Twelve Months: Big Boy!

WOOOOHOOOOOOO! WE DID IT! We kept him alive for a whole year! He isn't permanently damaged in any apparent way! He smiles and laughs and eats and sleeps! It's a miracle!!!!!

Sweet boy - you're the best. This year has changed me in the best and complete way. I am simply not the person that I was before you entered the world barely into the morning of August 4, 2011 at 12:14 am. This year has been the sweetest discovery of one of the dearest people I think God has ever created, learning to live with never sleeping in again, staring at your unbelievable face, and the embrace of our new perma-state of transition because no season lasts more than just a bit. I wouldn't trade this year, you, the highs or the lows for anything in the world William Justice Spencer.

A few stats:

At your one year old appointment you weighed in at 20 pounds even (just at the 25%) and measured 29 3/4" (the 50%).

You took your first wobbly step on July 25 unknowingly. Two weeks later, on your actual birthday, you took your first series of steps when Daddy was entertaining you by blowing up balloons for your first birthday party.

You spoke your first word (mama) to me on August 1 a few days before your birthday. I was holding you on my chest by the crib before laying you down for a nap. You were cuddling (a rarity for you, my little mover and shaker), and looked up at me and softly said "Mama." Like you just wanted me to know you could say it. :) Now it's mostly said in times of dire need only!

You said your second word (dada) just a few weeks later while Daddy was getting ready for work. Talk about a happy man!

You have eight teeth even though I could have sworn you were cutting numbers nine and ten two different times! Alas, no cigar.

You take two naps/day - a 1.5 hr nap in the morning and a 1.5 hr nap in the afternoon - and you sleep 11-12 hrs/night. No complaints here my little man!

Not really a stat - but Mimi and I have discovered the pure magic of offering you a dum dum sucker. It's the perfect size for you and it has gotten us through one year old shots, one year old blood work and the first haircut where stillness generally helped the success of the outcome.

A friend recently asked me what your favorite toy was because by one year old - both of her babes had distinctly favorite toys. I had to think about it for a second but there is no other answer than balls. Oh son. You haven't met a ball you don't love and balloons from your birthday party still live in this house 2.5 weeks post party. To you, balls and balloons fall into the same category and you've actually developed your third word because of it. Everytime you see a ball/balloon it's a 'bmm bmm.' So it's not a real word - but it's a consistent word for you! Balls challenge you and you love to roll them, toss them, bat at them, carry them - anything. Your coordination really impresses me!

Your current love is loading and unloading anything - laundry hampers, the silverware in the dishwasher, a box of balloons, your trash can in your room (yikes!), etc.

You also have really started enjoying books! Granted - your attention span in approximately two pages of each book lol! Favorite books are The Very Hungry Cattepillar, The Usborne touch and feel Trucks book, Sesame Street Bubbles book, touch and feel Baby Jesus is Born, and the audio-recorded version of Grandpa and Grandma Spencer reading Good Night Moon.

About a week and a half after you took that first series of steps - you didn't look back and have been a walking machine ever since. You get such a proud look on your face when you are toddling everywhere on your own! Often I am able to hold your hand and guide you somewhere but you are starting to 'politely' refuse the hand hold - certain you can do it yourself.

I think it's pretty clear that I am crazy about you little boy. God outdid Himself with you. I know that I haven't been perfect and that you're not perfect. I am so thankful that God is everything that we need though. When I was pregnant with you God started really teaching me to trust him to be the God that 'will provide all of your needs - according to His riches and glory.' Your life has given me the chance to lean on Him more than ever before. He's got the smarts when it comes to parenting you and I'm just trying to listen!

Liam - you are loved and you are wanted. You are a priceless part of our family and God chose you to live at this exact time in history so that you could play your specific part in life. You are strong. You are joyful. You are relational. You are sweet. You are funny!

Yes - this is my over the top love letter to you! But, you know, everyone needs to know that his mama is cuckoo crazy about him every once in a while. I'll be your biggest cheerleader until God brings you a special woman to carry that banner throughout your married life. I pray for her and I pray for you. You are special little one and your destiny is special too.

Psalm 1:3 is the Scripture we pray over you:
"He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers." Let it be for Liam!

So thankful for you. So thankful we've made it through year one and that we've all lived to tell of it! I know that the next twelve months will be anything but boring!

Love doesn't even begin to be a big enough word for how we feel about you Mr. Spencer.

Eleven Months Elation

(This post has sadly been written for a long time and I'm just now posting. Yikes!)

First, I'd like to give an honorable mention to Liam's tenth month which sadly did not receive a blog update. Future son who's old enough to understand - forgive me! You were stealing my heart more by the day and making messes at new levels of scale and moving moving moving. There may not have been a blog - but there WAS a picture! Big. Boy. Emerging.

You turned eleven months old on July 4 - while on your first vacation! Vacation blog and pictures to come! Man - I feel like that week was a big development week for you. You went into it taking a few cruising steps here and there and left speed cruising around furniture and balancing for a few seconds of standing to get from one piece to the next. You are quite the master of movement my friend.

I am trying to just enjoy the emergence of your personality instead of trying to peg it at this point. It's hard to tell what is personality and what is a developmental stage...but I can say that whatever it is - it is fun! Liam is a waving hi/bye machine, a big time pointer, and a fasicanted engineer who loves putting lids on bottles or anything related.

Favorite toy? A throw back to my childhood: a bright red plastic ball from the Wal-Mart bin of balls for $2.50. Within a few days of having it at home - he learned how to raise it over his head and throw the ball. The ball happens to be bigger than he is so it's a pretty cute site.

Another favorite is a good old fashioned tooth brush. There is something about them that simply thrills his heart. Or maybe it's the jamming the tooth brush into my mouth to offer his kind help in brushing my pearly whites :). He will drop anything else he has in his hands if offered a tooth brush.

On the topics of favorites, I would be remiss to not mention Lance. Meet Lance the Lion. He has Liam's heart and he gets a kiss any time he wants one. He gets to sleep with Liam and I love coming in to find Liam sleeping with his arm draped over Lance. Such a big boy thing!

Life with eating has gotten so much better. Around 9 months things just got better. My take is that the onset of lots of teething plus a few bouts of sickies side swiped our eating efforts for a while there. But - a friend also turned me on to a GREAT cook book for babies/toddlers called Baby Love. It's real food and it's good. Current Liam favorites are Alba's Chicken Soup, beef stew, pasta with pesto, blueberries, watermelon, bananas and of course - cheerios. However - the bite or two I gave him of banana chocolate swirl ice cream made him very happy today :)

We have all sorts of sounds around this house but no official words yet. Ga, go, na, va, ba, la, ma, da, etc. But Liam's favorite language is growling. That and snorting. Not even kidding! He has this deep-back-of-the-throat growl that he uses to communicate about half of the time. I label this one hundred percent boy-ness and I love it.

(After a swim at Mimi and Bebo's house)

Speaking of things that I love, I love kissing on this boy. Zion and I think we may have kiss-attacked one too many times because Mr. Spencer is discretionary with his giving of kisses. It is not uncommon to go in for a kiss and get a swift Liam-hand to your mouth. Or he'll simply ignore you. But oh. There are those other times when he buries his face into mine and pushes his nose almost into my mouth to give his version of a kiss that makes every other heisman to the kiss attempt worth it.

This first year of life has brought many stages of sleep for Liam. Months five through eight I refer to as our wilderness months - 'What is going on and where am I and where are we going?' And then things really settled down around nine months. However each teething experience brings the return of night time waking (poor little man) and recovering from vacation has taken a while. His nights have ranged from ten hours to twelve hours over the past month or so - so lots of shifting around! But - I have relaxed with that a lot more than I used to. We still get in two naps a day. And my favorite thing is when he goes through a rocking stage. There's nothing sweeter than feeling that sweet blonde head fall on my chest and his body go still as he lets me rock him. I treasure the moments.

(my little drummer boy and his daddy)

Each month makes me more of a sappy mama lol. Zion and I regularly look at each other and ask ourselves how in the world he could be so precious. So in love and so aware of how much I truly need God's heart for Liam. I want to partner with Him in parenting. Life as a parent is no walk in the park - but it's a thrilling adventure. So thankful and so enjoying the journey!

Update: Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Hello Friends. Long time no see. My fault! WHEW! Lots has been going on and needless to say, my fingers never found their way to this blog. I'm hopeful that I am going to be blogging at least once a week now....because my life has just taken a dramatic turn - I resigned my position at work and am now at home with Liam full time.

WOW! Even now typing those words seems surreal.

Isn't life surprisng? When I was little - my utmost dream was to be a mom and in highschool I saw myself married and having babies in my young twenties and wrapping my life around that. God did bring Zion and we've grown up together in so many ways. But life happened and it wasn't time for us to start a family in the timeframe I originally dreamed of. Despite my somewhat disappointed heart, I found something else in the waiting - a career. I found a uniquely wonderful group of people, a boss who believed in me, and work that both challenged and interested me. Hello! Although the mommy desire never went away - it did bury itself deeper in my heart - as I discovered a side of myself that surprised me. I loved working. I love excelling. I love being smart, learning how to be smarter, negotiating smart, building successful relationships and growing. I was really so blessed in my work and I know it.

When Liam came into our lives a year ago, I was (again) blessed to be able to transition to working part time but we didn't feel like it was time yet for me to be at home full time. Part of what made it work (for us) was that my dear mom had Liam one day a week and God brought a fantastic nursing student to spend the other day a week with Liam. He was able to be at home for the most part with people who loved him and that made my heart at ease while I was at work.

So when things changed for Zion's job - all of the sudden we were presented with a different set of circumstances. I knew. My heart knew that this was the time. That my season had fully changed and that there was a step of obedience waiting for me. Now don't get me wrong - my heart was soaring. Finally - the day had come when I would be able to jump full force into this mommyworld and give my everything to the new.

But, I would be lying to say that it was a black and white/uncomplicated decision. Indeed, I knew what I truly wanted but the reality of stepping back from being a working woman took me back a little bit. Regardless of what you intend to do - there is a value you place on yourself as a working woman, a certain type of 'smart' that you feel, and a particular thrill that comes with thriving in that way. Those are big things to lay down! At the very least, it is a change in identity. And change - even when it's for the good - is just a funny process to go through.

But there's him. There's the little man that has won over my heart and there's the deep and truest part of my heart as a mom that unearths more each day. There are the moments when I get to hold him when he's upset. When we get to jump into a pile of pillows and laugh laugh laugh. When we get to water the ferns together each morning. When we get to share Cheerios. When he tries to help me cook dinner while on my hip. My dream has come true. It's just a dream that is coming more into full bloom from the depths as it has time to breathe.

So here's to discovering the new season. Here's to change. And here's to the kitchen floor that now seems to be permanently cluttered. And here's to praying I don't break a bone when accidently stepping on one of those pieces of clutter :)

Seven Years Strong: Being Married People

My Dad always makes the point that you officially and spiritually become one within the marriage ceremony. But the real process of actually merging into one is something that takes time - bumps - and the work of a gracious God over...time.

On the one hand - where have SEVEN years gone??? On the other hand, WOW. God has jam packed those seven years with a lot of punch :).

You know - marriage will never been a lesson learned that I can scratch off the list. As long as I live I will keep learning - and especially as long as we have two people unafraid of confrontation!!! LOL. So in my wifely wifiness I have not arrived in any way shape or form. But I've learned lessons I am so grateful to say.

Zion and I met when we were 17 and 18 years old. CRAZY! From where I sit now - we were little babies :). But we were immediately drawn to each other like magnets and we knew that we knew - we'd seen what we wanted. I'll take one of those please! We dated for five years before we got married. Wouldn't recommend that for everyone but we were in college and so it worked for us. I was so drawn to Zion at the beginning and I still am today. He's been my friend, my partner, my forever love and my favorite person.

I thought that I'd just take a moment (or two!) to jot down a few of the biggest lessons I've learned thus far:

- A good marriage is a choice made by both partners day after day, week after week. Some weeks one make more efforts and then it may flip. Being willing to be the 'one' to make that choice is never a bad choice and it always pays off.

- Opposites do attract. But, my observation is that it's a heck of a lot easier to enjoy marriage if you enjoy spending your time in some of the same ways. Again and again, the bed of friendship will sustain your marriage when fleeting emotions flee you. Friendship is frankly just kind of hard if you don't like to do at least some of the same things with your time. A word to the dating among us :)

- Sex is important. No duh right??? As women - I think we can get pretty weird about sex. Honestly - there's a lack of teaching about sex for women in the church. It's easy to fall into routine, to get too tired, or to stop pursuing the development of your sex life. Perhaps a little too straightforward for a blog I'm beginning to wonder?? LOL - oh well - I've already gone this far. Let me just say this - sex is meant to be fun for the husband and for the wife. But it only gets fun if you keep learning, growing, and working at it. It's the most sacred part of the marriage relationship and therefore there is a lot of reason for it to be attacked. As a wife, I have become fiercely protective of that element of our marriage. I'll be darned if my lack of effort were ever to leave a vulnerability or weakness in our marriage. You know I'm not saying that it's all up to the wife right?! Just speaking to that because I'm guessing I don't have many male readers lol.

- Make space for marriage to stay fresh. It doesn't just happen organically - at least seven years in! Do little fun things together - whether they cost money or not. If things in the schedule get too busy for too long - stop everything. Cancel committments, reschedule coffee dates with your girlfriends, find a way to meet up for lunch, go for a coke date, get in a workout together....anything. Know when to stop the never-ending cycle of business and just clear space for togetherness.

- Be on his team. Even when you don't feel it. He has to know that you're always always always behind him and if he goes down - you're going down together. And if he goes up - you'll be right by his side - not loving him because of his success but being more proud of him than words can say.

And finally....

- Love him like a strong man and a boy. I feel crazy writing it - but there's no denying that all men like to feel that tenderness that sometimes we reserve only for our babies. Just sayin.

So thankful that we are here seven years later. So thankful that God has brought us through. I love him today more than I could have ever imagined. By the grace of God - no seven year itch in sight!

Here's to looooooots more learning!

Love y'all,
Abi

Movie Review: The Lucky One

There are just times, aren't there? Times when all you really need is to see an over-the-top chick-flick. Who cares if it's realistic. Who cares if the acting would win awards. Just give me the romance people.

It's NBA playoff season in this house. Our beloved Thunder require our due adoration and attention and sleep sacrifices on a weekly basis. Roll Thunder! I can enjoy a great basketball game with the best of them. But there come times when I, all of the sudden, hit my wall and need to immerse myself in the feminine heart anew.

Enter: The Lucky One.

My girl Ashley and I left the boys at home and popped ourselves two bags of pocorn to bring along. Smuggling bags of popcorn and drinks from QT requires the use of one's big girl 'movie purse.' You know what I'm talkin about! Ashley's purse was on the moderate side of size so we had to do a little last minute emptying to make it all squeeze in without giving ourselves away. Worth. It.

Review: It was cheesy and it was goooood. :) The acting was only okay but the story was simple and sweet and relatively clean. There were a few scenes but they definitely did not dominate the movie.

Recommendation: Leave your man at home or rent it on a night he won't be trying to enjoy the chick-flick with you. It's not worth it. If he's anything like mine, he'll look over at you during the kissing scenes and give you the eyes that say 'Oooooooo you love this don't you.' Just let me get lost in the moment in privacy if you please! :) Or he'll quietly grunt during the parts of acting that really are. not. good. So just do yourself a favor and make it a girls-only affair. You'll love it. And hey - if you're in the mood to make out a bit afterwards - he probably won't complain! LOL

This movie was just what I needed! Keep it in your back pocket as a solution for the next time you are in dire need of girly girly girliness.

Meeting Knox

Liam has a new friend! My dear friend Ashley just had her second - Knox Ryan Hamilton. And he is PRECIOUS! We love you Knox!

Liam and I trucked it to Norman during his morning nap and hung out for a few hours with Ashley, Knox, Lauren and Levi. Priceless. Picnic on North Oval eating Greek House....need I say more??

We were quite the crew making our way over on the North Oval to Cafe Plaid. Loved every little moment.

Liam loved him some Lauren! And her food :) He made himself right at home.

This guy! Levi you are a favorite. Love your approach to the cracker.

Oh Ashley - you just had a baby - let me wipe your nose for you!

Oh the memories. Loved introducing this boy to his future. Ha! :)

Thanks for hosting us girls. So thankful for good friends and new babies.

Mother's Day Love

So thankful for him this year. Beyond thankful to be a mama this year. Let's be honest - it can be a challenging transition the first time around. But I wouldn't trade one challenging moment for the opportunity to know and love this man cub. I'm honored to be his mama! Hope your Mother's Day was filled with love and - some really good food :)