The Fanning Four

As many of you know, I play oboe in the Panama City Pops orchestra. I LOVE it. We have a major concert tonight. It will be a celebration of Panama City's 100th year and it is at the civic center. Two guest composers have written pieces for the occasion. And we have been rehearsaing our butts....er, I mean, lips off this week. So, needless to say, music has been on my brain. Last night during rehearsal I was missing the good ol' high school band days and thinking about how much I learned from band. I was fortunate to be in an incredible music program with great teachers. This train of thought led me to think about the parallels between music and my faith. And here's what I came up with (During rests,I jotted them all down on an old bulletin)..... 1. First and foremost you have to watch the conductor. Without him, everything gets off track. But if you keep your eyes on him, you won't miss the beat. The parallel is fairly obvious I reckon'. 2. Strive for perfection- al...

Because it's all I think about....another sleep post Well, the E.A.S.Y. routine is definitely one that I like. And it has stretched her feedings from every two hours to every three. I definitely can reconize tired cues now. But we have yet to conquer falling asleep on her own and staying asleep longer than 45 minutes. I am still rocking her, putting paci in, waiting until she's asleep and then putting her in the crib. When she cries I replace the paci and hope she goes back to sleep. The Baby Whisper solution for getting them to fall asleep on their own doesn't work well for us so that's out and we're back to the drawing board. Here's what I want to know: 1. Is it ok they way things are going? Should I just leave it as is? She sleeps so well at night- last night almost 11 hours without waking up. I don't want to mess that up. She still seems generaly happy during the day and I don't mind too much having to occasionaly drive her around or take her into my...

As you saw in the post from right after Thanksgiving, sleep has been the big issue around here lately. The week after Thanksgiving I vowed to get Bethany sleeping in her crib for naps. So that Tuesday (she had her shots on Monday) I started rocking her and putting her in her crib. She had no trouble going down but wouldn't sleep for more than a half an hour or so at a time. Still, I was happy she was sleeping in her crib. Well on Friday afternoon, I tried doing the same thing I had been doing all week and she screamed and screamed and screamed. Same verse same as the first on Saturday, Sunday, Monday.... Um, there is no way this is happening to me!!! Aaaaahhhhh! This sent me into an anxiety filled quest for solutions. I posted a note about it on facebook and got 24 replies. 24 different opinions!! Aaaaahhh! So, like any obsessive new parent, I went and bought every suggested book, and a humidifier, oh and a Rainforest Crib soother (which I promptly broke- a story for another day). ...

This is a blog entry I started right after Thanksgiving and never finished but here it is anyways... Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We had a full house- my parents and grandparents, his parents, and his sister and brother in law. Only one missing was George who had to work on Friday. : ( I cooked a turkey and Jean brought a ham. Everyone else brought a sidedish or two so it worked out really nice and everything was so good! Bethany had milk but next year she'll be ready for the feast!! Bethany is now four months old and it's amazing to see how much she is learning now! She loves the exersaucer, is in full swing teething, and loves to grab for toys. My big dillema right now is how to get her to take naps in her crib and to fall asleep for them own her own (if that's possible). Unfortunately we have gotten in the habit of taking her into our bed and helping her fall asleep there during her naps. When I see she's getting tired, I take her in there, put the paci in...

Got this from a friend's blog and thought I would play along. The first goes like this: Go to your 6th picture folder Choose the 6th photo Pray you remember the details (post) Tag 5 others (If you're reading this- I tag you!) My folders are combined with ones from Tom so I started with the folders since I moved in and this is what I landed on. Unfortunately not a good picture. But this was when we borrowed some friend's kayaks and went kayaking out in the lagoon. It was about this time last year and it was a beautiful day- we saw lots of little jellyfish too! That's Tom out in the distance. Oh and I just rememberd I cut my finger somehow while kayaking. Also,we went and looked at the really big houses on the water. What fun! And now the other is a set of get to know you questions: What was your favorite birthday? - Oh geeze, I have no idea! I LOVE birthdays so I have loved almost all my birthdays. And I've had so many friends make so many of them special! I love s...

First, a story.... So, about a week and a half ago I go to get Bethany from her crib in the morning and she is soaking wet. Her crib sheets are also soaking wet!! I quickly yell for Tom - I'm going to need backup for this one. So as he starts to chnage her and I start to change the sheets I propose my theory. "It must be the Target diapers- they leak. We'll have to stick with name brand." No sooner do I say that, then Tom starts laughing. "What?", I ask. "I forgot to put a diaper on her last night before bed", he replies. Straight from the bath to the pjs!!! Ahhhhaaaa! Hope she enjoyed her night of freedom from diapers! And now here are some pictures: Our little punkin' Big ol' dimples!! Dressed up for Book Babes at the library! Bathtime and big beautiful eyes! 12 weeks old!

At the end of my last semester of college,sitting in my discussion class for my internship my professor told us that we were now the experts. We all laughed when he said it. It just didn't seem possible that we could be an expert in any subject at this young age. But he persisted. "You are the experts in the field of child development. After studying this subject for the past four years, you now know more than most of the population about the development of children." While this may be true, I still question, "I'm the expert??" And to back up my case I present the following evidence: First I must tell you that whenever the subject of parenting came up I would always say that I thought it was the parents who contributed to a lot of the tantrums and discipline problems their children had. As "an expert", I would wisely state; "If you take a hungry, tired child into the grocery store at rush hour at the end of a long day, they will have a meltdow...