Laughing babies

I saw this for the first time about 15 years ago. It gets me every time. Man there is nothing like the sound of laughing babies!

"My Husband Rocks!" Friday

Katy Lin suggested an acrostic for MHR today. I guess her creative side was kicking in:-) Some of the girls used "MY HUSBAND ROCKS" and some just used their husbands' names. Here goes!
(I thought I would use his whole name because JEFF is just too short!)

Jude's daddy
Every day is a great adventure
Fun to be around
Full of life & enerfy
Role m odel for other husbands
Everything I always wanted in a man
Years! 7 great years!

I was also thinking of something else for this week. My husband rocks because he risks his life (potentially) to save others. Even just going into the house of someone who calls 911 puts him in danger of exposure. Yet, he does it anyway and he does it well!

Standing

Well, it's official, he's not a newborn anymore. Jude is doing pretty good sitting when propped up. I can even let go for a couple of seconds but then he basically folds in half.

We were at the pediatrician's office on Monday (17 lbs, 12 ozs, 25.5 in!!!) and I saw a 5 month old baby whose mama was holding her by the hands as baby stood on the floor. I thought, "I wonder if Jude can do that." So when we got home, we gave it a shot.














YUP! Guess he can.

I got some good pics of Jude and his buddy Ellie this week, too.
Here is Jude checking out his future bride:-)














And here's Ellie making a pass at Jude - Give me all your toys!














Here's Jude making a pass at Ellie! "You're mine! All mine!"














And here's our termite holes:-(














Thankfully, we (we meaning Jeff) caught it in time and when the termite guy came out he said that there wasn't that much damage below and they could even have been left over from the last time the house treated. He did some stuff that he said the last pest control company should have done (drilled holes into the block under the house and put in some pesticide rods of some sort). The odd thing is that they didn't bother anything except the front room of the house which is on cement block. The remainder of the house is on wooden supports, but they didn't even bat their little termite eyes at that.

"My Husband Rocks!" Friday

Jeff rocks for making the baby snort when he was laughing!


He also rocks because he knows that Calla Lillies are my favorite flower and he brought home a box of bulbs from work to plant in the yard. For mowing the lawn, taking out the trash, keeping gas in the vehicles, filling the humidifiers when they're empty, and changing Jude's diapers when asked.

Should We Take "In God We Trust" Off of Currency?

Apparently, MSNBC is doing a little survey asking if "In God We Trust" should be removed from the U.S. currency. I know it is only a survey, but it seems to me that the people at NBC are trying to stir up controversy. Right now 86% of the participants have said, "No, don't take it off." If you feel strongly about this, click here and you can vote, too.

Jude telling stories (aka: The one that got away!)

Watch Jude's arms and hand after each time he "talks." To me, it really looks like he is trying to describe something.


He's becoming a big boy fast! Now, if you let go of the medinurser, he will continue to suck the medicine out of it without letting it fall.
Also, in case you can't tell by his shirt, he's still teething. It looks like I am going to be right about side teeth coming in before the front ones. I can see a little white line on his bottom gums off to the left. I can't get him to let me poke around in his mouth long enough to tell if there's one on the right.

I also tried to get a picture of Jude's little friend Ellie, whom we baby sit during the week. However, they just weren't in tune with each other yesterday. In the first pic Jude's staring at the t.v. and Ellie at the ceiling fan. In the second one, Jude got the idea but I have no idea what Ellie is doing.

Public Perception of Breastfeeding (potentially vulgar photos)

This was posted on Lennon Clark's blog Friday. She is from Salem, Oregon, and is a homebirth midwife, with a special interest in breech birth and waterbirth. www.motherbabymidwifery.com Be warned, there are lots of breast photos to follow. It was funny that this was passed along to me today because there was a discussion about similar issues at lunch today with some people from church.

Public Perceptions of Breastfeeding

I did not write this, but it was too fabulous to not pass on. (I'm not sure of the original author, but whomever you are, thank you!!!)

Society is so sexualized that they have forgotten what God created
our breasts for in the first place. They throw hissy fits over
breastfeeding in public and expect us to feed our babies in dirty,
stinky bathrooms. So I ask you to judge for yourself, which breasts are
truly offensive here? And I understand some of you won't think ANY of
them are offensive. But I am making a point by showing how ridiculous
it is that society looks upon scantily clad women in sexy ads as ok,
even GREAT, but providing important nourishment and nutrients to your
child in public by breastfeeding is offensive, distasteful, disgusting,
whatever. Give me your feedback. :)


Wait... well, this is a bad example. Let's try again...

Hmmm... just a minute. Surely i can find better ones than these...

Eh... still not racy enough. I'll check one more time.

That's better. LOOK AT THAT! I see about an inch of boob! Totally disgusting.

Ugh! Look at that indecency!! She must be from some third-world country to be exposed like that!!

Now that's just... There's no words to describe how inappropriate that is. Something needs to be done!!



Now
this takes the cake!! How dare they actually put such a disgusting
image on the cover of a magazine where teenage boys might see it. This
simply must be disposed of ASAP via a shredder, before teenage boys
learn what boobs are really for!!


This just makes me want to vomit!

...but why stop at breastfeeding women? There are boobs
everywhere. Beware! If you thought the above photos were offensive, you
WILL DEFINITELY be offended by the photos below.




Not this one though. This was in plain view on newsstands and in mailboxes in 19 countries worldwide!

Not this one either. This one actually won an award!

Oh, and i guess this ones fine too, since everyone knows you can't sell jeans without someone being topless.

or beer, for that matter!

or sunglasses...

or movie tickets...

or CDs...

...you
know what? Maybe I'm crazy, but i think that someone mixed up some
photos here. The first batch are offensive, but the second batch are
just fine and dandy???

people who live in glass bras:


shouldn't throw stones:








Which message is healthier?

Breastfeeding which is medically approved to give HUMANS the best start in life. . . or


Images that promote STD's, unattainable beauty standards, sexual promiscuity, plastic surgery, and just plain TRUE indecency?

Which would you rather your daughter live up to?

Ifyou think women have the right to breastfeed their children no matter
where they are, please re-post this. The least you can do is help some
children get the best nutrition they can get. Breastfed babies have
lower instances of obesity, asthma, allergies, certain childhood
diseases, learning disabilities, and other health problems. For each
woman who feels like she shouldn't be breastfeeding right where she is,
there is an innocent baby who is losing out. Don't be responsible for
any child's health problems. support breastfed babies and their right
to eat in public like the rest of us.

"My Husband Rocks!" Friday

Katy-Lin must have been busy last night because there was no prompt for MHR. So, I just decided to tell about one of the ordinary things we do that makes our marriage work.

Did you know that when Jeff is at work, he calls me in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening? Since he is gone for 24 hours at a time, it is really nice to hear his voice throughout the day. I get really spoiled on his two days off in between those shifts, so when he calls, it is (almost) not so bad for him to be gone for so long at a time. Unless he is on a call, he never misses calling me those three times a day (sometimes more). Sometimes, we don't have anything new to talk about when he calls back, because you know, my days are pretty much the same: The boy wakes up, eats, laughs and babbles, plays with toys, sleeps a couple of hours, wakes up, eats, laughs babbles, plays with toys, sleeps a couple of hours, wakes up, laughs and babbles, plays with toys, then has a bath, eats, and goes to bed. But, Jeff and I can always find something to talk about. I think it helps that he usually has some story to tell about some crazy call that they had during the day. (People do some crazy stuff!)

All this to say, I am so blessed to be married to a man with whom I never really run out of things to talk about no matter how routine our lives become!

Baby Veiyah is home!

Baby Veiyah got to go home with here mommy and daddy on the 6th! God is good because they all had just had strep throat and Veiyah did not get sick! Here is a video that Ani (her mom) made chronicling her journey over the last couple of months. It's long but if you have time, it is really worth watching all 10 min because it tells a powerful story of God's faithfulness in answering the prayers of many, many people. (Ani calls them "V's Knees.) I love the photo around 7:05 where Veiyah is smiling. It's awesome that she smiles despite all that she has been through in her short 5 months. For all practical purposed, when you consider all that she is been through, this is a baby who should be nowhere else but in Heaven with her twin sister Aderah Psalm. But God has other plans for her. I can't wait to see what they are! You can read Ani's blog by clicking this: Dirty Knees.

Jude practices voice inflection

Jude woke up doing this today. He's been doing it ever since. I guess he's practicing different tones:-)

Jude and his little buddy

If you can not tell what it is that Jude is looking at, it's the mirror on his play mat.


Here he is just hanging out with Daddy while we were entertaining dinner guests. I couldn't resist when I saw that hand on his knee!














We gave him a sippy cup (it was empty) Sunday morning before church. It looked like he was getting the hang of it pretty fast, but before too long, he had the handle in his mouth instead.














And, if someone wouldn't mind, pass these photos on to Aunt Joanne and Uncle Jeff. This shirt was given to us in a bag of used clothes. It looked like it was never worn. We brought it with us on vacation, but Aunt Joanne was sick the whole time.

Amazing photos of our Universe

Ed Sunder is a Covenant Alumnus from quite a while before I went there (I think I was in 6thgrade when he graduated). This guy takes amazing photos with his telescope. This is just a sample of his work. You can see more of his spectacular shots on his blog, Flintstone Stargazing. (I don't know if he lives in the Flintstone on Lookout Mountain or the one that is at the bottom of the Mountain.) I especially like his recent shot of Saturn.

Update on Jude's reflux

I was really hoping by now to say that Jude's reflux was all gone. But during vacation he began spitting up again and has done so a few times. He also has started that fussy nursing thing again. It is no where near as bad as it was back in the beginning before he was diagnosed and when he first started the medicine. Right after vacation, the doctor increased his dosage because of his weight.

Since he has been around 16 - 17.5 pounds for several weeks, he probably was not getting enough medicine for all those weeks, which is probably why he's been spitting up and fussing. It is a different kind of fussing than when I thought he was having teething symptoms. Those, by the way, have all gone away except for bucket loads of drool and sticking EVERYTHING in his mouth. I think Jude would be the happiest if he could have all his toys in his mouth at the same time, while sucking his paci and nursing. He seems to want to always stick things in there when he has the paci or is nursing. Hasn't quite figured out the imposibility of that plan.

"My Husband Rocks!" Friday

Katy-Lin's prompt for this week is "What makes a happy marriage?"

What a question! She suggests that it will be different for everyone but to an extent, the same for everyone.

Here is the article that she shared this week called Marriage Martyr. I thin k that the author hits on some of the major points that would be the same for everyone; specifically, not playing the "blame game." Marriage is not (should not be) a competition of one-up-man-ship (is that a word?) but rather a team effort where both spouses have the chief end of managing the home. I remember this first became clear to us when we attended the Weekend to Remember several years ago. If it is a competition, each spouse is going to feel like they are pulling more weight than the other.

Once Jeff and I stopped focusing on what the other person wasn't doing, and began just working together on things, we did become a lot happier. Did it solve all of our problems? Did we never have another argument? No way. We're broken human beings thanks to that little historical event called the Fall. But any time you take your eyes off of yourself and demanding your needs to be met and put them on Jesus and others, there is no way that it can not change your outlook on relationships.

Also, I've mentioned before that Jeff rocks because of how he can make Jude laugh so much. (I can never get that kid to laugh that way. I just get lots of smiles and an occasional laugh.) But I forgot to mention how much he makes me laugh. Jeff is good stress relief at the end of a long day:-)

Poor dog

This has to be one of the saddest, funniest things I have ever seen. Poor dog.

No way, son!

So, I put Jude in a sleeper today to try to keep his socks on. Jeff was holding him and just informed me that the socks were wadded up in the toes of the sleeper. I bet my kid will be one who doesn't wear shoes when he's grown.

A decision

I've made a decision. I am just going to leave Jude barefoot; or buy pants that have feet in them already. I am staring at a sockless child again and it is only 29 degrees outside (69.5 inside).

The blog of a million pictures

As promised, here are some photos of Jude's first vacation. This was his first time to meet his grandparents Franceschini, and Aunt Vickie, as well as many other family members.

As you can see, Jude is jazzed about this trip.














And, here we have him about 5 minutes down the road:-)














Oh, and some things never change, even on road trips (notice that his sock is coming off).














Jude's first stay at a hotel. We thought it best not to push it and drive all 9 hours at the beginning of the vacation. Little did we know then that on the way back he would sleep all but maybe 2 or 3 hours of the drive. Could have saved that $80.




























Jude is so happy to be spending the week at Great Grandma and Great Grandpa's house since they come and spend weekends at his house some times.














Hanging out with Aunt Vickie














Grandma has the magic touch!














Grandma and Grandpa and Jude. If grandpa did not have on his glasses, you would see that they have the same scowl. It is the one that Jude is wearing in this photo.














Jude took surprisingly good naps while on vacation, which is weird because he won't sleep on flat surfaces at home. Guess the kid knows what vacation is for.



















Napping in the swing borrowed from cousin Christie














Hanging out with Daddy














Ready for the Strawberry Festival














Just a fun fact:














Daddy being silly with his strawberry short cake














Aunt Vickie marching with her twirl group in the Strawberry Festival Parade














Just a fun family photo of the original Florida Franceschini family circa 1970s. Pictured from left to right: Jude's Great Aunt Joanne, Jude's Great Uncle Chris, Jude's Great Uncle Chuck, Jude's Grandpa Fred, in front: Jude's Great Grandma Joanne, and Jude's Great Grandpa Fred.














Jude wants to thank you for looking at his photos:-)