Picture update...written update later!

Dad is supposed to be putting him to sleep...not going so well,huh?

Not a bit sleepy like he is supposed to be.

I love Publix!

My mom laughs at me because I actually get so excited to go grocery shopping now at our new favorite store that saves us lots and lots of money....PUBLIX! They are so great and willing to help us when we need something. And I'll be the first to say that our new store is HUGE! They have absolutely everything and it's only about 3 miles away. Can't get much better than that. They always have such great deals and the staff is always smiling, whether they are having a good day or not. My favorite part, though? That would be the Baby Club that they have. The send you free coupons for nursing pads, diapers, hand sanitizer, baby spoons, baby food, etc. Not to mention their stock up sales! Buy one get one free dishwasher soap? Crazy! Anyway, I've been meaning to post on the importance of Publix in my life. I hope all of you get the same thrill when you walk into Publix as I do. It's so much fun to hit all the sales and see my total sales for two weeks equal what one week at Walmart used to cost!

Pediatrician update

Since I've had so many people ask me about what the pediatrician recommended for our rice cereal troubles, I thought I'd display it for all to see! First off, we have the most wonderful pediatrician. She is very supportive of my shot requests and never tries to push me into something I don't feel comfortable doing, which is great. Raun's mom found her for me by polling the doctors and nurses at Erlanger about which pediatrician was the best. She was right! I can call her anytime and she always calls back within 30 minutes or less. Not that I've done it a lot...only twice. Once to make sure I had done all I could do when he had a cold and then now for his tummy since I won't see her again until February. Okay, so to the recommendation. She told me to take a few weeks off of the cereal and then try it again. If he still has trouble, she told me to go ahead and start making my baby food for him to try. She said it could be the different schedule that he's having trouble adapting to, or it could be just that cereal. So there it is! Now it's nap time since I have a cold and need to get rid of it before Raun goes back to work on Monday!

5 months old!

We have been so blessed the past 3 nights with a baby boy that sleeps almost 11 1/2 hours, waking up around 8:30. We've been really consistent about his naps the past 2 weeks and are trying to maintain a schedule while I'm teaching lessons. However, he does great for his morning nap but doesn't particularly like his afternoon nap. Most of the time he goes down willingly, but the past 2 days has been a challenge. We've been experimenting with his rice cereal because we have found that giving it to him before bed results in night wake ups because of his tummy. So I moved it to lunch time, but he still struggles with an upset tummy. We're not for sure what to do about it because he seems to like eating it. I think I'm going to have to call the pediatrician to see if she can recommend something for me to try. I'm not feeding him baby food for another month, so I'm hoping she can recommend another type of food that is gentler on the stomach. Or maybe this is how all babies react to it. I'm not for sure! He's doing great with eating, though. He's sitting up by himself in the Bumbo and is opening his mouth when the spoon comes close to his mouth. Then he gives you a goofy grin and tries to grab the spoon with his hands. Raun is much cleaner at feeding him than I am. He's going to have to teach me his techniques. He requires a bath every time I feed him because he grabs his bib and puts it in his hair or gets his hand on the spoon, etc.

Blake is going to be dedicated on January 18. This is simply saying that Raun and I will do our best to raise Blake in the way the Lord desires. We don't want him to just know ABOUT God, we want him to KNOW God and to have a personal and deep relationship with Him. We want him to follow Christ and to lead others to Christ. I know that Raun and I will mess up plenty of times as parents, but we are making a public statement asking the church to pray for us, to guide us through his life, and for them to show Blake the importance of Christ. I'm very thankful that we have so much support and that those older and wiser are teaching us, just as Christ calls for. I hope that we continue to adhere to their wisdom and to God's. I just don't like having to learn things the hard way!

I'm beginning to teach my Kindermusik classes next week. I'm teaching the Baby Sign and Sing. I feel that sign language is very important for language development and helps to ease so much of the frustration because of the lack of language. I've already been signing a lot to Blake...pretty much everything I say during play time. I want him to be used to seeing sign, as well as hearing my voice. This class will have about 5 parents with their children all doing sign and playing. I can't wait! It's going to be so much fun to watch these babies learn to sign back so early.

That's it for now...got a crying baby that just woke up from his nap!

Our Christmas

Me with Turner and Mandi with Blake

He started on the mat....

John and Molly

John making fun of my reading time with Blake

Mama and her present

Aunt Barbara with her grandson

Mama and me

Aunt Barbara and her granddaughter

Ma, Aunt Barbara, and her granddaughter

Can you tell that Kelsey is winning? LOSERS!

Kyle

Dalton

Kelsey

The O'Connor's...next year we'll have Molly!

Helicopter in the gutter

Helicopter on the kitchen wall

Eating the Gator's shirt

Dad's cool new outfit

Mom made this stocking on her new sewing/embroidery machine

I'm finally getting a chance to update this blog since the baby is asleep and I can't really take the tree down by myself. I did get all of the ornaments off, though. It's weird how I have always loved Christmas and still do, but it was a new type of enjoyment this year. It wasn't all about presents or anything...it was more about God's presence. It was a neat thing to experience this year.

Blake is doing well. We're playing with all the new toys that he received and we're working on rolling over more consistently. He's still eating about 2 tablespoons of rice cereal, thickened with his Poly-vis-ol (which smells disgusting) and my milk. We're getting into the routine of naps, which is nice. We'll see how well I can adjust to when I go back to work next week and have to put him down at the church.

My family came to our house on Christmas. It's the last Christmas that we'll have with my brother before he marries Molly. It was a lot of fun for me to have them here. We watched Christmas Vacation on Christmas Eve and of course quoted all the lines from memory. I often wonder how many families watch that movie on Christmas Eve. We woke up on Christmas and ate some yummy cinnamon rolls that Jerri Lynn made for us. She makes the best cinnamon rolls! Anyway, after that was the reading of the Christmas story and present opening time. I mostly got clothes because I will never ever see the same pants size again thanks to my birthing hips expanding! No one warns you about how much your body will change after baby. Raun got lots of neat things, including a helicopter to terrorize the dogs with. Dad, John, and Raun enjoyed learning how to fly it and it ended up in lots of weird places...on top of our kitchen wall, in Mom's hair, and in the gutter.

We went to Raun's aunt's house for dinner with his whole family. We had lots of yummy food and lots of desserts. We even played some games and I must admit that I did quite well when it came to the Christmas song quizzes. Raun and his team cheated by using Raun's cell phone. But never fear...they never won:) And we told on them for cheating! After opening presents, we ended the night playing Disney Scene It. I was on Kelsey's team, which I was thankful for. I believe that Kelsey has seen every Disney movie and always wins these games. Which of course...she won again pretty much by herself. Me and Lea weren't too much help because we hadn't seen too many.

The next day we went to see Marley and Me. Good movie, but sad! We all were either crying or about to cry (although not all the boys would admit it). Raun and I could relate to so much in that movie, dogwise and personal. I recommend it, but bring tissues.
We headed to Mom and Dad's house on Saturday for our family Christmas dinner with my grandma and great-grandma. My great-aunt came and brought two of her grandchildren, which was a nice suprise. They were so nice. We enjoyed our dinner and Dad has vowed not to eat for the rest of the year. I don't believe it, though.

I'm working on a new quilt for Blake. It's a textured quilt and I'm really excited about it. I'll definitely post pictures of it when I get it finished. My mom is going to help me with it on Friday, so I'm excited! Time to get off here and get more things done while he's still sleeping. Happy New Year!

Video

This video was taken on Christmas Eve, but I never got the chance to post it to the website until now. It's amazing how much he has grown and all of his facial expressions that he makes. He is such an expressive child! And adorable, if I must say. And no, I'm not biased! He is 4 1/2 months old in this video.

More pictures...