Consistently Inconsistent-Turin Pull Pics and videos

DISCLAIMER: Please excuse the total randomness of this blog. The Blog World should shame me.

 

It’s Sunday morning, and somehow, I have found a few quiets minutes to spare before church to check-in on some blog entries that I am currently working on but haven’t published yet. And low and behold, I have found another old one that I never did publish nor finish. But, for the sake of moving forward with life and the blog, here’s how far I got:

 

I’m guilty! Very guilty of being consistently inconsistent! This blog is proof! So is my diet and exercise:) I’d love to have blogged more frequently over the past month because we have been very blessed to have had some wonderful times with our little man, and he has really changed a lot recently! Daniel and I officially have a crawler and a “puller-upper” on our hands! And needless to say, our hands are even busier now. At the risk of sounding very cliché, we are very blessed to have a son, and we are constantly finding an even deeper appreciation for the mate and companion we have found in each other.  We are loving learning to do the “family life” thing. It fulfills us in a way that brings a new meaning and purpose to our lives.

 

In August, we had Aunt Francie and “Uncle” Ryan come up for a weekend visit. Daniel and Ryan went to the Turin Tractor Pull, and we stopped by briefly that afternoon with Thomas to check out the scene. It was so hot that it was miserable.

 

When we got home, I let Francie carry Thomas in…along with the diaper bag and purse..I told her it would be a good experience for her to do it just once. This was the end result….

 

You see, he was crying because as Aunt Francie so eloquently posed for this picture, she was smashing my baby’s fingers against the bricks….

Thomas was not amused, but he decided to let them stay the rest of the weekend anyway. That’s another jewel in his crown in heaven one day;)

Francie and Ryan trying to be all romantic at the Turin Tractor Pull…..

I mean, seriously….this is supposed to be a “family friendly” place….

But aren’t they kind of cute standing with a stroller:)

 

Thomas and Daddy loved watching the tractors….imagine that!

 

The best seat in the house….

So, Thomas loves Lady, and Lady doesn’t really care about Thomas. He can’t feed her treats of chase her around the yard so she has little use for him. But Thomas doesn’t let those facts rain on his parade. He’s not really (and I say “not really” because that means it is a rule when I feel like enforcing it, and it’s not a rule when I don’t feel like enforcing it. Great parenting, right? Remember the title of this post…."Consistently Inconsistent”….) allowed in the laundry room. Lady’s raunchy kennel is in there, my gardening boots that Thomas likes to chew on are in there, and  Daniel’s cell phone charger (aka, cord Thomas could tangle himself up in or try to eat) are all in a little boy’s arms reach. So, it’s just off limits.

 

Most of the time.

 

But, apparently on this particular day, it was not. Thomas gets excited when he sees Lady and runs full speed ahead straight into her kennel with his big, clunky walker. Lady kind of whimpers because she’s not thrilled that he is able to get that close to her and she can’t run away from him. She stands up and turns in a few nervous circles and starts panting and looking at me like, “Please, get him out of here!”

 

That little smile and those chubby cheeks make bending a few rules worth it every now and then:)

Thomas also loves to take his walker to the front door and look out across the street to his Great-Grandparents house and see what all is going on around the farm.

And I think he is always hoping to get a glance of his Daddy’s truck pulling in the driveway….

 

Speaking of Daddies, my Daddy Tom was really sick this summer! He had a staph infection in his blood and was and still is having horrible neck pain with it/from it/we don’t really know why he’s having the neck pain!  He and my Momma are coming up here next week to go to the doctor at Emory. We are definitely praying for answers and relief from the pain for Daddy Tom.

 

I think Mimi and Francie have been the best little nurses to Daddy Tom and have taken really good care of him. Well, I don’t know. From the looks of this picture, I think Charlie may have the #1 spot at the best nurse:)

All of that snuggling just wears him out though.

Summer and I went to visit him and try to keep him entertained with the babies! I think we both were so busy and had our hands so full taking care of Thomas and Kennedy that we were more of a tornado that blew in than we were guests:)

Summer….I think you need sleep in this picture. You look strung-out!

 

Thomas was not crawling yet during this trip, but he was starting to think about it!….

 

I love a little boy in footed pajamas…it just melts my heart.

    

Thomas after his dinner on night. He is eating about 9 cubes for dinner, and then will take a 6-8oz. bottle two hours later at bed time!  I better get used to being in my kitchen:)

My dear friend from college, Jenny, got married a few weeks ago to her sweet love, Wiley. I helped host a wedding shower for her in Decatur, but of course, I had to go solo because of Thomas’s separation anxiety from me and Daniel. Daniel stayed home with him and Cassie and I made a night of it!

    

I am so relieved to finally say that I think his separation anxiety is getting better. We have never been able to successfully leave Thomas before this past week. My sister and her husband, Scott and Summer, were in town and kept Thomas some for us.

 

HE WAS COMPLETELY FINE.

 

I have no explanation for why he had this odd anxiety/fear of people so young or why it went away as quickly as it appeared. I don’t really care to figure it out as long as it doesn’t come back:) He is actually just now at the age where true separation anxiety should be starting. Lesson learned: not all babies follow what the books/doctors say! My baby had separation anxiety from the time he was six weeks old until now at 8.5 months! And, NO, I did not neglect him/leave him in his crib unattended for 12 hours a day/starve him/beat him, or anything else that can lead to some strange behavior in babies.  If Daniel and I are guilty of anything, it’s snuggling and lavishing him with too much attention:)  

In This Moment….

I am the one who helps him keep his balance when he pulls up at the back  door the look at Lady through the window.

 

I am the one who wakes up at 6:30a.m. to the sound of his baby babble talk streaming through the monitor.

 

I am the one who pops out from around the corner yelling “BOO!!!” and sends him into a hysterical laughter. It’s his new favorite game, by the way. It never gets old. It’s still just as funny at 5:00p.m. as it was at 7:00a.m. when you played it for the first time that day.

 

I am the one who he clings to when we go to a new place or are around a group of new people and he feels scared.

 

I am the one who comforts him, who feeds him, who consoles him, who wipes the poop from his butt, and who goes into his room after he falls asleep at night and puts all the pacies back in his crib that he threw out so he will easily be able to find one if he wakes up in the middle of the night. Alright, and I make D do most some of these things most some of the time. He has to earn his keep around here somehow;)

 

Earlier today Thomas was in his walker in the kitchen while I folded laundry and put it away. We started a game of chasing each other around the island in the kitchen with me sneaking up behind him and yelling “BOO!!!” and then both us cracking up. It is hilarious to watch him because I literally scare him. He jumps out of his skin every time I pop out, even though he knows I’m behind the corner and knows I’m about to jump right back out at him. Well, the fun part about playing this game around the kitchen island is that he would try to come get me once he saw which corner I was hiding behind, but I would have already snuck around the other side of the island by that time and would be ready to jump out from behind him and give him even more of a thrill. We both were cracking up. It probably was the hardest I have laughed in a really long time. It was one of those times when I thought, “This is real joy. This is one of those few pure moments of life.”  The kind where you have such a grateful heart that all you can feel is adoration for your loved one and thanksgiving to the One who created him. I love the moments where I get so lost in the wonder and blessing of raising a little person that my heart is free from any frustration or weariness that it may carry from other aspects of motherhood. Don’t you know that God must love when we worship him through the love of parenting?!

 

I am so grateful for this time with Thomas when he is young and innocent and the biggest obstacle I have with him is keeping him from giving himself a concussion while learning to crawl, cruise, and walk. I know a day will come when parenting him looks completely different than it does now. There will be no more diapers to change and instead of jumping out from around a corner and yelling “BOO!!” at him, I will probably be yelling '”GET TO YOUR ROOM AND DON’T COME BACK OUT UNTIL YOU’VE CHANGED YOUR ATTITUDE, YOUNG MAN!!!!!”

 

…..Excuse me. Did anyone just hear Joan coming out in me??  Ah, this world may be an even scarier place than I realized!!

 

Anyways, back to what I was saying. I know that different seasons and challenges in the world of parenting lay/lie (what the heck is the correct word to use here anyway??)  ahead of me and Daniel. And I know that the “leave and cleave” season will come, too.  And I cringe at the very thought of her it:) I know that the Lord did not design little boys to stay at home forever with their Mommas. There is great purpose and fulfillment in everyone when a little boy is trained in the ways of the Lord in his home and is one day ready to leave his Momma and Daddy and to cleave to his new wife and life. But still!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

So today,  my dear friends in blog world, I am going to live in this moment with my son and cherish it. I am going to log off of the computer for the day and spend the rest of our “free time” for the day on the floor with Thomas. Wrestling, spitting, scratching our butts, biting, whatever it is little boys do:)