I love TBT on Instagram. Perhaps because I get a chance to go back through archives of endless pictures and pick one to share that people may not have seen. On Facebook, however, I saw a friend say, "If you didn't get the pictures developed at Walmart, I'm not sure I'm ok with #tbt."

Perhaps a valid point, perhaps not. I feel like it completely depends. I mean, why should all my throw backs have to be when I was 18 and younger? I feel like even the tiniest throw back with Michael can make me tear up, or thinking about marriage before the baby, or when Clark and I were dating... the back-tracking continues.

Anyway, since I have such a love for it-- I thought I'd start sharing on here!


This is Michael last June during one of his first real romps in the grass, wearing one of Dada's old hats (backwards, of course)!

What's your opinion of #tbt? Share a link if you have one on your site!

(July 4, 2012)

With all the traveling, family escapades, and so forth I completely forgot to post on July 7th. At least we had Swing on a Star as an interlude so you didn't feel like I had forgotten to let you know about the baby boy!

So, Michael is Ten Months Old!

We're guessing he's over 20 pounds, and I would imagine close to 30 inches long. We had to finally give in and get him a new carseat that was bigger than his infant carrier; since he kept kicking the seat so much we imagined he was too long (or close to it) for his old seat. He's getting heavier to tote around, and my back has definitely started to notice. Trying to find ways to remind myself to switch sides and use the sling less and less.

(July 6, 2012)

We celebrated Michael's new check point by taking him on his first beach trip. It was most convenient to be visiting Clark's family and only have to drive around two hours, rather than drive anywhere from five to eight from our current location. Needless to say, Michael had more than enough fun. He loved the fact that the waves would go away and come back. He also loved the sand (note it flying around in the picture above). I was afraid taking him to the beach would be difficult, but we went more than prepared and it went as smoothly as could be imagined (post to come about it).


Visiting family also gave Michael opportunities to try new things. He is positively in love with strawberries still. Nothing compares. He is also in love with cheese and gold fish... which I suppose makes perfect sense. I think, too, that Michael's Great-Papa may have slipped him some ice cream... it would explain why he was up until 11pm that night.

We have hit a glorious point in Michael's development where he takes long naps. Yesterday he slept for 2.5 hours in one setting and then was up until around 8:45pm. I probably should be pressing for him to go to bed earlier, but then he also slept until 8:30am this morning... so I'm not complaining at the moment.

(This lasted for just under two hours.)

Michael is more than comfortable at this point pulling himself up to sit up, pulling up on furniture, cruising furniture, and so forth. Yesterday he even pulled himself up on his bouncer (no picture, sorry) and commenced to play with it outside of the seat. He seemed to enjoy that more since there was more freedom to it. He also made it up a few stairs yesterday... even if they were concrete and made me incredibly nervous, he handled it with ease. I can't believe how big he's getting! Next on the list is definitely walking.

His two new favorite games are playing with light switches and doors. He'll push the door closed and look at us to say, "Closed!" Then he'll crawl forward, struggle a bit, and open the door and look at us to say, "Open!"

With the light switch it's the same thing. "On," or "Off!" He absolutely loves it.


If you couldn't tell, he tolerated me more than long enough for us to have an excellent Fourth of July photo-shoot. He was excited about the few fireworks Clark shot off at his parents' house until there was one that had multiple ones in a row... that officially brought on tears and we therefore retreated inside and successfully went to sleep immediately after that.

Note: Late night company + strawberries + (I'm guessing) ice cream = grumpy baby until fireworks go off and he's truly had enough to pass out for the night.

Normally I do Michael's monthly updates. And for a while there were blogs about his sleeping, his eating, and so forth. But lately it feels like he's developing so quickly I barely have a second to write something before something else happens.

So, even though he's going to be 10 MONTHS OLD in a matter of days (well, eight days), I thought I'd go ahead and share some things in hopes that I'll still have some to share come next week.

It seems we've hit another wall when it comes to Michael's sleeping. For a while we had nap time down to a schedule (finally). Two and a half hours after he woke up, Michael would take what I call a "power nap". It'd be less than an hour. Even if it was fifty-five minutes, it was still less than an hour. Then in the afternoon he'd take a true nap, anywhere from an hour to two and a half hours long.

Then we hit a wall.

All of a sudden Michael was sleeping in until 9am, napping at random times (and by that I mean three to four 30 minute naps here and there), and not going to bed until 9pm or even ten o'clock at night, no matter what we did.

I don't know why I'm speaking in the past tense, because that's how it is now.

Maybe it's because he's more active. I mean, he's pulling himself up. He's cruising some of our furniture. Attempting to climb over/through furniture.


He's even taking a couple of naps in his crib... which could be causing part of the problem. Who knows. All of a sudden, we've hit another point of sleep regression.

Let me tell you, it's taking a toll on mommy and daddy as well.

Michael is also eating "real people food". His new favorite thing? Tuna. Good grief he loves tuna. Put it on his tray in front of him and he'll be a happy camper... until it's gone.
Oh, and he gets it all over himself.

His next favorite thing? Strawberries.

Maybe summertime makes us all crave fresh fruit, berries especially. But if Michael won't eat anything else you offer him, he will eat strawberries (even over tuna).

He also loves "combinations". Avocado + sweet potatoes. Peach + carrots. Mango + carrots. Sweet potato + applesauce. Basically he'll eat anything as long as you mix it with something sweet.

Last but not least, Michael loves to be outside. Half of the time he won't go down for a nap until we've been outside. He loves his stroller now. He loves the pool. He loves sitting in the grass. He loves the park. He loves it all. Even when it's 90 outside... he loves it.