"Playing" with Moses

Lately Ilana has become much more attached to Moses than I think he'd like...
Yes, she's still climbing on him (see that right knee, right in the ribs!)...
She's even begun standing on him...
But I really do think that she just loves him TONS, even though he still looks like he thinks his life is over...
Here they are in action (again, don't worry, no one gets hurt)...

He's such a good dog!
-H

Blueberries

We've been feeding Ilana mixed berries for multiple months, but never just plain blueberries. I think it's safe to say she LOVES them. As you can see, she's "singing" with glee...


At first it was just a few for dessert (her hair looks gorgeous in this picture!)...
But then she seemed to enjoy them so much, I thought I'd just give her a few more...
Pretty soon, I think she had a "blueberry coma..."
Needless to say, the next morning her system was...really cleaned out. :) The girl loves blueberries!
-H

When I die...

With all the hype today about Micheal Jackson's death, I have my own mortality on my mind (I know, this is not like any other blog thus far, but go with me for just a little bit).
When I die the news will probably not make a big deal about it, hopefully, no one will worry about what will happen with my children, NBC will probably not have a special report all morning on the last hours, the top 10 moments, or how I've changed culture, the world will not come to the myriad of places I've lived and leave flowers.
But I do hope that a few people will remember the impact I've had on their lives. I hope that Ilana (and any other children we may have) remembers me as a loving, gentle, self-sacrificing Mom. I hope that Paul remembers me as a supportive, loving and gracious wife. I hope that my family remembers me as a committed person - committed to our family and committed to our Lord. I hope my friends remember my smiles, my laugh and all the joy I have in life.
All these things make me want to live a better life, to live for today, to show those that I love how special they are to me. So, thank you, Michael Jackson. Thanks for reminding me to LIVE today and each day. Thanks for reminding me of what's important in life.

-H

11 months

WOW!! Exactly 11 months ago our small family arrived here at Baylor. Click here to see some pictures and read about the journey. It's a real trip down memory lane!
I never thought I'd feel so at home down here. It is hot (we set a new record today: 106 degrees!), but it is good. I recently wrote an update to my aunt:

"Yes, the 'mushkin' is really growing these days. Today we got her a push toy, in hopes to encourage her to walk. She had only been playing with it for a few minutes and sure enough, she pulled herself right up to her feet and started walking with it - CRAZY!!! So, life is wild around here. Paul and I went out to dinner last night. We actually got a wonderful babysitter to come over, play with Ilana, feed her dinner, bathe her and put her to bed. It was a first for us, and it was wonderful!!! We're definitely going to be doing that again! We realized last night that these are probably the best days of our lives. Ilana is (almost) always happy. I have freely chosen to stay home, and I'm loving it. We have a super cool dog. We're living right on campus - which is fun almost all the time. We love our church. We actually have some great friends here. Paul's loving what he's studying and he's loving his work with the outdoor adventure program. Life is GREAT!! This first year has had many challenges, but those challenges have been overshadowed by enormous amounts of joy, peace and grace. We're excited about this next year - to watch Ilana grow, to study and learn more, and for relationships to grow. We know that there will always be gaps in where we'd like to be and where we are, but all in all, we're doing great. We're already starting to get anxious about the 'next step.' This whole school year Paul and I will really be focused on 'where do we go next?' But, we're trying to live in the moment, see what our options are, and hopefully the Lord will answer the rest of the questions. We're really excited to see where we might go next. But for now, we're just trying to make it through the day and enjoy it as much as we can."

So, to celebrate our time here, I thought it would be appropriate to post some pictures of...you guessed it - ILANA!! She is super cute these days. I took her to Cameron Park and just enjoyed watching her explore and begin the road to walking. Cra-zy!
So, here's to a wonderful 11 months, Waco! Thanks for the ride. We're halfway there!

So, besides her diaper showing, this is an absolute favorite. I love that face!
She would do this all day if I'd let her.
She loves it!
But she'll still crawl when Mommy's back has had enough.
JELLIES!! She wears these shoes almost every day. Thanks, Lizzie!
Her name does mean "tree" in Hebrew after all...
Unfortunately my favorite from the day won't load. So, stay tuned and I'll try to get it loaded soon.
-H

Lady Bear

Some children have blankets, some children have teddy bears, our Ilana has...both...a "blankie bear" that we have named Lady Bear. It is a dis-embodied bear head and arms, in the middle of a blanket (see above for details). It is the best of both worlds - the side with the half bear on it is fuzzy soft, while the other side is silky soft. Aunt Valerie got it for her when she was only 3 months old and it has become her comfort. These days we don't go anywhere or do anything without Lady Bear. It's the only way we could get her to sleep through the night.

So you can imagine how distraught we all were when it was time to put her down tonight and Lady Bear was nowhere to be found. After 3 and a half hours of tipping our small apartment upside down I had resigned to the fact that, although Moses had never shown prior interest in Lady Bear, he had destroyed it, eaten it in its entirety and not left any evidence (something Moses would NEVER do). I happened to be walking down the hallway to our bedroom when I saw the folded up shade cover on her stroller, and although Paul and I had "checked the stroller" a hundred times already, I looked in the folds and sure enough...there she was. My heart leaped back to life and with huge smiles we delivered Lady Bear back to our still very upset, not asleep at all little girl. She responded with an enormous grin (one that I will NEVER forget) and immediately rolled over as if to say "I'm tired now, can I go to sleep?" So, we left her and her Lady Bear in peace. We haven't heard a peep from her since (about an hour ago).

The above picture was taken last week (she didn't even want to go into the pool without Lady Bear!), but the picture below was just taken this morning. I'm not sure we could have survived tonight if we had not found Lady Bear. Ah, the apartment is quiet, Ilana has Lady Bear and all is good in the world.
-H

How big is Ilana?

SO BIG!! (It's her new party trick.) :)

She looks a little weird in this picture, but if you blow it up you can see all 5 of her teeth.
Oh yeah, and we eat meals with no bib and no shirt these days, too. She screams and pulls them off anyway. It's a fight we're just not going to win. If Ilana likes to eat topless, let it be! :)
-H

To prove my point further

A couple mornings ago, I was just finishing up the dishes and I heard Ilana making a ruckus in the living room, going on and on "da da da da da!!" I turned around and this is what I saw...

She loves her Dada...and she loves that pool! Maybe we'll leave it inside for awhile. This is way too cute.
-H

Morning Swim

Well, summer has officially hit and in Texas that means one thing: POOL TIME!!! The Pounders bought Ilana her first kiddie pool. So, I blew it up in our living room, not thinking that she would have this much fun with it inside...
Ilana's hair was full of static all morning...
"Fierce Ilana..."
I'm convinced she would have taken her nap in here if I had let her...
She LOVES the pool, if she only knew that soon it will have water in it!!
-H