Marching to a New Beat: 9 Months & So Big

Holding Caleb tighter as the country reels from the devastation in Newtown. It's impossible to fathom such evil. It's impossible to know how these families feel. And it's impossible not to cry out with a broken heart, praying that God will provide healing, strength and a peace beyond our understanding. Even as one grounded in my faith, I'm left wondering how a good and sovereign God allows such unthinkable pain and suffering. At the same time, it makes it absolutely clear that we are a broken and sinful people, in desperate need of redeeming. And the truth is that He is still good, still sovereign, all-powerful and perfectly loving... even when it doesn't make sense in my finite mind.

It feels wrong to go on with our happy little life. To post about all of the wonderful milestones from the past month when there are 27 families broken over the milestones that will never be reached. But I do not have to go on with life as if nothing ever happened. This unthinkable act will serve as a reminder to be thankful every single day for the life and breath that I have, for the wonderful Godly husband that I get to do life with and for our beautiful baby boy and the privilege it is to be his mama. It will serve as a reminder that even though it appears that evil won the day on December 14th, the battle has already been won... Christ lives so that we may have life eternal. And it is our call, our duty, to share this truth and this love with anyone and everyone.

Even with a broken heart over the loss in Newtown, I still want to rejoice for another amazing month with Caleb. Our not-so-little man is 9 months old. And I'm happy to say we are still loving this parent thing (some days more than others - but all days are better than life pre-Caleb). We haven't had his 9 month check up yet so no weight/height figures to report yet, although I think he is starting to thin out with all of the moving he's doing (he never stops moving). Here are the milestones of month 9:

The best one by far is his new "How big is Caleb" trick. He caught on to this one quickly and it has provided hours of fun:

He's kind of learned how to feed himself. It's more like bringing an open hand to his mouth hoping that a cheerio is stuck to his palm and will magically jump into his mouth at just the right moment... but it's something!

This is a new favorite of mine as well - he can feed himself his bottle! This just started a few days ago and has already proven very valuable. We can now kiss the "we-have-somewhere-to-be-in-15-minutes-and-I-still-have-to-make-myself-look-somewhat-presentable-but-Caleb-is-melting-and-needs-a-bottle-pronto-so-we-will-either-be-late-or-I-will-look-like-I-just-dragged-myself-out-of-bed" days goodbye! Woo hoo

I'm sad to say we have made NO progress on his naps - he is still a catnapper and it looks like this isn't going to change anytime soon. I think the hardest part is that there is nothing I can do to control this... believe me, I've tried everything. It's been a continuous lesson in letting go and accepting that I'm not in control.

We had our first bout with the flu and it was TERRIBLE! Thankfully we only dealt with the projectile puking for one day, but the runs stuck around for several days. We experienced 15 epic blowouts, many of which sent us directly to the bathtub and/or throwing onesies away. The best one was at Tim's work Christmas party. We're sitting there eating dinner at the front of the auditorium when Tim looks down and says "Sarah - what.is.that??" We both gaze down in horror and watch as Caleb's poop literally bubbles out the back of his pants, down his legs, into his shoes and all over the floor. Did I mention we were sitting at the front of the auditorium? So there I am carrying a poop-covered-Caleb at arms length through the sea of people, to the bathroom where I proceed to strip him naked and use a million wipes to get him as clean as possible. Thank the Lord my good friend Hope was with me to hand me wipe after wipe and stuff Caleb's clothes in a baggie - what a friend! And good thing I had an adorable back-up outfit in my diaper bag... oh wait! Who thinks about their back-up outfit? I obviously had not in months! Caleb spent the rest of the evening in an outfit that was 6 months too small... pant legs that barely made it to his knees and his diaper busting through the snaps. I could feel people's judgement - "you're decked out in a dress, pearls and heels and you choose that embarrassing outfit for your son?" I wanted to run to the stage and tell the whole story so that everyone would know I did not willingly subject my son to such an awful wardrobe malfunction. Oh well... another great story for the high school graduation open house (by the way, is it just me and my son that all of our funniest moments have to do with poop, or is that just life with a baby?)