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Powered by LifeType...is going great, but has its challenges. I'm probably not the only one to brush someone's teeth with one hand while bouncing a crying baby with the other. But bedtime is pretty much the only time of high demand from all at once. Jonathan is great about waiting and about helping Faith to wait (singing, bouncing); Noah needs more practice, but he's good sometimes. Although just now, he brought over Faith's bouncy seat so he could sit in my lap (instead of crying about not being able to sit in my lap while I was holding her.)
Posts have been overdue, so here's what I have in my notes.
9/2 - Jonathan often asks me to tell him a made up story as we're going to bed, and he likes to give me a list of characters to work with. That night, he said it should be about a dog with a big family. The people's names were Joe, Bill, Pete, Forbes and Craig. There's a Pittsburgh kid for you! (The dog's name was Ruff-ruff-ruffer.)
9/10 - Jonathan: "Mrs.Gabriel brought a yellow jacket inside and left it in the kitchen."
Aunt Janet: "Well, go and bring it back for her."
Jonathan: "But it might sting me!"
(All the adults assumed he was talking about a coat that was made of yellow fabric. However, he truly meant the insect, which Aunt Janet took care of.)
Noah likes to play This Little Piggy and Ring Around the Rosies. Here is what he says:
Mah (market), ho' (home), bee' (beef), nuh (none), wee-oo-wee-oo ho' (wee wee wee, home!)
Wow (round), woh (rosies), pah (pocket), a' (ashes), dow' (down!)
9/23 - When Noah was finished with his breakfast, he said, with complete pronunciation, "Done, down."
Noah can jump with both feet now, including jumping off one stair.
Noah's new favorite word, which he pronounces correctly, is "Why?"
Faith is filling out, though not as fast as Jonathan I think. We haven't weighed her since she was four days old (and now she's four weeks.)
She is starting to smile, including a good long one at Jonathan when he was bouncing her in her seat.
Mommy and Faith are working on elimination communication together. It is pretty fun and much nicer than changing Noah's messy diapers. I'm thinking of writing a longer post about our experience so far, but that will have to wait.
We've gotten many gifts of girl clothes, and of course she looks cute in them all. Alissa gave us some teeny hair clips, which really are adorable, but Jon said (hard to spell this) "pppffftt!" when he saw one in Faith's hair.
She usually sleeps three hours at a time at night, which is great for this age. A snuffly nose (cold caught from me) makes it harder, but she's getting better. She does like to be awake at 10 when the rest of us are going to bed, but after she gets to sleep (11 or sometimes later) she sleeps well.
I'm a little confused - I see nothing wrong with the hair clips... Sorry - it's a bit of a hobby horse of mine, but if we sing of God's lavish love and abundant beauty, then why not put a bit of abundant, unnecessary, excessive beauty of our own into the world? Girls (once they're a bit more conscious than Faith) seem to like looking cute just like guys like looking like Superman, and I would have thought that Faith's first decade of life would be the one where she could look cute with impunity and without having to fear undue or improper male attention. Quite the contrary: her cuteness will bless lots of people with innocent happiness. I hope I'm misreading the meaning of "pppffftt" - it sounds contemptuous to me and that robs me of the joy I got by just reading about a baby girl with adorable hair clips.
Anyway, having mentioned the hymn, let me quote it in its fullness just to make sure my comment has real substance. ;-)
Lavish love, abundant beauty,
Gracious gifts for heart and hand,
Life that fills the soul and senses-
All burst forth at Your command.
Lord, our Lord, Eternal Father,
Great Creator, God and Friend,
Boundless power gave full expression
To Your love which knows no end.
Who am I that You should love me,
Meet my every need from birth?
Why invest Yourself so fully
In a creature made of earth?
In Your loving heart You planned me,
Fashioned me with greatest care;
Through my soul You breathed Your Spirit,
Planted Your own image there.
I am Yours, Eternal Father,
All my body, mind, and heart.
Take and use me to Your glory,
Form Yourself in every part.
Lord, Your love brings joy and gladness
Flowing forth within my soul.
May my very breath and being
Rise to You, their source and goal.
Part of my comment was that *she* doesn't care a bean about it at the moment, which is different than if it is her choice.
Somehow it seems different to me than a superman outfit (though I don't remember dressing Jonathan or Noah up either) maybe because it isn't something our culture obsesses over as the kids enter their teenage years and beyond.
On a more preferential level, I care very little for cosmetic sorts of things - and in lots of cases what is typically considered "good" or "beautiful" make something much less attractive to me. It seems that a requirement to wearing a hair clip is to have hair that is long enough to have a chance of moving.
But, on the other hand, I am not a pro-robbing-of-joy sort of person, so I don't know what to think about it with regards to other people.
Thanks for explaining and elaborating - I appreciate that, and it's helped me understand a few things. I'll add my thoughts once I have enough time to ramble and then cut everything back to a manageable length...
I would check on your rental property as the couple have been heard fighting and there are men's clothes strewn on the property including men's underwear on the roof. Also a lot of questionable avtivity going on. Would not like to see your house seized in a drug raid.
Concerned: Thank you for letting me know. If you could call (412-683-2201) that would be great. I did talk to one person who told me a couple things, but not too much that was as troubling as what you say.
I just left a message on their voicemail letting them know some people are concerned about things going on, and to consider it a warning about being able to stay in the house.
Today your tenant's are fighting, she wants him to leave, he won't since he screamed for all to hear his name is on the lease. I feel you are in for a long haul with this group of people. They have a wrecked car parked where you had the boat and the car they use constantly changes plates (even out of state). I know you see good in everyone or at least you try but did you do a background check? I don't want to see you get burnt on your first adventure as a landlord. Take care and congratulations on the baby girl.
There isn't a guy on the lease, so that would be a strange thing for someone to say, and so, I didn't do any checks on him.
I did talk to a number of references for the women.
I hadn't heard about the car changing plates - which car is it?
By the way, you have a virus/ad-software running on your computer called "FunWebProducts" - it would have come with some other software you installed, and it installed some sort of toolbar that watches where you go on the internet, so you probably want to remove that.
Apparently the man that lives there with Jennifer (?), the cadillac is the car that is hidden and I am not sure of the model of the car that keeps changing plates, I can tell you it does need a muffler. I am only bringing this to your attention because you and Heather were good neighbors, and have been through alot, I just don't want you to get burned. That's all. Best wishes with your new place and the coming Holidays.
Yeah - I drove down there last night, and saw the other car - ie. not Jen's car with the IL plates that I knew about. I guess I'll have to talk to Jen and see - though sometimes it is hard to know what is really going on - they don't seem to pick the best boyfriends.
We just asked them to leave by the end of January. They seemed to take it alright.
Heather went inside today to get a phone we had left there, and the house is in good condition.
When we talk to the neighbors, we get one story, and when the tenant talks to the same neighbors, she gets a different story. The whole thing is very odd.