365 Challenge #28

Different perspective

365 Challenge #27

He loves this! Sometimes he'll be happy in it for over an hour.

365 Challenge #26

Helping daddy again with homework....


...well...not really. Feet are MUCH more interesting



Yay for toes


Whenever I start to take pictures of him, he always gives me this look like "pictures again? seriously?"

365 Challenge #25

Out the back window

365 Challenge #24

So smitten by the popcorn maker

Best Buds

Pretty sure these guys are going to be best buds someday.




If Joel would quit eating Isaiah's hair :)




Even sharing secrets already

365 Challenge #23

He likes reading

especially this book

365 Challenge #22

365 Challenge #21

365 Challenge #20

Sweet baby face

365 Challenge #19

I think he's teething again. Here comes tooth #2

365 Challenge #18

Helping me make cookies

While waiting for Nate to get home from school

Not real sure what this face was about

He thought the spoon was delicious!

365 Challenge #17

I love picasa

Ah Parenting Tips

I found the following article here:

Most Irritating, Least Helpful Parenting Tips Ever while I was checking my email.

I had to laugh (yes, I have been given several of these tips). It reminded me of when I was nine months pregnant, and people (especially strangers in the grocery store) would say "Are you STILL pregnant???"

I always wanted to reply very sarcastically, "No, I had the baby last week....I just look this huge all the time." But of course, I never did....

"I have nothing against friends and family offering advice when you come to them with a dilemma. It's the people who pipe up, unbidden, because they see you with a child and assume you have no idea what you're doing.

1. "Sleep now, because once that baby comes you'll never sleep again." Technically this is a pregnancy tip, of course, but I'm shoving it in here anyway. Yes, Great-Aunt Hildy, I will sleep throughout my entire third trimester. Because I am part bear.

2. "Sleep when the baby sleeps." Everyone gives you this one — annoying relatives, pediatricians, the cashier at the drugstore where you were buying newborn diapers. Are these people all robots, capable of instantly dropping off to sleep whenever their child is unconscious? Do they not have other things to do, like bathe, or simply relish the rare moments of silence you get when you have an infant?

3. "I think your baby's hungry." Whether you're nursing or bottle-feeding, everyone assumes you don't know how to feed your child. And every time your child cries, whines, grimaces, or squirms, they are going to assume you are starving your poor baby and you need reminders to feed it. Lest you forget! This advice is especially maddening when they turn out to be correct.

4. "Relish every moment of your baby's first years, because they'll be grown before you know it." You mean, time only moves forward? I had no idea! I thought we'd be like this forever and ever! This sort of advice, obvious and innocuous as it seems, always put me on the defensive, as if I had just been carrying my baby under my arm like a football, muttering, "Grow up already, why don't you. Just GROW UP."


5. "I hope you're sleep training that child. Do you WANT him to be spoiled?" Oh, distant relative/person whose aisle I shared at the supermarket, I'm so glad you know exactly my child needs. And that you know, from your years of scientific research, that any child not allowed to cry it out will be a horrible waste of flesh! (See #6 for this parenting tip's counterpart.)

6. "I hope you're not doing that 'crying it out' thing. It's so barbaric. Enjoy your baby all through the night!" Again, kudos to you, whoever you are, for knowing what's best for our unique family situation! I will be calling you at 4 a.m., so you can enjoy our baby as well.

7. "Why are you bringing your child outside when it's so cold out?" It never ceased to amaze me that, no matter what my child's age, total strangers will express alarm and revulsion that I dared expose him to the elements. "And WHY ISN'T BE WEARING MITTENS? He's going to get consumption!"

8. "Your child isn't really sad/angry/injured. He's just manipulating you." There's no doubt that children can push our buttons as if they've had professional training in it, but the notion that my kid's authentic feelings are in fact manufactured to elicit a reaction really chaps my hide. If that were always true, he'd be a pint-sized sociopath. I'm pretty sure that's not the case."

365 Challenge #16

Yeah, I have a tall husband

For Nana

This is Joel's favorite song. He can go from crying to happy if we just sing this.


All the singing (er...bouncing on Nate's knee) made him spit up, but he just got happier.

365 Challenge #15

I love how his little hand is holding Nate's sweatshirt

Valentines

Disclaimer: if you hate lovey-dovey, sappy things, you should not and do not have to read this post.




I married the man who has loved me since I was six

Who, when we were 9, told me he would marry me

Who loved me through the teen years, when I did not love him



I married the man who makes me laugh…

Who holds me when I cry

Who rubs my feet

Who makes me tea.


I married the man who keeps my feet warm...

Who always holds my hand

Who got my first kiss

And who I pray will get old with me


I married the man who gives me a bite of his dessert

And maybe a sip of his coke

Who always takes out the trash

Who loves to play games


I married the man who always scrubbed out the toilet when I was morning sick,

Who adores our baby

Who thinks I'm beautiful, baby stretch marks and all


I married the man who always asks me what I'm thinking...

Who I can tell anything to

Who carries me to bed at night.

Who hugs me in my sleep


I married the man who love Jesus more than me

Who is a great leader in our home

And is the perfect daddy


I married the man who took my heart....I love you Nathan Karnemaat! Happy Valentines!


Note: If you hated lovey-dovey things, but you read this post anyway, you can go throw up now

365 Challenge #14

Teaching Joel how to do pushups


Highly entertaining...


For mommy AND Joel

365 Challenge #13

Daddy's little boy


Best buds

Kisses

365 Challenge #12