Harrison is Growing Up

My baby is perhaps settling into life finally. I'm not sure if I don't remember what babies were like, lost the touch, or if Harrison is just different from the others, but I'm having a hard time figuring this boy out! Well, I was. He was very hungry from the get-go. His doctor said I could give him solids early as long as I was careful. He took solids eagerly, but he also was constipated for about 2 months. Even with me feeding him mostly prunes, oatmeal, and sweet potatoes. Just in the past couple weeks, he is eating a variety of foods and is not crying when he fills his diaper. He still won't take a bottle. Even when I put juice in it. I've noticed he's not spitting up as much in the past few weeks. He has 5 teeth. When he teethes, he gets quite sick: Awful runny nose, cough, fever, won't sleep through the night. I think this last one finally broke through and he slept until 5:30 this morning. Yay! Here's hoping that continues. He is on an eating/sleeping schedule that works for him now. He wouldn't take to any one that I figured out for him. He had to figure out his own! But he has been waking up from naps gurgling and cooing instead of screaming. Maybe he's just at a weight that helps him not be hungry all the time, I don't know. Anyway, he definitely has not been following all the steps that a baby "should follow" like I remember the others doing (perhaps I'm remembering through rose-colored glasses?). But I'm hoping we are finally on a track that is normal for him, so I don't have that nagging stress all the time. You'd think by the the fourth one I wouldn't be thinking, "Is this normal? Is there something wrong with him? Should I see a doctor?":-)

Elizabeth Begins Blogging

Dear Daughter has decided to start blogging! She's been learning typing. Now that finding the right keys goes a lot quicker, I think that helped her decide to go for it. She's under my account (hence the picture of me on her blog). I can keep my eye on her this way. :-) Great work, Elizabeth! Liz Fun

Kids Being Kids

Time to Pick Up the Legos

Harrison is moving around now, so it's time we stop leaving piles of Legos on the floor for Jonathan to play with. And Phoebe's doll with little shoes and clothing. And Elizabeth's books and stickers and markers. Mom's knitting supplies and Phillip's computer.




He sure is cute.

Whatever's on the Camera

Jonathan is working on a 919 piece Republic Cruiser lego kit. The largest he's ever done and he wants to do it HIMSELF.


New Year's Eve we went to the home of some friends for supper, smores around the fire pit, and a game of Star Wars Trivia. I love sitting around a campfire! Very fun.



And Harrison is sitting up better and loves Dad's thrown out Blockbuster Reward Card.

In Which Elizabeth Turns Nine

This party was much easier than the last "friend" party she had. Of course she was 6 last time and there were 8 or so girls there. The girls this year mainly wanted to play house upstairs. They were all in their 20's except for Phoebe who was 6. Blue and white were the colors for everything because it was a winter theme. And Liz wanted a jello cake which was 4 layers of jello (blue and purple alternating) and cool whip for the frosting. The girls pronounced it surprisingly yummy.

Practicing Holding Harrison

For some reason, the only pictures I've taken this week are of Phoebe holding Harrison. She calls it her "school" to practice holding Harrison. He takes it pretty well really.

A Lesson in Trust

My oldest son is teaching me a lesson in trusting God. He is a worry-wart of the utmost kind. If the girls are running ahead at the store or outside or at church, he badgers me about it: "Phoebe is too far ahead! What if she gets lost?! PHOEBE! Come back! MOM!!....." If Phillip and I go for a walk outside in front of our house, so that we can always see the house and the kids can run outside and get us if needed, we are sure to see him in the front yard trying to spy us out because he wants to make sure we don't go too far. If there is a plan, he will continually check to make sure we are on schedule, "Are you going to finish cleaning up so we can watch our movie? You said we could watch it when you were done. Will you be done by 2 like you said?" Etc, etc.

I've come to realize that he worries so much because he actually doesn't trust his parents to take care of things. He feels the burden is on him to make sure his sisters don't get lost or that our schedule gets done on time. It's good that he is taking some responsibility, but he takes on many burdens that are not his to take and are not even in his power to accomplish.

I very much see myself in him when I don't trust my Father in heaven. I take on responsibilities that I can't even accomplish and then worry about them as if I have any control over the situation whatsoever. When I do this, I don't actually believe God can or will take care of me. I'm trying to take care of it on my own, because I feel more in control, I guess. But now I see how annoying it is to God! And how useless it is for me. He's big enough. He will make sure "Phoebe doesn't get too far" or "the schedule is accomplished" or whatever my worries are. I can trust Him. He'll even make sure the best thing will happen for me; which is not necessarily what I want from Him. "Which of you, if his son asks for bead, will give him a stone?" Sometimes I'm really wanting stones thinking they are bread, but God knows what is bread and what is stone and He will give me bread. I can trust Him.

"...and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6: 32-34

I will trust Him. And pray that my son will grow to trust as well. :-)

In Whom There is No Guile

I love the honesty and innocence of children. From the middle two recently:

We were teasing Jonathan about who he was going to marry one day. We named several girls, saying, "Why don't you marry them? They're a good friend." He came back with, "I don't even know what they'll look like when they grow up!" We did not teach him that.


Phoebe seems the most oblivious concerning appropriate boundaries in speaking. At a restaurant she loudly proclaimed how fat a guy was. We all quickly told her, "That's not nice, you can't say things like that about people, they wouldn't like it, they would find it mean, etc." She continues, "Well, can I say, 'You ate a lot of food.'?" "No, that's not appropriate either." Later Jonathan mentioned about a new party seated close to us: "That's a lot of people!". Phoebe immediately started in, "You can't say that, Jon! That's mean! You can't say that about people!" Okay, so she just doesn't get it. Soon after I hear from her, "Those people are old!"
She's technically not wrong about her observations.

Sweet Baby of Mine

Oh, the disgustingness of this much candy!

This time of year brings a ton of sweet gooey sugary candy into our home. So what we do with it is this: The kids get one week with their candy. They can sort through it, trade it, give it away (they usually give Dad chocolate and Mom sour candy), etc. This year they also put a gallon-size bag into the cabinet of select candies they want for their gingerbread houses they are sure to make for Christmas. We've been letting them have two pieces a day: one after lunch and one later in the day. After a week, we put all candy together into a big bowl. Dad and I can eat what we want then and they can keep choosing one or two pieces a day for a treat. We also throw about a handful of candy away a day. That way it eventually goes away. Until next year. When it invades again.....

Sweet Harrison

Harrison weighs 13.5 pounds at 4 months old, and he's 25.5 inches long. He did not catch chicken pox from his sisters, thank goodness. But he does get a lot of hugs and kisses and holding and sometimes a little too much love (especially from Phoebe!) from his siblings.



I wanted to be sure and get a picture of him in his little shoes, Mom and Dad! Thank you!

Elizabeth's Most Important Decision

Elizabeth has been asking for over a year now if she could be baptized. She knew she wanted to be a Christian because being a Christian was a good thing, but she didn't seem to grasp the concept of needing to have sins forgiven or even that she was a sinner. We've had many good talks and studies; I told her to talk to God and read her Bible; and she went through Growing Strong for Kids at church (material we have kids go through who want to be baptized). Yet we still didn't feel she was ready. She found Phillip's Simplified Bible one day and Phillip challenged her to read through one of the gospels. She read all of them easily within a week. Phillip is in charge of baptisms at our church, so we often go with him when he has weekday baptisms. One Friday while we were at church for one, she asked more questions about baptism and what it means to be a Christian. I had her read some verses in Acts from the pew Bible; and a light seemed to go on in her head. A specific question we've asked is, "If you died today, would you go to heaven or hell?" She sheepishly said, "Hell". She had never been definite about that answer before. She also listed specific sins in her life. After more discussion and more Bible study that night, Phillip and I knew that she was ready for this important step of faith. So the next night (Saturday, September 11th), Phillip baptized Elizabeth into Christ for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is now her Lord and Savior and she can confidently say she is going to heaven!

Molluscum Contagiosum

So my kids have a weird virus with the above name. It's like warts. It's contagious, but not necessarily harmful or even itchy. Jonathan started out with it and I just ignored it since he gets so many skin rashes and this one didn't itch. But then I found a few spots on Phoebe. So I had the doctor look at them, and she told me what they were. They go away on their own eventually, but will spread and others can catch it also. So cryosurgery was recommended. (Where they freeze them off.) We put some numbing medicine on the spots and covered them in plastic wrap (they looked funny with Saran wrap covering their legs and torso and arms!). Unfortunately the numbing medicine only sort of works. It makes the pain more endurable than without it, but the kids can still feel the burn. We went last week to do half of Jonathan's and all of Phoebe's. She only had 6 spots. She was very tough last week and didn't cry. But this week when we did one more that I found, she started crying when I sat her on the table. Jonathan had it mainly on his legs. He probably had 50 or more. He screamed the whole time, poor boy. I held him down while the doctor tried to be quick. He kept asking, "Are you done yet? I don't want to do this again! I don't want to go to the doctor! Will we have to come back?" As soon as the tank stopped spraying, he stopped crying though. Then we went to Publix and I let him pick out whatever he wanted (Bubble tape and a small toy). We go back in two weeks to be checked out again, but we shouldn't have any to burn. (I hope....)

Phoebe is 3

Our baby is three years old. She seems so much older! We celebrated her birthday at Chuck E. Cheese last night. She was so excited when we made her cake together. She wanted a princess/Dora cake, so we figured something out. I think she equates the cake with the whole concept of birthday. Because she said last night, "Thank you for making my birthday, Mom." And every time she sees the cake she says, "Oh, it's my birthday!".

The kids had a great time at Chuck E. Cheese. We were having the machine count our tickets, and a man walked up and asked how many kids I had. I told him three (they were there with me). He gave each of them a receipt that each had around 300 tickets on it! So the kids got to buy much bigger gifts than they would have with our meager receipt of tickets.





Phoebe loved the strawberry cake! She ate her piece and then wanted another one. So while she ate, the kids unwrapped her gifts.

Cooking and Cookies

I know... Why did their mother let them take everything out of the kitchen cabinets? Because it's fun! And I can iron and email and not have to entertain. They are very busy cooking.


A simple and fun snack.