My 7 Month Old Baby Boy

Since you turned 6 months, it’s like you are growing and changing even more every day. This past month has flown by! You are getting more and more of your little personality, anger and all. The other day we were in the car and all the sudden you start screaming out of anger. For no apparent reason. It really threw Daddy and I off because we never heard you scream like that before. I also think you are going to be a rough little boy. Even though you don’t crawl or anything yet, when you are laying in bed with Daddy and I, or on the couch with me, you are always “crawling” and scooting your way over the top of us and love to “wrestle” (as much as a 7 month old can wrestle). I just love you so very much, Trenton! I am amazed every day that God gave us you to take care of and love on. You are such a miracle.

This past month you got to see both sides of great grandparents! We took a trip to Mississippi to visit Daddy’s grandparents. You and I both had never met them, so it was a first for us. They enjoyed loving on you very much :) Also last weekend my grandparents and Aunt Sherry came to stay with us and bring Daddy his Studebaker. You had so much fun with everyone. Except you are VERY clingy to me….it takes awhile for you to warm up to others and you only like them when you are in my arms. You even started crying when I would set you 6 inches from me on the couch….it was pretty ridiculous actually….crazy boy. Even though it can be pretty difficult on us by how much you are attached to me, I am making a conscious effort to soak it all up because I know pretty soon you are not going to want to cuddle with Mommy anymore because there will be too much to explore on your own.

A lot of things happened this month:

-When you play with Loretta, you think it’s funny when she nibbles on your hands. You also love to grab her tongue when she tries to lick you. The other day you even grabbed her face and put her nose in your mouth. Gross…..

- You’ve gotten really good at screaming….and whining….oh goodness you are such a whiner…

-I fully enjoyed the growth spurt you were going through because you actually slept at decent hours during the night. But sadly you are back to being a little vampire baby and not going to bed until after midnight :(

-Even though you are only getting solids one meal every 2-3 days,  you are getting much better at eating and not choking, as long as the food is soft enough since you like to take big bites.

-For some reason your little “tick” you have is to always bounce your right foot. It’s so cute :) along with you always crossing your feet

-When you sleep, or nurse, you always have to have your feet up. I guess you are just a chill kid and like to relax :)

-One thing we are trying to work on is your incessant need to bite and pull while nursing. I am really dreading the day you get teeth because it is so bad already. I don’t want to quit nursing for at least another year so you and I really need to get on the same page about this, Mr. Trenton.

-You are Mr. Nosy and always have to look around and see what is going on. Which drives me crazy while nursing since you will nurse for 5 seconds, then look around; nurse for 5 seconds, then look around…I eventually just give up. You are so nosy that you refuse to nap when there is too much going on. One time you even started falling asleep in Uncle Montez’ lap; your head nodding off and everything. It was actually quite entertaining for the rest of us. And don’t worry, we got a video and we will show your future girlfriends J

-Even though you still can’t roll from your back to your belly, you are learning how to pull yourself and scoot while on your belly. You can even pull yourself up from a sitting position to a standing position. When we set you in a crawling position you sit there for awhile and have even started rocking a bit! You just can’t quite get yourself to that position though.

-One thing I love is seeing you and Daddy play together. I especially love when you are both dancing in the kitchen. THIS melts my heart every time. You really do have the most amazing daddy in the world. I couldn’t ask for anyone better to raise a family with.

I can’t express how much love I have for you, Trenton. I just hope and pray that as you grow, our love is evident in how we raise you and your future siblings and you will learn from us how to love others. You are already such a cuddle bug so I hope that doesn’t leave from you as you get older. You are such an amazing little thing!

This month we got some videos along with pictures :)

 The must adorable little bulldog around!

You are getting so big!

Trenton absolutely LOVES our neighbor kids. He attacks her with kisses :)

Trenton also discovered recently he can pull himself to get places

He also discovered just how fun it is to let his toys drop to the ground

To the Children of Tomorrow

There is so much wrong with the youth of our country today. In the past week there has been two brutal, senseless murders by teenagers, because “they were bored”. Something has seriously gone wrong in the way we, as Americans, have adapted to parenting. Instead of disciplining our children, we have let them walk all over us. Instead of being a good role model we are doing whatwe want, instead of putting our kids first and their well-being. As a parent, we are called to raise our children better than how we were raised, not worse. We are supposed to teach them how to love, how to succeed, how to be a good steward of what we are given, how to respect our elders. But instead, the children of today are rude, obnoxious brats who think they own the world and don’t need to respect those around them.

Well, as a parent of the children of tomorrow, your world will be different. Here is my vow, to my son, to my future children, to our future, to stand up and raise my children to be respectful, to love others, to be empathetic, to succeed in life, to love themselves, to feel accomplished and proud of who they are, to lend a hand when someone needs it, even without being asked.

If you are “bored”, I will teach you to go read a book, go play a game (not video games), go play a sport or an instrument, go invent and create something beautiful. I promise to teach you that taking innocent life is NOT okay. It is not your duty to decide who lives and who dies. Are you God? No. You are not. Only God gets to decide who lives and who dies.

I want your world to be different than my world. I want your world to be a safe place like it used to be. I don’t want you to be afraid to go jogging, afraid to go to the store, afraid to be home alone without a gun by your side. This is not how we should be living now. By changing the way we, as parents of tomorrow’s children, raise you, we can provide you with the abilities and skills to create a world that is a safe haven like it should have always been.

Hearing about the murder of the Australian baseball player in Texas and the 88 year old WWII veteran in Washington, it got me thinking back to four years ago, when someone that used to be close to my family was beaten to death by some teenagers in her home at the age of 81. Though no details of the Washington case has come out yet, all the teenagers involved in the other two cases were young black kids. While my son is biracial, he is still half black and can still, like any teenager, succumb to the defiant lifestyle of many kids today. I do not want my children to fall into the trap that so many young black kids fall into. And even if the kids we plan to adopt in the future are black, I want them to step out of that stigma and not contribute to that stereotype. My kids, along with everyone else, can be better than “the hood” if they truly believe it. My kids will make great things for their lives. They will not live in a world where they are considered criminals, just because they are black. I want to help them get out of the very unfair stereotype that is pushed on young black men. Granted, I was never a young black man, or woman, but I still have to power to teach my children that they are better than what the world thinks of them based on the color of their skin.

So my child, today I make my vow. I make it to you. To be the best parent I possibly can be so you can see by example how a truly good life should be lived.

Written August 23, 2013