Band Geek

I took my sister, JoAnna, to go pick up her flute that she had been so patiently waiting for since the first day of school.

Let me tell you, the giddiness and process of her trying to learn right in front of my eyes made me miss band.

And look forward to Matthew learning how to play an instrument. Which he will by how excited he gets when JoAnna begins playing, singing along with her and clapping his hands. Or by the crying when she puts it away :-)

She reminded me a little of myself how often she got her instrument out to play it again, and again, and again. I hope she keeps that joy through high school and beyond. Because I still occasionally get my clarinet out and bust out the chromatic scale (alas much slower and sloppier than I used to be able to) or memorized portions of various pieces that I played for solo and ensemble.

And have I mentioned how much JoAnna giggle or thought it was AWESOME that she could do something better than her oldest sister. I am TERRIBLE at the flute. I even said, "THAT is why I never played the flute." and she giggled and told me to give her her flute back. And talked about how it took me many tries to get a sound to come out. I would have to practice so much just to sound as good as she does already lol.

 Praying she has wonderful tone, musical ability, and is able to pour herself into music as I had. That it will become her escape when the days seem long, and that God will find her there. That her spirits will be lifted, her ADD will melt away, and others will find joy in her talents as she plays her instrument.

Here is JoAnna Kay playing her flute, don't mind my finger in the corner, haha. She was SO excited she played it in the back seat of my car on our way home. I got asked how annoying it was. And 100% can say it wasn't. It was amazing to watch her willingness to learn and hear notes that actually sounded good! (My poor mom with the clarinet, not all notes sounded good haha).

9 Months!

This comes a little late, as Matthew is now 9.5 months old. But alas, here I am. I have thought about writing quite often, and hoping I will get to soon. Life just gets sooooo busy. I don't want to forget these precious moments with Matthew, but I also do not want to miss them by spending time sitting on a computer writing about them! Life is such a balancing act, isn't it?

Anyways. Our little butterball started army crawling like 3 weeks ago, then a week ago figured out regular crawling, but dragging one of his legs instead of using both (I actually asked James if he thought he needed PT it looked so funky). NOW he has started bear crawling at times, and has figured out how to quickly crawl using both knees to propel himself. He is pulling himself up on things and letting go and just standing there for a couple of seconds before he freaks out and remembers hey I'm not holding onto anything and quickly grabs back ahold, or loses his balance.

He now says momma, Dada, attempts to say jack and is now meowing back at the cats. It is so gosh darn cute! He also loves to dance. He shakes his head and does liked full body thrusts lol. I have been trying to teach him to wave his arms while dancing, but instead he usually dances more enthusiastically or claps at me. He will wave bye-bye to daddy and occasionally to others, but not momma...it makes him too sad when I leave!

He will eat anything under the son, even though he only has 2 bottom teeth. I gave him a piece of red pepper to chew on and he bit chunks off and ate them much to my surprise. And was "nummmm, ummmm, nummm"-ing the whole time. I have allowed him to try ice cream, he is hilarious with an ice cream cone. My sister says he is going to suffocate himself in the ice cream by the way he face plants into the vanilla deliciousness. I told her I have never heard of death by ice cream cone ;-)

I should clarify before I talk about his weight, I do not give him excessive amounts of sweets or table foods in general. He still is breast fed, and when with me sometimes he skips eating anything for lunch and just nurses instead. So I am NOT overfeeding my son, and yes I know "he is such a big boy" I get this from everyone at first when they see him, except for women that have breast fed their babies and say "oh he reminds me of my son at that age!" But I cannot help but feel the judgement at times, I am probably more self-conscious at times due to the fact that James and I both struggle with our weight. But that is a topic for another day....

Okay, now that I got that off my shoulders...I weighed him last Friday. By doing the whole me hold him weigh us, then weigh myself and subtracting. It said he weighed 29lbs exactly!! I was SHOCKED. We thought he was maintaining, but must be he just grew some. I should be growing some arm muscles! My little butterball turkey isn't so little any more but one thing is for sure: he loves his momma SO much! (And his daddy too ;-P)

We had his 9 month photos taken yesterday. I was afraid he wasn't going to cooperate. How silly of me to think that! He saw that camera and was all smiles! Until he wanted to nurse. This is the only picture we have gotten to see from our photo shoot, so more will be to come...every time I look at it I am amazed by how blue his eyes are! God sure created a handsome little fella out of James and I's DNA.