Another Box and Magic Jammies!

So I thought I'd better do an update on Spencer's naps. Putting a box in his crib worked great for morning naps. He went right to sleep for 60-90 minutes each morning. Afternoon naps were another story, however. Spencer cried and cried just like before. Alan and I both racked our brains to figure out what the difference was between the two routines and we finally realized that the only difference was jammies. Spencer went to bed in his pajamas at night of course and I kept him in them until after he woke up from his morning nap. So, yesterday afternoon I put his pajamas back on and put another box in his crib to keep him even more squished and cozy, and Walla! He fell asleep in under 5 minutes and slept for almost an hour. It was heaven for me and I couldn't believe how happy Spencer was the rest of the afternoon and evening. Does that look uncomfortable or what?! I definitely won't be getting too many compliments on how cute my nursery is, but I don't care how tacky it looks as long as Spencer is getting the rest we both need!

On another note, Spencer is about to outgrow his infant carrier so we're looking for a convertable carseat. After looking at a lot of reviews and ratings last night, I think I like the Britax Roundabout and First Years True Fit the best. Does anyone have any advice or knowledge to share about carseats?

Answered Prayers

I just can't help sharing this little experience that proves what a loving Heavenly Father we have. Some of you know that Spencer has napped in his carseat since he was born. He sleeps in his crib just fine at night, but despite numerous attempts and A LOT of crying, I have never been able to get him to nap in his crib. It had been a couple of months since I'd tried, but I decided I'd better try again now because he'll be crawling and pulling up soon. Then it will be really hard to keep him lying down. And, Spencer is about to outgrow his carseat.

I started putting him in his crib on Monday and every "nap" was about the same - at least an hour of crying and then a 20-30 minute nap. He wasn't getting the sleep he needed and was cranky all day and I was getting pretty frustrated. As the week wore on, I started praying harder and harder for some direction as to how to help him. Yesterday was definitely the worst day because he figured out that if he got himself stuck on his tummy in his crib that I would have to come rescue him. He probably rolled over 8 times during the hour he was crying in his crib. I thought I may have lost the battle.

Then this morning, I suddenly had a thought to put a box in his crib with him so he would just have a narrow, cozy space that he couldn't roll over in. I tried it for his nap this morning and he fell asleep without any crying and slept for an hour and a half! This may sound a little silly and you may not think Heavenly Father cares about babies' naps, but I know that He does care about our concerns and He answers our prayers. I'm so grateful for this "tender mercy" and for a Heavenly Father who cares. Spencer and I are so much happier today!

9 Months Old!

Today is Spencer's 9-month birthday and I just couldn't resist posting some more pictures of the cutest baby in the world. (At least I think he is!) I can't believe how fast the time has gone and how much he has grown up. I love watching all of the little developments he makes each week. It's facinating to watch his personality develop and to watch him learn new skills. We're learning how to live on one income and it can be a little lonely at times, but I LOVE staying home with Spencer. I wouldn't trade this time I have with him for anything. I don't think there are many better feelings in the world than watching your baby smile and laugh at you. He just started giving me little "loves" last week and those are the best! Our little guy was definitely worth every minute of waiting during the 4 years it took us to get him here!


Spencer has come a long way from his newborn gallon-of-spit-up days, but as you can see from his wet shirt, he still has some trouble keeping down his lunch. It's gotten a lot better since he started solid foods, but they still come up sometimes and sweet potatoes stain really bad!


Spencer cut his 5th tooth last week. For some reason, teeth seem to be the one area where he is ahead of the "normal" development. He's still rolling all over the house, but not crawling yet. He did start showing a little interest in crawling after we had some friend's over who's baby army crawls all over. I just don't think it ever entered Spencer's mind that there was a better way to get around until he saw Bryce getting all of the toys that he couldn't reach.


Spencer's new favorite thing to do is walk holding onto our fingers. Whenever he gets the chance, he grabs our fingers, leans forward and grunts to try to make us get up and walk with him. Luckily, I'm short enough that I don't even have to bend over (there is something good about being short!) Alan, on the other hand, has to bend way over and gets a sore back if he walks with Spencer very long.

Spencer gets better at playing games every week. His newest favorites are playing ball, knocking over towers and splashing in the bathtub. He also loves reading stories. I'm constantly amazed at his attention span when we're looking at books. Being a teacher, I really hope he keeps that love of reading.

Our little family has been so blessed and enriched by Spencer's spirit. We couldn't be much happier!

Weekend Getaway

Last weekend, Alan's parents invited us to stay at their beach house in Lincoln City with them. We drove down Friday night after Alan got off work and stayed until Saturday afternoon. The electricity went out on Friday night, so we just sat around and talked by candle light. On Saturday, Alan and I got to go on a run together (that's a very rare occasion these days!), we took Spencer to the beach, and got giant ice cream cones. It was a quick trip, but it was nice to get out of the house for a little while. It's always nice to be someplace other than home where I feel like I have a million little things to do all the time.

Spencer loved playing with this funny pillow.

Christmas in St. Johns

Here's Spencer helping us open our presents from Alan's mom. He had a great time with the wrapping paper. To Alan's delight, we HAD to open her presents early because we couldn't take them with us to Arizona. :)

For Christmas this year, we got to spend two whole weeks with my family in Arizona! It was great! It's so much harder living far away from home now that we have Spencer. He thoroughly enjoyed all of the attention he got from his Grandparents, aunts and uncles.

Christmas morning! Spencer was so excited for Christmas morning that he woke up at 5:00 AM. He got to see what Santa left him and then went down for a nap while everyone else opened their presents.

St. Johns is a very rural town with a population of about 3,000. That makes it just slightly boring at times. After watching Junk Yard Wars on TV, Marc and Alan decided to relieve their boredom by creating something out of trash. They used staws and bread sacks to make "gliders". Neither of their creations did much gliding though, just a lot of diving!

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is making gingerbread houses. (The best part is eating the candy while you're decorating your house.) We usually make them out of graham crackers glued to milk cartons that my Mom made us smuggle home from the school cafeteria, but Alan and I decided to get a little more creative this year and use real gingerbread. Ours turned out the best of course!

Giving In

For the past two years I've been saying that I didn't want to start a blog mostly because everyone else was doing it. Now that I'm a stay-at-home mom, however, I really enjoy looking at all of my friend's blogs when I have a few minutes. It makes me feel sort of connected to the world outside of Spencer. So, here I go - I'm officially a blogger!