Eight months old.

ALIAH is now EIGHT MONTHS OLD!
She has recently learned new tricks, like clapping her hands, crawling, picking up tiny things with her hands, eating finger foods, and signing "more" when she wants more food! This kid is like a bottomless pit!
We just spent a week driving all over MD and PA, visiting for the grandmas birthdays. One of these days I will posts more pics of the kids - they are still stuck on the camera as of now.

Church conversations.

Today I finally had that conversation that I've been avoiding (which I mentioned here). I kept it short and simple and to the point. I think it went over pretty well.... but only time will tell.

I am trying not to feel guilty about relationships that are and will be changing.
But at the same time, I still don't feel completely at peace about our new decision, which is this: I think we've found our new church home.

Nevertheless, we are moving forward.

Crawling... pictures!

It is sad that it's already the middle of August, and that the summer is almost over. I feel like it's only just begun!



I don't really know what to say - seems like we are so busy these days, it's hard to sit down and write any coherent thoughts. It seems that all of my days are just one big blur of motion and activity, with a time of trying to rest thrown in at the end.


Mike-the-workaholic has been working hard, long hours, many days and nights, to provide for our family. I'm really thankful that he has a steady, reliable, if somewhat unpredictable, job.


Hannah is now learning to read and write her numbers. She is good at recognizing them, but sometimes she still confuses 6 and 9. It's amazing to me, the way her mind works. Sometimes she remembers things even better than me!

We now have a crawling baby at our house! Well, let me clarify that: Aliah has certainly perfected the army crawl, but she does not yet crawl on all fours. Instead, she does the perfect imitation of an inchworm - but she's beginning to scoot around really fast! Hannah is really going to have to watch out for her toys and papers and things. Aliah's favorite noise is the sound of crumpling or ripping paper.

hurt

Yeah, I know, I'm a big slacker.
Go ahead, tell me that I need to update more often.

Ever since Ally and the kids came to visit, I have been too busy & preoccupied to play on the computer. I still need to download all those pictures we took last week....

Somehow, last night I pulled (sprained?) a muscle in my left neck/shoulder, and it makes everything painful and difficult. Just picking up Aliah or changing her diaper hurts. Moving my neck hurts. Mike keeps reminding me to take some pain relievers, but so far Advil and Motrin have not helped at all.

There is a conversation I need to have that I've been avoiding. I'm hoping to take care of that within the next few days, and then I will elaborate on it a little more.

New teeth, new diapers.

Everyone else is asleep, but my brain just doesn't want to settle down for the night quite yet. I have been awake with the baby since 5am, so it's been a loooong day for us. By 9pm I was getting frustrated that we (mainly, Hannah and I) weren't in bed yet, but now I think I've caught that 'second wind', and I'm looking around the house for things to do!

Aliah will be getting more teeth very soon. Tonight her gums were red and swollen and it took her about an hour to settle down for bed, instead of instantly going to sleep like she normally does. Orajel helped. Did you know that this little girl is wearing 12-month-sized shirts and 12-18 month pants???

Aliah has been exclusively wearing cloth diapers for about a month now, and I can't complain one bit! You do have to change them a little more often than Huggies or Pampers, and washing off the poop isn't my favorite part... but it's saving us lots of money! Mike was concerned that I would wear out our washer and dryer with the extra laundry, but he hasn't noticed any extra laundry, because I wash all the baby things together, so it's not any different. Besides, when was the last time he touched the laundry?!

My new ebay obsession is cloth diapers. This week I am getting 3 pocket diapers for $5.50, free shipping included. My next quest will be for nighttime diapers (in Hannah's size - then we wont EVER buy ANY diapers again!).

As for Mike's bizarre, awkward work situation, we are hoping that everyone will just forget about it and move on. He was able to confront his boss and asked that she not mention anything like this ever again. He will get some extra teasing from his co-workers in the weeks to come, but that's about it.

Thank goodness.

I'm going to try to get some sleep.
It might be a drama-filled day tomorrow.
I'll let you know...