7 months

Nora girl is oh so close to crawling as of reaching her big 7 month milestone.  She rocks back and forth and back and forth revving her engine.  I know when she finally starts moving she's going to fly!  She's already doing this sort of semi scoot to get where she wants.  And we can no longer leave her in one spot and return to find her there moments later.  Now we often wonder - "How did she get there?"

She's pretty regular with her self-imposed 9:30 bedtime and is still taking a good long afternoon nap with brother from 1-3 or 2-4.  She always seems to sleep longer and better if I nap with her which is an added bonus for me twice over.

She's eating some solids.  She's not to fond of much yet.  Except she will eat bananas and avocados.  I've tried a little bit of lots of jarred baby food with her like carrots, squash, etc since we're moving this month I've not been as on top of making her baby food like I was with Elijah.  But I'm hoping to return to that once we get settled.  We're pretty big on baby-led weaning and table foods anyway as opposed to billions of baby food jars.  Another thing that is different with her is that I am not to concerned with introducing x before y or only 1 new food every few days.  Eli never had a problem with any foods and food allergies don't really run in our family - we've been doing just fine with this new laid back approach.

We've got 2 new games - she loves playing peek a boo with her brother.  And, she is quite the vocalizer (still screetching and screaming to my chagrin) so to encourage her to lower her octave I will cover her mouth so that she makes a babbling sound.  She loves this and will root for my hand if I stop our game too soon.

We've had a fun couple months and attended two weddings; one with/ one without kids.  Childcare was a hassle to work out, but I must say attending a wedding without kids is way easier and will be my preference in the future!  We also spent a good part of this month vacationing with Rob's parents in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge and also packing up our lives and house in Knoxville, TN.  Poor girl,  I know we moved a lot when Eli was little, but I'd love to be giving her more attention than we've been able to lately.  The good news is she's always close to us.  Even though we may not be playing with her as much as I want to, she still stays quite attached to us as she pretty much spends her waking hours in the Ergo with either me or Rob toting her around.

This is a very late 7 month pic after we moved into the new house.  She's in her farmer overalls and pictured with the jams and preserves that my mom brought me and my 2 boxes of tomatoes that we canned later that day.

Eli at Two and a Half

This little boy is amazing.

All in all he had a stellar transition into our new home and surroundings.  We worked hard to talk often about the new house and Lexington.  When we first started talking about the new house, he thought we were saying "blue" house.  So we began talking about life in the "red" house and leaving the "yellow" house.

He did grab onto the concept of new eventually, however.  Now whenever he sees kids he doesn't know he'll look at me and say, "mom, new friends?"  He also has talks about "new big house" - our new church and "new baby book" - our new library.

We left some great friends of his in Knoxville.  The ones he talked most about seemed to be Ruyi, Jordona, Ellie, and Granny & Pop.

The evolution of my name over the past year or so has gone something like - Ma, Ma -ie, Ma- My, and currently I am MomMom.

He did not really talk much at all before this summer.  But now I hear, MomMom followed by whatever happens to be on his mind at the time all. day. long.  Friends said that's how it would go with a late talker.  Overnight changing from maybe a word here or there when prompted to 4-5 word sentences. He concentrates very hard and deliberately chooses each word as he forms it.  If we decipher his tonal language correctly - he smiles and gives an adorable half nod.

For awhile it's been a tradition that when we go grocery shopping Eli will get a free cookie and milk.  These are affectionately known to him as "Moo-Na" (drink with a cow on it) and "Dobie" I have no idea where the name dobie came from, but it refers to all cookies.

I've tried to be the type of mom that does not limit sugar.  Seriously, we don't have a lot of sugary snacks in our house anyway and I never wanted it to be an issue or fight.  So when people ask if he can have a cookie or candy or whatever, I always say yes and get Eli to say Thank you. But I've had to start monitoring sugar intake and he has become addicted  to chocolate milk since a recent visit from a certain Grand ma (you know who you are mom)  and I've had to start denying poor pathetic pleas at bedtime for  "ya-co-lat milt"

He plays great with sister and they are good buddies. Though when she first started learning to sit up Eli's cry of "baby down" sometimes wasn't entirely by accident....

Elijah loves, dinosaurs, diego & dora, Hops (rabbits) of all kinds.  Rides in the stroller.  ADORES stuffed animals and insists on sleeping with ALL of them (20ish) in his bed.  Sometimes I check on him and he is completely covered in stuffed animals.  He HAS to be ouside or "Outyide in the Yard" as much as possible.  Loves to "wing" in the "bu wing" or "geen wing" at his new house.  He's not big on coloring - but loves to read books.  He gets REALLY excited when he watches TV and shouts out the names of all the characters and jumps as they pop up in the opening credits.  This is especially fun when he's watching Sesame Street or Dora.

He calls his carseat the Black seat.While we drive he points out "ers" (cars) and "yucks" (trucks).  And tries to describe them by whatever his vocab will allow - mostly color or animal pictured.  My favorite combo was shouted with glee a few weeks ago, "nack yuck" a little debbie truck went wizzing by.

He knows his colors and shapes really well.  Can identify lots of letters and can count pretty well, though it goes something like 2, 3, 1.

He knows right feet from wrong feet most of the time and is very pleased to announce to me.  "Mommom- Mee shoes on wight feet".  Mee shoes being of course his Mickey Crocs.

He has now learned how to talk about his first emotion which is cool.  he'll ask, "Mom? Happy?"  yes, mom happy - I'll reply.  "Me, Happy!" he'll exclaim often.

He pretty much refuses to say his name or age .... to anyone.  If you ask his name you'll receive the answer, "ME!"

He's about to start preschool 2 days a week. Tues/Thurs from 9:30 -2.  He's very excited to "do stool day" - Go to school today.  Especially since he knows that Daddy goes to school everyday. And now asks me frequently, "mom, Daddy stool day?"

He still loves being loved on.  My boy will let me give him tons of kisses as he fake protests.  He loves to snuggle and be hugged.

I would say he has 3 favorite places - the library (story time), church (playing with kids in the nursery) and the play ground.  My guy can run, jump, belly swing ("MomMom, I'm flying yike Ming Ming"), slide, crawl back up the slide, scale the spiderweb rope thing, and climb up the toddler equivalent of monkey bars - which makes my heart race and my head light.

I'm going to give potty training a go next week since we are settled in our new "red" house and we'll see what comes of it.... I think he could have been ready long ago but I was lazy and feared regression with an upcoming new baby and impending move.  With that out of the way we're ready!

6 month update

The 6th month picture out on the deck!

 

 

Whoo hoo - this big girl is 6 months old already!  At her 6 month check up she registered 15 lbs7 oz and 26 inches long.  Little girl is tall!  Her weight is in the 50% (much smaller than big bro) but she is in the 95% for height.  Her 6 month blood test revealed a bit of an iron deficiency but that is no surprise 1. because I often have low iron and 2. Very little iron gets through in Breast milk.  So, we're going to pick her up a multi vitamin, but probably the introduction of table food alone is solving the problem.  She'll be checked again at 9months for anemia.

She is staying strong with her 3 naps a day.  One morning, one during Eli's nap time, and another inconvenient one as I'm trying to get dinner on the table.

On her list of accomplishments, as is evident by the above photo, Nora is sitting up!  And very well balanced at that.  She began sitting up the week that I worked at VBS a week before turning 6 months.  She smoked all the other babies in there with her mad sitting up skills.  She and Eli both really enjoyed VBS.  I think Elijah would definitely benefit from a mother's morning out program.  That is first on my list once we get to Lexington.

About a week after she turned 6 months we started offering solid foods.  Her firsts were banana and avocado.  I completely skipped the cereal this go around.  Nursing is still going strong.  We've tried giving her a bottle a couple times, but she most adamantly refuses - so I hear.  She'll take a few dramatic sips so as not to starve to death I'm sure.  And then, hold out until I get home.  She also completely ditched her pacifier around 4 months as well.  I really tried to get her to like it.  Especially offering it on car trips, but she rarely took it - preferring to scream instead.  I'm not sure how we're failing on this point.  I've heard of only a few other babies that have refused these things all together like my two seem to have.

She's still screeching.  We tried to curb it as much as possible and redirect her to lower octaves.  But, I can already tell, she's going to be a talker and a playground squealer.  She's begun clinging to us when we pick her up.  Wrapping her arms and legs tightly around our necks and waists.  I love this little monkey stage!  I now can wear her on my back in our Ergo.  I love this because I can function more normally and she, as always, enjoys being along for the ride. 

She's also learned that she can sometimes muster toys out of big bro's hands and also pull his pretty blond locks.  With her new sitting ability the world is opening up to her and she is playing better than ever.  Sometimes Eli gets a bit too rough with her and accidentally knocks her down.  After which, he'll run over to us pointing and yelling - "baby down!" "baby down!"  Unfortunately, sometimes her downfall is caused by brother as well.  Other times, I have to ask.  Needless to say, the word "push" has entered Elijah's vocabulary.

5 month update

5 months have flown by.

Little girl is an awesome player, as she gets more control over her body movements she is able to reach for and oogle toys more and more.

Along with this new stage, she seems to be taking shorter and shorter naps and waking more to nurse at night than before.  She is however, settled herself into a 3 nap a day schedule.  With her first nap just about an hour after she first wakes in the morning.  You're right little girl, Elmo is exhausting! 

She's now out of the bassinet and into the crib and she has broken her way out of the swaddle for good.  Oh my how I love swaddled baby's.  Poor Eli cried too much before we learned the power of the swaddle.  Thank you "5 S's" for saving our lives these past 5 months.

One new aspect of Nora's behavior is a bit troublesome - she screeches, shrieks, high pitch squeals.  However you put it - it hurts our ears...literally.  We haven't figured out yet if it's teething, separation anxiety, or just her.  We're trying our best to nip it in the bud for the sake of all our ears, including Eli's.  He'll walk over to her and say, " no, baby."

4 month update

4 month mug shot - sorry no smiles today

she's 4 months old, folks!

Accomplishments this month:
Little girl can roll over both ways!  She surprised us all by rolling over one way and immediately flipping her self over and rolling the other way.  She doesn't prefer to roll, mind you.  It still surprises the heck out of her each time she does. 

As we hit the 4 month marker I can't help but start to think about how soon 6 months will roll around and we'll be introducing solid food.  So far this girl's growth is all me - and I can't help but think how cool that is.

She is super sweet & she already shows so much love for big brother.  She is a talker and she tends to use her voice and babbles as a way of joining in on brother's fun since she can't get up and over to him all the time.  As the second baby, she know's nothing of controlling our day or schedule - that is still all brother.  Sister tags along only.  She goes everywhere Elijah and I do whether she wants to or not - Baby bookworms, park, zoo, grocery.  This however is making her quite the easy going traveler.

At her 4 month visit, she weighed 14lbs 3 oz and was a bit over 25 in long.

We celebrated Easter this year with some neighbors & a low country boil.  Nora mostly slept through the entire party swaddled in a scarf on the screened in porch floor amongst all the hustle and bustle.

Life's Happening

So I took a little break from blogging.  If you hadn't noticed.  I think mostly it was only my mom who did!  We've been busy actually living life not so worried about documenting it.  However, weeks (and months) began to pass - and as we all know babies KILL braincells and this blog is my only hope of remembering anything about my babies lives or ours together.  (Seriously, Rob has to remind me about things from my own wedding and even babies births')  Awful awful memory I have.  It's a blessing and a curse :)  So when I'm old and gray, snuggled under a blanket I've made out of eli & nora's old baby clothes (don't even think I'm joking - I'm already saving my favorite onesies), I can remember all the funny pronunciations and developmental victories and long long days of sweeping graham crackers and scratching dried banana off of doorways with my finger nail - ahh, memories.

Before I begin posting the onslaught of drafts of nora's 4-5-6 months of life and a very grown up 2 1/2 year Elijah post, I hoped to catch up family and friend-family on our own lives.

Welp - I guess the biggest news is that we are moving to Lexington, KY at the end of the month.  Rob is beginning a PhD in Economics in the fall at the University of Kentucky.  UK was a great choice for us as it hosts the Center for Poverty Research.  Rob hopes to influence through writing, research, and teaching how poverty and justice issues are handled at the community and national level through an economic lens on the poor and marginalized in our society. We are so ready and excited to begin this next chapter of our lives which we didn't anticipate beginning for a few more years.  The program lasts 4-5 years, so it's very likely we'll be leaving Lexington with a rising kindergartener and second grader!

Along with this move, of course comes the grind of actually - physically moving.  Ugh, I hate moving.  I hate it with a most intense passion.  Some well meaning innocent acquaintance recently asked me, "do you like moving?"  After she heard how much we'd moved in the past 5 years.  To which I replied, "no - but we're good at it."  And, it's true.  This move has been a bit easier so far than the past ones.  The ease of this move coupled with Nora being so little and Eli freaking out whenever I pull out another box; however, has pretty much cancelled out any noticeable gain from our mad packing skills, though.  Several friends have given us boxes, and we've got a truck reserved for the 20th of July.  Our house is sold and we've bought a beautiful home in Lexington.  We'll close on both the same day.  All in all, we're taking care of business.  It's tough, but I keep telling myself, the worst will be over in a month.  And not to over-dramatize or spiritualize, but we feel like God is continuing to call us out and down our path to learning how to love like Jesus and bring his Kingdom closer.  I'm more excited about Lexington and the work God has for us there than I have been in a long time.  That makes the move, the stress, and then transition all worth it.  Or, worth it most days.

We've held several jobs between us over the summer.  Rob worked at Lowe's for a little while and became the reigning Lawn and Garden Specialist in our family.  We really both enjoyed him working there, the only tough days were when he closed and missed our bedtime routine.  But, I saw him more while he was working there than I had in awhile - It was awesome for our family.

Meanwhile, I've continued with teaching Bradley Classes and doula-ing with Open Heart Doula right up to the end of our time in Knoxville.  I am awaiting my 27th Bradley baby's arrival having taught 54 Bradley students while in Knoxville just over a year and a half of teaching.  Our whole family was quite busy recently with my last two doula clients giving birth just days apart from one another.  I am so thankful for this role serving moms and families.  I'm still hoping to attain DONA certification and possibly IBCLC certification to become a lactation consultant.  With our young family, however, this is a long term endeavor that I'll chip away at slowly over time.

I've already scheduled my first few classes in Lexington and am excited to begin again there.  I don't expect to take doula clients right away after our move.  I really feel like we need to settle in a bit first and get used to our new surroundings and schedules before adding the unpredictability of birth to the mix.

We're really going to miss our neighbors and friends.  A lot of the couples I had in class became good friends and we couldn't have asked for better neighbors in our neighborhood.  We became a part of peoples lives in really cool ways here and we are praying that God has more things like that for us in Lexington as we use our gifts and abilities there.  I've made Eli a shutterfly photo book entitled, "Eli's Big Move - from Knoxville to Lexington"  It's full of all his favorite things and people in Knoxville.  I'm hoping to take some of the confusion and anxiety of moving out of the equation for his 2 year old brain.

Below is a sneak peek of our new home in Lexington.

Front porch and yard

Back yard chicken coop and fire pit

Swing set for Eli and Nora Cate

How Deep The Father's Love for Us

( Holy Week 2012)


How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that left Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom