Falling in Love All Over Again

Loving this unborn baby, is making me fall in love with my Lil' Monster all over again as I remember all the firsts:

My 1st pregnancy, including my 90lbs weight gain during it...

(I won't be doing THAT again!)

His 1st few days in the hospital as we tried to figure each other out...

His 1st tantrums as a Sensory Baby...

(Yes, his face still looks just like this when he throws them now!)

His 1st (and hopefully last) surgery...

His 1st smile that turned my heart into mush...

His 1st teeth & those teething biscuits he loved to spend an hour eating...

His 1st Christmas with his 1st and only Best Friend, Morgan...

His 1st Birthday where he wasn't too sure he wanted to get his hands messy...

And I find myself wondering...

How am I ever going to be able to love another child the way I love my 1st?

- Mrs. Akers

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree

I came across these pictures and remembered how I wanted to make them into a collage. That was over a year ago! To preface these for you, this is during my sleepless nights in nursing school, settling down for bedtime with no make-up on, but we had matching PJs and enough energy to laugh! Enjoy!































- Mrs. Akers

John Doe Baby

Today, I'm going back in time (over 6 years ago) to tell you the tale of my dear

John Doe Baby
Born March 14, 2005
at 11:06pm

During the early stages of my pregnancy with JD, I was convinced I was having a little girl named Rylee.

When I got my ultrasound at 19 weeks, I fell even deeper in love when I saw this little profile.

But Completely shocked when they discovered this 3rd leg on my little Baby Girl Rylee. SHE was 100% a HE! :) I was instantly, madly in love.

While I navigated my dumbfoundedness as the new, soon to be mother of a baby boy, I started to feel really awful that I had been referring to HIM as a HER for the last 19 weeks! I felt most upset about the fact that I had NO name for my beautiful black & white baby!

My brothers and sisters wasted no time in finding humor in this situation (We are Harringtons afterall). The teasing began as they called my little boy John Doe. It made me cry.

Mercifully, they shortened it to JD.

Ironically, JD didn't bother me as much, and I fell in love with it as my pregnancy progressed. By 8 months into the pregnancy, I knew I couldn't call my beautiful boy by any other name.

So, the search was on for acceptable names to fit my J & D.

The J - James

It came to me quickly and easily. It's a family name, held by my brother, James (Jake) Robert Harrington. I wanted my son to be as tough and gentle as him.

The D - Dylan or Daven?

These were the ones we had it narrowed down to. Nothing special other than Mommy liked them! I decided on waiting to see his sweet baby face to pick one.

The first moment I saw his cute baby face are undescribable. This photo still takes my breath away. I knew immediately my little JD was: James Daven.
All 8lbs 90z

& 20.5 inches of Him! :)

This Saturday we will find out if there's a hoo ha or a wee wee hiding on our newest little one, and either way... I'll be one proud Mommy of our sweet: Raegan Lynn or JD the 2nd :)

- Mrs. Akers

Fin Lessons

We finally got JD started in lessons to get his fins working right, about 3 months ago. At 6, you would think I'd already taught our little guy how to swim, but time spun out of control and I woke up with a 6 year old who still hadn't mastered the art of swimming. Thanks to a rather unavoidable nudge from my sister... Here we are:



It's the highlight of our Mondays. We get to the gym early enough for Monster to go down the big water slide 10 times before practice. A few months ago, he couldn't swim enough to handle the plunge of water at the end of the slide, and swim to the side to get out. Now, he's unstoppable, and would go up that flight of 45 steps over 100 times if I let him!



After his 10 tours of sliding bliss,
we come inside and wait for lessons. It's an agonizing few minutes as he stares longingly out at the slides, but you have to do the work to keep enjoying the rewards!


Thanks for making this part of our weekly ritual, Aunt SueSue!

- Mrs. Akers