"It was an unfathomable sound, as though even the natural world was a code the Beaudelaires could not decipher." -"The Penultimate Peril" by Lemony Snicket
Just when you think you've got a lot of the world figured out, something you weren't expecting comes and smacks you on the forehead. Then, nothing makes quite as much sense as it did.
I'm feeling kind of down. When Joel wakes up, I think I'll drown my sorrows in finding something with which to decorate our newly painted downstairs bathroom. But that doesn't mean everything will be happy again, just that I will have temporarily turned some frustration into something useful.
Mmmmm.... homemade hummus... tasty. easy. vegan.
(no, I'm not vegan... but hummus is...)
Joel has all of a sudden become amazing. Like, more than before. (I'm the mom, okay? Let me have my bragging and happiness!) In this picture, he is playing his new favorite game, "pull-every-wipe-out-of-the-box-one-by-one-and-put-them-onto-the-floor". This game is followed shortly by "step-on-the-pile-of-wipes-i've-made-and-get-my-socks-really-wet", and then "notice-mom-has-put-half-of-the-wipes-back-and-take-them-out-again". This lasted no fewer than 45 minutes yesterday.
Well, that may not qualify as amazing, but his other favorite game is pointing to things. Neil and/or I will say, "Where is the _________?" and Joel, provided he knows what the heck we're talking about, will point. His best three are "light", "fan" and "pumpkin". (Today, he found the pumpkin underneath Neil's coat!) He's also quite good at "Dad", but "Mama" works only every once in a while. When asked, "Where is Mama?", he will sometimes point to his puzzle, a book, or some shredded cheese. He gets it about half of the time, though. (And those times warm his Mama's heart!) He's working on "dog", "nose", and "ear".
Today was our last day of baby story time at the library. They recently got a grant, so each participant was given a "Where's Spot?" book. It has flaps that open on each page, like "Is Spot in the piano?" and "Is Spot under the bed?" Joel digs these flaps. Our next story time begins in January.
I am so not cut out to be a pioneer woman. We have not had a washer/dryer for a week now, and our water has been shut off for two hours. Two hours. I have never been this thirsty or wanting to wash my hands in my life! I have a bowl of water that I'm using for anything I need general water for (I washed my hands once, and I'm worried to use anymore!), and I have a big water bottle that I'm over half done with. Two hours. (Neil just walked behind me, though, and said that they're almost done. Thank goodness. I'm such a wuss.) (Oh, wait, no. The words were actually, "It's going well." I'm still holding out for, "We're almost done.")
Joel loves black olives. And avocado with cayenne pepper. And butternut squash. And split pea soup.
Thanks to E and A for encouragement from the last post. I need that! I'm working on some stuff now... updates soon.
Mom knows best, right? I finally, after an hour's struggle, convinced (a word here meaning, did everything humanly possible in order to make happen) Joel to take his afternoon nap. He's now just stirring (I think I heard him on the monitor...) three hours later. My sweet, sweet baby boy needs to know that sleep isn't the enemy! (The thing is, though, that I know I won't be able to get him out of bed before noon when he's 14. I should enjoy his enjoyment of wakefulness - and mornings - while it lasts!)
I was reading a delightful blog of a woman I do not know, but wish I did. We share a few favorite websites (
mothering.com,
Mars Hill,
New American Dream), which intrigued me. Reading her blog has made me really look at my life and what it has become. I'm WAY off base of where I want to be. I have marvelous intentions, but I'm not putting in the time and effort I need to. I'm re-researching simplicity & vegetarianism, actually reading the labels of the stuff I use to "clean" my home, re-evaluating my choices of what I buy based on need, packaging, and origin, and generally looking at where God is in my life. If God is truly the center of my life (which I am not living up to at the moment), these things are worth the effort in order to honor God with the way I carefully choose to live. So, I guess I'm about to make a monumental shift in way-of-life. Yikes. But, worth it. This woman's blog is phenomenal, and a huge inspiration for this.
In celebration of good food, I made baked lentils and cheese for lunch (out of my
new cookbook). It was super tasty!
We're having Thanksgiving at our home next Thursday. Anyone who is not going anywhere should swing by around 2:00pm. The more the merrier!
(P.S. - Joel is feeling much better. He's very cheerful and has bounced right back into his active little self!)
Joel has been sick this weekend. He's had the beginnings of a cold for about a week or so. On Friday, his cough got pretty bad, so I took him in. It turns out that he had a double ear infection and a viral infection in his lungs. (I now get the mother of the year award.) So, he's on antibiotics, a steroid to open his breathing systems (only until tomorrow, though), and has to have three-ish treatments a day on a nebulizer. He hates.hates.hates the nebulizer. Poor baby. He is doing WAY better than he was earlier in the weekend, though.
On a happier note, he just put himself to sleep without nursing. This is a new and exciting thing! Hopefully we, as a family, will all be sleeping better soon. He's become very dependent on nursing in order to sleep, and I've been doing that for a long time (well, almost 10 months now!), and I'm incredibly uncomfortable with the let-the-kid-cry-it-out-he'll-learn-you're-not-coming-to-soothe-him-soon-enough-and-figure-it-out-on-his-own method. (In short, it is generally referred to as "Ferberizing", named after the doctor who wrote the book on it.) So, I'm using a far more gentle method that, hopefully, will work.
Such is the life of an at-home mom of a 9.5 month old. These things are exciting to me. And, strangely enough, I don't feel lame about that. :)
This week in pictures (in non-consecutive order)...
Joel & I spent last week in Atlanta. (My parents live there.) While we were there, Grandpa Mike cultivated Joel's love of John Deere. (oh my...) By the end of the week, Joel had to touch or, preferably, ride on it every single time we went out into the garage. (We had to touch it three times before we could leave for the airport on Saturday!)
I have a love for all things apple, except for the extensive peeling/coring/slicing aspect that is necessary in order to make nearly anything appley. For this reason, I went in search of an apple peeler, one of the nice fancy ones that lets you put the apple on a three pronged end, crank a handle, and voila, a peeled, sliced, and cored apple falls into your hand! I found one such gadget for merely $12! And, after a kind of embarrassing learning curve, I now have the hang of it. The night before Joel and I left for Atlanta, I learned a new equation: apple peeler + boys + power drill = VERY quickly peeled apples and apple skin eating contests. This picture is Neil, Alex, Jeff, & Max right before the contest. (Jeff won.)
Joel loveslovesloves riding on planes! His favorites is landing, followed by taking off and touching all the buttons. Here he is switching XM channels.
My best (so far) picture chronicling my bad parenting skills. I'm sure you all have pictures of you as a pre-one-year-old taking everything out of your cupboards, right? Well, your parents may or may not have kept their Gentleman Jack's on the bottom & most accessible cupboard. My parents do, but in their defense, they did not when they were parents of pre-one-year-olds. (Please do notice that the cap is on.)
Joel on the plane again, this time discovering the air vent. This was the happy airplane trip, where nothing was delayed or cancelled, and there was no desparate searching for baby-appropriate food in the terminal.
