may happenings

by Kristin

So...it's about time we updated everyone on our life!

But first, we know that what people really want are baby pictures.  It's okay...we're used to coming in second now.  :)  After all, how do we compete with this?

Rebekah turned 3 months old on May 2!  She's become a very smiley young lady, as you can tell.  She's also extremely impatient.  If she had her way, she'd skip sitting up and crawling and just go straight to walking.

She still loves being swaddled and actually smiles when we get ready to lay her down for a nap.  We're blessed that she's already slept through the night on multiple occasions, and she tends to take pretty good naps (that's when I pull out my dissertation!).

She still loves hanging out with her dad...

They spend most of their time giving me strange looks while I take their picture.

Tummy time used to be a big struggle for us, but that seems to be changing.  Now, either she gives up and just goes to sleep...

...reads a book...

...or checks herself out in the mirror.

Other milestones - she's been cooing a lot and loves singing with me (she'll even match my note!), she's been turning over onto her stomach, and she's finally reaching for toys and playing with them.

Now, say goodbye to just Rebekah - time to hear updates from the whole family. :)

We recently had a visit from my parents and grandparents.  It was great to be able to see them, and they completely made over our yard while they were here.  I used to get attacked by a giant holly bush when we'd go out for a walk - now, that bush looks like a bonsai tree. :)  Rebekah also had a good time seeing her Granny and Pappy again...

...and meeting her Grande and Papa for the first time.  She just LOVED her Papa - she would coo and smile at him like he was made of chocolate.

 We also have begun trying our hand at traveling.  In the past two weeks, we've made two trips to Oklahoma.  Fortunately, Rebekah will sleep the entire way as long as nobody is in the back seat with her.  (I tried sitting back there on one trip, and she screamed the entire time I was there.)

While in Oklahoma, we got to go to our niece's birthday party, see Nathan's brothers, visit with Nathan's home church, enjoy a baby shower hosted by Nathan's grandmother, catch up with some dear friends, and visit with Nathan's parents.  Rebekah spent lots of time playing with her Papa Gary.  He taught her all about agriculture and farm animals.

 Our nephews and niece aren't quite sure what to make of Rebekah yet.  They tended to ignore her since she's not old enough to play with them, but finally a few of them learned that she loved peek-a-boo.

This was my first Mother's Day, and it was a bit different since we were in Oklahoma.  Nathan had spent the Saturday night before with his brothers, while I spent the night with Rebekah at his parents' house.  So, I didn't exactly get breakfast in bed.  That's okay, though, because he had planned something special for me.  On the Friday before, he came home from work with some absolutely amazing cupcakes.  He'd seen a place called Gigi's Cupcakes, googled it, and had been planning on getting me some for over a month!  It was a really great and thoughtful gift.

We spent Mother's Day afternoon traveling back to Dallas, and I realized that evening that I hadn't even gotten to take a picture with my little girl.  So, we gathered in the living room before going to bed so that we could have a "photo shoot".

As far as dates go, we've been a bit remiss.  We really miss being able to go out together alone, and we've had a harder time coming up with things to do in the Dallas area since we're just not as familiar with it.  We've also had tons of visits from family or have gone visiting family, so we haven't had a lot of spare nights.  Most evenings we take long walks with the stroller and have great conversations - those are the highlight of my day!

I did manage to finally schedule us a date, though.  I wanted to focus specifically on balance - how well each of us felt we were balancing work, family, marriage, parenting, hobbies, spiritual life, etc., and how we could support each other in that.  Since we've moved to Texas, both of us have been thrown off of our routines, and we need all the help we can get from each other.

I announced to Nathan that we were going to the lake for the day.  First, though, we had a volunteer day at church that we decided to do together.  I consider that part of the date, simply because serving together brings you closer together!  Rebekah even got in on the action and helped us write letters to our troops.

After volunteering for the morning at church, we delivered some care packages to a few church members in nursing homes (that was so fun - one woman would have talked to us all day if we had let her), and then we headed out to the lake.

It was probably 85-90 degrees outside when we got there, and Rebekah hadn't had a good nap all day.  With those things in mind, it probably wasn't smart for us to even go, but I was determined that we were going to have a date!  We sat on a picnic bench, ate Subway sandwiches, and tried to discuss the things I mentioned above, but Rebekah wanted none of it.

 

You'd think she would have liked the sounds of the lake and gone right to sleep, but she screamed instead.  She actually drove an entire family from their campsite! :)  Nathan put her inside the Moby wrap and wore her while we walked around.  She settled down enough then for us to have our conversation, but it wasn't comfortable for either of them because it was so hot.  We enjoyed talking, though, and were really able to encourage one another.  Nathan is going to try to help me have more "adventures" - since I've been staying home all day every day, I am needing something to look forward to.  I'm going to continue encouraging him at work and asking about his "spiritual moments" every day.

I'm not sure if we'll get another date in for May, but we're hoping to start back with two a month in June.

Next up in our lives - road trip to Lubbock for Memorial Day weekend!