AWANA 2013

 Last night was the kiddos' first night at AWANA for this year.  And I am actually volunteering in the Puggles class, so it was my first night as well. ;)

Poor Caleb is struggling with pretty bad allergy symptoms right now...you probably can see his red & blotchy & chapped face.  Poor buddy.

 Caleb is in his 2nd year of Sparks.  This boy loooves AWANA.  He's a superstar verse-memorizer, and loves seeing friends.  Two of the boys on his team go to school with him.

 Meredith is in her 2nd year of Cubbies.  Her favorite parts of last night were playing games in the gym (something with bean bags & bowling pins) and coloring.

 And sweet ShanerBug is in Puggles!  He has been so excited for this.  When we got his t-shirt at the church bookstore last weekend, he carried it around saying "I love my blue Puggles shirt, I so excited for Puggles" repeatedly!

Slowly but surely we are all getting settled in at our new church.  It's been a hard transition (mostly for me).  After being so comfortable in a place for 12+ years, a sudden change is shocking to the system.  But, God has been so faithful in so many ways.  One of the major reasons that we decided to find a different church was in the hopes that there would be some overlap with our church friends and the kids' school friends and our local community friends.  We really wanted to be a part of a church that was more "local".  This new church is not small by any standards, so we knew that even though it's in our city, there was no guarantee that any overlap would occur!  Amazingly though, we have met several families whose kids go to the same elementary school that Caleb does...even more specifically, there are 3 boys at church IN first grade at the same school as Caleb....and 1 of those boys (who is on Caleb's AWANA team) is in the same class.  Thankful that God gives us little (and big) glimpses of His faithfulness in the midst of change. 

Wordless Wednesday: Oranges & Baby Feet

 

 

 

 

Warming Up

 

Norah - 9 Months Old

 9 Months Old!  

Pictures this time around were challenging, as little missy does not like to sit still.

At 9 months, Norah:

• Eats pretty much anything we do, and only occasionally eats pureed baby food.  Her favorite foods are bananas (she eats an entire one every morning), berries, and cheese.  She also likes graham crackers.  She does not really like Cheerios, a favorite of her older siblings at this age.
• Can get herself up to all 4s, into the sitting position, can pull herself up to standing, and can even crawl up stairs.  But, she has yet to crawl in the traditional manner yet; she still army crawls to get around.
• Has 4 teeth - 2 on the top and 2 on the bottom.  I am pretty sure that 2 more bottom ones will be coming through any day.
• "Talks" a little bit, and loves to say "dadadadada."
• Weighs 17 pounds, 12 ounces (43rd percentile) and is 28.5 inches tall (80th percentile).
• Has given up breastfeeding.  About 3 weeks ago, she started refusing to nurse.  I continued trying for another 2-ish weeks, but she continued to refuse.  We took her to the doctor to make sure her ears weren't infected, and talked with a lactation nurse.  We are baffled as to why she has weaned herself, and I will admit that it's very sad for me, but it is what it is.  Thankfully, she takes a bottle (she'd never taken one before all of this) and I am pumping (ugh) several times a day (and taking milk-increasing supplements to make sure I can keep up with what she needs).  As much as I am not a huge fan of pumping, I am thankful that it's an option, and I hope to keep it up until she's a year and can drink cow's milk. 

Stinker.

I gave her my lens cover to play with.  It kept her in one place, but didn't make for the greatest shots of her sweet face.

Tiny Dancer - 1st Ballet Class

It's an understatement to write that Meredith has been excited for this dance class.  She has been asking since last Fall to "take dance."  Because of our schedules and a new baby coming last winter, we took gymnastics last Fall instead.  While she loved gymnastics, this whole dance-class-thing is what she's been holding out for.

And the day has finally come for our little ballerina.  She was absolutely giddy to wear her ballerina clothes.  Nevermind that her ballet tights are the smallest size I could find (I am sure I could've looked harder) and they are baggy on her!  She doesn't seem to notice.

The shoes!!

Not sure who she gets this face from. ;)

Waiting for Caleb's bus to arrive, so we can hit the road!

When we got there, she was eager to just go in and get started.  Moms had to wait outside.  There was a small window in the door that we could peek through. 

 I snapped this just before the door closed on us!

 And, sneaking some peeks through the little window...

Our little ballerina loved her class.  Good thing, since we have it every Thursday from now until the end of May!