the state we're in

Thanks to Cup of Jo for this sheepish giggle.

For Conley’s tenth month: less words, more photos.

Thanks to having both of our families local, this marked the first year we were able to stay in the metroplex for Christmas and see most of our loved ones.  Leading up to the holidays, well-meaning people liked to ask if Conley understood any of the festivities. Obviously, it’s been a long time since any of those people had a 10 month old. My response was that Conley doesn’t even understand he has a nose on his face; however, it was still a joy to see him explore the Christmas tree, play with the Nativity, wonder at the twinkle lights, tear through wrapping paper, and most of all, eat up the special time with family. This kid loves a party. Even though I know he didn’t comprehend what was going on, he appreciated the novelty of it all, and his fresh perspective made it so fun for us to experience, too.

 

 

For his first Christmas, Conley received a wagon, a new car seat, some “walker” toys, stuffed animals (they get all his kisses), some stacking ring towers, and so many other fun things. The joy continues as we get to watch him play with and explore his new toys!

 

(Note the wagging tongue, his ubiquitous new accessory. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing that same look of concentration years from now as he’s learning the latest football play—I mean, solving a tough math problem. )

 

Developments in or around his tenth month include cruising, handing us things he’s holding, beginning to babble more (as Kendrick noted, if Conley ever discovers consonants, he’ll have a lot to say), and sprouting two teeth (see doll-faced evidence below)! He had a couple exceptionally fussy evenings before we realized his first little ivory was popping through. The second one showed up just a day or two later.

And chalk it up to inexperience, but I was beginning to worry our boy would never be a reader. He was just always so busy and couldn’t sit still for books. But I’m relieved that month ten also brought a new interest in “reading.” Now we read all throughout the day! He’s an avid page turner and favorites include Brown Bear, Brown Bear, a Peter Rabbit pop-up, and The Going to Bed Book. I love holding him in my lap for storytime!

Can it be that this little guy has been in our arms now longer than he was in my tummy?  In a way, it feels like he’s been with us forever, and it’s sometimes hard to remember our B.C. (Before Conley) life.  That’s okay though because this A.D. (After Delivery) life suits us pretty well these days. 

Conley’s ninth month of life was so fun.  I’m starting to really understand that “progress is a spiral” concept.  I seem to oscillate so quickly between “this is so haaaaard” and “this is so WONDERFUL!”  I consider it a victory if I can keep one eye on the other camp whenever I’m experiencing one of these polarized emotions.  It’s good perspective to remember that, hard or wonderful (yes), the only constant is change.

 

And change he does.  Conley spent much of his ninth month perfecting his crawl.  I wish I had audio to post of the thwack-thwack-thwack sound of his hands and his delirious, anticipatory panting as he high tails it after one of the cats across the house.  He’s so busy, but also becoming a little independent, which allows me a few minutes here and there to work around the house while my little shadow follows closely behind (thwack-thwack-thwack).

We’re still enjoying great sleep at night, from about 8:00pm – 7:30am, while naps are erratic as ever.  At his 9 month appointment, Conley weighed 20 lbs 5 oz (~ 65%) and was 30.5” long (98%), so he’s holding pretty steady on that trajectory.  He’s also nearly half my height (62”), which is sort of harrowing to me. 

I don’t think I’ve written about what a daredevil he is before, but this boy LOVES to defy gravity.  He can’t get enough of Kendrick tossing him through the air, upside down, spinning, twisting, flipping—the wilder the better.  I have to squeeze my eyes shut sometimes and let the boys be boys.  I’m thankful that Kendrick will have a non-me partner for rollercoasters in the future.

Of course, we also celebrated Thanksgiving last month!  Conley made the 15 hour trip with us from Texas to Georgia (and back)—whew!  I have to brag on the little guy who made the trip like a major champ!  He didn’t cry for more than 20 minutes in either direction, which is a miracle!  We were so proud of him, and being with family in Georgia certainly made the car time worthwhile.  Specifically, it could not be more fun to watch Conley play with his adorable 8 year old cousins, Jeb & Jenna.  He and Jeb seem to have a special, “one of the guys” sort of bond that is too precious.  We would love to be closer, but until then, we treasure all the time we get with the Browns and my brother in Georgia.  We have so much to be thankful for this year.

  

Thanks for nine of the most adventurous months of our lives, sweet Conley.  We could not be more tickled to know you or more humbled by and grateful for the privilege of raising you, our sweetest boy.

 

I came across this post a few weeks back about Paul Newman and his wife, Joanne Woodward.  I’ve kept it open all this time and I find myself scrolling through it again and again, staring at the photos, savoring the quotes.  I just had to share—I’m smitten with them!  I can’t get enough of their playfulness and the way they look at each other.  Obviously, this is just a tiny, edited glimpse into their relationship, but it sure seems to point to oodles and gobs of mutual love and respect.

Joanne’s quote about a man who makes you laugh jumped out at me because that’s always been my mom’s marriage advice—find a man who makes you laugh.  I’m so glad I heeded her advice!

Check out Paul & Joanne.  Don’t you wish you knew them?  Don’t you think they’d be the best dinner party guests?

I’m a little late with this which makes it difficult to remember exactly what happened in his eighth month, but I would say Conley’s most remarkable development is that he’s become a proficient crawler!  We watched him for days thinking, “For sure, this is the day!”  But when he was good and ready, he took off and hasn’t stopped.  I knew we were in trouble when I left him in the living room one day when I was mopping, then turned the corner into the kitchen and found him sitting there with Maeby’s food bowl in his lap.  Oops!  Operation Baby Proofing to commence stat!

 

If his seventh month was a bit trying, his eighth month was a dream.  Upon the encouragement of a friend, we finally decided to wean Conley from his snug double swaddle.  Combined with the middle of the night wake-ups we were struggling with, that sounds like a crazy idea in hindsight, but miraculously, we had precisely one night of CIO (if you don’t know what that means, I don’t want to talk about it) and then it was back to a full night’s sleep for all of us—swaddle-free (we still use the woombie, but arms-free, and just for warmth)!!  If you could have seen the clouds part and heard the angels sing when we retired the Miracle Blanket—it was a thing of beauty.  We were truly convinced that C would be asking his roommate to help him with his swaddle in college.  I’m not sure I can overstate how elated we were/are!  Bedtime has become much less stressful around here, and his reliable 11-12 hour nights are so sweet.  As an added bonus, he’s also resumed his incredibly reasonable 7:30 – 8:00 wake-ups in the mornings.  Bliss!

Conley is doing great in the nursery on Sunday and Thursday mornings.  The sweet, baby-whisperer ladies who take care of him tell me how much he loves playing with the other babies (they’re surprised he’s an “only”) and that he basically eats the whole time he’s there, since that’s the only way he’ll tolerate the other kids eating around him.  He’s still on a 4 hour schedule with 4 nursings/day and 3 solid meals/day.  He’s doing really well as he’s become more and more flexible staying awake for 2 – 2.5 hours at a stretch and (sometimes) taking 1.5 – 2 hour naps.  We still have our days of nap struggles, but I try to remember how much he’s improved.

 

Still, sometimes I wonder when I’ll be able to roll with Conley’s punches with a little more grace.  To be quite frank, I do more cursing than I’ve done my whole life (including those cringe-worthy middle school years) and probably more praying, too.  I’ve always heard that marriage is like holding a mirror up to your sin; no one prepared me for the ugly reflection I would see staring back at me in the uncomfortably lucid mirror of motherhood.  Ouch.  In my wiser moments, I’m grateful to God for this glorious and painful process of refining my heart.

This month, we celebrated Nala’s (Kendrick’s mom) birthday, mimed our way through Halloween, and dressed up for our parent dedication at church.  The verse of dedication we chose for Conley is 1 Corinthians 10:31: "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."  I pray daily that he’ll come to embrace that heart goal early in life.  As Kendrick said at the dedication, I pray that we would model a faith that would make it an easy step for Conley to put his trust in Christ.  And I pray prayers of thanksgiving for the wonderful support team we have all around us, helping us press on in this goal.

 

A few outtakes from our photo session.  We go through many photos of him standing, wiping out, and hanging over the edge of the chair to get one good shot of him smiling at the camera.  But I love the way these show the personality of our never-still boy who makes everything his jungle gym.  I also stay busy praying prayers of protection over his life.   I love you too much, Sweet C.

Before the month gets away from me, I thought I’d post a few photos of Conley’s first Halloween.  Initially, we were thinking along the lines of something super nerdy, like a robot (duh), but it turns out I appreciated the simplicity of this costume instead.

World’s Loudest Mime!

Nevermind the ruching on the shoulders—how cute is this guy?!  We stopped for photos after church on Sunday and by the time he’d made it through the nursery and to our third pumpkin patch of the afternoon (the only one with pumpkins left!  Note to self: don’t wait until October 30 next year.), our mime was not-so-quietly protesting.  So maybe the DIY suspenders didn’t make it on and maybe the make-up was a little less elaborate (and a little more Fester-from-the-Addams-Family creepy) than we intended, but come on—world’s cutest mime is more like it!

We took these a little later in the day on Conley’s new kitty quilt that his Great Aunt Denette made for him.  He loves it.

  

Just keeping it real there.

On the docket for next year: NASA baby!  As if you couldn’t guess.

In disbelief, we wished Conley a happy seven month birthday a few days ago.  This month held a few challenges, such as:

• Inexplicable middle of the night wake-up calls.  This wouldn’t be so painful if our bedroom didn’t share a wall with C’s room, but it does.  Or if I were still feeding him in the middle of the night (since he would eat and go right back to sleep), but I’m not.  Consequently, we struggle from around 4:00 – 7:00am, when I finally declare “morning” and feed the little dude.  Short nights mean everyone loses!
• To add insult to injury, even when he makes it all the way through the night, he’s bumped his mornings up from a reasonable 7:30 – 8:30am  to 6:00 – 7:00am.  I never thought 8:30 would feel like sleeping in but I crazy miss those mornings.  We’ve tried moving bedtime up, moving bedtime back and nothing helps.  It’s like his internal clock just flipped a switch overnight.  Boo.
• On top of subpar sleep, he also got his first cold, but he was able to kick it before it turned into anything more serious.

Those things all add up to a sleepy baby, which, of course, means a fussy baby (aaaaand a fussy mom and dad, too).

That’s not to say it was a solid month of fuss around here.  There were also some pretty super highlights in the short life of Conley, including attending his first Rangers game, two birthday parties, first time on the swing set, and a delightful introduction to the busy box of my youth.  This already-active guy has become even busier and more mobile (which is starting to make our photo shoots a challenge as I have to stay within arm’s reach to prevent him from climbing right out of the chair).  He’s not quite crawling yet but he’s working so hard to get up on his knees and then up on his hands—he just can’t seem to coordinate the actions at the same time!  But he’s so close and we love watching him progress each day.  He’s also become much more stable when he’s standing and doesn’t “hula hoop” his hips anymore.

   

Conley loves standing, eating, the cats (not “eating the cats”), being outside, tumping forward, blowing raspberries, and an audience (the more the merrier!).  He dislikes watching others eat in front of him (this has become impossible unless we’re prepared to share whatever is on our plates), being left alone, and sleeping in.  He’s starting to experience a little separation anxiety which I’m afraid I’m contributing to—I just hate leaving the little cutepants!  The observation we get most from strangers (besides marveling at his handsome mug—duh) is how aware he is.  He’s rarely still, always pivoting to take in the action, and not missing a thing.  Obviously, he’s quite advanced!

Happy seven months of life, sweet Conley!  Let’s celebrate with a full night’s sleep!

 

Conley and I had an exceptionally trying day one day last week, so I took him to the park in a desperate attempt to buy some happy time.  He’d never been in a “real” swing before and as you can see below, the plan was a great success!

    

 

The three of us had just shared a lovely brunch on the patio at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.  We were the only ones outside, probably because it was just a touch warm in the sun but we had a beautifully shaded spot with a light breeze and it was p-e-r-f-e-c-t.  As were my peach pancakes.  So what if I turned Conley’s stroller around so I wouldn’t have to share my birthday pancakes?  Don’t judge.  And let’s just ignore the unsightly something or other on Cutie’s chin, shall we?  It’s just how we roll.

What a lucky girl I am!