It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I love Christmas! To the point of listening to Christmas music randomly beginning mid-summer and pretty steadily by late October. Everything about it makes me smile. This year offered a new prospective and sense of "merriment" to the season. When I found out we were having a baby, the new Christmas experience was so exciting for me.

My family has long-standing traditions and I couldn't wait to pass those on to Truett and to start our own family traditions. One of our new traditions is to purchase a gift in Truett's honor that will benefit someone in need. This year, through Samaritan's Purse, we purchased milk and prenatal care for a family. Having just had Truett, we know and appreciate the need for safe mothers and babies and adequate access to good, quality healthcare and nutrition. As Truett gets older, we'll let him pick out the gifts that are given. This gift is to be given in the place of a toy or item and we hope it will help instill the true meaning of Christ's love in Truett. Jayson and I really enjoyed picking out the item. We received an acknowledgment card that we put into Truett's stocking.

Confession- Truett didn't really have a stocking! For someone who loves Christmas so much, you'd think I'd buy my child a stocking. I have good reasoning behind this- I really wanted monogrammed stockings and I wanted them to all match. So my logic was to buy them after Christmas when they'd be on sale. As of today, 2/29/12, the Swain family does NOT have new stockings.

Now that I have that off of my chest...

Our Christmas season traditions:

Dickens Family Gingerbread house Competition- It is fierce! And I dominate! Each person or couple decorates their house and Nanny and possibly a neighbor friend will be our judges. This year, Mal and I were named champions! Kyle, the engineer in the family, failed miserably. And I'm not sure what Jayson was thinking...

The winning house

Kyle and Jayson's village

Visit with Santa- I admit...I was nervous! I was really looking forward to the photo-op but Truett was starting into his separation anxiety phase and out of his "he'll go to anyone who smiles at him" phase and I wasn't sure what his reaction would be to this stranger dressed in red. It was a Saturday and I wanted to time it just after food and right before nap. Thankfully, Truett's curiosity took charge and he just stared. We were quick and everyone left happy! I love this picture. It's so sweet and innocent.

Ornament making- A Swain family tradition. (The Dickens side isn't crafty) Pinterest has quickly become my latest addiction. Forget Facebook, just leave me with Pinterest. So as the season was approaching and Pinterest was taking up the time that I should have been blogging, I was "pinning" the greatest Christmas ideas. One being hand prints painted as Santas. Now, this may sound easy. But if you've never held the squirmy tiny hand of a 10 month old while holding him upside down as to have enough pressure to make the indention, try it! And do it for 8 molds. Well worth it though. I can't wait to see our tree in 10 or 15 years with our kid's ornaments.

Christmas PJs- New for our family. On the Dickens side, our Christmas Eve rule was one present only! No exceptions. Jayson and I have decided that our one present will be Christmas PJs.

Christmas Eve Service- My personal favorite. Truett did pretty well until he bumped his head on the pew in front of him and he started to cry.

"The Night Before Christmas"- Truett's Auntie M (Mallory, my sister) gave him this book and a reindeer blanket. This will be a new tradition for Christmas with Grandaddy Jeff.

As always, family visits are part of the Christmas holiday. This year, we had an extra special visit with Jayson's great-grandmother, Gram Willy. This picture was the first time that both Truett and Leighton had met Gram Willy. 5 generations were present. Truett and Leighton, Jayson and Alex, Granny Angie, Granny LaLa, and Gram Willy. How special!

Dads hard at work

9 months!

This one will be short because our Christmas post deserves one of it's own.

We had a great 9 month check-up. Truett's 18.5 lbs. and 26.5 inches long. He's in the 10th percentile for height and 25th for weight. The doctor commented on how social he was and that his development was great. It makes you feel good as a parent when your pediatrician affirms that you're doing something right.

We've broadened our menu and have added meat. The doctor said if he can "gum" then he can have it! We've tried chicken and pasty; spaghetti; and chicken pot pie among other things. He's not a fan of big people food but we're working on it. Still loves fruit and most vegetables. A huge Cherrio fan! The kid loves the Os. I was sweeping some up today and he looked sad that they went into the trash.

We get some gibber-gabber and we know he's talking to us, but who knows what he's saying!? We think we've heard "da da" but it's followed by ga ga ba ba ga da. I was hoping for "mama" for Christmas but maybe for his birthday!

Speaking of birthday...the splash bash is in the works. Tune in mid-March for a post on Truett's 1st birthday festivities.

Truett started crawling on December 2nd! He started and hasn't stopped. He's pulling up and "cruising" around the furniture. He's a natural explorer. I feel a little guilty because while I want him to explore and learn, I feel so bad for him when he falls. That's life, I guess.

Alphabet Soup

Remember us? 8 months.

I won't go over the list of excuses as to why this 8 month post is two months late but I will admit to forgetting my blogspot password! Yikes!

So we'll start with our 8 month pictures. It's a good thing nothing too exciting happened in our lives during the month of November because I don't really remember enough to write about.

However, Aladdin and Abu did win "most creative costume" at our Sunday School costume party! I was planning to go has Pippi w/ Mr. Nelson as my side-kick but got sick and the pink-tails never came to fruition.

And we made our first living room fort. The first of many!

We started using a sippy cup. But it's more of a chew toy than a drinking device! Even now...we'll get there.

And while the month of November usually includes Thanksgiving pictures, uunfortunately for us, I had a terrible migraine Thursday morning so Jayson and I stayed at the house and Truett, who spent the night with my parents, had his first Thanksgiving experience with them. No pictures on our computer to show for it. Thankfully, my migraine got better and my "always thinking" mom packed us a to-go bag of food. We picked Truett and ate our first half of Thanksgiving on the road to Fuquay. There we enjoyed a "heart healthier" meal with Jayson's family.

On Friday, the family went to Pullen Park in Raleigh. I remember going with my parents and riding the merry-go-round and the bumper cars. If you haven't taken your family yet, go! It's beautiful and we're looking forward to many more family days in the park.

November also brought about the lowering of Truett's crib. While some wait for their child to fall out of their cribs prior to lowering it, we thought we'd be proactive and safe our selves the heart-attack of hearing a thud in the night.

As you know, America begins the celebration of the Christmas holiday on November 1st. And for some reason, Raleigh thinks it's appropriate to have their Christmas parade mid-November. So of course, we had to go and join the festivities. And let's face it, we all know the Christmas festivities and traditions are for my sake. I'm okay with that.

A little too much heat, mom!

Truett's picture with Scotty. Look to the left of Jayson's elbow.

Eight month pic! Love that sweet sweet smile.

7 month photo shoot

Two weeks late but that's okay.

I've already painted the "8" on the block so maybe we'll do that one on time.

One update for his 7 month milestones- He's signing "more" to us now. He first did it with apples but when we tried it with cereal he wouldn't do it. I guess now he needs to learn "no more"!

I'm not sure if that's lead free paint or not...

These pictures are getting harder and harder to take!

Those toes eventually ended up in his mouth.

The final product. Love that smile.

Cute as a pumpkin

We've been trying to get to the pumkpin patch for two weeks and finally made it this past weekend while in Fuquay. After a great photo shoot and picking our the perfect baby pumpkin, we forgot them! So back at our we're still pumpkin-less but at least we have cute pictures to show for it.

Papa Jay's heart hurts

Last Sunday morning around 4:50am I woke up to Jayson saying "heart attack". Never did I expect him to say that his dad had just had a heart attack and was in the hospital. Thankfully, minimal damage was done but this has been a huge wake up call for all of us. The Lord has blessed Truett with wonderful grandparents and we want them to be around for a VERY long time.

Ironically, the day before I was driving home with Truett asleep in the back seat thinking about how blessed we were but also recognizing how quickly things could change. I had just helped host a shower for a childhood friend and was able to catch up with a lot of wonderful women from my home church in Washington. Truett and I had spent the night at my parens house and they enjoyed loving on him. Jayson had gone to the wooden boat show with some good friends from Greenville. My heart was over flowing with thanksgiving to our Lord. Sunday morning was a reminder of how we must recognize and appreciate the daily blessings and relationships that we have.

Truett's first art project was a "Get well soon" picture for Papa Jay



Others were made as special surprises



7 months

Truett turned 7 months on Friday. I feel like we just took our 6 month pictures yesterday. I can't count how many people told me that time would fly but I didn't think it would fly this fast. I'm so grateful for our 7 month love-bug. It's hard to believe that he's that old and I wish time would slow down. I don't have his 7 month picture yet but I'll post it as soon as we take. Cute pictures are below to hold you over.

We enjoyed our weekend in Fuquay but as usual, it was busy. Saturday, we went to JC Penny for some pictures of Truett. I have to admit that I'm a bit of snob when it comes to picture quality. Unfortunately, I'm not thrilled with our pictures and if we had paid more than we did, I wouldn't have gotten them. The photographer would try to get him to smile but by the time she had the camera ready, the smile would be gone. And props were half in/half out of the picture. I'm disappointed but we have a few good ones.

Truett's first sink bath.

 Saturday evening we celebrated a friend's 30th birthday. Jayson's not far behind! He's working on coming to terms with the big 3-0! Achy knees, gray hairs, etc.

On Sunday we went to my mom's side family reunion. This once a year gathering had 4 generations present. Truett's not the youngest in the family but he was the youngest (and cutest) present.

He was chewing on the swing so we put his coat there.

My new favorite!

Weeeeeeeeee!

 7 Month updates:

• CLAPPING! He started clapping yesterday and hasn't stopped. It is SO cute. 
• He's on the verge of crawling. He gets on one knee but topples over.
• We've introduced green beans and carrots to his diet. Now that we have a plethora of goodies, we've started to spice it up a little and mix foods together. Tonight we had apples and bananas.
• Our biggest update for the month is that Truett is now solely on formula. Between his two little teeth and my low milk supply, we were forced to stop nursing. I'm glad I was able to nurse as long as I was because wanted to go as long as I could. Once I got past month 2 or so and we got in our groove, I really loved that time together. If you think about it, I had been Truett's sole mean of nourishment for a year and a 1/2 (while preggo)

Truett's schedule:

5:30ish- He still waits up sometimes early morning but we're able to give him his pacy back or we put him in his swing. Every now and then he'll sleep through to 7 or 8.
7am- 6 oz., cereal, and a fruit
11am- 7/8 oz.
3pm- 7/8 oz.
6:30- 6 oz., veggie, and a fruit. We were giving cereal but I wanted to add another fruit or veggie and I think they're more vital than cereal.
8pm- Bed time. He still sleeps like a champ!

I didn't include naps because they're so random! Ideally, he goes down about two hours after he eats for about an hour and a 1/2 to 2 hours. That was not the case today! I was off today and kept him with me. I don't do this often but I rocked him for about an hour while he slept. And I loved it! I know I won't get this time back so I cherish our time together.