Psalm 127:3 "Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. "
I think it was the word reward that caught me. Yes, I know that all my children are great blessings. But reward? What did I do to deserve them? Wow! This new baby is not only a blessing but a reward! How much more special does that make this little surprise child?
Have put on some weight--about 7 pounds so far, but Dr. was concerned yesterday (hah) because it was almost all since last visit 6 weeks ago!
You still seem such a baby to me but have made leaps and bounds in some areas this month.
The greatest area (which also was an area of prayer--Thanks, Lord, for graciously answering these prayers!) is the area of eating. Although you are 11 months old, you had, until 2 weeks ago, refused any texture to your food at all. That means all table food was out, not to mention even stage 3 baby food. As soon as I could get it in your mouth, it was spit right back out. There have been so many times I wished you would feed yourself (oh, you will self-feed crackers and goldfish--so it was selective texture). I think this story begins with persistence on our parts, a broken peanut jar, and every bit of God's grace. One day, I found David in the pantry staring at a glass peanut jar that he had accidentally pushed off the shelf and broken. I quickly snatched you up and moved him. I was so thankful you were not in the pantry. Well, apparently God protected you, because a second later, I discovered something in your mouth. Thank the Lord it was not the glass! It was a peanut. I quickly decided that if you could be rolling around a peanut in your mouth for who-knows-how-long with no ill effects, then I could certainly try peanut butter with you. You liked your first two quarters of a pb&j sandwich but have become a bit more picky since then. However, this was the intro to chunky solids that you would tolerate. Peas and carrots and corn came next. You were not interested in the carrots or corn at all! The peas fascinated you and you would stick them in your mouth and roll them around your tongue for a while before spitting most of it back out (an improvement). One day, I tried chicken nuggets with you. They worked like a charm. You actually ate most of one and even swallowed much of it. Since then, I have discovered you will now eat stage three food without spitting out all the pasta etc..., you eat entire peas, and will now even eat bites of hotdog! Thank you, Lord!
You are still drinking more or less 4-8oz bottles during the day. You also will drink from a sippy cup too (thanks, Aunt K for the one with your name on it!) When you are done your bottle (or food), you often let me know by throwing down the bottle to the floor and taking off your bib. We do have a nickname for you- Miss Milk Mouth; you are not a neat eater.
Bathtime is a favorite time. You love to splash around. At other playtimes, fewer objects are going in your mouth (although plenty still do) and more are just being examined and held.
You are wearing entirely 12 month clothing now and still size 3 diapers during the day and size 4 at night. You refuse to keep headband/bows in your hair anymore, but Mommy can sneak in little bows sometimes. (unfortunately, they often highlight the extremely dry scalp you inherited from your Mommy; you are still dealing with cradle cap, even at 11 months old)
You are such a copy-cat! You began waving this month in response to others and love to clap! (we have done a lot of that as encouragement in the eating department). You are also beginning to mimic sounds.
Still not walking (guess you have to know you can stand on your own first :) ), but you can walk pretty well with us holding both hands. You can stand on your own (as witnessed one day for about 5-6 seconds when you were unaware) but have not realized it yet. (oh, you can climb the stairs quite easily though)
All these lack of developments have not slowed you down any though. This is why the teachers during the week requested you be promoted to the next classroom. (15 mos.-2 years) Hah! Funny to see you in there with all the bigger kids!
You do love bigger kids though...especially when they aren't smothering you. Your best bud is brother David and he just loves you to pieces! Sometimes you will even play chase with him, crawling around the floor.
You are napping much better in the afternoon as long as I am consistent to put you down around the same time. Now you might even sleep for 2 hours!
Your brother has made it his mission to make you laugh and you often cooperate.
You are becoming a bundle of laughs and it is so sweet to see your cheerfulness shining through regularly.
We love you, dearly, little E!
PS: the rather ugly puppy outfit you are sporting in most of these pictures is the funny outfit your Mommy came home from the hospital in. Must have swallowed me alive! Just think; it was Japan in the 70s.
We decided we had to enter the minivan family as we prepare to welcome our third child. After narrowing down the field, we found one we really liked that was 15 minutes from our house. It had all we wanted and then some. The only factor was the price. It was within our set price-range, but we felt it was still a tiny bit high and had been sitting on the lot for 2 months. We went back 4-5 times in one week to test drive, re-test drive, talk numbers, re-talk numbers etc... By the time we were ready to make an offer, the owner (a park and sell lot) had just gotten back from auction and was having a hard time even fitting the cars on the lot. Surely, we had hit the jackpot! Surely he would meet our max. price for a car that had been sitting there for more than 2 months. We were only a couple of hundred dollars different, but I had prayed (as I had been praying for a couple of weeks) that God would shut the door even on the price if this was to be an unreliable car or some other reason we should not be purchasing it. Despite this prayer, I was a bit frustrated when the owner would not come down AT ALL.
I knew it was an answer to prayer but as I thought about the headache of shopping for a used car in Houston (where you might have to drive 1 hour just to look at cars) with 2 children, I was just a bit frustrated. I was struggling even more over the next couple of days as I looked at the other options. There were next to none and the few that were available were all more expensive for fewer options and too far to make the trek worth the effort. I knew we could afford more car and started doubting whether maybe we should have agreed on his reasonable price. I was quite aware I needed to trust God's answer but kept doubting.
Less than a week later, I came out of BSF renewed in my trust. I was reminded that as Paul's missionary journey was redirected from Macedonia to other areas, I too had seen God's shut door and should not doubt. He would open another door wherever he wanted us. With renewed vigor I shared this with my BSF ladies (asking for prayer for the car search) and then several individual friends. God had spoken. I must trust and not doubt.
The next morning, I checked email at 7:00 am. I saw a notification from Autotrader about new cars in our search criteria (the first time in 3 weeks). I checked and saw a car at a local dealership (also about 15 minutes away). It looked possibly interesting but there were no pictures and no further information at all other than price and mileage. I planned to write it off, especially when 30 minutes later, I could not find the listing any longer on autotrader. Out of curiosity, I checked the dealership website. It was listed there but again no info. Out of a sense of obligation, I called the dealership to get more info, fully expecting it to not be the model we were interested in. It was so I mentioned it casually to Michael and we made plans to swing by after work and check it out. Still not expecting much.
Apparently, the car had been listed only for the 30 minutes I caught it on Autotrader and then pulled because it was not ready yet; it had only just been gotten in a trade-in the day before and still had not been cleaned up to the reputable dealership's high standards. There was one more thing that caught my attention first when we walked up to the car. It had new (non-pax) tires. They are not my favorite rims, but this was the most beautiful sight in the world (and something I had not even dared to pray for since it is so uncommon). The pax tires are run-flats that came as a standard on this car for the years we were looking at. Unfortunately, they are about $1500 to replace 4 tires and run only about 1/3 the life-span of normal tires. We knew we would have to replace the rims with regular rims, but that alone runs about $1500. The previous owners had already done that for us! We proceeded to look at the "dirty" car and discovered that it was far cleaner than most we had seen, even in its uncleaned state. It had not only all the options we desired but God gave me the silliest thing ever that I did not even imagine to ask for. I loved the "drive time" tachometer in my old car and was sad to get a new car without it. We discovered only a very, very select few Hondas had this in the car. This car had that silly little thing!
Michael and I knew after some weeks of looking that the price on this vehicle would not last half a day once it was actually listed. We returned the next morning and purchased the God-given car, that was not even listed for sale yet!
Thank you, Lord, for the blessing of this vehicle!
One of my favorite phrases you say "and ME too!" reminds me so much of one of my children's books I used to read. It is the tale of a chick who thinks he can do whatever all the other animals can do, only to discover he is uniquely talented with his own gifts. You say this anytime we talk about something we are going to do or sister is going to do; you chime in with "and me too!" (appropriately or not as often the case is). You are even convinced the baby in your tummy is growing too. :)
Perhaps we have rounded the corner in the potty training department. You have only ever had 1-2 accidents in public (despite wearing underwear solely for 3+ weeks). Yeah! At home was another matter for a week mid-month but you seem back to consistently going to the bathroom in the potty again (except for sometimes first thing in the morning when you are in a diaper overnight). You love to run around in just your underwear...no matter how cold. (did I ever mention you hate having socks on too? They are one of the first items of clothing to go)
You are now almost caught up to all your cousin hand-me-downs. You are wearing size 10 shoe (or thereabouts) and size 5 shirts. You do still wear size 3 pants though (if they are long enough).
You still love on your sister as much as ever and often try to be helpful moving her from place to place but still quite jealous of her playing with your toys or sitting on Mommy's lap etc... "and ME too!"
You are napping a bit better (several afternoons a week) with the advent of the lock on your door. Yeah! You are a far more cheerful David when you get enough rest.
You got another red-nose this month after tripping over your shoes at church and skinning your nose. How appropriately sweet your precious face looks with that constant reminder of being a boy.
Last thing to note: you are beginning to start counting etc...My favorite thing you do is so hard to express (something you have to be there for), but...I will try. You count with your fingers regularly and will often put your fingers up and point to a pointer finger or such and say, "I want THIS car/cookie/etc..." (indicating the second car, or third car etc...)
I think back to the days of tears, trying to get you to eat anything, mr. picky eater. You are now quite willing to try many things and often find you like them. When you do not, you just say, "Mommy, I don't like that" without all the drama of a usual child. Yeah!
Life goes on, and you are growing up to be a sweet and tender little boy. Thanks for being Mommy's sweetheart!
After months (years) of battling a son who does not nap/nor stay in his room, we broke down and put a hook and eye latch on his door. This is after spanking after spanking, day after day for wandering around the house, ending up in his sister's room, waking her, then proceeding to "play" with her. It almost always ends in crying by her and very tired (two) children. While this had only been used at naptime (and he has finally broken down and napped a few times when he tires of the toys in his room), after learning that he was in his sister's room last night at 3:00 am (waking her up and playing), it will probably find a lot more use!
