Monday, December 30, 2013

First Christmas & a Bear Hat

This first Christmas with Augy was probably the last Christmas for quite awhile that I'll be able to have presents wrapped and under the tree throughout Christmas, since he'll likely be tearing around the place  next year.
Also probably the last of having our tree decorated with our glass blown ornaments, or any ornaments at all, at least for a few years.
So.  This was a pretty good year for me, being that I get a yummy baby to squeeze and still get to go all pretty-pretty and not have it be disturbed.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is not only picking out gifts but choosing wrapping paper and spending a few evenings listening to Christmas music and wrapping everything up pretty.
I usually find a combination of papers from The Container Store and Paper Source, and then I try to find one from Target to work in if I'm being mindful of cha-ching-ching.

Augy didn't seem too impressed with our Christmas tree until a few days before we left town when I realized that if I laid him on a blanket right beneath the tree, he was smitten with it.
It was so sweet and pretty magical to watch.
But funny too because even at 5 months, his little toes went a kicking at my carefully wrapped packages until he would get a bow kicked off.

As for the bear hat, Neal found it when we were out Christmas shopping and picked it out for Augy.
It's one of the few things in Augy's wardrobe that was found by his dad, so it's a fun one.

Merry Christmas, again!

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Merry Christmas 2013 & Happy New Year!

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and are ready for the fresh new year!

I don't know about him, but Augy's first Christmas was truly magical for us.
Ahem I should say the Christmas season, not necessarily Christmas Day itself, given that by Christmas Day he was already so far off his schedule that he woke up all night, got up early, and was fussy-tired throughout the day.

But that doesn't matter, it was still so special and the best Christmas season we've ever had!
He was pretty impressive too at pulling the ribbon off his first present and rustling the tissue paper.

Some of you still have Christmas cards from us coming in the mail.
Yes, we are that family this year getting some of our cards out after the New Year.
It was the year of the new baby, cheers!

Thank you Tiny Prints, for our first family Christmas card.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Thanksgiving 2013

In the car on the way to Indy for Thanksgiving this year we were like, "This is our first holiday season with a baaaaaby!"
Traveling "over the river and through the woods" with a baby in the back seat to visit the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins is so picturesque. 

Except when I tried to defy all the mom advice to "not have them travel in the outfit you want them to arrive in."
Which was this, by the way.
Whatever.
We ended up changing a diaper in the back seat during a traffic jam and then having to put Augy in his carseat naked.
Haha.  Oh dear.

We rotate every year for Thanksgiving-- one year with my family, the next year with Neal's, and so forth.
We like doing it that way so we can relax and enjoy one family and not worry about splitting our time and traveling too much.
Christmas we do both though, since we have a longer time off.

Augy's first Thanksgiving was spent with his Anderson family, and his Mae Mae and Grandpa Anderson who he loves!
Thankful this year for not only our family and friends but also our own new little family!



Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Augy Lately

It's been a little quiet around here lately, yes?
Last week we got hit with a bad cold/flu bug at our house, and it really took us down for the count!
Thankfully Neal stayed well and was able to help out, but yikes that was rough.

We're pretty much back to normal this week, and Augy and I are leaving tomorrow morning to spend two days visiting Auntie Tiff & Grammy.
So these pics are mostly for Daddy who will be missing Augy something fierce tomorrow night!
(But hey what's gonna be so bad about a full night of sleep, man?)
But this post is also for me to be able to collect a few pictures of the face I see every day and never want to forget at 3.999 months old.
4 months tomorrow!

Sunday, November 10, 2013

A Few Fall Scenes

Some fall scenes around our life and neighborhood, cause fall is just a beaut.
My allergies are pretty much over for the season (YAY!!) so I can enjoy it more.
Just wish I didn't want to wear my puffer coat everywhere already.
It's gonna be ok, it's gonna be ok, it's gonna be ok.

Also, here's a favorite post from last fall.
Now we have a baby boy (!!!)  Here's looking at you, August Wells.
Hope you had a great weekend!

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

These Two

These two in the nursery this dark, rainy morning just got me.

These two also got drenched in the downpour on the walk to drop off Augy before Neal & I both went to work this morning.
Oops.  It's so hard to tell from our 12th floor apartment sometimes if it's actually raining or not! 
I don't think Augy himself actually got wet because his carseat cover took most of it.

But like I said before, spirit of adventure, right?

Monday, November 4, 2013

The Noticer

A little something different on the blog today.  Last week I wrote an article for the Christian counseling practice I work for, but since I have the rights to the article's content I thought I would post it here as well.  Here's the short article; a little reading for a Monday.

The Noticer

Freshly back to work from maternity leave with my first child, it’s predictable that the thoughts I’m mulling around lately come from lessons I’m learning from the very small among us.  I’m not the first mother to see God and His love in a clearer light after having a child, and I won’t be the last.  I imagine that the unfolding of this understanding will continue throughout a lifetime of motherhood, and I look forward to how it is that I might be changed by these new angles.
 
            The primary picture God uses to help us understand our relationship to Him is the parent-child relationship.  So when my infant cried his very first tear, I responded instinctively to him as his parent, but my heart also was instinctively impacted by seeing the similarity of how it is that God relates to me in my tears.  Infants cry from their first moments after birth, but they do not produce actual tears until about a month into life, as their tear ducts take time yet to form.  So the first time that a big, wet tear rolled down my baby’s face, I noticed.  But to say I just noticed is an understatement; I remember stopping in my tracks and almost in slow-motion turning my hand over to catch the tear in my palm.  I was cut to core by the sight of that little tear, by the feel of its wetness dropping into my hand. 

            In that moment Psalm 56:8 sprang to my mind, “You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle.  Are they not in your book?”  In that moment, so many different occasions of my own tears flooded my mind and I realized—God noticed.  Each time.  Each tear.  I knew that the Bible taught that, but the emotion behind the noticing—the love behind the noticing—became so much clearer to me now that I am a parent to my little boy.

            In my work as a counselor, I see what I do as part of joining God in the work He’s doing in the world. So when I sit in my therapist chair where I am witness to many tears, I try to represent to my clients God’s heart in the matter.  I take notice of each tear, and with my presence I hope to say, “I see your pain, and it matters,” because that’s how God treats us.  Of course a therapist is limited; we can’t see or know every time you cry or hurt but what we try to be for our clients one hour a week in our office is a small, imperfect slice of what God is to us all the time.  Attentive.  Seeing.  Knowing.  Compassionate. 

Some people see therapy as a waste of time, “Why should I sit around and cry about my problems?” or as something to fear, “I’m afraid I will break down and cry.”  While none of us particularly enjoy sitting with our pain, it’s a faulty cultural message we’ve received that tears should be hidden, brushed aside, or simply pushed past.  The God who made us cares so intimately about our pain that He says in poetical language that it’s like He collects each of our tears in a bottle.  I learn from God that my pain and your pain, my experience and your experience, it matters.  He knows and notices and feels for us.  Let’s let ourselves be seen, allow our tears to be noticed, and in so doing experience the love and compassion of God—the one who notices, always.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Augy & The Pacific

  During our weekend in California I was so excited for Augy to visit the shores of the Pacific Ocean for the first time.
I mean, it's the Pacific Ocean!  And he's a 3-month-old Midwesterner baby, so it's pretty cool.

I just had to dip his toes in for that carpe diem heart that beats in my chest, which is the same heart that fully intends to raise my son with the same spirit.

Consider this post to be like a book without words.
I think you'll be able to read it just fine...
 
I think we need to work on his spirit of adventure, wink!