I have my reasons

I am fully aware that I am slightly obsessive in the picture taking department. I am happy to be the crazy mom with a camera. I pretty much have my son brainwashed already, who says "cheese!" whenever he sees a camera, and even my hubby is coming around and not minding so much when I stick a camera in his face. :)
I have my reasons. Pictures are memories, and memories are very important to me. (Although I know and sometimes have to remind myself that you also need to put down the camera and be part of the memories in the first place.) Often when I look at a picture I remember taking the picture and so what the picture is of is a stronger memory. Make sense? It does in my world.
I have lots of uses for them too. My husband has told me that I can't plaster our faces all over the walls, but there's no better decoration to me than a picture of my family. (Maybe if I do it slowly he won't really notice... love you, honey! :) Noah loves to look at pictures of us and grandpas and grandmas and things we have done. I like making "books" out of them.
Another thing that I love is getting to give pictures to kids at church or camp or things like that. Especially those who don't have that many photographs. I handed some out at the end of VBS this year and loved seeing the reactions. The younger ones ran around carrying them and showing them to anyone who would look shouting "it's me!"
Today I had some to give to our Sunday School kids from various things over the past couple months. One of them looked through them and said, "these are good memories that I will keep forever." This is an 8 year old boy who has two sisters that walk to church every week on their own, live with their grandma and whoever else happens to be crashing at the house (last I heard it was 8, which meant the kids lost their bedroom) because their dad is in jail and their mom is who knows where and shows up every once in a while. Those kids deserve as many good memories as they can get.
And those are my reasons. Let the memory capturing continue.

22 months old--2 away from 2!

I don't know if anyone actually checks this regularly, but I apologize for the lack of posting if you do! Life has been pretty crazy lately, and blogging just didn't make it high enough on the to-do list. (Which is a bummer, because I do enjoy it...)
Anyway, it is time for another Noah update! 22 months old!! (That is almost two. A book I was reading pointed out that is half way to four. For some reason thinking about it that way made me cry...)
-We haven't been to the doctor in so long I don't know how much he officially weighs, but by our measurements on our growth chart he is up to 32 inches tall. A few people have commented he is tall in the past couple days.
-He definitely doesn't look like a baby at all any more! And over the past few months he has gone from looking less like a toddler and more like a little boy.
-I didn't sit down and count how many words he uses before I started writing this, but it is getting up there. He still uses lots of signs too and rarely gets frustrated from not being able to communicate. One of the many huge blessing of being a stay at home mom is that I know what pretty much every little gesture and inflection means because we spend so much time together. -His most used words are "daddy" and "mama" (seriously, we are talking hundreds of times a day here) and he loves to say his name now: "O-ah". (He can say the n sound in "no" but his name is always "o-ah." Why is that? :)
-Answers questions very enthusiastically with "yeeeaaah!" or "yup! yup! yup!" It is ridiculously cute. (Or "no" and "nope" of course.)
-He is learning colors and calls pretty much everything "boo." But he usually finds blue, orange, and yellow correctly if you ask him.
-Counts to two.
-Asks to hold pretty much everything, including but not limited to: bugs, any animal, airplanes, the moon, and babies. :)
-Says (signs, actually) "please" and "thank you", often without being asked. He is actually learning things I am teaching; hooray!
-Still loves cars, actually any vehicle, and his new favorite thing is tools. He loves to have the coffee table tipped over and "fix" it with his tools. It holds the record for the activity he has done the longest. :)
-Still loves to snuggle.
-Still loves to play as crazy and fast as possible.
-Loves it when we pray and says "aaaaaa-men."
-Claps and says "yay!" whenever a song is done, especially when it is daddy playing guitar.
-Loves to "help" with whatever we are doing.
I love my 22 month old!

Overdue camp post

August has been a CRAZY month for us, and it is going to finish out that way too. The first few weeks were camp and VBS and the next few are finishing up our new house and moving over. All good things, but I don't remember the last time we had this much on our schedule.
Thus the lack of blogging. But Camp and VBS are two of our favoritest things, so I have to share some tidbits and pictures. :) I'll start off with camp. It was a great week with 55 campers from the Red Lake reservation. This was my eighth year of helping...I am getting old. Some kids I had as campers my first few years are now teenagers and coming back as "leaders in training." Pretty awesome. There is always so much that happens spiritually during those few days and it is so exciting yet it is also always so hard for me knowing that most of those kids go back to little to no support and encouragement spiritually and just plain bad situations. Pray for them.
Here are some of my favorite pictures and reminders:

These kids touch and break my heart in a way nothing else does.
Noah likes to be the center of attention. ( Particularly girls' attention. Oh boy...)
My role at camp has changed a lot since becoming a mom, but I wouldn't change it for anything.
Noah loves to swim.
My husband rocks.Besides doing things like taking Noah down the giant slip 'n slide (which he liked, despite the look on his face in this picture), he handled so many big and little things that came up throughout the whole week, shared a message with the whole camp each morning, and did most of the training for the LIT's. Yes, he rocks.

M.O.B. Blog Hop

This is kind of a different post, although it does have to do with Noah. :) One of my favorite blogs, the M.O.B. (Moms of Boys) Society is having a blog hop today so I am joining in the fun.

About Me. . .
I am married to my very best friend and we have one precious boy who is 19 months old, Noah. He is our miracle baby and made a rough entrance into the world 3 months early weighing under 2 pounds. (You can read the long version here and here if you are interested.) You would never guess that by looking at him today and I cannot express how thankful to God I am to have him. Hence the whole "embracing the ordinary" thing, as that adventure brought us enough excitement for awhile. And it is a pretty good way to look at life. :)I started this blog to replace the CaringBridge site that we had for Noah while he was in the NICU. So it is a lot of updates about him, with a good dose of prematurity awareness thrown in there, and whatever else is on my mind. :)

We are missionaries on a Native American reservation in MN. It is really hard and really good. There is so much need and so much potential. God is on the move in these people and it is an honor to be a small part of it. My awesome hubby is the Student Life Director at a small discipleship school and we lead the children's ministry at our church.
I am so thankful that my main role is mom to our boy! The whole cliche that it is harder and better than you ever thought it would be to be a stay at home mom is definitely true. But I can't think of anything more worthwhile or anything I would rather be doing.

I hear lots of moms talk about how they were nervous about having a boy because of the whole "I'm not a boy" factor. And although I get that, I was thrilled to find out we were having a boy. I am not a girly-girl and never will be, and so honestly the thought of having a girl was probably more nerve wracking for me (don't get me wrong, I'm sure daughters are wonderful too :). The world is severely lacking in godly men and I hope and pray that I can help Noah grow into one. I see so much potential and promise when I look at my little boy. It is so humbling and so joyful and I love being his mom.

Books. . .
Here are Noah's current favorites for books:1. Baby's First Bible. This was given to us by my aunt and has been through a few cousins already. He loves the pages with Jesus calming the storm (he asks for the book by blowing like the wind) and Zaccheus up in the tree. There are animals on every page that he loves to find to.
2. God's Love. Picked this one up at a thrift store. Besides a great message, it is fun because the pages have cutouts or clear sections to see through to other pages. Noah is currently obsessed with a tiny owl on the last page. Why he picked that, I have no idea. Then I started to sing an owl song with it and his love increased even more. Seriously, we look at that little owl many times a day. Please tell me he is not the only one who does that kind of thing. :)
3. 1990 edition of Readers Digest North American Birds. This one was Daddy's idea and yes, it is currently near the top of my 19 month old's favorites list. You guessed it, because there are owls in it. He definitely knows which are owls and which aren't. I have a budding scientist on my hands. I sometimes have to take this one away so he will move on to something else.
4. Cookies. We always have to read this one at least twice in a row. He loves the page where the cookies are being put in the oven and likes to point to all the chocolate chip ones.

19 months

Another month, another excuse to write cute things about my kid. :) He is growing and learning so fast! It's fun. There is not a baby in the house any longer; there is a little person who understands most of what I say, communicates most of what he wants, is always watching and learning, has definite opinions about things, and is extremely curious and moblie. Oh, and fast and smart. Never a dull moment. :)
Noah at 19 months. . .
-Uses over 40 signs now. I actually quit teaching him because I want him to rely more on speaking, but he still makes up his own signs once in a while. And he still loves the Signing Time DVD's. My new favorite sign: "I love you." :)
-Can tell you what a dog, cat, cow, sheep, fish, monkey, and elephant say.
-Says "amen" every time we pray. Today he and Corey prayed and started lunch and I cam a few minutes later and he looked at me and said "amen" and closed his eyes. What a good little reminder I have.
-Loves it when you jump out from behind something and yell "boo!"
-Has all his molars and is finally getting that fourth bottom tooth in the front. Now I hope we get a break from teething.
-Is very good at brushing his teeth.
-Likes to "read" anything that has words on it. It is adorable.
-Almost always sings along with songs at church.
-Still loves playing with the kitty and now tries to pick her up.
-Says "cheese!" (his version of it anyway) for the camera.
-Is a little engineer. His latest feat: prying up kitchen floor tiles with a butter knife.
-Loves to ride on the lawnmower with Daddy.
-Likes to use the Swiffer vacuum all by himself.
-Is starting to get to the "I want to do it myself" stage.
-Loves it the most when Mommy and Daddy are both home and playing with him. So do I.
--I love my 19 month old!

One and a half!

We have reached the "and a half" stage of life! Our little boy is one and a half; can you believe it?Here is an update on our busy boy. At 18 months Noah:

• Weighs 21 pounds and is 30 inches long (that's in the 1st and 3rd percentiles, thank you very much!)


• Uses 35 signs and 10 words. He really is able to communicate quite a bit and rarely gets frustrated.


• The first word that he used consistently was "bible."


• Is obesessed with cars. Not toy cars, real cars. Grandpa started it all and is very happy about this.


• Loves keys and tries to put them in doors and ignitions. (nobody taught him this intentionally, mind you)


• Can find his feet/toes, belly button, hands, ears, eyes, nose, and mouth. His belly button is his favorite. He also likes to lift up other people's shirts to find theirs...wonder how long that will be cute?


• Walks very quickly like a pro and kind of runs


• Is getting pretty good at using a cup and spoon, although it is still a messy undertaking


• Can point to animals, balls, etc in books


• Does the actions to "If You're Happy And You Know It" and some to "Skidamarink" and "Wheels on the Bus"


• Sings "nananana" with songs that have it in them


• Has a fake laugh that he does whenever anyone else laughs


• Claps for himself whenever you say "good job" (or if he thinks you should)


• Loves running around and playing with the kids at church


• Loves playing outside and in the dirt


• Can throw and kick a ball


• Likes to turn things upside down and look for batteries, latches, etc.


• Eats just about everything. His very favorites are fruit, cheese, and noodles. He also likes raw vegtables and parmesan cheese (not the sawdust kind from a shaker, the real hard cheese kind that tastes super strong by itself)

This is turning into a very long list because he is learning things so quickly and has quite the personality! He is one smart cookie and is all boy. He keeps us busy, entertained, and thankful every day.

• I love my one and a half year old!!

The Library Dilemma

Today I took Noah to the library for the first time! It was a good adventure.
He thought the big rug was pretty cool. He pulled books off the shelves and looked at them for a few seconds.
He liked that they have chairs just the right size!

He thought rocking in this one was fun.

And in true Noah style he then had to attempt to pick it up and carry it around. (while grunting, of course)

I'd say it was a pretty successful first trip. So here's my dilemma: is it just the NICU mom in me, or are library books kind of gross? I don't know where those books have been. Maybe the last reader was a snotty nosed kid infected with RSV. And those board books that looked like they have been chewed on, who did the chewing?

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the whole concept of a library, and it is a fun place to bring a kid, but my unsanitary alarm is going off. Oh the things you think of when you become a mom.

So be honest, am I crazy?
:)