Hadleigh Claire's Two Accomplishments

Friday was a big day for Miss Hadleigh Claire. I have been thinking for a while that I wanted to get HC off the bottle and onto a sippy cup. The main problem is that she wants to have nothing to do with the sippy. So, Dave and I woke up on Friday morning and prepared ourselves for a fight. We gave her a bottle first thing and then I called Kris to verify that I wasn't going to be tormenting my child. She confirmed my suspicions that we were within the realm of normalcy...thanks Kris...and the battle began. We decided that we would only give her a sippy and when she was thirsty enough she would drink out of it.

We started with the Nuby. Dave quickly vetoed it, saying it was too hard to get milk out of it. So, we moved onto a soft-tipped Gerber cup (I had purchased about 4 different kinds to keep our options open). She was hesitant, but by the afternoon she had gotten the hang of it and was slowly putting a dent in the milk. We claimed victory by the end of the day and haven't looked back. The soft-tipped Gerber sippy is our friend!

Now, if you have been keeping up with the blog at all you would know that for the past several months HC has been peeing on the toilet every night before her bath (refer to the January archive for background info). Dave has been saying that for the last couple of weeks when he puts HC on the toilet she not only pees, but also toots and has strained a few times (as if trying to poop). Well, Friday evening before her bath, HC pooped in the toilet! Dave was so proud and had to take a pic. If you know Dave at all you will understand why I have to post the pic. If you don't know Dave, sorry.

So, to sum up, we now have a fully hydrated, non-bottle drinker who pees and poops in the toilet!

We Might Not Let Them Eat???

OK, so I have mentioned before that I am a Survivor-aholic. I definitely this is a major disease and might need to be treated with serious meds. Fortunately in the 7 years it has been on, there are still a few other faithful watchers...Kris and Bif...and my bro Dan. You can check out his Survivor favs on his blog. Though we do not see eye to eye on some TV shows, we can completely agree on our favs.

Right now I have to vent my growing distaste of all things Stacy. Ugh! I first disliked her when she treated Cassandra and Dreamz like poo in a can when they didn't know how to work the coffee machine. She is so condescending!

Again last night she opened her mouth again and I wanted to slap her face. She was chuckling to Earl that Alex and Mookie would be lucky to eat during their remaining days on the island. Who...the...junk...are...you? As if Stacy is the keeper and provider of all the food, she thinks she can dictate who does and doesn't eat? Someone please vote her butt off the island!

I did find it most amusing that Mookie and Alex's plan for Yau's immunity idol backfired on them. I hope that Alex can save his own behind next week...we shall see.

A long time ago when I worked at MTW my co-worked Jon, swore that he would eat his shoe if this one crazy dude we knew was able to get ordained as a pastor in the PCA. Well, for better or worse, this poor soul managed to get ordained and I have yet to see Jon actually eat his shoe. I might remind him of that sometime. In any case...if Stacy pulls out a win for this Survivor I will eat my shoe!

Let Us Wonder

This past Sunday was a special treat because we had Matthew Smith leading worship during our service. MS is a lead singer of Indelible Grace band. Honestly, to me Indelible Grace is more of a worship movement than a band. Indelible Grace in most ways began a new hymns movement, which joins old hymns with new music. If you haven’t heard of Indelible Grace you have probably heard some of their music by default. Jars of Clay’s CD “Redemption Songs” sings several hymns that IG had redone.

I did not grow up in a church that sang hymns, but grew to love singing hymns while I was at Asbury. After Asbury when I started attending Intown I fell in love with the worship that is blended, full of rich tradition and theology and yet minus the sometimes silly tunes that went along with hymns. I think that one of the hardest parts of being in Germany was that we missed the full and meaningful worship of Intown. We sang a lot of “Jesus is my boyfriend” worship songs…that is what we called them. You know, the ones where you just say I love you over and over again. OK, I am not saying all praise songs are bad and all hymns are good…that can’t be true. But there are many hymns that folks have never heard of that teach wonderful theological truths about who God is and what he has done for us. Personally, when I worship, I enjoy singing about what God has done, as opposed to what I do or do not do…and how much I may or may not love.

If you click on the link to IG (in the links column) you can access their RUF hymnbook that has music and chords to many of the hymns. It is a great resource.

Here is one of the songs we sang on Sunday that was dear to my heart. John Newton wrote “Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder.” Now to all of you praise music lovers out there, your challenge is to find a song that is as rich in theological truths as this hymn. If you find one I will post it on the blog as well.

Let us love and sing and wonder
Let us praise the Savior’s name
He has hushed the law’s loud thunder
He has quenched Mount Sinai’s flame
He has washed us with His blood
He has brought us nigh to God

Let us love the Lord Who bought us
Pitied us when enemies
Called us by His grace and taught us
Gave us ears and gave us eyes
He has washed us with His blood
He presents our souls to God

Let us sing though fierce temptation
Threatens hard to bear us down
For the Lord, our strong salvation,
Holds in view the conqu’ror’s crown
He, Who washed us with His blood,
Soon will bring us home to God

Let us wonder grace and justice
Join and point to mercy’s store
When through grace in Christ our trust is
Justice smiles and asks no more
He Who washed us with His blood
Has secured our way to God

Let us praise and join the chorus
Of the saints enthroned on high
Here they trusted Him before us
Now their praises fill the sky
Thou hast washed us with Thy blood
Thou art worthy Lamb of God

13 Months

Last week Hadleigh Claire turned 13 months old and is just as hilarious now as ever. She isn't walking yet, but is a fast crawler. When she wants something, she just puts her head down and starts crawling toward it. Sometimes I feel like I have to jog to beat her she is so fast. She continues to bear crawl, which I posted a pic of a couple weeks ago. It is pretty funny to watch, though she doesn't always crawl that way.

She is trying and eating lots of new things, and is obsessed with food. Everytime I eat, she must eat and she wants exactly what I am having. She had her first experience with spaghetti a couple weeks ago and loved it. Unfortunately I had a bad experience with spaghetti, so we will not be having it again for a while. She also loves mac and cheese, hummus with pita bread, peanut butter toast, and I know there is more I just can't think of it. The only she has had that she refuses to eat is corn. I am not sure why...but Dave and I are convinced this summer we will get her hooked on corn on the cob. I have fed her so many other things I find it a little odd about the corn thing. I mean, really, you like broccoli, carrots, papaya, lentils...and you refuse corn? Whatever.

She has been a trooper and my little start these past few weeks. She plays by herself and entertains herself well while I lay on the couch. She brings me books and I will lay on the floor with her and read. She LOVES her alphabet books that her friend Sadie got her for her birthday. She can read them over and over and over. She loves to quack like a duck, but she quacks at everything. If she sees a dog, she quacks, if she sees a horse, she quacks, etc. She definitely has her own little language going and it is hilarious to listen to her talk. Besides Dada and Mama which she doesn't use, but she does know, she has three words. Ba for bath. As soon as we finish dinner and Dave asks her what time it is, she say "ba". Yea is her second word...and I just think it is funny that she says that. Her third word is shees for cheese. She is hilarious when she uses this word. She gets a cheshire grin on her face with her eyes closed and teeth together, she laughs a little and then on her best day will say shees, other times it comes out sh.

Her final obsession these days are paper towels. She can sit for hours crumpling, shredding and finally eating a paper towel. You can see in the pics how she will carry a piece of it around in her mouth, that is my little girl!

Bowing to the Porcelain

Lots of folks have been asking me how I am feeling this prego time around, and honestly I think that I am doing pretty well. I have my moments, but I feel like mentally I have a better game strategy than when I was prego with HC.

Some of you may wonder what my strategy is, and I will tell you...laying on the couch does wonders. I only get up when I have to, and I only leave the house either when I have to, or when I am feeling decent enough to leave. I pretty much don't do anything I don't want to do, except feed Hadleigh and change her diapers. If it is not a necessity, it is a luxury and I don't have to do it if I don't feel well. I also consume a lot of crackers.

I also try to keep my humor about things, which I think you have to do while puking. I have decided with all of my experience I could really write a coffee table book about this subject. I am thinking about devoting one entire chapter to the dry heave. I mean really, what is its purpose? After my third attempt at puking one day I asked Dave what he thought the purpose was. He suggested that it might be a good abdominal work out since all I do is lay on the couch. My stomach muscles are building strength to be able to push out the baby. That is one idea. So then I asked him why people heave when they aren't prego. He didn't seem to have a good answer to that one.

Sorry to be a bit graphic, but welcome to my lovely world. I honestly do feel in good spirits and while I hate being sick, I have lots of support from Dave, so that helps. I knew that having another baby would mean paying many visits to the porclain throne, so this all was sort of my own choosing.

I will end with one last puking thought. Several women have mentioned what I am assuming are meant to be encouraging words to Dave and I about the whole prego puking thing. The encouragement is that at least if you are puking you won't gain as much weight. Just in case you were one of the poor souls who have had that thought...I will mock you here on my blog and not directly to your face...unless I continue to hear that and my grace for that day has already been spent. First if you have just said something as dumb as that you have probably never spent more than a day in front of the toilet. Second I haven't ever meant anyone that considers bulimia a good way to loose weight. If given the choice I would take the extra 20 pounds over sitting at the toilet.

Finally. I am thrilled to be prego and carrying a baby. I would never trade my situation. I would never wish all-day-sickness on anyone else, so if you don't have it, don't worry I am not channeling the spirits against you! This is a season for me, and I am happy to walk through it, knowing that it will end in time.

I'll Tell Ya What Ya Want

This is going to be sort of random. Part of it is a piggyback on what I wrote about yesterday. Part of it is a shout out to my mom, who gave me one piece of advice that I lived by and gave me one childhood memory that I hope my children will have of me.

So, we will start at the beginning. Dave always makes fun of me because I didn't know what Walmart was until I was in college. Though we didn't have Walmarts and Targets in Newbury Park, we did have a Kmart two towns over. Fear not, I did not grow up in the middle of nowhere, but my town was too snobbish to allow the discount stores (or at least that was the rumor), but we do have a Target now. So, anyway this Kmart was notoriously known for its horrible customer service. There were always about 20 people in line and it always took an hour to check out. I don't really remember the details of this trip, but I remember all three of us kids being tired and mom was frustrated. It probably took a ridiculous amount of time for something, and I suppose mom got a little irked at the check-out lady (for the record, irked for mom isn't a kick in the pants...it is more like a poke in the shoulder). We must have eventually paid and gotten out of the store, since we are not still waiting in line to this day. I am not sure how many days passed in the mean time, but mom felt as though she had treated the check-out lady unfairly and rudely (I can only assume), because one day mom went back to the store with the three of us in tow. She found the same lady, explained that she had been in the store a few days before, had acted poorly and wanted to ask her for her forgiveness. The lady sort of shrugged and said something about it not being a big deal, but mom insisted that it was a big deal and apologized again. I suppose at that point all four of us walked out of the store. I know that I am probably adding things to all of this, but this is what my 6 year old mind remembers about the situation. Honestly I will never forget this, and this is what I want my children to remember about me.

On another note when boys starting becoming a big deal to me, I remember this one talk that mom and I had. And I think this was the single most important advice I ever received in my entire life. Ok, ready all my fav single buds? You will know he is the one when...just kidding! She said that a measure of a man's character is how he treats people. Not just how he might treat me, but how he treats the waiter, or the check-out lady, or the person that really irritates them. How he treats those people will be how he treats you one day.

So after spending a bunch of time with my wonderful husband, I saw how he treated people, and I knew he was true, just like his middle name. It is a good thing he wasn't using the same measure for me because I would have failed! I can be a real bitty sometimes. I really hate it when folks get in my way, but Dave has taught me so much about loving and caring for people, even the ones that screw up your forms and overdraft your account.

I am married to the kindset man in the whole world, so maybe Hadleigh will take her cues of caring for people from her Dada and Nana.

Being a Mama

I have definitely learned a lot over the past year since becoming a mama. One of the things I learned off the bat, even before becoming a mom was that there are a lot of decisions to make. I remember just after I found out I was expecting someone asking me if I was going to use a pacifier...of course, I had no idea, and was trying to think about what might be bad about using one. Then there was one of my favorite questions...about what way I was going to have the baby, with an epidural or "natural". Like I knew what it is going to be like to have a baby? My fav answer to that question was, "I am going to do it the way the baby comes out"...whatever way that is. I am no hero and think it is impossible to make a decision like that until you are in the situation.

Of course once Hadleigh arrived there were all sorts of other questions. The diaper question was easy (cloth or huggies) because we didn't have a washer/dryer. Formula/breast feeding. Gerber baby food/make your own. Babywise/Healthy Sleep Habits. Baptism/no baptism. And of course, everyone has a strong opinion one way or another.

All through these decisions I have tried to stay balanced and remember that none of these things are going to necessarily help or harm my baby. In my opinion Hadleigh wasn't going to be smarter or dumber whether I gave her formula or nursed her. And I am still hoping that she won't grow up to be a mass murderer because I didn't use cloth diapers.

All of these decisions to me are very trivial things...I mean important decisions at the time, but none of them are necessarily going to have a lasting impact on me or Hadleigh, so I try not to sweat these things and take them all with a grain of salt.

Sometimes I get frustrated that Hadleigh won't drink out of a sippy cup yet, but then I just try to chill out because there aren't many adults who walk around drinking out of a bottle, so...

I think the things that I am most concerned about with Hadleigh have to do with who I am and my character, as opposed to what I do. Santa...Easter Bunny...Tooth Fairy...I don't think these will leave lasting scars. But my faith or lack of faith in Christ will deeply mold what Hadleigh thinks of Christ. They way Dave and I treat and speak to one another will deeply mold the way Hadleigh views marriage. The way I treat the checker at Kroger and the waiter at the restaurant will mold the way Hadleigh treats others.

These are the things that most scare about being a mother. When Hadleigh is applying to colleges or a job, no one is going to ask when she started walking...or talking...or reading...or drinking from a cup. They are going to look at her character, does she work hard, is she ambitious, does she treat others well, and some of these things will be a reflection on my character. This to me is the scariest part of being a mother.

This is also the thing that drives me to the feet of Jesus, asking him to make her heart soft to Him. I pray that she won't know a day without Him. And I also ask that she will love all kinds of people. I know that in spite of me and my character flaws, the Lord can answer these prayers. I also know that it is only by His grace that Hadleigh will love and serve the Lord. I can only model a life of repentance, I cannot create that repentance in Hadleigh.