A sports post

This is obviously not a sports blog, but today I have a few things to say. I actually had a few things to say a few weeks ago when this all happened, but this is the first time I've been able to say them.

I'm a proud Colts fan. I'm sad Peyton is gone. I cried during his press conference. As I thought about why it matters to me so much, I realized a few things. Of all of the seasons that Peyton was our quarterback, I only lived in Indianapolis for one of them, and only lived in Indiana for five of them. It has been my experience that living a distance from a sports team only increases your love of them. Time and effort is put into being able to watch the games - whether it is going to a sports bar, getting a sling box, or even having a family member set up a webcam and skype so you can watch off of their TV. Colts colors are worn more proudly, because it isn't just a team that you are advertising, it is your home state - a state that you love and miss. There is a great deal of pride when your home state does well, because for once, the whole world is talking about your state, the place that your brain talks about all the time.

What a wonderful honor it was to have Manning as a part of that home state's team. We happened to move to the town where Dungy had left from. People like both of those guys here. I can't tell you how many conversations were started with complete strangers because of the Colts. Most of the conversations were positive - you couldn't really say anything bad about either of them. We moved to Florida from a state full of corn. It was so cool to have that no name corn state talked about frequently on national sports news, and talked about highly. That was because of Peyton. Before we had a slingbox, we could count on at least getting to watch 4 or 5 colts games a season because of Peyton and the way the nation followed him. He put Indiana on the nation's map - and it was just nice to have people know a little bit about a huge part of us, all because of football.

We will miss him....and yes, we will keep missing Indiana and the corn and the people...that goes without saying.



On a related Indiana sports note. When you live far away from the people and state you love, you begin to cheer for any team that is related to that state...even teams that just have players on them from that state. Any hatred for teams in that state that you didn't grow up cheering for kind of fades away. It is about pride in your state, not just your school. You want other people to like and talk about your state too. So, I will be cheering for the Hoosiers, as my husband also cheers for Purdue (as long as they aren't playing each other).

What a difference 6 months makes

Here is a quick list of some things that the older kids can now do that they definitely couldn't do 6 months ago..

• Buckle themselves in their carseats (I no longer have to climb into the back of the van to buckle them in. Glorious.)
• Play by themselves at church for hours (The 1 and 2 year old rooms are magical once they are no longer in there on Sundays. We discovered this during GO Conference week while I was doing work at the church. I seriously couldn't believe how well they played and pretended together, virtually unattended.)
• Tell me when they are sick (They both have self diagnosed themselves with ear infections. Micah saying that he couldn't eat dinner because his ear hurt too badly, and Mackenna telling us she couldn't hear. This allowed us to get treatment before they woke screaming in the middle of the night. This is wonderful blissfulness! - who would have thought that I would be using blissful and ear infection in the same sentence)
• Mostly take care of themselves in the bathroom (Maybe this is why my bathroom smells worse than ever!)
• Dress themselves - picking out clothes and putting them on, taking off their dirty clothes and putting them in the hamper (I'm learning to relax and only say 'no' to outfits when I really have to. This is a work in progress for me.)
• Count backwards from ten (with some help - sometimes their play cell phones will provide all the visual help they need, sometimes they want me to hold up my fingers and help them with some of the higher numbers)
• Sort rhyming word picture cards (with me reading the words)
• Kind of write their names (Micah got the good end of the stick here. Mackenna is really good at M, A, E, N - C and K are hard for her.)
• Do 24 piece puzzles - the kind in the box (They have their own ways of doing puzzles. Micah likes to obey 'my rules' and start with the edges and corners. Mackenna is really good at looking at the whole picture and just kind of knowing what pieces would make the picture come together. She is quiet and steady, slow at first, but sometimes getting done before him.)
• Lace beads on a string (Maybe they could do this before, but they seem to like it now.)
• Complete patterns, kind of
• Put away their toys, knowing exactly which bin each toy goes in (I think Micah actually enjoys cleaning up!)
• Ride their trikes
• Pump on the swings, kind of (Mackenna is better at this.)
• "Feed" their babies their "milk." (Yes, both of them do this sometimes, but Mackenna is the better mommy in this department. She also told him the other day that he didn't have the milk his baby needed. He disagreed.)

And a few things that they still do, that still melt my heart..

• Micah asks me to snuggle with him at naptime on a frequent basis
• They still snuggle with me in the morning in bed
• And Mackenna frequently tells me that I'm the best mama ever
• They play and pretend together like no one's business.

We're not even going to start thinking about all the ways that Jocelyn isn't different today than she was 6 months ago....That is for tomorrow.

Be Still

This week's p52 theme was "Be Still." These images from this week immediately came to mind. Sometime in the last year, our older kids started getting into bed with us in the morning. They usually make their way individually into our room sometime after 7, and we can usually keep them with us until around 8:00. Sometimes they are restless and chatty, but many times they fall back asleep as we slowly start our morning together. I was debating changing up this routine, but the day I heard this conversation between Micah and Mackenna, I ended that debate in a hurry.
Micah: "Mackenna, Mackenna, wake up. It's light outside."
Mackenna: "Oh."
Micah: "Do you know what that means? Do you know what time it is? .... It's SNUGGLE TIME!"
And then all I heard was two pairs of feet running into my bed. Pure Sweetness.

On this particular day, they must have been really tired, because Curt and I both had gotten up and taken showers before they even moved. My sleeping babes. Still. Sweet.







And, yes, that is a boy holding his twin sister's hand. I'm so glad they have each other.

Great Leap

I was so proud of my big boy on our first beach trip of the year. It is so neat to see so clearly how they grow up in the few months that we are away from the beach (about five months this year). The water was still a little chilly, which would usually send him running for the sand. Instead, this time he happily splashed the water on his head, jumped in with both feet, and danced around.





He was proud of himself too.

Cabin Fever

Well, I didn't quite make it in time for last week's challenge. In the spirit of following through, here are my cabin fever images. There is no better way to celebrate a beautiful February day (and help our visiting Maine friends burn off their cabin fever) than by going to the beach. It does the heart good. (Maybe this won't feel like quite as much gloating since I'm not able to link up to the rest of the group.)

Blur

Dearest Jocelyn,

Well, safe to say that this month has been a blur. A sweet and happy blur, but I still can't believe how fast it has gone. (If you want further evidence of this, dare to compare the date of this post with the actual date of your 5 month birthday.)



You have been super sweet this month. You are extremely laid back, squishy, and smiley. You are pretty easy to please, especially when we stick to your routine. If your belly is full, you are more than happy to lay on a blanket and look at your toys or bat at your toy bar. You may grunt/talk a little bit, either happily or to let me know that you are ready for a change of scenery. Often, when I hear you starting to grunt, I look at the clock and realize it is about the usual time for your nap. I lay you in your bed, wrap you up, you smile at me, and then you stick your fingers in your mouth and turn your head to the side and go to sleep. Sometimes, to add a little drama to this, you will drape your other arm over your eyes as you are going to sleep.

You are so easy to please that sometimes it is hard to come up with what you "really like." I would have to say that your favorite place to be is still on your back looking at your toys - either your "Hello Baby" toy gym, the Baby Einstein activity bar, or your crib mobile. You definitely prefer to be facing out when someone is holding you - you can tend to go a little ballistic if someone tries to snuggle you in any other way. Sometimes you will turn your head around backwards in order to look up at whoever is holding you while in that position. You will usually grant the person a smile once you see them.





You are doing better and better with sitting up on our laps. You will usually lift your head straight up and look at us if we are talking to you. Actually, I think you probably prefer standing on our laps and looking at us instead of sitting there.



Daddy has started doing the "Superman" game with you. When you hear him start to sing the song, you will usually give him a big smile because you know he will lift you up to fly at the "BUM-bum-bum" part.





You haven't latched onto a favorite thing yet. Sometimes I will give you your rabbit blankie and you will grab onto it, and sometimes you seem to like rubbing on your muslin swaddling blanket, but nothing has totally won your affection yet. (Except me of course, right?)

You are definitely noticing more and more about your surroundings. I love the big smile you give me when I come into your "bedroom" (yes, you still sleep in the bathroom) after a nap or nighttime. When I flip the light on, you take some time to squint and get used to the light, and then you usually will give yourself a great big smile in the mirror. You think you are pretty great, too.  The other day, one of the cats walked by you and totally caught your eye. You followed him wherever he went after that. You are also getting more social with your feeding times. You have started the super cute thing of taking a break and smiling or just looking at me while you are eating.



You aren't growing by leaps and bounds, which seems pretty similar to what your brother and sister were doing at this point. You seem to have a healthy amount of chub all over your body, but you aren't gaining much weight. To be honest, you don't eat super frequently during the day, but you are extremely content between feedings and you are willingly sleeping all night. You still absolutely refuse a bottle (more on that in just a second), so I don't think that supplementing is a solution, even if I was interested. You seem quite healthy in this aspect, and I will hope that you either have a growth spurt in the next few weeks or that the pediatrician agrees with me at six months.

I did spend a couple of days away from you at the beginning of February. I went to a photography workshop down at Clearwater Beach. I had thought that daddy would be able to keep you and feed you while I was away. Even the idea of this made you very angry with us, and you let us know every time we tried to give you a bottle in the days leading up to the workshop. We decided it was best if dad just brought you down (with your brother and sister) twice a day for me to feed you while I was gone. You seemed to approve. If I haven't told you lately, you have a really great daddy.



At three months old, you were seeming to be turning into quite the chatterer. You have definitely mellowed out and quieted down. That is okay, but we do love to hear what you "have to say" so feel free to speak up whenever you would like. (Notice I said "speak up" not "scream up.") You do like to laugh, but not really at your immediate family. You cracked up at two of your little friends on Valentine's Day as they were jumping up and down and the same with a little boy in the nursery. When I try to do silly things to make you giggle, you look at me like you are bored stiff. I'll keep trying. (So will your brother and sister, so please continue to humor us from time to time with a laugh, even if it is just a courtesy laugh.)


You are happily looking at your loving brother in this picture.


And putting up with being snuggled by your adoring sister in this one.

I've mentioned before that you have been super sweet and laid back this month - to further emphasize that, I should also add that this sweet behavior has been in addition to me adding dairy back into my diet and weaning you off the Zantac. Sometime this month we stopped giving it in the middle of the day and then stopped altogether. You seem fine. I'm enjoying my cheese and ice cream again (specifically, baked ziti and double fudge brownie ice cream - not together of course).

On the day you turned five months old you took your first trip to the beach - Ft. DeSoto. You were great. You even took one nap inside the tent. You also were willing to chill out in there even when you weren't sleeping. Daddy was kind enough to come into the little tent and get you to giggle at him (Don't be fooled, he was also trying to get his charbroiled skin out of the hot sun).









We had a great day together as a family; we were so glad to have you along with us. I'm just so thankful that you are a part of our family - you are a great fit. We love you very much.





I'm going to try and not panic too much about the fact that in three weeks I need to begin writing a six month letter! I'll just keep soaking in your sweetness and telling you just how much we love you, our little Jocie Bit.



Hugs and Kisses,
Your Mama

Two Heads

Micah: "You are trying to get Jocelyn to look at you, but I want her to look at me. And she doesn't have two heads. That's silly that she doesn't have two heads."



I don't think I think it's as silly as he does.