All things considered, it could have been worse

Chris & Noelle are shopping and walk past a blind lady with her seeing-eye dog.

Noelle: "Look! That dog got to come to Walmart. Maybe some day we can take our dog to Walmart."

We need to rake

Jared's 12 Month Post

Jared turned one today! (And he even smiled for his pictures.) We've had a great day celebrating with our families. I'll put up a post with birthday pictures later, but here are some things I want to remember about Jared at this age.

He generally takes one nap a day right after lunch and will sleep 2-3 hours.

At night, he sleeps from 7:00pm to around 5:30am, drinks a bottle and then will sleep until 7:30 or 8:00. (Soon, we'll probably try to stop breaking that little habit, but it'll probably be ugly for a couple of days.)

He loves to play with balls and cars.

He started cruising on furniture a lot over the last few weeks. I still think he's a month or so away from walking, but he gets around pretty well between cruising and crawling.

He still only has 2 teeth, but his top 2 look like they'll come in any day. (They've been looking like that for a while, though!)

He has started signing "milk" without us prompting him to copy us. He also says, "Nanana" which we think is his word for milk or food.

Words he says: "Da" (Dog), Dada, Uh-oh, & Nanana

He wears size 4 diapers & 9-12 month clothes. I'll have official stats on him in a couple weeks after his check up. I'm pretty sure he's still under 20 lbs.

He continues to eat baby food well, but is a lot pickier about finger foods. His favorite thing at the moment is diced ham.

Here are a few pictures from the month:

He tried to eat a stamp and got ink on his face (it also gives you a good view of his teeth):

Enjoying a piggyback ride:

Before we left to look at Christmas lights:

He still sucks his fingers...a lot!

Cute jammies:

Crawling through his tunnel:

Trying to get a cute sibling picture. Their outfits matched and everything. Oh well:

Noelle can jump rope

There will be payback

Dinner Conversation

Sarah takes the last sip of her milk and spills a little bit on her tummy.

Noelle: "You spilled it on the baby!"

Sarah: "You're right. I did."

Noelle: "The baby is crying now."

Jared's 11 Month Post

Late again, but I'm still writing this post so I'll have something to look back at when I'm trying to fill in Jared's baby book. (Which I'm sure will not be happening any time soon!) :-)

--We took several pictures and he looks like this in all of them. Oh, well. I think they're pretty funny. He's in front of our Christmas tree, in case you can't tell.

--Biggest news of this month: Jared's going to be a big brother! He was actually the first person to know, since we knew he wouldn't tell anyone. :-) I'll have to eventually write the whole story of how we told our families, but it involved "Big Brother" & "Big Sister" shirts. Our families weren't expecting the news, and didn't put it together for a while. Like a few hours.


--From the time Jared was little, he's loved to play with balls, and has recently started throwing them, too. He loves for Noelle to keep bringing him things to throw.


--Jared found the dog door, much sooner than his sister did. He didn't seem to think it was that big of a deal when he ended up outside.





--He thinks peek-a-boo and pretend sneezing are pretty funny.

--He "helped" decorate the Christmas tree this year. We have a play yard around it this year so he can't un-decorate it.



--Here's our attempt at a family photo. Out of many takes, it's the best we got.


--The last week or two of November he started pulling up all the way to his feet, and shortly after that he was proficient at cruising around furniture. He loves to stand up!

--He's eating more finger foods, but has become pickier recently. His favorites are cheerios, mandarin oranges, peas, and toast. So far he doesn't like pasta. What kid doesn't like pasta??


--He's officially weaned now. Because of some medicine I have to be on during pregnancy we had to quit breastfeeding.


--He now has 2 bottom teeth. (I think his first one came in October 28th.) He's pretty cranky when he's teething.

--He babbles quite a bit. He can also "say" Dada and Dog. Occasionally he'll say mama, too, but I'm not sure if he is really saying it or just babbling the right sounds. But I love hearing it, anyway!

--We're doing a little bit of sign language with him now. He can sign "all-done" at the end of a meal (if we prompt him.) I'm excited that he's started copying us, and am looking forward to when he can actually use the signs to communicate. He also knows what we mean when we sign "milk" and "eat."

--He can clap and wave when we ask him (and if he's in the right mood.)

--A couple more photos from the month:



--In general he continues to be a very happy and cute little guy!

Faith

Noelle got to spend some time at the mall playground this morning. She was quite active and brave (for her). She even jumped off of the slide and bridge several times.

"That was a little bit scary, but I knew that my God would be with me...just like he was with David when he fought Goliath. I knew He would be with me. That's why I jumped."

The Teething Fairy

Here's my proposal. When babies are teething, a fairy should come and visit the parents and give them some cash. I guess that wouldn't really help anything, except that I'd use my cash to buy some cheesecake or something. :-)

Quiz

After 4 or 5 weeks, why did Sarah quit her C25K running program?

A. She was injured
B. She was sick
C. She is lazy
D. She is pregnant!!
E. C & D



I'll save you the suspense.....















D.
(Although E applies, too.) :-) We're so thrilled to tell everyone that we are pregnant again! Our due date is set for the end of June.

In case there was any doubt, Noelle's song is entitled "I am the ballerina."

10 months old

Here's what Jared is up to at 10 months:

--He finally got his first tooth!! (On October 28th it started peeking through, and I think another one is right behind it.) Jared is not as good of a teether as Noelle was. He definitely gets cranky at times, not that I blame him. He teethes on our coffee table quite often. I'm sure it'll have toothmarks on it before long. Here is evidence of the crankiness:


--One of his favorite "games" is dropping things. Noelle will hand him something, he'll drop it and crack up, and then she'll pick it up again.

--He also thinks that peek-a-boo and sneezing are hilarious.


--He started waving and clapping this month.

--He almost always sleeps on his tummy with his bottom in the air, which I think is totally adorable. Aren't sleeping babies so cute?


--He frequently pulls up to his knees, but rarely gets all the way to his feet. I'm thinking that he's still a ways away from walking.

--He's started eating table food for one meal a day. It takes him FOREVER to feed himself, but it's so nice to let him do it without my help. So far he's eaten everything we have given him. His other meals he still eats baby food.

--At the end of meals he usually screams when he realizes his food is gone. (And believe me, we are feeding him more than enough!!) Chris used to do that when he was a baby, too.

--He's started drinking rice milk for 1-2 feedings a day. We're pretty sure he's allergic to cow's milk, like Noelle, and our doctor said we could go ahead and transition him to rice milk whenever we felt like it.

--One morning I let the kids rip up a magazine for fun. This was the mess that followed:



--One of his favorite toys:

First Bath Together

Tonight's Dinner Conversation

"Um, mommy, there are hundreds of clothes in my hamper. Can you wash them so they will be clean?"

Videos!!

It's been a while since we've posted any videos, but Chris got a cool digital video recorder for his birthday. Videos, here we come.

Army Crawling





Big Boy Crawling

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day

Even though today is a special day to remember babies lost to miscarriage, stillbirth, or in infancy, I can attest to the fact that not a day goes by that I don't remember my sweet Jeffrey. But I'm so glad that on a day like this, I can share my grief with so many throughout the world that have suffered such a great loss. I came across this poem a few days ago, and it really spoke to me and reminded me of the perspective I need to keep in light of eternity.

Chance has not brought this ill to me;
It's God's own hand, so let it be,
For He sees what I cannot see.
There is purpose for each pain,
And He one day will make it plain
That earthly loss is heavenly gain.
Like as a piece of tapestry
Viewed from the back appears to be
Only threads tangled hopelessly;
But in the front a picture fair
Rewards the worker for his care,
Proving his skill and patience rare.
You are the Workman, I the frame.
Lord, for the glory of Your Name;
Perfect Your image on the same.

A Different Perspective

Chris (at home on the phone with Sarah who is driving to a meeting): "I love you. Have fun. Be safe."

Noelle: "Why did you say, 'be safe?'"

Chris: "Because I wanted Mommy to be safe."

Noelle: "...like, don't see any crocodiles??"

Chris: "Yes, that's what I meant."

Insight from Noelle

"You know what? The moon doesn't have a mouth so it can't talk back to God."

West Texas Fair

We got to go to the fair way back in early September. The four of us had a great time going to the petting zoo, eating yummy food, and riding carnival rides (including Noelle's first roller coaster).