for Adler

I dream big dreams for you.

I imagine your leadership - confident, sure footed. You know who you are because you know your Maker. You allow God to use you to make an impact on those around you. People speak your name often. They desire to be in your presence because Christ is present in you.

You are honest and speak truth into people's lives. You are known for your integrity, you saw this from your own Father and know it's value. For this, you are always at peace.

You are adventurous. You climb and conquer mountains. You are resourceful, wise and creative in the way you live. You are strong and don't mind getting a bit dirty in the process. You are curious about this world and want to see all God has created. You love discovering beauty in people of different countries. You know God is limitless!

You love music, you learned this from your daddy. You are an excellent guitar player and people love hearing you play and sing.

You are fun and laugh often. You have a good laugh - it's contagious. We may not know what you are laughing at, but we are laughing with you anyways..you are that much fun!

You have great love in your life. She is beautiful, you love her smile, she respects and honors you. And you love her endlessly. Your lives encourage and bless each other. My prayers are often for her.

You have a long and fruitful life. God grants you the honor of knowing your great grand-children; seeing your legacy continue.

I have big dreams for you, Adler. But I know God can dream bigger.

But right now, it's just you and me. I hold you close to my heart as I rock you to sleep. You are so beautiful to look at. The world has slowed down for this slipping moment. I know it's just a blink in time. Soon, you will be off fulfilling your dreams. I will be so proud. Let's just sing right now, tomorrow will come too soon.

Love,
Mommy

Cupid was at my house on Valentines Day

Take a look at who came to visit:

Victory is Mine!!....and so is sleep....

Today marks my first week of sleep! I feel like a new woman...like waking up from a blurry past couple of months. Remember in college when you had an exam and you would study for a couple days before...spend entire days/nights in the library? Then the feeling you would have after you took the test? (ok maybe that was just me - at least I know Stephen never did this) Anyways, that's how I feel now. Adler has slept through the night for a week now!

I had a hard decision to make. The doctor recommended not feeding him at his normal 5am wake up time when he was 2 months. I had a hard time doing that, so I waited...hoping one day he would just not wake up. Well, it never happened and we were approaching 4 months. And he really wasn't eating when I would feed him in the middle of the night..it was more like snacking. So, I decided to try my doctor's method. We had to endure 2 nights of crying and by the 3rd night, he was sleeping through and has been doing so for a week now! I know some people would disagree with this method, but let me ask you something: Have you ever gone for 5 months of interrupted sleep?? It's not really sleeping...it's more like a series of short naps. I say 5 months because about a month and a half before Adler was born, I was not sleeping because I was so uncomfortable. Anyways, it was really starting to wear on me...and it was well worth the 2 nights. I am just now really starting to feel like my old self! Hello me!!

Things are good at the Hunton house. I'm starting to get more into a routine...started cleaning the house again....it seems easier to run errands. We are enrolled in a play class where we work on strengthening muscles to help them achieve developmental milestones. It's really fun! www.play-2-grow.com

We are going to Texas this weekend! We are so excited to see our families and pass Adler around! He's looking forward to his first plane ride!

Hope everyone is doing well!
xoxo
Kristine

Why I (Stephen) would make a terrible Mom.

1) I can't produce breast milk...which happens to be one of Adler's favorite things.
2) I am not wired with the patience Kristine has...my heart rate goes straight up when Adler goes into "screaming baby red face" mode.
3) In addition to the lack of patience, I am not as skilled at calming Adler when "screaming baby red face" mode goes into "wailing infant purple explosion face" mode...breast milk would also help here, but Kristine has a bunch of other nifty tricks that work really well.

There are probably a ton of other reasons I would not be a good Mom. It's a tough job, and one that continues to gain more and more respect from me as I watch the challenges Kristine faces every day. So much more difficult than a job, as I deal with whiners, but I have this lovely grey cubicle to escape to. Instead, I hope to be a good Dad. There's still stressful challenges I'm facing, but they feel alright because of my competitive nature. For instance, being the only income gives me this caveman-like sense of "protect family, find dinosaur to feed child and wife" and drives me to work hard. Also, the idea of me getting up on a Saturday and putting on some ugly wind breaker/soccer coach outfit gives me happy thoughts. Really, being a Dad feels pretty cool, and it's fun to find all these new things out about being a Dad on a daily basis.