Horses and Bedtime

J loves to play with his horses.  He makes them gallop out on the range and lets the cowboys ride them like bucking broncos.  Sometimes he makes them gallop a little too hard and their legs break!  After several broken legs, we took his bucket of horses and cowboys away for while.  For about a month his other toys have gotten some much needed attention. 
Last night, J decided he was going to start going to sleep by himself like a big boy.  We have always laid down with him at naps and bedtime until he went to sleep.  He was a little nervous and excited about being in his bed by himself.  He was so proud of himself!  So I told him that when he woke up this morning he could have his horses back. 
He played with them most of the day.  His other toys have gone back to being neglected.  He did such a great job and felt so big, he decided to fall asleep on his own again tonight.  I'm sure we could have done this ages ago but I kind of liked snuggling with him.  My sweet boy is growing up!  And he thinks he is going to be John Wayne one day!

Courage is being scared to death... and saddling up anyway.  ~John Wayne

Talk low, talk slow and don't say too much.  ~John Wayne

8 months old

K is 8 months old today and I can't believe it.  Time is flying!  She is becoming a very busy little girl.  She thinks she can do anything.  She crawls everywhere and is finally crawling on all fours instead of Army crawling.  She is also pulling up on everything now.  Sometimes it takes her a while because she is so short she can't reach everything but she is figuring things out.  Yesterday she even started letting go thinking she could stand on her own.  Of course, it didn't work out to well for her because she fell down.  But by the end of the day she was at least figuring out how to go down gracefully! 
She weighed 16.4 pounds last Friday when we were at Dr. D's office and she is finally starting to outgrow most of her 3-6 month clothes.  She smiles all of the time and chuckles.  She recognizes Luke, Seth, and Jules now but she still doesn't let them hold her for long.  She will push people away when she doesn't want them. 
She will sometimes give me a kiss when asked.  She sticks out her tongue when we stick out our tongues or ask "where is your tongue?"  She loves to watch J act silly and will laugh at him.  She likes to pull his hair and pat his face.  Any room J is in she wants to be in too. 

Check out those big blue eyes! 

This is her getting ready to run away from me.  See the smile!

I love paci pics!  Notice the wet dress front...so ready for those 4 teeth to come in.

We are so proud she knows she has a tongue!

Those sweet cheeks! 

She is usually crawling toward me or on me when she is smiling so I can only get a good pic of that sweet smile when she is contained in a seat somewhere!  Precious girl!!

We are having so much fun with this beautiful baby girl!  We are so happy to have her in our lives.

If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it. I think that I see something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle.Vincent van Gogh

The Bible

I am trying to read the Bible from start to finish.  I have tried before but I always end up skipping around and reading my favorite parts again.  The begots really bog my down.  I thought if I found a way to quiz myself as I read I might do better.  So, www.kingjamesbibleonline.org, lets you read the bible online if you wish (I prefer to hold a book), comment on each chapter, and has trivia questions for each chapter.  So far I'm doing pretty good but I'm only to Noah. 
However, I was scanning some of the comments people had posted.  I was shocked!!  Genesis 4:1-2 says, "Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said 'I have acquired a man from the Lord.'  Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel..."  Now I am a very literal reader and I have a hard time when people ask "what does the author REALLY mean?"  Probably because most of the time the author means what they write.  Back to the point...I take this to mean that Adam and Eve had marital relations and she became pregnant with Cain.  Then at another point in time, she gave birth to Abel. 
However, some people believe that Cain is actually Satan's son conceived very closely to the time at which Abel was conceived with Adam making the two brothers twins with different fathers.  WHAT?????????  Now I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed but where in the Bible does it even elude to that ever happening.  Apparently when Satan tempted Eve he did it with the fruit of the tree and his loins. 
There were several other comments that I was appalled by as well.  I'm pretty sure that I couldn't control myself and I commented as well.  I set them straight! 
I am SO SO SO lucky, happy, overjoyed that I was raised in a Christian family.  I can't imagine believing such far fetched ideas.  I hope that if you believed that Cain was Satan's son that you will go back and reread Genesis.  Just read what it says and don't over think it.  God didn't give it to us to confuse us.  It's written on an 8th grade reading level! 

Wow!!!

I finished reading The Help today (it only took about a year for me to finally borrow Jules's copy.)  It was GREAT!!!  I know there is a lot of hype about it right now because the movie is coming out but I suggest you read it.  It is written from the perspective of three different women but it doesn't jump around a lot.  Each woman's voice picks up where the other one left off.  Two of the women are black housekeepers so the story is written in their dialect.  Mom says I will be talking like them for a month! 
I hope if you plan to see the movie you will read the book first.  (It only took me a few days and I can only read during naptime and at bed time.)  It was very eye opening and books are better than the movies 98% of the time anyway!  READ IT!!!!  You will not regret it!

K update...She is no longer running fever and seems to feel a little better but the antibiotic is now making her tummy hurt.  I am nursing her every one to two hours so she won't get dehydrated.  She is sleeping better with the pain drops and benedryl at work.  We will all be ready for the next week to be over!  I am so, so, so thankful that my children are healthy and haven't been sick very much.


"I always order the banned books from a black market dealer in California, figuring if the State of Mississippi banned them, they must be good."

"Sorry is the fool who ever underestimates my mother."

"That's all a grit is, a vehicle. For whatever it is you rather be eating."
~all from Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help

Gripe

It is SO HOT in our neck of the woods!  I woke up at 6 this morning and it was already over 90 degrees.  The sun wasn't even up!  Our air has run from noon until midnight every day this week without taking a break.  We are out of groceries because it is too hot to go to the store.  J hasn't played outside before 7 p.m. in days.  Everything is dry, brown, and dead. 
To top it all off, we have all had a cold this week.  J had it first, then me, now K.  She ran fever all day Thursday.  She has four teeth trying to come in so she just feels awful.  J and I have been cuddling with her and doing everything we can to keep her happy.  J says, "Bless her heart!"
I'm hoping that we are all feeling better and the heat subsides a little so we can go outside some during the day.  I also need to start getting ready for J's 4th birthday party.  It is just a month away and there is much to do!
Have a good weekend and stay hydrated!  I don't dare say stay cool because unless you live in Australia right now, you won't be cool!


What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance. 
~Jane Austen


***Update...Took K to doctor yesterday and she has a double ear infection.  I'm so glad I decided to call and get an appointment.  Hopefully after a couple days of antibiotics she will feel a little better.  Poor thing!

Camera

I LOVE my new camera!  I have no idea how to do everything on it yet but it takes great pictures.  Even on the auto setting which I was told wasn't as good as programming it yourself.  If I learn how to do that, I might have to go into business!
This is what I have...Canon PowerShot SX30 IS.  (photo courtesy of Canon website)  I can't wait to learn more about it and figure out all of the settings. 

Thank you Blake, Mom, and Dad for my new toy!


Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs.  ~Ansel Adams

Expressions

I never know what I'm going to get with these two!

Beauty without expression is boring.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Chopsticks

Saturday night, our family when to Osaka for dinner.  (My day late birthday dinner!)  Mom, Dad, and J had never been.  I thought J would love watching the food being cooked at the table.  We had told him about some of the tricks they might do.  He kept asking when the guy was going to throw food at us and put it on top of his hat but our guy must have been in training because he didn't do many tricks. 
I wasn't sure if he would like the food though.  He is a pretty picky eater but he loved the fried rice.  He even used chopsticks to eat it.  That is until he broke them apart. 
We had a great time!  I think J will definitely want to go back!

And I find chopsticks frankly distressing.  Am I alone in thinking it odd that a people ingenious enough to invent paper, gunpowder, kites, and any number of other useful objects, and who have a noble history extending back 3,000 years haven't yet worked out that a pair of knitting needles is no way to capture food?  ~Bill Bryson

Pulling Up

K thinks she is so big!  She started pulling up in her crib about 2 weeks ago and now she thinks she can pull up on everything.  She tries so hard to pull up on the chairs and beds in our house.  Sometimes she can do it if she gets her legs just right but she is so short she can't reach everything.  She also tries to pull up on the toy buckets and some of J's bigger toys so we have to watch her every move to make sure she doesn't fall.  I can't leave her playing in the floor by herself anymore.  She gets into things she shouldn't.  J was a busy little thing but I think K is going to give me a run for my money!  She is one fiesty, fast moving girl! 

I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.   ~Eleanor Roosevelt

Swimming

The kids are really enjoying the pool this summer.  K is too little to swim for long but if we are out by the pool and anyone is in it, she wants in too!  She loves to splash and kick in the water.  Sometimes we don't even get a swimming suit on her because she is so anxious to get in the water!

J is doing great swimming without his swimmies.  He loves to "practice" with Mom or Blake.  He has no fear!  However, this causes me great fear because I'm afraid he will try to "practice" alone.  We have to watch him very closely!  He likes to swim with his goggles so he can see when he goes under.  His favorite things right now are going to the bottom to collect dive toys, doing tricks off the diving board, and looking at someone else with goggles under water.  He can also dive pretty good.  He can go straight in and turn a flip too.  He can almost swim better than me.  30 years old and I still can't dive!

Swimming is normal for me. I'm relaxed. I'm comfortable, and I know my surroundings. It's my home.  ~Michael Phelps