A Little Taste of Tantrum!!

On November 12th, just after Chandler turned 5 months old, we began,or should I say attempted with best intentions, to feed Chandler rice cereal. He took it suprisingly well on the first day. We should have known that attempt was way too easy (aside from the big mess!! refer to pictures for proof!!) In the days to follow, he would refuse every bite you put to his mouth. The bites that he did take were quickly projected from his mouth, many times dierctly into my face. After several days of catastrophic cereal attempts, I sought advice of a friend, and pro mother. She advised that I let him play with the bowl and spoon, letting him familiarize himself with them before the actual event. This seemed genious! Why did I not think of it myself, I pondered. So, I give Chandler empty bowl and spoon. He had apparently already developed a disdain for the spoon, because he immediately would catapult the spoon across the dining room. With each attempt, the same results. We have since continued upon this escapade of cereal attempts, to no avail. Well, two nights ago, we had what I considered to be a tremendous breakthrough!!! He began eating the cereal, and I couldn't shovel it in fast enough. Well, suddenly, as if a light bulb went off in Chandler's head, he remembered back to the days when I used to let him play with his bowl and spoon. He was adament that he needed to have control over the spoon. These were a few VERY MESSY attempts at him doing it himself, (and if you know me, the mess doesn't really bother me) but, you see, a 5 month old doesn't yet know how far is too far, when putting a spoon down his throat. A few gag reflexes later, his mean mother took the spoon away. Suddenly someone kidnapped my littlest angel, and a something else took his place in that highchair. He hit his little fist on the high chair, arched his back and began to scream, and reach for the spoon. Just a little taste of tantrum mixed with cereal that day!

"The Sweetest Face"

There are aproximately 6.7 billion people on this planet Earth, each one made uniquely by our Creator. As He gazes down on this planet, I know that He sees beauty beyond measure in each one of his children. Through my eyes, this is the sweetest face of them all!!
Our little man is weighing in at 19lbs this week, just over 5 months old. That is somewhere in the 90th percentile for weight and he is in the 75th percentile for height! We like em' big!! And, just a little advertisement for my FABULOUS photographer (and friend), Kelly Bittle. She took these pics and many other adorable ones. You can check out her website at www.kellybittlephotography.com. If you are in the Little Rock area, and need some amazing pictures, she does a WONDERFUL job!

More Pumpkin Pics

Here are some more pictures of our little pumpkin. He dressed up and went to visit some of our good friends Haloween night, and we made a second trip to the pumpkin patch with Chandler's friend, Kaleb. It was a great trip, and I had a corn dog that has to be in the runnings for the best in my lifetime!! The "homemade" lemonade was less than impressive, and certainly not worth fighting all the bees that swarmed around it!!
We carved a pumpkin one night before Halloween. Chandler was mesmorized with it. As you can see in the picture, he could not keep his eyes off of it! So cute!

Chandler eats "Duck"

Rubber ducky, you're the one-- you make bath time sooooo much fun! Chandler's personality really comes out in the bath tub, in more ways than one! He has really grown to love the rubber ducky (although I think it is a love/hate relationship between the two of them, since ducky's rear is getting eaten a majority of the time!). He loves the duck-- as long as it is in his mouth! When, however, the wet and slippery duck happens to slip out of his hands and out of reach, he proceeds to scream at the top of his lungs until it is placed back at his lips! Overall, he loves bath time, and many nights would "soak" until he becomes a prune! Here are some sweet bath time pics!

Our Little Pumpkin!

When you have a baby, you begin the many "child like" traditions that come with being a kid, and in many ways, re-live the moments of your own childhood all over again. We did just that this past weekend! We took Chandler to "The Pumpkin Patch" in Mayflower, and we had a blast! I truly think that doing all of these activities now is even better than doing them the first time around. It is so amazing to share the joy with your sweet little one, to see their eyes light up with excitement, and grin from ear to ear. Now, I realize that Chandler does not yet understand in the slightest what a pumpkin is, but he certainly seemed to bask in the newness of the experience and the sunshine and the cool breeze and mostly, all of the attention that was directed solely on him!! What a perfect day! His smile just melts my heart over and over again!!

And the Razorback Tradition Begins.....

When your husband is the #1 Razorback fan in the state, you must know, and come to accept, that many pictures will be taken of your son wearing Razorback red. While in the womb, conversations about players like Darren McFadden and Felix Jones were had with my ever-growing belly and the little man inside. The "Wild Hog" formation was explained in-uetero, and Chandler was expected to slide right out doing the hog call with his first breathe in the outside world. OK, I may be over-dramatizing (although only a little), we did spend the week preparing the little guy for his first trip to "The Hill". We played the fight song for him over and over again, and we pulled out the entire razorback wardrobe on Saturday morning.You should have seen the pride on daddy's face when carrying his future linebacker around, decked out literally to his toes in Razorback attire. (please note that even his socks are screaming Arkansas Razorbacks!) Chandler did not actually attend the game. Why, you ask?? Well, if you have seen him lately, you know that Coach Petrino would have taken one look at our chunky specimen of baby bulge, and immediately began recruitung him for the 2026 team!!! We are not quite ready for that much stressful publicity, so for now, we are keeping him our little secret. Honestly, Chandler is scared when they clap at church, therefore we figured that the tuba playing in his ears would not go over real well, so Chandler and I hung out with some great friends in Fayetteville and took in some great mexican food while Jeff and his friend Josh took in hotdogs and first downs at the stadium. None the less, a monumental date in Chandler's life, and overall, a great weekend!!!

Professional bloggers, please help!!

OK-- can anyone tell me how to get this song off of my blog??? I dont know how it got here, and I dont know how to get it off!!

Did I mention??

Did I mention that while at the hospital, Chandler weighed in at almost 17 pounds, 16.7 lbs to be exact. Pictures to come of the mega-man!!

Emergency Room- Part 3, THE ENDING

Well, I realize that I have left some people on the edge of their seat with my story, sorry to keep you worrying! It was such a long story, and with a baby, everything in my life is done in parts-- so this story, like the laundry and cleaning the house these days-- had to come in parts. Here is part 3-- and the ending. So we arrive at the ER with screaming baby. The nurse takes CHandler's temperature, and it is well over 100. I dont know the exact degrees because they apparently measure it in celcius, which I am not smart enough to convert. This fever immediately invites uproar all over the ER. After an incompetent resident takes a look at him (that is another story all in itself-- maybe there WILL be a part 4??!!?) they rush him to x-ray, where they place him in a plastic "torture" tube with his hands above his head-- horrific incident #1. X-rays turn out normal. Horrific incident # 2-- place a catheter into my babie's p.p. to draw urine-- shows elevated white blood cell count, possible urinary tract infection, leads to horrific incident #3-- attempting to draw blood- after attempting in both arms and both legs TWICE-- yes that equals 8 times-- I was almost escorted out of Childrens hospital! I was LIVID with the nurse! Blood work comes back negative, cant figure out source of infection-- leading to the forth and MOST HORRIFIC procedure of all-- a spinal tap. YES-- a spinal tap, which was apparently necessary to rule out meningitis. They did the spinal tap, (which they did not let me stay in the room for, probably because of my obvious disdane for the nurse after blood draw). Results were negative for any type of meningitis, THANK GOD!! At 4am they admit us to the hospital for further observation, because ALL of the torture- I mean tests, that they did on Chandler came back negative. He woke up the next morning in his hospital crib, as happy as a clam, smiling and flirting with the nurses and doctors, laughing and playing, as if he had no recollection of the torture chamber x-ray, or the multiple bodily fluids that were taken from him just hours before. Final results, Chandler had some kind of viral infection in his stomach, which resulted in diarrhea diapers, but an extremely happy baby the rest of the weekend. So basically he had to go through a night of hell on earth to tell us that he had a stomach virus. Needless to say, Jeff and I are will be a little gun shy when it comes to taking our baby to the ER again. But, thank God for a healthy baby, and thank God for a good doctors.

Emergency Room- Part 2 -- White Trash Wardrobe

Those of you with babies, have you ever sworn that your baby would NEVER be taken into public in only a diaper?? Well, amongst my many visits to Wal-Mart during pregnancy, I vowed to myself that I would never, I repeat NEVER, take my baby into public wearing only his diaper. Well. desperate times call for desperate measures!! I broke that vow to myself and the world Thursday night, but let me just paint you the picture of what we look like as we enter the ER at Children's Hospital that dreadful night. Chandler is (still screaming when we walk in) sporting only his diaper. Myself, walking in alone, with no wedding ring on (it was 11pm and I had already taken it off for bed, and Jeff had to park the car, so he was not initially with me) and mascara running down my face from the tears that I had shed for my hurting baby. I bust in there (after walking through the metal detectors-- still haven't exactly figured out why the Childrens ER has metal detectors- but that was the least of my worries that night) and I hand my screaming baby over to the first nurse I see. As she proceeds to weigh him, and stick a thermometer up his rear end (yes, still screaming- and I dont blame him at that point)I feel something tickling my neck. As I look down, I discover that it is the tag of my red T-shirt, that I, in my franticness, have put on backwards. As I, in the middle of the ER attempt to remove my arms from the shirt and turn it around on my body, I realize that wardrobe flaw #2 has occurred-- my zipper is down on the very dressy jeans that I have on with my red tshirt and flip flops. I, myself, was quite a sight, backwards t-shirt, and zipper down, and then in walks my husband-- in his pajama shirt and some shorts that he obviously pulled from the hamper. What a sight we were--- only the begining of the story....

Emergency room-- Part 1

Where do I begin with this horrific story? Well, Thursday night we had some new friends and their one year old daughter over for dinner. Chandler was very fussy throughout much of dinner, very clingy and much needier than usual. Now, I hate to keep going on and on to our new friends about how un-characteristic this is of our son. I am sure that they were thinking, "OK girl-- stop bragging about how your baby has never cried before!, or "face it lady, you DONT have a perfect child!" ect. BUT- he was very uncharacteristic of himself. WEll, the very moment that they walked out the door, Chandler began WHALING!! We did the usual bouncing and swaying and pacifier tricks,singing, shushing, and every other trick in the book. For a solid hour and a half, he continued to WHALE. We finally called the peditrician line. When I called, the nurse asked me to hand Chandler to someone else so she could hear what I was saying. I proceded to explain to her that I was not holding him, my husband was-- and he was in another room-- just to give you a picutre of the obscenely loud crying that was going on! She then told me that this was abnormal (yes, lady, I realize that---- precisely the reason I am calling you!) and that I need to take him to the emergency room immediately. Jeff takes our baby, who is by now in only his diaper, and puts him in the car. I attempt to locate my bra, and some accetable clothing. I can, of course, only find my dressy jeans, so I throw them on with some random red t-shirt that was lying on the bed. We procede to the hospital, baby still whaling.......

Chandler's friends

Here are some of Chandler's little friends-- and more friends will make their debut soon!! Addison and Maddox are twins. All of these babies are absolutely beaufiful. I am so excited that Chandler will have so many playmates. Watch out New Life Church nursery!!!

"Sons are a heritage from the Lord"

"Sons are a heritage from the Lord" Psalms 127:3
Last weekend, we dedicated our son to the Lord. This is our commitment to do our very best to raise him in the ways of Christ. We are so blessed to have an amazing church, incredible friends, and great family to hold us accountable to raising Chandler in the ways of the Lord. Our prayer for him is that he will grow to love the Lord with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to be a mighty influence for the Lord. Thank you Lord for sharing this precious gift of Chandler with us, and thank you family and friends for sharing in this special night with us!! We are so thankful!

The "Baby Drop"

You mommies out there know exactly what I am talking about, when you are holding your baby, and suddenly their head "drops", every muscle in their body goes limp, the pacifier drops out of their mouth, and they give up. They enter a land of sweet dreams about the things that make babies happy, like bottles and teddy bears and binkies and blankets. They are officially "out", and it doesn't matter if you move, or a cymbal crashes, they are down for the count. And it all happened in the comfort of your arms. During this moment, I just love to stare at my sweet little boy breathing in and out so peacefully, I like to take in the sweet sounds that he makes and feel his breath on my skin. I like to take in the sweet smell of Johnson and Johnson, and take a moment to be thankful for the amazing blessing that he is to me. The "baby drop"-- just one of the many things that I love about being a mom!

From 2 weeks to 2 Months

MY, HOW TIMES FLIES! WE HAVE LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF OUR 2 MONTHS WITH THIS LITTLE GUY! OH, HOW HE HAS CHANGED IN EVERY WAY!! HE IS 14LBS AND 23 INCHES LONG NOW!

"Lunch Ladies"

What is it that is so incredibley invigorating about lunch with good girl friends?? You girls know the kind of lunch that I am talking about, the one that you look down at your wrist and your watch portrays that more than two hours have past since you stepped foot in the door of the restaraunt. This lunch is not dependent upon gourmet cuisine, nor the extravegant atmosphere, the lighting or the perfect piece of cheesecake (although I would call it a sin to pass up a good piece of cheesecake on any ocassion). No, you leave a lunch like this feeling like you do because of the company sitting across the table. The conversations jump from subject to subject in only a seconds time, from your kids to your job to the shirt you just bought, to how much you weighed on the scale this morning, from your marriage to your parents and back to your kids. It jumps from serious and substantial, to lighthearted and fun. Ideas are shared and advice is given. It is a time to discuss life, and in this discussion, life is shared and life is made better. Thank you to my "lunch ladies" that make life, and lunch more fun!

8 Weeks with Chandler

Here are some much requested pictures of Chandler over the past 8 weeks. My, how he has changed. He is steadily gaining about a pound a week!! The last two pictures were taken today, on his 8 week birthday. Isn't he precious!!!!!

Chandler

Here is our 7 pound, 20 inch bundle of joy! I never realized you could love something so much, and now there is close to 14 pounds of little guy to love. I will try to post some recent pictures of him, just to show you how our little linebacker is growing!! If he keeps this up, he will weigh well over 50 pounds at his first birthday party. We will be putting candles in an apple instead of a cake!!

The Black Hole

Well, I talked to a friend the other day whose mother still sends letters-- yes, hand-written letters mailed with a stamp. We will refer to her as "Betsy". Betsy does not use the computer, has not entered the e-mail world, and certainly has not ventured into the realm of bloggers. Although I haven't sat down with a pen and paper lately to write any letters, I do feel out of touch with the 21st Century because I do not personally have a blog. Everywhere I go, whether it be back to my home town, or to Target, just down the street, I am bombarded with questions like "what is your blog address," or "do you have a blog," or "when are you going to start a blog?" Well, to be quite honest, much like "Betsy," I have been scared to enter into the "Blogger Abyss," if you will. I swore that I would never sucumb to the myspace world. However, you can view my myspace page on the web, just like you will soon be able to view the blog I was so hesitant to do. Because everyone, and I mean everyone that I know now communicates via the blog, and since some of my best friends have moved to far off lands (no names will be mentioned!), I, unlike the mother of my friend, have given in to the pressure. I have spent the last 2 hours, not writing a letter, but rather attempting to create my own blog! Today I have entered the black hole of choices for layouts and tried to decide on a catchy title. Today I have entered the world of posts and pictures. Today I have entered the blogging world, and what many would say-- the 21st century. So, here you go world-- Here is the Woods-In Pieces!!