Party Animal

Poor thang all tuckered out from partying at 3 a.m. For some reason Isaac thinks that is an appropriate to be up and cooing and smiling. For a couple hours.

Yeah, as if I mind. At least not while Dale is home and I can sleep in later. When he gets back to work in another week I'm going to be in trouble.

I think Isaac needs his counterpart cousin to come and teach him about those 7 - 9 hour stretches at night. Pfffft.

Off to kiss those chubby cheeks!

God's Forethought

I know that you know that we all know that God knows all. Yesterday, today, forever, He knows all. Praise God for that.

But what I like is that He knows that we don't know it all, and never can, because we aren't God, and never will be, so He gives us some information to explain things that may not be obvious. Especially when we are talking about different cultures.

For example, in 1 Chronicles 5:

"Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel, (for he was the firstborn; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel: and the genealogy is not to be recknoned after the birthright. For Juday prevailed above his bretheren, and of him came the chief ruler; but the birthright was Joseph's: ) The sons, I say, of Reuben the firstborn of Israel were Hanoch, and Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.

Nice little beginning to some geneology, but what does that have to do with anything? Well, while I was reading it I got a chuckle out of the tone of the first two verses. Picture a teacher at a lecturn... "Now the sons of Reuben the first born of Israel... for he WAS the firstborn... " then going thru the two verses and finially ending and retiterating... "The sons, I say, of Reuben the firstbonr of Israel..."

The emphasizing is not mine, but already in there. Like the reader was trying to make sure we understood about the geneology. Also, notice the writer points out the geneology line does NOT follow the birthright. What is so interesting about that? First of all, if you aren't Jewish, and a regular Joe Shmoe Christian reading the Bible, you aren't going to be proficient in the knowledge of Jewish customs. The neat part is that God knew that Gentiles, unfamiliar with the ways of the Jewish geneology would be reading His Word one day. So He told the writer to put that little bit of instruction in the second verse. He did that just for me. Just for you. Because He knew that we wouldn't know.

Secondly, if you follow out the blood line geneology, and not the birth right line, you will go through people like David, Ruth and Boaz (Ruth wasn't even one of the "chose" people), and Rhahab the harlot. All those people, righteous and unrighteous, orthodox Jewish, non practicing Jews, godly and ungodly, what have you... all lead to the line of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So.. what? Well, if you didn't know that the birth right line was NOT the geneology line, you would be confused, and maybe even think the Bible has errors, etc.

I am so thankful the Lord gave us His Word, and we can read it and learn something new no matter how old we are, or how long we have been reading.

Oh, and by the way, you DO have to read it to learn from it. *wink*

Whatchamacallit

Signs of the times...

My 12 year old son while setting up the Monopoly game...
"Which icon do you want to be?"


In the thrift store, my 8 year old sees some old LP's and says:"Wow, look at the size of those DVD's!"

And I still love the daughter's canopic jar with the "intentions" in it. Hehehehe.

What cute things do your little blessing say?

Nursing.. the Reality

We've all had those wonderful images of mother and child crammed into our brains. What is more natural than a mother feeding her baby? The picture is so precious, and so sweet... and yet, so unreal! It isn't the baby just latches onto to the mother, and all goes well. No no no. Not every baby is born with that innate sense of what to do when presented with the food source.

I picture it something like this...

First you train the baby to latch on properly... mouth wide open, tongue down, and build up "toughness" so your toes don't curl every time he latches on.

Okay.. so far so good. Now everything is picture perfect, right?

Wrong.

Now the fun really starts. You've toughened up, yay! At least the pain is gone. Now feeding time goes something like this:

Baby awakes from a rare nap crying like he hasn't eaten in a month of Sundays. Mama goes in to change his diaper. Baby cries even harder, like he's going to burst a gasket. He wants food, and he wants it NOW.

You try to hurry through the change, but you realize as you are undoing his clothes, that he is wet all up one side of his onsie. It's a complete delete and reinstall. Baby continues to protest the delay, but there's nothing you can do but move it along.

You get is outer and inner clothing off, and open up his diaper. It is not just a wet diaper. You are thankful the diaper cover held in the mustard and continue to change baby. He continues to cry. Now he is hungry, cold and totally exposed.

Diaper change is over, and hands are washed and Mama sits down with the wee babe. He latches on like he is going to turn the spicket inside out. Mama is glad the "ouchie" part of nursing is already over. Mama notices that there is milk leakage, evidenced by wet spots on her shirt. She makes a mental note to change once the feeding is over.

Now the scene is picture perfect, right?

Nope. Don't get comfortable. Baby latches on with a great latch, only to break off gagging. The milk let down was a little more than he was prepared for. He latches back on and is able to keep up with the flow. He starts getting a little restless. Mama unlatches baby and puts him up to her shoulder where he lets out a belch that would make a trucker blush. That's not all he lets out. Now Mama has another reason to change her shirt, as baby has regurgitated all over the front and inside of Mama's blouse.

Mama switches sides and just as baby is gulping milk happily he stops, stays latched on like a pro, face turns red, then there is this horrendous sound that comes from the diapered end of things. Mama ignores that for the moment as baby is happily nursing again. She just prays that the diaper is containing the explosion.

Now things are picture perfect, right?

I trow not.

Mama relaxes and looks down to gaze at the wonderful baby feeding. Then notices that the side she just got done feeding on is leaking milk again. Can anyone say "Got Milk"? Dh walks in and notices the big wet spot on the front of her blouse and moo's at her.

Baby is not nursing quietly by the way. He makes all manner of grunts and coos, and even smiles like he is laughing at her when he fills his diaper and spits up on her. Then he chokes on more milk and gets it up his nose. He tries to stay latched on while sneezing, and Mama is really really really glad that the beginning achiness of nursing is passed.

Finally baby seems done, and Mama lifts him up to her shoulder, where he again lets out a burp that shakes the rafters. She smiles and talks to him, then notices a wet spot on the diaper area. She puts him down in the crib for a second so she can reassemble her clothing, making note of a little mustard colored spot. Uhoh. She quickly picks up the baby. Yup. A nice mustard spot on the sheets.

Mama takes baby over to the changing table and strips all clothing off. The baby, that is. She does another complete delete and reinstall. She puts baby safely in the middle of the big bed, surrounded by a garrison of pillows. Baby is contentedly watching the ceiling fan twirl around. Mama strips the sheet off the crib, and puts it all in the dirty clothes hamper. She is just finishing washing her hands when she remembers her shirt needs changing. She does so and lovingly cuddles the baby.

And just think, in another half an hour she gets to start all over again!

Family Fun!

We don't usually have a family fun night in the middle of a school week, but with Dale on lay off for the month we wanted to get together with another family for an evening of games. This family is the same one we trade off piano lessons for math tutoring. The dh, Art, is a pastor at a like minded church not far from us. Anyway, he works a second job, and has Monday and Tuesdays off from work right now. The timing has never really been right, but this week it worked out because of Dale being off from work and also their kids were in winter break and didn't have school. So, of course, with any good Baptist get together, you have to have food. We made a ton of pizza, and this is what was LEFTOVER. There was about twice as much to begin with. We had cheese pizza, veggie pizza, and a meat lovers type of pizza. Amy brought her wonderful brownies. They are huge, and moist and gooey, and she put peanut butter chips in them. So delicious! Oh yeah, we had a huge salad too, just to get something healthy in there.

Here is the leftover pizza, combined so as not to take up so much room:



It never ceases to amaze me how a baby can sleep through all the commotion of a group of kids tearing about and games going on.



Here are some shots of the group, and one with Isaac awake.









Oh, I forgot to mention, Art doesn't usually look like that, but he was being a wise guy and making a face on the camera. Just for that, I wanted to be sure to point it out on. Pffft.

On a side note, we weighed Isaac last weekend and he is now up to about 14 lbs. He is really chunking out. I have my 8 week post partum check up on Friday. I can't believe it has been 8 weeks already! I am getting my stamina back, or whatever the sleep deprived version of that is. I even started walking again on the nice days. Today is blustery, so I will try and log some time on the stationary bike instead of walking.

Isaac hates to go to sleep. He hates to "miss" anything. It makes me laugh to watch him trying to fight off gravity as it pulls at his eyelids. He goes through this cry cry cry.. then calms down. He starts to be very still, but still has his eyes open and trying to take everything in. Then slowly, the eyes start closing more, till they are at half mast. He wiggle wiggle wiggles in effort to stay alert. Then his eyes are in a tiny little slit, and he is still fighting it. You can see his little eyes rolling up in his head, but he still fights it. Sometimes he cries more, sometimes not. Then finally his lids shut, but he does this raising eyebrow type thing, even though his eyes are closed. As if he is STILL trying to pry them open. If he spent as much time just allowing the sleep to take over and actually nap, he would get a lot more rest. And so would Dale and I! LOL. That's okay.

He is interacting more with us in general. Coo'ing, and smiles, and looking around very alert. He does the vocalizing that is just soooo adorable! He is still a continual distraction, and Dale and I are terrible at sharing him. In fact, we often engage in selfish debate over who gets to hold him. The children get turns from time to time, but I have to admit that I like to keep him close to me at this point.

Have a blessed day!

Get Well Soon...

The last couple days I've had a nassy icky cold. I received this ecard from a very sweet and classy lady whose initials are M.O.M. I got a good chuckle out of it. (BTW M.O.M.... hope you don't mind I share this with others. Too good not to. I love you to the moon and back too!)

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Say What?

Yesterday I did Jerusha's hair in a fancy fun braid. At the end of the day, before her bath, we took out her hair pretties and unbraided her hair. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and said "Hey, my hair is all fat!"



Today we were making canopic jars as a craft to go with our Ancient egypt. If you have studied anything about Egypt, you know that in the mummification process they take out certain organs like the stomach, liver, intestines, etc. and put them in the canopic jars. They leave the heart in the deceased, because they believe they will need it in the afterlife.

Anyway, Esther was looking into Elizabeth's canopic jar, who had put in some fake intestines she made. Esther said "Oh neat, you put in some intentions!"

Teeheee!