Spring Fever

If the weather gets any more beautiful, I think I might explode! You know, now that I think about it, I really don't think there is any kind of weather that I don't love.... Well, maybe when it's really, really cold and not a snowflake in sight. (If it's going to be unbearably cold, might as well have something pretty to look at and play in, right?) But that's probably about it.

We have had a wonderful weekend in the Lowros household. Saturday was spent with friends and family at my parents' house. The boys played horseshoes, shot skeet, rode the Mule and the dirt bike, and played a bit of ping-pong, while the girls played with the babies and did what girls do best... Talked! I think we had just as much fun as the boys... And then, to top it off, we had steak for dinner AND homemade apple pie--with ice cream! Needless to say, by the time we got back home from Oneonta, we were all three ready for bed.

We were up and at 'em early again this morning, though, and off to Grants Mill Road for church. It's a trek for us, but we are always so happy to be there. Unfortunately, we had to make an early exit, since Adelyn pitched one of her famous "polka-dotted fits" in the nursery. It doesn't happen very often, but she didn't get her mid-morning nap today, so it caught up with her right in the middle of the service. Our sweet girl is rarely ever fussy. The only time she really fusses is when she is sleepy. We have made it through shots and stuffy noses (but she's never really been sick) and even six teeth (Yes, SIX!!! More on that later.) without so much as a slight change in her usual cheerful disposition... But let her get sleepy, and she will let you know about it! And that is when we usually encounter what we call the "polka-dotted fit". We call it that because when she has one, she gets red spots all over her head. I've never seen anything like it, but then again, this is my first child, so maybe it's common. So when I got to the nursery to pick her up from the poor sweet lady who was trying to calm her down, she was polka-dotted and crying. She was asleep by the time we were five miles down the road.

After lunch, I took the rare opportunity to take a nap! And it was glorious! Just what I needed. Adelyn also took a good long nap--almost 2 hours--and Tyler watched some NCAA basketball. Actually, I started out watching basketball, too, but the couch was so comfy, and our Duke University throw is so cozy... I woke up just in time to see Duke finish off Michigan, and THEN... We went for a walk! I love this time of year for the wonderful walking weather!

We made Adelyn a bottle, loaded her up in her stroller, and headed out to enjoy some fresh air. She fed herself while we made our way down Doss Ferry Lane and walked inside some of the new houses they are building in our neighborhood. Tyler and I have always LOVED house-looking. (I know that's not necessarily what it's called... I think I just made it up.) So we always like to keep an eye on the progress that's going on in the new neighborhood houses.

By the time we were finished looking at houses, Adelyn was finished with her bottle, and we headed to the playground! Of course, the first stop was the swing. She loves the swing! I know I have posted pictures of her swinging before, but she is always so happy that I just have to take lots of pictures when she swings!

Then her Daddy took her to the top of the jungle gym...

She even went down the big slide with Daddy!

After playing for a little while, we continued on our walk, looking at some new homes in another section of our neighborhood and seeing the pretty spring foliage along the way. Look at the pretty flowering bushes! I've said it before, and I'll say it again: God is an Artist with a capital "A". Beautiful.

We even noticed after returning home that not ALL of our flower bed is a hopeless cause. We have some of those pretty flowers on one of our bushes that survived the winter!

Looks like this one will make it, too:

I can't wait till we can get out there and do some planting... Hopefully two weekends from now. Tyler's attending the Men's Conference at church next weekend, so we can't do it then. But between now and then, I am so excited about planning out our flower bed.

Since it was so pretty out, we couldn't resist taking a few pictures of Adelyn in the great outdoors. My precious bald baby girl... who now has (as I said earlier) six teeth! For the longest time, she just had the two on bottom. They came in around Christmas, and they were the only ones for a couple of months. But in the past three weeks or so, all four of her top front teeth have come in! It was kinda funny, because they didn't come in in the order that most babies get their teeth, so she had a cute little gap for a while, but now they are all through! She's going to really get to enjoy some table food soon! But back to the pictures.

Adelyn and Tyler were so tired from our walk, so they took a break and watched a little more basketball after we came inside.

Before long, Adelyn was sucking her thumb... A tell-tale sign that it was time for bed! So one bath, some applesauce, and a warm bottle later, she is snoozing away in her crib.

We are a blessed, blessed family! God has been so good to us. We don't deserve it, but I guess that's what grace is all about! Thank You, Jesus! Which reminds me... Not much longer till the dogwoods bloom! I can't wait!

Have a blessed week!

Wanting More? I Am...

About a year and a half ago, my precious friend Ruthie introduced me to the teachings of a woman by the name of Sylvia Gunter. Sylvia is the founder of The Father's Business, a Birmingham-based ministry that develops and distributes materials on the topic of prayer, for the purpose of helping Christians grow in intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. I own three of Sylvia's books, and they have revolutionized my prayer life and the way that I pray in general. (Ruthie taught me a great deal about prayer herself. But she also led me to these incredible resources that I am talking about.)

I subscribe to a weekly devotional that gets sent to my e-mail inbox on Wednesdays, and each week's devotional is an excerpt from one of Sylvia Gunter's prayer manuals. The devotional that appeared in my inbox two Wednesdays ago was so encouraging to me (and I have been thinking about it ever since then) that I wanted to share it with you. Since all of Sylvia's work is copyright-protected (although she is generous with granting permission to use and reproduce parts of her resources) and I am unsure how copyright laws affect the blog-world, I am just posting the link to that particular day's devotional, instead of copying and pasting the parts I wanted to share in my blog entry. PLEASE click on the link and read it... You won't be sorry.

The title of the devotional is Do Not Disturb.

So did you click on the link? Did you read it? Wasn't it GREAT?! God is so good, isn't He? He sends us what we need, when we need it!

You can subscribe to this weekly devotional at the ministry's website, which I have linked below. I would encourage anyone who wants to go deeper in his or her personal relationship with our Creator to visit the ministry's website at www.thefathersbusiness.com. There are several resources available for purchase online, or you can buy them at The Carpenter's Shop Christian Bookstore on Highway 31 in Vestavia Hills.

Happy God-seeking!

Our LITTLE "Big Girl"

So Adelyn is 9 months and 6 days old now... Whoa. That's crazy... Oh my goodness, how much I LOVE that baby girl! If this is just a glimpse of the kind of love that my Savior has for me, then OH MY GOODNESS! It's kinda overwhelming. Overwhelming but awesome!

Today was Adelyn's 9-month appointment with her pediatrician (Dr. Peters), and this is what we learned:

1. Adelyn is now about 1/8 of an inch shy of 26 inches... That puts her at roughly the 15th percentile for her height.
   
2. She now weighs 16 lbs, 14 oz... That puts her at the 20th percentile for her weight.


3. She is little, but she is perfect! :-)

She had to get her finger pricked to check her hematocrit (which was great, by the way... She's not going to be anemic like her mommy), and she didn't bat an eyelash. Not a single tear. She was fascinated with the band-aid they wrapped around her tiny little finger, though. She's tough.

Because Adelyn has always been somewhat small, Dr. Peters had been suggesting that we keep her diet consisting of mostly formula and only a couple of solid food meals or snacks a day... until today. Don't misunderstand me; Adelyn has had PLENTY of solid foods, just not more than twice a day up to this point. Dr. Peters wanted to be sure that she didn't take any less formula than she was at six months, and adding more solid food would have probably made her take less formula, so we have been waiting to add that third solid meal.

I also want to start giving Adelyn meats now. Up to now, Adelyn has never had store-bought baby food. We are so, so blessed! My Papa Bob has gardens galore, and ever since I was a little girl, my family (and half the population of Blount County) has been eating fresh and canned veggies out of his gardens. Potatoes, green beans, lima beans, pink-eyed peas, sweet corn, squash, tomatoes, bell peppers, you name it--he grows it! So last summer, when my mom was canning, she canned Adelyn her very own teeny little jars of sweet potatoes, green beans, squash, and peas. We also have access to apple, pear, and peach trees, so my sweet Mama also made Adelyn some jars of applesauce and pears, and she froze her some peaches. ALSO, last summer my parents had a pretty impressive garden themselves, so they added some broccoli and cauliflower, which, when steamed, are great for making baby food! Additionally, I occasionally buy some bananas or carrots or other fun things in the produce section at the grocery store to pop in the blender and make a nutritious meal for my sweet girl. (I steam the carrots first, but the bananas I just pop right in there.) Adelyn is definitely spoiled in the food department, but that's a good thing! Aren't we blessed?!

Anyway, so I wanted to start giving her some meat, but didn't know quite how to prepare it so it would be suitable for her sweet little mouth (which now has two teeth on bottom and a funny little cluster of teeth on the left side of her upper gum, then a space, then another tooth coming in on the right side). I asked Dr. Peters about it, and she gave me some suggestions that I am excited about trying! (I know I could just go out and buy some Gerber baby food with meat in it, but I figure, "Why start now? We've done it all homemade so far; might as well do it for a few more months before she can eat the same things the rest of us do.") I think my first attempt will be chicken, boiled then shredded. I'll let you know how it goes!

Here's a picture of Adelyn sitting on the exam table in the doctor's office, waiting for the single vaccination that she had to get today (Don't worry; she didn't like that quite as much as the finger prick):

She was playing with her pants. The things that babies are fascinated with... Haha!

Tyler and Adelyn are sleeping now, and I had better get that way, too! Busy day tomorrow, and you know... the alarm clock. :-)

Well Hello, March!

Oh my goodness gracious! It's March already?!?! This is crazy! But I am enjoying every minute...

It looks like spring may be here to stay in our little corner of the world. Everywhere I look, there's something blooming! Here's a look at the pretty pink blossoms on the trees lining the walkway at the clubhouse in our neighborhood:

And then some wild daffodils growing on the side of the road:

And the tulip tree at my parents' house is blossoming, too!

The God I serve is an artist! Isn't He brilliant? Look at those colors! Every season is a new masterpiece! I just love to watch the seasons change!

So... There's lots going on for our little family these days! Tyler and I attended the Ignite Marriage Conference at Church of the Highlands this past weekend, and it was wonderful! We had some great worship...

And we heard from some fabulous speakers!

(Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of Jimmy Evans...)

Jimmy Evans, founder of Marriage Today, and Joe McGee (pictured above) shared practical, powerful, and Biblical truths about marriage the way God intended it. It was so much fun, too! We got to see a lot of friends, we learned a lot, and we laughed a WHOLE lot! If you ever have the chance to hear either of these two amazing speakers, do yourself a favor and take advantage of the opportunity! There's always something new to be learned and applied in a godly marriage. Tyler and I will be lifelong learners in this course called marriage, and we will take all the help we can get! We always want to learn to love each other better, so that when we are old and gray, we can say we still passionately love one another... Maybe even more passionately than we did almost three years ago, when we said "I do"! Haha!

Adelyn is doing new things every day! It's going by so fast... Just some of her latest developments:

She's saying "Da-Da", "Bye-Bye", and "Paw Paw", and she will be crawling any day now. She gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth, but so far no coordinated movement forward. Backwards, she can do. But that's really more "scooting" than anything else, I think. She just has to figure out how to make her hands and knees work together to move her from place to place. But it won't be long! She also loves standing up! She stands at the ottoman and plays with her toys and the remote controls for as long as we will let her. And she loves to walk around the house with us holding her hands. Last night, she and I were walking to the bathroom to get her in the bath, and Tyler walked past us from behind. When she saw him walking in front of her, she practically started running to try to catch him! It was so sweet! She's a cutie!

This picture was taken tonight, as she was enjoying her nightly "jumping time":

Thanks to Drew, Sheri, and Elaina Allison for sharing Elaina's equipment with us! She sure has enjoyed this jumper and the swing that she still takes a nap in from time to time, both of which belong to Elaina.

I need to be heading off to bed now... I don't have to work at my real job tomorrow, but I have so much that I need to get done, since I will be working a 12.5-hour shift far away from home on Thursday! Good night, everybody, and be blessed!