Our Savior's Birth

I was going through a box of old cards and keepsakes and came across a kind of journal entry scribbled on a couple of pieces of paper ripped from a notepad. They are dated August 2009, but I find the story fitting to share this time of year...

"Changing Luke's diaper is a challenge. He's now so squirmy and tries to roll off the pad. This morning, in an attempt to keep him distracted, I handed him the small wooden cross that sits on his shelf. The cross is there to remind him of what Jesus did because He loves him. But what came over me as he held that cross in his hands was unexpected. It was not joy that holding that cross might begin to teach him of Jesus. Instead, it was an icky stomach-sinking feeling. My son was holding a symbol of torture, a symbol of torture that was used to kill our King.

Many thoughts flooded my mind. The creation of a baby is a miracle in itself. God sending his son through a virgin birth is an even greater miracle. God sending his son KNOWING that the cross would be his destiny is THE greatest miracle of love. As my baby lays here, I cannot fathom the knowlege of that fate. And Mary, the mother destined to care for this little one...she must have done similar things that I have done; stayed up late feeding and rocking him, changed his diaper, cheered for him as he began to crawl, prayed over him, sang to him. She must have had great expectation and anticipation as she waited to see how this baby she would give her life for, the Son of God, would change the world. What heartache, her son's life, her expectations, her investment of love and sacrifice into that little one, ending on the cross. What she must have felt that day, I cannot imagine. One thing I do know, from the day of his birth "Mary treasured up all of these things and pondered them in her heart." Though her heart must have been ripped out on Friday, the redemption of the world had taken place, and death defeated on Sunday with Christ's rising."


We celebrate Jesus birth because it was a miracle, yes, but because his destiny was to save us from the punishment of rejecting Him. What love is that? What King would step down to stand in the place of someone who has committed treason and take their punishment? How truly great is our God.

Today...

Today Brody was standing at Luke's little green chair. There are slats in it and Luke happened to be sitting behind it so Brody peeked through at him. Luke started laughing and said "Boo." Then Brody leaned around the chair, back through the slats, around the chair and through the slats. They were both laughing and giggling. It is so great to see them interacting together!

Today Ashley was here and some how the San Francisco 49ers came up. Her dad is a Seahawks fan (Howie is a 49ers fan). So she told Luke to say 'I hate the 49ers.' Luke looked at her and said, "Go Niners!" She kept trying to get him to say something bad about the Niners but he just kept shouting, "Go Niners!" Its amazing how they pick up on things. He recognizes the 49ers logo...a flag was flying on tv that had their logo on it and he said "Go Niners!" When he asks for a drink he specifically asks, "Niners cup."

Today Brody had chicken and bananas cut up on his tray. He gets frustrated eating baby food from a spoon. He wants to do it himself, so much so that all he will eat is Cheerios! I need to figure out what I can give him that is soft enough to chew and easy to pick up. That's gonna take some work to make for him but he wants to be a big boy I guess.

Today when Howie was reading to Luke, he read a book that says, "Thank you for my family."
Luke said, "family, Buda, Mama..."
Howie: "Dada, Grandma..."
Luke: Gampa!

Today Luke had the phone, brought it to me and said/asked, "Hi Kameron?" He wanted to call his friend Kameron. I told him we could later because Kameron was probably taking a nap at that time. So around 7pm we gave him a call. It was so cute to hear them talk to each other...of course we had to help them with what to say, but here's a little snipet:
Kameron: Hi Duke?
Luke: Hi.
Luke: Go Niners!
Kameron: Go Seahawks!
Kameron: See you later.
Luke: Bye. Bye Kammon.

Sweet Stories 3

Brody has been pulling himself to stand. He'd been pulling himself up on shorter things. Today I walked in to get him after a nap and he was standing in his crib. Excitement and sadness come in that moment. Yay, my boy is growing up and doing cool new things! But he is not going to be my baby much longer. Before I know it he will be as big as Luke and I will have a hard time remembering these moments.

Although Luke is no longer a baby, everything he's learning is cute/cool too.
I've been doing childcare for a couple families since school started. Today they were playing hide and seek. One would go into the kitchen, hide their face, and count while the others hid. Luke was trying to play but mostly just copied what everyone was doing at the wrong times.
-After counting was done and they were on to seeking, Luke ran into the kitchen to count. He quickly stopped and said, "two, three, go!" And ran off to find the kids.
-After some of the kids had hid in the curtains. Luke went and hid there waiting for someone to find him.
-He spoiled a hiding spot by finding them before the seeker. He hopped up on the couch and looked behind the curtain, started laughing and said, "fine!" (find)

Potty Training

Potty Training will be one of those things I will know how to do after its done. Hopefully. Hindsight is 20/20 right!?

We bought Luke a seat that fits the toilet before he was 18months. He seemed interested in using the toilet, flushing it, etc. He initiated it all himself. So we let him go when he wanted to, not pushing it, read him "potty" books, and talked about using the toilet. He got to the point where he was using the toilet for number 2 every time for more than a few days (I can't remember how long). Then one day we were working on pottying in the toilet and he was dry until early afternoon. He was telling me he had to go.

At the end of July we took a trip to my mom's, brought the toilet seat with us, but he refused to go. When we got up in the morning I'd seat him on the toilet and he screamed bloody murder. So I laid off while on the trip. We got home and it was the same thing. So all that progress we'd made earlier went down the toilet! And we hadn't done anything except read potty training books until this past week.

I'd been wanting to start him again but needed the time to do it. So we decided after Thanksgiving we'd be home for the Christmas holidays to focus more on it. Last Monday we started him in pull-ups and took him to the bathroom every couple hours, before and after nap and before bedtime. He made progress over two days, telling me that he had to go both potty and poop. We got really excited about it and praised him and he got marshmellows as a reward. But the third day was back to refusing to go, screaming that he wanted to play when it was time to go potty, and not telling me when he had to go.

He has lots of signs that he's ready: he hides when he goes in his diaper, he asks to be changed after going, he wakes up in the middle of the night wanting to be changed when he wets his diaper, and isn't enough of a sign that we have seen him do it?

So we're back to laying off for awhile. A friend told me that they focus all their energy on learning one thing. It might be learning to go in the toilet for a couple days, and then they are beginning to learn something else that takes their focus off of the first thing. We have noticed a huge jump in Luke's vocabularity and building sentences this week. So maybe potty training happened to coincide with language learning this week and language prevailed.

Oh well. He's not even two yet so I'm not worried about it. I just hate to keep trying and make an issue of it. But what do you do when you know he could do it? For now, we'll wait.

Christmas Activities

There is so much to do at Christmas! Gifts buying, tree decorating, baking, holiday parties, and there are TONS of family activities around town. Luke is just old enough now to enjoy all the fun.


Lighted Boat Parade
We got all bundled up and went down to the Ferry Terminal to enjoy cider, Christmas performances, gingerbread houses on display and a lighted boat parade. All these things were very cool, but the most fun was going with good friends of ours whose son is Luke's favorite playmate.


Lynden Christmas Parade
Again we got all bundled up (but not well enough) to attend Lynden's Christmas Parade. It was cold, but the wind made it so much worse. We got pizza to eat while we waited for the parade to start but that was pretty much the only time the kids were content. I ended up going to the car with Brody while Howie stayed roadside with Luke, who whined the whole time. The parade was neat but we will be enjoying it from our car next year.


Christmas Tree
Usually we head to a tree farm and cut down our own tree. But this year we just made it easy and went down to the Ferndale Boy Scout Tree Lot and picked out a tree. We got a little 5 footer that would fit in the corner behind a baby gate. We brought it home, Luke helped water it, string lights around it, and hang ornaments. He was SO excited about it, you could see it in his body and hear it in his voice. He asked "more? please?" after he hung every ornament. Then he got to hang the star. We hung lights in the playroom and in his room, not to mention the living room. When he wakes up in the morning, he begs to turn them on. He loves Christmas lights.

BP Reach Out
Every year BP helps families in the community by providing food and gifts. The money comes from donations as well as BP. They need a lot of volunteer help to buy gifts, organize and deliver. So this year we offered to buy and deliver. We were given a list of 14 kids, what they want for Christmas, and A LOT of money. It was so much fun to go to the mall and shop for an 18 month old, a 3 year old, 4 & 7 year old sisters who just wanted an Easy Bake Oven (they got much more) and a whole bunch more kids ranging in age from 8-17. We bought clothes, toys, movies, books, science kits...It took us all in all 7 hours at the mall and about as much time wrapping! But it was so fun! The boys were extraordinary cooperative at the mall both days we shopped. We took our time, got lunch, and let them play in the "germ jungle." Luke was getting so tired the first day that he was falling asleep in the Target cart. We were getting a kick out of watching his head bob as he knodded off.

BP Christmas Party
After spending the day at the mall, we loaded the kids in the car thinking they would fall asleep on the way to the party...no. Well, sort of...more like 5 minutes before we got there. So we put Luke in the stroller and let him sleep while we perused the party. But this was a kid party, kind of a carnival, so there wasn't much we could do while Luke was asleep. We got some snacks and Brody and I got in line to see Santa. He sat on Santa's lap and got his picture taken. He just stared at Santa and then gave him a small smile just as I was taking him. We ended up waking Luke up so we all could do the activities. He tossed a ball through a snow mand and got a toy guitar, he shot a nerf gun through a present and got a small car, and used a fishing pole to fish a "superbat" out of a big gift box. There was a lot the kids could do, but they needed to be a bit older. But we went home with two presents from Santa, a few toys, some candy, and a gift box Howie won as a door prize.


Jesse Tree
Amidst all the other activities, we want to instill in our children a deep understanding of what the Christmas season is all about. I heard of the Jesse Tree Advent tradition through another woman's blog and thought it was a great way to teach my children as well as a great reminder for us. So we began by cutting some branches from a tree outside and putting them in a vase. Each day we read a story from the Bible and hang an ornament that has to do with that story. Many of the ornaments are not typical Christmas ornaments so I'm having to make most of them from felt. I love this tradition particularly because it doesn't just talk about the Christmas story. It starts with the story of God creating the world, goes through different stories of how people have disobeyed or forgot about God, the miracles that God has done in people's lives, and ends with the greatest display of love: Jesus coming. It shows the big picture of what God was doing. I love doing this with Luke. Each night when I say we are going to do our Jesse Tree story, he repeats, "Desse Tee." And he loves to hang the ornaments. I hope to make this something we do every year, and build our collection of non-felt ornaments as we go. :)

James Street Christmas Lights
We went to Westside Pizza with some friends of ours, had some dinner, got hot chocolate and headed out to see some lights. James St Estates an adult living community and is famous for having most of their homes/yards dressed in lights. Each year we drive through and see them. This year was fun because Luke was so excited. We let him sit up front and he wanted to be as close to the front window as he could so he kneeled in my lap and put his arms on the dash. Every time he'd see something exciting he'd hit the dash two times with his hand, point and say, "oh..." He recognized Santa, snowmen, Jesus and he loved all the "choo-choo-chains".

Gingerbread Houses
My mom came up for a few days before Christmas. She brought all of her extra supplies from school to make gingerbread houses. So we had fun creating a village, skating rink and all! Of course, Luke ate more than he built!


Mall Train
Luke loves trains. It started with a Thomas the train movie he got for his first birthday. He calls it "Tubby." We went to a birthday party over the summer and he saw a Thomas train toy on the dresser in the little boys room and acted like he just saw a celebrity. He was pointing, shaking, saying, "Mama, Tubby! Tubby!" I realized just how much he loves trains when we went into a toy store that had a train table kids could play with. We barely escaped a fit trying to get him out of there. There is a small train that cruises the mall. We've seen kids riding on it before, but never have ourselves. So we thought it would be fun to do as a Christmas activity. He was excited to go saying, "mall...choo choo chain." We had to stop and get some money to ride and he started saying, "money...choo choo chain." We got to the train. I asked him which car he wanted to ride in and he pointed to the engine with the steering wheel! As we got into the blue car, the conductor punched two (Office Max) carnival tickets and gave them to us. And he offered a free ticket to Brody! Luke seemed a little hesitant to ride at first but once we got on it was like he was so in awe of the train, his mouth was open almost the whole time! And the more we rode, the more he liked it. He kept holding up his ticket and saying "ticka," he was so proud of that ticket! He watched out the window and got excited to see dad, and when the train took a hard turn, he'd say "whoa, chain." So fun to do something he thought was so exciting.

Baking
Luke loves to help cook. He pulls up a chair to the counter and says "help" or "make." Luke loves to help "dump" and he even cracks eggs! We mad apple butter, chocolate peppermint cookies and apple cheesecake bars and delivered them to friends.

Its been a great season!

Brody Can...

Brody's Development so far...

He army crawls (since 5.5 months) with his left arm and right leg. Actually, he kinda looks like a wounded soldier when he does it.

He gets up on his hands and knees to rock (since shortly after he learned to army crawl, so much so that I thought his army crawl would be short lived).

He sits up (since 7 months).

He sits on his knees


And now pulls himself to stand. However, the only thing he's done pulled himself up on was Luke's Sit-and-Spin. But the handle spins! So Brody will get up, then turn to look at something and fall down. He appears to try to pull himself up on the couch or the tub, but he can't get a handle on it with his hands. The Sit-and-Spin is just short enough that he can do it. So I am so excited the boys are getting an activity table about the same height for Christmas from their Grandma. He will love it!

He can hold his own bottle (since 6 months).

Brody eats fruits, veggies, and now meats. All baby food of course.

He LOVES Cheerios!! I started him on puffs because they dissolve in his mouth. He could already pick them up and eat them himself! I don't remember starting him on Cheerios...I think he actually ate them off the floor after Luke dropped them. He didn't seem to have a problem with them so I gave him some. He eats one at a time, chews and swallows. I was always so nervous that Luke would choke. It was a common practice to give babies Cheerious in the nursery at church, but I always told them, "no Cheerios!" If I remember right, Luke would take them by the handful and forget to chew. I didn't plan on giving them to Brody but he seems to do well with them.

He claps (since 6 months?)

He signs more (since 7.5 months). He's recently really gotten it. We haven't been teaching it long either. Today we got to McDonalds, sat him in a high chair, and he started with the 'more' sign. I love that he was communicating, "I want some." I'm sure there are more signs I could be doing with him, but 'more' is what we got for now.

He waves hi. He sticks his arm out with his hand open. Since I don't know when. He's been doing it a long time but only now have we realized it is an intentional wave.

He babbles saying mostly d sounds.

Sweet Stories continued...

Singing
Luke loves music so I sing with him a lot. He likes "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Mr. Sun," "Jesus Loves Me," "The Wheels on the Bus" especially the "Mama says 'shhh, shhh, shhh'" part. The first time I did it, he thought it was hilarious and pretty much just wants you to sing that part. One day I started belting out "I Believe I Can Fly" by R Kelly. (I don't know why, there are just certain songs that come out out of know where!) Luke started singing as if he were my back up singer!

I believe I can fly. (fy)
I believe I can touch the sky. (ta da sky)
I think about it every night and day. (day)
Spread my wings and fly away. (fy way)

It was the funniest thing! Every time I sang it, he did the back up part exactly the same each time! I want to get it on video but have yet to do it. When I get it, I'll add it.

Peek-a-boo
Brody, as I've mentioned before, loves to play peek-a-boo. He will raise his hands to his forehead (so he can still see you) and quickly put them down in a 'boo' motion. He also just puts his head down on a pillow, on the floor, on your leg or arm, anywhere really and then quickly looks back up. One night Brody was in the bath tub...usually he's sitting in his bath seat, but this particular night he had climbed out of it and was army crawling through the tub playing. He was on his tummy, decided to play peek-a-boo, and full on put his whole face in the water! He came up quickly with a deer in the headlights look, but then proceeded to do it again! I did manange to get it on video. I'd love to leave it for you here, but will refrain from putting revealing pictures of my children on the internet!

Check back for an updated version of this post later for more stories...