Half way to a year!

I have so much to post, but because it's been crazy in our life, I'll start with Tater turning 6 months old. It seems like a milestone, maybe a small one, but I felt it was worth celebrating. A friend of mine gave me the idea to celebrate 1/2 birthdays, so we did! Remember when you were young, you were always sure to add in that 1/2, like when someone asked you how old you were, didn't you always reply, "I'm 5 and a half?" It is momentous in a child's life to add in that 1/2, because it means you're halfway to being a year older!

I didn't really know how I wanted to celebrate and since Tater had been really under the weather, we just kept it very simple. Daddy brought home a little cake and we gave Tater 1/2 of a cake. NO, he did not eat it! What kind of mother do you think I am? But, we did let him smash his little hands all in it and then once they started heading to his mouth, got him all cleaned up. We really didn't think this through, because it was a much bigger mess that we anticipated, but Tater had fun and dove right in to make a huge mess.

Enjoy some pics of Tater's 1/2 birthday and I'll update you on Christmas later, it was great!

Sickness, sickness, go away!!

Wow, what a last five days it has been. David started his two week holiday vacation Friday and we had big hopes for the weekend and days ahead. But, as we are finding with this new parenting thing, those hopes can change quickly. Tater slept ALL night Thursday and woke up Friday with a 102 temp. and it's just gone down hill from there. Took a trip to the dr. on Sat. and nothing, we were told he was "teething," great. Well we've spent the last four nights tending to him about every hour during the night and trying to make an unhappy baby happy for most of the day.

He seemed o.k. this morning, so we took him to school with high hopes of spending the day together...alone. Getting last minute errands run, having lunch and going to see Tater's Christmas program at school. Then, we got a call from his school that he wasn't feeling well, cranky and two super yucky diapers, they were sending him home right after the program :( Poor thing. He participated in the program like a trooper, ringing his bells with all his friends and then we went to the doctor who finally confirmed what I thought, he has an ear infection. So, now we have him pumped full of stuff to make him feel better and so far, so good. He's been asleep for almost an hour. So hoping that he can at least get a couple of good stretches of sleep tonight. I know he wants to be better for Santa's visit!

So amidst all our craziness & sickness, I do have a couple of funny stories about the klutz's (I don't know how to spell this) the two of us are. David thinking that he was being helpful (which he was) by fixing dinner last night took the marinating chicken out of the ziploc full of italian dressing and managed to spill it ALL over my oven, fridge, floors, dishwasher, well just about everywhere. Nice one honey, that was real fun to clean up chicken guts and dressing! Then, as David was playing with Tater on the floor, he got a surprise. Tater who was sitting on his daddy's chest spit up ALL over his face and yep, in his mouth! So gross & funny! Next, Tater decides it's a good idea to spit up, again, ALL over mommy & daddy's comforter which is only cleaned by the dry cleaners, eeewww! And to top it all off, once we finally got the little guy to sleep, I needed chocolate! Cookies to be exact, my fav so I baked us up some yummy cookies, two each, warm and fresh from the oven along with two glasses of milk. Well as I was carrying them down the stairs, they fell, ALL of it! At this point the two of us were laughing and decided we just needed to call it a day!

So, tomorrow is a new day. And Christmas is almost here, can't wait!

Santa Claus is comin' to town

Tater met Santa for the first & second time today! His first meeting was at his "school" where we had breakfast with Santa. He didn't cry, wouldn't smile, was pretty much frozen. Then, we got one of the last openings at a photographer where he enjoyed Santa much more. He did smile, laugh and even pull Santa's beard. Can't wait to get the pictures back.

And just for sentimental purposes, we will be seeing Santa again tomorrow at Bass Pro. Were just tracking him all around town! The picture tomorrow is really for my mom who has a picture with Santa every year since my oldest nephew's first Christmas,15 yrs. ago. In that 15 yrs., more nephews have been added and well, now that it is Tater's 1st Christmas the tradition must go on. I have to say though, it will probably be the last since it's already not cool for a 15 yr. old to go see Santa, I'm sure it will be unheard of for a 16 yr. old to next year. So we'll take what we can get. It should be interesting to get all 5 boys to take a decent picture.

We've got almost all our Christmas shopping done, yippee! Now just need to finish wrapping and mailing out presents. Tater and I went to the mall yesterday, just to "walk around." Can you say, busy? Sheesh, was it black Friday or something? Oh well, despite the large crowds, we had a ball. He was such a good baby and we walked, and walked until we hit Kirklands, where we found our groove and lots of great deals! This is where Tater decided to charm everyone waiting in line with his super cuteness. Laughing, talking, clapping his hands (this is new and way cute),and blowing rasperries (also new and messy). This kid is way too stinking cute and I'm not being completely biased, he just is!

What a great day!

We've had a great day. Well, actually a great weekend full of memories, family and firsts. We started our weekend with a great date night to celebrate David's birthday. Then we enjoyed spending time with Tater's Grandma J & PaPa M, cousin Noah & Aunt Jessie. We braved the cold and the enormous crowd of people at Silver Dollar City. This is always one of my favorite ways of celebrating the season.

Today, Tater was bapitzed. It was a great moment and memory that we made with him. We had lots of family, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins as well as a few friends to celebrate the moment with us. Tater was adorable in his "special" baptism outfit.

Not only was it his baptism, he also rolled over, completly for the first time, he also had his first taste of rice cereal. Let's just say that is going to take a little bit of practice, he spit more out than I think he got in his belly, but we gotta start somewhere!

Busy, busy, busy

There. is. too. much. going. on! I thrive on having lots of things going on, but with the holidays, and parties and shopping, cooking and everything else, I'm tired! It doesn't help that Tater has developed a not so welcome new sleeping pattern :( Yes, I spoke too soon about those wonderful nights he slept through. Now were back to 4,5 sometimes 6x getting up with him. We've gone back to partially swaddling him and even feeding him sometimes in the middle of the night, so basically back to square one. No fun, we all need our sleep. When I say Tater's prayers at night, we pray that God helps him sleep peacefully because he needs his sleep to grow that little brain! I think God heard me last night, because he only got up once! Thank you!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed eating and decorating for the holidays. Our tree is up, lights are hung outside and all I have left is to decorate the second tree I decided we needed to display all our cute sentimental ornaments. Now we are busy getting ready for David's birthday (Friday), Tater's baptism and staying ahead of the craziness of the holidays. The shopping is almost done and tomorrow I'm going to get everything ready for the festivities that will take place Sunday. I'm so excited for all our family to share his baptism with us and to eat lots of yummy food, again.

We have someone coming to take pictures of Tater tomorrow, a date on Friday and Saturday will be full of cooking and one of my most favorite things, Silver Dollar City. Then Sunday is the baptism and a couple dozen people joining us for lunch. Shew! Before you know it we'll be ringing in the new year! Wish me luck that I can get everything accomplished without completly losing my mind!