Monday, March 11, 2013

Time's a tickin' quickly!

Time sure does seem to speed up these days. Especially being back at work full time and trying to be a good mom. Granger has been able to stay home with Holland the last 5 and a half weeks, which he has loved. We often joke about who is going to get to stay home, but we all know who will win that battle! :) We are so enthralled with Holland and can spend hours just watching him learn new things. His latest milestones are: grabbing toys that you offer him and bringing them to his mouth, playing with toys that are near him (both on the table when he's in his high chair and in the "circle of fun," rolling over from front to back, and giggling. We attempted feeding him cereal, which is a learning process. It's harder than you might think getting the food from the front of the mouth to the back to swallow...still working on that. He has also tried drinking out of a sippy cup. He also has no idea what it is. The top is not soft like the bottle so he can't just gum it to get the water. Trying to teach him to suck it instead of gum it is comical. Holland also has learned that it is much better to sleep in mom and dad's arms....or in the backpack as dad walks around, instead of sleeping in his crib! He does ok at night, thankfully, but nap time has become a bit of a struggle. It is amazing how much Granger and I love this little guy! We both look forward to him and he always has a smile for us. He has been such an incredible blessing. We continue to seek wisdom for how to best raise him. We never thought that parenting would come with so many decisions...from "Do we let him cry it out?" to "When should we start letting him eat cereal?" These sound so silly but those who are parents can relate I'm sure to wanting to do what is best for your child but really having no idea. We are grateful that we don't have to rely on our own strength and understanding, and pray that God will give us the wisdom we need to help raise Holland the way he wants us to. As Holland continues to grow, so does his clothes. We have officially changed over his wardrobe from 3 month to 6 month clothes, with the exception of his 3-6 month stuff. He is a long and skinny little munchkin. In other areas of life, we are on Spring Break now, which I'm super ecstatic about because that's 9 days in a row where I get to snuggle my peanut all day! We are 2 days out from Nana Klunder coming for a month to be with us. We are glad that she is able to come and help care for Holland as we are at work. I know she is excited to spend time with Holland and I'm sure she'll be surprised with how much he has grown. On the Young Life front, we are in the process of setting up the 3rd annual Dodgeball Tournament in Early April. Life seems to go by so fast these days it's hard to keep up with everything. Sometimes it feels as though you throw 10 balls up in the air and catch about 7. We hope you enjoy these photos and videos of Holland as we love to catch his moments of exploring his world and learning new things. Here is a video of Holland trying to attempt drinking from his sippy cup. Here is one more video of Holland liking the idea of being tickled. He is not actually ticklish at this point, at least he doesn't react yet. It's more of the sounds and gestures he thinks is funny!!