Happy 1st Birthday Dawson!

Happy Birthday Dawson! My littlest love turned one today! I cannot believe a whole year has

gone by. He went from unable to breathe without a machine to practically running! He went from fragile and thin to...well...um...I think you can see how healthy he is. He has a remarkable smile and an amazing personality. He already can be quite defiant. The little stinker!

On the 26th of September 2010, I went to bed the mother of one. I was quite certain that something was up and was cramping throughout the night. My Mother-in-Law came to get Ollie in the morning just in case but I sent

Bob to work. Come 10 am, I decided that I might actually be in labor. I

called the midwives and see suggested I come in so they could check me.

On the way there my contractions began to pick up

and I was certain this was it. I honestly could have pegged the 27th of September the day I found out my due date. My due date with Ollie was September 18 and he was born at 36 weeks 6 days on the 27th of August. Dawson was due on October 19. September 27th would put me at 36 weeks 6 days. After being checked, they sent me to the hospital. Bob was already with me in case you are wondering.

The labor was tough. I don't remember Ollie's being as difficult. I did not get any pain meds or an epidural with either birth. I always joke that there are people who can't and those who shouldn't.

Maybe I should be in the shouldn't group! At about 2:30 (only 3 1/2 hours after arriving at the hospital) I was at an 8. My midwife asked to break my water. Part of me wishes I had said no. I was strep B positive and from the start to finish of round 1 of antibiotics needed to be 4 hours;

I didn't make it! The labor then got really terrible. I think if the window had been open, I may have jumped out. Bob quite literally took a beating. All the while, I was being told that I would soon know if our baby was a boy or a girl and then he/she would be in my arms.

Right around 3:30, Dawson made his grand appearance. He was placed on my chest and I was ecstatic. Little did I know that within 30 minutes, he would be whisked away, and I would be left alone to cry while staring out the window.

Later, little things would set me off. Ollie pushing on my belly and saying there was a baby in there, seeing other little kids walking into the hospital rooms to meet their new brothers or sisters, new babies out in the

grocery store. I remember wanting to tell people that I am not fat! I just had a baby. I HAVE TWO BABIES I wanted to yell. I couldn't tell you about the weather then or what was happening in the world. I don't know if there was food at my house. I don't know if Ollie did anything new. But I can tell you that my Savior did two great works in my life. First, he reminded me of the million little ways he had set me up to withstand this and He proved to be with me over and over again. Also, He healed my baby. It was scary but Dawson came home! Not only did he come home but he has had no problems.

So, not to be a drag a year later. I love my boy. I love the way he follows me through the house saying, "mama ma ma." I love the way he mimics people, pretending to brush his teeth or my hair. I love the way he runs his fingers over the patches in touchy feel books. I love that he is 27 pounds! I love that he roars and tackles his brother. I love how he runs to his snack table when I put something on it. I love how he sits on his riding toys and lets me push him around. I love how he runs to Bob and clings to his leg as soon as he comes home. I love how he tries to dive head first into the tub when I start the water. I am ever thankful for my boy Dawson Curtis.

Thank you Lord for a wonderful year. Please continue to bless this little boy. Draw him near to you and cause him to one day know the depth of your love!

Why not?

I answer many questions to myself with "why not?" For example, "Should I put spaghetti in the baby pool? hmm...why not?" "Should I let my kids play with flour on the floor? Hmm...why not?" "Should Ollie be jumping on the couch? Hmmm... why not?" So when I received a huge bag of balls from my MIL to use for Dawson's upcoming party. I looked at the tub and thought "why not?" Bob of course immediately asked if there were holes in the balls. Such a thinker. Never occurred to me. There were not holes. So the boys took a bath with 100 balls. They had so much fun. The squeals were heartwarming.

What's new with school?

So a new school year is upon us and Ollie and I have started to do a bit of work. I'm trying to do a short activity each day in addition to our co-op which is 2x a month. I'll talk about co-op in another post!

I decided to start off the year with creation. I really want to incorporate the Bible into our school work as much as possible. Ollie loves his little Bible. He usually requests "four, five, six stories mommy," each night. I'm not sure whether that is because he loves God's word or because he wants to stay up later. Either way, I'll take it!

On the first day, God created the heavens and the earth. He said, "Let

there be light and there was light." So amazing to think about. I really don't believe that we were just a chance happening. There is a God and he did create us. He took nothing and made something. I decided that it

would be fun to explore color and light. I got Ollie a flashlight and some transparent colored sheets (binder dividers). We first shined the light on the wall and then put the pages in front to see the light change colors. We tried 2 sheets at the same time to see if the colors mixed. Not really. The stronger color shone through. Ollie loves flashlights. The batteries are already dead. That lesson was last Monday. Unfortunately,I took no pictures of this.

On the second day, God created water and above it a sky. We did two activities to illustrate this lesson. First, we played with water beads.

These are the coolest things. I found clear ones at the dollar tree. They are squishy little balls found

in the gardening section. Ollie played with them for a long time. I'm not sure what most kids do with these but he made it his mission to squash

them and break them apart (sigh). Second, we made a picture with clouds and water. I had him glue batting onto the clouds. Once the clouds were

on the paper, we counted them and wrote a number above each one.

On the third day, God made ground and plants! This was my favorite day hands down. We had a bit of hands on fun. We went to Grandpa Jim's house and worked in his garden. Ollie got to dig up sweet potatoes and Dawson sat and chomped on raw green beans. It was a lovely afternoon!

On the fourth day, God made the sun, moon and stars. Ollie is a big fan of

glitter and quite frankly, so am I. Bob could live and die and never see a glitter project again. We tend to use glitter while he is away. I just love his rendition of the sun and moon and stars, don't you?

On the fifth day, God made the birds in the air and fish in the sea. We started by talking about the characteristics of each. Then we had a delicious snack--blue jello with Swedish fish. Ollie wouldn't touch the jello. I guess he's been deprived of Jello for so long

that he doesn't eat it now. As for the Swedish fish, he had no trouble with those!

We did the 6th day at co-op. I will hopefully find time to blog about that soon. As for Dawson,

well he is officially walking. I have been meaning to put up video of it but I just haven't had time. One super cute thing he has learned is the kissy face. He walks up to me puckers up and makes smoochy noises. It is adorable!

I just want to say that I do not know what is going on with my formatting on blogger. I've fixed all the weird spaces here on my edit page but when I view the blog, it is seriously messed up. Ugh!