yes, i would love some!

Today was a big day for the Barton's!! Jeff, Roman, Maverick and I all woke up this morning knowing things were about to change. Okay, well roman and maverick probably had no clue, but Jeff and i did. 

We woke up about 7:30am and ate some breakfast! Roman had is very first bowl of oatmeal this morning and kind of loved it! We sat him in his high chair and let him play around in that while i got it ready. he does this new thing where he loves to hit everything (okay, he's been doing for a week or so now, but still new-ish). he just slams his hand on anything and everything. so he did that for a couple minutes while i prepared his breakfast. And Jeff got the camera ready and gave roman a little pep-talk about what was about to go down. 

I decided to use Earth's Best, primarily cause it was certified organic and no gei's and made with whole grains; but also because it was less expensive than the Gerber brand by, i think, almost 50 cents! (which i found kind of odd).

So i mixed (with some milk i had pumped right before) according to the package's directions and here is what it looked like:

looks delicious

At first, Roman just thought he was going to be able to play around with his spoon. LITTLE DID HE KNOW there was delicious goodness on the end of it! He gave kind of a funny look with the first bite. A look to suit this thought, "ugh! what the heck!" but soon after he was leaning forward with his mouth open wanting more. It was a great time! 

All in all it was a pretty victorious morning! We survived Romans first 'solids' experience with no spit-back-outs, throw ups, or crying. We only had a chance to do breakfast today. I'm not 100% clear on how often to feed him per day yet. But tomorrow he will get oatmeal for breakfast again! 

would you like some oatmeal?

I think i'm going to try it tomorrow. By 'it' i mean giving roman a taste of big kid food.

I'm not sure how i feel about this. Excited to embark on a new adventure with him, yes, absolutely! However. I have been nursing exclusively for the last 6 months and have loved every second of it. I'm so used to being Roman's only food source, the bond that Roman and I have from this, no one can break, and frankly nursing has saved jeff and i many pennies over the last 6 months. I just dont know if i can accept that he's growing up. ;)

Roman has shown signs he's ready for solids probably since he was 4 months, but i didn't want him to have anything until i felt his little body would be able to handle it better. 6 months is recommended now by most ped's, and though Ro isn't quite 6 months (he will be a week from thursday...which is another story for me), he get's frustrated when you eat in front of him and dont give him any. Like today. Jeff was eating a bag of bbq chips and roman was STARING him down and eventually let out a squak cause he wanted them too! His tongue reflex has been gone for quite a while (the one where he pushes it out before starts sucking), and he's just grabbing absolutely everything now! So i feel confident that he's ready, i just dont know if i'm ready. 

This must be how it feels to 'let go' a little bit, eh? I'm not good at letting go. 

you may not know it, but i'm a genius.

Well, my last post (before the videos) i talked about a new plan for roman's sleeping. Consider that plan squashed! After 4 depressing days of doing nothing but sitting in a rocking chair all the days long and a slight break down, jeff and i decided this was probably not going to work for us. Not only was i in a chair all day, i didnt talk to anyone in the 'outside' world. Which for me is practically torture. I prayed...oh how I prayed, for God to give me patience to see this through and for the wisdom to know if it's the 'right' thing for us or not. After my little emotional break down, it was apparent this was not our thing. I dont know what is, or even if we have a 'thing', but i'm sure that was not it! So, Roman and I are just going with the flow. I'm going to stop reading books on it and just see what happens. He's over 5 months now; I'm sure he'll figure something out! :) Needless to say, i've been filling my days up with at least one outing at some point during the day. Whether it's target to just walk around, or a friends for lunch, or a walk in the morning around the neighborhood, i will make it outside of my house once a day. Maybe not everyday, but definitely most days of the week. It's good mental health for me.

Another Roman trial is his gassiness. So i decided to cut out dairy to see if that helps cause i've read and heard that it makes a world of difference. It's been probably 3 to 3 1/2 weeks since i've done this very difficult task when that is pretty much your diet all together, and i've been asked if i've seen any difference in roman's little body. To that I usually respond with a(n), "eeeehhhhh, yeeeaaahhhh, maybe? I dont know really...'

And then, just today it dawned on me while i was out running errands. Since i've 'cut out' dairy, i've been consuming a LOT of bread. (you'd think that once you cut a large part of you diet out, you'd be losing weight or something....not me, cause i have been filling that void with BREAD!!!) :) I love bread. love it. love it. love it. But today i got to thinking. Hmmm, how is bread made? what ingredients are used to make it?

DUH!!!!!!!!!

Contains: wheat, soy and MILK!!!

I am an idiot! :) so NO. of course i cant tell a difference in roman's gassiness cause i haven't REALLY cut out dairy!! DANG IT!! i was working so hard to not eat it too! ugh. It takes up to 2 weeks for it to completely leave your system. So now i dont know what to do! bread is pretty much my livelihood at the moment. I really dont know what else to eat! and i dont really know what i'm going to do about it. oh man. what a predicament! (it's really not as bad as it sounds....just so you know).

I just thought i should tell you that i'm pretty much a genius. :)

more laughing

get ready to laugh....

jeffs shock slightly frightened roman (which explains my immediate response...)

getting serious

Today is the start of a new plan. As you know, I've been trying to figure Roman out sleep wise. :) As you also my know (if you know me well enough), i have a difficult time, how do you say, following through? being consistent?. So pray I will be just that, consistent, for Romans sake.

I've been reading a book called "the no cry sleep solution" and came up with a game plan for Romans napping. My main concern with his napping is that he's only been napping for 1/2's at a time, and I don't think he's getting well rested. I rock him to sleep, which i totally don't mind doing at all, however, the second i put him in his crib he's instantly awake. SO! Here's what we're trying. For the next week to 10 days I'm going rock him to sleep the INSTANT i see signs of drowsiness. When he seems to be in a deeper state of sleep (after maybe 15 mins or so) i will put him in his crib and pat his cute little but to keep him from waking. When it's safe to stop doing that I'll leave the room and do whatever for a little while, checking on him often. The moment he starts stirring or seems to be waking up, BOOM. I'll pick him up and start rocking him again. The goal is to never let him fully come out of his sleep. When he's back into a deep sleep, down he goes in his crib again. etc, etc...

According to this book, this should help him stay asleep on his own after a while. And as you can see, it's kind of a big undertaking for me. :) I will be needing to focus a lot of my attention on Roman for the next week or so. I talked to Jeff, and he's okay with it. I warned him that this is going to require a lot of my attention, but if we are to do this whole sleeping thing without the crying (which I'm very much against for us after doing lots of reading on it), it's going to require a longer, more detailed approach. If you could keep this in your prayers, i would greatly appreciate it! Pray (specifically) that I would keep my stamina for this process and that roman would be responsive in a good way. Also pray for Jeff and I, that I wouldn't get too wrapped up in this process and forget my duties to him as a wife. Like i said, it may only take a few days, but it could also take 10 or more.

So far, as of his first nap this morning, Roman has been sleeping for 2 hours, and I've had to intervene 3 times for 15 minutes each. So, already he's sleeping longer. I'll let you know how the rest of the week goes. :)

Wives, be submissive to your husband....

I've been reading colossians lately, but have been really sidetracked to read 1st Peter, specifically chapter 3.

"Wives, in the same way be submissive to your own husband that, if any of them do not believe the word, they my be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, (2) when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. (3) Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. (4) Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. (5)For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands, (6) like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. Your are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear."

The last week or so, I have been really challenged by the Lord in regards to being submissive to MY husband. When I asked Jeff if he thought I was doing a good job, he said yes. I knew different. Between reading Nancy Wilson's "The Fruit of Her Hands" (which i think EVERY married or engaged woman should read!!!!), and watching a video online (which i will post the link at the end) by Mark Driscoll on marriage and women, I've come to realize there are some big areas of my life i need to change. I'm tempted to re-read 'The Fruit of Her Hands' and this time write everything that comes to mind down.

Lately, though, I've been convicted specifically about what submission looks like. I am Jeff's helper. My job is to help him with things. If he needs my advice or opinion, I give it and leave the ultimate decision up to him. The curses that Eve received as a result of eating the fruit is 1. childbearing will be painful (this i knew) and 2. women will want to dominate over the men. They will have a really difficult time submitting to the head of the household. (this i did NOT know! but it makes perfect sense). Learning this has been a great joy. It's removed a heavy burden off of my shoulders. Together we watched the 'marriage and men' video by Mark Driscoll and it was amazing! It really helped me realize what God calls married men to do for the home, wife, children. Again, burden gone. Praise our God!! I cannot stress enough how much i think married couples should watch these videos!

I've also been learning that my duties as a homemaker bring pleasure to God; as long as I do them with a cheerful heart/mind/attitude, etc... So, today, i was 'joyfully' dusting the blinds.....as joyful as you can get while doing that. Pretty sure the whole time i was saying 'Lord, please fill my heart with joy...' over and over and over. :) But seriously, working hard in the home not only brings happiness to my God, but also to my husband. And i want to please both.

I'm learning to focus on God more than myself or Jeff or Roman. Now, you may say, well duh!, but this is actually a difficult thing to do. Keeping God the focus of my day is quite hard when Roman doesn't nap well, i have a dirty home to clean, dinner to figure out, run here and there.... it's easy to get caught up in the day. But I'm going to take things slower from now on, and just learn who and how and what God wants me to be and act and do. I'm really pumped!

There is SO much more that I've learned, but my brain is going a bazillion miles a minute i cant get my thoughts in order. If you'd like to chat w/ me more about it though, let me know! I'd LOVE to! :)

Here's that link: http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/trial/marriage-and-women
and here's the one about men and marriage: http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/trial/marriage-and-men

SO GOOD! WATCH THEM BOTH!!!