Continuation of the last post

My little pumpkin

In the cute sweater Aunt Darcie made

Outside of the hotel in Richmond with Grandma and Grandpa. Em was too interested in my dad's hair to look up for the camera.

Telling us a story...

On the guest bed at G & G's house

Captivated by the passing train

On one of our last warm days

Feast Your Eyes

Okay, so my mom urged me this morning to update my blog. It's been awhile, and as I admitted to her, I've thought about the blog several times but just haven't had the energy to add to it. So, despite my lethargy, here I sit to give a quick update and some wonderful new photos.

Let's see. Emma is now crawling on her hands and knees -- something which I thought we might skip right over. She does really well for 5-10 "steps" then will often slip back down onto her tummy and continue from there. She does best when she's only in a diaper (pantless), but with the weather cooling off, there won't be much opportunity for that level of freedom.

Em is also pulling herself up quite a bit -- on the back of the couch, in her crib at daycare, up and over the dogs as they're burried in our bed -- Jon has enlisted the help of a friend and will be dropping her crib mattress tomorrow. We laid the Peach down for a nap last evening and, after a long time of whimpers and other such noises, when I went to check on her I discovered her standing at the end of her crib, playing with a package of hair barrettes she had somehow managed to snag off of the dresser beside the crib. She'd gotten several barrettes off the cardboard and her bed was littered with them.

Three top teeth are visible, and I think number 4 is working it's way through. She's been a trooper. Last night was rough -- up at 2 am and then again at 4:30 am to eat....

Two weekends ago Em and I made another Skybus voyage to see Grandma and Grandpa in Virginia (see photos). Again she did well during the flights, and she had loads of fun being entertained and BEING great entertainment. We tried Em on regular (organic) milk that weekend, and she'd done splendidly. She's now down to nursing only 3 times a day and takes 2 bottles. Consequently, I got to sleep in this past Saturday.....for the first time since Emma was born over 11 months ago!!!! I got up with her to nurse around 5 am, then Jon got up with her when she woke for good. I didn't rise from bed until 10:00 am!!! YES!!! Double digits. Felt great.

Had our Mom's group last week and Kalli loaned us a festive outfit to wear. Emma really doesn't have anything "Halloweeny". The kids were dressed up -- the twins were a bear and an elephant, Kalli was a bumblebee, Kaitilinn was a ladybug, Isabelle was Lil' Bo Peep, and Claudia was a lamb. Wish I had pics to share of all of them, but the lighting wasn't so good, so I knew my camera wouldn't perform that well. I'm attaching a photo of Em that Susan took with her AMAZING camera. ::smile::

Rocking Fish

We were at the home of some friends a couple of weeks ago and Emma got to play on this "rocking fish" that they've kept from when their 2 girls were little. It was positively adorable, and Emma really liked it. Unfortunately I didn't take note of the toy brand, and I've not been anywhere that I've noticed anything similar.

Anyhow, a few updates on our daughter...

1) As of Friday night, October 5, Emma has achieved sitting up on her own (by this, of course, I mean GETTING herself in a sitting position). She does this by rolling onto her belly, pulling her knees up under her, leaning sideways so her bum touches the ground, then she pushes herself up the rest of the way with her hands.

2) As of Saturday, October 6, we discovered Em has more teeth coming in. Not just one, as it turns out, but all 4 of her top front teeth. Consequently, the last couple of days have been rough. The poor kid is really feeling it. Fever on Sunday night that kept Em out of daycare on Monday, and two hysterical crying fits in the middle of last night.

3) Emma (as well as Jon and me) is recovering from what is probably her 10th cold in her 10 months of life. Her poor little nose. She's getting too good at turning her head away when I try to wipe, and has demonstrated super-baby strength whenever we attempt to suction out her goobers so that she can breathe again.

4) She's a tough kid. While I was doing my hair this morning and keeping an eye on Em from the bathroom door, she managed to go over the side of the bed and onto the floor. I couldn't get to her before she landed due to the hot curling iron in my hand. After a few tears and lots of hugs, her attention was caught by the Mickey Mouse Club and she forgot about the unfortunate incident. I think we're going to stick to floor-based activities while the curling iron is in use from now on.

5) Our child likes to "ride" her bathtub. Just moments after I start draining water from her tub, which makes it much lighter, she'll start rocking herself back and forth causing her momentum to make the tub move forward and back in the big tub. It's pretty funny to watch.

6) Speaking of bathtime, the other night I caught Emma sipping bathwater from the little blue basin I use to pour water over her. I thought she was just holding it close to her face to look at it, but then I heard little slurping noises! Jon thinks it's gross. I think it's adorable.

I guess that's it for now...or at least it should be for this posting. Hope all of you are well.

The Long Awaited Sweater Photos

I wish these pictures had turned out better, but the lighting wasn't very good either time. The very bottom one is Emma in the church nursery. The others are in our livingroom, but it was nighttime so we didn't have any natural light. The weather has been unseasonably warm here (high 80's today and all week) so I haven't had the opportunity to put Emma back in the sweater since her first time wearing it. Didn't Darcie do a fabulous job? I wish the pictures showed off the stitch work and overall design of the sweater. Oh, and Emma loves the buttons. She likes to put them in her mouth.

If you haven't checked my blog in a bit, be sure to scroll down and read the 2 posts below this one. I've actually gotten on a lot lately, which is out of the ordinary. I don't want you to miss them!

Applying Scripture

This post is going to be quite a departure from what I normally write about. Emma is definitely a part of it, but she's not the dominant theme. God is.

I read this verse this morning.... "My soul is downcast within me, therefore I will remember you..." (Psalm 42:6)

While I feel I'm getting though every day pretty normally, and without the constant feeling of being downcast in my soul, when I have those moments to really reflect on "life" right now (as I did a few days ago when I was unable to go back to sleep for 4 hours in the middle of the night) I realize that "downcast" truly is the reality of my soul. Jon has now been out of work since July 7 (with the exception of 2 weeks) and despite the large number of applications he's filled out and resumes he's submitted, nothing permanent has come up. It's been stressful not knowing when he'll be employed full-time again and looking at our finances, wondering if all will be depleted.

Don't misunderstand...we're doing remarkably well and are not resorting to eating Ramen noodles yet! ::smile:: Emma is not suffering in any way. We have just had to restrict our spending which means also planning our menu carefully and shopping accordingly. All in all I think it has been good for us, however we have certainly had our tense moments of trying to communicate frustrations with one another.

Which brings me to the point in Scripture which says, "therefore I will remember you." Here is what I remind myself of:

• God has dealt with stubborn and foolish people (of which I count myself one) since the beginning of time, yet still extends abundant grace and forgiveness
• Jesus didn't lead an easy life. He had to walk nearly everywhere (yikes!), people misunderstood him all the time, one of his friends betrayed him, he may have desired to have a wife and child of his own yet submitted himself to the Father's will, and ultimately he gave his life -- in a way that had to be as incredibly painful as it was injust.

I look back and see His hand over me through the years...

• One of my friendships ended so that I could be drawn to God
• I received a scholarship which allowed me to attend the college of my choice
• My friendship with Jon (which at one point was non-existent) was restored which ended up in marriage
• God wiped out a balance we owed on our moving truck when we relocated to Ohio....saving us hundreds of dollars we didn't have to begin with
• My paycheck stretched during the 5 months Jon was unable to work at the beginning of our marriage
• The Lord provided a "bonus" for me at the same time Jon required a root canal. It covered the bill
• We have repeatedly come into "extra" money when we've needed car repairs, new contacts, etc.

And most recently....and in light of our current circumstances....I'm coming to realize that God was providing for us in advance, knowing that we would experience this "drought" if income...

• The people of the church (and grandparents) were incredibly generous with baby gifts, and we've not had to purchase more than 8 items of clothing or very many other supplies
• My student loan was paid off right before Emma was born, which freed up $200 per month
• Emma was born in 2006, during which time we had 90/10 coverage through our insurance. At the New Year, our plan changed to 80/20. We were able to get all of the hospital bills paid within a couple of months.
• I get an 80% discount on daycare due to being full-time staff, which equals about $1 per hour for care.
• We have a friend/connection through the church who is able to supply us with diapers and wipes. We've only bought one package of diapers and one box of wipes since Emma was born, and that was during vacation in Canada just because we didn't want to pack them.
• I got a unexpected and substantial raise this year which kicked in mid-June....right before Jon stopped working.

God has proven Himself faithful to us. I will continue to trust Him, even if it requires that we be broken down to $0 in all accounts and have to be in prayer for the next bill to be covered or the next meal to be provided. He hasn't let us down yet.

This has been very stretching spiritually. For a period of time Jon and I got into the habit (to which we need to return) of having "Bible time" together each evening. It was a great time for us to read together and communicate about the passage, which always inevitably prompted other discussions. I don't know what happened to cause us to stop, but I know we need to get back to it...now more than ever.

Some of you may be thinking, "Did we really need to know all of that?" Probably not, but this is my way of giving God glory in the midst of a dry time. It's something I can come back and read on the days when I'm doubting and am especially cynical. And it's something for Jon to be reminded of as well (love you, Babe). I'm sure my next post will jump back to the ins and outs of our incredibly SMART and beautiful little girl.

I am SO excited!!!

Blogger added a video feature....I am SO EXCITED!! Takes forever to load the videos, even though they're only 30 seconds long....but despite the hassle, you are going to have to put up with viewing older videos of Emma that are in my files. Some of them are just too cute NOT to share.

On another note, I love OREO cookies. We got a few packages of them for only 25 cents each, and I've been feasting on one pack here in my office for the past week. They're double-stuff, which are good but present some additional challenges in eating. You see, I usually like to nibble things. With a regular oreo I'll bite off the top...usually 3 bites....then will have 3-4 bites of the bottom side with the cream. Sometimes I scrape the cream off with my teeth, which then prolongs the process. I can't do that with double-stuff. Everything comes apart in big chunks, and thus I can end up eating 6 cookies in the time it would take me to eat 3 regular ones and be satisfied. Honestly, I'm surprised the pack has lasted this long....

Jon is still looking for a job. I'm holding out hope that God hasn't allowed him to be hired anywhere because he's to wait for a certain youth pastor position here in town. It's really hard to wait, though.

Emma is getting even more mobile....moving faster across the livingroom floor and into the kitchen when I'm not watching. Jon said that the other day he turned around to find her with two pieces of dog food in her mouth!!! Mmmm....I think we're going to have to start locking things down. Not sure what to do about the dog food, though. The poor girls would probably revolt if we moved their dishes into the laundry room. Not that they'd starve right away...they each have some extra padding!

I put a "headband" in Em's hair the other day for the first time. There's a bow attached, and it looks very girlie. She's not allowed to wear the barrettes in daycare (choking hazard if it falls out) so it seemed like the only alternative for getting her hair up off her forehead and out of her eyes. I think that will be our only recourse for awhile. Her hair is thin enough that I don't think hair elastics will be an option for a good long time.

That's all for this post. My next one will contain some pictures of an adorable sweater Aunt Darcie knit for Em, and perhaps another video. Enjoy!