Keeping Us on Our Toes

We finished up quite a week with Aaron. In addition to the continued teething, he got his first cold. The week ended with him getting bitten for the first time-by a liitle girl at a church dinner. He's never been intentionally hurt by someone before and it was rather unsettling.

This picture doesn't show all the boo-boos clearly but if you look close you may notice the bruise on the middle of his forehead from when he wiggled too much in the bath tub, the fat lip from when he took off the safety guards on the corner of a small table and then proceeded to fall on it, and the big scrape on the side of his head from when he crawled into the guest room and pulled up on an unsteady table with a water fountain on it. He knows this is a no-no and proceeded to take advantage of an opportunity when my hands were full of trash (because he had just gotten poop on me from wiggling too much). Later on Precious threw up and while I was cleaning that up, Aaron got into another no-no spot (but without injury). When he went down for a nap, I put a small bandaid with ointment on it on his head so that it would stay on and have time to do it's job without him picking at it. Best laid plans....he woke up from his nap, ATE the bandaid and then threw up for the first time. We made our first call to poison control and waited about 24 hours for him to poop it out. Fortunately, he has a good digestion system that didn't seem at all disturbed--we were just glad the bandaid was very easy to spot on exit! Everytime Matt came home that day, he was met with the next drama...and of course, it was the starting night of AWANA. Aaron didn't seem to out of sorts with all the "excitement" of the day. Mama, on the other hand, felt quite initiated into being the mother of an active, adventorous, strong-minded boy. I'm just glad I have fellow moms of boys friends with whom I now also have my own stories to share. These were the kind of days that always scared me that I knew would come...and we survived and even found some of it humorous (afterwards, of course).

Time to Eat

Aaron has been a challenge to feed from day one. He has so many other interests and now that he's very mobile, dexterous, and has teeth he wants to do it all himself. We've gone through different stages of what works for distractions for his hands while we sneak food in his mouth. His latest craze is to dip his finger food or his hand in the dish we're holding, which inevitably ends up all over himself and highchair and floor. It usually takes about an hour to get through a feeding and at that, we're shooting for the minimum of what he really needs. It seems for now he's just going to be a slow, small eater and he gets it honestly! Right now, no one else can feed him but mama...hopefully he'll get over that SOON! Fortunately, he's not picky about what he eats and doesn't react to anything so far. He goes crazy at even the sight of bananas...everything stops until he gets a bite. He's pretty fond of Cheerios and yogurt too. The only things he doesn't like are ham and squash.

Bathtime!

Aaron loves his bath so much that he'll go in the bathroom and peek in the tub during the day-I'm sure he's perplexed about there being no water in there nor his stuff except for when we're bathing him!

First Time to Swing

My Baby Blues!

Picnic

Recently we took the teens to a state park in Camden--one of the best tourist towns to visit along the coast. Aaron thinks he's too big for baby food and bottles...he always wants what we eat--this is his first attempt to bite into an apple!

The Grass IS Greener on the Other Side

First Flight of Steps

Top Teeth Breaking Through!

Giving Kisses

Aaron hasn't quite mastered the technique...he keeps his mouth open the whole time. We've gotten some slobbers and bruises (thanks to the teeth) but it's still so sweet!

Look-One Hand!

Playing Ball

Learning to pet

Hannah has been a great "trainer" for Aaron to learn to be gentle while petting. Precious has been surprisingly tolerant of his pulling but we don't trust her like we do Hannah!

Helping Pack

Recently we took our first long road trip with Aaron to visit a friend in PA and family along the way. Aaron did beautifully...of course it helped that we were treated by his grandparents to a Toyota Highlander so we could ride in comfort, safety, and style! People often comment on how expensive kids are (and they're right!) but we have found that Aaron has brought lots of good things our way because so many people are so quick to share! The best part of the trip for Mama was that Aaron decided he was done with breastfeeding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I also found out around the same time that I have a Vitamin D deficiency which probably was one of the multiple factors that contributed to our issues with going "natural". From early on this is one of many areas we're having to do the best we have with what we got instead of hitting our ideal. What a peace to know we have a Sovereign Father who fills in those gaps for His purposes!