Ready for Fall

With this incredible cool weather today here in Philly, I had to bundle up little B for the first time before we headed outside for a morning walk. Here's the mini "Beanie Man", the nickname my dad gave Matthew, with his collection of dozens of beanies. We're all loving this incoming fall weather and enjoyed sleeping without the ac unit last night and instead having our windows open. We might head up to our favorite part of the area - Frenchtown - for some apple picking tomorrow.

We just had a fun few days with Matthew's sister, Laurel, who was able to see her new nephew for the first time before she headed back to Olympia, WA.

We're still trying to figure out our Halloween costumes for our kiddos, so we'll be sure to keep you all posted! Enjoy the coming weekend.

"...who does he look like?"

The infamous question of the day lately. In my opinion, he's a straight mix of us both (funny, how that works :0). What do you think?

Are you SERIOUS?!?

Okay, this is just ridiculous! Are there really people out there who would buy this for their dog?! Sorry if you're one of those...you're probably thinking the same about me who is pouring over costumes for newborns and trying to figure out what Brighton and his two new girl friends should be for Halloween. They won't even remember...why spend time on a costume...or money?! Well it's definately not for the kid, and most definately for the parents...and I guess, to show the kiddo when he's older, right?? Here are some ideas we're tossing around with our friends for our new babes:

The Three Little Pigs

A Veggie Patch (each babe a different veggie in a pram with fake grass & seed signs "Carrots", "Corn", etc...

Three Blind Mice

Best in Show (different dogs with the parents as the psycho dog show-ers)

Star Wars - check out these hilarious costumes for Chewy and Princess Leai

Cast your vote in the comment section below!!

you ain't nothin' but a hound dog...

Our little Elvis. Who knows WHERE that face came from?! I've never seen it before until the camera captured it. What a goof ball. Our boy is definately growing and becoming more "human" every day...and less of a newborn "pet". We visited our friends, the Hasses, and their new little 10 day old girl who is just beautiful, Zady Grace (not Sadie, like I posted before :0) Here she is on her own AND next to little B, who looks like a brute beast next to her!We're trying to work on a "3 Peas in a Pod" costume for our three babies - Zady, Brighton, and the Beatty's girl (who has yet to arrive!) - for Halloween. If you have any brilliant, cheap ideas let me know! Congrats again to Zach & Jen and their sweet gal!!

weekend retreat

Matthew, Brighton and I will be heading off to the Poconos with our church, Liberti, for the weekend, so I'll be on a blogging hiatus for those of you who are daily checkers :0) We're looking forward to getting to know this crew better and beginning to see how we might invest more deeply in this community. Plus, we're just pumped to be getting out of the city and back to some rivers for some potential fishing opportunities. Although I may have to leave my waders at home this go-round since I'm still trying to figure out how to handle this almost 6 week old kiddo. I'm not sure how much he'd like standing in the middle of a stream in the Bjorn ;0) Here are a few shots of us fishing back West in Colorado (me on top with no luck, Matthew on the bottom with his prize catch). Enjoy the coming beautiful weekend. I'll return next week!

My first manicure

Yes, this will go in the collection of pictures NOT to show Brighton when he hits adolescence...along with the one's of him taking a bath with his mom or breastfeeding :0) But hey, it's a cute shot for now. For any of you all who've had tiny babies...you know how terrifying it is to cut their little finger nails that seem smaller than a pin head and as flimsy as scotch tape. I tried biting them like my pediatrician recommended, but I felt like I was going to bite the whole tip of his finger off. So then I tried filing them...another recommendation that failed due to the flimsy factor. So I finally braved the nail clippers and have so far not managed to nick his finger in the process...so far. I'm sure I will now that I've jinxed myself. I tremble horribly every time I set to the task though even with him sound asleep and dead to the world.

Today we had our first full day out, as I was helping WHM with their assessment of new missionary candidates. I helped in the Vision and Mission interview, which I loved. It reminded me of my own desire to be overseas in the future and being apart of reaching the lost in our generation as I talked to a girl who's possibly heading over to Spain next year. It's wonderful to be reminded again of who I am and how God has knit me together in those ways, in the midst of all the recent transition of becoming a mom as well. And B did wonderfully, sleeping and eating right on schedule throughout the interviews. Now if he'll JUST get that process rolling at NIGHT we'd be golden.

Oh Happy Day...

...okay, I decided (see my post below from earlier today)...I AM going to create a new page just to post pictures on instead of trying to cram them all on here with my other posts. Yes, I love pictures so I'll most likely always accompany my posts with a shot of our lives, but there are just too many photos I want to share and that family is asking for...therefore, I am now introducing the "Little B" picture page. Just head over there to the right, under the Growing Belly Shots and you can coo over Brighton until your hearts content (Mom :0). I just added a few tonight, but have a bunch more I'll be including over the next few days, so keep checkin' and enjoy!

Brigh-ton-Zoo-lan-derrrr

Here's the little male model doing his Blue Steel look...or Le Tigre...or Ferrari...we can't tell them apart yet ;0) For those of you who haven't seen Zoolander, sorry for the references. We promised to post his zoolander face though and here it is...well the best ones we could capture on the camera. I've got a ton of pictures to post now that Matthew sent the digital camera ones to me, but I'm trying to figure out what the best way to do that is. Whether I should create a separate picture section on this blog or just post them on this main page...hmmm. Either way, stay tuned for some hilarious and beautiful captured moments in the life of little B.

Welcome Sadie Grace!

Congrats to our dear friends, Zach and Jen, who just had their new baby girl! Sadie Grace arrived yesterday weighing in at 6lbs and something ounces (Matthew and I forgot the ounces...if anyone knows the correct "stats", feel free to comment below) We can't wait to meet her and welcome her into our community who is dying to love on this little girl. Way to go guys! Praise Jesus for this new precious life. Now we're two down (Brighton and Sadie) with one to go...the Beatty's little gal here shortly. Her due date is coming up in early October.

Fresh from the Tub

Little B is continuing to enjoy his relaxing baths...here he is all clean and handsome yesterday. Well, clean until I dropped my red popsicle on him while I was carrying him around in the sling. If he's not getting himself dirty, I manage to do it for him.

We've started a new routine of trying to keep him awake after he eats, instead of snoozing right away. Now that he's a month old, we're going to try to help him have a little more structure and HOPEFULLY help him sleep a little better during the night. These days I've just been letting him sleep through the day so I can join him. But I'm hoping that feeding him, playing with him for a bit and keeping him active, THEN letting him sleep, might help him understand day is for being AWAKE and night is for SLEEPING. Ha, I know...it'll be months before he really gets that concept...or years, for you seasoned mothers with toddlers :0) But we thought it couldn't hurt.

This weekend, my best bud from high school is coming up to hang out with us which should be fun. She'll be the first of my friends to meet little B, besides our Philly clan. Here's our goofy high school graduation shot...ahh, high school ;0)
B's playtime is not so much fun for him at the moment. I think he's bored of the striped blanket I've been letting him stare at, so I better wrap this up. Enjoy the weekend all!

The Pregnant Home Group

It was a funny chain of events last winter, as Matthew and I announced to our then new home group that we were unexpectedly pregnant...only to find out a few weeks later that two of our closest friends in that group were ALSO expecting just a few weeks after us this fall. So now with Brighton here, we're all waiting in eager expectation for our friends, the Hasses, to have their little girl any day now and our other friends, the Beattys, to have their girl a week or so after that. What a blessing it's been for me to have both a mom who's gone before me (Maria - the cute prego girl in the picture) and another new mom, Jen, to share in the mystery of this new life change. We all live within about a mile of each other, making it easy to get together for walks this coming fall or to get creative in one of our kitchens or just share in the hardships AND joys of being/becoming mothers. For me, life seems so much more manageable when Christ offers me the gift of genuine community, where we can be free to not only have fun together and just enjoy each other, but challenge, support and push each other closer to Him through the ups and downs of life.

Day of Rest

The way Saturday morning started out, we thought it was going to be a hellish weekend...but God offered us a wonderful break and graciously gave our family rest these past two days. Brighton was a dream and slept through our different events we attended and woke up peacefully to eat and then gaze around at everyone. Saturday evening Matthew and I were able to go out on a pseudo-date with B in tow, but snoozing the whole time. At church, he slept in his sling for three hours straight and didn't even wake as we passed him around for people to hold. Then the best part was coming home and getting to take our Sunday coma-nap for the first time in over a month. He conked out for two hours and let his parents do the same. It truly was a day of rest! Who knows what the coming week will hold. Probably more gas and sleepless nights, but we were SO thankful for a weekend to actually begin enjoying being a family and rest together. We feel covered and supported by your many prayers....thank you!

Happy One-Month B-Day!!

Today Brighton is officially one month old...or as his dad would say, 11 months old, since the his life began 10 months BEFORE he emerged into this crazy world. Wow. One month. He already looks so different and is starting to look more like a baby that a scrawny newborn. In honor of my dad who always makes us 'list your favorite three things about...' our most recent vacation, the holiday we most recently had, the new restaurant we went to (okay, thats an exxageration, but he does like the 'favorite lists'), I'm going to do a Top Ten List of little B's first month here with us on earth...to share the good things and not just the sleep deprivation saga.

So here goes...the official Top Ten List of Brighton's first month with us:

10. The night he not only peed on his dad, but then decided to poop down his chest when daddy picked him up...then all over the bathroom floor, then peed AGAIN on the changing table. What a stinker...but it makes a pretty funny story.

9. His Zoolander "Blue Steel" face (picture still coming on that one)

8. Getting to finally take big kid baths and having the most stinkin' cute curly hair afterwards

7. His "burrito man" look - swaddled in his alligator blanket

6. Me learning how to type one-handed or bounce on the exercise ball with him in the sling as I type

5. Having him fall sleep next to me and put his little hand on my chest...as if to say "you're not going anywhere, right!?"

4. Never getting tired of staring at his deep, almond eyes and beautiful little lips or watching him sleep

3. Listening to his endless chatter, grunts, noises...okay, that can be annoying at times too, especially at 3am. But it's cute when I'm not trying to get to sleep

2. Seeing him change already - like his latest new trick is mimicking us sticking out our tongue...if we can hold his gaze, we'll stick out our tongue slowly and he'll follow suit...he IS getting closer to interacting with us, like they keep saying!!

1. And finally, realizing again and again, that this is a little soul God knit together and fearfully and wonderfully designed...and he's OURS!!


I'm sure the future top ten lists will be more exciting as B moves from being a newborn pooping/crying machine into a more interactive baby, but those are some of my favorite things this far into the game.
Here's a picture Matthew stole last week after arriving home from work to find his two babes snoozing (finally!) after a long day of trying to figure each other out. Pardon my wrecked-dazed-drooling-mom look, but Brighton looks pretty dang cute :0)

big boy bath

Now that the nasty stub of umbilical cord has fallen off, Brighton can now jump in the tub with us instead of being sponge bathed like an invalid. Obviously from the pictures he's a little shocked by the whole experience. I think it makes him fondly reminsce being in the womb....and desparately want to get back there. Life outside seems a little too much for him these days. The doctor confirmed that this is the 3 week mark that most babies start having gas issues and end up fussier and getting less sleep. Joy. But otherwise, our little guy is healthy and growing, now up to 10lbs 2oz. Just keeping his parents awake and active at all points throughout the day and night. As always, your prayers for our sanity and for rest are always appreciated. Enjoy the weekend ahead.

Off to the Doc

This morning Matthew and I are taking little B to his first "well-baby check-up" at the doctor. We're going to ask him about our poor little guy's gas issues and see if there's anything we can do to help him out. Last night he refused the bottle again, but after relieving himself for awhile in Matthew's arms, he begrudgingly took it early this morning. Hurray! I got a good almost 4 hour chunk of sleep thanks to Matthew and feel MUCH better this morning than yesterday morning. Although B was great yesterday and took two naps where I was able to sleep with him (one with him still in the Bjorn strapped to my chest :0) So thank you all for your prayers! I'll keep you all posted on what we find out today. Any guesses on how big this guy will be now? He was 9lbs 2oz a little over a week ago. Lemme know those guesses...the winner gets a free night of taking care of Brighton!! Ha, ha...

Two Hours...

I think that's the grand total of how much sleep I got last night between 9:30pm when I went to bed and 7am this morning when I got up. In some countries, they use sleep deprivation as torture. I wonder how I'll be able to continue functioning like this. Brighton has been pretty good about taking a bottle of my milk from Matthew at least once during the night so I can try to get a 4 hour stretch of sleep. But last night he refused to. And refused to sleep for more than 5-10min. stretches at a time. He continues to refuse to sleep this morning. Right now I'm trying to bounce him in the sling as I type this, but he's not enjoying it too much. I'm not sure if this is a gas issue he's having or just growing pains, but it hurts to see him so upset and it's slowly unravelling me. So if you read this today, we'd both appreciate your prayers - for some rest or just time to chill out without bouncing around the house or having to be in constant motion to soothe his upset belly!!

Labor Day with the Grands...

Brighton is lucky to have three sets of "Greats" (great-grandparents, both on my side, one set on Matthew's side) and two sets of "Grands" (both our parents) and even a "Great-Great" (Matthew's great-grandmother, Gran). This weekend, he was able to spend Labor Day with one set of his "Grands", my parents who were visiting for a few days.

My dad was great with his grandson - rocking him to sleep and even getting him to stay asleep in his crib, and carrying him around in the Baby Bjorn during our walks to the neighborhood coffee shop where he & my mom were mistook for being the parents of B by a couple there since my mom was carrying him and Dad had the Bjorn on...pretty funny :0)

And of course, Mom couldn't get enough of her chubby little grandson - doesn't he look like a chunker in this picture!! Here he is snoozing on her lap in Chestnut Hill, sheltered by his daddy's hat.

Thankfully, Brighton's getting more and more used to his sling, which gives me free hands to do things around the house and offers me an easier alternative to the Bjorn if I need to run out for something - like a few groceries at our neighborhood coop, or dropping off mail in our mail bin down the street or taking a load of laundry downstairs. He usually ends up falling asleep in it after a few minutes.

All in all, we had a great weekend - enjoying my folks, enjoying our first time back at church and seeing all our friends, and closing off the weekend BBQing with our close friends last night and talking about life/relationships/and good movies :0)

Summertime boys got it goin' on...

Here's our little B in an actual "real" outfit instead of his massive collection of onesies. He gained a pound this past week (up to 9lbs. 2oz. as of Wednesday) so he's starting to somewhat fit into a few of his real get-ups. It's crazy how fast these little guys grow. We walked to our local coffee shop yesterday morning and saw another couple with their 3 month old baby. He looked HUGE compared to our little bean. Although I won't miss the sleepless nights, I will miss our tiny little one as he starts to grow and change and move away from being a helpless infant into a developing personality. One of those things that is bound to change is his sweet baby smell which is pretty addicting! I love when he's curled up next to me sleeping and I can smell his warm head against my face.

This last shot is the "Mommy's Trying to Blind Me!" one. Matthew was pretty annoyed that I took this picture so close with the flash. I hope I didn't permanently damage his baby eyes. Sometimes I think I'm a decent mom, other times I wonder why anyone trusts me all day with this kid.



Well Papa Smith has finished prepping the breakfast so I'm off to satiate my ravenous "nursing mom's appetite". Brighton is asleep in his sling on my chest and I'm bouncing on the exercise ball as I type this trying to keep him snoozing. It's a goofy picture, but a lot better than trying to blog one handed. Hope you all enjoy the long Labor Day weekend! My parents and little sis will be coming into town for another visit, which we're totally pumped about and my brother will get to come meet his little nephew for the first time :0)