Tour de Bebe Continued

Our trip continued from Hamilton, Ohio to Rossville, IN to visit Ryan and Carolyn, Luke's sister and her husband.  We went to HuHot, a Mongolian Grill restaurant, that night for dinner.  I'm learning that it's a LOT harder to go out to eat with a baby.  I was a little stressed during that part of the trip, trying to get Bronson to go to sleep, but we still had a great time.  We spent the next day hanging out at their new house and playing with the dogs.  We LOVED seeing Laika again!  She is happy and thriving there with their dog, Sean.

 We then drove up to Warsaw, IN to spend a day with Luke's parents.  They were excited to see all the changes in Bronson from when they last saw him a few weeks before.  They had the grandparents over for dinner that night, so that Grandpa Lindemuth and Hal could see Bronson for the first time.  It was a fun meeting for everyone.

Scrippy was very jealous and moved right onto Grandpa's lap.

Going fishing with Grandpa

We then drove to Springboro, OH with Luke's parents for a Wheeler family reunion over the weekend.  We had a great time meeting all the cousins and hanging out in the heat.  Bronson got passed around to everybody.  I hardly held him the whole weekend.  :)  They had music, golfing, lots of food, and a refreshing pool that all the kids tackled.  The guys even got a game of basketball going young guys against old guys.  It was Luke's first time on the "Old Guys" team.  And the Old Guys won 3 out of 3! (may have helped that 25 was the cut off between old and young guys :)

Hanging out with 2nd cousin Audrey

4th of July attire

Bronson and Bronson

We then drove to my Grandma Hanna's in Oblong, IL on the 4th of July.  We spent the night there and visited with her most of the next day.  She has moved in with her sister Eileen, so it was fun to also get to know Aunt Eileen.  It seems like she is very good for Grandma.  They had ongoing jokes, teasing each other about who did more work around the house.  They enjoyed playing with Bronson, and we had a good time catching up.  She even dug out some old baby pictures of my dad.  Bronson definitely has some resemblance. (I think his ears stick out just like Dad's did.) 

Next, we drove to St Louis, MO to my other Grandma's.  It was about a 3 hour drive through Illinois country.  While there, we went to the St Louis zoo.  It was blazing hot that day with super high humidity.  Poor Bronson was soaked with sweat like the rest of us, but he was great.  Aunt JoAnn and Aunt Jo went with us along with most of my cousins.  We of course had to get a picture of the cousins with the gorilla.  We saw the sea lion show and saw as many animals as we could before everyone was exhausted.  Later that night, everyone came over and the uncles were able to see Bronson.

Cousin Emily

Great Uncle Tim

Great Grandma Hufker

To be continued again...

Tour de Bebe

It has been just over a week on our "Tour de Bebe".  We have already been many places and have seen many people.  Our plan was to visit as much family and friends as we could before flying out to Japan.  Luke will be unable to come back to the U.S. much at all once he starts work out there, so he really wanted to see everybody and show off the new baby.  :)

Our trip started off 2 1/2 hours from Jacksonville in Savannah, GA to see some Coast Guard friends we made in Pensacola (Daniel and Sarah Lavender).  We had a great time visiting with them and holding each others' babies and eating some yummy food.

Bye Jacksonville, FL!

Our next stop was in Burke, VA to see Luke's Uncle Steve, Aunt Maribeth, and the cousins.  We spent a few days in Northern Virginia with them.  We even took a trip into Washington, DC to see the monuments at the National Mall.  We took Bronson to the Capitol and took a picture, so he will know he really is an American.  He even pooped all over the Library of Congress (A story to be told on a later date).  Aunt Maribeth took Bronson one night so that we could go out with cousins Katie and Steven.  We had a great time with them!  I realize now that I don't have many pictures of them, which I am bummed about. :(

Great Uncle Steve

While we were in the area we went up to Annapolis, MD to see Marijo, Luke's sponsor while he was at the Naval Academy.  We hadn't seen her since Luke's graduation, so it was great to catch up with her.  We also had lunch with our friend Heather.  She was super excited to see Bronson, and we loved seeing how big Eva had grown and hearing Liam's progression in conversing.

On Sunday, we went to our old church in Baltimore, MD (Brooklyn Bible Chapel) and visited with all of our old friends from there.  We went out for pizza with Don and Jean Brower (They counseled us before we got married.) and Todd and Michelle Brower.  It was fun to talk nursing with Jean and Michelle.  Luke had a great time talking "Navy" with Don.  :)

Next stop:  Hamilton, OH.  We stayed at Luke's cousin, Ruthie and John's/Aunt Becky's on our way to Indiana.  Bronson got passed around John and Ruthie's 7 children.  Samuel made Bronson look tiny.

Second Cousin Samuel

Great Aunt Becky

 We have done a lot of driving.  This is just the beginning of our long road trip.  I think by the end of our road trip, we'll have driven around 3,000 miles.  Once we get to Atsugi, Japan, we'll have traveled 12,000 miles in 30 days!  We've had a great time seeing everyone and passing the baby around, but we're excited to get to Japan.  I'm definitely ready to be done living out of a suitcase. 
...To Be Continued

How can someone change from...

this...

to this...

...in just a few weeks?!

My Thoughts on Motherhood

Bronson is 5 weeks old today!  It has been such an interesting, tiring, rewarding, frustrating, growing, and did I say tiring 5 weeks.  People keep asking me what I think about being a mother, and I have a hard time putting together my thoughts.  Here is my attempt. 

Motherhood is definitely the hardest thing I've ever done.  (I can't believe something could top nursing school.)  Having someone completely dependent on you is very hard and exhausting.  The lack of sleep makes it very difficult to be cheerful and in the mood for bonding when the baby needs some love and affection (and food).  It's also such a life changing thing to be at someone's every beckon call.  There are so many worries and wondering because he can't tell me if I'm doing something wrong or what he wants.

But...it IS the most rewarding thing someone could do.  I've heard that my whole life...that parenting is so rewarding.  "What does that even mean?" I always thought.  Even when Bronson has cried for over an hour at 3 o'clock in the morning, I still can't sleep until I know that he's okay.  Two days ago, Bronson consciously smiled at me for the first time.  I tell you, that made EVERYTHING wonderful!  Just seeing all of his new little accomplishments has been so fun and reassuring that I'm doing something right.

It's only been 5 weeks and I've learned SO much!...and haven't gotten anything else done, but fed, changed, and rocked my Baby Bronson.  :)  I've definitely fallen in love with another boy.

I'm Back!

I'm finally back on the blog.  It has taken me a while to feel back to normal and motivated to do anything but sleep and feed the baby.  I definitely had a bad case of the baby blues, and for a while I wasn't sure if I would come out of it.  I'm feeling much better now though.  Luke has been very patient with me through the transition, and I'm very thankful for him.  Now...for some pictures.

First bottle

Grandma Stuckey and Great Grandma Hufker

First bath at home

Kristen and Elaina came to visit

Grandma and Great Grandma bought us a swing and Eeyore blankie

Auntie Anna bought a cute monkey outfit.

First walk in the neighborhood

We dedicated Bronson to the Lord on Mother's Day.

Four Generations

3 weeks old today

First tummy time.  Only lasted about 2 minutes before getting frustrated.