First Christmas

Iain's first Christmas came and went in a whirlwind, with many of the fun moments and excitement that you would expect with "Baby's First Christmas", and also some unexpected twists, which make this one stand out in the memory books as a holiday season like no other. It really was a "first" for many things this Christmas, and I'm sure as we look back, we won't believe that ALL THAT happened in one year!

We had simple plans. It was the FIRST Christmas that all the Pitman crew was going to be together. Usually Stu and Becky spend Christmas in California with her family, and Ashlee and Graeme are in Wisconsin with hers...so this was super exciting! We'd all be in town for an entire week together, and there was lots of fun on the horizon. To make things even better, my parents were planning to stay with us for two long and glorious weeks and we had all sorts of home improvement projects, snackies, and relaxing on the agenda! Brett and Breha were also in town, so we were excited to have "Patterson Christmas" with them, AND even had super fun New Year's plans at the Victorian Mansion in Galena. We were really looking forward to staying at home for Christmas and New Years, and not traveling, since we'd been gone so often in the past few months. Just a simple, relaxing Christmas....that was our plan. Somehow...this didn't quite pan out! We had a really good Christmas together, and it was wonderful to be with our families, and to see Iain experience his first Christmas, but there was really no relaxing involved! Neil and I got the idea (for some CRAZY reason!) that it would be a good year to try "homemade Christmas". And while it was so much fun to make treasures for everyone, and it felt a LOT more personal and loving than just rushing out and buying something, and in some ways, a little LESS stressful than braving the busy stores...it was a lot of work! In the famous words of my dear husband..."I had a good Christmas, but it wasn't too relaxing. It was all just 'work in Santa's workshop'...and he was a slave driver!"Also, as a funny aside...Neil and I realized about two days before Christmas, that we were making each other the SAME Christmas gift! We were both frantically trying to secretly steal recipes from our very disorganized and stuffed cookbook, to make an awesome recipe compilation for the other person...and running out of time to complete it along with our other projects! Needless to say, we put that one on hold, and are going to make it together!

Our plans for not traveling got rearranged the very day my parents arrived. We got a call in the middle of the night that my Grandma Shedden had passed away, after 91 years of living for the Lord. While it wasn't totally unexpected, it was still hard to be missing her at such a busy and festive time of year, and it meant a VERY unexpected trip to Canada! So we traveled to Canada (very early) the day after Christmas, stopping half way in Michigan for ONE relaxing night at a hotel, complete with a delicious prime rib dinner, fun in the pool and hot tub, and hockey! Then it was straight to the funeral visitation, service, lunch, family meals and etc. It was a beautiful funeral, and a wonderful testimony of the lives she had touched and the legacy she left.

My parents had planned to drive back with us and spend another week or so together, through New Years and into January, however, in keeping with "Crazy Christmas 2009", my Grandpa Patterson also got VERY sick, and they were very worried he wouldn't pull through. At 94 years old, you don't take chances, so Mom and Dad decided that they'd better stay at home. In the end...they're probably glad they did. On our way back from Canada, Iain got sick with the stomach flu, and was sick ALL the way back to Iowa. Yep, 12 hours in the car, with a barfing baby. NOT FUN! He was sick for almost five days, and Neil and I caught it too....so if you're doing the math...that meant our New Year's Eve was spent wearing jammies , watching a movie in bed, eating soup and taking care of a sick boy. Truth be told, I was dozing by 10pm, and we were all asleep before midnight.

It was certainly a Christmas and New Year to remember. It was also a little bittersweet to remember all the anguish we were feeling a year ago, as we worried about our baby, and prepared for the worst, and hoped for the best. Bitter to recall the sorrow we felt, but mostly so sweet to see how the Lord has brought us through, and all the ways he has blessed in the past year. Once again, we are so thankful for all of you who have lifted us in prayer, and we really do covet them still, on behalf of our little boy.

Because everyone hates a blog post without pictures, here are a few from our past month or so. Praying for God's blessings on you in the upcoming year....!

Iain visiting "Santa" at Medline. He was not so sure!

Picking our Christmas tree!

Helping Daddy hang the ornament we bought last year (a snowman in pink and blue) for baby!

Some of our homemade wares...cookies for the neighbors and truffles for the family! "Santa slave-driver" also made hot sauce, beer, cider, salsa, chutney, t-shirts, tote bags, coasters, note-cards, wooden letters, CDs, bibs, taggie blankets, cookbooks, and a chalkboard! WHEW.

Iain, on Christmas eve, already excited! He totally knew SOMETHING was going on!

Cuddly Christmas Eve cousins!

....aaaand this is like 85% of their pictures!

Iain's "rocking moose" from Santa, and his awesome stocking made by Grandma Patterson!

Christmas morning!!

This picture sums up Iain's entire Christmas experience. He was SO EXCITED about everything! (even the oatmeal) He was literally "just like a kid on Christmas"!

Trying out the rocking moose...and getting the hang of it after a few tears. He loves it now...!

Ready for Christmas breakfast at the Pitmans

Iain's awesome Christmas dinner of sweet potatoes and peas. Poor guy! We all enjoyed fried turkey, ham, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, parsnips, carrots, turnip, brussel sprouts, cranberry salad, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, chocolate orange cheesecakes, and Christmas pudding. Courtney had cereal. Poor babies!
Neil and Beth, enjoying Christmas together!

Patterson Christmas with Brett and Breha finally happened January 2nd, without our parents, and at a coffee shop so they didn't catch any of the germs still lurking in our house! Iain LOVED his blocks from them!
This picture captures the childlike Christmas wonder.

It was replaced a moment later by a good thrashing for Mr. Sock Monkey

"He had it coming for a while....he's a shady character." -Iain Pitman

STUCK!

Iain has gotten very adept at crawling backwards. He's not so good at scooting forward yet. Thus...stuck. He gets pretty mad when his mean mom takes pictures instead of helping him get un-stuck!

Winter is Here...

...and it arrived with a vengeance in Iowa this week! With a foot of snow, and ridiculous windchills, what's a mama to do with a little boy, but stay cozy at home! And all this home time recalled to mind my serious lack of commitment to this blog! Here's a quick recap of what's been going on with the Pitmans over the last month, as we get ready to head into the bustle of the holidays.

Neil and I celebrated our fourth anniversary on November 12th, and the day was almost as balmy as our actual wedding day! We stayed overnight at the newly renovated Hotel Julien (highly recommended!) and it was a great chance to relax, reminisce and think about the future.

Hurrah for four great years!

In a slightly unconventional move, we took Iain along on our romantic anniversary trip! We figured that this was the only year this would ever be possible, it seemed easier than arranging an overnight babysitter, he is a faithful sleeper and early-to-bed kind of guy, so we knew we'd still have plenty of alone time....and, as Neil so succinctly put it..."He's Iain!" He's such a fantastic little boy...we just love having him with us! Even on our anniversary!

Iain, enjoying the king sized bed! Also, check it out...this baldy is finally growing some hair! Neil and I can't figure out how two people with copious amounts of hair produced this thin-haired wonder, instead of the afro-baby we were expecting, but we still think he's pretty cute!

Family shot...getting ready to enjoy the pool and hot tub! Not sure if anyone else has a baby that LOVES hot water...but this guy sure does!

In other news, we've been traveling a lot, as usual, and when I counted up the nights spent away from home in the last two months, I was somewhat chagrined to see that there were more than the ones spent at home. Iain is a great traveler, but we're ready to he home for a while, I'd say! We've been in Canada (twice), Omaha, Chicago, Minneapolis and Iowa City in the last couple of months, and had a ton of fun spending time with family and friends, but at the same time, it's kind of strange to think that our six month old has been in eight states, and one province, and spent almost half his little life away from home! There are way too many pictures from all of our trips to post right now, but maybe if this cold keeps up, I'll do a "back post" of our Pitman vacations!

Iain has started eating solid food, and has taken to it with great gusto! He loves oatmeal, sweet potatoes, bananas, applesauce, avocado, and green beans. We are getting ready to try mangoes and peas next, and he loves the wonder of sitting up at the table with us during meals. He has six (yes, SIX!!) teeth already, and it's hilarious to see him gnawing on his rice rusks, just like a "big person". He hasn't been too fussy with his teething, even though the four top ones all popped through within a few days of each other over Thanksgiving, but every time he gets new ones, it just changes his entire face, and it makes me conscious of how fast they "grow up".

Trying out some sweet potatoes with Uncle Brett at Thanksgiving!

His doctor checkups still are going well-he's growing great, and although he's only 75th percentile for weight, he is in the 95th percentile for his height, which means that although he has a ways to go before he's too heavy, he has reached the height limit for his infant carseat, so we are researching the next step. Any recommendations?

We don't need to go back to Iowa City for checkups until next spring/summer, so we are thankful for that! We continue praise the Lord every day for his care and provision in Iain's life, and while we know that hurdles may arise in the future, we are so thankful for the great progress we've seen. Iain is just like any other six month old-he sits up well, rolls over, scoots backwards (across the entire room!!) and tries to crawl, babbles plenty of words (like mama!), and is the friendliest, happiest, most curious boy you'd ever meet! Sometimes we wonder "what if" they'd never seen an anomaly on that first scan? "What if" those ventricles had been 1/2 a millimetre smaller? "What if" we had declined that follow up ultrasound? But we know that there is no happenstance in God's plan, and while the uncertainty and fear was difficult, it has certainly been a faith-grower, and a good reminder at how fragile, miraculous, and wonderful these precious ones are! It has made us love and appreciate Iain even more, and made us far more conscious of celebrating each little milestone he meets. It has made us far more thankful to the Lord for his love, healing, provision and comfort, and far more grateful for our community of friends and the prayers lifted up on our behalf!

On behalf of the Pitman clan...stay warm!

Cuteasaurus...

That's all.

October?!

Wow. I guess we didn't fully realize what so many parents told us. "Time flies when you've got a baby." "Babies take a lot of your 'spare' time!" and "You think you'll have a lot of free time when you're staying home, but you'll be surprised how it disappears." Ain't that the truth! So it's now OCTOBER! And fall is here with a vengeance. It's remarkable to me that although our little Iain is only four (and a bit!) months old, he's already gotten to experience three seasons, and six different months!

I have the best of intentions to blog AT LEAST weekly, but I realized today that if I wanted to start doing that...I had some serious catching up to do! I realize that if I tried to update you on all that has happened since our last post (...ahem...May 29th?) I'd be here all day. (And incidently, I think that's one of my blogging issues...I feel like I have to write about EVERYTHING, and I never have time for that, so I just don't write!) So here are just a few of the highlights. (Copmplete with pictures of course!)

We have made a couple of trips to Canada to see the Patterson crew and friends; the first trip was when Iain was a mere three weeks old, and he did beautifully on his first plane ride! I was SUPER nervous about flying with him by myself, and was especially dreading being "that mom" on the plane or in the airport with the screaming baby, but he totally proved me wrong and made not a peep. It was a WONDERFUL trip with lots of meeting and greeting, fellowshipping and fun. But alas, always too short. Here's just one of my favorite pictures from this trip. And this is what Iain did for mostly the ENTIRE trip!

Little burrito baby...

Our second trip to the motherland was in August, and it was even better, because Neil came too. This time we went for ten glorious days, complete with a LONG drive through the UP of Michigan, time at the cottage with Grandma and Grampy Patterson, Uncle Brett and Auntie Breha, Great-Aunt Catharine and Earl, and buddies Deborah and April. We relaxed a lot, fished a litle, swam hardly at all, because it was TOO COLD, and generally had a wonderful time. It was a great vacation, with a TON of driving, and including a little side-trip to Kingston for Neil's cousin's wedding. It was great to get to see all the Pitman crew, and Iain got to meet Nana and Papa Pitman for the first time, which was really special. We ended our week with a sleepover at Shane and Jenny and Gavin's house before heading back to Iowa. Here are a few pictures that give the scope of the week.

Long car rides require the company of Mr. Lion!

Iain was NOT so impressed with his first swimming experience...

Family shot at the wedding-one of FIVE weddings Iain has attended in his short life!

Meeting Great-Nana and Great-Papa Pitman

Little boy on a BIG boat!

The brave paddlers who saved our lives on our boating adventure!

A typical shot of Iain and BFF Gavin...

Other than those two trips to Canada, there have been a few hotel stays for mini-vacations, including a "Labour Day" trip to Minneapolis. We stayed at a Staybridge and had tons of fun cooking on our hotel stovetop!

Bathtime in the Staybridge "kitchen" sink, moments before he plunged UNDER the water, and came up laughing and said "Oooh!" as we were freaking out. Daredevil.

One of our favorite "get-aways" was in September, when we went to Chicago for a U2 show. Iain had his first "babysitter" other than Grandma and Grandpa, although I'm not sure Deborah counts as a babysitter either because she's his "Faunty" ("FakeAunty"). He quickly learned that her other name is "Sucker", and all he needed to do was look at her with his sad face, and she'd pick him up and play...so needless to say they had a GREAT time! We were so excited to have Deborah stay with us for a week, and had a ton of fun together. Here are a couple of pictures of our adventures.

Fun at the Doubletree with "Faunty" Deborah and new friends Sophie and Sven

At the Bean in Millenium Park, Chicago

Excuse me? Do I have a baby or a goat on my shoulders?

Enjoying the Navy Pier ferris wheel and a great sunset

We have also had LOTS of visits back to Iowa City for follow-ups, (THANKFULLY all with excellent results!) which usually include a sleepover at Aunt Becky, Uncle Su and COUSIN COURTNEY's house! Iain's little cousin Courtney was born July 3rd, and we know they're going to be best buddies some day! (They still don't take much notice of eachother, but it's already so fun to take "cousin" pictures!) This is one of the neatest things about Iain's "babyhood", as every week Becky or I will drive to the other person's house, and we spend the day together.

First (of many) cousin pictures on Courtney's second day of life

What is summer without a camping trip?? We took Iain on his first camping trip with the GAC, back in July, and he LOVED it! The Pack'N'Play fit nicely in our tent, so I think the thought we were still at home, and didn't realize he was in the great outdoors, although it was a frigid 50 degrees...yes...in July!

Little Bear goes camping...

Watching his mobile in the tent!

Also in July, we got to spend a long weekend with Auntie Breha and Uncle Brett. We had a great time celebrating their anniversary, going to a wedding, and just being together, which we don't get to do nearly enough.

At our awesome digs, Earthrider Hotel, Broadhead, Wisconsin

Neil has been coaching volleyball at Emmaus, for their inaugural inter-collegiate season, which he has really enjoyed. Iain and I enjoy going to watch the games, and Iain has an Emmaus onesie, so he's the cutest little fan! We just spent a weekend in Chicago with the team, and although it was tons of fun, lets just say that we understand why Chicago didn't win the Olympic bid. Can we say TRAFFIC ISSUES?? We've also gone to watch several Tri-State games and tournaments, which is bittersweet as we coached there for so long. Iain has some awesome "made with love" onesies from those girls that he sports at their games!

"Future Volleyball Player"

Otherwise, we've just been loving life with the best baby in the world! Iain has had no issues with his health so far, and this is a HUGE answer to prayer. He has had two MRIs, and his condition is stable, which is excellent news. He will not need a shunt, and we have been released from being "neurosurgery" patients and are being followed up with by neurology. He had a developmental follow-up done as well, and is right on the mark. He is doing all the things any other baby his age should, (rolling over, trying to sit, trying to crawl, "talking", laughing, playing, eating well, sleeping all night, noticing himself in the mirror, etc.) and each "stage" is even more fun than the last. We know we're not "in the clear" yet, because seizures, other medical issues or delays could appear at any time, even as late as his teen years, but for now, we're thanking the Lord for our little miracle, and leaving the future in His hands with confidence. We still appreciate your prayers! He is a super happy and sociable baby, and everyone who meets him loves him and his happy demeanor. He got his first two teeth over the last month, and even then we really didn't have too much trouble with fussiness, so we know that we have an easy one here, and may be in for a shocker with his subsequent brothers and sisters! Of course, he's not ALWAYS nice...he can shriek like nobody's business when he's upset, and we've already noticed that he knows how to get his way when he wants to...little sinner! Here are just a few more photos of "everyday life" with the Pitmans.

Happy Little Naked Boy!

First night in his own room!

Bathtime with Ducky!

Love that smile!

Fun at the Madison Zoo

Sad little dragon...

Coming up on the horizon, another trip to Canada in two weeks, to spend some time at the cottage with the Patterson family during the "Moose Hunt". Although neither Iain, Neil or I (or Mum or Breha for that matter!) will be hunting any moose, we expect a wonderful, cozy time with the beautiful fall foliage, family we love, and lots of naps! We are also celebrating CANADIAN Thanksgiving with the Pitmans next weekend, so if my blogging intentions pan out, this may be my next post ;) Until then, thanks for reading!

Homecoming and Getting Settled

My first car rideHello 6th grade!Welcome home!Hello kitty! Grandpy time
Uncle Graeme and Aunt Ashlee
My first doctor visit