bandaids....or transformation?

Adam and I went to a friend's church for her baptism on Sunday, and it got me thinking about a lot of things as they relate to our church and some of the pains we been experiencing over the last several years.  Lots of churches emphasize GROW GROW GROW, and there's a lot to be said for a vibrant community of believers. What I really want to know, though, is the WHY.

I don't want to be a church who simply jumps on every trend only to change when the bandwagon makes a turn, but nor do I want to be a church who refuses to change on the grounds that "we can't accommodate everyone" (which is usually code for, "it's comfortable this way").

Well, OF COURSE we can't accommodate everyone's preferences, nor should we compromise our essential beliefs, but if we stay on our current course, those churches which refuse to adjust (or, indeed, refuse to make changes ahead of the curve) will cease to exist.

I'm loving Brian McLaren's Reinventing Your Church; can you tell?

So here are some of the questions I have for my church, in particular, but all churches, in general:

1. Why do we want to grow in the first place?  A related question is, what do we believe the purpose of growth to be?  Is it to spread the Gospel or is it to expand our social network?  Is it to go out into the "dangerous" places or to create a secluded "safe" place for ourselves?  Or both?  Or neither?

2. In our attempt at growing, who are we trying to attract? (a) already-practicing Christians (which may mean, essentially, enticing them away from other churches, which seems counter-productive), (b) nominal Christians who are seeking more depth in their relationships with Christ and who might not be attending a church currently, or (c) unchurched folks and/or non-Christians?  Or maybe some combination of these three?  Or maybe other groups I haven't considered yet?

3. Once we figure out WHY we're doing what we're doing and WHO we're reaching for, HOW do we best redesign/streamline our structures (administrative, worship options/style(s), financial, missional, social, etc.) to best address the needs of those we're trying to serve?

4. What are we (individually and corporately) willing to give up for the purpose of meeting our common goal, whatever we determine it to be?  Are we willing to sacrifice our pet projects, our emotional attachments to programs (or even furniture!), our preferences for worship style, etc.?  How can we go about doing some cost/benefit analysis?

5. Are we actually willing to step out for Jesus Christ?  Are we willing to tolerate (or, my goodness, even invite and embrace!) the occasional person raising her hands during worship?  Are we willing to "suffer the little children to come unto" Jesus rather than being annoyed because they're too loud?  Are we willing to constantly ask ourselves whether what we're doing at any given time embodies our call to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the sick, etc.?  Are we willing to thoroughly examine our theological "hobby horses" with new eyes?  Are we willing to give others the space to experience God differently than we do, and to affirm them rather than criticize?

Is anyone with me on this??

on faith

I've been thinking a lot about faith lately.  Maybe it's because my church is in a bit of upheaval, and maybe it's because Zeke has started asking questions.  Or maybe it's because of my academic nature, and maybe it's because life is hard and I want to know why, and maybe it's because so many people profess a faith which shares a name with mine, but which I don't recognize at all.

or maybe a bit of everything.

One thing I've thought about a lot, especially, is the idea of salvation.  Sometime I think we don't fully appreciate what a beautiful (and completely undeserved!) gift salvation is, because we don't fully appreciate what we've been saved from.  We used to be separated from God, only able to communicate with Him through intercessors, on certain days, atoning with literal, flesh-and-blood sacrifices every time; now we can talk with Him at any moment, in every moment, and we never have to be separated again.  Ever.

because Jesus stood in for all the sacrifices that would have been required.

But the thing I'm struggling with now is the idea of the "sinners' prayer".  From what I can figure, it's based on Romans 10:9, which says, "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (NIV).  The Amplified Bible words it slightly differently: "Because if you acknowledge and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart believe (adhere to, trust in, and rely on the truth) that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."

So I get the concept of reciting a formal prayer to officially take the step of "declare and believe".

BUT...

What about all the connotations of "believe"?  What about "adhere to, trust in, and rely on the truth"?

"Adhere to...the truth" implies action, which in my (admittedly novice) opinion is supported by:

John 15:14--
"You are my friends if you do what I command." (NIV)
"You are My friends if you keep on doing the things which I command you to do." (AMP)

and James 2:20--
"You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?" (NIV)
"Are you willing to be shown [proof], you foolish (unproductive, spiritually deficient) fellow, that faith apart from [good] works is inactive and ineffective and worthless?" (AMP)



Ours is not a merit-based faith but, rather, we are saved by the grace of God.  However, that doesn't give us license to sit around exclaiming about how much we love Him while ignoring the second of the greatest commandments (Mark 12:30-31).

Okay, that's all fine, but what does it mean to "rely on" the truth? "Rely on", how?  By doing what?  Same question for "trust in".  My teacher self wants to know how I can demonstrate reliance and trust, because the text leads me to believe these verbs are supposed to be active.  These are things we do.


I don't mean to question the sincerity of those who have prayed the "sinners' prayer", but I also think lots of us do so (in my case, when I was at camp the summer before 6th grade) because we're afraid of hell, not because we truly understand the nature of sin and how it utterly separates us from God.

And that's to say nothing about what happens after we pray.  What do we do then?  Are our churches and spiritual elders prepared to teach us how to walk in faith by shepherding us after we've made a commitment (1 Tim 5:17)?  Are they mature enough to hold us accountable for our speech and actions (Heb 13:17)?  Are they willing to step out of their comfort zones, even if doing so jeopardizes the church bureaucracy? Can they be examples in  showing us how faith is done (1 Cor 11:1)? 

All this to say, I just don't see how some formulaic prayer encompasses all the nuances of "declare and believe".




What if we've been doing this wrong for years?
 

freaking awesome :)

Ezra Daniel Wilfong

From this...


to this...

And now for a birth story…a little long, I know. Sorry.

I wanted so desperately to have a vaginal delivery after cesarean (VBAC) with this baby. Ever since agreeing to be induced with Zeke, which ultimately ended with a c-section, I’ve wished I had done things differently, and I really wanted this time to conform a little more to the birth I had in my head.

Tons of research assured me a VBAC was, in fact, possible, even considering my gestational diabetes (and even though the GD was more severe this time). My doctor wasn’t overly encouraging about it because Labor and Delivery at WMC doesn’t have in-house anesthesia, and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (of which she is a fellow) discourages VBAC under that circumstance. She did, however, say that no one would give me a hard time if I ‘happened’ to show up at the hospital already 7 or 8 centimeters dilated and progressing (*winkwink, nodnod*). So, basically, I took this as decent sign.

Fast forward to mid-May, and I’m in excruciating pain. Like, excruciating.

Little guy decided my sciatic nerve was just the place to hang out, and I started having trouble walking (which, as you might imagine, makes life as a teacher and toddler-mom a wee bit difficult). I was still absolutely committed to a VBAC, but started seriously hoping he would decide to show up a couple of weeks early, both to increase my chances of a successful VBAC and to stop the shooting pain in my right leg. Every morning my colleagues would ask if I was really still here? and tell me I should seriously consider staying home. Apparently I was pretty pathetic.

I hated leaving my students for the last few weeks of school (especially my eighth-graders, the first class I’ve seen all the way through middle school), but there wasn’t much of a choice.
I didn’t come back after Memorial Day, but I still had to keep sending Zeke to daycare and to my (fabulous) mother-in-law because I couldn’t physically keep up with him or pick him up. At least I got a couple of weeks to get the house good and straightened up, I guess.
The Thursday before Ezra arrived I had an ultrasound to check his size – minimum 9 pounds, according to the OB. This was how I’d been scared into an induction with Zeke, so I asked the natural question: But lots of women deliver 9-pound babies; why are you so worried about me?

Answer: Most women don’t have diabetes, and most of those who do don’t have it as severely as you. I’m not concerned about his head size; it’s the shoulders we worry about with babies of diabetic moms. There’s no way to tell whether his shoulders will fit or not until it’s way too late even for an emergency c-section, and I don’t want to have to break his collarbone.

So, I was once again scared into delivering a baby in a way contrary to what I believe(d) to be best.

We scheduled the c-section for Tuesday, June 14 at 10:30am and I spent the next several days finishing things around the house and trying to prepare myself for the physical trauma of surgery and the emotional trauma of losing the birth I wanted and expected. I started taking arnica and hypericum in preparation for surgery, and doing a lot of praying for strength, acceptance, and peace.

Tuesday morning came and we got to the hospital around 8:30am (my mother-in-law had spent the night and stayed home with Zeke when we left). The nurses hooked me up to the monitors for a little while to check everything, and after deciding the baby and I both looked great, as well as being subjected to Adam’s very long story about Zeke’s birth drama, they prepped me for surgery.

At this point I was mostly just concerned about the spinal block, since during Zeke’s birth I was too doped up on Ambien to remember the anesthesia part. I was not looking forward to a needle in my back. Once in the OR, though, the spinal was nothing. I didn’t even feel the shots of local anesthetic – thank you, Dr. Whatever-Your-Name-Is!

Lying back and waiting to lose feeling, though, I started to get all weepy about the circumstances. I was still very unsure about whether I’d made the right decision and I told my OB right then that if this baby turned out to be as small as Zeke I was going to be mad!

Adam came into the OR fully decked out in the requisite blue suit, shoe covers, hairnet, and mask, and sat right next to me, at which point I said, I really didn’t want to do it this way and started to cry. Luckily, the OR staff anticipate this kind of emotional wreck, and tissues were at the ready. Adam had to dab my face for me and, naturally, he stuck his thumb right in my eye.

I didn’t remember how violent a c-section actually is. No pain, of course, but the pressure is unbelievable and it felt like they were tugging on my lungs. It makes sense for it to be so uncomfortable, I guess, since they’re pulling an entire human being out through a 6-inch incision, but I just don’t remember all of that from Zeke’s birth. It’s really pretty gross, if you think about it for too long.

After a few minutes of someone pummeling my belly and pulling out my insides, we finally heard the best sound in the whole world; apparently, he didn’t even wait until he was completely out before he started wailing. He quieted down almost immediately and got wiped off, weighed and measured (8lbs7oz, 20in), diapered, and handed to Adam, at which point the tears flowed in earnest. He was perfect.

Adam went with him to the nursery while my OB stitched me back together, but right before he left he told me I’d had almost no amniotic fluid. I asked my OB about it while she was working on me and she confirmed there had only been a couple of tablespoons, which is exactly what it was like with Zeke. In other words, if I’d gone into labor naturally we would have seen exactly the same heartrate, cord, and movement problems Zeke had, and I would’ve almost certainly ended up with a c-section, anyway.

In a weird sort of way, it made me feel a lot better about my decision to go ahead with the planned c-section. Though it wasn’t at all what I hoped to do and I still feel I got scared into it, I’m confident it was ultimately the right decision. Chances are high that subsequent deliveries will also be c-sections, because it seems my placentas like to start clotting themselves off when we hit week 39 and, frankly, the risk of stillbirth just isn't worth it. I'm okay with this.

After three days in the hospital (and getting really pissed about the way the bed kept moving on its own and why the hell won’t it quit and let me sleep?!), we finally went home to a really good night’s sleep. Since leaving the hospital I’ve never needed any medication other than ibuprofen, my sciatica is now almost completely gone, and the diabetes disappeared immediately after Ezra was born. Hallelujah!

(By the way, co-sleeping completely rocks. Wish we’d started that with Zeke from day one; we’d have been a heck of a lot less exhausted.)

splish splash

Day Four: April 21, 2011

All morning Zeke was asking to go outside. Like, over and over and overandoverandover…I managed to talk him into helping me with the dishes first, though, which mostly involved him thrashing around with a wooden spoon as well as filling cups with water and dumping them back out again.

Sometimes into the sink, sometimes not.

We did eventually go outside; I’m a little embarrassed to admit being just plain too tired to go out when he first asked, but I defend myself by saying But he hadn’t even eaten breakfast yet! And I’m PREGNANT!

We hauled the boxwood branches from the other days’ pruning adventure to the brush pile, then went up to get Wednesday’s mail and Thursday’s New York Times. By this point it was after eleven, so we came in for a snack and Zeke subsequently went down for a nap, during which time I took the most glorious shower on the face of the planet.

After waking up it was off to Barbara’s for playgroup! Now, this was especially exciting because we NEVER get to do it; most of the other families feature stay-at-home moms, so they do playgroup during the day. Obviously, I do not stay home full-time, so we usually can’t come, but every once in awhile the stars align and it coincides with a day off. Thursday was one of those days.

There weren’t very many people there: just four moms with their kids plus a few other youngsters who had spent the night at Barbara’s on Wednesday. Barbara and Rebecca hid about 200 eggs in the woods behind the house and, after some brief instructions, they turned the kids loose to find them.

Zeke did not understand this game at all. He was much more interested in the branches, leaves, and rocks than in the eggs, until Sam’s daughter Chloe handed him an egg with jellybeans in it. After that, he still didn’t really understand the concept of looking for eggs, but he was smart enough to keep the candy from eggs the other kids gave him.

That’s my boy.

Barbara has a great backyard with lots of cool stuff: slides, a huge sandbox, a zipline, a trampoline, and a few other things. Zeke was too small to deal with most of them by himself, but he dug the sandbox (groan).

get it done

Day Two: April 20, 2011

Wednesday was way different, because we spent almost no time at home (and I also took no pictures whatsoever).

I had a dentist appointment in the morning, so after taking care of basic chore-like things we went over to Miss Robin’s house (Zeke’s daycare) so she could keep him while I got my teeth cleaned and ran a few errands around town.  I told her about Screen-Free Week and she said not to worry, that they’d be going on a hike that day, anyway.

Translation: walking on the Meadowbranch neighborhood trail.  Apparently there were some exhibits there from Shenandoah, including a taxidermied beaver.  Who knew?

Is it weird that I don’t get nervous about going to the dentist?  Like, at all?  Some people seriously freak out, and most people are at least a little bit apprehensive, but the smells/sounds/instruments have absolutely no impact on my psyche whatsoever.  This is not to say that I love the experience (scraping metal against the backs of my teeth = no fun), but it really isn’t a big deal at all.

Of course, I’ve also never ever had a cavity, thus no drilling or novocaine.  This probably helps.

Anyway, after the whole dentist thing there were a couple more things to do, then back to pick up Zeke and go over to my in-laws’.  Grandma kept Zeke while I got my hair cut, and I don’t think there was any lack of things to do.  He visited with his daddy, Pappy, and Uncle Sam in the shop, then played in the backyard with Grandma and Uncle Patrick.  When I got back, they were setting up Patrick’s new basketball hoop and Adam was holding Zeke over his head so he could dunk the ball.  Wish I had a picture of that one.

Then, finally home for bratwurst with red peppers and onions for dinner; I also stovetop-grilled some pumpernickel and topped it with chopped tomatoes (from Linda’s Mercantile), basil, and garlic.  There’s something about fresh tomatoes that just makes me happy.

pruning (or, why i don't like boxwoods)

Day Two: April 19, 2011

Tuesday was a little harder, mostly due to the weather.  It was threatening rain all morning and poured for real during part of the afternoon; this is the part when the TV starts to look really tempting.

But I resisted, and I’m so glad! **polishes halo**

There was a lot of coloring, reading, and singing again, of course, and it had cleared up enough to go back outside when Mom came over around 6.  And it’s a good thing, too, because apparently we’ve produced a child who does not want to come inside.  Ever.

Mom decided this was the time to trim the boxwoods which were literally eating our porch.  She was being very deliberate, using hand clippers and taking off small pieces at a time in an attempt to create a decent shape (according to Adam, the shrub in question looks like, and I quote, “three-quarters of a butt”…sheesh).  Once she’d been going for awhile I started to realize how much larger the porch is than I thought; there’s almost enough room for a rocking chair.  Almost.

When Adam got home he jumped in to help with the pruning, and they eventually got to a point where the branches were too thick for the clippers.

At which point Adam said, “I have something for this!” and brought out the chainsaw.  This is one of the benefits hazards benefits of being married to a man who deals in outdoor power equipment for a living.  The boxwood now looks like this:

But I also no longer feel like my shrubberies are going to eat me when I’m standing at the front door, so I guess it all evens out in the end.

Dad came over with Chinese food for all of us, so Adam went to sleep a happy man.  The End.

a very good place to start

Let's start at the very beginning...

Day One: April 18, 2011

So it was a good thing I made an email exception to Screen-Free Week, because on the very first day…….

I won this awesome ring sling from Mahreen at Veni Vidi Blogi!

It’s called Inara’s Rainbow (named after her adorable daughter) and is actually part of a wrap sent to her by Giselle at Granola Babies. Mahreen sent half of it to Jan at Sleeping Baby Productions and had a sling made, then gave it away via the 5-day-long Do Something Good Challenge.

And yours truly won it.

**jumpingupanddownontheinside**

More than that, though, Mahreen got me to look at old, ‘useless’ stuff in a new way. It started as a chance to win something beautiful, useful, and one-of-a-kind, and it ended with using brand-new eyes to look at everything in my house as an opportunity rather than hopeless clutter. Though I do still have plenty of hopeless clutter. I’m working on that.

anyway.

Day One of Screen-Free Week was a fabulous success, and not only because of Inara’s Rainbow. There was, of course, a lot of dish-washing, laundry, and the usual chore-type things, but I actually got to witness Zeke play. For hours. I don’t get to see this during the day most of the time, and it was so very gratifying to watch. I made a kid who loves to do stuff! How cool.

But I couldn’t help thinking, this child is literally learning every second of every day. I can’t believe I’d sometimes rather let him sit in front of the TV because I just don’t want to be bothered. My priorities suck.

Except they don’t suck: at least, not this week. We colored, we read books (including The Giant Nursery Book of Things That Go, which has about onehundredgazillion pages, and we read the whole thing), and we spent hours outside.

It turns out Zeke really likes hoses, watering cans, potted plants, and tilled dirt. He’s such a boy.

And I can finally see some flowers starting to open up in the apple orchard across the front yard (no pictures yet, thank you dead battery). Apple Blossom is SO SOON, and the place will be bursting with pink and white by then. It’ll be awesome.

Dinner was chicken on the grill with green beans and quinoa (my current favorite grain, mostly because I’m impatient and it only takes like 15 minutes to cook). After bath and bedtime, Adam came into the living room and turned on Top Gear, so I had to scram to the spare bedroom for an end-of-the-day email check and to read the New York Times. Print edition, people, print.

Also, see You Capture at I Should Be Folding Laundry for a looooooong list of blogs with beautiful spring photos. Mkay? Mkay.

It was a very good place to start.

spring-y-ness

Though it's technically been spring for weeks now, it's only just starting to be consistently spring-y. Last weekend was Daniel and Sam's wedding shower, and that was when I started to feel spring-y, myself. Friends came from far away, family gathered, and all was well.



Screen-Free Week starts tonight at midnight, and every time I tell someone about Zeke and I not watching TV or using the computer (except for what's absolutely necessary for work and communication), they give me an oh-you-poor-thing look and say, how will you ever make it through your entire spring break without tv? Won't you be bored out of your mind?

Um, no.

There are SO MANY things to do around here: so many stories to read, songs to sing, papers to color, plants to put out, boxes to organize. And it's Holy Week, so that means physical and spiritual preparations for Easter. I think we'll manage.

Jesus, Messiah
Name above all Names
Blessed Redeemer, Emmanuel
A Rescue for sinners
A Ransom from heaven
Jesus, Messiah
Lord of all...

-Chris Tomlin

the $300 Store table...

It started out like this, given to me by the nice Costco people to hold my fruit, cheese, and green beans:


Add a little bulletin board paper, glue, masking tape, and leftover die-cut letters and...

TA-DA!!!:


Lots of creative paper folding and fastening turned it into a neat little desk for Zeke's 21-month-old self. Not that I expect it to last longer than 2 minutes in its blemish-free state, but DARN IT it's cute right now!

Sling giveaway! But wait...there's more!

I'll be posting a new series of photos and lots of info about the last couple of months this weekend, as soon as the (long-awaited) LAST case study for my LAST certification class is over and done. Which means I won't have to take another class until about 2017...huzzah!

Anyway, in the interim I'm entering a very cool giveaway/altruism thing at the suggestion/urging/strong recommendation of Mahreen at Veni, Vidi, Blogi.

The prize = this bee-yoo-tiful sling:

Photo Credit: Veni Vidi Blogi

The methods = many and varied, but the coolest one involves repurposing old stuff into new stuff (or, at least, useful stuff). I'm still working on a strategy for that part, but I'll get cracking tomorrow morning before school, because it has to be completed and documented by Friday at midnight. Yipe!

And here we go...

CIO? No, thank you.

Let me be very clear about this: I do NOT think letting a baby/child cry it out is a good idea. Little people cry for a reason, whether it be hunger, discomfort, or a need to be cuddled, and I think we have a responsibility as parents to respond to those needs. Babies don't cry just because they feel like being contrary.

At the same time, though, I don't see any reason to go rushing in at the first peep. When I put Zeke down for a nap, occasionally he fusses for a few minutes, but usually is asleep within five. If he fusses longer than that (or does the kind of screaming that scrapes your eardrums) I try the cuddle-and-sway routine, which usually does the trick. If not, we scrap the plan and try again later. Maybe this means the laundry isn't done but, frankly, he's more important than laundry.

When we're out and won't be home for naptime, I do a front carry in the Kozy, and he'll snooze in there for a solid two hours.Finally, we usually end up cosleeping at night, which seriously cuts back on the crying and regular waking. Normally, we don't start out intending to keep him in the bed, but often I'll fall asleep when Zeke does, and then Adam just leaves him there when he comes to bed. This is made a lot easier, of course, by having a king-sized bed :)

People sometimes say, "But don't you want him to learn to fall asleep by himself? Don't you want to have a little time for yourself at the end of the day?" Of course I want both of those things -- but I'm not going to push either one of them. I didn't get into parenting to have time for myself, and anyone who does is delusional. Zeke WILL fall asleep by himself when he's developmentally ready to do so (and already does, sometimes). I'm just not that worried about it.

My basic sleep philosophy is this: I don't want Zeke to have negative associations with sleep. I know he likely wouldn't remember crying himself to sleep, and it probably wouldn't cause personality disorders when he's a teenager. That doesn't, however, mean it's the right thing to do for our family. I'll take loving cuddles over leaving him alone to cry, any day.

Summer Events of 2010 (well, most of them, anyway)

So there’s been a lot happening since my last post (in April, eek!). In lieu of lots of boring commentary, I’ll just add a sentence or two along with the slideshow of each event, and hopefully that will do the trick :)

Zeke’s first birthday was July 23, 2010. We didn’t do a huge party or anything; just soda, cake and ice cream for our families. In hindsight, blue icing was a dumb idea.

We left to visit Jeff and Linda on Topsail Island, North Carolina the very next morning. The beach was SO RELAXING. I didn’t realize how tired of the routine I was, and we had a great time. My cousin Steph met us down there after a couple of days, and we had tons of fun all week!

More pictures to come, mostly from reunion and the end of summer.

A gifted child is...

I stumbled upon this wonderful post at Unwrapping the Gifted (it was so fabulous that I'm now following the blog) during my students' resource period this afternoon. I've been hearing a lot of some of these myths lately, so at our last faculty meeting I had to stand up and talk with the other teachers about what the Spectrum program is, describe some of the elements of our curriculum, and let them know in no uncertain terms that they may NOT continue pulling students from my class to make up missed work. It wasn't the most pleasant announcement I've ever made, but it had to be said. I realize our program doesn't identify everyone it should, and sometimes it probably identifies kids it shouldn't, but we work on the assumption that identified Gifted students who are found eligible for Gifted services have a need for greater intellectual stimulation than the typical child. We DO teach, we DO have a curriculum (though it is, admittedly, much looser that your average classroom and isn't attached to any SOL requirement), and we DO assess our students (though we don't use letter grades as the measuring stick). More on all of this later :)

UPDATE 11/13/12: I started a blog specifically about gifted education not long after posting this entry.  Check it out here:  Pandora's GATEway

googly eyeses

I've always loved the way Gollum in Lord of the Rings says eyeses. As in, "Wring his neck and pull his nosey, yank his ears and poke his eyeses!"

It reminds me of the way Dad likes to play with words, calling multiple moose meeses and multiple houses hice. Or saying something is an optical delusion and calling his office the orifice (one of my all-time favorites).






When Zeke was first born, Adam said he looked just like Gollum, kind of grayish and wrinkly, so I already had the Lord of the Rings connection. The moment I saw how this picture came out, I thought of Gollum and his eyeses; Zeke had just stopped coughing, too, so the metaphor was complete and my Lord of the Rings moment is preserved forever. **smiles**

See more of A Moment at Beth's site.

almost....got...it....

Zeke started earnestly reaching for things about two and a half months ago, but lately he wants ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that appears to be even remotely within his grasp. It's actually even more of a laugh when the thing he wants isn't anywhere near him, because he streeeee...eeeeetches his arms as far as he can and makes a hysterically funny furrowed-brow-of-surprise face when he can't grab it.

I tried to take some new pictures of him last week while he was sitting on our bed, and he kept going for the camera (it was close to his face so I guess he figured he had a shot at getting it into his hot little hands).

At first I thought the pictures were ruined, but then I realized:

THIS is what motherhood is!
THIS is what I prayed for, and
THIS is what makes me thank God every day for my beautiful baby boy.

He wouldn't be HIM if he didn't make my pictures go all crazy, and
I don't want him to BE anyone else.

See more of this week's "Reaching" You Capture assignment here.

Shhh....they'll be back soon

I love to read. And when I say that, I really mean

I

love

it

But everything is totally crazy right now with a seven-month-old (who wouldn't go to sleep last night until 11, ugh), so I don't get to spend much time with books anymore.



This week's You Capture challenge is "quiet", and this morning I really SAW the books in my classroom. I LOOK at things all the time, but very rarely do I truly SEE them.


Yes, the books represent a quiet that I've lost at this point in my life (and I miss it!), but the time of day struck a nerve, too. I took this photo right before my eighth-grade students came to class and, less than three minutes after the shutter clicked, the room was completely full and alive with preteen drama and character.

And I realized that the crazy is what makes me appreciate the quiet.

My husband wore our son and I wish I had pictures to prove it!

I've missed posting here! It's been quite awhile, but it seems everytime I sit down to type, something comes up/dinner timer rings/Zeke needs to nurse/the dryer buzzes/students come back from lunch/internet stops working/onandonandonandon...

Something I've been itching to post about, though, is a major breakthrough -- Adam wore Zeke the other day! He wanted to wash dishes (a breakthrough in itself!) but didn't want to just plop Zeke in his highchair by himself, so he made an announcement: "Son, I'm going to wear you now".

**insert crickets chirping**

And I, in my infinite tact, said ".............Really?!"

Adam needed a little help putting Zeke in the Kozy since he's only ever done it once before, so I helped him get situated and tied up in front.

That went well for about two minutes until Adam realized Zeke was in the way while he was trying to use the sink (risking getting the Kozy soaking wet, of course).

So he then announced he wanted to move Zeke to his back, and I helped him get situated and tied up there, too.

Unfortunately, Zeke was not in the mood to be worn so I had to take him after about ten minutes, but it was SSOOOOOO cute while it lasted! My husband is the most handsome man in the world, anyway, but my heart just melted when he had our son on his back.

I think I need to tell him what a good father he is a little more often.

And next time, I think I'll get the camera.

Time for num-nums...

Zeke experienced his first solid food last week. We started him on some rice cereal (and then I read that experts now suggest starting with meat of all things; go figure), which lasted only one day before Frank ate the whole box, leaving just enough to coat the kitchen floor and make every step extra crunchy. After that incident, we gave up the rice cereal as a bad job and skipped straight to sweet potatoes. These pictures show him eating the rice cereal (Gerber's organic brown rice), but he's really into sweet potatos, apples, and bananas at the moment.



Currently we're feeding him Earth's Best organic baby food, but I started cooking some things last night which will eventually have an encounter with the food processor and freezer. Not only can we control what's in his food if we make it ourselves, but we can also encourage [really it's more like de facto forcing :)] him to eat foods that we'll actually cook later when he can eat more solid pieces. There won't be a weird transition from baby food to grown-up food because the food items themselves will be exactly the same; only the level of puree will be different. Plus it's way cheaper this way.



He's now eating in his high chair with us at the table for dinner. It seems to work out well with his daycare/Momcare eating schedule since he usually has a bottle right before Adam picks him up. Then, he's ready to eat again about two hours later, just when dinner is finished cooking and we're sitting down to eat our grown-up food. I've always heard that starting solid foods helps babies sleep better at night. Maybe they're supposed to feel fuller longer? I don't know. Regardless, it doesn't work. He's been up every few hours the last two nights. Teething, I think. Boo.

Fluffy Fundraiser!

Today I was reminded yet again of why I like Kelly's Closet so much. Not only have I bought almost all of Zeke's cloth diapers and accoutrements from KC (and customer service has always been stellar!), but its owner is now running a raffle event to raise money for earthquake-devastated Haiti. Purchase tickets for $10 each, and you'll be entered to win a diaper package worth over $250 (runner-up prizes are $100 credits at any of the DiaperShops online stores).

In the spirit of green-ness, I try to patronize local businesses whenever possible. In the case of cloth diapers, though, where the nearest store is over an hour away, I've never felt guilty about ordering from a larger, online company. This fundraising event simply underscores my appreciation for Kelly's Closet, not just for providing a reliable and professional service, but also for its dedication to humanitarian causes.