One Year Already!

What I want to remember from 9-12 months

Oh the quirks that you have! So dang cute.
-you twist your wrist like you are waving, but you aren’t waving at anyone, just walking around.
-“the Bobble Head” as we like to call it. Move your head from side to side. People love this!
-“the shoulder shrug” you suck in your tummy and it pulls your shoulders up to your ears. It’s so cute!

You started clapping, so cute! It just barely makes a sound.

You burned your hands when you were 10 months on the fire place. That was terrible. For three weeks you had your hands in bandages, then for a month you wore gloves(that you were constantly taking off).

You really became a solid walker at 10 months, because it would hurt your hands to fall. You became cautious as you learned to step on uneven surfaces, etc.

You can make a woof sound, and every time you hear a dog you bark. It took me a while to figure out that was what you were doing. It’s cute. You can also meow, make a monkey sound, and you try to quack like a duck, like how Dad does it. It is so cute! My favorite though is the Elephant. You put your hand in the air like a trunk and blow out your lips. It’s so threaking cute!

Everything goes in your mouth. Now that it’s warm, you LOVE going outside. You make it down the steps and head straight to the wood chips. They are your favorite. If I don’t watch you closely enough, you’ll have three wood chips. One in each hand and one in your mouth.

You love to splash in water. You always book it to the airplane teeter totter and it’s usually full of water. You are a smart little stinker and you remember that. You always splash in it and get your bandages wet.

You haven’t been able to clap since you burned your little hands, but you always rip off the gloves and then you can clap again. You’re so cute.

You love books! You like to turn the pages yourself. You don’t even so much care about the pictures as much as you like to turn the pages. It’s cute.

You love Raffi. You throw him out of your bed in the morning so that when I come to get you, he isn’t stuck in the bed and you can play with him. It’s actually very smart.

You love Grandpa Graves. He always sings or talks to you in your ear. You know where his office is and you always try to go in and find him. When I haven’t seen you in a bit, that’s where I’ll always find you.

You love Aunt JoNeale’s fiancé Jon. You always go to him and you are always happy when he holds you. Your uncles sometimes get jealous because you choose Jon.

You love music. You love primary songs and you LOVE Grandpa Froggy.

You LOVE swimming! We’ve been swimming a couple of times, and you always love it!

You love attention. You love people laughing at you and smiling at you and clapping for you. You run in a circle show off and just know how to make people smile and say, He is SO cute! People are always telling us that. It’s so true!

I love you baby son!

9 Months!

Wow. That was fast. 9 months old!
Things I want to remember from your first 6 months:
· You were born with lots of hair

· You’ve always been very aware of things. Never had a glossed over look.

· You have a lot of nick-names: Matay(Johnny), Muk(Makaylee), Makels(Aaron), and a lot of silly ones that Dad hates like Tutu.

· You always put your thumb under your first finger like a sign language T.

· Even in the hospital you could stand on your legs. Very strong.

· You would kick out of your burrito wrap.

· You have to cover your face to sleep.

· You had brown hair, then reddish, now blondish

· You use your left hand.

· Your favorite song has always been I am a child of God.

· You love to scratch, especially decals on shirts.

· You don’t like to cuddle, you like your own space.

· You want to sleep in your bed, not my arms. Always go down very easily.

· You’ve always been a good sleeper at night. Only had to pace with you maybe 2 or 3 times and it wasn’t for very long.

· You eat every two-three hours. Even at night, still.

· You’ve always been a happy smiley boy. Even in the “gas” stage. Love to laugh.

· EVERYONE says you look just like your dad. Even from day one. Lucky!

· You are always doing something quirky, it was spitting raspberries, then low long grunting, now you scrunch your nose and blow out of it.

· You like stuffed animals. You eat, chew, play and cuddle with them.

· You love to play with the baby in the mirror.

· It took about 4 months to really feel confident when feeding you.

· When you sleep, you cover your eyes with whatever you can grab. Blanket, Raffi, your arm, etc.

· You love to go on walks.

· You Love to take a bath. You love the water spout. When you were just two weeks old, you could find the spout with your feet. The first thing you reached for was water during a bath.

· You started to splash recently, so cute!

· You love to play with my hair. Sometimes you pull it, but mostly you just run your fingers through it.

· You like other people. You’ve never been clingy. Maybe you aren’t old enough yet.

· You love the cold.

· You hate to be bundled up and you hate blankets, unless on a walk.

· You flap your arms like you are going to fly.

· Everywhere I go, you get compliments on being such a cute baby.

· You are very stubborn, particular, and spoiled.

· I love you so so so much!

Here’s what I remember from the last three months.

6-7 months

More or less the same. You are getting stronger and cuter and more fun.

We mostly call you Muk or Makay.

You drink from a cup. You don’t like bottles. It makes it very hard to leave you.

Your naps seemed to be pretty regular, but of course I never know. You have off days about 1 out of every 3 to 4 days.

You have such cute little quirks.

You are so ticklish. You always laugh when we tickle you, even if it’s just for a second.

7-8 Months

Quirks: sucking your thumb. You’ve never been a thumb sucker until now, but it only lasted a couple of weeks, just like your other quirks.

You HATE laying on your tummy. That’s why you didn’t crawl until just now. You were 7 ½ months old and you started doing an Army crawl. The same day, if not, the next morning you started walking. You had been standing on your own for a couple of weeks, and then just started taking steps. At 6 months you were trying to get up and walk, but didn’t get it down until you were 7 months. You still wear 0-3 and some 3-6 month clothes, so you are pretty small and people are just so surprised when they see you walk. It’s so cute.

You seemed to really grow up that week with the walking and crawling, but that’s not all. That same week you started to say Mama, Dada, Baba, Yaya, Nana it’s so cute.

You hate veggies. You shutter as soon as they hit your mouth. You start to gag and then you pull it out. Dad laughs and I pretend to be mad.

8-9 months

You have never liked a schedule. As soon as I think I’ve got you figured out, you change.

You’ve already had 3 hair cuts and people think you still have a lot of hair.

When you crawl you get up on your hands and knees like a normal crawl, BUT you don’t put your left knee on the ground you get up on your left foot. You look like a Zombie. It’s cute.

You love to tap things. You always have. You use the tips of your fingers and sometimes you will use your binky or something else to hit things.

Your newest quirk is that you pretend to chew. People always think you are chewing on something and ask me if it’s okay. Dad and I just say, “He doesn’t have anything in his mouth.” People don’t believe us until we check. There never is anything in your mouth. It’s cute.

You love to dance. Music comes on and you start to move your body back and forth. Recently you’ve been moving your head from side to side. It is so stinkin cute. Now that you make lots of cute noises, it sounds like you are singing sometimes and I think you are because you start to move your head back and forth like when you dance. It’s so cute! It makes everyone laugh.

You love to laugh. I’ll laugh at you and then you laugh at me and it goes back and forth for like 10 minutes. It’s so cute. You love to laugh with Dad too.

You love it when Dad comes home. You get so excited.

You love smoothies. If I ever have a cup you want some, just in case it’s a smoothie. If it’s water you just spit it out. The only time I can get you to drink from a bottle is when there is a smoothie in it.

You love fruit. Oranges, bananas, grapes, peaches, pears, pineapple, limes, every fruit you try you like.

HA! You finally like veggies. You like squash and broccoli and cooked carrots and cauliflower. That’s about all we’ve tried.

You love strings. Shoe laces, ribbons, string, thread, power cords, any kind of cord and especially ear buds. You can be crying or playing with something or anything, and if you see my ear phones, you drop everything, stop crying and focus on them. You put the whole ear bud in your mouth so that all I can see is the cord hanging out. You’ll just walk around like that. It is SO dang cute!

You don’t have ANY teeth yet! It’s cute to still see your gums.

You were sick and there were a couple nights when I just had to hold you because you didn’t feel well or it was hard to breathe. You would cuddle with me and I loved that part because you don’t like to cuddle much. You are getting better at cuddling, but mostly when you don’t feel good or you’re tired.
I love you so much! You are my best buddy! (you and Dad)

Oh What a Day!

Dear Makels-
I want you to know the story of your birth!
A week before you came, I had an appointment with the doctor. They said you weren’t ready, but I had many contractions on the way home. That night, GG and I had our ANWA writing class and I had contractions the whole time. GG thought you might be coming, but I had a feeling you weren’t. The whole weekend I was contracting and Grandma Barnes thought you might be coming. I was uncomfortable, but I didn’t think you were ready. That Wednesday Brad and Katelin Barlow came over. I wasn’t very fun to be around because I was having lots of contractions. It seemed to be the norm, so I didn’t think anything of it.
Thursday morning I woke up around 6:00 with intense contractions. They were very strong, and I had to relax to get through them. They came every two minutes and all I could do was sit on the couch. Daddy had to be to work at 8:00, so he had to leave. GG was in Vegas helping Michelle with Russell. I tried calling her and she didn’t answer. This made me scared and I cried. I couldn’t cry for very long because the contractions would hit again and I would go limp in my attempts to concentrate. It was frustrating being alone and not knowing what to do. I called Daddy who said he would take me to the hospital if that was what I wanted. He knew what to do even less than I did. Grandma Barnes was at school, so not knowing who to call I called Grandpa Graves. He worked ten minutes away and said he would take me to the hospital.
Now I had options.
I thought I would just breathe through the contractions and they would go away. I didn’t want to go to the hospital because you hear stories of women who are sent back home. I called Aunt Erin who told me to go in. It seemed like forever that I sat there relaxing and breathing before I called Daddy to come home. He left work at 8:45. We got to the hospital at 11:00 and I was dilated to a 5.
I was determined to do this naturally and when I felt a surge coming, I thought I was handling it pretty well. It took forever to fill out the paperwork because I could only read a little bit before another surge would hit. All the nurses were very nice, except the one that kept coming in for the paper work.
“Your husband can sign for you!” she would scold me.
I wanted to know what I was signing. I didn’t want him to just sign away all of our rights. I didn’t have anyone experienced there to help me, to say ‘this one means this,’ and ‘this one you don’t want to sign because…” So I read every single line on every single paper.
Aunt Erin was in Clinton, so she decided to come and be with me. She was on her way when we finally got a hold of GG. She and Luci were on their way home, but still a few hours out.
Right before GG got there, the surges got really intense. I was dilated to a seven and my back had searing pain. I would try to relax, but it seemed too much. I would cry every time. I was so exhausted between that I didn’t want any company. We tried pushing on my back, pushing on my legs; we even tried the bath tub, which helped a lot. I was in the bathroom a lot and I couldn’t make it there and back without having at least two surges. It became too much and for an hour I asked for an epidural until Daddy and GG finally took me seriously.
Before the epidural we had the light off and music playing and everyone was whispering so not to upset me more. I had a hard time looking and talking to anyone because I was in so much pain and I was ornery and tired. Once I had the epidural, I was happy and it was great. No more pain! GG and Gramps, Grandma and Grandpa Barnes, Luci, Erin, Johnny and Nate all came in the room after and hung out. It was like a party. The epidural changed everything. I was happy and pain free, but I wasn’t progressing as fast. It was okay, because you still came relatively quick.
At around 7:00 the nurse kicked everyone out of the room. Daddy, GG, Grandma Barnes, Erin and Luci stayed in. I only pushed for maybe 30-40 minutes. The first thing we saw was a cute little tuft of hair. I couldn’t feel anything because I was numb, and you were ready to come out. The nurse went to get the doctor, and someone made me laugh. You started to pop out and a nurse said, “Stop laughing!” That made me laugh more and you popped out a little further. We could see a lot of long, dark hair.
Finally the doctor got there and with a couple more pushes you were out. I saw your cute little face and started to bawl. You were here. My little buddy for the last nine months finally had a face. You were beautiful! I instantly loved you! I couldn’t stop crying because I was overwhelmed with the love I had for you!
You were born at 8:01pm on May 20, 2010. You were 6lb. 9oz. and 18 inches long. You were two weeks early, and just on time.
That was the shortest day I ever remember. When I add up the hours, it doesn’t seem like it took that long, but it must have.
I’m glad you’re here!
I will love you for eternity!
-Mommy

For Baby

Dear Makay,
I love you so much! I know that sounds weird because you aren't here yet, but I really do. Daddy says that I haven't been the typical crazy pregnant lady, I guess that's a good thing. Although I've been sick, in pain, and had to give up certain activities to be pregnant- It's all worth it! I can't wait to meet you.
I know you're going to be a really active little boy because you can't seem to stop moving in my tummy. If I rest my arms, or a book, or a plate, or anything on my belly, it doesn't take you long to kick it off. I was supposed to count how many times you moved in an hour, it was easier to count how many times you didn't move. You move a lot! Daddy loves to play a game with you where he finds your foot and presses a little on it. you move it and he finds it again. You guys play this for a good ten minutes before you get sick of it and stop. Sometimes you'll play longer.
I'm pretty sure you'll love your daddy a lot because when you would first start moving around, you'd be still and then Daddy would start talking and you would move like crazy, like you were dancing. He would stop talking, you'd stop dancing. He'd talk again, you'd dance. It happened every time Daddy would talk. You like his voice. You're lucky to have such a great dad! He sometimes gets really close to my tummy and talks to you. He loves you! He sings you a song about a skunk. You'll hear it many times in the following years.
I haven't really had food cravings. There was once that I wanted a quesadilla from Taco Bell. That's it. This isn't a craving, but I've never really cared for apples, and now I love them. Apples, apple juice, apple cider, apple sauce, Anything with apples. You must love apples and that's why.
Pregnant women are told to stay away from spicy foods. The first time I ate soemthing spicy, I could tell you were a little upset, but after that you never were. It was only the first time. I think you like spicy now.
I sing 'I Am a Child of God' and 'Erump' to you. I try to sing to you every day. Sometimes I just sit and hold my stomach like I'm holding you. I try to give you hugs too. Sometimes I hold the little outfits we have for you I pretent that I'm holding you. I have lots of dreams about you: Sometimes you have dark hair, sometimes light hair, sometimes I can't find you, and sometimes you are nestled in my arms.
Although my back hurts when I stand for too long, and I hit my stomach into the counter when I wash my hands, I still try to do as much as I can around the house. I have been able to relax with the HypnoBirthing book and its methods (with a lot of help from Daddy!), and I feel like my body is getting ready for you to come. I know that eating the raw diet will help as well. I hope with all this preparation that your journey into this world isn't very traumatizing for you! I'm going to miss having you in my tummy, but I'm excited for you to come.
I love you so much!
Mommy

Last Nine Months

The first trimester was hard. I felt sick a lot and was never hungry. I had to force myself to eat. The only thing that ever sounded good was cold cereal. The whold pregnancy I've struggled with eating vegetables and fruit, but especially that first trimeester. I could eat dairy and wheat all day. There were three times that I threw up all day uncontrollable. They were all 28 days apart- weird coincidence. I remember thinking... how will i do this for nine months, I felt sick all the time and had to pee all the time and couldn't sleep. I thought it was going to kill me.
Then the second trimester hit. I felt normal again, except that I had a little belly. It was crazy. All those crappy symptoms just went away. I felt pretty good. This is when I fell in love with this little baby that I hadn't seen or met, but I knew I loved him.
I was exercising and eating as healthy as I could, but because I felt normal, I ate nomal things like sugar and anything that sounded good. I used to say, "Mak's favorite thing is Choco-Mateys." I didn't gorge myself and use the "I'm eating for two" excuse. I just ate normally and it was great.
At the beginningish of the second trimester we found out that our baby was a boy. Dr. Bean said he was in the 75th percentile in size and that he was really big. We did the gestational diabetes test because he was so big, and they thought I might have it. I didn't, just a big baby. I felt Makay kick pretty early. Earlier than they say you can, but Matt felt it too. He was strong and big. My belly was so big that people would ask me if I was okay. I'm thinking... I'm barely half way. I must look huge! And I did.
The third trimester hit and I was feeling alright. I started to have back pain, and feel a little sick. Every day it would be different. I would feel fine, then I would feel sick (nothing as awful as the first trimester though). Time seemed to move so fast. We would have a little baby in three months!! I had been excited for a while now, but I started to get really bad anxiety. I wanted to go natural, but I was scared that I wouldn't be strong enough. I had adavice to take HypnoBirthing classes and to eat raw foods and thing like that, but looking at finances, I was getting worried that I wouldn't be able to do either. I started getting really scared. Things turned for the best. Heavenly Father blessed us. My roommate Tami from my freshmen year called me and gave me advice and a book to read. It has brought so much comfort. I also cut out sugar from my diet with only two months left and at one month left we were able to get a BlendTec Blender from Steve Atkinson in ward for a really cheap price. I've been eating raw all week, and I only have three weeks left. I don't feel sick anymore and I don't have anxiety. It's been really good. All I feel is excitement to meet this beautiful baby. At our last check up Dr. Bean said that our baby is small- a healthy small! So happy to hear that. He must have peaked really early.

So wrong

It's a Girl!!!

According to a Chinese Predictor

(That used to be the title to this blog)

Well, I should have known that you can't trust anything from China. We're actually having a boy.

Now I have to change the background, the pictures, the name poll. Oh well.