Holy Moly. I have neglected this blog for far too long! But we were in Hawaii! Who sits and blogs in Hawaii with a crawling, climbing, talking little baby? Not me! Yep, he is now officially crawling (really freaking fast) at 6 months. But was only satisfied with crawling for about .5 seconds then he realized he could pull himself to a standing position and climb on everything! It won't be long now before he is walking/running! His first word was DADA, and still is his favorite word. He associates the iPad and my phone with Dada since he gets to see his daddy every day on them while he is deployed. He said Mama next, on Easter! So cute! He can now say Mama, Dada, Nana, Baba, hot and cat. I am afraid his next word will be NO! He makes an "nnnnnn" sound when I take away his toys/put him in the carseat. We were so lucky to spend a month in Hawaii with my parents as we were suffering thru this latest deployment. It was paradise. Grandma and grandpa loved every second and we can't wait to go back, hopefully with Chris next time!

6 Months!

Man, we are already in March?! Where have the past 6 months gone?! My sweet little floppy newborn is now a rolly polly, almost crawling, sitting up on his own, solids eating BIG BOY! I know they say you blink and they are all grown up, but I really am floored by how quickly time is flying by! Here are some adorable lil pictures from his 6 month shoot:

Dear Cruise,

You have brought us so much joy and wonder in these past 6 months. I love to watch your face light up with excitement for all the new things you see and taste, and watching you exploring your world makes me want to slow down time and keep you as innocent and as little as you are right now.

Although we have so many things to look forward to together; learning to walk and ride bikes, playing games with your Daddy and snuggling with your Mama. I am trying my best to soak up every ounce of littleness that you are right this very moment, because I know you will be a big boy who wants to do things on his own very soon. So right now I will enjoy every time you want to be held and snuggled. I will rock you just a little longer than I need to at night, and give you an extra kiss on your new little baby hair from Daddy since he can't be here.

I hope you can feel how very loved you are.

To the stars my little bug.

Love, Mama

Here is a look back at the craziest, most sleep deprived, full of love, happiest 6 months of our life:

Choose Joy

Days like today make me want to buy some WATERPROOF mascara.

It's so easy when life is throwing you one obstacle after another to wallow in the daily grind, and get bitter with the things that aren't going your way. But after Chris left on his 5th deployment today, I knew I had to wipe away the tears and be strong for my little man. I didn't allow myself the traditional sad/lonely/pity party day that normally comes from D-Day. No pints of ice cream and sappy movies on TV, instead we went on a long run in the sunshine and had an extra long bathtime for my favorite little dude (his favorite part of the day).

Im not saying my heart doesn't ache knowing that we are starting a journey of months and months without Chris, but I am going to get up every day and try my best to CHOOSE JOY. I came across a blog about a woman with cancer who does Choose JOY every day for her little girl, and it makes you realize that life is so stinkin' short and you better make the most of every second of it. It would be easy to draw the shades and shut out the world on these lonely days, but I am going to try my hardest to embrace the sunshine all around us, and bring as many smiles and giggles to my little man as possible.

With that said here are some pictures from our goodbye today. It was hard for us to say goodbye, but I'm sure it was even harder from Chris to leave his "best friend" lil Cruise! If this doesn't tug on your heart strings, I don't know what will!

Big Changes

Whew, we are feeling a bit more rested around here! Cruise has been making some sleeping breakthroughs the past 2 nights and it has been AMAZING! He slept for 9 HOURS STRAIGHT 2 nights ago, and last night slept for 7! We are so proud of this little monkey and hope he keeps figuring this whole sleeping thing out!

We did quite a bit of research and decided to implement our own version of a sleep schedule, as I was too chicken to do the "Cry-it-out" method. Cruise used to run the show completely, and would only go down for naps/night time when he started to get fussy and it was always a mess trying to get him to sleep. Now we are seeing more subtle sleepyness cues (yawning/rubbing eyes) and putting him to bed right away, and it has made all the difference. We only let him stay awake for 2-2.5 hrs during the day before trying to wind down for another nap, and he is responding so great. It might seem crazy to be getting him ready for bed at 5:30pm, but we found that we were doing the wrong idea by trying to keep him awake longer in the hopes that he would sleep longer, as he is now going to bed sooner, and sleeping longer! I think we had gotten on a cycle of over-tiredness and he was a hot mess. He is now sleeping longer and better than before. Praise Jesus!!!

We had a friend of mine from college come into town who is an amazing photographer and we decided to do a "pre-deployment" photo shoot so Cruise and his Daddy could have some sweet pics together. Cruise usually is very smiley and loves the camera, but not so much on this day. He was really tired and only smiled once the whole photo shoot! But the pictures still ended up to be adorable! So glad we could capture some of these special times.

Be mine, Valentine!

This is a wonderful holiday for me, I get 2 handsome Valentines! We are having a great day with our lil Cupid, and as he is taking his 2nd nap, I thought I'd share a picture of my little Valentine!

Hard to believe that last year, on this day, I was only a few months pregnant, missing my handsome solider who was deployed overseas and all alone on Valentines day. This year, I have both of my hadsome men home to snuggle with! What a difference one year makes. It's amazing to think about all of the wonderful things that have come into our life these past 12 months. We thank God every day for a healthy, happy little baby boy who lights up our world.

teething is my arch nemisis...

Cruise has been super dooper fussy the last couple days, drooling like crazy, sleeping for only 1 hr intervals at night, and gnawing on any and everything. I am guessing this is the start of teething? yikes. An over-tired and cranky baby & a sleep-deprived grumpy mama... what a pair we are! We are just trying to keep our head above water and remember that this will pass eventually too. I broke down crying at a retaurant today with Chris. poor hubby. I always thought the hardest part to having a baby would be adjusting to life with a newborn, learning to breastfeed, and all the life changes associated with a new baby. I have come to find out those days were a piece of cake. We were getting more sleep with a week old baby than we are now with a 5 month old. I am hopeful that we are still just all a little sick, baby is starting to teethe, and soon this phase will be over and we can get back on a more normal routine. I think both baby and I need a good night sleep and we will be good as new, but as for today we are trying to "just keep swimming".... So to keep from wallowing in these baby blues, I wanted to post some pictures from our adventures this week:

this kid could seriously not get any cuter.

5 Months!

5 month stats:
15.6 lbs
25.5 inches

Cruise is getting the hang of sitting up on his own, although he is still very wobbly, he can sit unassisted! Its so cute to see him trying to stay upright until he tumbles onto the pillows. We call him "Cruiser the Bruiser" because he is not phased at all when he falls over. He is a tough little boy!

We have been documenting his growth each month on the 6th (the day he was born) and it is always a hilarious attempt to get him to a.) look at the camera, b.) attempt to smile c.) not eat his hands/blow snot bubbles or cry while we take the picture. I am sure he dreads our monthly photoshoot, but I know we will look back over these first 12 months of his life and marvel at his growth and changes. Already looking back at the 1 month pictures makes me tear up seeing how big he has gotten and that he really isn't a newborn anymore :(  It takes a lot of work to get a cute picture of him like this one

infact, the majority of his little photo sessions look more like this:

HAHA poor kid!

Well, I cant believe that the next month photoshoot will be his half birthday! It is amazing to think that almost half of a year has already gone by. At the same time it is hard to remember what life was like without our #1 guy. He really does complete our little family, and we thank our lucky stars every day that we get to know him.