Father's Day and Summer Fun

I heart summer! Isn't it just wonderful? I love doing things outside, enjoying the weather, the greenery, the parks, the flowers, all the activities, summer holidays, vacations, the pool….I could keep going! We've been taking advantage of the good weather and perhaps that's why I have so much catching up to do on the blog.

Happy Belated Father's Day David! It is your very first! Adam loves his daddy, and he is just wonderful! I say frequently that as a new parent I have a great appreciation for single parents, and I am so thankful that we are able to go about parenthood as a team! David was a natural from the start, and he jumps in and does anything that needs done to take care of our little man.

Adam has been busy trying out all the pools! I bought a little one for our back patio, he has one for my parents house, and David's parents have an above ground pool. Adam sometimes enjoys the splashing and kicking but for the most part, he doesn't care too much where he is as long as there's something around that he can chew on! He did get a little excited over swimming nakey!

In other news, Adam has been sitting up by himself some this week. He has a few topples and can always find the one spot that doesn't have a pillow to fall on, but he is doing pretty well balancing himself. His favorite toy at the moment is the box of wipes with the picture of Nemo on it. Why do we spend money on toys?

Adam spent some time last weekend with his great-grandmother, Nana Thurmond at her house. He loved showing her how well he could jump!

Twenty-Nine and Holding

Well, its true, and thanks to Facebook, everyone already knows its my birthday today! I have already had a wonderful week of birthday celebrations, and really feel like today is passing by just a little too quickly!

Thanks to everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday! I am so grateful to have all of you in my life. I have such a wonderful husband and son, family, friends, and co-workers. It’s a great day to take the opportunity to let you know how much you are appreciated and valued to me. I thank Jesus for placing each of you in my life.

David’s parents, sisters and their husband(s) - yea Sarah and John! – all stayed with us this weekend while they were in town for a wedding, and we all went to Bob Evans on Sunday with my parents for a b’day breakfast, complete with cake.

Last night, David took me to dinner at Dudley’s to celebrate and we had such a great dinner. I had a half rack of lamb which was just fabulous, our appetizer was great and so was the Black Tie Sundae we had for dessert. We even had a special dinner guest, Coach Calipari, who sat next to us! This of course, was the highlight; forget my birthday! David was really happy with my choice of restaurants! Our waiter asked us if we had already tweeted/texted/called/and facebook-status-updated regarding our table neighbor, but we were trying to be cool until we left the restaurant, when of course we started calling everyone! Our waiter claimed we could be the most popular people at the water cooler today just by sharing the info.

I’ve had several extra special gifts already…
1) Flowers were delivered to my house as soon as I got home yesterday, and they were a beautiful arrangement of all-white flowers. For those of you who don’t already know, David is a very thoughtful gift-giver, and has always given me flowers on my birthday that clue me in to the piece of jewelry that he gives me next. So of course, white is very exciting, right ladies? I got a pair of diamond earrings before we went to dinner.
2) My co-worker made me a cake and cupcakes and brought them to work this morning, which was so thoughtful. The cupcakes were yellow cake mix with a gallop of cookie dough in the middle and cream cheese icing on top. The cake was equally yummy!
3) Adam was also thoughtful; he had my mom make me a keychain that says “29 and holding”. Thanks sweet Adam! There’s a story behind it…just wait. I can remember my mom’s 29th birthday. Our family used to camp nearly every weekend in the summer, usually at Jenny Wiley State Park/Dewey Lake. I loved riding my bike to the campground store to peruse the pencils, great eraser collection, and the keychain rack. (My brother loved the fool’s gold). I found a “29 and holding” keychain and had to go back and ask Dad for money so I could buy it for Mom for her birthday. So we have a family tradition!My mom sent me the sweetest email this morning. I’ll have to ask her if its okay to share, but it was all about this day 29 years ago. I love birthdays!

Homemade Highchair

Adam and I had some playtime in the grass. He watches my every move while I water the flowers.

Then David came home and Adam lit up! He loves his daddy.

Here are Adam's first little dirty feet! Ironically, this happened at my grandmother's house, who always has the cleanest house in town. (It was outside Mamaw, I promise!)

We have come such a long way with rice cereal! Adam now LOVES eating with a spoon even though he hasn't quite mastered it yet. Already, though, he wants to hold it himself. Ahhh.....don't grow up so fast! He loves applesauce, bananas, and pears, and makes, "Mmmm..." noises with nearly every bite. Looks like our boy didn't fall far from the tree with his love of food!

Here is my grandmother feeding Adam at her house on Friday. It was sort of an impromptu meal!

And here was Grandad holding him up the entire time.

Adam pays so much more attention to everything around him now. He watches everything so carefully, and now has favorite toys. It melts my heart when he falls asleep holding them! Here is his little bee that plays "twinkle twinkle little star". We often call it "bug" at our house for some reason. Bug, bee, butterfly, whatever. He likes it.

And we're still jumping! Wait...this jumparoo looks different. Oh yeah - my mom loved ours so much she bought one too. It matches the little playmat jungle gym that is at David's mom's house. Poor, poor first grandchild....

Adam had his physical therapy appointment last week on his 7 month birthday. This was a checkup type appointment that was scheduled before we left the NICU. The therapist evaluated him and felt that he was doing wonderfully and was right on track for where he should be. His strength and reflexes were good, too. She said that she didn't have anything that she could really pick on but she gave us a few tricks to help Adam work on his balance for sitting alone and to help him roll and pull himself up. On his 7 month b'day he weighed ~14 lbs, 10 ounces.