Friday, July 29, 2011

A Visit From Friends





I've written about the Costello family on this blog before. They are great friends, the kind of friends who lived down the street from us, the kind of friends whom we ate dinner with multiple times a week, the kind of friends who have the same number of children all within months of our own children, the kind of friends who have to move far away sometimes, the kind of friends who want to move close as soon as Drew finishes his time of service, the kind of friends who come when you are going through one of the hardest times in your life, the kind of friends who drive all night to come when your son is in the hospital, the kind of friends who load up the whole family (AGAIN) and drive 14 hours because we are too chicken to do it with our own brood, the kind of friends who fix your fence, your door, your toilets, etc. because we never got a lesson in simple repairs, the kind of friends whom we miss and love dearly!

Of course, when your home is full of four adults and six children (with Micah being the oldest), there is hardly time to remember to get the camera out. I did manage a few pictures one day while the oldest four were eating grape juice popsicles on the sandbox. Unfortunately, these are not very satisfying when trying to remember our fun time with this family. We were a full house indeed. Over the ten day trip, there was lots of good food, good drink, fun outings (including the science museum, neighborhood pool, bowling followed by ski ball, Mexican food, fishing, shopping and probably more that I'm forgetting), high fevers, laughter, tears, pyramid making, amazing words out of little mouths, countless pages of little artwork, fun late night adult talks, a few arguments, reminiscing about the past, dreams about the futures, and encouragement from people who love you. The Lord has blessed us richly with good friends. It was such a treat to be able to spend so much time with some of those. Twenty more months, Costellos! The countdown begins. How many of us will there be then? :)

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Nine Months



Oh my little M J, how are you nine months? Funny, my last post was for your brother's birthday (not much time to blog these days). I know I haven't done a post for you in a while, and I wanted to jot down some milestones for the ol' scrapbook, er... blogbook?

-You got a double ear infection a couple of weeks ago and were so fussy and sad. Lo and behold, your first two teeth broke the surface! You are feeling great now, and we are so glad that you seem to be an easier teether than your brothers, who had to fight for weeks for their stubborn teeth to break the gums.

-You can pull up! You did this yesterday for me and the boys. Your brother's were so proud of you, and this made you feel super special.

-You love your brothers. You will crawl immediately to the stairs and call for them to come down if they are not playing with you. You have amazingly sweet brothers. They dote on you, talk lovingly to you, and play with you whenever Mama asks them. Sometimes they even play with you without me asking. One night I decided to take you on a walk alone, and you were so sad the entire time. What was I thinking taking away your entertainment?

-You still army crawl even though we know you can crawl on your hands and knees. It is quite a sight. I really need to get a good video of this before you start walking.

-You wave to everyone and say "hi" and "hey" over and over until you get acknowledged. My favorite is when you see Dada in the mornings and greet him with "hey da!"

-You are mostly very serious. You have quite a thinking face-it rivals Micah's from his babyhood. You are always taking things in and figuring things out. You are curious and busy. Thankfully, you still nap twice a day to give me a break from chasing you all over the place!

-We took you last dose of reflux medicine last week and are waiting to see if we are going to need a refill. You eat only small amounts, but you like most things I have offered you. You are not much interested in pureed foods anymore so I spend a lot of time chopping things into tiny bites for you. Usually, when we try prepared baby foods (especially fruit), you spit up a lot from the extra acidity in the preservatives. You eat yogurt now and love it. I splurged and got you a bag of yogurt melts at the grocery when you were having a hard time and you are hooked. I keep those in my diaper bag for outings only. Once you see them, you are not going to eat anything else!

And that is all my distracted brain can think of right now. You are so loved, Margot-indeed, the Lord has added a treasure to our family!