random schtuff. this is going to be long.

to start, here is a picture of adeline & amelia sitting & watching tv (dora the explorer to be exact, the dancing dvd). i feel no guilt about this, even with a 5 month old watching tv. but she watched it for 45 minutes! isn't that unbelievable! & wonderful! i had to bake the muffins for playgroup & for adeline, so the poor dearie won't starve without her hourly muffin intake. anyway, this was my solution & it worked. guilt free is the way to be (i should make buttons with that saying...).

part 1: what i found after my last post:

i mentioned that i heard honey bunches of oats being poured. this is what i found; yup, that's the entire bag.

then there was a millie squawking upstairs in her crib. rolled over & putting her hands through the rails. it was very cute.

part 2: a loving parent

so this morning we went to church. it was decided at first that wes would take amelia & adeline to central vineyard (where we have gone since moving here) b/c he hadn't told the guy in charge of tithe counting that he couldn't help out anymore b/c we are looking for a new church (more near us). anyway, so he was going to take the girls & i was going to get a morning to myself. then i felt a bit bad sending them off & i do like the church, of course. so i decided to go & had 15 minutes to get ready. which is really kinda bad b/c i hadn't taken a shower in about 5 days (i keep putting it off b/c i would rather go to bed early than take a shower...i have been exhausted the past week. but that's what happens when babies & toddlers wake up at 6 a.m. & then don't take {for amelia, -good-} naps). so i threw a hat on, a staple these days & out the door we went. but amelia & adeline looked so cute today, so we had to get a picture before we left.
so the message was about how god cares about us, all the daily frustrations & such. well, really the message was about prayer, but someone behind me kept talking, so i had a hard time concentrating during different parts. {grrr, what a pet peeve of mine...i hate it when people talk during class & church & things like that.} anyway, the crux was that god is guaranteed to be there loving us no matter what...even in the seemingly small things parents struggle with daily, like when addy pees on the carpet for the 5th time in one day & i don't know what else to do but cry & put a towel over it. which got me thinking that since the most comparable love of god to us is a parent's love to a child, i have decided that what i want amelia & adeline to think of wes & i is that we were loving, guaranteed. i may have other things i want to do (like play word twist or post a blog or get the outline of a puzzle done or, or or...), but i want them to know i will always be here to love on them, that i desire to know them & their problems & their joys, any time of the day, for whatever causes their need of a hug or some mama love, i will be here for them as much as humanly possible.

adrienne (the lady giving the message today) also mentioned something about people may have a hard time praying from the gut, or with daily concerns & hurt, something like 'banging/knocking on heaven's door to post a complaint of life' or something like that. well, i have no problem doing that. my prayers are nothing like poetry. maybe beat poetry, but for sure not all lovey-dovey gracious & thankful words. more like 'what the *bleep* is going on today, god? why can't you give me kids who take naps or learn to use a potty, blah blah blah'... just thought ya'all might want to know that.

part 3: adeline

the past week she seems to be going through a growth spurt; she's eating constantly. i made mini muffins this week hoping that would give her some portion control, but instead of eating 2 large muffins every hour, she ate about 8 mini muffins. good grief! i guess i didn't outsmart her... today in church she had a really rough time apparently & cried most of the time she was in her classroom, which was shocking! she has NEVER gone through any sort of separation anxiety, but i'm left to think that's what was going on. anyway, she is doing great in general.

although...she had a very hard time sharing on friday when we hosted a play group. of course, it was with a boy, who is about the cutest & sweetest 3 year old i know. man oh man, every time i see him i just want to gush to his mom over him. plus he had the name i was going to give a boy, if we ever had one (we didn't, as you may know & the name is jude). anyway, him & addy were upstairs in the playroom & he came down after about maybe 10 minutes & his mom asked if he would like to go back up to play & he replied 'no, she won't share her toys with me'. heartbreaker! so i went & gave addy a 'stern talking-to'...which is what i have recently started to call a warning or whatever else others call discipline. i call it a stern talking-to.

when talking with this boy i also realized that i can't wait for adeline to start talking. i just want to hear what she has to say about things. like i asked him what he was eating (i obviously knew he was eating a granola bar, but it was a conversation starter, ya know) & he replied "this kind of granola bar that my mom gives me sometimes & it has chocolate chips in it & i like them" ... (like i said, this kid is so cute that even 3 days later i am still gushing about him & his mom isn't even here!) anyway, i felt so bad that adeline wasn't sharing. yes, so is the stage in her life now, but it's frustrating. what's also frustrating is that adeline still isn't talking. she has really perfected 'mama' & that's about it. every once in awhile she will throw out some crazy entire word or two like 'caterpillar' or 'thank you' but it's never consistent & the rest of the time she just says gibberish. we are waiting until she's 2 1/2, per pediatrician recommendation, but my mama sense is telling me something isn't right. knowing addy, she will probably wait until she's 2 years, 5 months & 28 days & then start speaking in full & understandable sentences. she is such a fun girl to have around, though...she really just loves to have fun & laugh & explore. you can just see it in her eyes when she wakes up in the morning at the crack of dawn that her brain is already in overdrive.

part 4: amelia

again, another one who loves it all. however, she takes awhile to warm up after waking up, just like her mama. most often when she arouses, she is very grumpy & likes to be left alone. so when she wakes up cooing & giggling, it's shocking & wonderful. but when when wakes up grumpy, i understand completely & give her some space to wake up a bit. this weekend i have switched over most of her clothes to the 9-12 month size! holy crap! we like to say "we gerbicks grow 'em big" & it is very very true.

new news: she is sort of sitting up! it's more like an ape sitting, though (as we especially know after our trip to the zoo today, but more on that later).

i just can't believe she's nearly 6 months! i feel like i say this constantly, but here i go again: they grow up so fast. it also appears that amelia will have some shade of blue for her eye color & possibly a dark blond-ish red hair color. i'm seeing a bit more curl in her hair than addy had, so you never know, she may get the gerwig curls after all (my sister & dad have very curly hair & i have been very envious of it my entire life). millie is just so peachy right now. although she could sleep a bit longer in the morning. but that's always my complaint until they sleep until at least 7 am. (i can dream, can't i?).

part 5: s & s

this is the part of this post that i'm going to lodge a complaint against another person. i KNOW this person doesn't read my blog b/c i don't even know who she is. every day i get this email from this website called "mamasource"...a bunch of moms from all over the great u. s. of a. can post any question they want about parenting, marriage, health, etc & moms who know something about the topic or have been through similar situations reply & give advice. i don't often give advice, i just like to read what other people have questions about. some are pretty silly, others are very serious. so this one mother & wife wrote a question about how to get her husband to help out around the house. apparently she used to stay at home & now has returned to work & when she stayed at home she LIKED to clean the house & cook all the meals (what?!) but now she is finding that she doesn't have the time to do it all & wants her husband to help out. so i wrote that she is doing a valiant thing & that maybe she could start a chore chart on a big poster board for everyone in the family, including her husband & give little rewards out each week or month. after i submitted my little advice ditty, i read other replies of advice from other mamasource members...most were similar to mine. THEN i read this one by a lady & my blood started to boil (doing that at such an early hour is certainly not good for my heart). this lady said that she has found that men seem to be interested in only 2 things, which she called s&s: sex & sandwiches. & then she asked this lady if she was 'paying attention to her husband's needs' b/c that seems to make them happy.

WHAT? seriously? i have never responded harshly to someone on mamasource, until that day (thursday, i believe). i started with something like saying that men are only interested in two things is really a terrible thing to say about men in general b/c they are very much more dynamic & interesting than that. & then to advice this lady, who is already exhausted beyond belief, to 'put on something fancy & tend to his needs' & maybe she will get his attention that way without nagging him...i think i said something along the lines of 'if i have to do that for my husband to share the housework load, i would probably no longer be married b/c that's not a partnership, that's more like servant hood.' anyway, i didn't go on very long about how much this lady pissed me off. but i am still reeling about it, how someone can really, truly think that men are only about sex & sandwiches. actually, now that i think about it, she probably has a terrible marriage to a very boring husband to think this is reality. anyway, the lady who posted the original question wrote me back the next day also saying that she was taken aback by what the s&s lady said. some people are so weird!

part 6: the zoo

we went to the zoo, which is fairly self explanatory in general. we did hear a lion roar, saw monkeys & gorillas & an aquarium. it was fun & a beautiful day...so good to get out. we went with the crawfords. this picture below is of adeline & owen & in the background in a very large gorilla giving a butt shot.
ah, judy & elliott.
it was a crazy fun day & the girls were in bed & asleep by 7:40, exhausted from our day out.

next time i have that much to say i will try try try to get more posts in during the week. not likely, but i will try.