First Christmas

It's hard to believe that Christmas has already come and gone. Half of my vacation, already over! Ack!

Last week was wonderful. We always have four days of Christmas festivities every year. The Saturday before Christmas, we get together with Wes's mom's family. On Christmas Eve, we go to Wes's parents' house to celebrate with them. On Christmas morning, we have our family time. Then that afternoon, we go to Aunt Pam's to celebrate with my family. And the day after Christmas, Wes's dad's family gets together. Isaac enjoyed spending time with everyone and opening all of his presents. Although, truthfully, he would've been just as happy to play with the paper and boxes.

We enjoyed introducing Isaac to all of our family traditions, especially the Waiting Tree. When Wes was a boy, his mom found the idea in a magazine, and she passed it on to us when we got married. Every year, we hang up a felt Christmas tree and decorate it with a different "ornament" every day. We read a passage from the Bible, and then we put up the felt piece that corresponds to it. So for instance, when we read about Joseph's coat of many colors, there's a colorful coat that we put on the tree. This year, Wes read the scriptures, and then Isaac "helped" me put up the symbols. In actuality, the felt pieces always made their way to Isaac's mouth, and I gently pried them from his fingers so I could put them on the tree. Then, we would sing and pray together. It was a great time of family worship.

We also enjoyed taking Isaac to Guido Gardens. It's a beautiful place, particularly around this time of year. It's always decorated so nicely, with so many lights. It's a far drive, so we had to break Isaac's new bedtime routine that night, but it was definitely worth it. Isaac enjoyed looking at everything. Also, this year, Mr. Guido had the talking deer back up. Isaac watched in amazement as the deer told the Christmas story. It was so cute!

Wes and I went to something called The Journey, at Savannah Christian Church. It was at night, so we didn't take Isaac with us. That would've kept him up way past his bedtime, and we'd learned the week before that breaking the routine is not a good thing! So Wes's mom watched Isaac for us so we could go. It was basically a live nativity, and we traveled in tribes. Wes and I were in the tribe of Joseph. While we were waiting for our tribe to be called, we stayed in the sanctuary where they had an awesome worship time. They had singing, videos, and different pastors came out to talk about various things. When it was time for our tribe to make the journey, we had a centurion lead us on our way. We traveled to different checkpoints, and at each one part of the Christmas story was reenacted. Everything looked so authentic; the city of Bethlehem truly looked like a movie set. The whole experience was such a blessing, and we decided that is definitely going to become a family tradition once Isaac is old enough to participate.

Several people thought Isaac would be walking by this Christmas, but he didn't quite make it. He's been pulling up on things and cruising around the house. He's even stood alone for a few seconds. His muscles are definitely getting stronger, but he's got a little ways to go yet. Next Christmas, though, he'll be walking and able to understand more of what's going on. Now we really can't wait for that.

Worship

Well, we're all finally over the sickness now. Wes was over it in a few days, Isaac has been over it for a couple weeks now, and I've finally gotten my voice back within the last week. I'm so happy that I can sing again! So since I've been able to sing, I decided to play my guitar for Isaac on Sunday night. I felt full of joy while I was playing, and I was really enjoying myself. Towards the end of the song, Isaac raised both hands above his head and just held them there for a minute or so. He looked up and smiled a little bit too. My heart warmed at the sight. Isaac was raising his hands in worship. I told Wes about it later, and he said he thought that must've been a really beautiful thing for God to see. I agree. Isaac is such a blessing!

Sleep...Sweet Sleep

We've been working with Isaac on how to go to sleep on his own and stay asleep for a little while now. We've tried different methods, but nothing seemed to work. This week, we resorted to letting him cry it out. I was really opposed to that but decided to do it just to see if it worked. Praise the Lord, it has. We started on Wednesday, and last night, Isaac only fussed for five minutes before he fell asleep. He woke up a couple times in the three o'clock hour, but he was able to get himself back to sleep each time. So he was in his crib from 8:30 last night until 6:30 this morning. Wes and I were very happy about that. What an important milestone.

Something else important happened this week too. Isaac learned the meaning of the word no. He has a few teeth now, and he's started biting me. Usually it would happen during a nursing session, when I didn't realize he was finished. I broke him of that, but yesterday he bit my arm a couple times. The first time, I was too shocked to do anything. The second time, while he was in the middle of biting me, I popped him on his cheek (very lightly, just enough to get his attention) and said, "No. Don't bite Mama." He looked at me, and I could tell he was shocked, because that had never happened before. I said, "Mama loves you, but you can't bite Mama." A worried expression came over his face, and he looked like he might cry, so I said again, "Mama still loves you, Isaac, but you can't bite Mama." Then he put his head to my chest and cuddled with me for a minute. That was the best. Parenthood is such a blessing!