NO PLANS FOR YOU!

I am going to blog about this so you will ALL hold me accountable.

We have had our Christmas card photo shoot with CFA Photography on the books since summer. As you know from the previous blog I have been stressing about what we would wear, but along with that I have also been calculating how to make sure Renn was in the best of moods during the photo shoot. I knew it would be in the morning (during his normal 1st nap) for ideal lighting. Therefore we have spent days "rehearsing" sleeping later. I was waking him (I know, a huge no! no!) around 5am to feed him and then putting him back down. It was working great! He was waking right on cue and was in a perfectly pleasant mood from waking till the time the photo shoot was scheduled to end. WOO HOO!

THE PLAN was working!

Friday evening comes and everything was set...we had rehearsed...he was well feed...pajamas were just right... and then POOF! THE PLAN disappears!

Instead Mr. Renn decided to wake at 3am - the second I heard him on the monitor I knew we were in trouble. Carey's brain: "it's too early!...you can't wake up!...THE PLAN won't work!" I arise to feed my child and am trying to formulate "plan b". I decide to keep him and me up for awhile...we play...talk...sing. I am thinking if I keep him awake maybe he will sleep in.

NOPE! 7am I hear him chatting! Carey's brain: " Oh no! This will be a disaster! The pictures will be terrible. He will be tired, grumpy, eyes red. What are we going to do?" Time for "plan c" to go into action. Eric is to get dressed as fast as possible and then drive him around. He ALWAYS sleeps in the car! Carrie Fay is going to call when she is ten minutes away from the house and Eric and Renn will arrive back as well. All will be salvaged.

Eric, Renn and Carrie Fay all arrive and Eric announces " he DIDN'T sleep" Carey's brain: " Are you kidding me? He always sleeps, it never fails! I am out of plans...what are we to do? It is all ruined - the show must go on - sleep or no sleep"

The fact is we survived the photo shoot with NO plan. BIG thank you to my parents who jumped up and down and made him laugh with glee. And I here and now resign to NEVER attempting to make a PLAN again!

You can see a preview of our photo shoot here. More pictures to come! Thank you Carrie Fay, you are amazing!

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Moments not to be forgotten...

As we approach month seven I am going to steal a page from my friend Carrie Fay's blog and write about a few things he/we are doing that I simply don't want to forget...




1. Sleeping with his butt in the air with froggie nestled close by.

2. Grabbing his feet to lift his butt in the air when we want to put a new diaper on.

3. Waking up at 3:45 a.m. simply to chat with me. And me praying all the while that sixteen years from now he will still WANT to chat with his mama.

4. Standing in the kitchen cooking dinner listening to Eric make him crack up.

5. Eric sings a song and then Renn sings. Respectfully not interrupting his daddy.

6. How I open MY mouth as he opens his mouth waiting for a spoonful of food.

7. How he props his right foot up on his high chair tray while he eats. I keep trying to teach him this isn't polite, but to no avail.

8. How I have wasted countless hours figuring out what we will all wear for our first family Christmas card pictures. Truth is he would be precious in a diaper.

9. The fact that there are no words to describe how much I cherish the times he falls asleep in my arms.

10. That we can still sing Jesus Loves Me and it calms him down in an instant. We discovered this on about day six of his life and I am thankful it still works.

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it's coming...

A TOOTH, A TOOTH, A TOOTH is coming! I put my finger in his mouth last night and to my surprise I was bit by the beginnings of a tooth. The second one is coming quickly behind it. It is an exciting and sad moment all at the same time!

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