We had a great drive yesterday. 10 hours in the car all the way from Arlington to Helena, MT. Nolan slept from arlington to Moses Lake where I fed him, then I sat in back with him from Moses Lake to Courdalene, ID and kept him awake and entertained. Then He ate again there and went to sleep all the way to Helena. What a great little traveler. He even had a great visit with Great Grandma Petrino at 2:30am he was a happy boy.
There was a great thunderstorm as we came over the pass last night, it was really neat to see. I always forget how beautiful it is here. Pure blue skies and 85 degree temps, there is nothing to complain about. Tonight we are going to dinner with Keith's Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jeff. I know that Nolan will have fun with that.
Tomorrow we are heading to Big Sky!!! Another of Montana's most beautiful places, we might even take a quick detour through Yellowstone. I lived here for 4 years and never went through it so that is exciting for me as well. Then "Uncle" Karl will meet up with us as well as Grandma Jojo and Grandpa Ken.
When we got back from Washington family ranch we decided it was time for Nolan to sleep in his own bed. I was very sad the first night because I enjoy our in bed snuggles, but I did, reluctantly, lay him down in his crib. I woke up plenty of times that night straining to listen to the monitor, not trusting that it would really alert me to his cries. There were no cries. Nolan slept all the way through the night until 6:30am. That was a little over a week ago and he has been sleeping all the way through the night every night. When he does wake up Keith or I bring him back to bed for some cuddle time. Now, it's just matter of retraining myself to sleep all the way through the might. It's been a really long time since I've done that.
Nolan has taken a liking to his toes. Every time we are changing his diaper he immediately starts reaching for his ankle. Once he has a firm grasp with both hands he will pull his foot all the way to his mouth and start sucking on his big toe as if it were his thumb, making loud slurping noises. Eventually the pull on his leg must be too much because he will lose his grasp and his leg will snap back down. He is very proud of himself for such an accomplishment.
We are in week three of our assignment and I'm having mixed feelings about going home. Something about Young Life camp is so special. When we are here we have such a purpose. Camp is "the best week of their life" for so many high school kids.
This session we have had life signs. Five of the people on our assignment team share their real life stories and how Jesus changes their lives. It is a powerful and healing experience that these people are willing to be so vulnerable and share their brokenness with 700+ high school kids.
This time they have also showed a video from www.PostSecret.com, following that we invite kids to share something they have never told anyone. There are 3x5 cards available for them in the cabins and an anonymous box for them to drop them in. I am crying just thinking about the adult problems these kids have had to suffer. It is NOT fair that they have been robbed of their innocence and their childhood.
Today is Day 4 (the day that the problem of Sin is addressed). It is the day that a lot of tears are shed and a lot of hearts are broken. It is a hard day. We are stuck. There is nothing that we can possibly do to fix the situation. That is why it is called sIn. When we (I) come before God. That is what we saw today in the postsecret video. A world full of I. The Good News is coming tomorrow, but for today we see how wrong this world really is.
Nolan loves bath time. The first few attempts were not so great, I think the water was too cold. Now he enjoys long warm soaks. He will splash the water all over the place if I'm not paying attention. We have even taken him in the big tub in the master bathroom. In there he can swim and float and kick. Once he even fell asleep. Afterward we wrap him up in his ducky bathrobe and cover him in baby oil. Bath time is fun.
Sunscreen has come a long way. I used to hate putting sunscreen on. I still don't like it, but will tolerate it if it means I can avoid skin cancer. I always hated the smell, and if would feel so oily, sometimes even burn. So I looked at a lot of products for Nolan before buying any sunblock.
Before we came to camp I purchased two different kinds of baby sunscreen, one was Nutrogena pure and free sunscreen/ stick combo, it had a small tube of sun lotion, and a stick as well. The other was Hawaiian tropic Baby sunscreen in a stick form. The Nutrogena is a white pasty sunscreen, Nolan squirms and squirms when I put it on, I don't think he likes it much. The Hawaiian tropic looks more like chapstick, it is a clearer looking lotion, and Nolan loves it. I think it is the smell. He will lay there and smile as I rub it on his face. I know he is getting more lotion on with the Hawaiian Tropic, but I feel safer about the Nutrogena. I just don't want him to end up hating sun lotion as much as I did.
My back is not doing very good. When Nolan was 3 weeks old I tweaked it and it continued to hurt a lot, so I went and had an MRI done. It showed 2 herniated disks and 3 bulging disks. Just before we came to camp I had a cortesone shot in the worse of the disks and it really hasn’t helped at all. We are doing a lot of walking here, about ½ a mile down to the dining hall for each meal so about 4+ miles a day. It is great exercise, but I’m really stiff by the end of the day. I even have the Ergo carrier, and it is great for me, but Nolan isn’t a huge fan of it. I have an appointment set up for the 20th of July with the surgeons office to see what the next step will be. Malibu is from July 31st -August 7th and then Soccer starts back up a week or two after that. There will never be a good time to get this fixed, but we will figure it out. The sooner the better.
