On Sleep and Moving

A man named Greg just left my home. He was here to give me a quote. A quote on how much it would cost for his company to pack up all of my earthly belongings, put them on a truck and move them to our new home. Now, we haven't purchased a home yet...we haven't even put an offer on a house. But we are close. And I figure once we get this ball rolling it is going to be rolling fast.

Last year I made a deal with Dave. He wanted another baby and so I agreed as long as we could be moved into a permanent residence by the time the second child arrived. The Lord had other plans for us, so when I realized there was no way of buying a home before Annelise arrived I made a second deal. If I have to move with two children under two, I want to hire movers...not just to move the boxes, but to pack us up and move us out. This is my luxury item.

I graduated from college 10 years ago and in those 10 years I have moved far too many times. I moved from KY back to CA. From CA I moved to Acworth, GA...then to a sweet basement apt on Linda. After 11 months on Linda I moved to the Compound, where I lived for 2 years...my longest stay anywhere. I then lived with Bif and Kris for 3 months and then moved to Project Midvale Road for a year and a half. Back to Bif and Kris' for 3 months before my wedding...to PPN for 5 months (my only apartment experience) and then to Henschtal, Germany. We lived there just over a year before moving to Mettweiler where we stayed a year and a half...and back to Atlanta. So, let's see, that is 2 cross country moves, 2 cross Atlantic moves, and 6 moves across town. You see, I deserve this luxury.

So, we have the movers confirmed and now we just have to confirm the house...I know a little backwards, but like I mentioned I think we are close and I needed to make sure we had a solid quote and money set aside for this cost.

Onto my next subject of sleep...we are making progress! My little elf is improving, slowly, everyday. We are now on a decent schedule. The exact times varies every day, but I know generally what I can expect. Annelise goes to sleep at 6pm. The last two nights she is getting up at 9pm to eat and then again at 2am and then at 7am. So that is a 3 hour stretch and then 2 5 hour stretches. Much improved from 3 hour stretches throughout the night. I am hoping this will continue, and improve even more. She has done 5 hour stretches before and then reverted back to 3 hours, but I am hopeful this time it will stick. She is going back down for a morning nap around 8.30 for about an hour. And then will sleep for 3 hours from about 11-2. Yes! Another quickie nap from 3.30-4.30 and we are golden.

She is sleeping better, she is going into her bed (well, technically she sleeps in my bed when she naps) without protest and is falling asleep on her own. MAJOR improvements. I am SO happy. I am hoping that when we move into our new home Annelise will be sleeping well enough to have them in the same room. I know that Sar is working on Jill's schedule too. She even checked out the sleep Bible from the library to brush up on strategy. Yea! It is so nice to be on a schedule and to have both girls sleeping at the same time.

Silly Girls and Fun News

This morning I was in the other room when I heard Annelise begin to fuss. As I approached the living room I heard Hadleigh talking to Annelise. "It's OK, qui, qui, OK". Then she got reallly close to her face and started grunting. It was funny because Dave discovered that when we grunt at Annelise, she will smile. Super sweet. A few minutes later Hadleigh took out her fav book, "Little Quack" and started reading to Annelise. I hope these girls grow up to be wonderful friends. It is something I pray for every night.

Here is a fun little picture of Hadleigh being super silly. She loves to make faces for the camera and give really silly grins. She also noticed that I Was taking pictures of Annelise and wanted to get in on the action.

And here is my little Annelise. She looks a little shocked here. She hates the flash on the camera, but my house is too dark to not use it.

On other exciting news, I just got a call that we have been approved for a loan! This wasn't incredibly shocking news to us...we assumed we would be approved, I just did not think it would be this quick. We actually thought about getting approved last fall, but realized we would get a better rate if we waited. Since Dave is self-employed we needed our tax documents to prove his income. We received our taxes in the mail over the weekend, and sent them to our loan guy yesterday. Now we just have to find a house...though we have been narrowing it down... I am currently getting quotes from movers, we could be moving into a house in another month. Insanity!

Sovereign Grace O'er Sin Abounding

1. Sovereign grace o’er sin abounding!

Ransomed souls, the tidings swell;

’Tis a deep that knows no sounding;

Who its breadth or length can tell?

On its glories, Let my soul for ever dwell.

2. What from Christ that soul can sever,

Bound by everlasting bands?

Once in Him, in Him for ever;

Thus the eternal covenant stands.

None shall take Thee From the Strength of Israel’s hands.

3. Heirs of God, joint-heirs with Jesus,

Long ere time its race begun;

To His name eternal praises;

O what wonders love has done!

One with Jesus, By eternal union one.

4. On such love, my soul, still ponder,

Love so great, so rich, so free;

Say, while lost in holy wonder,

Why, O Lord, such love to me?

Hallelujah! Grace shall reign

Hallelujah! Grace shall reign

Hallelujah! Grace shall reign eternally.

I sang the words yesterday and then stopped and went back to read them. Wow. I was going to say I liked a particular verse, but could not decide on which one. Where He frees me from my sin? Where he holds me forever in his hand? Where he makes me a joint heir with Christ? Where he tells me of his love? I can't decide. It is all beautiful. Thank you John Kent for writing such a beautiful hymn!

The rest of service followed the theme of this hymn. I was excited when it came time for communion because we have started a new way of celebrating. When we did it at the Ash Wednesday service I got a little excited, and then was glad to see it wasn't just an Ash Wednesday thing. We went forward by rows to a "station" where we received the bread and wine. Tinnin explained that this also symbolizes that we come to Christ with empty hands, and we leave filled with his grace (ok, it was something probably a little more profound, but it was something along these lines). He encouraged us to really hear the words as we took the bread and wine. This always seems a little akward to me...do I look at the person giving me the bread while they say "This is Christ's body given for you." I decided I would look them in the eye as they said the words, and I found it profound. I actually started to cry. I know crazy, emotional, mommy. I do not know, but something about hearing and seeing them say the words to me was moving. So I will repeat the last words of the song...

On such love, my soul, still ponder,
Love so great, so rich, so free;
Say, while lost in holy wonder,
Why, O Lord, such love to me?
Hallelujah! Grace shall reign
Hallelujah! Grace shall reign
Hallelujah! Grace shall reign eternally.

Fostering Hope

Here is a fun little radio snipet of my dad. He officially "retired" (he actually retired from his day job 6 years ago and then worked as a volunteer pastor at his church for 5 years) from his job at the church 6 months ago, and has now filled his plate with "fun" things. In the last several years he was involved in forming an organization called ACTION (Area Christians Taking Initiative on Needs). Since retiring he has been working with ACTION and recently began to head up a program called Fostering Hope that works specifically with teenage foster children and foster children who have been emancipated.

Well, I am not able to upload the link...but in any case, he was interviewed on a radio show out in LA...8 minutes in the spot light. You can see more about the organization and about Fostering Hope on ACTION's website. Cool stuff!

Normal

It is official. Yesterday was my first normal day since the arrival of Annelise. It was glorious! Annelise took three naps in her bed. Hadleigh took her normal afternoon nap. We took a little outing to the library for a modified playgroup. I made dinner and washed the dishes before I put Annelise down at 5.45 (she sleeps in out computer room which doesn't have doors and is next to the kitchen).

While we were out a stranger even commented on how smiley Annelise was. She said "What a happy baby! Is she always this happy?" To which I responded..."No, she is actually ridiculously fussy." When the woman commented I realized that is the first time a stranger has said something nice about Annelise. They are usually telling me she is hungry, or asking me why she is screaming. Sar and I have discussed this often...why is it that when a stranger hears a baby crying they immediately assume she is hungry. I think people just feel a need to say something when a baby is screaming bloody murder. I always feel the need to correct those crazies..."No, she isn't hungry, she is just ridiculously fussy!" I am guessing that there must be crying amnesia. Once your baby leaves the crying phase you forget that babies cry for no apparent reason quite often. I promise not to let the amnesia get me.

All that to say, it was a wonderful day and I hope it is a trend to more peace in the McNay household.

Weird Things

Well, Brea asked me to write about my weirdness...I feel like my whole being is weird and odd right now...so I will put some of them down on paper. The thing about this exercise is that weird is a relative term. I had a friend in the army who thought being a missionary was weird and a hard thing to make your children endure. She found it odd when I told her some missionaries would think being in the army is weird and a hard thing to make your children endure. I generally think what I do is reasonable and what everyone else does is weird. I think that goes back to the sermon yesterday...in any case. Here are some things that I have been told are weird.

1. I like theology. I think some people think that is weird. I love reading the Heidelberg Catecism for fun! I am no great theologian, but I like knowing and understanding things. I love understanding truths about imputation and justification and federal headship and original sin. I loved reading Luther's Bondage of the Will. I do like reading things on both sides of the fence...as I read Picrilli's "Grace, Faith, Free Will" and Johnston's "Why I am Not An Arminian"...as well as Driscoll's "Radical Reformission" and McLaren's "Generous Orthodoxy".

2. I have an obsession with clean floors. You wouldn't be able to tell this currently as I cannot remember the last time I mopped the floor (and I feel sick when I think about that). But one day when I am able to run the vaccum while my children nap I will gladly go back to mopping twice a week.

3. I have a love-hate relationship with puking. It actually likes me, while I continue to hate it. But I have a LOT of puke stories. I have "christened" many countries and states and houses and hospitals. One time I was even admitted to the hospital because I couldn't stop, and they couldn't stop it. They were convinced I had hepatitis and refused to believe me when I insisted it was brought on by really painful menstrual cramps (is that too much info?). I wish I could go 8 years without puking (isn't that how long Jerry Seinfeld went?)...but alas...it is my lot in life.

4. Christy mentioned a fear of ghosts...I will have to say that I have a fear of (what I will call) the boogie man. I have an overactive imagination, and I am just sure that one of theses days he will come out from under my bed or my closet or my bathroom and get me with a knife. Dave hates this irrational fear because it makes me turn on lights in the middle of the night when he is trying to sleep.

5. I had both of my girls w/o an epidural. Though I think Annelise has scarred me for life, I was able to make it through. Some would definitely call that weird.

OK, so now I am going to ask Sar Courtney, Jess R and Lisa to post their weird things...I am so interested.

Even Wonder Woman Needs a Friend

Growing up, I loved Wonder Woman. I think when I was little I would get up super early in the morning to watch her on TV. I specifically remember watching her on TV when we lived in our green house in West Orange, New Jersey. I bet you didn't even know I lived in New Jersey. I can still sing the theme song by heart. For Christmas Dave bought me season 2 of Wonder Woman on DVD. It has been fun to watch it again. Linda Carter was amazing.

So I have had lots of ponderings on my desire to be Wonder Woman ever since Annelise was born. She has completely shattered any glimmer of hope I have ever had about being super. That has been a bit painful, but I will save those thoughts for another blog post.

At this very minute I am pondering how my life look a bit different if I had a friend. Oh, I know that sounds SO horrifically pathetic. SO before you feel too sorry for me I will try to explain my thought.

I think that part of the difficulty we have had making a decision about where to live is based partly on the fact that we don't have a real community, and I think that is a direct result of some decisions we have made, as well as our insane transition from Germany to Georgia.

1. Hadleigh and Annelise go to bed at 6pm. This makes doing things at night with other couples/families difficult/impossible (unless they come to our house).
2. We decided to become involved in a fellowship at church that is primarily singles and couples without children. We love it because, not only are they the coolest people at Intown, but they are also willing to come to our home for things (Bible study, etc).
3. I got prego with Annelise soon after we moved here and was so sick I had a hard time engaging and meeting new folks.
4. We now have two kiddos, one of which is fairly angry and it is hard to think outside of my immediate need of the moment.

Throw all those things together and we have a disconnected (as in some here and some there) group of friends. I have my playgroup friends who we see on PMO day as well as on playgroup day. I have the women I am in Bible study with one morning a week. I have the women in my community group. I have the women in the fellowship and then other folks that aren't part of any of the groups mentioned above. Would this be called a decentralized group of friends?

All of these things put together make it difficult to decide about where to live. Do we live near playgroup/Intown friends? But I really only see them a couple times a week...so would I spend more time with them if I lived near them...maybe...but not necessarily. Do we move into town and live more near our single friends...but then they all work during the day, so I wouldn't necessarily get to see them more often then I already do.

Ah...the dilemma. And now as I have come to this realization, I am not exactly sure what to do. I am not sure who I fit with, and where I belong, and it all seems bit confusing. I do feel somewhat glad to have come to some more realizations about my hesitations of moving. Maybe now that I am seeing some of the issues we will be able to come to a better decision...or maybe we will be just as confused.

Miss Hadleigh Claire is 23 Months

I know that technically she won't be 23 months until tomorrow, but since I have time right this minute I thought I better post now. Who knows what tomorrow will hold for me?

My first born is 23 months and I can hardly believe that in one more month she will be 2 years old. I am beginning to plan her party and am looking forward to celebrating.

Hadleigh's language has advanced a lot this month. She is putting words together, like "baby sleep", "Dada work" and "You're fun". She is also calling her friends by their names...Jacob, Bre (Brennan), Kate and Zack. These are just the ones she has attempted on her own. As I have mentioned before she is a perfectionist, so won't say a word unless she thinks she can really say it.

We are also teaching her responses to questions. For example I will ask "How old are you?" and I hold up 2 fingers. Her response is "Three". I will then correct her and say "No, two" and she looks at me (as if she knows exactly what she is saying and says "Three!" We are working on it. Hopefully in another month she will realize that isn't as old as she thinks she is!

I am also starting to teach her the catechism. I ask her "Who made you?" and she will respond "God" and get a big smile on her face.

Our nighttime ritual is by far my favorite part of the day. Since Annelise has been born Dave has gotten in on the action (as I cannot always be the one to sing to Hadleigh at night). Dave has taught Hadleigh some new songs, so here is the order of the evening. After her bath we read to her, give everyone kisses and go into her room. We turn on her flashing bug lights and sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider". When Dave started singing this with her I informed him that I only sing "spiritual" songs with Hadleigh as night, but she loves the song and the motions, so...we sing it every night now. After the spider song we sing "Clap your hands all ye people..." you know the one and Hadleigh claps violently. Next up is "Jesus Loves Me" which Hadleigh knows all the motions to, it is super sweet. Her favorite part is showing her muscles at the "he is strong" part. After that Hadleigh asks for "King" and then she lays her head and against my chest and we sing "Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King". Dave and I used to sing this song to her every night when she was an itty bitty baby. I love that she asks for this song by name and that she seems to understand that the song is comforting and restful. After the song we say a little prayer, always asking that Hadleigh and Annelise would never know a day without the Lord. She loves to say Amen and then we sing the Amen song. Hugs, kisses, and nose kisses follow. And she also always checks to see if I am wearing earrings...just a funny thing. And then off to bed with "giraffe" and "bears" and "dabears" and "key" (her blanket). I am glad that Dave has gotten in on the action of the nighttime routine and I think he has added a lot of fun things to it.

We have hit some fun discipline issues this month. Mostly involving her coming to me...as in she doesn't. We have polled friends and I now have a stack of three books compliments of Kris that I need to read.

She loves her little friends. If we are going somewhere I generally say "Guess who we are going to see today?" Her first guess is ALWAYS "Dada" and then after that she guesses Jacob and then Brennan. Last week as we were walking into her school, we walked in with another little boy who is in her class. She got so excited and started jibbering away at him.

Hadleigh had her first puke this month. She actually had her first 3 pukes. We now think it was due to some bad milk. Poor thing would wake up crying and saying "yucky".

Soon and very soon we are going to see the king

Soon and very soon we are going to see the king

Alleluia, Alleluia, we are going to see the king

No more crying there, we are going to see the king

No more crying there, we are going to see the king

Alleluia, Alleluia, we are going to see the king

No more dying there, we are going to see the king

No more dying there, we are going to see the king

Alleluia, Alleluia, we are going to see the king

The Elf is 3 Months

Over the weekend Annelise turned 3 months old. She has become very responsive over the last month and has been smiling and cooing throughout the day. She has a great open mouth smile that almost looks like a laugh.

She loves her baths, and now gets one every night. As soon as she gets in she is all smiles and laughs. She kicks and splashes, but HATES water in her eyes or on her face. In fact she hates anything that touches her face...the wind...a shirt...she just squirms and protests until it doesn't touch.

These days nights are getting better. She goes down at 6pm without protest, and will sleep until 6-7am. She generally gets up every four hours to eat, but sometimes will stretch 6 hours, but after she eats she will usually go back down to bed without too much trouble. We are currently working on organizing her day time sleep. According to our sleep "bible" her morning nap should develop sometime this month. Yesterday after some protest she took an hour nap (in her own bed) in the morning. Today, after much protest she took a 3 hour morning nap. I was happy and sad all at the same time. Happy that she is starting to sleep better (and not in my arms), but sad as I realized this means I am going to be limited with my time out. We will see what the nap schedule holds in the future.

I have felt like her sleep has been the most difficult part about Annelise. She has a hard time sleeping and likes to be held, and even when she is held she will not always go to sleep. I did pick up the sleep "bible" today and as I was looking at average sleep time for her age I have realized she isn't entirely off. She is about average getting around 14 hours of sleep per day. Compared with Hadleigh I feel like Annelise should be getting more sleep, but I need to be content with the 14 hours Annelise is getting.

I forgot to mention that at Annelise's 2 month appt she weighed 10.1 pounds and was 22.5 inches long. She is long and slender just like Hadleigh. Her dark hair is slowing falling out and it does look like red hair is coming in its place. Her eyes look grayish-blue, but I am not counting on that staying. Hadleigh's eyes changed a lot until she 6 months old.

More Houses

We now have looked at 11 houses, and tomorrow we are going to up our total to 17 (if all goes well). We have looked at some houses in the eastern suburbs...ok for the record they aren't exactly suburbs as some of the area even has an Atlanta address. So, it isn't as bad as Gwinitia...or Cobb heaven forbid I live there (see my sarcasm), it is just more suburban than Midtown. OK, so as I was saying, we looked at some houses just a bit east of the city, and saw 2 that were OK, but nothing that we HAD to buy. Last week we looked at a more urban neighborhood in the city, and found one house that is super cute...Jessica calls it the "Green House". It was adorable, but we aren't completely convinced that it was THE house. It could be, but we still need to look some more. Tomorrow we are going to look east of the city again which should be interesting...just this week 4 new houses went on the market, and they seem to be just what we want, not too big and not too small.

I actually had been having some anxiety associated with moving closer into town into the more urban neighborhood, but after looking at houses down there and meeting a neighbor and reading their community newsletter I feel a TON better. That kind of makes me feel funny, because the info I found out would probably not make most parents feel better. Dave and I laughed as we read the community newsletter that boasted 35 arrests since last April, involving drugs, burglaries and prostitution. And why would we want to live here, we asked? But those things happen everywhere, even the suburbs, it is just more over tin the city. It is also nice to know that there is a strong, active community that will fight against things that seek to destroy the community. That is one thing that attracks us to the area.

Who knows. I still desire to be close to our church community and so we do not know how this will play into our decision. I think that if we live outside of the city we will just have to be much more intentional with our time, so as to not get too comfortable in a life that on the surface might look neat and clean.

It will be interesting to see what the Lord has in store for us. I look forward to seeing what February holds.

Miss Hadleigh Claire Meets Petroleum Jelly

The pictures pretty much speak for themselves. Last Friday I thought Hadleigh was with Dave and he thought she was with me. Apparently Dave found her first, and sent her to find me. When she found me she was rubbing the jelly into her cheek (as if she was really enjoying it). It is hard to tell from the pictures, but it was all over her face and even on her eyelashes.

I wiped her down with a towel, and then washed her hair about 7 times. It just wouldn't come out, so after her bath we combed her hair back like a gangster...and Saturday morning she woke up with it all spikey. There was nothing I could do to make it stay close to her head. We are now at Tuesday and she still has some remnants from the jelly, but it is mostly gone!

I think she looks like a cross between Kramer and Jim Carey as Ace Ventura.

Tell Me What You Want...What You Really, Really Want

I wish I could tell you, but I just do not know myself, and I hate not knowing.

We are now embarking on a new adventure...house hunting. I cannot believe that the time is actually here. As much as it pains me to think my days of wandering the earth are over, I am also looking forward to putting down some roots. The big question of the minute...hour...day...week...month is where the heck do we want to live. I wish I could just pay someone to tell me the answer. At this point the main contenders are a little suburban community just east of Atlanta, or the more urban neighborhoods on the eastern side of Atlanta.

I literally change my mind once an hour, if not every five minutes. There are many variables...too many...and it is impossible to compare the two areas because they are vastly different. In many ways we are choosing between two different lifestyles and honestly I want them both, and I want it all.

Dave and I tend toward the risky side of life. We are not HUGE risk takers, but we kind of like living on the edge. Moving to Germany was a risk...a very, very good risk. It was hard, but good and wonderful. Moving back to Atlanta was a risk...of sorts...mostly because Dave did not have a job here. Can I say that having two children 20 months apart was a risk? Maybe I was risking my sanity. Anyway, we kind of enjoy a good challenge in life.

If I could choose the perfect place to live, it would have the following characteristics.
Close to Dave's work
Close to church
Lots of kids
People out walking around and getting to know the neighbors
Walking distance to restaurants
Walking distance to public transportation
Diverse...lots of ethnicities...different socio-economic...different lifestyles...
Good schools
Urban-feeling
Good parks, and maybe a community pool would be nice! =)
Oh and did I mention affordable? Affordable to a one income family...

Of the two different areas we are looking at they each possess some of those characteristics, but not all. So now we have to determine what is most important, and I am not sure how to do that.

How can I measure having Hadleigh grow up with her little buddies Jacob, Brennan, Sadie, Andrew...with being within walking distance of MARTA? How can I compare living in a diverse neighborhood with having a community pool?

I want both and I want neither. I love and hate both. I just cannot seem to get a grip on what is most important to our family. I do not want to settle. I want to take risks. I want my girls to grow up loving all sorts of different people. I want them to grow up seeing the church active, changing culture and proclaiming the gospel. I want them to grow up with good friends where they can ride their bikes and go to each others houses. I want them to grow up loving the culture of a city. But I just do not know what all of this means, and I honestly feel like I cannot have it all. That really bothers me. Well, I suppose that sometime in the next several months these questions will be answered, and I hope I like the answer!

22 Months

Wow, Hadleigh Claire is 22 months! I cannot believe that in just two short months my little girl is going to be two. We are having so much fun with Hadleigh these days. She just loves Annelise. Yesterday when we were getting ready for church, Hadleigh ran to Annelise's car seat and got it all ready for me to put her in it. She loves to push her in the swing and bounce her in the baby seat. This morning she walked up to Annelise and said "hi baby, hi baby". It was super sweet.

She is still a sleeping machine. The last couple of weeks she has been sleeping from 6pm until 10am and then still taking a 2 hour nap! I think part of that was because she was sick, but when she is well she sleeps until 8am, so life is still great in the sleep department. Sometimes she just likes playing in her crib and will play with her animals long after she is awake. Even if I go in to get her up she will ask to stay in her crib.

She loves being outside on walks or getting the mail, or just running around.

She loves our weekly family outings and was just a doll at our trip to the High Museum on Friday. We took MARTA to midtown and she just loves to ride the choo choo. As we were walking through the paintings she took a special interest in the landscape art and kept saying "Whoa!' "Dude!" Everyone around her got a real kick out of it. She also enjoys when we go out to eat, and on Friday loved the fried calamari as our appetizer and shared Dave's corn chowder and my lamb gyro.

Reading is still a fav past time. Her recent favs are "Pajama Time", an Elmo alphabet book, and a book about a mole and a bird (I can't remember the name). She also LOVES "Good Night Moon" and "Little Quack". Whenever we go in her room she says "Moon? Quack?"

Sesame Street is her fav show and we watch it some days over breakfast. She can name all the characters and especially loves Elmo and Grover. For Christmas she got a Sesame Street dvd that has lots of songs on it. She asks to watch it almost all day long.

Jackets (and sweaters), hats, and shoes are her favorite articles of clothing. As soon as she wakes up she wants to put those things on her body. Amazingly she has figured out how to put her shoes on and also manages to get them on the right feet.

Dave is still her favorite and as soon as she gets up in the morning she asks about Dada. She just loved having him home so much over Christmas.

She gives lots of hugs and kisses these days, and will even give a little back scratch when asked (Dave taught her that).

She still eats just about anything we put in front of her. And if it is on our plate she is even more interseted in eating it. Last week Lrod was over for lunch and Hadleigh was begging crackers off of her. If I am eating it, she wants it!

She seems to be learning more words, and she definitely understands everything we say to her. We do think that she is probably a bit behind in her vocabulary since she hasn't begun to use sentences or put words together. She babbles and sings a lot, and she memorizes books. For example, in our Pajama Time book, everytime it says pajama time in exclamation we raise our hands in the air. She knows where each exclamation is and will raise her hands before I say the words. She also has a book called "Head to Toes" that I have read so much I have memorized. I will quote the book to her and she will point to each body part and even point to the body part before I say it. She is so funny. Again I am thankful for a laid back pediatrician who knows sometimes children don't go by the books.

Christmas

A Christmas post is long overdue! We had a wonderful and mostly quiet (except for Annelise crying) Christmas season. I had intended on taking the girls to the mall to get pictures with Santa, but changed my mind when I realized it would be silly to pay money to get a picture where both girls were crying. Annelise would cry because she always cries and Hadleigh would cry of fright (she might not have cried...but it was up in the air). Hadleigh did get to see Santa twice. The school that Hadleigh attends had a breakfast with Santa Claus. We joined Matt, Steph and Jacob, as well as Brea and Brennan at the breakfast and all three kiddos seemed to be a little nervouse about the big man in the red suit. We did manage to get Santa to stand behind us for a picture. In Dave's hometown Santa rides around on a firetruck on Christmas Eve and stops at all the houses where there are children to pass out peppermints. We actually jumped up when we heard the sirens and got Hadleigh out of bed to run outside and see Santa.

I think that one good thing about living far away from family is that you have to get Christmas shopping done early so presents can be sent. I was motivated to have everything done by the first week in December and apart from Dave's present I accomplished my task.

We enjoyed celebrating Christmas through worship at Intown through the Sundays in December. Our Community Group had a wine and cheese party, and there were a couple other little things we attended.

Dave's office was closed the week of Christmas, so we had extra fun having him home for almost two weeks in a row. Our little family celebrated Christmas on the 23rd. I made coffeecake for breakfast and Hadleigh got up to open presents. She enjoyed it, but wasn't as excited as I thought she might be. After church Dave started working on dinner while I kept Annelise mostly quiet. Our Christmas dinner tradition includes roast duck, which was amazing as always.

Christmas Eve we got up early, loaded up the car and drove up to Knoxville to Dave's family. Annelise cried all but 45 minutes of the 4 hour ride...good times...we just kept driving and only stopped to feed her and get fries and a vanilla shake.

Christmas day, Dave's sister, Angie, and her boys, Jonathan, Josh and Jacob, and Dave's grandmother all came over. We opened presents, and then had a yummy lunch.

It was really fun to see Hadleigh with her cousins and grandparents. The boys are so sweet with her and she was following around Josh giving him high 5s and fists. She also loves her Grandma and Bapa. She will occassionally pick up the phone and start talking to Bapa...so sweet!

We drove back down to Atlanta on Thursday and the trip went so much better. Dave sat in the

back in between the girls and Annelise slept the entire ride home...truly amazing.

I was thankful for the entire experience of Christmas. Christmas in Germany was such a different experience, and there are things that we learned while living there that we hope to keep in our lives. While I do enjoy getting and giving presents, I really hate for that to be the focus. I am thankful for our families who honored our wishes for toys that don't make noise, and also who got our children nice things without going over the top. I guess it is still nice for us because Hadleigh is too young to understand the whole gift thing, maybe things will change more when she gets older. One of the gals in our community group was asking me about Christmas and if we got Hadleigh and Annelise gifts. I laughed because we did not buy them gifts. They certainly do not know the difference and we certainly don't need any more toys, etc, and I figure we buy a lot of other things for them...like zoo memberships, etc. One day I might buy them something, but right now we are going with the less is more philosophy.

Miss Hadleigh Claire Gets a Haircut

My little Hadleigh Claire has been looking a little rough lately. Her hair is trying to grow, but it is all uneven and had grown into a bit of a mullet. She won't consistently keep a clip in her hair, and it is generally filled with static and standing on end. Something needed to be done!

Yesterday I took her to CJ, the woman who cuts my hair, and she did a wonderful job of making her hair even. She sat in my lap for the cut and did a great job, though she was mildly distracted by the truck CJ gave her to hold. Also, she saw a reindeer on the wall and started calling it a giraffe. I hated the thought of cutting it, but I am hoping that this will help it grow out into a nice bob of sorts. Dave thinks the cut makes her eyebrows more pronounced and so her facial expressions are very vivid.

The Elf is 2 Months

Today, our little elf, Annelise, is two months old. And as I type she is sleeping in the swing next to me. It has been a long 2 months, but I think the worst is finally over. Over the last week Annelise has begun sleeping in her own bed at night. This means I can feed her and immediately put her back in bed and she will sleep 3 hours until she is hungry again. Major accomplishment! She still likes to be held during the day, but tends to tolerate her swing for her afternoon snooze. I am actually able to get something done! Today I made cookies because my buds, Kris, Alex, Zack and Kate are coming over tomorrow to decorate them. And I am also going to make chicken pot pie tonight because Courtney and Jeremy are coming over for dinner.

Our little elf is eating well, every three hours around the clock, and seems to be growing. She is now smiling which has helped us to enjoy her more (hard to like someone when they are always screaming at you). She has kept most of her hair, but it seems to be getting a little lighter. She has red eyebrows, so I feel just certain she is going to have red hair (seems to fit with her personality). A lot more folks are saying she looks like me, but it seems to change everyday.

She loves her baths and could sit in the tub for hours.

Right now she is sick. Some wretched soul gave Hadleigh the bug and while we managed to keep her away from Annelise, Hadleigh managed to give her sickness to us, and we in turn gave it to Annelise. It is really sad to see such a little one sick. She is coughing a lot trying to get the junk out of her lungs and just looks miserable. Poor thing.

Next we hit the doctor's office for the 2 month visit, so I will know height and weight soon. I am going while Hadleigh is in her morning class...made the mistake of taking both of them to the dr.'s last time...NIGHTMARE!

Look Alike?

Some folks think Annelise looks just like Hadleigh Claire and some think they look complete opposite. Here is a recent pic of Annelise and a pic of HC when she was 8 weeks. One thing you may or may not be able to tell from the pictures is that HC has almost no hair, while Annelise still has wuite a bit of dark hair on her head. You decide...

Annelise

Hadleigh

Annelise

Hadleigh

Intown

I am just sitting here at the computer, paying bills, balancing our check book and organizing the massive amount of papers sitting on my desk. I came upon a letter from our new pastor, John Tinnin and as I read it I became overwhelmed with thanksgiving. My family is lucky to be involved with Intown, and I am so thankful that the Lord brought us back to Atlanta.

We have been able to hear wonderful Gospel centered sermons that have challenged us, and that we talk about during the week. I have actually been amazed at how often during the week I will hear someone mention the sermon. What a blessing to have a pastor who can preach the word, and to have the Holy Spirit continue to use those words throughout the week to prick hearts!

I was also thinking about the Lessons and Carols service this year. Lessons and Carols is an entire service where the Gospel is presented through nine passages of scripture (beginning in the Old Testament and continuing into the New Testament) and nine carols. Dave and I chuckled as we thought about the Lessons and Carols we had in Germany where one of the carols was Feliz Navidad.

We are so blessed through the folks at Intown, and I am so thankful to be back here again.

The Angry Elf

When Dave and I first were married we had many discussions about Christmas family traditions. One of the traditions that needed to be hammered out was which Christmas movie were we going to watch on a regular basis. Dave was voting for "A Christmas Story" which I hate (except for the part where the Dad gets the box and says "Fragile, it must be Italian"). My vote was for "Christmas in Connecticut" which is a wonderful classic. Our first married Christmas we saw the movie "Elf" in the theatre and decided it was a good compromise between the two movies and it has been our family Christmas movie ever since.

I have two fav parts, the first one being when Buddy freaks out "Santa! Santa! I know him!" and then when he realizes it isn't the real Santa he says "You sit on a throne of lies." And the second one is when Buddy comes dancing into his dad's office while they are hearing a story pitch from a little person. Buddy mistakes him for an elf and asks him if Santa knows he left the workshop, etc. In the end Buddy says "Oh, he's an angry elf."

We know have a second nickname for Annelise, besides the purple baby, we are also calling her the angry elf. Dave says he feels better about calling her the "angry elf" because it makes him laugh instead of getting angry when Annelise cries all the time.

Well...stop the presses...I just wrote that entire story to say this one thing...my angry elf is asleep in the swing. Shut it! After she sat screaming in her bouncy seat for an hour while I wrapped presents, I transferred her to the swing...and only after about 10 minutes she fell asleep. That means I am currently typing with both hands and no baby.

OK, I must run and get something else done before she becomes the angry elf again.

21 Months

So, what did you do to celebrate your 21 month old birthday? Hadleigh Claire celebrated in style!

Our Baumholder buddies, Grant and Jess, were stationed at Fort Benning this summer and we have enjoyed seeing them from time to time. Yesterday they invited us to Columbus for the annual Tower Jump (I don't know if that is what it is called officially). Ft. Benning is where all infantry soldiers are trained, all enlisted soldiers have their basic training there, and all officers have their different schools and training there. It is also where any soldier who is "Airborne" or a "Ranger" is trained. Grant was telling us a little about each school while we hung out, but apparently there is a whole technique to jumping out of a plane (go figure) and becoming Airborne. If you do it wrong some bad things can happen, so there is a lot of training that goes into becoming Airborne (just in case you are wondering, Dave did not assume the correct position, but will be practiced up for next year).

There are different towers through Ft. Benning where the soldier train and practice their jumping techniques before jumping out of a plane. They have two 34 foot towers that are used, and once a year they open up the towers and let friends and family jump out of the towers. According to research 34 feet is the scariest height. Any lower and you are lower to the ground and any higher and you can't really tell the difference of being higher.

Dave was excited when Grant mentioned the Tower Jump this summer and we planned to make the trip to Columbus for the occasion. You basically get hooked into a harness, are given a helmet, and then are hooked into two ropes (so it is similar to being hooked into a parachute). You jump out of the tower and fly down a zip line. As Dave's turn was coming up we saw all these little kiddos jumping out of the tower, so Dave asked if they would strap Hadleigh Claire to him for the jump. They agreed!

So, for Hadleigh Claire's 21st month birthday she jumped out of a tower with her Dada. It was apparently no big deal to her. She didn't freak out, and seemed to like the experience. I think she would walk through fire if Dave did it with her, so no big news there.

On other 21 month news, she is saying all sorts of words which is so fun. My favorite word currently is bus, which she pronounces "buts" It makes me giggle.

She is a super big girl and such a big helper. She is definitely not a prissy girl and is unafraid of getting dirty and playing in the dirt. However she does appreciate cleanliness, and LOVES to wipe off her face often while she eats and enjoys picking up random crumbs off the floor and throwing them away.

She loves Annelise and always wants to help rock her, or give her the pacifier if has fallen out. She is a huge help. The other day I was changing Annelise and the phone started ringing. Hadleigh was with me, but left the room, went to find the phone and brought it back to me. Wow! I was impressed! And I didn't even ask her to do that!

She still loves planes, trains, cars, trucks, buses, etc. She loves her stuffed animals, Elmo, Bear and Giraffe.

Since we haven't had a TV in months, Dave found a Sesame Street website that has little games and stories with Elmo. Now, whenever we are on the computer she comes up and says "Melmo, Melmo, Melmo".

Another of my fav is that when we give her something to eat she will say "Mmmm, mummy". She continues to eat anything and everything we give her. She still has her super porridge for breakfast and LOVES it.

One of the best things about having family here after Annelise was born was that Hadleigh had suh a fun time with everyone. Now, she really seems to know them and asks for Papa, Nana and Grandma (Mahmaw).

I have no idea how much she weighs, but Dave calls her the 50 pound giant. After coming home from the hospital with Annelise, she just seems huge. I don't think she weighs 50, but she is probably pushing 30.

1 Month

Annelise is now one month old! We have all survived!

She is now weighing in at 9lbs. 12 oz. and is 22 inches long. She still has her dark brown hair and blond eyebrows, so we will see what becomes of that.

She has her days and nights in the right order, so we have been getting sleep the last week or so. Her longest stretch of sleep is 4 hours, which I gladly accept.

Dave and I tend to refer to little Annelise as the "purple child". Since her arrival, we have noticed that Miss Annelise has a bit of a temper. She often gets really upset (like when she is not being held) and will become purple from head to toe and scream until the situation is remedied. So, that leads me into her obsession with being held. Nothing will be sustituted for being held. The swing has been rejected...the bouncy seat will be tolerated only if you are there making it bounce, and only then it only lasts for about 15 minutes. Forget all slings, baby bjorns or infantinos. I can get her into a deep sleep (as in head back, floppy arms) and I will put her into her Moses basket and she will wake up within 10 minutes. I am trying to enjoy this time and her desire to be held, but some times it is hard. As you can imagine with Annelise's desire to be held, she is sleeping in our bed. I LONG to get her into her own bed, but at this point sleep for all of us is winning. Baby Wise shmaby wise.

Annelise loves her sister Hadleigh Claire. She will often stop crying when HC rocks her violently in her car seat or in the bouncy seat. Ah sisters.

My favorite thing about Annelise is when she sleeps in my arms. It is so hard to be still, especially with HC running around, but it is a precious time. When I hold her in my arms she generally rests her little hand on my chest and holds onto my shirt. It is super sweet, and I know will only last for a short time.

OK, this is short because it is hard to type with a sleeping baby in your arms. Enjoy.

Annelise

Preparing for Christmas

This weekend we began preparing for Christmas. Friday we drove north to a tree farm and cut down our tree. This is the fourth Christmas that we have cut down our own tree (of course now that we are back in America we paid a little more than 5 euro for it). Two years ago we had quite an adventure which involved a recent ice storm, a mile hike in the snow at 8 months prego, and a tree that Dave had seen the Christmas before...you can read all about it in the archives of our blog.

This year was fun for Hadleigh. Annelise rode in the infantino, and slept through the whole thing. Hadleigh was able to ride in a wagon down to the lot and then feed the goats after we had picked out our tree. As we were picking out the tree, she kept exclaiming "twee" and then when she saw the goats yelled "puppy". It was really cute.

Hadleigh helped us decorate the tree and has been great about the ornaments (not that we have put anything breakable within reaching distance).

Today Hadleigh and I made cookies. We had a great time, and she liked saying each object as she cut the cookies out...twee...tar (star)...etc. As a side note, we finally taught her the word bus. She had been calling buses "guck" (truck), but today on the way home from church she said "buts" for bus. Dave and I giggled as she continued to laugh and "buts", she was close.

Miss Annelise Meets Grandma

We have been super fortunate these past weeks to have had lots of help from our families. My mom was here for two weeks and then Dave's mom has been down twice to help. We have had so much help that I actually didn't have to be on my own with the girls until this past Wednesday. Now some of our friends are making meals for us, so all of this has helped make the transition a bit easier.

As I mentioned, Dave's mom was here for three days before Thanksgiving and then again for two days last week. She cooked her amazing lasagne (the best in the world), played with Hadleigh, met Annelise, did massive amounts of laundry and overall was a fun companion to have around.

She also purchased Hadleigh's Christmas present early. Dave put it together on Wednesday evening so it was all ready for her when she woke up on Thursday. When I got her up in the morning I told her that she had a special present waiting in the living room. She went running in there and immediately squealed "Whoa!" and then ran over and got in the swing.