Quiet Monday Morning

Ahh, life is peaceful. Judah is REALLY getting into a good routine now, and we are learning tricks of his trade for how to comfort him and such. He is getting more and more interactive with each few days. His smile is to die for and it makes us giddy when he "talks" back to us. This is Judah with Humphrey, a big dog Matt has had since childhood. We're going to take milestone pictures to chart Judah's growth. I'm so bummed we didn't get one when Judah was newly born!


I have my 6-week check-up today. Can't wait to find out how much more I've lost...if any. :-P I'll also be glad to know what kind of exercise I can start doing. I miss stretching and feeling that after exercise feel! I imagine I'll have to be careful though. I was sore quite a bit last week for some odd reason. And it'll be fun to see how much more gets added to the new wardrobe fund!

A tribute to my sister-in-law, Melody. She got asked to prom by Aaron, a friend of hers. Isn't she gorgeous?? Since her dress was Spanish looking (to fit her Spanish beauty), I sent her my Spanish black jewelry that I wore to a banquet in college. It goes so well, does it not? She looks splendiferous!

Quick Post

Two nights ago, Judah slept from about 11:00 to 5:00. Could this be the beginning of the transition to all-night-sleeping??? If so, we'll have yet another criteria to put under our belt of wondering if Judah is a little advanced. AND we'll have more restful sleep!

Just had to share these adorable smiles. I hope they brighten your day as they do mine! But I get the real thing every morning. ;-) Sooo glad to have another morning person in the house!



This was his outfit on Tuesday. Again, thank you Todd! He looks like a little person in these clothes! And last night I had to take off the pj's we put on him because they are obviously on the brink of too small -- you can see the seams pulling in some places and he can't really straighten his leg 100%. :-P A growin' boy! And note the new shadow on his head...yes indeed his hair is growing back! It's so fun to feel! Does this mean he's got a mullet now since he's got long hair at the base of his neck??

The other pic is the embroidery I did for Katie Mei Firstbrook, a sweet Chinese baby that Karen and Ron are adopting. They go to get her in May! Remember way back in Jackson when I made this quilt for a lady who never called me back? How precious to think that God intended it to be for the Firstbrooks all along...He just had a unique plan to get it made! I pray the Scriptures encourage the whole family and that Katie Mei will learn to love the Word! The invitation to the shower was adorable..."April Showers bring Katie Mei flowers!" I realize Karen might check my blog before the shower tonight...but there's no telling when I'll have a moment to post again! She has already seen the quilt, but not the embroidery. Hey, if she doesn't check my blog and has forgotten about the quilt, maybe she'll still be semi-surprised! :-P

Hodge Podge and of course Pictures

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! We certainly did. Duane and Doannie invited us to her parents' house up in the mountains and several other families were there. We had lots of fun watching the kids dye eggs, eating the delicious food, and taking in a GORGEOUS view of God's creations. We had our Bible study there yesterday since we were all there anyway. It was mine and Matt's turn to lead. God truly has given my man a gift of leading/teaching! Makes me love Him/him all the more!

Check out what we got to see in nature! So close to what Hawaii looks like, including the hairpin turn in the road! There were six deer. They are wild but feel comfortable roaming in the backyard. There were also wild turkeys. It poured off and on, and God blessed us with a magnificent rainbow! And we like to call the carseat picture "Baby Parking." That's Samuel, the 9 month old son of some people we are slowly getting to know at church. She's a fellow nursing mother and we sometimes get to chat on Sunday mornings. I also made my first lemon merengue pie. It was perfection when it came out of the oven...but then was pitiful after it cooled. The merengue separated from the edges of the crust and got moisture beads on it. A new challenge or something to never try again? :-P (In order to save blog space, I made these small. But remember you can click on them to enlarge!)



A few days ago, Judah got his first "submerge" bath. It was so much fun! We only got two pictures. The rest is video. He really loves the bath! (Or so we assume.) He never cries or even hints at fussing. Yes! Another water baby to add to the family!



This morning I went to check on Judah (one of the few times he napped today ::sigh:: growth spurt week I believe). This is how he was frozen in sleep. I took time to get the camera and he was still like this when I came back. Bed hog. Just like his Daddy. :-) Then this afternoon I was about to lay him down in his crib for a nap, moved the blanket in the crib, and THIS crawled out. ::whilly nillies:: I obviously wasn't going to smash it into the bedding...or smash it period. So I got a glass and waited for Matt to come home. He slid a piece of paper under the glass and folded it up around the glass. Then we contemplated how to kill it. Would it drown in water? Could we throw it on the floor and smash it (the spider, not the glass)? Well, I thought, hey why not use some type of cleaning solution. About a half inch of Armstrong floor cleaner will kill a large spider in approx. 1 minute. You can watch it convulse in death and then slowly stop moving. I tried to keep remorse at bay. It was a spider of all things. I just think it's hard to watch death occur. We then decided I need to write a book "A Woman's Guide to Killing Creatures with Household Products." Hairspray freezes and kills wasps. Scrubbing Bubbles kills ants. Armstrong kills spiders.



We got a very pleasant surprise this evening after dinner. We've been praying for opportunity to get to know our neighbors. The ones below us are originally from India, moved to Canada, and then moved here. They have two kids, a boy 2 and a girl 5. They came right on up to visit with us! They brought a gift of two adorable jumpsuits for Judah -- the first clothes with little airplanes on them. They stayed for a good while and conversation flowed quite nicely. We have known for a while that each other was "religious" and we found out they are Catholic. He asked us tonight if we were, so the door was opened a little bit as we told them about the church we go to. We talked about all sorts of things -- they rarely ever hear us (praise the Lord!), where they are from in India, what languages we all speak, child development, food, etc. Sometime soon we are going to have a meal together. If she cooks first, I hope it's not too spicy or weird! :-P

And now I must get to bed! There's no telling how often Judah will want to eat tonight. Sheesh! He had several times today where he wanted to eat every hour on the dot! And he ate alot! Such a growin' boy! Until the next update...

One Month Check-up and Silly Names

Judah had his one month appointment today. We still love Dr. Cantor! :-) Here are his new stats and some pictures...

Height: 21.5" (up 1.5")

Weight: 11.4 lbs (up 2+ lbs)!!! Dr. C said newborns gain anywhere from .5 oz to 2 oz per day...so Judah is on the upper end of the scale.


Bellybutton status: He finally has one! Dr. C snipped off the cord today after inspecting it and finding that the cord had simply dried onto Judah. It really wasn't attached anymore. Was there blood? Yes, but mommy kept reminding herself that Dr. C knew what he was doing. :-)

Cuteness status: DUH! :-P

This is what he wore last Sunday. Our friend Todd came into a whole lot of baby clothes that he let us go through. I chose a few "real people" clothing items so he has more than just pj's to wear to church. Thanks, Todd! We call this his "Abercrombie Photo Shoot."



"Hey there, good lookin!" says Judah.



A little winky wink from the stud. And a hilarious head shot!



Lovin' his swing. And this one of him sleeping is to show you all that he continues to "present" the top part of his head as he did during labor...the reason why we ended up with a c-section. He ALWAYS throws his head back whether sleeping, waking, feeding, playing...



And a delicious Cookies N Cream Cake I made...

Comment Becomes Post

Ok, I was commenting on one of Ben's blogs (worship blogs at left), and decided that I wanted to POST my comment. It has been one of the deepest ponderings of my heart lately. Why? Because Chris Tomlin's song "How Great Is Our God" has been number 1 on the charts for several weeks. Here's my comment...

I'm excited too about Chris Tomlin's success [5 Dove awards]. "How Great is Our God" is kind of Judah's song from my perspective. Why? Let me take a moment to write a book in your comments.

July 1, 2005 (the day before our 1st anniversary). We found out we were blessed with child -- the sudden beginning of a new life. Exactly one week later (the day before I left for Guatemala), we found out our dear friend Bethany along with her sister and parents were killed in a tragic car/semitruck accident leaving our dear friend Matt as the only one left in his family -- the sudden end of life. Around that time was when we first started hearing this song, which includs "Beginning and the End" in its lyrics. I can NOT get through that part without choking up. My thoughts are "Beginning...Judah's life...and the End...Bethany's home going." And now when I am holding Judah and hear or sing that song...when I arrive at that line...THAT is the moment that I cherish Judah most fiercely in my heart. Because he truly was a sudden gift and life is but a vapor. I can't tell you how many times I pondered choosing "Bethany Grace" as a girl's name if we had a girl. ::getting teary now even::

Then later in the song it says "Lion and the Lamb." Well. Jaclyn pointed out that Rachel means lamb, a name she wants for one of her daughters Lord willing. So we've got Judah and Rachel, Lion and Lamb. :-)

And the whole theme of the song. Proclaiming God's greatness! What does Judah Gabriel mean? "Praised Hero of God." That is our prayer for Judah. That he would be a hero of God, one that others can't help but see him and be pointed to his Creator. That Judah would cause others to sing with him of how great our God is!

Yep. It's Judah's song.

Picture Post!

Can you believe it? Judah Gabriel will be one month tomorrow. My goodness time flew! He is so much bigger now than he was. I don't even consider him newborn size anymore. After one nap the other day, Matt said "I think he grew during his nap!" I agree. :-) I think it is safe to officially say we have settled into our new normal life. Nursing is quite well established, though we are still working on more of a routine.

His one month appointment is on Tuesday, and I can't wait to find out how much he weighs/measures. And I think he gets shots. :-( Matt can't go because of school and the next available appt wasn't until Judah would be almost 2 months. Sooo..God went before us once again and Jenny B. had been planning to come visit this next week. So she can take Judah and I. :-)

New things Judah is doing: grabbing lots of things with his hands (including pinching!), smiling in response to us rather than at random, truly laughing in his sleep, holding his head up for lengths of time, jumps quite forcefully with his legs when you hold him up, doesn't cry at bath time (I really think he loves having his hair washed), and he is out of newborn size diapers.

What we are waiting for: his silly cord to fall off!!!, more interactive cooing, his hair to grow back (he's gotten quite the Captain Picard look), and we are about to introduce the bottle so Matt can occasionally feed him (pray!).

I know you all will thoroughly enjoy the pictures. I sure do! They are all from this last week. I especially love the last series. That was during a wake time I had with him. It was so much fun! I got a lot of video, including a yawn, sneeze, and coo. We're trying to figure out how to get video on the net so you all can see! Don't forget you can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Praise God with us for a continued healthy happy baby boy!

Twelve Cheap Humble Cups of Hospital Visitors

We had our first family grocery outing on Saturday. Judah was SO good! He slept the whole time. It was a nice trip. Why? Ok. FOUR POUNDS of strawberries for only $3. Insane. And yes, they are delicious. What else was nice? Autumn introduced me to Grape Nuts Trail Mix cereal. Well, cereal out here is quite expensive for some reason. Yeah...they were having a sale -- 2 boxes for $4 AND they had coupons right next to the boxes! So we got two boxes for less than $4! Maybe we shoudl have bought more? And, we have humbled ourselves. We decided to NOT get Starbucks and debase ourselves to Folgers classic roast. This was done in an attempt to save almost $10 on coffee and to see if we could be satiated by home brewed coffee other than Starbucks. The verdict? I think I almost like it better! Praise the Lord for cheaper but good tasting coffee!

I finished Twelve Ordinary Men by MacArthur this morning. I decided to experiment with reading while nursing Judah at night to help keep me awake and to pass the time more quickly. You can really get through a book quickly when you do that, I've found! I started this book MONTHS ago and let it collect dust for quite some time in between my reads. It's a good book, though not quite what I expected. It was hard to shake the feeling that MacArthur pulled alot of assumptions about the Apostles' characters from the Scriptures that speak of each one. I can SEE how he would arrive at the conculsions he did from those passages, but in no way would I say it is fact. It was definitely a good and easy read though. This morning, I read a quote by Spurgeon in the chapter on Judas Iscariot. (Which by the way, Judas is a form of Judah and means "Jehovah leads." Interesting huh? God chooses some to be vessels of wrath...) The quote was about the tesnion between divine sovereignty and human choice. And I think it can and should be said of all the seeming paradoxes in Scripture:

...it is only my folly that leads me to imagine that these two truths can ever contradict each other. I do not believe they can ever be welded into one upon any earthly anvil, but they certainly shall be one in eternity. They are two lines that are so nearly parallel, that the human mind which pursuses them farthest will never discover that they converge, but they do converge, and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, whence all truth doth spring.

Astounding and perfectly true.

And finally, for some pics of those who visited us in the hospital. Sorry if you were there but don't appear here! We didn't get pictures of everyone, but we are so thankful for the love and refreshment we received from everyone!

Auntie Auttie, Tita Thea & Robin, Nonie (Great Grandma of JG), Karen's sweater & Judah (his first reaally alert time), Duane &Doreen (CA Grandparents), Nini (Grandma of JG)



And good news!! The other set of family gets to come in June!! We can't wait for Judah to meet them and vice versa!