First Swim

So, this is how I looked before my little body hit the water. Look at how happy I look. Look at how excited. This is how I looked after...

Quite the difference, huh? I did not like it. At. ALL. I thought it would be fun, like bath time, but I was WRONG! Maybe it was the fact that I was shocked introduced to this whole swimming experience by being held under a massive waterfall (okay, maybe now I'm being a bit dramatic).

 I did eventually warm up to the idea of swimming. I'm not going to say I liked it. I wouldn't go that far, YET. I'm just going to say I warmed up to the idea. It just doesn't seem natural to me. I mean, seriously, people, I'm a human, not an amphibian. Am I really supposed to be in the water this much????

I did find out that there are some fun parts of swimming. Not so much the swimming part, but the waterslide part.

The actual swimming part of swimming - yeah, not quite sure what to think of that yet. Seemed just a bit awkward. Again, I have arms, not fins. How exactly is this supposed to work? I did figure out if I sort of kicked my feet, I got somewhere. I'm sure it was because my Dad was moving me around. I like to think it was all me.

One lesson I did learn from swimming: it's EXHAUSTING!

Mom and Dad swear I will like it one day. I keep telling them that we'll just have to see about that. They then threatened me that they would take me to the pool every weekend if they have to. I will NOT be afraid of water. Again, we'll just have to see won't we. If I wasn't crazy about it, at least I looked pretty cute trying!

 

For now, I'll just stick to playing in the grass and not the water. 

 

My New Best Friends

Hello All! Parker again. So, Remember when I met this guy? Well, I have been lucky enough to meet someone else equally as famous. Some might argue even more famous. I have met THE Mickey Mouse, as well as the lovely Minnie Mouse! That's right. You heard what I said. Mom made sure I was prepared before our meeting. She bought  me my own set of Mickey ears, complete with my name.

I think I was more mesmerized by these two than the previous 2 celebrities I met (Santa and Mrs. Claus in case you forgot). It could be because I have never seen any mice bigger than me. Actually, I have never even seen mice in general. However, I like to think it's because they are so incredibly awesome.

It took me a minute to really warm up to them. I think I was in awe of their highly famous reputation. I actually had to touch their hands to make sure they were real. Once we established they did really exist, I was all about making some new friends.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year (A Little Late)

Yes, I know. My New Year's Resolution of doing a better job at keeping up with this blog has not exactly held up. Is there any surprise? How many new year's resolutions actually hold up? We had a wonderful holiday season, especially getting to experience it with Parker for the first time. We kept Christmas this year low key. We didn't buy much for Parker, but we made sure to fill it with all of our family traditions. We started Christmas Eve by picking oranges at a local grove, something we do every year.

Every year we comment on how blessed we feel to live in a place where we have the opportunity to pick oranges, wearing summer clothes, on Christmas Eve. I know many people feel as though they miss the cold weather around the holidays, but that is not us. We thrive on the heat. We love living in a place that allows us to rarely deal with the cold that seems to cut right through your bones. Days like Christmas Eve and traditions like picking oranges just remind us once again that God placed in a location that is absolutely perfect for us.

After picking oranges, we celebrated our usually tradition of Swedish dinner with Rachel and Morfar on Christmas Eve . This year, Rachel hosted Swedish dinner at her apartment and it was delicious as always. This was Parker's first experience with opening presents. He seemed more interested in eating tearing the wrapping paper than the actual present.

Christmas morning at our house went the same way. Before having Christmas lunch, we opened presents, which pretty much went the same way - lots of paper eating.

We ended the holiday season spending New Year's Eve weekend at Disney. Morfar was kind enough to give us some of his DVC points and we were able to stay at the Boardwalk Villas. For those of you that aren't familiar with the Boardwalk, it is within walking distance to Epcot and MGM, which proved to be so beneficial. We didn't have to mess with a bus or our car. We could just walk and enjoy the outdoors. The weather was beautiful all weekend long and with the crowd levels being extremely intense we were able to take it easy, take strolls to Epcot, as well as MGM, and just enjoy the NYE festivities. We spent actual NYE at Epcot. We enjoyed a tasty meal at the San Angel Inn (Mexico) before watching the fireworks (both Epcot and MGM) from the bridge in between the Boardwalk and Beach Club resorts. Naturally, we were pretty exhausted New Year's Day, so we decided to take it pretty easy and walk around Animal Kingdom, which happened to be Parker's first visit to the park. Overall, I'd say our first holiday season with Parker couldn't have been better!

A Lesson in Faith

As many of you saw through Facebook or heard through the family grapevine, we had a scary choking incident with Parker in early December. Let me start off by saying, this whole parenting thing is a daily struggle of realizing I'm not in control and going against some of my deepest personality qualities and sometimes, faults. I don't like feeling out of control. I'm also a worrier. I come by it naturally - I come from a long family line of worriers. I worry about little things, like is Parker going to get too hot if we go out in the Florida heat, as well as big things, like is he still breathing while sleeping. I admit, I'm not proud of some of my worries, but I can't help it. I have to daily fight and pray against some of my rational, and irrational, fears.

This night in December was no different than any of the nights before. We had put Parker to bed, awake, like we always do in an effort to try to get him to self-soothe. He cried, like usual. However, after a while of crying, I noticed his cry took on a different tone - one with more panic. One that was just different somehow. I couldn't tell you how it was different - I just knew it was. When I checked on Parker, I found him attempting to cry. It almost sounded like what you picture a child whose throat was closing due to an allergic reaction to sound like. Immediately, I picked him up, and it grew worse. I immediately called Ryan upstairs and we immediately started acting. I couldn't tell you what we did or why we chose to act the way we did - instinct just took over. After what seemed like forever, we realized the attempt to clear his throat by hitting his back, was not working. When we saw his eyes start to close a bit, we immediately called 911 and continue to hit his back. It was one of the scariest moments of my life to date. Of course, by the time the emergency responders (2 police officers, 3 fire-fighter/EMTs - the ambulance was called off) arrived, he was breathing again. I felt like an over-paranoid first-time Mom, but they did a good job of assuring me I was not. Things turned out fine. The responders said he could have simply choked on his spit. When we followed up with our doctor, she said some babies have "holding-their-breath spells" where they will actually hold their breath when feeling stressed or upset (leave it to my child).

I know this was the first of many lessons I am going to have in faith as a parent. I don't control what happens in this world (thankfully). I don't even control what happens with my own little family and for me, an knowing control-freak, this is scariest thought of my life. However, thankfully, it doesn't have to be. I know that I have a God who is always looking out for us. That doesn't mean everything is always going to be perfect or that things will always go right. However, it does mean, that someone much greater, wiser, loving, etc than me, has it all planned out. It might not always be something I understand, but that's where faith comes in. Since having Parker, I have to choose faith every day. I have to have faith knowing that God will take care of us, sometimes I will understand His ways and sometimes I won't. However, I have to have faith that He is in control, that there is a reason for it, and it's for His glory. Becoming a parent has been one of the hardest moments in my life, for obvious reasons, but also one of the most rewarding. It has been an event that has taught me more in 6 months than some of my other life-long events and it continues to teach me things every day. It is a daily lesson in patience, love, trust, and many other things. However, more than those, it's a daily lesson in trust and faith that I have a God who has it all under control, will never leave me, and will watch out for me during the good, and bad, times.