{ A Post Without Photos }

Crazy, I know. But I haven't downloaded photos from my camera in a while, and if I do that...that's all that will happen tonight, and I won't write a post at all. So pictureless will have to do for now.

Lately the busyness has kicked up a notch in my life: manageable, but definitely more activities than the first couple months of Lainie's life. I'm slowly figuring out the balance that works best for us, though I'm sure that will constantly shift as Little Miss grows. She will be 12 weeks old tomorrow--how is that possible?! Tonight as I was rocking her to sleep and praying for her, I got all teared up thinking about her future husband...no way can I imagine her growing up and leaving home and getting married. One day at a time, Nikki, one day at a time...

Recently I realized I don't have a baby book. Doh. I'm going to get one, but that's my current excuse for why this blog is functioning mostly as a recording device for Lainie's development. In the last week or so, she has started taking pretty consistent morning naps, falling asleep between 10 and 11 and sleeping for 3-4 hours. It's heavenly! Around the same time she also started to enjoy being held facing out. She's always been our little observer, intently studying her surroundings, but this seems like such a big girl thing.

Yesterday Lainie started gnawing on her left hand like mad. A few times she managed to get just her thumb in her mouth, and would very cautiously suck a couple of times before proceeding to shove in as much of her fist as possible. She doesn't want the pacifier when I offer it, and happily goes right back to gnawing on her hand for minutes at a time. Makes me wonder if she's getting close to teething--she's been drooling a lot the past couple weeks. It's pretty darn cute, no matter why she does it.

This morning Lainie and I went to baby storytime at the local library for the first time. My friend Krissy {5-month-old Julia's mom} told me about it, and they joined us. It's for newborns through 18 months, and was a lot of fun: singing, peek-a-boo, games, simple books. Lainie seems a little young for some of the activities, but she was enthralled {think very intent observing} till the end when she fell asleep--apparently it was also exhausting. ;-)

Today Lainie and I also went to Mike's work and had lunch with him. Why I've never done this before, I don't know. I'm probably a bad wife or something. Mike loved it--he was practically glowing--and Lainie was such a trooper, considering that she'd already gone to storytime and had two interrupted naplets. We had burgers, fries, and a chocolate milkshake, and then Mike showed us his office. We met a few of his coworkers too.

Speaking of Mike's work...on Sunday our real estate agent showed us some houses closer to Microsoft. The 1- to 1.5 hour commute {each way} is driving Mike nuts, and no wonder! The reason we bought our current condo is because I was working at the time and had to be able to get to the hospital within 30 minutes when I was paged. That's no longer a consideration, so closer to Microsoft we go. It makes us both really sad to think of leaving the awesome community we have here...we will miss being so close to really good friends...though I'd love for Mike to spend less time on the road, I'm dragging my feet because of all the people we'll be moving further away from. But good golly, houses are expensive! And a lot of the houses in our price range leave, ahem, much to be desired. There was one where I asked Mike not to set Lainie's carseat on the floor, and he was like, "I have no intentions of setting her down anywhere in here!" Another time, Mike was like, "This house is a total crack den," to which our friend/agent replied, "Are you kidding? I've seen crack dens nicer than this place!" Sooooo, we are still looking. If Jesus wants us to move, the fact that we find a decent place within our price range will be our green light!

In other news: Mike is going sort of Paleo, so I'm trying to cook mostly Paleo-ish dishes nowadays. It's not as bad/hard/awful/impossible as I expected. {Isn't it awful that that's what I expected?!} I haven't lost any weight since Lainie was born, so hopefully this will be a good thing for me too.

I've spent a lot of time the last few days helping coordinate a place to stay for Cori, a childhood friend whose husband Israel is currently hospitalized in downtown Seattle. They live in Alaska, and last week Israel was in a horrible car accident that severed both his legs. He was transferred down here because of the severity of his injuries. They know very few people here, so I reached out to our church community in the downtown area to see if anyone could help Cori with housing, since Israel is expected to be hospitalized for quite some time. Within 20 minutes of posting the need on the church website, a lady called me, offering the spare bedroom in their home for as long as needed. Over the next two days, five other people offered their homes as well, and more people inquired but I figured six options is enough for now! I am continually amazed at God's work in the lives of His people. This kind of generosity toward complete strangers isn't "normal." When we were the recipients of this same generosity for Lainie's hospitalization, I mostly felt relief that we had a place to stay. I was overwhelmed and incredibly thankful, but I don't remember being excited...perhaps because there was still a lot of fear over how sick Lainie might be after birth. But being a tiny part of extending that generosity to someone else? So exciting!! It is so awesome to see people opening their homes and lives to a sister in Christ they don't even know. It is so cool to see the body of Christ doing its job so well. It really is better to give than to receive. {For updates on Cori and Israel, visit their website here.}

I'd better go for now...Lainie is asleep and I should be, too.