Dedicated

On Sunday, Steve and I had Bean dedicated at our church.  We stood in front of our church and family and committed to raise Bean up to know the Lord and dedicate her life back to Him.

My parents and Steve's sister and brother-in-law were able to come to the service and celebrate Bean's dedication.  We didn't plan the dedication too far in advance, and I didn't want to make it a big deal.  I saw the dedication as more of a thing for Steve and I, but in the end, I'm glad we had family with us.  After the service, we came back to our house for lunch.  My parents had to head back to Indiana after eating, and we were able to spend some extra time with Ashley & Scott.  Thanks for celebrating Bean with us!

(During the service, one pastor read off what Bean's names means - Light/illumination & precious - while the other pastor and his wife gave us a certificate, Bible for Bean, and a flower. Bean was dedicated to the Lord along with 9 other babies from our church.)

(Ashley & Scott drove up from Cincinnati for the morning/afternoon.  It was great to have some of Steve's family with us for our commitment!)

(Bean's outfit is extra special - she wore MY dress from when I was a baby.  It looked pretty much like a brand new dress, just a little retro, ha! It was neat for me to share that with my daughter.)

(Ashley took the pictures us, and had a little bit of a learning curve with using an Android.  This and the next photo made me chuckle, so I had to share. I'm pretty sure Steve is calling out that Scott was sitting on the ground just a few feet away weeding.)

(Still figuring out the camera. . . )

(My parents drove up late the night before and had to leave early to get back for their church commitments.  Thanks for driving up for the quick trip and making Bean a priority!)

Addendum

There are a few Bean updates that need to be noted:

(This happened this morning -- Bean can swivel in her jumper! When I put her in, she was facing me.  A little bit later, I checked on her and she was facing the wall!  I never saw her swivel, but at least she is figuring it out.)

(After a rough morning of refusing to nap, and me finally letting her cry it out in her crib, she zonked.  I went in to check on her and discovered she is now a tummy sleeper- just like her Momma!  I still put her down on her back, and let her flip when she wants to.)

(I tried giving Bean avocado right after I wrote her 6 month update.  In the update, I said she didn't like the first attempt at avocado, but she has LOVED it ever since.  Despite how it appears in the picture, she can not feed herself. I let her hold the spoon while I took the picture.  I also let her mush the avocado on her tray while she eats.  She'll pick some up but doesn't try to put it in her mouth.)

Happy Easter!

For Bean's first Easter, we had our own little Easter breakfast on Good Friday before heading to Indiana to celebrate with my family.  For breakfast, I made Resurrection Buns (also known as Empty Tombs).  You put a marshmallow inside a roll before baking, and tell the story of Christ being put into a tomb.  When you bake the rolls, the marshmallow disappears and you finish the story with, He is Risen! I look forward to being able to make the rolls with Bean in the future and sharing the story or our Savior's death.

Once we cleaned up from breakfast and loaded up the car, we headed west to visit my family.  We weren't able to take our normal route and had to detour.  The detour didn't add any time, but it sure added adventure.  We were in the back country and had to make several turns.  By the end, I was getting car sick and ready to be done! The rest of the day was quiet and just spent with my parents and sister.

Saturday was the big day that all my family came over- my sister's family, brother's family, grandma, uncle, and "added" family members.  There were 14 adults, 4 kids + 3 babies - quite the family gathering! We had 2 egg hunts and a duel birthday party planned, and an unexpected fire! Luckily, it wasn't our fire, but we did get to watch.

I noticed the fire first.  I was outside grilling some chicken and noticed parts of the neighbor's yard on fire.  There was a guy out there watching it, so I just assumed he was being stupid in burning clipping right underneath his row of pine trees.  I went in and got my dad.  He went outside and looked and agreed he was being unsafe, but that he was out there and didn't feel he should intervene.  I had to pass the grilling off to my brother and went and put Bean down for a nap.  About 10 min later when I returned downstairs, everyone was outside and the backyard was full of smoke - you couldn't even see the neighbor's yard! I was then informed that the shed had caught fire and a firetruck had just shown up (you couldn't see it because of the smoke).

My parents live in the semi-country and the fire department is all voluntary.  My dad and brother immediately jumped in with a garden hose and started to saturate the fire that was now on my dad's edge of the property.  We all stood outside and watched (I yelled at my brother a few times because he was up in the smoke, right next to the shed.  I was concerned there could be gasoline in the shed, and it could blow up.).  About 20-30 minutes later, the fire was out and our entertainment was over.  We headed back inside and ate our Easter lunch.

(The pine trees mark the property line between my parents and their neighbors.  The neighbor's she that caught on fire is right next to the pine trees.  The fire was started by another neighbor, who was trying to burn something in his yard.  The fire then moved to the pine needles under the line of trees on the other side of the property.  From there, it just followed all the pine needles under the trees until eventually the shed caught on fire.)

(My brother thinks he was the fire chief and quickly got to work with his little garden hose while the firemen worked from behind with their big water hose.  The property butts up next to the school parking lot, so the firetrucks were parked there, and worked from behind.)

(Steve assisting "Fire Chief Joe" with hooking up the hose to another water source.)

(I took this picture blindly, not knowing there was a fireman walking through it.  Later, I realize it was just any fireman, but my best friend's dad!  The Russiaville Fire Dept is made up of volunteer fireman.  He heard the address, knew it was close to my parents' house, and jumped in the truck.  Thanks Jeff! You can see some of the fire damage on the siding on the left, and the black on the front.)

(Dad took over manning the hose on the side when Joe and Steve switched water sources.)

(The backside of the shed was another story, it burned through to the framework.)

(Aaaaaand, I was right.  Notice that can of gas?! Good thing no one got hurt!)

After lunch, we started our planned festivities -- an egg hunt for the little kids, followed by a little birthday party for 2 of my nieces (their birthdays were earlier in the week - on the same day!) and then the adult egg hunt.  since Easter fell so late this year, we were able to just hunt eggs outside.  We finished up the evening with the guys playing computer games, and the little girls dyeing eggs.  Bean was a trooper through the day.  She took 2 good naps, and enjoyed all the attention from everyone.  During the kids egg hunt, I took her around and let her pick some of the eggs up.  She just wanted to hold one, so Steve and I just went around and got her eggs. In my family, participants in egg hunts are all assigned a specific color of egg so that way it's all fair.

On Sunday, we headed to church with my parents.  Ahm & Abo had a good time showing her off after the service.  After church, we headed back to my parents for a little cookout with just my parents and sister.  The rest of the afternoon was pretty quiet.  I watched movies with my sister while Bean (and my mom- ha!) took naps and Steve played computer games with my dad.  We went ahead and stayed a little later than we normally do, and headed back home after scrounging some dinner.  Steve worked a couple of night shifts after Easter, so he needed to stay up later in preparation of switching his sleeping schedule.

We weren't sure why we had to detour on our trip coming in, so we decided to take another way back, just to avoid it.  This time, we chose a different route back which proved very interesting.  We got to take a drive through REAL Amish country. We passed a dozen horse and buggies (this was Steve's first experience with so many). We also passed by a field with a lot of dark smoke billowing up.  Since we were still running the fire high from the previous day, we veered a little of course to check it out.  We ended up passing a house with a bonfire built of rubber tires, hence all the black smoke.  Definitely not legal.  We returned back on course and got home around 9:30.  Bean had slept the first part of the trip, but woke up halfway through.  She was fine until the last 15 minutes.  She was hungry and ready to be in bed - and so was I!  Poor Steve got to stay up until 2am.  What a fun, family packed weekend.

(Bean surrounded by some of her cousins.)

(I can 't get over how similar these two are in body size.  Cousin O on the left is 2 months younger than Bean. They both weigh the same, but Bean has an inch on him.  I'm guessing that as they get older, O will tower over Bean.)

(Cousin O & Bean hanging out with Ahm & Abo.)

(Hunting for Bean's eggs)

(She just wanted to play with the eggs.  She is also very unsure of grass, ha!)

(Happy Easter!)

6 Months!

How is it possible that Bean is already a half year old?!  This means I'm already beginning to think about her 1yr birthday party.  Seriously?!?!

Yet again, it seems like Bean has grown up so much in the past month.  She has become quite the ham and is constantly in action.  She still loves playing in her jumper and on her activity mat.  Only now when she's on the mat, she rolls all over it and reaches for the many toys that are strewn all about.  She is getting so close to crawling, but doesn't have much motivation.  She has mastered the art of mobility via rolling. She can roll back and forth, flipping from back to tummy and turning while she does it.  She's very good at reaching out and grasping for things.   A couple of her favorite things to grab for -- hair and sweatshirt strings.  I now keep my hair always pulled back and am threatening a new mom cut (Steve's not ready for that - ha!).

Bean is becoming very vocal.  Her favorite sound so far is "ne- ne- ne" followed with a "da-da-da-da".  She also squeaks and squeals which sometimes sounds like a "hey".  Even though she is babbling, she has no clue of what she's doing.  The babbling is not an everyday thing, yet.  But one thing is for sure, this girl loves to laugh! We are constantly hearing her crack up over silly things.  She loves being "tickled", being "scared" with a "boo!", and is quite the dare devil.  She loves being tossed in the air (not too high!!) and bounced around on the bed.  Sometimes, she'll laugh so hard she'll cry.  This usually only happens when she is really tired, though.

Another big change this month -- food!  Little girl has started eating "real" food!  I feel like there's so many rules about introducing food that I get really stressed and obsessive about it.  So far, I'm starting things "by the book", but as I see her getting accustomed to food, I'll probably be more lacks.  For now, we are only introducing one food at a time and waiting 3 days in between each new food to see if she has any reactions.  She has mastered green beans and is currently working on avocado.  I started with baby food green beans, but have also given her real green beans, just sort of cut up/mashed.  She did well with them, but definitely likes the baby food better.  The avocado has been a different story.  I just scoop it out, sort of mash it up and give it to her.  She liked the first couple bites, but then progressed into spitting it out, to full out refusing it.  We'll try it again today (and maybe give her some green beans along with it) and see how it goes.  She is currently eating solids for a lunch and dinner meal, and then I give her some breastmilk after she eats either by a bottle or nursing.

Her routine now looks like this (not necessarily according to that exact time):
8am - nurse, play in jumper or with toys on the floor
9:30 - nap time
11 - eat "lunch" (vegetable + breastmilk), play in jumper or with toys, or run errands
12:30 - nap
2 - nurse, play in jumper or with toys on the floor
3:30 - nap
5 - eat "dinner" (vegetable + breastmilk), play with daddy, hang out in jumper while momma cooks
7:30 - bath time
8pm - nurse, bed by 9 (or 9:30 on a bad night, ha)
3-6am Middle of the night feed

For food, we are slowly working through the vegetables first, starting with the greens and working toward orange.  Then we'll start with fruits.  When we add in the fruits, I'll add those in with a cereal in the morning and drop that nursing.  I'm really looking forward to being done breastfeeding.  It's starting to become uncomfortable both physically and mentally/emotionally.  She is on the brink of getting teeth and is currently in a bad habit of chomping.  The minute she does it with teeth, I'm done! The more food she starts eating, the more I'm ready for her to be done, but then that means my little baby is growing up, which brings on more emotions, ha!

Bean is still getting up in the middle of the night, which is driving me crazy.  Like literally.  I'm so ready for a full night's sleep on a consistent basis.  She was doing really well with sleeping through the night, with random nights of her getting up once.  But then, that changed to her getting up consistently 1 time at night (usually around 6).  Then she had shots last week, and she decided getting up 2x/night was the new norm.  This week, Steve has been working the night shift and for some reason, it makes it harder for me to get up in the middle of the night.  So when she starts crying around 3:30am, I struggle to get up and just sleep through it.  She eventually goes back to sleep and wakes up again around 6:30 (I get up and feed her then).  I'm hoping that after a few nights of her crying and going back to sleep, that she'll just learn to sleep through the night.  I think she's just in a habit of getting up and eating, but really doesn't need to be eating.  Since I know she can go 12 hours at night without food, I'm going to stop feeding her before 6am (that's like 9-10 hours).

At Bean's 6 month check, she weighed in at 15.4 pounds and is 26.5" long.  She currently is in the 75th-90th percentile for length and 50th percentile for weight.  Which means she is still long and lean.  She currently wears size 6 months - 9 months, depending on the style.  For one piece sleepers with footies built in, she needs 9 months, but for 2 piece clothing or onesies, she can do 6 months (or 6/9 months).  Clothes are typically loose around her body, but tight on her lengthwise.  Her feet are still pretty tiny, but are definitely growing.  She can no longer wear the little cloth tennis shoes she used to wear.  Shoes are really hard to size/buy for a baby, so she's currently shoe-less, meaning she is currently sock-less (since I used the shoes to keep her socks on).

Other random accomplishments:
-She can pick up her paci and put it into her mouth on her own
-She loves to slap things with her right hand and can "slap" your hand with hers
-She loves going on walks in her stroller, especially with cupcake Sara!
-She can now sit in her booster seat (she still sort of slouches)
-She tries to blow raspberries, but ends up just spitting
-I had to raise up the straps in her carseat and is becoming too heavy to car her in it
-She can finally "put herself to sleep" by placing her in the crib with paci/blanket and turning on her bird mobile.  She's usually asleep halfway through its song.  We've also started using a sound machine to block out noises if I know we're going to be loud in the house (like vacuuming, or when I was painting in the bathroom).

The last month in pictures:

(Get this silly bow off me mom!)

(When paci isn't around. . . )

(Bean now "plays" with toys! She loves this owl.  It makes all sorts of noises and has her other favorite thing -- tags! She loves sucking on the manufacturing tags.)

(Look at that play area and all those toys -- and what does she choose to play with?! Her own foot on the hard wood floor.)

(It's hard to tell, but she is cry/laughing.  We were headed home from small group and she was all wound up, thanks to Candace & Emi, yet very tired.  I chose to sit in the back with her on the way home to make sure she stayed awake.  She was laughing at me singing to her, but she was hysterical laughing which brought on tears. In the words of daddy - "Women!")

(Yummy green beans!  I let her try to feed herself, but she wasn't very successful.  I let her play with some while I just spoon feed her,  This was taking at Easter at my parents' house.  She looks like a monster in her own booster seat, haha.)

(Cuteness overload!  Bean hates the sun - and wind - on her face.  I remembered she had her own sunglasses and pulled them out.  She wore them for a little bit, before tearing them off.  She has another pair that actually Velcros like a headband.  We'll try those on our next walk.)

(What a big girl!  Pillows are no longer needed - Bean can touch the floor on her own.  She can play with all the different toys on her jumper.  She can't fully swivel on her own, but can reach from side to side.)

Baby Girl, you are growing way too fast!

Ready or Not . . .

I decided I was ready to return back to my old ways and tackle a new project.  I mean, how hard can it be with a 6 month old, right?  I decided what worst case scenario would be - me and bean both crying in the bathroom with paint all over us and nothing accomplished -- and anything other than this scenario would be great. Haha.

I decided to start small and tackle the master bathroom.  Luckily, it has been updated and in pretty good condition.  Only problem was the paint color.  it was sort of a baby poop brown color.  I can say that, because I currently deal in a lot of that color, thanks to Bean.

I started a little prep work on Thursday, like making sure I had all the right supplies, and taped around the cabinet.  But Friday was my official start day.  I put Bean down for her first nap and got to work.  I quickly wiped the walls and got straight into painting.  She didn't take as long of a nap as I had hoped, so I set up a play area with blankets for Bean to play on in our bedroom while I worked.  I took a break when it was time for both of us to eat and got back to work when it was time for nap #2. At the end of the day, I had the first layer of paint around all the room (except behind the mirror) and the 2nd layer on half.

I thought I could plow through the bathroom on Saturday since Steve would be around to help with Bean.  However, I didn't think about the fact that he would have his own to-do list (which consisted of taking advantage of the beautiful weather and working in the yard).  So Saturday looked like the same as Friday, I worked while Bean napped. Then when she'd wake up, she'd play on the floor in our bedroom.  I was able to finish painting all the walls by the end of the day.

I had big plans to start and finish the trim on Sunday, thus completing the bathroom.  But again, I didn't think through the fact that it was Sunday and we'd only be home for a few hours in the afternoon.  So instead of starting on the trim at all, I ended up getting side tracked and working on redoing the caulk around the outside of the shower.

Monday was another piddling day in the bathroom.  I got engrossed in the caulking project and decided to redo the messed up caulk inside the shower.  There were parts of it that were growing mold and becoming discolored.  I discovered that you can use mineral spirits to help loosen up the old caulk, and was able to get it out during Bean's first nap.  During her second nap, I was able to re-caulk the area.

Tuesday was a HUGE work day.  Bean cooperated amazingly and took 2-2hr long naps.  I was able to tape and paint all the trim, door, and window.  I was even able to clean the bathroom up and put it back together.  We only had to wait one more day to finally be able to use the shower in there again. Yay!

The project took a couple days longer than I anticipated, but I got so much done.  It always feels so good to finish a project, but I must say.  I'm not ready for another one!  May is going to be a crazy month for us, so maybe come summer I'll be ready for the next project -- the other bathroom (which will require wallpaper removal.  yikes!)

Before:

(The coloring is off in this picture.  The next picture shows the original color better.)

(We knew we wanted to change the bathroom to a yellow tone, and I happened to already have some sample paints from when we were doing Bean's room.  So we just picked a color from one of those samples.  It ended up being the middle option from this picture.)

(Shower)

(View out of the bathroom into our bedroom.  Which I realized, I painted the bedroom around this time last year!)

(And just like the rest of the house, the trim was in dire need of being redone.  There were multiple colors of white on the trim from people trying to retouch it. )

(It's hard to tell from this picture, but we have issues with condensation running down the walls after taking a shower.  The problem has been going on for so long, that it had washed some of the paint off the wall and was all over the floor trim.)

(Here you can see the streaks from the condensation running down the walls.  We were going to buy some special primer/paint, but we were advised that just using a semi-gloss paint and primer in one would fix the problem.  So I went with my favorite Valspar Ultra- no odor/VOC paint.  It seriously has no smell.  Steve couldn't even tell I was painting when he walked in the house.  I'm skeptical that we won't have an issue with it streaking from the water, though.  We shall see.)

After:

(Ta-Da!)

(The photos/lighting are deceiving.  The walls are a pale yellow color, not tan.)

(Shower)

(View into the bedroom again. This is probably closest to what the real color looks like.)

(Look at those clean lines!  This is where I re-caulked outside the shower - up the wall. I didn't take any photos of the caulking inside the shower.  You will have to take my word that it went from looking disgusting to brand new!)

(No more paint running down onto the trim!)

(Now if only I could convince husband that re-grouting the tile needs to be moved up on the priority list!)

There is a cabinet that we hope to hang up for extra storage, as well as a shelf.  Those fall under Steve's responsibility and they didn't get up in time for this post.  If and when they get hung up, I'll have to do an update post!

Where's Bean?!

I have the joy of playing a new game with Bean -- where's Bean?! You'd think I'd be referring to playing peek-a-boo, which by the way makes her laugh hysterically; however, I'm talking about where's Bean in her crib?!

Everytime I put her to sleep in her crib, whether it be for naptime or bedtime, I never know where I'll find her when she wakes up.  I mean, of course, I find her in the crib, but the exact location is always different.  Sometimes she's on her tummy, sometimes on her back, sometimes diagonal,sometimes perpendicular, and who knows what she'll have in her hand - paci, bunny, owl, etc.  Just this week, she's started putting her paci back into her own mouth, so there's been a couple of times where I come in the room and it's back in her mouth.  This girl sure knows how to make her momma smile!

Sleeping has become a big "project" in the house.  We're trying hard to get Bean to sleep through the night.  She was getting close, and then decided getting up a couple times at night sounded better.  Ugh.  I'm ready to not have interrupted sleep.  Up until recently, I'd rock/hold Bean until she's completely asleep, Then put her in her crib.  We're trying something new and putting her to bed still awake.

This sort of started because she fights sleep a lot, driving us crazy; but also, she needs to learn to put herself to sleep.  So I rock her, read to her, sing a couple songs, and when I can tell she's drowsy, put her in her crib.  I make sure paci is in, she's got her bunny lovie nearby, and tuck her under the blanket.  Then, I wind up her bird mobile and let it play as I exit.  This has been working, and she'll coo a couple times, and then fall asleep.  However, some nights she really fights sleep and a battle ensues.  We'll let her cry a little bit, then we'll go back in, pick her up, sing a song, lay her back down and wind up the mobile.  One night we had to do the process 3 times, but she eventually fell asleep.  I even use this method for her middle of the night feedings.  I've been able to cut down being in her room from nearly 45 min, to more like 20.  Now if only we could cut it out all together!

Where's Bean?? The many positions of a crazy girl:

(Ontop of blanket, socks torn off, and laughing)

(At the top of the crib, staring at her birdies, and notice her foot?  She's wearing footed pj's and has somehow gotten her foot out of the pant leg in between 2 of the snaps. How does that happen?!)

(Rotated almost 180 degrees, on her tummy, and reaching for her paci)

(This happens a lot -- wedged in the top corner of the crib)

(Feet in the air like you just don't care!)

(Look at that cute face!  Flipped on her tummy with blanket wrapped all around, as happy as could be.  Little did I know. . . )

(. . . blanket was hiding this nice surprise.  Needless to say, a surprise bath occurred next, followed by a load of laundry!)

(And a bonus picture, this was before I put her in her crib.  Sometimes, a baby just needs to praise Jesus!)