Tate's Dedication

This past Sunday we had Tate dedicated at our church. To us, having him dedicated meant that we were committing ourselves to raising him in a loving, Christian home. That we would do our best to instill in him Biblical values and bring him up to know (and hopefully accept) the life-saving message and power of Jesus. Having him dedicated at church also meant that we were asking our church body to come alongside us in our efforts and to hold us accountable. If we are not doing our part at some point during his life, we hope that our church family would lovingly confront us. Having a baby dedicated at our church is a very simple, yet intentional, thing to do. There isn't a lot of fanfare, just a simple, short prayer time during the morning service. But to us, it was further solidifying a commitment that we had already made in our hearts before our boys were even born, and bringing our church family in on that commitment as well. And onto other things, Tate is now 9 months old! I don't remember the exact measurements/poundage from his recent doctor's appointment, but he's a little heavier than what Landon was at this point, and he's considerably taller. Both boys were only slightly above average in their weight at this point. Tate is still in the 90th percentile for heighth though. Why on earth do they have to start out so big if they are just going to average out for the most part?!

Here's some noteworthy things for Tate these days:
- He pulls himself up quickly to things and scales across the furniture.
- Everything still goes into his mouth. Everything.
- He goes to bed around 9 p.m. and we "try" to keep him down until 7:30/8:00 a.m., although not always successful. He consistely goes down at 10:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. for naps, usually sleeping for 1 1/2 hours at each nap.
- He has a strong love for Cheerios.
- As of this week, he is completely weaned from nursing.
- He loves splashing in the bathtub.
- He has 8 pearly white teeth.
- I'm pretty sure he says "momma" frequently and intentionally.
- Sometimes he's very serious and observant, yet it's not too difficult to crack a smile from him usually.
- He's recently learned to clap.
- He loves watching and playing alongside Landon.
- His little bum is very cute when he crawls.
- One of his favorite activities is throwing toys off of the coffee table.
- He's a big, big, big joy in our lives!