my-almost-8-month-old

I'm not sure where the time has flown off to again but Gavin is almost 8 months old. In an effort to remember these fyling by times, I am blogging them.

mr. personality: Gavin is very smiley (especially with people he knows) and those dimples I dreamed about for 9 months never fail to pierce right through to my heart. I swear the world stops when he grins. If you are lucky and get a really big grin you will even get to see the "nose crinkle".


mr. chatterbox: Gavin is very noisy lately and says "Daa-Daa", screams at the top of his lungs and giggles a lot


mr. mover: Gavin would prefer to either sit or stand and thinks the whole crawling thing is not for him....yet. My Mom says he reminds her of me when I was little - just content to sit and play and not in a hurry to move. That is definately fine with Brady and I as we are in no hurry to enter the mobile phase.

Look at those thighs, my favorite is the roll on the knees :) Topping the growth chart at around 23lb. Adorable.

mr. hungry: His latest thing? Holding his own bottle. He still eats 6 oz at a time and has 5 bottles a day. Mix that in with some baby food for breakfast, dinner, and supper and we have one happy baby!



mr. smarty: He now reaches when he wants to be picked up. His little mind is learning and he knows hes got Mamma and Daddy wrapped around his finger.



mr. sleepy: He is not much for cuddling these days, as he prefers to just be layed down in his crib and will talk himself right to sleep as night. He sleeps from about 9:00pm to 6:30 or 7:00 am. He's still an awesome napper as well.

Every good and perfect gift is from above. James 1:17

when the snow flies

Today I'm dreaming about a day when I look outside to a blanket of white. A day where those bare-brown branches gleam with a frosty glaze.

Today I'm dreaming about winter.

Yes, winter.

I realize most people dread winter. I embrace it. Maybe it's because I know that when the thermometer reads in the single digits it means family traditions centered around holidays are right around the corner. Maybe it's because I'm finally not sweating the entire day long. Maybe it's because I love a slower pace of life centered around togetherness. Maybe it's because of my love for comfort food. Or maybe it's because I'm still dreaming that canon rebel will be wrapped up under my very own Christmas tree.

You see... the reasons for my love are many.

Last Christmas brought with it anticipation and joy of new life within my very own belly. This Christmas marks the celebration of babies first Christmas as well as our first Christmas as a family of three. Gavin already loves to play with paper so I'm thinking he's gonna be all over the whole unwrapping thing. Oh, and bright shiny things? They are on the top of his list of things to gaze at, the tree will be mesmerizing. My parents always let me decorate our Christmas tree with mis-matched ornaments and in the end it sort of looked like Christmas itself had thrown up right there on that poor tree. But you see, an important lesson was taught and learned. I learned I mattered and so did all my ornaments, and to them the tree always looked beautiful. So this year we continue the tradition and say "good-bye" to our martha-stewart tree and hello to our tree that will proudly sport a new and improved ecclectic look. Change is good. I can't wait to find the perfect 'babies first Christmas ornament' for Gavin. I will be a sentimental mess.

What am amazing priveledge it is to be a parent. God gives us the gift and responsibility of imprinting the lives of our children in such an influencial way.

My wheels are already churning and smoke's about to come out of my stack with ideas of new family traditions I want to start. Traditions that include new Christmas jammies, circle count down wreaths, and decorating the tree (perhaps a real live tree?) Traditions including decorating cut out cookines with holiday jingles serenading in the background. I can already picture a new playlist on the 'ol i-pod... we shall name her "sounds of heaven Christmas" This year also marks the first year our entryway table will display the entire willow tree nativity set (minus the creche, which by the way what on earth is a creche?!) I choose to call it a stable.

Nostalgic? Maybe.

It's a big deal people. It's the birth of our Saviour. It only comes once a year and I plan to enjoy the heck out of it. I hope you do to.

What are some family traditions you enjoy? Do share!

crazy love

Today I shared, laughed, and learned with a group of woman from my church. Our time together was focused around the book 'Crazy Love' by Francis Chan.

My thoughts after meeting together today:

powerful

worth going to

sure am glad Gavin did so well in nursery, thank you for such an easy-going loving little boy God!

learned a lot already

really should get that recipe for the butterscotch coffee cake with caramel on top {grin}

Chan writes:
"When I am consumed by my problems, stressed out about my life, my family, and my job - I actually convey the belief that I think the circumstances are more important that God's command to always rejoice. In other words I have a "right" to disobey God because of the magnitude of my responsibilities"

We live in a world that over-emphasizes "me, myself & I" but the things is... it's not about us.

It's about God and what He has done for us. He is the author of every story and He loves us with a depth we cannot comprehend. We need to do more than just realize this, we need to believe it enough that it changes the way we live.

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again Rejoice!" Phil. 4:4

Pinterest

Ran across this on my latest obsession, pinterest. Thought it was worth sharing.

Happy Weekend All!

{Pause}

I've been asked before why I write. My little corner of this blog world was visitied over eight-hundred times in the last month. I certainly don't know 800 people which means some of you are coming back a second, third, dare I say forth time? Over eight-hundred in one month. That is crazy to me.

I write for reasons far deeper than numbers and ratings but if you are still reading consider this a genuine thank-you! I hope you've been insprired, humored, or felt like you-have-it-all-together-more-than-she-does after reading my ramblings.

{grin}

I write to capture this life I've been blessed with. A life that is far from perfect, but is my life none-the-less, a life I'm proud of and grateful for. I will write the good right along with the hard material in hopes to reach out and inspire and affect people, you know, make a difference. I write because each day is a gift and not a given right (thanks Nickelback for those profoud lyrics, BTW your music rocks)

I believe we, as Mommies have some very priveledged roles and one of them is to be the memory keeper, whatever that means to all you Mommies out there. For some of you that's scrap-booking, taking oodles of pictures of your precious babes, others it's staying home full time, others it's just spending every waking moment you have with your littles, especially if you need to work outside the home. For me it is to do this thing that is so incredibly therapeutic and sit here and peck away on these black keys to my hearts content.

I hope some day when Gavin is much older he will look back at all of this and get a glimpse into what his life was exactly like when he was too young to remember. I hope he will read how loved he was and feel very proud. I hope he will understand and not think less of me as his Mom when he learns that after the joy of his birth I walked my darkest road through post-partum- depression and fought like hell, for him. I hope he knows he was worth every single tear through that struggle and I would do it all over again just for him. I hope he knows Brady and I are committed to raising him right to know the Lord and so are all the other people in his life. It takes a village to raise a baby you know.

I love that my husband gets giddy when he hears me typing like a mad women in my "spare" time (what exactly is spare time when you have a baby and full time job?!) and says "are you blogging" with this kid-in-candy-store-giddiness in his voice. For the record I make time to blog because it is important to me. For the record I always let the Mr read my entries before hitting that orange "publish post" button, especially if it is portraying the more difficult things life sometimes entails. He is such a sport and has yet to tell me "no". Thanks babe for making me feel proud of journaling our life.

On another note, Gavin turns 7 months old this week. PAUSE please? For some odd reason this whole 7-month thing has got me in sort of a tail spin because as I said to Brady earlier this week - that means he is closer to one than zero. I know. I know. Embrace it. Embrace that he is growing and developing normally and is healthy. I know that in my head, but my heart is looking for that pause button that doesn't exactly exist.

I don't want to forget this 6 month stage that has been the best. He sits now, by himself, you know. He cries for me if I'm not there when he wakes up from his nap. His hair somewhat resembles Conan O'Brien lately - time for his 2nd haircut? Ridiculous.

I don't want to forget the way he opens his mouth and bangs his hands on the tray of his high-chair when it's baby food time. I don't want to forget how Brady can get him to giggle with peek-a-boo . I don't want to forget the low pitched noise he makes while sticking his tongue out sounding like a tractor motor. I don't want to forget how no matter how hard he's crying, he stops as long as I sing him "our song". I don't want to forget how those baby blues light up every morning when he's awake and I turn the light on and say "Good Morning Big Boy" I don't want to forget that gaze we have when it's feeding time, the gaze that pierces straight though to my soul. I don't want to forget how he reaches to touch my face and also reaches to be picked up.

It's just I've never felt a love this deep. If you're a Mom, you understand.

And I won't forget it, but I will look back and miss these "easy" days. But for now, onward we go to the big-boy 7 month stage. I will try to embrace this next stage that seems to include mobility. Time to seriously baby-proof.