Josiah woke up at 11pm last night, so I was thinking: "Oh great, it's going to be one of THOSE nights," but I staggered back to bed after feeding him (the pacifier was NOT cutting it) and next thing I knew my alarm clock was going off at 6am. !!! Seven hours of uninterrupted sleep is like GOLD to me. Thanks, little dude!
]]>
IMG_2165
Originally uploaded by kerner
Will you nurture this child in Christ's holy Church, that by your teaching and example he may be guided to accept God's grace for himself, to profess his faith openly, and to lead a Christian life?
We will.
At long last (seriously - a year and 7 months!) my enormous king-sized quilt is done. I sent it out to be quilted, and the binding is really not done well (crooked sewing lines and such), but at this point I don't care - it's DONE!
As you can see, the quilt is quite colorful, and the rest of my bedroom is... not. We have dark wood furniture and basic greyish/beigeish walls. I am totally clueless when it comes to decorating - can you help? Matt and I agree that we're not up for painting right now, with the baby and all, but we can definitely handle some accessorizing, maybe some new lamps? We do not have a single picture or anything hanging on the walls. We used to have a fairly large picture over the headboard, but we moved it to the guest bedroom where it fit better.
Just to give you an idea of the layout, this picture is taking facing the door, which you can barely see on the far left edge of the photo. on the right side of the photo is a large dresser with mirror, and on the right side of that dresser we have a chair in the corner. Straight in front of the bed is a sliding glass door which is the only window in the room.
I welcome your ideas...
Chewing on Dad's hands
Chewing on (I mean, playing in) the Jumperoo
and going to Springfield Cardinals games!
As you can see, I've been putting Josiah to work! When he's not writing up legal opinions, he's spending most of his time smiling and flashing his baby blues at all the ladies in both of my offices - the Airport and the Law Department. I think they're going to start keeping a tally to make sure he visits them equally!
When I was a City Hall visiting my fellow city attorneys, I stopped in at the Public Works department where a couple of particularly baby-crazy attorneys were finishing up a meeting. I knew they would never forgive me if they didn't get to see Josiah, so I wanted to see if I could catch them at the end of their meeting before I went home. (It was my day off.) The receptionist went in to tell them I was there (apparently not recognizing me in my casual day-off clothes, ponytail, and no make-up) and announced to the room (of mostly men) that "a lady with a new baby is here." Both of the attorneys knew I was going to be there so they immediately knew it was me, but before they could say anything, one of the guys blurted out: "I hope she's not here to see me!"
Umm... yeah. I got a pretty good laugh out of that. I mean, if you think random women might be showing up at your office with a baby in tow (presumably to inform you it's yours), then I think you might want to re-evaluate some things in your life!
Josiah had a really nice time visiting Great-Grandma and Grandpa last weekend. He put on quite a show with his mad tummy-time skillz and crazy kicking action in the bouncy chair. (He loves to make the toys swing wildly over his head. I think this child will like roller coasters!)
I don't get out to visit my grandparents as often as I should, especially considering they live just about a hour's drive away from me (as opposed to the 4 hour' drive from my hometown when I was growing up). It was so sweet to see my grandparents ooh and aah over Josiah - I really need to take advantage of it while I still can. (Sad thought, but true.)
IMG_0002
Originally uploaded by kerner
IMG_2017
Originally uploaded by kerner
IMG_2039
Originally uploaded by kerner
We spent the long 4th of July weekend at a relative's lake house just across the Arkansas border on Table Rock Lake. We had a nice time vegging out and not really doing anything. It worked well that this was the plan because the weather was either way too hot for the baby to be outside (90+ degrees) or rainy most of the time we were there.
The view was lovely though, and sitting on the deck overlooking the lake to eat breakfast each morning was very nice, too. I read two books (The Gentle Art of Domesticity and The Five Love Languages) and got a good start on two more (The Lacuna and The Christian Atheist) -- why yes, my reading preferences are a bit ADD.
We went into Eureka Springs one day and got zero pictures, but we did use a tripod that we found in the lakehouse to get some nice family pics out on the deck. We grilled out every night and made big yummy breakfasts each morning.
All good so far... except there was a baby in tow. All the rooms were really bright (big windows to showcase the lovely views) and loud at night (fireworks) so we ended up setting up the Pack-n-Play in the laundry room, which was accessed through a bathroom. The strange bed plus strange location plus strange smell (laundry-soapy) did not make for a very restful baby. I was up 2-3 times a night to nurse him back to sleep - and of course the most convenient place to do that... you guessed it, sitting on the toilet (with the lid down of course!) Not very comfortable, much less at 2 and 4am.
And to that a baby that didn't want to nap unless one of us was holding him, and you get the idea that this was not the most restful vacation ever. We actually planned to stay until Wednesday or Thursday but ended up leaving Tuesday morning as soon as we got the place cleaned up.
Luckily once we got back home, we got back to a better routine of naps, etc. so I'm hoping tonight will be a good back-to-normal sleep night for Mr. Josiah.
Note to self: take a grandparent on the next trip so they can share in the baby-holding duties!
At long last, I have have completed a knitting project post-baby! Appropriately enough, these are the socks that I started on Josiah's due date (8 days before his actual arrival) while I was going crazy with nerves & anxiousness about when he was going to make his big entrance.
It only took me three months, but I managed to weave in the ends on this basic pair of socks while we were at the lake over the holiday weekend.
Josiah kindly agreed to model them for me. I think they'll fit Matt better, don't you?
Dear Josiah,
I have to say, three months is awesome. You are really starting to interact with your world - looking all around, holding your head up, kicking anything you can get your feet near. (We call you Mr. Kicky.) I also love how you communicate with us through your smiles, laughs, coos, and gurgles. When we flip you over for tummy time, you raise your head high and can hold it up for a long time. You also push up on your knees and can scoot yourself forward if you can get enough traction. I bet you'll be flipping yourself over to your back in no time.
You are doing great at the babysitter's, and she commented recently how much easier you had gotten. You still aren't really a fan of napping in your crib, but if I hold you, you will snooze away for an hour or more. (Pretty nice life, I'd say!) You are doing really well at night - you go to sleep without much fuss at all and only get up once to eat in the middle of the night. I'm still hoping for that elusive sleep-through-the-night thing (not that bogus 5-hour STTN, but actually sleeping so long that I get a full night's sleep!) but for now I am trying to appreciate our late-night time together.
Love,
Mom
Dear Josiah,
What a difference a month makes! You've gone from a squirmy little blob that eats, sleeps, crys, and poops, to an adorable little baby who loves to smile. You are a very easy baby (thank you!!!!) usually only getting up once in the middle of the night for a feeding and then you go right back to sleep. You started going to the babysitter (Micki) a few days a week while I went back to work part-time, and it seems to be going really well. You certainly have Micki charmed - every time I show up, she's holding you! The four other kids there love "da babee" and fall all over themselves to get to help with you: carry the carseat into the living room, give you kisses, open the door for me, etc.
I can't wait to see what the next month holds.
Love,
Mom
Josiah has now attended his second wedding in less than 8 weeks - we're getting very familiar with the back pew at church! (I really want to buy him a little tuxedo onesie to wear for these occasions.)
]]>
Once upon a time, I was a runner. Heack, I'll go as far as to say triathlete, although I'm not very good at biking or swimming. (I even ran races, see? And apparently I was too fast for the camera to catch me.)
Now I have a baby and I'm slowly but surely easing back into work. (12 hours last week, 16 hours this week.) Do any mamas out there have advice on how to fit in some exercise along with taking care of baby and work?