7 Months old!!

Our baby girl is getting bigger by the week it seems. This is such a fun time when her development really seems to be taking off and she's changing so much during the month. Here's some of what she's up to right now:

She's reaching and grabbing at everything now. I can't sit at the computer with her without her reaching for the keyboard, mouse and any papers that we have on the desk. Everything goes into the mouth for oral examination so we keep the electronics well out of reach.

She's doing better at sitting up unassisted, but still needs something soft for falling on -- the maximum time I've seen her sit up is about 2 min. While on her belly, she slithers around and manages to travel quite a bit, so I don't think that crawling will be too far off.












She gets daily practice at sitting up (I'm really anxious for this milestone to be reached). Here's hoping we'll be there by 8 months!












Video of Sitting Practice

Standing is still her favorite posture:












As far as food, well she's not to interested in solids yet, so we're still working on that. I've offered her applesauce, yogurt, butternut squash & peanut butter and had the best success with the PB. I guess that particular food love continues to run in the family; also it doesn't fall out of her mouth as easily.

And if anyone's gasping at my offering PB at this age -- the biggest risk factor is genetics. Since there's no nut allergies in our family, I gave it a try. No worries.












I gave her a couple of baby feeders and she seems to like them. Works nicely as a chew toy too:












Otherwise, she's now weaned and taking 4 bottles of formula a day of approx 30 oz total.

Still hates her car seat...but has learned to live with it (and I have learned to live with the fact that pink will be a primary color in her wardrobe):
















We're beginning to hear some babbling (something like nigh-nigh and da-da) that's terribly sweet, but mostly she coos and sighs. She's ticklish on her belly & neck and squeals whenever we tickle her there.












It's hard to believe she's seven month's old already. The next seven hold quite a few milestones.

We love our Kendall girl!

Shelby

acadia 2010

Columbus Day weekend meant our annual trip to Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor. This year marked Shelby's eleventh trip and my seventh. Amazing.

We knew going into the trip that this year that it would be on the low key side. Just as when Riley was an infant Kendall would change all things. That together with my bike rack breaking as I was loading the car to leave meant that there would be much less activity this time around.

Travel is different now too. Riley is an active boy and so we need to take some time along the way to let him run off some of his excess energy. This meant stopping (in both directions) at a really great new playground in Portland. The playground is in a park that Shelby spent a lot of time in when she lived in Portland so while Riley got to play she got a chance to reminisce.

It's always great to hang with the cousins. Erica and Riley always have a great time together as well. Shelby's Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Jim were also along which was nice because they got to meet our Kendall Girl.

We hit some of our regular faves: Cafe This Way, the Jordan Pond House, Hunter's Beach and the Morning Glory Bakery. The rest will best be told by pictures and video. If a picture is worth a thousand words then what follows will be book-worthy.

It was a fun trip, as usual, but I'm looking forward to being able to take Kendall out in the kayak, in the bike trailer and in the backpack. Future trips should be very different. So here's the aforementioned pictures and video:

Days one and two:

Days three and four:

Jonathan

ch-ch-ch-changes

Exodus 33:14 And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

This verse has been banging around in my head for the past 10 days -- ever since I got called into the Treasurer's office and informed that my career at IG was over. Just like that. After 8 years, my routine is now all out of whack; it feels strange not to be going there anymore. It took me almost 90 min to get myself packed up and out of there and I still forgot things that I had to go back for. If you've ever been through a layoff, then maybe you understand the fog that I was in.

Since we were leaving for Acadia a few days later, I didn't do anything related to job hunting that first week. Just enjoyed a little extra time with my kids and doing household stuff while they were at daycare & preschool.

Everyone that knows me knows I'm the "worst-case scenario" girl -- I imagine the worst, work really hard to try to keep it from happening, fret about the things I have no control over and then breathe a sigh of relief when reality turns out to be better than I feared. While I still think about what my take on the worst case might look like, I'm finding that this time around I've been able to theologize my way out of the dark place it usually leads me. It involves reminding myself of the things that I believe to be true because of what God tells me about himself. Things like this:

1. He didn't spare his Son for you, so won't He give you everything else that you need in life? (Rom 8:32)

2. God delights in those that hope in Him (Ps 147:11)

3. Everything is ordained and works for my good and God's glory (Rom 8:28)

Besides praying more (Shouldn't I be praying this much all the time?!), I've been reading the story of the Israelites and their exodus out of Egypt, their wanderings in the desert and their journey to the Promised Land. For reasons I won't go into here, I've been identifying with them in their longing for change and their doubts about God's resolve to bring that change about and lead them to a better place. Every time they're facing impossible circumstances and it seems that God has reneged, He uses it to show them how much he loves them, how powerful He really is and that He keeps all of his promises.

So now I'm faced with unemployment at a time when it's harder to get employed and J's business is suffering a slowdown. Already, I see God's provision in that I received a decent severance package, so we're not relying on unemployment benefits to pay the mortgage currently. The rest of the provision has yet to be revealed. I suppose the only way my faith gets tested & strengthened is in these times of uncertainty. I'm so glad that I have a God that doesn't treat me as my sins deserve and knows my struggles and meets me in the midst of them (Ps 103:10-13).

I love the last verse of "All Must Be Well":

We expect a bright tomorrow; All will be well
Faith can sing through days of sorrow, All is well
On our Father's love relying
Jesus every need supplying
Yes in living or in dying
All must be well

Shelby