I'm Sailing, I'm a Sailor

Two points goes to the folks who can name the movie I just quoted in the title of my blog.

Upon arriving in Atlanta, we were taken in by two families, John, Brea and Brennan, and then Paul, Lisa and Sadie. We are indebted to both for their kind hospitality to us. In addition to housing us, both families also seem to want to hang out with us as well.

Yesterday our good buds, Paul, Lisa and Sadie took us sailing. None of the McNays had been sailing before and it was an awesome day and awesome experience all around. Here are some great pictures.

Here we are, Hadleigh slept for 1.5 hours on the boat. She is under the blanket in my arms. The winds were a bit stronger than we anticipated, which made the time all the better. The only part that was a little scary was when I had to switch sides of the boat with Hadleigh sleeping in my arms.

Here are Hadleigh and Sadie after the ride. Sadie is only 2 months, but already a veteran sailor.

Three Years

On October 4, we celebrated our 3rd Anniversary. Dave's parents watched Hadlegih for us and we went to a nice restaurant in Knoxville for dinner. I didn't get a picture of that, but we also managed to go out without Hadleigh in California. So here is a picture.

Moving In!

We packed out on September 19 and expected our household goods and car to arrive at the beginning of November. Imagine our surprise when we heard they made it to America at the beginning of October! It took just 2.5 weeks.

Because we were traveling around, we had a tough time nailing down a place to live quickly. But through some fun connections we landed ourself a wonderful little rental in a quiet neighborhood in Atlanta. Last Friday our stuff was dropped off and we have been unpakcing ever since. It is a little harder with a baby around, but little by little we are making a dent in things.

Meeting New Friends

During our travels Hadleigh was able to meet some new friends. My best friend, Erica was able to spend an evening with us and even gave Hadleigh a bath.

She was also able to spend some time with Sar and Annie








We also have had fun introducing Hadleigh to her new friends here in Atlanta. Here she is with Brennan Robinson.

Miss Hadleigh Claire Meets the Fam

Since Hadleigh was born in Germany, she has yet to meet her many aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and great grandparents. My mom was the only one able to make the trek to Germany after Hadleigh was born.

Once we arrived in the states she had plenty of folks to meet. We started off with several days in Knoxville with Dave's family.

While there she was able to meet Great-Grandma

Grandpa and Grandma

Cousins Jon, Josh and Jacob, Aunt Angie and Uncle Paul. Here she is with Jon.












After our trip to Knoxville we headed out to California where she met her Great Uncle and Aunt Dan and Diane and 2nd cousins, Chris, Ali and Chelsea. Unfortunately we failed to capture this on film.

She also was able to spend time with Papa Froggy and Nana Patti













As well as Uncle Chris and Aunt Rubie



She was amazing through all of our travels and had a wonderful time with everyone. It was so fun to make the introductions and to see Hadleigh loved so deeply by all of our family.

Doc Dave Says Goodbye

Dave's last day in the clinic they had a fab 80s lunch bash for him. Lots of folks dressed in 80s gear, made 80s food and played 80s music. They even made him a Napolean Dynamite cake and tots "Give me your tots!"

Here is Hadleigh with the Fantastic Four, Dave's fav assistants, Emily, Alene, Jessica and Lucinda. Look at that hair!

Miss Hadleigh Claire Says Goodbye

Goodbyes are the worst. I think that I would just rather not say goodbye. Often times, it seems, we do see people again. The world seems to be smaller these days, and since Dave and I have the travel bug, I just prefer to think that we will see folks again.
But as we left Baumholder, we had plenty of goodbyes to make.

Hadleigh and I ran by the Education Center where I used to work so that I could say goodbye to LaShonda. She and I worked together for a year and was one of the first people to know I was prego. It is fairly hard to keep it a secret at work, especially since I was feeling puny all the time.

We also had a couple special goodbye parties. A bunch of folks from chapel took us out for dinner and Hadleigh got to say all her goodbyes. This is Hadleigh with Miss Carol. Carol's husband was our chaplain and our fav preacher in Baumholder. We hope to see them again since they are from Georgia.


Once in a while a couple of us gals would get together for "coffee". This was because we boycotted the "playgroup" thing and would put our kids down for naps and chat over some tasty breakfast foods. We had one last coffee with Karie and Sara, and the kiddos. At the end I got a couple cute shots with Hadleigh and Ellie. So sweet!

Packing Out

I used to watch the Cosby show. I remember one episode where Cliff was making fun of Claire for cleaning the house before the cleaning lady came to clean the house. The thought made me grin because my Papa Dick used to have a cleaning lady and his wife, Nana Joan used to clean the house before her cleaning lady came. Funny. The night before the movers came I realized I was doing the same thing...who packs before the movers come?

The German movers came September 18th and packed out our entire house. The next day they came back to load everything onto our container (which looks like the back of a tractor-trailer). After they loaded our household goods in, they locked it down with ropes and then put in our car. I was a little nervous that the container said "China Shipping".

Dr. Who?

Much of my life has been spent desiring not to stay in one place, not to be committed to any one thing for too long, not to be predictable...(David speaking) but what I have found about myself is that this drive has been commanded by my pride and selfishness. Many of the lessons and Bible studies I have completed in the last two years have shown that pride is the pinultimate root of much of my sin. Up to this point, I have people joking (but honestly) by saying "Now who was that doctor who was nice, tall, had a beard, and would do our pre-orthodontic extractions? Hey Alene, do you remember the name of..." I could go into some of the places where I previously worked and most would not remember me by name. In fact if I was a betting man, I could win a large sum of money by proving myself right. I have become the nameless doctor, except the next patient who didn't forget my name. Just kidding, Photoshopped.
Now the quandry changes faces. Will I be staying in one place so that people will know me by name, or will I just be the next nice guy with a goatie, tall, and reddish hair. I think many of us ask this question, desiring to make impacts on those that cross our paths, but many will hit us head on and we still won't remember their names. My challenge both to myself and to you is to remember 80 percent of the names of the people you meet this week. Write them down, do crazy associations, ask again before you stop talking to them. None of us want to be greeted by, "Oh yeah, I met you last week and I can't remember your name" In other words "Oh yeah, I was making conversation last week just to pretend to be nice and I don't give a rip about you, because I can't call you by name" Memory is no excuse, if you can memorize hundreds of movies and their actors, the number of shoes in your closet and what outfit they match, all the lines in Napoleon Dynamite or Raising Arizona, or any number of absolutely worthless things, you can memorize the people's names you come in contact with.
Just as I don't want to be known as Dr. Who, so does everyone that you meet.
"I have called you by name; You are mine" Isaiah 43:1

Homelessness Begins Now

Tomorrow we begin our journey. The movers arrive at 0800 and will be packing most of our possessions. The container arrives Tuesday at 1000...and everything we own including our car will be whisked to port and cross the ocean...hopefully arriving in Atlanta unharmed the beginning of November. It is a daunting task to prepare for this move. I have made sure about 50 times that our passports are in a room that won't be packed up. I keep telling myself that anything I forget and need in the next 6 weeks can be purchased...except important documents like passports and car titles, etc.

Anyway, there won't be any pictures for a while. Possibly a LONG while, and there might not be many posts either. We will be staying in a hotel on post until the 29th. I look forward to watching American TV and having someone else make my bed and clean my bathroom. Yes!

She's Wearing Pink

First, these are some family pictures that were taken by our dear friend Jessica last month. We took them at Burg Lichtenburg, which is 4km down the road from our house. As I said...who gets to take family pictures at a castle? Sweet!

Onto other news Hadleigh had her 6 month appointment today and weighed in at 6kg and is 67cm long. From my calculation that is about 13 pounds and 26.5 inches. She is now more average in her height, but still dainty in weight. She is at 3% for weight. I was assured that she is fine and healtht and not to worry about her weight being low. She is still gaining, so I figure all is right with the world.

After her appointment I went over to Patient Liason to pick up translated records from Hadleigh's birth. This is the part where you will sscratch your head. I have Hadleigh dressed in blue jeans, a pink shirt and a pink sweater. OK, it was not hot pink, but it wasn't pastel either, it was obvious that she was wearing pink. In the 5 minutes that I had to wait for the records 2 German women asked if she was a boy or a girl, and one German man just called her a boy.

Now there are lots of times when I have Hadleigh in green or blue and I am totally fine with someone asking me if she is a boy or a girl when she is wearing a neutral color. But when she is obviously wearing pink...I don't understand. So, my conclusion is, that since only Germans seem to not know whether she is a boy or girl, Germans must dress their boys in pink sometimes. There is no other explanation.

Thoughts on Becoming Thirty

One of my good friends has a theory on thirty. When she turned 30 she claimed that she had not entered her 30s, she was just on the brink of them. When she turned 31, she said that she had not yet entered her 30s because 30s denotes more than 1 and since she was only 31, she wasn’t really in her 30s. This year when she turned 32 she gave up. She asked me if I was going to follow in her theory and I kindly declined. I feel good to be entering this new decade. My 20s were interesting but I think that I will enjoy my 30s even more. Onward and upward.

I thought that in honor of this occasion I would jot down some milestones of these past 10 years…good, bad and ugly.

Graduated college

Worked a regular job for 7 years (meaning 40+ hours a week)
Reach Out Ministries- 1 year
World Relief, with refugees- 1 year
Mission to the World, with 2 year missionaries- 4 years
Army Education Center- 1 year

Spoke in Chapel at Asbury
Taught a seminar at PWOC Annual Training Conference
Had an article published

Lived in 3 different states, and 1 different country
Beginning with post-college years, my first move was to Atlanta. Since that move I have moved 8 more times (not including the upcoming one back to Atlanta), 3 of those moves were with Dave.

Visited 41 states (in my whole life I have only missed 3, Alaska, Vermont and Oklahoma)
Traveled in 23 Countries

Owned a VW, Mercedes-Benz and BMW…I have purposely excluded the years of these cars.

Got married
Became an Aunt
Had a baby

Been involved in 4 different churches:
EVFree, Newbury Park, CA
First Alliance, Lexington, KY
Intown Community Church, Atlanta, Georgia
Good Samaritan 0930 Protestant Chapel Service, Baumholder, Germany

Mixed into all those things have been lots of difficult experiences. Over the last 10 years I have grown up and am beginning to see the many flaws in my personality. I see my daily struggle with sin, things I have done and things I have left undone. I have hurt people with my words and actions and my lack of compassion. I see that often I desire control more than peace. I like things my way and want to be right at all times.

I hope these next 10 years will be filled with many more adventures, but also a lot of growing up. I hope that I will diligently seek the Lord, and that He will refine those areas in my life that are in desperate need of work. I hope that I will learn how to show compassion to those in need, and maybe even to those that I don’t think are deserving of compassion. I hope that during these next 10 years I will grow in my awareness of my own sin and my need daily for the saving work of Christ.

Yes, Ja, Si, Oui

I am so confused. In the last 8 days I have tried to operate in 4 different languages. Of course when we were in Spain I could only understand what folks were saying after they had walked away. Dave kept telling me I was useless and asked why he had brought me along. We return from Spain to Germany, where I can't even begin to claim that I understand a thing that they say.

Of course, while we are in Germany, we still operate a lot in "America" aka Baumholder Army Post. So I still use my English all the time.

This past weekend Dave whisked me off to Luxembourg City for dinner where we ate at fabulous Italian-French retaurant. They speak French in Luxembourg, and I know that...it is my favorite city, but Dave had to keep correcting me because I kept responding with si, instead of oui.

Now, back in Germany I am at it again. I ran to the little flower shop, which I will have to say is the best thing in down-town Baumholder and picked up a beautiful bouquet of flowers for our neighbor who is ill. I paid 12e for it, and if I had been in the states it would have cost me about $30. Anyway, she asked me about Hadleigh and instead of saying Ja, I said Si. I then tried to show off my German by telling them that Hadleigh was 6 months old...then she asked me another question to which I responded...again...with the dreaded si.

I don't think I won any points today, but I think Hadleigh's smile smoothed it over for me.

30

Yesterday was my 30th birthday. I will write more later on some thoughts about turning 30, but I wanted to post this sweet picture of my family. We took this yesterday after my Fiesta party.

He Does All Things Well

Yesterday our Chaplain did it again. He delivered a wonderful gospel-filled sermon. It was beautiful, and just what I needed to hear. His spoke out of Mark 7.31-37 when some friends brought Jesus a man who was deaf and mute. Jesus healed the man and the crowd proclaims “He does all things well.” He focused on this sentence and noted that this can be applied past, present and future. I can look back on my life and see that he does all things well. I can look at my life presently and rejoice that he does all things well and I can trust him that he does all things well in the future. It was such a wonderful reminder to me, as we are in the midst of this huge transition, that I can trust Him. He is faithful. Just as He has provided for me in the past and presently He will provide for me tomorrow, and the next day and next week and next month. It is wonderful to relax in that.

Dave sang a duet during the offeratory, which was wonderful because it was “Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy” but it was Indelible Grace’s redone version. One of the lines is “If we tarry ‘til we are better we won’t ever come at all”. The Chaplain tied in the song with his sermon, noting that we cannot do all things well, only He can and if we wait to come to him until we have things under control, or until we have our act together, we won’t ever come to him. Jesus came to save sinners, He came to save me, not because I was so good, but because He is so merciful.

Young, Restless and Reformed

We just saw the September edition of Christianity Today whose cover story is "Young, Restless and Reformed". It also has a picture of a T-shirt that says "Jonathan Edwards is my Homeboy."

It is a pretty fascinating article, covering what they say is a new rise, and renewed interest in Reformed theology. It is interesting as it covers this rise more in the Baptist circles, than to the "normal" denominations that people generally attribute this theology. Actually the Baptist church has strong roots in this theology, especially with Charles Spurgeon.

The article talked about how the Emergent Church tends to get a lot of press these days, but that this move back to the scriptures and the sovereignty of God is bigger than the EC movement. I was interested to read that. We aren't very familiar with the EC movement since we have been in Europe for several years, but from what I have read, there are a couple things that sound interesting, but I am not a fan of it altogether. I think that it is important for us to come together and worship and celebrate the sacraments together (communion and baptism). Honestly, I like church, and I really don't think that we have to water things down or take things out for other people to see Jesus and be moved by the Holy Spirit.

Anyway, the CT article isn't posted on teh web yet, but I do have a link to an article that was printed in By Faith mag last year. The article is entitled

"A Growing Hunger for Honesty and Authenticity"

It actually talks about a church in Decatur, Georgia that Intown helped plant. Happy reading.

Term of the Week

Once a week I receive an email with a theological term. At one point I used to receive an email with a word of the day, that gave some obscure word and its definition. That helped me expand my vocabulary, but this helps expand my understanding not only of theological terms, but also of scripture. The term not only comes with a brief explanation, but also an extensive article citing its scriptural backing.

Tomorrow we will be attending our last Reformation Night. Once a month for the last 9 month, several folks from the Chapel community who are Reformed in theology have gotten together to share a meal and have a lively discussion on differing topics. We listen to a discussion on CD and then discuss the issues they have brought up. Though we all generally hold to the Reformed theology and the doctrines of grace, we all come from differing backgrounds and so it is always fun to agree and disagree while seeking to understand what scripture is saying. We have discussed things like, justification, imputation, original sin, law vs. grace. It is so fun. I love Reformation Night. Tomorrow our topic is “Who Saves Whom? What About Free Will”. SO, in light of our topic I have decided to post the brief definition of “Free Will” I received via email. If you want the see the article with the scriptural backing, you can visit the White Horse Inn and look for an article with the above mentioned title.

Big Religious Term: "Free Will"

The essence of free will is choosing according to our desires. The will is free to choose whatever it desires. With regard to salvation, the question then becomes, what do fallen human beings desire? Jonathan Edwards said that as fallen human beings we retain our "natural freedom" (the power to act according to our desires), but lose our "moral freedom" (the disposition, inclination, and desire of the soul for righteousness). In the Fall, we lost all desire for God. But because we can still choose according to our desires, we choose to sin and are accountable to the judgment of God. In this sense, the freedom of our will is a curse. All human beings desire to flee from God unless and until the Holy Spirit performs a work of regeneration. That regeneration changes our desires so that we will freely repent and be saved.

This understanding of human free will is not deterministic because determinism teaches that our actions are completely controlled by something external to us, making us do what we don't want to do. This is coercion and is opposed to freedom. How can our choices be determined but not coerced? Because they are determined by something within -- by what we are and by what we desire. They are determined by ourselves. This is self-determination, which is the very essence of freedom.

6 Months

Today Hadleigh is 6 months old. On the eve of her 6 month birthday she cut her first tooth. Her daddy was very proud.

She has her 6 month check-up next week, so I do not have her stats.

She is sitting up with some help. It is a little hard for her to practice because all of our floors are hardwood and tile. But she is doing a fair job at sitting.

She is on her third day of her brown rice cereal and it is going better. She isn't making the funny face anymore and is taking more to idea of a spoon in her mouth. She does like to chew on the spoon.

She is very responsive, giggles, sings, babbles, screams, and generally interacts with people. She is also saying ma-ma, though there doesn't seem to be a correlation between the word and me. But it is fun to hear.

She is rolling around everywhere and scooting on her belly to get things that she wants. She can scoot 360 degrees to see her mama.

She still enjoys her swing, and playmat and she is exploring her play saucer-thingy. She only has 10 more days of playing on them before they are packed up for 6 weeks.

We are halfway through reading Anne of Green Gables. She especially liked the part Anne had to apologize to Rachel Lynde. She also seems to enjoy any book we put in front her and LOVES to turn the pages.

She seems to be allergic to formula, so onward and upward with nursing.

She is still a champ of a sleeper, but had two weeks in there where she was eating every 3 hours through day and night. I thought I would die, but she has chilled out and now back on a 4 hour schedule and sleeping from 6pm-6am with a 4am feeding.

She has logged 10 countries under her belt, and has put her feet into the North Sea, the Mediterranean, and the Adriatic. Once we arrive in America she is going to work on seeing all 50 states. She is a super traveler, enjoying planes, trains, boats, buses, cars, and gondolas.

That is about it.

Miss Hadleigh Claire Eats

The anticipation has been building for quite a while. After weeks of reading, planning and preparing, we fed Hadleigh her first meal tonight. Yummy, yummy, rice cereal.

Several months ago we decided to take on the adventure of making our own baby food. I read a couple books and it isn't difficult, and it is better for her and cheaper. So I thought I would give it a try. Today I bought brown rice and I ground it up and boiled it. 10 minutes later we had several servings of baby cereal.

She has been very interested in food recently, so I knew she would be thrilled when the spoon was finally headed in her direction. But as she ate, she became very confused and unsure about this new substance. Part of this was my fault...being a novice baby food maker, I failed to grind the rice fine enough, so I think there was too much texture for her. Tomorrow we will try again, with finer ground rice.

Her facial expressions were hilarious...you can get a glimpse of them in the pictures.

Last Trip

This past weekend we went on our "last" European vacation. I have last in quotations, because I hope it is just the last for now, and not our last forever.

We headed down to Spain and had a wonderful 5 days of summer. Our camera was on the fritz, so unfortunately we don't have any pictures, but you can just picture in your minds us sitting on the beach and that almost completely sums it up. I'll let Dave elaborate on the trip as I know he needs to write something for the blog.

We had a great time, and on the 3rd day Hadleigh enjoyed dipping her feet into the Mediterranean.

Now we are switching gears, so I don't have time to feel melancholy about our last trip. Two weeks from today our home will be invaded with movers and in 4 weeks we will be headed to Knoxville for Hadleigh's first visit with her grandparents, great-grandma, cousins and Aunt Angie. I think this next month is going to be a major trip.

Translation

OK, the translation for the poem below would go something like this (it just sounds much better in Spanish):

Cordoba
Far away and alone
Black horse, big moon
And olives in my backpack
Although I know the way
I will never arrive in Cordoba
Cordoba
Far away and alone

Cordoba

When I was a junior in high school I took Spanish 3 with Sra. Blackburn. One of our assignments was to memorize a poem entitled Cordoba. I can remember the whole thing even though I memorized it over 10 years ago. As an aside, I can also recite the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish, which I learned my freshman year with Sra. Armstrong.

Tomorrow we are leaving on our last European adventure. At least our last for a little while (I do plan on being back over here one day). And our last adventure will be to Spain. It is still summer in Spain, unlike here where it is in the high 40s, so I look forward to one last use of my tank tops.

We are not going to Cordoba, but I will recite the poem anyway.

Cordoba
Lejana y sola
Jaca negra, luna grande
Y aceitunas en mi alforja
Aunque sepa los caminos
Yo nunca llegare a Cordoba
Cordoba
Lejana y sola

We shall see how far my 5 years of Spanish gets me. I am sure I will have some good stories when we return.

Missing and Looking Forward

There are lots of things that I am going to really miss about living here in Germany, and there are lots of things that I really look forward to about going back to the states. I am going to give a top ten of both.

Look forward to
1. My own washer and dryer (not having to do laundry at the Laundromat)
2. Restaurants…Baja Fresh, Japanese Steak House, Ted’s Montana Grill,
3. Stores…Target, Ann Taylor, Williams-Sonoma
4. Being able to try on clothes, instead of shopping online
5. Drinking a Cosmopolitan
6. Being able to explore the Western Hemisphere
7. Settling down in one place for a while
8. Having a kitchen with a double sink
9. Having a closet
10. Not having to trek uphill through snow 9 months prego because the roads aren’t plowed
11. Worshiping at Intown, and being back with old friends
12. Being closer to family


Will miss
1. Hearing the National Anthem play before seeing a movie in the theatre
2. Driving to Luxembourg or France for dinner
3. Having my car searched when trying to get on Post.
4. Having a HUGE house that is always ready to accept visitors
5. Being around friends who love and care for Hadleigh
6. Cheap beer (this is for Dave, I hate beer)
7. Autobahn driving
8. Not needing a cell phone, caller ID, or call waiting
9. Not having TV. We don’t have TV, so we are horribly out of the loop. But I like not having the temptation to flip on Dr. Phil or Survivor…or whatever else folks watch these days. I don’t even know!
10. The Chapel, and our Chaplain
11. Reformation Sundays, where a group of Reformed folks get together and discuss topics such as imputation, justification, sanctification, is Paul really unspiritual, etc.

Signals, Jerry, Signals

Today marks an anniversary for Dave and I. It was 4 years ago that we went on our first date. It is so funny to think about now, all the awkwardness and the excitement. I saved all our old emails and all the emails that I sent about him, and I was fishing through them trying to find some good dirt.

We didn’t exactly have the easiest time getting together. We met in May of 2002 when my good bud John Robinson was moving from Newnan up to Atlanta. I showed up to help on a whim and Dave was there. He had been attending Intown for 6 months, but we had never met. He was quoting Princess Bride and I thought he was funny. Later that weekend we played football and after the game the whole group came to my house to grill out. He wrote my address on his shoe and Jess Ringsmuth thought it was a sure sign of his interest.

Two rather painful months passed. “Signals, Jerry, signals” as George would say.

In mid-July his friends, David and Eowyn Stoddard came into town and since I worked at MTW and they were missionaries with MTW, Dave asked me to join them for dinner. Shortly after that “date” I received a cryptic email trying to explain his intentions…

I don’t know if you know that I am very frank. So let me be. I am not looking for a buddy. I am not looking for a girlfriend. I desire to know you better in group situations, and want to see your passions articulated to other people and me. I don’t want you to be scared or uncomfortable around me. But I will ask you hard questions on occasion. Other times I’ll just say things to make you laugh. Know that my interest is to know the deeper ami better. Don’t think about down the road, or even tomorrow. Enjoy today. If you want to talk to me about this, don’t hesitate, cause I want you to be able to articulate yourself to me too.
Sincerely, dave

I tried to decode the message but to no avail, so we met for coffee. He was elusive and I wanted answers. I finally laid down the law. I told him that I had enough friends, I didn’t need anymore, and if he only wanted to be my friend he could just stay away. Since he never claimed feelings one way or another I figured that I was still in the running, but I just wanted to be clear that I wasn’t going to let him play games with me.

A week later I was in NY visiting my college buddies Elaine and Jen. I bought a “Make Him Want a Date” outfit, which I wore the next time I saw him, and the following morning I had this email waiting for me at work.

Did I tell you I am frank?

If you would be opposed to me asking you out on a one-on-one venue, please let me know, cause I intend to ask you face to face. And I would rather not have the awkwaaaaaard………………….pause if that is the case.
Talk to you later, dave

On our first date we went to dinner at a little French café in Decatur, Café Alsace (I think that is especially cool now, because we live just 45 minutes from Alsace, France), and then to Fernbank where he spilled his guts about how he liked me, and was going to keep asking me out. And here we are 4 year later, married, living in Europe with our beautiful daughter, Hadleigh. These last 4 years have been the craziest, most awesome, most incredible years of my life. Being with Dave has been amazing.

The Lizard

This is Hadleigh's new face. She loves to stick out her tongue. Dave is in the states this weekend, so we took this picture and sent it to him.

She's Got a Grip

Little Hadleigh is a strong girl. Once she grabs onto something she doesn't like to let go, be that hair, fingers, clothes, etc. She loves to hold everyone's hand, and once she grabs it they usually comment on her grip, or ask for their finger back.

She really enjoys being on her playmat and grabbing the birds and rattles above her. Now she grabs and pulls down and it really looks like she is going to pull the whole mat down on her. The problem is that once she has grabbed the bird/rattle she won't/can't let go. SO there she is on her mat with her fist around the bird, fussing because she either wants to let go, or wants to roll over. Here are some pictures of her actually rolling over while holding onto the bird. It is pretty amusing to say the least. She just does not know how to let go.

Hadleigh's Cousin...Elmo?

This is a picture of my nephew, Matthew James Franklin. My brother said that when you ask Matthew who he is, he says Elmo. I think this is the funniest thing I have ever heard in my life. I am curious if Hadleigh will think she is Miss Piggy or Minnie Mouse.

Anyway, Matthew/Elmo is somewhere around 20 months, and apparently had a great time visiting my parents in Cambria last week. Hadleigh has not met Matthew, and actually neither have I since he was born after we left for Germany. We hope to make an introduction sometime this fall/winter.

Singing with Hadleigh

When Hadleigh was born there were a lot of things we had to figure. One of which was how to soothe her and help her go to sleep. One of the things that we learned is that when she is upset she likes to be held really tight and close. She likes to be rocked, and she likes her butt patted. I do have dreams for time to time about her being 18 and asking me to pat her butt so she can go to sleep, but hopefully she will grow out of that.

Of course, she is 5 months now and is capable of going to sleep on her own, but occassionaly she gets really upset and needs to be comforted. The way I comfort her is holding her tight against me, patting her butt, and singing to her. There are usually two songs that I will sing. Either Soon and Very Soon, which is a hymn redone by Red Mountain Church, or a song I learned at Intown based off of Zephaniah 3.17. The song goes as follows:

The Lord our God, is with you.
He is mighty to save
The Lord will take great delight in you.
He will quiet you with his love.

He will rejoice over you.
He will rejoice over you.
If you could only hear his voice
You would hear the Lord rejoice
Rejoicing over you with singing

Last night Hadleigh was upset, and Dave was out late golfing. I took her out of her crib and rocked her, and patted her butt and sang to her. As I sang to her, Hadleigh joined in. Obviously she wasn't singing the words I was singing, but she was cooing in rhythm with me. She has done that before, but last night I found it especially wonderful. Just Hadleigh and I, rocking in the living room, singing together about the Lord's goodness and his delight in his people.

Aunt KC

This is a picture of Kristen, Hadleigh and me. Kristen is my good friend, actually the first friend that I made over here. Her and Jim have been our traveling buddies for the last two years, we have been to Austria, France and Switzerland, all over Germany, and Kristen went with us to the Netherlands in April. Last June Dave and I went back to Chicago for their wedding. Dave stood up with Jim and I was Kristen's personal attendant. So, we are good friends. Kristen has stepped into the role of Aunt for Hadleigh. Since we don't have any family over here, it is nice to have folks who really really care about Hadleigh, and Kristen is definitely one of them. We call her, Aunt KC. She comes over and plays and talks with Hadleigh. Hadleigh always has something sweet to say. Kristen brings over fun little outfits and goes with us to the pool.

Aunt KC has been gone for a couple of weeks. She is traveling around with her sister and then will head back to the states for Jim's R&R. Dave will actually get to see Jim and Kristen because he is going back to the states for a couple of days in a few weeks. That will be special, but as for Hadleigh and I, we are missing Aunt KC and look forward to her return in September.

Faces of Hadleigh Claire

Sunday Hadleigh will be five months old.

She becomes more cute every moment. She regularly laughs and coos.

She loves to sing any song, but especially has recently liked Supercalafragalistic (which I sang over and over when I was taking these pictures).

We just finished reading Winnie the Pooh, she really loves to read and has begun to really interact with the books. Her other favs are Fuzzy Bee and Friends (because Mommy lets her touch that one), Wild About Books, and The Little Red House on the Little Green Island.

She rolls over both ways and scoots around on her belly to get things that she wants. She loves sucking on one finger, her whole hand, or both hands at the same time. She is a very distracted eater.

I can’t read and nurse anymore, she is too interested in what I am doing. I can’t talk and nurse her either. Total silence is the only way she will eat. She takes 3 good naps and sleeps 12-14 hours at night (generally a 9-10 hour stretch and then a shorter stretch). She has been eating every 3 hours, but is slowing getting down to every 4 hours.

She entertains herself pretty well, playing in her bouncy seat, or on her playmat.

She is beginning to eye our food intently, so I know she will be ready to eat in another month when we start giving her solids. I am doing all my research now because we intend to make our own baby food. I finished reading Super Baby Food and am awaiting First Meals (that Sar Blom recommended because of the pictures). I am sure that will be an insane adventure, especially since we will be packing and moving during the month of September.

Baby Fat

Having been around a lot of pregos before I actually became one, I determined not to care about how much weight I gained while prego. I wasn’t going to stress about it, I knew I would be diligent to loose the weight post-prego. I am also of the opinion that you can’t really determine how much weight you are going to gain. I have known little girls who gained 80 pounds and big girls who gained 15 pounds, and everything in between. I figured that whatever was going to happen, would happen and as long as I didn’t eat fast food every day I should just be happy. In my head, I assumed I would gain a TON of weight, and I was mentally prepared.

Of course, being sick for the first 20 weeks I didn’t gain any weight until I hit 22 weeks, and even then it was only a pound. I eventually made up for not gaining weight in the first half of my prego days.

Since Hadleigh was born I have lost the prego weight, but don’t be deceived. I might be the same weight as pre-prego days, but I am soft. About a month after Hadleigh came around I popped in my normal Fat-Burning Yoga video that my old roomies and I would do regularly. I could hardly make it through the video…and the abs section. Forget it! I couldn’t do one full sit-up. Not one!

Determined to do something Dave ordered us a video set from Beachbody, it is called P90X, and it has 14 different DVDs ranging from cardio to yoga to shoulders and arms. It is an intense 90 day, everyday workout program. Now, I have to admit, I have not become an insane work-out person, but for the last 6 weeks I have basically worked out every week day. Pretty impressive, especially with a baby. But she isn’t mobile and I get it in while she naps, or she sits in her bouncer and watches me. On the 16 minute Abs DVD I went from being able to do almost zero of the workout to now doing 20 reps of all the exercises (I am working up to 25).

I still have all that crazy extra skin around my tummy and I hear that won’t go away until I quite nursing, but that is cool. I am not as soft as I was 6 weeks ago. You can actually see some muscles in my arms and shoulders.

Dave is working it too. He gets up at 5 to complete his workout, and he is looking good.