Tuesday, April 28, 2009

7 Months

- Pushes himself straight up on his arms.
-Rolls from back to front and front to back
- Holding himself more uprightly when sitting on my lap, like he will be sitting on his own before too long
- Eats some food, but still mostly breast-fed. He seems less interested in food since he tried it. :)
- Sleeps well. Usually goes to sleep around 8:30 PM, and wakes once around 3 AM or so to eat, then wakes up around 7-ish AM.
- I usually lay him down awake for his naps, laying on his back. He always turns his head to the left and puts his thumb in his mouth and I lay a blanket over him that also covers that cheek that he nuzzles into. It is quite precious. :) At night I nurse him to sleep.
- Still sucks his thumb.
- Has a very friendly, happy, laid-back personality. People comment on how happy he is.
- His hair is very slowly coming in; it is, of course, blond.
- Is very insistent on flipping over when in the tub so that he can pat the water with gusto and drool excitedly over the tub stopper.
- Loves it when his brothers amuse him. He is generally very tolerant of their affection, and enjoys it.
- In size 4 diapers, and in 6-9 month clothes.
- Everyone says that he looks like Gabe and Tim. I think he looks like Gabe when facing you, but his profile really looks like Tim.
- Full of giggles and so scrumptious you just have to kiss him and kiss him and kiss him. :) Heeehhhhhh. Happy sigh. :) :)

Monday, April 27, 2009

Sun, Sand, and A Weird Mommy

This morning I lay snuggled in my pillows, eyes half open, feeling the warm breeze from the window blow over me. The house was quiet, the fan hummed, I was alone in the bed, the sun was shining, and - and - it sort of felt like I was on vacation. :) I pretended I was. Let's see. I would lie here a little longer, and then get up when I felt like it, and after I got dressed, I would go to the hotel restaurant, and maybe have some sort of pancakes with fruit on them. Or crepes or something. And then I would walk to where all the shops were and browse through them, enjoying the mountain air. Or I would go to the beach and lounge about. I wasn't quite sure which vacation I preferred to be on, while I was having the option. Actually, I might go for a massage after breakfast, and then off to my activities. I nodded decisively in my mind, as I was not about to expend such energy in real life, sprawled lazily in my comfy hotel bed, summer air blowing the curtains. (Yes, I am weird, thank you very much, but I can't help it. And at least my vacations are free... :))

Mondays are Tim's day off, since Saturdays are often busy with sermon prep, and Sunday's are super busy for him. This morning the house was quiet because he had gotten up with The Dude who had decided to rise and shine before 6 AM, after I got cranky enough about being up with him. :) One boy was already outside, the other was playing the newly discovered and vastly beloved Nintendo 64. We had already decided to go to the beach today, so after I peeled myself off the bed, I also demanded that we breakfast at IHOP to prolong my full vacation experience.

After enjoying my strawberry-banana pancakes with whipped cream, OJ, and coffee (drool of remembrance), we jetted off. It was a gorgeous day, the water was cold, and the beach was mostly deserted. Gabe was in his element. Israel, on the other hand...
The beach is mostly distressing to Israel. He does not like his beloved family members to be so close to all that big scary water. He has no desire to go splash in the big scary water himself, unless he is tightly held by Mommy or Daddy. Then there is the pesky matter of that wind, that blows stuff away, like the umbrella fabric (which he considers his kite), and leads to more screams of distress.

There was a helpfully distracting and friendly dog available to help out.
And Israel was also busied with digging, which was mostly all he did while we were there.
This was Zion's first taste of the beach. He liked it all.
He finally fell asleep on our blanket that we moved into the shade, a cinnamon-sugar doughnut of a boy, covered with sunscreen and sand. :)
Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh. What a great vacation day. Hopefully we can repeat it before too long. I gotta say - I like this beach proximity mucho.

Alrighty. Now I am going to go shopping by myself for several hours in the beach outlet shops located directly outside my hotel, with the many extra hundreds of dollars I have available to spend in my altered mental state. Ha. Maybe I better go get another massage while I'm at it, since I'm so worn out from all this thinking. I would nod decisively, but I'm awfully busy watching cable TV. Till later...

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Field Work

The farmers have been busy in the fields around here.
The other day a tractor came by and fertilized, plowed, and planted the field directly behind our house. The boys had a great time watching him, as usual. Gabe came in from one of his stare-fests out on the deck and said "The farmer LOOKED at me!!! I couldn't be-YEAVE it!! I was standing there and he LOOKED at me!!!"

Anywho, this morning Israel was up and out in the field by about 7:45 AM. Get out of bed, exit house, drive small toy combine busily.
The entirety of the farm crew was hard at work by 8:15 AM. Got a lot to get done before "chuch".
It has been one of those GORGEOUS days around here, especially in the morning and the evening, where the weather is juuuust right and we can leave our windows open all night and have the fan on and it's not too humid yet but just perfect. Sigh of bliss. Sitting out on the steps holding Zion, watching the boys play and play and play as they help their daddy gives me a huge swell of contentment in my heart. I love these days.

This is a phase in the boy's lives that I particulary enjoy because they play so well together (or at least 2/3's of the time, which is plenty good enough for me) for extended periods of time. They are outside a lot since the days are warmer and ride tricycles and play in the sand and play with a ball, or draw with chalk on the concrete.
Another one of their favorite past-times is helping Daddy mow. Israel loves to ride in the wagon behind the mower, or ride in Tim's lap. LOOOVES it.
Yesterday he was giving me the HUGEST, most heart delighted smiles in the world from his perch on Tim's lap. Gabe prefers to chase the mower. That boy just runs and runs and runs and runs.
Gabe is often busy outside with other "boy work". The other day I found him like this:
His binoculars were being used to look for "holes that animals had made", so that Daddy wouldn't run over them with his lawnmower. The plastic golf club was in hand to whack any racoons he may come across, and his Cars bookbag contained an imaginary pickle in case he happened to run into a skunk. I see. Alrighty then. :)

The boys also have a good time playing inside. They like to drive their cars on the footboard at the bottom of our bed, and this is what we found last night when we were getting ready for bed. :)It appears that some boys must reside at this address...

Friday, April 17, 2009

My Spa Haven Home

Yesterday, after I got off the phone that I had held between my shoulder and my ear, I had a major crick in my neck that really hurt!!! So this afternoon after lunch I had a hot stone massage on the lustrous hallway carpeting between the kitchen and the dining room. Except by "lustrous" I mean, "at least it was vacuumed". As for the hot stones, they were more like 98.6 degrees, and by stones I am meaning small child bodies. And by massage I am meaning "sat upon". :) Gabe sat on the small of my back and gave me little shoulder rubs, and Israel sat on my legs and busily whacked my butt, then lay back and gave me some good kicks as Zion vigorously jumped in the over-the-door jumper yearning with his entire being to grab one of our shirts and stuff them into his mouth. :) I almost forgot that I wasn't in the local spa. Maybe I should have opened a pack of wipes and sat them next to my head for some aromatherapy.

Ahhh. The luxuries of child rearing.

The nice thing is, it helped! I figured it would. Something about the weight on my back pulling things back into place.

Gabe: several thousand dollars (so far) for childbirth and upbringing
Israel: several thousand dollars (so far) for childbirth and upbringing
Free chiropractic adjustment from a total 70+ pounds of warm bodies: Priceless.