Joy In the Journey: February 2013

Our past monthly adventures has been somewhat, not so adventurous… heehee. We started the month off with Trevor having the dreaded Norovirus… yuck! This was a total surprise because Trevor NEVER gets sick, especially with a stomach bug. Apparently, this virus is a new strand of the stomach bug and is highly contagious. With a three month old in the house, I was focused on keeping him well. So, if you can imagine, I was the Clorox Queen for several days and gave strict orders for my husband to only stay in the bedroom or bathroom! Caleb and I camped out in the guest room at nights. Then, within the past couple of weeks, Caleb has had RSV, thankfully he is doing much better but still has a little cough. This worried momma didn’t sleep but just a few hours a night just checking on baby boy which made for some tiresome days. But thankfully the Lord is my strength because I would’ve made it no other way. Well, I also found out that if your baby has RSV adults can get cold like symptoms and we did! Yay! So to say I’m ready for spring is such an understatement. We’ve never had a winter with this much sickness in our house.

Over the past month it hasn’t been all bad, there have been some good things that have happened. My parents came to visit a couple of weekends ago and at the beginning of the month we traveled an hour away to spend time with Trevor’s family at his great uncle’s surprise birthday party. On another positive note, we have missed school every Friday since Jan. 4!!!! -Which gives me more time with my boy! It seems this year we’ve had more ice than snow… which obviously is more dangerous and pretty much guarantees a day off. I feel like I work a job where I only work four days a week… although, this week I only worked three days because we had a scheduled day off for President’s Day. WHOO HOO!! I know reality will set in real soon. The countdown to spring break is on!!!

We celebrated Valentine’s Day a little differently this year due to Caleb being sick but nevertheless, it was great and we enjoyed a relaxed evening at home! Of course I celebrated Valentine’s Day with my students and one thing I do with my class every year is visit a local nursing home. We team up with a few other classes, make Valentines, practice some songs, poems, and Bible Verses to present to the residents. I love this! Each year I’m amazed at the responses I get from my students. Of course we discuss what a nursing home is and why the people may have to live there and we discuss how we are being the hands and feet of Christ by sharing his love. As with any class, there are some students who have been to a nursing home before but others have not. This year I was surprised by a particular student who is typically shy. He ended up being the one who was double checking with the residents to make sure everyone had a valentine. As we were taking the elevator back down to the lobby, he would say “we didn’t give that person one”. He seemed to be on the lookout for people who might not have received a valentine. LOVE IT!! I also love to see the responses of the residents. They completely light up and sing the songs with us. This year in particular, one lady touched my heart. She said she had a Valentine from a child and with tears in her eyes she said she just couldn’t believe that they had made a valentine just for her. As we left the nursing home, in my heart I was completely thanking God for using us and for teaching these students how be servants and how important it is to think about others- not just yourself or people like you. Now that I have a child, this has really made me think about how I want to do this with Caleb as he gets older. As we live in a world that is so self-absorbed, I pray that God will give me the wisdom to teach him how to love and care for others, to think of “the least of these”. Even though I know through child development that it is natural for young children to be self-focused, I don’t want him to stay at this stage. I see WAY too many children who seem to be all about themselves and have never been taught differently- even in Christian School!!I pray that I will lead him by example so that when he is old enough to make these decisions on his own, it will not be made through a self-focused lens.

Well, speaking of the cutie, he turned 4 months old this past Monday. He received a good report from his doctor. He is weighing in at 13lbs, 10oz., 25” long. She gave us the go ahead to eat baby foods! Yay! I can’t believe how much he is changing. He loves to sleep with his hands behind his head, which really cracks me up. He still loves his bouncy seat and musical gym. He loves putting anything in his mouth… we guess he’s teething but haven’t felt any teeth coming in yet. He loves mornings, which has really helped me to change- I’m not a morning person!! But, when I hear him wake up with his cute little coos and squeals, I can’t want to get up and see his sweet face! He loves tummy time and although I practice with him turning over, he seems he would rather try to scoot forward. When I read to him, he now really looks at the pictures and tries to hold or turn the page. He is SO much fun and I can’t wait until summer when I get to be with him everyday!! In the past, since Trevor is off on Fridays, we would deem Friday as “fun Friday” and try to spend the day together doing whatever. Now that we have little boy, it’s going to be “fun family Friday”… heehee, I know it may sound silly but I’m looking forward to it!! Here are some pics of the past month:

(Thanks to Pinterest... my attempt at making "mini" king cakes. Since we used to live in New Orleans, for Mardi Gras, I fixed red beans and rice and these mini king cakes. Unfortunately, they are not all nice and pretty but tasted yummy!)