Blogg-ed Issue

Did you know Jos is six months already!  Six months!  I know it is completely cliche to say, but time just goes so fast.  I don’t know where the last six months have gone.

To celebrate turning six months we’re pretty sure Jos is teething.

(ps the photo is a bit starker than reality)

In other news…

Cayley likes cream cheese.  I have to get a video of her saying this.  It is hilarious.  I didn’t know that four words (I like cream cheese) could be said with so many variations in tone and expression.

Tonight she also announced to Brett, “I’vefinishedIloveyouCanIhavesomesweets.”  Subtle.

Elisha has brought his portfolio home from kindy and is totally loving showing it off to all and sundry.  He’s also totally smitten with Where’s Wally (or Waldo depending on where you are).

The last eight weeks we, as a family, have been going through the rigors of an elimination diet, trying to determine a few different things.  Speaking for myself, it has been really tough.  Speaking for everyone else, it’s not only been tough but bland.  Mum A calls it the extermination diet.  She’s not far off the truth.

For the last eight weeks my mind has been very consumed with thoughts of food.  Not very interesting food, but food nonetheless.

At the same time I have been listening to a series on Titus 2 : 1-5 (I’ll put it at the end of the post if you’d like to read it) from Revive Our Hearts Radio.

It has been an interesting, sometimes overwhelming combination.  In the last eight weeks of being on the diet I have prepared almost every meal we’ve eaten, when we go out I need to think ahead and take food with me, Elisha has had two birthday parties to attend which I prepared food for, a special morning tea at school, church every week, various other gatherings…

In that same eight weeks I have had a husband recuperating from knee surgery and then working quite a few extra hours on a journal paper, a baby who is feeding multiple times a night (working on that one at the moment!), everyone getting a cold… twice!… everyone getting gastro…

At the same time I have been trying to love my husband and children… be busy in the home… serving my husband and children with love and joy, not mindless mechanical duty.

It has been a battle and much food (ha ha) for thought.

I want my family to know that I do the things I do not only or primarly because they need to be done, but because I want to show them that I love them.  It doesn’t mean that sometimes doing the same thing over and over (and over and over and over…) isn’t boring but I’m learning it’s not the doing it’s the how I’m doing the doing.  It’s early days in this new thinking and I reckon you could say there’s been some testing, some walking through the fire and flood!  But He has called me by name.  He knows me.  He is with me.  He will not leave me.  He loves me.  And that is everything!!!

Brett has finished his journal paper for work and is taking a week off.  I’m looking forward to some relaxed family together time.

¹ You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine. ² Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.

³ Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. ⁴⁵ to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

And Jos has discovered his toes!

I am so thankful
* for my children, they’re unique personalities, and the gift of watching them grow
* my husband, I love him today more than ever
* my camera, to be able to capture a small part of these memories
* craft a creative outlet
* my home a place for fun, relaxing, family, friends…

Took some photos of the kiddies for Mum A for mothers’ day. The children were not very cooperative at all!

Also didn’t have the camera settings quite right and everything came out very blue, have had to fiddle with the photos a lot.

Here’s the best of the many many many that I took. And yes, I did try to get a photo of the three of them together, but they did not work at all!

Here’s an original untouched group shot, just to show you how bad it was!

Happy Mothers’ Day to both our mums.  We love you both, and really appreciate everything that you have done and continue to do for us.  We pray God’s richest blessings to you.

Just been going through some old photos and came across this little video clip of Elisha.  It is too cute.

It is hard to believe he has grown so much since then. I need to get another camera with video so I can catch these moments with Cayley and Jos.

Little Jos is discovering his hands at the moment.  I love the way that he stares at them in complete amazement when he manages to get them in his line of sight and hold them there.  He also tends to be a bit cross eyed looking.

***

Nan: What does an elephant do?
Cayley: Elephant blows his trumpet
Nan: *Laughs… a lot!*

***

Praying for Stellan.  And for Lusi, can’t wait to meet your new little girl Lus.

***

Thankful

* For a short nap today.
* For being able to recognise that I was behaving about as maturely as my children, and being able to apologise to them and get over it!
* For lunch with Nan and Pop and Aunty Cathy
* For dinner with Gran and Opa and the clan
* For Nan and Pop babysitting so I could go to the housewarming with Brett.
* For quiet cuddles with Jos during worship today.

***

Made a couple of cards this weekend too.

First up, I did more craft with the kids.

I had a nice day with Cayley while Elisha was at kindy last week on Thursday.  We didn’t do a lot, just hung out together.  She helped me do housework and I played with her.

We came in from hanging out some washing and I noticed that she’d scraped her big toe quite nastily.  She didn’t notice until about ten minutes later.

Oh my!  The drama.

She needed her ‘bambaib’ again.

Note how far the injury and the bandaid are from each other.  But if that bandaid fell off, well, she couldn’t walk.  It must be a magic bandaid methinks.

There was also some gorgeous doll action…

Some feeding,

and burping,

and snuggling,

and…

er,

licking!

We were having quite a normal conversation with Elisha at the lunch or dinner table over the weekend, when suddenly from nowhere…

Elisha:  Daddy

Brett: Yes?

Elisha: Have you ever seen a lion poo?

And the question was asked in such a manner that we couldn’t tell if that was a noun or a verb.

Brett looked at me, I looked at Brett and we both disintegrated into laughter.  Of course having made us laugh Elisha kept up with the word he thought had brought about his comic success.  Yes we (and especially Brett) kept laughing, but still at the first comment, not the new ones.

And Jos, well he just is cute.

He had his six week (Yes SIX week) check at the doctors’ today.  He’s doing great.  Putting on an average of almost half a kilo a week.  And his baby acne and heat rash are starting to clear up a little (this is a slightly old photo).

He’s also starting to stretch out the time between feeds which is very nice, especially at night.  I can’t say that I’m going to be sad when I miss out on watching infomercials in the middle of the night.

On a sad note, Elisha’s fish Coco died today.  I know it’s a bit gross, but he’s still floating in his tank.  I found him late this afternoon just before I served dinner up.  We’ll have a bit of a funeral for him tomorrow.  Elisha got Coco towards the end of 2007 as a reward for being fully toilet trained.  I can’t believe that it was only that long ago.  Feels like much longer than that.

Tomorrow is Elisha’s first FULL day at kindy.  And he doesn’t want to go for the whole day.  I am going to try and rev him up for it by lunchbox excitement.  But I’m not going to force him if he doesn’t want to.

I am thankful…

* for the mild weather
* for the cybercrop at little scrapbook shop that went OFF this weekend, and the funds raised for the Victorian bushfire survivors
* Brett cleaned up the dishes and started the dishwasher for me tonight
* that Jos is doing so well
* that tomorrow is MY six week check and I’ll be able to drive again.  Can’t wait.

The singlet I tell you

… not the innocent, sleepy looking face.

In total truth though, although he is probably up about three am for a feed, he’s generally pretty good about going back to bed once he’s done.

Oooh, I made a card too.

And did an educational experiment with the bigs.  (Yes those photos are of us having fun with the paint.  Please excuse how dirty someone’s fingernails are!)