Christmas Letter 2015

{photography by Libby Asay Studio}

For those of you who follow this blog from afar, or don't recieve our letter every year...here it is for you to enjoy anyway. :)

This letter seems a little silly to me because, let's all face it...the biggest news of the year was me being born. Everything else you're about to read isn't too important. Just humor my parents by pretending to care...ok?

So let's start back at last Christmas. My mom and dad had just gotten back from the Dominican Republic; finished tearing up all the floors in our house; hosted Thanksgiving and a bunch of Christmas parties; and all the while...dodged endless questions about my future existence. Seriously...what was taking them so long to have some babies? It sounds like they had a lot of fun in the five years before I cam around...but turns out I was secretly living in my mommy's tummy since Thanksgiving! On Christmas Day when mom and dad were driving from Manson to Ankeny they stopped at our house to pick up the presents for my cousings. I don't know how mom figured it out but she told my daddy when he came in from checking on the Christmas lights before we left for Christmas #2. It wsa our very first Christmas as a family of three!

They kept me a secret for a while and told the grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends in February. Mom announced me, along with her retirement from cheer coaching, in March and I made my first appearance on Instagram and Facebook soon after that. Actually, mom told Tami (her boss at Century 21) before she told anyone else because she couldn't get through her annual review without letting Tami know I was due on August 28th...and she would be staying home to hang out with me all the time after that! Along with my daily demands, she tries to keep dad organized and lets me swing for a few hours each week while she does the invoicing on our computer at home.

With the news of my upcoming arrival, daddy got to work growing Boersma Lawn care just like he does every spring...but this year was a little harder because he was finishing mommy's pretty floors; hiring and training new employees; buying a new trailer; buying a new John Deere mower; and doing almost everything by himself! He is really somthing that dad of mine. I keep hearing him say I'll be starting to work with him in the spring "to earn my keep around here" but then I hear mom remind him about our pland to spend every day at the swimming pool next summer and I have to say...I'm kind of relieved.  I also have library time, walks at Ada Hayden, endless play dates, Target runs, and trips to Twin Lakes on my list of things to do. In fact, I've taken quite a few drives around the lake already!

When I didn't come on August 28th, mom and dad decided to schedule me to be born on Monday August 31st. The three of us really like schedules because we are so busy all the time! I didn't come until 12:14 on September 1st and in the meantime, they spent their time at the hospital napping, watching How I Met Your Mother, and relaxing. What a vacation I gave them! And even once I came, I was pretty perfect and rarely cried. That wasn't sarcasm, I hear them talk about it whenever we drive by the hospital...which is a lot because we still live at 422 13th St. in Ames (even though dad really could use a bigger space to run BLC and I'd prefer a better location for my future tree house).

Enough about them...here's what I'm up to these days. I get to cuddle and eat every three hours. I like to swing, watch movies with dad, kick in the bath tub, and go on walks around the nreighborhood in the storller. I don't really 'like' all the errands, shopping, and decorating mom drags me around to, but like I said...it will be a few years before I can spend my days helping dad. Mom rewards my good behavior during our shopping trips by 'wearing' me in the antique stores we visit and I go right to sleep. I love naps, I put myself to sleep (they make me cry and it's infurating but mom doesn't want me to be spoiled like she was), and recently I've enjoyed meeting new friends at the Cornerstone D6 nursery. As you can probably tell from this letter, I am quite a talker...especially now that Im' awake a lot more during the day.

I guess my parents fixed up an acreage a couple years ago? Good thing they did that before I came! Anyway, the renters out there are great. But my personal favorites are the 'renters' in our basement who visit and play with me all the time...Auntie Jamie and Sarah watch me while mom and dad go to Connection Group and lately we've had a lot of fun Christmas nights cuddled up watching Hallmark movies by the tree. We are hosting a lot of parties this December and I'm already having a blast joining in all the traditions mom and dad love this time of year.

Now more than ever, mom has mad respect for Mary who traveled to Bethlehem on a donkey when she was nine months pregnant. You guys...Jesus was the King and he was born in a barn? Dad actually thinks that sounds pretty cool because he loves barns, but I don't think mom would have enjoyed that. They wanted me to remind everyone that the trees and glitter and cookies are all really fun stuff...but the Savior who was born as a baby in a barn is the reason for it all.

-Maverick

Maverick: Three Month Update

Last week our baby turned three months old. I've been mulling over this blog post in my head for the past couple weeks because I don't want to forget anything about his precious third month of life. So here's everything I can remember in no particular order...

This month the biggest change has been all. the. talking. Maverick does. All day long this boy talks! It's hilarous and fun and we never get sick of hearing his goofy noises from the backseat/crib/swing. My mom has a video of him 'reading' Goodnight Moon with me a couple weeks ago and I think she's shown it to everyone at work and probably strangers on the street (forgive her). The best way I can describe it is growling/gurgling/rumbling...quite similar to Chewbaca actually. The best time to catch it is during his sweet spot right after he eats, and before he starts the 'annoyed talking' telling me he's ready for a nap.

Speaking of that...it's become more noticible when Maverick is annoyed at us. Sometimes his crying is more like yelling at me because he's offended I've wrapped him for a nap. Oh it is so funny. And also sad, but mostly funny because I know he's just tired and will conk out within five minutes. The pictures we had with Libby last week started wonderfully but there are times he just does not. want. to be held. He would rather spend his awake time going nuts kicking around and talking instead of being held still. So we battled through 30-ish minutes of pictures and by the end he was so done. Five minutes after Libby left I texted her a picture of him wrapped up and already SOUND asleep in his crib. He just knows what he wants and that makes it fairly easy for me to figure him out most of the time.

Yes he's still being swaddled. I don't know when we'll stop...but probably not for the forseeable future. Both of our mom's have been asking if I'm still swaddling him because when we were babies apparently this wasn't a 'thing' and it makes the G'mas and Josh sad when he fights it so much. But Maverick is so active and goofy that if I don't tie him down with his blanket he ends up wacking himself in the face and playing with his arms and hands until he's so deleriously tired and crabby that he really can't go to sleep. And I should have just wrapped him in the first place. I've 'tested' him a couple of times to see if he'll go down without being swaddled and I give him 10 minutes to get his crap together and if he doesn't, he gets wrapped. So far he hasn't had success. ;)

Mav still loves his hands, and still tries to eat anything that's anywhere near his mouth. His blanket, zipper, collar, shirt, my shoulder, my face, Josh's sweatshirt...it's funny to watch him explore and then find his fingers/hands/arms and really start sucking...he's not a thumb sucker exactly, he's more of a hand sucker...and he's been a lot more drooly this month too, slobbering all over everything. He's getting better at grabbing things and I think he's pretty close to being interested in toys...I've tried a couple of times but he's not quite there yet. He likes watching himself in my phone, playing under his play yard/mat, and follows me around the room while he lays on the floor or in his swing.

We've squeezed a couple laughs out of Mav but it's not a regular thing quite yet. His first laughs went to Jamie and then Josh, and THEN me. Punk. His smiles are so animated people on Instagram think he's laughing but right now those smiles are usually just silent...which is hilarious. His smiles are almost constant during his awake-time and he gives them away pretty easily.

This boy still loves his bath but since he's gotten bigger and more opinionated about certain things, he isn't quite as calm and relaxed during bathtime. If we let him kick and play he's thrilled, but as soon as I try and wash in his neck he gets mad at me. So I save that for the end now. He's also happier when I sit him up and wash his mullet and his back, but since he can't do that by himself yet, he's stuck laying down. The neck thing didn't used to bug him, but I've had to be a little more thourough now that he's getting CHUBBY!

And yes...our baby is finally starting to get chubby! He has one little leg crease of cute chub that I'm pretty proud of. And after he eats his tummy-tum is HUGE. For the most part he still has chicken legs and skinny toes just like his daddy...but his cheekies (both butt and face) are getting chubby too! I cannot wait to get him in some little trunks in January during our hotel family Christmas.

Watching Maverick strech and wake up is the favorite part of my day. Somtimes if we have people over I'll say, 'Who wants to go watch Maverick wake up?' and then 2-6 people will crowd into his room to watch me unwrap him and watch him strech. His arms FLING up above his head and he goes hard streching for 5-10 minutes before he's fully 'awake.' His little feet flex and his face looks just like Josh's does when I watch him strech in the morning. We also have bathtime parties, in which anywhere from 2-4 people will crowd in our bathroom to watch him have a bath. In 20 years, many of you will have the privelage of teasing him about this.

I've been trying to use a different blanket in every background of his monthly pictures because we were given so many from so many special people that I couldn't bring myself to return the ones we didn't necessarily 'need.' And I like that looking at these pictures in the future will remind me of all the people who love our little Maverick!

As for napping, sleeping, and eating...his schedule remains the same (unless we have church or other events planned). Up to eat at 6, 9, noon, 3, 6, 9...bedtime at 9:30/10. He's still a great napper and great at putting himself to sleep, but he's been a little turkey about sleeping through the night. Last month we were sooo close with him being up once in the night and sleeping through 5ish/7 nights. I think we've had a growth spurt mixed with lots of activities, traveling, and events throughout the month so I'm probably partly to blame, but at the same time, I've still kept his schedule fairly consistent. Meaning, Mav has the rest of this week to figure his nights out or some sleep training will commence (thanks to advice from my friend Carley). I know he CAN sleep through the night, and this is the first time in his whole little LIFE that he's been up to eat TWICE in the night. So I'm over it.

He's getting more and more fun to 'hang out' with during the day and because he's so calm and content, he's still easy to take out and about while we run errands...but that's starting to get a little harder. I've spent so much time working on his schedule and getting him to fall asleep on his own that he doesn't like to be held or cuddled to fall asleep. So he's spent the last two weeks in the nursery at church and both times when I picked him up he was passed out sleeping in a swing. Maverick is pretty indifferent about his paci and we only use it to calm him down if he's in his carseat and getting stressed or if he wants it to fall asleep (which is only about 1/2 the time). He falls asleep to a sound machine and I'm still using it during the day to drown out the laundry, vacuuming, crafting, traffic, cleaning noise I make as well as our noisy renters in the basement (j/k, they're really not noisy at all I'm just testing them to see if they read this far).

Christmas decorating took a few more weeks (yes weeks) than it usually does, but I think I'm starting to finally feel 100% back to my normal self. We've had friends and family over pretty regularly; been out to eat; spent a couple days in Haven at TLCC; and we're about to host our favorite party of the year this weekend...ThanksChristmas! Josh and I have had a few umm...'issues' while I fall into my role as SAHM AND assistant to the CEO of BLC. I think it's possible I tried to take on too many things during those first couple weeks because it seems like things are coming back to bite me (bills and invoices I messed up, payments I didn't apply correctly...and I've never just plain forgotten more things in my life!) but in the moment we didn't really have a choice. BLC still needed to keep rolling and Josh was busier than ever during those first few weeks of Maverick's life...so I think God knew exactly what he was doing when he gave us this content, happy, easy little man to fit in with the rest of our crazy life. What's weird is that I feel great about everything motherhood related, it's the other parts of life that have been a little harder to navigate. Three months in I'm trying to find the balance of not being too hard on myself because I imagine it takes longer than three months to be a pro at EVERYTHING, but at the same time...I'm home all the time and Maverick is a pretty easy baby. I really have no excuse for continuing to forget things! Ugh!

So that's pretty much everything anyone could ever want to know about our little Maverick and his third month of life. ;)

MmB