Josiah--4 months

Josiah is 4 months old today. He is so close to rolling over. He had night time sleeping boot camp this week. He had consistently waking up once during the night and then had started waking up 2 times. So his Mommy decided that it was time for him to learn to sleep through the night. The first night he woke up twice and cried 20 minutes the first time and 45 minutes the second time. The next next he slept until 5:30am and the third night until 7am. A pretty quick learner, I'd say. In retrospect I should have done that a long time ago, but he'll survive and so will we.

Vacation Bible School

The little Methodist Church around the corner from our house hosts a Vacation Bible School every year. They have a class for under 4 so I decided to take Aliza this year. She had so much fun. There were five children in her class. Three of them were 2, one was 3, and one was 19 months. Every child had a parent stay with them and all the parents were in the same boat of chasing their child and trying to get them participate in some semblence of the structured activity. So tonight was their closing program and Aliza's class sang the song they learned. Aliza had no problem with being social. During the party tonight she was over with the big kids who were playing with the parachute and drinking her box drink.

Family Ritual

This is our most recent scrap challenge--to document a family ritual. Almost every day we walk down the road to see the horses. Aliza chatters the whole way, helps push Josiah in the stroller and anxiously looks for the black dog to chase and pet. When we get to the farm she climbs up on the fence to look for the horses. Often the horses are in the barn or in the back field where she can't see them, but it doesn't matter to her. When she is ready she usually sprints home. The road is perfect since it is a dead end road with almost no traffic and those who do live on the road are very familiar with our little family ritual. If they haven't seen us, they have probably heard us! (Too bad you can barely see her little ponytail in the picture!)

Janell's Bridal Shower

Janell's bridal shower was a tea party. There were 11 of us altogether. I was the planner and visionary and my sisters and sister-in-law made it happen. Everyone played a special role and it wouldn't have been a success without their help.

The table. The favors were tealights and teabags.

This is a sampling of the food we had. The menu is too long to write. We counted 13 different foods that we prepared that morning. Highlights included orange chocolate chip scones with clotted cream, white chocolate mousse, and cucumber sandwiches.

PRESENTS!

My sisters and I.
Laura, Carla, Janell, Linda

The sisters and sister-in-law. Yay for Meghan! Meghan is such a good sport even though she detests living on the Eastern Shore. I only have one brother so she will be my only sister-in-law. How would you like to marry into a family of 4 sisters!??

Too bad my eyes are closed. Mom and her girls.


Mom and I

Uncle, Cousin and Rice Cereal

We had some fun with Brian, Meghan and Caleb tonight. Aliza did super well sharing her toys. And Caleb showed a little cousin interest in Josiah. Caleb is a speedy little crawler so we were keeping him away from electrical outlets while Aliza was dangerously swinging around her new broom. Four adults for three kiddos....that was about right!

Josiah had his first meal of rice cereal. Jeremy must be tired of getting up at night to feed Josiah because he very patiently worked with him until he had eaten a whole serving of cereal. It was obvious that Josiah's tummy was very full! Now we'll see how the night goes.

My Recent Fun...

...has been looking through kitchen catalogs. There are so many colors, styles, and organizational options. We've been pre-approved for financing and now we are just waiting for architect Dave to return from a trip to Italy. Then we can get the blueprints drawn. A dear friend of mine recently told me that when she drives up to my house she always thinks that it looks abandoned. I think that is a pretty good sign that it is time to put some money into this darling little house. =)

Now I have to tell two stories on Aliza because she is just silly. Last night we had Papa John's pizza for supper and she ate an entire cup of the Garlic butter sauce. In fact she drank a decent portion of it. She woke up at 12:30am screaming for me and when I went in she frantically said, "Mommy, THISTY!" You think?? She downed a whole sippy cup of apple juice and the one I put in her bed with her was empty this morning. Her breath smells like garlic this morning!

She has also been showing more interest in Josiah and her baby doll which is quite interesting. With Josiah she will lay her head on my lap right next to his little hand and say "hair". She wants him to grab a chunk of her hair and hang on. She laughs. I think it's hilarious.

Family Day

What a lovely day we had! This morning we took a walk to see, if you know us, the most popular horses that live down the road. And today was extra special because our neighbors drove up as we were looking at their horses and invited Aliza to come to the barn and pet the horses. She was really excited until we actually got into the barn. Then she wanted to be held and kept saying no and didn't actually pet a horse. But as soon as we left the barn she wanted more and we had a hard time convincing her that she really did want to walk home and get lunch. In the end she decided to literally run home. =)

Then this afternoon we decided to go to the beach. I broke my cardinal rule of never waking a sleeping child. I woke up both of my children so that we could go to the beach. We went to a little cove in Nanticoke. It was perfect for children. I will frequent this spot this summer. The beach is narrow, the waves are very small, the shallow water goes out pretty far, and the water is not salty and exceptionally warm. We had a great time. Aliza got very comfortable in the water and Josiah was very content in his tent. Since I spent a small fortune on that tent I was most pleased that he seemed to like it.

Today almost makes me want to go on a vacation this summer.

Heslop House aka Bat Cave

It has happened again. We had another bat in our house last night. Ugh! We've had a couple incidents over the years, but two in one week is too much for me. In my opinion bats are worse than mice. They come out at night, bang into walls, knock things over and make a really annoying high pitched chirp. Plus they fly and are completely unpredictable. We have figured out that they are coming in through Jeremy's closet so my brother is coming to our rescue tonight to help Jeremy figure out what we need to do to secure the closet.

Last night's sighting was especially disturbing because the darn thing kept flying into Jeremy's closet (which slopes down to the roofline at our dormer windows) and wouldn't come out. I lay suffocating under the covers and Jeremy armed himself with a broom for 2 hours. I finally tried to get some sleep in Josiah's room. Jeremy never did see it leave. Here's hoping that it found a way out the way it come in.

So far no flying animals have found their way into Josiah or Aliza's room. This adds yet another good reason for upgrading to our house.

A Hot Day

It has been HOT here on the East Coast. Today is our 4th day of almost 100 degree weather. Our poor little window air conditioning units just can't keep up. I was wiping sweat as I rocked and fed Josiah (yuck!!!). Tomorrow the high is only 85 and that is sounding pretty good right now.

Anyway, Josiah got to meet his Great Pop-pop last week. So here's a picture of the Freed line of boys. It was really sweet. Josiah doesn't usually last long being held like that. But Pop-pop said "Josiah, we are buddies" and he laid there in his arms for a decent amount of time.

And just for fun I took the picture of Aliza and Josiah this morning. Aliza always wants to play with whatever Josiah is playing with. What you can't see is that they both of pacifiers in their mouths. At moments like that I'm reminded that I have two babies. Then the next moment Aliza acts like she is half grown!

Mommy Marathon

Disclaimer: This post is written with high respect to those Mom's who have Mommy Marathons much longer than mine----Christie and Bea!

I feel like I'm running a marathon. (I'm sure plenty of Mommy's feel this way at times. Must be part of the job description.)

Aliza is feeling all better. She is fully of energy and silliness. And after a week of getting her own way we are having some battles that we have never had to fight before. Last night it was not negotiable that Daddy was going to put her to bed. Today it was not negotiable that the pacifier was going to stay home. And soon lunch will be completely eaten at the table. The promised after lunch DVD is so enticing that she doesn't even eat before she announces that she is done and runs to the living room to watch Pooh or Boz. The things I get myself into!

The marathon is this... Now Josiah has a cold. His little nose is all stuffed up. Last night I walked him at 3:30am. I have to walk with him if I want him to relax because his legs are so long and strong that when I hold him he just pushes with his legs against mine! So here I thought I was back to getting some sleep and have my happy children back. Jeremy has to work on Saturday and then he is leaving at 5:00am on Monday to go fishing with the large majority of my family.

I would consider this leg of the marathon to be over if I could drive to a destination of my choosing for a decent period of time. Right now I'd really love to go shopping for some new clothes and visit the semi-annual sales of Yankee Candle and Bath and Body Works. This afternoon I'll settle for these few minutes when they are sleeping at the same time.

Three Cups of Tea

A friend of mine recommended that I read a book called Three Cups of Tea. It is the amazing story of an ordinary man who almost single-handedly has built over 50 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan since 1993.

He has successfully mastered many customs and languages to become fully accepted by people that many of us here in America consider "scary" and "bad." Greg believes that the key to overcoming terrorism is through a balanced education that gives children hope of a future and an understanding of the world. The book hinted at a future Nobel Peace Prize and I would agree that this man would be very deserving.

One person can make a difference in the world. If you have a chance to read it, I highly recommend this book. www.threecupsoftea.com

Tired of Sick Days

Aliza has been sick since last Thursday and I'm exhausted. I took her to the Doctor on Friday so she is on an antibiotic for strep throat. She has been miserable--barely eating and drinking, waking up during the night crying. She wants to be held, but at times she becomes almost hostile. I imagine she is frustrated with whatever hurts and needs to express it. Somehow pulling my hair and hitting me doesn't seem like the most appropriate way to express those feelings. She also has side effects of the antibiotic. Are all diaper creams created equal?

I think she did turn the corner today. The only thing that I could think of to tempt her appetite was Chick-Fil-A so I packed everyone up and ordered her chicken nuggets and a sandwich for myself. She ate all 4 chicken nuggets before we got home. After we got home she ate almost half of the chicken breast in my sandwich and a quarter of my grilled cheese sandwich. She also drank more today and didn't cry every time she coughed. Now if she can just sleep through the night I think we'll all feel better.