Time to play catch up- Father's Day Take One

For Father's day this year we decided to have both sides over for a super yummy fish fry and we had a blast! As embarassing as this is, I only got pictures of the rest of the gang because the Dad's were all frying the seafood! Just a few shots of our super fun evening!

Hanging out with my Great Aunt Connie (obviously mom's sister!)

Kisses from my Cee Cee!

Having fun with Aunt Miranda!

Will: 8 Months

Whew! What a fast month May was! How are we already in June??? It feels like having children has made time go by so much quicker. Or maybe it's simply because now that Will is EXTREMELY mobile life seems to be flying by. Getting pictures this month was nearly impossible since Will refuses to sit still, but we did our best!

So my little man is 8 months old and becoming more and more a little boy with each passing day. It feels as though the days of having a tiny baby have since passed.

The Skinny on Will:
Height: Not a clue...we'll have to wait til our Doctor's appointment next month!
Weight: Should be right about 20 lbs (and my back is feeling every bit of it!)
Head: Perfectly average

Eating: We are just now moving into trying to transition out of the world of pureed foods and into the messy messy messy new chapter of finger foods and self feeding. I must confess I have been a bit weary of this transition as it seems so hard to gage just how much food he will actually be consuming with 90% winding up on the floor or smushed between his toes. The other side of me, however is super excited to not have to spoon feed my little man any more and allow him this new level of independence! He is still taking 4 bottles per day with 6-8oz per feed.

Sleeping: No major news here other than to say that Will seems to want to sleep in a little closer to 7:30am and head to bed closer to 8:00pm. He is still taking two 1 hour and a half naps from 9:30-11 and 1:30-3:00pm.

Milestones: Well this has been a bit of a fussy month with endless teething teething teething! Praise Jesus we have our very first tooth! My little mover and shaker is in to EVERYTHING. Crawling faster than lightning and scaling the furniture! I am most confident that he will likely be walking by 10 months (Lord help me!). He is very in to his momma these days and gets very upset when I leave the room. We are also beginning to see our happy, easy spirited child display his will. He hates having his clothes or diaper changed and if I take away something he wants he absolutely loses it. Ohhh what fun! Up unto this point he was rarely phased by any of this but 8 months has marked the beginning of the need for discipline in our home. All day long I find myself saying "Will, look at momma. No sir!" ....to his credit he has been VERY responsive to correction and simply stops. I'm sure this phase will be short lived. He continues to say lots of "dadadada" but still not "momma" but hopefully soon. He has gotten to be VERY difficult to hold and we call him our little spider monkey as he wiggles and squirms trying to get down. What a fun filled month!

Just a few more shots...

A little Overwhelmed...

It's been a tough week here in the Shipman household and I've been a little depressed to tell you the truth. As I've previously mentioned, things have been tight for our household since having Sir William but we've made adjustments and have been hanging in there. However, this week we just knew we had to take Tuck (our big kitty) in to the vet because we just knew something was wrong. He had been drinking buckets of water and going through litter like there was no tomorrow and just generally lethargic.

I hate going to the vet. I hate hearing all the vaccinations they needs and minor problems or even worse hearing that something is wrong with one of your pets to the tune of $500. So the last few times I have insisted that Zak take Daisy or Tuck in because I have a hard time telling them no to costly tests and procedures... but this week was different.

I agreed to take Tucker in with Will and see what was going on... When we got there they took a Urine sample and did some blood work, leaving the room for a while before returning with the Vet. When Dr. Betsy came in she said "I've got some bad news..." Tucker has diabetes.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?! I can't say that I was surprised because we had a feeling that might be the case but over the past 72 hours the news has just continued to get progressively worse... After further testing, the vet confirmed the diabetes and while at first she thought that possibly trying to simply reduce his weight could keep the need for insulin at bay in the end the answer was final.

Tucker has type 1 diabetes which is genetic and unavoidable. Our choices are to either put him to sleep... start him on insulin... or find him a new home. I find myself a little angry with the Lord questioning why he would put us in this position of hardship yet again to either take on a ridiculous expense of costly diabetic food and insulin twice a day or forced to end his life or give him away....To say the least, I've shed many tears this week at the thought of letting him go.

Tucker has been such a wonderful and easy part of our family which makes the decision unbelievably hard. Looks like we'll be spending a lot of time on our knees seeking the Lord as to how to proceed...

poor Tuck...

The Danger of All or Nothing...

I must confess that most of my life I have been an All or Nothing person. And as much as I hate to admit it I was generally a black and white thinker. But as I am settling more and more into motherhood I feel that I have heard the gentle whispers of the Lord to strive more for balance in my life and who I am than continuing the pursuit of perfection.

This mainly surfaces in my life in the area of weight, food, exercise and generally how satisfied I am with just being me. In the last month we joined our local YMCA and I started meeting with a fitness coach/ trainer and each Thursday at 12:00pm I have to weigh in and give an account for my week. Let's just say that while the two previous weeks I did well, this week was not stellar. Knowing how long the road ahead is with the goal of losing 40 pounds I would normally beat myself up for my lack of commitment and strive harder next week to lose 5 pounds when 2 should be a success. But not this time. This time I am committed to being kind to myself and accepting the journey.

What this means for me lived out is that No, I won't be a size 6 by the time we go on either of our family beach vacations pleading for someone to take pictures of me with Will and Zak in a swimsuit. Heck, I may be fighting the urge to simply stay in a cover up the entire time but I will fight that urge as well. Because what I am realizing is how precious this time is that I can NEVER get back. For now, I will continue to fight the good fight. Making an effort to not binge on the weekends only to try to kill myself the following week at the gym eating only salads for every meal, but rather to strive for a reasonable balanced life.

And with the intensity that I am working on the outside of me, I want to measure with a desire to work on my heart as well. Because the world that we live in today says disregard character as long as you look amazing and play the part of a perfectly put together Mom, but God's Word beckons us to reconsider. For "God does not see the same way people see, people look at the outside of a person, but the Lord looks at the heart."(1 Samuel 16:7) I want to be the woman who is more consumed by character than my appearance recognizing that our temple is our whole person.

When I weighed in today I was challenged to focus on who I desire to be over the desire for sweets and fun delicious meals out. How hard this is for me! I wrote out that the Mom I want to be is committed, determined and balanced and so this week I will let those truths win.

The dreaded bathing suit shopping.....

There is nothing in the world that I would rather do LESS than trying on bathing suits! I truly think that it's just a way to punish people.....

But summer is here and I know my little boy is going to LOVE to go swimming so it's now or never! Yesterday I headed over to Dillards to try on some post baby suits and let me just say, it was not pretty! After having a c-section and still quite a bit of weight to lose (although I'm down 5 pounds yey!) nothing seems to fit right. And the one's that did were anywhere from $150-$180 and I just have a hard to swallowing that!

I told Zak last night that the only reason they can charge that much is that the designers know how desperate women are to feel good in a swim suit. Even the beautiful cover ups were $100!!! Yikes!

Then they try to be helpful by grouping women into swim suit categories: Bigger in the bust- check, wider hips- check, tummy control- check, post baby suits- check.... I am still waiting for one to say "All of the Above."

But I think I have found a solution. Last year I purchased what I thought to be a cute swim skirt (see below)

(mine is black from lands end)

So my plan today is to head over to sears and take a look at some of the Lands End tankini tops. These are a few I hope to try on!

 Stay tuned...I'll let you know if any success was had!

Will's favorite time of the day...

...story time with daddy....and Tuck thought he'd like to hear a story as well!

Will: 7 months old...

My sweet baby boy just turned 7 months old. Just thinking about the reality that he is now closer to being a toddler than a baby just breaks my heart…  I know I sound like a broken record, but oh if I could just freeze time. I am so afraid that my sweet snuggly little boy will soon be arching his back saying “momma let me down!” and I confess I am not ready for that. I want my sweet little man to always squeal at the thought of crawling into my lap! The excitement I hold about the future is knowing that each month that passes I say that this oh this is my favorite stage. I am confident it will just get better and better with each passing day!

The Skinny on baby Will:
Age: 7 months old (boo hoo hoo)
Weight: Just under 20 pounds (Will had an ear infection a few weeks ago and he was 19lbs 10oz)
Height: No earthly idea
Head: Growing and Plumping

Eating: Will is doing GREAT with eating. We successfully dropped his 10pm dreamfeed so now he eats at 7am, 11am, 3pm and 7:30pm before going to bed. He is killing the solids as he seems to LOVE most everything. We are so ready for our garden to start producing as we are recently out of all the baby food we made and he goes through 5 stage 2 foods a day in addition to some oatmeal!

Sleeping: My little rockstar  has been sleeping 11- 11 ½ hours a night since about 6 months old Praise Jesus! I am starting to see less bags under my eyes and feeling more like the pre-baby Caroline!  As for naps, Will takes a morning nap and afternoon naps that are each about 1 ½ hours.

Milestones: The biggest milestone has been crawling crawling crawling!!! Well...let's be honest. It's more like an army crawl/ dragging yourself/ traditional crawling. Yikes! Look out baby gates here we come. Will is sooo much harder to contain these days as evidenced by how hard it was to take his pictures this time! I was sweating by the time it was all over. Will recently starting feeding himself puffs, which he absolutely LOVES. He can now go from all fours back to sitting which is definitely a new thing!  He loves to say dadadadadada (for now, I'll try not to be offended). However, all I have to say is "Will, look at momma" and he immediately starts grinning and looks right at me.  

I'm proud to say, these little legs are finally chunking up!

You can see how thrilled he is to have to sit still for a picture!

 

This is the face I get when I say, "Will, I'm gonna get you!"