Where Does the Time Go?

I've been thinking back to what feels like not too long ago...when my little Rogan was so very little. He was so cute in his little swaddle and I remember how light he felt when I would lift him out of his bassinet. He always had a calm spirit and a sweetness that I'll never forget. I would sit and rock him for hours and he fit so perfectly in my arms. Last night as I was rocking him to sleep I noticed that even when his head is on my shoulder his legs drape over the edge of the chair. My little baby has grown to be a big boy. He still has that sweetness he did when he was so very little, but I wouldn't use the word "calm" to describe him now. :)

Oh what joy that boy brings to my life!

His vocabulary has really grown in the last month he says
1. *Dada
2. *More
3. *Thank you (it sounds more like hi you)
4. All done
5. Cat
6. Outside
7. Bye bye
8. Grandpa
9. Grandma
10. Daph
11. Giddi (his little cousin)
12. *Baba
13. Bop Bop (he says this when he wants food)
14. Cheese
15. Figgy (fig newtons)
16. Mama (only when he's sad. Otherwise I'm dada)
17. Baby
18. *Quack quack (this is what he calls his toy duck)
19. Fan
20. Light
21. Violin (He's only said this for one day)
22. *HEY!
23. No!
24. *Uhoh
25. Micha (it sounds more like Ki ka)
26. Night night
27. Shoe
28. Moon
29. Fly away (I've never heard this, but Grandma says he said it)
30. Star
31. Fish
32. Guck (Duck)
33. Cynthia (he called me Cynthia for about 2 weeks)
34. Eyes
35. I (he will point to himself when he says "I")

He's not too consistent will all of these words yet, but he will usually say them if prompted. The ones with a star are his favorite words to use. :) I know I've forgotten some, but oh well.
He makes a lot of animal noises: meow, moo, woof woof, cluck cluck, roar, quack quack, baaa, hoo hoo, and the deer sound. Once again, I'm sure I've forgotten something.

He's walking really well and he can go up stairs like a pro. When he gets to the top he will turn around and yell at me. He has not tried to go down the stairs which is a good thing. I've been trying to teach him how to go down on his belly, but he doesn't want to try he just wants me to carry him down so he can go right back up. :)

Well, that's all for now. Hope to talk more about my little guy real soon.

A little update

Oh my, where has the time gone!!! So much has happened since I blogged last. Rogan birthday was awesome! Auntie Laura came for a surprise visit for his actual birthday and Nana got to come see us a day or so after his birthday. On the Saturday after Rogan's birthday we had a birthday party and invited some of Rogan's friends and family. He had a ton of fun! He enjoyed all the attention and opening his gifts and MOST of all he enjoyed digging into his first cake. For his cake I make a lego cake. It was an interesting time trying to make it work. I really have no cake making experience or training so I was going out on a limb to make this cake. :)

Rogan was taking a few steps and getting really close to walking by his first birthday, but didn't quite make it. He started REALLY walking about two weeks after he turned one. Now he's running around like a crazy kid and he's into everything. Even though we are in the middle of building and finishing our house I've kept it fairly kid friendly and he enjoys running around in the big room and getting into our cabinets in the kitchen. We don't have doors on them yet, so he pulls everything out of the lower cabinets while I do the dishes. :) He want's to be involved in EVERYTHING! The other day I was mopping all the floors and he wanted to help, so I gave him a little hand broom and he would dip it into my mop water and scrub the floor. He made a big mess of water, but we had a lot of fun "mopping" together. It had to come to a stop when he thought it would be a good idea to give all his stuffed animals a bath in the mop water. I was about to prevent all but one stuffed animal from getting a bath...poor giraffe. :(

Shortly before Rogan turned one we had a photographer come to the house and take Rogan's pictures. I was very impressed with her style! Rogan did very well. In the middle of the photo session he fell of the chair. He cried for awhile, but a pop tart made him forget that he was sad and we were able to continue. :)







Bible School/VCS was last week. I have always been put where ever there's a spot to be filled. This was my 10th year of doing Bibles school. For the first three years I taught the 3 year olds. The 4th and 5th year I played the piano. For 3 years I was in charge of the nursery. Last year I taught the 5 year olds. This year they needed a teacher for the 8 year old class. I've never worked with kids that old, but I was willing to try. I was told that I needed to teach about the life of Christ. I had to start from scratch, but I enjoyed preparing a lesson plan for teaching the kids. When I got to VCS there were 8 wonderful 8 year olds there! We had a grand time learning about Christ and some of the things that he taught us while he was hear on earth. This was by far my best year at Bible School and I think I will tell the committee that I'm done being "put where ever." I'm sticking with this class and I'm trilled to teach the 8 year olds next year!

During Bible School Rogan stayed in the nursery. The first 4 days I put him down in the nursery, with the other 14 kids, he would go right to playing and having a grand ol time. He didn't seam to miss me at all until the last day. By then we were both ready to be back to spending all our time together. :)

Jose and Esme's wedding is in a few days and we've been getting ready for that since the whole family is in the wedding. Jesse is the best man, I'm the matron of honor, and Rogan is helping carry the brides train. So things have been busy with getting a dress, a tux, showers to throw bouquets to make...the list goes on. Yesterday I was driving around with my husband and I realized that I had forgotten to buy something for Rogan to wear to the wedding!!! I decided that I would try the Children's Orchard first. They didn't have anything at the store closest to us so I headed to the next closest one and with the help of a very nice lady I found a little out fit with pants, button up shirt, vest, and tie for $6.50! I know this was a blessing...I could have been searching for a long time and it could have cost a lot of money to come up with something for a one year old to wear in a wedding. They don't make many cheap formal outfits for 12 month olds. He looks so cute in the suit. I can't wait till the wedding! I'll be sure to post some pictures of him on here in his little suit.

Well, there have been a lot more going on then I've been able to write, but I'm sure that you're already board by now, that is if you bothered to read down to here. So I'll end and try to blog more ofter with shorter more readable posts. :)

Eating Flowers is a No No!

What wonderful weather we are having here!!! I just love the spring when all the flowers are in bloom and the grass is green. I love the evening storms and the sunsets that go with it. With this awesome weather we decided to get Rogan out there and have him try out the grass. He didn't like it too much. I don't think that he understands that he can crawl and move around on the grass. He just sat there and with this funny little look on his face. When I put him in the crawling position he just stayed in one spot and cried. He looked at me like I had just done something horrible to him. What a silly. After making him suffer through sitting in the grass for awhile we showed him some of the new flowers. before I could do anything...in the mouth it went. I guess he liked the way that it tasted cause when I tried to get it out of his mouth he got mad at me and stuck the flower right back in his mouth. Too funny!
I'm hoping to spend a lot of time with Rogan outside this year. Jesse and I are planning on having a garden in the field by the house that we are building. I've always loved gardening, but this will be the first time that I'll have a garden of my own! I want Rogan to help me water the plants and play in the dirt...won't that be just great!!! I want for him to have a love for this awesome earth that the Lord gave us and for the plants that are actually edible. :)
I would love to write more...but I don't gots the time.

Happy Spring to all!!!

For God so Loved...

Today I was driving in the car thinking about the the judgment I have passed on those for whom I am better. In my mind I was trying to justify my self righteous feelings. "It's not like I'm saying that they're going to hell. I'm just saying that they don't have a very good chance of getting into heaven." I was thinking about some one who I knew to be (what I thought) truly evil. They did awful things to innocent people including children. How could they get into heaven and how could he have mercy on them. God in His wrath killed Ananias and Sapphira for lying. They hadn't killed or harmed anyone. While I was thinking all these things an image came to my mind. I could see Christ hanging on the cross and I could hear him whisper "Forgive them, for they know not what they do." I was so humbled in that instant. Christ showed such mercy for those people who tortured and killed Him. Who am I to pass any judgment...on anyone. I've always thought of Christ as being merciful, forgiving, and kind. Maybe it's from all the Old Testament stories, but I've never thought of God, the Father, being merciful or forgiving. I think of where it says "vengeance is Mine" and that's how I see him. Today I realized that I'm so wrong in that thought process! God is the One who sent our Savior! I've never really understood the verse (or even really thought about it) "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." When I remembered this verse today, my eyes stung with tiers of joy. It filled my soul with gladness!!! Our God is truly awesome and so LOVING to me. I just want to praise the Lord with thanksgiving. I'm so happy that both God and Jesus love a sinner like me!!! No one deserves His mercy, and yet, He freely gives. :)

March

This month has been one of the weirdest and busiest months of my life. First I should talk about Rogan and all the new things that are happening with him. In the beginning of this month he got his first two teeth!!! They weren't very noticeable for awhile, but now they are rather easy to see...especially when he gives his "cheesy grin." He's been pretty good about not biting and that's been great. I was really worried that this might be a problem seeing I'm still breastfeeding him. So far so good.
The other day when I was feeding him he decided that he didn't like it and shook his head. He's never done that and I didn't realize that we shook our heads at him when we said "no." It was so cute and it's neat to see that he's communicating with us. I know that it's not going to always be cute but it was wonderfully cute the first time he did it. :)
The potty training is going great!!! He has gone both peepee and poopoo in the potty every day this week and a few days last week. I'm so proud of him!!! I can't wait to start the diaper free days. I plan on waiting to start the diaper free stuff till we're in our house. The first time that he went poopoo in the potty I took him off his little chair, showed him what he had done, and exclaimed "Rogan, you went potty!!!" He had such a look of amazement and he was very proud of himself. He raised his hands and squealed "DAH!!!!" A moment of true triumph!

Now that we're through talking about the best part of my life lets talk a little about the stressful part of my life. Our house. I've been thinking about this a lot this week. It was almost exactly 4 years ago that Jesse and I broke ground on our house. So needless to say this house building has been term project. There have been times when I've thought about throwing in the towel and giving up but that I know would have been silly. Now that the end result is in sight it's hard for me to not get too excited. I know that there is a lot of work but each day a little gets done, some days more then others, and it just looks better and better.
This week I finished priming all the walls. This took a lot of time! I thought I would never be done. :) I love painting and I thought that after this I wouldn't want to paint ever again, but I am still looking forward to putting color on some walls. I will say though that the walls look really good painted, even if it is just white. It's amazing how paint can make the house look so much closer to being finished. We were going to try to get the house completely painted with the colors that we wanted before we moved in, but I think that we have decided to go ahead and move in with white walls. I'm not at all disappointed with this choice and have found that I feel less stress. Now I can take my time and make things look the way that I want them too. I have a lot of ideas that I know will be time consuming and will just work better if I'm living there and can start and stop the project as I go. I've had people tell me that if I don't paint it before I move in it wont happen. To answer to that though...I already bought the paint for the living-room/dinning-room and the kitchen is already painted. I also have the colors for the den completely decided, so all that should be done with in weeks of moving in. :)
I carried A LOT of wood flooring up two flights of stairs yesterday. I now have three bruises on my arm from carrying the wood...yikes! All this flooring has to be scraped before it can be put down so Jesse and Dan have been working on that and they're more then half done now. :) If I'm not mistaken, we will start putting flooring down in Rogan's room tomorrow. YEAH!!!!
Roni has been working hard to get our cabinets built and I believe they are almost finished. Once they are done we can get the counter tops installed. I'm a little nervous about that. Although we have chosen the counter top we want I'm just afraid that I won't like it or it will look awful once it's up. I second guess all the choices that I have to make with the house...lol maybe that's why it's taking so long.
We are praying that the weather will let us put our septic tank in. This all depends on how dry the ground is and right now dry is not a word that I would use to describe the ground around our house. I know that the Lord is the only one who can control this problem and in a way I am relived. I know that if there is anything I can trust it's Him. Even if it keeps raining and we're not able to put the septic in due to the rain, He has a plan and we have to have faith that He knows best. So, although in the beginning I was stressed about this, I now know it's out of our hands and in His and that make me feel good.
I will try to take pictures of the house project and keep them coming. I want to know what people think and any ideas that you might have. So let me know!!!

Rogan's Frist Shower

Today Rogan decided that he was going to take a shower...with his clothes on. :)

My house in the making

Here are some pictures of our house and how things are coming.
This first picture is looking from the living room into the den.

This is a picture of the window by the wood stove and the wall next to it. I think I might put my great grandmother's organ on this wall.

This is the door way going into the kitchen from the den.
Our fire place.
The front door
These are some of the colors we looked at for our floor and we and most likely going to go with the darkest shade of brown seen in the picture.
This is a view of the big windows in the living room.
This is the other side of the living room which will be the dining room. The door leads to the outside deck and patio (all waiting to be finished). You can see the entrance to the kitchen in this picture...it's off to the left.
This is the "accent wall" in the living room.

A new Luthier in the Lawrence Violin Shop

Yesterday I cleaned out a drawer in Jesse's work desk to put Rogan's "tools" in. He hung out in the drawer for awhile before I put his tools in there. :) Won't be long before he's working on violins.

Everyday Somthing New

I put Rogan down for a nap today and I noticed that he was jabbering on for awhile and then he started "calling" me. He does this if I don't come get him when he's jabbering. He had been so sleepy when I had put him down and he's usually not one to make a fuss when it's time to take a nap. I thought he would just jabber himself to sleep. But once he started calling to me I knew he wasn't going to go to sleep. What could be keeping him up? I went into his room to find that he was standing in his crib holding onto the side. He was so very proud of himself! I guess nap time was over. Not sure how I'm going to help him understand that his bed is for sleeping...not playing. This might be an interesting week. :)
This time of my life is so very wonderful. Watching my son learn to do new things each day. I love seeing his face when he understands something for the first time. He eyes light up with excitement. He is learning how to communicate with us. He can only say a few words (like Mama and Dada), but he understands a lot of words..like milk, cat, dog, food, chew, hi, and no. When I say milk he will spit out his pacifier, ready to eat! When we say cat or dog he will look in the direction of the cat or dog. He understands no and even though he doesn't always stay away from the "no-no's" he does react when we say "no." Twice now he has turned around and headed away from the objects that we have said "no" about. I've heard that kids can understand "no" at a young age, but I never knew it would take so well. Ok, so I know that we still have a lot of work and perseverance left (about 18 years) with this little guy and that he will test us and see what he can get away with. I hope though that we can stay consistent with him and all three of us will stay on the same page. :)
I was thinking about the times that he has cried to let us know that something was wrong, but it wasn't easy figuring out what to do and I was baffled and a little frustrated because I didn't know how to react or help him. He has got to be feeling the same way! Here we are jabbering at him and trying to make him understand something. I'm sure there are times he thinks "I have no idea what these people want me to do." It's got to be frustrating for him! I'm hoping that by being patient with him he will learn patience. Patience though, doesn't mean that you don't re-enforce. I'm a strong believer in consistency and re-enforcing.
Wow...I just read my post and it really doesn't make sense...oh well. I'll post it anyways. :)

Rogan's Laugh

Tiny Tots was this evening. Rogan has been to all of them since they began and he seamed to like the music and he REALLY likes the rhythm sticks. Tonight though, he was different. He was so excited about the music and he was bopping to the beat of each song. I know that I'm a bias mama, but none the less, I thought it was really cute. He seams to have good rhythm!
Rogan was so silly while I was feeding him lunch today...if I can figure it out, I plan on putting a video on here of him laughing...I'm going to do that now...

...There I think I did it. I just love Rogan's laugh. :)

Crawling!

It's official! My little guys is finally crawling! He was very early sitting up at only 4 months and also early at getting on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth. This started in early November and everyone told me that he would be crawling any day. I don't in anyway want my little Rogan to be delayed in anything, but it's my nature to cling to each phase. I enjoy each and every stage and even though i look forward to his growing and learning I do so love his babyness. So I was a little sad when I knew his infant stage was nearing and end and he would be on to crawling. I just wasn't ready for that yet! Well here we are three whole months later and he finally got the hang of it. I went from not wanting him to crawl yet to "come on baby, you can do this!" I think I was more ready for it then he was. :)
He is enjoying his new found freedom and, as you might suspect, is getting into everything. I love it though. His favorite thing is to crawl over to his canned food (that I keep at floor level) and get them all out of the box and scatter them everywhere. It's so cute! He is also very interested in doors and if they can be slammed into anything he'll SLAM it over and over and over again. This loud game never seams to loose it's appeal.
He tries to pull up on things, but it usually ends in him on the floor with his legs in a tangled mess. He did succeed once, but that's probably because he was trying to get to Mama and Daddy's ice cream. Thanks to Auntie Laura he is very fond of ice cream.

Two in one day....Just catching up

I wrote this several weeks ago on a site called babyfit....I thought I would put it on here as well.

I was thinking about Rogan today, like I do every day. I can't believe how big he is getting. It feels like just yesterday Jesse placed our little rogan in my arms for the first time. I remember his perfect little face, his tiny fingers and his cute little cries. I can remember life before him, but I can't remember what it felt like.
I was also thinking about how I felt the moment I knew that there was a life growing inside me. I knew it was a precious and special little life, but I never could have known just how awesome he would be. I loved him the moment I knew about him, I loved him even more the first time I felt him move inside me, and more when I saw his little profile in the ultra sound, and again more when I saw and held him for the first time. Every day I love him more and more. I think about his future and wonder what it has in store. I don't ever want him to experience pain or fear. I pray for him, that God will bring him happiness and success. I pray that he will be blessed some day with a good wife and that he too will experience the awesomeness of having a child.
I can't believe that seven months has just flown by. Rogan is getting so big! There are a ton of miles stones and I should have been writing them all down so that I would remeber them all, but I guess I would rather spend my time playing with him then writing on my computer. :)

The first month was awesome! I was sore from the C=section and exhausted, but I enjoyed every minute with Rogan. (not sore or exhausted enough to keep me from the Lake Wood garage sales only 4 days after he was born. Can't believe I did that!) He slept a lot and I took a lot of naps with him. I would spend hours just holding him in my arms and we would look into each others eyes. Just bonding and getting to know each other. He was so happy and hardly ever fussed. We took him to Ottawa KS for a week to a violin/strings camp. There was always a ton of violin music around him and he slept through most of it, but I think that the music helped stimulate his mind.

In month two his personality started to show a little. He let us know that he wasn't fond of his car seat. He cried all the way to church one Sunday morning. We were able to take him to Springfield, but we had to make a couple of stops to just let him have some time out of the car seat. He became very attached to his passi when we found that he would only take one for a 6+ moth old. Silly baby. He started smiling in month two. He was mostly fond of the ceiling fan and would rarely smile at us. Month two was July and it was a hot July. I took him to Bible School with me every day and he did so well.

I want to remeber

I decided to start a blog not only so others can read about what's been going on with the Lawrence family, but also to help me remember these wonderful years while my son is still so young.
It feels like just a little while ago I told my husband that I was pregnant. We spent that evening curled up on the couch dreaming and talking about what it would be like to be parents. The joy and excitement was almost unbearable. Now, 18 months later, I look back and remember the way that felt. I thought it would be wonderful, but I had no idea just how awesome it would be!
I want to write about this awesome experience of motherhood and the joys of building a family! I know there is no way to truly express the joy I feel or the love that I have for my son and his wonderful father...but I'll do my best. :)