My Faith and Joy… and Boys!

(In case you couldn’t tell, Susie is wearing her puppy “baby” like I wear baby Jimmy in a front pack.  She’s a very proud Mommy.)   

Ack!  My son is FIVE months old and I haven’t posted anything about his development since he was 2 1/2 months old.  I can assure you, he’s been developing away!  At his four month check-up, he weighed in at 14.35 lbs (25-50%), and measured 25 in. long (50%), with a head circumference of 15.75 in.  He started reaching for objects at 3 months, he got his two bottom middle teeth at 3.5 months, started rolling from his back to his tummy just before he turned 4 months, started to give us little grunting laughs shortly thereafter, started taking one feeding of brown rice cereal per day at 4.5 months, and just last week started to get on his hands and knees in a pre-crawl position.  I’m feeding him at roughly 7 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m., and 8 p.m.  He naps from about 8:30 –10:30 a.m., 2 – 4:30 p.m., and a 45 minute nap sometime in the evening.  I then put him down for the night anytime from 8:30 to 9:30 (it’s late on nights we’re out of the house), and he sleeps until 6:30 or 7 a.m.  I know – I am VERY blessed with a good sleeper!  I think it helps that he’s been a dedicated thumb sucker since he hit the three-month mark, so he’s excellent at soothing himself.  He thinks his sisters are the most entertaining, hilarious beings ever.  If he’s lying by himself on a blanket and starts to cry, I can send one of the girls over to talk to him and he stops his fussing and grins at them (of course, that only lasts for half a minute until his sister gets bored and runs off to the next activity).  I usually can’t feed him in the same room that his sisters are in, because he’d rather watch them play than eat!  He’s mesmerized anytime he catches a glimpse of the TV, and I have to admit I’ll put him in front of it for a few minutes now and then if I need him to be quiet while I tend to something.  But overall, he’s very content and happy.  Just recently, someone was remarking on what a happy baby he was, and it struck me that from about 5 weeks – 10 weeks, he was anything BUT happy.  He wasn’t colicky, but he never wanted to be by himself, and his naps and feedings were inconsistent.  But around 10 weeks, and definitely by the time he hit 3 months, he was an entirely different baby.  Of course, he has his rough patches now and then (like when he got his first teeth), but I am so thankful that he’s easy-going and so enjoyable to be with.  I am very much in love!

I’m hugging our kids a little tighter today after learning that a family friend was severely injured while serving in Afghanistan.  I can only imagine what his wife, parents and sisters are experiencing right now as they contemplate the difficult road ahead.  It’s so hard to find the good in situations such as these, when we are once again reminded of human frailty and the repercussions of sin.  But we rest on the knowledge that God is good, and His ways are perfect. 

“Ill that God blesses is our good,

And unblest good is ill;

And all is right that seems most wrong,

If it be His sweet will.”

        -Frederick William Faber

The girls love fairy tales right now, and are constantly weaving stories about castles and princesses and giants.  The stories inevitably contain some thinly-veiled reference to Shrek, their touchstone for all fantasy.  In the video below, you’ll notice they are “reading” these stories out of a little pink Bible.  I can’t wait until they can fully grasp that the Bible’s true stories exceed any fairy tale in beauty, intrigue, passion, danger, salvation and redemption.  It’s truly the Greatest Story Ever Told! 

Disclaimer: This video is long and rambling – just like my girls!