PT

Today has been a long day so far and it's only lunchtime. This morning we had to take Charlie to physical therapy for his Torticollis. Torticollis is a condition that occurs when the muscle on one side of a baby's neck becomes tighter than the other, pulling the head and neck to that side. His is getting so bad that his shoulder is now also being affected - he's holding it up by his ear. Apparently he was born with this and it occured because of how he was positioned in the womb. We've known that he has this condition since he was about 10 weeks old when our pediatrician confirmed Ryan's suspicions that he indeed did have this condition and made this PT appointment for us. His "favoring" his right side has gotten worse in the past 2 weeks so we had started doing some stretches and exercises on our own thanks to our friend the occupational therapist, Megan Gordon. And I'm glad we did. She gave us alot of advice including:
- 4 or 5 stretches to do 3 times a day
- buying a side sleep positioner to get him to sleep on his side
- a way to carry him that's comforting and stretches the tight muscle
- weekly, and if improvements don't come soon, bi-weekly appointments at the clinic

So basically I'm happy he's getting help but I'm worried too. The therapist also pointed out that part of his head is starting to flatten. I know this is common in kids but it's worse for him since he has this additional problem. So she said it's really important for us to fix the issues now because if we don't, we may have to see a PLASTIC SURGEON when he's 9 months or so. That would be awful. :(

Here's a picture of him with his head cocked to the right (you can see his shoulder is pulled up too):


Poor little guy. Pray for him if you think about it (and for me - I think I might hate the exercises more than he does!).

Bumbo

I would just like to take a minute to pay tribute to Charlie's newest gadget, the Bumbo Baby Seat. This seat is really cool - it can be used a seat and as a portable high chair...and babies cannot climb (or fall!) out of them. They are held down by their own weight. It's safe to use as soon as babies can hold their heads up, which Charlie can sort of do. :) As you can see, he loves it (although I'm not sure how he feels about the camera - check out the interesting position of his fingers on his left hand! :)).

Tyke and Scooby like it as well, as it provides them full access to the newest member of the Moody household. Charlie, however, is not too crazy about all the attention from his furry friends. :)

History

Today I figured out how to upload pictures from our digital camera to our computer. Now I realize that is not a hard task but finding a) the time and b) the energy to even exert myself this much has proved to be a challenge in past few months so I am quite proud of my accomplishment.

I downloaded 133 pictures from our camera, dating all the way to December 2004 when the camera joined our family, a Christmas gift from me to Ryan. So in honor of this momentous occasion, I decided to post a few random pictures from our lives in the past 2 years. Enjoy! :)

First, a dark one. My sister, her husband David, Ryan and myself bright and early on Christmas morning '04 (our last Christmas in the home I grew up in, btw - my parents moved last summer). Obviously it was too early for us to operate our camera correctly. :) Since my sibs are still little, we still wake up at the crack of dawn on Christmas. A lot has changed since then, we'll have 2 little ones in this year's Christmas pics!




And the 3 sisters on the same day,
a few hours and cups of coffee later
(the matching PJs were a Christmas gift from me - I'm starting a new tradition). :)












And below is our precious first child, Tyke, also on Christmas sporting his Christmas bandana. The other dog in the picture is O'Dell, an English bulldog purchased for $1500 (!!!!!!!!!!!!) by Anna and David and several months later resold for $1200 (!!!) because David was allergic to him. They were really sad to see him go so they...got pregnant with Tyson!

And Hunter - the baby of the Boatright clan. He's sleepily cheesing it up for the camera along with one of the Boatright Shelties, Mac.

Ahhh, don't miss those Charlottesville winters. Here's Tyke playing in the snow.

One cool thing we got to do quite often while in VA was go to D.C. On this particular (cold!) occasion, we went to attend the inauguration! We drove up with our friends Josh and Jill (now Mr. and Mrs. Hummer), attended the inauguration, ate at the Cheesecake Factory and drove home. Very fun day!

Fast-forward to April '05 - me in our new house shortly after we made the offer to buy. I'm scoping out my new office and telling them where I want the cable hook-up and the phone jack. And our living room (and half of the dining room)!















In early July, about a month or so before we found out Charlie was on the way, we added another canine to our family, Scooby.


And one more for today - Charlie >1 day old....

Funny Picture

For those of you who have perused the "What I'm reading now" portion of my blog, you'll now know why I'm reading "Child Proofing Your Dog." I highly recommend it to those of you with canine and human children.

On doing IT all

On a daily basis, I am a wife, mother, LexisNexis Process Analyst, daughter, sister, friend, dog trainer, cook, maid, and family accountant. And I'm tired. Physically tired, oh yes. But mentally tired is the main thing lately. At the end of every day, I am so mentally exhausted that I can barely function, carry on a conversion or fall asleep at night because of all the many thoughts running through my head: Did Charlie eat enough today and why is he spitting up so much? Did Tyke and Scooby get to go "out"? Is the Indiana product going to release on schedule? Did I remember to pay the water bill? When is Charlie's next doctor appointment? Why is the laudry so piled up? And on and on and on...

At some point during the three years in VA, I read an article in my Shape magazine about woman and careers. I don't really remember much of the article but one portion did stand out (and I'm paraphrazising here): when women are at work, they are feeling guilty about all that they didn't accomplish at home and when they are at home, they feel guilty about everything that didn't get done at work. I am truly struggling under the burden of that guilt right now, in addition to guilty feelings about being a less-than-adequate wife, sister and friend. I know that a certain amount of guilt is par for the course with motherhood so perhaps I'll adjust to these feelings. But for now, I'm struggling.

And to be honest, I'm also fighting a battle with myself over my own needs. Those of you who know me well know that I LOVE going to the gymn. Since I was cleared to exercise at 8 weeks, I've only gone to the gymn about 5 or 6 times. Ideally, I'd like to go 3-4 times a week but now I can't go with any regularity. And this has been hard on me. Going to the gymn is both a hobby and a stress-relief mechanism for me and I'm really missing it. And I must admit that I don't like myself very much when I'm not working out...

So - how do I balance work, marriage, motherhood, friendships and "me" time? I have no idea. I'll guess I'll be pondering this question and working on this balance for the rest of my life.

Quote of the Day
"Do the next thing."
- Elizabeth Elliot

4 years

Last Thursday (June 8) was our 4-year wedding anniversary. Wow. In some ways it seems like yesterday that I was a single college gal living with Janelle on 5th South at Covenant...and in another sense it seems like forever. Because in a very real way, I do not remember who I was pre-Ryan. Yes, it still does sound weird when I hear myself say "Hi, I'm Emily Moody" instead of "Hi, I'm Emily Boatright" but those of you who know me best and have known me the longest will definitely agree that I became the person I am today when I met Ryan. I can honestly say that I had a Ryan-shaped hole in my heart and life and when I met him, dated him, became his fiance and finally married him, that void was filled. In pre-Ryan days, I was lonely, extremely dramatic (yes, much more dramatic than I am now, if you can believe it!), and somewhat emotionally unstable. :) All of that changed the day I met Ryan, in July of 2000...

It was a Sunday night and I had just returned home from vacation in Orlando, FL with the Boatright clan (it was the summer between my junior and senior year of college). 8 days of Disney World, Sea World and all the other "Worlds" that put Orlando on the map had exhausted me beyond belief and needless to say, I was in the mood for some quality time with non-family members. :) So when my high school pal Melanie Consos called me that night asking if I'd like to join her and some friends from church at a coffee house downtown, I agreed. I was tired, sunburned and not ready to return to work the next day but I decided to go anyway, in need of some college-age friend time/activities. So I arrived at the coffee shop and to my surprise, there were 2 strange guys there with Melanie and her church friends: Ryan Moody and his friend Jeb Beckum. Ryan and Jeb were invited to the coffee shop by Melanie's friend (can't for the life of me remember her name!) because this chick had a crush on Ryan (Ryan and Jeb had just arrived in Savannah the week before from Macon and were about to start their 3rd year of medical school). I remember the first time I laid eyes on Ryan...I thought to myself "That guy is kind of cute but he has a big mouth." And then when he stood up, I thought "Oh, too bad. He's WAY too short for me" :) (turns out I was WRONG about that!). Anyway, as the night progressed, I realized that Ryan was "into" me and not so much the girl that had invited him that evening. And I, thinking he was too short and just coming out of a not-so-great relationship with a guy from Covenant, was not too thrilled about the idea. So I tried to maintain maximum neutrality and not give him any encouragement whatsoever when Melanie and I left Ryan and Jeb that night. However, Ryan was not to be deterred. :) He looked up the number to the YMCA where I was working as a lifeguard and called me the NEXT DAY, a mere 12 hours after we said good-bye the night before. I thought, "this guy is such a stalker. NO WAY am I going out with him." So when he asked to me attend his White Coat Ceremony (some fancy party for 3rd year med students) I said "no way." I also said "no way" when he asked me to attend a birthday party for one of his friends (he was posing as a stripper for that party, jumping out of a cake wearing only scrub pants but that's another story), a movie with just him and some other dinner party. One time I even told him "I don't go out on dates alone with just me and a guy" (what a crock). So needless to say, Ryan was not too happy with me. But then, after rejecting him so many times, I felt bad and decided to invite him to an RUF pool party we were having one night (there was one "date" in the middle here when I made Ryan go out with both Melanie and I but I'm skipping some things for the sake of shortening this already-too-long story). I mean, he was new to Savannah and I should at least be nice to him, right? (My mom actually lectured me for not giving him a chance and coerced me into inviting him to this party) :) So anyway, Ryan attended this party with me and we had a blast. All my friends liked him immediately and I had to admit that he was fun. So when he asked me out AGAIN that night, as we were leaving the party, I said yes. We went to a nice Italian restaurant in Savannah and out to the beach to talk and it was the BEST first date I had ever been on. We hit it off and talked the entire time. Incidentally, it was this night that I found out Ryan's last name. We were in his car, driving out to the beach and I happened to look down at his console and saw his hospital ID badge...Ryan Moody. And I said, "I just realized that I didn't even know your last name until just now" and I remember thinking "Moody...That's an interesting name." And as it turns out, one day it would be my last name as well!

So we had a great first date and continued seeing each other almost daily for the next few weeks until I went back to college . After I had been back in Chattanooga for 2 weeks, I realized that I missed Ryan terribly and didn't want to be apart from him. I told Janelle sometime in that first month of our senior year, "You know, I think he's THE ONE." We survived my stressful senior year in which I was the senior class president, trying to keep my grades up to graduate with honors, work full-time and buy a car and Ryan's stressful/crazy 3rd year of med school, working himself to death in his first year actually in a hospital, all the while studying for boards. We saw each other about once a month, talked on the phone constantly, exchanged many letters and fell totally in love. It was the night of the senior class banquet, the day before my graduation from college, when Ryan told me he loved me and though I'd known this fact for some time, I realized that one day I would become his wife. So skip ahead a few months to October 13, 2001 - we got engaged on a pretty fall day on Cumberland Island (nature reserve beach/island a ferry ride from St. Mary's, town in near Savannah). We had a relaxing engagement with me working part time at Veritas Academy teaching first grade and Ryan enjoying the easy life as a 4th year med student. But that would all come to an end soon. We found out Ryan matched at UVa on March 31 and went to Charlottesville 2 weeks later to find an apartment. We found the apartment and moved our stuff to VA on Memorial Day week-end, Ryan graduated from med school the next week-end on June 1, we got married the next week-end after that on June 8, went on our honeymoon the next week and on June 18, packed up the rest of our stuff and our wedding presents in the Rodeo and the Corolla and drove away from Savannah as husband and wife, residents of the state of VA. Ryan began his intern year 4 days later and so began the hardest year (years, really) of both of our lives: Ryan as a 1st year resident and me as a lonely new wife. But God was so faithful and our love was so strong that we made it...and are here 4 years later stronger and closer than we ever could have imagined as a result of those 3 years in Virginia. And now we are back home in GA and have a son! Life just keeps getting better for us. :)

I do have to say that it has been the best 4 years of my life. Ryan is my best friend and I couldn't ask for more from our marriage or our life together. Thank you, honey, for a wonderful 4 years. I can't wait for the next 40! :)


Quote(s) of the Day
Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave. Martin Luther

There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage.
Martin Luther

Non-Calvinists Beware!

My non-Calvinist friends should probably stop reading now as I don't want to risk losing your friendships. :) But for the Reformed readers out there, keep on readin'!

You all must, absolutely must, without delay, checkout this link:
http://maniladrive.blogspot.com/2005/02/semi-pelagian-narrower-catechism.html

It is by far the funniest thing I have read in recent weeks. Some really clever person (a blogger at that!) wrote catechism questions and answers satirizing the non-reformed faith. Now if there is by chance a non-reformed person still reading this entry, I know that you do not all hold to all of the different assertions made in the "Semi-pelagian Narrower Catechism" but the hyperbole just adds to the fun of it all. :)

Just to tempt you, here a few of my personal favorite questions and answers:

9. Q: What is the assurance of thy salvation?
A: The assurance of thy salvation is, that I know the date on which I prayed the Sinner's Prayer, and have duly written this date on an official Decision card.

29. Q: What are the seven deadly sins?
A: The seven deadly sins are smoking, drinking, dancing, card-playing, movie-going, baptizing babies, and having any creed but Christ.

28. Q: Who is on the Lord's side?
A: He who doth support whatsoever is done by the nation of Israel, and who doth renounce the world, the flesh, and the Catholic Church.

The answer to this last question reminds me of one my pet peeves: the fact that some (many, it seems) fellow Christians actually do not believe that our Catholic brothers and sisters are really Christians! It really gets on my nerves to hear fellow Christians talking like all Catholics are going to hell. I am pretty darn sure that there will be plenty of Catholics in heaven, just like there will be plenty of so-called protestants in hell! And whether we like it or not, the Pope speaks for the Christian West so we may as well respect and support him.

OK, enough ranting for today. Enjoy reading the catechism and be sure to let me know some of your favorite questions and answers.

Thanks to my friends Ryan and Megan Gordon for sending me this link - it made my week!

Quote of the day
The quote of the day is, of course, from the Semi-pelagian Narrower Catechism
36. Q: Who is the Holy Spirit?
A: The Holy Spirit is a gentleman who would never barge in.

Family Ways

Last week-end was a busy, busy week-end. We headed to Savannah for my Dad's surprise 50th birthday party on Friday night and Charlie's baptism and Timmy's graduation on Sunday. It was quite a week-end and I've spent the first part of this week recovering. Thankfully Ryan and I have a peaceful place to stay in Savannah - my Aunt Tricia has a beach house on Tybee Island where we always stay. It is really nice and has plenty of room for Ryan, Charlie and I.

Anyway, for some details on the week-end, keep reading...

My dad turned 50 on 4/30 but my mom was late in planning the party so we just had it last week-end. There were about 50 people there and my dad had a blast. The food was great - pulled pork, barbecue chicken and ribs. A friend of the fam cooked it all using his secret spice rub and it was fabulous. My mom set up a big tent and strung lights in it, making a pretty scene. The best part was that my sis and I traded babies and I got to spend the night holding my nephew Tyson while she and my other little sis Caroline loved on Charlie. :) It's so fun to have them both together!

Charlie's baptism...what a special event. I was not prepared for how moving it would be when we stood in front of so many friends and family members and committed our tiny son to the Lord. The implications of that committment are pretty profound and I'm still contemplating how it will (and should) change our lives. Charlie looked PRECIOUS in the vintage baptism gown I purchased and monogrammed with an "M" so that all our children can wear it. Later this week, I'm going to have the bottom of it monogrammed with his initials and the date of the baptism. I'll post some pictures when I have them but unfortunately I'm at the mercy of my technologically impaired father to send me a CD of the pictures that were taken (Ryan and I had a camera issue last week-end). For those of you who don't quite get this infant baptism thing, see my links section for an article explaining why we do it. :)

Timmy is my 18 year old brother, 4th Boatright child. I'm pretty sure he wants to be called "Tim" but I just can't get in the habit - he'll always be "Timmy" to me! Anyway, he graduated on Sunday from my alma mater, Savannah Christian Preparatoy School. Unlike me, Timmy graduation Summa Cum Laude (I only graduated cum laude :)). Timmy is going to University of Georgia this fall, to the animal sciences program (he wants to be a vet!).

We headed home Sunday afternoon after the graduation and an early dinner and I was SO sad to leave. Having Charlie has really made me want to live closer to my family, especially since Anna & David have Tyson. I really want Charlie to know his aunts, uncles and cousins, not to mention his grandparents! So for the first time, I found myself actually thinking that I might one day want to live in or near Savannah again. I guess we'll see what the future holds for the Moodys!


Quote of the day:
The quote of the day today is from one of our many trips down to Savannah on the ugly, 2-lane south GA highways. We inevitably get stuck behind a slowpoke, which makes an already tedious trip even more annoying. On one of those such occaisions, Ryan stated the following:

"You can never get in front of all the dumb asses." - Ryan Moody

Quotes

For those of you who know me well, you know that I love quotes. I love sharing quotes with anyone who will listen (or read) so of course the blogging world is the perfect outlet. :) I am going to attempt to include a "Quote of the Day" in every post in hopes to inspire you loyal readers...or at least to put to good use the quotes I've been diligently collecting since my senior year of high school!

The following is an excerpt from the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. For those of you who haven't read the book, it's kind of a kind of "backwards" story creatively penned by C.S. Lewis to teach us about ourselves, God and the Devil. The book is a series of letters written by Screwtape to Wormwood. Below is a review from amazon.com (you really need to know the premise of the book to appreciate today's quote).

According to amazon.com:

"Each letter is a masterpiece of reverse theology, giving the reader an inside look at the thinking and means of temptation. Tempters, according to Lewis, have two motives: the first is fear of punishment, the second a hunger to consume or dominate other beings. On the other hand, the goal of the Creator is to woo us unto himself or to transform us through his love from "tools into servants and servants into sons." It is the dichotomy between being consumed and subsumed completely into another's identity or being liberated to be utterly ourselves that Lewis explores with his razor-sharp insight and wit."

Screwtapes writes to Wormwood about the Enemy's (God's) intentions for His creatures:

"...He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs--to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best...He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away his hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys."

How do they do that?

A few minutes ago Charlie was fussing in his pack 'n' play so I went to check on him. Turns out he was randomly (and I do mean randomly) covered in pee. There were a few spots on his back, one around one of the leg holes of his outfit and one on the other front/side. And the diaper was not even that soaked. I have no idea how he could pee in so many different places on one outfit. I mean, if it was the whole front or the whole back or the entire outfit, that would be one thing. But these patches of pee? Ah, the mysteries of parenting boys. I bet this doesn't happen with little girls!

Recent happenings

It's been awhile since I've posted and I'm afraid that I have nothing profound to say today due to my current state of exhaustion. Charlie and I just got back last night from a long week-end in Charlottesville. Yes, Charlottesville - the two of us flew to Cville on Thursday sans Ryan to attend the wedding of my closest Charlottesville friend, Jill Abraham (now Jill Hummer). It was a beautiful wedding and thankfully with the help of the Vietnamese seamstress down the road, the bridesmaid dress fit OK. Not my most attractive appearance as a bridesmaid but at least the dress fit. :) The reception was held at Farmington Country Club and the food was phenomenal - pear/gorgonzola/mixed greens salad, fresh asparagus, squash & zucchini, thinly sliced rare fillet, crab-stuffed chicken - YUM. And the wine was a shiraz, which is my all-time favorite.

I'm so happy that I was able to participate in the festivities but the week-end and traveling with an infant has left me more than exhausted. Last night I found myself crying in bed for no reason during Desperate Housewives. And I never cry during that show- watching it is my top guilty pleasure. :) I have to hand it to my little son, though. He was a trooper and still managed to keep sleeping great at night in spite of being away from home and for the most part out of his normal routine. I attribute that to a good disposition and his recently-developed fondness for a little soft frog blanket/stuffed animal/toy thing. He sucks on this little toy and falls right to sleep. It really is precious. As soon as I figure out how to upload pictures from my camera (or as soon as someone emails me some pictures!) I'll post some new pictures of Charlie (who was 8 weeks old yesterday) and some pictures of the wedding. Until then, goodnight blog.

Sleep

As anyone who has ever had a baby knows all too well, sleep becomes the ultimate goal soon after you bring the baby home from the hospital. The evasiveness of this goal, combined with the realization that I would have had a lot more energy had I had a child at 22 instead of 27, has made for a long 7 weeks. One of the more interesting facts about this topic is that mothers all over the country have told me how "lucky" I am in that Charlie slept from about 11:00 or 11:30 pm until 3:00 or 3:30 am (and then again until 7:30 or so) since he was about 3 weeks old, giving me about 6 or so hours of sleep total, divided by that one middle-of-the-night feeding. So the reality that I have been totally exhausted in spite of being "lucky" has made me literally live in fear for the time when he begins to sleep less (and fearful about having any subsequent children who might, horror of horrors, want to eat every 2 or 3 hours during the night). This fear has made the times when I should be sleeping difficult, as I often just toss and turn, waiting for him to wake-up, convinced at any moment that he will become a screamer instead of a sleeper.

And the story of sleep continues...last week-end we visited Ryan's parents in Carrollton, GA and on Friday night the little guy slept from the last feeding (10:30 or 11:00) until 5:45 am! I woke up scared to death, fearing he was dead! But no, he was in his carseat in the bathroom (more on that later) sleeping peacefully. On Saturday night, he slept until 6:45 am!! I woke up at 5:45 in total shock and laid in bed awake waiting for his cry. When it finally came, I responded with JOY, so thankful to my small son for the nearly 6 CONSECUTIVE hours of sleep. For most of this past week, the trend continued - Charlie would wake up between 5 and 6 am.

Then Friday night (as in the night before last) he slept until 7:15! I was again totally shocked. Now I did not get to take advantage of all of that time since he did take about an hour to cry himself to sleep and since Ryan was on call, which entails him getting paged for ICU crises and admissions all night long. But the fact that he showed the ability to sleep that long was worth celebrating. Last night he was back to the 5:30 am wake-up time but that's OK - my little son has showed me that he can sleep until 7am. And I am learning slowly but surely, that this time of sleep deprivation, uncertainty and chaos will pass and that one day, I'll go back to sleeping 8 hours a night...At least until I have another child or until Charlie becomes a teenager and I am awake worrying about his safety instead of his sleep habits. :)

PS - About sleeping in the carseat: Charlie has an aversion for lying down flat on his back and since the American Academy of Pediatrics frowns on stomach sleeping, he sleeps in his carseat. He has done this since he was 2 days old. We've tried the crib with positioners, the crib with sleep wedges that prop up the head, the crib by itself and all resulted in those horrific every 2 hour feedings. In the carseat, he sleeps like an angel, probably feeling cuddled by the small space. We are kind enough to put a blanket in the bottom so he doesn't have to lay on buckles all night long. And of course the carseat is in the crib, safe from the dogs.


Here are some pictures of Easter week-end at the beach (Charlie was 4 weeks old):

The sisters with their boys

"Big Daddy" with his grand-boys:

A single picture...

...to wet your appetite...

Here we come!

Today is the first day of my blogging career. I have known this day was coming for awhile but I didn't know today was IT until I sat down at my computer and found myself googling the word "blog." When I first found out about this blogging thing, I wasn't sure how I felt about it. Posting your thoughts and day to day activities for all of the internet world to read and see? It seemed kind of creepy to me. And I just wasn't sure I'd have an audience. I didn't want to bear the lonliness of never having anyone visit my blog! But thanks to my blogging friends, I'm now a believer. I'm all for any modern convention that allows me to stay in touch with friends who I don't have the pleasure of seeing on a regular basis. And now that I have a child, a blog is the perfect place to post all the many pictures we have taken of him since his entrance into the world 6 weeks ago! :) So enjoy, friends! And be patient with me while I continue to struggle with the "creepiness" of posting - I'm slowly coming around!