Sweet Brothers

I loved watching Caleb love on his younger brother tonight. David was lying on the floor making baby talk, and Caleb came and cuddled up next to him. Then he sat up and held David's hand for a minute. Such a sweet big brother.

Book Review: A Place To Belong

A Place To Belong
By Lisa Troyer

Let me start by saying that I love small groups. I believe that meeting with a specific group of believers to study God's word, build relationships, and encourage one another in our walk with Christ is an especially beneficial practice in the Christian's life. Some of my greatest growth as a believer has happened within the small group setting. We were created to live in close community with one another, which is becoming more and more difficult in our culture today. I found A Place To Belong to be a very encouraging reminder of the importance of finding that small group of believers with which you can be real and grow closer to God.

A Place To Belong is a great book addressing the importance and value of small group relationships among women. I found the book to be both an easy, enjoyable read and a very compelling exhortation to find women around me to be real with and to encourage/receive encouragement from. Troyer does an excellent job of combining personal stories and biblical examples to keep the book interesting and relatable.

A Place to Belong addresses 5 components of small group relationships: Acceptance, Authenticity, Affirmation, Accountability, and Action. It also includes some great small group resources such as Personal Reflection Questions at the end of each section, a very good step-by-step guide to beginning a small group and material to use within that group, a year long Bible reading plan, and more. Overall, I thought it was a great read and a great resource for ladies starting or participating in a small group.

This book was given to me for free by The B&B Media Group in exchange for my honest review.

On the Go

We've been busy! We went for a visit to Kansas (Mom - I need to get pictures from you).

Auntie Sara with baby David (5 months old)


David took baths in the sink


Caleb saw lots of farm animals, had his first pony ride at Grandma Vicky's farm, and had his own camera crew waiting to capture his every movement on film.


Then we went with our church's senior adults to the North Georgia Apple Country!


And next we had a Hayride, Hot Dog, and S'more Roast with the youth group.




Caleb's first hayride. He LOVED it!


And the holiday season has barely just begun. More fun is just around the corner!

Saga of the Big Boy Bed

Whew, what a week it's been. I feel like I'm back into the newborn days of waking every few hrs during the night to take care of a little one. I just got out of that stage about ONE month ago...what was I thinking?!?

We moved Caleb to a toddler bed at the beginning of the week, and it's been a challenge for all of us. Let me just say that normally I've read every article about how to do something and have decided the best course of action and exactly how we'll proceed. In this instance, I HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS DOING when I decided, "Hey, let's move Caleb into his toddler bed tonight." I figured we'd show Caleb his new bed, tell him it was time to go night-night, put him in it, and then see what happens from there.

HA.

HA-HA.

HA-HA-HA-HA-HA. I know mothers everywhere are either shaking their heads in shame at me or just laughing outright.

The good news is Caleb loves his new bed, and when I tried to move him back to his crib the very first night (I was already having second thoughts just an hour into bedtime) he let me know very clearly (a.k.a. through crying, screaming, and pointing) that he wanted to sleep in that big boy bed. The problem was and continues to be that he does not want to sleep in that bed alone and will not stay there if Mommy is not in it with him.

Apparently moving Caleb into a new bed has coincided directly with the "I need Mommy at my side at every moment of every day" phase. So as long as I'm laying in the very small toddler bed WITH Caleb, he's fine. But as soon as I get up, he's up with me. I've tried sitting at the end of the bed, sitting in the chair in his room, sitting on the floor in the doorway, standing out in the hallway, and sitting on the couch in the living room hoping that maybe he would stay in his bed if I stayed in that one location long enough. I especially had hopes that the last one would be the magic location. After HOURS of both me and Stephen telling Caleb to get back in bed, along with numerous attempts at reasoning, disciplining, and pleading, apparently the only magic location is laying in that very small toddler bed with Caleb.

So that's what we've come to right now because, hey, it works. Thankfully, once he falls soundly asleep I can sneak out of his room and leave him be. But he has woken up at least twice every night so far and come calling for "Mama. Mama. Mama." Usually the first time I'll put him back in his bed and sit on the end of it for about 30 minutes with my head in my hands nodding off every few seconds until he's fast asleep again (don't even think about getting up before he's zonked out...it will only result in him getting up with you and another 30 minutes of sitting there). So then after I've gotten back in my own bed and slept for maybe an hour, here he comes again.

I'll confess, at this point I've been letting him get in bed with Stephen and me. I know that has the potential to form bad habits, but at this point I'm just hoping to get a LITTLE uninterrupted sleep. I haven't even mentioned the 4 month old sleeping in the same room as Caleb. He sleeps through the night, but has a tendency to get up super early in the morning (this morning it was 5:00am). So that doesn't leave Mama with much time to sleep. Now can you sympathize with me?

Stephen has been helping with all of this and hasn't gotten much sleep either, but unfortunately this is a Mama phase and not a Daddy phase. When Stephen goes to lay down with Caleb, Caleb just repeats "Mama" over and over. So while he makes a valiant attempt to be helpful, it ends up being Mommy getting up time and again.

Its amazing how just a week can feel so long. I do have a plan of action in mind to help Caleb get used to falling asleep and staying in his big boy bed alone. You better believe after that first night I quickly googled "transitioning to a toddler bed." But I'm thinking this is going to take some time and a whole lot of patience. And I'm trying to keep in mind the sweetness of my growing boy wanting his mommy close by his side and cherishing little moments of laying in bed listening to him babble while he winds down to sleep. Tonight he whispered over and over "Mama. Da-da. David." Melt my heart. I know these long sleepless nights won't last forever...

I'm Back

Thoughts from today...

• The Shema (Deuteronomy 6), families, and our Women's Celebration in a few weeks. I'm speaking. Need to get thoughts on paper. Praying for clear direction.
• Met new neighbor - No Trespassing signs were hiding a really sweet hispanic mom with family. Caleb liked their dog. Wish I had gotten to know her better and invited her to church. Praying for another chance.
• Agata knocked on my door today - 19 yr old Lithuanian college student and door-to-door saleswoman for the summer. Didn't buy her really expensive books, but still chatted for 30 min. Offered her a seat inside out of the heat, a cool drink, and mentioned Jesus Christ. Wish I'd done more than just mention His name...she goes back to Lithuania in 3 weeks. The nations came to my door today and I failed to be missional. Again. Don't think I'll get another chance to share about Christ with Agata. But I can still pray. And hopefully my actions spoke of His character.
• Great lunch date with one of the ladies from our church. So glad to spend time getting to know her better. I'd love to make this a weekly event (different lady each week). Big thanks to hubby for staying with the boys while I went out. Can I convince him to do this weekly??? 
• Bought a toddler bed for Caleb tonight. My little boy is growing up. He'll be out of the crib and into a bed soon. I think he's the cutest thing alive.  :-)
• Think I might start blogging again. Can't guarantee consistency, but oh well.
• Oh yeah, and we have a new baby, a new church, and a new hometown. It's been a little while...

First Haircut

 A few weeks ago we decided that Caleb's hair had gone from cute and shaggy to...desperately needing a trim. It didn't help that he got called a girl while wearing all blue.

After searching high and low in Birmingham for a kid-oriented hair salon for Caleb's first haircut, we pretty much struck out. So we ended up on our back patio instead. But of course, before we could do anything, Caleb had to play in the leaves!

After about 30 min of playing, Mom decided it was time to get to cutting. Caleb wasn't exactly thrilled to have his play time interrupted.

Somehow we got him to calm down enough to sit still for a few minutes...

And what do you know - Mom didn't do half bad!

Caleb felt so good about his new do that he decided to show it off at a party that afternoon.

Turns out Caleb did great for his first haircut and Mom did ok too!  :-)

Baby Comparison & Park Pics

Ok, both Grandma's have requested a picture comparison of Caleb and baby 2. So this will mostly be a picture update. We had our 20 week doctor checkup/ultrasound last week and found out that we're having another boy! I was convinced it was a little girl, but Stephen says he knew it was a boy.

First: a great face shot of our newest little one!

And here's a face shot of Caleb at 20 wks:

Next, Baby 2's facial profile:

And here's Caleb's profile:

Here's a pic of me last week at 20 weeks:

And here's me at 20 weeks with Caleb:

So far the pregnancies have been pretty similar. I had slightly more morning sickness this go around, but still nothing too horrible. The heartburn that I had last time hasn't shown up yet, so I'm definitely thankful for that. I started showing a lot earlier this time, which seems to be pretty normal with a second pregnancy. Last time I was super excited to start wearing maternity clothes and show off the baby bump, but I learned the hard way that it gets old wearing the same few outfits over and over again, so I've been trying to stretch and fit into my normal clothes as long as possible. Good thing it's winter and most of my winter clothes have extra room!

And here's a few pictures just for the fun of it!

We took Caleb to the park yesterday and his two favorite things to do were sliding down the slide and walking all over the place picking up leaves and waving sticks - such a little boy!

He had a blast walking all over the place through the leaves. And it was pretty cute watching Stephen walking beside him and making sure Caleb didn't hurt himself. Such a good Daddy! Then he got pretty upset when we decided to leave - he definitely wanted to stay and play longer!

We'll have to do it again once this winter storm leaves and it gets somewhat warm again!