He's A Walkin'!

With this no internet craziness I haven't been able to blog nearly like I want but just this weekend Elijah started walking on his own! What a big boy! He started a little on Friday at Jake's Mom's house and ever since he's been doing little bits here and there. Jake, his Mom, and Elijah all went to see Phil, Jess, Isaac, and Abby this weekend (I had to work..boo) and so I didn't get to see him in action until today! They came home late Monday night and then yesterday he wasn't interested in doing to much of anything. He is sick, yet again! This time he has a fever of 102.5 that only comes down to 100 with tylenol/motrin. He has a runny nose and has pretty much spent the day with me reading to him or playing with his puppy on the couch. He was up all of 5 hours from 8am til I left for work at 6. Poor little sleepy guy. I thought breastfeeding was supposed to decrease his illnesses! I guess when Mom and Dad are sick a lot too it doesn't help.

I didn't get to update on his cardiologist visit either. He went last Wednesday and had an EKG and ECHO...that was fun trying to keep a (nearly) one year old occupied so that they could get accurate results! In any event we found out that pretty much the little holes he had in his heart (PDA & VSD for all you nurses) have gone unchanged. No bigger, no smaller. Apparently his PDA is just shy of the size that they would go in and do a cath to fix it. Since they both shunt blood the same way we just have to keep going back yearly to make sure that his left heart doesn't enlarge to compensate. He's growing and developing perfectly fine so the cardiologist is not worried about him in any way shape or form. So how big is he? He's 30 inches (10 inches bigger than birth) and just shy of 24 pounds! He's slowed down a bit in his gaining weight but is right on track. He is at the stage where 12 month clothes just fit him but he can fit 18 month clothes and they look ok...pants are a bit long but who needs pants in 103 degree weather.

In other news Jake celebrated a birthday yesterday. Happy Birthday Sweetie! We went out to Ah So, a new place in town similar to Benni Hanna's. It was good food and company (we went with Mom and Dad). Afterwards Jake and I went to see A Night at the Museum. Of course it was great. We loved the first one and this one did not let us down.

Now we are just awaiting Elijah's birthday. No big party planned but we would like to go to a Diamondback's game. I've never been to one before and of course neither has Elijah.

All for now!

How could I forget?

I realized in doing my quick post yesterday that I forgot to mention HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! It was my first official Mother's Day this year. Last year I was 2 weeks shy of delivering Elijah and I felt like a mommy already. I mean, I could feel the little munchkin doing sommersaults all over and I was already so in love with him. Now, after 12 hours of labor, a few weeks of discomfort, many hours of sleep deprivation, and 50 weeks of unexplainable love, admiration, and overwhelming joy I can truly understand what it means to be a Mom. It's amazing how we never quite understand things until they happen to us. "You just wait until you're living on your own and you pay the bills." Okay, been there, done that...yep, I get that money doesn't grow on trees now. "You just wait, you'll find someone special. You'll know that they're THE ONE". Okay, I figured that one out too. I have to admit I never did quite understand my Mom's answer to one of my endless questions about why she fell for my Dad. One of her reasons was that he made her laugh. That used to puzzle me until I met Jake and felt the same way. Anyway. One of the other common comments was "You just wait until you're a Mom." Now I understand. It's one of those things that you can never fully explain in words but instead must be experienced. It's like trying to explain what riding a rollercoaster feels like. Words just don't cut it. I truly am blessed. I am so thankful that God entrusts me with being Elijah's mommy.
Unfortunately I had to work on Mother's Day and so I wasn't able to spend the day with my special little guy. He (well, Daddy) was sweet and got me a card and some pretty amethyst earrings to match a necklace that I already had. Very pretty. I'll have to post a picture.
Well, all for now.

Six Wonderful Years

Six years ago this past Saturday Jake and I were wedded in holy matrimony. I can't believe six years ago I woke up in the morning, my stomach all bubbly in anticipation, ready to become the new Mrs Baldwin. What a wonderful six years! We have had all kinds of experiences together and truly have seen each other grow as individuals. I'm so glad that God has blessed me with such a wonderful and supportive husband. I was talking with some people at work and they were saying how they weren't sure that they would have gotten married had they known how much work it would be. I'm so glad that I don't feel that way. I love being married to my best friend. Yes, sometimes our icky flesh gets in the way and we can say or do some things that are not especially nice but I still enjoy married life and I still am deeply in love with my Jake.
So what did we do on our anniversary? Well, I haven't updated "the blog" in ever and so I didn't get to post that Jake was diagnosed with pneumonia on Thursday by the radiologist (after going to the FNP on Tuesday, finally getting labs drawn on Wednesday, going to urgent care to get a flu swab done b/c the dr's office didn't do swabs, and getting a last minute chest x-ray that was immediately read and diagnosed with a little bit of bronchitis probably viral in nature) so he was not feeling well. We ended up lounging around the house and I picked up some take out. Jake surprised me and bought me some beautiful jewelry. He first gave me a malachite, gold, and uncut diamond bracelet...all exports of Africa...which was of course a very meaningful gift seeing as we had such a wonderful time visiting family there. Later on he gave me yet another beautiful gift...a Mikimoto pearl bracelet to match the pearl earrings and necklace that he gave me for Christmas '02 and a wedding present. What a thoughtful sweetie! I hope that we can share many more anniversaries together! I tried to post what my bracelets look like but it didn't work. I'll have to have Jake take a picture I guess.

A Little Belated

For all those nurses out there...Happy Nurses Day. I'm a little belated but, hey! I can't believe this incubator! Talk about dark ages!

I love thrift stores

Okay, I know..where's the pictures of Michigan and Chicago...they're coming...be patient.

I will be brief. I just wanted to comment yet again on how much I love thrift stores. I went to Savers and found some toys for Elijah. Have you bought toys in the store? They're expensive. At least I think they are. I really would like to get him the Little People (I love them..they're classic) car set. It's $40. I'm looking on craigslist. Seriously. $40. Okay...on to why I love thrift stores. I found the Fisher Price talking/musical doggie...of course that's not the true name of it but you catch my drift on what it does. A little sponge bath with oxyclean, new batteries and for $3 instead of $17 I have a toy that Elijah LOVES. He pushes the hands and feet and hears "if your happy and you know it" and "this little puppy went to market" and he just smiles and bounces his little butt up and down. It's too cute. And then there is the musical toolbox. Again, a little oxyclean wipedown, new batteries and for $3 Elijah is using a hammer and pounding in circles, squares and triangles to reveal little faces while doing a little jig to the ABC/123 song. When you aren't sure if your lil' one is going to like certain toys or not it's wonderful to spend $3 instead of $20. My only thing with finding the Little People is missing pieces AND the fact that people on craigslist know how much they paid for the sets. Darn. Well. I'm hopeful anyway.

All for now!

We're Home!

I'm a little sad to say that we are back home. We got back in LATE Wednesday night and I have had to work since then so I haven't had much time to update everyone. It's very hard to come home from a vacation when 1) you have spent (not nearly enough) time with your family that you love and miss dearly 2) you were able to see some great friends (again, for not nearly enough time) and missed out on seeing so many more 3) you had a lot of fun spending one on one time with the love of your life 4) you have to go back to reality and go back to work...ick.

Well, it may take a little time to give the rundown of our trip along with pictures as we have cancelled our internet. We decided that we needed to be better stewards of our money and have cut a few things out of our budget. Surfing the web was sucking a lot of quality time out of our lives so that's one of the things that went goodbye. I will be updating things as I can and am anxious to post some of the great pictures that we have.

P.S.  These pics are compliments of my Mom and Dad. I have more but need to put them on a flash drive (or whatever it's called) so that I can upload them to my blog. And BTW, isn't my brother Bryan handsome?