Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Little Lion Man

I can't believe William is 6 months old.  It's true what they say - it goes by quickly.

happy

But don't let that adorable dimpled grin fool you.  Six months has brought with it a surge of unhappiness, irritability, whining...things we *think are related to more teeth coming in.  But who knows.

It is challenging to listen to your baby cry and not be able to soothe him.  The whining also wears on one's patience.  Thankful we can go to God in prayer and pray that He would soothe and calm him...and cause our hearts to trust Him that all trying things are "for our good" (rom. 8:28).  He has been waking up every 2-3 hours at night, sometimes crying for an hour before settling back down. These are things he did when the first two teeth came in.  He goes through spurts of happiness and sorrow.

not happy

Since Halloween fell on a Wednesday this year, Matthew wasn't able to be home due to moonlighting.  And since I'd eaten most all our Halloween candy to give out anyway, William and I set out together for his first trick-or-treating adventure.  Since he's not really eating candy yet, we used it as an opportunity to meet some of our neighbors.

Something about Halloween makes it a little more ok to walk up to a stranger's door at night to introduce yourself...

William was pretty sleepy the whole time and didn't seem to enjoy it as much as I did.  But he sure was cute.

Stuffed with a pillowcase and about 10 pairs of baby socks for the feet
Ok mommy, one smile :)

First trick-or-treating.  Who looks more excited?

Monday, October 29, 2012

Sitting up and Finished Projects

At almost 6 months, William has started to be able to sit unassisted for, oh, about a minute to a minute and a half :).

Steady...

Carefully reaching for toys

A little more...

Almost there buddy!
Also this week, Matthew and I finished the table that we started on a couple of weeks ago.  It was great to get to do a partner project with my husband...  a fun and different way of getting to spend time together after William went down each night around 7.  We wanted something our family could cherish for years to come.  I was going to 'shabby' the legs, but decided instead to let them age naturally with time - maybe in the future all those knicks and dents will remind us of all the times we sat and ate together with our kids, our family, and friends.

Found the chairs through Craig's List.  They reminded me of the ones my family had growing up in Valdosta.

Found these natural elements and vases at TJMaxx (<3).  Runner was a scrap from our old table cloth that I passed on to my friend Amy in TX.  Thanks to mom for the placemats... you know I love that color.

Whoops!  Thought I sanded off all the wood glue, but apparently not!  So we're calling it a happy accident.  It's "rustic!"
 We also finished making some gallery shelves for the living room.    We used the Ten Dollar Ledges plan, another one from Ana White.  We adjusted the measurements to make one 6' and one 4' ledge.

Our living room is more long than it is wide, so it was challenging to find the right furniture arrangement.  We ended up not being able to center the sofa under the vaulted ceiling's beam, so we couldn't center artwork on the wall without it lookin funky.  Had to get creative in order to keep the room balanced.  I liked the idea of having a couple of shelves to hold anything from paintings to baskets etc.  And things can get swapped out seasonally too.

Shelf doesn't need support underneath if you drill it directly into a few studs.  But don't go putting 50 lbs on it or anything :).


Still figuring out lamps in a space.  The plastic still remains on the shade at left.

Finally found a globe.  So functional for teaching our kids about the world and praying for different countries, etc.  Also dig that it has the house's color scheme.

Starting to put more pictures on the walls.  Thank you Bean and Becky these two artworks that we love!

The entry still struggles to find meaning

Guest room got a little more done

Trundle bed pulls out from underneath to sleep two

Finally got a shower curtain and mirror up in guest bath

Put some pictures in our bedroom that we took in Colorado (sigh).  This room was based around the center pic.




A photographer friend of mine in town showed me some really beautiful pictures of her with her sons.  She told me how much these pictures meant to her and encouraged me to get some with William, too.

So I talked Matthew into taking some mother-son pictures of us.  He was too hungry to pose for father-son pics.  Maybe next time :).

If I may indulge...

Love how playful he is becoming


Maybe the only physical traits this child shares with mama: pale, pointy ears, and dimples.  All the rest is dad!

His thing right now - "kick kick kick!"

Sentimental framers...



We got to spend some time with our new friends, Cassie and Craig, at their church's bonfire.  They are from Michigan, and we met while visiting a church here in Clarksville.  They have two sweet children, Nadia-2 and Isaiah-3 mos.  Cassie is the only person I know who had a baby bigger than mine.  So we were instant friends, naturally.  Craig and Matthew have lots of Army things to talk about.  Craig leaves in a couple of weeks for Afghanistan.

View from bonfire

Hanging with Cassie and Isaiah.  Nadia was off playing and I think daddy was chasing after her :)

Monday, October 22, 2012

New Viewpoints

William is viewing the world differently these days as he practies sitting up inside of a padded box.  Had to get creative since we don't have a Bumbo.  He seems to be enjoying this new point of view.

Also this week, my Granny's old coffee table gets a makeover.  It has been in the family for years going from person to person.  It was time for a fresh new look.  Or old, as I sorta took a brick to it...

He gets a kick out of this new position 

curious face



cheeks <3

still chewing

"What's over there mama?"

Too pretty of a day to stay inside... today's the day to refinish the table

Love having him beside me

Tools used in the transformation

Also used our yardsale buffer find after wax topcoat, but soft rag works just as well.

The new look

Now for some playtime

He likes when we pretend he's riding on a horse and sing that song that goes 'dada dum dada dum dada dum dum dum.."... I really don't know the name of it!

Watching the sunset

Brings some color into the neutral room


William also started chewing on his feet this week

going for it...

got it
Wanting to show him what it's like to read the Bible, as he's so curious about everything else.  Right now he just likes the sound of the crinkly pages.

So much for that section of 1 Thessalonians...
Praying that this little boy will grow to love reading God's Word, and that it'll be a natural part of his everyday life to cling to it.  Maybe not clinging to it in the same way he is in the picture...