Rhododendron Garden

Sleeping Baby

 

 

Precious One-Year-Old!

 

Cupcake turned one on May 5. She has been a joyous addition to our family! I am so grateful to be the mother of such a sweet, special little person. If you follow this link, you can read her birth story and see pictures of her as a newborn.

Things that make her happy at this point are her family and friends, bananas, cats, stuffed animals, baths, and music (she does the cutest little boogie whenever she hears music!). She is a super imitator and tries to copy sounds and people's movements. She is crawling and pulling up on things, but is not walking alone yet. She says, "Papa," "Mama," "nana" (banana), "ca" (cat), something resembling "cracker," and she refers to both books and socks as "k."

Her soft, downy hair is getting longer. I love to snuggle her and kiss the top of her head over and over. She puts her thumb in her mouth and leans against me. I treasure these days.

End-of-April Update

-T accidentally reformatted a hard drive with ALL our pictures on it--wedding pictures, baby pictures, everything. But he found some software to reverse the damage. It cost $40 (grrrrr), but it's worth it to have all those pictures back.

-We have a new church. Have I mentioned that? We used to be part of a house church, but God led people in different directions, and so that house church is no more. Our new congregation has about 150 people, and it's within walking distance of our house.

-This past weekend was the church women's retreat. Cupcake is eating solids so well now (she literally will eat anything and everything you put on her tray), and she'll be a year old in two weeks, so I decided she could live without me for a couple of days. T said she did great, and other than looking around and saying "Mamamamama" sometimes, she didn't seem to miss me too much. There were about 40 women at the retreat, and I learned almost everyone's name. I felt blessed that so many welcomed me, talked with me, and even wrote me notes! I did nurse Cupcake when I got home, but she just doesn't seem all that interested any more (and hasn't for a month or two), so I don't know how much longer I'll keep it up. I'm kind of looking forward to being done with nursing (until the next baby), as I've been either pregnant and/or nursing for the past 3 1/2 years.

-D.L.F. has, of his own volition, started walking everywhere lately! This is good because 1) the umbrella stroller (for Cupcake) is WAAAY easier to haul down and up the stairs than the double stroller, and 2) walking wears D.L.F. out, thus he takes really long naps!

Misheard

Yesterday while we were eating dinner, a car honked loudly outside, and D.L.F. imitated the sound perfectly.

"He was right on pitch," I said to T.

D.L.F. giggled and said "ARMPITS!" and started flapping his arms like a bird.

Easter 2009

I took the kids to my parents' house for Easter, and T stayed home to work on some projects around the house. I really enjoyed going to the church I grew up in and seeing lots of folks I hadn't seen for a while. We went to the early service, and then went down to the fellowship hall for brunch. As we were almost ready to leave, my mom started coughing and choked out a request for something to drink. My dad got her some juice, and by that time, I was coughing, too, with a horrible irritation in my throat (three hours later, my throat is still bothering me a bit). We looked around and realized that everyone around us was coughing, too. So what was the deal? Apparently someone had sprayed pepper spray (or something like it) in the men's restroom, I guess as a prank, and it just filtered out all through the church. So that's a little Easter adventure I won't be forgetting any time soon. My mom got Easter outfits for Cupcake and D.L.F. Here are a few pics:

 

 

 

Don't Eat Pistachios!

A lot of stores are recalling pistachios that are possibly contaminated with salmonella. Here's an article with more information:

FDA: Stop Eating Pistachios, Salmonella Feared

Not a Bug Boy

When I was pregnant the first time around, T and I joked that we'd better have a boy so he could kill all the bugs and spiders for me when T was at work. Well, we have our boy now, but it seems there is little hope of employing him as my on-call exterminator. Even the tiniest fruit fly sends him into a tizzy of panicked, blood-curdling shrieks. Today I wanted to show him a cricket that was on the outside of our sliding glass door. I thought he would think it was neat, since we just checked out The Very Quiet Cricket, by Eric Carle, from the library yesterday, but no, he had the same response as usual, even though I explained that the cricket was outside and couldn't hurt him at all. I had to pull the blinds closed before D.L.F. would stop screaming. Hopefully he will outgrow his bug phobia soon!

Free Audio Book Download

You will not want to miss this! Ten P's in a Pod is the true story of a family with eight children who traveled around the country in the 1950's giving gospel presentations, singing, and reciting huge chunks of Scripture. Their family was very dedicated to reading and memorizing God's Word, and their example of living by faith (they almost never knew where their next meal or money for gas would come from) is so encouraging.

I read the book a few months ago and really enjoyed it, so I was so excited to see that it's free to download this month at Behemoth.com. The audio book is read by the author, Arnold Pent III, and it includes some bonus material that is not found in the printed book.

You do have to input a credit card number, but the audio book is completely free:

Here's the link:

Ten P's in a Pod




HT: Kim at Life in a Shoe

Cupcake at 10 Months

If T is the one to get the diapers out of the dryer, sometimes he puts Cupcake in the laundry basket and gives her a ride along with the diapers.

 

I usually wake Cupcake up at 5 AM to nurse her and put her right back to sleep, but this past Sunday, we woke up late enough that we let her stay up at that point...and she couldn't quite make it all the way to her 1 PM nap time!

 

Things Have Been Quiet

Things have been quiet on this blog lately, I guess because I've been feeling introspective and just not very chatty. I've been thinking a lot lately about habits and trying to break some of my bad ones. I've been doing a lot of reading and research about nutrition and exercise and I've made some positive changes (and lost ten pounds in the past month...but I still have a long way to go until I will really feel fit). I've been trying to eat more mindfully and be in tune with the way my body feels after eating certain foods. I've also been educating myself about conventional food production and why it really does make sense to spend extra on organic produce and hormone- and antibiotic-free meats when possible. The Meatrix is a good introduction to the unsanitary and inhumane practices of conventional meat production.

A Spring Poem

Through all the frozen winter
My nose has grown most lonely
For lovely, lovely colored smells
That come in springtime only.

The purple smell of lilacs,
The yellow smell that blows
Across the air of meadows
Where bright forsythia grows.

The tall pink smell of peach trees,
The low white smell of clover,
And everywhere the great green smell
Of grass the whole world over.

"Smells," by Kathryn Worth

Image from AllPosters.com

Low-Carb Cottage Cheese Pancakes

I'm giving my body a break from wheat for a while, so I've been searching out lots of wheat-free recipes. I made these delicious pancakes for lunch today. The batter is thin, so they turn out almost crepe-like. If you leave out the stevia (and vanilla and cinnamon, updated 3/2), I think they could also be a great "wrap" to hold sandwich fillings, but I haven't tried that yet.

4 eggs
1 cup cottage cheese
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup gluten-free flour mixture (I used Bob's Red Mill gluten-free all purpose baking flour)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
approximately 1/8 teaspoon stevia powder (or 2 1/2 teaspoons sugar)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Blend all ingredients in blender for 10-15 seconds. Cook on lightly greased moderately-hot skillet, flipping once, until both sides are lightly browned.

Heartstrings

D.L.F. was still talking to himself quite a while after we put him to bed tonight, so while I continued practicing my harp in the living room, T went into D.L.F.'s room to check on him.

"Mama is playing her heart!" D.L.F. announced.

We Can Talk to God About Anything, Right?

This morning I finished praying before D.L.F. ate his breakfast, and he looked like he wanted to say something.

"Go ahead," I prompted.

"And please help Papa to throw the trash in the dumpster!" D.L.F. prayed. (A few minutes earlier D.L.F. had put a piece of lint in the garbage can, and I guess he decided it was full enough to go out!)

A Couple Pictures

 

 

Cupcake Update

Cupcake is 8 1/2 months old now. She is such a sweet baby! We've started her on solids; so far, she's tried egg yolk, banana, spinach, carrots, applesauce, and yogurt, and even a taste of mild chili, and she gobbled them all up.

She isn't really crawling yet, but she can quickly get wherever she wants by scooting or rolling. She is holding herself way up with her arms, so I think she will be crawling soon.

She says, "Papa," "Mama," "hi," and "bye-bye," and she knows how to wave bye-bye. She also does the sign language for "milk" and "diaper." In our family, we (especially T and D.L.F.) often roar like lions at each other just for fun, and Cupcake has figured out how to roar in her own way when she wants to be in on the action.

I can only hope that he will be as concerned about his own hygiene in about twelve years.

D.L.F. likes to pretend he's grown-up by casually asking T and me to do things (whether or not they need to be done; D.L.F. just likes the asking part).

Today, among other things, he asked, "Mama...couldjoooo [could you]...ummm...put some clothes on Baby [Cupcake]?" (She was just wearing a diaper at the time.)

And, "Mama...couldjooooooooo put on your deodorant?"

Books I Read in 2008: Part 2

Sorry, I'm having issues with uploading pictures, but here are a few more brief reviews of books I read last year.

First We Have Coffee and Papa's Place are collections of Margaret Jensen's sometimes-humorous, sometimes-serious stories about her mother and father, respectively. Many insights about hospitality, trusting God, and forgiveness may be gleaned from these books.

God's Guidance: A Slow and Certain Light, by Elisabeth Elliot, is a helpful but not formulaic book about finding purpose and discovering God's will.

Mother (read it online for free), by Kathleen Thompson Norris, is a sweet story of a young woman trying to figure out what really matters in life.

Before I had my first child, I subscribed nearly 100% to the attachment-parenting school of thought and refused to read On Becoming Babywise by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam because, ugh, put my baby on a schedule? How heartless! Hello, eight months of severe sleep deprivation. So, looking for a new approach when I was pregnant with Cupcake, I decided to at least glance at this book to see if I could pick up a hint or two and was pleasantly surprised to find very reasonable, not rigid, advice on how to help your baby fit in to your family and get the rest he or she needs. The most helpful thing I learned, which I am convinced has helped make Cupcake the good sleeper that she is, is to give baby a full feeding upon waking (not just "snacking" here and there), have some awake-time, and then put baby back to bed when he or she is drowsy but not yet asleep. I think every new parent can learn something from this book.

Passionate Housewives Desperate for God, aside from having a goofy title, is a pretty good book. It shows how a woman can rejoice in whom God has created her to be, rather than feeling dissatisfied and unimportant because she is "just" a homemaker.

Maybe it's that I identified with the main character in a lot of ways or just that it's a well-crafted, interesting, short novel, but The Magic of Ordinary Days, by Ann Howard Creel, is a book that has stayed with me. Set during World War 2, it's the story of a learned city girl who finds herself in a marriage of convenience to a farmer and befriends two Japanese sisters at a nearby internment camp, with some unexpected plot twists. (Update 2/6/2008: I just remembered that there is a scene in this book that is rather explicit, so I don't recommend it for young readers.)

The Road of Lost Innocence: As a girl she was sold into sexual slavery, but now she rescues others. The true story of a Cambodian heroine, by Somaly Mam. The title says it all. This is a graphic, heartbreaking book to read, but it's a story that must be told. I'm very glad I read it, even though it was hard to get through.

Anyone who has a sweet tooth will enjoy The Taste of Sweet, by Joanne Chen. It's a whole book exploring every aspect of sweetness--why things taste sweet, the science of artificial flavors and sweeteners, why some people enjoy and crave sweet things and others don't, and more. Fascinating.

The Total Money Makeover, by Dave Ramsey, includes lots of good solid advice about getting out of debt and saving for the future. Most of the principles are Scriptural, others not so much. Balance this book with Randy Alcorn's Money, Possessions, and Eternity.

The Sisters of the Quilt trilogy, by Cindy Woodsmall, is not just another same-old, same-old Amish series. It is comprised of three books, When the Heart Cries, When the Morning Comes, and When the Soul Mends, which tell the story of young Amish girl whose family and community turns against her after she is assaulted by a stranger, accusing her of fornication rather than offering her compassion. She is forced out of her community and into the "real world," where she falls in love and studies to be a midwife, but is still tied down to her old life in many ways. These are Cindy Woodsmall's first books. I can't wait to read more by her. Her next book is supposed to be available in September.

Christmas 2008