Pray for this family

I don't know this family, they are friends of friends. Heather asked for prayer for them a few weeks ago and lately when Baby Jacob was born. Apparently during their 20 week ultrasound it was discovered that Jacob had a problem with a hernia and an underdeveloped diaphragm. This is a very serious condition and in a lot of cases when this defect is discovered the parents choose to terminate the pregnancy. The Tuley Family decided not to and to trust in the Lord and His Miracles. If you read their blog you will see that a few days ago Baby Jacob was born as has already surpassed many expectations. He is still in the Vandy NICU and has a long road ahead of him including surgery as soon as he is stable enough. Everytime I think about this situation I dissolve into tears, not only out of concern for this family, but also out of amazement at how much the Lord has already done to sustain them. Although I am sure they are having their times of anxiety and grief, their blog entries are so inspirational, giving thanks for anytime at all they get to spend with their precious little one, since every minute is a minute more than they were told they would have with him. I have been praying so hard for this family. I guess I am feeling this so deeply because It is making me realize even more how blessed and thankful I am for the little boy who the Lord chose to share with us, and it is making me realize what a miracle healthy babies are. Please be in prayer for this Family. That The Lord will continue to pour His strength and wisdom into the parents and healthcare providers and that His plan will be fulfilled in Baby Jacob's life.

Bathtime Fun!

I decided to take the camera with us into the bathroom tonight for bathtime. I tried REALLY hard to strategically angle the pictures so that nothing embarrassing can be seen. :)

Here you can see him brushing is teeth. This is definitely one of his favorite parts of bath time. He comes into the bathroom and automatically asks for his toothbrush. If I don't get it to him fast enough, he streeetches and reaches for it himself. I try to make him wait to use it when he is sitting down, to avoid it cramming down his throat.

You can see him putting hats on all his bath animals. The video also shows him being silly and trying to wear the hats himself too!

He also likes playing with his bath puzzle...I have to put all the pieces in, and he likes to pop them out.

Looking at the baby in the mirror.

Now his hair is all soapy and he is sporting the "Alfalfa" hairdo, just like Papa John used to do to Mommie's hair when she was little! I was going to post a picture of him after the shampoo was washed out, but all those pictures have him looking too upset...he doesn't enjoy that part of his bath much at all!Now you can see him all wrapped up and looking at the baby and mommie in the mirror. This is one of my favorite parts of bathtime, when he snuggles up and waves at himself.He also enjoys brushing his own hair. He's not very good at it! He's gotten very interested in hairbrushes lately. When he sees me brushing my hair he asks for my brush and then tries to brush my hair too. It's really cute.

playing...at the table and elsewhere...

Even though he's been sick for a few days, we still found time to play around a little bit.

He enjoys pulling up on this chair and sticking his head through like peek-a-boo!

Even though he doesn't like wearing hats, for some unknown reason he insisted on wearing his hat during lunch time. Still not sure why!

Maggie enjoys Jack's lunchtime too since she gets whatever falls on the floor. Sometimes he enjoys taunting her by just holding out his hand, without food, to see her sit and wait for it...unfortunately he's also figured out that he can drop food "overboard" and she will cleanup the evidence...need to put a stop to that one....

I found some little cars and trains...he's probably still too young to play with such small pieces, but I figured there wouldn't be too much harm in it just this once while I was watching. He was making them ZOOOOOM!

This was kind of exciting for me to catch....he's figured out how to stack the blocks, not just knock them down!!! Now when he stacks them, after each one he claps and makes a happy noise, since I was making such a big deal out of him doing it the first time. So silly!

One more cute thing that he's started lately...not sure if I'll ever catch it on video, but now when I am on the phone with someone....first he will sign "phone" and then he will almost always do the sign for Daddy...asking me if I am talking to Daddy. When I tell him "yes, I'm talking to Daddy" he gets so excited...maybe because usually that means Daddy is coming home soon!

on the other side of this...maybe

thankfully, the last 2 days of this croupy crud cr@# have been better. On Monday was when we took him to the Dr., not a great day...Tuesday seemed better, more energy etc...Wed. was really terrible..fever back, irritable...not sleeping. He was just pitiful. I've never done this before for the express purpose of napping, but I gave in...I plopped his bootie in the car and we drove around C'ville for 2 hours for him to nap..since everytime I would lay him down in his bed he would have a coughing fit. argh! Thursday and Friday were much better...but I sure do have cabin fever! The only times I have really gotten out this week have been in the car. I am so glad the weekend is here...I can remember another stay-at-home friend saying that there were never any days she wished that she was back at her 9-5 job....but that there were several days when she thought going to work would've been easier than staying home....I had several of those days this week. Other than waking us up at 4ish this morning, today was much better. Thanks for the prayers everyone.

croupy crud...

Sunday we noticed Jack felt a little feverish and had the beginnings of a cough, so we started dosing him up with Tylenol and ibuprofen....and WHOA! Did it all come full force Sunday night! He slept for about 2 hours in bed, and for the rest of the night it was just in 20 or 30 minute snippets on the sofa or in our bed....which also means we got only about 4 hours of sleep as well. Between the fever, the coughing and the fussiness, it wasa miserable night! [I just want to brag about my sweet husband here....I fully expected that since he had to be at work the next day that I would bear the brunt of the evening's angst, but he was SO helpful. At one point he could see that I was getting quite anxious and over-tired, and he took a shift...and I'm sure that over the course of the night he had at least as much time with Jack as I did, if not more. What a wonderful daddy! ] We took Jack up to the dr Monday morning, and had the diagnosis and treatment confirmed. After picking up his meds on the way home, we had a pretty miserable day at home since his discomfort made him VERY fussy and clingy....we were both tired, no EXHAUSTED...and with croup you can't let the fussy babies fuss too much at all since it will make it even harder for them to breathe....this whole day made me extremely thankful that under normal circumstances he is such a laid-back, agreeable little boy....I'm pretty sure I would lose my mind if he was so clingy and grouchy all the time. I braced myself for another night of misery, we made plas for taking it in shifts...even joked about driving him around in the car to get him to sleep while the other parent slept (only I wasn't joking...really) but he went to bed around 8, we went to bed around 9 and he didn't awake until around 4!!! Already today you can tell he's feeling better, not 100%, but much better. He's playing with his toys and got a little light back in his eyes...but I'm sure we'll be taking it easy for a few more days. Please keep Baby Jack and his parents in your prayers for the next few days!

Jack's growing vocabulary

I have been working with Jack the past few weeks on learning the sign for "daddy" which has been a hard one to learn, since it is so similar to the sign for hat (his favorite sign in the whole world!) Hat involves patting your head, whereas daddy involves making a "five" with your hand and tapping your forehead with your thumb. Because of his baby motor skills and just not being able to distinguish the difference between these similar signs, I was only half-way trying anymore to teach it to him...until last night...he was able to figure it out!!! I don't think he realizes it is his thumb that is tapping his head, so instead he is tapping his head with his first finger, but I'm just excited he was able to distinguish and express this new sign. He get's so excited too, and it's all he wants to do for a while...he likes to show off and make his parents excited!!
Bear with me...I decided for posterity's sake to make a list of all the words that he can understand and sign....
hat, (and sometimes Hannah!....they both start with the same sound....)
daddy,
phone/hug, (curling his hand between his shoulder and head)
drink/eat/passy/cereal (fingers in mouth)
all done/bye-bye/shoo-shoo/go (waving hands)
dog/bath/please, (patting somewhere on torso)
more/book/ball/banana/help (some form of putting his hands together)
up (reaching up)
the reason I grouped so many together is because of how similar the signs are, they often look the same with his version of baby sign...but I'm 99% sure he can understand the different meanings in the words...we just need to have our wits about us to tell which word he means from context of situation...and as his motor skills develop, we can "fine tune" them. Some of these, I'm not sure that what he does is an official sign, it's just a gesture he has made up for the word...which works for me! I'm sure this is true about other babies too! I'm at a bit of a loss as to what signs to try to teach him (and me) next, since he's hindered by his developing motor skills and ability to distinguish, but since he's making up his own now...maybe I should just wait for him to teach me one! :) I'm hesitant to have him "perform" his battery of signs for a video, etc because I feel that they could lose their meaning if done out of context, but I'll see if I can catch some on video soon. (of course, you know how he can be about "performing"...)

As far as words and phrases he can understand:

"shoes" (see previous post)

"change diaper" (not always happy about this one...)

"no" (doesn't always "hear" this one),

"climb" (taught him how to climb on boxes onto the sofa...not sure that was a good idea...),

"Maggie", (he LOVES his buddy. He throws her toys to her, chases her and gives her hugs!)

"brush hair", (likes to use my brush or his to brush his hair, or mine while I'm getting ready.)

"brush teeth", (usually done during bath time, he likes to suck on the toothpaste)

"give her a hug",(he's getting more generous)

"tickle his toes", (to PJ bear, baby doll, Daddy...etc)

"bring Mommie the book",

"where's ___?", (only words sometimes...)

"Bye-bye passy!", (after nap time, he will throw his passy back into the bed, and wave to it)

"give it to Mommie" (about 75% of the time, if I'm around and he finds something new on the floor, he will hand it to me, whether I ask for it or not...the rest of the time he will still try to taste it!)

I've been cautioned again by several people about being aware that he doesn't use signing as a crutch and not start talking when he should, and while I do see how this can happen and Ihave my concerns about this...( most notably:"when will I KNOW he CAN vocalize the word, and therefore require it of him instead of just letting him sign") My mom pointed out that he does jabber A LOT and is obviously trying to vocally communicate, so maybe I should just chill and let his development take it's course. I love the communication we are able to have, that he is able to point things out to me what he is observing in books or around him,since it inspires even more "conversations" between us, which I imagine would only be beneficial to his cognitive and language development. So I guess just suffice it to say, this is just a big experiment. He's my little guinea pig, and depending on how it goes with him, will determine if I try teaching sign language to his future siblings...anyone have any advice or experiences to share on this subject? Part of me is a bit hesitant to research a lot on the internet, since you never know what "slant" the writer is coming from, and I'd just end up getting confused and overwhelmed, so I'd much rather hear from other parent's personal practical experience. Please share, if you can!

shoes and hats

this afternoon we were in the kitchen and I was gathering up things for him for the y. I was talking to Jack and I said "where are you shoes, we need to get your shoes on..." and he crawls over to the pair of slip-on shoes that Josh keeps near the door to use when letting Maggie out. He grabs one of the (enormous size 13) shoes and heaves it up towards me as if to say "here is a shoe Mommie, right here" What impressed me (other than the strength it took to lift that big ol' thing) was that he is generalizing...not only are the little blue and white things that go on his feet called "shoes" but also these big ol' brown things that Daddy puts on his feet. Impressive.
This evening as he was taking his bath I lined up his 2 rubber duckies and 1 rubber turtle on the edge of the tub. Usually we have them "talk" to each other or dance or "jump" into the water, but tonight he decided that they all needed hats, so he grabbed his nesting cups and proceeded to bless each of them with their own hat...and then mixed them up and had all sorts of fun. We did that about a week ago when I gave him a bath, and I was a bit impressed that he could remember. I wish I had my camera....maybe I'll catch them sometime soon.

discipline/training/correction/shepherding

it's been on my mind and heart a lot lately. I can see that my sweet little guy is getting a mind of his own and I've been struggling with how to deal with some of his behaviors. Is it curiosity taking over when he goes and does something that he has heard NO about so many times, or it is defiance? Is he old enough to be defiant? Is he old enough to remember that I told him no? Part of what concerns me is that discipline was quite an issue with me in my classroom. I was trained in the method of "Behavior Modification" and I was extremely dissatisfied with the results I got from my students. My main struggle was trying to encourage them to make the right choice, because it was the right thing to do...not for fear of getting in trouble or in the hopes of a reward....and to make good choices, even when the main authority figure wasn't around...and while it worked for a select few students...several did not respond.

That's why I was so excited when my friend Andrea (and countless numbers of friends and family members since then) suggested to me to read Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp. I've put off reading it because I heard that it's not extremely applicable for very young children, but I finally decided over the Christmas Holiday to read it and see what I think. While there are a few aspects of it I do not understand, or neccessarily agree with (which I won't get into right now) the overarching theme is right up my alley. Basically...don't deal with the behavior, deal with the heart. So many discipline methods deal strictly with how to manage behaviors, but Tripp points out that parent needs to get to the root of the issue-the heart. What motivated the child to act this way, and what guidance does the child need to make a better choice? If you deal with the heart, the behavior should fix itself. I love that he spends 3 chapters talking about communication and only 1 chapter focusing on punishment. It focuses so much on the life giving power of the gospel the power it has over our lives and over our children's lives. Our children should not behave to please us or to please others, but to glorify God. In light of this fact, I am seeing even more the importance of building a strong faith foundation in our child's life...otherwise, how would he know what pleases the Lord?

It's been a challenging read, making me assess all sorts of areas of my life, examine my goals and methods for discipline, training and correction. I'm excited to get through the rest of the book. I don't know yet if we will follow his methods to the letter...we are still talking about it...a lot. Each night when Josh gets home I give him a "book report" about what I read that day, whether he wants it or not! :) This is such a specific method of discipline, I can see how both parents need to be on a united front in order to implement it. I appreciate all my friends and family members who have listened as I think out loud and pick their brains about this topic when we talk.

Please pray for us as we make decisions and implement more discipline into our family (I don't want you to think that Jack is a behavior problem....he definitely is NOT! I just want to stay ahead of any problems that could occur and have a game plan ready when these things do come up or to lose opportunities to teach and "shepherd" him...he's still a delightful child! Praise God! :)

a few more recently cute things...

Jack has a new favorite book..."Animal Sounds" that Granny Ruthie gave him for Christmas. We've gone through several stages when it comes to reading books...from sitting quietly, to grabbing the book and only wanting to turn pages, to not wanting to sit still at all to read...and now we are back to (most of the time) sitting still for a little while to read...unless it is his new favorite book. The other night he brought it to me to read, and when we finished, he signed "more" so we read it again...and then "more" so we read it again...when I tried to put it away he fussed, signed "more" and "please" so we read it again, and again, and again. It got to where I was reading it backwards, making odd comments, anything to keep from slipping into a coma from boredom...we seriously read it at least 8 times. I was finally able to "lose" the book, but then we had a repeat performance the next day too...I think he just likes to hear us making all the silly sounds. Yesterday he was wanting to ride on his new ride-on toy, and would get upset if we stopped pushing him (are tantrums on their way???) so Josh and I tried to get him interested in his favorite book by reciting it out loud (trust me, we have it memorized by now)... Jack stopped in his tracks, crawled over to the couch and immediately found the book under the book basket. I thought that was sooo cool! He was really listening to us, thinking about the book, and remembering where the book was! Child development is so fascinating!
Jack has also pointed out something that I do, that I never really realized. When he has a poopy diaper, apparently I'll often wave my hand in front of my face and say "shoo-shoo" just to be silly. Now, when I discover a poopy diaper, I'll start saying "shoo-shoo" and he will wave his own hand in front of his face in response. He's making up his own signs. How cool if we could get him to signal to us that way that he's dirty. (not that our noses wouldn't be telling us soon enough... :)

It's time for a BATH!

It has been such a nice day! For the first weekend since Thanksgiving, if not longer, we got to spend Saturday AT HOME! It was actually enjoyable to be lazy and wear pjs longer than usual and clean house (fyi-my husband can be EXTREMELY helpful around the house...especially when it is his idea to dig out from the clutter!) It's just so calming to relax in a room that is straight, and it's amazing how much bigger a small place can look when it is tidy.
Anyway, back to BATH TIME! This evening after a family dinner (don't get many of those since Josh often works later than Jack's dinner time...) Jack and I were playing in the floor while Josh was doing dishes (!). We are hoping to go to church in the morning, so Jack needed a bath tonight. I said "Jack, let's take a bath, do you want to take a bath?" He looks up at me, starts doing to sign for BATH, and then starts crawling towards his room. I lag behind a bit to see what he does, and once he reaches his room, he turns the corner towards his bathroom, pushes open the door (looks up at me to turn on the light) and crawls right up to the tub. I help him stand up and he starts trying to hike his leg up over the side of the tub and tossing his toys in before I can even get him undressed. He's always enjoyed his bathtime, but I've never seen him act like this at just the mention of a bath. It was very exciting to see how much he understands and can act upon.
I'm sure you're tired of hearing me talk about it, but I am a big fan of baby sign language! It is so neat to be able to communicate with him, even on such a simple level, and for him to be able to convey ideas back to us. Everyone should try it!!! It's really really fun!

Christmas with Auntie Raychie (and the Dudus...again)

Auntie Raychie and Uncle Jeff were in AR for Christmas this year, so we got to prolong our Christmas celebrations to New Years and have one more celebration in Nashville. One BIG present that Mzee and Granny Ruthie gave us all were WEB CAMS for each family, so we can keep up with each other, especially those who live in other states (like the Kise Kids and the Fargo Fishers!!!...and Auntie Hannah in Portland!!!) How exciting. We decided to break them in early, and invite the Fargo Fishers to part of our celebration...via webcam. It was so neat to see them (almost) face to face. They even took us on a virtual tour of their new home and even took the computer outside so we could see the mountains of snow up there in Fargo. (I'm trying not to think about the strange stares they may have been getting from their neighbors for taking the "laptop for a walk") It made it much more real that they were so far away. This year we drew names among the siblings and inlaws for gifts, in an effort to make holiday shopping less stressful...and it was great...I've never been a fan of this practice, maybe because one of my love languages is giving gifts...but with a baby, holiday shopping could have been a bit overwhelming..John drew Jeff's name...and picked out the BEST gifts ever for a middle-school youth minister!!!a Talking Jesus action figure and a Tissue Box where the tissues come out of the statue's NOSE! Hysterical! Rachel got a matching Nativity set to the one I received, so she and Jeff are showing off their coordinating Jesus's.
Granny Franny (or Ganny...or Super Granny...we still haven't figured out what Jack should call her) got a surprise when Granny Ruthie framed some family photos and gave them to her...I think she liked them! :) A LOT!

Jack had fun watching everyone open their gifts and opening his new puzzle that makes noises and sings songs and he was playing with it this morning at home and dancing when it would sing...so cute (Daddy has decided Jack has received enough talking/singing/noise making gifts for a while...I'm not allowed to buy anymore.. :) In this video you can even hear the puzzle make a "SPLASH" noise when the fish piece in put in correctly (way to go baby Jack!)

Uncle Daniel started driving this year, so his parents gave him some sunglasses. Here he is being silly in his cool shades!
We had such a fun time with yummy food and exciting gifts! Thanks everyone!