Well, if it hasn't been 2 months since I've posted a blog entry! If it weren't for the
Company Girl Coffee invitation every week, there's no telling whether I ever would have blogged again.
Since it's been so long, I will not try to update everything that's happened since then, because that would take too much time. And I think I hear Elizabeth crying. Yep, that's her.
Okay, I'll be back in a little while.
A few hours have passed and the kiddo is back asleep in her crib. She's been out for almost an hour, so I might have to do the 10 minute version here. But who wants to read the hour-long version anyway?
Lizzie (as we now call her) will be 8 months old on Monday (8th). She has accomplished quite a lot in the past 2 months:
- She is now a "speed racer" when it comes to crawling. Can't leave her alone for a second!
- She stands unassisted for several seconds at a time. In fact, she can stand longer than she thinks she can; while doing something with both hands she will stand for quite a while, but the moment she realizes that she's not holding on to something, she wobbles and sits down or grabs for support.
- She eats pretty much anything we give her. Except baby cereal; she hates that stuff. Last night she was eating small bites of chicken, rice, and sweet & sour red peppers. And loving every bite. Cheerios ("O's") and yogurt are her favorite things to eat. She drinks water/juice in a sippy cup.
- Her two bottom front teeth have come in and they're super cute. They make her smile that much more incredibly adorable.
- Lately she has taken to "growling" as her new method of communication. She woke up from her nap on Wednesday afternoon growling at the cats and dogs. Not sure where that came from, but it's downright hilarious!
- After borrowing a book from the library called "Baby Signing 1-2-3" which uses American Sign Language as the basis for teaching infants to communicate before they can talk, I have started teaching her some of the words a little person like herself would find important: milk, change, more, all done, fan (because she loves the ceiling fan), mommy, daddy, etc.
- She takes 2 good naps nearly every day. Her favorite time of day is bathtime right after dinner, and her least favorite time of day is going down for naps. We let her 'cry it out' because it's the only way she'll ever sleep. At bedtime she is very good and will sleep without any fuss.
As far as Sam and I go, things are pretty much the same.
I'm trying to figure out how to be a mom, wife, housekeeper, dog letter-outer, chef, and child of God every day. I realize that I waste far too much time on the computer doing stupid stuff like playing on facebook and my "born in June 2009" online forum. Then I complain because I didn't have time to have a quiet time or exercise or go to the store. Wah, wah.
I did come to the conclusion that I don't have to spend lots of time in "devotions," I just need to focus for a few minutes, and then have reminders through the day of that time. I also realized that I don't usually process things unless I'm writing it out. I suppose that's the way that I "meditate" or "ruminate" on what is before me. Sadly, I have hardly written anything in a long time, which kind of means that the depth of my spiritual walk has been puddle-like. But it's alright as long as I go somewhere from here.
At New Year's I decided that my "resolution" would be to run a 5K race before Lizzie's 1st birthday (in June). So far I have been able to exercise most days for the last two or three weeks. We have found a race we'll do on April 17th, Lord willing! Sam has been working out for months now, trying to get in shape and lose weight. I'd been struggling to get to the point where I could even take the 10 minutes to get on the treadmill or use the Wii Fit.
Do you know what my secret is to getting active again? I cut my hair all off. It's in a little "mom bob" now. See, the reason I wasn't working out is because I didn't want to sweat, because if you sweat, you have to wash your hair, and it takes too long to wash long hair, so it's not worth it. At least that's the way it went in my head.
Sam is working 4 days a week again at the HVAC company and we are thankful that he still has a job. He has his one last class to finish before he graduates, and then he'll never be in school again, hallelujah!
On Sunday we are hosting a Super Bowl party, and it sounds like we have a pretty good bunch of people coming over. It will be fun, and I don't know quite how we'll pull it off or where we'll all sit, but I'm glad we're doing it. I don't care anything about the game or who wins or any of that, but I do enjoy the commercials, and it's a great excuse to have friends come and snack for a few hours! With the baby, it's easier to invite people to come see us than it is to go out in the evenings when she goes to bed at 7 each night. That has lately put a damper on our social life, but we're figuring it out as we go along. It's a season, and this too, shall pass.
If I have time later I'll put up some pictures or give an update on our trip to Texas with the baby and the dog for Christmas. The short version is that it was a lot of fun and so worth the trip; it was also easier than we expected it to be - both Lizzie and Lady were excellent travelers. The grandparents were thrilled to spend a week with their little granddaughter, and we thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Sam's family.
For now, though, it's time for me to throw dinner together. This did turn into the long version, but it's a fairly good summary of what life looks like for now.
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