I'm excited to see snow, if it actually makes its way here today. But before it comes, I want to run to the store - though not to buy the traditional Southern Snow Concoction of milk, eggs, and bread (actually, come to think of it, we could probably use more eggs before the end of the week) - to buy oatmeal, baby Motrin, a Valentine's Day card (or two), another bottle that flows fast enough to keep Lizzie happy (all the ones we have now are slow), and probably some kind of frozen pizza or easy meal of some sort to put in front of Anna for when she babysits for us on Saturday.
Tomorrow night is the beginning of the big "Jubilee Celebration" for Brother John, celebrating 50 years in the ministry! It is a huge hoopla, with hours and hours worth of planning, many out of town guests, real china, and special slide show and testimony presentations prepared. I'm really looking forward to it, if anything I'm looking forward to the night out with Sam, dressed up, and without hauling the baby with us!
I can't believe that I'm actually "that mother" who has never left my baby with a sitter yet! Yes, I have left her with my mom a few times, and with her daddy plenty of times, but never with a non-family member. Granted, I'm leaving her after she goes to bed, but still, it's a "first" and I seriously thought I'd leave her long before she was 8 months old, but I have surprised myself and not parted with her yet!
While Lizzie is napping, I do need to get a few things done: have a quiet time (why does that get pushed aside lately?), make sure there will be a bottle of milk available for Lizzie in case she wakes up while Anna is with her, empty the dishwasher and wash last night's dinner dishes, and try to guzzle a whole Liter of water. If I'm really industrious, maybe I'll exercise (on the Wii Fit again, since I somehow injured my knee after pulling a muscle in my back - overcompensating, maybe? I don't know), charge the camera battery and empty the camera memory card, since we will have to get footage of Lizzie's first experience with 1"-2" of snow, right?
*Edited to add a link to the pictures in the next post of all the snow!
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.
Good morning, it's Friday! I have French Vanilla decaf to add to the regular Folgers today, PLUS the Pumpkin Pie Spice creamer stuff in the fridge. You don't necessarily have to put them together, but it's not bad together! Good stuff.
Elizabeth is going to be 6 months on Tuesday, and for the last 2 weeks she has been crawling. Seriously, what is her deal that she wants to do everything already?! She sits up, crawls, puts her paci in and out of her mouth, babbles, tries to drink out of a sippy cup, pulls up onto toys, and can stand against furniture and toys for quite a while. She is growing up so fast!
Here is a short video of her from last week. She is getting better at crawling now, but this is so fun because she's cracking up as she goes.
We put up the Christmas tree on Saturday, which is the earliest I've ever put a tree up. I think I was so antsy to put it up because we didn't have a tree up last year. The combination of morning sickness and traveling left me un-enthused about decorating. We took a stinkin' adorable picture of Elizabeth on Sunday, which I already made into a Christmas card and put in the mail. I don't know what's gotten into me that has me ahead of schedule as it relates to Christmas. I have never had the Christmas cards out the first week of December, either. Weird.
Here is our Christmas card:
I uploaded it to Costco and picked up 100 the next day for only $29! Envelopes, and all! I did go through nearly $40 of stamps, though. I'm hoping to hand out a bunch at church this weekend, though, and anybody I miss Sunday will be mailed their card on Monday.
We hosted Thanksgiving here last week, which was delightful. We fried a turkey again, and everybody contributed to the meal to share the load. We invited my parents and brothers, plus a family from church: Josh & Becky and their two boys, 5 and 3 years old, who don't have family in the area. The boys set up a huge city of blocks on the coffee table, and had a great time playing with Lady in the back yard.
It is kind of a family tradition to "adopt" people who don't have family nearby, since we don't have family nearby, either. Besides, holidays are so much more fun when you share them beyond just your family.
I'm still coasting on having the house clean from Thursday. It's starting to look like it needs to be picked up and cleaned again. I also haven't gone grocery shopping this week, except for an abbreviated trip through Walmart Friday night. If we can hold out through Sunday, I'd be happy. And if that means we have to pick up something over the weekend, I'd be that much happier. Ha!
Since the house was clean and we were free, we invited Scott & Stephy over for brunch on Saturday morning. I made waffles (using the waffle maker they gave us) and a potato/ham/egg frittata. So delicious, and we had a great time having them join us. I think that may become a tradition: post-Thanksgiving brunch!
The bummer of the month is that Sam did not make the deadlines he needed to for his senior project, which means he will have to complete it next semester. So, unfortunately, he will not graduate this month, and it will be next May. This may mean that he can continue working part time as an intern through the HVAC company he's been working with for a couple of years. It also lets him stay a student, allowing him to stay at the school where he has his foot in the door with different companies who will be pursuing graduates. It could be what gets him a job in a few months. We will see how God provides.
I should be getting off the computer and getting my butt in gear while Elizabeth finishes her nap. Lately she takes 2 naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Fortunately she goes down without a fight anymore (not usually) and will sleep for at least an hour. It has changed my life! She also goes to bed at around 7:30 PM and sleeps pretty well through the night, usually up around midnight once, and sometimes one more time around 4 or 5. Last night she slept from 11:30 PM to 7 AM! Getting up earlier is a little rough, but it's great to be up and at 'em before 8 every morning.
There is not a whole lot new here this week; Sam is working on homework (is actually not going in to work this week or next, to get his projects done). Elizabeth is sleeping.
E has been getting better at sitting up on her own. She can actually stay up for several minutes, until she wants to go somewhere else.
Speaking of going somewhere else, she can get around pretty well now. She still does her little army crawl, but can get her knees up under herself and push forward. Lately she has started to scoot backward, too, which frustrates her. She doesn't quite know what she is doing.
Sleep has not been as much of a struggle lately; I've been feeding E around 6 or 6:30 (solid food), then giving her a bath (a necessity after eating), getting her ready to sleep, then giving her another chance to nurse. By 7:30 or 8 she is in bed, and is out till about midnight. At that point, she sleeps till sometime between 3 and 4, when she wakes up hungry, and then wakes up for the day between 7 and 8. That works out really well for her to take a nap at 9:30 or 10.
I've figured out that the morning nap is the only chance I get to accomplish anything. I wish I was good at kicking myself into gear.
Wednesday afternoon was spent mainly working on my revised chore list, where I laid out the weekly tasks in month calendar form. I had one of these set up long before Elizabeth arrived, but of course with a new baby, everything except survival flies out the window. Now that we have regular naps and bedtimes, I can actually try to get more of a handle on things to keep myself and the house under some semblance of control. The advantage of this list is that I have things marked down on certain days - some things a few times a week. Ideally, they will get done on the day they're listed. But since I am not that fond of any of this cleaning business, I will most likely not do all of the things. In fact, I have not done any of them since I made the list a couple of days ago. And the beauty of this set up is that if I miss it on one day, I know I can catch it the next time it shows up on the list. There are things listed that must get done for the continuation of normal life (groceries, laundry, etc.), and they are the main goals for each day. Then there's the other stuff - sweeping the floor, or exercising.
Well, the old dog is fussing to go outside, so I should probably listen to her. It makes a good stopping point for me to quit and post this for now.
But first, here is my current favorite picture of Elizabeth:
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