Four Years of Joy

Four years ago today, I gave birth to a beautiful, healthy, BIG baby boy (8lbs 7ozs to be exact. Oh, and in case you forgot his head was in the 95%. No way I will ever forget. His Daddy still jokes about his big noggin!)

Today, my heart is full of love as I think about how much joy he has added to our lives. It's true what they say - until you actually become a parent, you just never can understand that unconditional love a parent has for a child. What a blessing J has been to us - he is a tender, sweet, caring, silly, smart and loving little boy. He has a great sense of humor and wow, what a vocabulary this kid has...just the other day he told me something I did was a little "peculiar" (heh...no surprise there). He also has pretty great manners for a preschooler and I love when people look at him in surprise after he says "thank you" or "please" to them without any prodding from me. What a special little guy he is, and I still thank God every day for him. Yes, even on those days when his listening ears don't seem to be working and he keeps asking me what is making me so grumpy. Even THEN, I'm still thankful for him.

Here is JWM when he was about 10 days old -

And here is the birthday boy surrounded by his cousins (almost all of those kiddos are family) and a couple of friends at his bowling birthday party -

These preschoolers bowled like pros - well, maybe not pros, but once they got the hang of it, that 5 lb ball was making it's way down the lane pretty darn fast. Well, maybe not fast, but you get the drift...

Daddy with J. He LOVES sports, of all kinds, and seriously WANTED this bowling party. Too cute.

The birthday boy with his baby brother and Cousins C & S.

Happy Birthday J!!!! Mommy & Daddy love you so very, very much!

Much Deserved Recognition

And the winner is...

I am soooooo glad today finally came. I have been keeping a secret from my husband for about a month now. Having to do with him. Getting an award. Needless to say, I had to completely put it out of my mind so I didn't tell him in a burst of excitement.

Through work, the hubby has become very active in professional organizations. One such organization is BOMA - Building Owners and Managers Association - a national organization with a local chapter. Recently, he was asked to be a committee co-chair on BOMA's Sustainability Committee. (This came about due to his work on the City's Water Conservation Task Force.) He has provided his industry and clients a much-needed presence in the discussion on water conservation in our area. Apparently, the powers that be at BOMA took notice and decided to award him with the BOMA Allied Professional Member of the Year Award!

The hubby's boss called me up about a month ago to ask me to attend. She not only wanted the award to be a surprise, but she wanted me to come as an added surprise for JMcD. How thoughtful, right? Our lives have truly been blessed since he joined this company almost three years ago.

I am so proud of my guy. He has worked so hard and given LOTS of extra time and energy to both BOMA and the task force outside of work (plus he also served on yet another committee with the LCRA...I won't lie, there are some nights when he gets home late that I don't LOVE all of these extra obligations!!! LOL! But I'm still very proud of him.) And now, I am so thankful that someone else out there appreciates this extra effort too!

This picture was taken just after he received his award and realized I was there. Not the best picture (of me), but you can tell by the smile on his face he was very surprised and happy. :)

Santa Claus

I think it's nothing short of a miracle that we were able to get a picture of both of our boys smiling with Santa Claus. Now, it's not the absolute best smile we can get from big brother, but it's tough having to sit there with a smile plastered on your face while mommy, daddy and the elf helper try to get baby brother to smile! They did great and L was not phased at all by the man in red. He was just happy to be out of carseat. lol!

J ended up seeing Santa again just three days later at his preschool. He sat in his lap again, and when Santa asked him what he wanted, my smart little guy said, "I already told you what I wanted at the mall. You don't remember?" :) To which the even smarter Santa replied, "Well of course I remember, but I thought you might want to share it with your friends!"

Tree Trimming

I love that J is completely and totally into the spirit of Christmas. He loves Santa, he loves Christmas decorations, he loves hearing the story of baby Jesus - he loves all there is to Christmas. It makes it SO much fun to get out decorations when you have a little helper. My hubby keeps reminding me that since he IS a boy, there will come a day when he might not want to help decorate the tree or sing Christmas carols with his mom. So I'm relishing it while it lasts.

The pictures from this year's tree trimming at the McD Casa will bring a smile to my face many years from now. He found something of his daddy's that he decided he HAD to wear while hanging ornaments. I love his silliness.



L also enjoyed the silliness. I'm sure he's thinking that he can't wait to get his hands on these decorations next year.

Happy 5 Months!

As I said in my last post, yesterday was L's 5 month birthday. I cannot believe another month has already come and gone. And with it, has come one MAJOR milestone. L is sleeping 9-10 hours at night now! WOOHOO! We are going on day 9 (yes, I know exactly how many days I've gotten some great sleep) and I am L-O-V-I-N-G it. Well, except for the past two nights, but that wasn't L waking me up.

He is eating his rice cereal like a champ for dinner, and we will start fruits and veggies in the next week or so. He is attempting to try to sit, but of course, that lasts for a couple of seconds and then he starts to topple over. It will happen sooner than I want it to. I think he wants to be up and playing with his big brother in the worst way.

Here is our big boy at five months -
Look mom, I can sit on my own...

...until I start to lean too hard in one direction...
...then I end up on my face. :)

Poor L the Second Child

Yesterday was L's 5 month birthday. I didn't forget in the midst of the chaos, but I DID forget to take one single picture of him. Sigh. I know I had extenuating circumstances, but still. I swore I would take just as many pictures of him as we did of J. It's already started. I will take his picture this morning and post later today. Even if I have throw up on me. (J started the day today around 5 a.m. with a vomit episode. Lucky for me, hubby was running late so I asked him to stick around while I feed L in the nursery. This is when J decided to throw up - all over hubby AND our bed.) The good news is that J is awake right now and seems to be o.k. for now...knock on wood.

I did fail to mention in my last post that yesterday was not a good day for L either. For some reason, every time I tried to put him down - in the swing, exersaucer, on the floor, in his crib, etc - he started crying. Totally uncharacteristic of him. (And very difficult to take care of a sick boy with a baby in your arms...which was another reason I was ready for the day to be over.) He is normally such a happy baby. So either he is trying to get sick (please, no) or he was feeling the stress of the day. Or maybe he is starting to teeth? I don't want to stick my fingers in his mouth right now for fear of germ-spreading, even though I'm washing my hands about 100 times a day.

For those of you familiar with strep, have you ever had an infant get sick with it? My doc said it's very uncommon, but not impossible. We shall see.

Sick Little Dude

Is today over yet? I very rarely look sooooo forward to a day being over b/c I LOVE being a mommy and being with my boys every day. Today was rough. It started at Midnight, with J waking up crying, saying his throat hurt and running fever. He mentioned once before going to bed last night that his throat was "burny" but didn't feel warm or act like he felt bad. By midnight, that had all changed. For the rest of the night, he slept between the hubby and I and cried in his sleep. :(

After waking up this morning, I knew we were in for a long day. Almost immediately, he started crying about his throat and his fever began to go back up. I called the pediatrician's office as soon as they opened. By the time we left for the doctor, J was saying his throat, head and tummy hurt. Then he said, "Mommy, everything hurts." He was literally whimpering. You other mommies know, when your child is hurting that badly, it hurts you too. After buckling him in his carseat, I kissed his forehead and told him that I was taking him to see Dr. H and that Dr. H would make him feel better. He looked at me with big tears in his eyes and sweetly cried, "Thank you mommy." I knew the boy felt really bad at that point b/c what preschooler thanks their mommy for taking them to the doctor?

Thank goodness we only had to wait for about 7 or 8 minutes in the waiting area. Because as soon as we got into an exam room, J sat on my lap and then proceeded to vomit everywhere. Projectile to be exact. And the poor nurse that was just about to take his temp got the brunt force of it. Sweet, wonderful, darling thing just acted like it was no big deal. God bless her. He couldn't stop for what seemed like forever. By the time he was finished, the exam room floor was covered. I quickly, and carefully, so as not to slip in vomit, wheeled L out of there to hang with the other nurses (thank goodness he was in his carseat in the stroller versus the floor or he would have been covered too). J was soaked and the sweet nurse gave him a race for the cure t-shirt the office had made last month. So now he's in a t-shirt that hangs down past his knees and socks. She took his temp finally, and after alternating motrin and tylenol all night and morning his temp was still over 102. No wonder his tummy hurt. Poor baby.

As soon as Dr. H looked him over, he knew. He quickly swabbed his throat and said we'd know for sure in 15 minutes. Five minutes later he comes in and says J has strep throat. I was actually a bit relieved, and so was Dr. H, b/c at least there is medicine that will make him feel better. I was PRAYING it wasn't the flu virus. That wouldn't been way worse.

I can already tell the medicine is working because he actually smiled this evening. Something he hadn't done all day long.

A funny sidenote - I was in a hurry to get him dressed and out the door to make the doctor's appt. We have a laundry basket with clean clothes in it, including socks that are not yet matched up with their partner. Well, I just grabbed two socks that looked the same for J, and headed downstairs. But once I put them on his feet, I noticed one was all white and the other had a gray bottom. Obviously, very different. I thought to myself, eh, no big deal. No one is going to see his socks. Hmph. That should have triggered something in my brain - seeing as how I brought home a boy in just a t-shirt and mismatched socks!!!!