Catch Up

I've been a busy mommy lately, and have gotten behind on the blog. So, what better way to catch up than with some photos? Here's some of my favorite moments over the past few weeks, in no particular order. :)

We've had our fair share of cool rainy days lately, so when we had a BEAUTIFUL fall day, I took advantage of it, and took MJ to Eagle Point Park. It's an absolutely gorgeous park that overlooks the Mississippi River. The leaves were just gorgeous! It was 70 degrees and sunny. MJ experienced swinging for the very first time and he loved it! I look forward to taking him back there soon (with Daddy this time hopefully)!

One of our absolute favorite families came to visit! They were traveling for some medical reasons with their sweet daughter, Holly, and decided to stop by and pay us a visit this past week. We had dinner together and spent a couple hours just visiting. I would need a whole separate blog just to talk about how special this amazing family is to me, but to sum it up, I've always thought of Debbie almost like a second mom to me. Her and Denny are MJ's "back up grandparents." They've been rooting for us since IVF began, and throughout MJ's whole ordeal. They were happy to spend a little time with him, and we were thrilled to see them!

No more infant tub for this little guy. Now that he's sitting up so well on his own, we decided to try him in the next size tub. I love this little ducky! Mathew continues to love bath time. He loves to kick and splash and chew on his fishy toy. Mat and I rotate our bath time duty. He gets a bath from one of us every other night, followed by lotion, and nice cozy jammies. Then, he gets his final bottle, story, prayer, and is off to dreamland. His night time routine is pretty sacred and we both really enjoy this time with him.

This was taken right at the beginning of the month before MJ was headed to his first playdate. I found a group of other new moms to Dubuque and so we met at the mall play area for a playdate. It was exciting for me to get out and meet other moms with similarities, and I was also excited for Mathew to have a little socialization. He was by far the smallest so he didn't really have anyone to "play" with, but he was extremely happy just sitting with me on the floor watching all the other kids play. Plus, I must admit I was excited to dress him in his cute Halloween shirt (thanks GiGi and PopPop) and candy corn socks!

Snow, in October?!?! We're not in Florida anymore! Okay, so it was only flurries, but it was definitely picture worthy. We bundled up and went out on the porch so MJ could see the flurries for the first time. Please ignore my hair-I was fresh outta bed! I told Mat to make sure I wasn't in the picture...clearly he didn't listen! As much as I am dreading the cold weather, it will be fun to take MJ out in the snow and see how he likes it!

In between all these pictures, we also took our first trip back to St. Louis, since moving. Unfortunately I didn't take a single picture-that's how busy it was. Our main goal was to have some extra time with my Grandma Dorsie who is very ill, but we also managed to see some friends and all the grandparents. We're so thankful to have the time off and be close enough to do little trips like this more often.

Mathew is changing so rapidly lately it seems. I feel like each week there is something new. He is sitting up by himself all the time now and just loves to be on the floor playing with his toys. He thinks the dogs toys are his too.....hmmm, we need to work on that I suppose. :) He's been trying more and more different foods lately and even a few fingers foods. He isn't able to put them in his mouth himself yet, but if Mat or I feed him he loves little bites of veggies, fruit, or bread. His first tooth even popped through this week! We had no clue it was coming-no fussiness or anything! It's just barely peeking through the gum though, so we'll see how the teething progresses from here. I love to just sit and watch him play and explore. I know there are probably many things in my life I take for granted, but I can honestly say that he is not one of them. I am so thankful for him each and everyday. I'm still overcome with emotion at least once a day when I look at him and think about just how scary those first few days of his life were. I don't know if I'll ever begin to forget about that time period or not, but I know it made me appreciate his precious life even more than I already did. I'm so lucky to have him as my son!