Major Life Changes

How many major life changes can you cram into 6 weeks? Apparently quite a few--just ask us!

Major Life Change #1: Moving

Yes, we are moving again. (I'm pretty sure we're insane.) Actually, an opportunity came along that would be best for our family in the long-run so we are ignoring the fact that the timing is slightly off and moving full-steam ahead. Our landlords own two rental houses and the second came available at the beginning of January. They asked if we would want to look at it because it is "slightly bigger" (their words) than our house. Well, it turns out it is about 200 sq. ft. bigger (900 instead of 7o0) and bigger in all the places it really counts--kitchen, laundry room (our's is literally a sliver now), and the second (kids') bedroom. The yard is more defined, it has a large deck, it is off the main busy street.... I could go on and on. So many things that have made life difficult here (not enough electrical outlets, virtually no closet space, etc.) will be solved with this move. So we really are thankful for the great opportunity, just slightly overwhelmed in the timing.

Major Life Change #2: Having Another Baby

Baby Girl is due to make her appearance in a little over 5 weeks. It's hard to believe it is getting that close! I have a whole list of things that need to be done before she comes, but it's on hold until we get moved.....

Major Life Change #3: New Job

Yes, Seth has just been blessed with a new job, virtually un-looked for. We are excited for the greater financial and schedule stability this will bring to our lives. Starting this coming Tues., Seth will be working in Purchasing/Inside Sales for a computer services company. This job is superior to his previous situation in several ways. First, he received a rather significant raise in his hourly wage! Praise God for providing a way to make more without wringing more hours out of his day. Second, the hours are consistent. Not only will he have a set schedule that will be the same each week, but he will be consistently provided with the number of work hours he needs every week. (His tutoring job was a flux schedule each week with anywhere between 8 and 30 hours offered. Always up in the air makes it hard to budget!) Third, the work itself will require less constant mental effort. Tutoring requires him to always be "up", hour after hour, client after client. It is a very draining kind of job. This new position will be more of a normal "office" type job, which will be a relief from studies.

Major Life Change #4: Becoming a 2-Car Family

I, for one, am having trouble adjusting to this reality. I have never thought of us as having two cars. We're in seminary, for pete's sake. We're poor! Well, God knows that, but He also knows how insanely difficult it was going to be with Seth working 15 miles away 30 hours per week. I was looking at a pretty house-bound existence. And when doctor's appointments and such did require me to have transportation I would have had to take Seth to work, requiring me to wake Benjamin up early, etc. etc. Not fun! Well, early this week we got a call from some friends who had a broken car they were planning to part with. The repair was about $400 and they just decided it was time for them to move on--it's an older car with lots of miles. They were planning to donate it, but decided to see if we could use it first. They offered to just give it to us, we would just have to pay the repair cost. After doing some investigating and realizing how relatively inexpensive the insurance, etc. would be on this older car we decided it is worth the "gamble," even if we only have it for a short time. So Seth will use the second car to get to work and I will have a way to get around with the two munchkins, if need be.

So, that's what's going on in our lives right now. My head is spinning! Occassionally I slow it down enough to write an item or two on the appropriate categorized "to-do list." I guess this is one way to make sure the fatigue of the third trimester can't take over!

Until next time (whenever that may be....)

Febuary 20, 2007 7:30am EST

This is the new (not necessarily improved) date for our scheduled c-section. When the doctor's office called the hospital to schedule for the 16th in MID-NOVEMBER there was already someone scheduled for the 7:30 slot, the only time my doctor could deliver (she was coming to the hospital as a special favor to me before she went to the office for her regular appointments that day). So I will be pregnant for 4 more days, not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but never sounds great to any pregnant woman. Nevertheless, we will be grateful to have a sweet baby girl, whenever it works out for her to arrive. :)

As always, in case of divine intervention, please disregard this notice. :)

Traditions?

Can you call them traditions if you've only done them one year? I guess that's kind of like a "First Annual...(name your event)." Well, traditions or not, here are some of the things we enjoyed as part of our Christmas celebration this year:

-decorating the house Thanksgiving weekend, complete with icicle lights outside (the first year we've ever really had an outside of our own to decorate!)
-cookies & egg nog after we decorated the tree (I remember doing this when I was a kid)
-making a paper snowflake and a special treat (allergen-free brownies this year) to celebrate the first snowfall
-making cookies
-reading Christmas books, especially about the biblical Christmas story
-singing Christmas carols to Benjamin at bedtime
-buying a special ornament for Benjamin (maybe having a different "theme" for each child?)
-having a family picture taken
-sending Christmas cards and an update letter
-having Christmas pj's (just Benjamin)
-reading part of the Christmas story outloud to Benjamin each day in the week leading up to Christmas
-giving to a family in need
-inviting someone to our home who needed a family for Christmas
-attending a Christmas Eve service
-opening our stockings when Benjamin woke up (6:30am! And we thought we'd be exempt this year!)
-eating Kiersten's family's traditional Christmas pastry at breakfast
-reading the Christmas story (from Benjamin's Bible this year) and acting it out with our cloth nativity set
-opening presents one at a time, in rotation
-eating a traditional Christmas dinner (yum!)
-watching Christmas movies

Never Behind

One of my favorite quotations lately is from flylady.net (so far helping my organization): "You are never behind. Jump in where you are." So that's what I'm going to do.

We had a GREAT Christmas season. How about you? This year was a break- through for me in terms of stress, perfectionism, organization, and expectations. For once I was able to identify the things that were truly important to me, make plans to help them happen, exercise discipline in carrying out those plans, and then let go of the things that didn't come to pass (like the gingerbread cookies for which the dough is still sitting, plastic wrapped, in my fridge! Maybe I'll make them tomorrow!) Consequently, I had a great time with my family in both planned and spontaneous celebrations of the season. I'm still smiling! :)

To summarize, we stayed here in Louisville this year. We were sad to make our Moms sad (and to not be with our families), but this seemed like the best decision since Christmas Day I was 32 weeks pregnant! The doctor wasn't crazy about me traveling that far and based on how I was feeling by that time I wouldn't have been crazy about it either! So we had a little stay-at-home family Christmas. It was a precious time with Seth and Benjamin. We will always remember this as the first year we actually "made Christmas happen" for our little family. We felt like real grown-ups! Christmas afternoon we had some close friends over for dinner; they had their first baby 11 days before Christmas and so were also unable to travel. It was such a relaxed, blessed time.






































Two days after Christmas we took the short trip to Nashville to be with Seth's sister Vicki and her family (including Benjamin's cousins, Siena [almost 5], Paris and Zack [3].) As always, Benjamin had a great time with the kids and they with him. Some highlights were: improving his walking skills, taking his first bubble bath with Zack and Paris, and wearing his new Mickey Mouse pj's, made by Aunt Vicki, matching Zack's.

The New Year rang in simply with some of our "cards friends" (we are addicted to Nertz) and lots of snacks. New Years Day Seth played some Halo2 (translation: video game) with another friend while his wife and I went "shopping"--we each came home with a pair of socks and a Starbucks.

The month passed quickly in terms of Benjamin's development as well. He is becoming quite independant in a number of (good) ways. Walking has been his biggest accomplishment. For quite a while after the initial independant steps he still preferred "cruising" (using furniture and walls for support) or crawling as more reliable modes of transport. A couple of weeks ago we noticed he would take off for the middle of the room more often, without prompting. Christmas Eve we were at a friend's house where he had lots of room to roam (as opposed to our small house), and he amazed us with how brave he became. But the greatest improvement came through spending those few days with his cousins. By the time we came home he was definitely over the "mental barrier" and is now walking around the house like a pro!

Toward independance, Benjamin can also now help dress himself, blow his nose on command, open and close doors/drawers, turn lights on and off, help pick up his toys, and obey simple commands (like "come to Mama," "don't touch," and "obey Mama please").

Personally, I am most excited that he now says "Mama" almost as frequently as he says "Dada," although he is still very much a Daddy's boy. By way of family awareness, he is now showing a slight interest in babies and will even respond to the question, "where's our baby?" by patting my belly. Of course, he usually follows this with emphatically patting his own chest with both hands, as if to say, "AND me!" (We actually think this is a sign he made up for himself. He uses it when we are talking about him.)

I'll end with two cute book stories and then get to adding pictures. :)

One night I was reading the book "Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?" outloud. Benjamin is very "into" books. The trouble is, he doesn't really like you to read them, he just wants to flip the pages. As I attempted to read he kept turning pages, ultimately always flipping back to the first page, meaning I read that page over and over again. "Oh the wonderful things Mr. Brown can do. He can sound like a cow. He can go MOO! MOO!" Eventually Benjamin lost interest and moved on to walking round and round the coffee table. It took a few seconds before I realized he was saying, "mmmMMM, mmmMMM" (hint: it sounded just like..."MOO!") Now if you ask him, "what does a cow say?" (you may have to prompt him a little) he will eventually tell you, "mmmMMM!"

Another night I gave him a book to look at while he was on the changing table. Holding it upside down, right next to his face, like a little old man reading a newspaper, he proceeded to "read" it to me. "Ba ba ba ba, mmmm, ba ba, heh heh heh" (turn the page) "da da da, bmp, na na na na na," (turn the page).... It was hysterical. The best part was he had no idea I was so entertained. I finally burst out laughing, which caused him to look up with a look of surprise which clearly said, "what?"

If you are still reading you deserve a gold star! Thanks for catching up with us. We have so enjoyed the opportunity to keep so many of you, our dear friends and family, informed over the past year. As an added blessing we have reconnected with some "lost" friends who found us through some link or another. By the way, on a housekeeping note, we finally followed through with a good intention and sent out an update letter this year. If you did not receive one (local folks excepted--you know where we are and what we are doing) please leave a comment or send me an email so I can get your address and send one out to you, complete with a family picture.

Happy 2007, everyone! I hope it's off to a great start!

6 months

I did it again! We took the picture and I never posted it. I'm actually nearly 7 months along now, but here's 3 weeks ago, or so....
And with Benjamin for comparison....

Knitting

I'm knitting a sweater for our baby girl. I feel a little guilty because I've never made anything for Benjamin, but there's just something about soft pink yarn that inspires....
I guess Benjamin's projects in-utero were boy projects: sanding and painting a dresser & rocking chair and putting up shelves and pictures.

Lights on! and "Where's the baby?"

These are among Benjamin's newest accomplishments.

For some time he has been quite proficient at turning lights off, but this week he finally mastered the grasp necessary to flip the switch in the opposite direction. It's quite helpful when my hands are full...it is also somewhat time consuming waiting for him to get the finger placement just right to make the magic happen.

"Where's the baby?" Seth asked Benjamin one night as they were flipping through a favorite board book called "Happy Baby Words" showing things like cup, bath, shoes, etc. Benjamin very knowledgeably put his little hand directly on the baby. We looked at each other not believing it was more than coincidence. They tried another page. "Benjamin, where's the baby?" Again, he identified the desired subject without delay! The game continued with amazing accuracy. It seems Benjamin really does know the word "baby!" Now if we could only get him remotely interested in Mama's belly and the BABY in there.... (He has absolutely no interest in explanations toward this end.)

Other words Benjamin knows (not necessarily verbalizes) ....
-silly (evidenced by his crazy expressions every time I tell him, "Benjamin, you're silly!")
-eat
-"no no"
-obey
-come
-Kix/Chex

On another interesting note, we think he also knows the word "yes" (his version sounds more like "ush.") We're not convinced he really attaches meaning to it, but he consistently says "ush" when we ask him a question. I think it has to do with the verbal tone of a question, not his understanding of what is being asked. Still, we are pretty thrilled with the fact that he seems to have learned to say "yes" before he learned to say "no!"

One more fun little fact and then I'll quit. Benjamin loves Tortilla Soup. I'm not kidding! Granted, the tortilla soup I made for dinner Monday night wasn't super spicy, however, it wasn't flavorless either. He was completely enamored with it! In fact, I couldn't get a bite in edgewise until Seth stepped in and told Benjamin to be patient so Mama could eat something. He has had soup of differing varieties on several other occassions and liked it as well, but I have never seen him eat anything as fast as he scarfed down that Tortilla Soup! I guess it just goes to show he has that Mexican blood in him!

Thanks for keeping up with the small happenings of our little family. We enjoy sharing our stories with you all and hope you enjoy reading them as well!