Loving the Life We Live

Saturday, June 20, 2015

A Poem

Keep Love in Your Heart, Little One
by Giles Andreae

One evening, long after my sleep time
Big softly crept to my bed
And stretched out warm fingers to ruffle my hair
“I love you, my darling,” Big said.

Now, Big must have thought I was sleeping
And I didn’t open an eye.
Instead I just let the words float through my mind
Like balloons floating up through the sky.

“I love you, my Small,” Big continued
“But there’s so much to do in the day
That it’s hard to sit down and to make enough time
To say all of the things I should say.

“And it’s funny, but now that you’re sleeping
And everything’s quiet and calm
The words seem to be much more easy to speak.”
And Big laid a soft hand on my arm.

“You’re everything I always dreamed of
You’ve got so much beauty inside
The way that you smile, that you laugh, that you dance
Makes my heart want to sing out with pride.

“You live as though life’s one huge present
Unwrapping a bit every day
That’s just how we all should be living, my love
And look at you showing the way!

“And sometimes I know when I scold you
You feel that I’m being unfair
But please understand that it’s just out of love,”
And Big swept back a strand of my hair.

“There are things in this life that can hurt you
They come to us all – that I know.
But they all give us chances to learn, darling Small
And they all give us chances to grow.

“So when you get knocked down, my sweetheart,
Look up at the sky without fear
For sometimes we need to be flat on our backs
Before starlight begins to appear.

“And please above all else remember
Keep love in your heart, little one
Reach out to the world like a beautfiul flower
Stretches out to the warmth of the sun.

“It’s the only sure way to be happy
The only sure way to be free.
Believe in yourself and believe in your dreams
And you’ll be what you dream you can be.”

With that, Big lay down on my pillow
And planted a kiss on my head.
“My beautiful, wonderful, glorious child
You light up my world,” Big then said.

With that, Big crept out of my bedroom
Turning round for one last little peep.
I hugged my small pillow and smiled a big smile
And then slowly I drifted to sleep.

From Loving the Life We Live

Monday, May 11, 2015

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Happy 1st Birthday, Adam!

Happy first birthday, Adam Leighton Mueller! We are so proud of you, big boy! We love you soooo much!

From Loving the Life We Live

Friday, April 24, 2015

Our dear Adam Leighton Mueller is now one year old. Twelve months ago he came into our lives and made our family complete, and we can't imagine our life without him.

Adam continues to delight us every day. He adores playing with balls and cars, which is novel to me since Davis was never very into those things. It is so much fun to roll a ball back and forth with him, or to watch him crawl around while pushing a toy car. He is a good "player" and especially enjoys anytime that he has an opportunity to play with one of his big brother's toys. He got his first real haircut and did great - no tears, but a lot of squirming around. We had a hard time adjusting to his new look after his haircut because he really did look different. Such a big boy!

He got his first bad cold a couple of weeks before his birthday, and then he came down with a high fever (as high as 105.2) for a few days. I even took him to the pediatrician and got chest x-rays (let me tell you, it is an experience trying to get chest x-rays on a baby) to make sure he didn't have pneumonia, but as turns out, he broke out in a horrible rash on his face and trunk a couple of days later - yep, roseola! Oh joy. Our sweet little man was a pretty miserable (exhausted, irritable, demanding) baby for 5 or 6 days between the fever and the rash, which luckily faded just in time to celebrate his birthday. We are so thankful that he came through his illness okay and is now feeling much better. It is so hard to see your baby suffering and you can't do anything but cuddle them and try to help them through it.

Before haircut:

During:

After:

From Loving the Life We Live

11 Months (a look back)

So - what did Adam do between ten and eleven months?

He started truly hands-and-knees crawling 100% of the time. No more pulling and dragging! As soon as he started to do that, man, that baby got FAST! I love seeing him book it across the room. Crawling is seriously the cutest thing ever.

He continued to hone his stair-climbing skills and one of his favorite activities was to crawl quickly toward the stairs, turn and look to see if you were watching, then smile and start going up the first step, but look back to see if anyone is coming to be behind him.

Diaper changes became a real challenge, as Adam did NOT want to lie there and be changed. It's really hard to diaper a baby who is in the process of rolling over and crawling away.

His napping improved a great deal and I have so enjoyed being able to count on nice solid naps in the morning and afternoon. Now he just needs to work on sleeping all night long (anytime, buddy...Mommy is ready).

On the day he turned 11 months old, he stood by himself! He was standing holding on to me, had a pacifier he was playing with in each hand, then let go and STOOD ALONE for quite awhile. I was clapping and cheering for him and Adam just smiled and laughed like he did the coolest thing in the world.

From Loving the Life We Live

Monday, March 23, 2015

Our Favorite FOUR Year Old!

Last week we wished a happy fourth birthday to our beloved firstborn, Davis Reid!

We're were excited to celebrate this new milestone in his life with him and are hoping that FOUR is going to FABULOUS!

Our newly minted four year old is such a smart, silly, resourceful, friendly, absolutely adorable kid. I know this blog has focused on Adam Adam Adam for the past year - time restraints made it hard enough for me to keep up with just the monthly updates on baby's development, as you have seen! - but this precocious preschooler certainly doesn't take a backseat in our hearts. He's not above using his cuteness to get what he wants, either. When asking for an ice cream cone before dinner recently, he followed up with "look at my cute doggie eyes." Haha! Well, he didn't get what he wanted, but he sure knows how to turn up the charm!

Davis has become so much more independent in the past year, for better or worse, as my attention has so often needed to be directed toward the needs of a baby. I really wanted to make his birthday this year special and give him some special time to do something fun just with Mommy, no babies allowed. So the two of us went by ourselves to get some Dunkin Donuts and go to this huge indoor playground in our area. While we have been there before, this time I was able to go into the play structure and actually play with him instead of sitting on a bench with Adam and watching. We both enjoyed it SO much, although I was feeling my age trying to keep up with him! After Daddy got home from work, Grammy and Grandad and some friends of ours arrived and we enjoyed pizza, gift opening, and Curious George cake. Davis was really excited about his birthday this year and had a great time. He blew out all the candles with one blow and especially enjoyed playing with his new Stomp Rocket out in the driveway, on a beautiful, sunny, warm March day in the 70s - no one could have wished for nicer weather on their birthday.