not a baby anymore!

I printed out this entire baby faulkner blog to make sure I had a hard copy and it took about 150 pages...But Deacon is not a baby anymore. He is going to start walking anyday now, he has given up the bottles for sippy cups, and he loves to flirt with anyone that will look at him!

So we have made a new blog for the whole family. Check it out at Meet the Faulkners. All the fun will be happening at our new blog. This is the final post here...

So update the blogrolls, links and rss readers! Here is Deacon's Official 1st B-day Picture:


Check out more from the photo session at our new blog!

happy birthday deacon!

Today is Deacon's Bday!!! So, this is a photopost to see how far he has come in his first year...
These are the first pics of him ever taken...they are from the orphanages and gladney care center in ethiopia.




Our trip to bring him home...






The fun we've been having...






And finally the big first birthday today!!! It was a good day. He went to Mothers Day Out and didn't cry when he was dropped off (a sure sign of maturity), we played with all of the new toys (the orange pool with balls in it, the bead maze thingy, etc.) and I tried to take a pic of Deacon with Clayton's guitar (for a photo project for myself) but that didn't work out so well. And don't worry, in the pic where he is in the high chair he is buckled in (i'm not britney).

partied like a rock star

i've got about 25 minutes while deacon is in front of praisebaby. here are some more pics from his party. hopefully, clayton will make a video soon and you can see how he dug right into his little bday cake. he only ate the frosting though...and that leads us to the best story of the weekend! the party was fun, we had 30ish people over to celebrate.









when i look at this pic, the song "Ebony and Ivory" pops into my head!



now, deacon still takes 2 naps usually. one in the morning, one in the afternoon. on party day, he took his morning one. but right when he would have gone down for the afternoon one is when we had birthday cake. so, the sugar rush kept him up. which is fine. he then took a short nap around 4:30. not a big deal, he had a big day so i figured a late nap won't hurt bedtime. so around 8pm deacon is showing signs of tiredness so we begin our nighttime routine. cereal, bath, bottle and down for the night....hahahahaaaa....

deacon slept for about 30 minutes, but then woke up...clayton went in to try to put him back down...he slept for about 30 more minutes...he woke up screaming....i tried, nana tried, clayton tried again to put him down...he slept for 30 minutes...then woke up screaming again....now it is 11pm...i tried different rooms, putting him on the couch with me (inlaws were in our bed)...putting him on the floor with me in guest room....still just screaming like i'm trying to cut his leg off....not just crying....but SCREAMING at us...we tried tylenol....we turned on lights to check for broken bones or something hurting him....nothing...still screaming...

finally, i said i'm taking him to walmart to get some allergy med (deacon is super congested and watery eyes and cough). maybe his allergies are keeping him awake...all the while, i knew he was awake b/c of all the sugar he mainlined at his party...his poor little body couldn't find the off switch...his eyes were red, i knew he was tired, but his body wouldn't turn off.

i got up, walked to the garage and he stopped screaming. clayton was helping me get him in the car to go to walmart (at 11pm in our pjs!!!) and deacon smiled at him....clayton was not amused...he didn't cry again, he was totally awake the entire time i drove around (to walmart, to the atm, through mcdonalds to get a coke b/c i was falling asleep)...usually he falls asleep in the car, not tonight!

we drive home around midnight...i think the car ride calmed him enough, that i took him inside, rocked him and he fell asleep...i passed out on the couch.

i assumed deacon would sleep late after that, but no, his internal alarm clock had him up at 6:30/7ish as usual!!! but, i could tell that he was still recovering from saturday b/c he took a 2 hour morning nap and a 2 hour afternoon nap and still went to bed at 8pm sunday night...so, we are back on schedule. yay!

deacon is doing well even though he is teething (we're up to 8 teeth!) and dealing with what i assume is severe allergies...he will probably walk any day now...he is doing a lot more standing on his own....of course, he only stands for about 5 seconds before he falls back on his rear.

preview...

about to go to church...no time to post...but here is a little preview of the birthday blowout!

ethiopian reunion

So, last Friday we went to Gladney's Meet and Greet. This is where couples that are in process or are approved and waiting get to meet the staff at Gladney and here us panel-people talk about our experiences. The highlight for us was getting to meet Reece Gehman!!! We set the boys down to let them play together and it went well. I dare you to find 2 cuter babies on this planet...







Of course, during the panel discussion we are all up there with all these babies and we let them crawl around on the floor in front of us. At one point, I think Reece and Deacon were testing the boundaries of their new friendship when Reece wanted to check out Deacon's ear by grabbing at it, and Deacon wasn't down with that. I think Deacon cried and Reece fell over. It was so funny to see them interact with each other. I'm very excited that Deacon has an Ethiopian friend now!!

Today we played all morning, except for a short 1 hour nap, and then after lunch we ran around town with Daddy to get birthday party stuff for this weekend! So Deacon slept for about 30 minutes in the car this afternoon. Not a lot of nap time today. So tonight he had a big dinner and then I had to excuse myself for some private time (read: I had to use the bathroom) so I put Deacon in the exersaucer and turned on Praisebaby for him to watch. Well, I got sidetracked after the bathroom by straightening up the bedroom and about 15 minutes later I went back into the living room to see this...


Yes, he is asleep. So asleep that I skipped bathtime, fed him a bottle and changed his diaper all without him waking up. He was down for the night by 7pm. Which means he should be waking up tomorrow around 5am...This is why nap time must be respected!!! If nap time is not taken, the whole schedule is thrown off!!!

Also, we bought some de-tangler for Deacon's hair. I've started to comb out the 'fro and it helps if you use detangler...We tried to get pics of the fluffiness...


Ok, I've got to add about 100 links to the blog roll. One of my bestest friends from college (and I call her the bestest b/c she lived with me and my blaring alarm clock for 2 years!) is adopting from Ethiopia also!!! YAY for Nikki and Matthew!!!

The Next Big Deacon Movie

random bits...

here are some pics from my sister that i probably never posted before...some are from deacon's first night home in fort worth and some are from when we went to the astros game in h-town a couple of weeks after we got back...

also, we are going to a gladney meet and greet today to be the ethiopian family on the panel discussion...this is fun...i love being on a panel...

also, deacon is popping out teeth left and right. we are going to have to find a baby dentist.

this is his first bath back home in our kitchen sink...i can't even imagine what is going through his little baby brain at this moment...but if i had to guess, maybe something like "there are a lot of white people in this room and i'm naked in a sink..."


this was before the bath and he is trying to look at aunt monica and suck his toes at the same time...way to multitask.


in this pic, he has been in texas for about 3 hours and he is already an aggie....


go astros!!!!!!