More March- dedications and visits.

HI some of you might know my Great Auntie Ruth- Madeline's Great Great Aunt. Well Madeline is named after her (and Greg's Grandma was Ethel Ruth)...

Auntie Ruth has been a missionary in Africa since she was 20yrs old. Now at age 78 she's come home suddenly with very aggressive leukemia and does not have long to go. She's looking forward to meeting God and seeing heaven and is totally at peace. In her life she has worked with a group of people to give them a written language and taught them to read it. She has almost finished translating the entire bible and has trained locals to continue on the work. She gives all glory to God for this as it is not Ruth who has done the work but God working through her enabling her to serve him. She was prophesied over once by a man who was on the original team that agreed she could go to the mission field. He came home after a meeting to decide whether the mission would accept her and said to his wife "she'll be there until the end".

We've had some really blessed times with her in the last little while since she's been home and Madeline was able to visit Auntie Ruth and show her some of her moves and smiles etc.

Here are some of the pics from our last visit.

Auntie Ruth told Madeline about her great Christian heritage- there have been many strong faithful women of God who have gone before us in our family, praying faithfully for their family and future generations that they may come to know the Lord as their personal saviour. It was quite fitting then that Greg and I dedicated Madeline to God on the 2nd of March at Roskill. Our Dads both prayed for Madeline remembering the Christian heritage she has on both sides of her family and committing to raise her in a Christian home- teaching her about Jesus and his unconditional love and forgiveness. It was very moving and as her mum i feel so blessed to be able to offer her back to God to thank Him for His incredible provision to us... she's such a blessing to us and we're so immensely thankful for her life.

My first Kumara!

Where'd you go Granny

February 08

hi

will have to gather the February crawling pics together and post them. "Sorry Sarah did you say crawling?" "Yes that's right Crawling!!!!" Madeline loves to break dance and can currently scoot pretty fast from one toy to the next around in a circle on her belly and go knees up onto toes rock rock rock, lunge forward and then hit her belly down to gain some ground. Very cute but very dangerous as can no longer leave her unattended even for a split second especially on high things like bed and change table. Has to sleep in porta cot when we go places now. Prior to Feb she just rolled everywhere and you can stop rolling with strategically placed pillows but now she's crawling she picks up the pillows and throws them. Will have to be super mum and ultra vigilant when she learns to crawl properly.

getting my groove on... no stopping me now...WICKED!
Here i go Dad....
Helping mummy turn the clothesline- Jolly Jumpering around outside
in my cool new threads... thanks Nanna Lynn!

March- starting solids

Prithika's Sunglasses... cool baby!
With Prithika
With Naomi

Well now that Madeline is 5 months she's started solids. We hope that this will help improve her reflux although it doesn't appear to have mad emuch difference yet. She started will a taste of baby rice about a week ago- see the photos- and has since tried pear, kumara and today had her first pureed apple. Introducing solids is a bit interesting logistically but very very fun and it's great for me to know how much she's eating. We were a bit concerned about her weight but she's so active and happy that the medical people seem to think it's ok. She started off life 1kg heavier than all the other babies and now she's about 2kg lighter - the joys of reflux i guess.

We had greg's 30th the other day but his actually birthday is tomorrow. After the party the 3 Bartons put some wigs on... so we had a go too... Andy, Sophie, Wayne, Lesi
Sophie and Lesi


Also in March a continuation of the crawling phase... no longer is it back legs--> forehead --> tummy--> arms but now we have back legs one at a time followed by one arm then tummy... very clever girl. Can move quite fast now and loves to explore and destroy... so if we visit please remove all plastic bags from floor and little things that might look good enough to eat as everything goes into her mouth!

Also this weekend Greg and i took Madeline to Cornwall park for a picnic and a walk. We had a really nice family time just hanging out. it was actually quite tiring- our first weekend for as long as we can remember with nothing on and no house renovations.

Madeline has totally got the hang of the jolly jumper now too and loves to hang off the clothes line while i put out the washing... i actually forgot she was there the other day and turned the clothesline to hang up a sheet... she thought it was hilarious to fly through the air. She has little leather shoes on her feet so she doesn't stub her toes on the concrete.

have to work out how to post video cos there are some cute crawling ones that will make excellent 21st fodder.

hope you're all well... thanks for looking at this blog

Sarah

before

after