5 Months Old {Ameliya Darby}

Happy Five Months, Little Girly!

• 19.4 pounds
• 25 1/2 ish inches

 

• travel by rolling
• Mama is your favorite

• can almost sit up
• like to be "worn" if you don't have something better to do

 

• totally understand the purpose of toys

 

• chewing and teething (you don't "take" a paci but you chew on it sometimes!)

• are moving up from the infant seat to a big girl car seat

 

• wearing 12 month clothes and they are getting snugger
• love to be outside
• can be so silly!

• think brother and sister are hilarious
• have tasted mashed sweet potato (thinned a little with mama milk) and like to chew on cucumbers and apples

 

• wear your diapers on the 2nd rise with 3 tummy snaps showing
• love to be read to
• starting to push up on your hands

 

• are busy, busy, busy!

• have a suprisingly delicate sounding voice
• usually only get up once to nurse in the night
• have found your mutual ground with daddy & think he is fun
• can change expressions in a heartbeat
• nap three times a day

Ameliya, you are the definition of a healthy, happy, sweet baby.  We love you so much!

Faith of a Child {Xavier}

He's going to change lives, this boy...

 

...not because he wears a cape or has superhuman strength, but because of his heart.

While talking in Bible, History and Science about how, of ALLLL the things God created, the most precious creation of all to Him was His people, I decided it was time to introduce my children to the topic of the orphan.  It's not that we haven't discussed orphans or adoption in the past but not to the point of understanding what God calls us to do for those without mommies and daddies or whose mommies and daddies can't take care of them.

The conversation went something like this...

Me: "God created man..."

Xavier: "from the dust!"

Me:  "Yes, son.  Now...God created man in His image and there is nothing in this whole world that He loves more than His children.  Do you know who His children are?  WE are His children.  You and me and daddy and all the people.  Just like I love you so much, God loves you and me even more!  Did you know, though, that there are children in the world who haven't got a mommy or a daddy to take care of them?"

Xavier:  "Why don't they?" {looking at me with big eyes behind his glasses}

Me:  "Well, the mommies who carried them in their tummies decided they couldn't take care of them so they have to make another choice for their babies.  Some get adopted by new mommies and daddies while others might live in a place called an orphanage or a foster home while they are waiting for a mommy or a daddy.  You know, even if they don't have parents right here, Jesus loves them very much, but the Bible tells us in the book of James to take care of the orphans who don't have a mommy or daddy to care for them."

Xavier:  "We're supposed to follow the Bible words."

Me: "Yes, we are.  So I think we should stop right now and pray for the babies and boys and girls who don't have a mommy or daddy to hold them and rock them and kiss them right now or whose mommy and daddy needs to make a different choice for them." 

We stop.  We pray.  I pat myself on the back for a lesson well taught.

:pause:  I should have seen where this was going to go.  Natalee was with us at the table doing a lot on internalizing, but had yet to say much of anything.

Xavier continued to color his work page for a few more minutes and finally stopped, put down his crayon, and said, "Mommy, if there are boys and girls who don't have anywhere to live or a mommy and daddy to rock them and kiss them then why aren't we bringing them to live here?"

My son, you are going to push us to bigger and greater things.  You, quite simply, just solved one of the world's greatest problems and had your shoes on ready to walk out the gospel with the true faith of a child.  Never ever lose that simple security that God is right and His ways are true.

Fluffy Friday

Happy Friday!

Mike worked ALL last weekend so I feel like I've been going for two weeks with no weekend.  I was never so glad to see today come in all my life.  If for no other reason than to have another adult's voice in the house.

On the bum today (two of about eight diapers she wore!)...

 Alva Rainbow Stars

 Sunbaby Flower Print

The cloth diapering is really going well.  It's pretty seamless on our end.  I wash 2x a week.  Everything is clean.  The sun takes out any stains that are left behind.  The pail doesn't smell.  They fit her well and we rarely have leaks...occasionally, but I also had an Earth's Best disposable leak poop everywhere the other day, too, so nothing is fool proof.  Usually a "leak" for her is just a full diaper that's soaking through that I waited too long to change.  Overall, we're happy and her hiney is pretty cute! ;)

Bible Paintings

We've studied a lot about Creation and The Flood in History and Science over the last couple of weeks.  Today, I gave the children paints on the easel and set them to work making their choice of an ark picture or a creation picture.

Natalee chose to do an ark painting:

She says the ark is on Mount Ararat, waiting for the waters to go down.  She's put a rainbow across the top for God's promise.

Xavier chose to do a creation painting:

 

He seems to paint a bit more abstractly (wink wink) but when I asked him to tell me about his painting he identified the water in the bottom right with a shark and dolphin in it and then named several other animals and plant life that God made.  I'll take it.

Ameliya squealed like a piggy until I put her on the porch with brother and sister.

 {thanks, Mom!}

One of the most interesting topics we've studied this week is Dinosaurs and it's been a joy to learn with and teach my children that dinosaurs were created on Days 5 and 6 with all the other animals, went in the ark with Noah (some way, some how) and walked with man.  We dug into Job chapters 40 and 41 for possible descriptions of dinosaurs.  Likewise, those descriptions could have been other large animals but it's exciting to see evidence of God's creation of dinosaurs in the Scripture since this is such a controversial topic.  Yesterday we learned about the Ice Age, which could have been brought on by all the water from Noah's flood...after the dinosaurs left the ark, it's possible that the Ice Age was responsible for their extinction.  Lots of theories, but I'm glad to know that my children can stand with assurance and say "yes, God made dinosaurs" and know why they believe that.  This is something I didn't understand until much, much later in life.  We'll be taking the remainder of this week and the weekend to explore more about dinosaurs because they are big and fun and my pupils are young and adventurous!

Oh wait, back to painting... (sorry for the sidebar - I do love learning)

After their paintings were complete I could see how my sensory little Natalee was itching to get her hands in the paint so I rolled out a length of paper and let them at it with the leftover paint on their plates. 

After Natalee applied the paint like lotion to the fronts and backs of her hands, and squeezed it through all the cracks and crevices on her fingers, they did this...

I had thought they might draw with their fingers but obviously not.  It turned out pretty cute - I'll probably save it for wrapping paper!

So grateful for our porch so we can be "outside" on stormy rainy days!

Traveling Adventures of {Ornery} Ameliya Darby

Remember when I posted just a couple of weeks ago about Ameliya growing out of her co-sleeper?  I wrote in that post how we didn't really have space for the crib so we'd plunked her crib mattress on the floor beside our bed so it could be tucked under our bed if we needed to.  I was so pat-myself-on-the-back pleased with my little scheme and each time I laid her down and she drifted off I couldn't help but think "I'm a genius."  (shameful pride, I know!) This way if we showed the house to a potential buyer we'd just tuck the mattress under and make the bedroom look not quite so crowded. 

I was determined that when she started to crawl I'd just train her to stay on the mattress.  Right?  Psh - of course!  Good discipline is the backbone of our home.

BA HA HA HA HA!

I love to be right.  Sometimes when I'm not I like to duck my head and pretend I don't hear you.  I'm trying to grow and mature past that head ducking.  

Last Friday, Ameliya started rolling to travel.  Like, set her sights on something and roll and roll until she got to it. 
She checked out the grate in the floor, and offered it some spit up (sigh - it's such a pain to clean, too!)

I noticed this adventuring spirit while she was playing but was certain that when it came to sleepy time I had nothing to worry about.  And it seemed, I was right.  I laid her down for her nap and she drifted off to sleep.  I checked on her a couple of times and there she lay, just like my obedient little angel should.  A couple of hours later I heard a noise.  Assuming she was awake, I went in to get her.  There is nothing like the heart pounding feeling of an empty mattress where you expect a child to be laying.  Where is she?  Under the bed?  What kind of mother am I!?

Nope, not under the bed.  Gleefully empty the trash can across the room...

(with her blankie in tow!)

Ameliya Darby!  Trash cans are a no-no! 

Okay, this will be a one hit wonder.  She somehow got off her mattress and got across the room.  She's 4 1/2 months old - there is NO WAY she'll be able to do this again.  Right?

Fast forward to afternoon nap time...

I lay her down.  I stand in a crack in the doorway.  She knows now what to do in order to get off.  She rolls off onto the pillow I've laid on the floor for an "in case", pushes it over and starts spinning on her belly to turn the right direction.  

 

 Once she went into the closet.  I put her back on her bed and walked out the door.  The next time she went into the bathroom, which meant she had to roll across the foot of our entire bed, spin back on her belly and push with her toes to get through the doorway.  

She did it. 

I watched her.

I am stupified at the will and smarts of this little girl.  

So here I was at a crossroads of disciplining a FOUR MONTH OLD for a curiosity that is instilled into her soul.  So how did I do it?  How did I tame the ornery beast?

That's right.  I put up the pack-n-play.

Let me tell you something, folks.  In my short five years of parenting I've done some dumb stuff.  Prideful stuff.  Discipling moves that were more focused on me and how I might look than on my kids.  Trying the mattress on the floor, while maybe a long shot, wasn't the dumb move in my book.  Insisting that a roly-poly 4 month old, who otherwise naps wonderfully, stay on it when she's not of a mind to do so...well that was a battle I walked away from.  I still "won."  I'm still the authority.  But now I know with assuredness that she's safe and she knows that when I lay her down for ni-nights she only has so much ground she can cover before she has to call it quits.  Rolling and exploring...those are for wake times. 

Oh Mia - if you stay this adventurous....we might just be in for it!

Dem Bones!

We learned a few key bones' names in the body today.  The overall goal is for the children to remember that the body has 206 bones.  At this time, the rest is just bonus!

But it was still fun, even if it's just "bonus!"

Don't Mind If I Do

An apple?  Why sure!  Don't mind if I do...

 This girl.  She's something else. 

I think the cold apple slice felt good on her teeth.  She sure did suck the life out of it!

New Glasses

Xavier's prescription changed at his yearly check up so it was time for new glasses for him...

They make him look much older than the baby blue glasses he's had for the last year...

(I do realize in the most recent pics of Natalee her glasses are being held together by tape....her new ones should be here any day.  Pray her current ones hold until they get here or she'll be miserable!)

My Body

For the first 12 weeks of our Science unit we are doing a study of the body.  We are using Answers in Genesis's curriculum God's Design for Life this year but I also snagged a book on Christian Book Distributor's called My Body to go along with the human body study. 

Basically you trace the children's bodies, and then as you learn about each body system you use the photocopied image from the book to add to their traced body.  Like our History timeline, I decided to make this an interactive piece, so that the children could take off and put on the pieces multiple times without fear of them tearing.  We covered the body tracings in contact paper in lieu of a large laminator, and the body pieces we will be running through our small laminating machine before we stick them on.

This unit took some pre-planning and prep work...

(mike tucked in his undershirt to trace him - dorky dude!)

Tracing their outlines, laminating them, copying the body systems...all of that took time.  I did weigh the pros and cons and definitely feel like it was worth it and that we are going to enjoy this very much for the next 12 weeks (and more - as we'll review it for months, I'm sure!).

The children are excited to learn about the cool bodies that God designed for them, and so is their teacher.

Today we began by adding the leg bones to represent the skeletal system...

Natalee is getting really good at listening to verbal directions/explanations and following through with what needs to be done, allowing me to stay closer to Xavier.

We are using our stair way wall space for lack of ANY where else to hang these body outlines!

Bones determine our size and shape and give us strength to move!

Natalee's Art

After several rainy days in a row, Natalee came to me one morning and said, "Mom, I don't know what to do."

Not bored really, she just needed a suggestion since she couldn't go outside to play.

I recommended she color a picture.

It was hard to keep a straight face when she came back with this one...

 

"Tell me about your picture, Natalee."

"It's a house in the rain with a little girl looking out the window.  She wants to go outside and play."

It's going to be a looong winter for one little girl at my house.  

This is another one I set out to blog/scrapbook because of it's originality:

A baseball field, of course!

My girl...she has my heart.