May Blessings

“The more I count these blessings, the more I realize that they really are not the product of my own efforts. They are truly gifts of grace from God above. It’s incredible to open my eyes to them week after week. And humbling. That I should be graced with such wonders? Me… whose heart is weak and black, yet covered with much mercy. How great is Your unfailing love, Lord God of all!” –Sharaya Crossan

I am so thankful for:

201. God’s peace which I have felt the past few days

202. That God doesn’t change when my circumstances do

203. Lilacs

204. Dish towels

205. The color yellow

206. Kitchen tables

207. Cozy blankets

208. Grass

209. Cases of diapers

210. Water bottles

211. Brothers and sisters

212. Plug covers

213. Toothless grins at exactly 6 months old

214. Baseboards

215. Lawn mowers

216. Paved roads

217. Time spent outside together as a family

218. Spoon rests

219. Geraniums

220. Rainbows which remind me of God’s promises

Transition Time

We have had a very challenging and interesting week.  Last week Friday, I put Kiera down for her nap.  She wasn’t falling asleep, so I asked Jared to go check on her.  He came back upstairs with Kiera following him.  He asked me, “You put Kiera in her crib, right?”  I said, “Ya…why?”  He said, “I found her walking around her room!”  She had climbed out of her crib, which I was shocked about!  She’s never been much of a climber and she managed to do it without hurting herself since there was no crying.  I know that most kids are in a bed by the time they turn 2, but Kiera loved her crib and I had no reason to take it down since Blake was sleeping in a playpen (or play yard as it’s officially called).  I promptly took the crib down that evening and we put her in her bed.  She cried for her crib and I was wondering if I would be up with her for half the night because of it, but we walked away and 5 minutes later she was asleep!  This is her first morning waking up in her bed:

The nights have been good, but she decided now that she no longer wants to nap since she can very easily leave her bed.  As a result, by suppertime she’s been extremely cranky and throwing tantrums every 10 minutes until bedtime.  It’s exhausting. 

On Sunday, she also started opening doors for the first time, so now she can not only get out of bed but get out of her room as well.  It’s all happening so fast and she’s growing up rapidly before our eyes!  On Wednesday, she decided she wanted to start peeing on her little potty.  She takes off her pants and diaper by herself, sits down, and pees!  She definitely hasn’t been consistent, but she’s done it 4 times in the last 2 days.  I’m very much hoping that she’ll soon be fully potty trained.  It only works if it’s her idea.  Last night, we set up the crib in Blake’s new room and took down the play yard in his old room, so now he’s adjusting to that.  I was really hoping he would sleep better in it as he’s been waking up every 3 hours in the night and last night he had a 6-hour stretch before waking up!  Praise the Lord!

Jared came home from work on Tuesday at lunch and told me that he got a new position at work!  We knew that this position was a possibility since March, but we didn’t know if he would get it or not, so we didn’t say a word about it to anyone.  They forgot to tell him privately and he ended up finding out when it was announced in a meeting with all of his other co-workers!  He’ll still be in the office but doing something completely different.  Today my beautiful little sister turns 25 and this morning a close friend of mine (Jacki) had a baby boy named Micah.  SO exciting!!  I think that’s all for this week!  Life is definitely an adventure!

Our Short Trip

Last week, I headed south of the border with my boys for one night while Kiera stayed with her grandparents.  She wouldn’t have enjoyed shopping and she’s always been a “I only sleep in a crib” kind of girl and hotels don’t have cribs.  We had a good time, but it was a lot more work with Blake there.  We’ve never gone with either of our kids by ourselves.  We were constantly getting him in and out of the van and in and out of the stroller and stopping to feed him every couple of hours.  I even took my nursing pillow into Denny’s to feed him while we ate lunch there!  We found fantastic deals on clothes.  I got 3 t-shirts: $7, $9, and $10.  I also found a pair of jeans that fit me and they were $20.  All of my jeans are loose on me because I’ve lost some extra weight due to breastfeeding which I hope to gain back once I’m done.  We very much enjoyed spending time in the hot tub and watching American Idol on our laptop while Blake napped.  We asked for a room closest to the hot tubs so that our baby monitor would reach.  Here are Jared + Blake on the king bed

Blake did very well, but he got constipated, so that sucked.  He woke up every couple of hours in the night trying to poop and not succeeding.  I didn’t get very much sleep as I was concerned about him.  As soon as we left the hotel the next morning, I went and got Blake some prune baby food and then he let ‘er rip!  I’ve never been so happy to see a poopy diaper!  We think that happened because we messed up his schedule.  He has been fine ever since, thank the Lord!  It was a nice little getaway in the middle of Jared’s 9 days of holidays! :)

Time For Food!

This post should have been done a month ago, but I kept forgetting.  I finally transferred the pictures from my camera onto the computer yesterday.  Even if nobody else cares, I'm doing this simply for my sister.  She lives far away and is missing all of my kids' milestones, so she can see them on here!  Blake started rice cereal at the end of April and this is the first feeding.

Just like we did with Kiera, we made a video.  As you can see, it went much better than Kiera's first rice cereal feeding (she spit it out and started hitting the high chair tray)!

I'm Still Here

I'm back! I must say that I've actually enjoyed taking a break from the internet and have decided that I want to live more of my life offline instead of being online all the time. So, I won't be on facebook as much but I will continue to update my blog hopefully on a regular basis. Jared has been on holidays since last Saturday and he is off work until next Tuesday, so he has 9 days of freedom! I've TOTALLY been enjoying our time together as a family and the super gorgeous hot sunny weather! Last week Friday, he took me out for Mother's Day while my parents watched our kids. We went to a great crepe restaurant which neither of us had been to before and we loved the food! We both had a rhubarb crisp crepe with ice cream in it (they're wrapped up like burritos) and then I had a strawberry and nutella crepe and Jared had a cinnamon and sugar crepe. We basically had dessert for supper which was right up my alley! I tried bubble tea for the first time and had the green apple flavor and it was delicious! On Monday, we had our last cell group meeting as our cell leaders are having their 3rd baby and the due date is next week Monday. On Tuesday, we celebrated Mother's Day with Jared's Mom. From Wednesday-Thursday, we took an overnight trip with Blake (which I will blog about next week) while Kiera stayed with her grandparents. It's been busy and lots of fun! Jared is outside doing yard work right now while Kiera is running around outside, so I should go join them now that Blake fell asleep. Hope you all have a great week-end!

Colds, Colds, Go Away!

This week has been challenging for me.  Kiera has had a cold, or maybe multiple colds, for 6 weeks now.  On the week-end, both Blake and I got colds as well.  Lately, my prayer is that God would humble me and He is and it’s not fun.  I used to be so proud that my kids hardly ever got sick while other friends’ kids were getting sick often, and now Kiera has had a marathon cold and my 6-month-old has a worse cold than her.  I decided that enough was enough and that I would, for the most part, stay off the internet until we’re all better.  It’s been a big struggle and I’ve realized how addicted to facebook I am.  I really want to spend more time with Jesus than I do in front of the computer.  Even now, I’m using a program called Windows Live Writer to type and post this blog post, so I don’t even have to go online.  I have felt quite isolated not knowing what’s going on in my friends’ lives.  I didn’t go to Mom’s group this past week, I cancelled a play date, and I cancelled a get together with my cousin whom I haven’t seen since Christmas and meeting her 7-week-old baby for the first time all because we’re sick and don’t want to pass it on to anyone else.  I’m so thankful that a friend came over on Tuesday evening and my Mom came on Wednesday and brought supper while Jared was working 2 jobs that day from 7 a.m. – 11 p.m.  He is going down to one shift a week at his part-time job, so now he will just work one week-end shift every week.  YAY!  It also makes parenting more challenging when I’m not feeling well plus my kids are not feeling well.  Kiera’s cough is almost gone now, praise the Lord!  Blake + I are still struggling with it.  If you think of us, could you please pray for good health?  Thanks so much!

187-200

“Great is Thy faithfulness!

Great is Thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see.”

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!”

 

I am thankful for:

187. Music

188. Sunshine after the rain

189. Minivans (particularly our Honda Odyssey)

190. Shampoo

191. Eating utensils

192. A son who likes baby food

193. Good family movies

194. Smoothies

195. Flowers

196. High chairs

197. The nursery at church

198. Rubber bands that keep Kiera out of the cupboards

199. Our rocking chair

200. Surprises for Mother’s Day that Jared picked out all by himself from Hallmark: a great card, a hot chocolate scented candle, and a mug that has this quote on it: “Cherish Yesterday, Dream of Tomorrow, Live for Today.”

Half Year Milestones

Today, Blake is 6 months old and as of last week, Kiera is 2 1/2 years old!  How the time is flying!  It's hard for me to believe that Blake is half a year old already!  I was looking at pictures of me holding him in the hospital and it wasn't even that long ago, but I can't remember him being that tiny.  I look at the pictures and say, “Really?”  It’s such a joy to watch them growing up! 

New things with Blake this past month:

-He switched from the baby bathtub to the big bathtub

-He can roll from his back onto his stomach

-He started rice cereal last week and that went very well

-He started sweet potato baby food this past Monday, which also went very well

-Teething like crazy now…none are through yet but I think and hope that it will be soon

 

New things with Kiera this past month:

-I taught her to say electricity (ha ha)

-She learned some new songs and can sing them all by herself: Jesus Loves Me, Rock a Bye Baby (those two she learned a few months ago), The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Are You Sleeping Brother John, and God Is So Good.”  She often ends off “God Is So Good” with “God is so good, He’s so good to me, Blake, Mommy, and Kiera, and Daddy, and Blake, and Mommy…” Very cute!  I’m currently working on teaching her “My God Is So Big.”

-She has been challenging us lately with her behavior, which isn’t all that new.  Part of it is that she gets bored being in the house all the time and then starts getting into things she’s not supposed to, so the more we can get out and do things and she can run around outside, the better.  Also, she sometimes (lately it’s been often) refuses to eat her supper, so then she doesn’t get anything else to eat in the evening unless she eats her supper. 

-She has memorized more of her books and one of her favorites this past month that she enjoys looking at is her Kid’s Bible.  She points out all the different pictures of people, like Adam and Eve, Noah, Joseph, David, etc. 

-She also has many sweet moments.  She often says, “Follow Jesus and be baptized,” which I pray she will want to do at a young age.  Last night as I was putting her to bed she said, “Jesus died and rose again?” and I said, “Yes Kiera.  Never forget that.” 

 

My Mom-in-law once again took pictures of the kids last week Friday as they hit their half-year birthdays.  She did a beautiful job!

Best smiles ever!  I am so in love with them!!

Mystery Solved?

Last week, Blake slept quite poorly. He was up 3 times a night, usually about every 2 hours for 5 nights in a row. It started the night before he started rice cereal, so I tried switching up the time of day I would feed him cereal, but nothing made a difference, so it wasn't that. I prayed about it and suddenly God gave me an idea. I had been swaddling him, but he kept getting his right arm out, so then I started swaddling him with just his left arm in and his right arm out. Then, he started getting his left arm out, so I stopped wrapping his arms. I felt like I should try swaddling him with just his left arm in again, so Saturday night I started doing that and he has slept well 3 nights in a row, including sleeping through the night last night! I'm not sure why that makes such a difference, other than the fact that the chances of hitting himself in the face and waking himself up are reduced by 50%. In the last month, I've also started to lay my hands on him and pray for him every night before I leave his room. I'm really thankful for more solid sleep! :D