Big boy chair

H is getting so big. He just graduated from his baby bouncy seat to his big boy highchair. His grandparents got him this chair for Christmas and I can't believe he is ready to sit in it already! I think he had fun though!

Travel update

We've been having a great time visiting friends and family over the last week. We have been to Waco, Dallas, Houston and now we are in New Orleans. H has been such a great traveler! (minus the MAJOR diaper explosion moments before take off).
Here are some pictures of our adventures so far:


Here is H meeting his Great Grandfather. He had a great time playing with Big and his Great Uncle George. Big even played 'You are my sunshine' on his harmonica for him - he loved it!


H was so happy to get to see and play with his Aunt Amy again!


H has had a great time in New Orleans with Papa Bill and JoJo. Here they are in the French Quarter.


H has had so much fun playing outside at Papa Bill & JoJo's new house! He even stuck his feet in the pool today. Maybe we will swim if it warms up a little more.


H's new friend Molly. She is such a sweet dog and always wants to lay with or in this case on top of H. Fortunately he thinks it is really funny and just laughs when Molly walks across him or lays on him.


H got to meet his cousin Cooper the other night! It was fun to see the babies together and will be even more fun when they are bigger and all the boy cousins (4 of them, 3 within 6 weeks of each other)get to play together!


We have had a great time so far! We are looking forward to the weekend here and then back home again on Monday. Jeff has another phone interview tomorrow so if you read this, pray for him around 10 am tomorrow. Thanks!

Ta-Daa!

We finally finished H's new dresser. You can read the first post about the project here

Jeff helped me a lot with the finishing of this project. It took more work than I was anticipating. I had to starch the fabric twice and then it still wasn't sticking very well so I went to Lowe's and described what I needed and they recommended a clear sealer for me to use. After that Jeff cut holes in the fabric and drilled new holes for the new hardware. Then we had to cut off the excess fabric on the edges with a really sharp exacto knife. The final step was using beeswax to wax the drawers so they would open and close easier. And here is the finished product...





It didn't turn out exactly like I had pictured, but I still really like it!

Johnny Jump Up

H started wanting to stand up a few weeks ago and that has quickly progressed to jumping. His favorite thing to do these days is jump, unfortunately, his motor skills have not caught up with him yet so it involves a lot of sore muscles after helping him jump. Here's a video of him in his Johnny Jump up! He can't quite figure out how to jump yet, but he really likes to swing and stand and turn in it. Sorry about the sideways ending... my camera skills suffer...

fear?

So, I've been thinking about how being a mom has changed me - in particular the instinct I feel to protect my baby. I know some of this is natural and that all moms feel this way, I guess it is just really different from the ways that I used to feel. Here's the most recent example.

We have been living with my mom since we returned from Iraq while Jeff looks for a job. She lives in a good neighborhood right down the street from an elementary school on the good side of town. Early Saturday morning, about 2:30 am to be exact, I was awakened by a VERY loud CLACK CLACK CLACK! CLACK CLACK! I sat straight up and knew it was gunfire. It sounded like it was right outside the window. Jeff told me not to go outside because he was sure it was gunfire too. Fortunately, it didn't wake H up and so we just looked out the window and waited and sure enough a few minutes later several police cars showed up. After a while the crime van showed up and Jeff decided to go out and ask the cops what had happened. They confirmed that it was a drive by shooting at the next door neighbor's house. One man was shot and taken to the hospital but they expected him to be fine.

As the story unfolded, we figured out that the people living next door (they moved in a couple weeks ago while we were in PA) were strippers (the house is for sale) and the realty company just put someone in the house to make it look like the house was being lived in. Anyway, an ex boyfriend followed one of the girls home from work and he is the one who fired the shots. Last I heard they hadn't found him yet. There are always several people at this house and the girls I've seen there have at least 2 young children. Anyway, the point of this story is that my first instinct was - get these people out of here! I don't want them to live anywhere near me or my family.

Since this incident we've heard one of the girls outside screaming obscenities at someone and there have been several huge tatooed dudes hanging around. I was praying yesterday for these girls and this family and I just realized... that's as close as I want to get. I want to pray for them, but I don't want to go over there, I don't want to meet them and I definitely don't want to take my baby over there. Really, I just want them to go away so that I don't have to worry about some crazy ex boyfriend coming around my house with a gun again.

I didn't used to feel this way. I didn't really feel afraid when we were in Iraq, and I used to spend time with people who were homeless or prostitutes and I wasn't afraid. I guess I just feel like I don't know how to balance these new instincts that I feel with the Gospel. I know in my head that fear is just a lack of trust in God and His character and I know that safety is only an illusion and that whatever God allows my family to endure he will give us the grace to be okay and that it will be okay. I know that even if the worst thing happened, that God would still be good and we would still be okay, but I still feel this inward cringing when I think about the other night and my sleeping baby upstairs.

I don't know if this makes sense or if other parents resonate with these feelings... I just wanted to be honest about how I'm feeling and what I'm praying about right now. So, pray with me for our next door neighbors, for their children, and for our role in all of this. I want to be willing to go over there... but right now, I'm just not.

Advertising

I don't know if I'm the only one, but I am apparently, very susceptible to advertising. Jeff finds this rather boggling because he claims that he isn't at all. He actually wrote a paper in college about how advertising doesn't work and is just a waste of money. Then he married me. I see a Red Lobster commercial and I want to go there for months. I read a product review in a magazine and I then I have to try this new moisturizer or mascara. A well placed coupon in the Target ad, and then I have to go there next week. Anyway, I'm a sucker for the various forms of advertising. They have been showing this Easter commercial for Rice Krispies with a mom and her kids making these Rice Krispie Treat eggs together. I've been all excited about starting new traditions for our family so I thought I'd give these a try. H had nothing to do with the tradition this year, I had to wait for him to go to sleep just so that I could make them. They turned out just as cute as in the commercial though, so maybe we'll try these again next year when H can actually contribute something.


Aren't these the cutest? Yummy too!


Thanks Rice Krispie commercial!