Seay Family Tales. : Month 7. Teeth & Moving Day Around the Corner

I love this nugget more and more each day. Seriously, she blows me away.

Her bottom two teeth are coming in! No crazy stories to go along with it either. They just sort of popped through.

She doesn't seem to like to be touched as often. She despises putting on clothes. She has started pushing your hand away if you try and touch her tummy or hair.

She fights sleep. Most days she takes two twenty minute naps. Sometime three, but honestly, I don't know how she's not more exhausted during the day!

Her new favorite food is a rice cake. She goes crazy over them. I started pureeing my own foods this month too and it has been fun. Squash, pumpkin, banana, are just a few.

She is learning to play differently with her toys. She's able to interact with them more purposefully. It's so exciting to watch this part of her change.

She hasn't quite figured out how to roll around and crawl, but she is starting to figure it out. Her world is getting bigger.

Daddy likes to sing his good morning song to her when she wakes up. It goes:
"Good morning, Lou, how are you? I hope your doing well. We hope you slept real good and your ready for the day 'cause its morn-ing time!"

Shes been waking up again more in the night. It will be refreshing to let her cry it out more often when her bedrooms neighboring wall isn't the neighbors.

She likes to talk to herself more while she is playing. Sometimes it seems like she is saying hi or all done.

We're teaching her signs for words like milk, all done, more and change. Rand had been teaching her more and we thought she had caught on some, but most of the time she doesn't seem to notice.

After her early morning feeding, she has been coming into our room to snuggle with us while we wake up. Probably my favorite part of the day.

A friend of mine was soothing her the other day by having her sway back and fourth standing and she seems to really enjoy that. Now she's starting to add little steps to it, which is fun.

She started pooping solid! In some sense it's a plus because it's not as messy, but MAN does it smell.

Her hair is starting to get a lot longer and thicker. Today it was tussled and going all sorts of directions. Were not sure if she is going to have wavier hair like her dad or not.

She went the the a YMCAs child are for the first time while mommy worked out the other day. It was really exciting for both her and I!

I sort of realized how my image is so import to me and I have felt my sin carry over unto Ellie, with more of a weight being put on how she looks to...well you reading this blog, the people at Target, or my instagram followers.
Little things like, headbands, cute baby clothes, the latest and greatest stuff, often come from a place of image management and making sure that I come across in a hipster mom sort of mom way.
So, basically, I have noticed that operating inside me.
Cute baby stuff, nope, not wrong at all, but I have started to sense that energy behind my instagram pictures and latest purchases.
It typically is accompanied by a sort of panicky feeling or not feeling okay if ___.
The longing in my heart is for her to know she is treasured just as she is because she is.
So, as Jesus has started showing me this, it has been neat to watch him lead my heart into his confidence and security of who I really am and watch that overflow unto how I interact, and well, dress Ellie. So there is some heart stuff for you.

Were closing our house TOMORROW!
By Sunday night, we will be out of our apartment and in our own home. It feels crazy. It's been incredible to reflect on the process, together, Rand and I. It feels really neat to have accomplished such a feat as a team, leaning together, alongside each other? Asking for help, when needed, but allowing ourselves to sit in the process of being first time homebuyers together has allowed a new strength and confidence to emerge in our marriage, It's been messy. We've felt, well a lot of things ranging from obscenities to tears of happiness, but it's nearly here at the doorstep and were overjoyed!

I recently joined a fitness center and have truly been loving my me time of exercising and burning off steam. A membership gets you access to both choice fitness and the YMCA, but I am noticing I favor the Y more. The atmosphere seems a lot more relaxed and less showy. AND. The child care is free. I am eager to continue to find classes that I enjoy and enjoy fulfilling the movement my body seems to crave by the end of the day. Going to new classes can feel intimidating, but I find my heart more ready to enter that anxious feeling. It's neat to see Jesus teaching my heart to trust him.

We spent Thanksgiving in the cities with my parents and savored some time with extended family, playing games, and eating lots of yummy carbs. My sister got back from Italy on Thanksgiving day and it was incredibly special to get to spend a lot of time with her. Another highlight was gettting to go to Trader Joes. Seriously, if they were only in Grand Forks...Ellie is a pretty good traveler and the trip there and back were wonderful. Hopefully someday soon we will be making the commute in a killer van. But seriously, I really want a van. Sliding doors would be heaven.

First thing that is going up in our house is the Christmas Tree and hopefully the next thing is a kitty. OUR HOUSE! Eek.