Busy Month for Micah!

Warning: this is one of those gushy posts about how glad I am that Micah exists.

Intended for family members who feel the same way. :)

Micah turned 5 months old yesterday and it was one of those growing-up kind of months, to be sure!

I haven't weighed him, but my back and neck tell me that he's a much bigger chunker than he was one month ago! Some other milestones this month include:

 1. Being introduced to, and loving the jolly jumper! He can easily spend 45 minutes of drooly, uninterrupted playtime in this contraption. Micah has always loved to bear weight on his legs, so this rather heavenly for him!

2. Cutting his first tooth! This laid-back fellow would rather be held these days as he's also working on his second tooth (hence the sore back and neck). 

3. He learned to roll over! Just yesterday! For a Balfour, that's quite an accomplishment. We tend to be quite slow in the large motor movement department. :)

4. He started waking up MORE at night. That's right folks. This mom is usually up 2 or 3 times at night. Prayer and intercession gladly accepted. ;)

5. Just when we didn't think it possible, he got cuter! 

6. And droolier, too. Anyone have any suggestions for how to keep sleepers from turning orange on top from constant drool? (Aside from bibs. I have a certain dislike for bibs.)

7. True to his youngest-born nature, he turned into an attention-seeker/getter. He'll shriek, cough or coo until someone looks at him, and then he'll giggle, quite proud that it worked, yet again...

...and it always works with Ellie. She is an incredible big sister. Loves to 'babysit' for me. What a blessing.

8. Micah also got louder this month. Dinner-time conversations are a bust. Between Ellie's non-stop chatter about her take on the world, Josh's pesky-little-brother-I-must-make-random-extra-loud-robot-noises-so-Ellie-can't-talk-without-yelling-in-frustration contribution, and Micah's insanely loud bird-screech (see number 7), Rob and I often just sit and shake our heads and sigh in surrender. One day we will talk at dinner again! And then we'll miss it all.

9. He is now officially ticklish and we can get a good, belly-gut giggle out of him by doing so.

10. He wrapped his pinky finger even more tightly around my heart.

A milestone that will benefit him for years to come, I'm sure. :)

Thankful

You could say I'm a little late posting about thankfulness seeing as Thanksgiving was uh...oh dear - almost two weeks ago! On the other hand, we could just pretend we all live in the US and I'm actually quite delightfully early! Or perhaps - and I think I'll go with this one - we could all agree that every day is a good day to be thankful. So I choose today.

I am thankful.

I have so much to be thankful for, it would be crazy to even try to write it all down. But here are a few things that make my heart full this year around Thanksgiving:

1. I am alive. At any moment Jesus could choose to take my breathe away. But He hasn't! And every moment I have here is a gift.

2. I have salvation. I deserve Hell because I am human and so not like God in millions of ways. Yet I will never taste Hell because Jesus took my place on the cross and bore my gross, disgusting sin on His own shoulders. Wow. I have an eternity of tearless, painless, hunger-less, problem-less JOY to look forward to...not to mention getting to see Jesus face to face and finally understanding how much He TRULY loves me. This will be grand!

3. Every day that's rough and hard and gross I have #2 to think about, and I become more thankful.

4. For some reason, Jesus gave me a husband who loves me more than I thought any human capable of loving any other human. Rob is faithful, honest, hard-working, prayerful, respected, intelligent, funny, gifted, humble, fun-loving and amazing...and he's mine! I am so thankful.

5. For some reason, Jesus decided it would be easy for me to have kids. And He's given me three miracles. They are not always easy miracles - but they are beautiful, original miracles, and they make me smile and laugh more than anyone. They teach me so much about trusting Jesus. And I am so thankful!

6. I am not in control. I always used to think I'd be happier if I was. But please see #5. Control is a most definitely a thing of the past! And folks, I am (slowly) learning to love the chaos. And I'm learning to have a sense of humour. I am learning that TICKLING solves a multitude of problems! And I am having FUN. And I am so thankful!

7. I have a house. And a van. And couches. And a sandbox. And most recently, a beautiful coffee table. And all were gifts from God after I asked Him! He owns the whole earth, AND He actually cares enough about each of us - about ME - to answer when we ask Him. He is so faithful. And I am so thankful!

8. I finally figured out what colour I'd like to paint my kitchen. :) 'Nuff said.

9. I have amazing friends. They are all so different and so amazing.

10. There is a cinnamon bun waiting to be eaten on my counter. Thankfulness oozing out my pores...

Yup. Thanksgiving has passed and we've probably all done our traditional 'what I'm thankful for' sharing around the table, but please humour me and leave me a comment -
what are YOU thankful for today!? 

p.s. These are the photos we're NOT using for the Christmas card. Notice Micah's puke in that last one? :)


 "Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!" 2 Corinthians 9:15

Four Months

All I have to say is

 this

 boy

 melts

 my

heart!

Ellie-isms

For those of you who are my 'friends' on Facebook, you may have seen that my status (what's the plural of status? stati? statuses? ANYHOW...) lately have often been silly things the kids have said. I've also had a lot of comments strongly urging me to write a book...which I don't intend to do anytime in the near future. So I decided a blog post was in order to celebrate Ellie-isms...the unique, entertaining, and sometimes clever things that are uttered from the mouth of our eldest. Kick back and have a chuckle...we have plenty to spare!

Ellie occasionally "comes up" with fears...little things that she likes to pretend to be afraid of. Perhaps there's a nugget of worry deep down in her little brave heart, but if so, it's not a big nugget. Worry is not her weakness! A few weeks ago her 'fear' was of not having any noise around her at any given time. One morning I asked her to go upstairs and turn off her fan (white noise that she sleeps with). She hesitated, then said, "And don't worry. I won't be afraid. When I turn off my fan, I'll quickly RUN downstairs before the 'not noise' monster comes!"
(For the record - the "not noise" monster has not visited our house since Ellie was born!)

Ellie: "Chloe has an Anne of Green Gables doll."

Me: "How did you remember the name 'Anne of Green Gables'?" (I've never talked about it.)

Ellie: "I just put it in my brain and I remembered!"

Me: "Huh. I should try that. How do you put it in your brain?"

Ellie: "Well, I just run, and I catch it. Then I put it in my head and I mix it into my brain!"

It's just that easy, folks!

Me: "How are you feeling this morning, Ellie?" (she was just getting over a cold)

Ellie: "Mostly better. I just have wrestle boogers."

Me: "Whistle boogers?"

Ellie: "No, WRESTLE boogers."

Me: "Um, what are wrestle boogers?"

Ellie: "When I sniff, the boogers wrestle!"

Ellie, playing with a pretend CD player asks me, "Mommy, what kind of jazz do you like? Spin-top, reguole, or not-reguole?" ("Regular" is one of the only words on this planet that she cannot for the life of her pronounce! I'm a 'spin-top' sort of jazz lover myself, anyways...whatever that is. :)

Ellie looked contemplative one morning while making a funny sound with her mouth.

Me: "What's wrong, Ellie?"

Ellie: "Mmmmm...dream spit."

Me: "What's dream spit?"

Ellie: "It's the kind of spit that comes from my dreams...and goes down my dream tube...back into my head."

I think it's called "morning breath." :)

Other random quotes:

"Mommy, I just can't live my life without you!"

"Oh, forgettable me!"

"It's MY fault I can't be a butterfly and that makes me SAD."

"I cried so hard I couldn't talk because I had HOLES in my crying." (that's a pretty accurate description of breathing spasms if you ask me!)

And a few you've already seen on FB but added for the family's sake:

Ellie: "Micah had a really elegant nap. Elegant means 'really great' in England."

E:"Mommy, when you're a little baby, I'm going to dress you in a pink baseball sleeper."

Me: "Um, I'm never going to be a little baby, Ellie."

E: "No, like when your 100 and you shrink a little bit!"

Wouldn't YOU like to be dressed in a pink baseball sleeper when you're 100?

Rob: "Ellie, what happened to your lady-like table manners?

Ellie: "I think I lost them at MCC!

Ellie, after looking for me for about 6 seconds (and in one room) finds me standing in the kitchen: "Oh, there you are, Mommy. I thought you were DEAD!"

Ellie: "Mommy, can you get Josh's pillow for him?"

Me: "Why can't you get it?"

Ellie: "Because I've got a tummy ache AND a headache AND a face ache."

Me: "What's a face ache?"

Ellie: "Like, the blood and the germs from my head are going into my face!"

Sounds SERIOUS!!

And lastly:

"Mommy, I'm going to miss you when I grow up!"

No Ellie, it's ME that's going to miss YOU.

Ellie and Josh both started 'school' on Wednesday this week. It was INCREDIBLE!

For those of you who don't know, we've decided to try educating our kids with a homeschool co-op. Three other moms and myself (along with our 12 kids) are embarking on this adventure together and are VERY excited to see what God has in store! So for the last couple weeks we've all been working like crazy to set up the upstairs of our church like a 'real' school, with bulletin boards, classrooms and centres, etc.. Each of us has taken a few different 'classes' (according to what we're good at and enjoy) and teach each other's children! The best part? We can pray and use God's name whenever we want to. Here's a glimpse of our first two days as a group:

Arriving at school the first day, the kids had wonderful peace over them.

After all, none of them had to leave their moms!

I was immediately amazed at how the different ages blended together no problem!

Sitting in the teaching corner for the first time.

Josh was quite pumped to be part of the action.

Learning our new routines.

Even Micah got a taste of school life!

Singing praise to Jesus!

So excited to finally be a student!

Eryn and Abigail celebrated their birthdays with sparklers...

...and with cookies!...

...which made Josh very happy.

Recess time!

We played "What's the Time, Mr. Wolf?", and again I was amazed at how all

the age groups took care of each other. What a blessing!

Josh and his preschool buddies, Ezra and Abigail, watching a DVD.

Ellie in her class with her classmate and best friend, Chloe,

and her teacher, "Mrs. Friesen" (formerly known as Auntie Michelle :) Us parents have decided to use our last names (as well as having the kids all wear golf t-shirts) to distinguish between church and school. So far they love it! And I love it too when Ellie runs up to me and says, "I love you, Mrs. Balfour!" :)

So far we are ALL having a blast (parents too)!

All I can say is thank you, thank you Lord, for this beautiful

idea you've birthed and brought to pass! Be glorified!

Joshy is at that delightful 2 year old stage where his vocabulary is bigger than his understanding. The result? He keeps us quite entertained with his commentary on life. Here's a little sample:

Josh was poking at his bum after bath time.

Mommy: "Josh, is your bum okay?"

Josh: "Yeah, it's a little bit nauseous."

Mommy: "Nauseous?"

Josh: "Yeah, it's a little bit sword." (sore) 

Hehe. Time for some bum cream!

Josh is trying to get a sense of time, but it's not working out so well for him:

"Diego is SO BIGGER than a few MINUTES!"

"I LOVE a tinkle treat a WHOLE WEEK AGOs!"

"I LOVE Madge ALL NEXT WEEK!"

Mommy: "Josh, could you please go check the time for me?" (a diversion while I changed Micah's bum)

Josh runs to the kitchen and I hear him chanting, "One, two, two, four, four, polka-dot, three."

He runs back to the living room.

Mommy, "So? What time is it?"

Josh: "Time for Micah to go to BED!"

Ellie: "Josh, you're so funny."

Josh: "No, I'm handsome."

Ellie: "Josh, you're funny AND handsome."

Josh: "NO, I'm JUST HANDSOME!"

Ellie: "Joshy, Rice Krispies say, 'Snap Crackle Pop.'"

Josh: "NOOO. They say 'snack pack HONK', Ellie!"

(This boy will argue to the death about ANY THING.)

Getting dressed one morning, I put Josh's new Nike t-shirt on.

Josh: "THANK YOU, Mommy! You found my A-tar (guitar) shirt! Good job!"

(I guess the Nike logo looks a LITTLE bit like a guitar!?)

Same conversation every single night before bed:

Mommy: "Josh, would you like me to cover you with a blanket?"

Josh: "Ummm....no thank-you. I'm not cold. Or warm."

Mommy: "Joshy, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

Josh: "Ummm...I want to be a WORKER, like Daddy. I want to be a TRAIN DRIVER, and hop on a big BIG Thomas!!"

I'll bet you do. We love you, train-loving, smiling, goofy little arguing Joshua!