Oh, the shame!

Do you see my head hanging in shame over not blogging for an ungodly amount of time? Trust me, it is. It's not that stuff isn't happening around here, it's just that... well, stuff is happening around here.

We've been enjoying the longer daylight hours and being able to open the windows and doors to get some fresh air. The winter was long, and we're embracing spring wholeheartedly. A few days ago, the sun was shining through the front door in just the perfect way, so I grabbed my camera and snapped a few of the kids.

(you can't really see it too well, but she has a HUGE bruise and scab on the right side of her head from taking a nasty tumble on the neighbor's deck. That's what happens, I guess, when you're outside enjoying so much fresh air.)

And then, of course, because he's becoming a photo geek like his mom, Aaron had to have his turn behind the lens. Most of them looked like this, and were fired off at about 142 frames per second...

But every now and then he captures something really wonderful, and it makes me so proud.

The boy loves his camera, and it's fun to see what the world looks like through his three-year-old eyes. Of course, we had to do a self portrait, too.

And there you have it. A blog post from me! Nothing earth-shattering to report from our little corner of the world (except maybe that my hair is really starting to go gray - do you see it in that last photo? Oy!), but sure glad I popped in to say "hi!"

Hope you have a great weekend!

Happy Birthday, Susannah!

To my Gorgeous Girl, on her first birthday-

I CANNOT believe how quickly this year has gone! It’s been a wonderful adventure, Susannah, and I’m so thankful for the 365 days we’ve had together. You have been such a gift to our family - in more ways than you can imagine.

You are a gift in and of yourself. Your sweet disposition, laid-back attitude, and unique sense of humor have added light and life to our family. Everything is more fun because you are here. You’ve made Aaron a big brother (and continue to teach him some important lessons about sharing and being kind). You’ve given dad a little girl to spoil endlessly (he’s been wrapped around your little finger from those first moments).

You’ve been an extra special gift to me, dear daughter, and one I didn’t expect. As I awaited your arrival last year, and even in the first few months of your being, I felt a lot of apprehension about having a daughter. After all, my experiences in the mother-daughter relationship have been rocky at best. I feared I might be doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past, or that I would be inadequate to be your guide into womanhood, but this year has put my mind at ease. Your birth was the most empowering experience of my life, and it birthed in me a new kind of faith in myself. In becoming your mother, I have become more confident, more assured of myself, more attuned to the still, small voice within me, and more certain that, with God’s help, I can be the mom that you deserve. It has been profoundly healing to be part of such a positive mother-daughter duo.

There has been precious little time that you and I have been apart during this year. “I love it,” said one man at our church, “that wherever you go, that kid is right there with you!” It’s true. You’ve been in my arms or riding in a sling in almost every place imaginable, from singing in the church choir to swimming in the pool and everything in between. We might get some funny looks as I walk the aisles of the grocery store wearing you on my back, but I love every minute of having you close, knowing you’re safe and comfortable.

Here are a few things that are “so Susannah,” and make you our one-of-a-kind girl:

• Your “scrunchie face” - you wrinkle your nose and breathe in and out loudly. This face means your happy or feeling humorous. It always get a laugh!
• Trucks and cars are your favorite toys. You’ll zoom them along the top of the train table and make a little motor sound. Only a girl with a big brother would master this kind of play.
• When you sleep, you need it to be really, really, really dark. You’re so used to sleeping in my closet that you have a hard time in a new setting.
• Your ivory blanket with satin edging is a must when it’s time for bed. I’ll lay it over my shoulder, and you reflexively lay your head down and start sucking your thumb. This is one of my favorite times of the day, when it’s quiet and just the two of us.
• You can sign “more” and “all done” at the dinner table. You certainly aren’t shy at telling us either of those things!
• Though you know how to crawl on all fours, you still prefer your crazy belly scoot to get somewhere really fast.
• You’re a mama’s girl through and through. When you’re fussy and sqirmy, one hug from mama usually settles you down. I love that!

Thank you, Susannah, for all the ways you’ve blessed our family this year. We’re so thankful that God made you a part of our family, and we’re looking forward to all the adventures ahead of us.

Lots of love,
Mama

Here's a look back at Susannah's one wonderful year:

Better Late Than Never!

I finally got my act together last week and snapped a few frames of our girl before the big birthday. I know we're way closer to the 12-month mark than 11, but better late than never, right?

She's now a crawling and cruising machine and, as usual, had no interest in sitting still for my camera.

(made with Be Inspired: Heidi v2 by WM[squared] and All Fall Down and Early Bird by Erica Zane)

What a gift this precious girl is to our family. It's shaping up to be a wonderful week of celebrating Susannah and all the ways she's blessed our lives.

SHE'S CRAWLING!!!

If there was any shred of doubt that our commitment to family chiropractic care was paying off, this morning's appointment erased all doubt.

I'd been feeling concerned that Susannah wasn't sitting up independently or crawling, so we started seeing Dr. Tony once or twice a week to go after the problem. There had been good progress before today: Zannah was pulling herself into a sitting position and - as our last update told you- pulling up on the furniture. But the crawling wasn't happening yet.

Dr. T put our baby girl on the table, wiggled here her and pushed on her there. "Hmmm, that's interesting," he mumbled under his breath. One more small adjustment. Then he put on on the floor and...

SHE CRAWLED AWAY.

The entire office heard me squeal with delight.

Here's a quick sample of her new mobility:

Did I say she wasn't standing yet?

I had just posted the last entry when I looked over and saw this. I think she's trying to make a liar out of me.

Her smile in that second photo is so undeniably Susannah. More of a smirk, really. You can just tell how pleased she is with herself. I love this girl!

The birthday countdown begins!

It's totally impossible that we're just a month away from the big birthday. I still think of her as a little baby, but she's clearly speeding towards toddlerhood. Check out the new skill she learned today:

She's climbing up on everything now - the couch, the train table, the dishwasher... She doesn't pull up onto her feet yet, but as long as she can reach whatever object she's after, she's a happy camper. Poor Aaron is having to find a new spot for his treasures. He used to be able to put things on the train table a know they were safe from Susannah's reach, but that's no longer the case. I think we're in for some lessons on sharing. :-)

And just for my own memory, we weighed her at Dr. Tony's this morning: 17 pounds, 10 ounces. For being such a chub in her first few months, she's really turning into a skinny-mini! By comparison, Aaron weighed 19lbs on his 1st bithday. Tony commented this morning that he thinks she'll be tall, too. Her legs are getting loooong. We've made quite a few trips to his office in the last two weeks, trying to get her left hip working well. She's still not crawling on hands and knees, and I was beginning to worry. But she's making good progress, and will now sit up to play with a toy as well as bend her left leg more while she scoots across the floor. Won't be long now and she'll take off!

30 days to go! I'd better start planning a party.

Susannah's official ten-month portraits

Susannah update: ten months

You'll have to forgive my "just-the-facts" post here. I'm trying to get some of this down before I forget, but there's no time today to be witty. If you can hang with my stream-of-consciousness, I'll reward you with a cute photo of the sweet girl. :-)

It's been a big month for our Princess Peach. She cut her first tooth on Labor Day, and a second quickly followed. She's getting up on her hands and knees, and I know any day now I'll look down and watch her crawl away. Her vocabulary is now up to two words: mama and baby (what a wonderful pair to start with!!) And it became painfully obvious she'd outgrown her co-sleeper last week when she climbed right out of it. She's now graduated to a bigger bed, but still sleeps in my closet. We're joking that we've turned our 3 bedroom into a 4. Ha!

I weighed her yesterday and found she's still trimming down: 17 pounds on the nose (down about 1/2 a pound from last month). This is no cause for concern, as she came into the world with some - ahem - extra, shall we say? As she gets more mobile and is better able to regulate her body systems, she's shedding the superfluous poundage. The upside is that she isn't flying through clothing sizes quite as quickly. It's been nice to have her wear some outfits more than twice before outgrowing them!

"She's just a beacon," our friend Dr. Tony said when he saw her earlier this week, and that's a perfect way to describe our gorgeous girl. She has a sparkle all her own, and it's a lot of fun to see her personality unfold. She's playful and opinionated and so easy going. She's a lovely girl, inside and out.

She's playing with her baby and I'm playing with mine!

Daddy sure loves his girl. She's soooo kissable.

Two Beautiful Faces

I had a photo session here at the house this week, so of course had to have my two favorite faces test out my backdrop and lights to be sure everything was just right. I love these beautiful little people!

Just a peek into our lives...

Two short videos that capture so well what's happening at our house right now. First, a moment from the dinner table:



This just makes me melt! Aaron is the best big brother I could have hoped for, and he has such a genuine love for his sister. I love that he's so excited by her success - and I'm praying that this kind of enthusiastic mutual  encouragement gets woven into the fabric of their friendship for a lifetime. (I also love that he wears a firefighter hat at the dinner table. What fun to be two!)

And here's a little clip I caught of Susannah's new mobility. Again, starring the red hat. :-)



Lookout world, she's on the move!

From generation to generation...

June 18, Father's Day 1978 - My baptism day.

and June 20, Father's Day 2010 - Susannah's day to be marked with baptismal water.

What a special moment to see God's faithfulness from generation to generation. My mom, dad, and sister (who are pictured above circa 1978) plus many other family and friends sat in the front rows of our church, joining our covenant church family, and promising with Mike and I to raise Susannah in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 

Taking our baptismal vows.

Aaron and Mike pour water into the baptismal font. This pitcher was a wedding gift to Mike and me.

Pastor Dave marks her with the water of our identity, 

and prays that God would use all things in her life to bring her to know and love him.

The choir sang a special hymn while Rose walked Susannah through the congregation. So many commented after the service about how well she handled all of this - not a single tear or whimper.

The Porter family.

And the Sharps.

Grandpa Lloyd looks happy, but not so sure about Susannah. It was way past nap time!

Then we headed home, praying the rain would hold off so we could enjoy lunch on our new deck.

Aaron and one of his best buddies, Jacob.

No party is complete without a cake from Costco. :-)

We made a lot of special keepsakes to remember the day. This photo has the words "We do, God helping us," which was our answer to the baptismal questions, around the border. As a way of affirming their promise to partner with us in raising Susannah, each person present at her baptism was encouraged to sign this photo. It's hanging in our dining room now, and is a wonderful reminder that we're not on this parenting journey alone.

There were so many special details that went into this event, and it all came together even better than I could have imagined. The banner that stood behind the baptismal font was a special project I created as a gift to the church, and I'm excited to see it again and again with each baby welcomed into our covenant family. It couldn't have come to life without the help of Rebecca (my sewing tech support) and LeAnn, who came to my rescue on Friday night when I needed help with the finishing details. And Susannah's dress was expertly crafted by "Oma" Ligtenberg - Rebecca's mom. Because they live in California, they weren't able to join us, but each time I received a compliment on that beautiful gown, I felt a little hug from them. And without a lot of help from my sister, mom and two nieces, who did everything from dusting and vacuuming the house to preparing sandwiches and assembling name tags, I could have never gotten it all done. I love that it was such a community event!

Finally, I wanted to share the video of Sunday's service. It runs about 10 minutes, and you may have to turn the volume up to hear everything that is said. But I know Susannah is loved by many, and lots of you don't live nearby. So consider this your front row seat. :-)

She really can't be this old, can she?

Six months already? Seems impossible to me. As Mike and I crawled into bed last night, we looked at the clock and realized that exactly six months before we were laying there in the exact same spot with a newborn baby girl cuddled between us, just minutes old. I cannot believe how fast the time has gone. Sweet and sad and joyous all at the same time.

And again, I've neglected to post photos of her from last month. We're taking more today, and I'll try to be a little more prompt in showing them off. :-)

And just so I don't forget them myself, a few milestones from this past month:

• She's turned into a great sleeper! We moved her from my bedside into my walk-in closet, and the darkness and quiet have helped her to go the stretch. She's still waking once to eat, but since she goes to bed at 7pm and sleeps until 9 or 10am, I'm totally fine with that. I never thought I'd have a baby with such a talent for sleep! Hooray!
• She's found her voice. The babbles and chatter is so utterly adorable! My choir-mate, Ruth, was holding her after church this past Sunday and heard her squeaks and squawks. She wondered if she was crying but couldn't see her face since Susannah was up on her shoulder. Ruth asked a nearby lady to check, and was so tickled to hear that Susannah was "singing."
• With good support, she'll sit up for a short time. Mike discovered this skill of hers, and it made him quite proud that he knew something about her that I didn't. :-)
• Crawling can't be too far away. When I put her on the floor to play, she's rolling and scooting and reaching to get to whatever toy has her interest. She's never in the same spot for very long!

And just when you think she can't get any cuter and you can't love her any more, another month passes and both those things grow just a bit more. <3