Hubby T's (Actual) Birthday!

Today is Hubby T's 7th birthday. That's right, my hubby is a "leapling"! I thought it would be appropriate to share seven things that I celebrate about my husband today, the actual day we celebrate his entrance in this world.

1. He loves what he does, and what he does is education. He has something to say about almost any topic related to education, he reads a ton of education blogs, he watches school board meetings on TV, writes his own (mostly about education) blog, and is going to, in my humble opinion, have a career that influences the schools he is in, the teachers he works with, and the students he interacts with for the better. "That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil - this is the gift of God." Ecclesiastes 3: 13

2. He loves doing our taxes. Enough said.

3. He is a fantastic father! Every night he comes home from work, takes 5-10 minutes for himself to decompress, and then plays with and cares for Baby B until his bedtime. (Can you tell how much of a relief this is to me every night?!) I also love seeing the ways that he, as a male, interacts with Baby B; sometimes it's very different from how I interact with him and I think that balance will be good for our son. Hubby T can also be incredibly silly. "You want to play Legos with Daddy? You just have to watch. There's a battle going on. It's between the bad guys and the good guys." or "You keep working on that throwing motion and 18 years from now you'll be getting scholarship offers!" or "(Reading an alphabet book.) D is for dog. E is for elephant. F is for fart. Oh no! We don't say that word."

4. He is an honorable man. I could go on and on about this, but suffice it to say that he has put a lot of thought and study into what kind of a man he wants to be and I respect and appreciate many of those things.

5. Hubby T is a sports fan! And he has made me a sports fan, which I am grateful for. It's fun to root for our teams, which will hopefully help inspire a love of watching and playing sports in our kids as well. Go Flyers/Eagles/Phillies!!

6. He is frugal, and although this drives me crazy sometimes, it also helps us be more responsible with the money God has shared with us. And that's important, to both of us.

7. God made him for me. (I know, I know, awwwww...) Hubby T and I have always been a pretty sappy couple, but it's for good reason. It's amazing to me how God crafted so many things in him to be a perfect match for me. And then, out of the 7 billion people now on the planet, He brought us together. Sweet:)

So, in summary, Hubby T is awesome. Or, as Baby B has been proclaiming to the world all day,



Happy Birthday boyfriend!

Goodness & Godliness

This morning my church started a new Lenten sermon series called "Becoming Like Jesus." Each week the pastor will examine one of the characteristics from the passage 2 Peter 1: 3-8.

"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. "

What a great passage! I'm so excited to hear our pastors unpack this scripture in the coming weeks.

Today we heard about goodness and Godliness. It makes sense for these to be examined together, our pastor explained, because none of us can be good without God, and, the only thing good is God. They are interconnected. None of us can achieve the qualities listed in the scripture without God's help, although the list is more than a little overwhelming. I can't be all those things at once! Not even close! Or can I...

The comment from the sermon that stuck with me the most was how often we strive to be only good enough. We don't even try for good, let alone Godly! I had to think a little bit to make sense of this, because sometimes I think good enough truly is that, good enough. For example, I don't think God really cares that at the end of the day I strive to have my kitchen floor clean enough, not perfectly clean. So the big question is, what in my life do I strive to do good enough instead of good? So far I have thought of two things. I will confess that I often settle for good enough when I plan the lesson from the Sunday School class I co-teach. And, I confess even more grudgingly, that there are days when I care for Baby B and Baby D good enough, rather than truly good. I can offer excuses for why this is the case but I don't think that's really the point. The point is, do I even ask God to help me reach good? Or I am sunk in the earthly attitude that good enough truly is good enough? I have no doubt in believing that the students I teach and the precious babies I care for definitely deserve more than good enough from me...so what am I going to do about it?

And what about you? What things in your life are you striving to do good enough but that you'd like to do good? Or even Godly? Are you asking God to help you get there?

Spring in February!

Last year I spent a lovely spring day relaxing with Baby B on a blanket in Colonial Williamsburg. Wasn't he just adorable? And so very not-mobile?



Today offered another opportunity to enjoy lovely spring weather in CW, but that was about the only similarity between then and now.



Ready to walk! Or nap in Baby D's case:)



Snack time!



Play time!



More play time on the palace green, although Baby B wasn't so sure how he felt about dirt on his hands.



Wait for me horses!! My legs are short, I can't walk as fast as you do!!



Oh poop, they didn't wait for me:(



On days like today, everyone should have my job:)

Things that make me feel Mmmm

1. These two crazy guys!



Over the last few weeks, Baby D has reached a new level of comfort and happiness at our house. He always reaches for his mommy when she comes to pick him up, but he's also pretty happy to arrive here in the morning and happier throughout the day than he often was last fall, all of which warms my heart. Both little ones are walking at about the same level now, which is completely adorable. And while I'm looking forward to chasing them around the park this spring, I'm also starting to wonder how I'm going to keep up with both of them at once!

2. Although Baby B's eating habits are starting to worry me more, he's still the biggest joy of my heart. I mean, come on, who wouldn't want to have a kiss war across the table at lunch with this guy?!



(Okay, this is a very serious kiss face. He can do much better when he's not sleepy like he was tonight.)

And don't worry ladies - this cutie pie doesn't just have the looks, he has the brains too!! I walked into his room yesterday to get him from his nap and found him laying on his stomach in his crib with his head propped up, "reading" a book! Keep it up my little man:)

3. New toys!



I am really excited about this train. It's a puzzle too, which I don't expect him to get for awhile, but it's his first train (that he can actually play with) and I'm hoping he finds it fun. He enjoys destroying every other thing he can get his hands on so I'm pretty sure this will be a hit as well.



And neither of these are new toys but Baby B found a renewed interest in them this week. Baby B and Baby D push this little bus around our family room and kitchen like nobody's business, and Baby B clearly does it in style!



Nice to know he can still rock the baby sunglasses:)

4. Sassy Sweet Potato Skins - wow! These rocked our world last week. They take a little bit of effort to make but they're so healthy and so delicious and will definitely become a staple in our house. I topped them with a mixture of monterey jack and pepper jack cheeses because that's what was in my fridge. Served with a salad and homemade Valentine's Day heart sugar cookies - awesome:)

5. Downton Abbey! I can't believe it's taken me this long to mention on this blog how infatuated I am with this show. Sunday night has become my favorite night of television for the last couple months because of this show. It chronicles the Crawley family, members of the British aristocracy in the early 20th century, and the lives of their servants. If you like Jane Austen novels, then I think this show is right up your alley. Tonight is the Season 2 finale but all of this season's episodes are online so it's not too late to catch up! It's going to be a long 10 months until PBS airs Season 3 next January!!

6. And finally, I need to give some attention to Hubby T, who watched Baby B all day yesterday so that I could get my hair cut and go have fun with my friends at Book Club and watched Breaking Dawn Part 1 with me last night and will watch Downton Abbey with me tonight. And who builds me fires on cold rainy days like today. You are awesome boyfriend, or as Baby B would say, !!

A Baby B Fairytale

Once upon a time there was a baby who reigned over all the land from his multi-colored castle. This was a special castle because the baby had his very own Jester Daddy to entertain him.



One day the baby spied something he absolutely had to have - a Nikon Coolpix L120 camera! It was infinitely more enticing than the jester, even more exciting than pretzels or bananas. It was so wonderful that the baby immediately knocked down the walls of his castle to get to his prize.



The baby covered the distance between him and the camera in the blink of an eye, yet he still couldn't reach it because he was a very short baby. "You may be taller than me but that won't stop me! There's no escaping once I have you in my grip! Haha!"



"Okay, I'll pause so you can take a decent picture of me, but only for a second! I cannot be deterred from my quest!"



The baby was so focused, so close! He was almost there when...



"Curses, I am foiled again!! Why do you always get in my way Jester Daddy?"



"Never fear! I will be back to capture my camera prize another day, probably long in the future, when I am taller."

And the baby prince and Jester Daddy lived happily ever after. The end:)

One year + one month

Would you just look at this thriving thirteen month old?!



Baby B has been growing quickly lately, it's almost unbelievable. (And yes, his new favorite play place is the oven drawer; in the last week kitchen towels, my water bottle, and multiple books have found their way into the drawer. Hopefully everything is heat resistant!!)

Walking - within the last week he started taking a series of 5 or 6 steps at a time instead of only 2 or 3. When we put him down on the floor after holding him now, he always wants to stand instead of sit, and when we let go he's able to hold his balance most of the time. I see this as evidence that he's feeling more stable on his feet. I wouldn't say that he's walking yet, but he's getting closer and closer.

Eating - we are in the middle of weaning him from breastfeeding! We started this after getting home from our Colorado trip a couple weeks ago. We're down to 3 feedings from Mommy a day, and I'm progressively shortening their length so that hopefully when we stop completely it won't be an abrupt change for him (or me!). He's taking to his sippy cup and cow's milk pretty well. When we first started using the cup, he wasn't used to having that much liquid enter his mouth at once so a lot of it dribbled out. He's definitely moved past that challenge. Now we need to get him to tilt the cup up on his own. If we let go of the cup now, he just holds it right back to us like, "Come on now parent, help me out here please!" We'll keep working at it...

Baby sign language - we taught him the sign for "more" a couple weeks ago and now he uses it all the time. Almost anytime we are in the kitchen he signs for more, even if it's not meal time and no one is eating. He is somewhat of a bottomless pit though...I thought that wasn't supposed to kick in for another 12 or 13 years!! He's even made the more sign while we're on his changing table (more what Baby B? Clean behinds? Yes, Mommy is in favor of that too!). Next up are the signs for please and thank you. He's going to be such a polite little man:)

Teeth - Baby B's teeth are taking their sweet time coming in. I think the tooth that peeked through around Christmas time still hasn't completely come up, and his second tooth seems to be stuck barely above the gum line the way the first one was for a couple weeks. Nevertheless, we bought his first toothbrush this weekend! He's not quite sure what to make of it, but he should catch on quick. After all, who wouldn't want to brush their teeth with a Clifford the Big Red Dog toothbrush?!

But growing up isn't all fun and games, especially for Mommy and Daddy. Hubby T and I have both started experiencing some of the frustrations of parenthood lately. Hubby T is struggling to get Baby B to stop grabbing his glasses off his face every time he picks him up. I don't blame him, finger smudges on glasses are not cool, nor are broken glasses if Baby B gets to enthusiastic! I am struggling with Baby B's new habit of throwing food on the floor when he is eating. I am trying to not take this action as an insult to my cooking and cleaning skills, I know that's not why he does it, but it's hard sometimes. We are trying to teach him that those aren't acceptable behaviors, but the message isn't getting through, at least not yet. I'm not sure when we're going to have a breakthrough in this area. I have heard that saying no in a consistent manner (same tone of voice, facial expression, etc.) is important but I will freely admit we're not very good at that. It is really hard not to smile, even when we're frustrated, with a face like this...

My garden box

Step 1 of the vegetable garden project is complete! Thanks to the help of my awesome father-in-law this weekend, I now have a garden box.



Hubby T helped too. It's a good thing fathers give their sons power tools.



And just for the record, I didn't just take pictures. I helped build a little bit too. Now I have thoughts of potting soil vs. peat moss and drainage and seedlings running through my head. I'd really like this project to be successful but I'm not feeling motivated to dive right in, so it's a good thing it's only February. I have time to get myself worked up. In the meantime, it was a great play box yesterday!



Neither one was quite sure what to make of the box, although Baby D was more adventuresome and willing to explore than Baby B. I think he was too focused on playing with the camera case. Here's what happened when I took it away.



What a face. Don't worry Baby B. You'll be much happier this summer when you get homemade zucchini bread made from our homegrown zucchinis:)

Colorado trip part two

I know I promised more stories from our Colorado trip, but after being home less than a week it's already being relegated to the "that was fun but I need to think about what's coming up next!" portion of my brain. So here are the last couple things that stick out to me from that trip that I wanted to share.

- My gramma has a dog named Abby. The name we are teaching Baby B to call my gramma is Gigi. While we were there, Baby B started calling the dog Gigi. He can actually say that "g" syllable pretty well. Way to go Mr. Smarty Pants:)



- To officially celebrate my uncle's 50th birthday, we all went out for a very nice dinner at the Viceroy Hotel. (Click the link for an awesome picture.) It was built within the last couple years so I'd never been there before. The words that keep running through my head to describe it are super swanky. The dinner was delicious and my uncle was hilariously roasted in accordance with family tradition. The evening started out with a cocktail hour, during which I continually thought of that line from Sweet Home Alabama, "You have a baby...in a bar!" Yup, that was me. And he hung in there through the whole dinner until we took him home at ten o'clock. What a party animal!!



- On Sunday morning I went to church at the little chapel near the village. As service was starting, it occurred to me that the last time I sat in that building was two years ago on Christmas Eve, less than a week after I had a miscarriage. I remember being heartbroken and crying almost the whole service. And now here I was, two years later, with a beautiful baby boy napping up at the house and a whole loving family surrounding us. We sang the hymn "Great is Thy Faithfulness" at our wedding, and I love how it continues to be the refrain of our life.



This is our little family standing in my grandparent's yard. Jealous of the view? You should be. Unless you're a member of my family, in which case, it was great to see you! And aren't Gramma and Poppa awesome for living where they live and creating the family they created?! We are truly blessed. Can't wait to go back this summer!!