On the Verge...

Pretend this was posted four days ago.  It was ready then, but I was waiting to take her 10 month picture, which I finally did this morning.  So here. You can all stop bothering me now!  Just kidding. I don't think anyone but me even noticed that it was late :) The 22nd was Selah's 10 month birthday! I say this every time, but I cannot believe she is that old.  I know a lot has happened since she was born, but it still feels like she should be a tiny baby. However, this is not the case, as she is getting bigger and more interactive and doing more and more new things every day. She is such a little cutie pie face and still has her adorable big cheeks. Quinn has suggested "cheeks" as a nickname for her, but it just hasn't stuck.  She still gets called Sell Bell more than anything.  Even Abram is catching on and often asks, "Where's Seya Beya?" if we ever go anywhere without her.  I love her huge, beautiful, inquisitive eyes and her scrunchy no

This is along the lines of my Seat Sling contraption, although I'm not looking to sell this (I guess I ended up not really looking to sell that one either).  I just thought I'd share a little solution I came up with to help with a common mom problem. Abram slept in a Peapod from August of last year until the end of January of this year.  That's 6 months of a two year old sleeping in a tent. This may sound horrible to some people, but he loved it.  He got so used to it and it was a little like a security blanket for him.  We didn't let him have anything in there with him while he was sleeping, but just being in it made him so comfortable.  We slept in eight houses over the course of those  six months (and he took naps in a few others) but, by the grace of God, his naps and nighttime sleep were pretty amazingly consistent.  Even the transition over here went really well.  I thank God for the Peapod and I would recommend it to anyone with a child over six or seven mont

 * Note: I have linked this post UP!  I thought it would be fun to reference some of the events and experiences I talk about.  Feel free to click through... or not.  Some are short, some are long (coughbirthstoriescough).  Some are relevant, some are not.  Just a warning.* As of tomorrow I will be three decades old.  Decades sound long.  The number three does not.  That's kind of how I feel about it all.  I feel like there is so much that I've been through in life, so many memories and moments, but when I really think about it, I don't feel very old.  Sometimes I still have moments when I'm rocking my very large kid to sleep and I feel small and young - like a college student pretending to be a mother.  Is that bad?  I guess I can't see why it would be. My 20's were marked by drastic changes.  A LOT happened in the last ten years.  I mean, I'm literally a whole new person.  The biggest change being the reality of my depravity and my need for Jesus as

Both my children are making strides in their communication abilities recently.  Abram is getting a better and bigger vocabulary everyday.  His sentences are more coherent and we have less instances of just not knowing what he's talking about now.  He still has things that he says strangely.  Like he can't say his "L"s.  So Selah's name is still "Sey-ah".  Also "R"s are hard.  Or, should I say "hawd".  And he still can't say "sp" (comes out as an f sound) or "oi" (boy and toy sound like "bee-oh" and "tee-oh"...?...)  But overall he is fully comprehending almost everything we say to him and able to tell us what he wants and needs rather than throwing fits. He never was a big temper tantrum kid, but they do happen and it's nice to be able to use the "I'm sorry, I can't understand what you are saying when you talk like that" tactic and have him be able to respond by calmly

Our bathroom here does not have a bathtub.  It looks like it did have one at one time.  But it was ripped out and replaced with a corner shower bottom.  Like, we had to buy a special curtain rod from Ikea to put up because there was none.  Just the cracking and unstable bottom of a shower with a drain and then a faucet and a shower head.  This is fine for Quinn and I, but has proven difficult where the children are concerned.  Up until now we were giving them quick separate baths in a borrowed infant tub that we would put in that bottom of a shower.  It worked fairly well for Selah, but poor Abram.  Play time was fine, but the actual bathing was quite epic.  His poor little legs would drape over the side as he cocked his head in order to be able to lie down.  He has to lie down because he doesn't get the head tipping back thing.  So soap and water  are going into eyes and tears are coming out.  Anyway.  We dealt with it.  Then one day I started dreaming of a solution. The bathro

I have discovered that having kids (at least for me) is a little like having manic depression. We can have a great morning filled with giggles and politeness, art projects and obedience. Only to be followed by an afternoon filled with fervent prayers for peace in my heart as they refuse to sleep in their over tired state, or talk so loudly in "their" (read: his) bed that "they" wake the other just fell asleep one up. Or wake/keep themselves up trying to poop. Or put "their" hands in "their" poopy diapers in "their" beds to be discovered by me with hands covered in poop after an hour of obviously not going to sleep (guess who). On a side note: I hope that does not become a regular occurrence. Thumb sucking and poopy hands cannot intermingle in one child. One or both must stop immediately. If I had to pick one it would be the latter. So this afternoon has been a bit of a low. With any luck, this evening will be filled with happiness and