We had a hard time calculating that this year! We met on NYE 2003/2004 .. so I think that NYE makes it 8 years! The whole NYE thing makes it tricky.

We met at a New Years Eve party in Nashville. One of his frat brothers invited me to drive up from Alabama and I was terrified of going to a party several hours away when I only knew 1 person! My friend Linzy talked me in to it and it was a great time. Incidentally, that guy who invited me (D.O.) is responsible for Erik and I being together and then we returned the favor introducing him to my Kappa big sis and they got married too!  Lots of people could be credited with our love story for various reasons but those are the bones of it!

We got married exactly 2 years after we met so that means we have been married for 6 years now! 

hmm well thats gonna be hard to put into words but I think first would be his sense of humor. My bubbies is one weird dude, and is very dramatic and funny and silly, and I think it keeps us young. I roll my eyes at him about 97% of the day, but I love every second of it (almost).

I love how thoughtful he is. That drew me in right away when we met because he did the sweetest most thoughtful little things for me always. and he still does them now, just not as often. BUt what is strange about that is the anticipation is fun and surprising. I never know when he is gonna celebrate a holiday, be romantic or if he is gonna ignore it. HA  It is always a total surprise and generally a VERY good surprise when he does do something for them. In general i would just say he tries to and wants to make me happy, every day and I like that my happiness is important to him. 

I could use my 3rd reason to tell y'all about what an awesome dad he is and how I love that about him, but thats just a given and too lame, since this is a survey about us and not peebs I will say my 3rd fav thing about bubbie cakes is that he enjoys my friends. I like that he knows all of my friends, and enjoys talking to them, hanging with them, and just in general shares those relationships with me and takes an interest in my interests.

He proposed to me on the beach at sunset and was so nervous he started speaking in tongues. It was very interesting/memorable! 

None of the above really. He is more like Lillies from Fresh Market and hockey pucks. HA This will be the 1st year that we are not at a Hockey Game for Vday in several years. 

ha wells this is for reals crazy but I think i would love for us to go over seas and do mission work as a family. Erik could use his medical skills and i had a heart for mission work and I think Peebs could learn lots of neat stuff.

um.. i have not gotten that far in life yet. I am not a planner ahead type of girl. I know bubs is working and that is all I know. I did decorate the house for Vday and that counts for something because it sure is cute!

No, Cant say that I am. My bubs went all out for our anniversary so I think big gifts get to stretch far.

14.  Show us a picture of what love means to you.


These 2 jokers right here:
( more old pics. I tried to dye my hair dark at some point when we were dating and it would NOT stick, so it would fade out and leave me with reddish hair.. ) Not one single person I knew liked my hair dark. 

I have a good time, on a daily basis with my valentine and that is what counts. As I type this he is in the kitchen singing " The right stuff" by NKOTB. Keeping it real... and funny as usual. 

She asked a lot of questions about his lack of shyness, which scared me some. She asked how he differentiates his behavior with  us (parents) as opposed to say friends, family or strangers. That was kind of hard to answer. The only thing that came to mind is he shows out for other people, but not for us.

She played some games with him, like putting tape on the floor and asking him to walk on it in a straight line. 

She asked him to look for objects in a picture.

She asked him to play cup stacking and she would hide things under the cup and move it to see if he followed the object. 

She would give him commands and see if he followed them etc . 

She asked me lots of questions about how he does this or that.

So in the end, she basically said that she thought he was 2 yrs old when she made the appointment. The doctors office told her his birthday was Feb 28, 2010 ( not July 28). When I told her that he was 1.5 then she more or less said she didn't need to come at all because he is not showing any abnormal signs for 18 months. She said some kids can do more and some less but that he was pretty average with his speech and communication.

She said if by 2 yrs old we were in the same place then to call her but she expects him to change alot between now and then. She showed me his scores ( pictured above) and said that he passed all screening areas except "adaptive behavior" and the reason he did not pass that was because:

 he kicks his shoes off instead of undoing the velcro, 

and that he does not eat with a utensil. 

I told her that we rarely give him the chance because it is so messy and she said we need to start letting him try. She also said I need to start making him ask for things rather than catering to him. She said he def knows what is going on and that he has very high cognitive and social developments.

 

Translation: he is working his momma! He knows he can get what he wants by grunting etc so why should he do anything different?

 I have to train myself to make him ask and communicate for things instead of anticipating his needs. Giving in is much easier and I am guilty of that! 

This is more or less what I thought about his development all along, but it was good to hear my motherly instincts validated.

I asked her if my lack of teaching and drilling him was responsible for his lack of talking and she said no. Which was a relief.

We have never really discussed this on the blog I guess, but part of my parenting style is that I am against drilling small children or pressuring them into learning too much too fast. I  feel like their childhood is so brief, and I want it to be fun and carefree, until school age comes around. I could go on and on about why I feel this way and give you some data, but I will just leave it at that and say no judgment to anyone who does it differently, that is just my own personal style. 

Once this speech thing came around, I was concerned that my parenting style had effected his development but she assures me that it is not that, but more of a personality issue of my boy, where he is very relaxed and laid back about basically everything (but food). 

So all is good! It was VERY interesting and I am glad we did it and I am relieved to know that he is indeed fine and normal and that I am not a terrible mother after all!