A Mom's Right to Brag

David & I were eating lunch when Eve woke up from a nap & began crying. It was time for her to eat so I gobbled down the rest of my lunch, left David at the kitchen table to finish his lunch, while I went to the living room to feed Eve. I don't like doing this because I can't see what David is up to. In the middle of the feeding I get a phone call. So now I can't see OR hear what he might be up to. I hear some russeling around, put my friend on hold to tell David to come tell me what he was doing. He came to the living room & said, "I'm just cleaning up." I was a little concerned about what that meant so I stopped feeding Eve to go investigate. That child was indeed cleaning up. For lunch we had celery & carrot sticks, peanut butter & crackers. He was busy putting everything into the frig (even the peanut butter & crackers). Needless to say, he got double check marks on his chore chart for that great deed.

After putting David down for his nap Eve & I came to the living room. She was busy playing on the floor & I was right here on the couch searching out some great deals a friend just told me about. I look up just in time to see Eve roll from her back to stomach. Now, she's done this once before right after a bath when she was VERY upset, but she hadn't done it in several weeks. It looked like she was trying to roll back over, but she was kind of stuck on her playmat. I rolled her to her back & grabbed the video camera. And I caught it on video! She rolled from her back to her stomach & then to her back again. I was going to try to catch it with our digital camera so it would be easy to put the video on here, but she was done for now. Maybe next time. But I did get some pictures of her on her stomach.











































In this one you can see her trying to get up on her knees. In the video I took you can see her actually pushing herself forward a little bit trying to reach a toy in front of her. How awesome is that.

Woohoo! THIS is a good day! Thank you God!

Blue Jeans & Pearls

1 Samuel 1:27-28 NIV

I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give her to the LORD. For her whole life she will be given over to the LORD."















The Lord brought the story of Hannah to my mind only, at the time, I didn't know it was Hannah. I was only able to tell Geoff that it was a story of a barren woman who God finally granted a son to. Hannah promised God that once Samual was weaned she would give him to the service of the Lord.















Several of you asked about the dress Eve had on. My grandmother made the dress for me when I was baptised as an infant in the United Methodist Church 37 years ago.

Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey

Thanks, Nana, for sending us to the circus! We had a great time!

Happy Birthday Mom!

David was helping Geoff make a cake for my birthday.

She Did It!

Our baby girl rolled over from back to front this afternoon. After her bath I laid her on the floor to dress her, she was so mad, cause she hates baths, she was pushing herself onto her side with her feet, & she pushed hard enough that she rolled right over. Of course, that only made her even more mad. And putting her clothes on over her head made her mad again.

Finally Caught a Picture of Eve's Big Smile

Collins Christmas 2008

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Playing in the Snow (before it melts)

What must you wear outside in the snow when it's 30 degrees & I'm your mother?


2 pairs of socks
tennis shoes
jeans
long sleeve t-shirt
heavy sweatshirt with hood
heavy coat
hat
2 pairs of gloves

She's Growing!

Eve is growing! Now, you might be wondering why this is SO exciting for me. When David had his 2 month well visit with our pediatrician he had lost 3oz. 3oz doesn't sound like a lot but when you're a newborn it isn't good. So, the doctor suggested we begin supplementing him with formula. In hindsight I think this was a really bad idea. It began a vicious downward spiral of my milk supply. He ended up getting more & more formula & by 6 months old most of my milk had dried up. So, the fact that I'm exclusively breastfeeding Eve & that she's thriving is very exciting to me. Here's proof that's she growing. I don't know how well you can really see it in this picture, but her feet are straining again the ends of this sleeper that was a little big on her when we left the hospital. Also, the Pampers Swaddlers newborn diapers are getting a big snuf. We're going back to the doctor tomorrow. I'm excited to find out how much weight she's gained in the last 3 weeks. Eve is also beginning to smile & trying to make sounds (besides crying).

Evelyn Rose

Make a Smilebox postcard

Sharing

This morning David tried to share one of his blankets with Eve. If you know David & his blankets you know that this is a very big deal. He's a great big brother.

(I'll try to get more pix up ASAP.)

Welcome Evelyn Rose to the world
1:15 pm
7lbs 14oz
20.25"

Momma and baby are doing great.

I'm helping!

So, last night I came home from Bible study to find this:














David was helping Poppa put together the cradle for baby Eve. Very sweet. I just had to snap a couple of pictures. This was my cradle when I was born & David slept in it, too.

David the Dragon

David had a great time trick or treating this year. We started preparing a couple of weeks ago by checking out The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and a couple of Halloween books from the library. He learned that after ringing the doorbell he was supposed to say "trick or treat" and after they handed out the candy he was supposed to say "thank you." Well, instead of going door-to-door we ended up at Judson Baptist Church for their Trunk or Treating. We had a lot of fun & he got a lot of candy. He did okay saying "trick or treat" & really well saying "thank you."

David the cute dragon.



























Nana bought him this great dragon costume. Thanks, Nana!



























Our friends', the Murphy's were having a little Halloween party, so we decided to stop by for a few minutes. Here is David & his friend, Jackson, who was a train engineer.

And the sleepy dragon. He actually fell asleep between the church & the Murphy's.



























The loot! Look at all this candy from Trunk or Treating.

Baby Eve FYI

If Baby Eve doesn't make an appearance before Thursday morning, November 6 we will be heading to Vanderbilt Hospital for a planned c-section. For those who may not know or remember, I ended up with a c-section when David was born. So, the doctor who is over my midwife has recommended a repeat. We're excited to know when the next phase of this journey will begin. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.

Question

I was just looking through some of the Toys R Us Big Book & I have a couple of questions:
Since when does a toolbox (Home Depot) need to talk?
And why do need TinkerToys need to be pink? What's wrong with the primary colors? And they're plastic instead of wood. Why is that better?

Pregnancy Now & Then

Throughout this pregnancy I have been wondering how women did it in the "old" days. I'm talking about women as far back as Jesus' day & beyond. I realize that many times these women had multiple generations of family living with them who probably helped a great deal. But you know there were women alone, with other children to care for, while their husbands were gone for long hours every day or even gone for days, weeks, or months at a time trying to make a living for their family. These women HAD to cook from scratch or they didn't get to each. I'm sure many of them had to slaughter their own meat, milk their own cows, & grind their own flour. My first trimester I was so tired & sick that I didn't know what I wanted to eat. During my second trimester my back hurt so much that if I did one thing wrong it would hurt for the rest of the day; this includes standing on my feet for too long trying to cook a meal. Now, in my third trimester my belly is in the way of me bending over or getting to close to the counter.
During this pregnancy I have let my house go & we have been eating more convenience foods. I don't know how many times Geoff came home from work & I would announce that I had no idea what was for dinner. He's pretty good at whipping something up when I need him to, even if it's as simple as breakfast for dinner (thanks, honey). I'm sure it's going to be a while before we find our new "normal" but I'm ready for the next phase of our life to begin.

Update on "Blessings"

As it turned out the $10 wasn't lost. I had completely forgotten that I'd given it to Geoff to pay for David to get into the play area at the pumpkin patch. Then we didn't even need it because our friend Sandy paid for him to get in (Thanks, Sandy). Geoff just forgot to give the money back to me. Talk about pregnancy brain. It's still a blessing because since I didn't have it to spend on goodies I ended up using the money for groceries like I needed to.

Full of Blessings

Last night, about 9:30, Jim Becker called to invite us to go to Walden Farm with them this morning. I really wasn't sure about going given that we had all had a long week, I'm almost 38 weeks pregnant, & the list of reasons for not going could go on & on. I knew Geoff wanted to go to Barcamp today & I didn't think I could keep up with David on my own. I felt that Geoff needed to go to Barcamp since it was a free conference & he's transitioning to the IT world. However, after looking at the schedule for the conference & finding out that Walden Farm opened at 9, Geoff suggested that we drive both vehicles, he'd be able to stay for about an hour & a half, & at that point I could decide for myself if David & I would stay longer or just head home.

And this is where the first blessing of the day comes in. I'm very blessed to have such a thoughtful husband. I had given up on being able to take David to a pumpkin patch this year because our budget is so tight & because we're running out of time with Halloween being just 2 weeks away.

I think since my due date is so near I've become somewhat of a homebody & haven't gone out of my way to make time to hang out with friends. This is blessing #2. We saw many friends there. Not that we had a lot of time to chat since we were chasing after kids, but it was so nice to see everyone. We, of course, saw the Beckers, but we also saw the Cherry's. There were several other families from church there too: Shive's, Betterton's, Hollis', Alexander's, &I'm sure I'm forgetting someone.

Even the worst part of the morning I'm seeing as a blessing. I lost a $10 bill there. Normally this would have pretty much ruined my morning. I would have fretted over that $10 for the rest of the day, if not the rest of the weekend. Instead I think God has opened my eyes to see the loss in several other ways.

1. The lost $10 was well spent in the time I had with my family & friends. David had such a good time, which we all needed after such a long week.

2. I think, in a way, I was hoarding the money. Geoff had asked me for a few bucks in case he needed to pay for parking downtown. I had 4 $1's & the $10. Which did I give him? The 4 $1's. Why did I just give him the 4 $1's? Normally I would have said something about using the rest for groceries this week, but what I really wanted was a nice baked treat or two that they were selling at the farm.

3. I think God was telling me I didn't need to use my pregnancy to get yet another treat.

4. I pray that whoever found that $10 needed worse than we did.
Another blessing is that we had already bought a pumpkin. Given our tight budget that was something else I didn't see buying this year.

I guess because I've been reading so many other blogs lately, I've been wishing I would take the time to blog more. I definitely have things on my mind to put down. I don't fancy myself as a writer at all & I think that's one of the things that's been holding me back. I think this may be the longest post I've ever made. So, if some of it doesn't make much sense or if it feels like I'm rambling, I'm sorry. I'll still probably mostly post pictures of my family, but I hope to try to fill this space with more of my thoughts, too.