The Bitter with the Sweet

The interesting thing about blogging and something I have definitely noticed in some of the blogs I follow is the tendency to only talk about the good and sweep the bad under the rug. The problem with this is that we all have challenges, but you read these blogs and it appears that nothing hard, stressful, or frustrating ever happens. I also understand that for some people, including myself, blogging is a way to not only keep a record as time passes, but a way to focus on the good and be positive and grateful for one's blessings. It is a fine line to walk.

I was prepared today to specifically talk about some the challenges we have had in the last few month with Jeremy applying to law school and a few other things, but as I began typing and was listing out the negatives I thought of how ungrateful I was being in a month when it is particularly important to focus on being grateful. Instead, it suffices me to say that our life is not perfect and we have challenges, but we are also VERY blessed.

One last thing, you may have noticed that there are no pictures in this blog. That is because one of our more recent challenges is that our camera broke, but hopefully we will resolve that and be back up and running again soon.

Halloween 2010

I have been feeling the pressure from a number of sources to get some Halloween pictures up here...so here we go.

This year Merrick dressed up as a lion. I got the costume from my sister and two of my nephews had worn it in the past, but Merrick looked so cute that I just could not resist. On Saturday night we went to both Jeremy's parents' and our own trunk-or-treats. Merrick's favorite part of the night was definitely the food. We had two stops of nachos, chili, and hot dogs and he ate and ate (you will notice the food on his face in the pictures). He is still a little young to understand the trunk-or-treating, but he had fun walking around and liked to hold his pumpkin with his candy off and on.

Merrick was such a trooper about his costume. He never complained through all the times we took it on and off to get in and out of the car. He never pulled at it or tried to take it off during the night. This was truly amazing because it was quite warm out, low 80's to high 70's. It was not until we took the costume off to go home that we realized that the poor baby was drenched in sweat.

Despite the heat stroke, I think we all had a good time. I already have his costume for next year picked out, but I think I will keep you in suspense.

Who Could Resist This Face

Last week I saw online that the clothing store GAP was looking for baby models for 2011. I know that it is silly, but I just could not resist snapping a few pictures of Merrick and entering them. I am sure that it is a long shot, but I don't know how they could resist his cute face.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures

Kai's Birthday

Last week Kai turned two. On his actual birthday we took the kids to the splash pad at the park (leave it to Arizona to still be so hot in October that you can still use the splash pad). Despite the fact that we were there for his birthday, Kai did not really care for the water and kept saying "don't want it". Merrick, on the other hand, loved playing and splashing around.






On the Saturday after Kai's birthday we went to his party at that park. It was a fun party with a train theme, pizza, cake, presents, and feeding the ducks. Unfortunately we were so busy having fun that we didn't take many pictures. We did, however, get a few pictures of the kids feeding the ducks.





We had a great time with all the celebrating. We love Kai and are so happy that he is part of our family and that we could celebrate with him.

Sleep!

I was looking through old pictures today and I was truly shocked by how many pictures I had of Merrick sleeping. Now, those of you who read my blog know that I think that my child is practically perfect in every way, however, sleeping has never been one of our strong suits. Given that, the number of sleeping pictures seemed disproportionate.

In any case, over the last thirteen months sleep has eluded us. I talked about it with family members and the doctor. Self-soothing was definitely not our problem as Merrick went into his crib awake each time and put himself to sleep. The problem seemed to me that he was always hungry. He would wake up crying and would not go back to sleep until I nursed him. The pediatrician said, since he was only in the fifth percentile for weight, if he wanted to eat I should feed him. So, we got up every 3-5 hours every night so Merrick could eat.

About a week ago I stopped nursing and since then a beautiful thing has happened. Merrick has started sleeping longer and longer. Last night he slept for almost ELEVEN hours straight! I don't really know if I should laugh, cry, or dance, but this is such a huge break through and blessing. I am learning very quickly that a rested mama is a happy mama.

Here are just a few of my favorite sleeping pictures.

Our Little Work Horse

Back in June Jeremy took the LSAT, and while his score was good enough to get into some of the law schools we had talked about, he felt that he was capable of more and wanted to open as many doors as possible. So we spent a small fortune in a class to help him prepare and he once again hit the books hard.

I truly am in awe of how hard he worked. He worked forty hours a week, went to class three days a week (for 3 1/2 hour each time), and spent countless hours at home studying. Despite all this, he still managed to spend time with Merrick and I and make us feel important.

Today is the day that all that hard work pays off. Jeremy is taking the test as we speak and I just know that he is nailing it.

I also wanted to thank you all for your love, faith, support, and prayers. I thought you might like to see the stack of books that Jeremy has gone through since February. I am fairly certain that he has read every word of these books, sometimes twice, and this does not include all the extra practice sections he printed off from online.

I used Merrick for scale...he is the cutest scale ever.

Big Like Daddy

I blinked and now Merrick is over a year old. My sister and I were talking yesterday and decided that Merrick is probably now classified as a toddler rather than an infant. I really don't know how it happened, but my baby is turning into a big boy. I would honestly be more than happy to stop the clock, but he seems determined to grow, learn new things, and become more independent each day.

I watch him watch Jeremy and I and then imitate the things he sees us do. Daddy in particular is very interesting. When Jeremy gets home from work Merrick immediately has to investigate all of his things. He checks out his phone, his wallet, his badge and his keys. It is the same things every day, but it is daddy's stuff so it is always fascinating.

He also loves to play with daddy's shoes. He carries them around and moves them from place to place. The other day he decided that maybe he was even big enough to wear them.




Just last night Merrick decided that he should be daddy's helper. Jeremy was gathering up the recycle and turned his back for one second. At that point Merrick took it upon himself to start dragging the bag out.





As cute as all this is, if anyone knows how to stop time, or at least slow it down, please let me know.