Happy 8 Months Rayah!

Two days ago, Rayah turned 8 months old!  While I would like to do these updates every month, I seem to only get to them every 2 months, so here goes…

Eating/Drinking – Rayah is eating a good variety of solid foods and has liked everything I’ve given her so far.   Also, as of June 8th, she is officially weaned from breastfeeding and loves drinking her bottles of formula.  She looks so cute holding it all by herself!  She has eaten some rice cracker by herself too. Along with be weaned, I cut out all night-time feedings – hooray!

  

Health – in May she got a bad yeast infection on her bum that just didn’t want to go away, so that was a bit of a battle and meant that we needed to used disposable diapers so that we could use cream on her bum.  Since then, we haven’t gone back to her cloth diapers and probably won’t go back.  The same thing happened with Justice and once you switch to disposable diapers, it’s hard to be motivated to do cloth again.   It seems like she’s also been teething for 3 months straight with nothing to show for it, but FINALLY it looks like another tooth is about to break through any day now on the top!  Also, I’m not sure how much she weighs – I need to go find out – but she is a big, fat, cute, heavy, chubby muffin! 

Firsts – Rayah went swimming and swinging for the first time!  She looks so adorable in her little pink tankini.  

She visited Auntie Nicole’s house for the first time.  She had her first nights away from mommy & daddy so that we could attend a conference that our house of prayer put on.  She did good with Grandma, but unfortunately she decided to play strange with Grandpa and would just wail and cry whenever he tried to hold her!    She also got a bumbo chair, which she has mixed feelings about, but which is super handy!

Sleeping – Rayah now goes to bed at 7:30pm and sleeps until 6:30am, which is soooo wonderful!  Her napping has fluctuated in consistency, but she has been doing really good lately.  We cut out her evening nap, so now she only has 2 naps every day at 9am and 1pm and she usually naps from 1 1/2 – 2 hours, sometimes more.  She definitely sleeps much better than Justice did and most of the time I can just swaddle her and lay her down and she falls asleep on her own, which Justice never did until MUCH later!  She has rolled onto her stomach in the night while still in her swaddle, which she hasn’t been too happy about, but has then eventually fallen asleep again.  I tried to put her to sleep unswaddled for her naps, which she was okay with one day, but then raged at me when I tried it again the next day, so I will keep on swaddling her for a bit longer.

Development – Rayah has mastered sitting on her own, which has also made life much easier!  It’s so great to be able to sit her down with some toys around her and have her sit and play contentedly.  I love watching her play with her toys and discover new things! 

 

She has also laughed a couple times with a new chuckle at something Justice has done that she thought was funny.  She tends to be more serious than Justice and it takes more to get her to laugh, so I’m always trying to pay attention to what she finds amusing – mostly she just likes getting tickled!   She likes to clap her feet together and can stand on her own for a short time while holding onto a couch. 

She has played strange with a few more people, but not everybody, so I’m not sure why she picks certain people that she doesn’t like.  She is definitely a mama’s girl and hates it when I leave her sight and will wail and cry – sigh – this is something I never really had to deal with with Justice, since he always loved all people.   Lastly, in addition to gurgling and blowing spit bubbles, she has a vast vocabulary consisting of “dada, yaya, gaga”!

Other – We had our dedication service for Rayah where we took time to dedicate her to the Lord and have friends and family bless and pray over her, for her future and destiny, and for us as her parents, that He would give us everything we need to raise her well, for His glory!

  

Photo Shoot

On Mother’s Day weekend I did a photoshoot mostly of Rayah to celebrate her turning 6 months old, with a few pictures of Justice and our whole family thrown in too.  Here’s my favorites – I always have such a hard time narrowing them down!  You can click on any of these thumbnails to see the full-size image.  Enjoy!

  
  
 
  
  
  

Long Time No Write

Hello dear friends and readers,

I apologize for the lack of writing on this blog – my mind and time has been rather consumed as of late with the many different events and projects going on at the moment.

1.  My sister-in-law came for a visit!  In May, Angie and I planned to surprise my husband Joe and it went off without a hitch – he had no idea!  It was so great to have her out from B.C. and spend time with her – the kids loved having her around too! 

2.  My little sister gave birth to twins on June 8th!!  I am so excited to be an Auntie to these precious little babies – my nephew Mason Carter and my neice Ainsley Sage.  I just wish they lived next door instead of a 45 minute drive away so that I could go squish them whenever I wanted!

3.  My little brother is getting married!!  In February, my brother finally proposed to his long-time girlfriend, who has felt like she was a part of our family for a long time already and they are getting married on August 21st.  We are all very excited for them and looking forward to the wedding.  It’s a busy time for our family with many bridal and baby showers happening all at the same time!

4.  I’m trying to live a healthier lifestyle.  Myself and a few friends have started our own little fitness club, for lack of a better term, where we are trying to implement healthier choices in the way we eat, move, and think.  We are going to try to add one new healthy habit in each of those three categories each month and keep each other accountable.  This month we are working on eating more fruits & vegetables, stretching, and having gratitude.  In addition to these, I’m trying to drink more water and go for walks more often.  I bought a pedometer to track my steps and have set a goal of 10,000 steps per day, but I’ve only reached it once in the last 2 weeks – ha!  Overall though, I am feeling good about the small changes I’m making and setting my sights on long term results that last throughout my life.

5.  We’re thinking about building a house!   When we bought the house we are currently living in, it came with a double-wide lot, so we’ve had this big empty patch of grass next to us that’s just been begging to be developed for some useful purpose.  We have agonized over what to do with this lot and have wanted to be wise with how we use this resource that God has blessed us with.  We are looking into what it would take to subdivide our property into two separate lots so that we could potentially build a house and seeing if we can afford what it would cost to go through with such a big project!  I’ve been making many phone calls and emails, doing research on the internet, and drawing up potential plans.  I waver between excitement and dread and we are just praying for God to lead us perfectly in all the decisions regarding this possible endeavor.  If we were to go through with it, the plan would be to move into the new house and rent out our current house.

6.  We’re thinking about adoption!  I’ve been on a personal journey with discovering the heart of God for the orphan over the last couple of years and we find ourselves being drawn more to the possibility of adopting ourselves.  While the reality of this dream may in actuality be years down the road yet, it is something that is continually stirring in my heart and something that we are slowly working towards.  It is difficult to trust God with the timing of this, as well as the how and where and who and all the other questions that inevitably come with such a life-changing decision.  In the mean-time, I am sowing “adoption seeds” by giving to other people’s adoptions and sponsoring children and doing whatever the Lord leads us to do for the cause of the orphan across the earth. 

7.  We’re playing outside and don’t have as much time for blogging.   With summer upon us, Justice could spend all day, every day outside!  He’s constantly begging to go play in the “back yard”, on the slide, or go for a walk in the stroller.  We discovered a new park nearby too, so we’ve been enjoying going there and watching Justice learn new things on the play structure.  Rayah simply loves the swing and kicking her legs!