favorite[color]

grumpface

our days have had a lot of :

and :

now, i've heard of the terrible twos. but i've never heard of the frightful five-months. [whatever. i couldn't think of a better word that started with f.] i don't know if it was going out of town for christmas and being in a different home/environment [probably didn't help much], but i think he's just hit a new stage in his little life. for the past two weeks, he has been wanting to nurse constantly at night. and at times when he is fussy during the day, every once in a while, though not often, even holding him won't suffice.

i thought we were past teething for the time being. he just cut two teeth on the bottom [nice little sharp ones] and teething was actually quiet pleasant, as long as he could nurse and we had hyland's teething gel on hand. however, this is different. for the most part, he is fine. he is a very happy baby. but lately i'm wondering if he's just plain bored. he's masted getting up on his knees and rocking, even sticking his little butt in the air while balancing on his toes and hands. he's always been a scooter, but i know he'll crawl on his hands and knees any day now.

i've considered starting him on solids, just so he'll sleep during the night. these past two weeks, the longest he's slept is about 2.5 hours. he was waking numerous times at night to nurse, and i was not getting good sleep at all. so last night, we decided to experiment with organic rice cereal to see how it went. he was adorable - of course, not knowing how to eat from a spoon, he would suck it until all the cereal was gone, then he would bounce and reach for the spoon, "begging" for another bite. the child fell asleep at 9:30 and stayed asleep for 5.5 hours. it was wonderful, although, i think i'll stick with nursing him frequently during the night for just one more month, because i don't think he's quiet ready for solids. his tongue-thrusting reflex is still there, and i know the cereal doesn't serve him nutritionally - breastmilk takes care of that, and is all he really needs right now. perhaps if we can get over this nursing-like-a-newborn phase, we can hold off solids until he's nine months, like i wanted to do in the first place.

one night [or, very early morning] i wrote my mom a desperate email: i'd been woken up five times already to nurse, and the last time i couldn't fall back asleep, though river was sleeping peacefully. she wrote back suggesting that since he was at an age when he's mastered using his hands, is almost crawling, and becoming more aware of his surroundings, he's probably getting distracted during the day and isn't getting enough calories, and is making up for it at night when there are less distractions. i'll say this is probably dead-on [also seeing as my mom successfully raised four healthy babies, and knows what she's talking about], and since she told me this, i have realized river does get quite distracted while nursing during the day. he'll nurse for five minutes here and there, and then smile, grab my nose, try to stick his fingers in my mouth, jerk his head back to look at something [ouch], try to sit up, etc.

i believe a growth-spurt is probably contributing to this new, sporadic feeding and eating schedule. he has been taking shorter, fewer naps during the day, and then deciding to take one long nap in the evening - which doesn't help him sleep during the night [and then he's up at six in the morning! which isn't phasing me much, as i can just put him in his crib with some toys, and he's happy to play for a couple hours, and eventually just fall right back to sleep.] right now, river is actually napping, and has been down for an hour and a half. i am quite impressed, and it is very nice to get a break.

but i am absolutely reveling in all of this - this adventure of being a mama. i would be absolutely bored to tears without him. i totally get it now - when my dad tells me how when i was a baby, i was his best friend. i totally get it.

pictures of today

simple

pleasure

bright

color

i look through these pictures from the last couple weeks, and they just make me so happy. happy with the simple things in this life god has given me. thank you sweet papa.

sunlight

today was a

sunshine

fruit

naked baby

music

light

cool

open window

nothingspecial

messy

lazy

refreshing

day

first week of resolutions

running: fail. i'm waiting until it warms up. excuse? maybe.

drawing: fail. kind of. i started, and then didn't finish. a blank page is intimidating.

photographs: success. i've only skipped two days. which is pretty good, going from not taking pictures at all.

reading: success. i read a million miles in a thousand years, which is absolutely amazing. i laughed, i cried, i snotted all over the place. i closed my eyes to smell the campfire and the atlantic ocean as he biked across america, but all i smelled was my bowl of green beans sitting on the coffee table. donald miller at his best. blue like jazz was my favorite by him, but this may top it.

teething

we have a teething baby in the house! he is quite the calm teether - we've only had a few break downs. sometimes he cries when he wakes up, which just breaks my heart, because he's usually so happy when he wakes up. and he gets this weird look on his face when his gums are really bothering him. it's the saddest thing! here's how we're dealing with teething, and some other ideas we haven't tried just yet:

filling his pacifier up with water and freezing it. river is still clumsy with his hands, and was constantly dropping his frozen teether (not to mention - who wants to hold a frozen, wet toy for a long time?), but freezing his paci works great. he loves to chew on it.

chewing on a frozen washcloth. my mom did this with her babies. it's a lot easier for him to hold a piece of fabric than a toy.

nursing. it's the cure for everything! we are doing demand-feeding (which i think is a funny name, because i think demand is kind of a harsh-sounding word), so we are not on any kind of schedule. whenever his little gums are bothering him, nursing really comforts him and helps him fall asleep.

hyland's teething gel. i would have gone with orajel, but this was recommended by mothering magazine (my favorite). it's uh-ma-zing. usually when he's fussy, his tummy is full, and he's not tired and his mouth just hurts, we use the gel and the effect is immediate!

frozen fruit. we haven't tried this, as we are holding off on introducing river to solids, but i've heard this works great for some babies. frozen banana chunks, especially. munchkin carries mesh bags with handles for food, called fresh food feeders. you can put whole, frozen foods in the bags, snap them shut, and give them to baby to chew on. we have them and i can't wait to use them someday.

amber necklaces. this sounds like an interesting solution to teething pain. i'm a bit skeptical, and i've done some research, trying to figure out if it is a myth or not - but mamas that use them swear by them! body heat releases oils from the amber that is absorbed in the skin and relieves all sorts of ailments, from arthritis to headaches. brittany has a great essay about it. this is something i really want to try.

wood teething ring. coolest thing ever. something else i want to try someday. some of them are flavored!

on another note - guess what you get when you don't wash laundry for three weeks? here's a hint.

[and after i took the picture, i realized there was still a basket i hadn't dumped out yet. i am going to have fun folding all these clothes tonight.]

auuund: john made me lunch before he went to work. this isn't as much of a pretty picture as it is a picture of very pretty food. :D

the 12th day of christmas

was a quiet one.

i drew a little. river practiced his sitting. the christmas season is officially over (tomorrow?) so i put the ornaments away, the ones that were in my wooden bowl. we didn't have a christmas tree this year.

next year we'll get a real one.

naked baby

today river took an afternoon bath and was so content and happy just rolling around on the floor naked, i decided this was a good opportunity to capture some cute shots of him.

but he was

so cute

in all

of the pictures

and the lighting

was so perfect

that i couldn't decide

which one

to pick.

which one is your favorite?

to the dog park

a day in pictures #4 [okay, it's really #3, but i allow me to be a tad bit OCD - it is going to bother me that on day #4 of the new year, i am on day #3 of taking pictures. so, just pretend it's day #4.]

i think i may have been more excited than colby about our first trip ever to a dog park. we went with our friends mitch and cassidy and their puppy-son theo. i think this is the most exercise this poor dog has ever gotten in his life. he was beat by the time we left.

afterwards we went to starbucks, where we all got a treat, including the riverboy.

[river and i "representing" for nursing in public. this and the one below of mitch and cassidy were taken by my hubby john.]

[starting young.]

god has chosen cassidy and mitch to do mission work in africa. they are some of my favorite people and i am so happy for them. they will be there for three months. please pray for them, and the lives they get to minister to while they are there. here is their blog: http://www.thefountofblessings.blogspot.com/

[ i like my life in photographs. it's my poetry when i can't write. ]

colby meets chief

it is interesting that what i needed to motivate myself to write more was to take pictures.

today we went for a walk, for some picture inspiration. i have been bugging john to go for a walk with me since i was pregnant. it took getting a dog for him to agree. [sometimes i think he likes colby more than i do.] so we walked over to our friend philip's house to introduce colby to philip's dog chief.

chief got a little too excited, so they had to get to know each other with a fence between them. colby doesn't like teenagers much anyway.

isn't chief a gorgeous dog?

river loves walks.

on another note, i'm adding a goal of reading 30 books this year. not so much a random number - a few years ago i read 20 and always wanted to challenge myself with that number. it may not seem like a lot, but i am a slow reader and have the the habit of stopping half way through a book and not picking it up again. don't ask me why. i also forget that when i read more, i tend to be more creative in life in general - my gears tend to move with me all day long and sometimes i'm bursting at the seams, wanting to put words down on paper, or my hand is itching to pick up a drawing pencil - i miss those feelings - and i have more dreams. as in, night-time dreams. interesting, huh?

happy new year, and a fat dog

i am the queen of new years resolutions. and by that, i mean i am great at coming up with awesome goals, like working out, reading 100 books. you know. dumb stuff that i can never begin to accomplish. last new year i was so over being pregnant (two months of throwing up wasn't fun) that i think my only resolution was to have a baby. well, at least i can say i reached my goal.

this year, i am setting myself some goals. kind of seriously, kind of..not. but i shouldn't say that because i know if i do i will never actually do them. not that if i don't know that, they will. anyway. here they are.



draw one new face a week.

take at least one pretty picture a day.

start running. i have a new fat dog to keep me motivated - we both need to get in shape.


since i am not pregnant this year and things aren't as interesting because i'm not becoming the size of a whale or smelling things that aren't really there, i guess this is what i'll write about this time around.

speaking of fat dogs, meet river's bff. which leads me to pretty picture day #1 (unfortunately, i didn't get any pretty pictures on january 1st.)

colby is fat, hairy, and the most well-behaved dog i could have hoped for. he's 4 1/2 years old, beautiful and lovable. a little too lovable at times. and apparently, he's afraid of fire crackers and feels the need to hide his face under my arm when they go off, or go under the desk, or jump in my lap (he's not a small dog). and these aren't fire crackers going off next door. no, they must be a mile away.

river is going to be five months old in just a week. crazy? i think so. i remember there was this cute baby named gage at the daycare where i worked three years ago. river reminds me a lot of him, his looks and personality. he was in the tiny baby nursery, and then graduated to the older nursery. as every baby did. but for some reason, gage moving up made me kind of go "what? already?" i can remember when he was five months old and he was holding a bottle himself and pushing his chest off the ground and grabbing things and becoming such a ham (like river) and thinking it was insane how fast gage got so big. and i'm thinking the same thing with my little boy. i can't believe he's almost five months old.

five months old is like, a real baby.

[i swear he gets cuter every day.]