Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Fun with Aunt Vickie!

My fearless (slightly dizzy) baby and his goofy aunt:


Also, Jude wanted you to know that he graduated to the big tub:















Actually, he just kept trying to stand up in the baby tub and I was afraid that he was going to plunk himself right out of it.















You'll notice that he only plays with the blue cup. There are six other ones, but this one seems to be his favorite. It has always been this way.
Also, if you look really closely on this picture below (click on it and it will get bigger) you can (kind of) see his new little teeth in the center of his bottom gums.

































Monday, July 27, 2009

Times, they are a-changin'

Well, it looks like we're REALLY close to having a crawler on our hands:


And, I think it is time to lower the crib mattress:


Also, I have been trying and trying to get a shot where you can see that tooth that's coming in. So far, this is the best I could do:














In closing, what does this shot say to you?

Vindication for my struggle

It makes me feel better that all those years of struggling with my hair type in middle school and high school will at least benefit someone. It seems that the little sister is doomed to have the same curly mop that I have endured all these years. I am really glad that I have some insight for her. We were sitting down to dinner the other day when she told me she wished her hair was exactly like mine because it doesn't get a frizzy as hers. (Should I pull out the 8th & 9th grade pictures and show her?!)

What a great window of opportunity to tell her that she, too, could have an abundance of curls like what was sitting atop of my head that day. I told her I would be glad to fix her hair one day during her stay. Little did I know she would be in my bathroom the next morning before church asking me to do it then. (Which only left me 30 min to get ready for church, myself. But this is the way of things as a parent, huh?)

This kid has been blessed! Her hair curls even nicer than mine! A little gel, a little mouse, and volia! And these photos were even taken after a nice Sunday power nap.














Friday, July 24, 2009

"My Husband Rocks!" Friday

Jeff ROCKS this week because of his superior ability to keep this one:














entertained!

Overheard while I was cleaning the kitchen this evening:

Vickie: **playing boxing on the Wii**

Jeff: It looks like you are getting good enough to fight me.

Vickie: No! Don't try to trick me!

Jeff: C'mon

Vickie: I can beat you! I'll fight you any day!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Houston. . . we have. . .?


TEETH! Or, rather, tooth. Lower right side. Explains the two crazy almost blow out diapers these past two days.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The party!

Well, I don't think I got any action shots of the B-day girl, but a good time was had by all. I was amazed at how many children are in our family again.

Here's the B-day girl posing. Ah, to be 11 again!
















Here's Jude with his third cousin, Brianna. She's such a cutie!





















And now, with his other third cousins, Trista, Brianna, and Nadia. My cousin Charles sure has some beautiful girls!
















Jude with great-Aunt Kim.
















Jude and daddy
















Jude and mommy
















Then we brought Aunt Vickie back here and she was fortunate enough to be around for one of Jude's mile stones: going into a crawling position from sitting. It is a really good thing that he will only do this on our bed right now or I am sure we would be doctoring up some busted lips!

Saturday, July 18, 2009

A BIRTHDAY party!

Sooo, as this post is posted (auto-scheduled) we will be enjoying ourselves at Jude's Aunt Vickie's 11th birthday party in Florida!!!

The original plan was to pick her up on Sunday and bring her back to our house on Monday, but Jeff was able to rearrange his schedule so that we could make it in time for her party. I used to make it down for her birthday every year for her birthday, but the last several years we have not been able to because of Jeff's schedule.

So, YIPPEE!! Happy 11th birthday little sister!

Pics to come later:-)

Friday, July 17, 2009

"My Husband Rocks!" Friday

Um, if I participated in Not Me, Monday, and if this were Monday, I would be saying, "I certainly did NOT forget to post MHR last Friday!"

My husband totally rocks because he never even mentioned that I forgot. I SURE hope he (or you) didn't think that he didn't rock last week!

This week, Jeff rocks for the totally AWESOME job he did helping me clean up this house, which has not had any a deep cleaning since before the boy came along! We now have livable space in every room of the house!

And, I know how much my husband HATES hanging up clothes, (as much as I hate doing dishes!) but he made sure that every item of clothing that he owns was either hung up or put in drawers. This was our deal when I began being a stay at home wife/mom, that if I washed, folded, and put the clothes on hangers, he would make sure his got put away. Before I started staying home, we each took care of our own washing. Needless to, there used to be a lot of piled up clean man laundry in the house.

And, today, we are heading out to do that thing I mentioned two weeks ago but couldn't go into detail. More on that tomorrow!

Monday, July 13, 2009

In the Bucket, Out of the Bucket

This morning Jude and I were playing with is Pet Pails from Grandma Linda. Well, Jude was shaking them around and I was putting them on his head. I don't know why, but I got this idea to stick my face in one of them. Jude squealed like this was the funniest thing he had seen in his life! I said, "In the bucket!" and then pulled my face out and said, "Out of the bucket!" You would have thought I was a stand up comedian.
Then the boy grabbed a bucket and stuck his face in it! Then he pulled it away and looked at me and laughed! I of course could not get this on film because every time he hears that camera beep, he wants to look straight at it and smile. But after his nap today, while he was having some tummy time I looked down and saw him doing it with one of the smaller buckets. I stuck the camera behind my back so maybe he wouldn't hear it:
























































He does this sitting up, too!




























He also copies me when I shake my head now:

Jude is such a nut;-)

CHOCOLATE!!!!!!
















Now that I have your attention, you need to check out Ali at The Lazy Dog to find out how to make this OUTSTANDING (!) single desert in only about 5 min (2 min to cook!).

I think I'm in love!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Thursday, July 9, 2009

A proud moment

A lot of you know my feelings on vaccines. While I think that SOME vaccines have their place in this world, I think that we go totally overboard with the way we handle pediatric vaccinations when following the AAP specifications. There is no way an infant should have three needles stuck in to him, one after the other. First of all, that is an excessive amount of pain. Additionally, that is way too much chemical to put into a child. So we made the decision to delay vaccinations until 6 months and spread them out so that the boy only receives one shot per visit.

More though, and this is where I draw the line and say "absolutely not," there are 5 different vaccines that use serum derived from aborted fetal tissue. I do not think that there is anything that justifies killing a baby, not even using the remnants in vaccine production. These vaccines we decline completely until Merk decides to cease this practice.

So we head in for Jude's first vaccine at Jude's 6 month appointment. I am terrified, but have put some prayer into it for peace and protection. Turns out, Jude has a low fever, so they wouldn't do the vaccine anyway. I am actually relieved at this point!

Same story at 7 months.

Month 8 we spent looking for a new peditrician, because eventhought we love Jude's doctor, we were not totally enammoured with his partner, and the last several visits, we had her and they were so busy that we waited hours.

This brings us to Dr. B, a new family doctor in our area. He moved his practice here in January, and I could find no one who had any experience with him. I ended up in his office a few months ago when I realized that my migraines had come back with a vengance. I was really impressed with his patient interaction, as with his answers to my questions about babies and vaccines. I made Jude's 9 month appointment that day! I made Jeff's physical check up appointment, too. He's turning 35 in a few weeks, you know!

We arrived yesterday and his nurse said that he could see Jeff and Jude together. HUGE time saver. During the entire week before, I began praying for that peace that I needed and for protection for the boy.

We went through the formalities of the check up: height: 27 in. weight: 21 lbs. (!) head circumference: 17 in. Meeting the milestones: CHECK, CHECK, CHECK!

Then comes time for that shot! I remained in my seat while Jeff put the boy on the table and held his arms. It occurred to me that maybe I should hold his other foot, because he is a kicker (and a picker, and a pincher) but by the time I got there and got my hand on his foot, that needle was already in. I just looked at him, clapped my hands and said, "Yeay! Good job!" He loves hand clapping!















Jude did not flinch, did not bat an eye, not a tear or a peep. O.k. One peep. When the nurse put the band-aid on she did this little thing where she rubbed his leg and he said, "heh, heh, heh!" He's been doing this weird little laugh for about two weeks now.

For the rest of the day, he never acted like anything was wrong, and the vaccine did not make him tired. As a matter of fact, I think it took Jeff abotu 45 minutes to get him to sleep. I could hear him up the hallway forever going, "ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya."

So, our first experience with vaccines was in no way traumatic and I am in total awe to the way that God answered my prayers!

If you're looking for some good reading on vaccines (and I have done TONS of reading) I highly recommend Dr. Robert Sears's The Vaccine Book and the web site www.cogforlife.org.
I really do NOT recommend What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Children's Vaccines, by Stephanie Cave and Deborah Mitchell. I feel like that one was more an exercise in fear mongering than real research. Plus, the research hasn't been updated in over 10 years and vaccine issues have certainly been updated since then.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Play Ball!!!!

***Don't forget that you can turn the music off by clicking the pause button on the music player in the right hand column.***

Look at the talent in this kid!

And, who needs to crawl when you can just spin in circles all day?

I think Jude is practicing to be a ventriloquist. Unfortunately, he has the idea backwards.

Also, Daisy wasn't really doing anything but walking around, but apparently, that's hilarious!

Saturday, July 4, 2009

And the winner is. . .


Not sure why it isn't showing up, but when I did this on the web site, it came up with a 3. Soooo, that means RebeccasMom, it's all yours! Just e-mail me your info and I'll get it in the mail.
Man! I wish I had enough copies for everyone!!! But, I'll let you in on a little secret: At Amazon, you can get a copy for less than a buck and a half if you buy used. You still have to pay 3.99 shipping because they do that flat rate thing, but it's still cheaper than just the cost of the book brand new. You could also try Paperbackswap to see if someone is willing to give it/lend it to you. All you do is list the books you have that you are willing to pass on and you get credits for books others are giveing away. LOVE it!

I am 1/3 of the way through the sequel, Beyond Tuesday Morning. I am really enjoying it so far.

As I sign off today, please remember that freedom is not free and thank a Service man or woman when you see them.

Happy Independence Day!

Friday, July 3, 2009

"My Husband Rocks!" Friday

***Just a reminder about Free Chocolate Friday!***
***Also, the book giveaway is now closed and I will announce the winner tomorrow!***

Jeff rearranged his work schedule so that we can do something really special in a couple of weeks. I can not go into a whole lot of detail on what the special thing is, yet. Sorry about that suspense. Guess you'll just have to check back in a couple of weeks;-)

What is the big deal about that, you ask? Well, whenever Jeff rearranges his schedule, unless it is a vacation day he is taking, he has to make it up by working 48 hours in a row. What happens is, one guy will work for him now and then he pays the guy back by working that guys shift when ever that guy needs him to.

So, while the 48 hours away will really stink for Jude and me, I am really excited about this thing that we are going to do in a couple of weeks.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

How'd that happen?

***Don't forget about the giveaway. Ends Friday!***

I put the little man in a 6-9 month outfit and could not get it snapped. This is the first time in his nearly 9 month history that has outgrown a size before he hit that chronological age.

Here he is in a 12 month pair of jammies.





























































How the HEY did he get so big! Doesn't he look so grown up in real jammies instead of a sleeper?
He want you all to to know that he wears these jammies in honor of fire fighters everywhere, but especially his daddy.

Oddly, reading that Karen Kingsbury book and our approaching Independence Day have really set me to reflecting on 9/11. I do not ever want to forget what happened or the sacrifices that so many men and women made. Fire fighters, EMS, police officers, and the victims and their families.

Related to this, I was very pleased to come across this program called Red Shirt Fridays from which all the proceeds go toward making handicap accessible housing for soldiers rendered handicapped from this war effort. We have been at this mess for nearly 8 years if you look at the two war fronts together, and weather you are a supporter of the war or a protester, I am sure we all agree on one thing: we want our men and women of the military home safely. The Red Shirt program is about standing together in solidarity by wearing your red shirt every Friday until every last soldier is home. We'll be getting our red shirts because we want our service men and women to know we care about them.

"For those that will fight for it...FREEDOM ...has a flavor the protected shall never know." ~Tim Craft, 1968