What's the Story, Morning Glory?

Just a little update on what's going on lately...

The final things we are waiting on with the house are the arrival of furniture for the extra living room and having the kitchen cabinets painted. everything else is pretty much done, with the exception of us possibly painting the exterior of the house this summer, and adding shutters and a new front door.

We are eagerly anticipating the arrival of Brian and Stacie on January 27. We just adore having them around and always have fun. Best of all, we get to find out whether they are having a boy or girl since a friend of ours is coming by with her ultrasound machine while they are here! They were there when we discovered that I was pregnant with Noah and now we get to be there to see whether they need to buy some pink or blue! What could be more fitting?

Noah is doing very well. After a long adjustment period to the new house and me putting him down awake and letting him cry until he learned to fall asleep on his own (which only took a couple of tries), he now sleeps beautifully. We put him down around 9:00pm and wake him up about 7:30am. Then he sleeps an hour or so in the late morning and anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 hours in the midafternoon. So much better!! Our new pediatrician gave the first advice I got that actually worked for Noah. He is not one of those babies that sleeps 12 hours at night and naps 4 hours a day. He hardly ever sleeps the average time babies his age are supposed to sleep. And he won't likely change that. The doctor explained that, though it would be difficult for a while, we just needed to shift when he sleeps. If I let him sleep too long at night, or in his case, the "average" amount of sleep, he will not get enough daytime sleep. And he needs both. So despite what some of the experts say (like put him to bed at 6:30pm), it just doesn't work for Noah.

Suddenly, Noah is refusing to eat foods that he does not like and only wants to feed himself. The struggle toward freedom and independence has begun. Sigh. The only problem is that he can only manage certain finger foods and even then has only about 20% accuracy. He has just started refusing to eat certain things in the last couple of days. He does not like avocado, raspberries, or baby food broccoli, carrots, and cheese, in case you were wondering. He spits them out, pushes the spoon away, hits the spoon (great messes), and makes terrible faces. He loves sweet potatoes, beans, broccoli, cheese, chicken, green beans, mango, and bananas.

Still no crawling. But what this boy lacks in skill, he makes up for in sheer determination. He rolls, drags, and scoots himself around and is busy looking for trouble most of the time. Why does Mommy always pull this yummy paper out of my mouth.? I just worked really hard pulling that sock off--for the 20th time today--why is she putting it back on? Why does this swing smack me in the forehead when I push it? Babies have such interesting little lives.

Jeremy is working hard and loving his job.  This is what I've been doing:


 
Cooking.  And lots of of it!  We love having friends over for dinner.  Along that line, I started my recipe blog and am working on finally organizing my recipes into a cookbook instead of looking up old emails and documents on the computer!
 
Have a great week and enjoy kissing January good-bye!  How much longer til summer??

*I have a video I've been trying to insert here but can't get it to go?  Anyone else had problems since the new editor only has "insert image" but no video?

Just Scrap It!

Digi-scrap that is!  I am starting to put together my blog into pages for a book of Noah's first year.  I made the first one for free on scrapblog.com.  Hopefully, I'll get more advanced as I go along and get some more materials to use but at least it's a start.  That first year will soon be up, you know!

Nanna

My heart is heavy. This Saturday, my grandmother, Helen Snider, is moving into a nursing home, due to the Alzheimer's disease she has been suffering with for several years now. And she doesn't even know it.

My grandfather has been taking care of her himself all this time and doing his very best. The man truly must have achieved sainthood by now. Unfortunately, it has gotten to be too much for him to manage. My mom and her sisters had to help him make this decision and I know his heart has to be so torn and broken.

Nanna was vivacious, high-tempered, emotional, devoted, steel-strong, proud, and never met a stranger. Now she is a shadow of that woman and the glimpses of the true "Nan" are showing through less and less often. She still remembers something of who I am when I talk to her, though not that I have a child or which daughter I belong to, and I am certain that she will very soon forget completely. I can't imagine how frightening this will be for her, when life is so anxious and confusing already. After 65 years of commitment to this woman, I can't fathom how this ending feels for Pop.

It just kicked me in the gut last night. Hard. Suddenly, I realized that there are no more trips to Nanna and Pop's house in Bossier City, no more shopping for school clothes at the mall, swimming at their pool, going out for late-night TCBY runs with Nan, no more sneaking me 20 dollar bills and telling me not to tell Pop. I can't get any of that back. They haven't lived there in several years now so denial must be a powerful thing. Where did it all go?

And so we are saying good-bye. Not physically yet, but in every other sense. Alzheimer's is a horrible, horrible thing. And I'm not there. My family is packing, moving, and distracting both of them this weekend and trying to do all this with their best faces on. I don't envy them one bit but wish I could help anyway. Dealing with sad things in the family is none of our fortes.

But all glory be to God who knows all and does all according to his Good Purpose.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary you have been grieved by various trials. 1 Peter 1:6

Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven... Luke 6:23

Love you all.

Dining Room

Here are the first pictures of updates to our house so far!

Nine Months Old

Time flies! And it really seems to be flapping those wings quite a bit lately. Can you believe how big this little stinker is getting?

First time in his new duck bathtub! It's almost a big boy bath. He loves playing in the water and is just too cute.

Daddy thought Noah might need some Carolina Panthers gear, since Mimi bought him Sooner wear for Christmas.

Noah is not crawling yet, but now that we have some new carpet and an area rug for the living room, it should be no time at all. He is getting on all fours and rocking back and forth. He has just the two bottom front teeth but I'm sure others are soon to follow. Noah eats a lot of the foods we eat now. He is still quite the Mama's boy! He also started waving but doesn't seem to know exactly why you are supposed to wave. These days, Noah is addicted to Sesame Street songs. He loves any type of music but is absolutely glued to the monitor when we play Jason Mraz or Feist on Sesame Street. (Does anyone know who this Feist woman is in real life?) The best part is that the grownups can enjoy these songs too. :) Jeremy bought him an Elmo's Favorite Hits Countdown (something like that) and he also enjoys this unless they stop singing. He yells at them when they talk.

I completely stopped breastfeeding when we moved into the house, though I have been cutting back since we moved here. I have been mixing my reserves of breastmilk with formula and stretching it out. It has definitely simplified and made life more comfortable and though I occassionally feel a little sentimental about it, I am glad to be done. 9 months into this mom thing and I am still definitely "not granola!"

Noah weighed in at 17 pounds, 14 ounces at his 9-month checkup and was 28.5 inches long. We are moving on up to Cruisers size 3 now! He is growing right along. In fact, its time for me to start thinking about his first birthday, since it is less than 3 months away. I think we will go back to Texas so that we can celebrate with family, just not sure where I'm going to have the party. I'd like to do something sort of central, so that everyone doesn't have to drive super far. We will see. I also have to come up with a theme. It seems like he's not old enough to plan his first birthday party but it is literally just around the corner!

Respite

Respite. A delay or cessation for a time, especially of anything distressing or trying; an interval of relief. Also the new color of my dining room. What's funny to me about that is that in a former job of mine, respite basically meant that when the foster parents needed a break, the kids went to stay with another set of foster parents for a weekend or however long their family needed a break. And boy, did they need a respite, as defined above.

We would like a respite too. Just an island getaway for a few days, an escape from the cold and the snow. I long to live near our parents, who could take care of Noah for us and give us some time to ourselves. Maybe someday we'll be back close to them again! Don't get me wrong, there is nothing distressing about our life here. We are blessed. But I still envy those with grandparents close by. And I am sad for Noah, that he is not growing up with them. As a child, I frequently visited my grandparents and they took care of me when my parents needed help. I have so many fond memories growing up with them. But I digress.

I think this has been spurred on by some of friends recent return from vacationing in Aruba. Jeremy keeps moaning about going on a cruise and that maybe Noah should be an only child. :)

Maybe I'll just have another piece of chocolate...

I Heart My Blog

Where would I be without it? It provides endless entertainment for this stay-at-home mountain mama. I am addicted to reading the blogs of friends and it's a nice little creative outlet.

And now I have a cool blog header, my very first! I made it on www.scrapblog.com with the help of my sweet cousin Allison, who entertained her children with Sesame Street and worked around her plumber to help me figure it out! Thanks Alli!

Check it out!