Happy 2nd Birthday to Tate! 9/5/2014

I can't even believe that my first born is 2 years old! A few weeks before his big day, we were driving somewhere and in the backseat Mr. T let me know that he wanted a birthday party with birthday cake. I didn't know that he knew what either of those two things were, and that he actually did have a birthday coming. Well, I made the decision that we would only be doing birthday parties every couple of years, and since we celebrated his big number 1, this wasn't his year. BUT... we also do 4 gifts, something you want, something you need, something you'll wear, something you'll read. And since he didn't let it go I decided to chalk up his birthday party as his WANT. 

So, the big day came and he refused to take a NAP! So I was extremely worried that it was going to be a bad day since the party didn't start until 6. BUT... the following pictures will show that we had quite the opposite experience.

(This is the cake! It turned out so GREAT)

HE WAS SO STINKING CUTE! I can't even believe this!

(We had a digging site that was a hit! We hid fun toys in the sand and the kids spent the entire time in this spot)

(Seriously! This cake! Thanks to my friend Elaine Cadman)

(and then there's this kid! He was so sweet the whole evening!)

Tate as of Late

Tate Albert... Holy cow! He is such a smart cookie. Every day that I spend with him I think that I really need to try  harder to write some things down because you just cant think this stuff up! Tate is almost 21 months old. As Cory would say, "He's one year old!" I think its important to know the months because then you know where he's at growth wise. This kid is a big, solid boy. He looks more like 2 1/2 years old. I always say he's a brick. He runs like he's older and has been able to kick, throw, catch, and hit a ball for a long time. He just seems to be super coordinated little man. It could have something to do with the fact that he always plays with older kids? I'm not sure. I cant tell you how many times a day I look at him and just think how amazing he is. I'm so grateful to be his mom!

 



(Me and my boys totally wiped out after Parker's blessing day festivities)

 

Things Tate loves right now:

 

-His binky and his purple blanky

-Playing any kind of ball. Mostly basketball

-Reading books.

-Eating breakfast while watching TV in Mom and Dad's bed

-Playing outside

-Playing with his dog Stockton

-Playing with the neighbors Luke, Brady, and Kate. Really any kid for that matter

-Grandpa

-Trucks/Tractors/ Airplanes/ Motorcycles/ Trains

-Rocks

-His baby Parker

-Treats

-CHAPSTICK (kind of obsessed)

-Cookies

-Dancing / jumping

 



 (Tate playing in the mud with the neighbors. Mom wasn't smart enough to strip him down first)

 

 

I cant believe how much this boy can talk already. Every day it is amazing to me the words that he'll say. He's very smart.

 

Some of Tate's most frequently said words:

 

Mommy (this is what he calls me when he's sad or tired)

Daddy (this is what he calls me the rest of the time)

Cory (this is what he calls Cory)

Parker

Baby

Dinner "inner"

Spoon "poon"

Watch (to watch TV)

Cailloo, Dinosaur Train "train" (TV show's he watches)

Night Night

Love you "Ubyou"

Thank you "sank you"

Please "Pweese Daddy" (for whatever reason he thinks he's supposed to say Daddy after every please

I'm Sorry "Orry"

Truck (over and over and over)

Grandpa's truck (all day long)

Luke, Brady, Kate "Uke, Brady, Kate"

Bye

Bike

Binky

Blanky "Binky" (this would be confusing because of Binky, but I know he always wants the Binky and then the Blanky)

Stuck

Help "elp"

Amen

 

Of course there are so many more, but these are the words I hear most frequently throughout our days.

 

He cracks me up with how clear and out of the blue he can be sometimes. For example the other day I was changing Parker's diaper and he exploded so I screamed (story for another time) and Tate came running in and said "happened? Ok?" It was so cute because he wanted to know what happened and if I was okay. Ha ha ha. He is such a little stud.

 

Another story is when I was putting him down for a nap one day. I always take off his jacket, shoes and socks. Well this time I just took of his jacket and shoes and he kept saying over and over, "toesies, toesies" until I understood that he wanted his socks of too.

 



(Smart little guy figured out how to open the mascara and knew exactly which part of his face he was supposed to try and apply. Even used the mirror)

 

I cant even begin to describe how grateful I am for this crazy, out of control, "all boy", little boy. He makes me smile from morning to night. He emulates the meaning of his name so well, CHEERFUL! And he passes that cheer on to others. How great is my job of being his mom!

The Name...

Oh man... we had a rough time picking a name with this baby. I had picked a name right from the get go that I liked. Brigg. Cory hated it. Well... then I explained to him how much a actually loved this name. I decided that I just wouldn't push it much throughout the pregnancy and eventually he'd come around (0; One day around the half way point, Cory called me at work and told me that he would be okay if we named the baby Brigham and called him Brigg. I almost cried I was SO excited. And that's the way it was for a few months. Then one day Cory said, "Hey, we should probably start thinking of names for the baby".

WHAT????? I was devastated that my plan of just laying low didn't work. When I asked him about our earlier conversation, he said that even though Brigham was on the list... that didn't mean he was 100% okay with that name. WHAT???? When I asked him what names he was thinking of he told me Tucker. WHAT????

We visited this topic of conversation multiple times during my pregnancy, and then retreated quickly. Neither one of us were on the same page... I mean, no where near the same page.

When we went to the hospital I was still certain that the name should be Brigham (well, Brigg actually), but again I was laying low to not overwhelm Cory and to slowly convince him. Plus, everyone said "Just wait until you see him, maybe you'll know then". I thought I could use that to my advantage...  ha ha ha.

Then I had the baby. And guess what? I knew! I knew that my baby's name WASN'T Brigham. And that's all I knew. Which was irritating. I am not your average mother on so many levels and this was one of them. I've heard of so many people who look at their baby for the first time and just KNOW their name. Not me, all I know is what their name is not. Hmmm....

Well Cory still wanted Tucker. Like really wanted it. All I have to say is any name that you cant sing the following song too
"Rachel Rachel bo bachel banana nana fo fachel me my mo machel Rachel"
you should do your kid the favor and not name them that. I realize that every kid will probably get made fun of a time or two for their name, but I wanted to help them out as much as possible.

After two days in the hospital, many many questions from hospital staff, family and friends and lots of names being tossed around, Cory and I were back where we started. I HATED all of his names, and he REALLY HATED all of my names. We decided that the only fair way of choosing a name was for each of us to put 3 names in a hat and then we would pull the name and whatever name was pulled we both HAD to be okay with it. This was serious.

My names:
Brigham
Grayson
Mason

Cory's names:
Tucker
Lane
Garrett

We put them in the hat and both of us were super nervous. Cory let me pick the name from the hat. I did so and opened it and started crying, because this is what I saw:

Tucker.

I couldn't back out of it. But lucky for me Cory took pity on me, probably because I had just pushed his 7 lb. 4 oz. child out of me and now I was crying. So he said, "Let's pick another one". I jumped at the offer and even said he could pull the name. He did so and opened it and threw the paper on the bed. When I opened it, this is what I saw:

Brigham.

HA HA HA!!! Well now I couldn't get what I wanted after he gave up what he wanted, that and the fact that I already had my revelation that wasn't his name. We were both so frustrated it was ridiculous and the name out of a hat was not working. So... I suggested that we throw out all of the names that we had and start 100% over. Cory agreed and we agreed to call it a night. We had a lot to do before we left the hospital the next day. As we were getting ready for bed Cory said, "What about the name Parker?" This was super weird because I had briefly thought of the name earlier but tossed it aside knowing that Cory hated every name that I said. I told him that. We agreed to sleep on the idea of that name and discuss it in the morning. The next morning as soon as we woke up Cory said, "Yup, I'm feeling REALLY good about the name Parker" lucky for him as soon as he said it the night before I felt the same way.

WHAT A RELIEF!!!

Fast forward three weeks to yesterday at church. Cory and I teach the 7-8 year old's in Primary. One of the girls came up to me and asked to look at the baby. She asked what his name was. When I told her she said "I knew it! I'm so smart." Thinking she was like most 7-8 year old know it all's I didn't think much of it. Then a few minutes later she said to me, "didn't you say that whoever guessed the name would get a treat? Because both Samantha and I guessed the name Parker." That's when I remembered that the Sunday before I had the baby we had a baby naming contest with the kids and each of them got to guess what we would name the baby. I didn't believe that the girls had actually picked the name Parker and I went rummaging through my lesson manual to find that paper and guess what I came across??? Both of the girls really had picked the name Parker!!! That is 2 of the 6 kids we had there that day. That is 1/3 of the class basically told us what to name him! The funny thing is, both Cory and I remember thinking that we would never use any of the names that they guessed. If we would have thrown our list away earlier and actually listened to these kids, we could have saved ourselves a lot of STRESS and GRIEF!

Two lessons learned:

1) When you are stressed with a decision, there comes a point when you just need to take a step back, maybe start all over, and perhaps sleep on it.

2) Listen to the little people in your life.

Life with a toddler and a newborn in the first week

Well... it has been fun! Newborns are so fun. And Parker is such a doll. He is so content with sleeping and eating. He is up every three hours to eat and be changed and we were told that he would sleep a lot in the beginning because he was early. So I will do the Baby Wise again with Parker, and we'll see if it's really all its cracked up to be, or if Tate is just an amazing sleeper. Poor little Parker baby... poops after every single feeding. I don't remember that with Tate. The problem is his little bum is rubbed raw! We cant even use wet wipes on it because of the alcohol. We've been using a wet wash cloth, but it still isn't all the way healed up yet. One thing I've learned with Tate is that the best thing for diaper rash is to let it air out... but how do you do that with a newborn? I've been trying to give it at least 10 minutes a day with some open air. Hopefully we get control of that soon, because diaper changing is quite the process right now. We have to wash him down with the wet wash cloth, apply to heavy duty cream to the rash, apply the Vaseline to the circumcised pee pee and then diaper him up. Poor little man. Even with all of that drama, he's still such a good baby.

Tate has been quite a challenge. Not really. Just every now and then. But when he is... he's out of control. I know that he's got a little cold and that is making him runny and coughy, but on top of that, I'm pretty sure that he's got some serious teeth coming in. He only had two nights where he had a hard time with his regular routine, and he's back to sleeping all the way through the night. Having Tate in the next room has made getting up with the baby easier this go around because I jump right out of bed so that the baby doesn't wake up my toddler. I wish I could say the same for Cory. He still is mean and ornery in the night... but he's still gotten up for his turns, so I cant complain...well I can, but I shouldn't. Tate was turning in to a little bit of a mommy's boy before the babe came around, but now more than ever. He's never had a hard time visiting the ladies I work with, but now as soon as we step foot in to the office he is clinging to me for dear life. Which isn't a bad thing. Its just different. As a mom I feel guilty all the time about them being so close and Tate not being an only child anymore, but the thing is... Tate LOVES his baby brother "Carper". He wants to kiss him all the time and gets very emotional if Parker is crying. He doesn't quite understand that he's not hurt. But he's such a concerned and protective brother. I really hope that they will be best buddies forever.

 Tate loves to peek at his baby

This is our first family prayer together. Tate was so excited to have the baby laying next to him.

 

Saturday marked our year mark of being in our house. Its so exciting! We absolutely love it here and love our ward. I have made some incredible friends that I don't know what I would do without. I cannot even explain the level of support, service and love that I have felt from our ward. We have had someone stop by or call every single day since we had the babe. We have had meals and offers to take Tate for walks. We've had gifts and phone calls. I am so very grateful for this ward and for the examples that have been shown to me. I will forever want to try my hardest to treat others the way that we have been treated. I never knew that a ward/community could be this amazing!

 



Cory got to take off a few days so that he could help me out, so I decided to have mom come down and help me when he had to go back to work. My mom came down the Friday after he was born and those 3 days went by so fast. She worked her butt off to clean my nasty house, and I was so grateful. I was so embarrassed to have all of our visitors coming over and seeing my house turned upside down. Bless her! Tate loved having his "grandpa" here. For some reason we cannot get him to hear the difference between grandpa and grandma, but it is so cute. He has been so cute with her and she has just taken care of us all. The morning after she left Tate woke up and went right downstairs to the room she was staying in and was saying "grandpa... where are you? grandpa...." it was so cute, but so sad at the same time.

I really had a hard time with mom leaving. Of course it didn't help that she left about a week after the baby was born, which is right when the baby blues set in. I've been really scared to have my first day alone. Today was that day. Cory didn't work until 2, so we had him all morning, but once he had to start getting ready for work I had to change the baby. He had so much poop that I decided to put him in the bath and let his rash air out. Well, he was not happy about that and screamed and screamed, which woke up Tate from his nap and terrified him. Cory was trying to run out the door and then I realized I had just put the towel's in the wash and needed one from the closet, but couldn't leave the babe in the tub to do so, all the while both boys are hysterical and Cory is running out the door. YUP, pretty much exactly how I pictured the start of me being home alone with the boys. It took me about an hour to get both boys taken care of calmed down. Then things were good until about 5 (which is of course when the baby woke up and needed to be fed and changed) Tate's mouth started to drool and he got so grumpy that he flipped out over something small and then wouldn't stop. So both boys were screaming again. And right then Cory called asking how I was doing!!! Holy HECK! At least I didn't cry at all today. I did say many many prayers!!! I decided to pack both the boys up and take them for a car ride, which was the ticket!!! Parker fell asleep and Tate calmed down. Cory met us and had a Pina Colada Boba drink for me. He was only able to spend literally 5 minutes with us, but it was 5 minutes that I needed of reassurance. When we came home everything fell in to place perfectly! I know that this is a new routine, and I have to have patience with the boys and more importantly with myself, but two things that I have been EXTREMELY thankful for during this time is the help from others and PRAYER. I know Heavenly Father has put a lot of trust in me and Cory to send us these two amazing boys, and I know that he is going to help me as long as I ask Him. I am so grateful for a knowledge and testimony of prayer. And I am so grateful for my family! Although it is tough, and scary, I am loving every minute of it.

 

But honestly... how did my mom have 6 kids? Honestly???



 

Parker Thomas Waters

It has been a really long time since I've blogged. But as I sit around at night I wish I would journal more, and so far this has been the best way for me to do it. However, I still struggle. Well, we've had a super fun thing happen in our lives! We got pregnant, which was a surprise, when Tate was just 10 months old. Well... fast forward 9 months and you have the following story.

March 17, 2014: (Cory's birthday)
Today is a Monday, and that happens to be Cory's day off. Its also Cory's 27th birthday. I had a doctors appointment at 8 am, so we all got ready, went to the doctors appointment and decided to go to breakfast afterwards. I am 37 weeks tomorrow, so moving right along. I got checked at last week's appointment and was dilated to a 1+ and 30% effaced. I got checked today and was dilated to a 3 and still 30% effaced. This is exactly where we were at with Tate. So, if my math is correct I will probably go on April 1st, just one day before I have an induction scheduled. But not any sooner. We had breakfast at IHOP and I had the stuffed French toast. This pregnancy has been so funny for me because I have never had a sweet tooth (despite my husband) until now. I went to work until 3 pm. Cory and Tate came back for me. We went to dinner at Café Rio for the birthday boy and came home and had cake and ice-cream. Tate and Cory loved the green icing. I am so so sore after this appointment.

March 21, 2014:
Today is Friday. I woke up today feeling very emotional. Cory and I have had a rough couple of days with communicating. I know its super hard for him with me being this miserable and this pregnant, but we've talked this morning while he was at work for a minute and we both decided to start over. Cory is always so good at that. I started working from home at 10 am. I feel really good today. Sometimes in the morning I feel like I'm not pregnant. But then by the evenings I feel super nasty. I'm supposed to work from home from 10-2 and then in the office from 2:30-5:30. But by 1 I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. Sarah is coming up and says that she can do my hair for me so I decide to have her drop by for lunch and girl time. I'm super lucky that she does my hair because she does such a great job for such a great price. After talking to her and getting my mind off of my emotions I'm feeling much much better. Cory wants to have a "date night" and go up to IKEA to look for new nightstands for us. He sure knows me. So we got in the car and went up to Salk Lake County. After Ikea we stopped at Smith Marketplace in Alpine. Sarah and I went there a few weeks back and I couldn't believe all of the home goods they had there. Its like a hidden gem! Then we stopped at RC Willey's to see if we liked any of their furniture. By this point we were ready for dinner so we stopped at Zupas and had our favorite soups and sandwiches. And lastly we decided to stop at Home Depot. While we were at Home Depot I started to think to myself, "Dang, I've done a really good job walking through all of these stores, with a toddler, and being 37 weeks pregnant!" and right after, I started to feel super super tired. So, Cory gave me the keys and Tate and I went out to the car to wait the rest of the trip out. Once we got home, we got Tate ready for bed ASAP because it was an hour after his bedtime. As we were brushing his teeth he got really really upset and we noticed a little bit of blood on his toothbrush. Meaning another molar was coming through. That explains the melt down at dinner and him only eating the crunchy ice. So we gave him some baby Tylenol and his bottle and tucked him in for bed. He was exhausted and out before we knew it. After we got the Scouts some canned goods out on the front porch we decided to call it a night. Cory is on days, so he had to be to work at 6 am. I took a half a Unisom to help me to try and get a good night sleep.

All was well.... until about 11:40 pm.

I kept waking up with a super tight stomach that really hurt. I kept thinking it was because of the way I was laying, so I would re-adjust and then fall back to sleep, thanks to the Unisom. But then I would wake up again with pain. I finally started looking at my phone and noticed that these pains were happening pretty close together. I didn't want to wake Cory up and have him keep track of them for me, because he had to work in a few hours, but I was curious so I woke him up and asked him to find an app that would count my contractions for me. After he did that, he went back to sleep and I laid there dozing in and out of sleep using this app to keep track for me. I woke up to a pretty painful contraction and once it was done, I realized that these contractions were pretty close together. It just didn't feel like it because I was so drowsy from the Unisom. By this point it was about 1:30 and my contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart and ranging anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute. I started to remember my first delivery and how I refused to go in for so long. But last time I was only a week early, not 2 and a half weeks early. During my contractions I would think "after this I'm going to wake up Cory", and then it would stop and I would feel just fine and think "He has to work at 6 in the morning, I don't want him to have to work without sleeping". Then I felt a little pop and had a little bit of a wet feeling. I knew my water didn't break because I've been warned that when that happens it is A LOT of water, but I have also heard of girl's waters leaking? And I definitely didn't pee my pants. Finally, I decided to just try and wake Cory up, and see what would happen. Sometimes, he's so delirious in his sleep that he wont wake up for anything. Lucky for us both, he woke up and looked at how close my contractions were and told me that we were going to hospital. He got in the shower and had me try to start packing. Yup, wasn't even packed! During this time, I packed the dumbest things. I decided that my first priority should be to start with just getting dressed. Cory called the doctor on call, Dr. Ludlow, and he told us he thought it a pretty good idea to come in. I called my good friend across the street at about 2:40 and she came right over to stay with Tate. She's seriously the best. While she was setting up camp on the couch, I was talking to her telling her how things were going and started to have another contraction. At the same time that I bent over the couch, Cory walked behind me and accidentally bumped me. It pushed my contraction even deeper and I fell to my knees and had the worst of all the contractions to that point and it lasted like 2 and a half minutes. Whatever happened during that bump caused Cory to tweak his back and he was in pain as well. Our poor friend just sat there probably wondering what she was going to do! It was at that point that I knew that I at least needed to go to the doctor and get checked out. We were so not prepared for this!

It was raining, not a lot, but just like a light spring rain. I seem to remember the same thing when Tate was born? I don't know. When we got off the freeway, Cory went to UVRMC and went to their emergency room, I was pretty sure that we weren't supposed to go there, but he is usually always right. Still, I wasn't getting out of the car until I knew for sure. So he ran in and they let him now that we needed to be just around the corner of the building to labor and delivery. So we were on our way again. And we hit a stoplight....that lasted about 12 minutes too long...I'm not for sure on the timing, but... it had to have been at least that long! I kept begging him to run the red light because there was no one on the streets and he was so worried we'd get pulled over, and if that happened it would just take more time. FINALLY (it really probably was only 1 minute) he ran the red light and we hit ANOTHER ONE!!! He looked both ways and ran that one too! He dropped me off at labor and delivery and I hobbled in while he went to park (where was the valet?). There was a poor security guard who came to my rescue with a wheelchair and I was ready to go up to the 5th floor by the time Cory came running in. Labor and delivery got me right in and checked me and I was dilated to a 6+. So they got everything ready and I got my epidural right away. I was so nervous about all of this AGAIN! After going through it once I thought I would be ready, but all I could think about was the 2 and half weeks that I was missing out on preparing myself for this. Its not that I wasn't prepared physically, but mentally I wasn't ready. I started to have an anxiety attack (which has been bothering me a lot this pregnancy) and lucky for me I had a nurse who seemed to 100% understand and she helped me to calm down within seconds. I was so grateful for her at that moment. Everything else was GREAT. Other than I could not get my body to stop shaking. They kept putting lots of warm blankets on me, but it didn't really stop until I started pushing. The shaking was so uncomfortable to me. This time I didn't throw up until I was actually at the hospital, and I only threw up twice. Last time it felt like the pain was so bad I was throwing up, this time it felt like I would get some of the medicine and that would make me sick. Either way, throw up pushes are good pushes (that's what the doctor told me). Dr. Ludlow was on call, and I've only seen him 2 times before, but he was just great. Super helpful and talked about other things with us. He remembered both times he'd seen me before and that made me feel super good. I pushed for about 30 minutes and out came a new little baby. 7 lbs 4 oz and 21 inches long with lots of dark hair. It was amazing. My labor's really do remind me of the movies. Where I go so fast that we're running and unprepared and screaming and speeding on the freeway, but once I get the medicine... its super smooth sailing. I am very lucky. This time I was super lucky and didn't tear at all. Dr. Ludlow let me know that my healing would be incredibly different since I didn't tear.

Cory and I decided to make phone calls to let people know the good news. But the babe was born at 5:53 am so it was a morning wake up call. No one was really expecting our call/ text's because we were early, which made it more fun. Then we got to spend a good part of the morning just the two of us and our new baby. This is exactly what I needed. I asked if I could go to the nursery with Cory and the baby and they made that happen for me. It was so fun to watch everything and talk to the nurses. They were worried that I would be too tired, but I was wide awake and loved this part. They said that babe's lungs were a little weak but that everything would be fine. They let us know that letting him cry was a good thing for his lungs to help them get stronger. Other than that he was perfect. We all went back to our room, I ordered breakfast and chowed that down and we just sat and enjoyed some quiet time.

Having a baby is a whirlwind and I would be lying if I said that I was sad I wasn't pregnant anymore. Any of you that know me know that I don't hide my discomfort and sickness well or with tact, but it really is so worth it. We have been so blessed to have another little boy in our family. He looks a lot like Tate and seems to have a lot of similar expressions. I was so worried about having a new baby so soon, and sometimes am still so worried about that. But watching Tate love this new little guy reassures me that they are going to be good little buddies. Tate already is very protective of this new baby. Anytime he see's him he repeats over and over "baby...baby" and then tried to give him a kiss. We also got him to try and say his name, and it just melts my heart to hear Tate say "Carper". I hope that Cory and I can teach these two little boys to be good. To love others and to love each other. They are so amazing and I am incredibly humbled to have been trusted to care for them. My boys really are my whole entire world. Cory always amazes me with how easily he catches on to things. With this new baby he has gone back in to newborn mode with ease and with INSANE love. And its been incredible for me to watch how much deeper his love has grown for Tate as well. Its amazing! I don't want to forget the feeling!!!