Living a Blessed Life

I have failed miserably at keeping this blog updated recently. I used to have some time at work or in the evenings, but that is no longer the case. My time is pretty much accounted for from the minute I wake to the minute I fall asleep (on the couch before I get to bed...) If you have a child or children you know that time gets away from you and before you know it you've missed four months worth of updates. I apologize for that. Without making this post 10 pages long I will do my best to highlight the key points of the past 4 months and keep it interesting... Here we go... Tobiah is 16.5 months old already and he is busy, busy, busy! He started walking consistently, shortly after his birthday. Since then we have been chasing him around and he has truly enjoyed his new-found independence. Toby has all of his top and bottom teeth from 1st molar to 1st molar! Teething was only difficult for a few short weeks when he had 6 teeth coming through at once. He is a trooper, a...

Is it even possible that Tobiah has reached the 1 year mark? It seems like yesterday that I was anxiously (or not so anxiously) awaiting his arrival and here we are an entire year later! The journey this past year has been both challenging and rewarding, with SO much more to come... We have enjoyed the Hot summer this year, and I am grateful that my schedule allowed me to spend a significant amount of time outside, playing in the water and taking walks. Tobiah received a swing for his birthday and he really seems to enjoy it! It makes a huge swooping motion, which probably makes his little tummy rise to his throat, but he still smiles and asks for more.  ;-) Tobiah has always been a very vocal baby, and that has continued into this new stage in life. Not only does he jabber a lot, but he has recently become quite demanding and frustrated that he cannot express his needs so that we understand what he wants. We are working through some tough tantrums currently, but I know ...

ROAD TRIP!!! (for photo's click here ) Vacations consisting of road trips and sight-seeing were a regular part of my upbringing and I am thrilled that we have started that same tradition with Toby. Our family road trips consist of more baseball than my childhood vacations, but that is A-Okay with me.  Spending quality time on the road together is a lot of fun. We choose to drive during times that Toby would normally be napping so it is easier on him, and it gives us a good chance to talk about anything and everything. Sometimes we are so busy with the hustle and bustle of life that we don’t get a chance to relax and just ‘be’. Day I We started our vacation by heading to Chicago and arriving in the late evening. We stayed at a Holiday Inn which, to my surprise, was very nice! I don’t know exactly what I was expecting, but it was nice. Jeff, Julie & Brityn Eaton met up with us along the way so we stopped by their room for a little bit to chat about our plans for the n...

As we approach summer life seems to speed up tremendously. We take advantage of every moment that we can spend outside enjoying the warm weather and the SUN! :-) I thank God for the bright sunshine and longer days during summer!! I think that they reason our days get longer is because we have so much going on and God knows that we are more productive when we have more constant daylight. ;-) Not only do we have projects to complete during our longer days, we have new things to watch and discover with Tobiah. It is so much fun watching him learn! I love looking into his eyes as he notices new things, and watching him respond and react. He is very smart, and it is evident in the way he studies and responds to nearly everything. Every day is a celebration of new discoveries and physical accomplishments. Along with those celebrations come the rest of our May celebrations. First, Darek's birthday was on May 2nd. Mother's Day was on May 13th (which I enjoyed spending with my husba...

Welcome to another well over-due post! Tobiah's 8 month birthday came and went, and we are approaching his 9 month birthday on Thursday!!! WOW! 8 Months Wow, that sunshine is bright! We have been celebrating milestones almost every day, so here are a few of them: Tobiah started sitting up from a laying position on his own. Once he mastered this, he began rolling from sit to sit. He would work on getting close enough to his toys so he could play with them sitting up instead of laying on the floor. Eventually he began to crawl! This has been exciting for us. He is always on the go now. I can certainly tell by the way he eats and sleeps. He is definitely burning plenty of calories during his awake time. Tobiah also learned how to control his walker. He is a pro at zooming around the house, backing up, turning corners and turning around to get where he wants to go. He especially enjoys chasing Hunny around (although she does not particularly enjoy that). ...

Once again time has gotten away from me. So many topics, so little space to write about them. First, to fill in some details from the previous few months... (Many details left out to save on your computer eyes). In December, just before Christmas, my grandmother, Corinne was in a very serious head-on collision while driving into town for an appointment. She had multiple broken ribs (broken in multiple places) which is called a flail chest. She ended up having a punctured lung and a knee contusion as well. She was air-lifted to St. Mary's hospital in Rochester, MN and the staff did an excellent job working with and on her to help with her recovery. Grandma was in the ICU for a few days, and opted to have a risky new surgery involving rib stabilization. It is an amazing surgery, and her surgeon was specifically hired by Mayo due to his expertise in this area. He is a trauma surgeon, and was very straight forward regarding all of the options and the possible side effects if she di...

All I can say is Thank You, God for an amazing 6 months with Tobiah. He is a true joy, and we are very blessed to have him in our lives!!  There is so much I could say about Tobiah because each day is a fun new adventure, but for the sake of time I will highlight the key points instead. Toby is still a little chatterbox. He's always talking, singing or telling stories. (I wonder who he gets that from...) He is rolling a lot, but still doesn't prefer rolling from his back to his tummy. Aside from the rolling, he is a squirmer and can get around nicely while rolling from side to side or pushing with his legs. Toby loves reading stories and reciting nursery rhymes. He is counting with Grandpa Dana every day. I think he will have 1-5 down by the time he starts saying real words. Rice cereal and Oatmeal cereal have become part of the daily routine now. He eats his 'solid' foods twice/day. We will be introducing vegetables tomorrow!! I must admit that I am excited to...

You guessed it!!  Tobiah's first tooth is breaking through!  This presents some very interesting thoughts and questions. I wonder if he will have a few teeth come through right away, and then wait a little bit before the next ones make their appearance. I wonder if they will continue to continuously pop through. I wonder how he will respond. I am praying that he will have little to no pain and that he will not have a bothersome fever. He is such a happy baby that I do not want his teeth to alter his fun-loving personality. He is growing and changing so quickly that it's almost hard to keep up. I am diligently working on documenting every part of his first year that I can. This past month has been a lot of fun! Tobiah is growing into his personality and becoming more and more fun every day. He is sitting up most of the time, and is almost able to sit unassisted. He LOVES jumping in his jumper chair! The seat turns around so he can look out the window or anywhere in ...