Waco Visit and Jill's Shower

(Cambry, Me, Nana, Hollyn, Jill, Mimi, Michelle)

Last weekend we went to Waco to visit Greg's family and to go to Jill's baby shower. I had to steal her pictures to post because we forgot to bring the memory card for our camera so we didn't take any pictures.

(Aunt Geri with Cambry)

Jill's baby boy is due December 26th. I cannot wait to meet him. I am so curious what he is going to look like and be like. Will he have blonde curly hair like Hollyn? I am praying that this little boy likes to sleep :) This will be Cambry's third boy cousin.

Cambry had so much fun with Hollyn this visit. Cambry would chase Hollyn all around the house, and then Hollyn would come after Cambry and she would squeal and laugh. It was so cute to see them interacting.

The guys went fishing while the girls were at the shower. Then afterward the guys took Hollyn to the park, Nana stayed home with Cambry, and Jill, Michelle, and I went shopping. We went to a couple "junk" stores and to a great children's resale shop. Anyone know of any junk stores in Houston? The kind with all the cute shabby chic stuff? How is Houston so big yet I can't find any of those stores. I know of Texas Junk store but that is not exactly what I am looking for. 

We had a fun time as usual and I am looking forward to Baby Anderson's arrival in December!

Monthly Photos: Month 10

Time seems to be speeding up now. My little 9 month old is already 10 months! But I am so thankful for these past 10 months. I feel like I am always reading things on blogs or other places about such heartbreaking stories of people losing babies, so I just feel so grateful for each month that I have had with this precious one. And what a fun age this is! Once again, this is my new favorite age. Let's she what she is up to...

Size: She was a little over 20 lbs. when she was weighed at the doctor's office a few weeks ago. She wears around 12 month clothing, and size 3 disposable diapers.

She is looking at a video on the Ipad - 1 second of being still, yay!

Likes: Being chased, dogs, crawling everywhere, feeding herself grapes (cut into pieces) and Cheerios, pulling up, stroller walks, turning book pages faster than you can read, chewing on shoes, opening and closing doors, and pulling out all the tupperware from the cabinet.

Dislikes: Naps sometimes...can't really think of anything else she consistently doesn't like.

Working on: We still try to teach her baby sign language for milk, more, and all done. No response yet.

Eating: She eats mostly puréed fruits and vegetables. However, her favorite foods are grapes, yogurt, and cheese. She is not a huge fan of green veggies, but will usually eat them when mixed with other fruits and veggies. She doesn't seem to like meat yet. In addition to baby food I nurse her 5 times a day.

Sleeping: Bedtime is between 7:00pm and 7:30pm. Sometimes she wakes up around 5:00am or 5:30am and will go back down after I feed her until 7:00am. Other times she wakes up between 5:45am and 6:30am and is up for the day. She takes a morning and afternoon nap. They vary in length from 30 min to 2 hours.

She has 6 teeth - 4 on top and 2 on bottom.

She is crawling everywhere up on all fours, no more army crawling.

She is pulling up a lot all around the house.

She babbles a lot. She said her first word, Dada, around 9 1/2 months. although she doesn't know what it means.

I don't know if I ever included this, but she drinks through a straw sippy cup. She has been doing this for a couple of months now. She couldn't do the regular sippy cups but could do the straw.

She has been very good lately about being dropped off for childcare at the church on Sundays and when I work out during the week. The teachers are all so sweet and take great care of her.

She is a very easy going and happy baby. Especially in the evening we have so much fun with her. She laughs when we chase her around the house. She loves for you to come get her. She will crawl away but stop and turn around to make sure you are still chasing her. I thank God all the time for such a sweet and wonderful gift!

Wiggly Worm

We took Cambry's 10 month pictures yesterday. Wow. Not an easy task. She used to just lay there. Now she is all over the place! It took both of us acting like fools and playing "Lots of Shapes" video on the iPad to get any good shots. We were practically sweating at the end. I will post the good ones tomorrow with her 10 month update but for now here are the outtakes.

Cambry. No.

Stay still.

No flipping.

Ok, abort.

Let's take it from the top again.

Sit still for a sec.

No - 

Come back...

She is so funny. I guess it didn't help that we took them in the evening during her hyper time. Oh well, we did manage to get a few good ones. I love our little wiggle worm!

Hattitude

Hattitude = Attitude While Trying on Hats

Swingin

Swinging by yourself can sometimes be a little...boring.

But swinging with Daddy is so much fun!

Slumber Party

Friday night we had the 4th annual middle school class sleepover. The girls stayed at our house. We had 7 girls, 3 leaders (including me), a 4 year old, and of course Cambry. The girls had so much fun and us leaders had so much fun watching them! They played games, had a talent show, decorated pumpkins and just general silly shenanigans. Look how cute they are!

I was a little worried how Cambry might do - if she would be able to sleep through the squeals, screams, music, and laughter. Our house is small and with the wood floors and huge gaps under the doors you can hear everything. The girls were so good though and weren't even that loud. We had Cambry's sound machine on loud as well as a small fan and she never even woke up.

 They got so creative with the pumpkins and then had a little pumpkin fashion show.

The girls got to vote for the best pumpkin to win the prize, and they were so sweet and voted for Ellie's pumpkin. Ellie is 4 and one of the leaders daughter. I thought that was so thoughtful of them! 

We started a movie a little before midnight and everyone went to sleep after that. I think I went to sleep around 1:30, so not bad. Although I really can't remember the last time I stayed up that late. It must be before we had Cambry for sure. Greg and I both needed to catch up on sleep a little so we had a nice Sunday afternoon nap today. Thanks Cambry for taking a nice afternoon nap today and letting us get one in too!

Parenting: How To

Sometimes I need a How To book on Parenting. One that is specific. Very specific. So I don't mess this up.

Currently I need chapters that detail what to do when your baby won't nap but is obviously tired, what to do when your baby doesn't want you to spoon feed them but can't exactly pick up food by themselves and just wants to nurse but it has only been an hour, and how to stop your baby from licking shoes and the floor. Oh, and how to bathe a 9 month old. Greg does this most every night, but when he is gone I do it and wow it is getting hard. She used to just lay there. Now she is wild and wiggly and slippery and do not even try to look the other way to grab the soap because she will do a double back flip and try to eat the water and then choke.

Greg and I have been watching this video series called It Starts at Home by Matt Chandler (who I love), and Gary Thomas (who wrote Sacred Marriage - very good book). We just finished the 6 session series - which we had been watching once a week on Mondays. We both really enjoyed it. It was a great encouragement to hear teaching on parenting, hear real life stories, get some practical examples, and be encouraged in this great adventure.

The thing that stood out to me the most was something that Gary Thomas talked about in the 5th session. He said we are so obsessed with doing parenting right.

I admit, I do feel a little obsessed. I want to read enough books and listen to enough sermons and get enough ideas on godly parenting that I do not mess it up. But of course I know I am going to make hundreds of thousands of mistakes. And seeking godly counsel and wisdom is a good thing.

However, he pointed out that in all of scripture there are only a couple verses that tell us how to raise kids. Although there are thousands of Christian books on how to raise kids. He said if the "how to" was so important, wouldn't God have given us more?

Was it that God neglected to tell us everything and he had to wait until the 20th century when we have this huge publishing industry? Did parents for thousands of years prior not know how to raise their kids?

He said we have an inappropriate emphasis. There are plenty of verses in the Bible that exhort us to grow in our faith, to grow in godliness, to grow in the fruit of the Spirit. What we really need to do is become the right person and model that to our kids.

I love this. He says -

"We spend so much time trying to get our kids to behave. Maybe what the Bible is telling us by its emphasis, is that we need to spend more time focusing on how we behave and let our kids catch that." 

There are lots of different pathways to education, discipline, worship, etc. But there is one faith we want to instill in them. Parenting is an act of worship. It is our service to the Lord. If we are faithful in that, it will be pleasing to Him. I want to be pleasing to Him.