My Confession

I've often patted myself on the back for not ever (not even once!) signing my name with my maiden last name since the day Aaron and I were married. I've still never done it, but I may have recently done something even worse.

I've been wanting a monogrammed bag from lands end like this one for a few years. I just love that the style is timeless, they literally are supposed to last a lifetime and they can be used for a million different things - traveling, beach, groceries, diaper bag, etc. Well, with our Hawaii trip for Aaron's big 3-0 around the corner, I thought this was just the perfect time to get the bag I've always wanted. As a bonus, they were on sale. I really wanted a bag that zipped that would be perfect for holding all our stuff to take to the beach. So I went to the Lands End site and began processing my order. As I anxiously awaited my bag in the mail, it finally arrived on Saturday (hooray!) But my excitement was crushed when I pulled the bag out only to read my monogrammed initials as "JMG." Ugh, are you serious, Jenny?!?!?!? You haven't been "JMG" in nearly 4 years.

Lesson learned: Never make a special order that is non-returnable while your husband is on business travel the entire week, you're sleep deprived and you have a sick baby. BUMMER.

At least the bag is still totally fashionable.

Casey at the Bat

It's funny how many comments we've gotten about Casey's name. Most people say, "Oh that's a cute name." Sometimes people have the guts to say, "Hmm, I mostly know girls with the name Casey." I can honestly tell you that I'm not offended because everyone has name associations. And just for the record, all the people Aaron and I have known with the name Casey are guys. But, sometimes we'll get, "Oh, yeah, like Casey at The Bat." YES! The classic poem by Ernest Thayer was one of Aaron's favorites while growing up. For those of you who don't know, Aaron has been dubbed "the walking sports almanac" by many who know him. He can tell you sports stats from long before he was even born. So being the sports fanatic that he is, it makes complete sense to us that our son would have a name with a sports connotation! You can read about Casey at the Bat here.
If you take the time to read it, (or even if you don't, i'll just tell you!) Casey actually strikes out at the end. People have cracked jokes about this. We've heard, "Wait, but doesn't Casey strike out?!" Yes. Yes, he does. But one of the biggest lessons we want Casey to learn in life is that he won't "win" all the time. In fact, he's guaranteed to strike out in life probably more times than he'll actually win. But this is one of the best ways to learn and grow. Now don't get me wrong, I would disappoint Aaron if I didn't say that we certainly want Casey to TRY and win each and every time. That is true. But we don't want him to have the false idea that it's always a successful attempt. It takes a lot of faith, hard work and dedication to succeed in life and life is filled with painful disappointments as well as celebrated achievements.
I want to include an article Aaron's dad had published in their local newspaper in Alaska. It speaks to what i'm saying here, but on an even deeper level. Truthfully, I nodded in agreement as I read this article for the first time. But as a mother who loves her son with wild abandon, my heart also broke. Life is HARD. And no one gets a free pass.

Hello?

I had "always" planned on being good about updates on Casey after each month. Alas, as real parenting would have it, the blog falls to the bottom of my list. Not because I don't enjoy blogging, but it just isn't a #1 priority. With that being said, I of course missed posting about Casey's 7 month birthday. So no cute picture with a sticker. Did I honestly think I could keep this up every month?! Here it goes:

Big changes have happened with Casey. Aaron and I have actually seen him change the most we've seen yet. Crazy! He sits up completely on his own, eats various foods (and LOVES them all), plays by himself (mommy appreciates this for showering!), giggles 'til the cows come home, has much longer hair that now spikes (if you've seen ads for the new TinTin movie coming out, his hair looks just like that!) and is seriously working on some teeth. No teeth yet, but my goodness it's gotta happen soon. Teething is the pits!! Poor kid. Truthfully, poor US too. We've entered the world of "real food poop" and still love cloth diapering. Some people in my family who will go unnamed were holding bets that we'd stop once he had his first really nasty poo. Sorry to disappoint! Still lovin' the cloth, y'all. In fact, we've now done two successful trip away still using cloth. We leave for Hawaii for Aaron's 30th birthday with his parents next month, and on that trip we'll be doing disposables. Not too bad though, eh?? Poor little Caseman Spaceman is very congested these days thanks to all the mountain cedar growing behind our house. Yeah, no one told us BEFORE moving to San Antonio that we'd be miserable along with everyone else in this city from December through February. Yuck!

Other than happenings with Casey, Aaron is doing really well in his new position. He has a lot more responsibility now managing an entire office of engineers. I'm really proud of him! I only wish we could see him more. He has a busy schedule and travels to different Air Force bases every month to oversee projects. This month he will be gone two weeks. I will NOT post my complaints here considering that two weeks pales in comparison to what a lot of my friends have gone through with deployments. So, in an effort to maintain my friendships, I will keep all complaints to myself. :) On the up-side, I'm involved in MOPS, a Bible study at our church and a library reading/play group. I added the play group under what i'm doing rather than what Casey's up to because I think the moms enjoy this group more than the kids do! I still don't have a really close friend or anything here yet, but I trust it will happen with time. I just need that one person I really connect with. Don't all of us women need that? I sure think so.

Urgent

Please pray for baby Anna. You can read about her story here. This is a family from back home in Washington (Alissa and my mom served together for a while in the pregnancy center ministry.) All those who love and trust in Jesus, PLEASE pray for a miracle.

Wanna See My Crib?

I've promised a few friends that I'd post pictures of Casey's nursery. It isn't anything fancy, but we're not too into flashy, so this is just right!

One of daddy's vintage fishing signs and lots of books that he read when he was a little guy. We love having old things with so many meaning and history behind them!

Can't forget Mr. sock monkey!

This is a quilt that was made for Aaron before he was born. A few friends and family of the Meredith family each designed their own square. This is so special that we had to hang it on the wall.

Has anyone else noticed that there just aren't any cute laundry hampers out there?? This is the old one Aaron and I used (we got a new one.) Thankfully I could reuse it in Casey's nursery! It's just your basic yellow.

If we were living in a house that was our own, I'd probably do some more to the nursery. But considering that we'll move out of this house eventually - and hopefully into one of our own sooner than later - I don't want to have to repaint, patch, etc! We're just thankful that Casey has a roof over his head and a peaceful place to sleep. Oh, I should mention that since feeding him a few solids, he's been sleeping straight through the night from about 7 to 7. THANK YOU LORD!

Yum Yum!

So as mentioned in my post over the weekend, we were waiting a little longer before feeding Case his first foods. BUT, he's ready. He actually woke up choking during his nap today because he's still having acid reflux issues. I'm hoping that some solid foods will settle his stomach. As seen in this video eating his first solid - whole grain rice cereal...He's hooked! I know it's long (mostly for the grandparent's viewing pleasure.)

Half-Year Gone By

It's absolutely insane that Casey is already a half-year old. Yesterday we celebrated 6 months with our sweet boy! We, of course, took him to see all the great fishing gear at the Bass Pro Shop. Ok, really we went to see Santa (it was free!) but Aaron may or may not have had alterior motives. ;) I think this picture of my two boys is probably one of the cutest we have. I love it! I just want to document all the things Casey is doing right now!

{Rolling both ways - but he often needs a little help rolling from back to front, though.}

{Giggling! Lots of giggles. We love these happy sounds! He laughs the most at his daddy.}

{Sleeping without the swaddle. I admit, I kinda miss my cute little baby burrito!}

{Spitting. You know, all the silly habbits boys have!}

{Drinking water out of mommy's Camel Back bottle. He LOVES to do this!}

{Teething, but we haven't seen any white just yet!}

{Sitting up - But we're still working on bettering this skill. He falls over a lot.}

{Riding in his car seat without crying!! I'm not sure what happened, but all of a sudden he turned into a happy car-riding baby around 5.5 months. hooray! That was painful for a while...}

{Holding and playing really well with his toys.}

{Reading! Ok, so obviously he doesn't read himself, but he LOVES when we read to him. He even grabs the pages and makes sounds like he's trying to!}

{Sleeping full-time in his crib. I've tried to co-sleep with him after Aaron leaves for work, but believe it or not he really prefers his crib! It's definitely true that your baby can communicate their preferences.}

What he's not yet doing:

{Eating solid foods. I've started making and freezing quite a bit, but we're in no hurry. He'll have the rest of his life to eat food and for now we're all happy with nursing! Aaron and I also want him to be able to sit up more independently before we take this big step.}

{Sleeping completely through the night. He wakes up usually around 4 or 5 a.m. for a feeding, but then goes back to sleep until 8 or so. The "cry it out" method does NOT work on this child. But we're ok with that because I've read a lot about how it isn't always healthy. Plus, he doesn't usually wake up and cry unless he's really hungry. I will not be depriving my baby of food!}

We have his 6-month checkup next week with a new pediatrician in town. We're pretty curious what he weighs. He's a big healthy boy!