How do you explain...

"How do you explain, how do you describe
A love that goes from east to west
And runs as deep as it is wide
You know all our hopes, You know all our fears
Words cannot express the love we feel
But we long for you to hear
So listen to our hearts, hear our spirits sing
A song of praise that flows
From those you have redeemed
We will use the words we know
To tell you what an awesome God You are
Words are not enough to tell You of our love
So listen to our hearts"

I'm starting with this post with that song because Tyler and I feel that way about God and what He's done with our lives.
We've had an amazing experience with God growing our love for Him and each other as we've made our way through these last nine months together. Every fear or concern we had was answered by God. Caroline asked me out of the blue a couple of months ago if Tyler and I would "be married." I was surprised by the question, but I knew God was working on her heart as well. I told her I would listen to what God tells me in my heart. She then said, "Well, what is God telling you?" I told her that God is working on us, but  that  I think it will happen!
Well...IT IS HAPPENING!!!

I can't seem to keep my fingers typing fast enough to tell everyone all the emotions and thoughts racing through my head right now. I want to do our story justice and there is never enough time in the day to get it all written the way I would like to in a blog post, but I wanted to announce our engagement right away! Tyler proposed last night with Caroline and Thomas helping.
I kept thinking I was feeling shock all night and day today, but I finally realized it wasn't shock. After all, we have carefully let our relationship grow in God's timing, but we always  knew we were never casually dating. We both felt God telling us this was "for real" from the first day of our relationship. So it isn't shock that I'm feeling. We both knew this was coming (even planned tentatively dates for the wedding!) Not shock, it is awe. I am in complete and total awe of what God can do with a broken mess. If you've read any of my blog, it is not a surprise to hear that life dealt the three of us a horrific blow. I was a mess: physically, emotionally and spiritually. However, my family and friends surrounded me and showed me what God's love is. Their love and support motivated me to ask God to help me pull it together. He answered that prayer in a huge way. I am reminded of the way love is defined in the bible in 1 Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 13

 ¹ If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

 ⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

 ⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

 ¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 

  

We usually hear these verses at weddings, but it isn't just talking about love between husband and wife. Love is a true gift from God that each of us can have: for our friends, for our families, for each other. When I allowed myself to take in the love from my amazing support system and start asking God to transform my  sadness to joy-He did it. I felt joy again. Only after that happened did he then open my eyes to see Tyler.

Fast forward to yesterday...

He had Caroline help set up the dining room with white Tulips and an adorable round cake (from Ricks!) with a big question mark in it, complete with sparkler candles! I was holding Thomas and when I came around the corner all I could see was that question mark on the cake and Caroline beaming from ear to ear and holding something behind her back....Tyler told me He is excited about God's plans for us as a family and if I would do the honor of being his wife! AAAHHHHH! Caroline gave me the ring and I said YES! 

Caroline was giggling and cheering, Thomas was staring at the candles and I was drying my eyes while hugs were being passed around.

Then as we quieted down to take in the moment, Caroline walked over to Tyler and put her arms around his neck and said, "Now we have a daddy. Now we have a daddy" with all of the love and sincerity a newly turned 4 year old can muster. I completely lost it. Tears of joy, heart break and renewal all at once. I knew she knew she didn't have a daddy hear on Earth, but I also know she knows that she did have a wonderful daddy who loved her very much. I hadn't fully realized the impact this would have on her until she said those words. In bed that night Caroline and I thanked God for the daddy who is now in heaven that brought her into this world and loved her more than anything else on Earth, and then we were able to thank God for the daddy that she will now have here with us. What a blessed little girl and boy they are to have so much love from dads on Earth and in Heaven just for them. (And a mommy who is loved so much, too...) My cup runneth over.

 

Two Years

  So many emotions. Sadness of course. Amazement at how fast time goes by. Pride in how sweet and smart Caroline and Thomas are turning out (in spite of everything?...). Happiness at what the future looks like. Guilt (yes, it's still there at times) that I have more happy moments than sad now days. Awe of God's healing hand and love for His sons and His daughters.
  We just returned from a week in Tulum, Mexico with the entire Culp family. There will be a post about it relatively soon, but right now I'm going through the adjustment of coming home to my new normal (and it isn't so "new" anymore) and deciding whether to be happy or sad each minute today and tomorrow since the two year mark is tomorrow...well I guess, actually, I have to decide every day I wake up if I will make the most of the day or have a pity party, no matter what the calendar says the date is.
 Caroline is so in tuned to my emotions (or maybe it stems from inside her??) I, of course, hadn't mentioned the "anniversary" being tomorrow, but out of the blue this morning she said, "I miss Daddy. I miss him so much."
 I think also being with the the extended Culp family this past week probably reminded her in her subconscious of Christmas 2 years ago when we were all together. It feels like we were with him this past week in a way. His family is what shaped him, at least the first 18 or so years. I am grateful she misses him and has memories, but I wish a three (almost 4!) year old would never have to take on such strong emotions. I'll be praying about that.
  For Christmas this year I had the first year of my blog printed at blog2print. (thanks, "Texas" Tara, for the idea!) I hadn't re-read my blog before, but flipping through the book I found this post I had written exactly a year before the accident. I remembered this picture of course, and it has been used in different ways since then, but I hadn't re-read the post. I also find it strange that I wrote the post about God. I really hadn't used my blog in any "deep" way before. It was usually just the daily happenings of Caroline. I believe God wanted me to read this now and see how I felt before about Him. I have changed tremendously in the last two years, yet my faith in God and His love hasn't changed.

Here's a Link to orginal post. (But I copied and pasted the post below for convenience sake!)

 This picture was taken in January 2008. Practically to the week one year before the accident.

I really try to listen and give the benefit of a doubt to someone who has an idea that differs than my own. But I really thought I had an argument won with Thomas. I was SO sure!
I can admit when I am wrong, for instance, years ago I really thought that meteorologists were talking about "wind shield factors" instead of wind chill factors. You may laugh at my stupidity, but all of you have had something like that happen to you.
This time I was right...Thomas was watching me type and he said, "wait, you put two spaces after that period." I immediately looked at him like he was completely crazy and said, "of course! That's common knowledge! You've got to be kidding me! You didn't know there are supposed to be two spaces after a period??" ...I'm sure you can see where this is going.
I pride myself on being able to type fast without mistakes and to think, he was questioning my skills! Just to show him how right I was, I "googled" the question and lo and behold, I found out that the two-space rule applied to typewriters and not to word processors and computers. I couldn't believe it. I learned how to type on a typewriter, so I am out of date now. I've tried to leave one space and I just can't do it!
So the moral of this story...
Immediately after having my ego deflated, I thought, "I can't be sure of anything anymore!" Almost in the next second I remembered that it is true, the things of Earth are not sure and are always changing and evolving. The one constant, that we can always depend on, is God. He's always there, never wavering. It is such a comforting feeling to know that He is in control and His love does not change for us.
Thomas went hiking last weekend and took some pictures. He said that in this cave around a hundred years ago, people would gather to have church and sing. The weather was just above freezing outside and inside the cave it was around 65 degrees, so there was drifting fog. The sun shone threw at just the right spot to light up the rock in the middle. A little piece of Heaven right here in Arkansas. (They have not been edited or enhanced in any way.)

End of post from 2 years ago.

 I miss him and love him. More than anything in the world and heaven combined, I know his hope is that the kids and I would be happy and healthy. We are, so I know he is happy, too.

Psalm 10:17

With such a heavy heart I begin this post.
In the title of this blog, I decided to reinforce God's promise from Psalm 10:17: "You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry"
    I remember being blissfully ignorant of the ups and downs of life when I was younger and hearing about the Holiday "blues." I wondered (briefly, without much deep thinking about it) why Thanksgiving/Christmas are a sad time for a lot of people. To say I now understand about those "blues" now is such a ridiculous understatement. I am grateful God has healed me to this point, however, almost two years after the accident, that I can proclaim with such joy in my heart that I am happy. I can have such light-hearted moments now with family and friends that it blows me away at how far I've come, only with God's help, from the darkest days of my life. Yes, for the rest of my days on earth I will miss Thomas and some days will continue to be harder than others, but I have such hope for the future, and faith in God's promise for my children's happiness that I can hold on to it with both hands and praise God.
   Yet, with the news of another young husband and father in our community being taken away to heaven in the prime of life this past Thursday, I feel like I'm reliving some parts of those dark days. I'm "going" back there on purpose though, because I know first hand how much Tara Newby helped me through the hardest of times and I want to do the same for Stacy Waller. I'm not sure yet what God has in store with how I can help or what she needs, but I'm keeping my ears and heart open to find out. I do not personally know Stacy, but through Facebook I saw that we have several mutual friends who I consider very close friends. She has three children ages 4 and younger.
   Since the two year "anniversary"(there's not a good word for it) is approaching for our family and Kimberly's one year mark of Hannah entering heaven being this week, she and I had already been doing lots of reflecting on the past. With Stacy's story coming to me this Thursday as well, I just have to rely on what I've learned to move through the days right now. Even when it doesn't feel like God is with us, we've already made the decision to believe God and choose to believe He is with us. I choose you, God. Your love endures forever, no matter what happens.
  I rarely have writer's block when God leads me to post on my blog, and it's not that I have a block, but I just can't get past the pain right now as I write this. For the Waller family, for the Crumby family, the Culp family and for all of us learning to live with terrible loss.
  Yet, life keeps going. I know it amazed me when I realized the world didn't stop when my husband died. And now I'm on the other side, Stacy's world has crumbled and I continue with my life: going to church, eating lunch, making plans for tomorrow...and I almost feel guilt. I don't know what that is called, ironic? blessed?
Ironic because I have been there and now I am here? Or blessed that life doesn't stop and one day life will go on for her as well?? So many emotions...
 Thank you, God, that I don't have to figure it all out. We are not called to be omniscient! We can keep it simple as possible and realize the nitty-gritty: Life is full of joy and sadness and everything in between and You have given us a relatively short time here on earth to persevere through it until we all meet our end. I'm so thankful you gave us the bible as a roadmap through life and as an example of how to live to get there.

A friend told me about this song shortly after the accident and I've posted the lyrics before. This October I noticed Caroline singing along to this in church while we all sang together and when we got home I tried to capture it on video.
I am pursuing faith like a child as Caroline does...Lord, you'll never let go.
 "You'll Never Let Go" by Matt Redman (Click for his version)

Whom then shall I fear?
Whom then shall I fear?
(Chorus:)
Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me
And I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
A glorious light beyond all compare
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
We'll live to know You here on the earth
(Chorus)

• Please be specifically praying for Stacy and Kimberly and their families this week. I get chills when I remember vividly how I felt your prayers during the hardest of times.

Thankful for my blog readers! (Plus a Giveaway!)

I'm so thankful this holiday season, it's hard to know where to start! I'm taking time to dedicate this post to my faithful blog readers!! Your comments and prayers over the last two years has been more help to me than you might realize. At times when I wasn't sure how to vent or express my feelings, my blog and the comments from readers were there to lift me up each time. The comments from the last post have encouraged me and made me come to realize even more that God can use any situation, no matter how terrible, to bring people closer to Him. What's amazing is that being "closer to Him" and giving Him the glory means we get to reap benefits such as a life filled with contentment, happiness and most importantly: Meaning! Our lives mean something! Even though we talk all the time about how short our time on Earth is, we are sowing values and love that continue in our children for generations. Our bible study, Breaking Free, has us think back through our family lines to determine who laid the foundation for where (and who) we are today. I'm blessed to have several family members contribute to my path to finding a real relationship with God, but when I think as far back as I can, I only remember one Great Grandmother since the others had passed on before I was old enough to remember, but I know someone must have put the love of the Lord in her heart and I pray thanks to God for whoever those "ancestors" were. In just a few short generations our names may be forgotten, but our legacies live on. I'm determined to instill the same values in my children so that God will be praised in our family long past the day I enter heaven!

Since the accident I have felt guilt because I haven't thanked every single person for what he or she has done for me.e I understand it's a silly guilt (I'm working on giving it to God, I promise!) However, a friend of a friend (Thanks, Misty and K.C.!) contacted me about a giveaway I could do on my blog! My first thought was, HOW FUN! My second thought was: Here's a very tiny way I can say "THANK YOU" to my fellow (local) bloggers! (So sorry for my out-of-town blog friends. Maybe I can come up with something for you all soon!) I've never done anything like this before, so I hope I don't mess it up!...

  www.nwaboutiqueshow.com

This coming Friday and Saturday there is a very special boutique show happening at the Springdale Arkansas Holiday Inn Convention Center. It's special because it's a shopping experience where all of the 130 merchants are moms with small businesses! The show is free on Saturday the 20th from 9am to 6pm, but I think the real fun will be Friday, November 19th from 5:00pm-9:00pm at the "Girls Night Out" Preview Shopping Event which will have live Christmas music, door prizes, candy buffet and shopping! It costs $10.00 a ticket at the door, but for a lucky reader of my blog it will be free for you and a friend! I have two tickets to give away to the event. I'm really excited about going and if a reader wins whom I haven't met yet, maybe we can meet there! Just leave a comment on this post! Make an additional comment on this post if you link me in your own blog and you'll have two chances to win! The deadline is this Wednesday at noon and I'll either mail them or hand deliver them to you! If your blog ID doesn't have an email address linked to it, come back here to see if you've won! Good luck!
PS One of the merchants is Lanning Photography and Amber Lanning is an amazing woman and a gifted photographer (see pic below she took of me and my seweet baby T!)

CONGRATULATIONS, ERIN! I used a random number generator and she won the tickets! I'm excited to meet you!
I wish I had tickets for everyone! If you buy online the tickets are discounted to $8 a piece. The Saturday event is free!

God is Love

I've started and stopped this post in my mind at least one hundred times. (I don't exaggerate unless I tell you I am so that you'll believe me when I state numbers.)
Someone mentioned to me they had noticed I hadn't updated my blog in a while. It's because I know I cannot post again until I post this one...

I'd like to ask everyone to say a prayer right now to have an open heart and mind as you read my thoughts in this post.

God has blessed me immensely over the last months. I mentioned in my last couple of posts how the process of healing will go on forever, but God has allowed me to be joyful again. I got to the point that I honestly told God, "Okay, you and me, God. We're going to raise these children to be amazing adults and I have complete faith that I can do this alone (with You.)" I truly believed this and felt the bondage of fear for my sweet children's future fade away. I felt the fear of being a single mom fade away. I felt the sharp edge of the pain I felt for what their dad was missing as our children grew before my eyes, dull to a manageable sadness that had a more pronounced happiness as I understood more and more that Thomas is not sad. He is complete in heaven, where we all will be one day.
"And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died." 1 Thessalonians 4:13 - 14
The overwhelming emotion that came with the release of fear and apprehension was love and joy. I had several books with titles describing Joy after Mourning, joy comes in the morning, and every other combination, but I didn't understand how I could ever feel joy when I was in the throes of grief. Yet, the bible proved itself to me again. It is true--a surrendering of our worries and fears to God leaves us with a security in Him. I'm so glad I now have relieved my friends, family, co-workers and even my children the responsibility of my "secure-ness". It's not their job to make or keep me happy. (You all can thank me later ;-) )
"Those who have been ransomed by the Lord will return. They will enter Jerusalem singing, crowned with everlasting joy. Sorrow and mourning will disappear, and they will be filled with joy and gladness." Isaiah 51:11 
  So, I come to the next chapter of my life.
I have thrown myself into the author Angela Thomas' (My Single Mom Life) philosophy of becoming the most amazing moms we can be with God as the leader of our lives. I'm involved with three ongoing bible studies and each one has taught me an incredible amount about how and why God works in our lives and what matters most in this life. 

"So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold -- though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world." 1 Peter 1:6 - 7
So...
I was content and ready to live my single mom life with God helping me raise my sweet kids.  We were going to be not just "ok," we were going to be amazing! I also felt after going through GriefShare counseling for two semesters and hearing them talk about dating after being widowed that maybe in 20 years or so I'd think about dating.
So along came Tyler King.
The strange thing is...he's sort of always been around.
He ran in a circle of friends in our same christian campus group (Razorbacks for Christ) that was just different enough from my own that our circles only seldom intersected. Thomas and I definitely knew and respected Tyler from seeing him teach and attend our church for years, but we did not know each other.
Early this summer our paths crossed a few times when our small groups from church intersected.
There really is not another way to say it, but after hanging out several times with our mutual friends I woke up one morning and I felt like God had literally flipped a switch in my heart and a rush of emotions came over me for him!
I was shocked and excited and nervous. I kept it completely to myself for a couple of weeks because I wanted to make sure these were real feelings and that they were really specifically for Tyler and not just the thought of dating or something else going on. Finally, I decided I needed outside perspective and confided in my sister. I waited until I was driving us somewhere together so I didn't have to look her in
the eyes. (I just knew she would tell me in an unintentionally patronizing way, "Oh it is too soon...just be patient...he's a great guy but..." But oh no, she did nothing of the sort.
I started it with just "what do you think about Tyler and I together?" she sat
quietly for a few seconds and then with tears in her eyes said "Bonnie, this
will sound crazy, but God told me a long time ago that you and Tyler would be
together and it would be great."
(Before I go any further, please realize we aren't usually the get a "burning bush" sign from God kind of people...)
I about had to pull the car over.
I asked her to explain and she said that she was so distraught for me and my
kids that she took it to God and He comforted her with that thought. That Tyler
and I would be together.
WOW.
I prayed hard about it and I knew I needed to talk to Tyler about what God was telling me.
Basically, we both told each other that same night that we felt God telling us that we are
supposed to be together.

Even the movies could not make this stuff up.


God knew I did not want to date. He knew how important my family and friends are to me and they would protect me at all costs. God specifically sent Tyler to me. Everyone that knows me, knows Tyler (very well! Yet, I did not know Tyler before this summer!) My family and friends are thrilled because they know us. They have seen Tyler's day to day life of character, warmth and caring. They know I am seeking God at all costs and determined to raise Caroline and Thomas to be happy, godly children. They are seeing the work of God at work.
It's amazing and it's God.

I am more surprised than anyone at the timing, but I trust God and His plan whole-heartedly. I was worried for a while what people might think, but God has taught me some wonderful messages of the utmost importance:

• No opinion matters, except God's. I answer only to Him.

• God knows what I, Caroline and Thomas need.

• No one has any place judging a person's decisions who is seeking God's will...And no one can ever "walk in someone's shoes." Even though I have met some amazing young widowed mommas, not one of us can completely understand each others' journey.

• God is Love. He gave us an amazing gift: the ability to love!

Thomas and I truly loved each other and had a great marriage. I'm blessed to know what a great marriage is because of him. I remember thinking when we knew we wanted a second child, "How can I love another child as I love sweet Caroline?" God's abundant love for his people is mirrored by how we have the ability to love each other. And when Baby T came along...I did not replace the love I had for my first child, or try to take some of the love from her to give to him, my capacity to love GREW. Wow. God is gracious.
Over and over through our dating and marriage Thomas would say "I only want for you to be happy." It is imprinted on my heart forever.

And I can say I am truly happy again. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8


Tyler and I are committed to keeping God at the center of our relationship and
we are so thankful for what He has done in our lives.

Light Your Candles!

Our Single Moms' Ministry at my church has been amazing. What a courageous, beautiful group of women God put together! Each doing their best, with God's help, to be the best single moms they can be. God is good. (By the way, please be praying as we start our fall semester Sept 14th!)

The book we just finished My Single Mom Life by Angela Thomas (a MUST read for any single mom in any situation) talks about not waiting for a special occasion or until you feel "worthy" to light your candles, or use the best dishes, or invite friends over for dinner. Our children will miss out if we wait!

This also parallels her advice that we don't have years to devote to "bettering" ourselves. If we wait years until we arrive at some contrived place to start being a great mom, our kids will be all grown up! We have to be amazing moms NOW!
This includes inviting friends and playmates for our kids over to dinner...so what if our house is a wreck or we don't have a huge home-cooked meal. No one will notice! There will be enough to go around, just make it work!
I also believe this applies to starting or continuing traditions. It's sad how I went through a time when I didn't know if a family of three like ours was complete enough to start new traditions or that it might be too painful to continue traditions we already had.  Blessedly, I came through that phase pretty quickly.
Caroline and I decided it would be fun to always have chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast on our birthdays, starting with Thomas's!
My new, wonderful friend Shannon reminded us of this "don't wait for life to begin" idea when she gave her example of how she shared a dinner with her daughter's playmate at the spur of the moment. Do you think the girls remember what they ate or what the place settings looked like? NO! They will remember a warm, fun time sharing life!
After hearing her talk about how she is not just thinking about this advice, she's living it; I wanted to do the same. I wanted to light our candles! And use those serving dishes usually reserved for "special" occasions! My children are special and they deserve it!
Later that same week I told Caroline we were going to have candles at dinner and she ran around the room so excited and telling Thomas all about it, it was adorable. I got everything ready, our cantaloupe, ravioli and sauce (from Bertoli's, I think, I know I didn't make it from scratch--i'm admitting it. Who cares!?) and put it in our fancy serving bowls and then went to find candles.
And then I couldn't find any. Not one!
I wasn't going to let this stop us. I remembered what Shannon said, she said she didn't have candles in nice matching holders, she just used the ones from around the house. Scented, or unscented, in a jar or on a plate--it doesn't matter!
So the only candles I had were a few in a drawer meant for a birthday cake. WHO CARES!? Caroline and Thomas sure didn't! We lit them and ate a meal that would normally be forgotten, but now has been made a memory!
I LOVE THESE CHILDREN FIERCELY!!!
Now, go and light your own candles! :-)

My Baby is ONE!!!!

Yes, I chose blue for the icing. Yes, it came out of his cute Thomas the Train onesie from the Harmons! Happy Birthday, Thomas!

Thomas Alexander Culp turned one on Tuesday! Can you believe it!? We had a fun Thomas the Train themed birthday party for him on Saturday at our house. It was so great to have all of our closest friends and family in attendance.
Of course, it is an extra hard time of the year as well. His daddy would have been 31 the same day his son turned 1. It really makes the day special, though, since he can share it with his dad.
And with the start of the school year and the memories it brings back...
A year ago on the 17th everyone eagerly awaited news on this sweet baby's arrival. It seemed to bring a lot of hope and joy for the future for not only our family, but also for Springdale's school district. They started this year without Mr. Culp, but I have been overwhelmed with the kind, encouraging emails and Facebook messages from his students. A lot of them are starting college this coming week and their thoughts are on their teacher who inspired them to work hard and pursue academic excellence! Thank you, Har-Ber students!

My personal "Mom of the Year" story #258:
So about a month ago Thomas and I were playing and I noticed he started to climb (for the first time, in my defense) onto the treadmill. Most moms would probably think, Oh that's not safe and calmly remove the child and place him or her in a safe area to play. Oh,no, not me. I think, "I've got to get a picture of his first climb!"
Notice the blurry face due to gravity pulling him swiftly backwards??
The aftermath (and proof that he does cry, but not very often!!):
The bump on his head:Here's the smiling boy we all know and love a few minutes later (I promise!)
I couldn't afford another bump though, so in order to make dinner I moved my new climber into his cage, umm I mean, pack and play!
New things:
Baby T is standing on his own without support for about 3 seconds at a time.
He still laughs all of the time. Well, unless he's really tired and then he just whines! Such a good baby!!
He says, "Mmmm" for "more" and says "mama." He shakes his head "no." He makes funny babbling sounds like "girda-girda-girda"
He loves to feed himself and he likes to eat whatever Caroline and I are having! He ate all of our leftover poppy seed chicken yesterday.
He can climb stairs really well.
He loves to play catch with himself. He'll throw a ball or toy and then crawl fast after it and then throw it again.
He gets really excited and squeals when you "chase" him.
Caroline says, "I love my little brudder!" and squeezes him too tightly in hugs.
I kiss him approx 9000 times a day.
He only uses a paci when he's sleeping. (Thank you!!!!)
He places peek-a-boo at me through the slats in his crib when I go to get him up from sleeping and he laughs hysterically.
I turned his car seat around on his 1st birthday (I'm a stickler for safety rules! Although he was 20 lbs several months ago!)I cried a little about this. Seeing both my sweet kiddos faces in the rear view mirror. There aren't enough words...