Emily and Kolby

All Things New

In February 2012, after 18 months of trying to start our family, I was told I had at least stage 3 (of 4) endometriosis, a condition that affects women during the reproductive years and often causes infertility. Moderate endometriosis is associated with a 2% or less chance of natural pregnancy each month (compared with 20% in the general population) and up to a 50% chance of miscarriage if pregnancy does occur (compared with 10% in the general population).

The prior summer I had been diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a common hormonal disorder that also often causes infertility. Like endometriosis, it is also associated with a sharply reduced chance of pregnancy and increased chance of miscarriage.

That was the reality of my health, of our hope for a family.

Our prayer turned from praying for a baby to praying for healing. It was the middle of Lent and our church happened to be doing a sermon series on healing, so we asked several friends at church to join us in our prayer too.

On March 30, 2012 we found out we were pregnant with Beckett. I had a perfect pregnancy and gave birth to a stunningly beautiful and very healthy baby boy on December 8, 2012. I joyfully nursed him for 16 months with no problems whatsoever (women with PCOS are at a greater risk for insufficient milk supply, which impedes successful breastfeeding). On March 25, 2014 we found out we were pregnant with baby #2.

That is the reality of God’s power. When He heals, He doesn’t just put a band aid on it. He makes all things new.

I was even still nursing Beckett when we got pregnant with our newest addition. This body, that seemed to be the source of one let down after another, was made new. Carrying Beckett was the greatest privilege of my life. And now to get to do it again? I don’t even have the words. And two babies in two years? My wildest dream—a small house full of babies—has come true. All glory to God.

It's a...

...surprise!

We'll all find out the gender together on birth day!

We had our 20 week sonogram today and baby is perfect and healthy in every way. Measuring a tad big, but that's our style.

A couple other favorite shots from the sonogram...

This is one flexible baby!

(In case you can't make heads or tails of what you're looking at, the baby is in the same position as the pic above but with his/her legs up to where the toes are almost touching his/her head.)

And he/she definitely has Kolby's feet (he has an infamous extra space after his big toe, as seen in the foot pic here).

So very thankful for the great report, and we absolutely can't wait to meet our new family member in November!

Pride

You know what totally caught me by surprise about parenthood? The pride you take in your children. Or I guess more precisely, how early it starts.

Y’all. I am so stinkin’ proud of Beckett. My pride in him comes in moments, often on a daily basis, and my eyes literally well with tears. And I’m not an emotional person.

Right away, I’d look at him, how beautiful he was, the alertness in his eyes, his joyful temperament, and I just couldn’t believe he was ours.

In those first few months, showing him off to our adoring friends and family—I was just so proud to share him.

Then as he got older he’d take a good nap or wake up in the night but settle himself back to sleep on his own and I know this sounds crazy but I’d find myself being so proud of him. One time my brother asked how he was sleeping and my eyes randomly started watering as I told him he’d taken a two hour nap that day. I really wish I could explain how on earth a person gets emotional about something like that. I mean, get a life, right? It was my first real taste of having this all-consuming pride that defies all sensibility.

And now? Gosh everything the kid does causes my heart to just fill with pride. Color for two minutes without attempting to eat the crayons? Proud. Mimic me when I ask him to say “yes please” instead of “ya”? Proud. Navigate a new playground on his own? Proud. Finish his dinner? Proud. Behave well during errands? Proud. Learn something new? Proud. Be brave enough to go down a big slide by himself after he tumbled down it then face-planted in the mulch the time before (mom fail)? Proud. Make new friends with ease? Proud.

And on and on.

Oh, and the best part is that he gets that I’m proud of him. He picks up on it and then gets proud of himself in turn and he has this move that is hard to convey with words but I want to remember it—he swings both his arms back and holds him there or swings them once or twice and gives the most endearing smile.

When we are at a park or a splash pad he loves to play independently so I let him do what he wants and just watch him from the sidelines, but I always wave when he looks at me and give him a thumbs up if he’s doing something good. The other day we were working on him not climbing up the slide (so other kids could come down) and after listening and obeying several times in a row I wanted to tell him that I was proud of him so I called his name and gave him a thumbs up, and he flashed me a double thumbs up back with the biggest grin on his face and then did his I’m-proud-of-myself arm move as he sauntered off. My heart almost exploded.

I hope he always feels how proud I am of him. Meaning, I hope I always remember to tell him and show him.

Beckett at 18 months

Beckett recently turned a year-and-a-half old and I have to say, I’m more excited than ever to write about what he’s up to these days. I’m just so proud of the little boy he is.

He’s running around like crazy these days, and by running I mean walking really fast and excitedly with tiny steps and his mouth open and with his huge belly leading the way. Seriously, his walk is hilarious. I spent an hour the other day just taking video of it because I know he’ll grow out of it soon and we’ll forget how funny it was.

He’s such a good communicator. On the day of his 18-month checkup I made a list of the words he commonly uses and made it to 75 easily and I knew I was forgetting some. He probably adds a new word every day, so I’m sure this was my last count and can assume it’s just going to grow exponentially from here. He’s started stringing a couple of words together at times and it’s so fun to hear him “talk.” Occasionally he’ll jabber what he seems to think is a full sentence but is not coherent at all. My favorite things about his speech right now is how he makes the “s” sound with his tongue and front teeth (precious) and substitutes a “t” for a “k” sound. As in, “tar” for car and “Tuh-ter” for Tucker.

He’s so sweet with other people and it makes me so happy. He loves to wave and say hi and blow kisses and give hugs, and we’ve been teaching him to say please and thank you and to be sure to look at the person’s face when he says it. He finally learned to give real hugs rather than just leaning in and making the other person do the hugging.

A couple months ago I was having to watch him pretty closely when he was playing with his friends because he was not always gentle with them, although some of the roughness stemmed from him being a fairly new walker and he’d lose his balance and grab at them. He is so much better now. He’s very steady on his feet so that has helped a lot, but he’s also learned to be gentler and it’s been a long time since I’ve had to get on to him for being too rough with a friend. Unless he has a bat. All bets are off if he somehow gets a bat in his hands. He doesn’t intentionally hit anyone (usually), but he also doesn’t pay a lick of attention to the consequences of swinging a bat in close quarters.

This past month he’s really taken to hugging his friends, totally unprompted. It’s seriously the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen. The recipient is usually his best friend, William. And I use the term “best friend” for real here—if you ask Beckett who his best friend is he always says William. It’s the little boy (and son of some best friends of ours from church) that our babysitter kept at our house this past school year along with Beckett, two days a week. He also likes to hug his friend (and second cousin) Liam and he LOVES to hug his cousin Tucker.

Speaking of Tucker, Beckett is ENAMORED by Tucker. He seriously thinks he hung the moon. Tucker loves him too. The other day we met Brad & Remy for dinner and when the boys saw each other they ran up and gave a big hug and danced around and had the most excited look on their faces. I’m pretty sure even the strangers at the table next to us teared up. Seeing their relationship is one of the things that makes me most excited about having baby #2 on the way. Beckett is going to absolutely fawn over having a sibling!

OK, so probably the coolest thing about the past couple of months has been the continued emergence of Beckett’s personality and temperament. Specifically, the seemingly boundless zeal he has for life. He meets every new situation—and I mean every.single.one—with so much happiness and enthusiasm. Nothing fazes him. Some examples lately: first trip to the pool, getting dropped off at a different church’s nursery, first trip to a splash park, several new babysitters, first older-kid birthday party, and his first time to go to a gymnastics place. In every circumstance, he’s off having the time of his life the minute we let go of his little hand. No tears, no hesitation, no stranger anxiety, no clinging to mom & dad… he is just go-go-go. I love seeing him have so much fun and try so many new things. He’s just an always-happy-go-with-the-flow kid. I’m so proud of him.

To somewhat keep tabs on how his interests change, here’s a list of his favorites these days.

Foods: banana, sweet potatoes, scrambled eggs, blueberries, strawberries, pancakes, smoothies, avocado, rice, any type of bread

Toys: baseball cards, bat & balls, his Superman book, hats, cars

Activities: riding the tractor with Pops, playing in the driver’s seat of the car, turning his bounce house on and off, watching the Ken Burns baseball documentary on TV, swimming

Also, at his 16 months post I wrote about how his obsession had moved on from hats to baseball. Well, it's moved on again. He is FULL FORCE obsessed with tractors now. It stems from getting to ride a tractor with my dad when we are at my parents' ranch. It seems all we hear these days is "na-na-na (that's his sound for tractor) Pops" or some combination of the tractor sound, sit, up, down, keys, on, please, Pops... telling us all about how he wants to sit on the tractor with Pops and use the key to turn it on and make the bucket go up and down PLEASE. It's really cute and super annoying at the same time, because unlike hats and baseball, we can't satisfy him when he gets fixated on wanting to ride a tractor. Usually we can pacify him by pretending our knee is a tractor and giving him a tractor ride, showing him a YouTube video of farm work, or calling or FaceTiming Pops and having him explain that they can ride the tractor soon.

Two other notable things that happened lately. First, the day Beckett turned 18 months old was the day we left him with my parents for 5 nights while Kolby and I took an anniversary vacation to Florida. It was our longest time away from him. He had such a blast with my parents (and they with him)! And he slept well and napped well and didn’t cry, so he was as easy as a one-year-old can be… but that’s still pretty exhausting. I’m glad they got to spend some time alone together, and that we got to relax knowing he was in good hands! Second, here are three changes that happened at 18 months that to me signify how much he is growing up (insert sound of me wailing):

1) He now calls Kolby “Daddy” rather than “Dada.”

2) He’s tall enough now that I can walk totally upright while holding his hand (this doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it’s really such a strange feeling after stooping over for months!).

3) He now often kisses with his lips closed. It’s funny how his breathy, drooly, open mouth kisses were so gross but now how much I miss them!

Also, his 18-month stats.

Weight: 28 pounds (90^th percentile)

Height: 32 inches (95^th percentile)

He was right at average size at one year, so he's really hit a big growth spurt these past few months. He's got a big ole belly and it's the cutest thing in the world. Also, his fourth bottom tooth finally came through (now he has four on top and four on bottom) and he got his first four molars over the past two months (two on top and two on bottom). His molars coming in made him hard to please at times but overall he's been an pretty easy teether. And for memory's sake: he sleeps from 8pm-7:30am and takes a 2-3 hour nap every day after lunch. His sleep schedule is absolutely amazing these days!

Some pictures lately (in no particular order):

Playing in the car.

Possibly my favorite food of all time is a soft pretzel. My mom and I would get pretzels every time we went to the mall. So I snapped a picture of Beckett eating his first mall pretzel. He loved it, obviously. I got him his own because there's no way I was sharing any of mine.

Hugging Tucker.

On the tractor with Pops.

A little 7:30am romp in the bounce house (we got him this for his first birthday).

Just killing time waiting for Kolby to get home.

Bath time.

Another ride on the tractor with Pops.

Reminding us that we hadn't yet prayed before dinner.

So excited to introduce his bedtime pals to the great outdoors.

Doing his part to contribute to Family Ranch Work Weekend. No one is exempt from Grams' to-do list.

He graduated from mommy and me swim lessons, along with his buddy Declan.

Just a little building.

My second favorite food is a chocolate covered donut with sprinkles. He's a fan of those too.

Mother's Day and Father's Day 2014.

An impromptu first trip to a splash pad.

My sweet napping buddy.

Flying a kite with his cousin Kyndall.

This is a photo I posted on Instagram showing my 18 week belly vs. Beckett's 18 month belly :) He's totally winning.

First Rough Riders game!

Waiting on the doctor at his 18 month check up.

We moved his car seat to face forward at 18 months and we all love it!

Family Rangers Game

I have been wanting to do something special for Kolby for awhile. I'll try not to go on and on here, but Kolby basically deserves a gold medal daily for what he does for our family. And not only what he does, but his eternally happy attitude while he does it all. Especially lately, particularly the first four months of my pregnancy when I was so sick in the evenings and unable to do much of anything, he's done the bulk of the cooking and a lot of the daily cleaning up around the house. And he is the most present, involved and loving father in the world. I just never seem to find the words to convey just how much I appreciate him, for it all.

So I knew I wanted to do something, but it took some time to think of what would mean most to him. As everyone knows, Kolby loves baseball and the Texas Rangers. And one of his heroes is Eric Nadel, the Rangers' radio broadcaster (since the 1980s). We listen to Eric Nadel basically every night during the baseball season (we don't get the games on TV because we don't have cable) and I swear even Beckett recognizes his voice. Anyway, we have a friend with connections at the Rangers and I reached out to her on a whim to see if there might be an opportunity this summer for Kolby to meet Eric.

One thing led to another and she went way above and beyond, and blessed us with the most amazing night as a family... all a surprise to Kolby. Here's a peek into what I'm sure Kolby would classify as one of the best nights of his life!

First we arrived at the ballpark early, and our tickets (which were given to us) came with dinner at the Capital One Club. Which apparently is not your typical ballpark food. It was amazing. A waitress came and asked what we wanted to drink and we felt like giddy kids again when we asked for Cokes (we are always way too cheap to order anything but water when we eat out).

As we were finishing eating, guess who walked in? The one and only Eric Nadel. And not only walked in, but walked up to our table. And sat down. And chatted with us for 10 minutes before he had to get back up to the booth to you know, announce the game. Kolby was beside himself. It really meant a lot to him to just get to meet Eric, much less get to sit and talk with him. Success!

Right before first pitch we made our way to our seats. Our seats that were in the second row behind home plate. In a section with a concierge and popcorn and peanuts in every seat and a cooler full of bottled water and sodas (apparently all it takes to make my day is free coke, ha). Amazing!

Beckett practicing his swinging as he waits for his pal Elvis Andrus to come up to bat.

P.S. as Elvis was batting apparently Beckett made it on TV!
(Video won't play on Macs or iPhones... not sure why)

Hanging out, cheering on the Rangers.

I know I'm biased, but this boy is beautiful.

After the first couple of innings, my cousin who lives near the ballpark came and picked up Beckett so he could get some sleep. So Kolby and I got to stay for the whole game and enjoy the view from our awesome seats.

It was such an amazing night, and Kolby had blast and hopefully felt a fraction of the love and appreciation that Beckett and I have for him!

Anniversary Trip

In early June Kolby and I took a trip to the beach to celebrate our 5th anniversary (we want to take a fun trip together every 5 years). Our 5th anniversary actually fell a week after Beckett was born, so we had to postpone it a bit, but better late than never! We thought about going last summer, but I ended up deciding it's not a real vacation if I had to pack a breast pump :). But this year as soon as Kolby got out of school, off we went!

We took a little road trip and spent 4 nights at what I'm now convinced is the greatest beach destination in the U.S.-- a quaint little beachside bed & breakfast in the Destin, FL area called the Henderson Park Inn. Y'all. I'm going to go on and on about this place so just bear with me. It was amazing. Some family members had recommended it to us and it did not disappoint. Amazing rooms, amazing views, adults only, private beach, chairs & umbrellas set up for us every day, a delicious breakfast, lunch, and happy hour included, tons of beautiful places to sit and enjoy the views and the ocean breeze, and possibly best of all-- refrigerators stocked with complimentary sodas and candy bars (!!!). We had the best time together.

A few pictures...

Our room: