Heaven

We were so excited to welcome a new sister into Christ this evening. Later, I was talking to Hannah Kate about how when she gets bigger she can decide to be baptized so she can go to heaven like God has told us to do in the bible. She sat quietly for a moment then said "Hannah Kate wike it go to heaven." I had tears in my eyes & told Wesley that was the sweetest thing she's ever said. She then spoke up & said "Hannah Kate wike it pwayin in water!" Well it's at least a step in the right direction!

Cloth Diaperin'

(Cloth diaper under his clothes)

We have been cloth diapering for almost a month.  I have already learned a lot about the process & what works best for Micaiah (& us).  I decided that we needed to try this to save money. So far, no money has been saved, but we WILL.  I didn't realize until I looked into it how much of an investment it is up front. It will pay off eventually, but we aren't quite there yet.  At this point, Micaiah is the only one in cloth diapers.  Hannah Kate is not a big fan of change, and I just didn't think it was worth the battle.  Hopefully, we can get this kid potty trained soon & it won't even be an issue. 
To begin with, I was only using cloth diapers at home.  I didn't have enough to get through the day anyway & I wanted to get all of the kinks out before I got brave.  As of this week, he is wearing them all throughout the day, even when we are not at home (although when we go on an overnight trip, he wears disposable).  I am still putting a disposable on him at night just because he is sleeping so well.  I don't want to take the chance of a diaper leaking & waking him up. I know it's doable & I could put extra inserts in, but I'm just not going to think that hard yet!  We have several different brands & a sweet friend sent me some to try out also.  Oddly enough, the diaper he is wearing in these pictures (the first one he wore), is one that I decided we did not love.  Thankfully, there's a hot market for used cloth diapers, so some baby in a far away state is now enjoying this one!  We've budgeted money to buy more cloth diapers next month so we can have a big enough stash that I don't have to wash everyday.  It is not as gross as we expected (Wesley even said so). If we can just get our washing routine figured out, we will be in good shape.  I didn't realize until now how bad our hard well water is.  YIKES! It has wreaked havoc on these poor diapers.  BUT, we are working it out I hope.
Anyway, here is my cloth diaper Pinterest board with good links and resources.  So far, my favorite diapers are Swaddlebees Simplex All in Ones One Size & Fuzzibunz One Size (one size means they fit for a really long time!).  There are videos on both links if you want to see how they work.  There is also a cloth diaper channel on YouTube (who knew!) that has great videos explaining the whole process.  The best video I saw was sent to me by a friend with a warning that the lady was not dressed very modestly (and she wasn't! I think I'd dress a little better if I was putting a video on YouTube that thousands of people would see, but anyway.....). If you are interested in cloth diapering, I can look up the links that I watched that helped me decided to be brave & attempt it!  It is MUCH easier than I expected!

Micaiah 4 Months Old

Micaiah is already 4 months old. Crazy!

Weight: 14lbs 2 oz (25-50th percentile)

Length:  25 1/4 in (above 50th percentile)

Head Circumference: 41cm (right below 25th percentile)

Diaper Size: 2, but we've started using cloth diapers mostly now....and they are all different sizes!

Clothing Size: 3-6 months (finally!)

Fun Facts:

~Micaiah has started cooing, laughing, etc. a LOT.  Wesley is good at getting him to REALLY cackle laugh. It is adorable.

~He is very attentive to what goes on around him.

~He doesn't hate the swing anymore.

~He has started sleeping through the night! WHOO HOO!  I feel like a new woman.  I feed him around 10 or 11 before I go to bed, & he wakes up somewhere between 6-8 to eat. He first slept 6 hours & 40 minutes on February 28, & it's gone uphill from there.

~He is starting to get where he fusses if I am trying to rock him, etc. to get him to sleep  When he is like that, he does better if I just put him to bed & leave him.  I watched the clock the other day when he did this, & he cried for about 2-3 minutes until he got situated in bed & then he was out.

~He has started wearing ties to church services & he is so stinkin' adorable!

~Most of the time, I can get him to smile for a picture.....except with my phone.  He gets a huge deer in the headlights look no matter what I do!

Things Micaiah LOVES:

~Being talked to or sung to-he smiles & laughs SO big

~His big sister-he loves to watch her & he tolerates her so well

~Being awake anywhere from 6-8am-it's his "happy time." You don't even have to do anything with him (although he loves it even more if you talk to him or play with him), he just likes to be awake & cooing.

Things Micaiah Does NOT Love:

~Being kicked in the face (accidentally of course), sat on, etc. by his big sister, but he tolerates it very well!

~Taking a bath (sometimes....)-sometimes he screams the whole time & sometimes he doesn't mind it at all

We are SO blessed by this precious boy!

 This next one cracks me up!

 

Our little baby is growing up!

Phone pictures!!

Remaining from February

First...

.... Time in cloth diapers. Here goes nothing.

Hannah Kate says hi too!!

March 1

Homeschooling

If you haven't heard about this family from Germany seeking asylum to allow them to live in the US & homeschool their children (homeschooling is illegal in Germany), please click this link to read about them. You can also add your name for a petition to the White House & it will send an email to your elected senators/representatives too. This literally took me less than one minute to complete. Even if you are not interested in homeschooling, this is a right that should not be threatened in our country. Thank you!!

Hannah Kate-25 Months

I said something to Wesley about taking Hannah Kate's picture today & he said, "Don't we stop doing months after two years?!" True, but I feel like it would be wrong to stop taking her picture once a month like I have been......someone help me!

Hannah Kate-25 Months
~Whew! This girl is full of life! She is so fun (usually) & we sure do love her!
~The "trying twos" are trying us out sometimes! We really do not like the term "terrible twos," but her attitude has definitely changed in the past few months.  We are currently working on not whining or crying at the drop of a hat & not stomping feet or pitching a fit when she doesn't get her way.  Usually, she does a pretty good job when we give her "the look" or remind her.  She does get LOTS of correction for this, though....EVERYDAY!  On that note, she has also started requesting that "Mommy kiss weg," after being disciplined. 
~She is a good builder-she loves to build with her wooden blocks or her Lego type blocks.  She also loves to tear it down!
~She knows what road we live on (& says it all cute, but I'm not going to put on here what our address is!) as well as where Nana, Papa, Aunt Jana, Maggie, & Mollie live.  She knows this all well enough that when you ask her, "Where does Nana live?" she will purposefully answer incorrectly & laugh.  After a few days of this, she sat in the car one day saying, "Nana ________ (incorrect). Noooooo, Nana _______ (correct)." She went through all of us that way.  Too funny.
~She loves letters & has begun saying "See it, T," if she wants to see a particular letter while we are driving.
~She is getting more attached to Jimmy the Giraffe paci with each passing day.......what are we going to do?!  She frequently wants us to come to her room when she is in bed because, "Drop it, paci."  Most of the time, it is in the bed with her & she just can't find it.
~If she wants me to leave the room, she will say, "Mommy right back."
~She has become quite the singer.  The first songs she sang were, "Twinkle Warrrrrr (what you are)" & "Nufin' Bwood" (Nothing but the Blood).  Her singing voice is quite breathy & one of our friends said it sounds like she's developed asthma!  It's pretty hysterical.  Now, she loves to sing lots of songs.  Her current favorites are "Tiny Hands," "Jesus Loves Me,"  "Day One (Days of Creation), & "Nufin' Bwood." The Days of Creation song still goes like this, "Day One, none, Day Two, none, Day Free, none....etc. then....Day Seven God rest Heaven."
~She loves to color & paint!
~She loves to eat Goldfish crackers, cookies, fries, cake, ice cream, (those last four she gets on rare occasions!) green beans, strawberries (she eats them so much that she's started saying "Sraw-berry-howic" (Strawberry aholic) when she eats them--Nana also made chocolate covered strawberries for Valentine's Day, so she asks for strawberries "chocolate on it" almost everyday), yogurt, "wetter soup" (alphabet chicken noodle soup), & "dose wittle cwackers" (mini saltine crackers).
~She can open any door-including the exterior doors that are hard to open.  Awesome.  She can also open the pantry door & get what she wants to eat out of the pantry.  She is not allowed to open the outside doors or the pantry door without us telling her it's okay.  She frequently tests that theory.
~If she wants to do something she is not allowed to do, for example opening the pantry door, she will grab our hand & say, "Mommy/Daddy open it," & push our hand toward whatever it is.
~We have set a goal for Hannah Kate to be able to say a Bible verse for every letter of the alphabet before she is three years old.  We have made the list & I am in the process of making a book of all of them.  She knows several already, we just finished Luke 19:5 "Zacchaeus, hurry & come down for I must stay at your house today," & just moved to Joshua 24:15 "as for me & my house, we will serve the Lord."
~She LOVES Bible class-every time we go to the church building, she asks to go.  We went to Wesley's cousin Andrea's wedding at the church building recently.  Hannah Kate ran to "our pew"-which is the front pew-& sat right down & waited.  It took some convincing to get her to go sit somewhere else.  Thankfully, most everyone there was either family or from East Side.  Of course, she asked to go to Bible class after the wedding.  (I was explaining to her on the way there that we were going to a wedding & when she grows up if she gets married, she will marry a faithful Christian.  She chimed in from the backseat, "Marrrrrrry way him in a manger."  Yes, Mary did lay Jesus in the manger, but that wasn't quite what I was talking about!)
~She is the best little pray-er!  One day, I had my head bowed & was saying a silent prayer for a friend.  Hannah Kate walked up & said, "Doin?" (what are you doing)  I told her that Mommy was praying for & named the friend.  She immediately put down her toys, folded her hands, & bowed her head.  So, I said another prayer-this time out loud!  The other night, she was begging to eat supper while we were getting all of the food out.  Wesley said, "In a minute we will eat, after we pray."  She immediately stopped, bowed, folded her hands, prayed "Tank you food, tank you srawberries, AMEN!" then proceeded to grab strawberries off of her high chair & shove them in her mouth.
~She is one amazing, spunky, little girl!  We are blessed!

 Giving Micaiah some loving!

Micaiah-3 Months

Weight: Heavy! I can't wait to see how much he weighs when we go to the doctor at the end of the month.

Diaper size: 1

Clothing size: 0-3 but they are getting a little snug!



Fun facts: 
~He can bear weight on his legs really well when you stand him upright.
~He has great head control.
~He tracks people & objects well with his eyes.
~He's starting to coo & make sweet noises a LOT.
~He is very laid back!
~He rarely cries.  If he is hungry, tired, whatever, he just makes loud noises like he's calling out to us (ahhhh! ahhh!).  He really only cries if he's really hungry & I change his diaper before feeding him--oh & bath time.  


~He has the stinkiest hands. I guess it's because he keeps them wadded up in fists....so I have to clean them out several times a day (lint, fuzz, sweat!).  Once, he was worked up about something & I opened his hand to & I promise sweat dripped out!
~He still has a clogged tear duct in his left eye.  It looks terrible & we are going to talk to the doctor about it at his next appointment.  It doesn't seem to bother him though.

Things Micaiah Loves:

~Being on the activity mat & watching the bee (Hannah Kate loved it too)
~Snuggling with Mommy & Daddy but he's also content being left alone
~Being awake & playing with someone between 6:30-7:30 every morning-several times I have gotten ready to feed him because he was calling out (not crying, mind you), & as soon as I got him out of bed he started cooing & smiling-He must be a morning person like his daddy & granddaddies.
~People talking to him, smiling at him, making eye contact with him

 
Things Micaiah Does Not Love:

~He's not too crazy about bath time.
~Hannah Kate crawling on him, but he doesn't even cry then!

Micaiah is such a happy boy & so low maintenance! We sure do love him!