Happy 9 Months Rayah!

My little baby girl is already 9 months old and she’s not so little any more!  She weighed in at 23 lb. 12 oz. and is around 29 3/4 inches long.  She officially outgrew her infant carseat, so we purchased one of these combo infant-child-booster seats that can still be used rear-facing for now and which she can grow into as well.  She is a chunky-monkey and I love her chubby rolls – she is so squishable and loveable in all her soft, mushy goodness! 

She has also been teething pretty much all month and has four teeth on the top to show for it!  This has also allowed her to start eating some new foods & loves chomping on rice crackers or a baby carrot or apple slice or french fries.   She often cries while we’re feeding her if we don’t go fast enough or when she’s done her bottle, because she’s so sad it’s over!  Here she is showing off her teeth in her classic under-bite smile.    Oh, and don’t you just love the little curl of hair she has in the  front – so cute!

She loves standing while we hold her hands and it makes her very happy to be standing, which is quite different from Justice, who would just go limp if we tried to hold his hands and have him stand or walk.  She’s also trying to crawl and will desperately try to move forwards toward a toy or something, but inevitably ends up pushing herself backwards into a corner.    However, she can scootch quite a distance acoss the floor while sitting on her bum!

Video – Bouncing

She’s responding to her name and laughing more and has added “mamamama” and “baba” to her extensive vocabulary of “dada”, “gaga” and “yaya”.    The videos below the pictures show her growling noises that she sometimes makes while eating that just crack me up (skip to about 0:35), as well as some funny noises she was making one day during her bath.

Video – Growly Eater

Video – Noisy Bather

She’s sleeping unswaddled on her stomach at night, but I’ve still been swaddling her for her naps, just because it seems to help her sleep better and longer.  She’s also learning how to open drawers and cupboard doors, except that most of them are already babyproofed, much to her frustration.

She loves sitting and playing in the water at the splash park and we’ve really been enjoying going there as a family once or twice a week!

Lastly, I’ve really been noticing several differences this month between Rayah and Justice as her unique personality is really becoming apparent.  She is more serious, more sensitive, more delicate, and more of a mama’s girl (“plays strange” with a lot of people and doesn’t like it if mommy leaves the room) while Justice is always laughing, is tough as nails most times, and loves people!  She’s also really funny – making Justice and Joe and I laugh a lot, determined, curious, and simply beautiful.

Justice – 2 years 4 months

I suppose it’s time to give an update on Justice, since I don’t think I’ve written much about him since his second birthday!

1.  Big Boy Bed. Shortly after he turned 2, Justice officially transitioned from his crib to his big boy bed!  He loves his sports bedding, jumping on his bed, climbing on his bed, rolling around on his bed, etc.  He also LOVES snuggling and every nap and night he asks, “Snuggle with mommy/daddy?”  It’s very sweet.

2.  Terrible Twos?  He started throwing some pretty epic tantrums, falling to the floor, yelling, crying, etc., but thankfully these did not occur too often in public.  Mostly it was at home, happening in respones to any occassion where he did not get his way.   He also learned the joy of saying, “NO!” repeatedly and began to hit, kick, swat, bite, and headbutt!  While it drove me a little batty for a couple months, with some consistent and firm discipline, along with much prayer and supplication, things have improved dramatically and he is learning to be much more obedient.  I think our biggest struggle at this time is getting him to come to us when we call him – all he ever does is run away from us!

3.  Singing Songs.  Justice has developed a real love for songs and will often request his favorites, one of which is “Happy Birthday”, ever since his birthday party.   He also loves the ”Bob the Builder” song, “Jesus Loves Me”, “Jesus Loves the Little Children”, “Father Abraham”, “Jesus is Alive”, etc.  I love listening to him try to sing songs on his own and how he loves listening to the worship music from the prayer room!  In addition to singing, Justice also loves instruments – whether it’s Daddy’s guitar, Mommy’s piano, or anything that you can hit with a stick and it’ll make a noise.

 
(Video of Justice playing drums)

4.  Dancing!  Justice has developed quite the unique dancing skills!  His signature move is jumping up and down while pointing up to the ceiling with his hands, alternating between the left and right, while throwing in the occassional hip twist motion – it’s quite entertaining and tiring to watch!   He loves to dance whenever he hears music or even just a good beat.  He has endless amounts of energy and has dubbed his signature move the “hotdog dance” after the one he watches on Mickey Mouse Playhouse.

(Video of Justice dancing)

5.  Running!  “RUN!  CHASE!!  GET YOU!!!”  These are the repeated commands we hear shouted with much enthusiasm multiple times every day!  Usually this is followed by the name of whoever he wants to chase him, such as “RUN!!  MOMMY!!  RUN!!  DADDY!!  RUN!!  RAYAH!!”  His favorite is when Rayah “chases” him, as we hold in our arms and run after him.   He could run all day long and nothing makes him happier than to have somebody run after him.  But it’s really only fun if we also catch him.  If he finds he’s been running too long, he’ll stop so we can catch him and inevitably tickle him like crazy!

6.  “TRUCKS!!! MOTORBIKES!!! ECHOVATORS!!!”  Justice has an obsessive passion for pretty much any type of motor vehicle of any kind and loves to yell them out very enthusiastically every time he sees them.  It makes for very interesting drives as he has to point out each one – and he knows them all!    Truck, big rig, echovator (excavator), backhoe loader, tractor, car, motorbike, bike, combine, skidsteer, cement mixer, dump truck, ambulance, fire truck, garbage truck, etc. etc.  He loves it when we go driving by construction sites and also had a great time visiting a local fire station with his Uncle who is a volunteer fireman!  (Click on the photo to see the full-size version & his great expression!)

7.  Escape Artist.  Justice has escaped the house on several occassions – one time we found him on the neighbor’s yard barefoot in his pajamas.  Another time he ran outside naked after his bath!  Another time he was in his pajamas and has the foresight to put on his rubber boots to go out in the rain.   We have had to be much more diligent about locking our main entrance doors and making sure the fence gate is always closed!

8.  Mud & Water.  Justice loves playing with dirt, water, and consquently mud!  He’s eaten his share of mud pies already this spring and will often get completely drenched after playing with his water table.  For his love of water though, he doesn’t seem to enjoy being wet, as he will then come inside and tell me, “Too wet! Very wet! Change?” 

9.  Big Brother.  Justice is learning to be a very good big brother!   He loves it when he can make her smile or laugh and one time, he said to her, “C’mere Rayah!” while stretching out his arms to her.  So I sat him down and put Rayah in his lap so he could hold her, and then he said, “Back and forth, love you forever” from the popular children’s book by Robert Munsch where the mother rocks her baby “back and forth” and sings the song I’ll Love You Forever.  It was so sweet!  He will often bring her toys to play with, which can be very helpful!  Unfortunately, in the pictures below, he also decided to share his muddy shovel with her.

  

10.  Athletic!  Justice not only loves running and dancing, but he loves anything athletic!  He has learned how to do somersaults, likes to buck like a horse, loves to kick and throw any type of ball, can do a one-handed dunk with his little basketball into the hoop, loves to climb anything and everything, and basically keeps us on our toes at all times!

11.  Funny!  With his extensive vocabulary that just keeps growing and growing, he is often saying funny things that make us laugh.  Most of his sayings probably come from books we read him, movies he watches, or things he hears us saying, but they sound so comical coming from him.   Like the time he put the phone to his ear and said, “Very interesting!  Are you kidding?” or the time he randomly said, “Sky falling! Holy smokes! So smart!” or my personal favorite, when he said, “Don’t hit JESUS!” while swatting vigorously at the air!    He often asks, “What happened? What’s the matter?  Why you do dat?  Where’s ____ (Daddy, Rayah, Gramma, Grandpa, etc.)?  Sound like fun?  Go for ride in the van?  Try some?  Pwwwwweeeeese?”  Some of his other favorite sayings are, “Sure!  Oh my goodness!  Yes I can!  Apologize!  Oh jeepers!  I think so!  Woohoo!”  And lastly, since we are often having to tell him to stop hitting, or stop whining, or stop kicking or whatever, he has taken to telling others what he wants them to stop doing, like to Rayah, “Stop crying!” or to the birds, “Stop chirping!  Stop flying!” – hahaha!

12.  Potty Training!  We have been in the throes of potty training for the past two weeks, and while there have been times of utter frustration, we seem to be making great progress and I am very proud of him!  I will probably write an entire post about our potty training adventures, but so far I think it’s going really good and we’ve had several accident-free days!

What else can I say other than “I love this kid!”

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!

        

10K in 20 Days

Hello my few and faithful readers!

I may have a small following here, and today I wish I had the ability to influence thousands, but I believe that even the handful of you who read this blog can make a HUGE impact TODAY!

A blog I read, Storing Up Treasures, is running an incredible fundraiser to bring in $10,000 in 20 days to help 26 families in their adoptions!  They are asking that you give just a measley $5 (but I dare you to give more!) to contribute to financing these families as they seek to bring their babies home. 

Today, YOU can make a very real difference in the lives of 26 orphans!  I encourage you to go over there and GIVE with a generous heart!

Happy 6 months Rayah!

Well, I missed my 5 month update on Rayah, so in the last two months there have been a few new things!

 

In March, I transitioned Rayah from a 3-hour feeding schedule to a 4-hour feeding schedule and switched her from 4 naps down to 3 naps.  So, she was nursing around 7am, 11am, 3pm, and 7pm with a nap at 9am, 1pm, and 5pm, going to bed around 8pm.  This has remained relatively the same, but she also has started on solid foods, so now she has her solid food at 7, 11, and 3 and then I top her up with milk after her solids and nurse her before bed at 7pm.  She is really liking her cereal and she has also tried pears so far & she often cries when I don’t feed it to her fast enough or once it’s gone and she realizes she’s not getting any more.   Sometimes she’ll also grab my pinky and try to control the spoon, pulling it towards her mouth.

Some funny faces Rayah likes to make are a furrowed brow, to suck on her top lip or curl it under her gums – she looks so silly when she does this!  She was also making me laugh as she did the splits in the air with her legs in her bouncy chair.

   

She loves to pluck her soother out of her mouth & then try to put it back in.  She is still VERY grabby & is always looking to grab anything and everything within reach!   She has also learned how to grab and pull her feet into her mouth, which she loves to do when I’m changing her diaper.

 

On March 9th, she rolled from her stomach to her back for the first time and on March 18th, she rolled from her back to her stomach for the first time!  She is now a rolling pro and loves to do it all the time.

In March, Justice got bronchitis, which Rayah then also got – so they both had really nasty coughs for a couple weeks, but thankfully they recovered fairly quickly.  It was kind of scary though, because there were times when Rayah was wheezing really bad and would cough up tons of phlegm that was in her lungs.

Rayah is definitely laughing and giggling lots and is very obviously ticklish – she squirms and squeals when I tickle her neck and belly – so cute!

At 5 months old, Rayah weighed in at 17 lb 13 oz and she now weighs 19 lb 10 oz (1 pound heavier than Justice at the same age!).  She is a BIG girl – lol!  She is wearing several 12 month old clothing already!  What can I say?  I make big babies.

After much crankiness and drolling, on March 26th, Rayah got her first tooth!  Her second bottom tooth followed shortly afterwards on March 31st.  It seems like she’s teething again, since she is constantly trying to shove things into her mouth, so maybe her top ones are also on the way?

Thankfully, Rayah has also been sleeping much better during her naps and at night.  She has had several 8-10 hour stretches and only feeds once in the night now.  I find this makes a dramatic difference for me to be getting some better sleep myself!  And to end this update, a few more pictures just to show you how cute she is!

  
 

Book Review: Sacred Parenting by Gary Thomas

A friend of mine lent me their copy of Gary Thomas’s book Sacred Parenting several months ago and I finally finished it!  It didn’t take me this long to read because it was unenjoyable - on the contrary, it was so full of depth and rich words that I needed the extra time to chew on what he wrote.  In fact, now that I’m done, I think I’m going to read it again and perhaps write some further posts on how this book spoke to me personally on the subject of “How Raising Children Shapes Our Souls”.  Seriously, if you have ever thought that you might want to have children, if you are married and considering having kids, if you are currently pregnant, or if you already have children, I would absolutely and totally recommend this book!  In fact, go out and buy it right now – for real!  This book has really encouraged and challenged me as a mother and many of the author’s points struck home for me.  I’m now asking myself a lot of questions…

How is God making me holy through parenting?

Am I allowing my kids to experience challenges and pain for their own spiritual good?

How do I deal with mommy guilt and my failures as a parent?

Am I listening to the Holy Spirit for His guidance as I mother my kids?  How can I take advantage of the benefits of prayer as well as enter into my responsibility and calling to pray for my kids? 

Do I find great joy in parenting my kids?  How can I enter into greater levels of joy as a mom?

God, how do I deal with anger when my kids are driving me to the point of boiling, burning rage?

How can I look past the mundane, the puke and poop, the temper tantrums, and see the eternal glory and rewards on the other side?

How can I learn to embrace the challenges and trials of parenting, knowing that it is producing in me great perseverance? 

What truly matters in the things I give myself to daily?  What kind of spiritual inheritance am I leaving for my kids?

What characteristics, good and bad, am I reproducing in my kids?  What areas do I want to change so that my kids don’t have to suffer from the same character flaws that I do?

What am I willing to sacrifice for my children’s benefit?  And can I sacrifice these things joyfully, without holding it against them? 

Can I trust God with my children’s lives?  Can I trust God with their next breath, with their future, their destiny, and even the possibilty of my own death?

Wow.  I know that’s a lot.  There’s a lot to think about and pray about.  I can get a little overwhelmed at times, feeling like I am so inadequate as a mom and like there are SO many areas that God needs to work on in me, but in the end, I am left feeling encouraged that God knows exactly what He is doing and that He has designed my parenting journey perfectly, just for me!  My kids have been handpicked by God and lovingly placed into our family so that we can be made holy.  As the author says to close his book, “Being a parent is a sacred calling”.

Family Fun

Yesterday, Joe and I went to take out our new double stroller for a walk with the kids to have a picnic lunch at a nearby park.  It was a cool spring afternoon, so we needed to bundle up a bit, but we were looking forward to going out for some fresh air and to let Justice run around and play.  However, it’s not unusual for things to get a little chaotic when trying to prepare for a family outing and we were both getting a little frazzled.  As we were walking down our driveway, Joe was getting frustrated with something and sort of snapped at me, so in response, both to express my frustration and to also try and lighten the mood a little, I growled loudly, “WE’RE TRYING TO HAVE SOME FAMILY FUN, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!”  Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a similar situation – I wasn’t really angry, I just wanted to vent in an overly exaggerated way to bring attention to the fact that we were being silly to get so uptight.  Before I did though, I did briefly look around and saw that there was nobody in sight, as I didn’t exactly want to throw a fit in the public eye.  But not a few seconds after my little vent, we heard a chuckle and saw our next door neighbor sitting on his front step talking on his phone and we knew that he had heard me.  I couldn’t help laughing and thought it was terribly funny and it kept me laughing throughout our little excursion.  Just a little reminder that there is always someone watching and to be careful what you say and do!   But we did have a good time with the kids and enjoyed our family fun time together.

 

The Party!

We had a great time celebrating Justice’s 2nd Birthday on Saturday with some friends of ours and their kids, who are all fairly close to Justice in age, as well as my parents.  We didn’t plan any organized activities, but pretty much just let the kids runs around and play with whatever toys they wanted.  However, the play dough I had made seemed to be a big hit with most of the kids and was where a lot of time was spent.  Some was eaten and much was mashed into our carpet (any tips for getting it out??), but overall it was just a lot of fun.

After all the playing, we had lunch (burgers for the adults & mini pizzas for the kids), followed by cupcakes with candles for Justice to blow out.

When it was time to open presents, I found it funny how involved all the kids wanted to be – everyone wanted a good view and to help bring presents to Justice or help unwrap them.  Justice himself would just get fixated upon playing with whatever he opened that it was hard to get his attention to open another gift – ha!  We then handed out some simple goodie bags to the kids and let them all play with all the gifts until it was time to go.

Overall, it was a great success!  Thanks to everyone who came and made it a fun day for our little man.

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