Teef Ain't So Tuff

So I come home from work one day this week, pick up my little man, and he's wailing like I stuck him with a pin (I rarely ever do that). Anywho, he didn't seem to want to stop crying, and that is definitely not normal for Joshua. So, like any normal parent of a 4 month old would do, I stuck my finger in his mouth. Nothing stops crying like gagging. Just kidding. I ran my finger along his lower gums, and lo and behold breastfeeding is about to get a little adventurous, because J-Bird is sprouting a cute little tooth! In keeping with his laid back mentality, he actually hasn't really complained too much about it. In the 5 or 6 days since we spotted, he's really only cried specifically for that reason maybe 3 or 4 times, and for no longer than 10-15 minutes. No Tylenol, no Orajel, just a chew toy, er, teething toy and a little gum rubbin from Momma and Poppa. He is just the greatest kid in the world, which means our second child will probably come straight from the gates of hell. Maybe we'll give that one up for adoption and go straight to the third (just kidding, I think).

Oh, and a quick update to the prayer request from earlier. Ashley Pfeiffer came home from the hospital on Saturday, and Mommy, Daddy, and Ashley are doing fantastic.

Hola!

J-Bird and Mommy flew solo this weekend. Pappa Bird spent a weekend away from his 2 favorite people, but it was for a good reason. Our church partners with a church and an orphanage in Mexicali, Mexico, and about 7-8 times a year, we send a group down there to help them out with various things. In September 2004, a group of us travelled down there to help them paint the inside of their church, which is really just a renovated warehouse in the barrio.

I felt God calling me to go again this year, and my wonderful wife was kind enough to allow me to leave her for a weekend alone with a 4 month old. On this trip, our main focus was on helping them put on a fall carnival. Our group of 12 people left the church parking lot around 5 AM on Saturday, and arrived in Mexicali sometime around 10 AM. Shortly after that, most of us guys started putting together a donated wooden playset. Although we didn't have assembly instructions, the person who disassembled it was smart enough to number all of the joints, so it only took us a few hours. We also cleared the parking lot of quite a few loose rocks, set up some carnival games, and then waited for the carnival to begin.

Each one of us was in charge of running a carnival game. The game that I chose was a "football toss" game. Three mini-Nerf footballs, a piece of plywood with 3 different sized holes, and a huge box of candy. As basic as that sounds, the children there loved it (and some of the adults too!). A large number of these children came from the surrounding neighborhood, which honestly, makes your worst part of town seem like a nice middle-class neighborhood. These kids really only have the bare necessities in life, if that, and to be able to bring them a night of fun and joy, it just fills your heart to the top. Despite my very limited Spanish vocabulary, I was still able to communicate a little with them, give them high fives and cheers, and smile a smile almost as big as the ones that they were wearing. The carnival lasted about 4 hours, and about 350-400 people showed up. About halfway through the carnival, there was a time of worship, and the pastor spoke for about 10-15 minutes. I have no idea what she said, but it was very moving to see a different culture and their style of worship. Two days later, my body is still aching and weary, but it was so completely worth it.

Another highlight of our trip was the church member that I stayed with Saturday night, Mario. Unlike my last trip, when the people I stayed with spoke no English, Mario speaks English very well. This was such a huge blessing, to be able to communicate with each other, and really made this a memorable trip. Mario, Dan (one of the other missionaries), and I sat on his patio talking for about an hour on Saturday night, learning about each others lives, and talking about spiritual things, and just growing together in Christ. On Sunday morning, we woke up to a fresh pot of coffee, and then Mario took us on a tour of Mexicali, showing us the downtown area, and many different neighborhoods. It was very enlightening, to see how this culture lives, and it reminded me of how amazingly blessed our family is. Some of these people have to work so hard just to survive, yet here we are, coasting through life, completely oblivious to how well we have it. In any case, after our little tour, Mario took us out to a delicious breakfast, then we returned to the church and drove back to Chandler. Mario was such a wonderful host, such a kind and generous person, and I can tell that God truly has worked something special in his life. We exchanged phone numbers and e-mail addresses, and hopefully will be able to stay in touch.

I just wanted to share my experience with everyone. Some of you out there helped me out with the funds for this trip, and I am very grateful. Just like last year, this trip has renewed my fire for God. It has reminded me how blessed we are, and how important family and friends are as well. I will have pictures up in a few days, and will post the link as soon as they are there.

Next Up...

Green beans! Yum. They looked ever so appetizing, that nice green, creamy paste. Gotta get me summa that. Anywho, Joshua has mastered the sweet potatoes, and we introduced green beans in to the diet last night. I don't think he liked them quite as much as sweet potatoes (or a store hanger for that matter), but he gobbled 'em down. He did crinkle his brow on a few bites, but we are still in search of the ever elusive squidgy baby face. He did, however, fall asleep mid-meal this morning.

Prayer Request

For those of you out there that are of the prayin' persuasion, we have a request. Friends of ours, Steve and Nancy, were due to have their first child, Ashley, in early December. Unfortunately, Ashley decided that she was coming on Sunday night, 8 weeks early. She weighed in at 4 pounds, 7.8 ounces, and they have been told that she is doing extremely well and she has not needed any help breathing. Nobody foresees any problems, but she will probably have to stay at the hospital for another 3 weeks or so. Please pray for Ashley's health and for a short hospital stay, and for Steve and Nancy so they can keep their heads together through all of this and turn to God when they need strength.

I Yam What I Yam

Rice cereal was a big success, and he seems to have mastered the art of swallowing something that isn't breast milk. So this weekend, we hit Phase 2... real food! Well, real baby food. You probably won't see me crackin' open a jar of Gerber Phase 1 sweet potatoes. But J-Bird definitely loved 'em! He gobbled them down like nobody's business. We busted out the camera in hopes of catching an amusing facial expression, but he maintained a blank stare before and after that first taste. Initially we thought that maybe, like Bart Simpson on the NYC subway, he was born without taste buds. But that proved to be false when he licked a hanger at Babies R Us the next day and scrunched up his face in a look of disgust.

Oh, and in case anyone cares, and I am sure you don't, we are now referring to baby poo as "The Deuce". It's quite sad that we've talked about the deuce so much that we have started to come up with nicknames for it.

Doctor Doctor

She gave us the news, and he does NOT have a bad case of loving you. Sorry. However, he is doing just great. He weighed in at 14 pounds 10 ounces (50th percentile), and his head circumference is in the 50th percentile as well. Keeping to the long and skinny Maple trait, he stretched the tape measure all the way out to 27 inches (97th percentile!!!), meaning he is about 2 inches away from being half as tall as Grandma Balthazor =) He also got another 3 stabs in the leg, which is not the type of present I would really want for my 4 month birthday, but being healthy is a nice tradeoff I guess.

Yum Yum Yummy

Breast is best, but rice cereal is...uhhhh... ethereal? Anyways, on Sunday the J-Meister took another step towards big-boydom when he chowed down on some rice cereal. And a few spoonfuls of it even made it into his stomach. Most of it, however, ended up on his face, bib, and various other areas. I'm guessing that Copper will be warming up to him fairly soon, seeing as how he will have a little flavor now. He'll be doing 2 feedings of rice cereal a day for another week or so, and then we can bring on the Stage 1's. Pictures will definitely be updated frequently, as a sloppy baby is one of the great joys in life. That and reruns of Fresh Prince and Saved By The Bell.

Misc.

Nothing extraordinary to update, just thought I would take the time to post. Joshua has strayed a little bit from sleeping through the night, waking up for some grub each of the last 2 nights. No midnight crabbiness though, so it's all good. We think that he may be ready for a little bit o' solid food, so we will probably try that sometime in the next week or so. He did his little scooting thing again the other day as well, so it wasn't a complete fluke. And for the last few days, his idea of a good time with daddy is to stand on my lap, get his face about 2 inches from mine, grab onto my ears, and make a noise that can only be described as a screech and a grunt all rolled into one. But at least he's taking a break from kicking me in the crotch during diaper changes... so I got that goin' for me.

Scooter McBooter

Okay, so Joshua is about 27" long, has been wanting to stand since about 6 weeks, and is still just amazing us with his physical development. He only did it once, but a few days ago, Joshua decided to practice a little Army crawling, and scooted about 6-12 inches on the floor, on his stomach, completely by himself. At 3-1/2 months. He has never seemed to be too content just sitting around... me thinks he's gonna be an early crawler. Which means we should probably start safety-proofing a few more things (and prepping Copper for the inevitable beagle vs baby races).

All Night Long... all night..all night... All Night Long...

Sorry, had a little Lionel Richie flashback there (minus the cocaine). Anywho, this week, the J-Bird has decided that overnight feedings are way overrated, and 5 out of the 7 nights, has pretty much slept all the way through. I say pretty much because a few of those nights he decided to do a little wailing at midnight for 15-20 minutes. But they weren't hunger cries, and he wasn't bleeding, so we let him cry it out. And when we say sleep through the night, we don't mean go to bed at 11 and wake up at 4. Joshua is going to sleep around 8:30, and usually not waking up until 5 or 6. Mommy is usually about ready to burst at that point (I know, TMI), but we are definitely not complaining. He has always been a fantastic night sleeper, going right back to sleep after feeding, but we think he has turned the corner on sleeping through the night. That sound you hear is Brenda and I jumping and shouting for joy!

Dedication

Today was a special day in the Maple house. Brenda and I dedicated Joshua to the Lord today. What's that you say? Our church, like most non-denominational churches, does not believe in the baptizing of babies. We believe that baptism is a choice that each and every person needs to make on their own, when they are knowledgable enough to make that decision. So what we did today was basically have a prayer of blessing by one of the pastors from our church, and Brenda and I have committed ourselves, before God, to raise Joshua in a way so that he will know who Jesus is, and why He died for us, and what all of this means. And when he is old enough, we pray that he will choose to be baptized, and turn his own life over to Christ. We took pictures and video of the ceremony... I will get the pictures in the photo album soon, and once I get the right stuff and figure it out, will try to post the video online.

I'm A Slacker

Actually, there never seems to be much time to update this thing... kind of figured this would happen. Mornings are usually spent getting ready and spending some good quality time with the J-Bird. I don't get home from work until 6:45, and by the time we have eaten, taken a walk, and gotten him put to bed, it is 8:30 or so, and by then, my brain is usually too mushy to conjure up a meaningful thought. Now that Joshua can somewhat entertain himself (he's working away on his Exersaucer right now), I am going to try to squeeze in a few short morning updates a week. We'll see if that actually happens =) As for the J-Bird, he seems to be doing something new every few days. Just a couple weeks ago, tummy time was still a struggle for him, and he had to work at keeping up his head. Now he holds that melon up 90 degrees for 10-15 minutes at a time! I'm sure it is a much better view than seeing everything from your back. Which is probably why he has started rolling over as well. I don't know that some of them are entirely intentional, but he's going stomach to back and back to stomach on a regular basis now. Mobility is sneaking up on us! He is also becoming very vocal. No more grunts for Joshua... he has a wide vocabulary, including "a-goo" (pronounced "ah-goooooooooooooooo"), "guh", "buh", and a few select others. He has also discovered that those funky looking things on the ends of his arms have multiple uses, including pulling on mommy's hair, clenching daddy's arm hair, nose, and mouth, and sticking deep inside his own mouth. He has definitely figured out his hands, and is starting to reach out for stuff he is interested in. Let the safetyproofing of the house begin! Well, he's telling me he's done with the Exersaucer, so hopefully I can update again soon! Be sure to check out the photo album!

Sleeping in Class

J-Bird started daycare on Wednesday, and Mommy went back to work too. Both of 'em did great! Brenda is very happy to be back at a job she loves, and she is still able to spend a good chunk of the day with Joshua as well. Joshua, well, I don't know if he notices much of a difference. Apparently he has slept through most of his first 2 days at daycare, so I guess that means he likes it, or is at least very comfortable there. It has been cool to spend a good chunk of time with him in the mornings, because that is when he is happy, quiet, and alert (a great combination!).

God continues to show Himself in little ways too. When I dropped Joshua off this morning, I forgot to tell him "I Love You". Since I forgot to do that on his first day as well, I had this thought in the back of my mind that the teachers would be judging me a little bit or whatever... silly and stupid, I know. But apparently when Brenda picked him up today, one of them commented on how proud of a papa I am. Just a little encouraging boost from the Big Daddy, reminding me that I am doing a good job, and shouldn't be so harsh on myself.

Catchin' Up

Yup, it's been a couple weeks since I've been able to post an update, probably due to a combination of no real exciting news, and being super duper busy. Joshua has still been a great little kid, and continues to be the cutest darn thing I have ever seen. His hair is finally starting to grow back after he had a receding hairline for a couple of weeks. It's definitely staying brown. His eyes still haven't decided what color they want to be, but I keep seeing hints of brown in there as well. Poor kid is destined to look like his dad =P

In Tummy Time news, he has gotten pretty good at lifting his head 90 degrees and keeping it there for 5-10 seconds. He hasn't quite mastered pushing himself up with his arms, but he's getting there. He also LOVES to be standing (with us holding him of course). The whole time he'll be looking around and smiling at random things (coasters, the couch, a blank wall). I have a feeling he is going to be mobile, and ahead of schedule.

He had another doctor's appointment yesterday, and yes, he got another shot. He did MUCH better with this one. Of course he screamed when he got it, but he calmed down much quicker this time, and actually slept on the car ride home. Apparently this particular shot tired him out, because last night he slept through the night for the very first time! I don't think we'll see that happen again for a tiny bit, but it sure was nice (especially for Brenda!). He went down about 8:45, and didn't wake up until 6 the next morning!

There will probably be another entry tomorrow, as Mommy goes back to work, and Joshua starts daycare. I'm sure that both of them will do just fine. Until then...

Count Your Blessings

It may seem cheesy to some people to say "Oh, we are so blessed to have such and such baby in our lives now", and from the outside, you wonder how anything can outweigh sleepless nights, poopy diapers, and the need for constant attention. Well, here are just a few ways that God has blessed Brenda and I through the first 8 weeks of Joshua's life. First and foremost, He has blessed us with a beautiful and healthy baby boy, and that takes so much worry out of your life. We are blessed with Joshua's amazing smile, which lights up his entire face, and can brighten even the darkest of my days. God has brought Brenda and I closer together in this time... some couples cave under the stress of all the new responsibilities, but God has really given both of us the hearts of servants during this time, and we are working as a team, instead of keeping score of diaper changes (she's winning by the way). We have been blessed financially... we saved a good chunk of change to allow Brenda plenty of time off, and so far, we have had to use far less of it than anticipated. I can also say with 100% certainty that if we were not tithing 10% of our income back to God, this blessing would not be in our lives right now. We have been blessed to see the miracle of life... not just the pregnancy and the birth, but just seeing Joshua learn little things every day. To see how we come into this world, knowing absolutely nothing, and to see how we develop, it is just awesome. We have been blessed in knowing that we have an amazing group of people around us, including our church family. To see so many people willing to help us, to love us, to pray for us... to all of you who helped us those first few weeks, it meant more than you know. And we have been blessed with an amazing child... he seems to be ahead of the curve physically, sleeps extremely well at night, isn't overly fussy, and just brings so much joy into our lives. Sure, there are times when both of us get a little frustrated and just need a break, but when push comes to shove, our little J-Bird is worth all of the poopy diapers in the world.

Thumbs Up

J-Bird has discovered that he has thumbs, and along with that, has found out that they fit nicely in his mouth. Unfortunately, he hasn't quite developed the coordination to smoothly stick them in his mouth, so when he gets his druthers to do a little thumb-suckin', there's quite a bit of shakin and twitchin and fussin going on.

We're Goin' Back to Cali...

Actually, we already went back to Cali. The Weaver family reunion was in San Diego this year, and since we don't get much of a chance to see those folks, we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to fly the nest and show off our little J-Bird. Joshua is usually pretty good in the car, but has never been on a trip of this size. Thoughts of endless hours of back seat crying (his, not mine) in the middle of the desert bounced through my head. But those fears were unfounded... Joshua was great! Since J-Bird is a morning person, we hit the road by 6 AM. He slept a good portion of the way there, and we only needed to stop once to calm him down. The rest of the drive was smooth sailing.

Once we got to San Diego, Great-Aunt Connie was the first one to meet him (in the parking lot of a Von's, how picturesque!). We all trekked down to Seaport Village for a couple hours, and J-Bird went shopping with Connie and Grandma while Mommy and Daddy took a well-deserved lunch break. Later that night, he got to meet most of the rest of the family at Jim's trailer on Mission Bay. Despite being surrounded by 20-30 crazy people, he did alright! And that was pretty much just a warmup for the next day. The reunion was at Great Aunt/Uncle Diane/Randy's house, and there were probably about 40-50 people there that day. Joshua did as good as you could expect a 7 week old to do in that situation, and made plenty of new friends.

The trip back to Phoenix was almost as good as the trip back to San Diego, and we all look forward to doing it again soon!

What's Up Doc?

J-Bird went to the doc today for his monthly checkup, and everything was perfect. He tipped the scales at 11 pounds 8 ounces (up from his birth weight of 8-11) and measured in at a whopping 24.75 inches long (23 at birth). He is at the 75th percentile for weight, and the 97th for length. NBA here we come! All was fine and dandy on the visit to the doctor... and then they whipped out the needles. Ah yes, the joy of immunization. I guess when you are 6 weeks old you can't appreciate the benefits of not having polio and hepatitis b. I'm sure he'll thank us later...

Say My Name!

We are both fully aware that Joshua's first words won't be for awhile. But amid the gurgles and coos last night, he put two random sounds together that sounded amazingly like "Andrew". I know it was a random fluke, but it still put a smile on my face. Who knows, maybe he's a baby genius?!

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Besides all the obvious changes that having a child brings (less sleep, a heightened appreciation of silence, and an alarmingly high comfort level with poop, to name a few), there are some changes that you don't really think about until your little one has arrived. I think that one of the biggest changes for me is that everything that I do is now an example for how my son should live his life. The way I communicate with Brenda, the things that I do in my spare time, the language that I use... I want my son to be raised in a caring, God-loving atmosphere, and to do that, I need to demonstrate those qualities myself. Now that Joshua is here, I have been forced to look at those areas in my life that I have, up until now, been okay with being "just alright" in. I don't really swear too much anymore, but I really don't want my son's first words to be "crap", so I am trying to cut words like that out as well. Most of the time I am a little too tired to pray in the morning, but the last few days I have been making time for it anyways; this should be a habit in my life, and I want it to be a habit in his as well (of course he probably needs to learn to speak first!). I know that Brenda and I will do a great job as parents, and it all starts with working on ourselves.