Halloween #3 (Last one) :)

So here's the video of Josiah holding Katie's hand.  :)  He did it all on his own...how cute is that?!

Halloween #2

I'm not a huge fan of Halloween, but how could I resist the chance to put Josiah in a cute costume and take lots of pictures?  :)  Yes, he was a Tootsie Roll!  Hopefully he won't hate me for it later... but we couldn't help it... he was so stinkin' adorable!  We spent the afternoon with our friends Melissa, John & baby Katie, and then headed over to hang out with our Care Group friends.  Josiah was very happy to see his little princess friend, Katie today... he smiled at her and actually reached out and grabbed her hand... (video to come)!  Uh oh!  Watch out... he's movin' fast! Here are a few pictures of them today:

Halloween #1

Today I had just finished feeding Josiah and I had to sneeze... which I expected to startle him... instead, he thought it was the funniest thing ever.  This is the most he's ever laughed... it was so contagious!  (Excuse the wobbly camera view, I was holding him in one hand and the camera-phone in the other!)

Our Big Boy!

No wonder he likes watching football so much... Our 6 Month Old 3 Month Old just might be a future linebacker!  He weighs 18 lbs 8 oz!!!  Holy cow!  I was guessing 17 lbs, but wow!  So yeah, he's definitely off the charts... although he is about 26" long too, so he's just a big boy all around! 

We had him at the pediatrician's office today after a rough night and morning.  His reflux started getting worse over the last week (he's been arching his back and turning away during feedings) but the poor thing was really hurting last night.  After just an hour or two of serious fussing/screaming/crying, Mike and I looked at each other and said "can you believe he was like that so much during his first 6 weeks?!"  He's been such a happy, mellow baby for the last 2 months, that we kinda forgot how hard that was!   Anyway, he's started a new medicine and today she recommended that we thicken his bottles with baby oatmeal (rice cereal is constipating... and that's the last thing we need to add to the mix right now).  This afternoon he's felt much better and was back to his happy self, and hopefully it'll continue.

This boy is going to outgrow his carseat, swing, bouncy chair and more before he's 6 months old!  :)  According to his doctor, babies do grow the fastest during their first 4 months, so he'll likely start slowing down in a few weeks.  :)   He is becoming so coordinated and so interested in everything.  He loves grabbing and playing with anything we put in front of him.  And he loves to sit up or stand so he can check everything out!

The Day Has Come

Most of you know how much I have wanted to quit my job at CBN, long before I was even pregnant. I have worked there for 2 years and have basically been frustrated with it for a year and a half.  Don't get me wrong, I know what the economy is like, and I'm certainly grateful that God provided me with a source of income for the last two years.  But until about 3 months into my pregnancy when I finally realized I had to either quit or learn to cope, I used to come home in tears at least once a week, and was so stressed out, angry and frustrated on a daily basis.  I won't go into all the details, but let's just say I've never been so perplexed by leadership that could refuse to improve their department, could ignore employees who wanted to go above and beyond, and who could waste resources so selfishly.  It used to really really stress me out.  But then I finally realized that it was wearing me down too much, and I was either going to have to quit, or I'd have to just learn to deal with it until I was able to quit later.  Well, with a baby on the way, we needed the extra income, so I swallowed my pride, took on a bit of a "whatever" attitude and managed to survive another 9 months.  Going back 2 days a week during my extended maternity leave was definitely manageable, but I knew I'd never go back full-time.

So since they aren't willing to work with me in a part-time capacity (surprise, surprise), today was my last day.   It's a very delayed sigh of relief.   It'll definitely be a stretch for us until we sell our house, but we've been planning for this and we're trusting God to continue to provide for us.  I really am excited about being able to stay home with Josiah full-time.  I know in this "day & age" it's definitely not the norm to make it on one income, but it's something we feel led to do, and while it will require a lot of sacrifices, we're excited about it.  I'm definitely up for doing some creative odds & ends to earn extra money, but now I'll only have one full-time job:  taking care of Josiah and Mike.  :)  Pray for us as we get ready to list our house again.  We're dropping the price a bit and hoping that this time we'll have more luck. 

A Day with Friends & Family

Josiah got to see two cousin Amy's today! My cousin & Mike's cousin both came over to see him. 

And in between their visits, we went over to Senneca's house to deliver her baby gifts from work, and boy did Lyric & Josiah have fun together.  Lyric just loved him to death and Josiah just watched Lyric's every move.  Lyric kept bringing him toys, and hugging him and kissing him on the forehead.  He wished Josiah could walk & talk with him, but even though of course he can't do that yet, it didn't stop Lyric from playing with him:  He even put these Mickey Mouse hands on Josiah - haha!   He didn't want us to leave, it was so adorable.  Lyric is going to be a great big-brother to little Lenox.  

Could it be?

Could I finally be free to leave my ridiculous job?  Tomorrow morning is the big day:  The day I tell my boss that I'm willing to keep working part-time, but I'm not coming back full-time. My FMLA time runs out Monday, so Tuesday is the last day they have to let me work part-time.  I'm really not sure what will come of it.  They'd be pretty stupid to let me quit right now, considering that Senneca just left for her maternity leave and Christy would be the only Project Specialist left.  But frankly, they don't have a track record of making wise/reasonable decisions.  I'm really okay with whichever way it goes.  If it weren't for the fact that we could use some extra income while we wait for our house to sell, I wouldn't even consider staying.  I'd love to be able to stay home and take care of Josiah everyday.  But the two days-a-week schedule isn't so bad and it's much more profitable than any other part-time work I could look for.  So we'll see what happens. I doubt I'll have an answer tomorrow... considering we've still been waiting over a year for a revised job description!!  But they'll have to let me know by Tuesday... because no matter what, I'm not coming in on Wednesday!

3 Months Old (+2 days)

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Well, somehow I missed blogging on Josiah's 3 month birthday (Tuesday, the 20th). I guess I was too busy enjoying him after I got home from work.  He has been such a happy, fun boy this week!!!  I completely enjoy my days home with him.  He definitely recognizes his mommy & daddy now... and saves some of the best smiles for us.  It's really cute.  He can also hold lots of stuff now.  His favorite seems to be something cloth (burpcloths, washcloths, blankies) but he likes to bat at and grab the toys on his bouncy chair, activity mat and anything we hold in front of him.  It's made car rides much easier too... I can just lay his little dragon toy across his lap and that entertains him for a long time! 

He is very very fascinated with watching us eat now...even opens his mouth and grunts sometimes like he wants some!  hmmm... I wonder if he's going to be ready for some new tastes before long!   He has also seemed very interested in Shelby... he smiles when she comes near him, and if she lays close enough, he reaches over and "pets" her... yikes... well, so far so good.  :) 


Other new things for our little 3 month old:  He has started doing this pouty lip thing... it's really dramatic and hilarious... he's not actually upset... he does it when he's content.. probably because it makes us laugh so much.  He's content to play independently longer now... and I often find him smiling or laughing at his toys.  He LOVES looking at himself in the mirror.  Loves it!  He figured out how to go up & down in his kicker-chair.  And he can ride sitting up in the stroller (as opposed to just in the attached carseat).  :) 


All of the sudden, time seems to be moving really fast.  Mike and I have our birthdays next weekend, then just a couple weeks until Thanksgiving, and Christmas is only 2 months away!!!  Good grief! 

It's Lily's Turn

Since you all did such a GREAT job of praying for baby Lenox, you are needed again!!!  This time it's for Lily, my good friend Suzanne's little girl.  Lily just turned one on Friday and tomorrow she has her big surgery!  Lily was born with a cleft palate and tomorrow, she gets it repaired!  They have known this day was coming all year, and prayers for a great surgery, for peace for Lily and for her mommy & daddy, and for a good recovery are especially needed now!  It's going to be tough for a little while, but better days are ahead for sure!
Working at CBN, I hear stories about children with cleft palates & cleft lips in other parts of the world all the time.  So many of them are not as fortunate as Lily.  We are so blessed in the U.S. to have access to the best medical care and it's such a great thing that Lily can have this surgery.  It can be devestating and tragic for these little children whose families are so poor that they cannot afford the surgeries they need.

Prayers Answered!!

I just got the news that baby Lenox did even better than the surgeon's "best case scenario"!!!  They opened up his little belly today to find that all of the intestines had pinked back up to life and looked great and nothing had to be removed!  Basically, now he will just have to recover from surgery and will then go home with his mommy, daddy & big brother and shouldn't have any further complications!!!   This is such a huge answer to prayer, and something that only God could have accomplished!   Yay!!!! 

Please Pray for baby Lenox

My good friend and co-worker, Senneca, gave birth to her son, Lenox, on Wednesday.  Lenox was born 1 day shy of 34 weeks, but despite only being 4 lbs, he got off to a good start.  However, in the middle of the night on Thursday, Lenox had to be rushed to CHKD for emergency surgery.  Senneca had a fair-share of her own health issues going on after birth, but she was able to be discharged early to go be with her little boy.  It turns out that Lenox had a condition that had nothing to do with his early arrival.  He had intestinal malrotation, which meant during his early development in the womb, his intestines had gotten tightly twisted around their blood supply and at some point had stopped getting blood/oxygen.  The longer they were cut off from oxygen, the more permanent damage that would occur, so I think it's already a miracle that he was born early and they discovered this. 

He is currently in the NICU at the Children's hospital and will have surgery again tomorrow morning.  During the first surgery, the surgeon untwisted things, but couldn't yet tell how much of the intestines would pink back up to life, and how much could have irreversible damage and need to be removed.  Please pray with us that when they go back in on Sunday, they will find that there is little or no dead intestines needing to be removed.  Also, please pray that this little guy will remain stable and healthy both before and after surgery.  He's already had to go through so much for such a tiny little boy, and there's a good chance that he'll have more challenges ahead. 

Senneca and her family are believers and are trusting God no matter what.  They also have a 3 1/2 year old little boy Lyric who has to have lung surgery at the end of this year.  They have a lot on their plate to say the least, but God is good and is getting them through.  Please pray for them...especially for little Lenox as he goes into surgery again tomorrow morning.

30 Things

On one of the fun blogs I read (Blue-Eyed Bride), Erin had this great idea.  Make a list of 30 things you'd like to do before you're 30.  Well... since I turn 29 in just 15 days...  I only have 1 year and 2 weeks until I'm the big 3-0, so I can't be but so ambitious, but here are My 30 Things...

1. Visit New York City during the Christmas season (this might have to happen right after my 30th birthday, because I don't see it happening this year).

2. Move out of my current condo. This was my first place on my own, my first place with my husband, my first place with a baby, but it's time to move on...

3. Become a full-time stay-at-home-Mom. Although I'd love to have some odd-jobs/fun-work too.

4. Go to Hawaii with Mike. This really should happen considering my sister lives there and Josiah can fly for free until July 20, 2011.

5. Make a PhotoBook of our wedding photos (finally!)

6. Find some creative outlet to enjoy again. (Photoshop, Graphic Arts, Photography...)

7. Establish an annual family tradition. (for just me, Mike and our kid(s) to enjoy together)

8. Go camping in the Spring.

9. Go camping in the Fall.

10. Start journaling again.

11. Scan in all of my old photos to archive them on CDs.

12. Go snow-skiing... it's been WAY too long!

13. Get rid of the clothes I've had and haven't worn since I was 20. Seriously, I take the meaning of pack-rat to a whole new level.

14. Have a professional family photo shoot.

15. Try Once-A-Month-Cooking.  Cook an entire month's worth of meals in one day (and freeze them).

16. Organize an effective couponing system.

17. Be pregnant again (did I just say that?!! I must be delirious from being awake since 4:30 this morning)

18. Find my webcam so my sister will quit harassing me! haha!

19. Have more of our family join us at church.

20. Visit at least one of the 16 states I haven't been to yet (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin)  And yes, I still sing the song I learned in 5th grade with all the states in alphabetical order whenever I'm trying to think of them all.

21. Take at least one day trip to the Outer Banks. I think that's my favorite place on earth.

22. Follow Through. Take action and actually do some of the service/ministry things I think about.

23. Spend less time online and more time with the Lord.

24. Institute a cleaning schedule for my house.  I'm way too embarrassed to admit how IN-frequently my bathrooms, floors and windows get cleaned.

25. Print out Josiah's pictures and put photo albums together. I don't want to end up with 10,000 digital photos that no one ever looks at, or worse that get wiped off a crashed computer.

26. Start drinking 8 glasses of water a day.  Maybe #17 would help me with that.  I was much better about it when I was pregnant with Josiah.

27. Sell my Princess House inventory. Sadly the economy just doesn't make for much success anymore with Princess House, but I love so much of the stuff I have, it's so hard to get rid of it... but it's doing me no good in boxes in my closet.

28. Plan some great events... a party, a wedding, a shower, whatever - I love doing that!

29. Try at least one new recipe each week. I love to cook, and so does Mike, maybe with a bottle of wine and a babysitter, that could be one of our regular dates (see #30).

30. Re-establish a regular "date night" with Mike. When we were engaged, Friday nights were date nights.  We wouldn't make plans with anyone else (except the occasional double-date) and we'd just do something special together.  Needless to say, 9 months and 1 baby later, we've gotten out of the habit. 

Sleepy Days

Today is just one of those stay-in-your-pajamas-all-day kind of days.  Well, I actually did that yesterday, so today I had to shower and put real clothes on, but Josiah's hanging out in his pj's again all day!  When you nap every 2 hours, what's the point in getting dressed?  :)

Josiah sleeps pretty well, but he sure does hate GETTING to sleep during the day.  I feel so bad because most of the time he will cry hard in protest, but if I just stick it out, he's done in about a minute or two and then falls sound asleep.  He won't take a pacifier anymore (tried several different kinds), I've tried not swaddling him to see if it was the confinement he didn't like, but that was even worse and he just doesn't settle himself down on his own, so for now, we swaddle, shush, bounce in a dim room with music and voila... it's naptime!  Thankfully he is very merciful to us in the middle of the night and doesn't cry at all!  Only difference then is that he's being fed right before sleeping whereas during the day, he plays after eating and then sleeps later.  I'm hoping he'll grow out of it... and we'll try putting him down without all the extra effort when he's closer to 4 months... hopefully my back can handle the bouncing for just a few more weeks. 

Fun with Grandma

Josiah spends Tuedays with his Grandma-B (my mom) while I'm at work and apparently they have lots of fun together!  Check out these hilarious pictures that Grandma captured of my little cutie pie today:

Happy Fall!

We found a fun Pumpkin Patch not far from our house today... and it was an absolutely beautiful Fall day to be out there!  Josiah may not remember being there, but we had fun and we took tons of pictures.  On the way there, Josiah discovered his laugh!  For a good 5 minutes or so, he just laughed at everything I did... it was GREAT!  I had so much fun listening to him and watching him... tried catching it on video, but he wouldn't do it for the camera!  And check out this last picture... you can tell Mike is a true Dad... that's a bottle in his back pocket! 

Nursery

I don't think I've ever posted any pictures of our completed nursery.  This is my view from the glider in Josiah's room. I'm really happy with how it turned out...

Doggy Einstein?

Josiah really loves the Baby Einstein DVD's I got him last weekend.  Shelby isn't so sure!  She's always watched TV and knows instantly when there is an animal, especially a dog... she goes nuts... so I don't know who was more focused on this one, Josiah or Shelby!  

11 Weeks Old - Photos

Notice that both of their eyes are aiming at the same thing (the Michigan football game) - Josiah loves to watch football already!  Surprise, surprise! :)

Another Milestone

Josiah actually rolled over for the first time when he was 4 days old... but since we obviously didn't expect that to happen during his first "tummy-time", we didn't catch it on video. I'm kinda bad about remembering to do "tummy-time" often, so it had been a while, but I put him down today, and look what he did!



He did it about 5 times in a row... and just to prove it.. here's another video... he wasn't too happy about it this time:

Consignment Sale

So I'm feeling really bad that I didn't tell everyone about this consignment sale I went to today so you could have joined me. I promise I wasn't trying to hoard all the good stuff... I had just talked with so many people about it that I didn't realize how many of you I had NOT mentioned it to. Well, it's put on by Tidewater Mothers of Multiples every Spring & Fall... So the next one is in April. I will surely let you know when they set the date because it's a GREAT sale. You have to get there early & get in line, but it's very worth it. I went to both this year. There are tons of great children's items: toys, clothes, gear... all in good shape & cheap! I've been to other consignment sales, but this one beats them all.

I just started looking up some of the items I got to see how much they are regularly priced... oh my goodness!!! $469 worth... for $75! Now I'm even happier with my purchases!

Leap Frog Music Activity Table: $6 (retail: $45)
Fisher Price Puppy Pal: $5 (retail: $25)
Dragon Ball Pit: $5 (retail: $68)
Neurosmith Together Tunes Cube: $6 (retail: $75)
Fisher Price Gator Xylophone: $5 (retail: $40)
Soft Blocks Set: $5 (retail $25)
Fisher Price Peek-a-Blocks Set: $5 (retail: $25)
Infant Play Fish Bowl: $3 (retail: $25)
2 Pair 12 Month Robeez Shoes: $7 each (retail: $24 each)
Sleep Positioner: $2 (retail: $13)
5 Baby Einstein DVD's: $19 (retail: $80)

Oh Happy Day!

8 HOURS STRAIGHT! Yep, I said 8 hours! Josiah slept from 9:15pm-5:15am and then even went back to sleep for another 2 hours after that. I'm just a little bit excited! :)

I only slept 5 hours because I stayed up late and got up early to go to this awesome consignment sale. Soooo worth it! I got tons of stuff... basically everything I wanted to get him for Christmas, 5 Baby Einstein DVD's, and more and I spent only $79. Such a good day!

Now hopefully Michigan will beat Michigan State this afternoon and we'll be one happy family! :)

Glorious Sleep!

We've been very fortunate that Josiah never really had his days & nights mixed up. He knows that night-time is for sleeping...even if it was in short increments. Until this week, he'd eat, sleep about 3-4 hours, eat, sleep 2-3 hours, eat and then sleep another 1-2 hours. So about 8-9 hours total... but it does still wear on you when you haven't slept more than 4 hours straight in 10 weeks!

We had a breakthrough this week! I increased the amount he was eating at each daytime feeding by 1 oz. and Wednesday night he slept for 7 1/2 hours straight! And then went back to sleep for another 2 1/2 hours right after that! Woohoo!! Of course, I didn't benefit quite yet since my body was still used to waking up sooner... I had to check to make sure he was okay several times! Last night wasn't quite as long, but he did 5 hours, 2 1/2 & then 2... still an improvement!

Oh and did I mention that he is also now sleeping in his crib in the nursery?! (As opposed to the pack-n-play bassinet in our bedroom.) We're hoping this new sleep extension is here to stay!

He definitely doesn't like to fall asleep. Most naptimes start with a fight, but we're learning to just press through it and he's usually asleep within 5-10 minutes. Now if we could just get Shelby to quit barking and waking him up, we'd be in great shape. Anyone want a free Papillon?? :)

10 Weeks Old

It's hard to believe Josiah is almost 11 weeks old!  Here are a couple of pictures of him with his friend Katie (Melissa Scott's little girl who is 3 days younger than Josiah)... plus a few other cute pictures from this week.

"Woah... look at that pretty girl!"

"Um... mommy, we didn't get our V8 today... help!"

"Much better!"

"Look at me sitting up!  I like my Bumbo"

"I'm really starting to fill this thing out!"

"Awwww.. I love my snuggly cow"