A Great Night

We got to bed at our normal time of around 10:00 PM last night. I had the alarm set for 5:15 so that I would have time to work out before I had to start my day of working from home. I woke up around 4:30 or 4:45 to the sound of Noah eating next to me. It turns out that he slept from about 10 to 4 last night. Amanda fed him, put him back down, and then he slept until about 7:30. Overall, I think Amanda got over 8 hours of sleep! Of course, it was still interrupted, but she feels pretty good this morning. I think that it was a much-needed rest.

Meanwhile, Lily seemed to wake up on the wrong side of the bed. She ended up getting a timeout in the basement because of her attitude. In fact, she got so hysterical that she ended up spitting up at the top of the basement stairs. I made her clean it up though. Hopefully she will learn that there are wrong ways to address mommy and daddy.

To paraphrase Darth Vader, "The Force is strong with this one".

Endurance

Amanda verified that chocolate is a factor in Noah's GER. She had a little bit last night despite her chocolate fast and he spit up a lot more today. The thought of a chocolateless existence is a bleak one for Amanda. It's been a rough day. For better or worse she has to take the kids to Lily's open house tonight. I would go, but I have class tonight. I am looking forward to going for Lily's first day on Tuesday though.

If you can please do pray for Amanda. We know it will get better, but it's hard to see that sometimes when things are so dark. I plan to work from home tomorrow, which might help except that they are having guests in the morning. Amanda is hoping that she can nap while Lily is at daycare since Noah tends to take good naps then.

We're working on it, but always appreciate prayers.

Feeling Thrifty

Amanda is looking for teacups for Lily's upcoming ballerina tea party. She figured that she could get some cheap at the various thrift stores in the area. She went to one today and came up dry. However, she did find two dresses and a jumper for Lily. They were only $2.50 each and Lily was very excited to get them.

When Lily and I were saying prayers tonight I asked her what she was thankful for. We talked about the dresses. I explained to her that some little girls don't have any dresses. She thought about it for a minute and asked, "They only have shorts?" In other words, to Lily there are only dresses and shorts/T-shirt combinations. I explained to her that some girls don't have any clothes (I was thinking some of Africa, for example) and she said, "Then you can see their panties?"

It's just not conceivable to Lily that anyone could be completely impoverished. I guess it's tough for me to conceive either. I've never really wanted for anything in my life. Lily hasn't either. I'm glad that we're providing for her, but I do think that we might want to do a family mission trip at some point so that we can get a dose of what reality is to some people.

The Chaos of Company

Lily is currently visiting with her friend Levi. Amanda knows his mom from church and we have done much trading of babysitting so that we can go out on dates. Lily gets along great with Levi and his brother Trek. Amanda enjoys the boys as well and she likes having a chance to chat with their mom too.

On the other hand, I find that it is better for me to stay out of the fray when Lily has friends over. I can tell that something is going on based on what I hear from the basement. It isn't always pretty, but Lily typically reports having fun.

Noah is doing well, but he is off what Amanda considers to be his optimum sleeping schedule. He is now waking up around 2:30 and then around 5:45. It works great for me, but it's tough for Amanda because she ends up having to get up around 7:00 or 7:30 because I go to work. Hopefully she will get a good nap in today.

Looking for a Pattern

We can't quite figure out Noah out. He came out as such a quiet, placid little thing. We were amazed at how little he spit up, but now we realize that was because he was hardly eating. We were thrilled by how quiet he was, but now we realize that was because he was a premie and really tired. Things have changed in the past 9+ weeks.

We thought that we had his pattern figured out. He would sleep well during the days, but he would get fussy from about 5 - 9 every night. This was OK, though it's going to be a problem once I start going to class. Today he turned the tables around. He was fussy most of the afternoon; consequently, Amanda couldn't get a nap. The good news for me is that he has been quietly napping all evening. He slept for a while in his room, but then woke up fussy. I've had him in the swing for about an hour and a half. I'm glad for the quiet, but I'm sorry for Amanda.

We think that Lily's dentist appointment may have thrown him off. Let's hope that tomorrow is a better day.

By the way, Lily's teeth are great. She has 10 on top and 10 on bottom. She got a fluoride treatment today. She needs to brush her back teeth better, but she's off to a good hygeinic start.

Singing

As I mentioned yesterday, I took Lily to Cary's Lazy Daze art festival. The highlight was the Band of Brother's concert. One of the songs they do is "Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake. That song is also on one of our editions of "Karaoke Revolution" and is one that I sing. I like the driving guitar in the chorus, so I like to sing the song. The problem is that it's in an awkward range for me and I have to change the octave I'm singing in a couple of times. Since I'm not such a great singer anyway, the results aren't so pretty.

Lily made the comment during the song, "Karl sings this song better than you do, daddy." I explained to her that Karl sings every song better than I do.

We're talking about a guy who has a better ear for music than probably 99.9% of the world. Then there is me who has had to struggle to make passable music on the guitar and harmonica.

Lazy Daze

Lily and I made it out to Lazy Daze today. Unfortunately, today is hot in a way that only the South can get hot. When I went out jogging at 6:30 today it was already 77 with a 90% relative humidity. It is currently 88 in the shade at 3:51 PM and in the sun it is around 100.

We really don't get a whole lot out of these art festivals. We don't need anything carved out of wood. As much as I'd like one we don't need a clock with the OSU logo on the front. We don't need any doll clothes that fit American Girl. So why go to this swelter-fest?

We wanted to see the Band of Brothers play. For those who don't know, the Band of Brothers is a 70's and 80's classic rock cover band based out of our church. They have gone to Kyrgyzstan twice and Venezuela once. On these "tours" they do shows and tell people about a free Christian rock concert at the end of the week. Their shows raise money for local churches and other charities. Frankly, they just plain rock. They do stuff ranging from .38 Special's "Hold on Loosely" to "Jumpin' Jack Flash" by the Stones. I think my favorite is when they do "Summer of '69", which is how they closed out the show. They seemed to have a lot of people singing along when they did "Takin' Care of Business".

At any rate, it was worth sweating for. My feet hurt from breaking in new sandals and I desperately need a shower before Amanda and I go out to dinner tonight. Amanda and Noah stayed home because of the heat.

We did have one casualty though. In the course of throwing Lily up in the air somehow I inadvertently snagged the corner of a fingernail. It bent back and cracked in the nail bed. She's not happy about it and is of course being very dramatic. I can't imagine how she will be when she gets a more serious injury someday.

A Better Evening

Little Noah had a better evening than usual last night. I think that we've been in a mindset of trying to stuff him full of milk since he started off so slowly. Now he's gaining weight steadily and seems to be healthy except for his reflux (GER). Amanda cut him off from eating a little sooner last night and that seemed to help.

Amanda did some research on ways to treat GER. Unfortunately, there is no medicine they can give him. There used to be one, but it has been discontinued because of some bad side-effects. Some say that mom's diet can affect GER in breast-fed babies, so Amanda is cutting out garlic and chocolate. This is a fairly large sacrifice for her. We use garlic in much of our cooking and Amanda typically has some chocolate at least once a day. She is doing this for a week to see how he reacts.

I'm trying to be as supportive as I can. I'm going to make her some plain peanut butter ice cream so she can have that for dessert. Hopefully she won't mind too much if I make another batch of Oreo mint :)

Welcome to the Madhouse

We had Lily's cousin Brenna visiting today. She is a very sweet girl, but she is starting to show some signs of being in the 2s. She does have a stubborn streak to her, but we know how to deal with that. For some reason she wouldn't eat her last bite of turkey at lunch so she didn't get any M&Ms.

Still, she has been very sweet and a pleasure to have visiting. It just adds to the chaos. She is still in the taking toys out just to take toys out stage. Lily of course likes to have someone to boss around as well. It's motivated me to stay in the basement while I work from home.

Noah is doing well. He's got pretty much his normal volume of spit-up, but he seems to be OK. As things stand right now, life is good.

A Short Chat

I took a little extra time to leave the house this morning because I have class tonight. I knew that I'd be at my desk late, so I felt no pressure to get into the office on time. I used that extra time to send out my weekly accountability emails for Setting Captives Free. It's something that I just like to check off my list every week.

As I sat typing I heard Lily at the top of the stairs. She asked me if I could come upstairs so she could talk to me "briefly". It turns out that she just wanted me to flash the lights and beep the horn of the car when I left. She asks me to do this every day, but she is afraid that I won't do it if she doesn't ask me. Anyhow, that is what she wanted to speak to me about "briefly".

It's pretty cool to hear her use adverbs like that. She is always full of surprises.

2 Month Visit

Noah had his 2 month doctor visit today and things went pretty well. The doctor believes that he has acid reflux, which explains the volume of sputum coming out of our little one. It also explains some of his fussiness around mealtimes. It still seems ironic that I declared him not to be a big spitter while we were at the hospital. Turns out that he just had to start eating.

He weighed in at 11 lbs, 7 oz. This puts him around the 50th percentile. I don't know the number, but his length is also about average. I guess his head is a bit smaller than average. Overall, he is a healthy little guy.

Soothing the Savage Breast

I think every baby is a little different regarding soothing tactics. Lily was pretty high maintenance and demanded that we walk up and down stairs with her. At the very least we had to be up and walking.

Noah is a little less demanding. I've found that he likes it when I play my guitar and sing. It's nice that someone likes to hear me sing :)

He also likes it when I walk around with him and practice my bible memorization. I'll walk around upstairs with and recite the book I'm practicing. He will usually fall asleep in my arms.

It's nice that, so far, he enjoys the things I do. We'll see if it lasts.

A Great Weekend

I really try to write in this blog and my other one daily. Often I don't because I don't have time for it. However, this is a time when I don't have a lot to write in this blog. We have had a pretty good weekend. Noah has been pretty good. Lily has been pretty good, though she still has to fight the 'tude. Right now everyone else is napping while I get a few things done.

It's times like this when it is good to remember just how incredibly blessed we are. There are millions of people in the world who don't know if they will wake up tomorrow morning because of hunger, war, lack of shelter, or any number of reasons. Here I am in my air-conditioned basement listening to a baseball game over the internet, and telling the world about my family. Life is good. Specifically, God is good.

Announcements Coming

I suspect some of you have been waiting for the birth announcement for Noah. As anyone with more than one child knows, sometimes things move a bit more slowly with the second. Here are the proofs of the front and the back to whet your appetite.

Ups and Downs

We can't figure out our little guy. He'll have one great night and we think that he's turned a corner, and then he'll have a really bad night. Last night was not so good. It was great that he slept from about 9:30 until around 2:00. It wasn't so good that Amanda didn't get back to sleep until 3:45 or so. At least he slept in until 6:30. Amanda really wanted to get a nap in today, but he was screaming and won't let her have it.

He's still easier than Lily was.

On a brighter note, the birth announcements have arrived. I can't wait to pass them out!

Coming Soon!

Grandparents -- you will be happy to know that I figured out what I was doing wrong with burning DVDs. I believe I can now make you a DVD of the kids that will work in your DVD players. I'm going to start by trying to do one of the Mother's Day film. If it does work I will send one out to you.

Of course, this means that we need to get serious about gathering some Noah footage as well. Stay tuned...

Family Singing

As a family we've been playing a lot of "Karakoe Revolution". Specifically, we play a lot of the fourth edition. For a while Lily insisted on singing "Sweet Caroline" every time she sings. She would only sing the chorus, and not with much gusto either.

However, now she's taken to singing "Turn the Beat Around", which is better to listen to. What's great is that she actually can do pretty well on the chorus. The hard part is getting her to sing and not imitate the character on the screen. Our daughter is such a ham, which she comes by naturally.

I'm glad that she has a better ear for singing than I do.

A New Room

We moved the Pack and Play to Noah's room last night. It's a little inconvenient having to get up to get him for Amanda to nurse, but the inconvenience is more than balanced by Amanda's deeper sleep. It's incredible how moms have trouble sleeping through the noises that babies make. Dads don't seem to have such trouble.

On a side note, Lily and I have been enjoying using my Ms Pac Man game lately. What's funny is that Lily typically refers to it as "Pack 'N Play".

Surprisingly Fussy

Obviously this is not about Lily as her fussiness is rarely surprising :) Noah has had a tough afternoon today. He hasn't slept well since the mid-day nap. Amanda said that she couldn't sleep because of all his fussiness. I've seen it firsthand tonight as well. We're not sure what is going on with him, but we don't like it. Hopefully tonight will be better than this afternoon was.

Lily was pretty good tonight, though she woke up from her nap on the wrong side of the bed. She ended up getting a timeout before dinner. We had to do some threatening of not doing her bedtime routine to get her to take a good bath. It's funny with her that once she gives in she is great. I guess it's because she likes to turn on the charm to win us back over.

Gaming

We recently picked up a bundle of preschooler PC games at Sam's Club. Amanda's thinking was that Lily needed a distraction before school started. I installed the Blues Clues reading game last Friday, but Lily hasn't had a chance to play it until today. Well, she is now officially hooked. I think she may be a chip off the ol' block when it comes to video games.

The good news is that this game really will help her with reading. There is a game in it where you basically play Old Maid with two other people. In the early levels the cards have an object and a word on them. Later on half the cards only have the word. This forces Lily to "read" as she matches the word on the card with the card that has an object and a word.

On one hand, we don't want her completely addicted to this. On the other, I do know that she is learning as she is going here. We'll see if she gets as excited about Reader Rabbit's math game.