A Word from the Worthingtons

We've Moved!

2011-11-20T23:55:00.000-05:00

So, not only are we moving to Omaha, but our blog has moved too! Come visit us at our new site by clicking here!

It's starting to feel more real...

2011-11-08T21:35:00.000-05:00

Holy cow, people. We just found out where we're moving, and now this whole thing is starting to sink in. I've been meaning to post about our rankings, but now I should probably just as well share what we learned this morning!

Or maybe I'll just let Adam Duritz tell you.

Please tell me someone knows someone or something about this place?! :)

11 Months

2011-10-25T11:24:00.001-04:00

As per usual, I’m way late in posting about Holland’s eleventh month. I’m here in better-late-than-never fashion to tell you about it, because before I know it, my little one will be having a birthday! Holy smokes, where has the time gone?

My girl is changing so much. This month, I’ve been so amazed at her verbal development. She’s started to say “Amen” when she anticipates that we’re almost done praying (so cute!), I’m pretty sure she said “doggie” when she greeted one (they are her very favorite, after all!) and “byeeee” when we walked away! She’s waving bye-bye and saying “hiiii” more consistently too; I’m pretty sure my girl is quite the extrovert and just can’t keep her excitement to herself when she meets new people! She also loves to say “uh-oh”, but we keep telling her it doesn’t count as an uh-oh when you throw something down on purpose…

Cheese!

I believe Miss Holland may have been trying to show off some of her pearly whites in this picture. This month, she finally cut her third tooth. I’m pretty sure we’ve blamed teething for any and everything for oh, I don’t know, the past three months? Now, at long last we have a tooth to show for it!

Bath time fun with brother. The pictures below really sum up this activity in our house these days…Wade thinks it’s the best thing ever to spray Holland with water from his squeeze bottle (notice she has one as well, got to keep things even!). Quite a few bathing experiences have been cut short for big brother due to this offense!

And bath time for Miss Thang has been cut short because the child is intent on standing up in the tub!

More proof of my cute little dude’s bath time antics:

Who knows, maybe she will follow in her daddy’s footsteps?

Guess who’s pushing the ol’ fire truck these days?!

At one point, Holland let go of the fire truck and stood by herself for a few seconds! So exciting! As much as I’m sure life will get even crazier when she’s walking, I’m looking forward to the fact that hopefully her clothes will be spared some abuse! These days, Holland crawls all over the place and loves to be outside just like her brother. I’m convinced she’s intent on destroying her precious clothes her mama loves so much, as she’s about to wear holes in them! I suppose I should dress her a little more casually, but I just can’t get enough of the really girly clothes :)

This next one is one of my very favorites pictures of her!

This month Holland developed a new passion: climbing up and down (yes, down!) the stairs. This is probably her favorite thing to do, and I wish you could see her in action! We are amazed that after turning her around a couple times when she approached the top of the stairs, she caught right on that she must go down backwards! It’s adorable, and the funniest part is that she’ll do this same move whenever she approaches anything that remotely resembles a downhill slope! Slight decline in the space between two adjoining rooms? Holland has undoubtedly turned around to go backwards as she crosses the threshold :)

Just stopping to appreciate the flowers.

Oh, how I love her!

It really seems like just yesterday my Wader-tater was the one riding and pushing that fire truck and now look what a big guy he is!

I love this next set of Holland discovering the joy of balls! (please also note our swiffer propped up against the sofa. At least I am making an effort to clean?)

What a happy girl!

I have a type-A brain, apparently.

2011-10-11T23:42:00.002-04:00

So, this little blog is stressing me out. I suppose it’s evidence of the fact that I’ve got quite the type-A brain here because I feel like I just can’t post about some of life as we know it currently until I get all caught up on the big things I don’t want to forget (ie. the beach). I know it’s just a blog, and I should just post without giving it so much thought, but there you have it; a little peek into my brain. So, I’m going to try and muscle through some more beach pictures. Because, as I’ve said, we had such a wonderful time, and I don’t know about you, but often times my clearest memories end up being the ones I’ve documented and taken the time to look back through. Hence the need to share them here. So, thanks for bearing with me!
Our whole crew—I happen to really love this picture and am voting for it as a family Christmas picture…We visited (and toured) the island’s namesake lighthouse, “Old Baldy.” For those who might be curious, the island is so named because of the “bald” part of the island that lacked the vegetation surrounding it and was thus helpful to incoming ships as a landmark. I bet you also didn’t know that Cape Fear butts right up to Bald Head Island as well. I didn’t realize this notorious name arose because of the heightened risk of shipwrecks around this particular headland.

There was a shop at the dock that had the most amazing popsicles. I raced over to buy a bunch (like, 12) for everyone before our ferry left and the salesperson questioned my appetite for popsicles. He may have been correct to assume there were all for me had I not needed to consider the very certain problem of melting…

It doesn’t get much better than babies at the beach. (Well…maybe it’s ~~better~~ equally awesome to relax on the beach minus cute, but needy little people every once in a while too!)

There's my guy.

But you know I couldn’t let him show me up. (We won’t talk about the fact that this was SO not as easy as it used to be for me…)

Looking at this next picture reminds me of what a blessing it is to call this one my brother.

As you might imagine there was a considerable amount of time spent throwing sand by the Wadster. And that boy has got quite the arm, really ever since he was but a wee one.

We were blessed with wonderful accommodations for the week, and right on the beach!

I get it honest at least. (pretty sure, Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” was playing, and I am sorry, I just cannot keep still when I hear that song!)

I think it’s abundantly clear that we like to take pictures. (and by we, I mean my mom and myself, and the rest of the crew doesn’t have much choice :)

Catching up: Bald Head Island

2011-09-24T10:00:00.001-04:00

Considering that yesterday was the first official day of fall, it’s only natural for me to finally post pictures from our lovely beach trip this past July, right? I’m going to blame some of this delay on the curse of our modern, tech-savvy culture, where one can easily come home from the beach with nearly 500 pictures, grateful for the memories captured and yet completely overwhelmed at the thought of going through them and condensing them into a somewhat manageable group. Anybody with me? All complaining aside, much to my surprise (more on that later), we truly had a wonderful time at the beach and are so grateful to my parents for hosting us!
Bald Head Island is unique in that there are no cars on the entire island! You arrive via ferry along with all your possessions that you have packed away in bins! Literally, everything you will need for the week (minus the incremental item you can purchase at the local grocery store for about 5x the cost of what you’d pay on the mainland) must come over with you on the ferry. Needless to say, packing and preparing for the trip, especially since it was our first time, was a bit daunting. All you parents out there know that just going out for a playdate requires some relatively intense preparation; the thought of transporting everything our entire family would need for a week (including food!) seemed insane. It actually wasn’t as bad as I’d anticipated, and of course it helped that my mom took care of lots of the details and came prepared with bins upon bins of food for everybody (thanks Mom!).

It sure was fun riding on that ferry!

This is Wade’s “shy” face He hadn’t seen his Uncle Taylor in a while, but he warmed right up in no time. (and yes, single ladies, my brother is available, though he’ll probably want to kill me for writing that!)

All three of my brothers greeted us upon our arrival from the ferry.

We loaded up our personal golf-carts and drove about twenty minutes to get to our house.

Our golf cart driver was rather handsome I thought.

Greeted with a cocktail? Please, and thank you very much!

We took turns preparing dinner each night. The first night, my brothers Taylor and Andrew whipped up a delicious spread!

Wade and Graham are quite the combination. They feed off of each other and while fond of one another, they can be quite the terror as well! Please note the mischievous smile on Mr. Wade’s face as he interacts with Graham!

Of course vacation is extra special because you get to spend all day, every day with daddy!

This little girl was a delight to my heart this week in particular. She slept way better than was typical for her, which is a large part of why the week was so much more enjoyable than I anticipated. I’ve learned something about myself, and it’s really not a great thing, but here it is: I intentionally set low expectations in situations where I anticipate being disappointed. I think the right term for this kind of behavior is that it’s a defensive mechanism. And it’s no way to live. So I’m working on it.
In this situation, I prepared myself by kind of dreading the week. I was sure I’d be up throughout the night, leaving me tired and grumpy during the day. I honestly miss vacations pre-children because let’s be real, a re-location is more what it feels like a lot of the time. Especially when you’re a stay-at-home mom and you <gratefully> spend your days with your babies already. It was kind of funny because all week, I would talk about how I never would have imagined Holland sleeping so well, how she never sleeps like this, and on and on and on. My dad laughed and made the observation that it was kind of ironic that Holland was sleeping well and yet he still had to hear about it! Funny, and true.

Everyone knows bath time's more fun when done in the sink!
Another important thing to note about our beach trip was the presence of two very special people: Graham’s official caretaker, Jason, and his lovely wife Heather. My family has experienced vacations over the years with no extra help for Graham, and quite frankly, it’s really hard, and my parents don’t get to relax at all. So, this year Jason and Heather came along, and what a blessing it was! Heather happens to be a rather talented make-up artist (I keep telling her she needs to start charging people!), and so naturally I asked her to give me a makeover at about 9:30 one night. As if you can’t tell, I found this to be extremely relaxing, and I nearly fell asleep!

I feel a little silly showing you this next one, but you need to see the finished product, right? Heather took it upon herself to do a little “contouring” on my nose. Apparently, this is a make-up technique where you can actually alter the look of your features! (As if we aren’t vain enough already…) Now, I’ve always thought my nose was just fine, but I think it’s kinda crazy how she actually made it appear more narrow! Can you tell?! Ha!

Ok. back to reality with a baby on my hip.

Holland was very into her little snorting phase during our beach trip.

Mimi’s turn!

We definitely enjoyed some of these:

And I wish I could show you my hubby’s famous guacamole, but we gobbled it up too fast!

Good times over dinner.

Would you believe me if I told you I had more pictures? It’s true. So I’ll be back.

Andddddd she’s 10 months

2011-09-22T16:02:00.002-04:00

And I am clearly not a very on-top-of-it-blogger, seeing as how my last post was about her nine-month milestone! Sorry for my absence on here, but I tell ya the days are just getting away from me. I have so much that I intend to blog about, but somehow I blink my eyes and my baby is a month older, and I haven’t posted a thing in the meantime!

Anyway, I am loving watching this little girl’s personality blossom more and more. Holland is quite the little social butterfly these days. She is not one to be overwhelmed by bigger kids and their active play; she wants to be right in the middle of it all! Case in point: yesterday, we spent some time playing at a local kid’s spot called ‘Cartwheels & Coffee’, where it was wild. Not in a bad way (Hi Abby if you’re reading! We love C&C! ) ; there was just a lot of activity and a lot of bigger kids everywhere. It fascinated me to see that unlike he brother who is quite the quiet observer type, Holland seemed to be energized by the activity level! She crawled all over the place and literally giggled with delight. Perhaps she is destined for the life of an extrovert (like her mama!).

She continues to love animals, especially dogs. She also likes fish and will do the baby sign for fish (a kissing sound) on command. The other day we took a little trip to a pet store just for fun, and she and Wade both loved checking out all the animals. I am considering a fish for a family pet. A fish is a pet I think I could handle. And I know my kids would really like it….we shall see. She is still a big fan of the swings too! Such joy!

It totally melted my heart when Holland started to sign for ‘nurse’ this month too! I continue to love our nursing relationship. I had some concerns a little bit this month about my milk supply, but I popped some fenugreek and drank some magic potion from my midwife, and I’m happy to report that I think all is well there.

It’s been an interesting month with regards to sleep. Several weeks ago, we did some <light> sleep-training because homegirl was getting up all throughout the night, barely nursing and neither of us were sleeping well. Two episodes of crying that only last five minutes each and she was right back to sleep! Then two nights later, she slept through her usual wake up around 11 pm and slept till morning! For about the next 10 days or so, she slept through the night for about 11 hours or so! Unbelievable! Then for some reason (possibly aforementioned milk supply issues?) she began waking again, and now we’re back to a ‘good’ night being one wake-up each night to nurse. Her mornings are pretty early in my book too—around 6:15 am, though I’m ususally lucky enough and she’ll sleep in till around 7 with me. Naps are usually somewhere between 45 minutes (which elicits complaining from mama) and 1 hour and 20 mins (which I feel is ok) and happen around the 9 o’clock hour and again around 1:30. (Once this month she napped for 2 hours and 15 minutes! I know this because I wrote it down in one of her baby books. You mamas of babies who regularly nap for this long, please know that I am envious.) Bedtime is 7, though I know she’d go down earlier…I just can’t get dinner and baths done much earlier than that!

This month Holland started playing the 'So Big’ game, and she loves raising her arms (sometimes only one arm which is pretty funny) high above her head (during meal times, for some reason). She also recently started waving bye-bye, which is also pretty darn cute. She cruises the furniture with ease, and I am wondering when she’ll be brave enough to let go. I frequently find her barely holding on with one hand, so we shall see. Oh, and she can climb the stairs now too. Heaven help me.

She still only has her two bottom teeth, though we are convinced there are some others just ready to burst through. I am actually hoping that maybe teething is part of the reason she is back to waking up in the night?

{This is her favorite thing to do with her feet while she sits in her high chair! Curls those toes under the tray just about every time.}

Holland continues to eat well, though I’ve recently backed off of dairy in her diet, as well as drinking cow’s milk myself. She had some diaper rash (which is unusual) and I noticed some faint eczema appear on her cheek/neck. I had recently begun drinking cow’s milk again and she loves her some cheese. Thankfully, this change seems to have taken care of the issues. Hopefully she’ll be able to tolerate it better when she gets a bit older. She loves little bits of protein like deli meat and fish, and she is the biggest fan of fruit. She will literally tell you she is all done (no kidding, she says “aaaahhh du” and has been since she was 7-8 months old. We just couldn’t believe that’s really what she was saying, but it’s clear it was!), and then you give her some peaches or mango, and she is ready to roll some more. She’s pretty keen on semi-frozen bites of pureed veggies too. We came upon this discovery by accident when we only partially thawed some veggies for her, and she seemed to really like the cold on her gums I suppose. I made a quinoa and millet casserole the other night and was quite delighted to watch her happily eat it as well!

Oh, and I suppose I should note on here that Holland had her first trip to the ER this month. Don’t worry—she’s fine, and it was probably a bit overkill to take her, but here’s what happened: Holland was in the johnny-jump-up, and Wade was swinging her (we let him do this and have worked to teach him to swing her straight). Unfortunately, he did not swing her straight this particular time and I heard a loud bang! from the other room. My little love was rather upset and had a big ol goose egg on her noggin. I kinda freaked out, so we took her in. Thankfully, she’s fine, but this episode reminded me of how thankful I need to be for all the missed accidents each day! It is by the grace of God none of us gets hurt more frequently or more seriously.

Lastly, Holland weighed 18 lbs, 5 oz, as of this past Monday, keeping her in about the 30th percentile. People are starting to tell us they think she is favoring Wade more these days, and I have to agree.

And with that, I am done and baby girl is on her way to 11 months! Slow down, Miss Holland, slow down.

9 months has come and gone!

2011-08-24T16:40:00.001-04:00

Dearest baby girl,

Hard to believe you’ve been out of my tummy for longer than you were in! In fact, I’m so terribly tardy at documenting your little month-milestones that you’re on your way to claiming the 10-month one, and I’ve yet to celebrate #9. So let’s remedy that, shall we?

At the beginning of your 9th month, we spent a week at the beach (I promise, pictures are coming!), and it was about this time that you cut your second tooth. You now have two little pearly whites to show for yourself, and I must say it is quite possibly the cutest thing ever when you flash us a big ol’ grin. You smile so big and wide these days, showing off your bare gums on top, oh man, I can hardly handle the cuteness!

You’ve now moved on from your army-crawling ways, and you are ALL OVER THE PLACE crawling on your hands and knees. Of course your favorite playmate is your big brother, and you love crawling after him. I must note though that your enjoyment of your brother requires a very delicate balance. You want to be with him most all the time, and you light up when you first see him after a nap, but if he touches you in a way that you don’t care for, let’s just say you have no trouble communicating your preferences. We really didn’t give you the nickname Miss Thang for no reason. *please note your brother’s arm around your back in the second photo below! I hope you realize this was ~~most likely~~ a hug ~~(though it could have been a tackle~~)!

{fun at the pool in Lynchburg}

You also pulled yourself to standing this month, and you pretty much do this all the time now. Bathtime, which you now happily do with your brother, has become rather challenging, as we cannot seem to have you understand that you must sit in the tub while you’re bathing. You are set on pulling up and hanging out over the side.

Let’s see, what else? You love dogs (and upon seeing one will pant with your mouth, which I’m not sure you realize is the baby sign for ‘dog’, or if you just naturally do this out of excitement?). You are also a big fan of deli meat (turkey) these days. You seem to be quite the little eater, which is just such relief to my soul. We introduced you to dairy recently, and you seemed to handle it just fine. Cheerios are another new favorite. You love to swing too. In fact, when I took you out of the swing at your Mimi and Papa’s house, you looked back at it and began to cry. This month you actually got visibly scared once, which was so very sad! A neighborhood friend put on a monkey mask and you took one look at him and let out a wail! Poor baby! How fascinating though, to see you learning about the world.

love the baby chub! At your 9-month well-check you were 17 lbs, 11 oz, putting you in the 30th percentile. You were in the 75th percentile for height, but I don’t have the exact measurement in front of me, so I’ll have to come back later and update.

You’re also quite taken with your daddy. It is so evident how happy you are to see him, even at such a young age, when he walks in the door from school (you’re not the only one happy to see him at the end of the day, I can guarantee you that!) Oh, and you said MaMa for the first time this month! I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but if you keep up with the sweet mama babbling, you can probably get anything your little heart desires out of me. (This does not bode well for us weaning those middle of the night feeds…)

Love you always,

Mama

Catching up: Holland’s Baptism

2011-08-10T21:54:00.001-04:00

First off, thank y’all so much for all your feedback (and votes!) on our selection process and upcoming move! It has really been so helpful to hear what people have to say about the various locations. We *think* we’ve got our list fairly nailed down (but you can still keep voting!), and guess what? Our number 1 pick actually changed in part based on what y’all had to say! But more on that later.

Things are going to be a bit out of order as I do some catching up on the blog. I can’t wait to share pictures from our recent beach trip, but there are approximately 10 million of them, and there are a slightly more manageable number of photos from Holland’s baptism (which occurred at the end of July), so I’m going to start there.

I should also probably disclose that I’d had a fair amount of anxiety leading up to this day. I am admittedly a rather idealistic person, and while that can sometimes be a strength of mine, it is often times the thorn in my side that keeps me from experiencing the kind of joy I want to know. My hopes and visions for how things should be in my mind can trump the very goodness that exists before me. So, if you’re following where this may lead, I really wanted Holland’s baptism day to be special. I wanted to celebrate her life and God’s goodness to us, and I just wanted it to be a memorable day. When Wade was baptized, we had a really wonderful gathering of friends and family at our home afterwards, and I wanted something similar for Holland. Due to a variety of circumstances, this was just not looking very feasible, and that was really bothering me. We had actually scheduled and cancelled her baptism twice before (!) already. I had prayed and asked the Lord to bless the day and to give me great joy in it, and I’m thankful to tell you that God was faithful and it was a blessed day indeed. I knew in my head that baptism itself was the true festival; my heart was slower to see that the real celebration was the thing we sought to celebrate. And while parties and gatherings are lovely for sure, I didn’t need that for the day to be complete.

{notice how relaxed Holland looks? That’s because she’s actually asleep! Of course this would be the day the little booger barely napped at all and finally conked out on her Mimi during the beginning of the service!}

Needless to say, she was not pleased to be transferred out of my arms and doused with cold water on her head!

My dad held the bowl of water. I love his expression.

I actually also love Holland’s expression too. Why you might ask? (clearly, she looks rather unhappy!) I once heard someone describe how beautiful and telling it actually is to watch a baby being baptized when they are crying and upset by the experience. It’s beautiful because it’s such a picture of our own hearts as we are sought after and loved by Christ. We often go kicking and screaming in a sense, fighting for our own way, our own will be done (not Christ’s, goshdarnit!) But Jesus is the ultimate pursuer who will not give up seeking those He loves. He comes to claim us for Himself, and while we don’t believe Holland’s baptism “saved” her soul, we do believe that God’s covenantal mercy extends to families. In essence, we baptize her because God tells us to do it, and we believe baptism marks Holland as one of His own. We eagerly wait for the day when Holland will confess Christ as her savior for herself! May she know Him and receive his mercy and love at an early age.

See that look she’s giving me? A mama’s girl, she is.

My sweet babe remained quite calm (given that her nap was interrupted with water!) as our pastor walked her down the aisle while our congregation sang “Jesus Loves Me” to her. Definitely one of those moments you wish you could freeze.

We were honored to have Philip’s parents and our two sweet nieces, Abby and Kate join us, as well as my parents, and my brothers Taylor and Graham.

I considered it nothing less than a measure of God’s goodness that there was a Church-wide potluck dinner already scheduled for after the service. It was held at our friends, the Blanchard’s, and it was really lovely to be able to spend time with our church family following such a special occasion.

Holland was first starting to enjoy holding onto furniture right about here…

And not to worry, her big brother had fun too.

How thankful we are for God’s goodness to us through these, our precious children. What a joy it was to celebrate through baptism, God’s promises to love and redeem His children!

Help the Worthingtons choose where to move!

2011-07-29T20:36:00.005-04:00

How's that for a blog post title?! Ok, perhaps I should back up a little and explain why we are planning to move. Well, Philip is actually on scholarship for dental school with the Air Force (have I never shared that on here before?!), and since he will graduate this May (this May, people! God willing!), we must move. For the first year following graduation, Philip is applying to participate in an AEGD program, which stands for Advanced Education in General Dentistry. This is a lot like what you might think of as a residency, and while many civilian (ie. non-military) dental graduates will also pursue an AEGD year, Philip is applying to do an Air Force program.

Is this all making sense? After this one year program, we'll move again, this time for a four-year commitment during which time Philip will work as a dentist on an Air Force base. But that's a couple years out. Right now, we are focusing on the AEGD year and where we'd like to request to move for that (of course the military has the final say in where we go!).

And this is where you kind people come in. There are fourteen domestic bases that offer an AEGD program, and we are required to rank all fourteen of them. We have our leanings right now, but I would just love to hear from yall! The bases are all over the place, and I'm thinking there have got to be some people reading this blog who might have some insight (or maybe just an opinion?) on one place or another. I mean, maybe you know that the Destin, Florida area is too beautiful to pass up. Or maybe you're sure that if we move to Colorado Springs all our troubles will go away? Perhaps you're from Biloxi, MS and you can confirm that the humidity there is worse than any good thing going in that town? Maybe the St. Louis area has an awesome Craiglist? (the value of Craigslist is not to be underrated!) These are the things I need to know. So, I am embedding a poll on the sidebar of this blog in the hopes that yall might take a minute to help us out! It would mean SO much to me if you would take a second and share your thoughts with us, either through the poll (where you can vote for multiple places) or in the comments, where you can tell me about craigslist :)

Here's a map to give you a better idea of the exact locations (in the interest of keeping the map relatively large, the Alaska base is not pictured). You can click to zoom out and see the entire country.

View My Saved Places in a larger map

{can I just say how impressed with myself I am that I was able to figure out how to get a google map image on my bog?! holla.}

And because I'm behind on getting my act together to show yall the gazillion pictures from our recent beach trip, here are two to tide you over!

ps. I'm not going to discuss this now, but there will be many, many tears shed over our move away from Richmond. We really love it here.

Our Week

2011-07-23T23:34:00.004-04:00

Wader-tater has been visiting with his Mimi and his Papa for the past week (!), and Philip has had the week off of school, so our week here at home has felt so different! Of course we’ve missed our crazy little dude, but gosh, life has just felt so darn easy. Mind you, when we only had one child it rarely felt easy, but now? Now, it feels like a cake walk to only have one babe around. I’m thankful that it’s been a pretty restful week. I’ve worked on some painting projects, Philip did some work in the yard and in the garage, and we didn’t really have to pay for staying up too late because sweet Miss Thang went right back to sleep with us in the bed each morning. Several mornings we all didn’t get up till after 8! Holland’s teething and still very much likes to spend time with her mama after she gets tucked into bed each night, so don’t go thinking we slept all night long or anything crazy like that.

Early in the week, we were so happy to receive a visit from Holland’s little buddy Joel and his mama, Holly. Holland told Joel that crawling is fun and he should try it. I’m kinda hoping Joel told Holland how it’s rather nice to sleep all night long!

It was also quite nice to have the time and energy to devote to making some yummy meals for Philip and me. I’ll be honest, it’s pretty taxing taking into account Wade’s dietary restrictions and trying to come up with meals during a normal week. And apparently, when I only have one baby around (and one who is quite happy playing by herself next to me), I feel compelled to photograph my food. There’s something about a beautifully prepared meal (even if it’s a hotdog…) that seems to beg for its picture to be taken, am I right? Anyway, here’s some of what we ate this week. (and please do keep in mind that our meals are often thrown together and typically don’t look quite so pretty as these pictures suggest! remember my hubby was home all day and I only had one baby!)

{homemade pimiento cheese—I’d never made it before, but man was it good!}

made even better when added to fresh ciabatta bread with a farmer’s market tomato!!

hubby approved. but he did think it was weird and kind of annoying how I kept taking pictures.

Another night we had pasta tossed with fresh homemade pesto and tomatoes from our neighbor’s yard!

I got all fancy and made halibut one night, but I think the salad outshone the fish. It had mango and goat cheese and toasted macadamia nuts with a minty vinaigrette dressing! It was practically like dessert!

And then there was the night we had hotdogs. But! They were Polyface hotdogs, so all is well!

I also was quite happy to purchase these from the farmer’s market:

and turn them into this (for my littlest love):

Holland had plenty of fun too this week.

fun with the Slippy’s toys while he was away!

{Maggie, I adore my necklace!! Thank you so much!}

helping mama with diapers!

Going after that truck again! She was actually working on pulling up here. Later today, we found her completely standing in her crib! Watch out world!

I was going to tell you all more about our week, but it’s late and this mama is tired! Tomorrow my boy comes home and Holland’s getting baptized! Can’t wait to tell you all about it! ‘Night!

*post edit: with the exception of the hotdogs, all recipes taken from this cookbook.

House Pictures: Before & After {Kitchen & Dining Room}

2011-07-19T09:53:00.003-04:00

A friend of ours recently began selling real estate here in Richmond, and he just launched his website to highlight the services he offers. One unique aspect of his work involves microfinance. To quote Jay, he "gives a micro loan to a struggling entrepreneur in a poor country whenever somebody here in Richmond buys or sells a house with my help." Pretty cool stuff, right?

Well, Jay also wanted to begin featuring work local Richmonders have done on their own homes, and this is where we came in! Jay was kind enough to ask if we'd like to share pictures of any project in our home, so I decided this was the motivation I needed to finish off a few remaining items in our kitchen/dining space. Click here to read all about the transformation! Thanks again, Jay!

8 Months

2011-07-15T14:40:00.000-04:00

Well, my baby is eight months old folks. And I just might think it's fair to say she's only getting cuter. (of course I am a bit biased...)

Miss Holland continues to delight us with her sweet little personality. She is quite the content little lady, happy to play with whatever toys she sees. Kitchen spoons, containers of baby wipes, a neglected truck, really she is not picky. She has mastered her version of the army crawl, and she can get around rather quickly.

She's also gotten pretty darn good at making it clear to me when she wants to nurse. And speaking of which, can I just say how much I really love breastfeeding? I really mean that. And not just because I'm supposed to love it or something. I honestly really just treasure the fact that I have the ability to instantly soothe (and nourish) my baby from my own body. When we bring Holland into our bed in the early morning hours, it brings me great joy to cuddle her close to me as we nurse. And what a relief it is to know that more often than not, the two of us will both go right back to sleep. Of course breastfeeding may not always be the right choice for everyone, but as for me, I am really, really thankful for the special bond that it gives me and Holland, and I'm not sure we'll stop for quite some time!

{mama got a haircut}

You should see her new "Popeye face." It's hysterical! She literally wrinkles up her nose and mouth and sniffs dramatically with her nose. Hard to explain, so here's a picture to give you a better idea!

Here's another.

I believe this little expression originated when she was playing with her daddy, of whom she is a big fan. She lights up when she sees him and is always so happy to receive his affection.

Holland also just recently cut her first tooth! It's barely poking through, but you better believe her dentist of a daddy made the discovery just as soon as it was there!

{oh those little tiny toes and feet!!!}

I consider myself so blessed that Holland continues to enjoy the different foods we offer her. In the past month, we have added green beans (I was not really expecting it, but she seems to really like them!), carrots, apples, and asparagus. I tell you, the girl has got a nutritious diet--between breast milk, fruits and vegetables, I fear it can only go downhill from here :)

And lest I eat my words, the sleeping seems to be getting a bit better. We've actually been at the beach for the past week (more on that soon!) and I consider it nothing less than an act of God himself that she has slept well here! Truly, my friends, I cannot overstate how deeply grateful I am for this. Stunned, yet grateful!

We sure do love our little babbling 8-month old beauty!

Mission Trips plus other random musings

2011-06-30T15:48:00.010-04:00

So, several weeks ago, my husband went on a mission trip to Haiti. I hope that you make the connection that I quickly made when he first mentioned the possibility of going on this trip: I would be left alone with the children. I know. Of course I was happy for him to have the opportunity to travel overseas and put his professional skills to use helping disadvantaged people who so appreciated the dental care they received. I actually would have loved to have joined him on this trip, but Haiti or no Haiti for me, we had our own little mission trip going on here on Rosewood Avenue!

I am proud to say that during Philip's absence, I was a single mother to both of my children for six straight days, (six straight days!), followed by two final days during which time I received some much-appreciated help from my mother. And do you know what I am even more proud to say? I did not completely lose my mind! I am quite sure that I had the prayers of many, many people behind me during this time, and goodness am I thankful for that. That is really the only explanation for the fact that all three of us survived this period of time with no real injuries to show for it. Buoyed by prayer, I just tried to rally myself and face my mission.

Believe it or not, we did get out a few times over the course of the week. We went to church (I'll be honest, the free childcare was pretty appealing :) and met some friends at the park later in the week. While there, I took multitasking to a whole new level. If you've ever wondered what it's like to nurse a baby while you push your toddler in the swing at the playground, well, wonder no more.

What a treat it was to catch up with sweet friends, Liz, Mary Katherine and their precious kiddos.

Continuing with this post's theme of missions, it was an absolute delight to receive a visit from some very special friends who themselves are overseas missionaries while daddy was away. The Iversons were in town and we were so honored that they had some time to spend with us!

Do you see this pretty mama above? That is Maggie, and after I share things that are on my heart with her, things that are tough for me, she tells me things like "You have enough suffering in your life to know that God loves you." Gosh, I need more of her in my life. Maggie, do you know that these things you tell me stick with me? She has much Godly wisdom and I so wish I got to interact with her on a regular basis.

She's got herself a good man, too. Jonathan and Philip were friends in college, and Philip was so disappointed he had to miss seeing them.

It may have been a bit of controlled chaos on our porch during their visit :)

What a blessing it was to have the help of Jonathan's sister, Hannah, who entertained Wade during their visit!

And finally, straying from my topic here, I'd like to share with you three things that recently made me quite happy.

I found this original painting at my favorite thrift store for $2. Its mat was white and it was in a gold frame. Thanks to the genius idea from my friend, Jennifer, I painted the mat with a $3 jar of sample paint from Home Depot (just regular old latex paint) and switched out the frame with a black one I had in the basement. I rather like it and think I just may leave it propped on my kitchen counter!

I also hung another piece of thrifted art that I've had for a while over a doorway. Why do I love this so much? I don't know but seeing it there over that painted door gives me a little flutter in my heart, haha.

And finally, I scored this piece at that same favorite thrift store for 50 bucks. I just couldn't pass it up. I could make it over and sell it, but I think I just may love it too much. I've moved it to our basement because I don't have a place for it in our current home (maybe you should know you have a problem when you buy things that you don't even have a place for...) but I'm hopeful that I'll be able to use it in the future. I just love dreaming about the possibilities for this bad boy.

Not sure how we made it from a mission trip to Haiti to thrifted furniture, but there ya go.

Lastly, I need some help. I'm tempted to have this be my last blog post ever due to the fact that I can no longer use Windows Live Writer for blogging. We recently got a Mac and while it is fabulous in most every other way, there is no good free program for writing to a blog! I absolutely hate using Blogger's program...can anyone help me out? Blogger is so cumbersome to use--I have spent entirely too long putting together this little post. Those of you who blog from macs, what do you do???

Holland is 7 Months!

2011-06-24T14:45:00.001-04:00

Well, actually, Holland has been seven months for about two weeks! Life is coming at me fast these days, and I am trying to stay up to speed. If I don’t write these things down, they will surely pass me by and I’ll forget the little milestones that are making life sweet. So, we’re better late than never.

Shortly after turning seven months old, Holland had a check-up where all went smoothly. She’s holding steady in the 50th percentile for both weight and length, thank you Jesus. (16 lbs, 11 oz and 26”) And I am thankful to report that these days we rarely notice anything resembling eczema on her skin. (the little red spot on her cheek is leftover from a little accidental booboo.) Of course I am not trying to suggest that eczema is necessarily a really awful thing! It’s just that for us with Wade, it signified some greater issues.

This girl is most happy in one of two places—the floor or her johnny jump-up, where she loves to propel herself off the ground so that she swings back and forth. And she prefers that the company of her brother not be far away. Her love for her exersaucer has waned, and now she loves to lay down near Wade surrounded by all sorts of toys {mostly of the truck variety} and just roll and roll and roll, mouthing any and everything she can get her little hands on. When I mentioned to her pediatrician that she can sit up, but that she never gets much practice and really isn’t great at it, I was relieved to hear that that’s common for babies who prefer to spend their time rolling around on the floor. That would be my Holland for sure. Post Edit: I originally wrote this post a week or so ago. Now that I’m finally getting a chance to finish it, I can report that Holland is consistently sitting up without support!

Now, as for the playtime that my two little people like to enjoy together, one thing is becoming clear: we have a little drama queen on our hands! {I don’t know where she may have gotten this from, cough cough} Granted, I’m quite sure Wade knows when he’s pushing her buttons by laying on top of her and the like, but even when his antics are fairly benign, Holland will start to fuss in a very whiney sort of way. And people, she is only seven months old…what in the world is in store for me as she grows?! Without a doubt, Holland adores her big brother, but I kid you not, she is already well on her way to tattling to me whenever he does something she doesn’t like.

Holland was probably trying to decide if Wade was getting a little too close for comfort in that photo above!

enjoying some snuggle time with Uncle Taylor during a Lynchburg visit!

As I shared in an earlier post, Holland has started eating solid foods this month, and it has been so fun! We wait five days between each new food that we add so as not to muddy the waters if she has a reaction to something, and I have to tell you, I am growing impatient because I love giving her new foods to try. Her diet now includes avocados, bananas (though we have backed off of these due to some pretty ugly constipation), sweet potatoes, summer squash, prunes and pears, the last of which has quickly become a favorite!

She had a yucky, yucky cough and just wanted to cuddle on her daddy.

Of course it is not all unicorns and rainbows, if you read any of what I write on facebook that is pretty clear :) We’re still not really sure how to handle this little lady when it comes to going to bed at night. But let me first say this: She is napping well, and I thank you Lord for it. Truly. Let me not harp on what is hard and forget the blessings. I am trying so hard to keep in mind the bigger picture, that life will move on and these hard things will not always be so. Of course that doesn’t change the fact that we have to figure out how to respond to our daughter when she refuses to go to sleep…to cry or not to cry, that really does seem to be the question for our household :) Oh, for the grace to know how to best love this little life!

And in the interest of ending on a happy note, guess what?! Holland is crawling! About a week ago, she started scooting herself around. It’s sort of a cross between an army crawl and a traditional hands-and-knees crawl. She’s on her tummy, pulling with her arms, but her knees and legs are moving too, make sense? All I have to say is Wade, you better watch out, your sister is on the move and she seems to like your trucks :)

A few things

2011-06-21T14:48:00.001-04:00

{He’s looking rather serious here, but that’s a fine looking man, in my opinion :) }

1. I’m two days late, but I have to give a blog shout-out to my babies’ daddy for Father’s Day. Philip truly is a wonderful father. He shares such a special bond with both Wade and Holland, and gives me great joy to watch him become the father God made him to be. Wade is crazy about his daddy—you should see the two of them play together. And Holland is quickly becoming quite smitten with him too. She loves to be the recipient of her daddy’s affection and will give Philip the sweetest smiles. Happy Father’s Day, babe.

These two were just hanging out eating popcorn…

watching this (I guess you gotta start ‘em early):

Kisses!

And of course I’d be remiss if I didn’t wish my own father the same. Like Holland, I relish in the affection my dad so freely shows me. Always one to encourage and affirm, his support means the world to me. I’m pretty sure my dad thinks I’m far cooler than I really am, but that’s ok, I’ll take it :) Happy Father’s Day, Dad.

{a babywearing papa!}

2. I need to remember several things about Wade that are awesome.

-He loves to help me unload the dishwasher (this is actually probably my least favorite household task, btw), and he’s quite good at it. He knows not to remove the knives from the silverware holder, and he can even successfully take out the heavy glasses. (we haven’t broken anything yet!}

-On Father’s Day, he and I were in the car together alone. He repeatedly wished me Happy Father’s Day and Happy Mother’s Day :)

-He likes to miss shots just as much as he likes to make shots when he plays basketball. Sometimes he’ll say, “I wanna miss it.” um, please never grow up, little boy of mine.

3. After talking with Wade’s allergist and GI doctors, we’ve decided to remove the foods we’d since added back into his diet—dairy, potato, and green beans. We will most likely have him re-scoped in early August. Rather than focus on all the things Wade can’t eat, I’m going to strive to be grateful for all that he can eat. This list is not exhaustive, but here are some that he can have:

wheat, chicken, turkey, fish, broccoli, spinach, mushrooms, coconut oil, quinoa, couscous, rice, beans, berries, peaches, pears, apples, raisins, lots of crackers and even lots of cookies!, pasta, olive oil, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, corn, plenty of chips!, sunflower seed butter, jelly, coconut ice cream, bell peppers, some cereals, rice milk, juices, grapes, mango.

So, I will choose to thank God for all of these delicious foods He has made that Wade can enjoy! May the Lord bless Wade’s already liberal palette with an even greater ability to appreciate these foods that he can have!

{believe it or not, he was stuffing his face with fresh salad greens tossed in olive oil and salt here!}

My big boy

2011-06-15T17:23:00.001-04:00

I’ve been meaning to take some time to talk about my Wader-tater. He is changing so much, and Philip and I frequently look at each other in awe that this growing boy is our boy, our baby who is not so much of one anymore.

Back in May, Wade had his last day of preschool (sniff, sniff). Gosh, it blew my mind that his first year of preschool had come and gone. How is it that the school year just seems to fly by?! Was I not just sending him off on his first day back in September?

Here he is before we left for his last day.

And when I picked him up, I had to snap a picture of him with his two dear teachers, Mrs. White and Mrs. Bowers.

Wade really loved them, and he truly loved going to school each Monday morning. His time at preschool was a blessing to us both—Mama got a little break, and Wade had a ball playing with other children and participating in a routine that is different from ours at home. It was a win-win for sure.

A couple of weeks ago Wade also made the transition to a big boy bed! And while this would seem to be a big deal, the crazy thing was, it truly wasn’t a big deal at all. It amazed me how much of a non-issue it was! I have felt like every other big transition, if you will, has been a big issue—take eating solid foods for example. Or sleeping through the night (he’s a rockstar sleeper now, but wasn’t for so long). Or potty-training (this does not appear to be in our future for the next decade or so!). But sleeping in that twin bed that has occupied his big boy room since he moved in was so not a big deal.

{We had to slide the bed over to the wall to keep the little dude secure}

Don’t get me wrong, though—he did like getting to sleep in there! I think he found the move particularly appealing since we swapped out the plain jane sheets for a truck set his Mimi purchased for him. Wade would tell you, “I got trucks!” He loves to get all “cozy”, as he calls it, and have us cover him up when we tuck him in. I hope I don’t have to eat my words, but he’s never even gotten out of the bed on his own, with the exception of once when he’d finished his nap! Glory be, what a blessing! We did have an incident, maybe the second or third night in the big boy bed. Philip and I heard him crying from downstairs shortly after putting him to bed, so we went to check on him, as he doesn’t typically do this, and we were met with the very matter of fact response, “I was just crying.” Bless his little heart!

{Wade and I had a date to Arch’s in Charlottesville. His choice: a side of chocolate chips, please :) }

We’ve also noticed that over the past month or so, Wade’s verbal development seems to have grown by leaps and bounds. He speaks in multi-word sentences, which is a new thing, and it is so dear. He continues to love balls, particularly throwing them high. A common phrase heard around our house is “I want to hit the ceiling!” or if we are outside, “I want to hit the roof!” His daddy is typically the more creative parent who introduces him to these ideas!

Mandarin oranges on the porch, anyone?

Wade is also pretty obsessed with stickers. Give him a sticker book, and he will tear through that thing until there are no stickers left to be stuck! We are currently working our way through a Thomas the Tank Engine sticker book that boasts over 700 stickers. I doubt we have many left, believe it or not. Participating in this activity with Wade is quite humorous, I think. He likes me to flip through the book until he finds a suitable sticker for me to pull off, and then I am to flip through the other pages so that he can find the page he has in mind for sticking purposes. And not just any sticker or page will do. He’ll tell me, “I want to put it anywhere,” (in the cutest little voice) each and every time I give him a new sticker. I’m assuming he says this because we’ve probably told him countless times that he can put it anywhere he wants. Hilarious.

As far as Wade’s health goes, unfortunately I don’t have great news. Since his last endoscopy back in early December, where we received the great news that his EE was under good control, we’ve added four foods back into his diet—dairy, white potatoes, green beans, and oranges. He was re-scoped about two weeks ago, and sadly, we’ve learned this his eosinophil count has gone way back up. So, we are left wondering whether one of those foods is to blame, or if perhaps there is an environmental factor at play. We’re in close contact with his doctors right now, and we’re working on a plan for moving forward. As you can imagine, this is pretty heartbreaking. But, the truth I am telling myself is this: We serve a good and loving God who is ultimately where we will place our hope. God loves Wade, and He is for him, so I will trust that He is with us in this battle. While that may seem a grandiose sort of way to look at things, this truth gives me great comfort and peace when my boy looks at me and tells me his tummy hurts. With that said, if you think of us, we’d sure appreciate your prayers for wisdom for us as we make a plan to move forward. (We have to decide if we need to take foods back out, or if we should keep things as is and re-scope him once we’re in a different season, and if medicine needs to play a role as well.)

Wade is also very two, and is becoming quite proficient at teaching his mother that she is not a patient person. Discipline continues to be something that we are learning how to do, and I pray, oh I pray that God would cover all the mistakes we’re making with His grace. This little boy is so very treasured; what a privilege it is to walk with him in these years.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

2011-06-14T23:33:00.003-04:00

This will be quick because I am extremely tired and it is very late. It has been a long day. A long day that has involved oh, I don’t know, maybe 10 poopy diapers between my two children. And let it be known that Wade’s third, yes third, poopy diaper of the day wins the title for the WORST DIAPER I HAVE EVER CHANGED IN MY LIFE. Not even kidding. I sat down to change him, discovered what lay before me and told Wade to sit tight while I went and put gloves on. Please do not forget that we use cloth diapers so this mama had to clean this horrible thing. Yes, I know it’s my choice to use cloth diapers, but please allow me to complain about it just this once, ok? Most of the time I love my cloth diapers, but as the worst diaper I have ever changed in my life sat before me, I honestly considered just tossing the whole thing. And my poor little daughter has been terribly constipated, so she poops out these hard little balls all. day. long. (TMI? probably.) My hands have quite literally been in poop all day long.

But enough about such things! I really wanted to get on here and wish my sweet mother a happy birthday! She is so very special to me, and I’m so thankful for her. I am so sorry Mom that you have to share your birthday with a terrible blog post about poop!

If I had to pick three words to describe my mom (at 11 pm at night!) they would be patient, selfless, and positive. Being a mother to four children, each of whom have their own eccentricities and needs, and one of whom who is particularly needy and more importantly stubborn (ahem, Graham Blanks I’m talking to you, buddy) has no doubt fostered an incredible gift of patience in my mom. I continue to be amazed by the things she is able to endure, the ~~demands~~ requests that are constantly made of her, and how she is able to take life in stride. I am the emotional one. I am the dramatic one. But my mother is a patient, steady rock. Taylor, Andre, Graham and I probably also deserve the ~~blame~~ credit for teaching my mom about selflessness :) Her mind, her time, her energy--they are always being exerted on behalf of another. And you know, the woman is also just plain positive. She almost always sees the good in the person or situation before her. Sometimes this can get on my nerves because I just want to vent about something, but mom is always ready to look on the bright side. I could learn a thing or two from her, that’s for sure.

{Ain’t she pretty?}

Happy Birthday, Mom. Thanks for loving us all so well. I love you so much. Your grandbabies love you too. They love coming to stay with you and hope to do it more and more frequently (wink, wink)!

House Pictures: Before & After {Master Bedroom}

2011-06-10T16:05:00.001-04:00

I’ve spoken before about how interior design has become a little hobby of mine. Something about being at home during the day and looking at the things around you combined with an ever-growing number of fabulous online sites full of interior eye-candy and inspiration has undoubtedly fostered this interest. I get quite a bit of delight out of changing things up in our home, and you better believe I get a double dose of delight when those changes are done on the cheap (this is the case 95% of the time!). It has been so fun to learn from talented design bloggers and the like and find ways to incorporate what I like into my own home. I really love the process of figuring out how to achieve the look I am after, and as my husband would certainly attest to, the process is really never done :)

Anyway, I’ve been wanting to post some ‘before and after’ pictures of the different rooms in our house partly for my own records. This is our first home, and I never want to forget how we’ve made it our own. I also know how much I enjoy looking at the photos people post of their homes, so perhaps you will enjoy it too. I hope that these sorts of posts do not come off as arrogant or showy, if those are even the right words? Our home is modest by most standards, and I have tried to furnish it with affordable yet beautiful things. I’ll be the first to admit that I probably spend a wee bit too much time thinking on these things, but I also know that God is the One who made us and gives us our interests and passions. I definitely need God to channel these interests and passions for His glory, that’s for sure. But nonetheless, I believe that God loves beauty and there is beauty to be found in interiors :)

So without further adieu, here’s a photo of our master bedroom taken the day we first saw our soon-to-be first house (maybe not from the best angle)!

And here it is now:

And from a couple different angles:

And just a few thoughts, cause my brain is always going with these things…I’ve wanted to replace the coverlet with an all white one, just haven’t come across the right thing yet. I also need a duvet cover for the down blanket. I could easily make one out of two sheets, but that takes motivation and time, and right now I’m lacking one or both of these. I originally intended to have a second skirted table on hubby’s side of the bed (the right side) to match mine. Then, after making the first one, the idea made me feel very tired, and I thought the three-drawer table will work just fine. It’s about the same height anyway. I do think it’d be better off painted white or greige. I also think those white lampshades could be fun covered in a fabric…just not really sure what I’d want to go with.

I’ve definitely had a good time pulling this room together. It’s mostly a combination of things given to us that we’ve repurposed/painted, craigslist and discount store finds, and things we’ve made. Oh, and we’ve only lived in our house for three years—so it’s definitely taken me a good long while to feel like it’s anywhere near “finished.”

Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Can you believe I have more?

2011-06-10T00:14:00.001-04:00

Beach pictures, that is. We’re in the homestretch.

Here’s Wade on the grounds of the putting green at the hotel.

I do love that little belly!

Sweet little skittish boy on the steps with one of his beloved balls.

I just have to include this one of Philip covering up to nap with the closest thing he could find: Holland’s playmat :)

The perfect little traveling bathtub for my sweet love.

More time was spent by the pool with this delicious little thing…

Wader-tater and I watched from the deck as daddy climbed the steps to experience the slide!

{I don’t know why it is that we are both exiting the slide the same way? Seems kinda funny but I guess that’s just what you naturally do when you get to the end of a slide? Open your arms out as if to say “Here I am!”}

And in a surprising turn of events, I was able to take Wade down the slide with me! I think he was mainly interested in climbing the steps, so I basically scooped him up at the top and took him down with me before he had much of a chance to protest…he only screamed a little bit!

My recommendation is that you watch out if you’re around this boy and he has a golf club in hand…

I do love me a babywearing daddy.

Cousin Benjamin had just polished off a yummy snack of smores.

Wade thinks Ben is pretty cool. He has his own set of real golf clubs!

And finally, to wrap up this series of beach photos, I will leave you with some shots of our family that my brother-in-law Dave took. We really appreciated his willingness to take, oh 30 gazillion pictures of our crazy crew. Here are my favorites:

I think this one is my favorite. The jury is still out as to why Wade’s hand is down his daddy’s shirt…

Love this one of my boy. Here we’re all standing in a puddle in an attempt to coerce the little man into cooperating with picture time. I treasure these of me and Holland. She is a delight to my soul. (keeping honest: except when I’m trying to get her to go to sleep!)

My two-year old (who was overdue for a haircut in these pictures!) is not quite so eager to have his photo taken with his mama, but of course I love him dearly nonetheless!

Thanks for sticking with me to the end of that marathon post!

Beach Pictures, Round 3

2011-06-05T15:22:00.002-04:00

Everyone was always very interested in “baby Holland.” For the most part, she did a good job of taking all this attention in stride.

You know how the president has secret service men who flank his motorcade? Well that was the role Miss Abby assumed for herself with respect to Holland’s stroller :)

Out of focus, but cute of my little dude.

Wade has an interest in signs. Here he takes some time to assess two that we passed on the way to the beach.

The beach!! {Unfortunately, these are the only pictures I have of us at the beach because this is the only day we actually went to the beach.}

Again, we have our little secret service detail in action.

Please note Wade’s hat practically being sucked off of his head. There was some major wind!

Mama and her little sugar lump.

Taking some time to refuel.

At least one of us got to relax :) {In my experience, “vacation” with small children tends to be anything but!}

We later moved back to the kiddie pool. I got in some relaxation time by holding my sleeping sugar lump.

Miss Thang and her Aunt Suzanne.

This boy did not move from the steps. But oh does he love balls!

Later that day, our little foursome headed out to a spot known as the Boardwalk. Wade enjoyed feeding the fish and playing on the playground. Wade did not enjoy the little kiddie rides.

This is when we had just gotten on the ride. This is before Wade realized how terrified he was of this ride, or any ride for that matter.

I am kinda laughing/freaking out because I’m not sure what to do with my extremely skittish child :) {His expression in the photo below really does not do his emotions justice!}

And on that note, I will end Round 3!

Beach Pictures, Round 2 (alternatively called Brother/Sister Love)

2011-06-03T21:00:00.001-04:00

These may be some of my favorite pictures of my little girl to date. The sweetness just about kills me. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

{Holland’s Grammy and PopPop picked out her sweet little outfit while on an overseas cruise before she was even born!}

Wade can rarely refuse an opportunity to ~~roll on top of~~ cuddle his sister!

I am so thankful that these two love each other so much! May it always be so. No one can bring out a smile in Holland like Wade can. And it truly warms my heart to hear Wade enthusiastically greet his sister, “Hi Miss Holland!” Below, the two of them enjoy a new treasured activity: Wade reading a story to Holland :)

I hope to be back soon with the next installment!

Beach Trip, Round 1

2011-05-26T16:26:00.001-04:00

You may recall that for the past couple of years, we’ve taken an annual trip to Hilton Head, SC with Philip’s family. This year was the first time we ventured somewhere different—Myrtle Beach, SC. The hotel where we stayed was really kid-friendly, which was a good thing because Myrtle Beach was host to both Biker Week and College Beach Week while we were there! I have a ton of great pictures to share, but I don’t want to risk putting you all through “beach picture overdose”, so I’m thinking I’ll break things down a bit. Today we’ll cover the first batch of pictures. Most of the photos speak for themselves, so I won’t talk too much.

{Someone please feed my son a hamburger, bless my skinny little boy’s heart!}

I have a feeling the look Holland is giving my here may resurface in her teen years…

I LOVE these next ones of my girl and her daddy! Holland loved the water!

Notice how Wade is actually in the water here (and in the previous pictures)? Well, for the first day, he was all gung-ho about getting in the water; it was actually a bit alarming how he’d just head on in the water, regardless of how deep it was. As a result of this fearlessness, we felt the need to require him to wear some sort of flotation device. Well not surprising, our two year old did not like this idea. Wade’s Grammy went out and bought a variety of flotation devices in the hopes that one would suit his fancy. I think he looks like a pretty cute little superhero pictured here in the one that he chose to tolerate (the puffy vest snaps onto the bathing suit). Well, we don’t know if it was just coincidence, but as soon as we required him to wear something to keep him from drowning, he became totally anxious around the water and refused to get in! All he wanted to do for the rest of our time at the beach was stand on the edge and throw balls back and forth! Go figure!

Apparently, this is the best I can get when it comes to a picture of me with both of my kids!

More to come!

She likes it!

2011-05-23T22:37:00.001-04:00

Pardon me if I seem a bit dramatic, but I am just so overjoyed to report that little Miss Holland had her first meal of rice cereal this weekend, and she loved it! You may recall that one of the earliest signs (other than the eczema) of Wade’s allergies was his reluctance to eat solid food. Because of this I was a little nervous about how things would go when we offered food to Holland. I am thankful to God that she was so happy to gobble up that cereal! She even tried to grab the spoon out of my hand so she could stuff it in her mouth! I’m so excited to try more foods with her.

I really can’t stress enough how grateful I am for this. It truly feels like a redemptive part of our story as a family, and mine as a mother. After never having experienced the joy of seeing my first baby eat his first food (bless his little heart!), I felt such frustration and confusion over what could be wrong. This time I felt such happiness and gratitude when I watched my girl enjoy the food I gave her. I am thankful to Jesus for this very good gift.

My baby is 6 months old!

2011-05-21T23:40:00.002-04:00

We’ve been at the beach for the past week (hence the lack of blogging), and right before we left little Miss Holland turned six months old! I can hardly believe it! Really. It blows my mind that I have a six month old.

And I have a ridiculously precious one at that :)

Seriously, this girl is cute. We rarely meet a stranger who doesn’t comment on her big, blue eyes. She gives the most beautiful smiles too—often times to her brother, she is one of his biggest fans (and he is hers too!). It has been so neat for Philip and me to observe these little siblings begin to play with one another—they seem to almost already have their own little language. Wade will give Holland a high-pitched little call, and she’ll flirt right back. It is dear to watch!

{do you spy that little hand giving his sister an increasing number of toys to play with? Holland’s doting big brother is always trying to pile toys on top of her!}

Holland is truly a delightful little baby, with the exception of maybe when you are trying to get her to sleep…(more on that later). She still loves to play in her exersaucer and will happily entertain herself there for extended amounts of time. She also delights in rolling all over the place. Just as soon as we have placed her on her play-mat on the floor, she is moving! Her rolling is pretty effective at moving her quite a ways from her starting position. She is happiest when she is able to do this while gumming a toy of choice :) Holland has a favorite little doll that makes that great crinkly sound when you handle it—this is always sure to keep her happy.

{The photo above proves just how much she likes to roll. Of course I placed her in the bouncy seat in the correct position (perhaps failing to buckle her in…oops), and she flipped herself right on over!}

I should point out that I picked up the Mother-of-the-Year award this month when I caught my sweet little love as she was rolling off her changing table (she did not hit the floor, but it was a near miss!). Note to self: do not turn your back for even a second, even if it’s to tickle a rambunctious toddler!!

{while not done at this particular time in defiance of sleep, do you see what I mean?! She is wild!!}

This was an exciting month in the milestone department, as Holland found her feet! It was Easter Sunday actually, and I went to check on her sleeping in her carseat (we’d transferred her to a bedroom), and I found her awake playing with her toes. She loves to snack on them, and I do believe this is one of the cutest things ever. She also got to experience the swings at the park for the first time this month. This is one of her brother’s favorite activities, and while she did seem to like it, she was quite sleepy at the time. She actually fell asleep swinging, bless her little heart.

The only bone I would like to pick with my daughter centers around the trouble she continues to have with going to sleep. Once she’s asleep, she’s a decent napper/night-sleeper; it’s the getting there that she fights so very hard! Philip pretty accurately described this process when he said it’s like “taming a wild beast.” If girlfriend doesn’t want to go to sleep (which is most of the time), she will scream and flop and roll all over that crib of hers in defiance of sleep. Ah, if babies only knew how great they had it—people want them to sleep during the day, and the longer they sleep, the happier everyone is! Can you imagine?! We’re pretty sure she is mostly just mad and doesn’t want to be separated from her mama (or her daddy—she has grown quite fond of him as of late!). This fact was evidenced recently when Philip went to check on her since she’d been screaming in her bed for a while. It was dark, so he leaned into the crib to see if her eyes were closed (which would suggest that she was at least trying to get to sleep). Once he got close enough, would you like to know what happened? Holland laughed at him! My goodness, our little drama queen apparently has us wrapped right around her little finger, no? I think she got her flair for drama honestly though. My parents would tell you that I could always “turn it on” and “turn it off” in a similar fashion…I suppose it’s payback time…

Nevertheless, this little sugar lump is so very dear to our hearts! Happy Six-month birthday, Holland!

Dear Mama: (with help from Daddy)

2011-05-08T11:14:00.002-04:00

This is my “Happy Mother’s Day” face. I love you very much. You take care of me and cuddle me in the night when I can’t sleep. You feed me and make me feel happy when I get sad. You come home from weddings early when I don’t want to drink my bottle. You dress me up in pretty clothes and make me feel special. You read me stories and take me for nice long walks in the stroller. You protect me when brother tries to hug me too hard. Thank you for being a wonderful mama. Happy Mother’s Day.

Dear Mama: (with help from Daddy)

2011-05-08T08:01:00.002-04:00

Thank you for being a great mama. Thank you for taking care of me every day and loving me. Thank you for reading to me and singing “Silent Night” at bedtime. Thank you for making me good food, even when I don’t eat it. Thank you for laughing and dancing with me. Thank you for walking me to the park in the stroller and throwing the ball with me. Thank you for teaching me about Jesus. Thank you for loving me even when I don’t do what I’m supposed to do. Thank you for taking me to all my doctor’s appointments and helping me when I was scared. I love you very much. Happy Mother’s Day!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

2011-05-05T22:03:00.002-04:00

We celebrated with these tasty adult beverages.

When we realized our favorite Mexican holiday was upon us, we decided it was high time we reinstate an old favorite of ours: making margaritas! We used to enjoy making and drinking them quite frequently B.C. (before children); what a shame that our margarita glasses have sat on a shelf unused probably since we moved to Richmond! Not to worry—I remedied this by taking a trip to the liquor store today with my two children in tow (of course) to purchase tequila and triple sec. We added limeade to the shaker and salt to the rims, and voila—deliciousness in a glass!

There was also some of this:

Tacos and guacamole, the latter being a specialty of the hubs. So so good!

And while we’re on the topic of food, we’ve been enjoying this too:

A giant cookie to celebrate that Philip finished up a final presentation yesterday and is nearly done with this year of dental school (hard to believe!). I used my very favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, and while I’d never made it in a giant form like this, it turned out great, and we are ~~not so slowly~~ chipping away at it. I will say that the one downside of making one big old cookie is that each time you pass by it in the kitchen it seems like not such a bid deal at all to take just one more sliver. Those little slivers add up, my friends!

Here’s the recipe. I highly recommend it!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 c. (2 sticks) butter, cut into pieces

3/4 c. sugar

1 c. packed light brown sugar

2 eggs (I used egg replacer)

1 T. (tablespoon) vanilla extract

3 c. flour

3/4 t. (teaspoon) salt

3/4 t. baking soda

3 c. semisweet chocolate chips

1 c. chopped toasted walnuts or pecans (optional)

Beat butter and sugars in large bowl with mixer until creamed, about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides. Beat in eggs and vanilla until well blended, about 1 minute. Whisk flour, salt and baking soda in separate bowl. Stir into creamed mixture with wooden spoon until combined (mixture will be thick). {This part will most surely give you a good arm work-out!} Stir in chocolate chips and nuts (if using).

Drop rounded tablespoonfuls of dough about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 for about 9-10 minutes. For crisper cookies bake at 375 for 10 minutes (I don’t like mine this way, so I’ve never done it.) Cool on baking sheets 2 minutes.

{For my giant cookie, I baked it for about 20 minutes, and for the last 5 minutes or so I turned the oven back to 325. I don’t know if this was necessary; I was just worried it was going to overcook on the edges, and an overcooked cookie is one of my least favorite things!}

-Recipe taken from Through the Years, A Lifetime of Good Food by Bettye Rabb VanderVeen. (a great cookbook written by the mother of a family friend.)

And because I can’t leave out our favorite littlest Worthington, here you go:

Who doesn’t love that kissable double chin?! I had to capture a picture of her in her sweet little onesie that was made for her by her buddy Anna’s mama (Thanks Shannon!). She’s busting out of it by now, but we sure have loved it!

Easter Week

2011-05-01T15:48:00.003-04:00

The week leading up to Easter brought my mom, Graham, and Jason (Graham’s special helper, God bless his soul!) to Richmond for a visit before we all traveled to Lynchburg for the weekend. During their visit we spent some time exploring the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. The place is absolutely beautiful, and I’m quite ashamed to admit that in our three years of living in Richmond, we’d never visited this special landmark that draws visitors from all over!

Pictured below is the coolest tree house. Wade had a ball running all over the place. And see those rows of little white things? Those are little windmills! So cool!

And here we are inside the tree house, checking out the fish and turtles swimming in the lake below.

I managed to get one Easter-themed activity in: making cookies! (we never did get around to dyeing eggs, shame on us!) Wade helped (of course we are using this term loosely) me make them, and he even got to eat them thanks to our egg replacer! They were quite tasty indeed!

Holland tried out her new Johnny Jump Up, I’m not sure if she likes it more or if Wade likes swinging her more!

Once back in Lynchburg we visited my grandmother and also got to see my aunt who happened to also be visiting my grandmother when we arrived.

My sweet grandmother loved cuddling with Miss Holland :)

Clearly, the affection was quite mutual!

These two crazy boys decided they wanted to take a rest in grandma’s bed!

In case you hadn’t noticed, Wade thinks Graham hung the moon! He pretty much follows Graham around all day like his little shadow!

Then, on Saturday night, me and my Mr. got all fancied up to attend a wedding of one of my friends from growing up. We had a ball, and I declared that it was so very good for my soul to get dressed up, dance with my hubby, and spend time with other adults!!

So fun to spend time with Alston again—and wasn’t Martha a beautiful bride?! (I learned that her dress was from J. Crew! I adore it!!)

Of course our offspring were well cared for by their Mimi and Papa. (though the combination of our two plus Graham was slightly exhausting, right Mom?! My dad described the dynamic of Wade + Graham as “like a gang”! Ha!)

Just look at Miss Thang and her Papa!

Easter morning brought baskets of goodies for the Slippy-Dippy and Miss Thang!

I would just like to note how much it warms my heart that this little boy is still so delighted to open up a plastic egg and find pretzels inside! Bless his little heart!

Then we headed outside to see if the stars would all align and we could get a decent picture of our little family together…

What about this one? Ten points to whoever can come up with the best caption to illustrate what each of us is probably thinking…

This one’s kinda fun:

We gave Wade a stick to pacify him during the excruciating experience that is having your picture taken.

This next picture was taken right as Wade shot his stick into the air, he likes to “throw high!”

Later still, we visited with my extended family.

Holland and her cutie–pie cousin Noland enjoyed the chance to catch up!

Oh, how I love these two babies of mine. I could just eat them up in their little smocked outfits!!

Congratulations on making it through this marathon blog post!

Joy of the Resurrection to you!!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-25T22:16:00.001-04:00

Many more pictures to come, but for now, out of the THOUSANDS we took, here are my two quick faves:

ps. yes, I cut off all my hair! It feels good to be back to my short-styled self. I am definitely a short hair gal.

5 Months!

2011-04-18T22:39:00.003-04:00

Could someone please tell me how it is possible that I am *one month* away from my baby being half way to one year old?! Just tonight, as I was dressing Miss Holland for bed, I stood her up on her changing table so I could pull her jammies on, and I was struck by how much she has grown. The fact that I could stand her up to dress her? Oh, how the months are flying!

Miss Thang continues to delight us all with her emerging personality. She loves to talk, and she really is quite loud! She’s quite the wiggle-worm too…I am thinking as soon as she starts really moving around, I am going to have to chase her down. She loves to flop all around her crib, using her feet to propel her in new directions. She’s equally active in the tub, an activity she has always enjoyed.

Holland loves to grab at everything in sight these days, and she’s particularly fond of using her little fingernails to scratch whatever she can reach—she must love the feel and sound of the different textures, and it is so funny to watch.

It has been particularly sweet to see how Holland has grown quite fond of her big brother. She loves to watch him, and she will give him the sweetest smiles. The affection is quite mutual, which just about melts my heart, as you can imagine!

A wonderful milestone from this month that I would like to shout from the rooftops is that our little girl no longer hates riding in the car (have I mentioned before that she loathed it until now?)! Praise the Lord! Seriously, it is such a huge relief to know that we do not have to anticipate intense, prolonged screaming when we get in the car! It’s quite interesting to note that Wade also hated the car as a baby, but grew to tolerate it at just about the same time—4 1/2 months! I wonder what is up with that?

A wise woman suggested I not share my baby’s sleeping habits with the world because my baby would undoubtedly make me into a liar if I did so. Well, see the thing is, I don’t think Miss Thang’s sleeping habits are really brag-worthy these days so I wouldn’t mind being made into a liar :) No, actually it’s not really the sleeping that’s the problem (one time last week she only woke once the whole night!); it’s the actual going to bed. She does a fair amount of protesting before naps, but it’s manageable I suppose (I don’t really know what’s normal because both of my children have protested going to sleep, maybe that’s the case for everyone?) As far as the evenings go, for the past week and a half, with the exception of a couple of nights (tonight included, fingers crossed!) Holland has followed this pattern: clearly sleepy around 6/6:30—>bath, nurse to sleep—>as soon as I attempt to put her down, she is wide awake and not having anything to do with going to bed. We are talking major screaming. So. Concerned that something could actually be wrong, we have brought her downstairs with us, and it’s really quite funny—girlfriend just wants to chill with us! She’ll smile and giggle and just sit next to us on the couch, happily hanging out with mama and daddy. Last night, I promised her I’d get her back for this kind of behavior by refusing to leave the room when she’s hanging out with her friends one day…I’m hoping this is just a phase, and she’ll be back to a consistent bedtime soon, even though I have to admit, I kinda like her company :)

{This was when the bedtime strike began—Grammy was staying with Wade and Holland while Philip and I went out to celebrate our anniversary. This is what we found when we returned (Holland had refused to go down for her poor Grammy!)}

{I wasn’t joking when I said she literally wanted to hang out with us last night instead of going to bed. Note Holland’s little arm casually draped over the chair. Also note my adult beverage. I hadn’t planned on sharing my chair with my baby at this time of night! :) }

Around the same time that this “bedtime strike” began, I noticed little faint patches of eczema on Holland’s skin. (You can actually spot one of them just under her chin, on her neck in the above photo with Grammy.) I hate the thought of battling eczema again with another child, and to be frank, I’m just sad and a little discouraged about this. Also, the going to bed issues combined with the eczema caused me to begin to ~~fear~~ wonder if Holland could be beginning to develop allergies. We are praying that this is not the case! I have spoken with the specialists that Wade sees, and at this point, it’s certainly too soon to really know if that may be the case. In the meantime, I am avoiding drinking cow’s milk and peanuts (as I have been since Holland was born), and we are giving Holland a daily dose of a probiotic. (Here is an interesting article that touches on some of the benefits of probiotics.) If you’re inclined, we’d love for you to join us in asking God to protect Holland from allergies!

The good news is that Holland appears to still be “thriving,” medically speaking. She had a little check-up today (our pediatrician wants to see her a little more frequently than the norm just to monitor her growth b/c of Wade’s history), and she weighed in at 15 pounds even, which keeps her in the 50th percentile. She was 25 3/4” tall, which is in the 75th percentile. I am encouraged by this and hopeful I can continue to plump her up!

Two Friends I Love

2011-04-10T15:20:00.003-04:00

We recently enjoyed the pleasure of the company of two dear friends of mine. I am so grateful for both of these women, because while I don’t get to see either of them regularly or nearly enough as I would like, I know that when we are together it will be like we were never apart! Isn’t that just the best? Picking up right where you left off just feels so natural with both of them.

Holly came to see us a couple weeks ago, and of course she brought along her little man, Joel, who was born one month before Holland. Holly and I first became friends when she and her husband, Jay moved to Lynchburg half-way through our two year stint in Lynchburg back in 2007 (did you follow all of that?). We shared mutual friends, having all attended UVA, but none of us had actually ever met. Our friendship got off to a speedy start when I approached Holly and Jay at church in Lynchburg and asked them if they would be our friends because, (and I quote), “We don’t have many friends!” Philip wasn’t exactly thrilled with the delivery of that line, but you know, I’ve always kind of prided myself on being one who tells it like it is :) And truth be told, our time in Lynchburg was a rather lonely time for us socially. I hate to say that—especially when I consider that there are possibly people from Lynchburg (people I really like!) reading this, but nonetheless, we longed for the kind of connection we quickly and effortlessly made with Holly and Jay.

We always have fun together, and I love that Holly is not afraid to ask the hard questions too. I don’t have many people in my life who will look at me and ask me point blank, how my marriage is. But Holly will do that, and I’m thankful for that! She is a wonderful new mama to Joel, a devoted wife to her hubby, Jay, and I hope she knows I love her so!

Back in September, we celebrated baby Joel’s impending arrival at a baby shower for Miss Holly. Mr. Joel and Miss Holland were already getting to know each other!

And now here we are a couple weeks ago with our babes! (Wader-tater was sleeping)

Please observe this preciousness! Sweet little Joel wanted to hold his lady friend’s hand!

He was quite interested in this girl playmate of his…

Holland played hard to get but finally returned the affection :)

My girl, Alston also paid us a visit recently. Alst is maybe my longest standing friend, and my life story would look quite different were it not for her friendship . We go way back. Like back to the days when we both sported smocked dresses in Sunday School together. We became the best of friends in high school, when we literally spent nearly every waking hour together, between school all day and swim practice before and after school. We swam the same events and were consistently just as fast as the other, so we frequently swam against each other, which was fun and kept us on our toes :) We just had (still have!) such a special friendship, and I truly think of Alston like a sister. I always felt like I could probably say just about anything to her without worrying about what she might think. We’d get mad at each and other and fight like all girls (and sisters!) do, but what I loved so much is that I always knew it would be ok. I think that’s why we never worried too much about what we said to one another. We were like sisters and I love this girl so much!

Now, Alston is recently engaged (congrats again my friend!), and she will likely get married in a place whose name involves the Hamptons. And people, I ain’t talking about the Hampton Inn! I am so excited for her wedding! ~~(I am thinking it will allow Philip and me the chance to pretend as if we actually have active social lives!)~~ Alston lives in New York City, and I always describe her as my friend whose life is like Sex & the City :) Now, she would probably beg to differ that that’s not quite accurate, but she did used to work in fashion, she is extremely stylish and glamorous in my opinion, and she goes to events in NYC that are for things like art museums and such. Our lives probably couldn’t look more different these days, but I love that we will always share this unique and lasting bond.

A year ago she came to visit when I was newly pregnant. We raided my closet (I like to think of her as my stylist), laughed until we literally peed our pants, and went out for dinner and drinks.

This time she was only here for an afternoon, and unfortunately, we didn’t get any pictures together, but I did snap some of her with my little ones.

Wade became a quick fan of Alston when she suggested they watch side-loader garbage truck videos together on YouTube.

Thanks for visiting, Holly and Alston! Come again soon!!

6 Years!

2011-04-09T16:14:00.001-04:00

{yes, this is a picture of a picture. Our wedding photographer didn’t use a digital camera…but this is probably my favorite picture of us from our wedding…ah, youth :) }

I have been blessed to call Philip my husband for six years now. It’s kind of crazy to think it’s been that long since he and I made vows to each other promising to do the (often hard) work of loving each other for the rest of our lives. On April 9, 2005 we were married at my parent’s church in Lynchburg, Va. We then set off for the Boars Head Inn in Charlottesville followed by a ten day blissful honeymoon on the island of St. Kitts. We returned to our new life in Philadelphia and now six years later, here we are!

I think it’s a bit of a toss-up as to whether my children or my husband have been the greater tools used by God to change me, sharpen me, and hopefully make me look more like Christ. One thing is for sure though, I am deeply grateful for this man who loves me so well and who has already seen me through so much. The first six years have been a ride I wouldn’t have wanted to share with anyone else, and I can’t wait to see what the next six will bring!

I love you, babe!

{self-portrait taken earlier this week when we had the opportunity to go out and celebrate at Richmond favorite, Edo Squid, while Grammy stayed with our kids (bless her soul!) It was kind of a sin that I’d never been , and I have to say it was probably the best meal I’ve had in a long time!}

Reality Check

2011-03-28T22:20:00.001-04:00

I’m pretty sure that just about every time I post about how things are going well, my baby’s sleeping, life is good, yadayadayada, I should expect that within a day or so I will want to eat my words! Ha! Actually, I’m not really laughing over here. It has been a rough couple of days.

I would like to think that at this point, we are beginning to find our stride with two children, but alas, I feel very far from that right now. For some unfortunate reason, my dear daughter has decided to make long naps a thing of the past—now, I am lucky to get an hour out of her. And a nap at the same time as her brother? Forget about it. I’m also just generally frustrated that it seems my children must ultimately cry to go to sleep. I would just like to ask why that must be so? I mean, I don’t feel like that’s the case for everyone, right?

I find myself so torn between different baby/sleep-rearing schools of thought. On the one hand, I’ve found that I seem to be more “attachment”-minded this go round. I love having Holland near, I enjoyed co-sleeping for the first couple of months (and the times when we still do it now), and philosophically, I don’t feel nearly as sure that crying it out is ok for babies (especially when they’re brand new). On the other hand, I do believe that it’s my job to help Holland learn to sleep well, and I think there’s value in her learning to soothe herself. While I’m not proud of the fact that I let Wade cry himself to sleep when he was but a month old, he is now an excellent sleeper who has maybe woken up in the night two or three times within the past year! Granted, I don’t think crying it out that young had much of an effect on his sleep now (b/c he continued to cry himself to sleep until he was about 18 months old…), but I still think he has really healthy sleep habits now, and I want that for Holland too.

Anyway, I’m clearly rambling, but I do just feel so conflicted. When, really, I just want what’s best for my babies! Holland sleeps in her crib now, but getting up twice at night to feed her in a #$%! rocking chair has left me exhausted. I think this is partly my fault for going to bed so late…I’m a night owl, so by the time I’m ready for bed, it’s nearly time for her first wake up, so what’s the point in going to sleep?! Short daytime naps that don’t occur when Wade’s sleeping leave little room for mama to snooze during the day.

And speaking of Wade, please allow me a little pity party for myself and let me tell you what a bad mother I feel like I have been to this boy in my sleep-deprived, busy-with-an-infant state. This dear boy (who actually hasn’t been acting too “dear” these past few days, but that’s another sob story…) spends much of his time playing independently, and I know he’d like my company. But when Holland goes down for a nap, I feel I must seize upon the opportunity to shower. And before I know it, she is up needing to eat. I hate that he seems so bored and just asks to watch videos all the time. I have major mama guilt whenever he’s watching tv. The voice in my head just tells me that if I were a better mother--more creative, energetic, then my child would not be sitting in front of the tv. You should see how desperately Wade waited for his daddy to get home today. I’m pretty sure he’d given up on me. I was trying to prepare dinner while wearing a dozing baby who really needed to sleep finally, and so I had nothing to give my boy. Ugh. How do people do it? (Seasoned mamas feel free to chime in!)

Alright, sorry for being such a debbie downer, but I feel I must keep it real around here. I just can’t have anyone reading this blog walking away thinking those Worthingtons have got it all together! It is days like today that I am reminded of what a gift it is that God loves me and deems me beautiful to Him in spite of what a lame job I might be doing as a mother/wife/friend/etc.

Ok, enough words. I know many of you come here for the pictures of my babes. And while life has been tough lately, there have been many fun times as well. So I will share some snapshots of life around here over the past week or so.

We had a couple really warm days, so we broke out the new sand and water table that Wade’s Grammy and PopPop gave him for his birthday. Wade really enjoyed scooping and dumping sand and water back and forth from side to side. I bet we’re going to spend quite a bit of time with this once it’s consistently warm out.

Holland got carried around with the {clean} diapers in the laundry basket. Hey, a women’s got to multi-task!

Though, it seems I can’t blame this on having multiple children, because it looks like I pulled the same move on Wade when he was just a wee one…

{My little guy was just over two months old here!}

We had a little incident with some rasberry jam…the jar fell to the ground in such a way that its contents jolted out with great force. So much force that I found jam on the ceiling! So, what do you do if you are the mother and it is your job to handle situations such as this? Why, you take pictures of course!

{do you spy the spot of jam in the above photo?!}

And then your child runs away and tries to hide from you because he thinks you’re acting crazy (you are)…

We tried a little finger painting activity (in the basement)…Wade preferred dumping the paint in the water over actually using it on the paper.

Mom came to visit and some of our neighborhood pals joined us for a pleasant afternoon in our front yard.

Hey, it’s VannyB and sweet little Taylor, both born within weeks of Miss Thang :)

Holland tried to decide whether she wanted to snack on Sophie(thanks Katie!!)

while Mama worked on baking cupcakes…

And then today, this is the face I got to enjoy looking up at me while I worked on dinner. Thank you, Lord, for moments like this.

Four Months (and 9 days…)

2011-03-21T23:04:00.002-04:00

So, clearly I am behind! My baby is already over four months old, and she is truly a delightful little lady these days. She had her well-check a few days before she was officially four months old, so keeping that in mind, here are her stats: 13 lbs 5 oz (50th percentile) and 24 1/4” long (75th percentile). Obviously I’m thrilled that she’s still plenty chunky (have you seen her thighs? They are edible. I really can’t imagine what they could possibly look like if she were in say, the 90th percentile?!), but I feel like we are definitely not in the clear yet as far as allergy-avoidance goes. She and Wade are each unique and their growth and development will be as well, but for what it’s worth, Wade was in the 50th percentile when he was Holland’s age. It was somewhere between months four and six that he started to drop. I am encouraged that she doesn’t appear to suffer from eczema at this point. {You can see that I am clearly thinking about these things a lot. The bottom line is that God created Holland, He is for her good, and so I can trust Him to work these things out according to his wisdom which is infinite (and mine is not!). }

{On a recent trip to visit Philip’s family, cousins Kate and Abby were very interested in baby Holland!}

But I digress. Back to my little lady and life with her at four months. I am pretty amazed at how Holland has really worked herself into a fairly predictable routine/schedule. I was so sure I had to put Wade on a schedule, but Holland is showing me that she can and will show me when she needs to sleep/eat/etc. Imagine that! She generally wakes up in the morning between 7 and 7:30 (sometimes in her own crib, but often times it’s in our bed because I’ve brought her in during the early morning hours, which I still love…) and goes down for a morning nap 1-2 hours later. Depending on how long that morning nap is, she’ll want to take an afternoon nap in the early afternoon, or if I’m lucky, I can hold her off a bit and get her and her brother down at the same time! Those are magical times, my friends :) Some days she’ll take a really rockstar nap for me and make me oh-so-proud by sleeping for 2-3 hours! Other days (like today) it’s more like 30-45 minutes, but I’m rolling with it either way (because I’m a totally laid back mom…can you tell? ha! those who know me well will know that comes with a heavy dose of sarcasm!!) She generally wants to get one last little catnap of 30-45 minutes in during the late afternoon. Sometimes this is challenging because it can end up occurring rather late, and I wonder if this sometimes causes a problem with bedtime?

I’ve been working on putting her down drowsy, yet awake (oh that elusive state!), so that she’s able to get herself back to sleep if/when she awakens during her sleep. I’d say this is going fairly well. Sometimes there’s a little bit of fussing followed by sleep. Other times there’s a lot of fussing, in which case I usually go help her out a bit (either by patting her or picking her up). And then there are the times she nurses to sleep. Just like her brother, she sleeps with a sound machine roaring in the background! So much for avoiding that sort of thing so your kid doesn’t grow to depend on them! Seriously, if it will help drown out noise and encourage deeper sleep for my baby, I am doing it. Just try and stop me. If you go upstairs in our house during naptime or at night you may confuse your location for an airport terminal; it really is quite loud!

Holland now happily spends time in her bouncy seat and exersaucer. She’s not really into grabbing stuff (yet?), though she will swat at things and use her hands to explore what’s in front of her. She’s also newly into pushing her feet on wherever she can reach on her bouncy seat—it’s pretty cute! She’s increasingly verbal these days too—it seems as though she loves to hear herself talk very loud!

{yes, that is a runny nose in the above photo! Holland is on her third cold!!! I suppose that’s what you get when you have an older brother who doesn’t really understand the concept of personal space.}

And guess what else? Just this past week, girlfriend rolled over! Both ways! She’d been working really hard on rolling from her back to her tummy (it was the cutest thing to see her keep trying, over and over again!), and she finally got it while playing in Wade’s room. Then, a few days later, I went to check on her after putting her down for a nap (She was very quiet rather quickly). I’d put her down (on her tummy) on one side of the crib, and I found her on the other side holding on and playing with the crib rails! She was just as happy as could be, not interested in sleep at all…I’m thinking she had to have rolled at least one, maybe twice to get where she ended up!

I continue to nurse her without too much regard for what time it is, though it usually translates into every 2-3 hours. I’m not sure I’ve noted here before that she only nurses on one side at a time—this is what she has always seemed to prefer. She’s also a fast nurser (and has always been such), finishing up her meal usually within ten minutes or so, though sometimes she likes to just hang out with mama and linger a while. Speaking of nursing, I’m a tad concerned that my milk supply may be a little low? I don’t know—it’s just one of those things that a mom can sense maybe? When I was putting Holland down for bed tonight she was fussy, frustrated even, and I wondered if maybe she needed more to eat. I was actually able to get her take an additional ounce of breast milk from a bottle (which we don’t typically do). I’m wondering if this may have something to do with why she was up three times during the night last night???

And speaking of the night, Holland typically goes down for bed between 7:30 and 8. She’d been pretty consistently waking up between 12-1 to nurse and then again around 4, though last night she was up more and had a harder time getting back to sleep. Oh to get inside her little mind and know what is going on with her during those nighttime hours! Is she hungry? Missing mama? Gas in her tummy? Or just working out the kinks of getting back to sleep on her own? The Lord only knows!

One thing is for sure, I love me some Holland Elizabeth! She continues to be an absolute delight to her mama’s heart—I am so grateful for my girl!

Guess Who Kissed the 3rd Percentile Goodbye (and had a birthday)?!

2011-03-19T00:04:00.002-04:00

That would be my boy! My boy who (finally) had his two-year check-up today! Wade turned two back on January 30th, but we kept having to reschedule his doctor’s appointment until today. What a blessing, a sweet, sweet blessing it was to hear that he is gaining weight and making up for some lost time on that ol’ percentile chart. His stats were 23 lbs, 10 oz, and 34 3/4”, putting him in the 10th and 50th percentiles respectively. Following his clean bill from his most recent endoscopy, we’ve been slowly adding foods back into his diet. So far, we’ve been able to add (and keep!) dairy (!!!), white potatoes, and green beans back in. We just recently reintroduced barley, and we weren’t sure if we may have hit a problem, so we’re going to wait a few weeks and try it again. All that to say, I feel like we are in a really good place with managing Wade’s eosinophilic esophagitis, and for that, I am very grateful.

And lest you kind readers wrongly think that I’m only interested in documenting my little lady’s growth and development each month, I’d like to take this opportunity to fill you all in on life with my precious boy these days. In short, life with Wade is really, really sweet. This boy, this one who first made me a mother, is showing me that being his mama really only gets better and better. Now don’t get me wrong, we have our moments. Our moments where it is very clear that we have a two-year old on our hands. Take for example, the fact that I rely on Wade’s crib for time-out because I know I can’t contain him anywhere else. That’s not so great. And the fact that Wade’s general love and affection for his sister can sometimes turn into rough and aggressive behavior that warrants discipline. I could do without that. Or that Wade loves to respond with “No way” these days. Actually, I take that back, that one is usually pretty cute/amusing, (depending on the delivery). Wade also doesn’t like doctors or haircuts, both of which can be a bit of a problem.

He loves his sister and thinks that a great way to show her this is by piling every item in her crib on top of her. He also likes to lay as much of his body as possible on her as a gesture of affection. He calls her “Hawa” and it is oh so dear to hear him call her name.

My wader-tater is a sweet little soul and a delight to be around. He typically takes a little time to warm up to new people, but he absolutely adores receiving special attention, and you will become his new BFF if he senses your goal is to give him this. He’s a sensitive guy, much like his daddy, and he will crumble in an instant if I get really upset with him. When playing around other kids, he will often stand back a bit and watch before he enters in to play. Never one to show aggression to other children, if his feelings have been hurt, he is likely to be found quiet first, and then the tears come. (It’s the saddest, yet cutest thing!)

Wade is a passionate lover of trucks.

He truly has “truck-radar” as well call it; if there is a truck within sight, he will find it (and he will call it by its specific name). His most favorite truck is the side-loader garbage truck (which really, to Wade is any garbage truck). He is equally a huge fan of garbage cans, and he will happily spend long periods of time cruising the alley behind our house, travelling diagonally between houses pointing out each and every garbage can (and making sure I acknowledge each one of course.) A particularly enjoyable time of R&R for Wade includes a viewing of garbage trucks on YouTube (a frequent search query of ours goes something like this, “side loader garbage truck”, and then Wade points to the video he wants and says “Dat one” in the most adorable little way you could imagine.) And in case you were wondering, he still loves his little fire truck, only now rather than pushing it, he prefers to sit on it and use his feet to propel him swiftly down the sidewalk.

He also loves tractors, especially his Papa’s Kubota tractor (yes, he actually says “kubota tractor”!), which he usually gets to ride on when he’s in Lynchburg visiting his Mimi and his Papa.

While there, he also LOVES spending time with his Uncle G (seriously, Wade is Graham’s biggest fan. Wade thinks he is hysterical and loves being around him.) and my parent’s dog Copper.

(Although, if you mention Copper, Wade may say to you “fingah…Copper”, which is alluding to a recent incident when Copper nipped at Wade’s finger. I am sure Copper was provoked by my small man…) A new favorite pastime in Lynchburg is picking up sticks with my dad. Apparently my dad taught Wade all about how these things work because now Wade can be found saying “Papa, cut trees!”

Wade also loves tunnels. Almost anything can be viewed as a tunnel to Wade. He loves throwing balls, especially throwing them high (or taking shots in his basketball goal), and he is learning that he can’t throw balls at or near his sister…He loves his jammies and is often resistant to change out of them in the morning. He loves songs and dancing, and his favorite genre of music is Christmas music. {I believe this all started because I would sing “Silent Night” to him as a nighttime lullaby—it’s a soft, sweet song right? Well, then Philip recently introduced Wade to “The Little Drummer Boy” and now Wade is obsessed. Obsessed! He refers to it as “rumpapumpum” and he has his own Pandora radio station based around this song! I kid you not. His favorite line in the song is “Baby Jesus, I am a poor boy too…I have no gifts to bring…” When Philip starts to sing the song, Wade quickly interrupts him and says “poor boy,” meaning he wants him to sing that one line!}

Philip and I love how Wade often says to us, “hold me, daddy/mama” or “sit down, mama/daddy” (right next to him); we are treasuring what we know is a fleeting time! He also says “yes, please” whenever he thinks he’s in trouble or being corrected. It’s pretty funny. Somehow he picked up that that’s what he’s supposed to say to mend his wrongdoing?

An exciting milestone happened about a week ago too—Wade learned to jump! As in, both feet left the ground at the same time! He was pretty pumped about it.

I could go on and on about this kid. This has been a big year for him, and I am really just so proud of him. He made it through a really challenging time battling his allergies, he started preschool one day a week, and he got a new baby sister! That’s a lot for a little dude! I count myself richly blessed to be his mama. It is a joy to spend my days with him, and each day really just gets better and better.

We celebrated his birthday back in January with our families. At the time of the party-planning, Wade was newly into Thomas the Tank Engine, hence the Thomas theme. Here are some photos of our day.

Coal cars were one of Wade’s first favorites. I was thankful that this worked out pretty well for me and my amateur cake-making skills because coal cars aren’t that hard to turn into cakes!

Oh, and in case you’re wondering about our head gear…Wade has a very creative daddy who decided that we should incorporate Wade’s love of trucks into our Thomas-themed party by making each guest their very own hat with a different truck for each hat! They were a big hit!

How funny is this next picture? The birthday boy was having a little, ahem, meltdown and only wanted me to hold him. Of course there was much to be done to get his party going, so I traded my two month old for my two year old in the Ergo! (I actually kinda loved this because it was like he was my baby all over again…)

It would appear that by the looks of things these two men may have forgotten that they’re wearing pictures of trucks on their heads…

Pictured above is Wade’s very own garbage truck. He kind of went crazy when he opened it and refused to do anything other than focus completely on this most precious gift.

Lovely little shreds of paper were used as “garbage”…where do you think the majority of that ended up? (hint: not in the new garbage truck toy!)

My dad got some of the first sounds that resembled a laugh out of Holland! He would swing her really high and she just loved it!

By the end of the day, we were all tuckered out!

Scoopin’ and Poopin’ and Peekin’, Oh My!

2011-03-08T14:58:00.001-05:00

Sorry, is the title a bit much? It’ll make sense when you read on…and I promise it’s not as bad as it sounds! (I gotta keep it interesting over here at A Word from the Worthingtons, you know.) It’s fun if you read it to the tune of “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my…” See? Wasn’t that fun?

Wade had a great time scooping and digging from a tub I filled with dried rice and beans. He especially loved hiding (and finding) Noah, a small wooden figurine from a Noah’s Ark collection of his. (Noah is nowhere to be found in these pictures though; I think he was buried.)

Try as I may to remain calm and unfazed by the rice that rather quickly began to spill out onto my floor, I’ve since relegated this here tub downstairs for basement play…

{And yes, I did give myself a heck of a lot of creative mama points for this one! Ha! I actually got the idea from friends far more creative than I, but nonetheless I was happy Wade appreciated my efforts :) }

Oh, and where was I? Oh, poopin, that’s right!

I told you it wasn’t as bad as you might imagine. This picture (which cracks me up) is merely to document the fact that Wade has some sort of interest in his potty, though he hasn’t come near it without his clothes on, so who knows when he’ll actually use it?

Oh, and looking at this picture, I’m thinking some of you may be wondering, what in the world is that thing with the giant tube next to Wade? That’s our diaper sprayer, which works wonders on our cloth diapers when poopin’ does occur around here! (don’t you just love how I keep incorporating this theme into this post?! Oh my, what has my life become? I write about scooping and pooping?!)

As for the peeking, it just so happened that both Wade and Holland have been found doing some of this!

{sweet girl keeping warm next to her daddy=love}

{I spy a Wader-tater!}

Ok, moving on from anything related to the aforementioned verbs, here are some pictures of my youngins during our most recent stay at Mimi and Papa’s house.

{I think Holland actually may have been amused by Wade’s antics in the above photo! I think there’s a smile hiding behind my long-haired boy’s head!}

{I mainly love this one because of the expression on Wade’s face. For some reason, I think he looks like he’s proud of her. Such a sweet big brother he is.}

Ok, back to the grind of scooping and pooping over here! (clearly, I need to get out more!)

Sunday, Salmon & Sleeping

2011-03-01T15:21:00.003-05:00

This past Sunday morning, we made plans to get out and explore this fine city we get to call home. The weather was nice—overcast, yet warm, and we were itching to get out as a family and do something fun! Just a short drive (well, it was actually walkable, which I proved when I walked home wearing a sleeping baby!) from our house and we were able to hike down to the James River. We had a great time!

{Hey, who’s that outdoorsy family over there? Oh, that’s the Worthingtons! They’re just out exploring God’s beautiful creation with their kids…don’t they make life with two kids look easy?! HA! Insert appropriate amount of sarcasm here :) }

We found a nice little spot with huge, flat rocks where we could spread out. Wade was happy to spend the entire time throwing rocks into the water. I wondered to Philip how long he’d willingly spend doing this if we allowed it…

Miss Thang enjoyed herself as well. {Miss Thang is the way we affectionately began to refer to Holland during those early weeks when she was quite particular about her likes and dislikes. We’ll see if another, perhaps more endearing name surfaces… After all, she’s quite a bit more easy going these days.}

We brought homemade Snickerdoodle cookies—they were yummy! I like my cookies really soft, so I used this recipe, but cut the baking time by about a minute or two. I also used an egg replacer so my little Slippy Dippy (that’s Wade, and that name is sticking with him :) could have some.

{Loving Wade’s new bag! I debated back and forth over whether I wanted the text to be a different color from the accent color on the bag, and I’m happy to say I really love it this way! ~~And when I say debated, I mean that I ended up calling the company the morning after I placed the order and asked to speak with someone in that department so I could change my order! Ridiculous!~~}

And speaking of my little Wader-Tater, let it be known that the child just loves him some salmon. For all our eating woes we’ve been through with Wade, I have got to count my blessings that he is really not a picky eater. Especially considering he’s two! I kid you not, if I give him a plate of salmon, green beans, and mashed potatoes, the one thing he won’t be too keen on is the mashed potatoes (hence, the substitution of tater tots)!

And finally, I’d like to document some recent sleep-happenings, primarily for my own memory’s sake. You may recall that Holland has been co-sleeping with us since she was born. I’ve LOVED it, but have begun to wonder if it might be time for her to move on into her crib…I haven’t been 100% sure I wanted this, but my neck hasn’t been able to heal nearly as quickly when I’m sleeping on my side with a baby, and there have been a few nights when my husband has moved to the sole remaining bed in the house (which is in Wade’s room). I’d like for my hubby to stay in our bed, so I thought we’d try Holland out in her crib. Here’s how the past four nights have gone:

Friday/Night 1: nurse—>sleep in crib at 8:45 pm, nurse at 11:45 and need a little extra help getting back to sleep in the crib, up at 1:15—I did not offer nursing because I didn’t think she was hungry so soon during the night, and I wanted to see if we could push through…we tried comforting by patting, but I must confess, there was some crying. I think she slept for a while and then woke back up…there was on and off crying, never “bloody murder” crying, though I didn’t feel great about it (full disclosure here, people). I could tell she was mad and wanted to be with me, but I was sleepy and not really thinking clearly, so we kind of slept through some of the fussing…It maybe went on for 45 minutes to an hour, off and on. I think she got to sleep for good around 3-something and slept till 7:15.

Saturday/Night 2: nurse—>sleep in crib at 10 pm (for some reason, she was not tired until this time), nurse at 12:45, required some extra soothing, then back to the crib. nurse at 6 am—>came to our bed and slept with us till 8:15.

Sunday/Night 3: nurse—>sleep in crib at 8:30, nurse at 3:45 (!), then back to crib, slept till 8 am!! We are thinking we are on a roll…

Monday/Night 4: nurse—>sleep in crib at 8:45, nurse at 11:45. trouble falling back to sleep, so I brought her to bed with me for the night…{do you know what the really good news here is? I wasn’t angry, frustrated or resentful toward my daughter for seemingly “regressing”. Praise Him!}

We’ll see how tonight goes! I kinda love having her with me, but I also kinda like having room in my bed…I’ve been praying that God would lead in this process.

{Oh man, I look at these pictures of my precious baby girl and wonder how I could ever not want to snuggle her in my bed each night!}

Maybe we’ve got this whole thing wrong…

2011-02-24T16:22:00.005-05:00

I mean, maybe I should be the one spending my day at dental school, or somewhere out in the “real” world because when I’ve been out, and Philip’s been home with the kids all by himself, this is what I find upon my return:

Everybody’s having a grand old time. There is no sign of distress, no overwhelmed parent here!

Despite the fact that I try to tell myself to do this during the day:

{I have it hanging in my downstairs bathroom.}

This more accurately describes what I feel like doing:

{just picked this up at HomeGoods this morning. Despite the fact that it made me laugh (and totally speaks to me too!), I actually bought it for the pillow insert (100% feathers for 15 bucks), not the cover.}

In all seriousness, the past couple days have been pretty taxing. I spent a few days at my parent’s house while they were away, which meant I was a single parent all day long (how in the world do people who are single parents all the time do it??!!). Combine that with the fact that I seriously injured my neck/upper back TEN DAYS AGO (but it still hurts!), and yet I’m still required to spend a lot of time carrying a little person around (scratch that, make that two little people around), and you don’t really have the most chipper mama.

I’ve found myself just grasping for time to myself, time to do what I want to do, and I really can’t find much. It is days like these that I desperately need Jesus to give me the strength and the desire to actually engage with my kids, when I really just want to manage them so I can get to what I really want to do (read blogs, decorate my house, take a shower.) Philip and I were just talking the other day about how we feel like we often live as if we’re constantly striving to arrive at that “sweet spot” in life. Do you know what I’m talking about? It’s forever elusive! For me, it usually has to do with what my house looks like. I’m always wanting to change things up, re-decorate here, buy something new for this room (all very deep, spiritual things obviously!), thinking that if I can just finally arrive (how I’ll know I’ve arrived, I’m not quite sure), then I can rest. On some level, I think I believe that if I can create beauty all around me, then I can more easily handle the chaos that can feel like it's closing in on me! Ha! Then I can stop and enjoy my kids. Oh, how I don’t want it to be this way. These are sweet days, and I want to savor them. I want to know true contentment, but I am so not good at it!!

I would love to hear if you’ve struggled with this and how you’ve learned to practice contentment.

Post Edit: I randomly came across this article today, and it totally speaks to my experience! It's good to know that at least I'm not alone.

Three Months!

2011-02-21T22:29:00.001-05:00

Holland, my sweet girl, I want to stop time. You are growing too fast, already having lost the just-born, brand new look and traded it in for a chubby (yes! I will fatten you up, child!), smiley one. You actually turned three months old a little over a week ago, and even since then, you seem to have moved out of that “fourth trimester” period where you act as if you really kinda wish you were still in the womb.

A few weeks ago, I could rarely put you down to sleep by yourself. These days, you are consistently napping in your crib (granted, we’ve been putting you to sleep on your tummy for naps, so I think that has helped…), and I am really glad to report that we haven’t done any “crying it out.” It seems to me that you just needed a little more time to get used to things before you were ready to sleep by yourself. I actually really enjoy rocking and soothing you to sleep (when it works—ha!). I love singing to you as I hold you, swaying. I usually sing some combination of the following: Amazing Grace, How Deep the Father’s Love for Us, Rock-a-bye Baby, and Jesus Loves You. There is nothing like the feeling of your little body heavy on my shoulder, so calm and peaceful.

This is unchartered territory for me, because I never did these things with your brother. And from where I stand in my motherhood journey (and I know we all stand in different places when it comes to these kind of parenting choices), I missed out on a lot by not doing that with him. This time around I’m feeling my way for myself (of course with the solicited advice from trusted friends!) instead of following rules out of a book. I’m sure books have their place, but I’m really trying to lean more on Jesus and ask Him to help me lead you (and your brother). I have found myself praying, “Lord, show me how to parent this baby. Make me more like your Son because of this child,” (thank you, Maggie, for the reminder to pray in this way!) and even though I can go to a pretty low place when things aren’t going my way, I KNOW this is good fruit in my life. I never wanted to believe that because every child is different, they may require different parenting approaches. But I do believe that now. And this time around, I’m learning to make peace with the newborn pace—a pace that changes day to day, nap to nap. I’m trying to combat my natural tendency to feel fearful, angry, anxious when I don’t know how to “fix” whatever the particular issue of the day is (operative word is of course, trying.) I’ve decided that instead of putting you on a schedule, I’ll let you work yourself into the right routine for you (this is crazy for me to even see myself writing this; it’s so different than how I was with Wade!)*. So far, it seems like you’re on your way.

This month you laughed for the first time, and I can say that hearing your baby laugh has got to be one of life’s greatest joys. I was changing your clothes on your changing table, and you let out a real belly laugh when I tickled you under your chin! You’ve laughed a couple more times since then, and of course I’m constantly trying to tickle you to recreate that first episode You are talking more and more, and I just about melt when you let out those flirtatious little sounds! You are really smiley too, which is just so fun. When you’re not being held or nursed, your next favorite place is probably your bouncy seat. You seem pretty intrigued by those bubbles, and I have to be honest, your daddy and I are pretty happy that we can put you down from time to time and keep you happy! A couple days ago, we dusted off the exersaucer from the basement (it feels like it was just yesterday that humongous thing was happily occupied by your brother!) to see if you might give it a whirl. You have a notably strong neck, and you just love to be able to look out at all the action, so we thought you might take an early liking to it. You seemed to think it was ok. I’m thinking it will probably grow on you as you’re able to interact with it more. And speaking of your strength, it’s pretty clear you’re on a mission to sit up. No kidding. At only three months old, whenever we prop you up against a pillow, the sofa, etc, you try really hard to pull yourself to a sitting position! It’s pretty crazy! You also adore your hands, chewing on them in particular (as evidenced by the second photo below.)

{look at those eyes! people are always commenting on how bright and blue they are, and I think these pictures capture their brilliance!}

While you take your naps in the crib (and as of this past Sunday, you’ll still nap in the Ergo! Yes! I would love it if you’d be able to sleep in both places—best of both worlds for me!), you still sleep right next to me at night. Within the past week or so, you’ve shown us that you are ready for an earlier bedtime, so I lay down with you and nurse you to sleep on our bed. Then I creep out of the room, hopeful that you’ll think I’m still there. This might not be the most sustainable practice, but it’s working for us for now. You’ve stretched for nearly seven hours one time at night, but that’s not really typical. Usually, it’s more like 5+ hour stretches at night. And I don’t know if our little co-sleeping arrangement has anything to do with this, but you are a tried and true mama’s girl these days. Of course you love your daddy, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t warm my heart just a little that your fussiness can often be soothed by a cuddle with your mama.

*I don’t intend to suggest that I think it’s wrong to put your child on a schedule. I’ve realized that my natural tendency is to want schedule/order/control, and when I don’t get it, I am often angry and resentful. I’ve learned that I need the moderating influence of a less scheduled approach to parenting to balance me out and help me grow in grace! I hope that makes sense and doesn’t make anyone feel weird reading this if you are pro-schedule! (check back with me in a month or so, who knows, maybe we’ll be working on a schedule This is just where we are right now.)

Would it be weird if I showed you Christmas pictures now?

2011-02-18T20:05:00.001-05:00

So, it’s nearly two months since Christmas and it’s about 70 degrees outside. What better time to post some way overdue pictures of our Christmas! I know I like seeing all of your pictures, regardless of when you post them, so I figure maybe you feel the same?

I’m always amazed (and a little sad) to see how fast Christmas comes and goes. The anticipation is always so great, and I really love all the festive activities that lead up to the big day. Earlier in December, our crew headed to downtown Richmond to take part in some holiday fun!

The city was officially “lit up” for Christmas, and there were discounted canal rides, complimentary hot cocoa, and free train rides for the kids. The seasonal temps made for an especially festive night out!

My favorite little Christmas elf:

We got some snow in mid-December which only added to the Christmas cheer!

{Our sole bit of outdoor decor, save a string of lights on our doogwood tree, was a homemade wreath.}

{I made Darby’s cinnamon-honey butter and prettied up the jars for Wade’s teacher’s Christmas gifts.}

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning up in northern Va with Philip’s family. The following sequence depicts reality when I try and stage a little festive photo shoot of my two kiddos. Clearly, the pictures speak for themselves!

{Dave was talking to Ben about the importance of being patient while you wait for your turn to open presents :)}

{Everyone was so engaged while PopPop read the story of Jesus’ birth.}

Grammy and PopPop find the most creative gifts!

{You gotta hydrate well with all those presents to open!}

Nothing beats wrestling with your cousins!

{and daddy too, of course!}

The afternoon of Christmas day found us trekking down 29 South to Lynchburg. We celebrated Christmas with my family on Christmas night.

{Homemade potato soup upon our arrival! Yum! And Mom, what word did Dad use to describe dried chives? I can only remember that it was something ridiculous and really funny!}

Looks like somebody got a bulldozer! (Have y’all heard of PLAN toys? We think they’re pretty cool. All of their toys are made from the wood of rubber trees that no longer provide latex, and would otherwise be cut down and burned. I love the classic look of them too.)

{Some people say Holland favors her MiMi…especially MiMi’s baby pictures! Of course Mom likes this just a little bit :}

{Wade gave Papa a picture of the two of them on Papa’s tractor.}

Wade received a gift from my parents called “20 Trucks”. The package consists of a video of 20 different trucks and peppy songs to accompany each truck. The lyrics are actually quite hilarious. Lines like “this is the work I really love because that’s what an excavator does” and “he’s an excavator, his work is more like fun” are just a few that I like. A snazzy shirt was also included with pictures of, yup, you guessed it: 20 trucks.

Who doesn’t love a grown man wearing his high school jacket with his “letter” on it? I know I do :)

My mom’s side of the family came over to my parent’s house the night after Christmas. Pictured here is my cousin, Shannon and her husband Caleb. Caleb is currently in the Air Force, so we like to pick their brains about what life may be like for us in the coming years. We just found out they’re expecting their first baby this summer! So exciting!

{This outfit was made by my grandmother for my brother 26 years ago! It’s still going strong!}

Please note the third member of the photo shoot below. His name is Lovey. Wade enjoys Lovey’s company. Fortunately for us, Lovey’s siblings (read: exact duplicates of Lovey) are for sale at a store near our house. Lovey recently went missing, so we are now technically on “Lovey 2” as we affectionately call him.

Hope you enjoyed this Christmas 2010 recap on February 18th! Ha!