Pilgrims at Oak Ridge

I managed to come up with a pretty great costume idea this year, if I do say so myself. I don't ever get into halloween, mostly because I can never think of anything creative. When Christy said that her son was going to be a football for halloween, that got me thinking.... We're not as much a football family, but we sure do love baseball. So without further ado, here is our adorable spitball! (With his daddy, the baseball player!) I painted a onesie to look like a baseball, freehanding the stitches, but using freezer paper stencils to make the MLB logo that is on the front and the Wilson logo that is on the back. I love how it turned out. Jeff's costume came together well - we found this baseball jersey at my parent's house (from a team in Panama, I think) and I bought some baseball pants and socks. Plus he's a spitball . I crack myself up sometimes. Yes. That is me. As home plate. Hah.

...she had three baby hats! I wanted to get Judah a plain, white baby hat to go along with his halloween costume. Sadly, I couldn't find any that would fit his...um... generous noggin. I decided to make one, but quickly realized that with just one small women's shirt, you can actually make three hats. I bought my white shirt a kmart, because I had to run in there for something else, but this could just as easily be done with something you don't wear anymore or something thrifted for much cheaper. (And if your baby has a smaller head, or you have a larger shirt, you could probably get more than 3 hats.) Here's what I did: First, I measured Judah's head. It's about 18 in. around. So I cut a rectangle out of the shirt that was 8 in. wide (18 / 2 = 9, - 1 so that it will not fall off) by about 7 or 8 in high. I used the side seam of the shirt as one of the sides of the hat so there was less to sew. I cut the rectangle from to bottom seam of the shirt because that me...

....she had 4 pairs of baby legs! Making these is so easy it seems ridiculous to me that they charge $10-15/pair. I think if I had a girl baby, she would be sporting these all the time, in all varieties of striped, dotted, and argyle. As it is, I just went for plain, because they seem more masculine. Or, as masculine as what are essentially leg warmers can be. Anyway, here is the tutorial I used. Although this one says just to cut off the sock at the heel portion, I ended up taking off another 2 or 3 inches above that so that they weren't way too long for Judah. I used a zigzag stitch to attach the cuff. And that's all there is to it. I used knee high women's socks I got at Walmart for $2/pair. Easy peasy. I'm thinking there will be many more of these made in the future....

The older I get, the more I love weddings. Partly, I think I love to attend weddings and see how styles have changed in the years since I got married. I love seeing all the little details planned so carefully by the bride to make the day beautiful. I like seeing the dresses and flowers and decorations. I like eating cake. I love weddings especially when they are between two good friends whom I've watched as they became friends then started flirting then dating then got engaged. I love seeing old friends who have moved across the state or across the country and spending a whole weekend in a fun place just reconnecting with them. I love weddings because I am always reminded of my own wedding, of walking down the aisle towards Jeff, surrounded by so many friends and family, promising to love him through good times and bad, and hearing him promise to love me back. I love that now when I go to weddings I have this tiny, actual person there to remind me of those promises of love. I love...

I do love facial hair.... But this orange-bearded face was too cute!

1. As an update to yesterday's post, today Christy decided our patient deserved a little reward for being so good. She brought her one tiny hershey's miniature candy bar, in honor of Halloween. Addressing Christy's belly: "Oh, baby, forget what I said yesterday. You got a sweet mama." 2. In a flash of brilliance (and helped out by a very exciting online sale I found today) I got Jeff's Christmas present all figured out. And, so help me, it's AWESOME. Now I have to wait a whole 2 months to give it to him. Sigh. 3. I turn 30 in 8 days. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

My partner Christy is caring for a fairly young person who is only in the hospital because she can't take care of herself. She can't take care of herself because she is so morbidly obese that she can barely walk and has trouble breathing. (A normal BMI is 18-25. Overweight is 25-29. 30 is obese. Hers is something like 95.) However, since coming into the hospital she has been put on a fairly strict 1800 calorie diet and has lost about 100 pounds. (Let's just say she's been in the hospital for a while.) Apparently she's not loving this whole diet and weight loss thing, because every single day she asks Christy for some kind of food or treat and complaining that she is hungry. "I need some 'tato salad. Can't I have some of that? That's got protein in it." "Can I please have just a little bit of fried chicken?" Christy is also over 36 weeks pregnant. I only mention that because another of our patient's common themes when Christy sees...

1. I've had several good discharge days in a row. That means our list at work has been much smaller, which makes me happy. Yesterday I even finished in time to make it to church. It also makes me happy that tomorrow is my last day of work for the month. 2. Judah has now decided that he actually likes eating solids. There was a pretty big change in the last week or so and now he actually seems to enjoy the solids. Our list of foods eaten includes: applesauce, pears, bananas, carrot, acorn squash, and today we tried some avocado. I think sweet potatoes are next. And then peaches. [As an aside, I'm mostly using "recipes" from my favorite food blog, smitten kitchen . Did you all know she has a separate side blog for baby food?? Because that's where I got the recipe for the vanilla balsamic pear sauce that both Judah and I love. Yummo.] What are your favorite starter foods for babies? 3. You all are in trouble because I figured out how to get video from my phone to th...

We call this Judah's happy dance. Or, alternatively, flapping his wings.

Judah and Skylar. Remember their last interaction ? Judah with his great-great Aunt Sarah. I love that he still has great great aunts and uncles. And another one of Judah and his great Aunt Ruth Ellen. You can see he is very interested in the plate. And who wouldn't be? Judah's expression in this one just cracks me up.

[I didn't mean to be gone for so long. I hosted a shower on Tuesday night, and I think after all the excitement of the weekend I just needed a few days to recover. But I'm feeling recovered and now that Judah is napping I have a few minutes to sit and think and write.] I didn't grow up in a church that does infant baptism. I wasn't baptized as an infant. In fact, I remember the day of my baptism very well - I was about 12 and my brother was baptized at the same time. I remember the white turtleneck I wore and standing in front of the church as getting asked questions about what I believed. It's a very fond memory and an event that is important to me. You can see, then, why it is that even after I became convinced of the correctness of the reformed way of thinking that I still struggled to come around to the idea of infant baptism. I used to think that even though I could see that infant baptism was biblical, I wasn't sure that I would want to deprive my childre...

Ok... so here are some more photos from our fun church lunch after the service. Judah and one of his many adopted grandmas, Nona. With his uncle Austin. This is when Judah started to tell me he was ready for his nap....

We baptized Judah today. It was a wonderful time. Jeff's parents came out; my parents were there too, along with my younger brother and Aunt. The pastor who did the baptism is a good friend who was at our church in Charleston and helped to mentor Jeff. We had a big church lunch afterward. I do have some thoughts about it and what it meant to me, but this has been a sort of tiring week and so for now I'll just post some cute photos of Judah and the looong christening gown he wore. (also worn by his grandma and great-grandpa). And the adorable sweater vest and button up shirt I had him in before and after.

We went up to our favorite apple orchard this week. There weren't that many apples, but I mainly wanted to go so I could take some cute pictures of Judah in a pumpkin patch. Jeff mainly wanted to go so he could eat apple donuts. We both got our wish.

Someone had their first bath in the big bath tub. He really seemed to love splashing around in the water. Hopefully he'll soon be able to sit up well enough to sit in the tub. But since the porcelain + head combination seems a little tough right now, I think we'll stick to laying down.

I'm sitting on the chair, watching Judah as he sits on the floor. He alternates between staring intentedly at the string on his pants and playing with it, and chortling at the dog as he grabs at her fur. (And yes, Judah definitely has a chortle. It's adorable.) I never knew having a baby would be this entertaining.

One of the reasons I really wanted to go to the wedding this weekend was so Judah could meet more of Jeff's family. I'm thankful he has such a wonderful great grandmother who really seemed to enjoy getting to know him.

My sweet one-half year old. (!!) He is still an incredibly happy, smiling boy. He's really quite good at sitting now, and when he's laying down manages to move all around, in spite of not being able to crawl. Most days he takes 3 naps, and sleeps from about 8 pm to 5 or 6am, with a dream feed at 11. He loves tags, chewing on his teether when it's frozen, and will laugh if you play peek-a-boo with him. He keeps his tongue stuck out quite a bit, especially if he's full or tired. He's also ticklish, and I can get him really laughing if I tickle his ribs. Then he gets the hiccups. He's still not too interested in solids, although I keep offering them. Some days he's more into it than other days. He's tried apples, pears, and carrots. And rice cereal, but that made him puke. So we're going to avoid that for while and maybe just do oatmeal instead. When he gets upset, he often calms down if I sing to him. Before Judah was born, we decided that each of our ...