Man It's Been Awhile!

I have been totally lax about posting any new or photos of Amy Grace over the past few months! Let's see - at just over 20 months, she is changing so much all the time. She can say "Dada," "Baba" (which I started to mean "bottle" but she seems to use it to refer to anything edible now), "Mama", "Dee" (for "doggie," which also means pretty much any animal), "Night-night" (Brent taught her that), "Book" (Billy taught her that), "Bye-Bye", etc. She babbles constantly and I'm sure will be talking up a storm any day now. She can run and loves climbing, especially onto furniture. She is pretty well behaved and understands "put it up" and "close it up" (unfortunately pretty much all she hears in the evening while I'm cooking!) and when she's asked to pick up her toys. She loves to clean and especially loves to wipe down her highchair tray after dinner. There are very few foods she won't eat, and the baby who was skin and bones as a newborn has now got quite the little potbelly! She's still only in the 10th percentile or so for weight - that belly is just about the only fat on her :)

It is just so much fun to see how much she understands, to see her learning more every day, and to have the opportunity to do our best to raise her up in God's truth and according to His Word. We have been humbled by that a lot, I think, and can see every day how much her heart is tied to ours, and that just makes it all the more crucial that we grow together as one every day so that she can see and FEEL in her heart a strong, Godly union between her parents. What an awesome - in the true sense of the word - responsibility and calling God gives parents in their children.

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old he will not depart from it." ~ Psalm 22:6

Brent's 31st birthday dinner at Joe's Crab Shack

Driving the boat on Indian Valley Lake

Mother's Day 2010


With Granddaddy
Bathtime!
Before heading out to Lloyd's with Granddaddy and Dee

At Lake Martin with Walker and Kitty




Night-night!

He is RISEN Indeed!

The past few months have been a powerful time of seeing the Lord strengthening my faith, drawing me deeper into Him, and seeing that what I thought was faith in Christ before was but a fake glimmer of truly walking with Him. I would even say I have fallen in love with Christ for the first time - though certainly not the last - realizing that I - like everyone else - truly am a lost sinner without ANY hope for salvation OR sanctification apart from Him. He is more precious and sweet to me every day, and yet I still have SO far to go in knowing His grace and extending it to my loved ones. But this intensely spiritual time has made Easter all the more special to me this year. To "know that my Redeemer lives" gives us reason to hope against hope, to have faith in things unseen, to know that God is so good and powerful and mighty to save us in a world that is full of sin, including in our own hearts. I am learning that there is nothing more incredible in the entire world than faith in Christ's saving grace and knowing his love at a HEART level. Truly EXPERIENCING love. I have just begun to know Him and still have so much to grow in my relationship with Christ but I am really excited about what He is doing!

We had a beautiful Easter Sunday - here are some pics!

Tupperware, Tupperware Everywhere

Amy Grace's latest fascination is with everything in the kitchen. She has recently discovered how to open cabinets (she conquered the drawers a long time ago) and since she spends a lot of time with me in the kitchen while I am cooking dinner or doing the dishes or whatnot, this is the room she is by far the most familiar with. When she first started getting mobile I taught her (through some appropriately timed slaps on the hand) that opening drawers is a no-no. She still does it from time to time but is pretty good about that so far. At first I was determined to never be that mom that let her kids pull out all the Tupperware, but you know what? You can't make a child's entire world off limits and Tupperware is pretty darn harmless, with the only downside being the pick-up time afterwards (that is the next thing we are working on, picking up after herself). For whatever reason, Tupperware sure provides a lot of entertainment for pretty much every toddler on the planet - or so it seems.

We are seeing more and more how much Amy Grace is really learning from us just by watching! I thought it was adorable the other day when I took some Windex and paper towels outside on the porch to wipe down our glass coffee table and end table - at one point I turned around to see Amy Grace had found herself a piece of paper towel and was wiping the coffee table too! So cute. And so many opportunities opening up to teach her life skills and just make household chores a part of her life by example. A few months ago i would always put her in the exersaucer while I worked around the house, but not only is she really too old for that now, but there's also so much benefit to taking her around the house with me while I work, whether she's in the sling (which I still sometimes use if keeping her immobile is really necessary, lol) or just in the room with me.

Finally, Amy Grace has graduated to her big girl carseat, which was a gift from "Dee", Brent's mom. We got a good 15 months of use out of the infant seat but it was just time to move on :) AG now sits up a lot higher in the seat and can see out. This particular seat is supposed to be super comfortable so I can't wait to see how she likes it on a long trip!

15 months...

No pictures tonight - just a few musings as I watch our fire die out in the fireplace. It's been a cozy evening with a surprise snow!

Our little one turned 15 months yesterday, on Valentine's Day. And you know, I thought I was really into babies. I mean I am, but I didn't expect to enjoy the toddler stage as much as I do. I loved loved loved caring for Amy Grace as a newborn and little baby, but I am REALLY loving watching her grow and learn and develop into her own little person. She is walking like crazy, fairly well behaved (though she can pout and whine with the best of them), and you can tell she is learning new things every day. She loves to share whatever she finds in the house (including food - she loves to feed us lol!), is so very curious, and full of fun and laughter and joy. I cannot wait to see what the coming years hold. I can't imagine her as an eight-year-old, and certainly not a sixteen-year-old or anything like that, but I have a feeling it only gets better from here!

Our little Dragon still only says a few words - "dada", occasionally "mama", "bye bye", and something that sounds like "dee dee dee dee dee" that means "doggie". She seems preoccupied with getting around, as she always has, rather than talking. I bet that changes in a few months, though!

We are blessed that she has only been really sick twice - once around Halloween (she missed her costume contest at daycare, sad!) and this past week, when it turned out she had a double ear infection. (I had one of those when I was 12 or 13, way past the time when I should have been getting ear infections, and I remember it being brutal!) It was her first ear infection and I was thankful we have gone this long without one! Good ole amoxicillan made a huge improvement in about 24 hours and she was back to her happy self. She had been MISERABLE! We both hated to give her antibiotics as we are both firm believers in letting your body fight things off and not overmedicating, but in the end, I think either one of us would have taken the meds if we had it, lol.

I'm a little surprised to say that Amy Grace is still nursing! We struggled so much in the beginning, and I remember so many times wanting to quit the whole thing when she was about 5 months old and I was still mostly pumping (rather than nursing) at that point due to her issues with gaining weight. I'm SO glad I didn't quit!!!! I eventually came to terms with having to supplement with formula and was more thankful than I thought possible when something "clicked" around 6 months and her nursing improved and I started being able to nurse her a couple of times a day instead of bottle feeding. She is now pretty much completely weaned off bottles and onto sippy cups, but she still wakes up ready and rarin' to nurse in the mornings! I have no idea how much she is getting, MAYBE an ounce or so, but she loves it and so do I. Occasionally she will "ask" to nurse (aka stick her hand down my shirt lol) in the afternoon or evening and depending on what's going on, sometimes we will. I have REALLY been thankful for nursing at times when I've had to put her to sleep unconventionally (such as at a friend's bday party at a local restaurant the night of the national championship), and also when she has been sick, like this last week. The couple of days she felt the worst, she was going for boobie like a woman dying of thirst who's seen her first stream in days :) At times she even refused all liquids from cups and bottles and yet still nursed - so I was glad she was at least getting something. At this point I have no set idea about when to wean her fully. I would think by her 2nd birthday, but we'll see how it goes. Biblically I think it was somewhere between 2 and 3 years old - In Genesis, Abraham actually had a feast for Isaac to celebrate his weaning. I think that would be pretty cool :)

That's about it - hope to start updating the blog more, even just with tidbits from our life. Things are good. We are very blessed :)

Been Awhile - Busy Busy

Well, it's been almost 3 months since I posted last! Amy Grace is changing all the time, with the biggest news being that she is walking confidently now! It really has been in the past week or so that she took to it. We spent this past weekend down at the farm and she loved walking around the big open spaces at the cabin there. Now she just needs some proper big girl shoes!
We often pay Daddy a visit on the way to work - here are a couple of pictures that one of his coworkers took this morning. I think she looks like me in the first one and Brent in the second one:

1 Year!

It's been awhile since I've posted - mostly because I've been too much of a perfectionist to post without any pictures. Gotta fix that! Anyway, we celebrated Amy Grace's birthday this weekend with a boston butt and some football - a great way to do it! I kept thinking I would get all emotional during the day, but it did finally hit me when I put her to bed during her party. I didn't want her first birthday to be over (plus she was having so much fun with everyone, but was exhausted too!). As I put her to bed I hugged her tight and told her how much we love her and God loves her, what a great year it had been, and how much I was looking forward to year #2. I'm not gonna lie - I did tear up a little bit!

She is changing fast and is officially a toddler now. We just transitioned to whole milk, and I am so glad to be free of the old formula ball and chain! She has started standing up on her own and taking a few steps as long as she has someone or something to grab onto quickly, though you can tell that at this point it's more of a mental security thing because she doesn't hold very tightly :) Also for the last little while we have been loving being able to make her laugh just by making funny faces or otherwise being silly with her. Brent is especially great at that! He cracks her up. The baby stage is sweet and I have great memories from it, but man this time between babyhood and the "terrible twos" is pretty awesome. However, I know we plan to see that time as not so terrible, but an opportunity to start really teaching Amy Grace about life. And I'm excited about that!

Tales from the Road

Brent has been blogging about our adventures in the Smokies and posting lots of wonderful pics!! Check it out:

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