From My City to Yours

Whether it is a favorite restaurant, a favorite bench in the park to enjoy a beautiful autumn day, or the history that embodies your city, we all have our own personal favorite things we love about our hometowns. There is so much that we love that it can seem difficult to even narrow it down, but the following are the reasons we, Tiffany and Kendra, love our home cities: Waco and Chicago.

Waco Texas is my home and has been for almost 30 years. It’s the perfect size in my opinion. We have several towns around us that are easy to commute to. We have all your normal amenities, grocery stores and malls…and we are only 2 hours away from the larger cities like Austin or Dallas which have bigger malls and more attractions.

Waco is the birthplace to the Dr. Pepper, we have a Dr. Pepper Museum that is fun for visitors. We have the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, Texas Sports Hall of Fame and  Maybourn Museum (so much fun, especially if you have children) -- We have three colleges, Baylor University (We are huge Baylor Bear fans!), Texas State Technical College, and McLennan Community College. Our zoo is the perfect size and never gets old (however I do like to travel to Dallas for there zoo also, it’s really big!)

We have one of the biggest and best municipal parks in Texas, Cameron Park. It’s extremely beautiful and lines the Brazos and Bosque Rivers. When bands come to town they will often play downtown off of the river, we have one of the most breathtaking bridges I’ve ever seen, ‘The Suspension Bridge’ to which a lot of residence use as a backdrop for pictures.

In spare time my husband and I like to have picnics in Cameron Park, or Woodway Park which oversees Lake Waco. We like to go to the mall, or just take a drive through the country. I work downtown where there are some amazing little boutiques—one of my favorite is ‘Spice’, which is actually a lot of small vendors in one building—The perfect ‘One stop shop’. We have all your chain restaurants but we also have some small ‘mom and pop’ places that I just love. Café Cappuccino is one of our favorite places to go eat breakfast at, they have amazing lunches as well. Toms Burger & Captain Billy Wizzbangs have some of the best burgers in town---and every where you turn you have a small little Mexican food shop.

Texas is a hot hot state, so a lot of the months your finding something to do inside, unless you have an outdoor-water-activity, it’s just too hot to be outside until fall (which sometimes in Texas fall is short lived or intertwined with Winter)....but you can bet it’s never to cold or too hot for a Baylor Bear Football game! We don’t miss many games. 

Overall, I love our little town. My husband comes from a very small town—Brockway, PA—so Waco to him is ‘big’….Waco to me is the perfect town because it has everything you need. :)

The Windy City, Chicago, has been home to me for my entire life. I love life in the big city, and no matter how much I love to travel, I always love coming home.  If you are anything like me, then you love to enjoy live music. In Grant Park and Millennium Park, there are outdoor music venues like the Jay Pritzker Pavilion. There are indoor venues here too, but the Pritzker Pavilion regularly boasts magnificent musical talent. One of my favorite things to do is bring a blanket and some snacks, and enjoy live music while having my own picnic, of sorts, with my family.

The city itself is often overlooked, as we all love to look at what is within it. Call me corny, but I love admiring the beauty of Chicago. I love to see the city at nighttime, as the lights are really beautiful and make for a great aesthetic. One of the coolest parts about Chicago is learning its architectural history. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire ripped and roared its way through Chicago, destroying almost everything in its path. The urban legend goes that a cow tipped over a lantern in a barn, but this was later proven to be just a story. It’s not precisely known how it started, but because most of the city was built of wood, it spread quickly. While it would have been easy to ignore Chicago after it was in ruins, the city quickly rebuilt and this rebuilding lead to it becoming one of the most populated, economically thriving cities in the USA. If you are ever visiting Chicago, you will realize what I mean when I say it is a remarkable place. To find great restaurants and hotels in Chicago, use a site like gogobot to help with your trip. With so much to do here, this will help navigate you in the right direction. Also, with football season here, and basketball and hockey season coming soon, there is no shortage of sporting events in the city! Chicago relentlessly supports them, and they have been rewarding to follow with their recent success (the Blackhawks just won another Stanley Cup!).

5 Months Old

 

Tomorrow you will be 5 months old!!!  It seems like just yesterday I found out I was pregnant with you. My how you have changed our lives and have brightened our world. We love you more than you could possibly imagine.

Your personality sure has sprouted even more throughout this past month. You love to laugh, and it’s the cutest little thing!

You say ‘oohhh’ and ‘mmmmm’ and your face is darling with you say them. You can sit up for a few seconds now!

Your still a very nosey baby, love to look around. You still aren’t a fan of tummy time, but you are doing much better and can push yourself up on your hands for a few minutes. You rolled over for the first time, but have not interest in doing it again.

You LOVE Mickey Mouse…your face lights up when he is on the TV or when you see your stuffed animal Mickey Mouse :) You still love your lovies also when it’s time for bed. You are a ‘binky baby’ but only when your tired.

Your hair is finally starting to grow back, it’s hard to tell the color of it because in different lights it looks different shades. Sometimes it looks very blonde, sometimes we see some red in it and sometimes it looks light brown…only time will tell! The same goes for your eyes. They are outlined in blue. But you have ‘starburst’ eyes like your daddy (my best description)…they are beautiful. In the center they sometimes look hazel and sometimes look green…then the have this starburst effect until they reach the blue. You get compliments all the time on your eyes, everyone loves to guess what color they are. :)

You love your food, you still drink 6oz of formula every 3-4 hours except when you eat your solids you only drink 4oz. You get cereal twice a day and you get a whole container of veggies or fruit with your cereal at dinner. You have had: squash, peas, green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, pears, peaches and prunes. You love every one of them. We still have apples to try and then I will believe you will have ate a little of all your stage one foods. You eat with a spoon exceptionally well and often will hold my hand while I feed you (trying to do it yourself). You know your bottle and your binky go in your mouth you just haven’t quite figured out how to get them in there properly.

You have had a few colds this month, mommy feels like a pro at this booger suction thing…mommy used to have a weak stomach when it came to this stuff, but it seems so natural when it’s your baby. Not gross at all.

You had a scary situation this month also, you had an episode in which your pediatrician thought looked like a seizure, we took you to a pediatric neurologist, you had an EEG done (you did amazing with all those wires attached to your head)…and your results came back perfect. No seizures at all. Praise the Lord.

 

This past month we took you to a place called ‘Cranial Technologies’ because your little noggin’ in a little misshaped. Your going to have to wear a little baby helmet for 6-12 weeks. You get your helmet next Tuesday. Mommy has to drive you to Austin once a week while you have this helmet on. We have a local company who is going to wrap your helmet for FREE, such a blessing. I can’t wait to see it all wrapped up!

Overall this past month has been so interesting and we love watching you grow and do new things. You are OUR WORLD. Happy 5 months old sweet heart!!!!

Seizure Update

Miles had his EEG today. He did wonderful. He slept the first 30 minutes then woke up ready to play-trying to keep an 'almost' 5 month old extremely still is hard work. He thought it was funny--love love love him!

We talked to the neurologist and he said his report came back perfect-no seizures and everything's perfect with his little brain. He said the only explanation as to what happened was 'sometimes baby's just do strange stuff'...he feels very confident that nothing is wrong with him. 

So thankful!! 

Update & Prayers

If anyone knows about speed bumps in this crazy journey we call 'life' it's us. We have one appointment under our belt-Miles will be getting a helmet in a couple weeks due to having Brachycephaly. (This is fixable,  and for that we are thankful). However,  last week Miles had an episode that 'COULD' have been a seizure. We have been referred to a neurologist and next Monday he will have an EEG done in the morning to measure his brain waves. I'm asking for prayers for my baby boy-prayers that he did not have a seizure and IF he did prayers that it wasn't serious. This is just a bump in our path and we will get through it just like we've done before. 

Miles gets Baptized

In 2006 our infertility journey started…and in July of 2009 Zach gave me my very first fertility shot…I remember holding my breath with tears streaming down my face asking God ‘why us?’….why was this journey picked for us.

After 4 years of shots I can honestly say it did get better, but the pain was always there—It was just numbed with my trusty icepack. I remember looking at my bruises wondering if these shots would ever work…would we ever get pregnant?

Today my tears were so different—they were tears of joy as we baptized our baby boy. The child we wondered if we would ever be blessed with.

God is so great and today was such a special day for our family. Seeing our son get baptized was so emotional.

Sorry for the picture overload below—too many wonderful pictures to just pick a couple :)