a non-blogging month update

:) Sorry it's been so long! I have probably lost half my readers...but we are still here! H is growing faster every passing minute. I will get to her updates in a minute, but the reason we have been neglectful bloggers: we decided to sell our house. Due to a course of events that brought this to the forefront of our minds, I got moving and have been busy analyzing finances, interviewing agents, cleaning out our house...and finally, as of today, it is on the market! Pray for a quick sale and that there is something wonderful waiting for us on the other side of this deal.

Also, today, right before our agent came over - the door bell rang. And my birthday gift arrived in a big truck with the writing "P O T T E R Y B A R N" on the side! ACK!!

THIS is the wonderfully gorgeous, magnificent bed we now own! (thanks baby, i love it!!) :)

Speaking of birthdays...it is 3 days until my 3-0. The end of my youth! :-P But the beginning of so many wonderful, fabulous things ahead. Having H in my arms to celebrate turning 30 makes all the difference in the world. I am so blessed!

AND, Happy Birthday to Paul's Busia who just turned 90. We are so sorry we couldn't be there to celebrate - HUGS AND KISSES (and H screams) from PA.










AND - now, our H update. Mobility is exhausting! For us...not for H! She is getting into EVERYthing (exhibit A)













She is crawling, now climbing steps - EEK, standing up (almost on her own). Every day it is something new and exciting. There are 4 more teeth that just arrived; but apart from the extra pain - she is her usual uberly joyful self.

I will try to be better in the month of July, but don't hold me to it! If all goes well, we may be offline for a little while....but we will keep you updated.

Lessons learned from my 9 month old

Here are a few lessons I am learning from my 9 month old:
1. Quiet does not mean sleeping
2. Babies can still make a mess while being quiet
3. When you start to figure out a pattern, it changes
4. You can never really baby proof
5. Crib = prison
6. Pathetic looks work
7. So do drama cries
8. Newspaper is best when eaten
9. Ears are made to be screamed into
10. There is NOTHING like the joy a child brings into your life!

Who sleeps like this Anyhow??

I am stealing this blog title from a friend who has a regular series on her blog. Until now, H has never slept in any noteworthy fashion. UNTIL NOW. These have all been taken over the last 48 hours. Newfound mobility has taken it's toll! Since I still have not yet figured out how to individually label each picture....here are a couple labels :
Pic 1/2 "Sitting up sleep style"
Pic 3/4 "The trouble with co-sleeping"
Pic 5 "Mommy's spot is my favorite"

Camping with Baby

We had a blast taking Hannah down to WV for her first camping trip. She did great! Here are some pictures from our adventures.

and...she's off!

H's life of mobility has begun. Well, forward mobility (she already had the backward crawl and rolling methods down). Here is a clip I took today of a slow, intentional crawl. As I sit here to type, she is next to me screaming. I have also determined that this is a vivid part of her personality. She is the most vocal baby I have ever met. Anyone that has called here recently knows this very well! We are anxious for our first family camping trip this weekend and will surely have more stories after Tuesday!

Enjoy your memorial day and don't forget to pray for fallen soldiers.

This made me chuckle. It is all so true!

5 occupations your baby would be great at:

• Dentist — scratching at your gums with her fingernails is an important part of her training!
• Professional raspberry blower — not in large demand, but surely somewhere one is required.
• Night watchman — he'd never fall asleep on the job!
• Disgruntled prison inmate — he's already got the table banging and bar rattling down pat.
• Member of a studio audience — though she might occasionally clap at inappropriate moments.

The Business of Being Born

Last night Paul and I watched the documentary called "The Business of Being Born." This project was inspired by Ricki Lake, who, after having a traumatic hospital birth experience, chose a home birth for baby #2.

Since we had such a positive birth experience with our midwives at the birth center, we were, of course, open to the film's message. Though the film comes across with an anti-hospital slant, I thought it was well done and eye opening.

The premise from their website: "Should most births be viewed as a natural life process, or should every delivery be treated as a potentially catastrophic medical emergency?" While I know women that have had good hospital births, and know some awesome ob/gyn's, the film discusses how many hospitals - and insurance companies view birth as business. The reality is that many women don't have the freedom to choose to choose out-of-hospital births, because it is competition for this booming business.

We signed up for a free trial of Netflix and found this available to view online. You can also watch a preview on their website. I do recommend this film. In addition to the thought provoking and challenging questions, there are beautiful and moving birth scenes (with nudity for those sensitive to that fact). Before I gave birth, I spent lots of time watching the Discovery Health and TLC baby/birth shows. Most of which take place in a hospital, and many of which involve trauma (or the threat of trauma). In retrospect, they are not the most encouraging scenes to fill your mind with before giving birth. We both noticed the lack of screaming mothers in this documentary. It brought Paul and I right back to September when we were laboring our daughter into the world. Birth is a moving, emotional, empowering, wonderful thing. And for those that genuinely need hospital intervention, c-sections, etc....well, the film maker speaks from that perspective. Her breach son was delivered via c-section. Though she felt as though she missed out, she recognized that the gift of a child spans beyond their method of arrival to this world.

New Life

Oh how I love spring time! Right now, my husband is outback mowing our grass (wohooo) and with the weather getting better every minute, it is wonderful to spend time outside. Here is a picture of our back yard bird and her two little ones (nested on our swing).

H also got to work on her crawl a little bit. She currently enjoys push up position, and rolling to her destination. What a ham she is becoming! I was relaying the story to my mother about how she does not like her bibs. She rips them off every time we put them on her (with grunts of determination until she accomplishes it). I will post a picture of our garden when things start growing bigger, but for now, our seedlings are doing well. I just got an email from our CSA (community supported agriculture) that our first pick up date is coming soon!! We can't wait for all the fresh food PA has to offer!

I know who you are!

Or where you are, at least! I attached a google analytics tag on our blog, which allows us to see our visitors (and all the random statistics you could ever want to know about the visits).

Mom, Grandma T, wins the prize for most visits in the last month.

We watched a special on the Google search empire recently. It is amazing how much we reveal about ourselves online. But for our purposes, it is fun to see where our traffic comes from. :)

First Tooth

And tooth #2 has made its debut as well!

Adventures in NYC

(Disclaimer: Okay...after trying for hours...I cannot figure out how to work my text and pictures together properly. You will have to guess which text goes with which picture! I will try harder next time!)

Friday night we arrived in the Bronx to stay with Edmund and Gabie. We met PG for the first time (he is 5 days younger than Hannah). They showed us they are both hitting similar milestones in attempting forward mobility.

The next morning we got up early to go see the Pope. We had street tickets for his arrival and Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. We ran up and down many many streets trying to find out how to get to the security check point. Unfortunately, due to misdirections from several police officers, and a long wait in several lines...we did not make it into the plaza. So, we watched the jumbotron for a few minutes (and were interviewed by a newsman from Chicago and another from Czechoslovakia).

Since we couldn't see too well, we took up an invitation from Gabie's previous employer, and hiked up 20 blocks to the World Youth Alliance offices on the upper East side. They downloaded the live feed from EWTN and put it up with the projector, where we watched part of the Mass.

Fearing we would miss the next opportunity to see Pope Benedict, we grabbed lunch to go and hiked a couple blocks back to 5th Ave to await the procession.

AND....HERE IS A CLIP OF THE POPE DRIVING BY!

Since others may have missed it. :)

Long Belated Slideshows

click here for Nothside Party
click here for Southside Party

Thanks again to our hosts/hostesses for the great parties! Thanks also to those whose pictures I have taken for my own selfish purposes. :)

No, She is NOT sleeping through the night

It has been awhile since I blogged...and awhile since I blogged about this topic. H's sleep saga continues:

For some reason, I find myself skirting around this question all the time. "So, is she sleeping through the night yet?" It always seems to come with an expectation that the answer is "yes, of course!" Sometimes, that is the answer I give. The quick way out. If my answer is anything else, I open myself up to the wide world of baby-sleeping politics.

Disclaimer: I am grateful for helpful suggestions, when offered lovingly and understandingly.

I am on Night #2 of logging H's sleep habits for the No Cry Sleep Solution. Last night she awoke 9 times between bedtime, 7:30pm, and wake time, 7:30am. For those of you gasping out there, this is my truth: "Hello, my name is Elisabeth, and I am a Sleep-Deprived Mom." PRAISE GOD, I'M A MOM!!! :-) And yes, this is a part of my reality for which I am eternally grateful!

So, I am logging tonight, just to double check our status and formulating a sleep plan. I think we are going to give the NCSS a go before trying anything else. A friend mentioned that around 6 months is when parenting can start to get tough. The lack of sleep starts wearing on you, making you do crazy things....like, for instance, opening yourself up to the politics of infant sleeping by posting such a controversial topic on your blog! :-P

For all those who just like to look at my pictures...more to come soon. :)

Easter Baby

We just returned from a wonderful visit to Chicago - and are still recovering from the 14 hour drive home. I have lots of pictures to update and will do that as soon as I get a few free minutes. For now, I wanted to share the Easter portraits I took before we left.

Jesus, thank you for dying for us. Thank you for new life!

H's First Hike...

...and what a MEMORABLE hike it was!! This one will go down in history! With the weather improving, and a brand new (used) baby carrier purchased off Ebay, it seemed the perfect scenario. We called friends that are relatively new to the area and invited them for a hike. Thinking to myself, that I didn't want anything too challenging, I quickly decided against the highest point in our county. "Scenic would be nice" I thought to myself. Remembering a picture we had taken, and where I thought it was taken, I suggested a nearby mountain. It looked like it would be cloudy, but as we approached our destination; the clouds cleared and left us with a perfect cool clear day. We met our friends, paid our fee and set out for a leisurely 4 mile scenic hike. The first overlook was about 100 yards from the center. It was perfect. Other than the fact that Hmissed her morning nap, it was 11:30am; we had the afternoon ahead of us. To my concern that H would not fall asleep in the pack, she quickly conked out.

Our friends helped us adjust her so that she would not be uncomfortable.

After fiddling with her for 2 minutes, she woke up. Darn it! "I am such a bad momma; I woke up my sleeping baby...so much for that morning nap." We continued on. First downhill, then, we began the uphill stretch. Paul did quite well considering he was carrying a 20 pound baby in an 8 pound pack.

After maybe an hour, we made it to the top of that stretch. Next was the “scenic plateau”. As we continued on, that scenic plateau became quick rocky. No problem, we have done this before, as I reminisced about hand over foot hiking that we had done in the past. After another hour of very rocky terrain, suddenly we were engaging in hand over foot rock climbing.

Our sleepless baby did not like all the bouncing this entailed. And after reaching several peaks, only to see more treacherous rock climbs ahead, mommy nerves began to kick in.

We decided to take a break, have lunch and hope that we were at the end of our treachery. Passing hikers assured us there was much more to come. With lunch in her belly, I hoped H would fall asleep, which she did. We continued on.

Then we continued up, and up, and up. After several, "this still isn't the end???" peaks...we heard the wonderful sound of children. Those angelic little voices assured me there was hope ahead! And finally, we made it. Just as we climbed that last peak, we found a sign:

Okay, why wasn't that sign at the BEGINNING of the trail we took???? We hiked across the rocks and a man looked at us and said "You just came from there???? With a baby????" "Yes sir we did" Paul said proudly. And so, our story. We took a few more pictures and then continued down the "express trail to visitor center." We loaded up our tired baby, and our tired old bodies and headed home. Now, we can hardly move....but we have another memorable "First" for the baby book. :)

H's thoughts about the day

6 Month Report

Our precious bebe is now 6 months old. She is doing so well. We went to the Ped the other day and the lady at the front desk said she looked very...healthy. I joked that was code for chubby! H is a beautiful, lovable, kissable CHUB!! She is 21 lbs and 27 inches, wearing 12 month clothes (who sizes these clothes anyway?). Laying on her tummy she pushes herself backwards and is just started to attempt to pull up on her knees. She loves to bounce, and SCREAM (squeals of joy really).


Here is a new picture of her in my favorite sleeping position















Meeting her great-grandmother's twin sister

Grandma & H

Debt Freedom!!!

I am just blogging to share our wonderful news....we are debt free (except the house)!!!!!! This is HUGE for us as we have been struggling to overcome a significant chunk of consumer debt that we began our marriage with. For the first couple years of married life, I don't think we reduced our debt...just shifted it all around. Two years ago we were introduced to Dave Ramsey. We purchased his book on tape for around $25. This was some of the best money ever spent. It is SUCH a different philosophy and mindset to live this way. I have given up a salaried job with benefits to be a stay at home mom...and now, we are richer than we have ever been!! I am amazed that with the inspiration from Dave, we have come this far in just two years. While struggling with infertility, one thing I heard often "God has a plan." Of course, it was not our plan to be "well off" to have children. God, however, has ensured that all things come together for the good of those who love Him. On to Baby Step #3, a fully funded Emergency fund, to keep Murphy (Murphy's Law) out of our life.

The Babies Meet!

It was hard to get a picture of two dads holding their squirmy babies. Here is the best I came up with. Hopefully Becky had better luck.