Vacation

I really don't know how to blog about our vacation to BC because if I told you everything about it we'd be here all day. This was one of the best vacations that I've had. We took 10 days off and spent time in the lower mainland, hitting up White Rock, Vancouver, Cultus Lake, the Zoo, and spent so many wonderful days with friends and family. Tyler was at the perfect age for travelling and LOVED everything we did, and everyone we met. I am so proud of my boy. Here are some highlights:

Tyler getting to meet my girls. It's such a wonderful thing when friends love your child and I loved watching them get to know him. It was so important to me.



Putting our feet in the ocean. Oh I love the ocean.


Taking Tyler to the zoo. Meeting a giraffe...how cool is that!


My own girl time. These girls are amazing and I do not get to see them nearly enough. I love it that a while a whole year has gone by since I've seen most of them, we just pick up where we left off - laughing :)



Getting to spend time with my wonderful husband and son. Spending 10 straight days together with no thoughts of work or other obligations was so much fun. I love my family :)

Sleep Experiments

I am the kind of person who likes to know what's going on. I like to know as much as possible about subjects so that I can always sound like I know what I'm talking about. I like to be informed. Tyler has taken this preference and thrown it out the window. He refuses to be figured out. We are currently experiencing adventures in the sleep department...I'm not sure if I should call this morning a victory, or just a momentary lapse in his resolve.

Tyler began sleeping through the night fairly early on. He was very scheduled, which I loved. He would go to bed around 8-8:30, sleep until somewhere between 5:30 and 7, wake up to feed, and go back to bed until 9. Every night. SO glorious. However about 2.5 weeks ago...everything changed. He suddenly decided that nighttime is not for sleeping, but rather for eating. Every three-four hours, in fact. I figured this would not be a problem as babies go through growth spurts. Two weeks later? Yeah...still every three to four hours. We've thought it could be a growth spurt, teething, uncomfortableness, but none of these are helping him (okay me) sleep.

Second aspect to this is how I put Tyler to sleep. He does not fall asleep on his own...I generally rock him to sleep with the necessary soother and geeeently put him down so he doesn't wake up and then quietly back out of the room. This doesn't often work and usually results in him stretching, stirring, and me going in and out of his room multiple times to plug the soother and sing songs. Every time he wants to sleep. 3+ naps a day, and then night time. I suppose I've done this to myself, but there is a large part of me that thoroughly enjoys having him reliant on me to put him to sleep.

This weekend I decided enough was enough. I was told the theory that if babies learn how to put themselves to sleep in the environment that they will be sleeping in, they will be less likely to wake up hoping for the same rocking and soothing that they want to be put back to sleep to. Trouble is...this results in a lot of screaming and crying...and I generally cave within the first, well, 47 seconds. Last night I decided not to cave. I was going to let Tyler cry for at least five minutes. I did it. It almost killed me. However, after he screamed his little face off for those five minutes, I went back in to plug the soother, and after leaving he (miraculously) calmed down. He proceeded to chatter to himself in his crib for close to 20 minutes. Thinking he was sleeping I peeked in a little while later. He heard me, turned over, flashed me the brightest grin ever, and went back to chattering. Process started at 8pm...baby sleeping by 9. No rocking or singing done. This morning I decided to try it again. I put Tyler in his crib, gave him his soother, and walked out. He is now sleeping...no crying has ensued.

This is a long post, I know...but I just need to process the fact that maybe...PERHAPS...my baby doesn't need me to put him to sleep anymore. I don't know if I should celebrate or cry. I'll probably do both.

Bragging Rights

Caution: The next few sentences may contain messages of extreme vanity, pride, and other such nonesense.

I bought a pair of jeans yesterday. They were two sizes smaller than what I was wearing before. Before...as in BEFORE I GOT PREGNANT.

*ahem*

I just had to tell you.

Reflecting

I watched a dear friend of mine walk down the aisle yesterday and promise herself to the love of her life. It was a beautiful ceremony, and as weddings pretty much always do, it caused me to reflect a bit.

I was rocking Tyler to sleep this morning for his nap and thinking about how blessed I am. I am so happy it hurts. There is an ongoing debate out there if there really is just one perfect person for you, or if who you pick to be your soul mate is circumstantial. I don't know that I could have found a better man for me. We will be married for four years this month, and I am still blown away by how lucky I am. It is so true that God knows the desires of our hearts and he has given me mine.

Now, four years after our wedding, we've been blessed with Tyler. He coos and laughs and puts his fingers in my mouth and giggles with delight when I kiss them. He greets me every morning with smiles, and as far as I'm concerned is absolutely perfect. There's a song by Lifehouse called Everything, and the one line has been running through my head all morning:

"Could you tell me how could it be any better than this..."

See, I told you weddings make me sentimental. What a great journey I'm on.

Shark Attack!

Lately Tyler has gotten into the funniest habit. If I go to pick him up and turn him towards myself, he will often let out a guttural yell and latch fiercely onto my shoulder with his mouth. It's not always a s sign of hunger, and usually done while happy. I don't pretend to understand what is going through his head, but if it's anything like this, I think we may be in trouble...

Oops...

"Oops, I didn't know that was yours".

Now that is an embarassing statement to have to use once...but twice? In the same week? In two different situations? Yeah...

So the other day Mitch and I were shopping to buy him some shorts. We walked into the store and began browsing, and at the exact same time a man decided he needed to browse in the exact same section as us. He gave us a little sneer and pushed his way around us (several times). We ignored him and moved on. Mitch found a few pairs of shorts to try on and so as he was doing that I waited to give my approval. While he was trying them on, I looked over and saw an empty change room with some clothes hanging in it. I had been standing there for about five minutes and couldn't remember anyone coming in and out of the change room and assumed that those clothes had just been left there. I took a little peek and saw that there was a nice pair of shorts JUST Mitch's size. I snagged them and tossed them over his door. Not FIVE seconds later, sneering man walks into the stall, looks around, and begins to throw a hissy fit. Like seriously. "Where are my shorts?!" he raged. I began to panic. Thinking mayyyybe he would just leave it, I was wrong. He went to find the store clerk and demanded to know where his shorts were. By this time I figured I better fess up as there are now two people looking for the shorts and any minute Mitch is going to walk out of the stall WEARING said shorts looking for my approval and thus condeming me as the shorts thief. So I pipe up as sneery walks by: "Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't know those were yours. I gave them to my husband to try on. He should be done with them soon!" Was I rewarded for my honesty? Nope. He looked at me like the shorts probably now had the plague and stormed off. I immediately ran out of the store and hid until Mitch was done.

Then just a little while later I went to grab Starbucks for Mitch's mom and I. I walked into the store where there was a man standing kind of in the middle of it. I asked him if he was in line to order and he said no. I forgot all about him, placed my order, and went to wait for the drinks. Very shortly afterwards a caramel frappacino came up. Pleased at how quickly they made my drink, I stuck a straw in it and began to drink as I waited for the next one. Then I wondered - I had ordered this to be light and she didn't say light. Did they forget? So as she brought over my second drink I asked if that was the case. "No, I didn't forget...that isn't your drink. I'm making yours next". CRAP! Turning around I once again noticed the man standing in the middle of the store, now obviously waiting for his drink. I not only have deprived him of his rightful drink, I have also forced a light one upon him. I stammered something about how I had already taken a drink out of this one, how I hoped the next one wouldn't be light, how sorry I was, how I didn't know this was his drink and then fled the scene. Thankfully he seemed to be a nice guy and didn't care much, but seriously. I'mm not going to allow myself to go into public again for awhile...it just causes problems.

Surprise!

I am full of surprises lately. Mitch would roll his eyes at me finding myself surprising becuase it's just like how I find myself super funny. Hey at least someone is always laughing at my jokes, even if it's me.

But I digress. What I'm finding surprising is how I'm feeling an almost desperate need to work towards a passion. I don't even know what that looks like yet...but I'm exploring it. If you have known me for longer than 10 minutes you will know that I am an extremely passionate person. Small things get me so excited that I can hardly stand it. A new cd I got, for example - I can't stop talking about it because I'm so cotton picking excited about it. I'm realizing though that more and more small (insignificant?) things are getting me all pumped up because I don't have elsewhere to direct my energy. Don't get me wrong - I am super passionate about my new roll as a mom. However I'm still feeling the pull towards something...else. Not more, just else. Perhaps ministry? Okay now THERE is a broad term. Does ministry mean leading worship more often? I haven't lead since I was 7 months pregnant and I miss it desperately. Or does ministry mean calling up those that be powerful in the MB conference and asking what's available? Or does ministry mean leading a bible study at a young mom's group? I don't know. But I do know that I am feeling prompting and I suspect that the Spirit is at work.

I obviously have a lot of questions. I met yesterday with a good friend/mentor who spoke good words into my life. I'm now blogging because writing is how I process. I don't have any answers yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing what God has in store. Perhaps a lesson in being still? Or perhaps He's getting ready to move me. Could be tomorrow, could be in five years. The only thing I know is that I need to be ready. I feel ready. I'm so excited.