Porch Swing Time

First Camping Trip. . . sort of

Last night at one in the morning, I climbed the stairs carrying one tent plus tent fly, two tent poles, one blanket, two stuffed animals, one baby monitor and a baby monitor cord that had come detached from the monitor, one Jack and one sippy cup. Let me just tell you that is a lot of stuff to carry. But, let me back track and give you the whole story. Just after I finished my last post (see below), I heard JG screaming upstairs. Not crying, SCREAMING. I immediately knew he was either hurt or something was wrong. I ran through the house and up the 17 stairs so fast, my heart racing as I anticipated what could have possibly harmed him in his safe bed. I walked into his room and was overwhelmed by the smell of vomit. My sweet boy had puked all over himself, happy the hippo, his blanket, sheet, mattress, etc, and had also proceeded to smear it all over his face and hair and in one of his eyes. So, we cleaned up the packnplay and slept (some) in the tent set up in my room last night.

But, I am so thankful. Really, God was gracious last night to remind me of how much I have to be thankful for in the midst of the crazy. So many little things that ultimately don't matter in the big picture of God's creation and redemptive plan, but somehow they matter to me and He loves me. And God knows me. He knows I'm a wimp when it comes to hardship. JG has not vomitted again, but we are both pretty tired today.

Freaky Will

So, I know that EH will tell me I went WAY overboard, but I had to play around with some of the tips she gave me for using photoshop. I've got a lot to learn, but I think this will encourage a whole new side of photography for me. The first picture is obviously what the picture looked like straight from the camera and the second is...well, a modified version. :) (or a massacred version, depending on your taste!) Oh, but this is SO much fun!

Elephant, elephant, what do you hear?

Yesterday my friend Emily told me that there was going to be a live elephant in a park about a mile from our house. Well, I collected elephants growing up (my 'assigned' animal-my mom picked out our favorites for us), so I've always been a little partial to them. They are such beautiful animals. Well, I had to go. So, I loaded JG in the stroller and we trekked down there. I got to feed the elephant a carrot. I tried to keep my excitement under wraps while I was there, because I didn't want to seem so strange, but I have to admit, I got a little rush getting to be up that close to this big guy! By the way, JG wasn't really all that interested. I think at this age everything is new to them and they just process everything like it must be a part of normal. So I imagine him thinking, we saw a live elephant in the park, must be what we normally do. Pictures are at this link: elephant park

because i could

Size matters?

So, JG went to the doctor on Friday for a nine month check up. He weighs 18 pounds, 14 ounces, is 28 inches long--this makes him in the 20th% for weight and 60th% for height. This is really not that important information...more important is the fact that he is a happy and healthy baby. Praise God! But I had to record his information because I just have to laugh at his 'smallness' compared to his giant cousins out here. Garrison weighed over 20 pounds at three months old, and Caroline, the newest addition is already OVER half JG's weight at only 6 weeks. And Caroline and JG were both sub-7 pound babies at birth! We joke that Aunt Booner must feed her babies heavy cream while I provide skim milk.

Oh, and did I mention I found five dollars?

Whistle while you work..

JG wearing one of TR's old outfits again on a visit to the fire house. Todd left this morning to work 72 hours straight. I'm really praying he will get a chance to sleep at night. I'm a little nervous about being alone with JG for that long because he's been fussy lately. So, we are planning on spending the night with his Counts cousins tomorrow night. He was a super happy baby today, though and I'm SO grateful for that!
We had a great 4th of July: we had bbq with friends and then went down to Cheyenne mountain country club to watch fireworks. JG came with us and seemed to enjoy the show. He wasn't scared or anything, he just kept trying to grab the fireworks out of the sky!