Six months!

I can't believe Cade is six months old today! It's hard to think that we've not been sleeping well for half of a year. We've functioned on a lot less sleep than we thought we could, especially Susie. For those of you that don't know, Susie is like a cat - she needs like 18 hours of sleep a day, so this has been more a labor of love for her than me. Plus, I get a couple nights each week to regroup when Susie and Cade are up in Bloomington. But.....I have to say (and Susie would agree) that Cade is COMPLETELY worth it. His second tooth just popped through the gum today, so that Christmas song about two front teeth has been running through my head. He's been eating his carrots very well, even the first day we introduced them to him (documented pictorally below). Since that first time he still makes the funniest face on the first bite when he's not sure about the taste, but after a couple bites he remembers and just chows down.

Tomorrow we fly to Colorado for Christmas. It may be an adventure because of the weather. It also may be an adventure if Cade is still feeling cranky about his tooth coming in. We'll see!

I sat and watched Cade sleep for a while this morning and a line from the Crowder song a couple of posts ago kept going through my head: "Praise our God, for He is good." I was praying for him and trying to think of all the things I needed to be praying for him about, things like health, growth, successful teething, good eating, praying for his future wife, praying for his spiritual growth, you know, good stuff like that. But I kept getting distracted by those simple words: "Praise our God, for He is good." There are so many times I spend too much time asking God for stuff. Most of the time it's good stuff, but I really do spend a lot of time asking. I thought about James 1:19 this morning: "Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak...." I thought about how that could relate to my prayer life, and I tried to just listen and dwell on those words. I kept coming back to "Praise our God, for He is good," and I sang those words over and over in my mind so I wouldn't wake Cade up. God knows my heart, he knows my desires for Cade and for the development of our family. He wants me to communicate those to him, but he also wants me to listen. I haven't been very good at listening lately. Praise our God for six months.

This is not very good Mommy.

Don't really need to comment on this look of total disgust.

Carrots taste better if you let them soak in through the chin and cheeks.

Ok, you guys were right. This stuff is actually pretty good!

One Year

I know we put that video up this morning, but I've specifically eyeing today for a post for one simple reason: It's been one year to the day since we found out we were having a baby! On one hand it doesn't really seem that long, but on the other hand we've experienced a LOT in that time. It was a great Chrismas gift last year, and we continue to be blessed by the arrival of Cade into our home. This year I have a new view of the Christmas story. Now that I have an intimate knowledge of pregnancy, the birthing process, and the first few months of raising a baby I look at the birth of Christ a little differently. What was it like for Mary to travel on a donkey to Bethlehem in the late months of pregnancy? How much did he weigh when he was born? Were Mary and Elizabeth the only moms in Israel that knew the gender of their babies before they were born? What was it like birthing a baby in a stable? It's such a far cry from the ultra-clean atmosphere in today's labor and delivery rooms. How long was it before Jesus slept through the night? How old was he when he cut his first tooth? What did they do for diapers? Did they have one that they were continually cleaning, or did they rotate a handful? Did he cry a lot, or was he the perfect holy child we see in every nativity scene? Did Mary and Joseph hold him extra carefully because they knew they were holding the God of the universe in their arms? I think for me it's just been another facet of God and his gift to us that I haven't realized or fully recognized before.

Those are just a few of the questions I've been thinking about while falling asleep lately. Speaking of sleep, Cade's been doing a lot better in the last week or so. When he is feeling well he really is a pretty easy baby to take care of. We've even had a few nights where he's slept for over seven hours straight. Those extra few hours add a lot of comfort to the night for sure.

Since it's been a while since the last post, I have quite a few pictures to show off. Cade's lower left tooth is good and in now, but we haven't been able to get it in a picture so that will have to wait.

Anyone who has held Cade knows he LOVES to bounce. He'd much rather be in an upright position than laying or sitting down, and he prefers to bounce. This is a great arm workout, but now that he's gaining weight (he's about 16 pounds right now) Vee Vee figured we needed some relief. She got Cade a Johnny Jump Up and he likes to sit in it and bounce on the floor. I thought they quit making these things, but apparently they haven't. It's also a great teething device; Cade likes to chew on the rim right in front of his face as he bounces around.

Cade is working on his vibe so when he turns 30 or so (later if you ask Susie) he can effectively woo a lady. Here he is working on his "reclining come hither" pose. It's pretty easy when you look at this picture to tell whose eyes he has. (And you can tell by process of elimination whose nose he has.)
This chair came from Susie's Grandmother, and Cade likes to sit in it and be rocked in it. We caught him surveying his domain here.
Susie's family came in for Thanksgiving. Chili elected to not look at the camera for this shot. Keeping him in the camera's field of vision was enough of a chore so we took what we could get.

A few days after Thanksgiving the turkey's wishbone was laying around. I challenged Cade to a wishbone duel, and well, you can see who won that exchange. I wonder if he wished for something more flavorful than rice cereal.

Cade is completely enthralled with any kind of light. So the Christmas season has been fun for him because everywhere we go people have put up more lights! Cade and Susie spent some time in front of our tree looking at the ornaments and lights.

Yes, he just may be a future engineer. He can already count to 634, and he's got the first fifteen digits of e and the first eight of Pi memorized. (He can drool on his shirt real good too.)

One of the girls in the youth group is a budding photographer and she came over one morning a couple weekends ago to take some family Christmas pictures. She did a great job. Here are a few of those pictures. Many thanks Jackie!

Look what we got for Christmas! It's a baby!

I love this picture of Susie and Cade. He's wearing a Christmas outfit her Grandmother got him. You can tell he's showing it off here: "And just look at this ornate needlework!"
This is the big teddy bear my Grandpa got for me when I was born. Now Cade gets to use it and show off his new favorite thing: Christmas lights!

Merry Christmas from the Gronseths!