PICTURES!

Handsome before church...but still with tools in hand. Never know when something might need to be fixed!

Being silly with Mommy


So much love for Bear and Mickey...so little time!

Making a thank you card for Miss Allison for today's final music class of the "semester".

I'm glad to have a few pictures to share after our weekend adventure. I feel like we did a lot of running around, but it was a great weekend.

Friday afternoon I snuck out of the office early and spent some extra time at home with Joshua. While he napped, I cleaned and rested a little bit and even did a little cooking. My mom and dad were gracious enough to come and spend a few hours with Joshua while Jason and I went out on a date. It's been far too long since we've done that, and despite feeling guilty for running my parents all the way to our house so that we could do something selfish like go out for dinner, we had a really nice time. We ate too much, and even talked through dinner. I almost forgot how nice it was to eat a hot meal without shovelling it in to deal with Joshua. Add that to the list of things I didn't figure on when awaiting and anticipating motherhood.

Saturday we did some running around to the mall. Joshua's highlight was throwing pennies into the fountain and eating his lunch on the way home in the car. He thought he was hot stuff. After his nap, Jason and I took him on a playground tour in the development. He was in his glory and really seemed to have fun.

Sunday morning we headed for church. Joshua, normally the quiet and compliant child (only while in church, my friends) was a chatterbox. They had a baby dedication and he insisted on jabbering all the way through it. If we were praying, he had to physically open my eyes to talk to me. Snacks didn't do the trick, nor did any form of diversion I had packed in the bag. So off to kids church he (or should I say "we" went). He was having no part of me leaving him there to play with the kids. There were 10-12 of them (hard to count when they never stop moving) and God bless the teacher. She's a saint, I swear it. She had them dancing and singing, memorizing a Bible verse, listening to a story, making a craft, eating a snack and playing Play-Doh. It's a good thing I stayed--- I didn't know that they did snacks, but it was totally not OK for Joshua and the peanut issue. So luckily there was a safe option. He wouldn't have known it, but luckily I was there to step in. Hopefully he'll get used to going with the other kids because I really think it would be good for him to have that hour of time with the others...and maybe eventually without me lurking in the background. Hey, a mom can dream, can't she?

We worked around the house yesterday. Actually, Jason was the one who really worked. We're preparing for the transition from 2 closets (one for each of us) down to one that we share when the new baby comes. Joshua will be making the move into a big room when we transform his room back into a nursery. Lots of shifting...but first, there must be LOTS of cleaning. I have yet to begin, but I can assure you that it's not going to be pretty....at all.

Today is Joshua's last music class of the "semester" (that still cracks me up). He decided this morning that he wanted to make a card for Miss Allison to say thank you, so we worked on that before grandma got there this morning. Oh how this child loves to make crafts! He was dressing it up with crayons, markers AND stickers. Miss Allison surely won't know what to do with herself. They're going to offer a summer music class this year, so we'll probably try that. Without divine intervention, I'm not sure that I'll be able to keep him in the fall session once the new baby comes, unless I can find someone willing to accept a newborn for a half hour once a week so that Joshua and I can go and sing in a circle. Might be interesting. Lots of time for that kind of juggling!

And one funny story. My pregnancy dreams have begun. I had a very vivid "boy dream" a few weeks ago. This weekend, it was time to dream pink....really pink. I nearly woke up in a cold sweat on Saturday early in the morning. I had dreamed that it was my first day back to work. When I returned home, my baby girl was sitting up in the middle of the living room floor (amazingly advanced for 3 months, huh?) dressed in the frilliest pink dress you could imagine with her NAILS PAINTED! What?

Praying for Stellan...I just can't get that precious little boy off my mind.

Just another day...

This picture was taken this morning during breakfast. It was before he refused to eat any more Lucky Charms. But after he giggled when I told him to say "boogie" to get him to make this wonderful grin. Goodness I love him.

I don't have much to report today. We've spent our evenings playing Play-Doh and Candy Land without too much incident or reportable quotes to make you smile. It's just been Joshua being Joshua...and that blesses me beyond measure every single day.

I find myself praying incessantly for baby Stellan over the past few days and have noticed many of us referring to him in our blogs. I suppose God provides the grace you need in a situation like the one they're facing, but I can't imagine being as strong and as faithful as Jennifer has been. I can't imagine wrapping my mind around the idea of losing my little boy as she has had to do, and to still be able to see it all as a miracle. I can see getting there eventually, but not in the midst of the ups and downs. But it challenges my faith in a big way.

I'm so thankful to not have much to report here on our behalf. I'll just keep praying for that sweet little boy.

Quick run to Nana & Pap's...

Enjoying the blue "muffins" Aunt Libby made for him....he's got the best Aunt in the whole world!

Joshua and his cousin, Brewen, driving the Gator.

Josh looks determined. Brewen looks a little terrified.

We had the opportunity to head to Lewistown this weekend to help celebrate my Grandma Shirley's birthday with the Richard family. After a board meeting in the morning, Joshua and I headed off for a much anticipated afternoon and night with Nana and Pap. He was so excited!

Most of the family was gathered at my parents house when we arrived. We were planning a pretty low key gathering with hot dogs and cake and ice cream. I was looking very forward to visiting with everyone and to spend some time with Brooke. I know I say it every time I come back from visiting with her, but she grew so much since I saw her a few weeks ago! I just couldn't believe it. She's more adorable than ever...and all it takes is one of those smiles to melt your heart. We had a blast visiting with Cory and Shannon (due Sept 29th with their first baby) and Stacie (due July 31 with their BABY GIRL). With the house already overflowing with all things baby between Brooke and Josh and baby Dre, we are beginning to realize just how INSANE the family parties are going to be this Christmas with three brand new babies on top of the ones we already love so much. One thing is for sure. There will be no shortage of helpers, and no shortage of people who are ready to hold the little ones. We're definitely not lacking in the departments of love or support in my family...and I can't even tell you how blessed that makes me feel.

Joshua got to spend some time outside with the Gator and did an OK job of steering. He needs to practice a bit more, and perhaps when there aren't 12 cars in my parents' driveway that he could hit. He insisted on driving right through the cars....enough to give me a panic attack. All we needed was 12 insurance claims for damage by Gator. He and Brewen did a pretty good job of sharing the driving duties. Joshua eventually moved on to pulling his wagon around the obstacle course of cars, through the mulch and up over the edge of the driveway.

He chowed down on his hot dog once he realized that that was the gateway to his "muffin". Grandma Shirley had requested a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing for her birthday treat. Since that's off limits for Joshua, Libby decided that he should have some cupcakes that he could eat. Oh my goodness was he excited!

We returned home on Sunday morning with one very cranky little boy. He doesn't sleep very well when we're at Nana and Pap's house, so he was tired, and had 3 different total meltdowns before we stopped lunch midstream and went upstairs for a nap. He couldn't stand himself for one more second...and frankly, neither could we. After a good nap, he awoke in much better spirits and even earned himself a walk to the playground. Daddy taught him how to go down the fireman's pole (with some assistance of course) and it took all our might to get him to come home with us when it was time for supper. He LOVES to play on the playground, but something tells me that if we went to the expense and the trouble to put one up in our backyard, it would lose its appeal. We'll see.

And now, it's Monday. Back to the grind. It's been a wonderful day today, though, so I have no complaints. I hope all of you are also having good days...and have a week full of them.

I'm already super excited because Jason and I have a date on Friday night. It's the first one in quite some time, but Nana has agreed to come and stay with Joshua so that we can go out to dinner. I'm embarrassed to tell you how infrequently we do this....really, really embarrassed. But I'm looking forward to it a lot.

More tomorrow, I'm sure...

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Short and sweet today. Quite literally.

While playing a very spirited game of Candy Land with Daddy last night, this is the line that had us in stitches. Joshua picked a card that he was very happy about, I believe it may have been two greens (clearly the only thing better than one green). He said, "Hot diggety dog! Would you look at that!!!!"

Nope. Not kidding.

How many silly things can happen in an hour?

I arrived home from work yesterday afternoon and was immediately entertained. I love it when that happens. The day, up to that point, would not be described as entertaining. So I started snapping pictures amidst my giggles.

First, Joshua took off his pants and then began arranging his letters from the fridge into a perfectly straight line. After I snapped this, he started to group them by color. It appears that he has contracted the "organizing" gene from both of his parents. I honestly don't know why he didn't want to wear his pants. But hey, it's a free country, right?


Then, he called me to the steps so that we could play "choo-choo". He was the engineer and was driving the train (can't you see him holding onto the steering wheel?) wherever I told him we should go. He was screaming "All ABOARD!" at the top of his lungs claiming to be the man on the Polar Express. (Yep, we're back on that again although we're holding firm on our No-Polar-Express-Until-Thanksgiving rule lest we both lose our minds.)

Then we did stickers. This sticker book has gotten more mileage than I can even begin to tell you. He is now in the stage of taking all of the stickers off of each page, coloring underneath them and then putting the stickers back. Don't ask. He's having fun...so we go with it. But the picture caught a sneeze in the act. Makes me laugh.

All of this happened between 5:15 and 5:45. Never a dull moment in the Land of Joshua.

Thinking SPRING!

I felt spring fever creeping in this weekend...and we soaked up every possible second of outside time that we could.

Joshua and Daddy had a special day together on Saturday while I was at my United Way retreat. It sounds like they had lots of outside play time, and aside from a temper tantrum when it was time to come inside (the beginning of a pattern), all went well. Joshua had announced that he was NOT going to take a nap for Daddy, but I returned on Saturday afternoon to find him snoring away. We hit the swings when he got up and had a blast. Again, the only downfall was the screaming and carrying on when it was time to come home.

Sunday morning we went to church and had another great service. Joshua's really on a roll sitting through church. The ticket seems to be lollipops right now...so as long as we have one of those, we're in good shape.

After a nap in the afternoon (for both of us), we headed out into the front yard to play until supper time. Joshua is really working on the tricycle and refining his skills on that. Finally, his little legs are long enough to reach. He loved getting the tractor and his lawn mower out and racing around with those. Everyone in our neighborhood must have had the same idea because the development was buzzing with activity. This time of year is always nice because you remember that you DO have neighbors.

I have one funny story from the weekend that Joshua reminded me about this morning when we woke up. We went for a treat on Saturday night after dinner. Rita's has opened in Lewisburg, so we decided to go there to get a snack. We ate it at home and had put some of Joshua's ice into a bowl for him. He insisted on carrying it back and forth between Jason and I, and was coming dangerously close to spilling it. Jason said something. Joshua repeated it. I'll give you the Joshua version for the sake of appropriateness. I think you'll see why. (This has been repeated MANY MANY times since Saturday night, and was the first thing he told me this morning when I opened his bedroom door.)

"I'm going to spill my ice cream and Daddy is going to be DIS-MISSED!!!"

I'll bet you can't figure out what it was that Jason said, can you? This kid is part parrot, I swear.

An update on the little one...

Not THAT little one.

I had a great treat this morning to be able to swing by the house in the middle of the day and catch Joshua by surprise. He and Grandma were outside, freezing their noses and cheeks off, blowing off some steam in the yard. Joshua is SO anxious for the warmer weather, to the point where he's asking almost daily to go outside. It surely has been a long winter. So I snapped a few pictures...couldn't resist.

Now, onto the really little one. 3.81 cm little. (But that seems awfully big to me seeing as how we've gone from the size of a sesame seed to that. I had to pull out a ruler to really get an idea of how big that is, so don't feel bad if you have to.) Our appointment yesterday was another good one. Everything looks great. We got to have another ultrasound, and saw the baby wiggling like a maniac. Arms and legs were going every which direction. Never did we witness anything like that with Joshua! The baby's little heartbeat was fluttering away. We were measuring for October 3rd compared to our first due date of October 6th. Dr. Miller said, "So, basically the same difference." Obviously he's never been pregnant. 3 days is a BIG DEAL if you're the fat lady.

The plot thickens a little bit as it relates to delivery. Do any of you recall that Dr. Miller was on vacation a few weeks before my due date with Joshua? Well, he was in Hawaii for two weeks in early October 2006 returning on the day our labor adventure began. We're getting the sneaking suspiscion that this is an annual trip. He asked us if we had discussed delivery options at our first appointment, and I said yes, but we hadn't made any complete decisions. He again suggested the date of September 30th (his birthday, for what it's worth) if we want to schedule a repeat c-section by saying, "I still like September." I asked about waiting until October 7th, the day after my due date (he does scheduled sections on Wednesdays) to see if I go on my own. He then suggested that we could wait until the 14th if I wanted to go that route. Huh? (By the way, I quickly declined that option. 41 weeks is out of the question.) So Jason and I looked at each other, and he asked exactly what I was thinking. "Are you planning another trip for early October?" And then he said with a smirk, "I still like September."<

/div>

As soon as Dr. Miller left the room, I looked at Jason and told him that I am NOT going to deliver with another doctor if it can be avoided. With how complicated things were last time, and the different care I received at the hospital when I went in with concerns and he was in Hawaii, I just don't trust that anyone else is going to help me like he will. I'm still convinced that if I had seen a doctor, particularly MY doctor, the day that I had to go in for monitoring after not feeling movement all day, Joshua would have been born a week and a half earlier, and perhaps not by c-section. So that's in the back of my mind. All this to say...we're leaning toward scheduling for September 30th. As the due date edges closer and closer to that date, I also realize that there's a chance I could go into labor on my own prior to the surgery. If I do and this body decides to work for once, I'll give my best effort at a VBAC as long as that appears to be a safe choice. If not, we'll get the baby here safe and sound in the hands of the doctor we both feel comfortable with and who knows us. So that's the scoop. No more appointments until April 9th.

Complete 180 --- The Comedian

Parenthood shouldn't be THIS funny. Last night was one of those times when I was laughing so hard at Joshua that I just about couldn't breathe. The road to peeing yourself is a short one under the best of conditions for a pregnant lady, but let me tell you....it was close last night.

I fear that this won't be anywhere NEAR as funny as it was in real life, but I'll make an attempt. Hopefully you know Joshua well enough to hear his little voice when it's time to insert it into the story.

We had a very silly night last night. The laughing began with a very spirited singing spell. I use the term singing loosely, but Joshua was dancing around in circles with his guitar singing these long, drawn out notes. His eyes were closed and his head was shaking in order to express the passion with which he was performing. The song was something about, "Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaave toooooooooooooooooo looooooooooooooooooooook fooooooooooooooooor buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugs." We then moved onto singing about dusting, cleaning his room, and even the Swiffer made an appearance. It was hysterical.

But that's when it got good.

After our concert, Joshua got his bear light and we started hunting for bears. He swore he saw one in the office and insisted that I come with him to look. So off we went. We giggled all the way, tiptoeing so as not to give the bear a heads up that we were onto him. When we got into the office, he told me that we had to get into his firetruck tent to look there. I told him to use his bear light and go in to look and that I'd stay outside and keep watch for him. This is when he hit me with this. And I quote...

"No way! We're a team. (Great emphasis on TEAM.) We do things together or we don't do them at all. Right guys?"

I nearly lost it. As it turns out, I guess the Imagination Movers said this during yesterday's show about Mover Scott's bad hair day. But how in the world did he remember all of that, and know how to use it in the right context?

This morning when I was helping him to get dressed, I asked him if he remembered being such a funny guy last night. He said, "Yes. You laughed hard Mommy." And then he repeated the whole thing again and started to giggle to get me going again. Which we most certainly enjoyed again this morning. There's nothing wrong with ending your day and starting the next one with a very good laugh!

Abundance

I feel a heavy post coming on here, my friends. It's been a while since I've had one of those, so perhaps it's time.

I've been hit a few times in the past 24 hours by the concept of abundance, and I'm feeling led to think about it a little bit further. And by think about it, I mean type about it. And since this blog seems to be a creative thinking, writing, laughing, crying outlet for me, it seemed only natural to do it here.

I have an article that sits under the blotter on my desk that I have had there just long enough to ignore it and completely forget where it came from. But someone asked me about it today, so I pulled it out, read it again and realized why I put it there in the first place. I'll type it out for you, even if this may get a bit long.

"The supreme prayer of my heart is not to be learned or "good", but to be Abundant & Radiant. I desire to radiate health, cheerfulness, sincerity, calm courage and good-will. I wish to be simple, honest, natural, frank, clean in mind and clean in body, unaffected - ready to say, "I do not know," if so it be, to meet all men on an absolute equality - face any obstacle and meet every difficulty unafraid and unabashed.

I wish others to live their lives, too, up to their highest, fullest and best. To that end I pray that I may never meddle, dictate, interfere, give advice that is not wanted, nor assist when my services are not needed. If I can help people I'll do it by giving them a chance to help themselves; and if I can uplift or inspire, let it be by example, inference and suggestion, rather than by injunction and dictation. That is to say, I desire to be Radiant - to Radiate Life."

So that was "Gentle Reminder About Abundance #1". Point made as it relates to my life. Me.

Then I picked up the book that a few of us are reading called "Parenting The Way God Parents" while I ate my lunch. I only slopped a few bites of my Subway BMT (which, by the way, I have NEVER ONCE in my 7 million visits to Subway ordered, but it tasted so good that I might have it again tomorrow) on the book, but it will forever mark this spot. The Chapter I'm in is called, "Life In Abundance". Here's the passage that smacked me right upside the head.

"When Jesus said that He came to give life and to give it abundantly, what did he mean, exactly? My mother-in-law once explained to me that the abundance Jesus promises consists of the good, the bad, and the ugly of life-- all in abundance. Jesus didn't come to give us an abundance of only the happy and pleasant life, because that would not be life to the full. Love and arguments and relationships and good times and hard times and fun and work and laughter and tears- these are what make up real life.

As parents, we recognize that parenting itself is a round-the-clock, nonstop, intense experience in the high highs and the low lows in life. Raising children is heavily loaded with emotion- joy, pain, uncertainty- all in abundance. We have deeper feelings for our children than we do about most anything else in life. We invest more time and energy and money in our family relationships than we ever thought possible. The roller-coaster experience of parenting enables us to participate in a whole new level of life- abundant life. This is the abundance Jesus spoke of."

Got it. Abundance lesson #2 in the realm of parenthood. Right between the eyes.

Then I was doing a little blog hopping and landed on Big Mama's blog where she talked about buyer's remorse over a pair of jeans she purchased. Stay with me here. Her point was one of contentment and not allowing an abundance of worldly goods or a desire for a greater abundance of them to get in the way of our purpose in life. I'm guilty of that. And I hate it, am keenly aware of it when it's taking over, and try desperately to work on it. Less stuff. More substance in my life. More relationships. More time to do the things and work on the things that I KNOW I need to work. The responsibility to pass that along to my children and to teach that lesson amidst a world that is screaming "more more more" at the top of its lungs. And so, lesson #3 as it relates to keeping all of this abundance talk in perspective.

So I feel a bit like I was meant to reflect on abundance this afternoon. To focus on the abundance of my God given blessings. To remember that God didn't promise an easy road in anything- not work, not relationships, and certainly not parenting. He did, however, promise an abundance of grace sufficient enough to carry through. And an abundance of joy that far outweighs any challenge I may face.

This may not have had much to do with Joshua, but it's my heart for today. And isn't that what this is about?

Play-Doh and Red Balloons

I meant to post this yesterday, but never got any farther than uploading pictures. It was one of those days.

Joshua and I had a very fun time having a Play-Doh party on Monday evening. Grandma had surprised him with a little bag of Play-Doh tools that he is infatuated with. We rolled and cut and squeezed spaghetti for literally 2 hours....from supper time to bed time. And even then he cried when we had to put it away and get ready for his bath. He is mostly intrigued with the scissors and is concentrating really hard to learn how to make them work. I haven't even begun to introduce the concept of safety scissors to him, figuring there was little hope of him handling that at this point, but maybe we're not too far off.

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And, in the interest of creating a disjointed post...here's a little story from the weekend that keeps resurfacing this week. When we were eating dinner at Red Robin (which, by the way is a God send of a restaurant for a peanut allergic child!) Joshua asked for a red balloon. Sometime after studying it and playing with it, he got scared or annoyed or something, because he started to cry and ask us to "put it away". We quickly scooped him up with all of our belongings (including the balloon) and headed for the car. He was still saying, "Put it away!" and crying. So, when Jason thought he wasn't looking, he let the red balloon go. Joshua, of course, saw this and got incredibly concerned. This started him asking questions about, "Where did my red balloon go?" And these questions continued into his bath time that evening at the hotel.

In a moment of brilliance (at least I thought it was brilliant), I finally said that the balloon floated up to Heaven to see God. He seemed to buy it.

Ever since we've gotten home, he keeps saying..."My red balloon from Red Robin went up to see God's Heaven." I heard that at least 3 times last evening.

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And in an unbelievable newsflash, when I left for the office this morning at 8:43 am, my Joshua was still snoring away in his bed. It may have had something to do with Daylight Savings Time, him having greatly reduced sleep over the weekend in the hotel, the two top molars he is cutting, or perhaps the 4 different times he woke up through the night last night calling for me as if he was ON FIRE.

But Joshua......asleep at 8:43???? Really?