8 hours

I posted previously that M sang her alphabet to letter i and then mouthed the rest. Well she went to bed, woke up and sang the ENTIRE thing! It's amazing what can happen during this stage of development in just 8 short hours!

20 months and counting

My goodness time is flying. I've been doing a good job of capturing video and photos but not a lot of blogging. Here are a few of M's (and our) new favorite things/sayings etc. Airplanes and Helicopters..the girl can hear them long before we can. Impressive! Big and little...she loves telling you what is big vs what is little. Big rock, big truck, little rock, little truck. I love you daddy/mommy...this is my favorite! Madison bless you..after you sneeze Your welcome..she's says thank you and sometimes your welcome Feeding the dogs, throwing the ball for the dogs, snacking on dog food, telling on the dogs, cuddling with the dogs What's that. Followed by repeating what you say Singing: twinkle twinkle little star, rock a bye baby, Counting 1 to 10 Singing Abc's all the way I and if you sing the rest in front of her she mouths the rest of it She sings some of 1,2 buckle my shoe etc... Coloring crazy Hanging! Literally hanging... She hangs from our table and picks her feet up like a gymnast. Or if at the park she hangs from anything she can. Super upper body strength Swimming..my goodness she is a fish. Her new floaty is awesome. She sees it and says "I put it on." "I go in the pool". She is so comfortable in the water it's borderline scary for me. ;) She says I'm Sorry if she hurts you..either by accident or on purpose (when she is frustrated). She says "I like it" for things she likes. She knows all her friends names, she tells you what she wants to eat, she knows so many animals and sounds, she knows red, black, grey, green, blue, yellow, pink. She is starting to want to potty train and school and us are doing all we can to support and help the process. It's cute. She likes her food whole and still loves her bottle. This is not a fight we are gonna take on just yet, but will. Outside!!!! She loves outside, she gets cabin fever super easy. She makes sure we all have shoes, and then we can go outside. She would play outside all day if we could. The southern tomboy in me smiles every time she throws a rock or plays in the dirt. An amazing 20 months!!!!

Carter

I just had to take a moment and share a moment that made my heart smile yesterday. Reminded me of how very different each coast is in the way people care or share or make you feel. Yesterday on facebook I said to my friend Stephanie, that I used to work out with under the amazing trainer Mr. Carter Hays, "I MISS THOSE DAYS!!, hope to be back soon and hopefully I can lose baby weight Carter Hays style." This within seconds prompted a response from Carter, "Jamie, Can't wait to see you again. Miss you!!" My heart smiled because after years of being gone even my old trainer misses me and looks forward to seeing me again, whenever that day may be. This may not be odd to some people. But do you think my trainer here has contacted me even once after I stopped paying? Nope. We say hi in passing at the club and move on. He's a great trainer and a great guy but he's not invested in you past your fitness goals or past your paid training sessions. Carter is invested in you completely. Your fitness, your health, your goals, your life, etc. He supports and motivates (inside and outside of the gym) and he continues to always make you strive to be better. Even after I moved out here he sent me workouts for months so that I could continue the regimen I had become accustomed too. Most of the gyms out here are not supportive (without payment), the feeling of everyone is here to help everyone get fit and feel better does not exist, I'm sure there are small groups of folks that motivate but in the south no matter which gym you are at you make gym acquaintances, you get support and you are held accountable. If you missed a regular workout day the folks at the gym made note of it, they asked where have you been, why did you miss your workout, etc. With a group training or even a trainer they are always on you supporting you and your goals so when you get lazy or try to depart from the goal you have set they keep you in check, they hold you accountable and in the end everyone improves. We all want to be held accountable and our fitness is somewhere we all need to be held accountable. I miss that dearly. I could miss 2 months at any gym I've been at out here without one inquiry of where I've been or whats going on. No wonder I'm bigger (besides the pregnancy), no wonder I run less, no wonder. Discover Your Road to Divine Health is Carters book..you can buy it on Amazon. I hope that I get to train with him again one day. Thanks Carter for the smile!

Blessings in disguise

This pregnancy has been nothing short of difficult, thankfully all the things happening aren't affecting baby Deacon's health as he is a very healthy lil man thus far.

But mommy is going through all the pain and discomfort she went through the last 4 weeks with M and has much more time to go than 4 weeks. Jeff and I are worried that bedrest may come with this pregnancy but I'm fighting through day by day in hopes that doesn't happen, for multiple reasons.

I have found one simple cure to the Pubic diastasis symphysis pain that is occuring in extremes (think, being kicked in the crotch with a steel toe boot, repeatedly) and about 15 weeks early seems to be a dip in the pool. I'm still in pain after my dip yesterday with the family but not nearly as much as before.

In addition to the PDS pain the belly stretching and itchy feeling has also started WAY early. I officially waddle, have trouble with my feet swelling at the end of the day and lose sleep constantly from pain.

But I also lose sleep because Deacon likes to tell mommy Hi in the middle of the night, my belly itches because my lil man is stretching his arms and legs and growing big and strong, my feet swell because I'm carrying a sweet baby around with me everyday, my pds is painful because my body is getting ready to deliver my sweet little blessing in disguise.

Blessings come in all sorts of disguises. Deacon's is that of a sweet lil man growing strong for his mommy and daddy and I am thankful (although not always) that I get to help make Deacon as strong and as healthy as possible. What a sweet little blessing.

Sometimes we forget

Jeff and I are lucky that at 1.5 M is a talking queen. She talks more than most of her 2 and even 2.5 year old pals. Her vocabulary is well over 100 words and she uses sentences for the most part. She impresses many folks especially those with kids her age or older. I guess we are lucky as the terrible two's aren't so terrible with a kid that can express what she wants, needs and likes. It has its challenges too as she knows exactly what she wants and THAT IS WHAT SHE WANTS...she can also be distracted a little but she is a spitting image of her momma when it comes to knowing what she wants and getting what she wants. Just not sure momma is ready for that yet.

The point of this blog wasn't to share all M's cute little sayings or doings. But to reflect on something that happened around 1230am the other night. M was on the tale end of her cold so daddy was sleeping in recliner with her because every 3rd or 4th breathe she took she would wake up if laying down because of the congestion (we had been taking turns with her in recliner so we all got decent sleep). Well at 1230 she woke up UNHAPPY, she was crying, and talking kind of, but being a baby she was just unhappy and needed comforting, singing, etc. Well at one point when she was talking a little it was unclear what she was wanting so daddy kept saying, "Madison, I can't understand what your saying." "What do you want?" As she settled and I went back upstairs to bed it made me smile and remember that first year of crying and the only cure was trial and error to figure out what it was she needed. We have gotten so spoiled with her telling us what she wants or needs that we sometimes forget during these moments that she is only 1.5 years old, she is still a "baby" and she still just needs us to figure it out sometimes.

I'm so proud of my lil M and her development advances so early, it truly makes a difference (most of the time) in getting her what she needs or wants. But at the same time these moments provide great memories of what we do as parents for our children from day one when their ability to express themselves is only to cry or coo and caw.

Sometimes we forget but sometimes we also need to be reminded of how it was so we can be so grateful for what have.