A bowl of Paper Mache paste anyone??

My poor son. I fed him the nastiest stuff in the whole world today for breakfast. I feel like a I'm now a worse mommy than I used to be. :(

We have started little David on infant cereal. We tried Oatmeal first. He loved it. He gobbles it up like it's going out of style. Barley came next. He liked that one too. It took a time or 2 before he was scarfing it up, but we've gotten there.

This morning was Rice cereal. Yuck. As soon as I poured the flakes into his bowl, I started thinking we had a bad thing going on. It smells gross. Once I had a bowl full I knew we had a bad thing going. It looks gross. Then I added water. Eww! The finished product looks and smells like paper mache paste. Who remembers that from arts and crafts class???? You know what I'm talking about, right? That white-ish colored gloopy, globby, sticky, pastey mess. If you are ever in the middle of an art project and run out, let me know. I've got some rice cereal you can use! :)

The worst part of the whole ordeal is that he ate it! The whole bowl! And said "Mmmm" after every bite! I don't know if I will be able to keep feeding him this stuff. He may handle it just fine, but I can't. Every time I get a whiff I want to grab my old newspaper strips and a bag of candy and start making a pinata.

A little Christmas song

My mom thinks it is really funny to do stuff with her grandkids that makes her kids roll their eyes. I think it's her goal in life right now. Her latest plan was to "encourage their musical talents" and "spark some creativity" so she bought my nieces (ages 5 and 2 ) harmonicas for Christmas. It was indeed a musical day. Here's a little taste of some of their 'beautiful' Christmas songs.

Time to breathe

Ahhh! *deep breath* Christmas is over. The holidays are almost behind us. It was wonderful to see my family and spend some time with my siblings, but I'm glad the chaos is over. My brother, Mo, was in from Illinois to see us and my other brother, Steve, came down from Holland. We had a great time getting all of our kids together to play. I wish we all lived closer! But I guess that's what the holidays are for, right?

We had a great time celebrating with little David for the first time. I know he has no knowledge of what happened and will not remember it, but I will. We took him to Bronson Park in downtown Kzoo and showed him the nativity seen there. We ran through a quick version of the story of Jesus' birth and chatted a bit and took some pictures. We also went down Christmas card lane and looked at all the cool cards this year. Seems like they've had more in past years, but it was still fun. We got him a Christmas present and wrapped it on Christmas Eve and put it under the tree and took lots of pictures - of course! He had a good time going to Grandma's house (who doesn't) and tearing all the wrapping paper off on Christmas day. He didn't end up eating any of it so I consider it a good day. :)

January will be a hectic month so I am taking every opportunity now to sit still and relax in every calm moment. We will be moving to a different apartment on January 27th. We are looking to spend a little less every month on rent and try even harder to live below our means. Pastor Ron at Agape has been bring some very powerful messages about standards of living, debt and family finances. David and I have really taken it to heart and are trying to live on less so that we have a little more to bless others with. We would also like to be able to live off of David's income alone so I could stop working. Whew! Those are big goals when I stop to think about it! They are attainable, but they do take hard work and sacrifice. It'll be worth it.

I leave you now with the destruction and mayhem that was Christmas Day at my parents' house:

Oh, yeah...

And I forgot the baby updates! David is now six months old. Everyday from now on, he is closer to being one than being a newborn. :( He is sitting up on his own now to play, grab things and take baths. He is also showing early signs of pincher control with finger foods. We have a long way to go with that one, but he's trying. :) *sigh* I'm so proud.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

It's that time again......winter in Michigan. The latest storm front has dumped heaps of snow on my lawn, my wiper blades are frozen to my windshield and the snow plows.........wait a minute......where are the snow plows?!?!?!? I almost got stuck in the middle of the road on my way to work today. That's right - the MIDDLE of the road. Not at a stop sign, not in my driveway, but in the middle of the road with the belly of my car draggin' in the four letter white stuff. Oh well, if my boss doesn't care that I was late then neither do I. :)

December is here and almost gone and I am just realizing that it's started. Where does the time go? This time of year is always such a busy time; life is just a little more chaotic around the holidays. There are cookies to make, presents to buy, decorations to hang, lights to be lit, parties to attend and a wonderful Savior to celebrate! David and I have had a great time so far making memories with little David. It's a good thing we have a lot of memory space on our computer for all the pictures!

Our wish for all of you is that you take the time to celebrate the reason for the season - Jesus! Cherish the moments, enjoy the laughter and take lots of pictures. That's the stuff good memories are made of!

David and Lauren

Prune-y Magic

Being a mom requires patience, love, selflessness and a high tolerence for gag inducing, nose hair curling, eye watering poopy messes. Fun! :)

Little David was, let's say, 'needing some help' so I called the doctor for advice. We were told to give him prunes or apple juice and to go slowly so he wouldn't end up with the opposite problem. The nurse said to keep an eye on him for a day or two because it might take that long for them to take effect. She must not have kids of her own because she was clearly not knowledgeable on the subject. My clean little darling was sitting in his bouncy seat and just playing when he started to fuss a bit. I let it go for a minute or two just to see how bothered he really was. Bad move. After just a few minutes, when he started to fuss more I picked him up and noticed he had finally done it. The prunes had worked their prune-y magic. The diaper I was waiting for was here.

This was no ordinary diaper change. I had to put him in the tub to take his clothes off. He had it clear up to his shoulders! I couldn't even take off his socks because they too were full of poop! I had hose him down in the tub and give him a bath then go to immediatly do laundry (his and mine from picking him up) and scrub the poop out of the bottom of the tub. I was busy for a while, thank you son!

Ahhh, learning experiences. "A day or two" my foot!!! HA!