Our Christmas Holiday

(Just realized I didn't post this yet!)

Christmas with my family was the weekend before Christmas. My family gathered on Saturday to exchange presents and have a mini birthday party for Bj and his cousin Tommy (who turned 1 on Dec. 13th). Time flies by so quickly when you're having fun with family!

Chuchee Monica and BJ

We started off our Christmas vacation with a flight to Massachusetts on BJ's first birthday. I brought little presents in my carry-on to entertain him on the flight. BJ did excellent (hey, he's a pro at flying now...this was his 5th airplane ride!)

Once we got to Grandma Bys' house we had a birthday party. BJ got to celebrate with all of daddy's family. He got a lot of Patriots/Red Sox gear, toys, and books.

On December 23rd we had a mini-Christmas celebration since Uncle Brad, Auntie Stephanie, and cousin Alex were headed up to Rochester for Christmas. BJ and Alex were able to spend some time together, however, their one year age difference is still quite apparent.

Thanks for the monkey hat, Auntie Stephanie!

This is when our trip took a turn for the worse. Christmas Eve, at 5am, BJ woke us up with an upset stomach. He proceeded to vomit 6 more times by 10:30 am. We spent most of the day upstairs in the bedroom, just lying around. BJ was so sick, he would just lean up against us. He couldn't even hold his head up! By the afternoon the diarrhea set in. I think BJ went through 3 changes of clothes! (We were supposed to see to Brian's extended family on Christmas Eve. They have not meet BJ yet.)

Christmas morning BJ seemed to be okay. We got him up and dressed by 10 am. Our little family of 3 read the Christmas story out of the book of Luke and then prayed. Then we joined the rest of the family downstairs.

BJ was so tired that he feel asleep while we read him a book. The rest of the day was filled with lounging, diaper changes, Pedialyte, and outfit changes every so often. Christmas night I started to have nausea. It lasted into the early morning but I was okay after that. Brian started feeling sick Sunday night. BJ continued his sickness until Monday. Right now it appears that only Brian is still fighting something. We are now home in MD. As much as we wanted to visit family this Christmas, it is SO nice to be home again. We didn't get to see everybody (like Grandma and Grandpa Deschaine and the crew) but at least we had family support for the first time BJ got really sick.

Through all of this sickness, we are reminded that our Father, the Great Physician, has the power to heal us all. Thank you, Lord, for sending your Son to this earth to die on the cross for our sins. Happy Birthday Jesus!

All I want for Christmas...

is my one front tooth!

Happy Birthday BJ!

BJ turned 1 on December 22. We had a party on the 18th with my family and a party on the 22nd with Brian's family. I can't believe how quickly BJ is growing up!

Happy 1st Birthday, cousin Tommy!

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens...

BJ is growing up so quickly. He'll be one in a few short weeks. As he grows it's interesting to see the toys he chooses to play with and activities he chooses to do. Here is a list of BJ's favorite things:

1. Balls. BJ LOVES balls. Yes, it is something that Daddy introduced to BJ when he was a mere tike of 3 days old. But BJ has really taken the love for a ball to a higher level. His eyes light up when he sees one. He could throw the ball and chase it for hours.

2. Bananas. One of BJ's favorite breakfast foods. He gets super-excited when I pull out the banana. His legs start kicking and he claps. It's one of the few foods that he'll sign "more" for.

3. Bears. Brian taught BJ a game: first you hug the teddy bear, then you throw the teddy bear. You'll see him hugging his two teddy bears with a huge smile. And now he likes anything soft and fluffly. He's hugged my sweater and even my comfy sock (while it was still on my foot!).

4. Books. Part of our naptime routine is reading a book. BJ doesn't just sit there and listen; he likes to interact with the book. That could be turning the pages, flipping the book over, or even biting it. His favorite books are those that have textures to feel. He also likes the books with the flip tabs. Every Thursday we go to our local library for storytime. Although he doesn't sit still for the stories, he does enjoy the other children and the activities they do.

5. Bath. BJ gets a bath almost every night. He loves the water and the toys. It's fun to hear him talking to himself in the bath. I wonder what he's thinking about. The only part of the bath that he hates is the actual washing. He screams and twists and turns, like I'm intruding on his play time!

6. Blue. The color that is. It's the funniest thing. He has toys of all colors but he usually gravitates to the blue toys. We have a stacking rings thing. As an experiment I put the rings on so that the blue one was on the bottom. Wouldn't you know, he picked off all the rings until he got to the blue one. So I did it again, this time with the blue one in the middle. He took off only enough to get to the blue one. Funny.

6. Sweetie. BJ loves our cat, Sweetie. We first got her 8 years ago when Brian got deployed with the Army. She was a stray and was extremely skittish. Through the years she has gotten slightly less skittish but still a scaredy cat around strangers. When I was pregnant, we were afraid that she might get so frightened of the baby and become defensive. When BJ arrived Sweetie wasn't thrilled, but she coped. She would keep her distance but still be in the same room. Once BJ started crawling, he would chase her around the house and she would run for cover. Now, either Sweetie is getting lazy or old because she just lies there as BJ tackles her!

7. Music. Not just any old music. It is the music of three particular toys: the activity table, the ball popper thing, and the ring stacker. He will push the button on these toys just so they will play the music and then he will play with something else. Once the music stops he will go back and turn it back on. And then play with something else. It's gotten so, um, annoying that I've put tape on the speakers so it won't play as loud!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Love 2010 Christmas Card

Get custom photo Christmas cards online at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

Thanksgiving

(I jumped ahead of myself when I posted about Christmas cards!)

Brian and I decided to not travel for Thanksgiving this year. It was a hard decision. On one hand, holidays are supposed to be spent with family. On the other hand, almost all of our family lives 3+ hours away (the closest is my brother who lives about 45 minutes away...but he was going up to my family's celebration about 4 hours away) which would require a lot of traveling on our part. Although Brian had the week off from teaching school he still had basketball practice in the evenings. So we decided to hunker down here in MD for the holiday. It was a good thing we decided to stay home. BJ caught a cold two days before Thanksgiving and is still suffering from it today. He was so congested and stuffy. He had a runny nose, a terrible cough, and a slight fever. But he was still smiley :). We scrapped our plans to go to a church family's house. Thankfully, our neighbors gave us a turkey. So I whipped up a Thanksgiving meal for my family of 3. Although the day wasn't what I thought it would be, who could ask for more than being with your husband and son all day?

Skyping family in MA. I made BJ the Native American headdress. He hates anything on his head so it didn't last very long.

Could be drool, could be snots, could be water. Who knows what's on BJ's sweater!

(Side note: BJ also cut his 4th tooth on Saturday so that may also have contributed to the cold symptoms)

Christmas Cards

It's that time of year again...time to send out Christmas cards. We put up our Christmas tree over the weekend and I am planning on doing a mini photo shoot with BJ in front of the tree. Since BJ's 1st birthday is 3 days before Christmas, there's not enough time to combine a 1 year and Christmas photo shoot, and still get the photo on the Christmas cards. I came across this promotion of 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly so I decided to do the Christmas photos on my own (and the 1st birthday ones actually near his birthday). We have used Shutterfly mostly for photo books but have also purchased their photo cards and 4X6 prints. What keeps drawing me back to Shutterfly are the promotions they often have. I'm a BIG fan of free photos, photo cards, and photo books!

I have been taking photos of BJ every week since he was born. My plan is to assemble all 64 photos (52 week pictures and 12 month pictures) into a photo book to commemorate his first year. At least that will make all my Tuesday photo shoots worth it!

I haven't taken his 49 week picture yet but here's last weeks! He's getting so big!!

November

Now that the month of November has almost passed us by...I figured I would at least post once about our family :)

BJ continues to be a joy. He is now 11 months old. 11 months!! Time is really flying by. He still only has 3 teeth. The other top 3 are SO close to coming out that I check everyday. He waves only at the people he wants to...mostly daddy. And, as of last night's basketball game that Brian coached, BJ is starting to clap! He gets mostly air but his hands are definitely swinging and searching for a hit.

Our memory card is full so I haven't been taking a lot of pictures; I hate deleting the old pictures. Here is a slightly recent picture. At least it was taken in November...

The "46" on his pajamas means 46 weeks old. I have been taking a picture once a week (every Tuesday) and plan on putting them in an album to commemorate his first year of life.

Tooth Fairy

When we were visiting Grandma Bys in July BJ got his first two teeth. And he's only had those two teeth. Until last week. While Grandma was visiting us BJ's third tooth came in! It's his upper left lateral incisor, not one of his cental incisors which is normally next. So, he's still missing his two front teeth. But now we know what to wish for this Christmas :)

Dedication

On Sunday October 17th we had a dedication ceremony for BJ at our church. We had intended on having it over the summer but we just never set the wheels in motion. My mother-in-law was visiting from MA so we decided now was the time. Brian wrote this wonderful letter to BJ and read it aloud to the church:

Dedication Letter to BJ from you parents

Psalm 127:3-4 says "Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth."

BJ, you are a blessing from the Lord to your mom and me.

Your mom and I desire to dedicate you to the Lord today, October 17, 2010 in front o our family and friends because God has been gracious and faithful to us. Our prayer for you is that you will grow to know God, to love God, and to serve God with your life. To help you on this journey, your mom and I commit to the following:

• To teach you about God from His Word (Deut. 6:5-9)


• To train you up and show you the way you should go (Proverbs 22:6)


• To provide for your needs (II Cor 12:14b)


• To correct and admonish you in love (Proverbs 13:24)


• To nurture and care for you (Eph 6:4)


• To be an example to you (II Tim 1:5)

BJ, Please understand that we will not be perfect at meeting these goals, but we trust that our faithful God will make up for our shortcomings because He loves you even more than we do (which is hard to believe). May God receive the praise.

Love,

Your Mom and Dad

We were blessed to have Mommom and Pop Rarig, Uncle Jason, Cousins Taylor and Jacob, and Grandma Bys come to BJ's dedication!

The Perfect Autumn Weekend

We had beautiful weather here in MD this past weekend. We took advantage of this warm front and headed out for some Fall Fun.

Friday night Brian and I went to a benefit dinner for The Catherine Foundation, a local preganacy care center. Pam Tebow, Tim Tebow's mom, spoke at the dinner. She had a fabulous Pro-Life message! It was nice to have a date with Brian but I constantly thought of BJ. It was the first time someone other than Brian and I put BJ to bed. Thanks Stacie and Stacie's mom for watching our boy!

Saturday we went to BJ (and Brian's) first high school football game.

After the game we went to Queen Anne Farm. We didn't buy anything but it was fun to take BJ to someplace festive.

After church on Sunday we went to Miller's Farm for some apple cider donuts and pumpkin softserve icecream. BJ had his first taste of Mommy's favorite dessert (any type of icecream) and he absolutely loved it!! He wanted more icecream and let us know! He's a boy after my own heart :)

"Really Mom?! Out of all these pumpkins you choose THIS one! Where's my big pumpkin?!"

The Best Birthday Ever

My birthday was on Wednesday. It was the best birthday because I was able to spend ALL DAY with my favorite little man! We went to the library, we played games on the living room floor, just me and my boy :) Brian took us out for dinner at Outback Steakhouse and then we had a wonderful birthday celebration.

We had Carvel ice cream cake (a must for any birthday celebration) and presents. Notice the basket of unfolded laundry. I didn't want to work on my birthday :)

The best gift was an original BJ work-of-art, which is now hanging on the fridge.

Thanks for a wonderful birthday Brian and BJ!!! I love you both!

In a Pickle

BJ is crawling now! And look where it got him...stuck under the couch. Good thing Mommy was there to rescue him (after taking a picture of course).

I think he was actually trying to pull himself up but then got interested in the toys beside him. So he turned over and got stuck in a pickle :)

9 months

I can't believe BJ is 9 months old already. He's growing so big!! He's been wearing a few pieces of 12 month clothing for a while but he is now exclusively in 12 month clothes. I'm not sure of his weight or height but we'll find out at his 9 month appt next week. For now I just wanted to share some little tidbits of info about BJ:

• He loves to throw balls. It's his favorite game EVER.


• If you play with his face (either poking at his nose or giving him fishy lips for example) he'll just sit there, expressionless, and let you play. It is so stinkin' adorable that he just sits there.


• When he nurses he raises one arm in the air and plays with my face. He likes to grab my nose and lips. Sometimes he pulls my hair but he mostly concentrates on the face. I've also given him "high fives" which he has enjoyed.


• BJ likes to feel things. He runs his fingers across everything. When he goes to bed at night he'll stroke the sides of his crib till he falls asleep.


• Bj is not crawling. Yet. The desire is there but the ability is not. He gets up on his knees and rocks but just can't seem to take that first plunge forward. One day soon he will!


• He still just has two teeth. I feel like he's been teething forever. I'm expecting like 8 teeth to show up all at once.

I love being BJ's mommy.

Family Photos

A lot has happened this past summer. And I have not been a good blogger lately. To make the most of the few minutes I have I am just going to post two pictures - BJ's generation photos.




This is a photo of BJ's Great-Great Grandma (seated in center), Great Grandma (seated to right of Gr-Gr Grandma in green), Grandma (in teal to left of Gr-Gr Grandma) and the rest of the family.


This is a picture of my whole family at our annual chicken bbq. BJ's Great Grandma is seated in the front row. Of course, BJ and I are not looking. Oh well.



Hopefully I'll post pictures of our trip to Niagra Falls. We'll see. For now I need to go play with my son. He's growing up way too quickly!

Teeth!!

That's right....not tooth but teeth! On our most recent vacation BJ sprouted his first tooth. And I wouldn't have noticed if I didn't stick my finger in his mouth. He was sleeping excellent (8pm-5am straight) and was the happiest baby. The second tooth came 6 days later and it came like a lion. Sleepless nights, super-cranky during the day...I should've known! But he's all better now. Although I don't have a picture yet of BJ's new teeth here is a picture taken on the day we discovered his first tooth.

Another vacation...

Apparently this summer has been one vacation after another.

BJ took his first plane ride 2 weeks ago! We were SO nervous bringing him on the flight. The only thing that calmed me was the fact that the flight was only 1 hour long. Well...I had no reason to worry! BJ hungrily attacked his bottle during take-off...and promptly fell asleep while we were still climbing. He slept the ENTIRE way and only woke up as we were descending into Hartford, CT. And he woke up all smiles:) The other passengers just fawned over BJ once he was awake.

Our trip up to New England was to visit Brian's family. We jam packed our week with different activities:

BJ's first swim in a real pool

a visit to the butterfly conservatory (note the butterfly on Brian's knee)

exploring Yankee Candle in Deerfield, MA (pirate ships, donkeys, and royalty...who could ask for more?!)

BJ's first trip to the zoo

And bowling (whew...that's a lot of new experiences!)

Just a few more weekends of fun to go and the summer is over :(

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N (part two)

I've had this post saved for about two weeks now. I figured I should finish it before we head out for vacation #3 tomorrow :)


On July 4th we had the opportunity to see Uncle Brad, Auntie Stephanie and cousin Alex.


Look how big Alex is!!

July 5th we headed out to Bethany Beach, DE. BJ just loves his Mommom :)

BJ's first trip to the beach...and he's sportin' the mohawk because he's so cool. (Actually...it was the sunscreen in his hair that made it stay. And it wasn't very cool - it was one of those 100 degree days)

Instead of playing in the ocean, cousins Tommy and BJ played in the baby pool. It was more their speed.

Gotta get all of that sand off!

Sometimes all you need is a good nap! Thanks, Pop, for the shoulder!

Family picture. My brother and his kids were up the week before. We actually saw them on the highway headed back home when we were driving to vacation!

Cousins - Tommy, BJ, and Sam

BJ loves his Chuchee Monica :)

Relaxing in the pool.

That's it for now. BJ is 7 months today. Time sure does fly by!