Motherly thoughts

So Josiah is now 13 months old. The biggest thing I have learned these past 13 months is to stop worrying about what other people think. For 12 months I rocked my baby, held him while he slept, and on occasion nursed him to sleep. I was sooooo worried that he was going to need to be rocked or nursed to sleep for forever. I worried because of what other people said and because of what " the books" say to do. I always had a hard time with what others would say. When Josiah was around 9 months old I realized I needed to stop worrying and just do whatever it was I felt I needed to do for myself and for my baby. I am happy to say that at 13 months old Josiah puts himself to sleep for both of his naps and at bedtime. Occasionally he still needs to be rocked if he isn't feeling well or he is teething, but he pretty much does it all the time. And you know what?!?! I miss rocking him! Sometimes I still do just because I love it. I also love when he wakes up and wants to snuggle with me. He is SUCH a snuggler and I LOVE it! I can honestly say I have no regrets on how much I held my baby or rocked him. I believe a big reason why Josiah is so sweet is due to how much love I showed him these past 12 months. I pray God continues to give me wisdom to know how else I can show him love now that he is getting older. I love to play and spend time with him. I love taking him places and watching him explore. He is SO FUN!
It is also so amazing to see how much he learns in such a short amount of time. Things that I feel like I don't even necessarily teach him, he knows. For instance, he picks up my hair brush and starts brushing his hair or brushing his teeth. He attempts to eat with a fork, just because we do. He also copies things that I say. The other day before putting him down for his nap, I said " it's time to go night night now bub bub" He then put his head on my shoulder and said " nigh nigh". He is just the sweetest, smartest, little baby I have ever had the priviledge of knowing. I am so grateful to God that He gave me such a sweet boy! I am so blessed to be his Momma. ( P.S. Please excuse how short his pants look in this pic, they just hike up when he sits down :))

1 year!

I can't believe its been 3 months since I last posted. For some reason blogger acts funny now on our computer and I just don't have the energy to deal with it anymore. I wrote this post and saved it a while back until I asked Josh how to post it. Anyway, Josiah is now one year old! We had a good sized party for him at my parents house. I ended up doing a baby whale theme since the focus was around my parents' pool. We had lots of fun. Josiah was definitely not shy at diving into his cake... the boy loves sweets! It was really great to have the Mitchell side of the family here including, Josiah's 3 baby cousins. We had 7 babies under age one total that came to the party. I had an idea that I wanted all babies in party hats sitting in a row for a picture and I got it! I was so stoked! Josiah is growing so fast and I am constantly amazed whenever he does something new. His newest thing is that he is walking! It is so cute to see him toddle around. He loves to eat and play and he is saying more words and using his baby sign language. It is so great that he understands a lot of what I say to him now. We took him to the doctor yesterday for 6 shots :( He is still a little peanut, just shy of 19 pounds, but I am sort of happy that he doesn't break my back every time I pick him up! He still loves to snuggle and rock, but I have pretty much gotten him to where he will go to sleep on his own now most of the time. He developed a low fever from his shots and has not been feeling well, so it has been a nice treat to snuggle and rock him this morning. Its so awesome to hear other people say , "wow you have the sweetest little boy". He will hug anyone and loves to be held. I am truly blessed by my little guy and each day while he is learning, he is also teaching me things. I feel that this past year I have become more patient, understanding, and less self- centered. I am learning what it means to " have faith like a child" and I am so thankful to my heavenly Father for blessing me with a son to love and learn from.

9 months

It has been quite a while since I have blogged... we have been busy and our computer has been on the fritz. I am currently taking a break from my parents pool to write this post :) At the end of May we celebrated Josh turning 32, he went on a trip for a week to New Mexico for work while Josiah and I stayed home. My parents moved into their new house and they have been keeping busy unpacking and getting things organized. At the beginning of June we went to Charleston for a weekend with some of our good friends, Brian and Melody and their daughter Bree, who is only 2 weeks younger than Josiah. There we celebrated Josiah turning 9 months old, went to the Citadel Beach House for a work function for Josh, took a horse and carriage ride tour, went to the SC Aquarium and ate some delicious food at Magnolias. The next weekend we had a visit from Josh's sister Elise, her son Micah and Josh's parents. Most of our time was spent eating delicious food such as thai food, ice cream and my specialty, homemade Low Country Shrimp and Grits yum :) We went blueberry picking and I made a homemade cobbler with them. Micah and Josiah had a great time together and it was fun seeing the boy cousins interact with each other! Now, Josiah is 9 and a half months old. He is currently crawling and cruising ( walking while holding onto things ) He is into EVERYTHING! We are constantly saying the word "no", but he is still SO much fun! He also has 5 teeth fully in, and working on 4 more as we speak. The teething process has never quit since he started with his first tooth, so we are hoping after these last 4 come in, he will be done for a while! It has made for some rough nights/ early mornings , but overall he is handling the new teeth like a little trooper. With his new teeth he is also able to eat all kinds of foods. I have resorted to one jar of baby food at meal times and then just giving him small pieces of whatever we eat for the rest of his meal. He LOVES fruit,meatloaf, bread, and cheese but has not really turned away anything I have given him. As always he is a joy and a huge blessing to our family! Oh how we love him so!

Mother's Day

Obviously Mother's Day was a special day for me this year. Josh and I say technically it is my second Mother's Day because I was pregnant with Josiah last year, but this was my first real Mother's Day. My first Mother's Day of knowing some of what it takes to be a good mother. This day was so special for many reasons but mostly because it is just a wonderful reminder of how truly blessed I am not only to be able to be a mother, but especially to be a mother to a wonderful little boy. Being a mom was something I always dreamed of. When I was growing up and people would ask me what I wanted to be I always said I just want to be a wife and a mom. I wanted to be the woman that was home with the kids, that made dinner for her husband every night, that decorated her home, and was crafty. I have to tell you that some days are much better than others. That the house is not always clean and sometimes we settle for fast food or a night out instead of a home cooked meal,that baby toys have now taken over my living room making it impossible to really look clean, but not a day goes by where I am not truly thankful for the life that I live and for the blessings I have. I am so thankful that God sees the "little" things as BIG things and cares enough for me to grant my hearts desires.

On Saturday morning Josh got up and brought me Josiah to nurse, once he was finished I got up and headed for the kitchen to feed him his breakfast. I was quickly told to return back to bed for breakfast. However I had to pump and the dog needed to go out and Josiah needed his cereal. I sat down he handed me the plate and then I went to the kitchen to go back to what I intended to do. It was the thought that counts, but it was a reminder that life will never be the same. No more days of sleeping in and breakfast in bed, but I am ok with that :) Sunday Josh took me to lunch and bought me some roses. He also gave me a big fancy beach hat and a HUGE towel that Josh, Josiah and myself can all fit on at the beach. I feel honored and blessed to be Josh's wife and Josiah's mom. I might not always do things perfectly, but I hope I will always try to give my best.

Blessed

Over and over again the Lord continues to remind me, when you do what He has called you to do, you will never be without. Since I am a stay at home mom, I obviously am not bringing in a consistent income into our home. I used to always be so concerned about not having enough money. I learned about tithing early on in life and I have been a consitent tither since I had my first job. Whenever I make money I always tithe on it. I believe we have never been without anything because we have always been faithful to tithe. Sometimes it seems like so much to give that ten percent that the Lord asks, but time and time again I have received so much more in return. I have waay too many examples, but lately I have just been so blessed by the Lord. He has revealed himself to me in so many ways, but a big way is with our finances. The people I had been nannying for last month told me that they were getting divorced and were not sure how often they would need me. Hair jobs were slow and I was worried about having money to buy the "extras". By extras I mean things that are not neccessarily in our monthly budget to use with Josh's income. Essentially being anything other than our monthly bills and gas... I began to get overwhelmed and torn because as previously mentioned in other posts, Josh and I both feel very strongly about the mom being home with the kids. In those financial crunch times its easy to think, well I could have my mom watch him so that I can get those new shoes I have been wanting or that new pair of jeans. But because I have been called to be Josiah's mom for now, I put my wants behind me. Can I just tell you that this month I have made more money than I have in over a year! Suddenly, I got busy with hair clients, got a couple days of babysitting in,and photographed a beach wedding! I also have plans to start nannying a little boy right in my home starting the first week of May. The Lord continues to show me constantly who is in charge and when you do things His way, even when they don't seem in the cards for you, He ALWAYS makes things great. " His mercies are new every morning, GREAT is His Faithfulness" I feel so priviledged to be a follower of Jesus and to know that He has my best interest at heart. How awesome is that!

7 months old!

Josiah is now 7 months old and still as sweet as can be. We celebrated his 7 month birthday by taking a day to go to the beach, which turned out to be not too nice of a day so we decided to just go for a walk on the beach and boardwalk. Josiah received his first tooth popping through his gums on his 7 month birthday, tried some chicken for the first time and attempted a little crawling. He is still not a crawler yet but he won't be long! I am still making all of his baby food, but I have to tell you now that he is on stage 2 foods, it is getting a little harder. I decided I am going to take one day out of the week to prepare Josiah's food for the whole week. I have been doing it just at his dinner time which also is the time that I have to make dinner for Josh and I so it has been getting a little overwhelming trying to make Josiah's dinner, our dinner and feed Josiah all at the same time. In order to make dinner time less hectic I am going to make his just one day a week.

Also, our time of separation anxiety seems to be gone now. Josiah has been putting himself to sleep again at night and doing the same now for most of his naps. Occasionally I have to rock him sometimes at nap time but I don't mind :) His behavior has just totally confirmed Josh and my beliefs that you should not leave your baby to cry it out. It seems to be really popular lately and I know everyone has their own way of doing things, we just feel like it is wrong. I always aim to comfort Josiah in his time of need and I have never felt he has cried just to cry, there has always been a reason even if I didn't see one at the time. I know a lot of people let their babies cry when they go through the separation anxiety thing, but isn't that going to make them feel even more insecure to be left crying? I read a statement in our bible study book that we were going through at church. It is on marriage and family... It basically said that age 0-5 is the MOST critical and influential time in a child's life. WOW! Josh and I always want to be parents that are there for our children unconditionally. No matter how tired or emotionally spent we are. I feel so honored that the Lord has entrusted me with the responsibility of raising a child to give Him glory.

On another note the weather here in the deep south has been absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Josiah and I have been taking a lot of walks lately which has been great or we will just sit outside on a blanket with some toys. He already loves the outdoors which I am so thankful for. I am also super excited for this weekend. Josh is taking me to dinner at one of my favorite places, Indochine, for some Thai food. Tomorrow I have a hair client and friends coming over for dinner, and Josh has off Monday so I think we are going to go strawberry picking :) I have been really busy this month with a bunch of different things: mostly hair, some photography, and a little nannying as well. Thank you God for your continued blessings!

A week away...

I think our bout with the separation anxiety is over... it's hard to tell, but I am pretty sure :) Josiah and I have been staying with my parents at the beach while Josh is out of town, so it is hard to tell since he has been up anyway since he is not sleeping in his bed like he is used to. Also, Josiah had his first fever the other day. He had a fever and a stuffy nose. He still has a little bit of a stuffy nose but it does seem like it is finally going away after almost a week of it, poor little guy. Even though he has been sick he is still a happy little camper, I tell ya I continue to count my blessings on this little one! I never knew I could have this much love growing inside me for someone. I am soooo thankful that I get to be home with him to see him grow and change everyday, even though we do without some things since I am not bringing in any income. Josh works hard, drives a ridiculously long commute, and still has energy to come home and play with Josiah and spend some time with me before hitting the pillow. He also helps tremendously on the weekends, so that I can have a little time to myself. I have such a great hubby and I am so blessed by his dedication to our family and the love he has for Josiah and I. This week while he has been gone has been a huge reminder of how special and rare a man like Josh is. God is so good for bringing us together! P.s. this post is kind of scattered, I am trying to write with a million things going on in the back ground. Just wanted to share some of my current thoughts :)

Separation Anxiety?

Now that Josiah is 6 and a half months there have been some things coming into action.
First, off Josiah has been a sleeping through the night baby 95 percent of the time since
he was 12 weeks old. We also had our nightly routine of getting him dressed for bed, nursed, and read a book then put him to bed awake and he would put himself to sleep. Since turning 6 months he has started waking up in the middle of the night just wanting to be held and rocked and we can no longer put him to bed awake without him screaming. I was looking over our paper that we got from our pediatrician the other day while I was wondering what the heck is going on with my well behaved baby. The paper said that at this age babies tend to have separation anxiety kick in. Ahhhh, now it makes sense! So for now we have resorted to rocking Josiah to sleep at night and cuddling him and rocking if he happens to wake up in the middle of the night too, which thankfully he has been waking around 5:30 for that which is not aweful I suppose.... I guess for now we will just wait it out and pray that this phase will go away soon. I never want my baby to feel insecure or worried that mommy or daddy will not be there for him when he needs us. In other news, Josiah continues to be a joy to all. I really thought that people just stop and stare at babies when they are newborns because they are small and cute and well, who doesn't love a nice new baby? However, whenever we are out Josiah continues to atract attention wherever we are. He is starting to raise his hands when he wants to be picked up, is eating more and more solid foods and my new favorite thing he does is says " rooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar" when asked " what does the bear say?" He is such a joy and I am constantly learning so much from him about life. I just want him to stay my sweet, innocent, little boy for forever :)

Roly Poly | Salisbury MD Baby Photographer

Take a look at Josiah's 6 month pictures we had done when we went to MD to see all of his new cousins:

We think they are really great!

Roly Poly Salisbury MD Baby Photographer

Josiah is 5 months old!

Josiah turned 5 months old last week... He has started becoming very interested in things and anything his little hands can reach he is after them. It is so fun watching him see things for the first time. About 2 weeks ago he found his feet for the first time and was really interested in them. He had his jammies on and they had monkeys on the feet. He about fell over going after the monkeys. He loves to play and thankfully with the weather being so nice lately we have been outside quite a bit. We have been going for walks in the park, and laying outside on a blanket with some toys. He has started eating more solid foods now and I have really enjoyed making them for him. I know I am saving so much money by making it and I know its better for him too. So far he has had peas, sweet potatoes, rice cereal, and prunes. He loves them all. I was going to wait a while before introducing fruits to his diet, but we have noticed with the introduction to solids it has made him a little constipated, so I decided to add in some prunes with his breakfast or dinner to help keep him regular. The things you talk about after you have a baby is amazing :) Any way, we are seriously enjoying all seasons of this little boy's life. He continues to be a joy and a constant blessing. You don't know how many compliments we constantly get that our baby is " the happiest baby we have ever seen" and " he is just the cutest baby". Obviously it flatters us very much that other people also love our precious little one. I feel very blessed to have such a good ,happy baby. Trust me he does have his moments where I want to pull my hair out, but 9 times out of 10 he is truly amazing. I feel so overwhelmed at the love that I have for my little boy. There is no love like the love of a mother and her baby and that I am sure! It is a constant reminder of how much my heavenly father loves each of us. There is nothing that my baby can do to make me not love him. No hair pulling, spit up, or poopie diapers are ever a burden and nothing that I wouldn't do to help him when he is upset. If having a baby doesn't draw you closer to the Lord then I don't know what will. I continue to be so very thankful for my little one and hope I never complain about anything that Josiah does that does not fit into my perfect little box. There are so many people out there that don't have the priviledge of having their own children and I never want to take that for granted. On another note, for Valentines Day my boys and I went on a walk around Greenfield Lake, and out to dinner to our friend's restaraunt. It was delish!

My 25th Birthday!

On January 28th, I turned 25 :) I always get excited for birthdays, but this one was super special. Not only am I now a quarter of a century year old, but I have been married to an amazing man for 3 and a half years, and now have a beautiful baby boy. I am sooooooooo blessed! Because 25 is sort of a big year, and I really feel like this is a land mark year beacuse of all I have, we decided to celebrate big! On my birthday my hubby made me a delicious dinner and surprised me with beautiful diamond earrings, something I have always wanted! Then we went out for dessert with some great friends. Then this weekend we had a big bash! I decided I wanted to have an excuse to dress up, so I decided on " A night on the red carpet" theme. We all dressed up as someone in Hollywood and went to " The Little Dipper" for some delicious fondue! The night was fabulous, we had a visit from some Spice Girls, Elton John, Audrey Hepburn, Magnum P.I. and June Cleaver.... fun was had by all! I feel so blessed to be 25 and to be where I am at in life. Here are some pics of the night...

more snow pics!

For some reason blogger was acting funny when I went to go load pics on my post... here are more from our snow day!

SNOW DAY

Yesterday we actually got snow in Wilmington. Our house got about 3 inches! So we decided to take Josiah out in the snow for his first snow day! We made snow cream and gave him a little taste... of course he loved it and kept licking his lips :) I decided to take his Bumbo chair out in the snow and see what he would do... he ended up digging his hand in the snow and kept trying to eat it. It was too funny! Josh also tried to show him how to build a snow man but of course Josiah was too into eating the snow to be into anything else. We had a good day!

Josiah also turned 4 months old today. I know I say this every month, but it is seriously amazing to me how fast time flies. Every day is always something new. His new things right now are grabbing at things, playing in his new exersaucer and the boy is still amazed by the t.v. He gets to watch his Baby Einstein and Sesame Street when I am doing laundry or other house hold chores. Josiah has been doing great on his schedule and I am going to start introducing him foods after his 4 month well check on Monday. I can't wait to find out how much more he has grown! The downer of course is getting his shots :(

I am super excited about 2011, there are going to hopefully be some good changes occuring in our life this year and of course we are so excited to see Josiah change and grow as well. Every day I am so thankful for the ability and opportunity to be able to stay home with Josiah. Josiah laughed for the first time 2 weeks ago and I almost missed it! I went grocery shopping and Josh was taking care of him. Thankfully, I made it and got to see and hear that glorious sound, but I began thinking about how I never want to miss a moment like that. I am so thankful that the Lord has blessed Josh with a stable job. Even if he has a long commute, there are so many families where both mom and dad have to work. I am truly blessed to be able to spend my days taking care of Josiah. A lot of people ask me if I miss working in a salon. Honestly, I do some times, because I do love making people beautiful, but NOTHING could compare to the satisfaction and fulfillment I get from being Josiah's mom. It constantly makes me think how much the Lord must care for us.

There are a few things that if you read this, would you please pray with us for? One thing is that we would really like Josh to be able to get a transfer back to Wilmington! Also, he is supposed to be getting a pretty significant raise in June, so if we could also pray that he gets that as well, it will really help out a lot! Also, I have the opportunity to nanny full time, in my home. We are working out a fee, but pray that we both can come to a reasonable compromise on both parts. It's great, because Paige is easy to take care of and both her and Josiah get a kick out of each other. May you have a blessed new year!