Benjamin's First Birthday, Baby Shower, and More!

Saturday, August 21st Benjamin turned one!! I can't believe how big he is getting! He is such a little toddler now. He had a great birthday and all of his grandparents, and a couple of uncles and great-grandparents, were able to come. He was a little overwhelmed by all the attention and cameras but he really enjoyed his cupcake! I broke it in half so he could break the pieces and eat them himself, but once that cupcake touched his mouth it literally never left. He ate the first half without ever pulling away. Chris and I were both pulling back on his arms trying to get him to take smaller bites but he didn't give in. That boy is strong! The second half of the cupcake I broke into bite size pieces before he got a hold of it. :) Benjamin received lots of wonderful gifts and although he didn't seem interested in opening them all that day, he has enjoyed playing with all of them since then. I think his top interest on his birthday day were the balloons.

Benjamin's one year check up went really well. He is 26 pounds and 30 inches tall! When I looked at the medicine bottle to see how much he should get (he wasn't feeling well after his shots) the dosage chart listed his weight as that of a 2-3 year old. haha! He is a solid one year old.

This past weekend Chris' mom and some other family members hosted a baby shower for us. It was so nice! Chris and Benjamin came over to join us after nap and snack. We really enjoyed seeing everyone and Benjamin seemed to enjoy walking around and inspecting all the guests. We received so many nice things. Little girl is going to be the best dressed baby around!

Today I had another doctor appointment. I will start going once a week. Although it may not be for long because it looks like little girl will be coming early! Her head is down and I am 2 cm. dilated and 50% effaced. So we'll see when she decides to come. The nice part is that Chris will most likely get to be here for it, as long as she comes before Sept. 19th. We'll see!

We're still working towards getting everything finished and ready for baby girl's arrival, Benjamin and I moving to NB, and Chris leaving. Unfortunately, there are quite a few things that we don't have control over, so in the meantime we are taking care of the things that we can. Please pray that everything will happen the way that God wants it to and that we will be granted whatever graces we need to prepare for and endure the coming months.

Big Changes for the Moses Family

We found out last week that Chris is being called up to serve in Iraq. He is not being deployed with his unit in San Antonio, but is being attached to a unit in Maryland, the 203rd Military Intelligence Battalion, for this particular mission. September 19th he leaves for Maryland to partake in preparations with the 203rd. October 4th he will be at Fort Huachuca in Arizona for a Joint Weapons Intelligence Course. He will be there until sometime in December. Early January he will go to Ft. Dix in New Jersey to finish training with the 203rd and sometime in the Spring they will go to Iraq until next October. He will be part of a 5 person Weapons Intelligence Team that will basically be like CSI: Baghdad. When an IED is used or disarmed (and most importantly after the area has been secured) they are called in to get whatever information they can. Chris' job will be to look at the electronics (or what is left of the electronics) and figure out how the bomb was made/used/set off. They will take the information they find and use it to help prevent roadside bombs, etc. from being used against us in the future. We are thankful that his job should be fairly safe and that he will be able to help save a lot of lives. We are also thankful that he is being sent to Iraq and not Afghanistan. He will also be able to come home for Thanksgiving, most likely Christmas, and the 203rd pays for me and the kids to come visit him in Maryland before they leave.

Benjamin, baby girl, and I will be living with my parents in New Braunfels. We will be able to Skype with Chris when he is away. We are hoping and praying that Chris will be able to get a few days off to come home around little one's due date. I can't imagine giving birth without him beside me. He is the best husband and father and, next to Jesus, he is my rock. Please pray that everything will work out the way that God wants it to.

Time flies when you're having babies

I can't believe it has been over a month since I last posted. The month of June flew right on by and now we are in the middle of July! Chris has been incredibly busy. He travels about once a month with work and although he usually has his schedule a few months in advance, dates and destinations change about 50% of the time. He has also been taking online classes since January and has Reserve drills once a month. Needless to say he keeps pretty busy but he always makes time for me and Benjamin. He is a wonderful husband and father!

Baby girl and I are doing really well. She is growing more every day and every day I remind myself that it's not really me who is getting wider, it's the baby. We are already in the third trimester! I'll be 29 weeks tomorrow (I think) which means only 10 or 11 weeks left!! Augh! Who gave time permission to fly by? Not me! I need to sit down and write out a list of things we are going to need for her but I have yet to do it. Hopefully it won't be much since I tried to pick things that could be boy or girl when I was pregnant with Bear. I also have a few big organizational projects that I want to get done. I'm hoping and praying that I can start and finish before her arrival. It would be so nice to come home and know that all I need to think about is taking care of her and Benjamin (and Chris). We haven't settled on any names yet. She will be named before we leave the hospital, though. :)

Benjamin is continuing to grow by leaps and bounds. He has 4 top teeth coming in. One has already come through, another one is breaking through today (I think), and the other two are just under the gum and will break through anytime! They sure are taking their time. We've been waiting for them to show themselves for a few weeks already. Benjamin is so close to walking, too. He stands and walks holding onto furniture, no problem. He'll even take a couple steps on his own if the furniture is close together and sometimes he'll walk holding on to just one of our hands. He really enjoys climbing on things: couch cushions, chairs, end tables. I also have the benefit of a "little helper" now. He will empty the kitchen towels out of the drawers for me (I guess I don't fold them correctly), stay right under my feet while I'm vacuuming (to make sure I don't miss a spot), and if I'm getting something out of the fridge he will make sure nothing has expired. He has also become very energy conscience. If he finds something plugged in he will try to unplug it for me. We are officially down to one nap a day. There are pros and cons. Pros: his nap is a little longer, he goes down a little easier, sleeps a little longer at night, and it's easier to run errands because we have the whole morning. Cons: Mama doesn't have a break until noon. We have been trying to teach him a few signs for awhile now and it is working half-way. He knows exactly what we are saying but has yet to do the signs himself. Oh well. :)

We haven't done a good job of keeping up with pictures and videos, but here are some of the more recent ones:






Hope everyone is staying cool and enjoying their summer. God bless you!

Crawling and Climbing and Standing, Oh My!

I can't believe that he just started crawling a few weeks ago and now he is pulling up on furniture and climbing over couch cushions. He is one active little boy! And his sister is catching up fast. I feel her moving quite a bit these days. I'm glad they will have each other to chase around. I get worn out just keeping up with Benjamin! The way he crawls is so funny. Sometimes it's the normal baby crawl. Sometimes he pushes with his right foot and drags his left (the Igor crawl). And when he's in a hurry I've noticed that he has started to pounce, pushing off with both feet! Granted, he only does one pounce at a time (not across the floor like a Cheetah or anything) but still! We will definitely be enrolling him in some sort of sport....like gymnastics!! (Chris would love that.)

I think he may have another tooth growing in. He has started gnawing on the crib railing. Thank goodness for lead-free paint! Sometimes I walk in to his room and he has tiny paint shavings mixed in with his drool, all around his mouth. So if we ever come visit you, cover up your antique furniture!

His speech has improved (oh my goodness...just looked over while typing this and he is chewing on the kitchen chair cushion!). He makes many more sounds while he's talking and playing, although he still won't say "Mama". Milk, ball, and Dada he understands, but Mama? Who's that? I had better start training my little girl early if I want to get in on the "first words list".

Taste in food has definitely been interesting. He hasn't ever refused to eat something but he will definitely make a face if he's not so sure about it. The other day he was having some little crunchy baby snacks and I had to cut him off (he would eat the whole package if I let him). He was letting me know how he felt about it so I decided to let him lick some lemon I was cutting up to take his mind off the crunchies....and he liked it!!! Even after 4 or 5 licks! So I had to find something else to distract him from the lemon. I know he absolutely loves fruit but I did not expect him to like lemon. Crazy kid.

Our little sweet pea is 5 months along now and headed into the 6th month. October is going to come way too fast! I haven't even started planning for her arrival, other than thinking about names. She will probably be dressed in blue the first year of her life. It will take me that long to catch up. haha! We haven't decided on a name yet but we do have some picked out. Since we had a nickname for Benjamin from the beginning it's weird not having one for her. Maybe we'll get a name picked out before she's born. :)

Presenting Miss Moses

It's a girl!! Yay! We are so excited!

Leaps and Bounds

Benjamin had his 9 month check-up today. I can't believe he's already 9 months old! He measured 28 inches long and weighed 23 lbs. and 10 oz. He's our big growing boy! I'm trying to remember what all we have and haven't shared. It seems like he's always doing something new! He started crawling last week and is always on the move now. I'm so glad that I finally got around to baby proofing because he is into everything! Any sort of cabinet or door, the trash can, wires, anything you leave on the floor is fair game. Today he started playing chase. If we crawl away and act like he's trying to get us he'll shriek and crawl after us.


On Saturday we gave him his first hair cut. I had wanted to wait until he was one but it was starting to look like a mullet and he didn't like how it would tickle his ears. Chris held him and entertained him while I did the cutting. I took off an inch from the back of his neck and around his ears!! It certainly is not the most professional looking cut but when I was done I felt like I was looking at a toddler instead of my baby! Chris made fun of me for tying some thread around his hair and putting it in a "First Haircut" keepsake box. Maybe Benjamin will appreciate it one day...or he'll be the clone of his father that he is and ask why in the world I kept it. haha!
Benjamin has started to have some word-object association. If we tell him to get his ball he'll start looking around for it. If I ask him where dada is at breakfast he'll look towards the bedroom to see if Chris is going to walk out. He definitely knows what milk is, especially if you do the sign language for it. I'm trying to help him connect between mommy's tummy and baby. I'll point to my belly and say "baby", but most of the time he's interested in his toys. He pays more attention when I show him the sonogram pictures on the fridge and say "baby". He's probably going to end up thinking baby means black and white blob. I'm not sure what else I can do to prepare him for the inevitable.

Wednesday is our next check up for the baby. We'll find out if it is a boy or girl!! We are so excited! I'm sure I will blog again this week to spread the news. So until then think "girl"! ;)

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mamas! We hope you have a wonderful day!

Well, I had this nice long blog typed out but when I went to publish the post something went wrong and I lost all but the first 3 sentences! So I will do my best to recreate, but I'm feeling a little unmotivated now! haha!

My brother, Kevin, came up to visit us this weekend so we had some company, which was nice. He came up Friday morning and left this afternoon. Friday we took Benjamin to the pool for the first time and he loved it! He splashed, leaned over his floaty to look into the water, and kicked his feet when he wanted Kevin to push him around some more. Friday afternoon Chris had one of his wisdom teeth pulled. He was a little worn out for the rest of the day and Saturday, but today he is just about back to normal.

Benjamin is still on the verge of crawling, although he is mobile in his own way. He rolls, sits up, spins around, falls over, and pushes backwards. Sometimes he has a destination, other times he's just flopping around until he gets somewhere. Nap times have once again become a challenge. Now that he can sit himself up from laying down he will sit up and cry, holding onto the rails like a prisoner, and stare at the door until Mama or Dada come to save him. Then, a tragedy unfolds when he realizes we are just there to lay him back on his tummy.

The littlest one is doing well. I feel him/her moving just about every day. We got to hear the heartbeat again at the doctor appt. this past week and according to the old wives' tale we're having a girl! haha! We'll find out for sure via ultrasound a week from Friday. We'll be sure to let everyone know one way or another!

God bless you!