Baby In A Basket

Kate is now 5 months old (as of last week!) She has had a mild cold since returning from Rekindle so I am a bit behind in my update. Last week she was SO grumpy for 3 days. She only wanted to be held, wouldn't really play with toys, or even babble. It was quite sad. Thankfully she is now back to her normal, sunny self. 

Lately it has been quite handy to stick her in a basket while I do some task or other (hence the title of this post.) She thinks it's fun! She also looks extremely cute when she's being "baby in a basket".  Here are some pictures of her.

We are doing our best to make her a little Tarheel! 

I really love taking picture's of Kate when she's sleep. I just think she looks so precious! This was today after a long stretch of errands.

I thought it was precious how she was holding her toy while she slept.

A very happy mama and 5 month old!

Rekindle Oh Nine

I am a little late on my Rekindle post (Rekindle is our college ministry's spring break conference in Panama City, Fl) but Meg really wanted me to do one, so here it is.

I felt so blessed to get to go to Rekindle this year. Dave and I had planned not to go this year because of having Baby Kate but through the Lord's leading it turned out we could go! We have now been to every Rekindle. It has been such a special week in our lives. At the very first one in 2005 I had a lightening bolt moment when I realized that I wanted to marry David. I had no idea how he felt about me so it was an emotional time. 3 days later I found out he wanted to court me! We have been in various special seasons of our lives at each one since (engaged, newly married, pregnant last year, and now with a baby!)

I am pretty sure this was our last Rekindle so I tried to savor every moment and experience. It was a wonderful time this year. Dad and Joe gave wonderful, foundational truth messages. Worship was full of the Spirit and everyone had great times of play and fellowship.

Kate was truly amazing on the trip! She cried less then she would have at home on the 10 hour drives there and back. She slept like a champ the whole time we were there, and really enjoyed having so many people to hold and admire her:) I am delighted to report that I think she will be a social bug like her mama!

Here she is during our dinner time in the cafeteria. She didn't enjoy meal times much. I think she didn't like that no one was holding her, ha! 

My bathing beauty:) She loved wearing her sunglasses which was so awesome. She would be upset out in the sun and then we would put the sunnies on and she was happy as a clam. It was great. I have some other really great pictures of her in her bathing suit in the pool but they are on Dave's camera and he hasn't uploaded them yet.

She discovered her feet while we were there! Now she grabs on and holds on for dear life with every diaper change.

Kickin back in her make-shift sun hut. I think the beach will be much more fun when she can sit up by herself and we have a little tent or beach umbrella. It was pretty impossible to be on the beach with her on this trip.

Enjoying the warm afternoon on the porch while Kate napped.

Kate's and my beloved "Miss Wiz"

The whole time we were there I was wanting to get a beautiful family picture on the beach at sunset. The time just never was right and so we snapped a quick one right before the meeting one night.......It wasn't all I had hoped for;)

Dave really wanted this to be real. Any one know where I can find a giant cone? :)

The beach there is just so lovely. Every evening the sunset was gorgeous. So peaceful.

Doesn't this look like we are standing against one of those paper back drops pretending we had been on a great vacation?

Prayer

Tante ("aunt" in German, my mom's sister:) sent me this beautiful prayer from her devotional. It was very encouraging and envisioning for me and I wanted to share it.

"Dear Lord, I do not ask that thou shouldst give me some high work of Thine, some noble calling, or some wondrous task. "Give me a little hand to hold in mine. Give me a little child to point the way over the strange sweet path that leads to Thee. "Give me a little voice to teach to pray. Give me two shining eyes Thy face to see. "The only crown I ask , dear Lord, to wear is this: that I may teach a little child. I do not ask that I may ever stand among the wise, the worthy, or the great. "I only ask that, softly, hand in hand, a child and I may enter at the gate."

Author Unknown

"The Most Fun You Can Have....."

  Last night Dave, Kate, and I packed up and headed over to the new Charlotte IKEA (woo hoo!) to explore. IKEA is one of Dave and I's favorite places to go together. We have been to the one in Atlanta twice. We couldn't wait to take Kate! 

One of the things I really like about IKEA is how family friendly they are. Most of the displays have children's items sprinkled through out and the cafeteria and restroom areas all provide little tables and chairs and toys. 

We had so much fun wandering around the display floor! Kate and I tested out lots of sofas, chairs, beds etc. while Dave admired art work and lighting. We barely made it down to the actual store part before they closed! 

Here are some pictures of Kate's experience:

At first she seemed like maybe she wasn't going to be too in to the IKEA experience

I don't think she liked this chair too much, but she sure looked cute sitting in it!

One of IKEA's things is to set up a whole living space in an incredibly small area of square footage. This little "house" had a nursery. It was so cute and cozy! I think I would really like living in a big city in a tiny apartment if I could have it look like this! It was quite functional too, the way they had it set up.

I found this lady bug/hippo/caterpillar and thought Kate would really like looking at it.

She did!

Testing out a high chair. This chair is really cool. It is so light weight and folds up totally flat. I think we are going to get one as our travel high chair. Kate was very interested in the pattern.

This is one of those chairs that you see in bathrooms so you can have your baby safe while you, um, "go". I have always wanted to put her in one cause I thought they looked like fun. I finally got my chance. 

We were in the Baby Care bathroom. As you can see, they had a leather chair with pretty drapes beside it so you could feed your baby. They had Diaper Champs and free diapers plus a toilet and sink for adults. It was so nice! 

Here Kate is piled high with our purchases. We were able to get two rugs (for the front door and kitchen sink) a little ice cube tray, and two cutting boards for only $11.75! Have I mentioned I love IKEA? :) It was a really fun evening!

My Big Little Girl

I took Kate for her 4 month well check yesterday. Her weight (15 lbs 1 oz), height (25in), and head circumference (?) were all the 75%. She is a well proportioned chickadee:) 

The thing that surprised me about the appointment is that the doctor said I could start her on rice cereal now. I had heard that starting on cereal before 6 months can increase allergies but she said that that is unproven and there have actually been studies showing the reverse to be true. Dr. P said it's perfectly fine if I want to wait until 6 months before I start on it though. So, I wanted to get the opinion of some of you mamas out there! When did you start your babies on cereal? When do you think is a good age? I don't know that I feel ready for that milestone yet. 4 months just still seems so tiny. But I recognize that there can be a prideful aspect of my thinking where I want to be the only one nourishing and sustaining her with food. That is not a reason to start her on cereal now, but I don't want to make the decision only based on a sinful desire to exalt my care of my child. Ok, this is getting rambling! Thoughts would be appreciated!

I Hang My Hat in Tennessee

What a wonderful treat it was to travel to Knoxville with Dad and Mom to visit Meg, Will, and Laurel last Sunday! We had so much fun doing all kinds of fun things, but mostly we just watched the babies be babies! Here are some pictures from our time:)

Shortly after we got there on Sunday night it was time for both Kate and Laurel to get a bath. Meg thought it would be funny to lay them both on Laurel's changing table after we had undressed them. Kate didn't know what to think but she was ok with it......Laurel, as you can see, was not. She was flailing her arms and striking Kate. It was very funny. We took as many pictures as we could before L's annoyance escalated to outrage:)

These next 3 pictures were taken after The Unfortunate Scratching Incident (read Meg's hilarious account here)

Could my poor baby look any more pitiful? Laurel had no clue that she had hurt Kate. She was just happily posing for pictures! Haha. I quickly picked Kate up since she was obviously so upset!

The look on Laurel's face in this picture is a very good representation of her impish personality. She sure keeps us all laughing!

Dad just kept snapping and snapping pictures when we only wanted 1 or 2. That's why our faces look so funny:)

What an amazing thing to get to share this season of new motherhood with my sissy! I love this picture even though the babies weren't into it at all. Who needs to smile when they are that cute???

I love you both!!!!!!

My boogs turned 3 months old last Sunday! This past week has brought alot of changes! She can now lay on her back and bat at and eventually grab a toy hanging over her and then pull it to her mouth! For some reason I have been really looking forward to that milestone. I think because once she can play with toys she will be able to entertain herself more. It's really cute to watch her play:) She likes to sit in a Bumbo seat now (thanks Mary and Caleb Benton!) My favorite new thing though is how she vigorously pumps her arms and legs when she's getting changed (yes, naked time is still her favorite!) It's hilarious to watch! She gets so crazy and punches herself in the stomach and scoots backwards she's kicking her legs so hard. I had a video of it, but it won't format to the blog from my camera:( But David and I laugh at her all the time. 

She is also growing at an alarming rate:) 

The past couple of days have brought some challenges too. She used to lay down happily for her naps and sleep at least an hour, usually two. Now, she screams when I lay her down and then wakes up after 30 minutes and won't go back down unless I rock her. We are working on it! I am thinking more scheduled nap times are on the horizon. Every time you get something down with a baby they change on you! Part of the adventure.

She has such huge cheeks that you think she is a chubby baby, but she is actually pretty little in the body. Just very solid:) Poor kid

Ok, maybe she is chubby. 

Sleepy eyes after a nap

a couple times recently she has been so tired she has napped on the sofa. That is very unusual, but so cute.

Chillin in Dad's sink while Mom put her makeup on:)

She really does like the Bumbo!