Writings on the Wall: The Latest

Well, for all those who read my last post - Alyas is back to himself now, thankfully. I have no idea what was wrong those three days. He's doing well and back to being happy again. I have to say though I thought about it just being a little trial from God and nothing really about Alyas. It was convicting how it exposed my heart. How I just didn't really enjoy being around him when he was so fussy all day and how I didn't respond to him in my normal cheerful shelf that day. Aren't we graced to have a God that doesn't change just when we are having bad days!

Alyas is moving faster and faster. He still hasn't perfected the crawl but the "worm" is really becoming for effective in getting from place to place. He is starting to pull up on things and attempting to climb as well. Last week he began clapping and now when he say "yeah" he'll get a big grin and show off his new skill! Also, I read somewhere that often babies learn "mama" and "dada" by accidentally making the sound and the parents reinforcing it with lots of praise. Eventually the child learns that the sound is a good sound and is associated with either Mom or Dad. Soon as I mentioned that to Brandon all my hopes and dreams of having Alyas say "Mama" first was shot down. Alyas has been making the "dada" sound for quite some time now, so now all we have to do is keep saying "yeah" each time he says it...and trust me Brandon is all about it. Shoot! I guess I can just hope that our next child will in some minuscule way resemble his mother.

I'll end with a funny story - a lesson I learned about dressing a child when it's freezing outside. On Sunday the temp was probably -10 with the wind chill I suppose and we had to run some errands so I put Alyas in a hand-me-down snow suit to make sure he stayed really warm. It's a funny looking thing and I think he looks like Elmer Fud b/c it is red and blue checkered and he's bald. Anyways, I stuffed him in it then stuffed him in his car seat. The ride out was fine but on the way back he started crying. I figured it was time for a bottle so I crawled into the back seat to give it to him so he wouldn't cry all the way home. That did nothing but make him mad and his yells grew in intensity. I couldn't hear Brandon in the front seat asking me what was wrong and I didn't know any how. I was getting a little frustrated and starting to feel hot. I asked Brandon to cut the heat and crack the window. That helped me but Alys was still sreaming. Then the thought occured to me...."maybe he's hot?" I took off his matching Elmer Fund hat to discover his head was drenched in sweat. He was baking and every time he cryed he got hotter. That helped some but then I slid out his moist little arms and propped up his sticky back and sure enough the crying stopped and my happy baby returned. Lesson: freezing tempatures may require warm clothes but if you are staying in the car leave the snow suite at home!

Here's some pics of Little Fud Man and some others as well!