Watch out, world!

Evan is on the move! He crawled this morning for the first time!!!!

It really came out of the blue for me. Sure, he's been moving a lot the past couple of months (rolling, squirming, and scooting), but he hasn't shown much motivation to get up and crawl. Yesterday I noticed he kind of got up on his knees while laying on his tummy, but he just went up for a second or two. This morning he was on his tummy on the bed and lifted up completely on his hands and knees. I thought, "all he has to do is slide his knees forward and he'd be crawling!" He went back down on his tummy and a few seconds later was back up and immediately crawling!!! He crawled straight for the edge of the bed and I had to make him stop so he wouldn't crawl off.

I made a huge deal about it and called Matt to tell him. I tried getting him to crawl on the living room floor, but he decided enough was enough and wanted to eat his cereal instead. After he finished eating i had to get ready to go walking with our friends (I kept peeking into his room where he was playing on the floor to see if he was moving, but he was on his back under his play gym and stayed that way). And we haven't had a chance to do it again since before breakfast. I'm hoping that after he wakes up from his nap and eats he will try again on the floor! I will also try to video tape it and post it on here. :-)

He is 7 months, 2 weeks, 6 days old.

Easter baby

yellow

The title of this post says it all! Everything is yellow here!!! Every year we see the yellow pollen from the pine trees, but this year it's ridiculous. We don't even have many pine trees around our house and yet everything is completely covered with it. The air is even covered...you can see yellow clouds floating everywhere. The sky looks hazy with yellow, the grass looks yellow, the trees look yellow, the roads are yellow, everyone has yellow cars...... gross.

My allergies were SO bad on Friday and Saturday. They were getting better, but today I've had a slight relapse. Matt's were terrible and didn't get better...now he has a cough too. He went to the doctor this morning. I haven't heard what the doctor said yet.

My dad's birthday was yesterday (he is 50 now!) and we're having a party for him on Friday night. It will be the first party we've ever had for him. A couple of years ago my mom turned 50 and Matt and I threw a party for her. This year we're not doing the party though, my mom is.

Easter was fun, but like i said earlier, it would have been better if my allergies weren't so bad. Evan "swam" in his little pool for the first time.

We skipped Spring apparently! It's been in the low 90s the past couple of days and all last week it was in the mid to high 80s. We went from 60 degrees to 90 in days!! It's great though...yesterday was a little hot, but I'm loving this weather! I just need to buy some capris and more short sleeve shirts. I went to go get my capris last week and realized...they are all maternity! I don't own any regular ones.

Evan's newest thing - saying "mamamama" and "babababa." He's done it before, but not consistently and not for long. Now it's all the time! And for the record, he said "mamamama" before "dadadada." ;-) I know he's not saying "mama" for real, but Matt and I had already bet on which sound he would make babbling first. I won! The weird thing is that he only does the "mamama" when he's upset. It just breaks my heart because I'm hearing "mama" even if he doesn't really mean ME. I'm glad that it doesn't happen very often!

Changing

So many things have been happening with Evan this week! It's crazy how he changes from one day to the next! This is definitely the most I've noticed him changing. Usually it's a little more gradual than this. Since he turned 7 months a couple of weeks ago he's like a whole different baby!

He's smiling even more. And he also started smiling at the camera. Up until a few days ago he would not smile when we had the camera out. Sometimes I could trick him into smiling for a picture by "hiding" the camera (I would hold it down low) and distracting him by acting goofy. But now he'll see me get the camera out and start grinning and look right at the camera! I'm very happy about this development. :-)

He's also started laughing more! I mentioned in THIS post how I hoped he'd start laughing more often. Although he isn't laughing a lot, he's started laughing when I do something to cause it like kissing his neck, tickling him, or holding him up in the air. Before the past couple of days, he'd sometimes laugh if I did that stuff, but it was rare, and it didn't last long. Yesterday I played "This little piggy" with him and he laughed and laughed when I did the "wee, wee, wee, all the way home!" part. So then I just started tickling him all over and he was full of giggles! :-)

Drum roll, please! He's also started....sitting up!! He's been able to sit with support up until 2 days ago, March 30. He could also "sit" on his own, but he basically just slumped forward and put his hands on the ground to brace himself. So I don't really count that. My mom was determined to get him to sit on his own so she started working with him the other day. He was doing pretty good, he could balance for a few seconds on his own. But then the next day she worked with him again, and he sat right up! He was sitting perfectly straight and staying that way on his own! We were ecstatic and he caught on to that. He was so proud of himself! He'd get all excited and start flapping his arms, which would cause him to lose his balance and fall over. lol But by the end of the afternoon he was sitting straight up on his own and playing with toys! So I count that as his first day of really sitting up. Of course I didn't have my camera, so no pictures yet.

I know there are some more things...when Matt came home last night I kept saying, "oh yeah, he started doing..." I felt like I started every sentence with that. I guess if I think of them I can add them later.

I hope you all have a happy Easter! We're traveling to Charleston to visit my grandparents. It'll be their first time to see Evan since he was 7 weeks old. It's also the first time we've gone on a trip with Evan since Christmas...I'm hoping it'll go smoothly!

Oh yeah, I am looking to buy a new pair of tennis shoes/sneakers, whatever you call them. I want them to provide good support (I go "power walking" a couple of times a week now) but still look good with capris and shorts. It would also be nice if they are comfortable for people who hate wearing shoes. I hate wearing shoes and socks during when it's warm outside! I get so overheated and uncomfortable. I was kind of looking at something like THIS, but they aren't really athletic shoes so I'm not sure they would provide good support. Oh yeah, Adi.das is not a good brand for me, way too wide for my feet. So recommend away!

Pray

Here it is, after midnight, and I'm sitting here crying. There's a little boy whose family goes to my old church (where my parents still go) who has cancer, neuroblastoma. He'll be 4 in June and he's had cancer since just after his second birthday.

I remember the first time I saw the little boy. It was before the cancer and he was toddling around. His family had just started going to our church. I immediately noticed him because he has bright red hair. I couldn't take my eyes off of him. It was before Matt and I were TTC, but I always dreamed about our future children even then. I looked at this little boy and thought, "that's what our future son will look like." I felt so strongly that I would have a baby like him. I remember watching the little boy after the church service. He was running around and into everything. His parents were young and chased after him with smiles on their faces. I just kept thinking how precious it was and how I couldn't wait to have a baby of my own to chase after.

And then they found out that beautiful baby boy had cancer. I've followed their journey closely, even though I've only talked to them a couple of times before. I feel like I have a connection just because of the time I watched the red headed boy playing. Not long after he was diagnosed I wrote on their support webpage guestbook. I said:

"Even though Matt and I have never officially met you, we are praying for your family everyday. We always enjoy seeing Carter in church with his beautiful red hair (Matt has red hair, too!). You are all an incredible example of trusting God and relying on His strength even though it is so hard sometimes."

That was in June 2008.

I've continued to read their journal entries on their support webpage. They update a couple of times a week at least, through the good times and the bad. I've read as Carter lost his red hair, went to Disney World, spent weeks at a time in the hospital, played with the visitor dogs, undergone surgeries and chemo, and got up out of bed time and time again to play and laugh.

Things haven't been looking too good lately though. He had a relapse last Spring, and children who have a relapse of this type of cancer have a very low survival rate. He has been in an experimental treatment plan the past few months, but a little while ago it became obvious it wasn't working, so he was removed from the program. His parents never say they are giving up though. They continue to have hope and pray for a recovery, but it is obvious that the doctors don't believe their son is going to make it.

They wrote a post a few hours ago saying they are taking their son back to the hospital because he's been doing very badly all weekend. The nurses who visited their home earlier were talking about admitting the little boy to a hospice. Things are not looking good at all. My heart is aching. No child deserves this. It's bad enough that little ones have to die, but it shouldn't be this painful, this drawn out. He's a toddler, he should be a little ball of energy that depletes his mom's energy at the end of every day. It shouldn't be his energy that is depleted after a few minutes of just sitting up.

Please, please pray for this boy!! Pray for his family, but especially pray that he will be healed!! There's no words to describe the horror of this situation, unfortunately I'm sure many of you have known people in similar situations though. I just feel like I need to share this with as many people as possible so that even if you only say one short prayer, at least that will be a few prayers more that reach the Lord and show him how his people can come together for others. How even people who aren't Christians can still pray for this child.

Opposite

Apparently all I have to do is write about something on here for the opposite to happen! Like saying my light bleeding/spotting is "regular" a couple of weeks ago. And talking about Evan taking longer naps awhile back. I can't find the post but I know I mentioned it because the next day he started only sleeping 1.5 hours in the morning instead of 2-2.5 like he was for a bit (I'm not complaining, it's just funny that he cut back on those naps just after I bragged about it!). Anyway, I think I should only post about negative things on here. lol

I'm having cramps for the first time since giving birth. Ugg. I also have a UTI. It was bothering me a little on Monday, quite a bit more on Tuesday (so I made a doc appt), and then not at all on Wednesday which is when I had the appointment. It didn't show up that I had an infection on the test they did in the office and the doctor said he doubted it was an actual infection, just an irritation. So I happily left the office, feeling fine. On Friday afternoon a nurse called and said the culture they ran on the test came up positive for infection, so they were going to call in antibiotics for me. I told her I was feeling completely fine but she said I should take them anyway. So there you have it...my first UTI. I'm sure y'all really want to know about it!! ;-) Anyway, I don't know if the cramps are related to that or a period or the weird spotting I'm having (and maybe that is related to the UTI?). Weird things are happening to me!!

I also had a little insomnia last night. I used to not sleep well at all until I went to college. Then I was fine until I got pregnant. I also had problems sleeping after Evan started sleeping through the night, but I would still wake up. But since Christmas, when Evan started sleeping in his crib in the nursery, I have been sleeping great! But last night I couldn't.

Yesterday evening Matt and I went out to celebrate our 8 year dating anniversary while my sister watched Evan. We went through the drive thru at Wendy's and ate in the car on the way to the movie theatre. We saw THIS movie in 3D. I really liked it! The 3D was neat and the story was so cute.

Bath time

Evan is growing too big for his infant tub. What is the next step? I know they used to have bath rings that you put the baby in for the regular sized tub, but I think I heard those are now dangerous. Evan isn't sitting up unsupported, so he still needs a little more support before he can just sit in the regular tub. The infant tub says it's also a toddler tub, but it is too small for him now!

6 months old.