...are his two front teeth :)
Jonas has sprouted one bottom tooth, and he's working on the second. I'll post a picture as soon as we figure out how to get one!. He's been a teething trooper so far...let's hope it continues!
For Thanksgiving we packed up our little family and headed down to Tennessee to spend a few days with Drew's family. It was a really nice trip! The drive was long (and a little painful when Jonas did NOT want to be in that seat any longer), but the visit was great. Lots of talking, eating, fresh air, playing games, and playing with the little ones. I'm pretty sure I gained back my pregnancy weight over the course of three days :) I've posted pictures to our Picasa account (link is to the left), but here are a few of my favorites:
Hey everyone, we just decided to make a quick video montage of some of Jonas' new discoveries. It's crazy. It feels like he's learning all the time at this point. Maybe only grandmas will enjoy this video, but that's just fine by us (and certainly the grandmas!)
What is this strange feeling? Rest???
We've had two full nights of sleep!! Three nights ago I decided to let Jonas cry through his first night waking (2am), since I was starting to doubt that he was actually hungry. (He WAS only waking once for awhile, and slowly worked himself back up to twice.) He cried for awhile and went back to sleep until 5am. Obviously, he was fine! We had done this during the day a long time ago to help him learn how to nap, and his naps are (usually) fantastic now. He was still acting hungry at night, so I kept feeding him. Since letting him cry the other night, he has slept from 11pm - 6:30am! This is huge. And I feel like a brand new woman :)
Apparently this is a really comfortable way to sleep. I'm thinking about trying it myself.
Even Monkey's joining in on the fun :)
And yes, my sweet son is going bald...partially. He seems to be sporting a mullet/comb-over combo these days. He's the coolest.
It's officially chilly! It makes me want to eat soup every day :) I can no longer get away with being barefoot, my preferred foot attire. And I can't help but remember back to a year ago at this time, when the pregnancy sickness was really starting to hit hard...such an exciting time, yet also so challenging. I am SO looking forward to enjoying the holidays this year!!
Drew and I are really looking forward to this winter with Jonas! He is absolutely a blast right now. At about 4.5 months old, he is rolling over, smiling and laughing, and just so much fun. We are incredibly thankful for all the ways in which God has blessed us! Jonas is not yet sleeping through the night (still waking up every 3-4 hours) but we're slowly working on starting some rice cereal. Some days, I can sneak in a nap, which helps :) We took a cute video of him giggling last night, so I'll be sure to post it soon...
On a personal note, God has really been working on my mommy-heart, in ways which I didn't expect. Near the end of my pregnancy I started dealing with some fear and worry that was completely new to me...mostly about our safety and Jonas' safety. Over the past month or so, these have multiplied exponentially, which I'm assuming is a fairly common way for moms to be attacked. It's a daily battle, but I'm pouring myself into Scripture and learning what it really means to give God complete control. I just wanted to briefly share this since I have many friends and family who read this...please pray for me if you think of it :)
We are doing well, and loving our little family. God is so good.
Just a quick post. We had family pictures taken this past week, and here is an album of some of our favorites! Our friend, Amy McSwegin took the great shots.
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| Family Pics: Jonas at 4 months |
It definitely feels like fall...the smell of the furnace, outdoor family photos, hooded sweatshirts, and the return of the Crockpot. Jonas and I have been taking some brisk afternoon walks at the park...it's beautiful! Jonas usually "talks" to me the entire time...he has a LOT to say :)
Drew planned our date night this week and took me to a local apple orchard! We picked up some apples (soon-to-be apple crisp), a pumpkin, homemade apple butter (me) and black raspberry jam (Drew), and a caramel apple that nearly broke our teeth. It was such a neat place...we'll definitely be getting our pumpkins there from now on. Then we went out to dinner at the Golden Lamb, the restaurant in Ohio's oldest hotel. Deeelicious. Homestyle fried chicken, mashed potatoes, salad, corn...we had to roll ourselves out. Then yesterday morning we had some family photos taken (thanks, Amy!!). I'll be sure to post them when they're ready. For now, here's a quick snapshot of our happy boy. Click on the photo link to the left for many more!
My heroic husband eliminated this ugly beast from our garage yesterday (along with little baby beasts) as Jonas and I watched in terror...okay, maybe not Jonas...he IS a boy. For those of you who don't know, Drew has a preferred method of exterminating spiders. It involves the Aim 'n' Flame and yesterday, Pam cooking spray. You can imagine the sight. Ew. I love fall, but not its creepy crawlers.
Sorry I've been such a blogging slacker lately! Life in our house is finally starting to slow down a bit, just in time to enjoy fall, my favorite season :) These 60-70 degree temps are my dream come true. This past weekend was our first whole weekend home in a LONG time, and it was great. It was full of small home projects, cooking, time with friends, football, and just enjoying time as a family.
Jonas is becoming such a fun little baby! He makes us laugh so much. His enormous smile seems to take up his whole face, and he's right on the edge of giggling. He's talking ALL the time now, and has become obsessed with his hands. He's bored with sucking his thumb...he goes for the whole fist instead. We've uploaded a new video of him if you're interested! Scan down to the bottom of the page on the left, under Recent Videos (should be the top video). Whenever you put a camera in front of his face, he becomes hypnotized, so we have to be tricky. We still have our rough my-baby-won't-stop-crying-and-I'm-exhausted moments, but we three seriously have so much fun together. He's becoming a much better sleeper, too...he sleeps through the night a few times a week and is taking 1-3 hours naps. I'm SO thankful for that.
Drew and I celebrated our 4-year anniversary last week! We could hardly believe it. Our friends, Mark and Amy (and Carson!) watched Jonas for us while Drew and I went to a fantastic little Italian place called Figlio. The food was great, and we had a wonderful time just talking and reflecting. It was a really good time for the two of us. We have grown so much over the past year, both through struggles and good times, and we're looking forward to the year ahead!
Whew...September has been incredibly busy for us! Drew has been working a lot to finish up some major projects for Apex, we've had visits with the (grand)parents, hangouts with friends and house church, and we're getting ready to head to New Castle for Drew's 10-year high school reunion. And that's only half-way through the month! All good things, just a lot of them. Jonas has been handling it all very well. He's becoming a champion traveler and getting used to mom & dad hauling him all over the Midwest :)
We arrived home late Sunday night after spending the weekend in Crawfordsville, and noticed that our electricity had gone off at some point since our clocks were blinking. We reset our clocks, and headed to bed. We woke up yesterday morning to messages and phone calls from people checking to make sure we were okay...we soon realized that we had missed a massive storm here on Sunday afternoon and most of Dayton was without power! We ventured outside to discover siding missing from our house and trees and branches down everywhere in the neighborhood. So, I cleaned out the fridge and freezer to make room for friends to use some space, and Drew spent the day helping friends, Rich and Sue, clean up the extensive damage at their place. It was a strange, but good day...Rich and Sue ended up hosting our house church for dinner last night since most still don't have power. It's amazing how much HC really does feel like family! So thankful for them.
Here are a few pictures from our family outing to Cox Arboretum last week, on a BEAUtiful day:
Our Labor Day getaway was precisely what we needed. We spent four fabulous days at Lake James in Indiana, where my aunt has a house. Drew has been working long hours lately in preparation for some upcoming things at Apex, so he was able to take Friday completely off! We headed to Indiana around noon, and Jonas did very well on the trip...I'm so thankful for a baby who travels well! My family met us there eventually, and we spent the weekend boating, tubing, swimming, sun bathing, eating, talking, sleeping, fishing, walking, and of course, playing with Jonas. It was great...we successfully fit our "summer" into four days! It was so refreshing to spend that time with Drew, Jonas, and my family. Drew and Jonas got to have lots of daddy-son time, which both of them loved. I've posted some pics from the weekend on our Picasa site (link is on the right), but here are a couple of my faves:
Hello, Blogger! For those of you who don't know, my life revolves around Google. Drew and I would be completely lost without our shared Google calendars. I'm not ashamed to admit that I actually have a calendar specifically devoted to meal planning. I know...weird. So, hence the move to Blogger (the Google blog). I'm still trying to figure out a way to move all of our previous Wordpress blog entries over, but if that's not possible, there's a link in the bottom right-hand corner if you're interested.
On a fun note, we had a fabulous Labor Day weekend. Pictures and details coming soon!