Joel has gone straight from crawling to trying to reach everything that is 26.5 inches or lower. Time to put away everything on that table...
Moms need to use the bathroom. It's a fact. So, when this happens, moms need to bring their slightly mobile children in with them. If the mom turns arounds for a split second, she may find that her 6 month old has discovered the joys of pulling all the toilet paper off the roll and tearing it apart.
Joel and I went to the art museum today with Tess, Andrea, and Jacque. It was very enjoyable. The new glass pavillion is opening in a month. It looks incredible! Apparently they are getting an all new blowing studio. It may be nearly time for me to finally take a class.
Joel loves pop art. LOVES. I held him up to a few pieces and he giggled and started jumping (well, trying to jump, anyway). Unfortunately, I have no use for pop art. He did seem to enjoy the Matisse in the entrance, though, so we may have some common ground there.
Jennifer and I are going garage saling tomorrow bright and early. (Actually, 9am isn't "bright and early" for me anymore - sometimes I've already been up and had a nap by then!) I'm looking for 12 month clothes for Joel, and she's looking for pretty much everything for a newborn. (Max is nearly 7 now, so she doesn't have much of his baby stuff left.) Neil's mom may join us, if we are able to connect. (We played a championship-level game of phone tag today.)
Joel is still doing well with his food. He now loveslovesloves apple-blueberry and winter squash. Clever kid! (We have marvelous pictures of these adventures of food, of course, but I've noticed that they've definitely been the Bergs' Blogs Pictures of Choice lately, and I wanted to assure you that the child does more than just eat.)
So, erm... the three meals a day really isn't going to happen overnight. Joel won't go from a little
bit of fruit and some cereal before bedtime straight to eating full-out meals. Go figure.
The good news is that he took two 2-hour naps today! Awesome!
Plus, for anyone reading this who may be a full-time mom who wants to get out but wonders what the heck to do with a little one tagging along, check out
www.rookiemoms.com. Really hip site. It makes me want to live on the west coast, though... Apparently, there are things happening that you can WALK to out there. What an amazing wonderland! I can walk to a bank... and to a church... and to a bunch of other 4 bedroom 2.5 bath houses...
My life now is good. There is nothing wrong with it. But, I wonder what it would look like if it were great? (This question was posed to me earlier today. It has mezmerized me ever since.)
These are a few of Joel's favorite new toys. They mezmerize him for long periods of time.
My brother was in town this weekend. He was here officially to go to a wedding of a friend from high school. The wedding was outdoors at a lovely park - the problem? It was on Sunday, which had a heat index of nearly 100 degrees. Ick. I talked him into wearing nice shorts and a short sleeved polo type shirt. He came back and said he felt underdressed. Crazy people. I told him that his friend was lucky anyone wore clothes to her wedding at all.
We are nearly done scraping the wallpaper glue from our living room. Hurrah! Soon we will be able to cross one more room off of our "to paint" list. This house will be lovely yet...
Joel's six month pediatrician appointment was today. He has been sleeping HORRIBLY (waking up many times during the night). The pediatrician said that it could be any of the things I suspected (teething, learning to crawl, six month growth spurt), but the thing that will help each of those is to feed him more. So, Joel is now to eat three meals each day plus two snacks, along with his regular breastmilk. I'm going to try to get to the store tomorrow or Wednesday to get some yummy fruits and vegetables for him so I can
make him some food!
I've been feeling inadequate lately. Inadequate as though there are so many things I ought to be doing, but I'm just not getting to them. There's this huge world out there, with people and places and things to interact with, and I can barely get my house clean. I'm trying to figure out where my significance now lies in this season of my life. Should I have a job? Evolve discreetly into a 50's domestic goddess? Become a crazy community volunteer? Just chill out for a while? Learn everything I can about a couple of random but useful things?
I do know that I have a few books to finally finish. I have never ever been able to be reading just one book. Right now I'm in the middle of "Velvet Elvis", "Chasing Daylight" (which I'm actually reading with people, so I should probably catch up), "Walking the Bible" (fascinating history book that goes through the Torah in the Middle East), and "Fast Food Nation". And probably a few more. I'm avoiding my bookshelves right now for fear of what I might discover I'm in the middle of...
This is Joel a few hours old, taking a much needed nap. He is one week away from being 6 months old! Unreal! He's gone from around 7 pounds to now over 16, he's sitting up on his own, almost figuring out crawling, giggling when people sneeze or put him high in the air, has two teeth, and likes to play with all kinds of things. Amazing.
We've had a good time with friends lately. We've started hanging out with Ryan & Holly across the street a lot more now, and they are incredibly awesome people. (Have you ever felt like you wish you were as cool as someone?) They are very real, very interesting, and very thoughtful people and a lot of fun to have conversations with.
We played a gig in downtown Perrysburg today. It was pretty fun. We played all kinds of songs that we haven't played in, literally, years. We had made a set list about 5 or 6 years ago to play from, and we just followed that list today. It was beautiful weather for playing outside.
I think we are now officially done with all things uncomfortable with Zoar. Now we can move on in complete freedom to loving the people, pastor(s), students, events, and everything else about the church. I am truly hoping for the success of the church and everyone in it. Neil and Pastor Tim had a good conversation the other night, and I feel peaceful closure.
Tomorrow we are going to the Quaker church. It meets at the nature reserve in Perrysburg. It should be a neat experience. I really like what the Quaker church stands for socially, so it'll be neat to see what they teach about faith.
A couple of my students and I made a list a few months ago about all the great public places I should breastfeed, like at a park, in church, in a restaurant, etc. One thing that was not on the list was on a street corner in Perrysburg. I should TOTALLY get bonus points for that!
Family Reunion this past weekend! It was a lot of fun!
This is my Aunt Trine, Uncle Gordon, Uncle Scott, Joel, & my Mom hanging out in the gym.
My cousin Matt's daughter Emily. She's holding the water balloon that she's very proud of, and has on the temporary tatoo that she won in one of the kids' games. The tatoo was supposed to say something on it, but that part didn't adhere very well to her neck...
The annual horseshoe tournament, along with bean bag throwing this year. It began raining in the middle of the horseshoe tournament, but it had to go on. (That, along with the euchre tournament and the raffle, are the most important parts of the reunion to many... they have been going on every year for the past 42 years.) (Families can sure be, um, unique!)
My Mom, Joel, and Aunt Katie. Aunt Katie is my Grandpa's sister. She is one of the sweetest and most real people I know. She is charming Joel in this picture.
This year we got a real sign for the reunion! The reunion is every fourth of July weekend in Hawks, Michigan. (About 45 or so minutes from the Mackinaw Bridge.) It's a pretty big family, and we have color-coded t-shirts depending on what side of the family we're on. I am blue.
Neil & I are picking paint colors for a few rooms in our house. Our main project at the moment is the living room. We're about to get a couch and loveseat in there, so we're going to paint it first.
Joel now has two teeth. He's also been belly crawling... here we go...
Joel has gone straight from crawling to trying to reach everything that is 26.5 inches or lower. Time to put away everything on that table...
Moms need to use the bathroom. It's a fact. So, when this happens, moms need to bring their slightly mobile children in with them. If the mom turns arounds for a split second, she may find that her 6 month old has discovered the joys of pulling all the toilet paper off the roll and tearing it apart.
