Toga Party

"Toga!  Toga!  Toga!"  -National Lampoon's Animal House

With David back in school getting his MBA, we figured a few "traditional college experiences" are in order (although we modify all of ours g-rated ones, which would probably be laughed at on most college campuses today).  So, to celebrate the completion of his first week of classes, what else would we do but have a little family toga party?

David wears a traditional white toga while I go for a pink and white striped designer version.

And how do you make a toga for a 10-month old?  By using a OsoCozy organic cotton flat cloth diaper, thank you very much!  (A lot of people in the cloth diapering world thing flat diapers are too "primitive."  I guess so - looks like they go all the way back to ancient Rome! ;-)

Joseph wasn't a huge fan of the toga party.  Party pooper!

We may be crazy, but we sure do have fun!

The Boba Buddies

“Feeling a child’s weight increase as she falls into a deep slumber, the fabric of the carrier hug your shoulders, a small sweaty head press against the skin of your chest, this is bliss. This is indescribable.” -Unknown

A lot of you who know me know that I'm pretty into a lot of "natural" parenting ideas.  I'm a proponent of natural childbirth (although, due to Joseph's fetal distress and emergency c-section that didn't work out the first time, I hope to get another go at it in the future).  I am a major breastfeeding advocate  I cloth diaper.  I feed Joseph organic food.  The list goes on.  So, it should really come as no surprise that babywearing is my thing, too!

 So, just what is babywearing?  Wikipedia has the following to say about it: "Babywearing is the practice of wearing or carrying a baby in a sling or another form of  carrier.  Babywearing has been practiced for centuries around the world."  Simple put, babywearing is just as it sounds - "wearing" your baby on you while you go about life.  Joseph and I both LOVE babywearing.  He is far more content being "worn" than he ever is in the stroller and, consequently, we don't do a lot of stroller time (although the stroller is useful for super super hot days when I'm just too hot to have him up against me, or when I'm doing something like going to Belk to try on clothes and taking him on and off repeatedly wouldn't be practical).  He is so happy when he can be carried up against mommy.  With Joseph being a "high needs" baby, I'm not sure how we would have survived without babywearing, or how I'd ever get anything done.  I wear him while I do housework, and when I run errands.  I get to keep both hands free for things like cooking, shopping, laundry, or, like yesterday, just perusing through the public library near our house.   Carrying his extra weight around gives me a good workout, too!  The benefits of babywearing go on and on.  It soothes fussy babies.  It is educational as you take them around the world closer to "eye level" where it's easy to talk to them constantly and explain things to them.  It enhances bonding between mother and child.  Children who are worn tend to have better weight gain and a more consistent body temperature.  Keeping the baby so close to mom fosters the breastfeeding relationship throughout infancy, and in the early days of having a newborn makes the crucial "skin to skin" contact easier.

There are tons of different carrier types for babywearing.  When Joseph was little, I started out with two different types - the Moby Wrap and the Baby Bjorn.  The Moby Wrap is great.  It's a very, very long strip of fabric that you tie around your baby and your body.  I love it, because it's so snuggly.  It's supposed to be usable up to 35 pounds, but a lot of mommies have told me they can't make it work with babies over 6 months old.  We're 10 months old, though, and going strong with it.  I tie it really tight so Joseph feels nice and secure.  As to the Bjorn, after having it for a month or so I found out through some friends that the Bjorn and other carriers similar to it really don't have the best design for a baby's body and for their spine alignment (you can read more about that here: http://www.becomingmamas.com/why-you-should-avoid-crotch-dangler-baby-carriers/ ) .  I had no idea!  I immediately ditched the Bjorn and looked for something that would be better for Joseph.  I settled on a Boba, the same carrier that my good friend Jessica has.  They come in a variety of designs, and I went for the cute little "Tweet" design with a colorful birdie on it.  David liked the feel of wearing the Boba so much that we ordered him is own Boba eventually, his in a very manly camo print (if our next child is a girl, I can't wait to see her riding around in "Daddy's camo" lol).  In the Boba, you can wear your child on your front, or, once they get to a certain size, you can wear them on your back.  Joseph, Mr. Snuggly, doesn't like the back carry much right now.  He likes to be on my front where he can easily see me.  Maybe he'll like the back carry when he gets bigger.

My friend Jessica, the one who turned me onto the Boba, is my babywearing buddy.  She shares my passion for a number of natural parenting ideas including babywearing.  Her little guy, James, is about a month younger than Joseph, and every week we walk with the boys in the Bobas.  We call Joseph and James the "Boba buddies."  Often, when we are walking and wearing them, they stare at each other in their Bobas.  It's so cute.  So last week, we finally decided to go walking in my parents neighborhood and have my mom take some pictures of us wearing our two little cuties.  I love the way they turned out!

We started out with the boys on our backs.  Like I said, Joseph doesn't really like this position, but I managed to talk him into it long enough for pictures.  James, on the other hand, does great on the back!

Look at these sweet boys!!!  LOVE THEM!!!

One we flipped them to the front, Joseph was back to his happy place.  :-)

I love babywearing and encouragege all mommies and daddies to check it out!  I feel more bonded to Joseph because of it, and the benefits to mom and baby are endless!!!

Joseph's Dedication and 10 Months Old!

"Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with thanksgiving for all he has done." -Colossians 2:7

On Sunday, October 18th, we dedicated Joseph's life to the Lord at our church, Westover.  It was a wonderful time and very special.  Our Pastor, Don Miller, did the dedication.  He is the same one who baptized me when I was 13, and the same one who married David and me back in 2009.  It ended up being one of the best weekends we've had since Joseph was born!  *Many thanks to my mother for being our photographer for this weekend!**

David's parents (who are now officially retired in Highlands, NC) came in from the mountains on Saturday afternoon and hung out at our house (they stayed with us), and then Saturday night the whole family (David/Me/Joseph, my parents, my grandmother, and David's parents) went out to dinner at Lucky 32.  We had such a good time!

The whole fam other than my mom (who was taking the photo)

Jojo and Poppy (David's dad)

The next morning, we got up and got ready for Joseph's big day.  David's mom took a picture of us before we left our house...

We got to church waaaaay early to get prepared, so we had plenty of time to hang out, chat with Pastor Don, take more pictures, and let Joseph have some good play time on the sanctuary floor. My cousins from Chapel Hill also came into town and met us at church.

David's parents chat with Don

Sitting Joseph down for some pre-church floor time

Finally, service started and it was our time to come up on stage.  Joseph did great - he didn't cry when I handed him off to Don, and he behaved very well.  We chose Colossians 2:7 as Joseph's life verse.  Don read his life verse, prayed for him, and then offered to take him home after the service, to which everyone laughed.  :-)

God must have really smiled on us that day, because our normally very restless little churchgoer was so exhausted from his big moment that he fell fast asleep on his daddy's lap for the rest of the service!  It was amazing! 

Afterwards, everyone came back for a reception at our house.  It was such an unbelievably fun time...it will go down as one of my best memories ever!

Joseph's dedication cake

 David's dad, my grandmother, Joseph, and Jan (my Dad's cousin's wife)

My Dad's cousin Ray and his daughter, Syd

The female table, except somehow my grandmother and I got stuck with the men, lol!

David's mom holds Jojo

The men's table (plus my grandmother)

At the end of the afternoon, just before David's parents left to go back home, Joseph got some snuggle time with Poppy.  Poor baby was so tired that he could barely keep his eyes open!  After everyone left, David and I laid down on our bed to take a nap and put Joseph in between us.  We all snoozed away!

Sleepy boy with Poppy

 I am so thankful that we will have the support of our family, friends, and church as we strive to raise Joseph to know and love the Lord.  I pray that, at an an early age, he will come to profess saving faith in Jesus.  It will be the most important and best decision he will ever make!  And as parents, there is nothing more important we can do than to direct his gaze towards the Lord every day of his young life.

Also, this past week, Joseph turned 10 months old!  I can hardly believe that my sweet little man is approaching the one year mark.  Time is truly going too fast.  He is such a precious joy to me, and even though I am with him virtually all the time, it still never feels like enough.  The night of his 10 month "birthday," David was going to have to work some very late hours at work.  Whenever this happens, my sweet and protective husband makes Joseph and I stay with my parents so he will know we are safe, and then when he's done with work he comes and spends the night with us there.  So here are a few pictures from our "10 month birthday" stay with Nonie and Papaw.  There was a full moon that night, and so Joseph wore, what else, a full moon shirt! ;-)

Pretending to drive Papaw's truck

So thankful that God gave this little guy to us and so excited to see what kind of future He has planned for him!

Lynchburg Trip and a Diaper Incident

"Training champions for Christ" -Liberty University tagline

 I'm very excited to announce to the world that my wonderful husband is about to start his MBA through Liberty University's online program! I'm so proud of him for a) pursuing this advanced degree for the benefit of our family's financial well being and b) for choosing such an amazing Christian institution to do it through! While this is an online program, it is the same program that on-campus MBA students would be completing at Liberty, and, seeing as how we only live 2 hours from Lynchburg, we want to use the next few years to get as much of the Liberty experience as possible. Although I've spent some time in Lynchburg in the past for one reason or another, I'd never really walked around Liberty's campus, and David had never been to Lynchburg period. So, what better reason to take a road trip, which is just what we did a few Sundays ago!

 I think anyone that knows anything about Lynchburg, VA, or Liberty University, knows about Thomas Road Baptist Church. Started by Jerry Falwell, who served as it's pastor until his death, Thomas Road Baptist Church later went on to form Liberty University. I always knew that sometime I wanted to go there, just to say I'd been, because of it's great legacy. So we decided this was the perfect trip to do it! When we arrived at church, we were greeted by several very friendly members. It is a huge church, and we sat on the very back row in case Joseph got fussy. We hadn't been there 5 minutes when he did start fussing, and I slipped out of the row to walk around with him at the back of the sanctuary. Soon, a very nice lady approached me and told me they had a soundproof "cry room" at the side of the sanctuary if we were interested. It's a little room where parents with fussy children can go in, close the door, and hear/see the sermon from behind the glass, but those on the outside cannot hear the kids. We had a ball in there with the other parents...they were all so sweet and welcoming! Some parents were in there the whole time, and some drifted in and out to change their kids (they have changing facilities in there) or to nurse their babies. It was so cool. About halfway through the sermon, though, we decided that Joseph was too restless even for the cry room, and so we packed everything up and left. Hey, at least we made it halfway through! After church, we drove to downtown Lynchburg to eat at the Depot Grille. I had eaten at this restaurant before on some trips to Lynchburg, but David had never been. It was a lot of fun!


 Next, we drove just down the road to the famous "steps" that I've seen in Lynchburg before. Because of the terracing of the rolling VA foothills, there are 129 steps that lead to the old Lynchburg courthouse. My super strong husband carried Joseph up every single one of them!!! Wow!!! Every 10-12 steps there would be a landing that you could rest at. Most of the landings had a war memorial plaque, a fountain, or something else fun to see. One even had the entrance to a Unitarian church! I took pictures as we paused to rest at some of these landings on our climb to the top...

The climb was totally worth it, because the view from the top was very cool...

Next, we headed to Liberty's campus to explore.  So pretty and so much fun.  You can really feel the Holy Spirit on campus, and we knew David had made the right choice.  When we first got there, we went to the beautiful visitors center.  Everyone was so nice!

Sitting on the back porch of the visitor's center

Overlooking the soccer complex

Sitting on the seal in the visitor's center

When you look up in the visitor's center, the architecture if beautiful!

After walking around campus a little while longer, we decided to go see the football stadium. 

On our way, we stopped and took a picture looking at Candler's Mountain.  To the far left, you can see the "LU" logo, and to the right you can see SnowFlex, Liberty's year round ski slope! 

We had such a fun trip, and I'm so excited about David getting his MBA.  But our Lynchburg trip wasn't the ONLY fun memory of that day...

Every Sunday night, we eat with my parents and my grandmother for dinner. These Sunday night family dinners are a tradition for us.  We usually eat at their house, but, since we weren't 100% sure exactly what time we'd be back this particular Sunday, we decided to call them on our way back and meet them at K & W in Greensboro when we got home.  So anyway, we get through the whole meal, and Joseph is getting fussy, so I get him out of the high chair. He is standing up on my lap, facing outward, when I smell something. I do the quick diaper sniff and it's awful, but before I can say aloud "Oh no, someone needs a diaper change" I hear my mom and David simultaneously yelling "THERE'S POOP COMING OUT!!!" I look down and, not only is there poop smeared all over my arm and the front of my dress, but a  golf-ball sized, mushy BLOB of poop falls directly out of the leg of his diaper and is sliding rapidly down his leg. In a panic, I squeal, freak out, and look frantically around for the diaper bag (just wanting to grab ANYTHING that would cover up the large poop wad sliding towards my lap) and then remembered the diaper bag was in our car. Multiple people were staring at this point, and I'm pretty sure the man next to us totally lost his appetite. So, in panic, I use K & W's cloth napkin to stop it from falling any further and then get up and run outside while David paid. As I was running out at warp speed, people were staring at the poop mess that by this point was covering both of us and I kept saying in a frantic voice "Oh my gosh, I'm stealing a napkin! I feel terrible! I'll wash it and bring it back to them!" and David kept saying, "LISA! They aren't going to want THAT napkin back after this!!!"  David paid while I rapidly ran towards the car, and we were able to change Joseph there, although I still had to ride home with poop all over me.  We didn't get any pictures of this of course, but it was a very memorable fiasco.

All and all, a fun-filled Sunday!  ;-)