New things during the week

Landon and I were very busy this past week. We did lots of new things this week. Monday we went to a play date Halloween party. Thanks to the Whitlock's Landon had a costume already. All I had to do was think of something I could dress up without going and buying something. Landon went as a pumpkin and I was a scarecrow. It was so cute seeing all of the little kids dressed up. Landon did really well. I think he enjoyed being around all the kids. He was very interested in watching them. After the Halloween party we came home I changed and we went over to Jen’s house. Then we ran home and I tutored for 2 hours.

Tuesday, Landon and I went to the postpartum lunch North Florida provides for anyone who gave birth there. I have wanted to go but I have either been unable to walk because of the infection I got on my leg, recovering from an allergic reaction, or forgot. (My body has really been going through some weird things since I gave birth. On top of the infection I got on my leg and allergic reaction, this week I got an ear infection. None of these things I have ever had in my life.) I really enjoyed the lunch and the discussion. It is a great sanity keeper for new moms. I haven’t been losing my sanity but it was nice to here other moms going through the same or similar things. I think there are a few mom who would be losing there sanity if it wasn’t for the luncheons. Some of those moms have had to deal with a lot and there babies aren’t even 2 months old. I feel blessed to have such a happy, healthy baby, a wonderful supportive husband and awesome friends. After the lunch was over I went to weigh Landon. There is a place open to moms to weigh their babies. I knew Landon had grown but I didn’t realize how much weight he had gained. He weighted 10 lbs 12 oz. He is growing so fast!! Tuesday evening our good friends the Whitlock were in town for the day. The Searby hosted a dinner for them with some of our friends. Landon is very happy he finally got to meet Isaac, Jimmy, and Katie. It was really great visiting with them. They moved this year to North Carolina and we miss them so much.

Wednesday Landon and I made homemade cupcakes for the Fall Festival at Harvest Church. I have never made homemade cupcakes. My friend Brandi has inspired me to make more bake from scratch. So far I have made banana nut bread, chocolate cookies, and chocolate cupcakes. All of them have turned out yummy, or at lease my tummy thinks so. That evening we got dressed up again in our pumpkin and scarecrow costumes and went to the Festival. We ran the pumpkin dice race. Landon helped Daddy keep the youth group kids under control. There was YUMMY homemade pies made for the pie contest. They also had candied apples! We had a fun sugar filled night.

Thursday, I had my 6 week postpartum check-up. Dr. Marichal said I was back to normal. I really have loved having him as my doctor and having him deliver Landon. I am sad that I will not be visiting him all the time. He is such a great guy and has the funniest sense of humor. I love the fact that he wears bow ties! I hope that when a second Williams is in the making he will be able to be our doctor once again. I would HIGHLY recommend him to anyone who needs an OBGYN doctor. After Josh went to work Landon and I worked on recording a deposit for North Burma Mission and then went to the bank to deposit. After running to the bank we brought Jessica some Halloween cupcakes. Jessica had been playing Zelda on N64 and had gotten suck on a part. I helped her figure out what to do. She invited us to stay for dinner which worked out great because I didn’t have any idea what we would eat that night, and was running late getting home, plus Josh was working on that side of town so it was nice for him to not have to drive 20+ minutes before eating. Jessica and I also made cookies. It was a great night, other than I got a really bad cold that evening. Luckily it was gone late Friday evening.

Friday was fun because I had Landon watch Dad made dinner. Josh made the yummiest soups. When we went home last weekend I had an awesome cream of snow crap soup. Josh wanted to try to make it. He also made a potato soup. They came out GREAT! We had Landon smell the ingredients as Josh used them. Landon was very interested in smelling them. Our close friends Ashlee and Kimberly got Landon a pumpkin outfit, a pumpkin complete with his name on it and some other cute things.

Saturday, the Gators were playing Georgia. We invited Jessica and Andrea for the game and dinner. We had all kinds of yummy food. Even though Florida creamed Georgia it was fun watching with everyone. I enjoyed the game because I got a really nice break from caring for Landon. I try to read Landon his Bible everyday. I was reading the story of Jacob of when his brothers sell him as a slave. I asked him if he wanted to read the next story and he smiled really big, I took that as a yes. Before bed I read Landon the book, “Goodnight Gorilla.” There are not that many words but a lot of colors. This is the first time I have read to Landon and he looked at the book the whole time.

Sunday was a tough day Landon had painful gas all day. He has had gas before but not this bad and all day. He cry a lot of the day. I felt so bad for my little guy. Lucky, we got through the day and Josh was there to help.

My cute boy

Family time

On Thursday last week Landon and I spent most of the day with Jessica. She took me out to lunch and then we searched all over the mall for the perfect dress. Jessica is going to a Military Ball in North Carolina. She is double dating with Jon (her brother and one of his friends and his sister. Jon is brought Jessica a ticket to fly up there and spend a few days and then he is going to drive her back down to Gainesville and spend the weekend with us. After lots of searching we found the perfect dress for Jess. It is a red dress and she bought sparkly silver shoes to match the beading on the dress. This was Landon’s first day out of the house for more than 3 hours and his first time on an elevator.

Friday after I finished tutoring and Josh finished working we left for the panhandle to visit Landon’s grandparents. Driving with a baby is very different than drive with just the two of us or our furries. Instead of the drive being 4 hours it was closer to 5 hours. Landon did really well for his long drive. He slept half the way. We stopped twice to feed him.

Saturday we spent mostly with my family. One of the coolest things that happened on Saturday was Josh and I were playing with Landon when he woke up and he laughed at us. I love being a parent!! We spent some time around the house. We went out for lunch to Harry T’s in Destin, FL. Landon got to see the ocean and the bay for the first time. At the restaurant they were playing the Gator game on all the TVs. It was really cool because a lot of the locals go there, decorate the place and watch the game. Josh had a UF shirt on and as soon as we walked in a guy came up to him, treated him like a long time friend, invited us to join them at the reserved tables, and gave us all “beat the Cats” stickers. Even with a large amount of noise Landon did great. He slept most of dinner and wanted to be held the rest of the time. After lunch we went to a couple of stores shopping. The evening was spent mostly with Josh helping Jamiie and Jeremiah with there presentations they were giving with Josh on Sunday.

Sunday morning Josh, Jeremiah and Jamiie gave their Thailand mission trip report. Everyone at church met Landon for the first time. I think Landon finally became over stimulated with all the people and being in a different place because shortly after the report was done Landon started fussing and was fussy for most of the service. After service Josh looked at the standing ride lawn mower Niceville Christian Church donated to Josh and Bryan’s business. It was a real blessing that they are donating it to them. No one there wants that big of a lawn mower and it is more difficult to use. Someone donated it to them. It could cost several hundreds of dollars for the mower. It will a great help to Josh’s work. We went out after Josh checking out the lawn mower and us pack to eat with the Williams and Johnson’s.

On our way home, we stopped in Tallassee to visit my brother Adam. He works for Florida University in the engineering department. Landon was able to meet his Uncle for the first time. Unfortunately because we left so late we weren’t able to spend much time with him. We talked a little and got some pictures. Hopefully Adam will be able to come and visit soon.

Grandpa and Landon

The Destin Ocean view

Grandpa and Grandma Gorman with baby Landon

Go Gators!! Mom and Dad with Landon and our "Beat the Cats stickers

Our little family by the ocean

Grandparents and Landon

Uncle Adam, Mom and Landon

Stormy, my best friend

She came into my life on December 9, 1994 and left October 21, 2008. She was 16 or 17 years old when she died.

She was the best furry companion I have ever had. We went though a lot together. She never got mad at me for crying on her when I was sad or pestering her with my love. She waited by the door of my parent’s house for two years while I was off at college. She always got excited when I came home. She cuddled with me every night from the first day I got her.

She was given to me as an early Christmas present from my parents. I fell in love with her at the cat shelter I worked at for 2 years. She didn’t like people or other cats except one cat named Mia Gray. I really wanted Mia Gray but she was adopted. The next day I came to volunteer Stormy came down off her ceiling high cat post and sat on my shoulders. She did that every night I came to work for the two hours I work. About eight month after we had become friends my dad brought her home. She was so afraid of the world. She ran right up to my bedroom and under my bed and stayed there except at night. That first night and every night after she would come up to the bed and cuddled with me. She learned not to be afraid and loved on the people who I brought it. She learned to trust me and not be afraid. I realized how much when we moved into this house. We have a friend’s dog (a mastiff- for those of you who don’t know the dog is the size of a pony). Stormy wanted to go outside in the backyard but the dog was in the way. He ran up to the door and straight at her. Our other 2 cats who were also trying to get outside bolted away. Not her, she just stuck her paw on his nose and tried to push him out of the way. It is so funny to think of that brave persistent kitty as the same on who stayed under my bed for a year because she was so scared.

When I went off to college she would stay most by the front door during the day. At night she would sleep on my bed or cuddle with my parents. When I called she would meow at the phone when my mom would hold the phone to her

She seemed to know what was best for me because the only guy she really like and loved on was Josh. She knew the first time he came over he was a good guy. She accepted him as part of me and would love on him almost as much as me.

She loved Landon as much as me. She always wanted to cuddle with him and would love on the both of us when I held him. She would come and get me if I didn’t hear him cry. I always told her I wanted her to stay alive as long as possible and at least until my first child was a few weeks old so I would have something to take care of when she passed. She was always there for me and even stayed around until I asked her too.

The bond between me and Stormy was very strong and will never come close to any other pet I will ever have. She was my best friend and I will always have a place for her in my heart. I know some may think it is silly to be that attached to an animal but how many people have an animal for 14 years who loves on them as much as stormy loved on me.

Cuddling with daddy

Stormy and Marigold

Taking a bath

Holding Mom's hand

My pretty green eyed kitty

Laying in a box, one of her favorite things to do

Crumby weekend

I love the weekends because then I can spend time with Josh, go to church and normally we try to do something fun together. This weekend however was not so fun, although Josh did his best to help me enjoy it. First we were supposed to go visit our parents for the weekend. Josh some unexpected work come up on Friday and so we thought we should wait until next weekend. It is a good thing we did. Friday morning I noticed I had little red marks on my chest by that afternoon, I had hives all over my body and my lips started to swell a little. I still today, have no idea what I was had an allergic reactions too, especially since I have never been allergic to anything in my life but the hives have just about gone away completely. I took Benadryl to stop the reaction from worsening. The only problem with taking the medicine is that it knock me out. So all day Saturday I was pretty much incoherent. Josh took care of Landon, I am so thankful it was on the weekend so that he could take care of Landon without needed to take time off.Even though it ruined the weekend it was a blessing.

Also Friday evening I realized that my kitty, Stormy, who I have had for 14 years has come to the end of her time. She is still hanging in there but she is dieing. I think she is happy, well as happy as you can be when you are dieing. She is still drinking water but I think old age has caught up with her. She is about 16 or 17 years old so she has lived a good life. She has been a wonderful cat and my loving companion for so long. I would love with all my heart for her to live forever but I know that can’t happen. I always asked her to stay around until I had my first child and she did. We have gone through so much together. I love her and will be very heartbroken when she does pass.

To add to the already crumby weekend Landon came down wit ha little cold on Saturday. He had a stuffy nose and a little fever. Lucky his fever was short lived. I was worried about him, mostly because it was the first time he has gotten sick and it always worries me when infants get sick.

Sunday, Josh wanted to make something of the weekend for me so he cooked up some yummy food in our smoker and invited Jessica over for lunch. We had a picnic in our backyard with all kinds of yummy food. I am glad he did that or the weekend would have been so depressing.

Double Date Night

Our first date night since Landon was born was great. I did miss him a little but I was excited to go out. We had a double date with Mike and Vernine. Jessica watched their two children, Meykayla and Zach as well as Landon. How lucky are we to have such a wonderful sister/sister-in-law. It was a night of politics. First we went out to see a movie- An American Carol. It was a funny movie. If you haven’t heard of it, it is a movie about Michael Moore although it is not that in the movie. The ghosts of America come to visit him the night before he is leading a rally to stop Independence Day. The ghosts are JFK, George Washington, General Patton, and the Angel of Death (who is also a country singer- who I don’t know since I am not a huge fan of country). After the movie we went back to Mike and Vernine’s and with all the children asleep the 5 adults watched the last presidential debate. Politics aren’t my favorite but I did enjoy everything and was very happy to go out with our friends and have some grown up time.

Landon updates- One Month

I can’t believe that my little boy is already a month old. Then again all my days (and nights) run together now since I have had him too. I love being a mom so much, it is by far the best job I could have been given. I am blessed to have s healthy, mostly happy little boy. It has been amazing watching the little things change in him over this past month. Landon can now lift his head when laying on his tummy and hold it at an angle. When he is laying down he will push himself up slightly and also scoot forward by pushing with his legs. He responds to sounds and recognizes Mommy and Daddy’s voices. He starts look for us when he hears us. He will follow my face with his eyes if I move my head. Landon is making all kinds of ooh and ahh sounds as well as waaa. One of my favorites is when he smiles. He has also started this week to laugh, or at least it looks like he is laugh with no sound. Yesterday, I could have swore he said hi. I walked into the room to pick him up and as soon as his eyes met mine he made a sound that sounded just like “hi.”

I love watching Josh and Landon together. Josh is such a wonderful father and husband. I have had 2 days where Landon was just really fussy. One day Josh came home from work for a few hours to give me a break and the other he came home early and gave me a break. Sharing in the experience of being parents has just made my love for Josh grown stronger. I am blessed to have two such wonderful boys in my life.

I will post some more pictures soon but here are two,

Landon past out with Mommy

Tummy time on mommy's leg which turned into a nap on mommy's lap

Dinner, Uncle Jon ,and the Gators

Friday night, Daryl, a friend from church, made Josh and I a great dinner and came over to spend some time with us and Landon. Daryl is such a nice guy. He is in our small group. We always enjoy spending time with him. He has led a really interesting life spending most of the 70s hitchhiking through the US.

Uncle Jon came down this weekend to visit little Landon. We hung out around the house, cooking some yummy food and having fun. Jessica came over to join in the eating and celebrating of the gators. Saturday night we watched the gators stomp LSU! Landon was very excited. Even thought he slept through most of the game. ;o)

Sunday we went to church. It was Landon first time in the nursery. I was there with Colleen and Little Zach. Even though Zach has technically graduated from the nursery we let him stay. It was really cute watching him interact with Landon. When Landon cried Zach (Who is a little over 1 years old) would come over and rub Landon’s head and make sounds similar to the words we use to comfort babies. Also when Landon was sleeping in my arms Zach come over and rubbed Landon’s back and said “Shhh.” I love watching children interact with each other. I had meetings after church which included a lunch for everyone. After I ate and fed Landon, Landon hung out with Daddy, Uncle Jon and Aunt Jessica and waited for me. Later that afternoon, our friend Josh came over to play video games and we all went out to eat dinner. Overall we had a great weekend and Landon got to meet lots of new people.

Loving on Uncle Jon

Jon, Landon and Josh

Napping with Mommy

Spoiled

Boy do we feel spoiled!  Bryan and Brandi are such great friends!  Tonight they came over and made us the most wonderful dinner, shrimp cocktail, crab cakes, and lobster bisque.  Plus for dessert we had chocolate cake with chocolate frosting topped with strawberries!  What a great dinner!  We love hanging out with them and the awesome food made it even better.  We also watched a movie together that they brought over.  Landon was very good he slept through dinner and dessert and woke up for a meal during the movie so it was really easy to nurse him.  After being stuck in the house because I have had a skin infection on my leg for the last couple days (which is getting better due to a visit to the doctor and some antibiotics) it was a great treat to have company.  Thank you so much Bryan and Brandi for making my week!

Blessed Mommy

I am such a blessed mommy! One of the first reasons I say that is my son slept through the night on Saturday. Almost every other night, Landon has only waking up once. Landon is also feeding so well. I have been pumping everyday. Daddy feeds him if I need to nap, need a break, or just for some Daddy/son time. Landon will take a bottle but not well. I don’t mind him preferring me, it makes me feel good and at least he will take it if he has too. You can tell all that feeding is paying off because Landon is getting some chubby cheeks.

Landon has decided he loves showers. Daddy takes him in for the first few minutes. He really likes it. Josh said he even look liked he laughed. Landon is in such a good mood after a shower.

During Landon’s wake time gotten out his floor gym Aunt Jessica gave him. The first two times he didn’t cry but he didn’t seem very interested. Tuesday, I got it out and he was very interested in the dangling toys. I made him hit the little tiger holding a ball that will play music when you hit the ball. His expression was so cute. It looked as if he was thinking, “Whoa I made that happen, how did I do that?”

Landon has also been getting much stronger. He can roll over from his side to back and back to side. He can lift his head up and turn it. Landon follows me and Josh with his eyes and if he can’t see us he will move his head so he can. Plus Monday he started lifting his upper body about a half inch to a inch off the ground with his arms. It is amazing how fast little babies grow.

Here are some pictures of my little man.

Aunt Jessica and Landon on his jungle floor gym

A few days later on his jungle floor gym, I think he is getting the hang of it.

My sleepy baby

More sleepy baby

A tucker out Dad and son