Baby Visits Great Grandma

We went on a trip to my old stomping grounds so the baby could visit his great grandma. My grandma is a huge joy in my life, as she has experienced great loss before and her faith in the Lord encourages me as we walk through our loss of Haddon. Just yesterday I found the note she wrote me of encouragment when I was first pregnant with Haddon, and the note she wrote us after he died is on our refrigerator: "happy with Jesus, life unending, could not ask for more." 

So, of course she was anxious to meet our second little boy! That kid did awesome on the plane. Both flights when we were getting off we had moms say "There was a baby here behind me??" or "He didn't make a peep." Of course when he had a major poop it was interesting trying to change him on my lap. At one point I handed the baby to Ernie so I could take a little nap, and when I woke up I told him how I felt so much better. He looked at me and was like, "You were asleep for like two minutes." haha, I guess any shut eye these days is like super fuel.

I forgot to mention, this trip started at three in the morning.  Yeah, we are those people who, if it saves us money, we buy the 6am flight. We were defiitely zombies when we woke up. It was just wake up, feed the baby,  down some coffee and fall into the car. But we made it! 

The coolest thing was Ernie Brooks rolling over for the first time, in front of family!!

He LOVED his great grandma

4 months

I can hardly believe all the changes this month. He's such a different boy than 1 month ago.

Baby Ernie:

Is 16.8 lbs and 26 inches long.

He's belly laughing.

Is sitting up in a bumbo, playing with toys on the tray.

Reaching for toys when you place them in front of him.

Sitting in a bouncer, he especially loves being in it in the kitchen with me.

He's mimicking us when we make noises like raspberries.

Chomping on his hands is his favorite past time.

He's squealing louder than ever. And laughing about it.

He had his first airplane ride and did great.

He's laying on his belly with his head up so much better.

Oh, and HE'S ROLLING OVER. He rolled over for the first time on our trip!

Crickets

I suppose in the cricket world there is a sign on our home, visible only to them, blinking and flashing "be fruitful and multiply here!"
I'm serious. I hear them everywhere, they leap out at you in the hall, I see the dogs chasing them around the carpet. Of course my dogs choose to catch some but leave them on the floor.

There's an Alfred Hitchcock eerieness coming from our garage as they creak creak creak.

I'm a clean person. I have no filth to offer them. Please pick a different home.

WINTER hurry up!

Jesus Reached Down Into Death

Visiting big brother's grave for the first time

Tonight baby Ernie and I read about Jesus raising Jairus's daughter from the dead in Luke 8 in his Jesus Storybook Bible, we absolutely love that book. So there was Ernie, drowsy and on my lap and I'm reading along. Then I came across the part where Jesus comes to his daughter, when no one believed Jesus was going to wake her from the dead.

"Jesus walked into the little girl's bedroom. And there, lying in the corner, in the shadows, was the still little figure. Jesus sat on the bed and took her pale hand."

I began to cry as I remembered Haddon's still little figure when there was no longer any life in him just like this little girl. I still continued reading, this was a good story.

"Honey," he said, "it's time to get up." And he reached down into death and gently brought the little girl back to life.
 The little girl woke up, rubbed her eyes as if she'd just had a good night's sleep, and leapt out of bed...
Jesus was making the sad things come untrue. He was mending God's broken world."

I told Ernie that one day, we don't know when, Jesus will reach down into death, into the very grave we visited of his brother, and raise him back to life as if he had had a good night's sleep. With his mighty hand, he will make this sad part of our family come untrue. 

Healthy chocolate muffins

You guys, this muffin recipe is so good. I love that I can have two for breakfast and not feel sad! And its just so wonderful with coffee because you know, anything chocolate is good to have with coffee! I saw this recipe on my friend's pinterest (that's where all the good recipes are now, right?) and was so excited to get the ingredients on my next grocery trip.

NOTE: if you sprinkle a tablespoon of ground flax seed into the batter, or sprinkle oat bran onto the muffins once the batter is poured, it would be a great way to add to these in a healthy way, I thought of that after I made them of course. Next time I guess! And if you are wondering if your significant other or your family will like them, I can tell you my husband really liked them! So here it is:

Healthy Chocolate Muffins
1 3/4 cup Oats
3 Egg whites
3/4 cup Unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup Unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 cup Plain greek yogurt (or regular plain low fat yogurt)
1/2 tsp Cream of tartar (or 2 tsp. vinegar)
1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
1 1/2 tsp Baking soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1 cup Hot water
1 cup Baking stevia OR 1 cup sweetener of choice that measures like sugar. (I used baking truvia)
1/2 cup Semi-sweet chocolate chips
Tip Foil cupcake liners, remove the inner paper lining (because paper liners tend to stick to muffins)

Instructions:
1
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 (12-cup) muffin pans with foil cupcake liners, or spray muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
2
In a blender, (or food processor), mix all of the ingredients together, except for the chocolate chips. Blend until oats are ground and mixture is smooth.
3
Place mixture in a bowl and gently stir in 1/2 of the chocolate chips (set the rest aside). Scoop mixture into prepared muffin pans.
4
Place muffins tins in the oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove muffins from the oven (but don’t shut oven off), and distribute the other half of the chocolate chips on top of each muffin.
5
Place the muffins back into the oven and bake for an additional 2-5 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.*Note, you could skip this step by putting all of the chips in the batter, and baking the muffins for 12-15 min straight.
6
Cool muffins before removing from pan.
Then enjoy the chocolate heaven!

3 months

My boy is three months! It's been the most wonderful 3 months of our lives. No exaggeration.

-He has decided to sleep through the night the last few weeks! It just arrived one night out of no where. But we are enjoying it, whether it's a short season or not:)

-We had our first shots a couple weeks ago. It was torture, yes. Poor guy was so hungry too as he was getting them. But thankfully the nurse was quick.

-He is 15lbs and 25 inches. Close to the size of an average 5 month old. He is 90th percentile in everything, he's a big boy.

-He is not a fan of tummy time. But somehow is still learning to hold his head up really well when we are holding him on our shoulder.

-He loves cooing and talking with me for long, long periods of time. He smiles when I talk back. It is my absolute favorite part of the day.

-He loves when his daddy comes home, he kicks and grins and is so ready to be held by him. I love it.

-My favorite clothes on him right now are t shirts and sweat pants. He is such a little baby stud in them!

-He went on his first library trip and loved these baby bear books! So we checked out the 3 of what I could find of the series.

-He's not too fond of the car seat. But I just try to reach back for his little hand while I drive, his cry can be so heart breaking.

I'm so in love with his little boy.

Some pictures lately

Life's been good. Me and the boys all caught a cold at home, but it's still been good! Here's some pictures of things lately, except Ernie Brooks and his friend Nathan. Gosh that was like a month ago.

2 months

Oh my. I love the two months stage. It's been my favorite so far!

-He smiles and giggles at us.
-He cracks up at the bird mobile on his swing.
- He takes naps pretty regularly in his own room. (not just wherever I am anymore, sad). And seems to be sleeping longer.
-He went on his first vacation. He was a trooper!
- His tummy is starting to hurt less I think, as I suffer through the no dairy thing except half and half in the coffee (suffering! I even eat pizza with no cheese people). I crave a glass of real milk everyday:) although chocolate almond milk was this wonderful revelation in my home. I'm getting off track here.
-He is chunkier than ever, fits into a 6 month sleeper.
-We made a switch to size two diapers.
- It looks like he's starting to get up just once a night.
- He's so thrilled when he sees daddy.
- He's really enjoying baths now.
- He is showing so so so much personality.

He's just such a happy baby.

Our trip to the mountains

Last weekend we spent some time with Ernie's family in the fresh mountain air. And rain.
Ernie and I love going there. It's a cute little town that is perfect for family trips. I got to spend some extra time with Ernie's sister which I really enjoyed!
We just so happened to be up there around the time of our anniversary (4 years!), so we spent the afternoon at a really cute cafe and browsed antique shops, our favorite past time up there. We also walked around the beautiful lake up there, our other favorite past time. So here are a billion pictures of our stay up there and our baby. It is his first vacation, so he's basically in all of them.
Thanks to Yvette again who took some of these photos!

A New Record

Is it ok to blog about your kids biggest poop ever? Because this baby's parents will remember July 27th, 2012 as the day he loaded his diaper and onesie. This is how it went down:

"baby you want me to hold you? Oh I'll hold you...oh oh my gosh, oh my gosh it's everywhere!!"

He wasn't even fussy. He was proud. I love this little guy, even his frightening poop.