Hang On! Hault! Pause! Wait a minute!

Gosh, I can't keep up with our little man!  He's learning so much and doing so much so fast these days!
Our roommate taught him how to give high-fives, it's pretty cute.  But.  He's selective on to whom he will give a high-five, which is pretty funny. 

He's a crawling machine these days!

 He'd only gotten into the entertainment center once.... until we had a few babies over for our fundraiser and little miss Caroline showed him how to properly open and empty out the movies inside.  Now he's a pro at it.  I guess that's what friends are for, right? :)
He's pulled himself up to his feet at least three times in his crib, and once on the ottoman, but has yet to take any steps. 

  

He is saying all sorts of stuff these days: dadadadada is the most common, but he's throwing in some SSsssss and thhhh and, jjjjeehjjeeehjjeeh, and zzeehzzzaah, plbplbplbplb, rarararar too.

The 'motorboat' face :)

His sixth tooth finally popped through the other day, thank heavens.  Hopefully we have a respit from teething for a while.  Poor kid was waking up every hour, for almost a week straight. 
After the tooth popped through it was 'sleep sitting' that was waking him up.  He would be crying so I'd go check on him and he was sitting up... but still alseep.  Poor kid was so tired last night when that happened that when I put his paci back in his mouth (he was still sitting up) he just about did a nose-dive to lay back down again he was soooo tired.  The past two nights he's done much better, sleeping until bout 2, then I will go give him his paci and help him lay back down, and he'll sleep until 6ish.
Can't believe my baby boy is gonna be 9 months old this week.  Crazy.  I'm interested to see how he's grown at his 9mo. checkup next Monday :) 

For the Record

Monday, January 9th - 
~ Owen sits up on his own (from being on his belly) for the first time.

Thursday, January 12th - 
~ I find Owen sitting up in his crib when I go in to get him in the morning.
(Little did I know this would become a pattern over the next few days)

Saturday, January 14th -
~ Owen has learned to do the 'motorboat' sound with his lips, and he does it frequently :)

Sunday, January 15th - 
~ Owen takes his first 'steps' as a crawler!

Monday, January 16th - 
~ We lower Owen's crib down a notch for the first time.

Tuesday, January 17th - 
~ Owen is found standing up in his crib when Bill goes to get him in the morning!
(Good thing we lowered the crib - talk about a mother's intuition!)

~ I notice Owen's 5th tooth has finally popped through... now if only number 6 would pop out and give the poor little man a break from teething!

Whew!  There, I think that about catches us up... sheesh!  He needs to slow down!

Satan Strikes Again

Last Friday:
First fundraising night for our Tanzania trip. 
Third night in a row of Owen waking up multiple times (teething and learning to crawl).
Almost two hours of trying to get him to take his morning nap and he
Finally
Goes down in his crib.
Three seconds after I walk down the stairs (literally)
The phone rings.
"What are you doing?" (hubby's voice)
"Just won an almost-two-hour-battle with Owen and he's sleeping, why?"
"My car battery is dead."
Silence.
"I tried a whole bunch of times, I checked the cables, it won't start."
"So you want me to come get you?"
"Um, yes.  I need to get to my next store."
"Let me see if one of our friends can come get you instead... I really don't want to wake Owen up."
Five minutes later
"He (our friend) just left for work.  There are no other options.  Where are you?  Okay.  I'll leave in a few, let me get around and get Owen up."
I get dressed, take care of Owen's breakfast real quick and turn the corner to head upstairs.
My phone rings.
"Have you left yet?"
"No."
"Have you woken Owen up yet?"
"No, I am about to right now."
"Don't! The car started.  I'm gonna come home and leave it and take your car for the day."
Whew.  That was close.
But now I'm stranded at home for the day. 
There go my plans of trapsing around town looking for business sponsors for Africa. 
There go my plans of making a quick trip to Target to get contact solution (we're all out). 
There go my plans of a play date with a friend I haven't hung out with in a month. 
But.
Owen is still asleep, and that is worth it to me at this point.
But now what? 
Hubby works til at least 4:30, and we have to leave our house at 4:45 to get to the other side of town and prepare to babysit 15 kids for three hours.
Tomorrow is Saturday.
And in our house, that means we both have to get to work in the morning. 
With only one working car.
We should skip the fundraiser and go buy a battery for the car. (Thank GOD for a gift card unexpectedly arriving in the mail yesterday, and we can actually afford a new car battery.)
No.
We need to go to the fundraiser.  The battery thing will have to work itself out.
On the road to the fundraiser we stop for contact solution (all out, remember?) and I grab a $2 deli sandwich for dinner because in the rush of getting us all out the door it kind of passed me by that I hadn't eaten since lunch.
I call Owen's Saturday morning babysitter and ask if I can take her car to work since one of ours is dead and of course she says yes (I'm pretty sure this is the 2,392,087 time we've had to borrow one of their cars because of ours having issues). 
There.
Problem solved.
And we raised double, double what we thought we would at the fundraiser.
Take that Satan.
You almost had me.  I was irritable, tired, pissed off (to be frank).  But then hubby reminded me (ever so kindly, though I didn't deserve his kindness because I was being grumpy) that all of the days events were merely Satan's attempts to foil our plans - no - Your plans for us to go to Africa.  He's just mad that we're being obedient to You.  He's mad that we're going to making an impact for Your Kingdom.
Well you know what, Satan?  You're just gonna have to be mad.
Heck.  You can go ahead and throw a tantrum if you want.  Because you aren't gonna stop us. 
You came close to slowing me down this time, really you did.  You were about {  } this close.  But it didn't work.  And it won't work again.
I'm on to you and your silly games.
And we're going to Africa. 
Whether you like it or not.

... Continued

Where was I?

Oh so Owen can now clearly communicate "no."  He's been doing it for about two or three days while he's eating.  If I hold up food or try to push it toward him and he doesn't want it he shakes his head.  I will try again to see if it's just a fluke and he shakes it harder. Nope.  Not a fluke. :)  Today for the first time, he 'said' no when I offered him one of the toys he had sitting around him, and again when I was tickling him and he'd had enough he shook his head no.  We're in trouble.  He's only 8 months old and he knows "no!"  I am glad that he can communicate effectively now though and I think it makes him happier too.  And I must admit, it's stinkin' adorable to watch him shake his head. :)

He hasn't been eating or sleeping the best lately, these two teeth he's workin' on are somethin' else.  They're the worst teething yet.  I feel like he's been teething for.ev.er. Oh wait.  He HAS.  Sheesh, it's been like two months of hardcore teething.  And my aunt likes to remind me that the average human has 20-something teeth.  Thanks for the reminder.  :)

Okay, I think that's all that was on my mind the other day when I was trying to post... I have new things on my mind now, it's about Satan and his wily schemes.  Silly Satan.  I'll write a new post about that later.  For now, I must beat my husband in MarioKart Wii. 

Latest Developments in My Head

I'll just call this post a mash-up - it's part 'this-is-what-I'm-thinking-stream-of-consciousness' post and part 'what-Owen-has-been-doing-lately' post :)

The past three mornings I've woken up with Freedom House Church original worship songs going through my head.  I kind of love that.  Today: "You're my greater than anything King... holy, extraordinarily wonderful King."  Can't help but repeat that over and over again as I pray for resolution with this car situation we've been going through lately.  Not ready to post details about it yet, but I will say (for any of you that'd like to pray along with us) we're praying for a miraculous gift of a free (reliable) car from someone so we can get out of the situation that has come upon us as of late.

I feel bad I haven't posted lately, sheesh, I haven't even taken photos off my camera of Owen since the New Year... I feel like I've been so busy lately, between work, being a mom, getting used to having a roommate again, and kicking off all the fundraising we've been doing for Africa.
I'm pretty flippin' exited about Africa.  I know God is going to do great things.  I know he's called all three of us to go in June.  I know He'll get us there.  But looking at the numbers still scares me. Just a teeny, tiny, bit.  We're praying for lots of generous, spontaneous gifts to help us meet our goal of $6600. (Shameless Plug: If you'd like to make a tax deductible* donation, checks can be made out to Benham Foundation (write our names in the memo line) and sent to 5630 Fetzer Avenue, Concord, NC 28027)  We're excited about all the fundraising stuff though - the first is this Friday night - Parents' Night out, we babysit for three hours for donations toward our trip.

I'm heading out today to pick up copies from Office Max then go hunting for business sponsorships too.  I'm really hoping a lot of businesses get on board and sponsor, I think it's so cool when we get community involvement.

I hope Owen does okay going in and out of a bajillion places.  He doesn't exactly love getting in and out of his car seat a bunch.  Hm.  We'll see.
Speaking of Owen, when he woke up this morning at 4am (as usual, for his early morning snack) I went in to find him sitting up in his crib. AH!  He made his way from laying down to sitting up about... ummmm three days ago, right in front of our very eyes.  But.  He was mad about laying down so we figured his adrenaline helped him figure out how to do it...  and we hadn't seen it since.  Guess it's time to lower the crib mattress!

Still no word on the crawling/walking front.  He scoots around on his butt or rolls around to get where he wants.  He loves pulling himself up onto his knees using the furniture, but can't quite get to his feet yet.  He wants to move soooo bad. I can see it in his big blue eyes and I really look forward to the day that he finally gets it and I get to see the look of accomplishment on his face and praise him and get all excited for him. 

Speaking of Owen - wait I already said that - um, he just woke up from his nap. 

This post will have to be "to be Continued... "

*Benham Foundation, Inc., is recognized as tax exempt by the Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3). As such, it is qualified to accept tax-deductible contributions. Your contribution will pay the cost of sending a missionary to a mission field. Please make your check payable to Benham Foundation. All contributions are non-refundable. You may suggest a specific missionary you would like to help by noting their name in the memo line of the check.  In all cases, Benham Foundation will use your contribution to further its missions programs. You may not designate your gift for a specific missionary's personal use. If you want to assist a particular missionary, Benham Foundation suggests that you pay that missionary directly. Of course, payments to individuals to not qualify for tax deductions. Excess donations made towards an individual's trip cannot be given to that person, but can be applied to trip outreaches and ministry uses.