Relationships

What a word! What a concept! God knew He wanted relationship with us. So did the enemy of our souls. That is why he has been undermining trust and truth in relationships since the beginning of time.

If Satan can get us to doubt each other; if he can get us to think and expect the worst of each other; if he can get us to love ourselves more than each other; if he can get us to sabotage our relationships with each other by being overly sensitive, secretive, insensitive, too busy, negative, harsh or sarcastic, then sabotaging our relationship with God is a cinch.

Psalm 133 -
"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
2. It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments.
3. It is like the dew of Hermon, descending upon the mountains of Zion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing - Life forevermore."

Not Much to Report

There isn't much happening here. Just trying to keep up with the break-neck pace involved with three boys. We went to DeLeon Springs yesterday and swam and picnicked, but I forgot to take my camera. Even though I left Judah with a sitter I'm so used to not having free hands for pictures that it never crossed my mind take a camera. It's a pity because I could have gotten some great shots. I do have a few pictures of the past week or two.

I'll refrain from showing the pictures of Eli's monstrous nosebleed. I only took pictures so Kris could see them and understand how truly unbelievable it was. I was feeding Judah in his room with the door closed. I had banished the boys because Judah won't stop watching them long enough to eat when they're around. Eli was, as usual, pushing Luke's buttons, and Luke was, as usual, falling right into the trap. It doesn't take great imagination to envision what transpired next, and experience tells me that what Luke gave Eli was earned. However, I was a little surprised to hear Luke saying, "Ooh, Eli. That's a lot of blood! You have blood EVERYWHERE!" Like I said, I won't put the pictures on here, but trust me, it was incredible.

These pictures are much cuter and much less stomach turning.

Eli being Mama's helper. Judah had been crying all the way home, and I had tossed a bottle to him while I was driving to see if he could figure it out. He figured it out enough to keep him from screaming, but by the time we got home he was willing to accept help from anyone. These third babies have to, in the words of my daddy, "Root hog or die." I'm not entirely sure where that saying comes from but it does paint an accurate picture, does it not?

Hanging out with some "big" boys

Judah's first bath with his brothers. I was exhausted afterwards, but a good time was had by all.

I would really love to know what Judah was thinking.

Eli after Mama has had a really long day and has locked them outside on the porch. Trust me, it was for their safety.

Eli after he determined that Mama wasn't letting him back in anytime soon and that he needed to figure out a way to amuse himself.

Judah At Seven Months

Judah hit seven months last week. I do happen to know that he weighs about twenty pounds since we've been to the doctor a couple of times in the past few weeks. Bless him, his ears are still giving him trouble. I will have to take him back tomorrow if his nose isn't clear.

Judah cracks me up. He already knows how to be funny. He will do something like hang a sock out of his mouth or turn his pacifier sideways and then look at us to make sure we see him. When we acknowledge what he's doing he'll laugh like, "I know, it's hilarious, isn't it?!" He likes to play stare down as he moves his face closer and closer to yours. Then when he gets right up to you he'll grab your face or hair and pull you in for a lovely, slobbery french kiss. Poor Luke and Eli get their hair pulled all the time because they're just the right height when he's on my hip.

Judah's sitting up well now. He's also getting on his knees. He will probably be crawling before too long, which will be a fun challenge since we have all kinds of small toy pieces and parts all over the house. I guess I'll be used to him moving already, though, because even now if you put him down he rolls from one side of the room to the other.

I remember writing a thank you note to Baby Einstein when either Luke or Eli were babies. They might be due for another from me. This is what Judah looks like when we turn on Baby Van Gogh.
And this is what he looks like when I try to nurse him somewhere other than in his room in the dark. He's a little bit of a nosey butt.

"Just making sure you're not doing anything interesting without me."

If you notice in the pictures his nose is a little orange. He likes his fruits and veggies. I'm trying to do more green veggies and purple and white fruits to balance out his coloring. We've started giving him a few nibbles of table food, which is going pretty well. He just likes to eat. Seems to be the standard in our house.

Reptile Discovery Center

I took the boys to the Reptile Discovery Center on Friday. Trust me, you want to click on that link and watch the video. It is crazy fascinating. Unless, of course, snakes make you feel woozy, and then I don't recommend it. It really was an awesome experience.

Until.

I realized two things after the fact: 1) Visiting at the same time as the summer school group was probably not wise. 2) Going against my better judgment and waiting until afterwards to feed everyone lunch was insane.

I had to move Judah's stroller out of the way so the school kids could get a closer look once they began the venom extraction (Again, watch the video. Fascinating.). I moved back, and before I could turn around to grab Eli's hand, the masses moved in. Wailing and hysterics ensued. I managed to extract him from the crowd, but Luke was glued to the window watching, so I stood in the back of the room and kept my eyes on him while I slipped Eli and Judah food to keep them from a complete meltdown. Only I didn't know that Luke was glued to the window because he didn't know where I was or how to get out of the mob. Only after fifteen minutes when I decided I couldn't hold the two little guys off any more and parted the sea of people to get Luke did I realize that he had been standing at the window crying silently because he thought I left him.

You may now nominate me for the Mother of the Year award. Oh well.

We did get some great photos, thanks to my friend, MaryAnn.

Baby alligator. They are surprisingly soft.

This is the only picture of Eli holding the snake. Luke's asking if he can have a turn, and I'm saying, "Eli, don't squeeze!!"

One Tough Cookie

Do you want to see a picture of the toughest baby ever? I thought you did.

And yes, I did say toughest, but you're right, he is the cutest too.

As you can see in the picture, his nose is absolutely raw and really gross. All last week he had a rotten cold, didn't sleep very well, had a fever off and on. But he never really fussed. I have flown with a cold. It is a painful, miserable experience. When we flew home on Saturday, he whimpered as we landed. That's all. I finally took Judah to the doctor yesterday because his nose was getting worse, not better. Diagnosis? Double ear infection. Are you kidding me?

Oh yeah, and he has four teeth coming in on top. He is one tough cookie!

Tennessee Vacation

We spent last week in Tennessee with my family. We left Sunday and flew to Sevierville, where we stayed until Saturday with two grandparents, four children, three in-laws, a friend and eight grandchildren. We visited Dollywood, Dollywood Splash Country, Cades Cove, lots of restaurants, Wal-Mart (which would have been better left undone, in my opinion), the urgent care center (never fear, all is well, but it was to be expected with that many children), an indoor miniature golf and arcade center, the pool and some beautiful streams and camping sites.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to take our good camera with us, but here are a few shots.

Eli and Rae meeting Brer Rabbit

Luke and David exploring the stream

Eli didn't want to be left out, but he needed a little help.

Eli and Daddy taking a rest

Luke and David joined them On the never-ending trail at Cades Cove

We made lots of good memories and had a good time. Oh, and Judah? He got lots of a great bonding time with Grandma Clair. And, I got to change his diaper on the plane to Tennessee and on the way home as well.

Judah At Six Months

We had Judah's six month check-up yesterday. He is 27 1/2 inches and 17 lbs, 1 oz. That makes him about 80% in height and 50% in weight. I find it so hard to believe there are babies much fatter than him! I had all three boys with me at the doctor's office yesterday, so that is all the info I have from his check-up. I guess he's fine otherwise. If not, I wouldn't remember if the doctor said anything else or not.

He is almost sitting up now, he just needs one finger holding him to keep him from dumping over. He sleeps through the night, praise Jesus! Once we got his cast off I felt happy about letting him work it out at night. He's wearing shoes now 24 hours a day. Most of the time he doesn't seem to mind them. I try not to notice how gross the shoes laces are, since they are his favorite thing to chew on and he spits up on them regularly.

Judah is a really happy baby 99% of the time. He's been teething lately, so that 1% is a little painful for all of us. He loves his brothers. And he LOVES his daddy. If Kris sneaks in the room while I'm nursing him he'll stop and get really still, and then he'll start smiling before he even turns around to see him. It's like he has a Daddy radar. Then he'll turn over and reach up to put a hand on Kris' face and just smile and stare at him. Precious. When I get him up in the morning he puts his chubby arms around my neck and buries his face into the side of my neck.

It won't be long before Judah starts crawling. He definitely does not stay in one place anymore. He rolls around front to back, back to front, side to side. Bathing him is a major work out. He thinks it's so funny to make me work so hard to get him clean.

Luke and Eli make Judah laugh. He'll hang out of the side of his stroller watching them like he's at the circus, which, is quite appropriate around here most days.

(The entertainment is Luke hitting a beach ball. The big commotion at the end is Luke doing a split after he accidentally stepped on a toy. It wasn't pretty; however, after many tears, he was okay, and I think he will still be able to father children one day.)