Eleven Months

Well this is it. The last official monthly post before our little man is officially a whole year. I know I've said this in just about every monthly post and can almost guarantee that I'll continue to say it going forward. This little guy just gets more active fun every day. Sweet boy, we love watching you grow and are so thankful that we get to be your parents. You are definitely all boy. You currently have two small bruises on your face from where you learned the hard way that you're not quite ready to stand on your own by the coffee table. You are on the move with a mission- always. You keep mommy and daddy on our toes constantly with your speed-crawling around the house while stopping to pull up on any piece of furniture in your way and reaching for just about anything and everything you can get. You still LOVE clapping and waving and now we can add dancing to the mix. Anytime you hear music of any kind, you start bouncing up and down and if you really like it, both arms get included too. You are talking up a storm- no real words yet, but you will look straight at us and babble loud and clear so it must make complete sense to you. You now have 8.. yes eight.. teeth and most of them have seemed to appear at the same time. You love to eat and this has really been the month that you've just taken off with finger foods- fruit, veggies, avocados, sweet potatoes, turkey, chicken, pasta, toast with jelly... you name it. I am seeing many Costco runs in our future to keep our fridge full. Bath time is not as fun for you right now, because all you want to do is stand up and you don't seem to understand why mommy and daddy won't let you, because you seem to think your chunky little legs are plenty sturdy for the bath tub. You still love to sleep- for which we are still so grateful. You take two long naps a day and are ready for bed by 6:30. If we haven't started your bedtime yet, you will yawn and rub your eyes with your little fists until we do. We don't go back to the doctor until your one year appt., but I would guess that you are close to 23lbs and you seem to have gotten a little taller. We love you so much sweet boy and can't wait to celebrate your very first birthday next month! Here are some highlights from this past month...

You got to visit mommy at camp for a day after Nonna and Oma passed you back to us.

You love to swim and will splash until you're out of breath.

You are so in love with your daddy, but have started to show a preference for mommy. I will take all of these sweet snuggles while I can, because I know the day will come that you will follow daddy around every minute of the day.

Giving mommy and daddy a hint that you're ready for bed.

You'll stand all day long.

We went on our first mommy/son date to Chick-fil-A to share some ice cream and you loved it.

And now for the increasingly harder to capture monthly photos...

If I had this blog in college...

This past weekend was freshman move-in for most colleges, Clemson included. I can't say that my heart didn't skip a beat at the thought of that day eleven just a couple years ago. Everyone was getting settled into the new normal of new friends, dining hall dinners and shower caddies. At the time, my roommate and I were still getting to know each other and little did we know that we were beginning lifelong friendships and that we had 2D4 to thank for that *collective awww*. Free time (seriously, we had so much free time and didn't even know it) was spent sitting around on Bowman field and there was always someone to grab lunch with downtown if you had enough paw points. A good day would be when there was someone who would take you to your car parked in the pit so you could make the 30 min drive to the Anderson Target and Chick-fil-A. Monday nights consisted of ice cream from Hendrix with everyone piled in one room watching the Bachelor. A good Thursday night would be dinner at Chili's Too before FCA at 9:19. Saturdays were sleeping in until time to get ready for tailgating and some Clemson football. Sundays were spent at New Spring with lunch afterwards and plenty of napping studying for the rest of the day. Please excuse the poor quality of these pictures. They were taken with my very first digital camera #filterneeded. We didn't have Instagram to document every minute of our lives. I'm pretty sure our Razor phones wouldn't have run Instagram anyway. We were just happy to have a creative away message on AIM. If this blog had been around in college, it would look a little more like this... you're welcome ladies :)

Aaand the husband and me in matching polos.

Looking back at these pictures, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. While those were such sweet, fun times I think we can honestly say that life has gotten so much sweeter now with the addition of husbands and lots of new little additions. I am so thankful that we get to keep making new memories even though college has long come and gone. Now back to laundry and washing bottles.

...And that's a wrap!

Well friends, despite the HOT temps outside, summer is officially over for me. Camp wrapped up on August 1st and I have been trying to catch my breath ever since. I really do love my job and I love that I am able to provide a fun filled week of memories for our transplant patients, but it is EXHAUSTING. This year, probably more so than in the past, because my mind was split between mommy life and camp life and I wouldn't have it any other way. Now that camp is over for this year, everything (including this blog) will be back to getting my full attention. Here are some things I am most looking forward to:

FALL and everything that comes with it... cooler temps, college football Saturdays, colorful leaves, pumpkins just about everywhere and participating in fun family fall outings (alliteration anyone?) You better believe you will see pictures of our sweet boy in a pumpkin patch at some point.

Celebrating our sweet boy turning ONE! How is this even possible that we get to do this next month?!

Holidays (all of them!) Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas... seriously, I love them all and Finn will come to know that very quickly!

But as excited as I am with all that is ahead in the coming months, it is my prayer daily to take life one day at a time and enjoy each and every moment being a wife to my loving and servant-hearted husband and mommy to our sweet boy. He is growing bigger every day (Finn, not the husband that is) and I want to soak up all of this precious time with him. I will post more updates in his 11 month post next week and hope to be back to my regular blogging as we do some Fall sprucing up around the house and I try some fun new recipes. Stay tuned!