Brian and Joelle » 2009» March

Mar 2

Goodbye baby….hello toddler. It’s a fun transition to watch your baby become mobile and more interactive with you….but at the same time…it is really sad to leave the baby stage. I can’t believe a year has passed us by so quickly (she was born on February 28th…24 minutes away from being a leap-year baby). We haven’t blogged in quite some time obviously….but she has changed a lot in the last two months. It was a blessing to watch her take the first steps of her life….screaming with excitement as she went. Her laughs are intoxicating….her smile is as bright as the summer sun. She is so incredibly animated and does very little without fanfare. It is difficult to not blow all of our money on outfits for her because there’s so much cute stuff for her to wear…but both grandparents are doing a great job in that department.

But with the changes also comes difficulties. For example, she used to eat anything we put in front of her…but now….dinner time especially has become a challenge. Watching your kid defiantly throw food on the floor makes you realize that your sweet little cupcake daughter is a sinner like the rest of us. Joelle is constantly trying to figure out what to feed her and most of the time she’ll find something that works….but usually only for that night. We’re also transitioning away from the bottle and she hasn’t taken well to that either. She cries and screams because we put her milk in the sippy cup….but soon she’ll catch on. After we settle that issue, we move on to removing the binky cold turkey. That should be a fun week.

Joelle and I began going to a parenting class about a month ago (it lasts 9 weeks) at our church to seek wisdom while she is still young. I believe that God has a means and a method to proper parenting and I’m so glad that we’re investing the time now. The information given in this class is absolutely foundational for any parent. Yes, the information is based entirely from the Bible….and it works. For those of you interested, all of the content is available free online at www.parentingministry.org with Pastor Craig Castor. We could not recommend this information higher.

Emmelias birthday dinner was a blast. She had both sets of grandparents there with mom and dad. We were bummed that Harry, Shannon, Tre, & Zeke couldn’t make it because they were sick. I made pizza for everyone and then Emmelia gingerly made her way through the starberry cake mommy made for her. It was a charming cake….complete with ladybugs made out of raspberries and blueberries.

Enjoy the photos. Here are a couple of videos also. One is of Emmelia playing in the sprinklers, another is us at the pool, and the other one is her first birthday (which is a long video). Neither are hilarious, but fun to watch nonetheless.