Grandpa Arlin's Birthday

Fall began with a celebration of Afton's Grandpa Arlin's birthday. Last year during this time, we told the Anderson family that we were expecting! This year, grandpa Arlin shared the birthday attention with his youngest granddaughter, who is frequently stealing the show these days.

Afton's First Summer (Months 2 through 4)

Month 2

July 4th weekend Afton took her first trip to Wisconsin for a Kodes family reunion at Autumn's parents home in Black River Falls. It was a wonderful time and even as little as she was- she did a wonderful job. She met many relatives and was passed around a lot giving mommy and daddy a fun little break. During July Afton also started sleeping through the night- unfortunately for her daddy, it happened to be when he was gone on a missions trip with 30 students who did not get to sleep through the night. He texted me intending to brag about getting 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I was delighted to inform him that I'd had 8. She now sleeps 10 hours at night folks. PRAISE. THE. LORD. That is the only reason I am sane enough to write anything down.

Other fun things she/we learned this month:
How to hold a toy in her hand (she)
How adorable she looks in a swimming suit (we)
How to release and let her go to the nursery (we)

Month 3

August held many adventures for the Anderson family. It began with a trip to Door County, Wisconsin to see Autumn's side of the family and ended with the annual trip to Hayden Lake in Danbury, MN to John's family cabins. Afton is SUCH a good traveler! Good thing since our legacy kind of has to do with traveling and we just can't seem to stay put (John and Autumn got to know each other while on tour with a worship band in college and LOVE traveling (doesn't matter where!) As long as she was fed and changed she happily entertained herself until nap time. What a trooper...

Our trip was filled with many wonderfully welcomed stops to see friends made on John's internship in Mequan, WI, friends from college in Appleton, WI and friends from our previous church in Kiel, Wisconsin. It was fun to reconnect with our eastern Wisconsinites!

We enjoyed many wonderful dates together while in Door County taking full advantage as parents of the first grand baby. My (Autumn's) parents and grandparents were delighted to spend some time with Afton and have some fun grandparents/grandaughter adventures of their own. We went Kayaking, hiking and mini golfing and were able to explore some of our favorite places from a summer spent there while dating- including the place he proposed! :-)

August ended with a trip over Labor Day weekend to Hayden Lake where Afton completed her first overnight camping trip :-) She loved watching the campfire and slept great that night all bundled up! We are so proud (and thankful) that she did so well. We also took her hiking AND she went swimming for the first time! Annd by swimming I mean we held her in the water- she loves it. Bath time is STILL her favorite activity. If it wasn't an obvious invasion  of her privacy and a complete internet/parent no-no I would be delighted to show you videos of how excited she gets, but I'm betting its not nearly as awesome to everyone else as it is to us. We're first time parents ok? Everything she does is the coolest/funniest/cutest thing :-) 

Unfortunately, pictures only do her so much justice, but we're sure you'll get the idea.

Other fun things she/we learned this month:

How easy cloth diapers are (we)

That Autumn can babysit 2 children this age and keep them alive- and have fun (we)

How to belly laugh (she) 

How to roll (she)

How to "inch worm" (she)

How to do rasberries/smacking noises with her mouth (she)

That she is teething (we)

That she is 14 lbs! (we)

Dear friends Lenay and Stuart! Stuart made Afton belly laugh for the first time!

This girls hair is out of control. 

The Rettlers- Dear friends and John's host parents while living in Mequon. 

3 Months!

Tummy Time!

Hayden Lake

Gramma face!

Month 4 

Happy 4 months to our sweet girl! ( Saturday, September 14th)

The Good Old Days

Today I visited someone with a "newborn" baby. So tiny and sweet...I may have had my first "I miss being pregnant or having a newborn" moment that everyone says you'll have while you swear you won't.

 I think I did. I heard sooo many times "Enjoy every stage because they grow so quickly..."While in my head I would say "You must have forgotten certain parts of this stage" , I did try my hardest to listen to the words of the older and wiser mothers. Now as I sit here, I think about how little she was two and half months ago and how *big (so relative) she is now.

 I keep looking at the most endearing picture of all the pictures I have. The one I snapped on my crappy cell phone moments after she was born as I sat there marveling.

Sweet baby girl, how you've grown.

What a joy and privilege to watch her grow. Today I watched her learn to grasp something in her fist. It only lasted a moment but as she realized she was making that rattle shake, she beamed with delight and so did I.

I realize also how much heart ache I'm in for as she grows. Having a baby makes you realize how fast life goes. But a breath...(Psalm 144:3-4). If two months goes this fast, I can't imagine how I'll feel when she is a year old. Can't she just be my baby for a while? That makes me think about how fast the last 5 years have gone. Will it really be that sudden that I'll turn around and have a five year old? If so, I understand why these women were so adamant.

I love NBC's show, The Office. John and I were office junkies as long as it was out. Homework breaks  consisted of me driving to his house to watch episodes of The Office. In our low times (the times where we were basically friendless, because we had just moved to a new place) we found ourselves referring to them as if they were friends we regularly spent time with.

Me: Hey John, remember when Jim played that joke on Dwight? That was so funny. 

As you can imagine, I shed a tear at the last episode. Maybe two. I wish I could say I hadn't. I once laughed at a friend who cried over a previous office episode, but there I was sobbing and blaming my hormones.

But seriously. Remember that time when Andy said,

"I wish someone would tell you you're in the good old days, when you're in the good old days"?

It stuck with me. There have been quite a few nights when I'm rocking Afton after she's fallen asleep and I realize I won't be able to hold her like this forever. A day is coming where changing her diaper and feeding her won't solve all of her problems and that breaks my heart. (Clearly a new area for me to learn about trusting God. More later on how much more there is to worry about  trust God with when you become a parent.) But right now, I will hold her and I will do my best to enjoy every moment of her babyhood.

I'm in the good old days and I am so happy to be here.

Two Months Old

Our beloved Afton was two months old this past Sunday. 

She truly gets cuter every day. I can't get over her and I can't believe she'll only continue to grow more beautiful. We pray that she will be like a tree planted by a river bank with her roots deep in truth and that she would constantly bear the fruit of the Spirit. 

Poor Johnny has been missing her this past week as he is on a missions trip. We are so supporting him in prayer as he felt led to plan and lead this trip over a year ago, but we miss him so much and he misses his baby!

Afton and I have been staying with my parents in Wisconsin and are enjoying a lot of the benefits of new, smitten grandparents and uncle who will do literally ANYTHING for baby time. 

I was able to go for a motorcycle ride with my dad,  go boating on the Mississippi AND the Black River and go out for brunch with a dear friend... ALONE! Such a privilege no one ever told me I'd so enjoy. For an introvert, suddenly having a human that never leaves your side is kind of a big deal. I LOVE IT, but, I really appreciate when someone I know, love and trust says "I'll take her!" and they mean it. :-) Once I actually LEAVE (yes, I'm that crazy mom that keeps coming back to tell them where this and that are and makes sure they have my number written in 12 places and on their head) it's so fun to come back to that sweet face. :-) 

Note: Missing her could take place after twenty minutes.... Sometimes at night I miss her...or when I'm driving in the car and she's in the back seat and I can't hold her. I literally can't get enough of this girl!) 

So, that said, poor Johnny.I'm sure her face has changed in a week and my back tells me that this cuddle bug who insists on snuggling most of the time (INSERT PLUG FOR THE BABY BJORN, THE MOBY AND THE SOON TO ARRIVE ERGO-ALL OF WHICH I LOVE FOR DIFFERENT REASONS) has grown in poundage for sure. She also, conveniently, began sleeping through the night when John left so this momma is actually sleeping better than her hubs, who is leading a 7 day missions trip with teenagers. :-)I'm still debating whether or not I should tell him. He keeps bragging about sleeping 6 hours with out interruption and I just can't bring myself to tell him I've slept 8.

But, she's awake now, God bless her, just as I sit down for coffee. 

It's ok. I missed her anyway. More later on how I feel about her growing up. 

Thoughts on the Month of June

June flew by. I cannot believe we are coming up on two months with our sweet baby Afton. It's been a challenging but joyful journey so far. We frequently make comments like "You know you're a new parent when..." followed by obscure conversation about how many bowel movements she's had, how excited we are when she burps, and the best system of how to___ you fill in the baby related blank. We realize that once we think we know something, she's always going to change it up on us. We're still hoping to figure out a schedule, although of course we have one of sorts- we're hoping it will soon be a bit more consistent. I do think it's safe to say that we have a good sleeper! She now sleeps through the night consistently. Praise God!

one month old!

The best two pieces of advice I've received are:

 1) do NOT make to do lists in the first two months after baby comes. If you do you'll feel like a failure but if you must, write down things like fed her, changed her diaper, took a nap to ensure that you can actually check things off! ( Note: I started this blog entry at the beginning of June and am finishing it at the end of July. Case in point.)

2) Go on a date as soon as you possibly can after having your baby. If you can't bear to leave her, have your mom (or someone you trust) watch her while you go in another room and have coffee and talk UNINTERUPTED. This is very important. You will probably feel guilty, but you just have to realize that she'll love you for loving each other. That's how she got here in the first place ;-)

Heading out on our first date since baby (happened to be our anniversary too!)

June brought many welcome visitors our way! We are so glad for the guest bedroom/open loft area and only wish it had a door so that people would stay longer ;-) We had a dear family friend, Ruth, on her way out to Switzerland visit us and offer to watch Afton for us while we went out for coffee. What a blessing little dates are. So much needed. You don't realize how precious those little things are (even things like riding in the car together without interruption because she's in the carseat) until they are more few and far between.

dear ruth with afton

anna meeting afton for the first time

afton meeting great grandma b.

afton meeting papa great and nana great

meeting aunt angie and cousin sam

afton with pawpaw

afton with grandpa anderson

Both our moms and many other friends and family came to bless us and meals were provided through our church friends. Such welcome interruptions to long monotonous first few weeks. We LOVED visitors. 

grandma anderson

My sweet little brother, who is finishing up college at Moody Bible in Spokane, WA flew in at the end of June for my cousin's grad party and stayed with us for a few days prior. What a grown up Godly, wonderful young man he has turned into. I was SO richly blessed by his presence as he did dishes for me, cleaned, washed laundry, FOLDED laundry and even MADE MY BED, not to mention volunteering to watch Afton so I could shower and read alone and changing the dirtiest of all diapers during that time. He's clearly smitten with his niece. What a wonderful blessing he was to us all.

uncle garrett

My mom also came almost every weekend throughout the rest of May and June and did countless projects around the house for me. She refinished an old coffee table I had bought that I absolutely love, steam cleaned my carpets and let John and I go out on dates. My mom definitely has the gift of helps and I'm so thankful God has allowed me to benefit from it. Not a trait I picked up on myself, but one I love to receive! ;-) In return, I think she and Afton have a special bond. Nani is one person that can make Afton laugh the most!

nani making afton laugh

Other June milestones included Afton's first smile (and many since), her first trip across the border to Wisconsin, she began tracking things with her eyes and she started gaining weight! (YAY!!!) =-) June also revealed Afton's love for baths. We know we're in for a boat load of smiles when it's bath time, no matter what kind of day she's had. :-)

afton started smiling...a lot!

she LOVES bath time