Thankful

In the spirit of the holiday I wanted to write about what I am thankful for this year-

My husband
He rides his bike 28 miles a day to and from work in whatever weather so I can have the car during the day.  Despite being tired when he gets home from a 12 hour day, he always has a smile on his face for us and is willing to jump in and take care of the munchkin so I can have a break or work on other things.  He is a great spiritual leader for our family and adores our daughter.

The munchkin
I have never learned so much about patience, humility, and sacrifice than in these last 8 months.  I have spent my life around kids but I had no idea how hard it would be until I had my own.  My priorities are completely different now.  I don't take showers and 8 straight hours of sleep for granted anymore.  Everyday is new and I love being able to share new experiences with her.  She is growing so fast, just like everyone told me she would.

God's provision
I am so grateful that I am able to stay home with L and work periodically.  It's been a sacrifice but we've never been without.  We've learned what we have to have, pray all the time about good stewardship, and have been blessed by the generosity of others.

Our church
I love being Catholic, its rich tradition, the beauty of the Mass, the wonderful priests we can call friends, the Sacraments.  My time with God is different now, but thanks in part to iPhone apps, I have my time with Him everyday.

Community
We have seen each other get married, lose and get jobs, travel overseas, have babies, lose loved ones, move all over the metroplex and experience physical and spiritual highs and lows.  These women have made me who I am and continue to teach me how to follow Christ and be a godly wife and mother.  They also are happy to watch the munchkin so we can get a date night every once in awhile.

My best friend from back home just visited and I realized the night before she left that we've been friends for 20 years next year.  We have been through the worst and best of times together. She is one of the most generous and sacrificial women I know.  I can count on her to always tell me the truth and she's the best shopping buddy I could ever have!

Since becoming a mother I've developed new friendships with other moms.  As much as I cherish my friendships with those who aren't parents, there's a different connection with women who understand my life now.  They get conversations about diapers and breastfeeding and making your own baby food.  They are a constant source of advice and understanding about each new challenge.

Our parents
It's been amazing to see how a baby has changed my parents.  They just light up around her and smile so much more.  They've been another invaluable source of advice and encouragement and free baby-sitting.  I'm beginning to appreciate even more the sacrifices they made to raise me.  I am so grateful that my in-laws live close by and that L gets to see them so often.  They also spoil her rotten!

Happy Thanksgiving!

8 months

The last couple of weeks have been a lot of fun, watching the munchkin change.  She is starting her version of crawling, although she tends to move backwards about half the time. She is also starting to pull herself up onto her feet, using me for help. She stood by herself for about two seconds.  We've also been having a lot of fun with food.  She is doing well with her pincher grasp and feeding herself bites of raisins and her little organic puff snacks. She is eating a mix of puréed foods and other things off the table.  We've discovered she likes eggplant and cottage cheese but fruits are her favorite. One tooth has poked through on the bottom and she's working on a second.

Happy Halloween

This year's pumpkin

We had a great time celebrating Halloween.  The octopus costume was a success!  Little L wore it three times-to a party at her aunt and uncle's house, a party with my moms group, and at the zoo with her friends at the Mommy and Me class.  The extra tentacles made moving a little more difficult but they were also fun to chew on.  The munchkin enjoyed helping her dad carve our pumpkin while "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" was on.  L and I met her grandparents and cousin at a pumpkin patch on Halloween afternoon.  She liked the hayrack ride, trying to eat the hay, and petting a pony.  No trick or treating this year; we don't need the candy in the house.  We also had an All Saints Day trip to the Arboretum and a beautiful Mass that night at my old parish.  

Fun Fall

The last month since I've posted has been a busy one.  We participated in the Walk to End Alzheimer's as a family and raised almost $300 for research thanks to the generosity of friends and family.  The next weekend my husband took the munchkin out on his own to the Ft. Worth Zoo for a family birthday party.  It's a lot of work to take her out now.  As we transition to solid food, some days she eats more than others, so I have to keep plenty of food and breastmilk on hand for her.  She's still an impatient eater so timing is everything.  I am really enjoying making her food and seeing her reactions to the new tastes.  All the fruits we've given her have been a hit; vegetables are a little tougher.  She likes peas, carrots, and squash and I'm going to introduce green beans next.

I've also discovered that I'm actually enjoying cooking.  Not at the place where I can regularly look in the fridge and cupboard and just throw something together, but I can look at a recipe, see what we've have and like and make it work.  Never before have I had a pantry, but now I keep staples around so I don't have to run out to the grocery store all the time.  The Crock-pot and Pinterest are my friend.  It also helps that I cook for a man who appreciates and eats whatever I make and loves leftovers.

The munchkin likes coming to the zoo with me for the mommy and me class.  She has a 11 month old friend there to play with and we get two walks there each week.  Last week we got to ride the carousel twice and feed the giraffes.  My job is awesome.

One of my best friends got married last weekend so there's been lots going on to prepare for her big day.  It was a wonderful celebration of God bringing two people together that are perfect for each other.  I was a bridesmaid for the fourth time in about a year and the munchkin was a flower girl for the first time.  She and two of her little girlfriends rode in a wagon down the aisle.  Even with a couple of practice runs, there was no way of knowing how they'd do for the ceremony but it couldn't have gone better.  They were so interested in the music and all the people watching that they didn't have a chance to get upset.  They're at the age where they sit up well but can't crawl so they were content being pulled by the ring bearer (who was excellent, by the way).

Speaking of crawling, it's going to happen any day now.  Little L isn't content to just sit up anymore and quickly gets on all fours.  She scoots backwards (today, halfway under the couch) but can't figure out how to move forward yet.  And now she's getting frustrated that she can't do it.  I'm trying to balance letting her struggle and problem solve without getting herself too upset.

We're also waiting on some teeth to break through.  They've really been bothering her the last couple of days.  She doesn't cry but yells when it's especially uncomfortable.  We go outside a lot and me singing helps.  That and chewing on anything she can get a hold of.  She's a big fan of paper and plastic; we have to keep a sharp eye on whatever we're holding because she grabs for it quickly.

This weekend will be our annual trip to the State Fair and then it's Halloween.  I'm planning on making her costume like my mom used to do for me.  I don't sew so we'll see what happens.  Fortunately L has a very talented and patient aunt to help me.

Halfway there

I cannot believe the munchkin is already six months old.  I was looking at pictures of her on my husband's phone and cannot believe how much she's changed since March.  It's been another month of milestones for our little family.

Little L is sitting up well without support.  I think the big cloth diaper helps her balance a little.  She loves her feet so reaching for those is what usually causes her to fall over.  She can get her big toe in her mouth which makes diaper changes a little interesting.  She's good at scooting herself backwards and still rolls a lot so she gets her way around the living room.  Not crawling yet but she does plank pose so I think it's coming soon!

We got an umbrella stroller recently and it's finally cool enough in the mornings to walk so we're spending more time outside.  When she's fussy, going out always works.  This was the first week to take L to work with me at the zoo.  I co-lead a Mommy and Me program two mornings a week with 18 month-3 year olds and so far she likes it.  My coworker brings her 10 month old daughter who loves this new live doll to play with!

We introduced pureed foods last week.  I've been making it myself which so far has been easy.  We started with sweet potatoes and then introduced whole grain oatmeal and bananas.  She liked all of them but makes a big mess.  She likes to put her hands and her bib in her mouth, reach for the table and pound on her tray and occasionally will get a bite in.  I tried avocado a couple times yesterday and she wasn't a fan.  Getting in feeding times has definitely been an adjustment in our daily schedule.  I'm working on finding times that she's hungry enough to try these new tastes but not so hungry that she's too fussy and won't cooperate.  I've got mixed feelings about this new phase.  On the one hand, I'm looking forward to not having to pump as much so she has food when I'm away working, but I'm also a little sad that I won't sit and hold her as often.  And the diapers smell worse.

It's been a little rough as she goes through teething.  Nothing's popped through yet but I can tell she's working on it.  She's not as drooly as she was a couple months ago but she chews hard on her (and anyone else's) fingers and her Sophie.  We've had bouts of diaper rash and she has more frequent fussy periods.  She doesn't cry but yells.  To calm her down we have to hold her and move around the room or outside.  I haven't used the rocking chair as much as I thought I would; she gets too restless.  I think it's affected her sleeping.  She isn't sleeping for as long of a stretch as she was a month ago.  I do love hearing her when she's awake for the day.  L loves the sound of her own voice and just chatters away.  She is quite the soprano.

I've been thinking about what my life looks like now in terms of rest.  When people ask me how I'm doing, my first response is to talk about the munchkin, but that's not the right answer.  Do I even stop to consider how I'm doing?  What does Sabbath look like now?  I can't just not take care of her, but I could let the dishes stay in the sink or ask my husband to help me with the laundry so I can sit and read or journal for awhile. And in my prayers I need to remember to talk to God about Him and me in addition to praying for everyone else's intentions.  I'd love some perspective from those moms that have been there or struggling with me.

5 months

The munchkin is so much fun right now.  It's exciting to see how she's growing and changing these last few weeks.  She loves to roll, usually in the same direction, so our living room is being taken over by quilts to make it a little more comfortable.  She prefers to be on her tummy now and will grab toys and pull them to her mouth.  We still lay her on her back on the playmat but she grabs the dangling toys now.  Little L is getting better at sitting up but still needs a little help.  We started putting her in the crib at night and she's doing really well. She calms herself down by sucking her thumb and most of the time puts herself to sleep. She typically goes to bed between 10-11 and gets up around 3 and 7 to eat.  She naps once in the morning and afternoon and typically a catnap in the evening.  Our routine is eat, play, then sleep every 2-3 hours during the day.  In the last month she went in the pool for the first time and liked it.  She went on her first plane ride and was restless after about 45 minutes, I think because she couldn't get up and move like we can at home.

Other things she likes-
Her Sophie teething toys
Music
Ceiling fans
Bouncing on Daddy's knee
Being read to
Having her feet tickled
Blowing raspberries

I was putting away her newborn and 0-3 clothes last week and can't believe how much she's grown!  We are so grateful for the joy she brings to our lives.

In loving memory

My dear friend LEBean and I have many things in common, one of which being that our daughters got to meet all of their maternal great grandparents.  And in less than four days time we also shared mourning one pass away.

My grandma Jolene died on July 30.  The munchkin and I just got home from Nebraska for the funeral. At this time two months ago, our family wasn't sure if Grandma would get to meet her great granddaughter; she was in the hospital fighting for her life.  Thanks be to God, she was back in the nursing home when we were in Nebraska over the July 4 holiday.  While Grandma couldn't say anything to her, I know that she found joy in seeing my baby girl.

I spent weeks in the summer and school holidays at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Grandma was the elementary school secretary so she had the same vacation time.  She would take me to the town pool, the playground, and park.  This little 5 foot tall woman would drive me in the behemoth of a car to nearby Norfolk to go shopping at Gibson's and Sunset Plaza and lunch at Double K.  She played library with me with the books my dad and his siblings read.  I would sit with her and Grandpa in the very back corner pew of the Lutheran church and sing along with her soprano voice.  For my birthday she made the cake of my choice, from scratch, in the shape of a clown, butterfly, rabbit, or elephant.  She would cook me egg mcmuffins for breakfast served with cranberry juice cocktail.  I would help her wash the dishes by hand (there's still no dishwasher in the house) and we would joke that the grapefruit spoons looked that way because my aunt Joni had chewed on them when she was little.  On New Year's Eve she and Grandpa made air popped popcorn coated with butter and salt and we stayed up until the ball dropped in New York; I could never make it any later.  Every time I hang Lexi's diapers on the clothesline outside I think about how I helped her hang clothes out next to the jars of tea and pickles baking in the sun.  She always sent me cards and money for Halloween and Valentine's Day, even once I got to college.  I still got a stocking and Easter basket when I had well outgrown it.  Grandma loved cheering on the Huskers, traveling with her sisters Adrienne and LaRue, and listening to polka music on the radio on Sunday mornings.  She was incredibly generous, always saw the good in everyone, and never complained.  Grandma and Grandpa were married for 60 years.

Grandma was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2005, although she was exhibiting memory loss years before that.  I would not wish this disease on anyone.  It was heartbreaking to watch it slowly take away this active woman who was loved by so many, and unfortunately her two dear sisters were also afflicted.  In Grandma Jo's memory I am going to participate in the Walk to End Alzheimer's next month.  If you are able I would appreciate any donation towards this cause and your prayers for my family as we grieve, for all those affected by this disease, and for those working to find a cure.