Ruby Raspberry Tummy

Ruby: as mentioned before, we added a ruby to each of our rings in honor of our baby's birth. Here's what our rings look like now.

Raspberry: next picture is raspberry picking BearHunter style. He likes to get right in there, down low where you can see the raspberries that others missed. At this time of year, there's still a few berries left. I just made another batch of raspberry rhubarb jam, as gifts for our speakers during the next lecture series in January. I've enjoyed canning jam this summer once my neighbor taught me how.

Tummy time: Squeakums has tummy time on the kitchen table frequently while I'm fixing myself something to eat, or washing up the dishes. He seems to get animated and enjoy it unless it's time for him to eat.

PTL

Today there was much rejoicing at our base. There's only two families here now, including ourselves The other staff and students are again off to Saint Lawrence Island and other parts of Alaska doing their different ministries. That's not the cause of our rejoicing. The exciting news was that we are getting some moose meat.

A friend who was given two roadkills will give some to us. Although we're on the want list for roadkills, we never seem to be at the top of the list. And another friend is donating to us half a moose, since it was illegally shot (they have to be a specific age and size to be legal). So that means we don't have to buy beef for awhile, which helps our food budget tremendously. And searching for good moose recipes will be fun! Got any? Send 'em my way.

Next exciting source of rejoicing is the provision for Calla Lily's dental work. It had been so long since I'd had a cleaning that I scheduled an exam and x-rays. That seemed the most important part of an exam. And when paying cash, I wanted to choose wisely. They discovered I needed a filling to be replaced; it had been improperly done in California a couple of years ago. I split my appointments over three months, to spread out the cost. We shared our need in our last newsletter and have had the cost covered by special donations. Looks like we'll have some extra, so BearHunter can go see the dentist as well. Praise God. By the way, I was apprehensive about getting in the chair since I have a history of being tolerant to the numbing shots and require repeat doses throughout procedures. However, thanks to prayers, I only needed one shot and it wasn't that bad. The dentist found some further decay due to the incomplete coverage of the last filling. But the work went smoothly with very little discomfort.

Blogspot says you can post videos now. But I haven't found the option on mine yet. Hopefully soon I'll be able to upload some brief clips of Squeakums. I know he's the most popular item on our site these days.

So what's up with the little guy? Well, he's clasping his hands and stuffing things, particularly blankets, in his mouth. He's squealing as well, and laughing a little bit. He's got his own little potty. We get him to use him sometimes, but frequently miss the window of opportunity.

Too cute to ignore

He's graduated to the next size of clothes now (3-6 months) and is sporting a striped onesie from a HeartChange friend. Thank you!

Dedication

Squeakums had his baby dedication at our church in Homer this Sunday, two days before he turned 3 months. Two other friends dedicated their babies as well.
He has discovered his fists recently and chews on them. He tries sucking his thumb with forefinger, but it usually turns into a full fist...or two fists.

We continue the diaper free work, though he's still fully in diapers. The first day was amazing as you read before. But that was followed by some very unsuccessful days. I get tired of holding him over the bucket when it takes him a long time to do his business. So we're ordering a plastic baby potty that he can atleast sit on. I'll just have to keep him upright with my legs or hands. Not sure how well it'll work, since he tends to arch and kick and cry sometimes when he feels the urge to go.

He's finally sleeping longer at night. He's been gaining about half an hour each night the last few nights. Last night I had 6 1/2 hours between feeds! That was the longest ever. I hear it's called "sleeping through the night" when he hits 7 hours. Perhaps tonight. BearHunter doesn't even wake up to his moans or cries anymore until I've got him already on the changing table and his volume has increased dramatically. Guess I'm the lighter sleeper.

Diaper Free

Squeakums is cute still. He's getting more responsive with smiles and almost laughter to us. He is cooing most days and that's a blast to "talk" with him. He's 10 weeks old and weighs 12 pounds 8 ounces. They rechecked his hearing and he passed (again).

I've also begun a diaper free attempt. I read the book Diaper Free. And have been watching his elimination patterns, for schedules, verbal or body lanuage signs, etc. for a few weeks. Sometimes I'd lay him on a towel and just keep an eye out for when he went. Whenever I'd catch him going #1 or #2 I'd make a specific sound (psssss or grrrrrr). Within the last week or so he began having relatively dry nights and not pooping in every diaper. He does a big poop sometimes once a day or a whole bunch one day. Yesterday his big one was at 9:30am while feeding him. This morning he didn't go while feeding so I put him over a sitz bathtub and urged him to go by saying grrrrrr and making a grunting kind of sound. And he went a big one! I was so amazed. And then he peed in the tub as well. Wow! It worked. Throughout the rest of the day I got him to pee 6 times in the tub and to poop 4 times. It makes the whole process seem easy to have such a successful day. I keep him in diapers still. But I use FAR FEWER this way. And it's kind of fun and exciting. :)