Kitchen Floors

My father-in-law has been kind enough to help us tile our floors. Currently, they are covered by this gross looking vinyl. Any color ideas/suggestions are welcome. Walls are white & green. Please vote or comment to give us your opinion. Thanks.

crying it out

so i decided to try letting her cry and not going in at all. not even to lay her back down. it turns out, this has worked. at least for yesterday. jordan will cry for a max of 15 minutes and it's not continuous loud crying. and eventually, she'll settle down. this morning, she only cried for 5 minutes and then went to sleep. once though, she fell asleep sitting hunched over because she didn't find a way into a sleep position. :T i laid her back down and then she fussed, but slept. now i'm trying to figure out how to space her naps so she's getting sufficient rest at the right times.

the amazing part is we decided to try letting her cry when she fusses at night. the reason why we didn't do this before is we were afraid to wake the neighbors. however, it turns out that she fusses for a mere 5 minutes (at least last night) and then goes back to sleep. she didn't need us or the pacifier yesterday! thank God! i still was on edge and wanted to make sure everything was ok with her because i put a cuddle blanket in there with her. but she was fine.

i keep reminding myself to enjoy this as long as it lasts for because it won't last forever. she's not a robot and there will be waking moments again. but for now... she's sleeping like a baby.

at 8 months

at 8 months i thought i'd be more rested than what i am. just to clarify - that 8 months is jordan's age. she's a bundle of energy and we (james and i) are at a loss for how to tame the energizer bunny. she's made incredible progress in terms of milestones - she's barreled down that road and soon, she'll be walking. with that has come sleepless nights. ok, not completely sleepless but interrupted sleep. much like when she was a newborn. we don't know what to attribute it to and i'm slowly learning that there's no point in trying to attribute it to something. these little ones require much care be it night or day and the more i read the more i realize that almost everywhere else in the world, people don't worry about holding their babies too much or even expect their children to sleep through the night when they are less than a year old. what i have learned is that different conversations can make you feel like less of a mom because your baby isn't as good a sleeper or as good an eater as the next mom. BUT also know this, moms tend to forget. it's not intentional.. but they forget what it was like to be a mother of a newborn. and this makes sense. who wouldnt want to forget being sleep deprived and semi-zombie-like in action? and this is another reason for this blog. i don't want to forget. not so that i can hang it over my daughter's head when she's 13 and giving me a headache :) but for the sake of conversations with new moms. been there. it's painful. it's hard. and there's often no permanent solution, no magic pill. (i'm still in the middle of trying to accept this fact b/c i really do worry sometimes that she'll still need a pacifier when she's 4) and in the middle of it, i will say this - love them. love them with all your heart. i hear they grow up really fast.

He Walks With Us

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze." - Isaiah 43:2

"Mmm. It's positive. Do you want to keep the baby?"

Those words changed my life. I was ecstatic as I called my husband to tell him we were expecting and then I made my way to Barnes and Nobles to buy the infamous What to Expect When You're Expecting. I felt different as I walked down the streets and pretty much wanted to stop everyone I passed to notify them of the life-changing news. Figuring that they might not have been as excited as I was, I settled for a few phone calls to close familly members.

Then we lost her. Two weeks later, the sonogram didn't show her heartbeat and we were devastated. That's the second time I saw my husband cry. I went through bouts of crying and had the deep rooted fear that something was wrong with me. When we discovered we were expecting again, we were delighted but scared. As things progressed, there were so many times I had feared the worst. I expereienced some bleeding and some early contractions. James and I chose to put our hope in the Lord with each moment.

All this to say that the Lord is extremely faithful. He was faithful as I carried both those babies. One I lost, and one I chase after everyday as she crawls around the apartment. He cried with us as tears of grief fell from our eyes and He laughed with us as we welcomed our daughter Jordan Noelle into the world. As Isaiah says, we WILL pass through water and fire. But He walks with us through that.

I started this blog simply to say that.

Jesus is faithful and He walks with us.