Moments to Remember

Today, on February 22nd, it was an amazing 72 degrees outside. Absolutely beautiful weather. Little Pirate and I decided to play outside for a little bit.

It was probably the first time he's been outside for an extend period of time. It was so fun to watch him check everything out. Watch our dog run around, follow all the birds with his eyes, pat the grass, attempt to eat the grass, and enjoy all the new things there was to see. He had some sweet potatoes to eat and took about 45 minutes to finish the one serving. This is something he'd typically finish in 10 minutes or less. He was definitely having a fun time.

I loved watching my boy explore new things. I loved talking to him about everything we were seeing in God's creation. I loved being a Mommy and son just getting some fresh air together.

6 Months

On February 8th my sweet baby boy turned 6 months old. I haven't been a very good "Mommy Blogger", but a milestone like being 6 months old is enough to make me return. We'll see how long it last. ;)

I can't even begin to explain what an overwhelmingly wonderful feeing it is to have been a mommy to Little Pirate for half a year now. I spent three years crying on almost a weekly basis over my infertility and empty arms. Now I have spent six months crying (happy tears) on almost a weekly basis over my full arms.

Not to say that Mommyhood is all sunshine and roses. I am currently typing this with one hand while holding a finally asleep Little Pirate who has been very fussy all day. Dang teething. But I'm holding my boy. My arms are full and it's such an amazing feeling.

Little Pirate is a wonderful baby. We really lucked out. He's truly only fussy when he's tired, hungry, or teething. Otherwise he's a happy little guy who loves smiling and laughing at anyone and everything. My life is so richly blessed because of him.

Loves playing in the bath.

Swim lessons!

© Jenny White Photography

Wearing the same tie he wore in his newborn pictures.
© Jenny White Photography

© Jenny White Photography

© Jenny White Photography

3 Months

Little Pirate turned three months old on Tuesday. He's looking so much bigger already! And him turning three months means that we sent our first set of pictures and a letter to the birth mom. Well, we mailed it all to the agency and then they will get it to her.

For some adoptive parents, this isn't easy to do. But honestly, I was SO excited to send in pictures. I've been dying for her to get some for weeks now. I just can't wait for her to see how absolutely adorable the little life she created is.

I wish I could watch her look through the pictures. I want to tell her all the teeny-tiny, pointless stories behind each picture. I imagine her "oohing" and "aahing" over each sweet little face. The totally asleep and non-smile faces that only a mom could truly appreciate.

That's the beautiful thing about adoption. Little Pirate has two mom's who love him with a crazy passion. I am the mom who will raise him and she is his first mom who gave him life. Although we may not see her and directly communcate, she still is a part of our family. Without her, our family wouldn't exist.

I could not feel more blessed to know her and be able to say that she is in our family.

First Halloween

What a wonderful experience it was to finally celebrate Halloween with a child! Halloween is my favorite holiday, so I've been waiting for this for such a long time. Of course, Little Pirate wasn't able to do much since he wasn't even three months old. But it was still so much fun and I loved getting to celebrate his first Halloween.

We had a busy weekend full with a wedding, birthday party, Fall Festival at our church, and then trick or treating on Monday. Great memories and I can't wait for next year!

At the birthday party with his oldest cousin.

She wanted to help Nana give him his bottle. So sweet!

With the birthday boy and his only boy cousin. They're going to have a lot of fun growing up with each other!

My boys at the Fall Festival.

Trick or treating at Nana and Papa's door. He decided to take a nap for a little bit.

Our pirate family!

His trick or treating buddies on Halloween night.

He fell asleep during trick or treating too. But yes, I did still get candy for us him.

Lots of fun!

Puzzle Update

Okay, folks, get excited...this is a legitimate puzzle update! The first one since Little Pirate has been born. We don't actually have all of the sold pieces together in this picture shown. Like I've said, it takes a lot longer to work on it now. But I do have all of the stats for you!

The last update I gave you was on August 7th and we had sold a total of 436 pieces. Since then we have sold 302 more pieces!! That puts us at a total of 738 pieces sold. Only 269 pieces left to go!

So please keep spreading the word about us. Once we sell those 269 pieces, we will be completely done! That will give us all the money we need to pay for Little Pirate's adoption.

As always, thank you so much to everyone who has given already. You will never know how much we appreciate you and what a big part of our lives you are.

2 Months

So I'm a pretty terrible blogger now. Someone is keeping me pretty busy, but I don't mind. :) Here is Little Pirate's two month picture. It is amazing the difference between one month and two months. He definitely hit a growth spurt! Barely even looks like the same baby!

And here are some pictures from his first trip to the pumpkin patch. It was a dream come true for me to get to do that. Fall is my favorite time of they year and Halloween is my favorite holiday. I was enjoying every moment and can't wait for many more years of this!

Fun at the pumpkin patch with some of his buddies!

Me and my boy!

In his first hay bale maze. He was real excited about it...

Getting his diaper changed in said hay bale maze. haha!

Headed out on the hayride out to the real pumpkin patch.

On the way home with his first pumpkin!

Mommy Lessons From the Mall

Last Friday night the hubs and I went to the mall to accomplish a few errands. It wasn't the first time we've gone since Little Pirate has been born. We went a month ago when he was about four weeks old. But somehow this trip was more eventful than the first one. It even taught me a few "Mommy Lessons" that I thought I'd share with you all!

Lesson #1 - Some stores just simply aren't stroller friendly. We were in the store PacSun when I learned this lesson. Which is not a store I would normally shop in, but we were looking for a present. The rows of clothes were packed in so close together. I could barely maneuver through with our giant stroller. I was also in the way of someone at least five different times. And then Little Pirate started crying. I was just ready to get out of there! So I let the hubs finish the browsing while Little Pirate and I sat outside of the store on a bench. Definitely won't be going back in there anytime soon, at least not with a stroller.

Lesson #2 - It's not easy to find a changing table. No, seriously, I couldn't find one anywhere! There wasn't one out in the open in the women's bathroom. I checked the handicap stalls and didn't see a thing. I even walked around trying to find a family bathroom for a minute, but no luck. So I gave up. A few minutes later the hubs decided to check the men's bathroom, just incase. He returned with a triumphant look on his face and had Little Pirate in a clean diaper. I swear, there really wasn't one in the women's bathroom!

Lesson #3 - I'm officially in the "Mom Club" now. As I was wandering around the women's bathroom looking for the changing table, I had a lady stop me. She was in there with her son and said, "Are you needing to change him or do you need to go to the bathroom??" She sounded quite concerned. I think if I had told her I needed to go, she might have been about to offer to hold Little Pirate for me. Not sure I would have taken her up on that offer, but still, it was nice. A mom trying to help out another mom. It just made me feel special to actually be in that exclusive "Mom Club" I've been coveting for so long.

Lesson #4 - Strangers are really nice when you have a baby. The previous story is an example of this, but I have another one as well. After the diaper changing fiasco, I sat down in the food court to feed Little Pirate a bottle. I settled in at a table that was right next to a man who was probably in his early 50's eating dinner. He saw Little Pirate and immediately struck up a conversation with me. (He had a wedding ring on, so that means he wasn't a creeper, right??) He asked about if Little Pirate sleeps well, talked about his own kids, and just kept smiling at my boy. Soon enough Little Pirate was done eating and was sitting up just looking around. Before the man left he stroked Little Pirate's cheek, looked at me, and said, "He's going to be a fine young man some day." Normally a stranger touching my baby would creep me out and bother me, but for some reason this didn't. It was just a sweet moment from a sweet man that I really appreciated.

Lesson #5 - My baby is really cute. I know, I know...every baby is cute. But seriously, we get stopped like crazy! People "ooh" and "ahh" over him all the time when we're out and about. We went into Bath and Body Works and a worker recognized him from when we were there a month ago! When does that happen?? That just means that my baby's really super cute, right? That he's just so incredibly memorable. That's what I think it means at least. :)

Lesson #6 - I am now wider than I used to be. After the Bath and Body Works worker fawned over Little Pirate, I turned around to walk the other way and proceeded to knock over the corner of a display with our diaper bag. Slightly embarrassing, to say the least. We use a backpack as our diaper bag and I just can't seem to remember that I have some extra width back there now. The hubs helped me quickly set things back up and then we hurried out of there.

We were definitely done with the mall for the evening at that point! I'm sure we'll be waiting at least another month before we do that again. After all, I can find nice strangers who think my baby's cute just about anywhere! ;)