Well, it’s Christmas day, and we’re having a great time up here in Wisconsin. Not very much snow this year, but you don’t need a lot to make a two year old happy. Here’s a couple pictures from our Christmas tree cutting adventure. Analise preceeded this adventure by telling Molly the dog, "Come on Molly. Let’s go get a Christmas tree." Last night before the Christmas eve service, Analise said three complete sentences in a row: "Come on Molly. Let’s go to church. I’ll ride on your back."

Analise walking next to the snow covered dirt road.

Analise wanted to help Aunt Kat carry the Christmas tree back to the car.

One last post from me this evening! We had a busy day planned – Brian had to be at Samford at 9am to participate in the graduation ceremony. Analise, Josiah and I took our time getting going this morning, enjoying some Saturday morning cartoons while I made homemade muffins. Brian got home a little early, just in time for me to get everyone down for their naps. Brian’s parents were going to babysit for us tonight while we went to see friend’s who had a new baby and attended a couples wedding shower together. Mid-afternoon, though, Brian’s mom called to say they wouldn’t be coming as Tom had gotten sick on the golf course, and he was headed to the hospital! It turns out he was having a heart attack! Thankfully, they were able to go in and put a stent in, though they found the artery was almost completely blocked. He’s in the hospital until Monday or so. Scary! I’m so glad he’s ok!

Anyway, it wasn’t the evening we were expecting. Brian went up to see his dad briefly, and we had a quiet evening here. I’m having a hard time figuring out to do with myself these evenings. Brian’s been going to bed early so he can get up early, since that’s the time he’s most productive. I, on the other hand, struggle in the morning, specially since my nights are so interrupted. I feel like I’ve GOT to make the most of these quiet evening hours to get things done. I’m getting the blog caught up and working on Sunday School lessons for tomorrow, my usual late-Saturday evening project. (I’m in charge of Sunday School curriculum. It’s a job that I’d joyfully hand off if there was someone wanting to do it… *sigh*). Ahem – this isn’t the best time to be picking a craft project, since all the fun stuff usually requires a trip to the craft store.

Ok, enough rambling. Pray that Brian’s dad, Tom, gets well soon. We’re so thankful he’s doing better!

This parenting thing is hard.  Yesterday was a rough day.  I think it was just the culmination of a long, long week for me.  Analise has been sick, I’m fighting a cold, Josiah has been sick, Brian’s been swamped with work.  Analise has been grumpy, and it’s made me grumpy.  We’ve fought little power battles every day, numerous times, and I’m feeling like some days are definitely the "terrible 2’s".  I’m pretty stir-crazy from being cooped up with the 2 kiddos all week.  I broke down last night in tears, just from being overwhelmed and frustrated with the day and the week in general. 

Last night while I was sleeping, though, I found this verse in my mind, "Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love…" (Psalm 143:8).  It touched me deeply, and I woke up with a lighter spirit.  Today has been a much better day, especially with Analise.  She’s been obedient and sweet, mostly.  We painted, played outside, did a craft.  She took her medicine on her own, willingly, without a fight (major BIG DEAL).  Tonight is the end of 4 consecutive "dry" days, too!  WOOHOO!  I’m very proud of her.

Anyway, it’s been a better day, thankfully.  It’s so incredibly easy to let the enemy find a corner in our mind to fill us with anxieties, frustrations, self-pities, etc.  And before you know it, they’ve completely encompassed your mind, and all you can think about is "poor me".  That’s where I was last night.  But here’s my prayer tonight:

Lord, satisfy us in the morning with your unfailling love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all of our days.  (Psalm 90:14)

I’ll leave you with a couple more cute pictures of Analise – including one smile!  She’d gotten a new set of bows, and she let me put them all in her hair.  When I was putting the last one (#6) in, she said, "It’s getting crowded!"  Haha!  Then she went back to her book.  I love my beautiful little bookworm.

Last Friday, Josiah got to eat his first real food, the night before his 6 month birthday. Yum… oatmeal baby cereal with formula! It was hard to convince him that he’d like it more than the spatula, at first. Then he wasn’t quite sure what he thought of it.

But after a couple bites, he wouldn’t let go of the spoon, and kept wanting to "help" me feed him. He seemed to like it pretty well, and he ate all that I’d made.

He’s got a gourmet menu of rice with apples bananas tomorrow – what an exciting change! Oh, and the always delicious main course of warm sweet breastmilk:) Still his favorite. Can you tell buy his round little body he eats pretty well?

After 2 days of feeling feverish and a day of grumpiness (today), I hope Josiah will be over the virus that has bugged both he and Analise this week. We need to be healthy again! It’s been a long week for mom…  This last picture is for comparison sake – this week (6 months) and July (1 month).  He’s gotten so big!  His favorite place to sleep is still on me.  Though it’s hard to convince him to give in and go to sleep, I still love having him snuggled up against me.

Josiah woke up last night with a fever over 103 (!), stressing me out a bit.  I gave him Tylenol, and he slept for several hours and woke up much cooler.  I didn’t take his temp this morning, but he seemed closer to a normal temp, and acted fine.  After his early morning nap, though, he felt warm again, and sure enough, his temp was 102.3.  The worry with Josiah is that he might have a urinary tract infection and/or kidney infection due to his urinary reflux issues.  We got into the doctor’s really quickly, and after some quick tests, everything was ruled out.  Yeah!  Hopefully just a fever virus that’ll run its course in a day or so. 

I bet he got it from Analise… and her ear infection may not have played much of a part in the fevers.  What a mess we are.    

We just got the downloadable video that we ordered highlighting Brian’s Ironman finish. It’s pretty cool!

Here are the professional photos that were taken, as well. Above is the action shot of Brian finishing with Analise in his arms. I love this one:) The rest are self-explanatory, so enjoy!

Tonight is one of the peak nights for the Geminids meteor shower.  I love any chance to see shooting stars, so we decided we’d try to go find a place to watch with the little ones. 

Josiah had been asleep for an hour or so, and Analise was in her pj’s, all ready for bed.  We snuggled them both into their car seats and set out to find a place on a hill without too much light pollution.  There aren’t too many places like that in Birmingham…  But we ended up at Vestavia Hills Baptist Church on top of Shades Mountain.  The stars were beautiful, the sky was clear, and it was CHILLY.  Brian set out a blanket for us, and Analise and I curled up under it.  Josiah wasn’t thrilled with all the interruptions to his sleep and he grumbled a bit, but we kept him covered up and he was pretty good.  Analise was GREAT!  She’s not one to sit still for more than about a minute, but she looked at the stars and let us hold her close. 

We saw several in the half-hour we were watching.  I LOVE shooting stars.  It’s so amazing and humbling to see the sparkling night sky and just watch.  It was so much fun, and it really just made my day.  Brian and I have gone out and watched a couple meteor showers since we first met, and I’m so glad that even with 2 little kids we can still have adventures like that.    

I think Analise is mostly over her ear infection.  Monday was rough,
though.  After the doctor’s appointment, I dropped off the prescription
to be picked up later. I brought both kids home to eat and nap, and
Analise slept so long I couldn’t get back to pick up the prescription
before Brian started home.  When she woke up, the Tylenol had worn off
and her fever was over 103!  Poor girl!  We got some medicine into her,
and finally yesterday morning her fever was gone for good.  Yesterday
was still a quiet not-feeling-good day, though, and it’s tried my
patience as she’s full of tears and tantrums when things aren’t quite
right.  Hopefully today is going to be better…

Though I wasn’t sure we’d make it with all the unhappiness of the day,
Analise did cheer up enough for us to go to Brian’s department
Christmas party.  The host family has 2 younger girls who love to play
with Analise.  She had a great time, and Josiah was a sweetheart as
everyone took a turn holding him. 

Brian’s wrapping up finals today, and hopefully he’ll be done posting grades soon.  I’m trying to get our house back in order – after several days of taking care of a sick little one, it’s a little out of control around here!    

Ok!  I’m caught up on half-written blogs!  Today and this evening have been a little crazy… after I got interrupted last night by Josiah, Analise woke up with a fever during the night.  So she joined us in our bed, and Josiah was already there.  It was a bit crowded.  Finally, Josiah got bumped out to the swing around 4am, and left some room for the rest of us.  Our 2 little kids take up more room than 2 full-grown adults. Brian and I were both hanging onto the edge of the bed. 

Analise has had a fever over 101 all day.  She’s grudgingly taking tylenol that brings it down a little bit.  She doesn’t seem to be in pain, so maybe it isn’t an ear infection, but I’m not sure what else could be causing it.  She’s just lethargic and quiet.  Josiah’s 6 month check-up is tomorrow, so it looks like I’ll be calling for a 2nd appt tomorrow morning. 

Tonight was comical.  Brian’s working hard to get a final written for his 8am class tomorrow.  Josiah had gone to bed at 7pm, and Analise went quietly to bed at 8.  I was getting lots done and settling into my chair to catch up on blogging.  At 10:30, I heard Analise crying.  Josiah had woken up and was crying too.  I found Analise drenched in sweat, with a sopping wet diaper.  She took some tylenol for me, got some dry pajamas, and asked to go sleep in our bed.  Brian was trying to quiet down Josiah, who needed to eat and get a dry diaper.  Brian took Analise back to our bed as I took care of Josiah, and he found that our bed was sopping wet.  He’d forgotten that Analise had had an "accident" during her nap, and he’d neglected to tell me or change the sheets.  Darn.  I got the bed changed, settled Analise into bed and laid down with her on one side and Josiah on the other to nurse him, while Brian went back to work. 

When Josiah was done eating, I picked him up and propped myself up in the bed to hold him as he fell asleep, planning on taking him back to his bed to leave us some room.  I guess he’d eaten too much, and within a minute he threw up all over me.  Thankfully, my pillow and the bed were spared.  I hollered for Brian, who came and took Josiah while I got clean clothes.  After Josiah was cleaned up, I settled back into bed with him and Analise.  He dozed off and I moved him to the swing.  Analise dozed and I could tell her fever had come down (from 101.5), so I moved her back to her bed.  AHhhhh… Now I’m closing up the computer, and heading back to bed, all by myself.  Hopefully, Brian’ll join me soon.  Hopefully, my two little ones will sleep for a good solid couple hours…    

My little guy turned 6 months old yesterday!  I can’t believe how fast the time has gone.  He’s changed so much, and he’s gotten so big!  He’s so sweet and smiley.  He still thinks Analise is the coolest thing, and he’s really very content in the car as long as he can see her.  He’s making all kinds of noises lately.  The most common ones, though, are lots of little growls, grunts and groans.  He sounds like an expressive little monster.  It’s so cute.

I’ve started calling him my little "Roly-poleon".  He likes to roll all over the floor.  He’s got lots of motivation to get moving as Analise has toys strewn all over that he’d like to chew on.  And if there’s paper somewhere on the floor, watch out!  He’s just decided he likes chewing on sippy cups.  I can’t remember if I mentioned that he had a tooth break through the week of Thanksgiving, but I think we’ve got another one coming in soon.  He really likes chewing on plastic kitchen utensils, too, like the egg separator and the spatulas.  Tonight he got ahold of a big metal cookie pan that was close to him at the dinner table.  His eyes got really wide as he pulled it towards him, and his mouth opened in anticipation.  He was pleased to chew on it through dinner.

He’s getting so big!  He’s got lots of rolls on his soft body.  When he stands on the bathroom counter before/after his bath, he looks like a little baby sumo wrestler.  Darn cute.  If we could rig up some sumo-wear, we’d take a picture.

His favorite sleeping place is still on me.  Yes, I’m still wishing I had my hands free and could be getting more accomplished, but I’m sure this won’t last forever, and before I know it, I’ll be aching for the days when he would still snuggle in my arms.  He just loves to snuggle into your arms and sleep.

We celebrated his 6 month birthday by visiting Santa!  Our church planned an outreach of having pictures with Santa in various neighborhoods.  Great fun!  Josiah was pretty ambivilent about Santa, but like last year, Analise didn’t enjoy him very much.  We did get 2 pictures, including this one of Analise just looking unhappy before she started wailing.  I hope we’ll enjoy laughing about this when she’s older:)