Fun Times

The last few weeks have been wonderful. My brother and his family were visiting all last week, and his oldest two are still here in town. Pictures to come. Jonah has had so much fun with his cousins...I so dread them leaving. Jonah always has a hard-time saying good-bye to them, but I expect his disappointment to be much bigger this time. He's had longer time with them this visit, and they're playing together so well these days. And of course there have been numerous fun and exciting things to do, such as a camping trip last week at Beaver's Bend and a visit to Wolf Creek Lodge coming this week. In between, there have been boat rides on the lake, lots of pool time, and currently they're all at Pump It Up. Next week will be a tough week, I think, adjusting back to the reality that Jonah's world isn't really all about constant entertainment! But it's worth every bit of it, in order to spend as much time with Nathan and Maggie as possible while they are here. These have been sweet times.

Parker Jane has been growing like crazy. A week ago, she was 10 pounds, 8.5 ounces. Even her hair has grown. We were concerned about possible milk allergies because of a horrible rash that has lingered on for almost a month now, but the doctor says it's a really really really bad case of heat rash. Ugh. Can't get it to go away. But she's getting easier. She is almost happy! I really do think she's close to deciding she likes it here. She wakes up once to eat during the night. Last week, she went all night three different times! Those were amazing days. But the last few nights, she's been giving us trouble going down. Starting next week, I'm going to start working on getting her on a schedule. I think it's going to be pretty challenging. But the rest of the family is ready. So I really hope she decides to be.

I just got back from a trip to Walmart - my first with her with me. Oh my, we were there about 30-40 minutes and probably were stopped at least ten different times by people who just wanted to look at her and say things like "Look at that hair!" and...well, pretty much just "Look at that hair!" It's wild hair. It sticks straight up on top and now in the back so her profile looks kind of like a rooster. It's pretty funny. So cute though. At least I think so. She's smiling a lot, you know, when she isn't screaming, and I love her smiley face. She smiles, and her whole face just glows. It's precious. So anyway, about Wal-mart...she started out asleep and gave me about ten minutes to shop in peace, and then she was not a happy girl. I was afraid this would happen. We've previously made several quick CVS trips, and none of them have gone well. She sure knows how to make a scene. She made several today...only not for too long because her softie mom picked her up and carried her every time she cried. It was insane. At one point, I thought I might slap the next person who looked at my crying baby and cheerily said, "Uh, oh, it looks like somebody's not very happy!" YA THINK??!!

But life is good these days. I'm savoring the moments and I get sad a lot thinking about how fast time is going. I want it to slow down. And except for this past week, we've slowed down quite a bit since she's been born. As much as you can with an active three-year old. But I'm liking the pace. The only frustrating thing is that I spend a lot of my days being very productive, not taking the time to be lazy for one second, and at the end of the day, I look back and see that all I got done was related to feeding people. Just feeding the people in my home takes up every bit of time I have! Parker eats a lot more often during the day than Jonah ever did, but it's ok with me because she sleeps better at night than he did. But milking just seems to consume so much of my day! But even though this can frustrate me to see so many other tasks left undone and incomplete, I'm trying to keep it all in perspective. God's perspective, that is. And when I choose to go there, I see that He has orchestrated all these things and uses them for good purposes. Beautiful, eternal purposes. And I consider these times I get to spend meeting the needs of little people the most blessed experiences. It's a good life, even if I am tired.

Oh, and I'm figuring out a thing or two about what this little girl wants. I've learned she likes noise. The sound of water running is the one that most consistently soothes her when she is upset. I've found myself doing things I never thought I would do! I know it's wasteful, but several mornings this week, I have put on my make-up while running water in the bathtub so she'd sit quietly in her bouncy seat. And today, she fell asleep right before we got to Walmart, so I decided to go past Walmart and keep driving for a little while to make sure she was good and asleep before moving her from car to grocery cart, in hopes that she would sleep for a while in the store instead of waking up as soon as the car stops, like she usually does. So, I'm sorry, Environment. But how "green" can you be when you have a high-maintenance baby??