Vows

Our wedding vows are hung on a wall in our kitchen. They've been up in our home since we've been married. We carried them with us when we moved to Denver several years ago and hung them in our foyer. And when we returned to Tampa, we hung them back on our kitchen wall.

But how often do I take a moment and read our vows in order to remember what I promised to my husband and to Jesus? Two nights ago while we were sitting at our table eating dinner, Vipul said "I've been thinking about something. I think we should make it a priority to read our vows every day. I think it would be much harder to be upset with one another if we're remembering our vows each day." Wow, how he blessed my heart when he spoke those words. Here are the vows we each wrote over 6 years ago.

Vipul's:

I promise from the depths of my heart,

To love you always as I love myself,

To serve you by placing your needs before my own,

And to stand guard over our home.

I promise to always strive to be an example of Christ and His sacrifice,

Giving grace, mercy, and security in abundance,

And to remain forever faithful and true to you,

Letting nothing but death separate us.

Mine:

I promise to love you, to be faithful to you,

And to submit to you as to the Lord all the days of my life.

I commit myself to making a home where you will feel fully accepted, appreciated, and respected.

I promise to help you embrace the significance that you already have in Christ.

Until the Lord takes my last breath, I shall remain forever by your side.

Lord, please engrave these vows on my heart and help me to live them out each and every day through Your strength and grace.

Anlon's 7 months old!

Since Anlon's birth, I've been making notes in his baby book, as well as a special calendar box that has large dated index cards in it on which I try to jot down something about Anlon each day. I have missed some days, but overall I've done surprising well (thanks to Christina for such a thoughtful gift).

Wednesday my note was about his first little tooth that's just come to the surface! Vipul and I affectionately call it "Bitey". It's still too close to his gum line to see well, but we can definitely feel it. It's right where I suspected his first tooth would arrive - on the bottom left front. While eating oatmeal, Bitey kept sticking a little to the spoon after each bite! I bet our little man's going to look adorable with his first little tooth!

Speaking of teeth, the new face he just starting making is to smile so big that all of his top gums show and he squints his eyes at the same time. It's the funniest thing!!! Unfortunately, we haven't been able to capture it with the camera yet. But I did get it on video the other day (which I can't share at this time because the file size is too large - we need to take some video with our i-phone so that it can be more easily uploaded).

Over the last week and a half, Anlon's been making steady progress with sitting up by himself. Last Thursday while we were at the Space Shuttle Discovery launch with Amber and Sam (see Amber's Articles for her blog of our memorable day - with a couple of cute Anlon pics), he sat up for what seemed like a long time - really only about 30 seconds :) But it was the longest stretch he had done at that time. The last few days he's sat up without support for quite a bit longer and I think he's close to mastering this skill! I'm looking forward to this because it will open up new ways that he can play. I'm looking forward to sitting him on our kitchen floor and letting him play with bowls, etc.  Here are a couple of pictures from our trip to the Shuttle launch - he was wonderful the whole day.

He still absolutely LOVES hands - his own and ours. He stares at his hands a lot while moving his fingers in different ways. The other day he was laying in my lap and I started to open and close my hand slowly, moving each finger separately. And as he was staring in amazement, I noticed his little hand by his side as he was slowing opening and closing it. What a special moment this was. I wonder if he's going to grow up to be a pianist or maybe a surgeon like his daddy.

He's also more fascinated that ever with ceiling fans. In fact, I have to make sure the fan in his room is off when I nurse him or he won't stop staring at it (and now the lights have to be off as well or he will look around instead of eating). If we're carrying him over our shoulder and he sees a fan on, he arches and turns his head back to watch it. Recently we were visiting Vipul's parents and they have three fans in their bedroom. One morning, Vipul took him into their room so we could get a little more rest. They said he was so excited as he looked from one fan to the next - fan heaven! I love that Anlon loves the simple things in life :)

He really is such an easygoing, happy baby. He loves people, animals (especially his big sister Sebo), music, all toys, rides in the car (as long as he's not overtired), his crib, baths, the outdoors, books... boy does he loves books. I can read 4 books to him at one sitting and believe it or not he stays interested the whole time! He looks at every page and often smiles. The other day I went a little crazy and bought him 8 new books (although 5 of them were only $1 at Target!). He already has quite the library. We might need another bookshelf soon - and if you've seen our current bookshelves that's saying something :)

 

Anlon loves to talk and makes a lot of consonant sounds now. Vipul points to himself and says "Dada" and I point to myself and say "Mama". Then we touch him and say "Anlon." He loves this and gets especially excited when I slowly say Ma-ma - I think because he can't say "ma" yet and wonders how I make that sound.

He's enjoying his new array of meal choices (although so far they're really more like snacks than meals, which is fine since at this point it's more about getting in a routine of eating solids and tasting new flavors than getting his nutritional needs met from food). He's had rice cereal, oatmeal, avocado, peas, green beans, squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, prunes, apples and pears. I've held off on bananas since they can be constipating for babies and he's struggled with that since beginning solids, but we're going to try them next. The dietitian in me has definitely come out and I've held off on mixing foods much since I want him to first appreciate the flavor of each food alone. But I think we're about ready to start combinations, which will be very exciting!

Vipul often refers to Anlon as "Spudling" or "Budling" and I actually didn't realize until today that I've been calling him "Boogey" a lot. I think I've said it more when it's just the two of us and didn't think about it until today. I thank God every day for my Boogey.