My mobile Maria

The day has come - she is full out crawling! Daddy is away this week for work (though he has witnessed the milestone) and won't be uploading crawling videos on youtube yet. I hope to catch her on tape sometime this week while playing single mom and moving in to our new house. Closing went well yesterday. Now I just need to pack, move and unpack all our stuff yet again. What an exciting, busy month November will be

Six Months

My baby girl is growing up. Now being a mom isn't considered a full time job. I keep getting questions - what do you do to keep yourself busy? Well, other than spending all day with my baby, getting chores done, maybe some cooking, and working out I wonder. I mean all you moms out there know how much free time we have. So here is a look at my typical day last week. We had a good week!

This was Friday

6:45 - get up and let husband get ready for work after he watched Maria for a bit while I got some sleep.

7:20 - leave for daily mass at 8

8:30 -coffee and donuts in the social hall, go and meet some of the parishioners at our new church

9:30 - head to mall to get some walking and socializing in with a mom and two girls

12:30 - go to Target to pick something up for an NFP class

1:30 - finally have time for a gourmet lunch - pb&j

2:00- nap time (mom included)

4:00 - chores (can't remember which were on my list last Friday)

4:45 - playtime!

5:15 - Maria took another nap - weird, some time to myself

6:30 - dinner with husband

7:00 - family walk

7:45 - bedtime routine

9:00 - a few moments with Husband to discuss the week, the upcoming move, our NFP class we taught the next day and a million other things we were supposed to discuss

10:00 - collapse into bed - what a thrilling Friday night!

I also go to La Leche Meeting twice a month, am part of a Bible study and book club, teach NFP and give presentations on top of the fall class we teach. I've also started playing guitar again while Maria plays in her jumper. Being a stay at home mom has challenges (among the numerous joys), but I have not found boredom to be one of them :-)

And speaking of my lovely 6 month old daughter. She is doing well, still a social butterfly - new people make her so happy and she them. She is balancing better while sitting now so I don't need to stay right next to her. Her new favorite toy is a metal whisk. And she can say "dada" although she doesn't realize what the accomplishment it is since she is just learning how to use her tongue and not actually talking. I wonder when she will get mom and dad's names right.

A Great Way to Empower the Poor

through NFP

This article even includes footnotes with sources.

How can we get the word out in the US? I was so sad today when I heard on the radio how our Vice President supports the one child policy in China that leads to forced abortions and more. If only our leaders new and believed that there is a safe, natural and practically free alternative to all the "family planning" methods they promote.

Little Tidbits

I have enjoyed my break from posting. Being a stay at home mom has had ups and downs to be sure, but I love almost all of it. I don't think I will ever get used to the lack of sleep, but I'm trying. Most of the time that means choosing one nap to take with Maria :-)

Maria modeling her baptism outfit

It is amazing how life has changed in 6 months. There have been times when I'm reminded of an "According to Jim" episode when Cheryl realizes she doesn't know how to talk to adults anymore. Everything that comes out of her mouth is about the bodily functions of her kids, their sleep habits, or their new cute trick. What else is there to talk about anyway?

Posing for her 3 mo old pic on gma and gpa's table

Thankfully, my husband and I signed up to teach a NFP class that started a couple weeks ago. I have another class to prepare for in a week. I will be talking with adults preparing for marriage. This is a topic I can still approach with passion and confidence. Thank goodness for a little time to step outside my family and give back to the community a bit. I still need to work more on spreading the word about this important ministry and healthy/natural means of planning a family. My husband and I are still using it successfully despite my being told by numerous people it is not accurate post partum - when did that rumor start?

In happy baby news, Maria is now about 6 months old. She has her two bottom teeth. They came in at about the same time and took a while to poke through. I thought I would miss the toothless grin, but the two little teeth may be even cuter! She is sitting up on her own and evening chewing on the occasional carrot. We are doing Baby Led Weaning which means she will eat solid foods like what I am eating. She has enjoyed learning how to bite and move food around her mouth on her own. We'll see when she actually starts eating more of it. Right now food is just a toy.

Copying mommy and daddy as they eat

We have enjoyed using her bum genius cloth diapers and do not miss the diaper runs to the store one bit! We are not doing the greatest at EC but still give her opportunities occasionally and on lucky days I catch the BMs - yay for less laundry!

Maria is getting ready to crawl - moving her legs in toward her belly and falling forward. I can't wait to see when she figures out she can keep going without falling if she just moves her hands. She also loves to jump. I bought a jumper that attaches to the door frame and she loves the independence it gives her to move as she pleases while mommy does some laundry or just enjoys the show.

2 months of accomplishments

Well I wrote at two weeks, I thought I would write at two months.

Maria's third week was one to remember. We started taking her potty in the sink and it really works! However, I never seem to be quite fast enough so a bit will get in the diaper, at least I stopped being peed on during changes. She also started smiling sometimes when looking at someone.

Week four brought about a major accomplishment - rolling from her stomach to her back. For everyone that thought it was just spasms because she was upset about being on her stomach, we posted the video to you tube - though that one may have been at week five. She has continued to roll over and now can go over either shoulder. She also started cooing - is there any sound more beautiful?At five weeks she slept 7 hours - once! She has failed to do so again but is getting better at sleeping 5 1/2 to 6 hours again.

Six weeks and she has found a tool to calm herself - her hand! It makes long car trips easier if she is awake and the dreaded diaper changes. She also had her major growth spurt and flew out of the newborn clothes and size 1 diapers - we will be

out of 3 month clothes very soon.

In her seventh week of life she went on two boat rides

and did surprisingly well in her crazy life jacket that makes it extremely hard to find a good way to hold her. She did sleep on her back in it for a while. So cute!

At eight weeks she continues to talk and interact more and is getting close to being on some sort of sleep schedule. She slept 6 1/2 hours last night and turns two months old tomorrow and when she turns 9 weeks she will be baptized. We are looking for

ward to these next milestones!

Taking a break

I'm not sure if I have ever mentioned on this blog that, if you take away the blogging, I don't really think I am from this generation. Here is a list of things I do not have

• A smart phone - my phone plan doesn't even include texting. I would much prefer a phone call anyway
• An ipod - technically my husband has one but we can't get it back from someone after leaving it while in England
• A love of facebook - I was going to delete my account, but then it made keeping in touch while abroad a bit easier. I'm considering deleting it again

Those seem to be the big three. This blog is the only thing that does not fit and is also something I'm going to take a break from for a while. See, Maria is definitely my priority and I don't always have a lot of time for the computer. I try to check my email before my husband leaves for work and then, depending on length and location of naps, I may not do so again for the rest of the day. I wish people understood that and still enjoyed using phones. It is nice to hear people's voices and I can talk and pay attention to Maria, but I can't type because the needs two hands.

So I guess what I am trying to say is that entering into motherhood is going to make me even less like my generation, as blogging will no longer be the odd category since I won't be doing that either.

Another week gone by..warning, gushing mommy

I already feel like my baby is growing up! She is well past her birth weight and getting close to growing out of some newborn clothes. Does that mean she is no longer a newborn? If that means she is closer to sleeping through the night I will be happy, but some other parts I will miss. She keeps the newborn baby smell for a while right? Nothing better than that!

Well by week three we have done some growing up

Maria has rolled over twice - strong girl! Too bad she still doesn't realize she was in control of doing that :-) I'm not a totally unrealistic mommy when it comes to her abilities

Maria has also consistently used our bathroom sink as a toilet. So far I haven't saved a lot on diapers but I have on laundry. She no longer pees during a diaper change and we haven't had any blowouts. It is much easier to clean and disinfect the sink. Hooray for elimination communication.

This morning, Maria also put herself to sleep. She woke up when I put her down and instead of crying she just looked around for a while and went to sleep. I think that is the first time she had done that without be picked back up and comforted

- not that I mind holding her most of the time. It is nice to have some time to catch up on things though.

In the meantime I have grown up a bit and realized that some of my ideas going into parenting are not going to fly. Back to my quick takes, I have to accept my limitations and accept help. It's been a long, sleep-deprived and glorious three weeks!