Music To My Ears

Levi said "MAMA" for the first time tonight! I'm sure he had NO idea what he was saying, but he said it noneoftheless. P.S. Aaron is sad. He was hoping his first word would be Papa.

5 months

Happy 5 months Little Man!

Don't Kick the Turkeys

Last night Aaron & I attended the Characters for Christ dinner theatre performance of Don't Kick the Turkeys. Beth & Amy were both in the play, and did an awesome job. Amy I must add was pretty funny for an "old" lady. The food was delicious, and we had a great time seeing all of our friends. They will be performing it again tonight, so break a leg you guys. Here are some pictures from last night's performance.

Hypnotic

Let me first start by saying that I LOVE Baby Einstein! As you all know, lately Levi has been quite challenging. I promise all of you that he is getting better, and actually has been great the last few days. Due to that, I am just now getting around to posting this. Two Sundays ago was right in the middle of my crisis, and I saw my cousin Kimberly. In our conversation she mentioned that her son Logan loved Baby Einstein when he was Levi's age. She said he would watch it and gave her 30 minutes or so to take care of a few things. Well I had wanted to try the videos, but just haven't gotten around to it. Besides, I wondered how a video could hold my son's attention the complete time. I figured he would pay attention to it for a few minutes, but definitely not the whole time. Even though I was skeptical, I was at my wits end and thought I'd give it a whirl. I bought the one pictured above, and figured I'd try in the next chance I got. Well, I got my chance on Friday night. Aaron had school, so I was having a girls' night with my mom and sisters. We had gone to dinner and decided to play a game of cards once we got home. The only thing was getting Levi to cooperate. I thought now is as good a time as any, and popped the video in. We were all AMAZED! The video was completely hypnotic. It was crazy. Levi sat there the entire 30 minutes mesmorized by the music and pictures. To be honest with you, we were all a little mesmorized at first. It was the craziest thing. So, now I have a friend in Einstein.

Ever-present

God is awesome. To be honest I am quite ashamed and embarrassed to admit that I too often forget how perfect and wonderful He is. I have been feeling a pressing hunger recently to cling to Him more than ever. Just yesterday I was reminded at how the Lord is in everything. He is aware of all, in all, and knows all. Lately I have felt a little that God has been too preoccupied with other things to worry about me, but that is just not true. Knowing who God is, I know he never forgets about me. Aaron & I have been making an effort to trust the Lord in every aspect of our lives. Well, I can tell you that it is easier said then done. However, it has been extremely rewarding to put trust in Him. I thought knowing my nature, that I would worry twice as much with the things that I supposedly gave to God. It turns out that it just wasn't true. The Lord provided so much peace throughout each area of our life. It has been a huge blessing leaning on Christ for everything and trusting in Him completely. Saying that, this past week or so has been quite a test. One at which I feel I failed quite miserably. However, the Lord had patience with me and brought me back to Him. I guess I'll start at the beginning. Having Levi has been a huge adjustment for me. Don't get me wrong, it has been the most rewarding thing in my life, but that doesn't mean it has been easy the whole time. The first few weeks I was extremely anxious constantly. I somehow got into "mommy mode" and that passed, but recently I have felt the anxiousness begin to creep back in. I'm not sure why it has returned all of the sudden. I'm guessing it's due to my earlier "Frustration" post. Either way, it was returning, and it was making my life miserable. Some of you may know that when I was younger I dealt with fear of...well, everything. I'll spare all the details, but my fear controlled my life from the time I was probably 8 until I was 13. The nights were the worse; I was afraid to be alone, sleep, or leave my parents. To make a long story short, God delivered me from that bondage of fear. It has been utterly amazing the things I have done and the places I have gone simply because I wasn't afraid. I say all that to say this. The anxiousness I have begun to feel as a new mom reminds me of the same way I would feel each day when I was dealing with that fear years ago. As night approaches, my anxiousness begins to grow. I may not be so bothered by this if I hadn't dealt with controlling fear for so long in my life. I was sharing all this with Aaron last night, when I realized that I hadn't read my scriptures for the day. I took out my Bible and read Psalm 4,5, & 6. I encourage you all to read it, but it simply reminded my that God is with me in troubled times. He watches over me and protects me. He is a shield about me, a protector, and safe place to REST. How encouraging to know that when I feel like my little troubles are petty to God, He reminds me that nothing about ME is petty to HIM.

Magic Milk

So last night I caved in a gave Levi a tiny dose of Children's Benadryl. Think what you will, but we were all sleep deprived, and it was making our home quite an unpleasant place to be. Well, our "magic milk" worked wonderfully, and we all slept beautifully last night. Some may call me a bad mom or even selfish, but with the lack of sleep we were getting Levi and I were both losing patience with each other. I really felt that my frustration was rubbing off on him making us all miserable. At least now we can approach today with new energy and a little more patience. So thank you Rachel for letting me know that sometimes life calls for "magic milk" and that I'm not a bad mom for using it. And to Rebecca, thanks for the encouraging call last night. Hope your night went better too.

Frustration

How can this cute little guy make me so frustrated?

Last Friday Levi had a bad day. He didn't take a nap and was just hard to please around. At first I just thought "It's one of those days," and tomorrow would be better. Then tomorrow came. The whole weekend he was quite a pill. Sure he had his sweet moments, but he was not our easy-going little guy. Something was definitely up. Sunday night he was up every three hours! Something he hasn't done in practically 2 months. Monday rolled around, and I decided to take him to the doctor to see if perhaps he had an ear infection or a perhaps tranquilizer gun I could use. Neither. He was in perfect health, which was a great thing, but I was looking for an answer to all this fussiness and something to sedate him wouldn't have been bad either. The doctor told me he was probably cutting another tooth, so baby orajel and teething tablets it was. Fast forward to yesterday. No tooth and no better. I sort of figured by now the tooth that is supposedly coming would have reared it's ugly head by now. The days are usually better than the nights, but he still isn't back to normal yet. To get him to sleep I have had to swaddle him the last two nights. I have tried gripe water, mylicon drops, tylenol, teething tablets, baby orajel, teething rings, and bathing him; none of which have had lasting relief. All work for a little while, but none work every time. So, all you parents out there I need some words of encouragement. Any suggestions you have or similar stories you want to share comment away. Perhaps I just need to know that "this too shall pass," and hopefully SOON!