"My little boy is well on his way to being a young man..."

“It's a commonly expressed and rather nice, romantic notion that we are all "sisters" and "brothers....Let's be real. Fact is, we might be better served to accept that we are all "siblings"...Siblings fight, pull each other's hair, steal stuff, and accuse each other indiscriminately...But siblings also know the undeniable fact that they are the same blood, share the same origins, and are family...Even when they hate each other...And that tends to put all things in perspective..."

Oh, my little blog...how I have neglected you in the past few months...I have missed you...I have missed the feeling of thoughts flowing freely...passing from my jumbled mind down to my keyboard....for a moment there I got a little lost...my life was in a whirlwind of change (and still is) ...and my inspiration, while still there, was in hiding...I am happy to report that I am back...and so is my little friend called "Inspiration"...we make a great duo... =)

In the past 7 weeks, I have gone from being pregnant to becoming the mother of a sweet baby girl...from Khristian being a "little kid" at the elementary school to now becoming a "Young Adult" and entering middle school as a 6th grader...for a long time, my vocabulary only consisted of saying "my child"...how weird it feels for me to actually say "My children"...as simple as that term is, it still sounds quite odd coming from my lips...As you can see, many many changes in the Jones household...

I could sit here and talk your ear off all day about how my life has changed this past summer....but I am not...instead I am going to talk about one persons life that has not only changed but he himself has changed along with it....he has accepted this change...and embraced it with open arms...

One night several weeks before I gave birth to Bailey...Khristian was in a horrible mood...I mean a downright mean and irritable  mixed in with being a little emotional...I had almost had my fill of his hateful attitude towards me...and contnued to ask him what was wrong...he just kept shaking his head and saying the ever famous term "Nothing"...I admit that I say that quite often when in fact there is "something" wrong...but I never knew how ittitating it was until my preteen started saying it...I also admit that my tone with him was not a very comforting tone that would make him want to confide in me what was actually bothering him...(at 8 months pregnant, I can admit I was not a very nice person to be around at times)...Finally , I took a step back...took some deep breaths...and tryed to approach him with a calmer and friendlier tone...I explained to him that we all have bad days...and that it was ok..but that was in no way a reason to act the way he had towards me or his daddy...I then asked him again what was wrong....this is where the emotional part comes in...he looked at me and opened his mouth to say something...but then shut it again..shook his head and said "You will get mad at me if I tell you"...Now, as the mother of a very active 10 year old that has a strong will....my first thought was "Oh Lord, what has he gotten in to!"...I assured him that whatever it was he could tell me...that even if I did get upset with him we would work through it....that I couldnt help him if he didnt include me in what was going on...he then said words that almost broke my heart...he looked at mne with tears in his eyes and said "I just don't want you to have Bailey...I'm not ready"...He explained that things were going to change...and he was scared...that we were going to forget about him...He told me "Can you just keep her in there for another year"... ( I admit I had to hide a little bit of a smile on that last comment)

I was speechless for a second...up until this point he had only expressed how excited he was to meet his new little sister...I guess I took this for face value and never thought that he was hiding how scared he was...Travis and I had already had many, many talks about how we didn't want Khristian to fall in the background due to the new baby arriving...that we wanted Khristian to still have his "time" with each of us...and he would be included in everything...as much or as little as he wanted to be...When I finally regained my voice and slowed my thought process...Travis and I told him first and foremost that we love him more than anything in this world...and he would NEVER be forgotten...but we understood where he would feel this way...it was a normal reaction to being the only child for so long and then BAM...you have a new little sister in the picture...I asked him why he didn't want to tell us what was bothering him...and he replied with he thought it would upset me and he didn't want to make me cry (God love him..)...30 minutes to an hour later we had reassured him enough to the point to where he actually had a faint smile on his lips...I could tell our conversation had reassured him in some way...

I went into labor 4 weeks early on a Friday night...and Travis, Khristian and I drove to the hospital at 10:30 that night...(my parents, brother, and Travis' parents were in route right behind us)...As soon as I got to the hospital I was admitted and hooked up to all monitor's...Khristian was right there..checking everything out...making sure I was ok...He was bound and determined he was going to stay up for everything...I started to get sick and was given phenegan to ease the nausea..to which it completly knocked me out cold...Upon waking up the next morning, I was told that my sweet boy had been awake all night watching over me...awaiting the birth of his baby sister with excitment...and at 7 that morning he just couldnt hold his eyes open any longer and passed out in the chair next to my hospital bed... around 9:00 that morning, the doctor broke my water and we had a beautiful baby girl by the name of Bailey Madison Jones at 9:50 AM...

I was very adament that I wanted Khristian to see her before everyone else...he was her big brother...so after Bailey was cleaned up and brough back to the room...Khristian came in and held his sister for the very first time..and it was love at first sight...he sat there and held her with awe in his eyes...he wasnt afraid to hold her...he dove right on in...we spent the first 30 minutes of Baileys life...together...A family of 4...

One of my best friends that stayed the entire night bought Khristian a bracelet that said "Big Brother" on it...he wore that bracelet for a solid week...and showed it to everyone he could...

I was very fortunate that I gave birth at the beginning of the summer so I was able to stay home with Bailey and Khristian as he was out of school...This gave us quite a bit of bonding time...I allowed Khristian to hold her as much as he wanted..he would sing to her...rock her...pat her back...and he got so excited the first time he was able to get her to sleep...One particular morning, he was watching her for a moment while I jumped in the shower real quick (All moms of a newborn know what it is like to take a 5 minute shower)...Bailey started to get a fussy...he had paid enough attention to where he knew it was her feeding time...so he went to the freezer and took out one of the little freezer bags with her milk in it...made sure the water in the sink got hot and tryed to warm up her milk...I opened up the bedroom door and told him I would only be a few more minutes and he told me "Its ok mom...She's happy, I am feeding her!"... I immediatly stopped what I was doing and asked (a little to freaked out) what was he feeding her...and of course he responded "Her milk...I have watched daddy do it before!" ... I told him to show me exactly what he had done...bless his heart, what he didnt know is you are not supposed to mix water in with breastmilk...I calmly explained this to him...I then had to pour the bottle out and throw away the entire freezer bag of milk...he started to tear up because he thought he had hurt her...and maybe this was my fault because of the quickness that I took the bottle away and told him not to do anything without asking me first...it took me 30 minutes to calm him down and assure him he did not hurt her and she was fine...that I knew he was only trying to help but to  ask me before doing anything like that again...

Later that afternoon, I sat back and could only laugh a little...for a little boy that wanted her to "Stay in there another year"...he sure was protective over her...this made my heart smile...You should have seen the pride in that boy's voice when he told me that when his daddy couldn't get bailey to quit crying he was able to...and then there was the instance a week ago when he almost scolded his daddy for throwing a football with a 1 month old in his arms (You know, the ball could hit her... =) ... I could go on and on with instance after instance...he is really taking this role of "Big brother" seriously...he has grown up before my eyes this summer from a 10 year old little boy to an almost mature 11 year old...he still has his moments of extreme attidute and whining where I just want to pinch his little head off...but for the most part...my boy is well on his way to being a young man...and I couldnt be prouder...I was worried about the age difference...11 years is quite a long stretch of time between children...but after watching Khristian I am more than reassured that if nothing else, Bailey will always know that she has her big brother in her corner... =)

This summer has been one of many adjustments for my little family....We have been tested as a family...and I believe we came through with flying colors... =)

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