Weaning

For the last couple weeks I've begun the weaning process with Keira.  I was nervous for it expecting to be in a lot of pain but honestly, I haven't really felt anything which is very nice considering I heard horror stories from my friends of how painful it was!  I will admit it is kinda sad to think that my days of nursing my first baby are almost finished, but I know once I'm done with it I will be glad.  We're down to two feedings a day and it's kinda nice quite honestly.  :)

Keira's birthday is 1 week from today!  I'm so excited for it and can't wait to just celebrate her all day!!  Granted she won't really have any idea what's going on, but it will be more fun for us to make a big deal out of her on that day.  You only have a 1st birthday one time and you have to make it special.  My mom gave me a bunch of decorations that we'll use and I'm going to figure out how to make a special cake this week.  Cyndi will be here so I'm sure she being the expert in the kitchen will help make everything wonderful!  We're having a birthday party from 1-3 pm and I hope a lot of people will at least stop by.  It's just fun to get excited about our little girl!!!  :)

I ordered a bunch of pictures this week to fill up her baby book with and included a monthly shot of her each month.  Here are the ones I have.  My girl is getting so big!!!!!

newborn

1 months

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

 

8 months

 9 months

10 months

 11 months

It's almost here!

Keira's 1st birthday is just around the corner.  Now I'm no longer counting months until she's 1, I'm counting weeks!!  A couple people asked me today how old she is and I had to say "She'll be 1 in 3 weeks!" YIKES!!  Where did the past year go??????  I can honestly say this past year has been one of the greatest years of my life.  Fastest ever...but greatest none the less.

I keep reminding myself throughout the days that I need to update my blog.  I haven't written in over a month and I feel like I'm going to miss out on recording and marking things that Keira's doing and the new things she's learning.  While some of you who read this may not care when she takes her first steps, or what she's eating, or how she laughs so hard at Wrigley, I'm more writing it down for myself so I can come back to these entries when she's older (or when I have other kids to compare) and remember these days.  I never want to forget this first year of my first daughter's life and so I write...or type....the little details that may mean nothing to you but mean everything in the world to me!!

Words - She is JABBERING on and on and on these days!  Literally this morning I don't think she stopped talking for like 20 minutes straight.  I LOVE it!!  :)  She just plays on the floor with her toys (or the dog dish or Wrigley's kong or her bibs and washcloths or the dish towels and placemats...) and talks talks talks to herself.  Her voice melts my heart.  Sometimes she gets this really high pitched voice and I think she just likes to hear herself when she does that voice.  It is the sweetest thing ever!  That little girl said "mama" as her first word for like 2 weeks straight and as SOON as she figured out how to say "dada", I haven't heard "mama" since!!  That little stinker!  I say it to her all day and she just looks at me like "what are you doing mom?!"

Faces - She's just started making this face where she scrunches her eyebrows and nose and purses her lips and it's almost like a mad face but whenever she does it I just have to laugh so hard.  She also loves to stick her tongue out all the way and then of course mommy has to do it and we just look at each other making funny sounds with our tongues hanging out.  :)

Schedule - Our schedule is pretty similar at this point each day, other than Sunday when we have church.  Keira's been waking up around 8 am and I always go in finding her standing up at her crib smiling away with her crazy bed head.  I love her little grin as I walk in the door cause she knows I'm coming to get her up.  :)  She nurses right away and this is the feeding that will be the hardest to give up. When she wakes up, she's ready to eat!  And eat a lot!  It's not going to be a fun week for me when we drop this feeding! OW!  I'm dreading it already.  After she eats though is some of my most favorite times of the day.  We always read together and read about 3 books.  One of them being her Tiny Bear Bible.  It's super short, rhyming Bible stories that are just perfect for her.  We cuddle while she continues to wake up and she just LOVES being read to!!  That 15 minutes or so of cuddling and reading are some of my favorite moments of the day.  :)  After that she eats breakfast (cereal mixed with fruit) and then plays for 1 1/2 hours till she goes down again at 10.  She usually sleeps for 2 hours then nurses again and has lunch around 12/12:30 pm.  Plays some more or we run errands and then nap again at 2 (if we're lucky!).  Bottle and snack at 3:30 then dinner at 5:30/6ish with Daddy. After dinner she spends time with Pete and he always puts her "jam jam's on" (they have a song they sing while doing it!).  :)  So cute.  :)  Bed at 7.  And I must add that she is a CHAMP when it comes to going to bed.  I barely ever even hear a word from her after I lay her down.

Food - She's eating most everything these days.  I tell ya that little girl has an appetite!!  Pete asked me last night if I should stop feeding her at some point. haha.  I told him I don't care how much broccoli and cauliflower she eats!  I'll give it to her if she wants it until she's so stuffed she can't get another bite into her!  Being that my huz doesn't have the greatest eating habits (pizza, spaghetti o's and hot dogs...ugh!), I'm being pretty strict with Keira and what she's allowed to eat.  I want her to grow up liking veggies and fruit and making healthy eating choices and there's no better time than to start than right now!  When she wants more of something, she tries to say "more" but it just comes out like mumbles.  Her little arms shake and her legs kick and when I sign more and ask her she gets a big grin on her face so I know she understands what it means.  :)

Sleeping - Last night I put Keira down at 6:45 pm and she didn't wake up until 8:30 am!!  I was starting to get a little worried cause she's usually at least stirring by 8 am but she was just fine.  This spring ahead time chance has definitely worked for my benefit.  I wasn't a fan of the falling back an hour, but I just kept putting Keira down at 7 even after we sprung ahead (and it would have been 6 pm) and now she just sleeps an hour later.  :)  I've heard that the earlier you put your baby down, the longer they will sleep and I couldn't agree more!  I think that is one of the best "rules" I've heard yet haha!!  She has been fighting her naps though.  I'm wondering if we're getting close to dropping down to 1 nap.  In the mornings she goes down at 10 and always sleeps a good 2 hours.  It's the afternoon one that we've been having trouble with lately.  Every day is different...one day she'll sleep 2 hours in the afternoon then the next she won't sleep at all.  I'm just going to keep trying to stick with 2 naps at this point because I'm not ready to give up that second "mommy" time!  :)  I still think it's good for her to have a rest time anyways.

We've been doing a lot more things with friends and their kids.  Keira's getting to the age where she plays and interacts with other kids and I love it!  I'm so anxious for summer to get here so we can go to the pool and the zoo and take walks outside!!  There have already been multiple 70 and even 80 degree days here so we're definitely getting out of the house more which is great!  Although I will say I'm not looking forward to the 95/100 degrees in July and August.  ugh.  I always thought I would love the heat, but summers here are brutal!  Maybe I'm just having bad memories of last summer when I didn't want to go anywhere with Keira just being a couple months old and out in that heat, but I just remember being miserable!  Hopefully this summer will be different as we can actually get in the water now.  :)

This past week my mom and sisters and Elyse came to visit for a few days.  It was great to have them here and I'm so thankful for them!!  We spent many hours talking and laughing and watching the babies crawl around and eat their toys.  Elyse and Keira are so different.  Not only in size, (Keira's a beast compared to little petite Elyse!!) but in personality as well.  Elyse is definitely more assertive and vocal and much more dramatic.  Keira seems to be more laid back and passive.  It's funny to watch them together!!  They are just so sweet and I hope they grow to be great friends!!  Now we just need to live less than 10 hours away from each other so that can actually happen.

Keira took a few steps while they were here and that was so fun to see.  :)  She's definitely still wobbly and her problem is that she leans forward to reach out to me or Pete and that throws her off balance.  It is still super cute and while I know life will pick it up a pace once she starts walking, I'm anxious for her to do it.  :)  I just love watching new babies walk.  There's just something sweet and special about it.  :)

Well I think that's most of the updates.  Again, for those few who read this, it was probably pretty boring, but I do it for myself to go back and read later on.  :)  I'm still obsessed with my girl and so, so, so, so, so thankful that I get to stay home with her.  The Lord has definitely in every single way possible provided through painting for Pete and Thirty-One with me to make that possible.  I'm living my dream right now - an incredible husband and a beautiful daughter (and a crazy, hyper but in a weird way I still love him, puggle Wrigley).  :)  My life is BLESSED!!!

My heart is heavy.

This morning my heart feels very heavy.  My friend from college, Audrey, and her husband Kyle lost their 5 month old baby girl Annabelle Joy last night.

Annabelle Joy

Kyle & Audrey

I don't know all the details but from what I do know, she had something called SCIDS which from my understanding is basically no immune system.  Her little body was unable to recover and last night she went to be with Jesus.  I sit here in my home with my little girl sleeping soundly in the room next door and I just weep.  I weep because I can't imagine the pain Kyle & Audrey are experiencing right now.  I weep because I think of how much I love Keira and how much it would hurt to lose her.  I weep because I know that Jesus is weeping right along with us.  I weep because of anger at this world for the sin we live in day in and day out.  I weep because my heart hurts, for myself but mostly for Kyle & Audrey.  I know this is a cheesy picture of Jesus, but I'm a visual person and seeing him here holding this little baby is what I believe He's doing right now in heaven!  She's looking straight into the eyes of Jesus and experiencing a satisfaction and comfort that we have yet to know until we stand in his presence and he reaches out and physically holds us as well.  He's holding that sweet girl right now and to be honest...I'm a little jealous.

A few days ago I was reading in John 11 about when Lazarus dies and Jesus goes to him.  In this moment I am continually reminded of the oh so common verse "Jesus wept." (John 11:35)  I get this picture in my head of Jesus leaning over Annabelle and just weeping because He loves her so much.  He's weeping because He desires so much more for us as His children, yet because of sin, we choose to live in guilt and hurt and pain without even knowing all that He has for us!  He's weeping because he knows what we were created to be.  He's weeping because he hurts that one of his precious daughters didn't get to experience life on this earth for more than 5 months.

"Jesus wept."  

The next verse says, "Then the Jews said, 'See how he loved him!"

Oh how Jesus loves us!  His heart breaks when we are hurting!  When things like this happen it's easy to ask God "Why?" or blame him for taking this sweet little girl long before she could really experience all that life has for her.  And I'm not the parent in this case so it's easy for me to say now, but the answer to the Why? is because we live in a world saturated with sin!  I can't imagine what it would be like to lose a daughter so young and so innocent....she didn't do anything to deserve her life being cut short!!  But as I was laying in bed this morning thinking and praying for Kyle & Audrey, I kept thinking (or the Lord kept bringing to mind) that Annabelle's purpose took only 5 months to completely fulfill!  God KNEW from the moment that she was conceived that she would only live 5 months!  Her death did NOT take him by surprise!!  That little girl, while not even knowing how to talk or walk, fulfilled ALL, every last short minute, of what God intended and purposed for her life!!!  If she would have lived another day on this earth, the purpose of what she was first put her for, would have already been accomplished so she would be living for nothing.  I am reminded as I write this that each one of us are put here, not knowing for how long or short our days might be, for a very specific purpose.  Once that purpose is fulfilled, God takes us home.

Psalm 90:12

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Oh Lord may I live each day with PURPOSE!  May I know that you love us enough to weep when we hurt!  May I seek your face when I am hurting knowing that you are the only one who offers complete peace!!  Be with Kyle & Audrey in these moments, days, months, years ahead of them as they miss their little girl and do life without her.  May I always know that you've experienced loss and know what I'm thinking and feeling.  Lord Jesus may this world come to know you and be FREED from the chains that sin holds us down to!  I long for the day that our bodies are made new and our suffering is no longer.

Do you know that Jesus loves you?  No really.....think about it.  Do you live in such a way that the God of the UNIVERSE LOVES you??  How does your life reflect what you believe???

I seriously love this.

My girl is just SO much fun lately!!  I seriously laugh so hard at her all day...and I can imagine that she's even going to provide more laughs when she starts talking.  My favorite things she's doing now is blowing loudly by pursing her lips, squinching up her nose when she smiles, she has this high pitched coo and just sings and listens to her voice, she's just learned her "g" sound so that's the new one that's frequently used, her left top tooth just broke through (and we're anxiously awaiting the pair...she's NOT a fan of teething!) but she has started to push her tongue out and I think she feels the top tooth with her tongue....there are just so many things that I just love about this little girl!  I am absolutely obsessed with her!!  For those of you who are moms, you know what I'm talking about.  For those of you who aren't moms yet...just wait...it is seriously the greatest thing EVER!!!!

I mean, LOOK at her!!!  Honestly!!!!  GOD THANK YOU FOR MY GIRL!!!!!!!

My subbing adventures

Today's Wednesday...that means it was a work day for me.  Booooo.  I've been substitute teaching now for about 5 months and I suppose I'll say it's okay.  At least when I sub in the Maize district.  I've come to the conclusion that I don't like Wichita schools.  Maybe it's just where I was raised and I'm too preppy or whatever, but I will say that when I walked down that high school hallway for the first time and I was all dressed in my khakis and sweater and not one boy in that hallway had pants pulled up above his knees, the girls were wearing clothes tight enough to be painted on and combs were sticking out of hair....I felt a little out of place....to say the LEAST!  I stood out like a sore thumb. 

It all came to a head when a couple weeks before Christmas for two Wednesdays in a row I subbed in the middle schools and both weeks there were fights in my room.  The second week it was an all out fist fight of two 7th grade boys, both twice my size mind you, pounding the living daylights out of each other in my first hour classroom.  Um yeah.  Not worth the $50 for my half day.  Take me home to my baby please.  I'd rather sell my plasma.  Anyways, that kinda did me in and I took a 6 week hiatus (an extended Christmas break if you will) from the Wichita schools and I still have yet to go back. Thankfully the Lord has been once again faithful and while I was home they called me to sub in the Maize schools (which are SOOOOOO much easier and better!) and while I couldn't do it that week, I told "Sandy - sub finder" (as known by my iphone) that I'd like to work on Wednesdays if possible.  She told me to call and remind her on Tuesdays and she'd look for jobs for me.  Well that's worked.  And I've gotten jobs the last 3 Wednesdays. Praise the Lord!  Today it was a music/vocal class...perfect!  My specialty!  HA!  Thankfully they just took a test and watched Shirley Temple.  Nothing like watching the first half of a movie three times in a row.  Makes me half tempted to go rent it from the library so I can watch the last half of the movie!

Anyways, Maize is a thousand and one trillion bazillion times better and I'm really glad that I keep getting jobs in that district.  As much as I love breaking up fights and pulling 200 lb 7th grade boys off the floor, I think I'll take the other option thank you very much.  I have much respect for teachers who do this every day.  By the end of the day I am exhausted from standing and being "on" all day.  Maybe it's cause I don't work every day anymore or maybe it's just that being a teacher is hard work (I'm willing to vouch for the second).  Props to you teachers out there.  Thanks for lovin' on those kiddos day in and day out because they wear me out after just one day.  I'll stick to my own babies and hanging out with the students at youth group when they call me Julie....not Mrs. Goodman!

Christmas 2010

This year our Christmas break is an extended visit....1 week at the Goodman's and 1 week at the Spader's.  Christmas started at our house in Wichita which we haven't gotten to experience yet since usually we're home already by then.  My parents got to travel to Israel over Christmas this year though so that's why we did it all after the actual holiday.  Christmas Eve was a good family day.  We were excited to have Keira's first Christmas at our house and watch her "open" (or just chew on the bows and the wrapping paper) her presents.  Pete did AWESOME this year and totally surprised me when he brings 5 wrapped presents home from the office (1 being HUGE mind you!!).  I was so surprised and excited to see what he had gotten me!!  :)  He told me he had been "stealing" money from his painting money all year and had gone on quite the shopping spree for me and Keira.  That meant so much to me that he had been thinking so far in advance about the presents he was going to get me.  It was so thoughtful!!  Anyways, Christmas Eve we opened our presents after Keira's morning nap and then went to our favorite restaurant for lunch.  Here are a couple highlights...

My BIG present...I was SOOOOO curious and it was the greatest present ever!  :)

This is what was inside....

Presents under the tree!  Yeah!

Keira's gift from Mommy.

Let the present opening begin!

Pete got me a Michael Buble CD, a fleece electric blanket (which I LOVVVVEEE!), a Famous Footwear giftcard (because I had been recently commenting on how I was in dire need of new black shoes), a pandora charm for my bracelet (a heart with Keira's birthstone in it) and then the big one....three really big framed pictures of Keira for our house.  He seriously did AWESOME!!!!!!!  It was so fun opening presents together and watching Keira look at her new toys.  :)  Pete was playing in the Christmas Eve service so I went by myself and got Keira all dressed up cute in her Christmas dress that I had been waiting to put her in!  :)  We got some cute family pictures.

Our trek home started after the Christmas Eve service and we drove through the night.  We were stuffed solid into our little CRV!! haha.  Literally there was no more room!!  It worked well to drive through the night so Keira and Wrigley could sleep.  We made it in 10 hours and 25 minutes.  Christmas day we just rested and hung out at the house and the whole family came over the day after Christmas.  It was so great to see everyone...I am so blessed with my in laws and 2nd family!  We had a lot of fun opening presents together and just spending good time together.  Keira enjoyed her new toys and her fisher price stand up toy was the highlight present of the year.  She just LOVES it!!  :)

A great game of spoons!

Cyndi of course made QUITE the spread of food and it was so, so good...however, I caught the flu bug Sunday night and it stuck the whole week which made things not so good.  :(  I couldn't keep anything down and was pretty much miserable.  We all went to Wisconsin Dells Monday-Wednesday and while it was a ton of fun and I loved being there, being sick while I was there was no good.  I did manage to get to the pools a couple times though and get some pictures of Keira swimming for the first time.  She wasn't a big fan...all the pictures I got she has a worried/concerned look on her face.  Here is what the most of the pictures look like...

New Years Eve we drove to my parents house and met up with Jamie & Brandon and Matt & Anne McClane.  We left the sleeping babies with Grandma and Grandpa and went to Houlihans for dinner.  It was great and us three girls talked babies the whole time!  Matt & Anne have a little girl Rilyn who is only 10 days younger than Keira.  It was so fun to see all the girls together!

The rest of the week was filled with more present opening, good family time, lots of good food and much relaxing.  I got to go up to Indiana and meet up with my Bethel girls.  We brought all the babies and it's so fun watching them interact with each other.  They are such great friends!!

On Thursday I met up with Jerusalem and her little sweet boy Eli.  Again, so fun comparing babies and talking baby things.  :)

By the end of the week we were definitely ready to get back to our own house.  It's tough living out of a suitcase for 2 full weeks.  I couldn't wait to get Keira back in her own crib and have everything back in it's place.  It's very stressful for me to be out of a routine so once we got back it has been nice to adjust back to the norm.

Overall, this years Christmas was great.  What a blessing to have 2 families that we just love being around and great friends to see and spend time with.  Here are just a couple more pictures that I enjoyed. :)

Twinzies!!  :)

Crawling

My girl is fully on the move these days!  I love it!!  :)

She is exploring everything and has made her tracks over our entire house already.  Last year at Thanksgiving I felt her move for the first time inside of me and this year at Thanksgiving, I got to see her move on her own for the first time!  My life has definitely changed as now I can't just lay her down on the carpet or sit her with a few toys.  I have to constantly be watching her and making sure she's not into anything. I can only imagine that this gets more difficult as she will get faster and eventually start walking.  I just LOVE being able to stay home with her and help her learn the little things.  :)  I came into her room the other day and this is what I saw...

I'm just waiting for the teeth marks to start showing up on her crib rail.  haha.

We got to spend Thanksgiving this year down in Austin, Texas at Ben & Stacy's house.  It was a ton of fun and I thoroughly enjoy spending time with Pete's family.  I have been so blessed to get wonderful inlaws and I couldn't have asked for a better second family!  They are so great!!  We get our family pictures each year...here's our most recent one -

And that's after many takes trying to get Keira to look at the camera.  This is the best we could do.  :)  Here's one of everyone -

We're heading home for Christmas on Christmas day this year.  It will be weird not going to the Christmas Eve service with my family, but my parents and Christy will be in Israel Dec 23 - 31st so we're spending the week after Christmas with Pete's family and then the first week of January with my family in Batavia.  We'll also be celebrating my dad's 60th birthday that week.  I love this time of year as we just get to spend a lot of good quality family time together.  This being Keira's first Christmas will make it extra special!!  :)  So if I don't post within the next couple weeks....Merry Christmas!!  :)