View From The Hills

Because this cannot be the baby I gave birth to 2 short years ago.  This child wears 4T clothes, size 9 shoes, size 7 diapers.  No, this can’t be my baby.  He’s entirely too big. 

That mark on his forehead that turns red and angry when he’s excited will always remind me of the torment we all went through to get him here, and that he is, indeed, mine.  Never does a day go by that I don’t look at that mark and remember the most trying, painful, beautiful, miraculous day of my life so far.  Time is flying by and I am trying to enjoy each second with this amazing blessing.  I just can’t grasp how quickly things are changing.  He doesn’t want me to rock him anymore.  He’ll lay quietly on me for a few minutes in the chair, but no rocking.  That was a decision he made yesterday. 

But just to be clear, he will NOT be using the potty anytime soon.  He made that decision yesterday, too.

Oh Sweet Blake, I love you so.

Although the posts on my blog tend to be as eclectic as the thoughts running through my mind, I really need to get a stereotypical mommy blog off my chest. This kid of mine is cracking me up.  I tend to feel that every age we come upon is my favorite (once we were past infancy, I kind of hated that part), but I feel the most strongly about this.  I am truly having so much fun with B right now.  He’s definitely aspiring toward The Terrible Two’s, but he still just been a blast to hang out with.  So, here are some of the things my boy is doing these days:

1. Starting to really talk.  He now tries to say everything.  He’s been a little late in this area, but I can see that he will catch up soon.  The reason I know he’s capable of more than he lets on is that his Aunt Alix taught him to say “YeeHaw!”.  If he can say that, I’m pretty sure he could (if he wanted to) say many of the other things I’ve been begging him to say.  He simply can not take a bite of any food unless you have told him what it is, he tries to say it, and you repeat it back to him.  If you do not repeat it back again, he will simply say it and say it and say it until you cooperate.

2.  Speaking of that, he really likes chicken.  Since he knows what a chicken says, he usually says “bok, bok, bok, bok” the whole time he is eating it.  And no, Christopher, he has still not consumed it in nugget form.

3.  His 2 favorite vegetables are bell peppers and cucumbers.  He will eat them raw.  But don’t you dare even consider putting a tiny bit of broccoli on his plate.  You can smother it with cheese, ranch, whatever, and he is totally on to you and will scream about it for the rest of dinnertime.  Broccoli seems to actually make him angry.

4.  He wants to eat everything with a fork.  Even things that are not meant to be stabbed, like pretzels and Kix.  He wouldn’t eat his goldfish at snacktime in Sunday School until they found him one.  His teachers think he has impeccable manners.

5.  He really, really likes going to the store, or anywhere in public where he can get strangers to say “Hi” and “Bye” to him.   He waves throughout the entire shopping trip as if he’s on a parade float.

i6.  One of his favorite games right now is Hide and Seek.  But, the dramatic version-where you jump out and scare him when he finds you.  The more surprised he is, the better.  I’m afraid Stu is going to give him a little toddler heart-attack.

7.  The child has a high pain tolerance.  It really takes a lot to hurt him.  He’s got a lot of size to manage, so falls, bumps on the head, running into walls, corners of tables are all very common occurrences.  He will howl, though, if something makes him mad.  He bumped his head last week, and Aunt Alix offered to kiss it.  He promptly turned, kissed her on the cheek, and got up to play.

8.  He loves the water.  He showers with his Daddy a lot and will stand directly under the stream of water.  He’ll choke and sputter, then go back for more.  I love it.

9.  Bedtime has gotten downright hilarious.  I used to get his lovie, paci, milk, and some books, and gather him up in our big rocking chair.  I would read to him while he drank his milk, then rock him with a song.  He now wants to read to me.  Sometime he even babbles with the correct inflection for the page.  Then he’ll lay on me for about 30 seconds to rock.  At that point he looks up at me and tells me “B (pointing to himself) ah bed (pointing to the bed)”.  I asked, “Is it time for B to go to bed?”  He makes that thrilled face that tells you you broke the code.  I’m kind of sad that he doesn’t need that rocking time anymore, but I love that he is so comfortable in his bed that he looks forward to getting in!  So I put him in his bed, give him Sock Monkey, and his all time favorite: Max (the little guy in the wolf suit from “Where the Wild Things Are”).  He says Ma? (Max)  I repeat, “Yes, that’s Max”.  And inevitably, as I walk out the door, I hear  “Eeee Heee”  (This is always “Thank You” in his language).  Does it get any better?

10.  The dancing.  Oh, the dancing.  He asks his daddy to play music every night when he gets home.  He then proceeds to dance his heart out.

It’s just amazing.  He’s becoming this little person with this spirited personality who plays, communicates, and shows affection.  I’m having fun.  Oh yes.

Stu and I celebrated our 6th anniversary on Friday.  Our actual “wedding” anniversary is today.  The day we were legally married in a courthouse in Ellicott City was the 16th.  It’s very confusing.  And that part really wasn’t public information until the last few years.  Basically, we weren’t going to be in Texas long enough before the wedding to obtain a license and have it signed (you have to wait 3 days in TX-or 2? whatever) and I didn’t want to have to wait until we were back from our honeymoon for things to be legal.  So, these 2 Texans took our lunch break the Wednesday before our wedding and got hitched in front of a judge right here in Maryland.  Stu went through most of the courthouse ceremony feeling the need to inform everyone that this was not, in fact, a shotgun wedding.  The witnesses to this top secret matrimony are friends of our whom we have sadly lost touch with and they took the only pictures in existence of this occasion.  We didn’t tell everyone at the wedding festivities a few days later that we were already hitched, because we didn’t want to spoil the fun, but man, did it ever take the pressure off!  Ha.

Our wedding and reception took place on The Spirit of Texas, a paddlewheeler that took us on a 3 hour tour of Kemah, TX (right near the Gulf of Mexico).  What fond memories we have of that party and the people who celebrated with us!

The vows:

The people:

The dress:

The dancing:

The newlyweds (in “party” attire-no way I was dancing the night away in that big dress):

And… the end:

Stu, I cherish you more than I did that day.  As we’ve said so many times (sometimes in humor, sometimes not, ha): We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.  Look at us, we were so clueless.  I had no idea the good times would be so good, I had no idea that my love for you would change from that butterfly romantic love to this deep love that runs through my veins like a part of me.  And we have been through some hard times that we didn’t know would be so hard.  I’m overwhelmingly grateful that God persistantly brought us together and I know that it is because of our love for Him that we have been able to love each other so deeply.  What an unspeakable joy to be able to share life with you!! Sometimes I joke that it’s like getting to have a slumber party with my best friend all the time, but it still feels like that.  And now that we have brought a son into this, well, words can’t describe how blessed I feel.  I look forward to filling up this house with children.  I look forward to seeing how God wants to use us to help others.  I look forward to 6 more years.  And 6 after that, and 6 after that.  You get it.

Every time I study my Bible I am reminded that this is how God communicates with us.  Every time, I think, “That was amazing! Why don’t I do this ALL the time?”  I’m in a Bible study right now, which helps to keep me accountable.  Today was yet another “postcard from Heaven”-as the Pond’s like to call it.

Blake went to bed last night with a low fever, we gave him some Motrin and he slept fine.  He slept in today, which I mostly just considered a bonus.  I had time to work on my Bible study.  When I finally went to check on him at about 8:45, he was laying in bed moaning.  I grabbed him and the thermometer.  I’ve never felt him so hot.  His temp was 104!  As many can attest to, I’m not one to keep a cool head in an emergency.  It’s not that I flip out, in fact I become quite paralyzed.  I did think to give him more Motrin for the fever, but I had to call Stu so he would tell me to take him to the ER (dr’s office wasn’t open yet).  He doesn’t show any symptoms, and after some blood work and X-rays they came to the conclusion that he has some sort of viral infection.  For now I can only treat the fever.  Thank God we’ve ruled out any of the scary stuff, but it was still a shaky morning.  About halfway through all the tests, I remembered what I studied this morning and that fate and coincidence are probably not in God’s vocabulary.  I think He allowed me to read this before I got to Blake because He knew it would be my strength for today.  No matter what I go through, He always gives me strength.  This was my scripture:

I will lift my eyes to the hills

Where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord,

Who made heaven and earth.

He will not allow your foot to be moved;

He who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber or sleep.

The Lord is your keeper;

The Lord is your shade at your right hand.

The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.

The Lord shall preserve you from all evil.

He shall preserve your soul.

The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in

From this time forth, and even forevermore.

Psalm 121

You know, I recently put up a facebook status about how my baby was sick again. A friend with older children commented that her first son was a sickly child too and that it will get better as he gets older. I remember thinking, “my kid is not sickly! Why did she say that?”  Umm. I guess being sick with something new every couple of weeks consitutes sickly.  He really is such a good sick baby though.  It usually just means he’s a little more snuggly than usual.  A few weeks ago his doctor said he was wheezing and showing “early signs” of pnumonia.  I thought that was so bizarre because I was guessing a cold.  We went through a course of antibiotics and he seemed better.  Friday night though, he coughed all night.  I’m not even exaggerating.  I don’t know how he slept.  When we woke him up at 5 am the next morning to get to the airport (that’s right), he was running a fever.  UGH.  I decided to get to Texas where at least I would have some help this week if he was sick.  Stu will be in Sweden all week, otherwise I might have kept him home.  He was a great flier this time.  Unfortunately, I think that was due to lethargy.  He slept or laid down the whole time.  Thank goodness he had his own seat, he was able to put his head in my lap and spread out.  I do love Southwest. 

 When we got to my sister’s house the wheezing started.  I knew we had to give in and have him looked at, so we headed to the ER.  Daina’s husband sent us to a new children’s hospital and Plano, and WOW.  First of all, there was not a soul in the waiting room.  They brought him right in and moved so fast!  Secondly, it was awesome and new and clean and shiny.  And they were blowing bubbles.  And they had a slushy machine (Daina and I picked blue flavor).  They did an x-ray and found that he doesn’t have pnumonia, but his airways are “irritated” due to a respiratory virus.  The doc said this would probably lead to bronchitis and possibly pnumonia if untreated, but he was able to get breathing treatments to help him clear out his lungs.  The treatments help so much.  Aunt D stepped right in and took care of Blake the whole time.  He loved it.  It’s amazing how quickly he takes to Daina no matter how long it’s been since he’s seen her.  Here’s Aunt D and B getting breathing treatments:

Daina regretted taking him for his x-ray though.  Besides that he just been swished away from watching Bear in the Big Blue House (our regular hospital lifesaver), he had to be physically restrained for the test.  By the time they returned, they were both crying.  So sad. 

Things are better today.  I miss my husband already though.  Sweden actually feels farther away.

Today was Blake’s “baby” dedication.  I put in in quotes because he looks way too old for me to be calling it that.  Simply put, today we publicly committed to raise our son on the Christian Faith and our church committed to assist us with that phenomenal task.  At times like this, we do find it a little sad to be so far away from our families.  However, not having them here today makes them no less essential in my mind.  But as we stood in front of our church I realized how immensely blessed we are to be a part of such a spiritual family.  I was overwhelmed.  And fulfilled.  I know that while God has called us to be away from our families, He has still met our needs.  What a comfort!  Thanks to those of you who took part today and especially to the Hillmar’s who took some pictures for us, and who I know will also be essential in the life of our boy.  Pastor Steve prayed that Blake will grow up to be a “mighty man of God” and I will continue that prayer as long as I have breath.