Valentine's Surprises

Well Trenton,

Now that you are a toddler, all my high hopes of really cute photo ops have gone out the window. You refuse to sit still and look cute for any photo I want to take! sigh.....oh well, maybe one day :) I did get some cute photos for Daddy though :)

Something exciting did happen the day after Valentine's Day as well! We found out you were going to be a big brother!!! We are so excited :) You will be 21 months older than your little brother or sister and I just know you are going to love all over her or him.

I didn't surprise Daddy as big as with you, but he still was surprised :) I really thought that I wasn't pregnant since I am still breastfeeding you and we had been trying for a couple months. But God blessed us with another tiny little miracle! Surprise!!!So many other couples struggle in many ways to get pregnant; that makes this little baby that much more of a blessing. Little Baby West #2 is coming though! I figured it happened around the same time we actually got you sleeping through the night in your own room (which was a tough miracle!) because you stopped nursing 457884 times during the night.

I took a test when I woke up in the morning and to my surprise it was positive! So I went to the store to get one of those expensive tests that say how far along I am to make sure. And it said 4-5 weeks! So I just couldn't wait any longer and I went and woke Daddy up and told him to read the test :) He wasn't happy with me haha He told me last time I just wasn't allowed to bombard him at work. So I didn't. But I guess I still bombarded him in his sleep because he didn't get happy until hours later :) Don't get me wrong, we was excited to know you were going to be a big brother, he just wasn't happy with the way I told him. Oops! :) I just couldn't wait two more hours until he woke up...what can I say?

Since we were sure we wouldn't be able to keep it a secret for very long, we decided to take our announcement picture in front of the same rock and in the same style as when we announced you were coming. I also bought you a big brother shirt months ago in preparation for this day.

When we told Grandma Kathy, we got on Facetime and I told her she may need to postpone her trip out here again in April. Then we leaned the camera down to show her you and your shirt. She was so excited! Then for Daddy's side of the family, me, Daddy, and Brittany had a bet going on who would notice your shirt first. We all had best on Aunt Tiana, but she failed us :) Her excuse was that you were walking and moving too much....uh huh :) But since Pimpa had to leave for work, we decided to just show them all the announcement picture instead since apparently no one pays attention to details.....Of course they were all excited as well! Pimpa said he "just knew" but I think he just wanted to be right since we proved him wrong in not getting pregnant again by the end of 2013 :)

We told the rest of my side of the family on our private family facebook group. I posted the picture with the caption “Who is going to call me first…? :)” Breanna won. Actually she texted me first. Great Grandma Norma called me first.

Your grandmas were just so excited to have another grandbaby that they posted it on their public facebook walls, even though I wanted to keep it a secret for a few more weeks….oh well. They just couldn’t contain themselves I guess :)

Little Baby West #2,

We cannot wait for you to join our family in October! You are going to enjoy your big brother and you have the most amazing Daddy around. I was a bit sad though because just a few days after we found out you were coming, my skinny jeans no longer fit!! I had to pull out my maternity pants from the basement already! At just 5 weeks!! I did sulk for a little bit, but I am working on embracing my already growing belly :) 

  

We are going to have TWO babies soon and we are thrilled and excited about this new chapter in our lives. God is good and we are so blessed!

I love you Trenton and Baby West #2!

LoveAlways,

Mommy

Your First Birthday!!!

My sweet Trenton!
You are a big one year old now! This past year has flown by and I  am so blessed to be your mother. One year ago you made us Mommy and Daddy and we wouldn't change it for the world. Sadly you were really sick for your birthday and we spent your and Daddy's birthday in the hospital again this year! Let's not make that a tradition, okay? But you had really high fevers, another ear infection, and even vomited a few times so we took you to the ER where your temperature was 105. yikes...! Every doctor we saw said it couldn't be teething because fevers don't get that high with teething and it must be something else (though they never could figure it out). But the doctors and nurses were wrong this time because on your birthday two teeth broke through and your fevers declined rapidly right after. Since your fevers have gotten higher every time teeth broke through, I finally bought you an amber necklace to wear since it is supposed to help with pain. So here is to hoping the next round of teeth won't be nearly as bad!
Because you were sick though, we had to cancel your birthday celebrations :( We had planned to take you to the aquarium for the first time and then have family and a few friends over in the evening for some food and cake. Family and a couple friends did still come over though since it was Daddy's birthday too, so that was nice.

One thing I am not happy with that came with you becoming a toddler though, are the tantrums! My goodness, the attitude! It's amazing how such a big attitude can come from such a tiny person....! As soon as you turned one and started feeling better, the temperamental child came out and we don't like it! We want our sweet, easy going, loving baby back.

Some stories from the past month:

-You love it when Daddy mimic’s you; and now we have created a monster. We were sitting on our bed together and you started rocking when Daddy copied you. Now you won’t stop throwing yourself back and rocking. One day you are going to give yourself whiplash! But you have a little rocking chair that Gi-Gi got you, which you love to sit and rock in :)
-Two stages we are ready to be done with: throwing everything down when you are done with it, and screaming. Though sadly I am pretty sure the screaming stage will last quite awhile
-When we tell you to say mama or dada you deliberately stare us down and yell “BOB!” rude….. You only say mama when you are mad. At least you say Dada more often. And even in the past few days you have really loved saying Dada, and call out to him all the time. It's very cute :)
-For awhile there you have been driving us crazy with your eating habits! You were only eating fruit and crackers for a good month or longer. Nothing else. Now that you got those teeth though, I'm thinking it was because of that.
-Sadly, you’ve even stopped drinking milk during the day! You have refused for a couple months now to drink any and all types of milk during the day. We've tried breastmilk, goat's milk, soy milk, almond milk....in a bottle, in different sippy cups, warm, cold, mixed with breast milk......nothing. At least you are still nursing a few times a day though. I'm thinking you are going to be an early weaner! :(
-I had a dream a few weeks ago that all the sudden you stood up and started running. Not just walking and taking steps, but full on running. Luckily, that hasn’t happened! But on January 6, 2014, you started standing up by yourself and taking some lunging steps! It is pretty exciting :)
-On January 9, 2014, you and I were playing and reading on the floor in your room and I got on to you for hitting Loretta with your bag of cereal. And what do you do? Lean over and give me a big hug and kiss right on the lips. Well played kid….well played…..
-I think my favorite part of what you do lately is read. You pull out some of your books from your toy chest and sit and babble away flipping pages like you are reading your book. It is the cutest thing. You even “read” the DVD cases :)
-You had your first New Year’s this month as well! Our friend, Naomi, stayed the night while her parents went out and you two decided you wanted to bring in the New Year also. So you were up until 1:30am playing together and eating Cheerios


This year I want to work on progression, not perfection. I am a checklist sort of person and love to check things off and be done with them. But that’s not life. I need to be learning and growing and getting better every day. I will never be best at life, but I sure can get better. I want to slow down more and really focus on my family and spending time in the moment. One thing I thing us grownups are bad at these days, is being glued to our electronics. We are addicted to our smartphones! My goal this year is to intentionally put my phone down more often and focus on the real life people around me. I want to be able to teach you by example that real life contact and real life relationships are so much more important and genuine than their electronic counterparts. I don’t know how bad electronics will impact your life, but I imagine they will be imbedded in everyday life even more than they are now, if that is even possible. I hope you can learn to distinguish the differences and give yourself a break to focus on real life people every once in a while, Trenton. Hopefully I can be a good example of that as you grow up.

Trenton, you are one silly kid, do you know that?? Here are some videos and pictures of you from the past month!

 Trenton loves to walk! (with help of course) You walked at least a block holding our hands and you were laughing the entire time :)

 It snowed the week after your birthday!! It was your first snow day and you actually enjoyed it :)

 Mommy and Trenton!

 You liked it until I made you make a snow angel and the snow fell into your eyes :)

 Daddy and Trenton!

 We had fun playing in the snow as a family :)

 I love me some Trenton kisses

 Your 12 month photo looks like a school picture! You are so cute with that smile :)

 "Oh...mom...!!!"

The birthday boys!

(video below) Who needs hands or silverware when you can cut out the middleman altogether??

(video above) You have learned sign language! This video is of you saying "please" to some blueberries (one of your favorite fruits). You also know how to say "more".

(video above) Oh Trenton...you are one silly, silly boy! This video was made a couple days after you learned how to clap :)