Family walk

Sunday afternoon, only days after our ice storm, was a beautiful day for a family walk.  We added the second seat to our double stroller.  This was BB's first time facing out (opposed to being in his car seat) while being in the stroller.

All the branches that fell off in our yard.

Little Man with a hat from Oma.

Mommy's Byrons.

Emma 'Monkey' Girl

Ice Storm 2014

Exactly one week ago today, Augusta was hit my an ice storm.  I've only lived here for 4.5 years, but people who have lived here for decades said this was the most devastating natural disaster they had ever experienced in town.  

I've lived through two major hurricanes in my lifetime, and I must say that the devastation left behind by the storm was very similar to that of a hurricane.

Having said that, America being the First World country that it is, got it's act together ASAP.  Though the town seemed to have been destroyed and 85% of the area lost power, we are now back and running as if nothing ever happened.

We woke up Wednesday morning to crashing sounds-- tree limbs falling to the ground from the weight of ice.  Byron stayed home and worked out of the dinning room table.  Emma and I made some chocolate chip cookies and hung around until we lost power at around 4 pm.

That first evening was really hard.  It was freezing cold and the kids kept waking each other up all night long.  We had breakfast by the fire and sat and wondered how on Earth we were going to get through the rest of the day without heat.

 

We drove around town and crashed Byron's office which had not lost power (the storm had already ended by Thursday morning).  We warmed up there while we decided what we were going to do afterwards.  We booked a hotel in Columbia, SC and drove an hour to spend the day/night there.  

When we returned from Columbia, our home still did not have power, but my in-laws' home did, so we spent the night there.  By Saturday morning, our power was back on and we returned to our home sweet home.

Outdoors

Believe it or not, only a week after our snow day, the weather became incredibly beautiful-- Spring-like beautiful!  I took the kids outside to get some sunshine and kick the soccer ball around a little.  Little Byron enjoyed laying on his side while watching his mommy and big sister play.

Oh, how I love this little man!

Prayer hands.

This man sure loves his right index finger.

Baby Byron's baptism

We were thankful to get to baptize BB this past Sunday.  Though we missed not having all of our family together (some missing on Byron's side, and all missing on mine), we still had a number of people who witnessed our little one officially become part of the Covenant Family.

We had a small reception at my in-laws' home right after.  I made three different kinds of sandwiches (pimento cheese, chicken salad and PB&J), a ham & cheese tray with crackers, Wife Saver's chicken fingers, chocolate strawberries, deviled eggs, and a veggie tray.

 

The flattering picture of the kids' corner.

A family friend who has a cake business custom made the cake for our lunch.  It was beautiful!  It had BB's monogram at the top, and Psalm 100:5 written on the sides of it ("For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations").

 

Baby Byron wore a guayabera that one of my aunts in Mexico gave him when he was born.

Emma's baptism.

Baby Byron's first solids

Since I cloth diaper and exclusively breastfeed my children, I normally try to hold off solids as long as possible (dirty diapers of exclusively breastfed babies do not need to be rinsed, btw).  With Emma, I waited until she was 6.5 months old before we fed her for the first time.  

But with Baby Byron, things went a little differently.  First of all, at around his 5 month birthday, my hunger was CEASELESS!  Now matter how much or how often I ate, I would never become satisfied.  I would spend most of my waking time either thinking about what I could eat, or in the kitchen eating.  

The second thing that motivated me to feed BB solids early on was the fact that he does not poop!  I kid you not-- I don't think he has had more than a dozen BMs in two months.  The doctor suggested I give him some apple juice to help him out a little, but our little man does not take a bottle *SIGH***

So what am I to do?!?!  Apple sauce.  So at 5.5 months old, our little man enjoyed his first experience with grown up food.

He liked it!  

Unlike with Emma, I decided that with Byron I was not going to feed him anything I would not be willing to eat myself (no baby food, or rice cereal, or nasty purees, etc).  His first experience with food was some apple sauce from a pouch (Emma eats these herself).  I have since also given him mashed sweet potatoes.

He still does not know how to eat much, and we still do not feed him every day.  Only when we feel he needs some help using the bathroom.  We can normally get about a tablespoon of food in his system each time.

And just like with everything we do these days, Emma needs to be part of the experience.  So our firstborn regressed.  Instead of eating her apple sauce pouch through the opening like she normally does, she wanted to use a spoon like her baby brother.

I still sometimes wonder if she really is left-handed.

Snow Day 2014

Augusta hasn't seen snow in three years, so this was both Emma and BB's first experience with snow.  It snowed barely enough for it to stick to the ground, but not enough for a snowman.  We still had fun making a few balls and gently throwing them at each other.

Fun with a friend

Emma's little friend Lois (better known around here as Low-lis) came over to play yesterday morning.  She is almost a whole year younger than Emma, and thus still not as interested in tea parties and sitting around the table eating pretend fruit yet, which led to a very bossy, easily frustrated Emma.

Regardless of, the girls had a great time together.  Thankful for good friends!

(Yes, my child had a pajama day yesterday.)

The girls pulled their chairs and sat near the window watching the backyard.

Happy boy

I found this door "jumper" at a yard sale a couple of months ago, and busted it out two weeks ago for our boy to enjoy.  And oh, how he has enjoyed it!  We now find ourselves watching a happy baby bounce his day away.  Because of this toy, Emma has started jumping a lot more also-- "look mommy, Emma jump.  Watch mommy, jump!"

5 month

This post is long overdue, but our JB 5 month picture is finally up.  We took it yesterday, 10 days past LB's 5 month birthday.  Oh well... it is what it is.

 Emma's 5 month picture

And just like with every photo shoot we have these days, Emma wants to get a hold of the camera and take her own pictures.  If you were wondering what my lovely self looks like in the morning, the following picture is courtesy of our little toddler.  Enjoy!

 

Emma looooves...

Emma's new thing to say these days is:  "Emma looooves (fill in the blank)"

A few examples of things she will say:

-  Emma looooves chocolat

-  Emma looooves purpul

-  Emma looooves Baby Byron

-  Emma looooves puzzles

After breakfast today, we were playing in the playroom and out of the blue Emma says: 

 "Emma looooves mommy."

This is the first time Emma has said this to me, and the fact that it was so out of the blue, gave it so much more meaning.

I am so glad my child's evil twin sister is gone (you know, the one that moved in with us about 2 months ago and went insane and made me want to run away from my family at the end of every day).  Emma is back to her sweet, sweet self.  So thankful!

Bath in the sink.

Here is my dirty little secret-- my baby only gets a bath once a week, at best.  Last time, he went 10 days without a bath.  I know, horrible!  But truth be told, BB doesn't get dirty or sweaty, so why put him through the cold misery of a bath if he doesn't really need it?

We had dinner and Memma & Poppa's last night, and BB got his long-awaited (and much needed at this point) bath.  He got his bath inside the kitchen sink, and did very well.

Of course, when all was finished, our 2.5 year old, though much too big to be doing this, decided she also wanted to take her bath in the sink.  Oh goodness!

 

More Christmas 2013

After having Christmas at our home, we went to the Morrises' home to celebrate the holiday with the entire clan.  They surprised us all with matching Christmas PJs with our names in them.

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus.

My boy

Christmas 2013

Thankful for our family of four this Christmas.

At church on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Day, ready to open presents.

Mommy helped LB open his gifts this year.

Emma got a rocking chair for her babies from her Oma.

Emma and daddy got matching working gloves.

My delight

Using her dirty laundry basket as a crib.

It is no secret that growing up, I never dreamed or even wanted to be a stay-at-home-mom.  And even after making the most sensible decision to stay at home once Emma was born, I always told people:  "I am not a very good stay-at-home-mom because I hate staying home."

I am always busy, always needing something to do.  The idea of staying home all day makes me want to cry.

With one child, I was able to pull this off quite well.  Emma and I were always on the go.  Between the gym, friends, Costco samples and walks around the neighborhood, we always had something to do.

But once Baby Byron was born, something had to give.  Don't get me wrong, I still try to get out of the house once a day (and we almost always succeed at this), but certainly not as often as we used to.

So we stay home a lot, and for long stretches of time-- and what a delight it has been!  Like I mentioned in a post before, Emma is now creating her own world around the house.  I delight in watching her pretend play.  One of my greatest (and most humblest) privileges has been watching her be a mommy to her babies.  Sure, she used to play and carry them around before, but since Baby Byron's arrival, I have enjoyed watching myself through her play.  The way she wraps her babies in blankets, rocks them while saying "ssshhhhh," puts them in their crib, sings to them, gives them a bottle or "nurses" them.  

While I secretly observe her play like this, and as my eyes blink away my tears, I thank the Lord that He has given me the privilege to be the role model for my girl.

I do grieve how quickly she is growing, but I also find myself looking forward to walking through life with her, holding her by the hand (literally and metaphorically speaking) as she grows into the woman the Lord has designed her to be.

Fish girl

It's been a year since our EG first became our "fish girl" (she became obsessed with them while at Oma's house last December).

Her new thing is that she likes to both bathe and sleep with her three plastic fish (in addition to her regular sleep-buddies).  These days, when daddy gets her out of the tub and wraps her in her towel, Emma also likes to wrap her fish in a wash cloth and dry them herself.