red cheeks, baby food and recent pictures

Happy 1/2 birthday to me! (and Katie)

Audrey seems to be doing better...slowly but surely. She's still a little stuffed up but her breathing is sounding a lot better and her naps are getting longer again. Last night she was pretty clingy and whiney, not crying, but you could tell she was not content. And her cheeks are SO red lately! Tyson decided to look up "red cheeks" just to check and the first thing that came up was Fifth Disease. It said that usually preschoolers and kids in school get it in the spring and the child usually has a fever. She doesn't have a fever, it's Fall, she's not in school yet and she doesn't have any of the other symptoms. let's rule that out!

the next thing that came up was that red cheeks are a sign of teething! who would have guessed?!? not me. All that extra saliva and drooling on her sensitive baby skin can cause it to be red. We've thought for a while now that we'll probably see some little teeth soon because she puts everything in her mouth and she drools all the time. I guess they could be coming any day now. or it could still be a while.

On to another subject: baby food. I have decided to try to make Audrey's baby food myself. If you would have told me a few years ago that I would be making my child's baby food, I would have laughed and not believed you. After talking to different people and hearing how easy it really is, and since I'm at home and have the time, I might as well give it a try! Yesterday I bought some fresh vegetables so either today or tomorrow I'm going to give it a go. I had no idea how much to buy and I don't know how much it will make or how long it will last or how much she'll eat at a meal, but oh, well! I bought a little electric food mill and some little cubes/containers to freeze the food in and a guide on making baby food. Maybe I'll find that it's not worth the effort; maybe it will be great! All I know is that this should be interesting!

Here's a couple of recent pictures. On Sunday when I picked Audrey up from the nursery, I heard someone say, "her eyes are almost as big as her cheeks!" was she being nice? I just smiled/laughed awkwardly and went on my way. what was I supposed to say to that?

Audrey's first cold

Audrey officially has her first cold/runny nose. She's almost 6 months old so we're pretty lucky she's made it this long! It all started last Thursday with Audrey rubbing her nose a lot and sneezing. I used the nasal aspirator on her a couple of times and she thought it was fun! She would squint her eyes and open her mouth really wide and giggle...too cute! By Friday it had gotten worse and the poor thing could barely breath while she was eating (since eating requires her to breathe through her nose). Saturday seemed to be better. and then yesterday was bad again. The fun of the nasal aspirator had worn off and she now fights me when I have to use it. She bats at it and moves her head all around. I had to have Tyson hold her arms down while I tried to hold her head still and get the end of the aspirator lined up with her nostril and try to suck something out...but nothing would come. She still sounded really stuffed up but nothing was coming out so we decided to try "Little Noses" saline solution and it has been great! We quickly realized that trying to get 2-6 drops in each nostril would NEVER happen so we decided to try the squirt method, and she sat completely still and actually acted like she enjoyed it! how strange. she doesn't like things being sucked out of her nose but she loves when something is squirted in!

She hasn't been napping as well with the cold but (knock on wood) she's still sleeping through the nights so we'll take it!

and she just woke up from her nap early...I'm coming, sweet pea!

Flag Football

I'm sitting at home eating some blueberry bread and just put Audrey down for a nap. I was suppposed to be in a van on my way to Joplin, MO right now to watch my husband and other men from our church play some flag football. It was going to be like back in the day (college) when all the girlfriends (because that's what we all were at the time) would sit on blankets and talk and sip hot chocolate and watch our amazing boyfriends play like little kids again! oh, I miss those days! (I know it really wouldn't have been like the good old days because only 3 wives were going and there would have been an almost 3 year old, Audrey, a 6 week old baby and another little baby still in the oven, so we probably wouldn't have been watching the game that much anyway...)

I was planning on going all week. Then Thursday Audrey started getting a runny nose. Yesterday I still thought we could go. And yesterday Audrey's runny nose got even worse. I had Tyson look up the weather for Joplin and it was going to be 52 degrees. Not too cold. But then I remembered how Audrey's little nose and cheeks get all red just from our daily walks now that it's Fall and I didn't think it would be the smartest thing to have her out in the cold for a couple of hours. here is a recent post-walk picture with her rosy cheeks:

Sometimes I don't like having to be responsible!

So here's a shout-out to the guys, "good luck! have fun! and don't get hurt!"

little white lies

Audrey is now a reader*...

and a sitter!! *

*both of these statements are not completely true. While she does love looking at books, and these pictures show her correctly holding a book and looking at the bright pictures, she is not actually reading the words. She is also not really sitting. She's propping herself up with her hands, but hey, yesterday was the first time she did it! :)

Sunday! Hallelujah!! (Tree63 song)

Thanks so much to everyone that gave me advice and prayed for me about my Sunday predicament. I decided to just relax and go with the flow. We were at church especially long yesterday, (we had to be at worship team practice at 7:30am) which made me a little nervous, but it was great! I decided not to ask the nursery volunteers if she napped, because, really, it doesn't matter. It was our first week in our new sanctuary, so after church we all hung around in the new foyer and talked and passed around all the babies that have been born recently, which means we were there extra late. Audrey was still happy and smiley, even without her usual 2-hour morning nap. We got home and put Audrey in her crib at 1:00. She fell asleep immediately and didn't wake up until 3:45. I think she was making up for all the fun awake time she had in the nursery. :) The rest of the day was great, too! I know not every week will go this smoothly, but it gives me hope. Yesterday was exactly what I needed.

pictures, pictures, pictures!

here are some recent pictures:

Here's Caleb and Audrey on their first walk together! Caleb is only 3 days old and Audrey is 5 months old...it's crazy how much they change in such a short amount of time!

Daddy, Audrey and Walter taking a break from playing. Of course, Audrey has her thumb in her mouth. I think Walter was really sleeping here.

Audrey checking herself out in the mirror. She smiles SO big when she sees herself. I don't really think she knows it's her, just a cute face to smile at.

Audrey has finally discovered Walter! He is such a gentleman and usually sits next to her wherever she is. She loves staring at him and when we're in the backyard, she watches him run back and forth. it's so cute! we can't wait until they can actually play together.

I love that smile! and her fingers looks really funny. oh well.

and that's all I have time for. :)

...not sure what to do.

well, I was bored late last night and this morning so I decided to get everything set up and cute-looking so I'm officially ready to blog here and not at my old site. exciting, huh?

I feel like Satan is really trying to get to me right now. and he's using Audrey. I know that sounds bad, but let me explain. Audrey is an amazing sleeper. Really. she usually falls asleep without crying and takes 3 naps a day right now and sleeps at least 10 hours each night. She is such a happy baby, but she needs the sleep to be so happy. The problem is, though, that if she's in a new place where there's lots of new things to look at or it's very loud or there are lots of people around, she doesn't sleep as well. Now to the problem with Satan: Audrey does not nap at church or church events. She has napped other places, but, consistently does not sleep at church.

When it's my week to sing on the worship team, we are at church for 5 hours (sometimes longer if we have small group right after church) and she really needs a nap during that time. The room she's supposed to sleep in the church nursery is bright and right next to the check-in table, so all of the kids that don't want to leave their parents are about 6 feet from her crying and screaming. So she wakes up, or else never falls asleep. So the workers (bless their hearts, because I really don't know what we would do without them) go and get her and so she's surrounded by new toys and people and she thinks it's playtime! I've heard that most babies don't sleep well in church nurseries, but most babies are usually only there 1 1/2 to 2 hours at the most, so it isn't that big of a deal. Not that I don't sympathize with those moms, too... We are in the process of remodeling our church and next week the nursery will be somewhere new. I'm curious to see where the babies will be sleeping. :)

Tuesday mornings I'm in a Bible study at church and it's during the time of her first nap of the day, which is the most important nap. I knew this when I signed up for it, but I decided that it was time to get out and get back into a Bible study and we would just see how things went. Yesterday was horrible!!!!! She took about a 15 minute nap was awake for another 2 hours and then fell asleep again about 2 mintues before the Bible study was over, so she basically skipped her first nap of the day. The rest of the day was completely off. She was not her usual happy self. She was falling asleep while she was eating. She wanted me to hold her and play with her all day. I can usually lay her down on a blanket and she'll entertain herself for 20 mintues. Not yesterday.

The whole point of this is that I LOVE singing on the worship team at church and I really want to be involved in the Bible study. and I'm NOT going to give those things up. It just seems like 2 of the things I look forward to the most each week are becoming the hardest because I pretty much know that the rest of the day (every Sunday and Tuesday) is going to be crazy. I'm not going to let Satan win. I am still going to sing and be involved in Bible study and I'll just keep praying and hoping that Audrey will eventually be able to nap at church. The Bible study is short-term, only 7 weeks, so it will be over before I know it. but I'm going to keep singing for a long time, hopefully.

Am I crazy or overreacting? Do all moms go through this with their kids in the nursery? Is it too much to expect that my child be able to take a nap at church? She naps other places, why not at church? aaahhhh!!!!

any advice besides praying?

we're new here

I probably won't post for a while on here. I'm technically still blogging at www.xanga.com/LisaLiv. You can check that out until I officially start this one.