Cracker toast to Nine Months

It's official. Today Brielle has lived outside of the womb just as long as she lived inside. Wow. So, while I was eating a snack cracker for an afternoon snack, I decided to give her one to see what she would do with it (shove it all in or take gummed bites). She took a couple of gummed off bites, noticed I was holding a snack cracker too, and touched hers with mine a few times. So as to say, "cheers. we made it." or "wow. we're both eating one!" Either way, it was incredibly cute. Okay, so here are the pictures and below them I typed some thoughts about her:
Jazz on the lawn
she loves junk mail!
a hobby lobby mirror

Walmartthanks Grandma and PopPop in NJ for bubble wrap!Cousin Archer was really good at pushing her at Austin's 7th birthday party!Playing peek-a-boo under the kitchen tablethis girl will NOT stay still!
Josh playing with Brielle at Tyler's football practice
see her hand blurred? that's part of the dance routine, which also includes bopping up and down to her favorite SUPERCHICK CD!

My thoughts on parenting, and two recent videos

I think that I seriously fall in love again every day. She’s just the cutest smartest little thing! And she SO time consuming! Yes, the normal things: she’s crawling everywhere and getting into everything (safety and comforting the bonks), she needs to be fed, her diaper changed, a nap, etc… But she’s time consuming in other ways too! Starting with just how much fun she is to play with these days! She loves to dance to “her music,” play peek-a-boo, and pretend chase. The week after she learned to crawl (which was two weeks ago and at 8 ½ months old) she learned how to go up the stairs, which is a pretty fun game and good exercise too. Then there are all of the pictures and video recordings that I feel compelled to catch of all of these cute and wonderful moments! There are books to read, lullabies to sing, and baths to take. It’s all too much fun, and while I love it, it can be tiring and she most often will prefer her brothers over me for some real action! Then there are moments that I just observe without wanting to be caught observing (because she will most certainly stop whatever it is and crawl over to me). They are the moments that I can see her brain working, thinking, knowing, wondering….and I see her act in result of what she’s thinking, or move on. And I feel like I’ve been given privy to this amazing discovery, this creation who miraculously grows and thinks and feels and knows. Why am I so fortunate? I know, I know, not the same question I ask after five middle of the night feedings and scores of poopey diapers. But this smile, this laugh, this amazing brilliance that emanates from such a small little being, it only becomes more astounding each passing day. As she also learns how to let her frustration and dislikes be known, in new ways, it only adds to my admiration of her (so far! that is likely to change one day soon). And while she consumes so much of my day in these ways, and sometimes I do admit to needing a break, most days I just simply take it all in. This time now is fleeting. Gone are the days of colic and the frustration of breastfeeding. Gone are the times of sitting her down (even to just use the bathroom!) and there she would stay. Gone are the days where she couldn't be consoled. Gone are the moments when she wouldn't grab anything in site or try the food out of our hands! And so much more! Already gone. So now too, these are the moments of now, which will one day be gone. One day she will not crawl. She will walk, run, skip. She will not fall asleep nursing in my arms. And so I hold her just a little longer after she falls asleep. Because one day she will not fit exactly so as she does today. And so yes, I do make her more time consuming than she is a lot of time. But ask me if I would like to do it differently, and I'll say that if I did I would already be doing it that way.
When I see her strength, her bones, her skin, her development (both physically and mentally) I am amazed at the wonder of God’s creation. For nine months He formed her in the womb, and for the past nine months He has formed her on the outside of the womb, full of love and nurturing care, given us the nutritious milk He designed, and by His hand, He has grown her as He has seen ought. These thoughts often prompt me to see the older boys as such as well. While they are not growing at quite the speed of Brielle (which I suppose could be argued since puberty may be setting in) they are certainly growing! And this is a special time in their lives too! A time that will never return to us. A time that should be lived, touched, felt, and shared. Fortunately with them it doesn't feel as immenent to capture and record each milestone. But it does feel almost near urgent to share it with them, listen to them, and be with them (physically and mentally). So much that a baby teaches me about my older boys, and so much that my older boys have taught me about a baby.
God is so infinite in His wisdom.

okay, she is dancing in this video (it's from my phone so not so good quality) and bonks her head...you may want to turn down the volume--as my voice is loud when that happens! sorry

This one was at Tyler's football practice two nights ago.

Praise God, everybody!

Praise God, everybody! Applaud God, all people! His love has taken over our lives; God's faithful ways are eternal. Hallelujah!
Psalm 117 (The Message)

So, just yesterday I was telling a friend that I have these wonderful opportunities to pray for people. About 3-4 times a day I have to sit quietly still and nurse the baby down for anywhere from five to twenty-five minutes. It's a sacred time, and I love it. Since she doesn't even like for me to READ, I am forced to just sit still. Which has been very heart-revealing to me. I use this time to pray. Mostly for people in my life. But I feel like I haven't really spent a lot of time praising God for being Himself, so great and abundantly rich in love, and thousands of other things I could praise Him for.
So, lo and behold, I open up my Bible this morning to Psalm 117 (above). Perfect! I thought. This will get me started. Psalm 118 is just as great and even more elaborate, and I read through it twice. I set out determined to praise God all day! What could be better?
Well...it sounds great, but in reality everything began to go wrong. We rushed around to leave by 8:20 and I couldn't find my keys. ANYWHERE. Brielle pulled up to the table and spilled an entirely full travel mug of hot coffee all over the door entrance (she didn't get it on her-thank God!). And I literally thought, "I still have to praise God, don't forget!"
So we took a walk that I literally wanted to close my eyes to, the sun, the wind, my tears. I know, silly tears. Things go wrong. I know.
So, when Brielle took only a 21 minute nap, and I was beginning to rank this up there with one of the worst mornings ever, hence my high level of frustration at this point, I realized this:
Things could get even worse than this if I still continue to Praise God! (and also if I don't) but no matter what, He deserves my praise today. He is more than worthy than any meager praise I can offer to Him with my day. And no matter what happens, what may or may not, I am called to burst out of my current unlikely situation and PRAISE the One who I believe in!!!

Photobucket slideshow 07/08

July & August pictures from my camcorder

I finally uploaded a few of the pictures from my camcorder onto here. Still searching for the cord for my phone though. I just put them on MYSPACE, so you can just check them out here.

Brielle crawls

So...I typed up this whole LONG blog on the day that Brielle turned 8 months old. Now, only 10 days later, her *newest* news seems not so exciting anymore...now that she is crawling, climbing, standing up and yes, even sometimes cruising around. Go figure. She can even drink out of a folded over straw. She can wave, and yap, and still is just as social of a baby as I've ever seen, smiling at everyone. I have 292 pictures to load from my camcorder and another 64 from my phone, but it seems everything revolves around a cord here for all of that...which seem to disappear???

Anyway, most important is the video, which documents Brielle on August 1, 2008 crawling the farthest she'd ever yet crawled at that point. It's SO cute! Praise God for camcorders! Might take awhile to load, I didn't know how to edit off the end of it...and didn't have time to find out.

The boys both went back to school today, so maybe I will get the chance to blog more?
Speaking of praising God, I think babies know how to do that, for real. Brielle stands up to this little wicker box in the center of the living room floor and with one hand up in the air just "bada BADA Bah DAH BaA!" PRAISE JESUS! is what I think all that means. Either that or she's going to be a public speaker and she's already practicing on her "soapbox." Either way, I'm still praying she'll be praising the One who made her such an amazing little JOY!!!!!!!

Enjoy the video: