Scout's Birthday

My oldest daughter turned 7 on the 4th of July.  Yes...she is a little firecracker from the very beginning!

We had our annual birthday BBQ and celebrated her special day with our entire family...which has now grown to almost 20 people!

She was overwhelmed with gifts again this year.  My she is spoiled!  A just a tiny bit rotten...but in the best way possible!  She asked for "Big Girl Diva Rock Star" presents.  Your guess is as good as mine...but we all tried!  The scarf and necklace from my nephew Kyle, his girlfriend Liz and his son Brian was a big hit.  She also asked to redecorate her room to make it into a "big girl" room in a, yes you guessed it, "diva rock star" theme.  She got everything she needs to make it a very special room including some really cool art for her walls.  To top it off her CeCe and Papa (Chad's parents) gave her a big girl bike!  Now if we can just convince her to ride it without training wheels.

I started making this flag cake for Scout's 1st birthday and it has now become an annual tradition with people fighting over blueberry, raspberry or "both" pieces!

Scout is growing up so fast!  I can't believe that she is already 7.  It seems like only a few years ago that I was pregnant with her!

She is beautiful isn't she?  Inside and out.

I found out that I was pregnant with Scout when Chad and I were living in Chicago.  We were living in an apartment on the 4th floor of a walk-up.  I really couldn't imagine trying to have a baby in the city (or walking up those stairs 9 months pregnant, let alone with all the baby stuff) so we decided to head back to Lawrence.  Knowing this part of the story you can probably guess that she wasn't exactly "planned".  Wanted, yes.  Planned, not so much.

Most people know my pregnancy story by now so I won't bore you with the details.  For those who don't I will sum it up by saying that I became very, very sick and eventually went into heart failure.  It is called Peripartum Cardiomyopathy--or heart failure caused by pregnancy.  It was a horribly scary time and I was actually given only 6 months to get better...or not.  The not being permanent damage to my heart, a heart transplant or even death.  Whoo-hoo, right?  Great way to start off life as a new mommy.

Every cloud has a silver lining right?  Because I was so sick I was forced to slow down (OK, basically stop) and just enjoy my daughter.  For the first 6 months of her life I spent every waking moment soaking her in and learning all that I could about her.  We slept a lot.  She was very rarely out of my arms.  Even when other people wanted to hold her!  Our close relationship started with those first few months of trying to make an imprint on her memory in case something horrible would happen.  My illness also made it so I had to stay home.  There was no way that I could return to work so I was given the gift of being a stay-at-home mom.  I loved it.  We were a team and we took on the world and my illness together.  She would come with me every day to Cardiac Rehab and would coo at the "grandmas and grandpas" there while I worked out to try and improve my heart function.  I changed her clothes like 3 times a day.  And did I mention how much we slept?

When I made it past the 6 month mark I was able to finally relax a bit and just enjoy being with my daughter.  She was amazing to watch.  She started crawling at 5 months and walking at 9 1/2 months.  She was a chatterbox with a huge vocabulary by the time she was a year old.  She loved people and people loved her.  Scout has continued to be an achiever.  She is constantly blowing me away with her intelligence.  She loves to learn.  She is also a very sensitive little girl.  She has a heart the size of the United States.  She is creative and incredibly funny.  The child can drop a punch line like a seasoned pro!  She is beautiful with these amazing blue eyes that speak for themselves.  She is stubborn and bossy.  She loves to be the center of attention but at the same time she can be very shy.

Our bond that began with those first few months has only grown.  We can look at each other and instantly know what the other person is thinking.  We have the same taste in almost everything and not in a "I want to be like my mom" way because she thinks that I want to be like her!  She is one of my favorite people to just sit and talk to.  I am a very lucky mom to have such an amazing daughter.  She came into this world with a bang and I have no doubt that she will leave behind her mark on the world.  I am just so honored to have the chance to watch her do it.

Happy Birthday Scout!  I love you so much.

Crawling!!!

Truman is crawling!!!  This is an incredible, amazing, holy crap, oh my Lord, thank you little baby Jesus moment for the Booth-Meyers family!

We never thought that this would actually happen.  He has always had such low muscle tone in his arms and upper body.  Crawling requires that he put a lot of weight on he arms (well not a LOT he is only 21 pounds!) and he has always just crumpled when he tried to be on all fours.

Last Saturday he popped up into the all fours position randomly at an auction when I put him down on a table.  That evening he made a few attempts to move in the all fours position but he was still struggling to stay up.  It was actually pretty amusing to watch...he looked a little bit like one of those robot dogs.  He would get a few jerky moves forward and then lay down to rest.

By Wednesday at tiny-k he was really starting to figure it out.  His physical therapist was so excited!  She had planned an entire session working on the all fours position to help him to go from his stomach to a sitting position.  He has always just tried to play with toys while he was still on his tummy making his neck and arms very tired.  Instead he popped up onto all fours and then leaned back and sat ALL BY HIMSELF!  Whoo-hoo!!

He has been working hard all week until this morning when...cue drum roll...he crawled all the way down the hallway!!  He then turned around and crawled back.  The grin on his face was priceless.  Now there is no stopping him.  We sit him down and he crawls away.  SO AMAZING!!

I guess it is time to put up the baby gates.  We bought them when he was about 6 months old because Scout started crawling at 5 months.  Now at 15 months we finally get to use them!  CAN YOU TELL I AM EXCITED???

He is still pulling up like crazy.  He now can actually crawl to something to pull up which makes him a very happy camper.  I feel like walking is right around the corner.  If he walks before 18 months he is technically not delayed.  We also started speech therapy.  Often when a child is working hard on muscle motor skills they will lag on speech.  He is loud (after all he is half Booth!) but he doesn't have many words yet.  He says "up!" and "out!" and "dada," and my dad swears he says "Boppo" (the grand kids name for my dad) but I'm not so sure!   He only says "mama" if he is crying...which is just wonderful to hear.

I'm sure in a few weeks I am going to be a little less excited about the crawling thing.  He has a bit of a daredevil spirit so I have a feeling he will be getting into a lot.  He is all boy.

For now I am just going to revel in this major accomplishment.  I'm so incredibly proud of his determination!