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Another Week Down

Weekly Happenings: This past week was pretty average. It did contain Valentines’ Day, but since we’re sort of home-bodies right now, we didn’t do much on the actual day. There was one day that Paul could tell Joseph needed to get some energy out, so we loaded everyone up and went to the park. It was right before I needed to feed Abigail, so I brought a bottle/bib/burp cloth with us and changed her right before we left. I was a bit apprehensive about feeding her there (the only place I’ve fed her other than home so far is church), but it went fine. Paul took Friday off since he had a camp out over the weekend. That enabled him to still sort of have a “Saturday” (in other words, a day where he could spend part of the day with us and the other part with his homework/work around the house). Since he did that, after he walked Joseph to school (I stayed home with a sleeping Abigail), he, Abigail, and I went to lunch. It’s been a while since we’ve been anywhere without Joseph…I almost didn’t know what to do since I wasn’t needing to help him out with food and such, haha.

The Weekly Weather: A little bit of this, a little bit of that…typical South Texas weather, I suppose. It’s sort of funny. The cloudy/rainy days have been warm and the clear, sunny days have been cold. That’s sort of opposite of what my brain says it ought to be like. We did have one kind of crazy thunderstorm (that Joseph miraculously slept through). There was one especially loud clap of thunder immediately after a lightning strike, so I knew it had to be close. I assumed it hit the radio tower that is in our neighborhood. The next morning, I found out it actually hit a house on the other side of our neighborhood. ๐Ÿ™ The family is okay, but they are staying in a hotel while their house gets repaired. People in the neighborhood are collecting donations and whatnot to help them out.

What Paul’s Been Up To: His typical week of work and school with a camp out thrown in. I’m glad I got him the foam mattress for the bench in his office for Christmas because he was able to take it to the camp out (it was in the back yard of one of the other leaders whose house is on a really large lot, so he has a HUGE backyard) and sleep rather comfortably, I assume (I haven’t asked him about that…I probably should ask him how it went). He surprised me the day before Valentines’ with some roses. I think I’ll keep him. ๐Ÿ˜‰

What Sarah’s Been Up To: My typical week of shuttling the kids around. Not much else to add, actually.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He enjoyed the Valentines’ Day party at school, giving and getting Valentines’ and whatnot. He also did something pretty cute for me. When Paul had gotten the roses for me, apparently he had also gotten a heart-shaped box of chocolates for Joseph to give me on Valentines’ Day itself. Joseph told me he was going to make a treasure hunt with a surprise at the end for me. I figured it would be a toy of his or something and that he just wanted to do the treasure hunt for fun, since he had seen Daniel Tiger (a PBS show) do one that morning. He made notes for me to follow, which led me to the box of chocolates hidden in his closet. It was a fun surprise, for sure!

What Abigail’s Been Up To: We switched her from her zip-up swaddlers to larger ones (that have these sort of wings that you wrap around her once you put her in the sleep sack itself). She seems happier with more room, though in just the last day or so she has started to fight the swaddle a bit (probably since she can actually wriggle her hands out of the new sleep sacks a bit easier…the zip up ones only had the opening at the neck, so she couldn’t really get her arm up that high. Last night I still made her stay swaddled, but after her early morning feeding (did I mention she slept from about 9:30 to 5:00?! First time, which was divine!) I left her arms free and just wrapped the wings around her body. She seemed to fall back asleep fine, but when Paul went to check on her as she was fussing a bit around 7ish, he said she was practically doing windmills with her arms…almost as if she didn’t know what to do with her arms out and she wasn’t sure how to stop. I’m not sure I’ll leave them free tonight. I guess I’ll see if she fights it hard-core again or not. Oh, and a fun thing: I stood in front of a mirror with her to see what she would do (since she’s focusing on single objects more). She looked a bit confused at what she was seeing (I’m guessing: “How can Momma be holding me AND be over there? And who is that baby she’s holding?!). ๐Ÿ˜‰ Then, when I was putting her car seat in the car one day, I could tell she focused on something in her “rear view mirror” (the mirror that’s on the headrest of the seat her car seat occupiesย which is there so I can see her from MY rear view mirror). She then popped out a huge grin. I looked to see if I could see what she was grinning at (I thought, perhaps, that she had seen herself and smiled) and could tell that she was looking at the reflection of me. ๐Ÿ™‚ Cute girl! Oh, and another funny story: As I was holding her up to my shoulder to burp her after a meal one day, she pulled her head back so she could see me, gave me a huge grin, and then promptly burped (luckily it was a dry one) in my face. She then smiled at me again. I think she’ll be able to hold her own with her older brother just fine. ๐Ÿ˜‰

This Week in Pictures:

[1]
I love when she falls solid asleep on my after a feeding. I usually try to sneak in a nap, too!
[2]
My prize from Joseph’s treasure hunt, along with his handwritten clues.
[3]
All ready for her close-up!
[4]
Trying out the new swaddle blanket during nap time.
[5]
Playing at the park. It was in-between cold and warm that day, so that’s why he had a sweatshirt and shorts on.
[6]
Dining al fresco. She seemed mesmerized by the giant oak tree we were sitting under. I totally get it, baby girl. I think they’re amazing, too.
[7]
Happy to be included with the rest of the family during dinner.
[8]
Breaking free of the swaddle in order to suck on her fist.