New milestones & tid bits

Well, Liana Joy is 17 weeks old! I almost can't believe it. She's getting huge right before our eyes.

This photo was taken on July 4th. She was 13 weeks old. She's dressed up in her patriotic outfit & her smile is characteristic of her. My friend Cathy commmented today that her smile is full of joy. It really is. We prayed that she would be full of deep belly laughter and joy...that's why she's Liana JOY. I thank God for her. She is amazing and is an incredible gift.



Here are some new milestones and tidbits in no particular order:


Over the past few weeks, she's started to enjoy playing on her back with little toys dangling above her. She also rolled over for the first time on Saturday. She almost did it again today. She almost gets over, but her little arm gets stuck underneath her. I've seen this with other babies, so this must be a common little roadbump. The way she's started scooting, she'll be crawling in no time - ahhh!!! She still loves to stand up. That's been a new thing as of the past few weeks or month. This past week we noticed that she isn't cooing as much as she was a week or two ago. I'm guessing that she's moving on to a new developmental task - involving motor skills. She still giggles quite a bit and smiles so beautifully when she sees a face that she likes. I love watching her face light up when she looks at me or her daddy. It's priceless. She has found her voice! She started with high pitched squeals that I imitated and she repeated back to me - all of which she was quite proud of. I think she surprised herself at first with the loud noise! Well, this past week she has begun to express her anger. She has an angry cry/scream/shout that is easily identifiable as angry/frustrated. I only wish that I knew what she needed all the time so she didn't get frustrated, but I don't, and I suppose it's all part of the process. It seems that she's in an "in between" stage - there are things she wants to do, but can't do them on her own. She likes to be up and moving, but she can't move on her own. She wants to look at things, but she can't hold them by herself. So, she ends up frustrated. I would be frustrated too if I were in her place.




Liana Joy also loves to listen to people sing. She seems to be mesmerized by singing and music - not so much cds or the radio, but the real thing. So, it's really fun to watch her when I'm singing, or when Stephan's playing or singing and she gets to take it all in.





She also started going to bed a bit earlier this past week. She fell asleep tonight at 9 pm! That means I need to get in bed earlier because she's not sleeping until 9: 30 or 10 anymore.





Tonight at dinner we sat her in a little bumbo-type seat that Cathy lent us. She looks adorable sitting up on her own. As she was sitting there she did a triple sneeze and then gave this huge grin at her daddy. It was hilarious - she seemed proud of her "geshnoozen" as Stephan calls them.





Currently her favorite toy is "Mr. Bee" - a little, plush rattle with bright colors, a checkered belly, and crinkly wings. She is also taken by a black and white drawing of a butterfly. It has a lot of pattern to the drawing, so I think she enjoys the different splotches of black and white. She doesn't hold onto toys or books yet for more than a minute or so, however, hair or fingers she will latch onto quite firmly for a good amount of time.





I'm trying to give her a pacifier to give her something to satisfy her sucking needs, but she still doesn't want it. She'll suck on a finger, an arm, a baby carrot (new trick a friend told me about), her fist, but not a paci.




Liana Joy...what a fun little girl. I look forward to seeing who she becomes as the months go on.

Liana Joy is soooo stinkin' cute. She is making more and more noises. She's discovering that she can add significant volume to her oohs and eehs. She likes to practice them while sitting on the potty. At 14 weeks, we've had quite a bit of success with going on the potty - yeah!



We took her to the Oma & Opa's pool on Sunday afternoon where we swam for a little while. Stephan swirled her around in the water and she just smiled so big. Yesterday while we were at the store, I had her standing on a counter and we were dancing. Well, I was dancing and she was being jiggled a little bit ;) Nevertheless, she thought it was quite funny and gave a great giggle. Oh, it captured my heart and I kept wanting to hear more. I can't wait for her to giggle again.



She also had her first official Bible study last week. Rachel, Marcia and I are starting Believing God by Beth Moore. Previously I have not been a fan of hers, but I think that was due to my own arrogance after coming out of the counseling program/seminary. I am excited to see what God will do over the next 10 weeks. I am hopeful that He will do some miracles in my life...I need them. Perhaps the biggest is in healing my soul - that in the depths of me I could trust Him because I know that I am loved and He is good. The Shack talks about how trust can only come in a relationship of love. If you don't truly know that you're loved, there can be no real trust.

I read this quote recently in The Sacred Romance and it captures things well to me:

"Being in partnership with God, though, often feels much more like being Mel Gibson’s sidekick in the movie Lethal Weapon. In his determination to deal with the bad guy, he leaps from seventh-story balconies into swimming pools, surprised that we would have any hesitation in following after him. Like Indiana Jones’s love interests in the movies, we find ourselves caught up in an adventure of heroic proportions with a God who both seduces us with his boldness and energy and repels us with his willingness to place us in mortal danger, suspended over pits of snakes."

So, if I don't know that I know that I know that I am deeply loved, I am left to make conclusions about God that aren't true although my experience screams that they must be. Afterall, what good, loving parent would send their beloved child into known danger or into a painful situation of any kind? Well, God does & did - He sent His beloved to the cross. So, I must conclude that either I don't really know what GOOD & LOVING are, or God is cruel. Perhaps there are some other possible conclusions, but these are the two that I wrestle with. My continual prayer is that He would show me how deeply He loves me and that He would make my view of Him one that reflects who He truly is. And we pray for our daughter that she would always know the goodness of God and His deep, abiding love for her. Amen!