eight months, everybody.

and we're officially loving this stage of babydom. I mean, they all have their merits and super-sweet bits, but it's really fun to see how responsive margaretann's becoming and watch her explore her little world and exert her independence (or dependence, as the case may be!). here are our photos with Raggedy Ann:

demonstrating our ability to pull up onto the ottoman:

and the coffeetable!

but I don't want to sit still while you take a photo, could you hurry it along?

seriously, take the picture, woman.

aaaaand, I'm out! stuff to do, things to see, you know...

it's not you, Raggedy Ann. you'll always be my homegirl.

some tidbits about this month... we got our first tooth and Magz got truly sick for the first time and was a sad, sad sight for a week. she pretty much wanted to hang out on Mama 24-7, and has had a bit of mama's girl-itis since. a little separation anxiety is pretty developmentally normal for her age anyway, so we're giving her lots of love while still encouraging her to have a good time with other people at places like the Y, church, etc. the sickness threw everything off, but we're getting good sleep again (9p-7a usually) and her appetite for food is back. this week we've tried roasted acorn squash, which has gone over well. magz seems to be a fan of mixing the food together... fyi, homemade squash and homemade pears are flipping delicious all mixed up. she's crawling everywhere and pulling up, and still takes two (sometimes three) naps a day. she likes a lot of her toys and still enjoys the exersaucer. we're seeing more of a strength in her personality... she babbles sweetly - sometimes it's reeely loud (which sounds fairly hilarious to us and has earned her the moniker 'the banshee'), and when she's upset about something I get the sense that she's really letting me have it in baby-speak. she experiences quite a few disappointments/spills/frustrations throughout the day as she tries new things and struggles to communicate wants and needs, but is generally pretty good about allowing herself to be emotionally redirected by mom & dad. and sometimes she just has to cry a little. :) she definitely likes to play and explore and then look around to reconnect with us, and it's one of my pleasures to stop and spend time with her throughout the day or plant her on my hip as I put away laundry. I love that she yearns for me right now... it's such a sweet time, and I'm grateful for it.

in short... we like her a lot and I'm so, so thankful for my little family.

-m.y.

photos trapped in camera - send help!

I was going to post a whole lotta photos and video, but my camera/computer connector is bent and I think I have to go buy another one. boo! BUT, that made me look for something else to post about, since the baby and hubs are still in bed and I have this expanse of coffee time.

I think this is terribly worthy.

we saw Amy Seiffert on the news yesterday, and I just got finished visiting her website/blog. what a great example to me right now. the news was covering her decision to wear the same dress for six months to raise money for the daughter project, and she came off as just being a fun, vibrant person. I really appreciated that, in a montage showing her wearing the dress different ways, one quick shot showed her holding a sign that read, 'Micah 6:8'. which is:

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.

And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy

and to walk humbly with your God.

I want more stories of Christians like this, please.

stirring from the nursery. let's get this show on the road.

-m.y.

of apples and support

one of my renewed resolutions (because they're always the same, really) is to keep learning to make room for space and activities that are purely for my mental and physical health, because I'm a better wife/mother/worker/friend/human being when I'm not wound up and endlessly tasking. a truth made all the more stark by the addition of a baby into our lives. these spaces/activities include, but are not limited to, the following:

making the most of opportunities to sleep/rest

reading

exercise

eating - not skipping meals or getting into ruts of eating things that aren't good for me

seeing friends and engaging with people

keeping up with my appearance

and volunteering my time and skills where I can, when I'm able.

and, of course, all of these fall behind the main one involving God and His desire to be on my schedule. how bad that sounds to me... fitting God into MY schedule. boo. this creation needs renewed perspective of the Creator.

I've already finished my first book of the year - Beautiful Boy, by David Sheff. I bought it almost a year ago, along with a couple of other books I'm hoping to crack into soon. according to the jacket, it was the best nonfiction book of 2008, and I can certainly understand why. it's a tough book about the descent of a young man into meth addiction, as seen through the eyes of his father. as Nic fell further into the black hole of addiction, Sheff tried to take some kind of control and make sense of what was happening to his son by doing a lot of research, which is educational but frankly interested me less than the actual story of what happened to his family. it's heartbreaking and exasperating, and a really good read for anyone wanting a glimpse into what it's like to deal with addicts, the frustrating nature of treatment for many of them, and the necessity of help and support for families of addicts. I DID find one part of his research interesting - in searching the country to get treatment for Nic, you get the strong sense that Sheff found rehabs and such to be, in many ways, a crapshoot - expensive and tough to quantify/qualify in terms of 'success' or actual, lasting help. I really enjoy true stories - real life experiences can be so compelling. that's why I like documentaries so much, too, though I don't see near as many as I'd probably like.

I've also been to the gym twice in the last week, which is a major step up from 'nothing'. it's also on the list for today! woo-hoo! I'll happily share this little piece of support equipment - yes, equipment - that has made my gym experience fully 80% better:

I never had to really worry about such things before, but we're living in a post-baby world and all things are new. I now have the gray sports bra (Victoria's Secret VSX Sexy Sport) pictured above, and I can't tell you the difference it makes. normally I avoid things with underwires, but this bra is awesome and provides really good support. my attempts at running on the treadmill are no longer painful, plus I just feel generally less sloppy. they're not cheap, but in my opinion it's worth every cent and I'd enthusiastically recommend everyone get one.

here's something guaranteed to make you chuckle. this was our first experience with applesauce. funny, we've given her a bit of banana and the applesauce, and her reactions to both were to make these faces, like they're bitter. I suppose anything tastes crazy after rice cereal, oatmeal, and multigrain/barley cereal (the latter of which is our fave). please note, she's trying to be nice and giving me smiles and things in this video, but a few bites later she was all, 'um, I hate to be rude but really don't want it. AT ALL. stop it. I'm going to clamp my mouth shut against that gross stuff.' this morning's effort was a little more successful, as I mixed just a little of the applesauce into her cereal that she wolfed down. I only tried a little more of straight applesauce at the end, a couple of small bites of which she stoically choked down. we may switch to peas after the three day apple introduction and see how she feels about veggies.

thanksgiving 1.0

during my Mothers Of Pre-Schoolers group last week, I got the inspiration to serve a thanksgiving meal to the kids that come to church on Wednesday night. they already get snacks and stuff, I just thought it would be incredibly appropriate to actually have a real meal. so on Sunday, we asked the church for donations and as of COB Monday we had a bunch of money and willing volunteers to help! here's a peek at how it went down:

group shot #1. they look so SERIOUS.

group shot #2. MUCH BETTER!

look at whitney's cute banner! I made the signs with beth c's help:

sara's explaning what's what. we had turkey, ham, pizza, mashed potatoes, yams, green beans, mac & cheese, and broccoli-rice casserole, along with lots of fun desserts and drinks (including hot apple cider, which many of the kids were somewhat suspicious of). our guests were actually really good about trying some new things (even the apple cider!), and after we invited some of the adults from Cafe Grace over to have a bite we were still able to send a lot of food home with the kids:

we like these people a lot:

V.I.P. table:

the older kids (mostly) patiently waited for the little kids to go first:

my main cohort in thanksgiving crime. this girl was a huge help and is just a seriously lovely human being:

magz was with me @ the church for most of the day. she had her rough patches, but all's well that ends well. :)

I'm so glad we did this, and I'm grateful to everyone who helped! thanksgiving blessings!

-m.y.

holy mackerel! that's impressive drawing. :)

if you haven't already seen this, it's pretty amazing to watch. I'd be curious to hear any responses to the content, especially from educators.

good news, cherries, and other favorite things

the best thing about today was going to my doctor, hearing his positivity, and seeing my fluids up a little again. the baby's heart rate is great and she's moving a lot - I even got to see her curl up her little toes on the ultrasound, which I loved. the doc said we'd wait and see what my specialist says on Monday and hope to formulate a game plan from there. but yay - go rest and water! I'd really like to be on the other side of 37 weeks before she comes, but I'm open to whatever is best.

we've still got pictures floating around in my brother-in-law's camera, but here are a few from mine from the SWC baby shower:









and this was just after they refinished our floors:

pretty, huh?! we love how they turned out.

and THESE are some of my favorite things today.

Daddy's first present to her - he brought these home today:

Yaya's kitty. it's been with me since I was three, and it made me happy

to hang it in our little girl's room.

Whale spout cover and rubber ducky!

this is what you see when you're in the tub. the whale watches you.

I adore this owl-y pack-n-play.

and this dog.

this photo is full of favorite things: the painting (a friend painted it - it's called 'Eisenglass', which means 'clarifying agent'), the trusty and comfy leather couch, the macbook, and my lucky Houston Oilers water glass.

this man. every day, but especially today.

the dinner he made me.

and there will be brownies later.

-m.y.

renovate: to restore to a former, better state (as by cleaning, repairing, or rebuilding) - merriam-webster

the house steadily moves forward, not super-fast-like but in a manner in which we're happy with what's getting done. to start, let's take a look at gadgets and products that are topping our favorites list:

pink ceiling paint! this stuff RULES... you can easily see where you've been and don't waste paint going back over places you're unsure of.



double whammy shot: pink ceiling paint and the shop light! thanks to the handy shop light, we could work into the night in rooms in which we'd removed the lighting fixtures... we also used it to figure out which outlets were on which breakers so we could label them.



these paint can lids are a wonderful invention. not only does it make pouring a snap, it's so much less messy than opening and closing the can lid all the time.



dollar store rubber spatula (photo not available)

thanks to this little guy, we're able to scrape cans/trays and save a lot of paint that otherwise would likely be wasted.

one day last weekend (they're all running together), we embarked on the Great Lighting Fixture Caper, which involved multiple trips to Home Depot/Lowe's to hunt down which fixtures we wanted, purchase them, get them home, put them up, decide we didn't like them, take them back, get them home, discover the ceiling fan hangs down too far, take it back, etc. in the end, tired but thankful for Lowe's no-questions-asked return policy, we were very happy with what we got:



one of my FAVORITE fixes... we really liked this fan and the price was right, but the globe was white. those globes over there in the dining room are amber-ish. who cares, right? me. I do. so I started brainstorming how to match them a bit better, took the globe outside, and rubbed dirt on it. boom! behold the designer look! (and if we ever change our minds, it all comes clean with water and a rag):



another fun fix... we found these smaller fans and thought they'd be perfect for the bedrooms (they actually match the initial fan we'd bought for the living room - the problem was that the larger fan couldn't be mounted to hug the ceiling... it would have hung down low enough for a tall person to whack themselves in the head while crossing our living room). anyhoo, these still seemed like a good choice for the bedrooms, apart from the gold/bronze band around the middle. observe:



it just looked a little dated to me, a little saloon-y. I purchased a $1.16 tube of raw umber acrylic paint from Hobby Lobby, tore a corner off of my kitchen sponge, and went to town:



I know it's a tiny thing, but all of our fixtures are starting to look like they live in the same family now.



one of the things I've been doing a LOT of is simple cleaning. weird how much better cleaning something makes it look and smell, and makes you feel. the old linoleum in the kitchen and bathroom was pretty gross, so I gave everything a once-over with the mop and it really did make everything feel better, even just to work in. our hopes for the kitchen are to paint the walls and cabinets, replace the countertop, sink, and refrigerator, notch out and install a dishwasher over there to the left of the sink, and someday replace the stove:



even clean, the floor's not in great shape and portions of it are cracking, as seen in the next photo. underneath it is another layer of older linoleum, and then concrete floor:



we weren't sure what we were going to do about it, then decided to just scrape it all up and paint/seal the concrete like I did in this room way back when:



it's a pretty cost-effective fix for now, until we get the foundation done someday and entertain notions of real tile and whatnot. we'll likely repaint the room above, the kitchen, and the bathroom floor all with a $25 5-gallon bucket of OOPS! paint I picked up the other day.

I continue to find new holes to fill in and sand down in preparation for paining the walls. I'll say it again... our sweet renters never met a nail they didn't want to make out with. :) we also found this busted kitchen drawer that'll need replacing:



I've been prepping, prepping, and prepping for the walls to be painted in the hall, the bedrooms, and the living/dining room this weekend. yesterday's task was to fill in the rest of the cracks/holes, start washing down walls, and remove the baseboards. let me tell you, it was a dusty mess. my little hand broom was worth it's weight in gold to me as I tried to get everything clean and labeled so we can recycle by painting and put them back in the end after the wood floors are done. I also used the hand broom to go around the window and door trim to get everything nice and neat so the people who paint have an easy time. look ma, no baseboards!



what's that? pregnant ladies shouldn't be around all of that dust and whatnot? oh, dear reader, never fret... I'm being as careful as I can, and I work with as many windows open as possible. I LOVE that you can open every window in that house! M and I have missed the open window (most of the ones at 406 have been sealed). see, here's me being thuggy with my mask:



and taking an end-of-day breather with Chino, who seems a bit confused at going between the two houses right now. I like taking him with me to work over there, though - he gets to exhaust himself stalking the yard and sniffing at neighbor dogs through the fence and I get to feel safe and enjoy his quiet company.



today's skeleton of a to-do list:

fold laundry
get my act together
go to yoga
go to Woodfin: finish sanding and wiping down walls, stock the 'fridge with beverages for the weekend, um... I know there's something else.
go to do some voice work later
come back to Woodfin to watch husband install the baby room ceiling fan (he has to anchor it in the attic first).

I can't wait to see some new color on the walls. :) the kitchen and bathroom are going to be pretty big projects, but it's nice to see the easier rooms being transformed already.

-m.y.