Big Changes

There have been so many changes for the Ottos the past few weeks, one of the more exciting ones being that Moses took his first steps yesterday. He took two steps from a piece of furniture to me, and then later on took a series of five steps in the kitchen and a whopping six steps at the library. Nick asked me if he seemed proud of himself, but honestly he doesn't even seem to be aware of what he is doing. I guess to him it is no big deal.

Moses had his nine month appointment last week with Dr. Nicklas, our pediatrician. Moses' food allergy issues have been somewhat out of control for the past month with lots of colic, bloody diapers, and dietary mistakes on my part, but Dr. Nicklas encouraged us to persevere with breastfeeding until the 12 month appointment and just do the best we can with the diet. Even with our many mistakes and the discomfort that results for Moses, he is still getting more benefit from the breast milk than any harm being caused to his digestive system. That was certainly a relief to me and to Nick!

Moses measured 20 pounds, 9 ounces and 29.25 inches long (both in the 45th percentile). His head circumference, however, was in the 95th percentile - I guess we all saw that one coming! It's very unlikely that there is any real problem, but Moses has to go back to the pediatrician in a few weeks to get his head size checked again just in case.

In other news, I am very excited to have taken on three new endeavors in the past few weeks. First my friend, Abby, hooked me up with a gig writing blogs with her for this antique company. So far I've gotten to write about pocket watch dating and gold hallmarking (the kind of stuff that keeps most of you up at night, I know!). It is a good mom job because it only requires a few hours a month, and it gives me a way to remember all that I learned at my last antique job.

Secondly, a single dad, Victor, and his four year old daughter, Ashley, recently moved into the third floor of our building (just above us). They were friends of Stephen and Abby, so we had gotten to meet them a few times over the years, but now we are getting to know them much better because I have been taking care of Ashley for a few hours on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings before school and all day on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Surprisingly I have found that taking care of a four year old plus a baby is not that much more work than taking care of Moses by himself. Ashley provides a lot of entertainment for him! She is very much into the Disney princesses, fairies, jewelry, dolls, and anything pink (basically everything I was NOT into at her age!). She also enjoys elaborate games of pretend. One day she spent several hours pretending that she was the mom, Moses wad the dad, and I was their baby. Moses even had to wear a tie! I think this will be a good experience for Moses to help him learn to be around other kids and learn to share his mama.

My third new project, and the one I am most excited about, is helping out a team of Wycliffe Bible Translators working in Nigeria by checking their OT translation drafts for accuracy. Right now I am working on a translation of Judges for the Ika language group. This is a language currently spoken by over 22,000 people who have no access to the Scriptures in their own language. The hope is that volunteers in the US like me will be able to help them accelerate the translation process so that these people can have a Bible in their language sooner and Wycliffe can meet its goal of having a translation project started in every language that needs one by the year 2025. Many of you know how much I have longed to be a part of this work, so I am incredibly grateful to God that he has provided a way for me to be involved and be a stay-at-home mom at the same time. Right now I am in a trial period so to speak, but I should find out next week if I have been officially welcomed to the translation team.