Our First Trip Without Daddy

It's always hard being away from Isaac. When we got married, I knew it would be a big reality in our marriage, considering his pending 7 (which turned into 8) month deployment. But since he's been home, we haven't really been apart except for duty nights, which were once every 5th night until recently, where it's changed to every 4th. With that said, I'm kind of used to being away from Isaac, but any time away from him is hard. He's my husband, my love, my sanity when Curtis is screaming or waking up every hour or 2. He is the best Daddy I know, helping out so much with Curtis. He loves spending every second with him that he can and is so involved. So when he's gone, or we're gone, it's hard. We miss him, both Curtis and I and I know he misses us. But I am thankful for a husband who is ok with me taking our 5 month old to NC to celebrate his Great Grandma's 89th birthday. Because as hard as it is to be away from each other, it was very important that Curtis and I be able to celebrate my Grandma. She is a very special lady and even though Curtis will likely not remember her, she loves him so very much and he brings the biggest smile to her face every time she sees him. With that being said, our trip may have been hard, but it was wonderful. Mom throws Grandma a special lunch every year with her sisters, some of her nieces and grandchildren/great grandchildren. We got to eat good food, laugh, talk, take sweet pictures, enjoy all the kids in the family and celebrate 89 wonderful years of my Grandma's life. What a blessed day it was!

Other big highlights of our trip to NC:

Curtis and Prudence finally got to meet! Let me tell you alittle about these 2's special relationship. About a month after I told one of my very best friend's, Brenna, that I was pregnant, she texted me to tell me she was pregnant too. There is nothing better than going through pregnancy with one of your best friends. Pregnancy is not for the faint of heart, so if you can have a best friend to help you through it, it goes much more smoothly. When we found out we were having a boy and then the Perez's found out they were having a girl, we were even more excited. Brenna and I have joked all along that they were going to grow up friends and eventually marry. We know this may not happen, but I kind of hope it does, cause I know Prudence will be raised similarly to Curtis and they will be friends anyway, so why not? Well, Prudence ended up coming early, almost 4 months early, which was a shock, but she's a fighter so it's turned out ok so far. So, the day Curtis was born, Pru had been hooked to some form of O2, I can't remember if it was CPAP or the vent, but anyway, she pulled herself off of it and started breathing on her own. We like to think that all she needed was her love to come in to this world :) Anyway, it was wonderful for them to finally meet. When we brought them close to each other, Curtis reached for Pru, and they both smiled and laughed. It was wonderful to see!

Highlight number 2, I got to get coffee with my friend Courtney from back home. It was a wonderful time to hang out, get to know her better and have my heart encouraged by someone who's "been there" with this whole stay at home mom thing.

And highlight number 3, Taylor's t-ball game. It was fun to have our whole family (minus my love) there to watch Taylor win. I think she is really enjoying the game, and with some practice and age, I really think she'll make a good softball player.

The whole time was wonderful and I loved getting to spend time with my family. I love that they live close enough to go see and I love that they can be apart of Curtis' life. But, I am glad to be home with my husband, currently sitting on the couch with me, playing with our sweet baby :)

I love these 2 sweet girls!!

Grandma and Curtis, she was so happy to get to see him and hold him

My mom knows how to throw and tea party :)

Reegan playing peek-a-boo

Taylor giving Grandma her card

He did not want to be put down

Taylor hitting the ball

5 Months Old

Our Little Man is 5 months old today. It's so hard to believe how much he's changed in the last month. He is coming more and more into his own little, very opinionated personality. I'm learning very quickly that if he's not happy, for any reason, he will definitely let you know it by the shrillest scream I've ever heard from a baby. But, most of the time, he's pretty happy or just chill. Luckily, the only time he's incredibly fussy is if he's tired/hungry or just really bored with what's going on.

This past month has been full of changes for our little man. He moved into his own room about 2 weeks ago, which has been a huge adjustment. It was definitely much easier to get up in the middle of the night and just walk a few steps to get him and feed him rather than having to go down the hall, but it's nice to have our room back, and some nights, Isaac actually gets to sleep rather than being woken up every few hours. The thing about moving to a crib is, he now has all this space that he feels he has to explore. So we've gone back to waking up about every 2 hours, sometimes more. Also, because it's so new, he doesn't wake up crying, he wakes up talking. He actually talks a lot. I'm pretty sure when he gets older, we will never be able to get him to stop because it's kind of non stop when he's awake. And that's what I wake up to every few hours on the monitor, which is kind of nice cause I don't have to rush to get the screaming baby to stop screaming cause he's usually pretty happy.

A few other changes this month: he loves his cereal, I'm pretty sure starting him on solids will not be a problem at all. And I'm super excited to do that next month :) He loves to play peek-a-boo and if he's crying that can usually distract him for a little while, and he prefers to play sitting up on the couch instead of laying down, although sometimes he gets excited and falls over, which is cute :)

Here's a few more pictures from this past month:

We spent a morning babysitting our sweet god daughter so her mom could get some school work done. I just love hearing little fingers playing the piano

Isaac has learned that if he's desperate for Curtis to sleep, or calm down, and I'm not here, Curtis likes to be in any carrier (Moby, Ergo) and Isaac can handle the Ergo, so this is a familiar site in our house these days

Another familiar site: Curtis with this mouth open getting ready to stick something in it. He pretty much sticks every thing in there, toys, my hands, Isaac's hands, his own, his blankets, whatever he can find...

He has the cutest little sneezes ever

One of his favorite toys, Rubberneck Giraffe

Peaches was pretty curious one day so when we put Curtis on the floor, Peaches prepared herself to play with her. Little does she know, she'll probably be tortured once he can crawl and walk. She may be hiding under our bed a lot.