Well, we're back from our trek up north. We took off Wednesday night for up north to visit my Parents. They took care of Jayden for us while we went up for a little vacation time in Minneapolis, MN. On our way we stopped at Cabela's to see what they had for camping supplies...needless-to-say they were out of what we were looking for. :( Then we stopped at the Medford Outlet Center.
While in Minneapolis we stayed at the Marriott's Fairfield Inn which was directly across from the Mall of America (MOA). We did our power shopping on Friday. I wish I wore a pedometer as I'm sure we probably walked about 20 miles, or at least it seemed like it. We covered all floors about 2-3 times. After the power-shopping we went back to Ikea (which is conveniently across from the MOA) to pick up some more items that we didn't pick up on our trip there on Thursday night.
As for shopping goes, I found quite a few things to wear from various stores in the MOA, but Kim wasn't as fortunate. So on our way back we stopped at Kohls in Burnsville and finally at the Burnsville Mall. Kim found a ton of clothes she liked at Kohls and a few more in the Mall. The best thing about the whole trip was that clothes are tax free in Minnesota.
We had a wonderful time up north even though it was the coldest time of the spring season to visit. It was in the 30s the mornings we were up there. We hope Jayden didn't wear out Grandpa and Grandma too much. :) (He's working on his 4th tooth so he was a little cranky for them on Friday.)
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Monday, April 11, 2005
Where is Your Faith
A while back Kim and I watched the movie Bowling for Columbine. At first I was sceptical of even watching anything by Michael Moore as I thought he was "too far out there". I didn't agree with some of the things that he protrayed, but some of the things he expressed made me think of other areas that, during our day-to-day activities, we so often are all a frazel about.
In these short 7 months of Jayden's life we have been in many conversations with people on parenting issues, most of these converstions are by chance, and all of which are with relatives, friends, aquaintences and strangers you meet in Target that want to know about "your little one." And not one conversation has the same point of view: We all parent differently.
Quite often we are bombarded by so many different media's points of view that we often don't just rely on our faith and "instincts". For example, many people are in constant worry about what little Jane or Johny can and can't eat. Should she/he be eating all organic? Don't get me wrong, organic foods are awesome, in fact, my Dad grows organic crops. I eat organic foods, as well as, non-organic foods. Growing up on a farm I ate non-organic foods and I myself am healthy as can be. If you really want to know the whole truth, my family actually dipped milk out of the bulk-milk tank when growing up (my Dad also milked cows) and drank it...it wasn't even pasturized. Oh My! :)
I guess my whole point to this article is to express that people need to just relax and raise their children in the way they see fit. We as parents are the ones responsible for raising Jayden in a healthy and loving way. We listen to his needs and feed him what's best. We do reference a book from time to time, but we don't need the book to raise Jayden every day of his life. Kim and I have wonderful loving parents and back in the day when they raised us didn't raise us by a book. After all, babies don't come with an owner's manual. So, where is your faith? Do you rely on God to raise your child and not on what some book and sometimes doctor tells you what you should and should not do? It's always nice to have the advice and opinions from other parents, but most importantly your child is going to tell you what she or he needs, and it may not be "by the book" or what your doctor will tell you. Just listen to your child.
So, speaking of Jayden, He's working on his third tooth. It's been kind of a ride for him. It's not quite through yet, but it's peeking! He still has yet to figure out what rolling over is, or that his tummy is not really a bad thing. So, the inevitible crawling will probably never happen, or we'll be old and gray by then! He is definately into people food, which makes eating a meal with him twice as more fun. He gets mad when he cannot hold something in his hand to feed himself. It won't be long and he'll be able to do it all himself!
With this nice weather we have gotten him out to some local parks for entertainment. He loves to swing and has figured out that sand tastes good! Over the weekend we broke down and bought a bike trailer for him to go riding in so we can finally get back to biking! (Kim is very happy!) We made the trip to a bike trail the other day and Jayden LOVED every minute of it. He still needs to grow into his helmet but it won't be long. So biking season has begun and Jayden is in for the ride!! Look out summer here we come!
In these short 7 months of Jayden's life we have been in many conversations with people on parenting issues, most of these converstions are by chance, and all of which are with relatives, friends, aquaintences and strangers you meet in Target that want to know about "your little one." And not one conversation has the same point of view: We all parent differently.
Quite often we are bombarded by so many different media's points of view that we often don't just rely on our faith and "instincts". For example, many people are in constant worry about what little Jane or Johny can and can't eat. Should she/he be eating all organic? Don't get me wrong, organic foods are awesome, in fact, my Dad grows organic crops. I eat organic foods, as well as, non-organic foods. Growing up on a farm I ate non-organic foods and I myself am healthy as can be. If you really want to know the whole truth, my family actually dipped milk out of the bulk-milk tank when growing up (my Dad also milked cows) and drank it...it wasn't even pasturized. Oh My! :)
I guess my whole point to this article is to express that people need to just relax and raise their children in the way they see fit. We as parents are the ones responsible for raising Jayden in a healthy and loving way. We listen to his needs and feed him what's best. We do reference a book from time to time, but we don't need the book to raise Jayden every day of his life. Kim and I have wonderful loving parents and back in the day when they raised us didn't raise us by a book. After all, babies don't come with an owner's manual. So, where is your faith? Do you rely on God to raise your child and not on what some book and sometimes doctor tells you what you should and should not do? It's always nice to have the advice and opinions from other parents, but most importantly your child is going to tell you what she or he needs, and it may not be "by the book" or what your doctor will tell you. Just listen to your child.
So, speaking of Jayden, He's working on his third tooth. It's been kind of a ride for him. It's not quite through yet, but it's peeking! He still has yet to figure out what rolling over is, or that his tummy is not really a bad thing. So, the inevitible crawling will probably never happen, or we'll be old and gray by then! He is definately into people food, which makes eating a meal with him twice as more fun. He gets mad when he cannot hold something in his hand to feed himself. It won't be long and he'll be able to do it all himself!
With this nice weather we have gotten him out to some local parks for entertainment. He loves to swing and has figured out that sand tastes good! Over the weekend we broke down and bought a bike trailer for him to go riding in so we can finally get back to biking! (Kim is very happy!) We made the trip to a bike trail the other day and Jayden LOVED every minute of it. He still needs to grow into his helmet but it won't be long. So biking season has begun and Jayden is in for the ride!! Look out summer here we come!
Matthew 7:1 - "Do not judge, or you too will be judged."
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Something New
OK. Finally, I'm updating my blog and the design. I decided to give Wordpress a try. It's pretty cool so far, but I haven't gotten the gallery to fit into the whole theme just yet. The gallery and web cam are now links under the pages structure. More will come later as I figure more things out. Hopefully the Google robots will find my site friendly and provide some better search results that actually point to links. :)
To give you an update on Jayden. He's now 7+ months old and is getting more "grown" up everyday. He's sitting up in shopping carts by himself and has graduated to a bigger car seat. He likes to play in water and likes to wear his shades outside. Pictures of Jayen at 7 months. He also likes to visit the farm and see the baby calves. While we were up at the farm this last weekend we also celebrated my Grandfather's 80th birthday. It was pretty cool. My Grandmother had kept some items that my Great Grandmother had kept for my Grandpa. One of those items was a speach that he had written for school and then his first baby tooth. :) Kind of neat to be able to hang on to something like that for 80 years.
Kim's doing great now that she gets to go outside and play with Jayden. She's looking forward to working for Campfire USA for about 2 weeks here in the Spring.
To give you an update on Jayden. He's now 7+ months old and is getting more "grown" up everyday. He's sitting up in shopping carts by himself and has graduated to a bigger car seat. He likes to play in water and likes to wear his shades outside. Pictures of Jayen at 7 months. He also likes to visit the farm and see the baby calves. While we were up at the farm this last weekend we also celebrated my Grandfather's 80th birthday. It was pretty cool. My Grandmother had kept some items that my Great Grandmother had kept for my Grandpa. One of those items was a speach that he had written for school and then his first baby tooth. :) Kind of neat to be able to hang on to something like that for 80 years.
Kim's doing great now that she gets to go outside and play with Jayden. She's looking forward to working for Campfire USA for about 2 weeks here in the Spring.
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