Christmas with the littlest Bailey

What a joy the last two weeks have been. Eric and I have been off together. I can't tell you how nice it was/is to make things happen as a team.

Christmas Eve was wonderful. We had an amazing service at church. I felt a bit guilty sitting with Eric and Renn during the second service since it was over capacity...but it is a memory I will cherish. Despite Renn only having a 25 minute nap that day he did amazing. We headed to Grandma and Grandpa Graca's after for THE BEST lasagna in the ENTIRE world. We opened a hand full of gifts and headed home for some zzzzzz's.

Renn woke up around 7ish on Christmas Day. I had wrapped all his presents in one big box. So we let him just sit with the box for awhile and play with the paper. Finally, I couldn't stand it any longer and took to tearing at it so that we could get to the good stuff. I think I expected more excitement from him than I got. I now realize the poor child was on overload. We eventually put a few things away and only take out one or two at a time. I now get to see the smiles and glee as the toys come out and he gets to play. We hosted breakfast (my all time favorite meal) around mid morning. Renn got more toys from family! The kid scored! We just hung out the rest of the day - playing - eating - napping. It was just great!

Christmas and our anniversary go hand in hand.... So the evening of the 29th the Graca Gang came over while Eric and I had a lovely dinner at Lon's. This was where we had our luncheon following the wedding. Most of the time it is hard for me to believe we are only celebrating our second anniversary. In a good way it feels like we have been together for a lifetime. It was a nice evening filled with great memories!



We headed to Flagstaff on New Year's Eve and let Renn touch the snow. He wasn't overly impressed. And let's be honest - it was really just an opportunity for a photo shoot so that we could show him when he is older that he "played" in the snow.

The rest of the days were filled with catching up on movies, hanging/eating with friends and simpling tackling a few "to-do's" around the house.

We don't know if it is simply because we have been with him 24/7 the last two weeks, but he seems to have changed tremendously in front of our eyes. He can now take himself from his tummy to a full seated position. He is constantly rocking on his knees...learning how to make those crawling motions. You can leave him in one spot and come back to find him half way across the room. Here come the plug covers! It is truly amazing. I wonder if we still change that much everyday and just don't realize it?

As we read the Christmas story to him on Christmas morning - it hit me in a all new way. I guess realizing the amount of work Mary and Joseph had in front of them. Even with the mega amount of support I have, lets face it, raising a baby has a few challenges along the way - I can't even imagine how it challenged Mary. All the things Jesus was going to go through and learn prior to starting his public ministry. Just thinking about how much he spent those first years needing to depend on others to care for him is kinda odd. I mean it's Jesus! It just made me all the more thankful knowing how much He truly "gets" us and our daily walk on earth. What an awesome miracle.

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The real answer...

When I was single people would ask "Do you want kids?". I always thought it was their polite way of asking if I wanted to be married AND reminding me that I wasn't getting any younger. After I got married the question became "When are you going to have kids?" Now, after Renn has arrived the question has become "Are you going to have another baby?" Because I feel that I have to answer the question (and for some reason not truthfully) I have developed many answers.

Answer 1: I was so miserable during pregnancy I just don't think I could go through that again.

Answer 2: I really can't imagine recovering from another c-section. I wouldn't wish that on anyone! Even my childhood nemesis Francesca Shepherd...

Answer 3: I am too old!

Answer 4: Maybe we will adopt one day...

But, the real answer is that I simply don't want to think about another baby because I just want to enjoy the baby I have now! I want to enjoy Renn as he is right now, tomorrow and the next day to the very fullest without wondering what else might be ahead. I hope there is nothing wrong in that? If a sibling comes for Renn I am certain it would be amazing, but the truth is I am perfectly content with our little tree frog...he is a daily reminder of God's unconditional love for you and me.

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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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it is not a myth

You always hear people with kids say how fast it all goes. And I will admit I didn't understand what it meant. It is time and it ticks by the same way it did before we had Renn. But, as we reached the 6 month milestone last week I can officially say "they" are right...it goes so fast.

In six months he has grown so much. He has gone from being a little six pound tree frog to being a sixteen pound tree frog. (Odd how I would not be bragging on myself if I had gained TEN POUNDS in six months.) Six months ago he would just sleep and eat - now he sleeps through the night, eats in record speed, eats from a spoon, rolls over, turns in circles on his belly, stands, tries to sit up, smiles, laughs, jumps, sucks his thumb, loves music, reading, the outdoors, has clear likes and dislikes and responds when other people enter or leave the room. It has been an amazing process to watch.

I did a decent job of keeping a journal while I was pregnant and it has been fun to look back on it and see what was happening this time last year. We had seen him once, heard his heart beat and were anxiously awaiting November 5th when we would find out he was a him. (although my heart knew it was a boy).

The past six months has been filled with so much newness that I can't imagine what the next six months or sixteen years will bring, but we look forward to the adventure.

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The tree frog found his toes!

I am not sure why I have been so anxiously awaiting this day, but I have been. I wanted him to find his toes. And on Monday, October 6th as I was talking on the phone to my mama he found his toes. I just love it!

Another significant first was that on October the 4th he rolled over from tummy to back. I didn't actually witness him doing this until the 6th but, it sure was funny to put him down on his tummy and turn around and find him on his back. It was like magic.

Renn and Eric got me a very cool bicycle for my birthday - I love it! And they both wrote (wink wink) me very sweet cards!

We headed to Pinetop for the weekend and Renn got to see ducks, rain, experience cold weather and play with his cousins. You can see all the pictures on the flickr site.

He continues to surprise us each day! He gets more and more animated...laughing, playing, trying to sit up and stand. He has now tried all the veggies and will be moving onto fruit this week. As you can tell from the picture - I let him "get messy"!

I have a few profound blogs in me about our little guy, just need to make the time to get the words formulated. Just wanted to get these updates logged before they become old news!

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