Tis the Season to Forget Everything

If I told you how many times I have been to Walmart recently, I would be ashamed. I have been nonstop busy for the last month, with Christmas presents and starting to become a little crafty. (i.e. attempting to make nice Christmas presents, I hope you like yours Catherine! Also there might be a small hole in the wrapping paper....try not to peek...) and an almost 1 year old, my life is chaos. I am finally starting to enter the phase of "Wow this is why moms are always tired".

Speaking of which, Joshua is 11 months old! He is basically ONE and that is insane!

I am not really good of doing the month to month posts of what my child has learned to do, so I will try to cover the last 3 months right now.

Joshua crawls super fast so my day is mainly spent chasing him around and making sure he doesn't kill himself because he gets into EVERYTHING! Make up, the computer, pulling up the vent out of the floor, the trash, the cords, pulling things off of end tables, opens drawers and pulling everything out, the trash, pulling the toilet paper off the roll, the water bowl and did I mention the trash?

Just recently I was trying to finish my breakfast half asleep (this is surprisingly not normal) and I look over to see he is covered and trash, and not the just paper and easy things to get off. I mean crumbs and other sticky things galore. So he got his bath a bit early.

He LOVES baths! To the point that I just let him crawl around in the tub for 30 minutes until the water is half cold and he seems like he wants out.

Just the other day he figured out how to turn on the shower though. I should preface that with the fact that I let some water trickle out of the end of the spout at the end of his bath so he will look up and I can rinse his hair.

It seemed ingenious until he figured out he can turn the water to freezing and turn on the shower...now I just have to be more careful and it's more of a game/battle.

Oh and the stubbornness! He now is starting to throw fits when we tell him not to touch things. (Boy oh boy....but luckily this is pretty rare)

He tries to climb on everything. He frequently uses me as a stepping stool. He has been climbing up the stairs for a long time, but recently he learned to climb down the stairs and how to get off the bed/couch (mostly) safely. He's fast and strangely careful about it.

He can basically walk. He took 7 steps the other day. He is constantly trying, but I think he likes to try when he thinks no one is looking. It's rather funny.

Also pretty recent is hugs! This started probably 3 days ago but I think he is starting to give hugs and I am loving it!!!!!!!!

This is probably my favorite of his new habits. I miss how he used to snuggle me, so hugs are one step in the right direction. (Though I have come to terms that snuggling may not come back again until he is officially a toddler and probably only when he is sick, but hey I can dream right?)

Along the line of awesome things, is that he eats solid meals now all the time. He still nurses a little bit, mainly before naps and bed. He has cereal for breakfast, and then eats whatever I eat for lunch and dinner. He loves stuffing and bananas and most things. (He HATED baby food, like truly hated it, so that made 6-8 months kind of complicated for me). I had it all planned out in my head that I would start introducing baby food at 6 months and slowly over the next several months transition him to real food, but he threw that idea out the window.

He eats tons though, he can eat a whole can of chicken noodle soup, seriously this kid is insane. It baffles me that he is such a petite baby for how much he eats.

Sadly no teeth that I can see, but I am not good at checking...but I am not too worried. Joshua has proven to me time and time again that he will only do things when he is good a ready. An example is crawling. He could have easily been crawling at 6 months, like he was ready, but he didn't care to learn. He finally decided basically over night to learn to crawl about a month later. When he decides to learn something, he learns fast but no one is going to rush him.

So I honestly expect to wake up one day and he will just be walking perfectly everywhere because that is Joshua.

He sleeps 10pm-8am and I am actually mostly okay with that, but he takes 2 solid 2 hour naps a day and is on a really nice schedule so I can't complain.

Why I feel so busy is because I can only get things done during the 1st nap time. The 2nd nap time is mainly getting things cleaned up before Garett gets home.

We did get to see Garett's family for Thanksgiving this year. It is always great to see them since they are rather far away.

We are also planning on being there for Christmas. We were supposed to go last year but because Joshua was on his way, traveling was out of the question.

Garett is working tons and tons and we were doing pretty well at saving up money, but Christmas slowed that down a bit as it always seems to do.

He also just finished applying to grad school for Microbiology which means we will be biting our nails until sometime early next year when we figure out where on earth we are going to be moving to. We've applied to schools all around the country so we could end up anywhere.

I think that covers most of everything that has happened recently. I would blog more, but like I said, my window of productivity is pretty small.

Almost the End and A New Beginning

First and foremost I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah or any other holiday that you may celebrate this time of year. I know we had a nice quiet one which will probably be our last quiet one for possibly the rest of our lives. 

We are at an odd place in life right now. As of last week I have graduated with my Bachelors in Photography and as you can see just about ready to explode. 

I am so grateful for an incredibly patient husband, as these last 2 semesters have been a roller coaster ride between morning sickness and other pregnancy adventures and finishing up my degree. Garett graduated in July so he was working and waiting for me to finish these last few months. I could not have survived all of this without him. 

Also to my dear parents whom invested greatly in me and always pushed me to work hard. I thank them. They have always supported me in doing what I love and have encouraged me to try new things. I owe them more than I'll ever be able to repay in my lifetime.

We loved getting to spend time with them this past weekend and were sad that we couldn't be there for Christmas. 

Regardless we had a wonderful Christmas. Below is my phenomenal homemade, personalized stocking made by Cathie, Garett's mom. (Just fyi Cathie I absolutely love this! You can ask Garett, I was dancing around the house for joy when I got this in the mail. Thank you for working incredibly hard on this for me! It means the world to me). All the Bonds kids had stockings like these and I think it is the coolest tradition ever.

This year it was just the 2 of us in Idaho. We decided to stay in town, being that baby boy's due date is in 2 weeks and I would hate to be stuck in another state when he arrives.

Garett made our Christmas loads of fun by jumping out of bed yelling "It's Christmas!" and dancing around the house. We of course had to be wearing our Christmas pajamas and start with the stockings. Garett pushed the couch out of the way so we could reach the presents easier and then proceeded to dump out his stocking on the floor. His facial expressions were priceless and though we are not quite parents yet, he had enough excitement for us and 3 of our unborn children. 

 It was nice to have one little Christmas to ourselves, but of course we missed out family that is spread over the country. 

We got to enjoy the rest of the day with our friends Bryton and Ron. We had brunch at our place where Garett cooked up a storm and then enjoyed a fantastic Christmas dinner made by Bryton. We were definitely stuffed full with delicious foods for Christmas. It was really nice to be able to share the day with our friends and enjoy some great company. (Thanks for sharing your Christmas day with us Bryton and Ron!)

 Rexburg also did not disappoint as it gave us almost a foot of snow for a beautiful white Christmas. Up until now Rexburg has been unusually warm and you could still see the grass on Christmas eve day. Literally overnight we got this beautiful blanket. I am grateful I didn't have to deal with this during the semester and it was nice timing to have it during the break. I would have been sad if our first and last Christmas in Rexburg was snowless. 

Now I am 38 weeks pregnant (below is at 37) and kind of just waiting.

It's weird waiting to become a parent, to bring a child into this world. I think it is finally feeling real that he can come whenever he wants now. Part of me wants him asap and part of me is content with waiting awhile longer (probably the insanity of having to actually give birth to another human being plays a part in that). I am both thrilled and terrified on a daily basis.

It is also strange to think we are basically done with Rexburg. I have had a wonderful 4 years here and 3 of them with Garett. I have truly grown to love this town as it has become my home. It is where so much of my life changed for the better. I have met some incredible people here over the years including my amazing husband Garett and some of our dearest friends. It is where our story began. It is about to be the beginning of our little family and it will always be dear to me.

Now we are starting a new chapter. 

We are about to have a baby boy, to become parents.

Our lives are about to change forever.

We are working on figuring out where we want to go for grad school.

Everything is about to change and I am sitting on the edge of the cliff waiting.

It seems rare that we get to hold on and savor the turning points in our lives.

Often they happen suddenly without warning, for better or worse.

So here I am waiting, waiting for this new chapter to begin, for everything to change.

I guess I should count it as a blessing that I get to be in this place and take it all in.

It is exciting, terrifying, thrilling, overwhelming and incredible.

I am grateful for an amazing husband to share in this adventure with.

I'm grateful to our family and friends that have supported us in everything we have decided to do and are always cheering us on.

This new road is coming and knowing that I have the greatest support from the most incredible people gives me peace. 

I know it will be a new and challenging road, but I also know it will all be okay. 

I am blessed beyond reason and know that when tomorrow comes I will welcome it with open arms.

Here's to new beginnings and with the new year, will come a new road and a new adventure.

Thank you all for being a part of it. 

I love you all and wish you the best in this coming year.

May it be filled with great and marvelous joys and experiences.

-Megan