Picnic!

Gotta love March 1st when it's 70 degrees! We took advantage of this amazing day and had a picnic for lunch! So fun!

Pear Smoothie

I've been enjoying a smoothie for breakfast the last couple days and it's so yummy I had to tell you about it! It's from Martha Stewert Living magazine, and I made a few changes for my own preference.

Pear smoothie

1 Pear (maybe another 1/2 depending on size)

1/3 C oatmeal

1 cup Vanilla Almond milk

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 Tbsp maple syrup

dash salt

A few ice cubes

Enjoy!!!

Weaning, rethought...

Well, as some of you might have read my weaning post about 5 months ago, I'd like to follow up with that post. As a mom there's many things I'm learning as I go, and breastfeeding is DEFINITELY one of those things! One of the hardest and coolest parts about being a mom! My goal was to make it to 12 months breastfeeding my little boy, and when 12 months got here, I didn't know what to do! He was still breastfeeding. Now what? I had things I wanted to go do (which required overnight stays away from my little boy who was still nursing at night). I might miss some things during that time because I need to be accessible to my baby, but in the big picture, it's a year or 2, and in my whole life it's not that long.

After slowing down the weaning process (which was quite tramatic for us both to start so cold turkey!), I decided to try to let it happen more naturally. I'm really happy with that decision. I had to force the middle of the night weaning, but everything else was very natural.

Looking back, I'm happy I was able to give Ty those nutrients for a year and a 1/2. And I'm glad I didn't rush the process, if Ty is the only child God blesses us with, I'm able to look back with no regrets at how long I nursed him.

My advice, don't listen to when society, friends and family say you should wean, listen to your baby and God. I might not nurse all my kids this long, but I believe this was what Ty needed and I'm glad I could do that for him. Super special bond and memories for me that will never be taken away!

Home Base

A friend of mind sent me a link to another blog where a mom posted a blog about Rules for mothers of sons. One Rule was "Be Home Base"

You are home to him. When he learns to walk, he will wobble a few feet away from you and then come back, then wobble away a little farther and then come back. When he tries something new, he will look for your proud smile. When he learns to read, he will repeat the same book to you twenty times in a row, because you're the only one who will listen that many times. When he plays his sport, he will search for your face in the stands. When he is sick, he will call you. When he really messes up, he will call you. When he is grown and strong and tough and big and he feels like crying, he will come to you; because a man can cry in front of his mother without feeling self-conscious. Even when he grows up and has a new woman in his life and gets a new home, you are still his mother; home base, the ever constant, like the sun. Know that in your heart and everything else will fall into place.

Oh how I want to strive to be as constant as the sun for Ty. I've discovered that when he was really little, I was his main dependency, now that he's more independent, my little boy is needing less of me, and it's easy to let that cause insecurity, doubt and threatening feelings. This post was a good reminder for me, to try less to be the person he wants most, but instead to be his constant. The funny thing about having a son as a mom, you know that the older they get, the lower on the totem pole you go, which doesn't feel good, but if I can live a life with confidence, integrity and happiness, he will admire me, enjoy being with me and love me in a deeper way forever and know I am always cheering him on.

Rain day!

I love this rain day we are getting! Gives me a great excuse to stay inside, play with Ty, listen to Christmas music, look at the Christmas tree lights and make yummy soup!! And anticipate the rain turning to snow tonight! Can't wait to see if we get lots of snow. Hopefully tomorrow I can blog about Ty's 1st time to play in the snow!!!!

Weaning, a process for Ty and for me.

I know it's all in the never ending process of letting go of your children when you are a mom. But today my heart is sad, I've started a process of weaning Ty from breastfeeding, with the goal of him being completely weaned by a month from now. He still longs to breastfeed and I never realized it until now, but it has become such a part of me over the last year and such an intimate bonding moment with my little boy that it breaks my heart to let it go. My desire to breastfeed started because of all the health benefits, and not to mention the money we would save on formula. And over the last 12 1/2 months, it's become so much more. I know it's a part of life and the next step in raising up a man to follow after God's heart, but this mama's heart longs to hold on tightly to those moments. And oh how I will miss the need he has for me, a need that only I can fill. It has been the most special experience of my life.

And while freedom will come for me with weaning, at the moment, the sadness that I feel seems to over power that selfish freedom that will come.

I know it will get easier. And as a mom, I want it, I want my baby boy to have independence and confidence and courage and this is a stepping stone to get there. But for now, for today, for this moment in time, I'll be a little sad to let my little baby grow up.

Lord, give me strength, confidence and assurance of who I am in You. Show me new ways to love on my little boy and ways to bond and connect with him as he grows and matures and becomes more independent of me and more dependent on You. And thank you for blessing my life with Ty.

Vacation in Maine - Day 8 (travel)

Well, it's officially over. So sad. Why do vacations have to end? There's something very comforting about coming HOME, but the relaxing and break from life is SO nice!

This vacation was a blast! Not a ton of activities to do, lots of relaxing and site-seeing, no time schedule, making it perfect for our family at this time in our lives. With Ty being 10 months old, it was perfect because I'm still breastfeeding and he's eating baby food, so we didn't have to pay for him to eat (good thing because food was crazy expensive there!). And he flew free so it was a good time to fly somewhere farther away. And the climate was just right to have a baby out in. We had such a fun time together as a family. Family time is so important to us and is something we feel like we don't get near enough of. This was the first time Josh has gotten to spend 8 full days straight with Ty, we were so thankful for that.

To be cautious of any creepy internet blog stalkers out there, I chose not to show our hotel or give the name or show our car or anything. But now that we are home, I wanted to tell you incase any of you are wanting information on where to stay in Maine!

We stayed in Saco, ME at the Hampton Inn. It was a great deal! Such incredible service, a really nice breakfast each morning, heated outdoor pool, cookies each afternoon, workout room, laundry room, clean rooms, we were very impressed! All the sites we wanted to see were anywhere from 10-40 min from our hotel, other than Boston, which was 1 1/2-2 hours away. We had a rental car from Budget, the car was great, really nice, only downfall, we had to pay $65 for an infant seat at the end of the week. ouch.

Since our flight didn't leave until 5:30pm, we stayed in the hotel all morning, and then headed to the mall to just hang out. There we found a Carousel! Had to give Ty his first ride!!!

The flight to Chicago went well, after about 30 min. Ty fell asleep. The flight from Chicago to Wichita was a little different. He wasn't fussy, but he was VERY squirmy! We were worn out from trying to refrain him from getting down to crawl and sitting still is just not something Ty does well unless it's within the first 5 min. after a nap! So it was a struggle, finally with about 30 min left in the flight he relaxed and fell asleep.

Flying in and out of Chicago we took the opportunity to take pictures of the city, in hopes we would see Uncle Brett, Aunt Kavia and Cousin Micaela!! We didn't spot them, but it was sure fun to think of them somewhere down there! It looked like a great city I'm sure they will love it.

We landed about 10:10pm, which is an hour early than Eastern time. So today, we are sleepy, and Josh headed into work and we are busy doing laundry, cleaning, unpacking, and trying to regroup and get organized after a vacation here at home!

Vacations are the BEST!