aquabib: a water drinker
in these dog days of summer my sister and I decided to offer Micah a cool cup of water after a scorching walk to and from the west side market on Wednesday.
Not only was it an adorable sight (see 18 second video below) but he just couldn't get the hang of the cup...and we couldn't get the hang of focusing the camera on his while simultaneously helping him sit up and not crack his face on the glass cup.
how many people does it take to feed a baby a sip of ice water?
answer: apparently more than two!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
aquabib:
Posted by jess at Thursday, July 28, 2011 1 comments
on napping, again. and why I am a fan.
I think I write a lot about nap time because it's the one time of day where my mind has a moment to focus.
The lens of my eye has a chance to adjust to the light-
Or the dark and in that quiet moment I can think
And often, he's the one I think about
when he's asleep I slip awestruck thoughts about him, about me, about the God who created us both into
My pocket
Reach my hand in
And rattle them around in my palm
Little gold coins of wonder
His head smells of sweat and cotton and salty sweet sleep
His little pudgy hand grips his diaper where it meets his thigh in his sleep
His eyelashes, like fingernail clippings, set side by side in a half-moon arc
His bottom lip pulled in, like he's trying not to laugh during the serious business of sleep
And today, he sleeps on my bed, going on an hour and I first did dishes, sorted the mail, changed the laundry.
Then I crept back up, my hand full J.Crew's latest eye candy catalogue and I flipped through, silently, next to him by the light of the window above my bed.
It's cool and quiet and I'm tempted to fall asleep too, but he's pushing an hour, which never happens, so I don't want to press my luck.
Sent from my iPhone
Posted by jess at Thursday, July 28, 2011 0 comments
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
another monday bites the dust
Yesterday, this was our day:
4am: Micah wakes up sobbing. (this kid never wakes up in the middle of
the night-except for during the crazy thunder storms last week)
I try to let him cry it out, but eventually go in there, because he
keeps getting louder and louder and I don't want Curtis to wake up -
too late.
5am: he finally falls back to sleep just in time for Curtis to get up for work.
6:30am: I get up, make bed (i'm ocd about a made bed) brush teeth,
drink coffee, eat a bowl of special k, take vitamins
7am: sign on work laptop.prepare for 7:30am phone meeting
7:30am: have call
8am: call ends, Micah wakes up. Go into his room singing our morning
wake-up song:
"rise and shine and give God the glory, glory!"
Change him, bring him into my bed (and air-conditioned room) to nurse.
Then I pump (my once-a-day pump) as Micah happily lays next to me on
the bed, and sometimes I get to watch about 10 minutes of the today
show as I pump.
8:30am: go downstairs with my boy, clean pump stuff, freeze milk and
lay Micah on the cute little bear blanket (which I happened to make in
high school home ec class) to play while I work at my dining room desk
9:30am: Micah falls asleep while playing, I don't dare move him into
his crib, so he sleeps amidst his toys for half an hour.
10am: the boy wakes up and we play, and I work and we play some more
11am: we nurse
11:30: I start dinner (broccoli and chicken pasta in a pesto cream
sauce with fresh basil)
While I'm at it I make quinoa two ways (Mexican with lime and cilantro
and curried with chick peas) to eat later this week
12:30pm: back to work and play, simultaneously. He takes another half
hour nap around 1.
2pm: we nurse
3pm: my mom stops over for a visit, entertains Micah baby while I work
4pm: mom leaves and Micah naps again while i finish dinner.
5pm: nurse, again.
5:30: Curtis gets home. He changes, we eat, clean up
6:30pm: we play with Micah
7:15pm: rice cereal time. The little man likes his food.
7:30pm: I take Micah upstairs to nurse. Curtis has a few guys coming
over for a bible study.
8pm: put Micah to bed. (tonight only a few minutes of crying)
8pm: I sit in bed and work (and let Facebook distract me every so often)
9:45pm: I close my laptop. Brush my teeth, wash my face and put some
hair removal cream on my 'mustache' (Curtis just told me I had to add
that in there!)
10pm: Boys leave and Curtis comes upstairs. Gets ready for bed as I
blog on my phone.
10:15pm: lights are out and it's bedtime. Bedtime prayer is that Micah
does NOT wake up at 4am again tonight!*
*note on Tuesday morning: Micah DID wake up again - at 2 am, crying
hysterically (for an HOUR!)
what do we do? we're a split household. I say let him cry it out after
making sure he's okay (which he was) Curtis wants to sleep
(understandable) and offered him a pacifier and a tummy rub until he
drifted back off to la-la land. After months of Micah sleeping so
well, even just being up an hour in the middle of the night is
exhausting. any advice?
Posted by jess at Tuesday, July 26, 2011 4 comments
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
morning nap
so far I can't even gather the motivation to think about going somewhere-
somewhere with central air
so instead of putting him down for his morning nap in one room with air and me in another room with another window unit on
we holed up in my bedroom
ceiling fan on, air on high, lights off
and I let him sleep on me
cuddled up in the cold, dark
I sit, legs outstretched
Lips to his nearly bald head
Listening to him breathe
Smelling the minty scent of the Dr. Bronners soap I bathed him with last night
In my mom's bathroom sink
Feeling the weight of this little human,
more than twice as heavy on me as he was inside
Most days I prefer to lay him in his crib awake. Let him fuss and sometimes cry himself to sleep
Self soothe.
But today I'd much rather feel his sleepy head in the crease of my armpit
His hand, curled into a fist on my collarbone
The window's light catching his toes at my thigh
And maybe when he wakes up we'll figure out the rest of our day
Do something, go somewhere
But maybe, just maybe we'll spend the day curled up in my bedroom, air on high, reading books, telling stories and
taking more naps.
Posted by jess at Tuesday, July 19, 2011 0 comments
Monday, July 18, 2011
how 5 months has flown
razzing: blowing bubbles in a funny, motorboat-motorboat sort of way.
today my boy is 5 months old.
a month away from his first half birthday
brings a tiny tear to my eye.
and this is the face you will see him doing most of the time. he thinks it's funny, as do we, so he continues.
i didn't know razzing was a word until i read it in What to Expect the First Year.
it's kind of like spitting, blowing bubbles simultaneously. it's adorable. and so is he.
what's Micah up to now that he's 5 months old you ask?
well, he's officially a swaddle-free sleeper.
after him waking up every morning for the last month or so, practically swaddle-free anyways, we decided to pack the swaddle away and see hoe he'd do.
the first night he woke up a few times, but quickly settled himself back to sleep. the second night he slept straight through the night - arms free, stretched over his head the way he naps. now it's been a week and he's fully swaddle-weaned :)
this past month we also started him on rice cereal. to say he loves it would be an understatement. sometimes he even cries between bites if we're not feeding him quick enough. it's hilarious - i have it on video if i can find it, i'll post it. little fatty!
i'm still nursing and he's still growing. right now he weighs about 17 1/2 lbs i think.
what else? he loves eating his hands, is drooling like crazy, but no teeth in sight, still sleeps 12-13 hours straight a night and nap time is becoming a bit better. what was once a struggle for 1-2 20 min naps a day has turned into 3-4 20-40 min naps. unfortunately the last one occurs a bit before bedtime - so we're thinking we might move up his bedtime an hour or so - the downside to that is we have to have him fed and in bed earlier, which always isn't much fun during the summer hours when we want to run around and go for after dinner walks and such.
but such is life and we are enjoying every minute of it.
ok, i'm done. not sure if anyone cares about this stuff, but it's a good way for me to remember it myself!
Posted by jess at Monday, July 18, 2011 0 comments
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Sometimes...
Sometimes I read blogs on my phone while I nurse
Sometimes I scroll through Facebook
Sometimes I text my sister, take a picture or send an email
but Sometimes he grabs my finger before i can pick up my phone and holds on tight while he eats
It's like he's saying,
"get off your phone mom and pay attention to me, or else I'll grab your phone scrolling finger and not let go!"
*and sometimes I even blog while I'm nursing, like right now, once I jimmied my finger free from the grip of all baby grips
Sent from my iPhone
Posted by jess at Saturday, July 16, 2011 0 comments
Monday, July 11, 2011
testimony
About a month ago I was asked to share my testimony at church of how i got came to know Jesus.
Anyways, this is what i said/read:
- How we viewed the migraines my mom and I chronically suffered with was a big deal.
- How we viewed cancer and the death of believers was a big deal.
- How we viewed every seemingly “bad” thing that happened, or good thing for that matter, was a big deal.
- I can either view chronic migraines as Satan’s work or a chance to trust that Christ can use pain for his glory.
- I can view family members struggling in their faith as the place where God lost control, or the place where He alone can redeem once again.
- And I can view our struggles with fertility as a chance to doubt God loves me or to believe that He shows his love for me by forgiving my sins and not only by the gifts he gives me.
Posted by jess at Monday, July 11, 2011 1 comments
Thursday, July 7, 2011
happy together
*photos taken by Curtis' parents while visiting them in Chicago - don't mind my wet hair and lack of makeup.
On the way home from Chicago we made three stops.
At stop numer three, i was nursing and complaining to Curtis simultaneously about the obscene hour we were going to get home at - when he gently reminded me that we were together, all three of us and then he said something i love to hear.
"- home is wherever we're together - who cares what time we get home."
If you can't tell, we have fun together.
we are not good at serious posing or photoshoots that don't involve tongues, piggyback rides and giggles.
i'm also not good at actually looking decent when a camera is being pointed in my direction
but what can'ya do? but at least it was fun - or funny i guess is more like it.
micah is now 4 1/2 months old and is a traveling champ.
during the 6 hour drive to chicago we only made one 1/2 hr stop the entire way to nurse him.
he slept probably 5 out of the 6 1/2 hour trip - it was incredible. he is incredible.
we had the chance to talk and listen to part of a marriage conference and just had a wonderful drive, just the two of us
(or it felt that way at least, due to the sleeping angel-boy)
and it was a great trip.
they treat us like royalty when we visit.
despite the heat we fit a lot into a the short trip.
ikea
an evening walk to town for fro-yo
lincoln park zoo
the beach
fish tacos
firepit
and just when we thought our weekend was over and we were (finally) driving into downtown Cleveland late on the 4th of July, to our amazement, we could see every city's fireworks peppering the horizon as we made our way into town.
it was incredible and a great way to end a beautiful summer weekend.
it's true - home is wherever we're together, and who cares that we got home at 11 and had to make three stops which extended our trip by a couple hours.
who cares when we were together.
Posted by jess at Thursday, July 07, 2011 1 comments