Halloween
Halloween is such a silly holiday. I mean, what are we really celebrating? and.. do we want to be celebrating that at all as Christians? hm... Well, Here's one of my VEDO's where I talked about that a little bit.
Here are the boys all dressed up. This year I spent some time thinking about how dressing our kids up is more for us adults than the kids. However, I guess I guess that only applies to children 2 and below.
VEDO
Vedo was super fun! I got to hear from lots of people who were watching daily and that was exciting! I have taken a break from daily videos, however, this was a successful trial and I think its safe to say I developed a love for vlogging. Which is strange, its like I might as well say, "I love to hear myself talk."
Cloth Diapering Vlog
Speaking of vlogging, here's a vlog on cloth diapering, 5 months into it.
Joel 3
Joel is turning into a big boy. He is super duper helpful at times and other times he requires more attention than the other 2 combined. He skips his nap about 2x a week now, which is ok, bc he manages without his nap better now than he has in the past. Joel just loves reading long books with Mommy, playing hide n seek with Daddy, running around in circles with Judah, and making Luther laugh.
Judah
Judah is really really cute right now. He has a newfound obsession with coloring. He will literally stay put for 20-30 minutes, which is unheard of for Judah, and color on just 1 page. Occasionally as he is coloring he will let us know that he is still coloring by saying, "ooommming Mommy" which means, "coloring, Mommy!" Speaking of which, Judah is putting 2 and 3 words together to convey a whole thought, more and more lately, which is adorable. For example "Stay home." meaning, "I want to stay at home" or "Daddy want" meaning, "Which toy does Daddy want?" Also one of his newest sayings is "Want to" accompanied by an extended groan... this means, "I don't want to!" haha. Terrible two's much?
Luther
Luther is getting big also. He is no longer a little baby, but a big one that is a little harder to hold.:) He is doing really well with solid food and is currently on day 3 of fully feeding himself. I spoon fed him for about 1 month and that would usually happen after he worked to try to feed himself for 10 mins or so. He still gets frustrated and cries a lot when he's hungry so he needs help occasionally. Especially if I start his dinner late. He is a little tough to take out to restaurants because he is still pretty unstable when sitting up. The restaurant high chairs offer little to no support for a small baby who cannot fully sit up on his own, but he will get it soon. He is still nursing 4x a day and starting to take a little nap while he nurses almost every time. This,for me, is the telltale sign of the older nursing baby, wont nurse when awake bc too distracted, but will nurse very very well if tired and dosing off to sleep. So cute.. :)
VEDO (video every day in October) has begun. See Day 1 of VEDO below. I won't be posting all of the videos for VEDO because, well, thats a lot of videos, but you can get to them easily from the video posted below. Or, click this link to go to my youtube channel -
This month will be quite exciting with Joel and Ryan being quite busy and the Hollidays expecting their 2nd child - a little boy!
Baby Led Weaning
I have done things quite differently with Luther (vitamins and the Brewer diet during pregnancy, homebirth, cloth diapers, and selectively vaccinating) and beginning solid foods is no exception. We are going to try out Baby Led weaning and see how it goes. The premise of Baby Led Weaning is to allow the baby to explore solid foods at his own pace, instead of spoon feeding him. Luther has an excellent grasp for this age but it still isn't good enough to be fully feeding himself. He has just started waking up earlier, and he has been grabbing our food for a couple months now;) So.. I know he's hungry for 'real food.' Hopefully that will be motivating as we throw 'real food' in front of him and give him no help at all. I am excited to try this but not 100% all in.. example... if he starts to wake up in the middle of the night, we might be all done with the Baby Led Weaning and just rely on good old fashioned spoon feeding. Here's a glimpse of what we are working with...
VEDO Video/Vlog Every Day in October
In contrast with the Baby Led Weaning, this is something I will stick with.... hopefully;) I am going to attempt to post a video on my youtube channel every day in October. The topics will vary from motherhood, product reviews, attempting to live a Godly life, and healthy eating. Oh and I'm sure there will be some videos of just the kids thrown in there a few times to keep things interesting. Tune in each day, or subscribe to get an email with the video!
I say 'officially' because the past few months really didn't count because Joel was home so much to help with all the boys.
Low Milk + Husband out of town = need help!
The past few weeks have been a good 'warm up' for the school year officially beginning and me being 'on my own' with 3 little boys. Joel has been gone much more often with local speaking engagements, meetings and a good amount of prep work for the beginning of the season. A couple of weeks ago I got pretty sick and had a fever for a couple of days. Then I had a bad sinus infection. The combination of both of those made my milk supply drop very quickly and honestly, it took me a while to notice! I've never had this problem before and more commonly struggle with the opposite problem of oversupply and plugged ducts. Because I wasn't as familiar with it, it snuck up on me, and I didn't even notice my supply had dropped until it was very very very low! Fortunately I was able to call on Papa Groskopf who came for 3 days to help with the boys so I could concentrate on nursing and pumping frequently. I took a few supplements to help but interestingly, I had more success with brewer's yeast than fenugreek & mother's milk tea. After 2 full weeks, my supply finally returned to normal. Man.. that was not fun!
3 months into cloth diapering Vlog
The Columbus Zoo, Kings Island and Glenwood Gardens
We've had some awesome Zoo trips lately. One included a momentous occasion for Judah. When asked what his favorite part of the zoo trip was he replied, "Turtle" which is a huge breakthrough. Usually from age 1-2 he would reply "zoo" or "trip." But he actually answered the question! wow. Here's what he was talking about -
in Cincinnati we visited the Glenwood gardens, which was really great for the kids. Very creative, and excellent for learning. Judah had a blast getting wet and watching the trains...
We also had our annual Kings Island trip which was a blast. This year Joel was more fearful than last year and Judah was a bit tired so he wasn't as crazy as I expected him to be, but it was exhausting fun nonetheless!
Judah turns 2!
Judah turned two on September 19th. He has been such a joy to watch as he has been turning into a toddler. His latest obsessions are buckles, cars and trains, planes, and dirt. We went to Macaroni Grill and brought a cake, that was about the extent of our birthday celebration.
We had a small party for Judah in Cincinnati as well...
This summer has been awesome! I'm super excited for cooler and less humid temperatures, but bummed about the summer ending, especially bc Joel will be way busier with traveling very soon. But,.. such is life! Here are some end of the Summer tidbits from our side -
Cloth diaper update
about 2 months into it, here's a vlog (video blog) I took to explain some of the ins and outs. Caffeine causing fussiness?
Luther has had an amazing month. He just started rolling over and he has turned into such a sweet, snugly, and happy baby! But it wasn't always that way...around 2 months old things were getting bad. He was still sleeping very well at night, but was super duper cranky during the day. Spitting up constantly, crying a lot, not napping well. Something's gotta change. I looked into my diet, and realized I had been drinking about 3x my normal amount of caffeine. ugh. Seriously. I don't want to give that up. Anything but that. The next day I went cold turkey and was slightly comatose all day long. Ok, not really, but almost. The first day there was a drastic improvement in the amount that Luther was spitting up. The 2nd and 3rd days there was a drastic improvement in his overall demeanor.. no crying! Shoot. I mean.. good! I've also added infant probiotics to the daily routine, and I've noticed that when I skip them he is fussier (spit up amount is the same). So, since about 1 month ago, I've been caffeine free. Unfortunately for the rest of the family the dinner meals and other housework has for sure suffered. Hm... I guess I cannot do it all. Maybe someday my body will adjust to less sleep. Currently I am skipping my nap to write this post, it took me over 1 week of having it on my to-do list to muster up the strength!
Here's a video of Luther rolling over
Does TV promote a consumerism in a 3 year old??
Joel 3 had a blast watching the Olympics for 15 mins each night when they were on. He would sing the "Olympics song" everywhere he went. I think he's pretty depressed that they are over. Interesting thing to note, Joel has never in his life used the expression, "I want..." until, about 2 or so days into having the Olympics on TV. We don't have a DVR so we actually have to watch TV live, and that includes commercials. We mute the volume during the commercials, but apparently that isn't enough to counteract the poison put into the child's brain during that time. But in all seriousness, he wasn't with any other kids, we hadn't been speaking differently, he just all of a sudden had a desire for more things, a covetousness, that he did not have before. We went to the grocery store and he pointed at some random item and said "Mommy I WANT that." Um.. excuse me? How sad. I took the time to speak to Joel the importance of attitude of thankfulness and contentment. I explained to Joel how God is our Father who provides for us, and how much it hurts Him to complain about what we have and want more. I am not sure he got it, but he knows he isn't allowed to say "I want ___" anymore.
I spoke to a dear friend (who also strictly limits her kids' TV watching) about this phenomenon. She confirmed my suspicion saying that her kids have indeed said the same things after watching more TV than the normal 1/2 hour show once or twice a week. She also mentioned that, to my relief, it can go away when the TV is off and things are back to normal. Yeay!!
Bye Bye consumerism, we will see you again in 4 years! ;)
A bad strain of Hand Foot and Mouth
Last week we encountered a nasty strain of hand, foot and mouth. It started with Joel who's tongue sores were so bad that he didn't talk or eat for 3 days. Oh.. yeah and he was also waking up between 2-6 times per night crying in pain. Oh yeah, and he wouldn't nap either. So, we were pretty desperate by the end of the 3rd day, so desperate that I actually took him to the doctor! ha. He said that it was probably hand foot and mouth disease and to give him a drink of benedryl + maalox combo every 6 hours. (which I already knew from this thing called the internet...) Not sure that was worth the $110 out of our HSA, but at the time, like I said, we were desperate. Sure enough, by the 4th day he was back to his normal, very talkative self. However, Judah was very very whiny. We looked into his mouth and saw a huge tongue sore, just like Joels. I looked at his hands and feet and saw small dots on his hands. Oh no.. I am not sure we can handle 3 more days of this, and potty training on top of it!
Here's a quick video of poor Judah, I thought it might help someone who is wondering if their child has hand, foot, and mouth disease.
Judah has had hand, foot and mouth 2 other times and this is by far the worst. Apparently there are different strains of the virus so it is totally possible to get it more than once. This was so bad that even I had small, sensitive bumps on my hands, and Joel had 5 mouth sores.
Judah is potty training!
Judah is just a few days shy of 23 months and has taken to the potty VERY well! It all started about 2 weeks after we put him in cloth diapers. We saw him strain to poop and asked him if he was interested in sitting on the potty (not a technique I would recommend). He emphatically said "Potty!" and so we put him on and sure enough, 15 or so mins later, there was poop and pee in the potty. Um.. how did this happen? No training at all, all of a sudden he goes in the potty. Its a total mystery. So, I thought to myself, with Joel traveling soon and not wanting to surpass the 28 month mark (I've heard bad things happen if you try to potty train after 2 1/2) I decided it was time to take up full-time training using Julie Fellom's "potty training in 3 days or less" method. Just like we did with Joel. He has done an incredible job. By his 4th day he had no accidents. This training actually coincided with his horrible hand, foot, and mouth disease. We figured since he was contagious and cooped up anyway, we might as well train as we had planned.
I've heard, of course, that the second child is so easy to potty train. But I had no idea just how easy it really would be. I mean, we spent hours and hours on the potty with Joel 3 before he finally even put 1 drop of pee in there. It has been nothing like that with this one! Don't get me wrong, there's been a lot of whining, cleaning up pee on the floor, and testing our patience, but overall, I am shocked at how easy this kid has gotten 'it.'
Cloth Diapers So.. with 2.5 kids in diapers (Joel only counts as ½) I decided it was time to get into cloth. We have had such a great experience with Joel’s cloth training pants the past 6 months so we went all out with Judah and Luther. All in all I’m pretty pleased.
Here are 3 of my pleasant surprises: 1. You don’t have to change more often. I thought with cloth you have to change their diaper pretty frequently. Not so. Once you get a feel for how much your child pees and when, things aren’t much different than disposables. 2. No rashes. I thought with cloth they get rashes from leaving them in the diapers too long. Are we noticing a theme here? (apparently I am lazy with my diaper changing frequency) Again, not so. I have left them both in their cloth diaper way too long a few times and no rash appeared..just maybe a leak. 3. Great poop containment. Now this might be TMI for non-parents. Judah’s poop is disgusting. For such a small kid he really puts out a huge amount of poop. Because of this he needed to be in disposable diapers that were way bigger than his size just to contain things. I’m talking like a size 5 or 6 diaper for a 26 lb kid. And most of the time.. like 80% of the time, his poop wasn’t contained! Perhaps it is how much he moves around, who knows. Either way, it isn’t an issue with cloth. Thank goodness!
Here’s a video on the types of cloth diapers we are using currently -
Real Food I have wanted to take the pludge into Real Food for a while now as well. However, we decided a 10 day trial of going as strict as possible with Real Food would allow us to evaluate the pros and cons as well as the sustainability of this diet. When I say Real Food I mean 6 ingredients or less and nothing processed. We both feel it wasn’t enough time to give us a true perspective on the health benefits as we did not notice a difference. But on the plus side, the total preparations weren’t as time consuming as I thought they would be. Here’s a sample of some of the foods we were eating to give you an idea.
Breakfast eggs bacon butter toast (4 ingredient bread made by Stan Evans) skippy natural peanut butter (a slight compromise as it does contain sugar) honey
Lunch whatever we had for dinner the previous night grilled cheese ham and cheese sandwiches 4 ingredient chips with guacamole
Dinner shepherd's pie grilled stuffed burritos cobb salad mexican salad grilled chicken with lemon butter sauce walking taco whole chicken rotisserie spaghetti pie loaded nachos soft tacos with homemade ranch cavatini
Snacks larabars apple with peanut butter powerballs cocoa powerballs greek yogurt parfait with fruit and honey and granola granola pb banana smoothie almonds toast with nutella baked oatmeal popcorn w butter triscuits with cheese
Of course I didn’t include all fruits and veggies which we could eat to our hearts’ content:) This is definitely something we will revisit with more dedication. However, right now, we are enjoying just a gradual slide into Real Food.
Vacations The Groskopf family went to Kalahari in Sandusky, OH. It was a blast. We were unsure how it would turn out with all 5 of us in the same room for 3 nights. Fortunately, it was Luther’s first time sleeping through the night :) However, we discovered that Joel has nightmares and moves 2-3 feet forward each time he cries out in his sleep. He did this for a good 3 hours and then finally fell out of his bed. The next night we decided to create a ‘special bed’ in the closet for Joel with lots of blankets and pillows. He slept much better that night and so did we :) We also learned that swimming wears the boys out really nicely so they sleep hard.
Here’s a video of our accommodations at Kalahari -
Here’s a video of Judah getting his hand bitten by a giraffe -
Here’s a video of all of us playing at the kiddie play area -
We also enjoyed a ‘Staycation’ in Van Wert near the beginning of July. It was an awesome time to catch up with everyone and for the cousins to play together. Joel and Judah both made HUGE strides in the pool and were able to finally ‘swim’ with floaties. This is huge progress as both of them just a few weeks ago at the YMCA refused to let go of mommy and daddy when their feet weren’t able to touch. At Van Wert they would both get tired after a little while and want to hold on to something, but still.. great progress.
Lizzie Spath holding giant cousin Frank
The 90+ degree heat was pretty rough, but we still had a nice relaxing time.
Joel, Noah Spath and Ethan Crummey
Noah Spath, Joel, Ethan Crummey, Kate Crummey and Lizzie Spath
Wow! When he first came out we thought he looked so much like Joel. But now.. as you can see... a lot more like Judah!
And here's a pic of Luther sucking down his first bottle given by Aunt Emily...
Our new swingset acquired off Craigslist for free has been the center of all entertainment recently...
I told Joel a long time ago "once it gets warm out, the baby will come out of Mommy's belly and then all of us will go to the Zoo!" Of course, the day Luther was born, Joel asked if we were going to go to the zoo. He patiently waited for a good 3+ weeks. Then we finally went!
Oh man, things have been crazy. Lets just cover each family member in the past 3 weeks. This by all means is not a 'oh poor me' post. I decided to blog on this because I thought it would be interesting to cover for the moms out there. And quite funny to look back on when things (hopefully!) get easier.
Daddy
Since Luther's birth Joel has gone on one 1 day speaking trip, one 4 day speaking trip and one 2 day speaking trip. The two latter trips have involved evening flights which are never a good idea. Thankfully, he has made it home on time to help with the children. For him that usually means the following -
Waking up at 6am to drive to his speaking engagements, set up for speech, give presentation, talk to people and sign autographs, tear down, drive to airport, then pray for flights to not be delayed while grabbing something to eat. Arrive home around midnight, wake up at 5am to bring Luther to Mama, 530am change Luther and swaddle, put Luther back to bed, 630am wake up to read Bible and watch boys on monitor so they don't climb out of their bed or hurt themselves, 8am get Joel and Judah up change/take off diapers, feed breakfast, 9am family worship, then begin the day.
Family worship...
Yeah.. he's amazing!
Mommy and Luther (3 weeks)
Luther does extremely well at night when Mommy has a good chance to nurse him well and make sure he's up every 2.5 or 3 hours during the day to nurse. However, when Mommy is home alone, Luther's schedule and feedings take a back seat to other things;)
Luther usually gets up somewhere between 1:30am and 3am to nurse. Then he will get up again somewhere between 5am and 7:30am to nurse again. He is really stretching out his time between feeds at night very well for such a young baby. He went through a growth spurt from 10 days old to a little over 2 weeks old and after that I developed two plugged ducts. ugh! Luckily (so far) they have not turned into mastitis. He has a blocked tear duct in his left eye that needs massaged and cleaned daily, but breastmilk has worked well to clear up the infection if he does get green discharge (yes I squirt breastmilk into his eye.. it works!) He also had a bad bottom rash that was bleeding at one point but has just recently cleared up with an aquaphor/maalox homemade mixture. Thank goodness! Poor babe. He is proving to be pretty predictable/moldable (is that a word?) which is nice. I can usually tell what kind of a night we will have based on how the day went, and that puts me somewhat at ease;)
Judah (19 months)
Judah had roseloa just recently. 3 days of a fever above 103 followed by a rash and some irritability. Thankfully he didn't cry to loud or too much with it as long as he was held. Ha! Yes, that was tough. Since his roseola, Judah has proved to be the lowest maintenance member of the family besides Daddy;) He repeats almost every word that you ask him to say and absolutely LOVES to play outside. He is in a very cute stage.
Joel 3 (39 months)
Joel has had some major problems behaviorally that started, you guessed it, about 3 weeks ago! We prepared Joel very well for the birth of Luther, but I guess it still is a rough transition for him. Other moms have told me that 3 is a tough time for obedience no matter what, so we are pushing through with prayer and consistent discipline.
The boys playing outside...
On a good note, Joel has been extremely affectionate and into 'helping' with Luther. He wants to hold him, kiss him and help in any way that he can. This has been great, but a little hard to control when he's sick. I can totally sense the difference in how Joel interacts with Luther as a baby vs. Judah as a baby. Its like he knows that Luther is a real person. Very cute.
Funny things
Figuring out how to take all 3 into stores without melt-downs is tough. Joel 3 is old enough to get out and walk beside me responsibly, but with his recent behavior that would be quite a risk as we might spend the entire time in the bathroom doing spankings. Not a risk I"m willing to take at this point with limited time. As I researched online to prepare for my trip to target (do they have those massive carts or not?) I find myself reading blogs of mothers of twins. Quite appropriately, when in Target the other day a lady working at the store asked if Joel and Judah were twins! I thought it quite hilarious at the time, but then realized its perfectly understandable to assume!
And yes, Target does have 'those massive carts'... it came in handy:)
I bought a used joovy big caboose (triple stroller) off craigslist for walks around the neighborhood and zoo trips. Joel isn't quick enough on his bike, or responsible enough to walk by me and stay off the street just yet. Plus he would get tired after like 10 mins. The first walk we took I put the carseat up too high and the whole thing threatened to tip over like a double-decker bus!
After that walk I re-arranged the seating situation... and it worked much better. No tipping ;)
Luther has had more food dropped on him than any other newborn in the family. Frequently I nurse him on the boppy (positioning him so that I am hands free) while eating lunch or dinner and also reading emails/blogs. This is, of course, during naptime (1pm) or after 8pm.
Joel has fallen out of the top bunk twice. Both times, thankfully, he was not majorly injured. The second time was only about 1.5 weeks ago when Joel's dad was here to help with the kids. We both ran upstairs (Luther in my arms) to find Joel standing up but crying very loud. We turned on the light, checked him out and determined he was ok. I think Joel's dad almost had a heart attack.
Often, when Judah is sick, or we know Joel will have behavior problems, we take Judah down to the basement pack n play for his nap or nighttime. It's super dark and cool down there and Judah (very high metabolism, always warm and sweaty) loves it! We have an old video monitor set up down there to keep an eye on him. Quite frequently, I am taking to bed watching 3 video monitors at once! Thank goodness for technology.
WE ARE THANKFUL
Yes, this might seem crazy, but we are so incredibly thankful for a 'quiver full' of children. And 3 is nothing compared to Biblical times! We thank the good Lord daily for these boys whom we are privileged to train up and disciple. We take our responsibility as parents to steward their lives very seriously and we are so honored to be blessed in this way.
A couple weeks before the birth I took this video of our bedroom prep...
at 10:15 my water broke.. after a good 16 hours of contractions every 10-15 mins. Apparently Patty thought I was further along than I was because she told me to lay down and wait until she got there.
Around 1am (Patty checked me, found me at only 3cm, then asked if she could take a nap on our couch:) we decided to double make the bed, check on the pool, and start covering the room with plastic. Joel was a little paranoid about the potential mess.
4am. Contractions more intense, but not that frequent. Only every 7 minutes. However, strange things are happening in the Penton household... other than a homebirth, of course.. .
1pm. About an hour and a half after the birth. Mommy nursing Luther, Joel and Patty just finishing some clean up.
Luther Joseph Penton was born on April 19th, a mere 10 days past his due date. He was also born at home with a midwife. Here are some pics to tell the story of his arrival.
The bed set up.
Other supplies...
More set up...
In pool during contraction.. Patty, my midwife, coaching me through it.
In pool between contractions.. hence the smile :)
No rest for the weary...
Yeah, there was quite a bit after that. Yelling, crying, praying, sweating, pushing, etc.
But eventually at 11:45am...
Luther Joseph Penton was born!
Daddy got to 'catch' baby Luther! (Although he refused to pull on Luther's head to get his body out.. as I was yelling/instructing him to do) There were more tears and more prayers and HUGE sighs of relief!
Baby Luther nursed for 45 mins like a champ...
Then we (Joel and Patty) began clean up...The hose was submerged completely and filled, then one end threw out the window. (white trash? it was clean water at least..) It siphoned out very quickly and Joel was proud of himself for thinking of this efficient method.
Daddy checks on Luther..
Look at that cone head!
Sweet babe..
After some nursing, cutting cord, and delivering placenta. Luther was ready to be checked out. 8 lb 1 oz..! Patty predicted "a little guy maybe 7 pounds max" After 30 mins of pushing I knew he was much bigger than Judah was! (he was 6 lb 11 oz and came out in 2 pushes)
Daddy inspects his newest son...
Open eyes..
Joel threw a spaghetti bake in the oven and Joel, Patty and I destroyed it in a matter of minutes. Nobody had eaten all night or all day.
Patty left around 3pm.. thanks Patty for torturing me.. I mean..getting the baby out safely ;)
After Patty left everyone took a nap...
After that Joel (39 months) and Judah (19 months) came for a visit to meet their new brother with Emily and Whitney (11 months). That experience was so chaotic and we were so deliriously sleepy that we forgot to take pictures.
Luther got to stay in our bedroom that night but after a few snorts and whines he was moved to the bathroom...
The next day the brothers came over to check out Luther...
They decided that he needed an Easter bunny toy to keep him company...
And Mommy enjoyed breakfast and baby in bed...
Praise the Lord! We are so thankful for little Luther's safe arrival.
Whew! Past due date again. So thankful Joel is home and able to take care of Joel and Judah all day.
Easter
I thought that since I have time to do things I'd post an update about Easter. This Easter was our first as a family at our own home. Since the next day was my due date we decided not to leave town. It was super nice and laid back. We went to church in the morning and then had an indoor egg hunt.
Judah did an incredible job in his room 'hunting' his eggs. Once he discovered there was a jelly bean inside each egg there was no stopping him! After naps and a nice dinner we had our family worship time which included a teaching lesson about Jesus death and resurrection, using 'Resurrection Eggs.' Joel loved the project, Judah had a hard time sitting through it, no surprise there.
Joel
Joel has finally mastered riding his bike, and has a blast doing it. It took some perseverance from Daddy (Joel wasn't really motivated to learn, most of the time) but now that he 'has it' he wants to do it all the time!
9th Month of pregnancy quality time spent with Joel 3 is usually on the couch reading books.
Judah
Judah and Daddy have had some fun the past 2 weeks catching up on much needed quality time together. They are like best buds lately.Daddy enjoys Judah's extreme playfulness and Judah enjoys Daddy's willingness to take him outside all the time:)
Some of Judah's favorite new words are "Haa Maa" for "help me" with arms up in the air (a sign we taught him for help a while ago). "Jaa-do" for Jesus. "Ahh-bee" for Amen. His pronunciation is not that great, but he tries to say almost everything now, and usually gets the number of syllables correct :)
What are we doing with ourselves while we wait?
Fun projects, like mulching.
Selling Joel's motorcycle.
and playing outside with our version of a 'water table.'
What else is going on as we wait?
As we wait we are challenged and reminded to rely on God for everything. Our daily family worship sessions have been a huge blessing for me during this time. As we sing and pray and talk about Jesus together as a family (yes, its short.. 5 minutes? I mean.. Judah is 1.) I am able to refocus on what is important and that produces more patience and an attitude of thankfulness within me. We are so blessed.
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