11 Month Birthday!

Sweet Boy, I can not believe you are 11 months old today. We are just one month away from celebrating your very first birthday. Yikes! You have been so busy this month, Little Bit. You took your first steps at Juju and Pops' house on Father's Day. Apparently the excitement of being able to play with a weeble-wobble in each hand was just what you needed to motivate those little feet. You were not too anxious to repeat it again over the next few days (despite all of the encouragement Mommy and Daddy were giving you to give it a go again). Within a day or two though, you began taking those steps again. Everyday you walked more and more. Now you actually try to walk rather than crawl places. When you are in a hurry though, you still take to crawling because it seems that that is still the fastest way for you to move. We are so proud of how quickly you have improved, and so impressed with how far your independent self is taking you.  You have started talking on your toy phone more often. In fact, you typically take Mommy's phone when she leaves it nearby and swipe the screen with your little fingers until your picture pops up. Multiple times you have held the phone to your head and started saying "Hi ya!", and sometimes you even saying Daddy's name. When you see Daddy's picture on Mommy's phone and hear him talking, you light up! You talk over Mommy and tell him hi as much as possible while he is on the phone. It makes Daddy so happy. You love being outside. You walk in the grass, pick up leaves, play in the bushes. You are so curious and always perk up when Mommy takes you outside for a little bit. When you can't go outside, you go to the dining room doors and look out the window. When you see Daddy drive up, you smile really big and clap your hands. If Mommy is holding you, you jump up and down in my arms and wave at Daddy. You always go to the front door and try to crawl out so you can get to Daddy first. I think it just may be your favorite part of the day (& possibly Daddy's too). Mommy loves to see how sweet you and Daddy are with each other.  You have learned to clap. One night you just started clapping and didn't think anything of it. Mommy and Daddy were so excited that we might have scared you for a minute. When we started clapping, you just smiled and went right back to clapping. Now every time you clap, you expect us to clap too. It is so sweet and makes us laugh so much together.  You love music. While "Old McDonald" is still your favorite, you seem to like all music. Mommy let you watch Dumbo for the first time a few weeks ago and you actually sat to watch a good bit of it. I'm not positive that it was the movie you liked though, because you really only watched the musical parts to it. We highly suspect that you get your love of music from Mommy.  You love for Mommy and Daddy to read to you. You will often sit next to us while we read you one of your stories. Sometimes when you are playing by yourself, you will go to your bookshelf and pull out a few of your books. It is not uncommon for us to find you quietly turning the pages and looking at the pictures. I hope you always feel this way about books, Little Bit. We gave you one of your birthday presents early last week and you are absolutely in love. Your big boy chair with your name on it has become your go-to seat by your toys, and also your go-to "step stool" when you want your blocks off of the top of your toy shelf. You know you are not supposed to do this though, so you typically start to do it and then grin and sit down when Mommy and Daddy tell you not to. It didn't take you long to figure out how to sit in it and climb out of it without any help. You just smile and move in and out of it whenever you want now. You are incredibly smart, Reagan. It surprises even Mommy and Daddy at times with how creative you are when interacting with us. For instance, the other night Mommy shared of some of her french-fries with you by putting them into one of your little bowls. When you had finished, you walked all the way to Daddy, holding your bowl, and hit his side with it to ask for more. You just smiled really big when he asked if you wanted some. You wake us up some mornings by yelling out "Hi" from your baby bed so that we know to come get you. You are very good at pointing at things you want us to see. It is usually followed by gibberish, but we know you are trying to tell us something about whatever it is you are looking at. When we ask you questions, you always try to respond. You have also started to listen to Mommy and Daddy more when we tell you not to do something. Of course you do not like to hear us tell you no, but you are learning you have to listen.  You have figured out how to open doors. Mommy and Daddy typically have to lock the door when we don't want you to follow us into the room. We can not believe you have figured out so quickly how to play with the doorknobs until the door opens for you.  You started waving within the last month. Juju and Pops were leaving our house and you started waving to them. It was the first time you had ever waved before. Now you wave good-bye and hello to just about everyone. Sometimes you will say bye-bye, but you typically like to say hi. In fact, you actually tried to keep me from leaving your room so you could nap today, by waving and saying hi. You have 8 teeth! They are all up front and they are so stinking cute!!!! You put them to use constantly and are so happy to be able to eat more and more big boy food every day.  Reagan, you are growing up so much and I can not begin to tell you exactly how proud we are of you. You are constantly moving; constantly learning. We are doing all we can to keep up with you and help you as you continue to learn and grow. It is amazing to watch you and to be able to interact with you. We know that this last month will go by so fast, especially with birthday plans. We want you to enjoy everyone celebrating with our sweet boy and seeing how much you have grown in such a short amount of time. Mommy and Daddy love you, Angel Baby.

Enough Is Enough...

This picture just seemed fitting to my mood today...and it is humor amidst my seriousness.

Reagan is sleeping so peacefully right now. He has learned to put himself to sleep for his naps even if he would much rather stay up and play. He generally protest for about 2 minutes with a few tears, but then I watch on the monitor and have to smile. Using the side of his crib, he walks to the couple of stuffed animals we now allow him to keep in his bed. He moves them, plays with them, and then tosses them aside. Next, he moves to the new crib toy we hung next to the wall. He plays with it for awhile, but then realizes he actually is tired. He grabs his lamb, puts it under his arm or near his head, and lays on top of the knitted blanket we have for him (always on top, never under it).  I watch my sweet boy and am absolutely amazed. He has grown so much in such a short amount of time. Most of the time he hits a new milestone and doesn't even realize it. Two days ago he began clapping for no other reason than that he wanted to. He had never clapped for us beforehand. When he saw we were so excited he seemed surprised, and then tickled at us. To him, he is just being himself, but to us, it is yet another big step as our sweet baby continues to grow into our sweet big boy. It is in these moments that Justin and I are constantly reminded of how amazing God is in His creation of each of us. I will forever be blessed to be allowed to watch this amazing little person become the man God will have him to be. My heart has ached lately over the sad and discouraging posts that I have noted a lot of other mommies that I know/follow have been posting. It has ached that they are letting themselves become so lost. It has ached that they are letting themselves fall into a lie and are forgetting the truth we say we so strongly believe in. It has ached because on days like today, I fear of the outcome should their confusion and fear in this mess stick. Something I have noticed, and that has actually made me sick to my stomach, is the one-sided expression of their sympathy and concern. I am by no means perfect, nor do I have it all together, but in this moment my feelings on this topic are very clear.  I fear a good many things as a mommy. I fear all of the things in the house Reagan can come across and eat that are not edible. I fear that he may fall or play too rough, and I will have to take him to the hospital (somewhere I would prefer he never have to visit). I fear that first cold that I know will happen any day now, and how I am supposed to handle it. I fear our sweet boy may grow up and forget how strong he truly is or forget how much of a purpose his life serves in our Father's plan. Like I said, I fear many things, but I do not wonder what to teach him. I want my son to be a good man-fair, honest, loving to everyone. That said, I NEVER want him to compromise his principles, his morals, or his faith- not for the sake of another's approval, not for the sake of not offending, and not for the sake of keeping "peace". If he is to admire someone, let it be based on their actions, their choices, their heart. In this house, our son will be raised to respect those who put their lives on the line every day for our safety and our freedom. In this house, our son will be raised to stand up for what is right according to God- not the world around him. In this house, our son will be raised to accept the consequences for his actions and to learn from them. In this house, our son will be raised not to point the finger at others for his mistakes and short-comings, but to accept responsibility for them and grow from them. In this house, our son will be encouraged to think for himself, encouraged to know what he believes, and encouraged to stand by his faith at all cost. In this house, our son will be encouraged to know what is right, do what is right, and never expect a "gold star" for it. He has to know, believe, and do what is right simply because- It. Is. Right. I strongly believe without a doubt that in teaching him and encouraging him in this way, there will never be a need for discussion on loving someone or liking them due to something so trivial as race, color, or background. I believe touching on these topics when trying to teach real, Godly love chips away at the very foundation of the real meaning to love someone. I said it before he was born, and I still say it now- I know that my sweet boy will have enemies in life. There is no way around this fact, but I pray that his enemies be only those of God. For if this is the case, then my son will have chosen the right path for his life, and if his enemies are God's enemies, he will have nothing to fear.  Since when did it become sufficient enough to raise our children to think that the most important thing about them is their skin color or the culture they hail from? When did it become the goal for us as parents to teach our children to live for the acceptance of others, or to teach our children to accept others based off of one choice they make in life or the one culture in which they were born? Since when did parents begin to strive to teach their children that when their choices are not met with absolute praise and acceptance by everyone, that it is fair and right of them to force their choice on those around them- because we all know that is the way to build a real relationship with others. Why would we ever limit our children in this way?  There is a common misconception in the world today in my opinion. For one reason or another a disease of sorts has come about from the acceptance in a very misleading belief. Perhaps you have heard of it. I know I sure have. The bug that started it is this- "It takes a village to raise a child.". Sound familiar? Sounds so simple and like such a harmless theory, but the reality is 20 years later we are all a mess. For one reason or another, my generation have been raised to believe that being a parent is just another post on your facebook page. People are having children, realizing it is alot harder than they thought with an actual baby, and then passing them off to the nearest sitter, teacher, grandparents with a heart. What's worse, they don't even think about it. The world tells new parents that we deserve our "sanity", our "free time", our "alone time", our "couples time", our "friends time". Heck! Is it any wonder that so many parents aren't finding time to be parents? With that much time to fit into our daily life, plus work and taking care of the house, how do you fit in time for those little people you carried inside of you for 9 months? Any doubt in the amount of personal time replacing family time, or questioning just why it is Brittany knows everything about her child, but we only know our child throws temper tantrums alot and likes Elsa, and we can just quickly remember this phrase. It takes a village- is the excuse for not parenting our own children the way each child calls to be parented by us. With the common belief that it takes a village to raise our own children, is it any wonder that parents are more than happy to let friends, family, strangers raise their most prized possession without ever flinching? That said, is it any wonder that those of us choosing to raise our own children ourselves are having to fight to raise them our own way. With this little phrase has also come the encouragement to every stranger that they know best how to raise MY child and that I am a failure as a parent if I don't listen to them.  The truth of the matter is this- We have been entrusted with these beautiful, wonderful, amazing little people. They are beautiful, but not because of the amount of hair they are born with or whose features they have more of. They are wonderful, but not because of their sweet smiles and giggles. They are amazing, but not because of how quickly or how well they hit those precious milestones. They are all of these things because they were uniquely and perfectly created for a purpose that only they can achieve. If we limit them to what the world desires of them- the world's idea of perfection- they will NEVER reach their full potential or find their purpose in life. If we limit ourselves as new parents to the discussions, the topics, the fear that the world desires of us, we will never reach our full potential as parents to our children. These precious people deserve so much more than what the world has to offer, and so do we, don't you think?  God bless this nation, may God continue to give us strength. God bless the precious lives who give their all every day to protect each and everyone of us on a daily basis. God bless the families that must be afraid every day for their loved ones, may they still know there are still a great deal of us who appreciate their sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles, grandchildren and cousins. God bless all new mommies, all experienced mommies, and all future mommies- may we never give in to the fear that the world threatens us with.  Now, if you will please excuse me while I go play with my child. Hope someone else has gained some relief from this very passionately written blog post. Have a great weekend, ladies!