Ladies, If you want a reason to praise the Lord for your weekend, go over and read about Veronica’s. I know I’m thanking the Lord for laundry this morning.
After Yesterday’s Diatribe, Aren’t You Ready for a Cute Wordless Wednesday?
September 3, 2008 at 6:45 am (Baby Stuff, wordless wednesday)
Tags: baby cuteness, wordless wednesday
Mackerdoodle Incognito
Maintenance
August 29, 2008 at 1:18 pm (Baby Stuff, Just Life)
Tags: cause and effect, curtain rod, toddlers
There are some things you just don’t think about until you have children. One of those things, is the level of abuse everything in your home must survive. It isn’t that the mackerdoodle is deliberately destructive . . . okay, it isn’t USUALLY that the mackerdoodle is deliberately destructive, it’s just that she’s learning and exploring, and that means she doesn’t understand cause and effect.
For instance, she didn’t understand that a cheap “good enough for now” curtain rod can’t handle the full weight of a 21+ pound little girl, trying to reach the giant moose painting.
Fortunately, it gave me the excuse to buy a sturdier, (and also prettier) curtain rod that matches the ceiling fans and light fixtures. Target is a marvelous place.
So to sum up: One cheap curtain rod + one active toddler = one nice new curtain rod for mama.
That Elusive Goal
August 20, 2008 at 9:11 pm (Baby Stuff)
Tags: colds, parenting, sleep
Before we were parents, Jonathan’s oldest sister and her husband were speaking to us about their journey as parents.
“You won’t sleep for the first 6 years.” They said. “But after that it gets a lot better.”
We laughed and later that evening assured each other the OUR experience as parents would surely be different. Six years was a long time to permit sleep disruptions, we thought.
Well, here I am with a one year old mackerdoodle, repenting of my ignorance. Mackerdoodle was sleeping through the night this summer - then came a double ear infection and strep throat. We got that straight, and returned to regular routine, and she was sleeping through the night again - then came a common cold.
Last night she would wake up crying because she couldn’t breathe. The crying made the runny nose worse, which made the breathing harder, which made the crying harder . . . you get the point. At three in the morning, I was holding her, while Jonathan suctioned her nose with one of those blue nose bulbs. Just typing it makes me gag a little.
So I figure I may get some sleep again in five years or so. Just like Jeanine said.
Our “Little” Helper
August 16, 2008 at 9:12 pm (Baby Stuff)
Tags: baby cuteness, helper, landscaping
Today was one of the coolest days in months, so Jonathan and I got outside to do some much needed yard work. Here’s the thing: when a house is a “fixer-upper” like ours was, so is the yard. But you have to pick your priorities, and after fixing up the inside, we had a new born on our hands. A year later, we’re getting around to fixing up the yard, bit by bit.
We had 5 yards of sifted topsoil delivered Friday afternoon, and were blessed to receive free squared logs from Buddy and Terri’s back yard, so today we built planting beds around the house.
It was a two person job. The logs are ten feet long, and heavy, and the dirt required one of us on the wheelbarrow, and the other on the rake, spreading and grading. So what did our mackerdoodle do?
"Helping" Daddy haul dirt
"Helping" Mama Spread Dirt
Okay, honestly, she was a tremendous help. Despite the above pictures (aren’t they cute?) what she did most of the day was this:
The Real Help
She played happily in the yard, sometimes with sticks, sometimes with toys, but always happily. She was our “big” helper today. We honestly could not have done it without her.
It’s Now Official
August 13, 2008 at 4:17 pm (Baby Stuff)
Tags: allergist, milk allergy
Today we had our mackerdoodle’s allergist appointment. We sat down with the allergist, who asked me what I had observed, and when I told him he asked if it could possibly be something other than milk. . . yada yada. Eventually he had us go to the lab room and a very nice nurse poked my daughter with allergens.
This was all taking place during nap time, so mackerdoodle was tired. She started crying when the nurse wiped her back with alcohol, and kept crying through out the procedure. I sat there, holding my crying daughter, stroking her head, and kissing her forehead. Finally, the nurses said to me “she’s doing so well.”
I said, “well? she’s cried the whole time!”
The nurse responded with, “But she hasn’t kicked, or arched her back, or bitten anyone.”
I guess “well” is a relative term.
So when the allergy test is performed, if the little prick swells into a bump bigger than 3 mm, you’re allergic. The milk prick swelled to 15 mm on my mackerdoodle. She’s allergic! But the good news is that she’s not allergic to anything else, not grass, pollen, cockroach poop, dust mites, peanuts, shellfish, . . . nothing else. So she’s not just generally allergic, she’s very specifically allergic . . . to milk.
The allergist says that she has an 85% chance of outgrowing that allergy, but until then, we’ll be carrying Children’s Benadryl with us at all times. In case you happen to need some.
Looking Ahead
August 7, 2008 at 7:51 pm (Baby Stuff, Thoughts and Musings)
Tags: 1st birthday, anticipation, parenting
One Month Old
Six Months Old
One Year Old
Can you believe how she’s grown?
A year ago I held her in my arms and was just in awe at her presence. She lay there, looking at me with her big eyes and poked her tongue in and out. This evening as I was reading her bedtime story, she would lean forward, turn the page, then sit back, folding her little hands and looking intently at the next picture. I watch her, still in awe that the Lord has given her to us.
It makes me wonder what the next years of birthdays will bring, and the 364 days in between. It makes me wonder what her voice will sound like with real words. What will her favorite meal be in a year . . . three years . . . ten years? When will she first say “I wuv you mama?”
I can’t help but look ahead in eager anticipation of the laughs, smiles, games and delights. Only a year and so many more to come. Happy Birthday my Mackerdoodle!
Birthday Cake
A Year Ago
August 6, 2008 at 10:38 pm (Baby Stuff, Thoughts and Musings)
Tags: 1st birthday, remembering, thankfulness
One year ago Jonathan and I went to see the Bourne Supremacy, spent almost an hour looking at cribs, then had ribs at Smokey Bones before heading home to our new house which was filled with boxes.
I remember so many silly little details about that day. I remember sitting down in the movie theater, and contractions starting just as the opening credits started. I thought “Oh man, we’ve paid for a movie we won’t get to see!” We got to see it all.
I remember walking back to the car from Smokey Bones, and Jonathan asking me what was wrong because I was holding by tummy. In fact, I was hiding the fact that my shirt didn’t meet the waist band of my pants.
I remember Jonathan making plans to finish the floors the next day “before the baby comes.”
I remember it all, because 5 hours after we went to sleep, I got up to go to the bathroom and noticed sharp pains that came at regular intervals.
I remember that day a year ago, because it was the last day in our twelve year pursuit of parenthood. The next day, August 7, 2007, our life changed when we welcomed our mackerdoodle.
Today we celebrated her birthday - a day early - by swimming in a friend’s pool and then having strawberries and what survived after the angel food cake disaster. It had the same comfortable feeling that the day a year ago did, but today we celebrated one year in what will, Lord willing, be a lifetime of many. Today we marked a single milestone on our new journey.
But I think that every year at this time I will remember that last day in our “pre-mackerdoodle” life as the ending that started this blessed new beginning.
The Return of Wordless Wednesday
August 6, 2008 at 6:08 am (Baby Stuff, wordless wednesday)
Tags: baby cuteness, reading, sports equipment, wordless wednesday
Reading with Daddy
