My Little Boy is a Child of the Lord

"Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved along with everyone in your household." -Acts 16:31 Above, Pastor Susan with me, G-Man and K.

On Saturday our beautiful boy was baptised into God's Kingdom. It was a beautiful ceremony that we celebrated with our friends and family. G-Man is blessed to have 4 Godparents who will help us bring him up to know and love the Lord.

"One Lord, one faith, one baptism." Ephesians 4:5

Below, G-man with Mommy, Daddy and all 4 Godparents.

"Their children will be successful everywhere; an entire generation of godly people will be blessed." Psalm 112:2

That was then...

K was going thru some of our totes looking for his own baby pics the other day. Instead of baby pics though, he found this picture of us...yep, that's a prom picture of he and I from 18 years ago! Nice mullet he had, huh? hehehehee!

I was a senior in high school and he was a freshman in college at the U of M. Ahhh the vision of youth and the wrinkle free skin!! Fast forward to nearly 4 years ago, when we were married in our front yard in a surprise wedding ceremony. No, it wasn't a surprise to us, but we told everyone who was invited that it was just for a house and deck-warming party. It was the best wedding ever! We didn't do flowers or a band or dj, no cake or centerpieces. We spent hours and hours writing the entire ceremony ourselves. We wrote our vows and kept them secret from each other. We reveled in the magic of a soon-to-be marriage, not the circus of a wedding day. Now that I have married the love of my life at our home and given birth to a blessing of a son, how could I *ever* leave this house? It is my HOME!

Talk about growing pains!

5.5 inches...5 1/2"...13.97cm

Ya, that's how much my "little" G-man has grown in the 3 months since he was born! That cannot be comfortable! Couple that with a brain that is making all sorts of synaptic connections and eyes that are developing and muscles that are strengthening and it's no wonder my little man has had bouts of fussiness. I wonder if babies get headaches from all the brain growth and developement happening in there? Did you know that the brain grows to half of its final adult size by the age of six months? Amazing stuff. And of course, I am feeling the pressure to expose my child to all the right things to properly stimulate (without overstimulating) and encourage growth and balance.

So, when G-man was born he was 19.25" long and weighed 6 pounds. He was in the 3rd% for size. Yup, he was a tiny peanut! (granted, he was 3 weeks early). Now at 24.75" long he is close to the 60% for height! We will have to wait until next month at his pediatric appointment to see what his weight is.

3 months already!!!!!

Truly, it has flown by! Three months ago today (the 20th) I knew that Baby would be born soon, I just didn't think it would be the following day. I was ready, excited, but loving pregnancy so I wasn't in a hurry. G-Man's birth at home was exquisite and now, each day with him is such a blessing and a gift!

We did a little 3-month-old photo session at home over the weekend. Here are a couple of my favorite shots...

A lifetime ago...

Two years ago this week K and I were finishing up the last of 5 glorious weeks touring & exploring the most beautiful country on Earth...New Zealand. We seriously considered trying to move there during our trip. We spent 4 weeks on the South Island and 1 week on the North Island. I climbed my first real mountain there, crossed streams and rivers (wearing my hiking boots, because real Kiwi's never take them off), kayaked in the Milford Sound, mountain biked up and across a continental divide, slept under the stars, hiked the amazing Banks Peninsula, went white water rafting in Queenstown without the raft (body surfing style!), saw endangered Hector dolphins in the wild, never got tired of my hubby, never missed my cell phone, fell in love with rain forests on the "wet" (aka west) coast, decided that Okarito is where I want to live, hiked in and took a water taxi in Abel Tasman National Park. And I could go on and on! There are 2 scrapbooks to prove it too!! The picture at the top of my blog is of New Zealand, I love it there and miss it. We hope to go back someday...here are some earlier blogs about our breathless New Zealand experience.

2(5+2.5)=A Rested Mommy

How's that for some math? For the last 2 nites little G-Man has slept for 5 hours (going down around 9:30), work up to nurse, then slept for another 2.5 hours! It's been wonderful. Although today I am wondering if it's related to a growth spurt. It's 2pm and he's only been awake to nurse several times today, then he crashes again. He's not usually this tired at all! But, he will be 3 months old next week so he is right on track for another growth spurt. K joked "you mean this hasn't been an endless growth spurt?"

Today, since he is just eating and sleeping I am wearing him in our new sling. I love this one! It goes over both shoulders so there is no back pain or fatigue. There are lots of positions I can wear him in as he gets bigger and has head control too. I think I may have to get this one in the camoflauge color too. I have been told that it's not fair to put little G-man in a pink sling.

So, Easter wasn't all giggles

This cute little sad face was irresistible! Poor Uncle D, G-man is giving him the business. Below is G-man with Uncle D and Cousin C, he's only a little less sad about the whole thing!

Our First Easter!

The Easter Bunny visited our home for the first time! We had a busy day, but it was so neat to celebrate G-man's first holiday!

A blessed Easter to all!

This is one of those "belt-it-out-in-the-car" songs!

I made it, and more importantly, so did G-Man

We both made it thru our first day of work/daycare on Monday. It was harder on me than him, which is good! He had a wonderful day with our neighbor who is caring for him. I feel so blessed by our situation. I work at the office 3 days a week, and from home 2 days a week. K works 4 - 10 hour shifts so he is home 1 day a week. That means our precious G-Man only has 2 days of outside care a week. Our neighbor has 4 wonderful kids of her own ranging from jr high to college. And other than the occassional days a month, G-Man is her only daytime charge. It makes me feel so comfortable knowing that he is getting lotsa love, attention and is in a safe environment. Today, I am working from home, at least I will be shortly. G-Man is close to sleeping so I can get started and hopefully get 2-3 hours in this morning!

He will be 11 weeks old tomorrow, so enjoy the video I took today. He is getting so big so quickly! I can't manage to get video of his smiles and giggles...YET! But I will be working on it in the coming days.

It's finally over!

My first day back at work is done! It was as bad as I thought it would be. I started crying as I kissed my beautiful little boy on the head and said the word "goodbye." I don't like that word anymore. It was a rough drive into work after that. It was nice to see many of my colleagues again and it was like I didn't miss much. I still have a HUGE pile to finish up in my in box, and my special project list is growing again.

I was a little surprised by the constant stomach ache I had all day. K and I spoke by phone 3 times and two of them G-man was not a happy boy. I did get to talk to him and got him calmed down once though. Getting home, getting my little boy into my arms where he belongs and nursing him is the highlight of my day! I love him so much!

Why exactly, would *anyone* want to go back to work...

...and miss this every morning? Tomorrow is my first day back to work. Needless to say, my heart will be at home with my baby. G-man is 10 weeks old now and he is smiling so much! I love playing with him in the mornings and being silly.