On my mind

1. I started a study on the books of Philippians and Colossians.  Paul is such a cool guy.  He has, however, made me ask myself lots of questions.  I love how Paul is so consumed with his calling to share the gospel.  He is told to go and he goes.  I don't feel like God is calling me to go to Macedonia.  I do feel like God is telling me to get a backbone and really speak up for what I believe.  I find myself in the midst of people who say they are "believers" but they look and act just like nonbelievers, and I include myself in this group.  What's worse is these "believers" (again, myself included) are being watched by nonbelievers, and I feel like I can read their minds.  "Those Christians look and act just like me.  They handle their problems, joys, worries just like I do so I guess I am doing okay."  No!  You are not okay!  You need Jesus!  I want to live out my faith with Paul's passion.  I want people to see me and know there is something different about me because I have a creator who loves me, who has a divine plan for me, who made me for His glory, who prepared a place for me to live for all eternity, who wants what is good for me.  And he did/can do those same things for you too!  I want people to see what I have and find it so attractive that they cannot just brush it off.  They find it so attractive that they seek it out with everything they have.

2. I had a first last night that I hoped I would never have, but I expected to have it.  It was about Beck's race.  I am totally okay with the fact that Beck is biracial (BM is Caucasian, BF is African-American) and that Jeff and I are not.  We think he is beautiful, perfect, "fearfully and wonderfully made", you get the point.  Here's the gist of what happened: some of my friends were showing pictures of Beck to some of their friends and family members (not with me around), and they were making excuses for his race.  One of them just told the people who saw the picture that Beck was really tan.  The other one told people he was "a little bit Mexican". What??   It totally caught me off guard as they were telling me about it or I would have spoken up immediately.  I don't know the exact words I would say, but I would make it very clear that we are not ashamed of Beck and we would never want him to be either.  He is who he is and we wouldn't have it any other way.

But tonight, we feast!

Rice cereal was a huge success!

 Oh, the anticipation!

 mixing it up...

 the first bite going in...

and it's good!  That is the face of a satisfied customer.

bwe-4 months

4 months!

I can't believe it.  Well little boy you have surely rocked mommy and daddy's world in a very good way.  We could not ask for a happier baby.  You have your moments, but they are few and usually justified.  Like today, when you got 4 shots, 2 in each leg, you let out a loud cry when each shot went in, but as soon as the initial shock was over, you were back to making happy noises.  In fact, all your tears were dried up by the time we checked out at the front desk.

You are growing like crazy!  You weigh 16 lbs. 1 oz. and you are 26 inches long!  You can still wear some 3-6 month sized clothing, but for the most part you are wearing 6 month sized clothes.  You are still hovering around 4-5 ounces of formula every 3-4 hours (and sometimes longer if you sleep longer).  Today we have a big surprise for you (or you may have a big surprise for us, depending on how this goes): you are going to have rice cereal for the first time this afternoon.  I am very excited about this and I don't really know why.  I certainly don't want you to grow up any faster than you already are, but I am secretly looking forward to the day when you just eat what we are eating for all meals.  

On to sleep...you had a terrible week of no sleep about 2 weeks ago.  You were hardly napping and you started wanting a bottle again around 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning.  I decided it was time for some sleep training.  So your new schedule goes a little something like this: eat and play for about 1 and a half hours and then you go down for a nap, hopefully to sleep for 1 and a half hours or more.  Then it's up to eat and we continue like that.  Sometimes you wake up before it's time to eat, but we are generally satisfied if you sleep at least an hour.  If you wake up before an hour has passed, popping your pacifier in for a minute and rubbing your belly will usually knock you back out.  It is totally awesome when you decide to sleep for longer!  Our doctor recommended that we let you put yourself to sleep so we started doing it and it is going much better than expected.  We put you down when you are awake, but there are usually signs that you are ready like you get a little fussy and you rub your eyes.  You usually cry a little and it was hard in the beginning to hear you do it, but we got better at not going in your room right away.  Now we put you down and wait 10 minutes before we go in to check.  9 times out of 10, you are usually asleep within 10 minutes.  You like to sleep with your arms up, fist curled by your head.  Sometimes you will cover your eyes with your hands when you first go down or you will turn your head to the side and put your hand on your forehead.  It is totally cute and I take a mental picture every time you do it.    

When you play, you still love lying on your back under the mirror on your activity gym the most.  You are spending more time on your belly and when you do, you like to feel the different textures on your foam mat.  You also enjoy time spent in your Bumbo seat holding/slobbering all over a toy.  Your personality is amazing.  One minute you are coy and a flirt, the next minute you are all smiles and giggling.  Even funnier is when an adult is working really hard to make you smile and you just stare at them with your head cocked to the side.  Your eyes still get big when you see a bottle being prepared for you.  You almost always greet us with a smile and some baby talk when you see us in the morning or after a nap.  If you happen to wake up crying, it usually turns into laughing upon focusing on our faces.  

 Standing up on Daddy's lap laughing.

 Pulling up while holding Daddy's fingers.

 I think you were trying to give Daddy one of your famous open-mouth kisses.

 Giving Mommy squeezes.

 Asleep.  You have a first curled up under that burp cloth.

 Everything goes in your mouth these days, including Mommy's finger.

Tummy time...and who can resist those crossed feet!

We love you so much, but we remind you frequently that your birth mother also loves you so much.  We know she thinks of you all of the time and she is at peace with her decision (shared with us in a letter from her).  We also remind you that you have heavenly Father who put this family together in the way that only He can.  A conversation with you about your birth mother and how you came to be a part of our family lends itself easily to a discussion about how God wants to adopt you into His family.  This mommy prays for your little soul on a daily basis, sometimes hourly.  We know God is in control and we will only get to have you for a short time to shepherd you.  We take it very seriously and we feel honored to be your parents.     

Just Because

I know I promised a video of Beck but I cannot figure out how to make it work so here are some snapshots from what we have been up to lately.

 Bless his head of hair.  The answer is no, I did not cut his hair to look like this and I don't do anything to it but comb it.

 Watching the Apple Festival parade with Uncle Barry.

 Met sweet Jackson.  Jackson was 7lb. 6 oz. in this picture, the same size Beck was the day we got him.  I already forgot how tiny he was compared to now.

 Hanging out (and spitting up on) Aunt Jessica (Jackson's mommy).

 Getting his gums brushed during bath time...he loves this soo much.

 Asleep during his first full-length movie.  Our church showed Soul Surfer outside on the big screen.  He washed the first half and then slept for the second.

 Holding Mommy's hand.

 Love.

 Checking out everything on the entertainment station...not interacting with anything yet, but really checking it out.

 Still sucking/chewing on as many fingers as I can fit in my mouth.

And that my friends, is the most delicious (and to date the only) blueberry cobbler I have ever made.  It is even good for breakfast. :)

I'm back

So apparently God and my mom have a lot in common because as soon as I clicked "publish," He convicted me of several things I could be doing.

For starters, I intended to use this blog to encourage others, to share what's going on in our lives, and to post pictures of my sweet boy.  Not to complain about boredom.  So God said, "Hellooooo!  You just finished an amazing study.  Share what you learned, ding-dong."  (Ding-dong is one of the many terms of endearment He uses with me.)

So here goes...
I have to thank Meghan and Stephanie for blogging and sharing what amazing things God has taught them/is teaching them through inductive Bible study.  I went to the Precept Ministries International website and began to get familiar with what exactly inductive Bible study is.  Let's just say, I am still learning, but it is rocking my world.  I couldn't locate a class in my area, so I looked through the many products they had to offer and settled on Lord, Teach Me to Study the Bible in 28 Days.  I will just go ahead and say that I thought the title was a little cheesy, but from what I gathered on the website, Kay Arthur knows her stuff.  I picked up the book and immediately so many truths from the word were laid out for me.  It was awesome.  So awesome that I cannot get enough of it.  I knew I had to join a study group.  I went back to the precept website about a week ago and found a class about 30 minutes away on a Wednesday morning, and best of all, they offered childcare!  I was so pumped.  However, the class was already full.  I emailed with the instructor and she told me they would begin a new class when this one finished.  I knew that I couldn't wait until after November to dig back in so today, I picked up That I May Know Him, a study on Philippians/Colossians.  I love that title because that is why I had such a hunger to study the Bible in the first place, to know Him.

In 28 Days, we studied Jonah and Jude to get some variety.  Here are some amazing things I took away from my study:

*God is compassionate.  He provides ways for us to right ourselves when we do wrong

*God sees the big picture when I do not.  He knows how everything fits into place, even the most disastrous calamities.

*Everything prophesied about in the Bible has happened or will happen.

*The godly need to be on guard because the ungodly are trying to turn us in very convincing ways.  

*Fight for the faith!
 

I can't believe I'm about to say this...

I'm bored.

The secret is out.

Those were forbidden words in my household growing up.  They were promptly followed with a list of chores to complete.

Beck has figured out how to go to sleep without me.
My housework is under control thanks to a cleaning schedule (don't laugh at me, I'm a scheduler).
It is yucky outside.
I don't have money to spend on anything that is not a necessity.
I have baked, crafted, read, studied, played the piano, been on facebook, been on pinterest, prayed, practiced the motions for my Good News Club songs.

Okay.  That was a pretty pitiful list and not very becoming.

So what is a girl to do when she doesn't have money to spend and needs to stay at home while her baby gets his napping schedule down?

As promised-part 2

And here are (almost) the rest.

 This is Beck's impersonation of Fonzi (with his thumb up).

 He totally looks like he got caught pulling out the baby wipes.

 Everything these days goes in his mouth...everything.

For the last picture, I am going to try to upload a video!