Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Forbidden Word

Today Joshua decided to move his stool from the bathroom where he brushes his teeth into the kitchen. He promptly set it in front of the fruit bowl and proceeded to pick himself out a apple, or a 'bapple' as he calls it.

He asks me to take off the stem and wash the apple. I do as he commands and he begins to eat the apple. After three bites he runs to get a different apple, picks a new one up and without even washing it takes a bite. He then picks up a third apple and tries to bite it, but I am right behind him to stop him from sinking his teeth in.

In the middle of explaining to him that he can only have one apple at a time, he throws a huge fit and runs off. While running, he trips and the apple falls to the ground. He proceeds to look up at me and says Sh*#! I freeze, not knowing what to say, but compose myself and say 'oops, you dropped your apple'. He looks at me repeats 'sh*# mama, sh*#."

I don't really know what to do, but laugh and just continue correcting him and telling him that word is not OK to use. I honestly have no idea where he pick up that word. If he had said Cr@#, then it would totally fall on me and John because we use that word frequently.

We must watch with extreme caution what we say, or those forbidden words may become a part of his vocabulary.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

The Beginning of A New Year

So I am trying to bring this up to date so that I can start sharing all the new and funny things Joshua does on a daily basis.

Year two so far has been great. His vocabulary has taken off, he runs, he jumps, he slides and he is afraid of nothing. He amazes us on a daily basis, and sometimes he knows things we don't even know. He can spot a truck, motorcycle, or tractor from miles away. He is very observant and absorbs in the world around him. He cusses, but only because he learned a few choice words from us. Oops. We must watch what we say! He has a huge imagination. A calculator can be a telephone. A pedometer can change the channels on the TV. In his world, he can imagine anything he wants.

In fact one of his funniest imaginative thoughts came in the form of a tampon. Yes a tampon. His Grandpa smokes cigars and often keeps his cigars in the front pocket of his suits. Joshua was in the bathroom one day where he discovered my tampons. At first he picked them up, examined them, and then tried sticking it into his shirt. While doing this, he continued to say 'Papa, Papa'. At first, I could not figure out what he was doing and I just kept telling him that papa was at work. Then it dawned on me! He thought the tampon was one of Papa's cigars! The funniest part, is that when Granna showed up, Joshua ran to get the box of tampons to give them Granna so that she could take them home to his Papa. I really don't think Papa would appreciate them, but I am sure that he will appreciate the laugh he will get from the imagination of his grandson.



First Snow of the Year for Us
March 21, 2010
Grand Saline, Texas







Random Cutness





The First Year

The first year came and went so fast. I kept a scrapbook calendar where I was sure to mark down every milestone of the first year. It has been amazing to watch Joshua grow from a helpless baby into a big boy that wants to help mommy with everything. I never knew how fast the first year would past. I remember thinking to myself how I could not wait until he was older and I could actually play toys with him. However, now I find myself wishing that he would let me rock him to sleep just once more. I have learned so much from him and he has shown me the world in such a different way. I appreciate everything so much more than before, and I see beauty even in the smallest things. He is our everything.








Thursday, March 11, 2010

The Song Of A Prince

From the second Joshua was born, so was a new love. I knew that I now loved this one tiny person more than anything in the world. I want to give him the world.. show him the world. I wanted his childhood to be a story tale like mine was. I know not everything in my childhood was great, but honestly I can't remember anything bad. My Mom and Dad treated me like a little princess, they still do. Then it dawned on me, he was my prince.

From out of nowhere a song was born. It is a song that I sang to him every morning. It is a song I still sing to him every morning...

Good Morning To You
Good Morning To You
Good Morning My Prince
Good Morning To You

Yes, its a simple song, but it means the world to a mother who wants to give a better life to her son.. a life of a prince.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

The Birth of a Prince

The first trimester could not go by fast enough. I was sick to my stomach half of the time and the other half of the time I was too tired to get out of bed. The pregnancy was really kicking my butt.

My first doctor’s appointment was on January 7, 2008. I was so excited that I barely slept the night before. I could not wait to hear the baby’s heartbeat. Unfortunately when I got there and they put the sound machine on me, they could not hear anything. After five minutes of trying, the nurse gave up and told me that I needed to have an ultrasound. I was so excited that I wanted to get up and do the happy dance! I was going to get to see our baby for the first time.

They pulled me into the ultrasound room where a woman put some cold stuff all over my belly and then she used the machine to locate the baby. It was so small, but you could see what looked like small arms and legs. I was in love!! The heartbeat rate was 176bpm, which they told me was a good strong heartbeat. The baby seemed to be jumping around and the nurse had a hard time keeping up with him.



Around February, I started feeling round ligament pains. My belly was growing and you could tell that I was pregnant. I was so excited to finally have a bump to show off.



On March 13, 2008 we found out that we were going to have a baby boy! Both of us were so excited, even though John says that he already knew it was a boy. Our baby boy had a strong heartbeat of 143bpm, and we got to see all his little parts, the head, body, heart, and spine. After the doctors appointment, we rushed over to Cavenders to buy our little man his first pair of cowboy boots.



By the end of my second trimester my morning sickness started to lighten up, but not by much. I was monitoring my blood pressure due to stress and the fact that it was causing blurred vision. On April 15, we went in for a toxemia test, everything was great and his heartbeat was 152bpm and he is 13 inches long and weighs a little over a pound.

My mom and dad bought us our new crib and changing table, and I was so excited to start setting everything up. We settled on the name Joshua Bauer Smith. We wanted him to have a “J” name like his parents and John’s mother suggested Joshua after a song that Dolly Parton sang.





Entering the third trimester, my morning sickness seemed to only get worse. Not only that, I went to take the gestational diabetes test 3 times and failed every time because I could not keep the sugar drink down. Even taking medicine before I went did not help my stomach settle any. So, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I had to give myself 3 shots a day. It was not fun, but I would do anything to make sure that the baby was healthy.

On May 19, 2008 I went for another doctor’s visit this time I was told that he weighted in at 3lbs 12oz. and that if he continues to grow at this weight that he will be around 8lbs 5oz at birth. I gained about 30lbs at this point and have become so tired I sleep most of the day. John likes to quack at me for fun and says that I waddle when I walk.



My baby shower was on June 28, 2008. All my family and friends were there and it was so exciting. I had so much fun and this little man is defiantly spoiled. We are so grateful that we have so many supportive friends and family. I don’t know where we would be without any of them.








June 30, 2008 was my first biophysical. I was 1cm dilated and 60% effaced. I only have about a week and half to go! I was so excited and scared all at the same time. I also had my non-stress test on the same day. I had to drink OJ to get him moving, but boy did he move. He scored an 8 out of 8 on the scale. They also did a lung test on him to see how well his lungs were developed and he scored a 10 out of 10. I was so ready for him to come out and meet everyone. Sleeping, eating, standing, and everything else was getting so uncomfortable by this point.



July 8, 2008 he was still in there and now I was 1cm dilated and 80% effaced. I was put on moderate best rest because my hands, feet and ankles are all very swollen. Heartbeat is in the 160’s and he is now 7lbs and 8oz.
On the morning of July 21, 2008 we arrived at the hospital at 6:30am. I was so excited and scared all at the same time. They weighed me in and put me in a birthing room. They hooked me up to all the monitors and then broke my water pretty early that morning. By that afternoon there was really no progress, so they decided to give me picotin to speed up the contractions. It started working so well that I need an epidural to help with the pain. The epidural was not as bad as some people make it out to seem although I got sick while he was inserting it. Almost 12 hours into the whole process, Dr. Bost came in and told me that I would have to make a decision because Joshua did not want to come out of there. Every time he checked on him, Joshua would pull up into my ribs and hide. He did not want to come out. By this point I was tired and in pain, so we decided to have a c-section.

I was so glad to be in the surgery room and about to meet our new little boy. However, the doctor began to cut me open and I could feel everything. I was in so much pain and screaming for John. They brought John in, as well as the anesthesiologist who worked so fast to shoot some happy medication into my IV so that I wouldn’t feel anything. After about 5 minutes they began to work again. I felt some pain, but not as bad as before. Then I felt some jerking and heard a scream. My baby boy was here! John got to hold him first and I gave him a kiss before they took him away to clean him up. I don’t remember much after that, just waking up in a recovery room and waiting about another hour before I finally got to hold my little boy. It was a magical moment when I did though. I don’t know if I could ever love something more than love him. I was now a mother.