Oh my! What an eventful month it has been! My sweet big-boy, Bryce, is 9 months! He is changing so much! It seemed like all in one week, he was crawling and pulling up on EVERYTHING. He's also playing and getting into EVERYTHING. I don't think it is hitting me as hard as it is his sister- she is appalled that he thinks he can play with HER toys! Bryce has also cut 3- no wait- 4 teeth! He now has 2 on the bottom and 4 on the top. While teething makes him a bit fussy (understandably), he is still a very sweet and happy boy. He's beginning to say, "Bye-Bye," as he waves his hand (not completely there- but almost). He's also pretty infatuated with Papaw. He loves to stare at him and try to figure him out. Bryce is at the scary stage where he's putting things in his mouth, so I have to frantically look out for things with all of Avery's small toys and things.
He had a great check-up, and our big boy is 22 pounds. I think he's lost a little weight since he began crawling. His is a bit anemic, but Dr. VN says it's normal after being nursed. He is going to continue to transition to whole milk with an iron supplement until that gets better. He's eating table food often, and he's doing really well with it. Bryce's favorite snacks are mashed up bananas and cheese puffs!
I still can't believe he has all this beautiful hair! Poor Avery-loo-hoo was pretty much completely bald at this point in her life. Bryce is definitely a mama's boy, and he tends to follow me around the house when I am running around doing things. He thinks that Avery, Mommy, and Daddy are the funniest people on the planet, and I wish he'd always feel that way!
Miss Avery has come a long way this month too! She hit a couple milestones in speech therapy by saying her initial "s" at 100%, and instead of "tha-uh" for "yes," she says, "yea-us" with a cute twang! While she got another "sad note" for not doing her work in class, she made a turnaround just this week by NOT being the last one to complete her work, writing her name ALL by herself, recognizing numbers 1-5 (which has given her lots of trouble), and doing her best! She also stayed at school without having a serious meltdown on "Career Day" when some kids were dressed up. What do I mean by that? Avery is terrified of costumes. She has been for quite some time, but now, she really gets dramatic about it. Her feelings are legitimate, but sometimes, she overdoes it a bit. As you can see, Avery doesn't want to grow up, so I made her a cute "Forever Young" sign to wear that day!
Utter Cuteness...
We went to Mitchell Farms in Collins for the first time this year, and it was awesome! I believe it will be on our yearly fall to-do list from here on out. Avery's favorite thing was the jumping pad, and Bryce really had fun in the corn pool and swing. They both had a blast, and it was such a beautiful day to spend outside with our little family.
My little "ar-teeste" loves to paint and draw these days. She wanted a Hello Kitty pumpkin, so I tried my best to help her with the details. She loved the finished product! She also painted a fall tree with a cu-tip.
I didn't go on Avery's first field trip last year for a few reasons. I was pregnant, and I needed the days for my maternity leave, so Grammy went instead. I was so thankful to be able to go this year. It's the first time I've taken off for anything other than maternity, an illness, or doctor's appointments in the past 7 years! Avery was SO excited to get off of the school bus (which she loves to ride) and see me standing there waiting! She tried to run straight to me, but she had to get back in line. :) We had a good Mommy-Daughter day, and I loved every minute of it. She is growing up so quickly, and it makes me sad to even think about it! She isn't a baby any more!
Avery and her best friend, "Kate Bug"
Avery's 4 Year Old Class
Avery and her teacher, Ms. Dena
A-A and her friends...
It's Bryce's first Halloween! We didn't go trick or treating this year, but he surely didn't know the difference. He did look cute in his cowboy costume though! Avery has a true fear of costumes (among other things), and she would have nothing to do with dressing up. She actually opted to lay down and rest while I dressed Bryce up for pictures, so you know the girl has an issue with it! Originally, Avery wanted to be Jessie and Bryce to be Woody from Toy Story, but when I got the actual outfits, she wasn't having it! We will try again next year! She said, "I don't like Halloween," and asked to stay home from school rather than go dressed up for her class party. Last year, she was upset all day long by everyone's costumes, especially by the little boy dressed as a ninja. She still talks about how "Easton scares her!" Thankfully, GG and Papaw kept her. She was excited to spend the night with them and get some quality time! Her sweet friends in her class made her a bag of candy and sent it with Bryce. Avery was surprised and very happy about that! Bryce went out to eat with Mommy and Daddy Halloween night, and it was quite a "fright night." First of all, we never go any where without Avery, and we were greeted by our waitress named...dum...dum...dum...Avery! Then, Bryce gagged on a small piece of food and threw up milk....no wait....THREW UP MILK EVERYWHERE right when we got our food! It was literally like a scene from The Exorcist, and I do not like scary movies, lol! I felt so bad! We put everything in a to-go box and ate it at home! Between that and the nasty, rainy weather it was definitely a night full of TRICKS not treats!
Avery's and Bryce's Halloween "Happies"
John 14:27
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
I love looking up from my parents' porch to see the sun shining through this huge, old tree. It's just as comforting as it was for me to drive across that Mississippi River Bridge on my way home to visit when I lived in Louisiana some time ago. It's home, and it's calming to me.
Life can be overwhelming- work, family, illness, doctors' appointments, procedures, after-baby hormones, changes....all along with just trying to live a "normal" and fulfilling day to day life with two amazing kids..it makes sense, right? I trust God, I really do, but I struggle with the unknown, the unexpected, and the reality of it all a lot more than I should. I've realized more than ever lately that I need to stop and breathe more often. Since I've had Bryce, I don't feel like I've made the time to study God's word and pray like I should. I haven't completely neglected to, of course, but the moments directly saved for Him have been far less than what I had become accustomed to in more recent years. I realize now that it should be my priority. I know He's my life-line, and He deserves my time just like I need His continually. Within the past month, I've gone from not having any other physician other than my yearly OB-GYN to having both a general m.d. and a cardiologist! I haven't felt quite right for some time, but I continued to put it off as "just stress" and dealt with it the only way I knew how. The only problem is, I haven't been dealing with it very well apparently. It's not that everything in my life is awful. I just think things have been culminating over a long period of time. I've been going and going and going, and I feel like I have finally hit a wall so to speak.
I felt faint several weeks ago at work, so I sat down to keep myself from passing out completely. While I began to feel more coherent, my heart began beating, NO pounding, in my chest. By the time I made it around the corner to the nurse's office (and had even calmed down a bit), my heart rate was 228 and my BP was pretty high. Of course, being the good nurse that she is, Julie wouldn't let me go back to my class and encouraged me to visit the ER. I felt that would be a little dramatic, so I opted to have Jake pick me up since my heart rate went down on its own. You're talking to a mother of a "heart kid," remember? I called my brother, Mike, because I knew he'd have advice with all of his experience, and he told me to rest and see my doctor. I had really blown it all off, but when he seemed worried, it began to make me worry a little. My new doctor felt it was probably all stress related (and said jokingly that it's because I'm a teacher), but he did blood work, an EKG, and ordered a holter monitor for 24 hours. Thankfully, my blood work and EKG looked fine, and he expected my monitor results to be normal as well. Oddly enough, the results came back irregular, and to make a long story short, I have "AV Node Reentrant Tachycardia." SO WEIRD. Thankfully, it's nothing life threatening (the symptoms only feel that way), and the cardiologist feels that stress probably triggered it to sort of "flare up." I made it out of the cardiologist's office with nothing more than some words of advice and a channel blocker to take as needed. My BP has continued to be up often, so that will be discussed at my check-up with my general doc in a week or so. It would make sense that I have a "short circuit" somewhere, right?! NO really, I am very relieved, but very enlightened at the same time. I haven't felt "good" for quite a while now physically (and pretty much mentally) speaking. I know that some things need to change to impact my life in a positive way. What does that mean? I am not exactly sure yet, but I am working on it!
