Good Day with Bear

I’m excited for the long weekend coming up!

This past weekend was sort of blah. A serious highlight was having 2 friends stop by with their new baby! But the rest – I’m just glad it’s over

Bear & I had a great day today. I’m trying not to overanalyze as to why We played and ate and went for a run and went for 2 walks. I think I wore Noodles out; he’s sprawled out on the floor now. I didn’t make him go on the run, but I did take him on the 2 walks. I have to remind myself sometimes that he is 10 years old

In the green smoothie demo I posted a few weeks ago, Green Smoothie Girl said she gets 15 servings of fruits and veggies in her smoothie. I did a loose measurement today, and I only used 3-4 servings of greens, and 4-5 servings of fruit. I’m consulting with her blog to find out how she crams all that stuff in there. I know you’re all on the edge of your seats with anticipation.

High Needs Babies & Flying

I haven’t been as good about blogging lately for a couple reasons. First, I’ve been trying to prepare for Bear’s first plane ride. We’re going to North Carolina for the Exodus Freedom Conference in less than 3 weeks! 3 years ago when we went down there, we drove, so we were weighing the pros & cons of driving versus flying. Driving was appealing because I could bring my blender for green smoothies, as well as any food & supplies I might need. But that’s an awfully long time to be in a car with an infant, so we decided to fly. We’re taking a direct flight to Charlotte (only 2 hours), renting a car, and driving the 2 hours to get to Asheville.

The 2nd reason I haven’t been able to blog is that Bear has been extra needy lately. Bear is and has always been what one would call “High Needs”. I don’t like the terms “difficult” or “fussy”; he’s just who he is. He’s been like this from day 1, so I don’t believe it’s something we caused or cultivated.

I remember coming across Dr. Sears’ book “Fussy Baby Book: parenting your high-need child from birth to five”, when Bear was about 8 weeks old. It described him to a T. In some ways, it was really affirming, and in other ways, totally discouraging. I kept hoping it was just a phase that he would grow out of.

All babies are “high needs” in some sense – it’s just some need to sleep and some don’t as much, some need to suck and some don’t as much, some need to be held a lot and some don’t as much. He has food sensitivities as well as acid reflux, which adds to it. He’s doing better than when he was younger, definitely, but he still requires a lot of time and attention.

It’s easy to get frustrated when I’m trying to get something done, and Bear wants my attention. As Bear gets older, I’m realizing he has three distinct cries: his “I’m bored/pay attention to me” whine, which is more about wanting my attention vs. actually needing my attention, his “I need you” cry, where he really does need me NOW, and his “I’m terrified, come quickly” cry, which he’s only done when the dog barks too close to him or when the smoke alarm goes off (and we have a very sensitive smoke alarm!). When he’s just whining, I reassure him with my voice that I’ll be with him in a minute and quickly finish whatever I’m doing. It’s generally when I’m in the kitchen preparing his food or mine.

I’ve been struggling to practice acceptance. I have many things I’d like to do, and even things I really need to do. But I figure soon enough, Bear will outgrow his desire & need to sit in my lap & take a nap like he is now. Today, I can choose to fight against Bear’s needs, or I can accept him for who he is and cherish his babyhood. I think I’ll do the latter

Mystery Woman

Do any of my blog readers know who this is?

I saw her on a Good Morning America clip, and I’m positive I know her. Help! I’m thinking she went to NEC.

Why Does God Let Babies Die?

That’s the question I asked Roy today. A woman on a message board I frequent lost her baby today. He was born not breathing, with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. He was revived temporarily, but went to be with Jesus last night. I had been praying for her little baby, for his complete healing, & for her family since she went into labor.

The family seems to be holding up as well as could be expected. They have 2 young daughters. Pray for them.

I look at my beautiful son, and my heart breaks to imagine life without him. It gives me a glimpse into the father heart of God, who spared no expense in sending His only son to suffer & die a horrific death.

Roy responded, “Why does God let anyone die?” Good question. There are no easy answers. The fact is we will all die someday. No one is exempt. Does it seem cruel & unfair to me that a sweet little baby boy should have to go to Jesus so soon? Yes. But at least he is not suffering anymore. For now, their little baby boy has received his complete healing and is resting in God’s arms.

My Book, Smoothies, & Life

I was inspired by one of my friends in Exodus who recently signed a book deal that I should be more consistent in working on my book. He said he was working on it for a year before he got picked up by a publisher. So yesterday morning, while Bear napped on my lap, I worked on my book. I already have a loose intro written, as well as an outline of about 18 chapters, some of which may eventually be cut, depending on the format I choose for the final version. I went through various talks I’ve given during my days doing campus ministry with Chi Alpha, as well as Exodus, & articles & devotionals I’ve written and pulled information from those, cutting & pasting them into the appropriate chapters. I ended up with over 50 pages of material! So that felt good to make all that progress

I also just really enjoyed reading over some of my old talks & teachings. I really struggled with those early talks, whereas now I’m much more comfortable preaching & teaching. But even though I struggled with writing & giving them, some of them had important things to say – if I do say so myself.

Yesterday, I was out of spinach, but in an effort to maintain my green smoothie streak, I used broccoli & kale as my greens. Um, let’s just say I don’t recommend it, unless you have a more powerful blender than I do. It was so thick it took me several hours to drink it.

Life

I haven’t blogged in 2 days!

I ran again today, but only for 25 minutes. I then met my friend and we walked home.

I’m working up some thoughts on parenting that I’ll be posting soon. Till then, take care!

Green Smoothies

I got a new pair of running shoes yesterday at Bill Rodgers Running Center. It’s pretty close to Boston Harbor Community Church, where we are members, so we headed over there after service. This is my 3rd pair of shoes I’ve purchased there. The first pair of running shoes that I had years ago I bought at City Sports. No offense, but they really have no idea how to fit people for shoes, and this is based on more than one experience. Bill Rodgers Running Center, on the other hand, do know how to fit people. In fact, I’ve always gotten great service there.

So I left the store yesterday with Saucony Hurricanes:

I celebrated my new shoes by deciding I’m going to up my running to 3 times a week. I succeeded at running twice a week for the last 3 weeks since I started running again. So today, in an attempt to find a less hilly running route, I ran 55 minutes….in new shoes….over a lot more hills than usual. Oops! Generally, I run about 2.8 miles and it takes me 36-40 minutes, depending on whether or not Noodles runs the second lap with us. I don’t know how far I ran today, but it was well over 4 miles. Somehow I ended up at a spot that is 2 miles away from home, and I didn’t go straight there. But it mostly felt good

I succeeded in drinking a green smoothie every weekday last week (M-F), and even had a big spinach, kale & collard greens salad on Saturday. Tonight, I had a green smoothie with a little chicken and a gluten-free banana chocolate chip muffin that I baked yesterday Quite an interesting dinner, but I had to throw something together quickly!

Stairs!

Our son has taught himself how to climb the stairs.

Are 10-month-olds supposed to be able to do that?

Frightening.

In Defense of Food

I’m reading “In Defense of Food” by Michael Pollan.

It’s quite interesting, and he’s really bringing me back! Remember Snackwell’s?

I don’t know if anyone of you bought into the whole “fat-free is better” belief system, but I sure did! Remember when you could get fat-free everything? I remember that even Taco Bell had fat-free & low-fat cheese for awhile. Anyway, you should pick up a copy of the book from the library if you can (I had to wait a couple of months for it; it’s quite popular!). It goes into all the theories behind “nutritionism” and why so much of what we believe about food today in America isn’t really based on fact, but rather bad science and politics.

Speaking of food, Trader Joe’s has this roasted plaintain chips that are amazing! I don’t know if they’re new or I just never noticed them, but they are good!

Sleeping In & Yard Sales

My poor husband had to work until the wee hours of the morning to avoid having to work during the weekend, so when Bear woke up at 6 AM, we let Roy sleep in. We went out & ran a couple errands, including a stop at Roy’s favorite donut place for some fresh, hand-cut donuts. Once Roy got up, we went out driving, looking for yard sales. We generally just drive by & see if there’s anything interesting. The first one or two looked like duds, but we stopped at one soon after that and scored! The woman having the yard sale had 25 cent tapes (yes, we still have a tape player & only a tape player in our car), 25 cent 3-ring binders, as well as a cute, little “Yak Pak” for $1, in the hopes that my Asus would fit in it.

It does! Here it is, entering in to its new home.

Here it is, all tucked away!

Rock on! I told her about the Asus, and she said it sounds perfect for her partner. Cool

Then we headed over to a multi-family yard sale that we saw a sign for. It must have been around 1:30 at this point, and there was a big box marked “Free” in front of one of the houses. We got 3 wooden children’s puzzles, 2 kid’s videos, the whole Anne of Green Gables series, a little lamb porcelain thing that Roy liked, and a 2-tape set for learning conversational Arabic, which is one of 2 languages I’d like to learn (the other being Spanish).

This is not helping the cause of decluttering much. Well, the binders will help because my recipes get strewn across the kitchen by a certain Bear But for the most part, we only picked up things we needed or could use. We can only listen to Ian White in the car so many times! It’s Bear’s favorite, but now he seems to be taking a liking to Chuck Mangione. When I told him that his great grandpa played with Chuck, I think that won him over