girlfriend

Hunter & Caitlin!

Tonight we had a sweet couple over for dinner. We met Paul & Melissa in our childbirth class. They had their baby 6 days after us! When we were still in the mommy & baby wing in the hospital, the doctors sent Melissa to be monitored to check for any indication that her baby was under stress. She and Paul were leaving the hospital when they ran into Josh in the hallway. So they got to meet Hunter when he was about 3 days old!

We absolutely loved our chat with them tonight and feel so blessed by their faith. It is such an encouragement to be with fellow believers and to hear stories of how God has grown couples together.

Their daughter, Caitlin, and Hunter really hit it off! We put them on the playmat together while we ate dinner and they were soooo cute! As you can see, Hunter is huge! Hunter is the 95% while Caitlin is in the 5%!
They held hands!!! They are in the "grabbing" stage right now--- both learning how to grab things and they held hands for a few minutes! It was so adorable. I am glad I was able to capture it on camera! Hunter's first girlfriend! :)

talkin, talkin

Hunter has discovered his vocal cords. For the past two days I have heard all sorts of sounds repeated over and over. I think we are going to have a little talker on our hands. He gets really excited when he figures out how to make a new sound. It makes him smile and laugh!

Here is a video of Hunter. I hope this works... this is my first time to post a video! This was last night as I was trying to feed him and put him to bed. He was wired! He spent a good hour talking to us and laughing. It was one of my favorite times to date with my son.


Hunter has started using the Bumbo seat. He cannot sit up on his own at all, but with this fantastic seat he is able to sit independently! It is so fun to have conversations with him! And look how cute he looks:

The Jesus Storybook Bible

My favorite book to read to Hunter is the Jesus Storybook Bible. This Bible highlights several biblical stories and has great illustrations to go with each. My favorite part is that every story intentionally points to Christ. I highly recommend this book to everyone who has children. Even though my child cannot understand this yet, my prayer daily is that he will grow to understand. I look forward to the day he comes to faith in our Savior.

We are still on the Old Testament. Today, I read to Hunter about the Good Shepherd, David. The vignette is based mostly on his Psalms. I am struck by how this Bible paraphrased Psalm 23. We have all heard this passage, but this rendering helped me to see it afresh. Here it is:

God is my Shepherd
And I am his little lamb.

He feeds me
He guides me
He looks after me.
I have everything I need.

Inside my heart is very quiet.
As quiet as lying still in soft green grass
In a meadow
By a little stream.

Even when I walk through the dark, scary, lonely places
I won't be afraid
Because my Shepherd knows where I am.

He is here with me
He keeps me safe
He rescues me

He makes me strong
And brave.

He is getting wonderful things ready for me
Especially for me
Everything I ever dreamed of!

He fills my heart so full of happiness
I can't hold it all inside.

Wherever I go I know
God's Never Stopping
Never Giving Up
Unbreaking
Always and Forever
Love
Will go, too!
--Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones

Ready for Bed

I went to photography class tonight while Josh stayed home and took care of Hunter. We are still working on Hunter taking a bottle. Unfortunately he would not take one tonight... Josh sent me a text letting me know Hunter would not take it and was only happy in the bjorn with Josh walking around (addicted to movement baby). So I fully expected to come home to an upset, starving baby. But no. I came home to a happy, happy baby. Apparently he was just fine skipping a meal. Look how cute he is!!!

3

Hunter is 14 weeks old now! I am beginning to wonder when it is no longer appropriate to count his age in weeks. I could say he is 3 months and 1 week, but I like the sound of 14 weeks better. For some reason it makes him seem younger. And since I have a giant baby, anything to keep him young is good for me! :) So get used to it people. Hunter's age will be referred to in weeks.

He moved up to size 3 diapers this weekend. He officially weighs more than 16 pounds, which is the minimum weight for size 3 diapers. I cannot believe it. We were in size 2 diapers for 1 week. ONE WEEK! But I think I had him in size 1/2 diapers for too long (see previous post). They are cute. They have elmo and big bird on them.


His development amazes me daily. He is completely aware of his surroundings now and gets bored much more easily. His new favorite thing is to "stand." He needs a lot of support, but he loves to bear weight on his legs and be completely upright. Sometimes this is the only way to stop his fussing.

He also likes to "fly." I hold onto his chest and lift him up above my head. This is great because it really works his neck muscles and he usually laughs as I do it! That's right, he is laughing now. Ohmygosh it is so cute.

On Sept. 11, Hunter said, "hi." Yes, my 3 month old said a word. About a week earlier, his first attempt at "hi" ended in a long iiiii followed by a "k" sound. This time, it happened to be right after Josh said hi to him. Now, we KNOW that he was not aware he was saying hi nor was he aware that he was saying it in response to his daddy. But oh, we like to think he knew!! We are very proud! :)

"Being a Mom means...."

Before Hunter was born a friend of mine gave me a book called A Thousand things it means to be a Mom. In this book real moms finish the sentence "Being a mom means..." I have thought about it a ton in the past three months. Here are some quotes that I would add to the book:

Being a Mom means...
always learning something new.
always being (or at least feeling) a little bit dirty.
putting someone else's needs above your own.
multi-tasking nearly all the time.
constantly worrying if you are doing the right thing.
enjoying every expression, sound, and movement your baby makes.
experiencing love like never before.
having no idea what you are doing sometimes.
learning that you can do your best, but ultimately the child is in God's hands.
wanting to pause time.
being blessed.

Any of you moms out there have any quotes you would add?


Hunter got weighed again last week! At 3 months he weighs: 15 lbs, 6 oz. WOW!

I love my life right now.

I have finally gotten to a place where I feel good, have energy, have little to no pain, and am thoroughly enjoying being a mom. I was really stressed out there for a while. Don't get me wrong, I have loved being a mom. But the transition along with recovering from the C-section has been one of my hardest journeys so far in life. It is exhausting emotionally to go through all the changes. I think the worst is far behind me now. And seriously, Hunter just gets cuter everyday!

a tangible reminder

Josh and I have wanted a bigger TV for quite some time. Every time we are at the NEX or Best Buy or even Target we always find ourselves wandering around the electronics section drooling over the large screen TVs. After we dry our chins off and take a realistic look at the price tags, we quickly realize it is not the time for us to buy any sort of thing. We have 2 perfectly good TVs at home and a TV is certainly not a need.

This weekend we were given a TV.

Just given. A beautiful 37” screen that is HD capable. And it came with a TV stand. One of Josh’s co-workers just moved and got a new TV for his house. So he just GAVE us his old one. He even helped Josh move it from his house into our house. Gotta love the military—I am sure going to miss it!

Josh and I have been very stressed lately as we think about the future. We don’t know what God has for us yet. Josh gets out of the military in December and our desire is to someday go to Seminary. As we are praying about the timing of going to school, Josh is applying for jobs. There are some evenings that we both get so stressed out as we think about all the details that need to happen in this transition time.

As silly as it may seem, this TV has been a powerful reminder to me that God not only sees me, he cares about me. God is so good. He of course cares about our needs, but also he cares about our wants. He wants us to enjoy life.

God has always met our needs and even exceeded them. I know He will continue to do so—even in the midst of transition and house sales and job searching and parenting. God has used this TV to remind me that He cares for us and that He is working out a plan for our lives. To Him be the glory.

Our old TV:


Our new TV:

mirror, mirror

Hunter LOVES mirrors. Or he loves himself. Every time I put him in front of a mirror-- even if he is crying-- he stops, gets his focus on his own reflection, and smiles! It is so cute! And it is absolutely one of my most-used methods to help him stop crying.

An article I read said that at this developmental stage babies think they are playing with another baby when they see their own reflection. The article stated that this will be good for relational development. Who knows if this is actually true, but it certainly sounds good! :) Once we found how much Hunter loved the mirror, we went and bought him his own. It is so cute; it yellow and has a lion on the side of it that Hunter loves just as much as his own reflection.

I was finally able to capture a picture of Hunter gazing at himself.


In other news:
Hunter is getting really strong! For a while, Josh and I were really worried about how he didn't like tummy time. We were afraid he wasn't going to be able to learn to hold his head up with how little time he spent on his tummy. But look at this photo from this weekend!


And here he is looking at his own reflection again!!!

bath time

Bath time has become one of Hunter's favorite times. He LOVES to kick and play and he laughs a lot in the tub. What a great reason to break out my new camera! :) (LOVING the new camera, by the way!!!)

Here is Hunter getting settled into his bath. I love his smile here!







What you have to notice in this picture: the shade! See how much Hunter likes to kick? There is water all over the window shade!!!

caution: this isn't for everyone.

I realize this picture may be too much information for some of you, so I warn you now: avert your eyes! The picture I am about to show does contain poo and it ain't pretty!!
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Okay since becoming a mom I have seen a lot of things. I have been thrown up on, pooped on, peed on, and drooled on. For those of you who know me well, you know that even just a few months ago I would not have been able to handle this. Bodily fluids generally gross me out. But I have done surprisingly pretty well handling Hunter's goo. When we brought Hunter home from the hospital on his fourth day of life, he suddenly decided the newborn diapers were entirely too small. Nearly every diaper we put on him he promptly filled to overflowing. It made me laugh every time. We have had much better diaper luck since then.

I have seen a lot, but I haven't seen anything like this. Yesterday, this is the diaper I got to change:


Yep, the ENTIRE diaper, front to back, FULL of poo. How is that even possible???

This is Hunter's new trick: poo out the front. I understand poo out the back, that happens a lot and it makes sense. But poo out the front? Are you kidding me???


Thanks for letting me share his poo. I guess I truly am a mom now-- discussing poo and all.

pacifier

Hunter has used a pacifier maybe five times in his short life---until this weekend.

At first we didn't want to use a pacifier because we wanted to make sure that he could breastfeed well. Once we established that, he wasn't really interested in the pacifier. That was fine by us!

But this weekend, it all changed. Put that thing anywhere near his mouth and he goes to town! He chews on it, though, he doesn't really suck. Also, he is drooling a lot and biting me during feedings. Since Saturday, he has been crying soooo much!

Could he be teething?

He hasn't had a fever. He is only 11 weeks old. But he keeps crying and shoving his hand in his mouth, even right after he eats!

My patience has been tried. He is obviously uncomfortable. I called the doc and they said he is too young for orajel. We'll see. Maybe his belly is hurting him?