1/2 inch's. I guess that when you are constantly on the go, except for when you are sleeping, you don't gain as quickly :D. Ah, we love our little into everything G-man.

Other than that, things are pretty normal and steady around here. He has yet to pull our Christmas tree down, which is fantastically good.

Tune in Tomorrow. I will post some stories that are quite the doozy tomorrow :D

Not Me Monday Fun

I shamelessly follow a fun blog titled My Charming Kids written by a mom known as Mckmama. She and her family have a pretty amazing story in which they were told by the Dr's while pregnant with their 4th child, that her little unborn baby would surely die of a heart defect. They said that if he made it to his birthday that he would be terribly sick and would die shortly after. Mckmama used her blog as a place to rally other believes in prayer for her unborn baby. About 5 weeks ago he was born perfectly 100% undeniably healthy. With not a sign of any heart failure at all. For weeks the Dr's waited for the other shoe to drop so to speak, only to admit that something had happened to heal this little baby. Its a pretty neat story of Gods healing power. This beautiful little guy is proof that God gives and God takes, but God is always good.

Anyhow, on to "Not Me Mondays". McKmama started this Monday tradition to demonstrate that NO ONE is perfect and we as mothers fall down and make mistakes many many times. It is true that there is a underlying pressure on all of us to be perfect, which lets face it, is just never going to happen. I say if we do our very best, and love our children with all our hearts then we are doing a good job. The Not Me's are a way to sound off about our shortcomings in a humorous and fun way.
So here goes my first set of slightly sarcastic, hopefully light hearted "Not Me's!"
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A couple weeks ago, while swimming with Shannelle and Cous Jackson, I surely
did NOT huffing and puffing carry my 8 1/2 month old up all the stairs to top of the water slide only to realize that this possibly was a bit fast and big for me to take my baby down. And then I surely did NOT decide to wing it anyhow and proceed to place my baby on my lap, before zooming (yes zooming!) down the large very fast water slide that was NOT meant for moms and their babies. And Shannelle and Jackson did not see a terrified expression on my babies face when we splashed much to fast into the waters below. Nope, NOT me!

And, after months of adamantly insisting on making 100% of my babies food, I definitely did NOT go out and purchase a few jars of Heinz baby food... And I defiantly do NOT cringe every time I feed him this food. No sir, NOT me.

And that's enough for this week. Tune in next Monday for more Not me Therapy. Feel free to check out Mckmama's blog for her "Not Me's" or for more on Stellan's story.

Content

Today is just one of those great days. I don't know what makes this day any different than other days, but it is. I just feel SO content with my life. There is nothing more or less that I want right now. Wait, scratch that... there is nothing more that I need right now.

It hit me just after lunch today. I was cleaning up the regular bomb shell of a lunch mess that Mr. Independent makes while feeding himself. Grady was playing on the floor behind me, rolling his little orange car around. We had a good CD on, full tummies and a warm house. Nothing out the ordinary, but the feeling of absolute completeness came over me. I realized just how blessed we are right now, and just how fast these days are going.

Just thought I'd share. And the fact that Dan and I are going on a solo date tonight might also have brightened my day!
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G-man turned 9 months old yesterday. NINE MONTHS. Wowza. I don't have an update on his stats, but I plan to take him in to get weighed and measured soon.