New Blog!

Hi there everyone :) This is Annie. I have a new blog now...haven't updated this one in so long cause I've been distracted by my new one. I am focusing on ONE blog, so head on over and update your bookmarks/links.

www.mama-dweeb.blogspot.com


Thank you and God bless!

Hello from Kansas!  Been awhile since I posted, but I have so much more energy now thanks to the wonderful 2nd trimester so I can update everyone!

Pregnancy: Not much to say here. I am starting to show already (yay!) Haven't felt any movements yet.  I am really looking forward to feeling some really great kicks this time.  Lizzie was always breech, so all I felt was little taps in my very lower abs.  I want to feel some twirling and kicking this time. (Call me crazy, but I do!)

Lizzie: Wow, this girl knows how to worry me and make me the proudest mamma at the same time.  I started to be worried because she isn't saying as many words as I was told she should be.  But she is right on target for her own development, not slow or anything :)  

She can say: 

Dada (this also mean's daddy's tractor)

Mama

Yeah-yeah (this means nurse)

Na-Na (means cookie or snack.  Her grandpa taught her to say it...why that word I don't know)

Do - Dog

Ba- bath or Book

Hi! (my favorite!!)

She can sign:

Please

Thank you

eat

more

love

sing a song

She is starting to wean, with my encouragement.  She currently nurses to go to sleep, wake up, take a nap, and 1 snack in the morning and one in the evening.  If the day was particularly stressful she might add a session but that is the normal amount. She is now down to 1 nursing at night (3am) and I am really trying to sing or cuddle her back to sleep to wean her off this one. My goal is to be up in the middle of the night with only 1 nursling when the new baby comes - not 2 :)   It is so cute though at 3 am when she starts asking with a crying and shaky voice, "Yeah yeah?  Yeah Yeah?"  she will continue to ask until she realizes I am resolved and it won't happen.  Then when she calms down I sing to her and cuddle her.  Her favorite lullaby right now is "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot."  

Eating habits - what a roller coaster ride.  She worried me for awhile cause she didn't like to eat very much solids.  Now she is eating a lot more.  She doesn't like the texture of meat though, unless it is teeny bites she can't see really.  But her favorites are all nutritious so I'm not too worried anymore.  She LOVES: peanut butter & Jelly, scrambled eggs w/cheese and toast, mac & cheese, cottage cheese, fruit, applesauce, cereal and frozen yogurt. She was eating so much ice cream with daddy I decided to switch to frozen yogurt to keep it a little healthier :)

Other Life:  I am watching a 10 month old baby for a friend in the church.  The baby's name is Sheridan.  Her mom is in school and working.  I watch her 4 days a week, 8-9 hours a day.  It isn't so bad! The only difficult time is nap time on the days they both aren't tired at the same time.  This is pretty rare though (praise the Lord!)  It's great for Lizzie to have someone to play with - but I can tell she wishes the baby could do more (or was lighter so she could pick her up like a baby doll! LOL)

Now for the pictures!  What a long post - phew!

Lizzie's favorite toy is daddy's tractor - or the Da Da.  He has taught her which gears to turn to turn it on and when you put her on the seat, she touches them in the correct order!  I tried to get a pic of her smiling on it, but she is so focused. It's like it is her job to be on it! 

We were eating Corn on the cob the other night and Lizzie kept asking for her daddy's corn.  I didn't think she would know what to do with it, so we gave it to her....

...And away she went!  It shocked me how quickly she picked up how to eat it, I had to get a picture!

Finally,  a picture of Lizzie's beautiful smile!  She was having so much fun on the hammock with her daddy. 

This is Lizzie with Sheridan, the baby I watch.  Lizzie has a bad habit of sitting on Sheridan's lap. Sheridan just smiles about it, not caring on bit.  I wish this was a better picture....

Thank you and God bless!

Finally a sunny day!

It has been cold and rainy for so long, I am so excited to see the sun!

The sun is "shining" in my physical life too so to speak. I finally have enough energy to pick up around the house, play with Lizzie and make Josh some edible meals! This is such an answer to prayer. Life was miserable when I didn't have any energy. Lizzie loves the energetic mamma too. She is eating a LOT more solids (all 3 meals and quite a few healthy snacks in between - if you don't count the ice cream daddy gives her after dinner LOL)

She is also sleeping so much better. I don't know if this is due to: her daddy being home and playing with her more at night, me feeding her more solids and playing more with her, or her just growing up more. Whatever the reason I am so glad!! Friday night she slept in her own bed for 6 hours! And yesterday I laid her down in her own bed for a nap and she fell asleep on her own! This is a first for her - usually she nurses to sleep. My little girl is growing up and I am so proud!

15 month check up stats!

• 32 1/4 inches tall
• 26 pounds 2 ounces

healthy girl!!

Now for a few pictures! God bless you!



Applesauce EVERYWHERE! She had so much fun :)

Lizzie put our new kittie (Babs) in her stroller and pushed her around. But as soon as Babs saw Rufus, the fun was over! But not for Lizzie - she LOVED it! I was just lucky to get this pic!

Lizzie posing with Rufus. He is so good with her. She will go up to him and hit his face and back and he will sit there thinking "oh she loves me! She really loves me!" What a loveable mutt.

Hooray! So much to be happy for!

Josh is back safely from Georgia! We all missed him terribly and are so relieved to have him back. Lizzie really missed her "da da" and that stands for his tractor too! Whenever we went on our walks, she would point at it and say very emphatically "da da! da da!" And I would let her play on it, but since I don't know how to turn it on, let alone drive the thing, that is as far as she got until he came home.

Also, Josh said I could tell everyone....

I am pregnant! I am due April 1st, 09! He really wanted me to wait until I started the 2nd trimester but I just couldn't wait. We are all very excited!

There is one thing I covet your prayers for. I have Bell's Palsy and I really need the Lord's strength to accomplish things throughout the day. Bell's Palsy is a temporary paralysis of one side of the face due to the 7th Cranial nerve become swollen and cutting off communication from the brain to the face. So my left side of my face can't smile, blink or taste food. This also leaves me feeling even more tired than normal because my body is trying to recover. So not only am I tired from the first trimester I am wiped from this palsy. (anyone that has had Mono knows how tired I am!!) Needless to say the house is gross and Lizzie gets restless. The dr. said I should see some signs of improvement in 2 weeks, and I should be fully recovered in 2-6 months.

It is times like this I praise the Lord that she is still breastfeeding! When I am laying in bed dead tired, she crawls in with me and cuddles and nurses. So I am able to rest and recover without worrying what my toddler is getting into, and at the same time feel the love and warmth of my cuddly daughter.

I do start to worry about whether Lizzie will be nursing a lot when the new baby is here, but a lot changes in children between the ages of 15 mos and 22 months. I know that if I continue to trust the Lord and do my best he will give me the wisdom and strength to continue on!
Lizzie seems to be doing very well so I must not be doing too much wrong! LOL She has never been on antibiotics (praise the Lord!) and she is so brave and curious about the world around her. When we go on our walks down our driveway she will take of running and when she falls down, she just gets right back up without another thought (and this is on a gravel driveway, you should see her poor knees!)

that's all for now, but i will update with more later!

ok, this computer isn't letting me post pics on blogger easily, so this is this only one I could get to upload successfully. I have more to share and will when I have time. This is the most recent pic of Lizzie - taken about 2 weeks ago.

Hello everyone! Wow it has been FOREVER since I last posted. I blame it all on living out in the middle of nowhere without access to the internet. But I have stolen a moment while Josh is watching Lizzie here at his office to update all my friends.

I miss you all! I wish I had the internet at home (we will in about 1 month!) so I could update more frequently. Lizzie is 14 months old! She is growing and changing in so many ways. I'll post some pics at the bottom. And now for the bullets (saves me and you time LOL)

• Lizzie is eating so much more now! She drinks a lot more from a sippy cup. She eats lots of snacks and 3 meals with me. This is a very large improvement from her exclusive breastfeeding. She started eating more during the day about 2 months ago and has just kept it up. So this is the start of the weaning process, but we are still pretty far away from complete weaning.


• Unfortunately, her sleeping is not doing well since we moved. Everything is different and she still wakes a few times at night. She is teeting molars on all 4 sides, so this is not helping her in any way! Poor darling.....and VBS was this week, so she is all kinds of stressed out.


• She has started to talk a little! Her words: Mama, Dada (which was her first official word, she said it and pointed at him and laughed) Baba (sippy cup) Dadadadada (Grandad, she says this as she points to his picture) She signs "eat" for nursing, "more" for everything she wants LOL and puts her hands on her head or shakes her hands if she wants to sing. and her gibberish - oh it cracks me up! She will get all excited about something and just go off and I can't understand a word.


• I love our new house! I had about 2 weeks of it just being Josh, Lizzie and I. My sister is 20 and lives with us to save money while in college. She is moving out again in June. My dad is sleeping on our couch for one more week (this will make 2 total) while his car is repaired. God is good! He has given us the grace to live with my family and we will be blessed for this short period of stress.


• We have goats! Yes, Josh bought 3 female boar (meat) goats. Charolotte, Emily and Anne. I named them after the Bronte sisters - 18th century novelists. They are sweeties!

Lizzie is growing up! But she is and always will be my little baby girl. I have run into a few people telling me their opinions on how to raise Lizzie and what I am doing wrong. Isn't that the best thing to tell a mommy? Those seeds of doubt sprout fruit very quickly and I shed some tears, but praise the Lord for his grace. Josh has been so encouraging and I know now that my loving her and doing what I feel is best for her will help her grow into a very strong girl that loves Jesus. I didn't realize that other moms can be some of the most opinionated people on the planet. I believe that as sisters in Christ we need to be encouraging eachother.

So I say to all my fellow mommies that I miss so much - if you are working outside the home you are doing what you can to provide for your child and setting a great example. If you are staying home, you are doing the same thing. Both are exhausting and both can be thankless at times and seem more stressful than it is worth. I pray that God blesses each of you moms reading this with a wonderful night's rest and His blessed peace that trancends all understanding - letting you know you are doing a great job with his child!