When I actually type out "23 Months" and look at it it looks much older/longer than it feels. I'm not exactly sure how we got here so fast!
This month also went by without any pictures, but that will change soon as the new one is going to be here on Wednesday. Sorry Asher! He was too fast for our old point and shoot anyway and we are excited to have a much faster shutter speed. He will stop and say "cheese" now, but he's still too fast. :)
This month Asher is officially in his "Big Boy Room". It took a week to fully adjust to overnights and the last 5 days we have been having problems again. I think it's a combination of him banging into the wall and dreams. He says "no" a lot in his dreams... He did make it onto the floor once this week but wasn't that upset about it (glad we got that carpet a few months ago). I'm not sure how he even ended up there. The way the rail is set up he has to be intentional about getting out of bed.
I have learned this month that the best way to discipline Asher is to not get mad. As in, the more frustrated I become the more his listening skills go down the drain. I read a really great blog post about not spanking and showing that Biblically, so that really bolstered my confidence about the way I was feeling about that part. I'm not here to debate whether you should or shouldn't. In our house as the parents we just weren't comfortable with it but felt kind of isolated when so many people do. So it was a blessing to me to feel confident in that decision. However, he STILL doesn't fully understand time-outs (he will willingly put himself in time-out and be happy about it) so I just started raising my voice (ok, let's call it what it is-yell) after I would ask him to do something a couple of times. If I am calm he responds so much more willingly. I have also discovered that he is at the age where I can explain the expectations BEFORE we do something (Ex. No running in church, you can walk into the store but you have to hold my hand) and he does 100% better. That is a real blessing.
I'm sure I have doomed myself to a bad listening day and a few tantrums just typing this out!
We love talking to him. Everyday its more and more words. It's so fun to listen to him. He uses the word "um" a lot when he is trying to think something through. "Asher, what color is that balloon?" "um, um, pink!". Not sure where he learned that, but it's great. And he has started to physically show us the number 2. As in we read two books at night. When he asks about reading number two he puts both index fingers together. So funny!
Lastly, he has discovered music! He normally tells us "no singing!" when we try and I had just given up for now. He doesn't care if it's on in the car and the only time I had seen him react to it was a Talib Kweli song in Chipotle, he liked the bass (he is my kid after all). I know many kids his age can sing little songs and I just thought maybe he just wasn't going to like music or something. However, his Aunt Kate sent us some Cd's at Christmas. Remember Presidents of the Untied States of America? Well, that guy now does kid's music! And it's not terrible! In fact, daddy's favorite song all the sudden was being requested by Asher in the car. Well, demanded at first. We call it the "Blue Jay Song" and we couldn't figure out what he was asking for at first. His "Blue Jay" comes out "Due Day". Man, he was frustrated with us that day! We now listen to it at home too. Saturday he just sat in his room with us and listened. He didn't want to talk, just looked at the pictures in his books and jammed. And this last week we caught him singing to himself! So funny! The kid has pretty good tone too!
Favorite foods: Everything bagels with cream cheese. Any type of pasta with cheese. Kid's Cliff Bars (a treat only when we are out of the house). Grapes, peas, and cookies. Oh, and chocolate chips. I recently made up a snack I called Monkey Treats, just sliced up a banana, a little smear of PB, and two miniature chococlate chips. After the first few he figured out he could just suck the PB and chips right off.
Favorite toys: Cars, cars, and more cars. And his new marble tower thing. It's from when his daddy was little. And we still have some Easter Eggs out that we put small plastic animals into.
Favorite books: God's Little Boy, New Baby (Berenstain Bears), Little Bear's Visit
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
Dear New Baby
Dear New Baby,
I can't believe we have made it a full 38 weeks. You will be here (hopefully) rather soon. This whole pregnancy we have joked that you seem to know what your doing. I don't know if you've ever NOT been head down and you have felt lower than your brother did.
We are so excited to meet you! We haven't had a really strong feeling if you are a boy or a girl but at this point we are leaning boy. Yet, that is all we know! I have pulled out all your newborn clothes and left the boy clothes in the boxes. Your room is the same that your big brother had except I made you both new curtains.
I hope that you feel welcomed and loved because you are! I am nervous that I won't have the time to give you as you have with a first born, but I need to leave that up to God. I am also a bit nervous to help you through life with myself being a first born. I hope that when the time comes I will realize that you are being born into a different birth order, I hope it won't even make a difference!
Your daddy has claimed today, Friday the 13th as your birthday. I think that is what kept me up tossing and turning all night last night!
We have settled on names-sort of. Micah for a boy, Naomi for a girl. However, Abraham has re-entered my mind in the last week and I can't seem to shake it. We also don't exactly have middle names set in stone. I want Amy-Lynn for a girl, but am not sure how to spell it, I don't want to give you too many names. We are between Bradley and Eugene for a boy. I haven't told your daddy, but I think I'm more partial to Bradley.
You are being born in the middle of a giant baby boom at church, just like your brother was. Funny how things work that way.
A gallon of milk has gone up over $2 since your brother was born. I am embarrassed to say that we pay about $7 for a gallon of organic milk. Gas is up to $3.75 depending on the day. It is a difficult time for folks in the money department. We have had to make some sacrifices but God has been so good to give me the opportunity to stay home with you. The sacrifices are nothing in the scheme of things! What an awesome job to be a stay-at-home mom!
We plan on having you at home, but just want you to be healthy. I am almost afraid of having a quicker labor with you than your brother. If your daddy is at work we need to give him time to get here!
I am most excited to see if your look like your brother and if one of our kids will have daddy's curly hair. I am also so excited to learn your personality. All I know is that you will have a completely different one than your brother! He doesn't have many extremes, so it's hard for me to imagine an opposite of him. All I know now is that you are very active and daddy claims that you push him back when he pushes on you through my stomach.
I had a lot more things to tell you last night as I was tossing and turning, but this is all I can put together in the daylight. We are excited for you to arrive and are so blessed to have you as an addition to our family.
I love you!
I can't believe we have made it a full 38 weeks. You will be here (hopefully) rather soon. This whole pregnancy we have joked that you seem to know what your doing. I don't know if you've ever NOT been head down and you have felt lower than your brother did.
We are so excited to meet you! We haven't had a really strong feeling if you are a boy or a girl but at this point we are leaning boy. Yet, that is all we know! I have pulled out all your newborn clothes and left the boy clothes in the boxes. Your room is the same that your big brother had except I made you both new curtains.
I hope that you feel welcomed and loved because you are! I am nervous that I won't have the time to give you as you have with a first born, but I need to leave that up to God. I am also a bit nervous to help you through life with myself being a first born. I hope that when the time comes I will realize that you are being born into a different birth order, I hope it won't even make a difference!
Your daddy has claimed today, Friday the 13th as your birthday. I think that is what kept me up tossing and turning all night last night!
We have settled on names-sort of. Micah for a boy, Naomi for a girl. However, Abraham has re-entered my mind in the last week and I can't seem to shake it. We also don't exactly have middle names set in stone. I want Amy-Lynn for a girl, but am not sure how to spell it, I don't want to give you too many names. We are between Bradley and Eugene for a boy. I haven't told your daddy, but I think I'm more partial to Bradley.
You are being born in the middle of a giant baby boom at church, just like your brother was. Funny how things work that way.
A gallon of milk has gone up over $2 since your brother was born. I am embarrassed to say that we pay about $7 for a gallon of organic milk. Gas is up to $3.75 depending on the day. It is a difficult time for folks in the money department. We have had to make some sacrifices but God has been so good to give me the opportunity to stay home with you. The sacrifices are nothing in the scheme of things! What an awesome job to be a stay-at-home mom!
We plan on having you at home, but just want you to be healthy. I am almost afraid of having a quicker labor with you than your brother. If your daddy is at work we need to give him time to get here!
I am most excited to see if your look like your brother and if one of our kids will have daddy's curly hair. I am also so excited to learn your personality. All I know is that you will have a completely different one than your brother! He doesn't have many extremes, so it's hard for me to imagine an opposite of him. All I know now is that you are very active and daddy claims that you push him back when he pushes on you through my stomach.
I had a lot more things to tell you last night as I was tossing and turning, but this is all I can put together in the daylight. We are excited for you to arrive and are so blessed to have you as an addition to our family.
I love you!
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Settling In
Well, it's been a while now, I've received my last paycheck, and I already was helped at the bank by the teller that replaced me.
I am officially a Stay At Home Momma. And let me tell you something right here and now. I love this. Sure, we went through an adjustment phase, and there were a couple days where I cried my eyes out, even one day where I swore I was going back to work! I'm sure that the Little Man was freaking out too: "Why doesn't she go back to work she is driving me CRAZY!!!". However, now that we have settled in a bit, I can honestly say that I love it.
Now, I know more adjustment is coming. Another baby will be here very soon blowing all of this out of the water but I'm glad we got to reconnect before that. And yes, he has become a mommy's boy again, but we are together pretty much constantly. And yes, when his Nana takes him once a week I feel like I'm missing my left arm and I wish he was back for the first 2 hours he is gone. On the other hand, it's kinda nice to feel these things again.
What has gotten me through this adjustment period? Galatians. Specifically one verse that I just keep repeating over and over again when I am exasperated, exhausted, when he ignores me in an attempt to not listen, when he throws a tantrum, when I feel like I'm tired of being consistent ("please stop throwing the mulch in the driveway honey!").
Galatians 6:9
Here it is in the NIV:
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
And since the hubs and I looked it up in different versions here are some for you.
NKJV:
"And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart."
The Message:
"So let's not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don't give up, or quit."
Now, I realize that I am taking this out of context. One of my favorite reasons in discussing the Bible with my hubby is that he always wants to look at a verse in it's context. Anyone can take a verse and make it say something entirely different than intended!
However, this verse came back to mind a while ago and has been STUCK there ever since. I am claiming it as my own.
I am officially a Stay At Home Momma. And let me tell you something right here and now. I love this. Sure, we went through an adjustment phase, and there were a couple days where I cried my eyes out, even one day where I swore I was going back to work! I'm sure that the Little Man was freaking out too: "Why doesn't she go back to work she is driving me CRAZY!!!". However, now that we have settled in a bit, I can honestly say that I love it.
Now, I know more adjustment is coming. Another baby will be here very soon blowing all of this out of the water but I'm glad we got to reconnect before that. And yes, he has become a mommy's boy again, but we are together pretty much constantly. And yes, when his Nana takes him once a week I feel like I'm missing my left arm and I wish he was back for the first 2 hours he is gone. On the other hand, it's kinda nice to feel these things again.
What has gotten me through this adjustment period? Galatians. Specifically one verse that I just keep repeating over and over again when I am exasperated, exhausted, when he ignores me in an attempt to not listen, when he throws a tantrum, when I feel like I'm tired of being consistent ("please stop throwing the mulch in the driveway honey!").
Galatians 6:9
Here it is in the NIV:
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
And since the hubs and I looked it up in different versions here are some for you.
NKJV:
"And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart."
The Message:
"So let's not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don't give up, or quit."
Now, I realize that I am taking this out of context. One of my favorite reasons in discussing the Bible with my hubby is that he always wants to look at a verse in it's context. Anyone can take a verse and make it say something entirely different than intended!
However, this verse came back to mind a while ago and has been STUCK there ever since. I am claiming it as my own.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
My New Career
I have a degree in Nutrition. I have an associates degree in Massage Therapy. I am an EMT and left the Air Force as a Tech Sergeant. I just left a bank job I have worked since I was 14. And yet here I am about to embark on a crazy journey in the most difficult career I have ever attempted. That of a stay-at-home mom.
I am finally excited to stay home. I believe that staying home is where God wants me. Yes, it will be difficult and sometimes seem overwhelming and I will have bad days. Yet I can't help but be inspired by the fact that I am able to help shape at least 2 little people to enter the world as a loving, compassionate, hard-working, serving, God-loving (I pray) member of society. I get to serve my husband and family in this role and I will be learning a LOT.
Both my mom and MIL worked full-time so I had to work through some guilt about not working "as hard" as these women. I felt that they sacrificed so much and that I was taking the easy way out. Plus, it's a little overwhelming not having some model to follow. As in, I will be learning how to do this on my own. Does anyone have a manual?
I have also tried this once before and I had a difficult time with it. Staying at home with a little infant can sometimes be a bit mundane and lonely. At least I learned what not to do.
Since the hubby and I started discussing this months ago (well, we had discussed it before marriage too) I have learned a lot and I can see how God has been working to prepare me.
The biggest lesson I have learned is that I need to look to the Lord for my contentment, not anywhere else, including a cranky child. The next big lesson is that I need to have a servant's heart. I wrote a while back about serving outside of the home, but then realized that I didn't have a servant's heart IN the home first. It has made a big difference in my home life and outlook. Lastly, I have learned that while society will always be trying to shape what I believe, I know I am not of this world. Because of this, I can't listen to all the messages we are bombarded with in daily life, the list long enough for a post all it's own.
So here we are in week three of my career change. I guess I can finally talk about the fact that I left work unexpectadly early a couple of weeks ago due to family sickness and a sudden lack of childcare. It was just too much going on and honestly, it's all still going on, but I can at least help out with family things being at home. We are adjusting well and there have been some difficult days but overall I am so happy to be here. My mom took Asher on Monday so I could get things done and I couldn't believe how strange it was not to have him already. I used to leave him 3 days a week and here I was feeling like I was missing an arm.
I am praying for a somewhat smooth transition when the new little one arrives, which I can only hope will be soon at this point. I can't believe how done with being pregnant I am! I don't remember feeling this way with the first, but I'm sure the hubby would remind me how cranky I was then too...
I am finally excited to stay home. I believe that staying home is where God wants me. Yes, it will be difficult and sometimes seem overwhelming and I will have bad days. Yet I can't help but be inspired by the fact that I am able to help shape at least 2 little people to enter the world as a loving, compassionate, hard-working, serving, God-loving (I pray) member of society. I get to serve my husband and family in this role and I will be learning a LOT.
Both my mom and MIL worked full-time so I had to work through some guilt about not working "as hard" as these women. I felt that they sacrificed so much and that I was taking the easy way out. Plus, it's a little overwhelming not having some model to follow. As in, I will be learning how to do this on my own. Does anyone have a manual?
I have also tried this once before and I had a difficult time with it. Staying at home with a little infant can sometimes be a bit mundane and lonely. At least I learned what not to do.
Since the hubby and I started discussing this months ago (well, we had discussed it before marriage too) I have learned a lot and I can see how God has been working to prepare me.
The biggest lesson I have learned is that I need to look to the Lord for my contentment, not anywhere else, including a cranky child. The next big lesson is that I need to have a servant's heart. I wrote a while back about serving outside of the home, but then realized that I didn't have a servant's heart IN the home first. It has made a big difference in my home life and outlook. Lastly, I have learned that while society will always be trying to shape what I believe, I know I am not of this world. Because of this, I can't listen to all the messages we are bombarded with in daily life, the list long enough for a post all it's own.
So here we are in week three of my career change. I guess I can finally talk about the fact that I left work unexpectadly early a couple of weeks ago due to family sickness and a sudden lack of childcare. It was just too much going on and honestly, it's all still going on, but I can at least help out with family things being at home. We are adjusting well and there have been some difficult days but overall I am so happy to be here. My mom took Asher on Monday so I could get things done and I couldn't believe how strange it was not to have him already. I used to leave him 3 days a week and here I was feeling like I was missing an arm.
I am praying for a somewhat smooth transition when the new little one arrives, which I can only hope will be soon at this point. I can't believe how done with being pregnant I am! I don't remember feeling this way with the first, but I'm sure the hubby would remind me how cranky I was then too...
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