Five: First Foods

Macy turned 5 months on the 17th. All big and smiley and silly.

My once awesome sleeper has decided she is over that. Why sleep when you can move around?

She is now waking up a lot at night, fussy from rolling on her belly, or being mad that I tried to help her...whatever the reason, she is tired. I am tired. Hopefully, she will revert back to her old wonderful sleep schedule. Soon.

Since she is now five months old and growing like a weed, we decided to start feeding her solids, beginning with baby cereal. I was hoping this would help her sleep longer, as well.

She has no idea what is coming.

Cereal!

Her very first taste of solid food. Baby oatmeal to be specific.

She was not a fan.

At all.

In fact, she hated it. Every single bit of it.

Oh, baby.

Maybe we will just try again later...

Museum

One of the biggest blessing that came from our move to the Detroit Metro area is finding Jack's school. It is a wonderful, small co-op school that insists on heavy parental involvement, the only one of it's kind in the state of Michigan. It has been running for 40 years and has a very unique teaching system that I just adore.

One of the things that the whole school participate in is a called Museum. The school bases a lot of it's ideals off of Jean Piaget's style of learning. So, each student will pick a subject that they are interested in and would like to study and they do a complete research project and presentation about it. It can be anything that they are interested in, no matter what they are studying in school at the moment. Pre-K through 8th graders all participate.

The day of Museum, all of the kids will either present their studies or sit by their presentations and answer questions, like the kindergarteners did.

Jack chose to study Fire Safety.

He is my old soul, and wanted to learn how to be safe, how to get out of fires, and so forth.

He created his board on his own, he did all the paper mache on his firetruck and painted it. He created his own survey, asked his classmates and the elementary students and than created a chart.

His question?

"Do you think a house fire is more than 100 degrees?"

The majority voted yes, fyi.

He than researched and found out that house fires reach up to 15,000 degrees.

All of the kids did such a great job. There are 10 students in Jack's kindergarten class and the topics varied from Fire Safety to Dinosaurs, Lemonade Stands to Octonauts the Disney Jr. cartoon.

Math, reading and writing were all involved in their projects. They had to go to the library to get books to support their project.

Not too shabby for Kindergartners.

Ryan made sure that Jack had at least 10 books. He wanted to make sure his works cited was complete and accurate ;)

It was such a great way for the kids to be able to learn about what they are interested in, all the while learning how to present, create and process information.

The Kindergarten room  was bustling!

Jack was very serious about his topic. He wanted to make sure that people know how to Stop. Drop. And Roll.

 

We just adore Jack's teacher, Miss Venee. She has helped him come out of his shell, while not forcing him into activities till he is ready.

Here he is talking with her.

He just adores her, as do we.

I feel so blessed to be able to send him to school each day, and be excited to hear about what he is learning.

I didn't think I would ever feel confident and o.k with his schooling being done by strangers, but I have not had one moments doubt.

Jack is perfectly placed, and they let him flourish in his own way.

It was a fun afternoon, full of learning and knowledge. The kids were SO proud of their work and the parents were excited to learn from everyone.

I look forward to going again next year. Jack will be in 1st grade and will have to do an actual presentation before his peers and the parents. I wonder what his topic will be next year?

Love Extravagantly

My Valentines. 



If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

 If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

1 Corinthians 13:1-7, 13b 

The Message Version



Happy Valentine's Day Weekend!
Spend time with your favorite people.
Enjoy your surroundings.
Love extravagantly!

On the Bright Side...

It is snowing today.

Again.

Only 3-4 inches this time.

This is the picture of my commute to Jack's school at 11am today.

I live in a large suburb of Detroit.

A nice suburb with supremely wealthy along with a modest middle-class.

Very nice homes are in developments behind those trees.

Except, they don't plow here. Ever.

 So, in order to NOT dwell about the fact that my first winter back in the midwest after a seven year break is recording setting in both cold and snow amounts, I am going to try to look at the bright side of things.

1. I have 4 wheel drive on my Escape.

We were planning on getting a new vehicle to accommodate our expanding brood this summer, but between selling and buying houses, moving and so forth, we just could not put a ton of money into a new vehicle. We have no payments on our Escape, so we just decided to buy a new car seat that would allow our bench seat to fit 3 car seats. I am SO thankful we did that. Not only because of the money saved, but because I use my 4 wheel drive ALL the time here. Ya know, because they don't plow. Ever.

2. We have not been sick.
It is just too dang cold for germs to survive. At least, that is what I like to think. We have had some sniffles here and there, but no real sickness this whole fall and winter. I am super thankful for that. If those sub zero temps have anything to do that, than I am thankful.

3. I have had to buy new things.
Warm things. Sweaters and more sweaters. That is what I have had to buy. I gave away most of my warm sweaters from when I used to live in Minnesota a few winters ago, thinking that I would never need them in the mild VA winters. Welp, now I need them. Since I didn't have any, I went shopping.
Online shopping mostly, since it is too cold to head out... but at least it is still shopping.

4. We had 6 snow days in the month of January.
This September I was sad and weepy, thinking about how I no longer had lazy mornings with Jack. Getting up, snuggling with blankies and watching Disney Jr. before breakfast. It was nice to have my little man back for the whole day, no agenda, just jammies and playtime.

5. I get to wear sweatpants all day, every day.
First of all, it is freezing and fleece pants help keep me warm. Secondly, I am two and half weeks into a diastasis  recti repair program and I am wearing a stomach brace 24 hrs a day. (I will blog about this whole experience soon.) So finding pants that fit either over the brace or under it can be tricky. Sweatpants are the easiest. Plus, I am usually either snowed in or risk the chance of exposure and frostbite when going outside, so staying inside in sweatpants is the perfect solution.


6. Our garage can be used for a second refrigerator.
We keep a lot of our drinks out in the garage. It keeps them nice and cold, but does not freeze them. Plus, I get more room in my fridge.

7.Blankets and snuggles.
I get lots of them.
It is a winter bonus.

What are some things that you do to keep things cheery when temperatures plummet?

Any advice on a good winter coat or snow boots?

Good recipes?

Hush Now

There are always a million different things to do.

There are always dishes to be done, laundry to be folded, toys to be put away, emails to respond to, floors to sweep and fights to be refereed.

Having two small boys at home and one nursing baby girl, my days are broken into feedings. Nursing for Macy and breakfast, lunch, dinner for the boys and the 900 requests for snacks. (890 of those request come 2.5 seconds after I have started nursing their sister.)

So my "free" time to actually clean my house is limited.

I tend to rush to and fro, trying to tidy up something, do some chore before I am called away.

Rushing, rushing, rushing.

Now that Macy is 4 months old and on a pretty set eating schedule, I want to get her on a good nap schedule. She usually disagrees with me.

She sleeps great at night, but is the queen of the quick power naps during the day.

So, I am trying to get her used to napping in her crib and not on me.

I have started swaddling her, like when she goes down for the night, and rocking her to sleep. It is just me and her, in her tiny little room, rocking back and forth, lulling us both half-asleep.

Normally, I am patting her back, hurrying up that sleep, because I need to do something...
Pat, pat, sleep, sleep, baby. Sleep, sleep.

But than one day, I stopped patting and cuddled her in close, laid my cheek on her sweet, soft cheek and savored her. Her little baby breath on my shoulder, her warm body, her baby smell.

And I told myself to just calm it down.

I will always have dishes or laundry or dinner to make.

But I won't have a sweet baby that I get the privilege of rocking to sleep during the day.

I have two other babies in the other room that are playing (not so) quietly that don't need me to rock them to sleep.

So, for now, I am going to try to remind myself to stop and savor my girl.

Because babies don't keep.


-->

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing and butter the bread,
Sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren’t her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
For children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

Song for a Fifth Child

 by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

30

30 things I love about my husband on his 30th birthday.

1. He always puts our family first.

2. He loves the Lord more than anything else.

3. He works hard.

4. He works at a job that isn't his favorite or his "dream" job, but he works and provides for his family and that speaks volumes about his character.

5. He is the best daddy ever.

6. He studies the Bible.

7. He has a thirst for knowledge and learning.

8. He has a cute butt.

9. He is very disciplined.

10. He baths all the kids.

11. He runs to stay healthy.

12. He makes really stupid jokes.

13. He takes Jack to school in the mornings and lets him watch YouTube videos on cell formation.

14. He never limits the kids based on their age. If they want to know something, he will figure it out and help them learn about it.

15. He is humble. 

16. He helps me clean, reluctantly, but still cleans.

17. He tickles Colin till he can't breathe.

18. He changes diapers.

19. He gives nice kisses.

20. He always cleans the litter box.

21. He has way more grey hair than me.

22. He lets me buy all his clothes, even though he is stylish on his own.

23. He has been my main man for half his life.

24. He gave me cute kids.

25. He loves traveling.

26. He loves people more than things.

27. He values relationships over money.

28. He is a great teacher.

29. He is a hottie.

30. He is my mate for life and makes me so happy!

 Happy Birthday, Babe!

Love you.

Facts on Four

Our Miss Macy is now four months old.

 How time flies.

 She is a happy little lady.

She is 13 lbs 2 oz and dropped to the 25% for weight, but is still holding strong at the 75% for her height. Healthy as can be.

 

Her new tricks are rolling from her back to her belly.

Her greatest nemesis is tummy time.

This makes the " I can roll over in 3.4 seconds" act turn into a fuss fest, when she realizes that it STILL places her on her tummy.

She loves to blow bubbles and will mimic it back to you. Two brothers spitting bubbles at you? Hilarious. She must do it back.

She loves LOVES her big brother Jack. Anythings he says or does is the funniest and the greatest. He comes second to Mom.

This face? Laughing at Jack talking to her.

She is such a good baby. She sleeps through the night and has since 2 months old. We are working on naps, but she is getting better. I am still just thankful for the 7 hr plus 3 hrs at night, that I can work on those daytime naps with no problems.

We love our little Macer Racer.

She just needs to slow down this growth stuff.