Four years

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. I Peter 1:3-4

As we remember Joshua this year, I've been blessed by something I forgot. I forgot that I put the above verse in the photo book I made of Joshua back in 2011. At church, Pastor James has been preaching through I Peter and preached on these verses 3-4 weeks ago. It's been really cool to think specifically how the inheritance that we will one day experience and that Joshua is already experiencing is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, (unlike the fake flower arrangement that I bought last year that went missing!) And then to look through the photo book today and surprisingly see those verses...people wonder how God speaks to us today, that's how. Four years later and God is still comforting us with His Word in our grief as He has been this whole journey. Blessed be the Lord. We have the living hope of heaven where there will be no death, no sin, and every moment will be as exhilarating as that first sweet reunion.

This year I was at a loss for what to do to celebrate Joshua.  Like last year, enough time has passed that it didn't seem to make sense to do anything big and it was again a weekday so I figured I'd just get something for the grave at Michaels and get some balloons and we'd just go to the cemetery and out to eat.  But I felt like I should do something different to make it special (other than getting all the same color balloons so the kids wouldn't fight over them).  Not coming up with anything, it was comforting to have the tradition from past years to default to.  But God (one of Martin's favorite phrases), provided me with direction and ideas just in time to make it special.    

God lead me to pick up Ellen Vaughn's book Radical Gratitude this week after having finished only about half of it this summer and was reminded of the idea to place remembrance rocks as a memorial to God's faithfulness (a la Joshua 4:1-7).  So while I was at Michaels getting the flower arrangement for this year, I also got some polished rocks and a painting pen and we all made remembrance rocks to place at Joshua's grave.  Dylan's says "Joshua," mine says I Peter 1:3-4, Lydia's says "Love," Martin's says "Hope" and we made one for Levi that has his name on it (since he doesn't have a tree on Joshua's stone).  I read the passage from Joshua at our Joshua's grave and then we put our rocks down (while narrowing escaping a mishap with the paint and Martin's bible).  

I actually couldn't do a lot of the things we did last year.  Our Michaels no longer has someone in house making arrangements nor do did they have grave arrangements pre-made.  So I just got some flowers on my own and then some orange ribbon and made bows for the flowers.  Much cheaper, so when these go the way of the wind I won't be so upset.

We actually wanted the balloons to go the way of the wind.  We sang Happy Birthday and did a balloon release and by the time we left all but one had made it through the leafless tree near Joshua's grave. We decided to go later in the afternoon than we did last year and then go out for dinner (instead of lunch as we did last year).  By the time we left the cemetery it was getting pretty dark but we had a nice sunset/moonrise time there.

We ate at Chili's again but not the same one as last year since that one went out of business.  Chili's was having a family night and I had coupons for free kids meals so that's where it seemed we should go.  Came home to find these flowers from some friends by our door.  Also got some nice texts/emails/phone calls.  It's so nice when folks remember.  

Next year Joshua's birthday will be on Thanksgiving again so things will look a little different.  I think the mantra will be doing something but not stressing over what.  God provides even that.  I just now realized that even in the passage in Joshua, God provided the way that He wanted them to remember.  Just like He did for me today.  And in His mercy and grace, God will bring things to mind and cause me to forgot things (like forgetting about that verse so that I would see it anew this year) as a way of bringing me comfort.  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.    

Dylan update, 9 years!

Baseball has been a big part of Dylan's 9th year of life.  He tried out in January for the kid-pitch division (AA little league) and made it onto the Yankees in the spring learning a lot from the older kids on his team.  In the fall, Dylan played AA again, this time being one of the older kids on the Cubs.  He got to pitch his first full inning and did a lot of catching too.  Dylan has a great attitude about playing baseball.  He really loves the game and loves playing and doesn't get too upset when he loses.  We've had a number of parents come up to us and tell us they love watching Dylan play because he is so enthusiastic and you can tell he loves playing.  This is especially true when he gets to pitch.  Someone said he was "moxie."

Now Dylan even has longer hair like the major league players.  Now that fall ball is over Dylan still
enjoys playing inside baseball/handball with Daddy in the family room.  Can't get enough.

Between baseball seasons, Dylan swam with our pool's swim team again this year.  He earned "place" ribbons (as opposed to participation ribbons) this year including a second place in breast stroke at the B meet.  This was especially noteworthy since the first two meets in which he swan the breast stroke he DQed (disqualified).

Dylan also has gotten into Pokemon this year and like to go with his friend Jonathan to the Pokemon league time at our library.  He's still more interested in collecting the cards rather than actually playing the game.

Academically, Dylan entered his first science fair this year and got some good compliments on his demonstration of static electricity using a spoon and a Cheerio.  Dylan continues to read a ton, often having 3-4 books or series going at once.  He finished all the magic tree house books and has started reading non-fiction (mostly biographies) now.  Dylan continues to do well in school although the sitting still can still be challenging.  He sat on an exercise ball in class this year to help with that.  

Musically, Dylan graduated from the Musicmakers at the keyboard program and began partner lessons this year.  Practicing as become a little less painful for mommy and more challenging as I tried to help him with more complicated things like constant tempo and correct dynamics.

Dylan has achieved a lot with scouts this year too.  He went from a Wolf to a Bear scout and earned a number of belt loops and academic pins working with Daddy to complete the achievements.  He attended scout summer camp for the first time this year - first time at camp without a parent there with him.

For his birthday, Dylan had a sleepover with 4 friends from school.  They watched a movie and built a fort to sleep in.  Most of the boys took their shirts off to be like Dylan because he doesn't sleep with a shirt.  I had to come down at 2:30 to tell them to be quiet.  Lots of fun though.

At his check up, Dylan weighed 54 lbs (12th percentile) and was 49 inches tall (7th percentile).  That's a 5 lb and inch and a half gain from last year.

Dylan continues to be very social (befriending the new kid in the class even before school started) and a leader (e.g. the no shirt thing).  He has a lot of self-confidence and can focus on the one good thing his coach says to him among 5 other corrections.  We are starting to see a lot more maturity come through (save for the weird frantic aversion to his sister's feet.)  Dylan is a great big brother and both Lydia and Levi admire him.  He's a fun kid to have to watch grow up because he's so good at so many things.  He's still our biggest challenge parenting-wise but maybe just such is the life of the first born.  Dylan amazes us with his biblical knowledge and understanding on a weekly basis and it's because of all this that we keep telling him he'd make a great campus minister.  



 

Levi Update, 15 months!

It's been a busy three months for Levi!  After taking his first steps around 12 months, it was only about three weeks later that he was walking as his major mode of transportation and had dropped crawling for the most part.  Now he is running.  In the picture above he was putting Dylan's baseball hat on and thinking it was super funny.  At 15 months, he is playing on the playground and going down the small slides by himself.  I was actually dreading the toddler years but now that we're here I'm remembering the fun parts about this age - watching Levi learn and accomplish so many new things and actually communicating back and forth with him (other than responding to his cries which of course we've done from birth).  Now he calmly tells us something that he's thinking about.  Levi learned how to say "ball" pretty quickly and loves throwing balls.  He has a pretty good arm already.  He moves his hand back and forth (like he's playing with his toy car) and says "vroom vroom" when he sees a car.  (We were at a raceway the first time he did that back in August.)  We think he has other words for things that we haven't figured out yet.  For example, we think he is saying some combination of Dylan and Lydia - Da-EE-A.  And he makes the same sound every day when he wakes up from his nap and looks out the window and points.  Maybe we'll figure that one out in the next three months.  Another thing that happens when he wakes up from his nap is that Martin or I will give him a hug and he hugs us back by tapping us on the back.  It's super cute and feels like he is returning our love.  I feel like Levi mimics us a lot.  Like more than the other kids did.  In the picture below he is taking a marker and trying to write a new event on the calendar just like Mommy had just done (October has been a busy month!)
  

Levi has seemed to instantly (right at 15 months) get into books.  He gets books from the shelf and brings them over to us for us to read to him.  If we are sitting on the floor he plops down in our laps.  His current favorite is The Little Blue Truck.  He stops on one page and does his vroom vroom sound and car motion.

At his 15 month appointment, Levi weighed 23 lbs 9 oz (40th percentile) and was 31.5 inches tall (70th percentile) and was in the 75th percentile for head circumference.

Levi is still eating a lot and eating more and more table food.  His favorite is yogurt.  Probably because he won't drink milk from a sippy cup.  He takes the sippy cup and turns it upside down and pounds it on the high chair tray.  So needless to say I'm still nursing.  The plan has been to try to wean at around 17 months which is when Dylan and Lydia quit.  But that's around Christmas and he's the baby so I'm saying 19 months is the absolute end.  I'll be going on the women's retreat then so that will be a good stopping point.

New Car!

Today we said goodbye to the car that Martin and I went on our first date in.  After 14 years, it was time to replace the Maxima.

We got a used 2015 Mazda6.  Martin (who hates spending money even on a new car) seems pretty pleased.  

I think it looks pretty slick.  I would have definitely gone out with Martin if was driving this when we started dating.

The big kids like the big trunk.

When Daddy gets home from work, they say "see ya, we're going to go read in the trunk of the Mazda."

Levi hasn't gotten to ride in it yet since we haven't put his car seat in.  (Never put his car seat in the Maxima either.)  But he likes to make the "Vroom vroom" noise when we talk about cars.  We have to teach him "zoom zoom" since we own a Mazda now.

Levi Update, 12 months!

Here's Mr. Smiley at 10 months.  He had just gotten his 8th tooth about 2 weeks earlier and then at about 11 months I notices that he had 3 molars that were already in.  He got the 4th before he turned 12 months.

Also at 10 months, Levi gave us a few nights of sleeping through the night (getting up at 5:30 instead of 3:30 or 4:30) and then at about 11 months he made that his norm.  Then he proceeded to going back to sleep after the 5:30 nursing until about 7am and even sleeping all the way through until 7am.  These were a great few weeks.  Right now at 12 months we think he has a cold or something so he's back to waking at 5:30am but he usually goes back down for a another hour or so.  It's been hard to sleep in the summer with so much daylight and so many times Dylan and Lydia are around making noise and so Levi wants to be up with them.  He's still taking a good morning nap although I think it's getting shorter but in a way that's good because then he will more likely take an afternoon nap.

Here's the 11 month picture, serious cute face!

Levi is a great crawler.  Getting around everywhere, climbing stairs, etc.  A week ago he took a first couple steps.  He's getting about 3-5 steps in before falling now.  He is very active.  Lots of people have described him as "busy."  (hmm, who does that sound like?)  He plays with a mission!

Levi says mama and dada and does the sign for more but not sure if he's using them in the correct context just yet.  He's starting to repeat sounds we make too.

We feed Levi just about anything right now.  Try to give him food off of our plates but usually we also give him a little bowl or jar of pureed stuff just because he wants so much to eat.  This is totally foreign to us.  Not sure what to do with a kid who eats!

He's got the teeth to go with all this eating.  He continues the trend of having one tooth for each month of his life.

Levi traveled to North Carolina for the first time during his 11 month of life - to see cousin Savva graduate from high school.

Finally the 12 month picture, back to Mr. Smiley.  I did it - managed to take a picture each month and I think I even did most of them on the exact date!

Levi had his check up with the pediatrician today.  He was 30.75 inches long (somewhere between the 60th and 75th percentile) and weighed 21 lbs., 3 oz (25th percentile).  That is tracking with the clothes he wears.  His 12 month shorts are just now starting to fit around the waist but we've had to move to the 18 month onesies.  The doctor said he's doing great.  I had a little concern with his right foot/leg associated with his feet rubbing that he does but the doctor didn't find anything wrong and said if he's pulling up with both legs, that's good indication that he's fine.  So fun to watch him figure out walking!  

Happy Birthday Little Man!

Our little man

 How old is Levi?

 Let the cake smashing begin

 more cake smashing

 and more cake smashing

 first time drinking cow's milk

Who's the birthday boy?

Levi Update, 9 months

The monthly pictures got a lot harder to take this quarter...

"I'm so done with these pictures Mom."

It's been a busy three months for Levi.  Levi started sitting up at 6 and a half months.  He got two more top teeth right around 7 months and another bottom one around 8 months.  Someone recently described him as fierce with the teething since he seems to desperately grab things to put in his mouth.

Also at 7 months, he was rocking back and forth and scooting around a lot on belly – getting ready to crawl and around 7 months.  He crawled right at 8 months and was pulling up shortly thereafter and has been so busy ever since.      

  

At 7 months sleeping he gave us a few 10 hour stretches (8pm-6am) but still gets up once or twice a night on most occasions.  Afternoon naps are a struggle.  Levi consistently will take a morning nap, usually 2-3 hours, but then doesn't go down for an afternoon nap, either because he doesn't get tired again until its too late to take an afternoon nap or because we are in the car running to pick the big kids up from school or taking them to lessons.  

Levi had his first big car ride at 8 months old when we went to Alabama for spring break.  Aside for the two major blowouts at non-opportune times, he was a real trooper.  He slept or was content for most of the drive.  (States seen so far in his 9 months of life - VA, MD, PA, TN, GA, AL).  Levi also has his first swing in swing at the playground!

 Levi has tried a lot of new food - rice, oatmeal, wheat cereal; peas, green beans, squash, avocado, sweet potatoes, carrots, peaches, apples, bananas, pears, prunes, beef, chicken, and turkey - all pureed.  He has also started to eat cheerios and puffs and we tried little bits of fruit but they don't seem to make it into his mouth.  I made the sweet potato, carrot, and banana puree myself and give him apple sauce but the rest I buy the Gerber baby food.  Those are the ones I feel are easy enough to make at home.  Levi hasn't been spitting up nearly as much so I can tell his digestive system has matured.  He also eats a lot more than the other kids did.  I'm still nursing and trying to pump as much as I can to mix milk with his cereal.    

His eyes are still blue but I'm seeing a lot of brown around the pupil so I think they are going to change to brown.  

Right 8 and a half months I noticed Levi was waving his arm a lot.  Just straight armed, up and down.  At first I didn't think too much of it and then I wondered if he was signing "all done" because he was often doing it after he had eaten a little bit.  He also waves his arm or bangs his hand (depending on how you look at it, usually his right arm or hand) on things he pulls up on.  Shortly after that he started clapping.  He smiles a lot when we say "yay" to his clapping or "all done" to his hand waving so maybe he's happy we are understanding him.  He will sometimes do his hand waving when we are trying to get him to wave hi or bye to someone.  
  

Levi also gives good "hugs" or at least he grabs onto you for dear life when you hold him sometimes and it feels like a hug.  I'll take it.  

Levi Update, 6 months

We can tell that Levi is a happy baby even more now that he's interacting with us more.  Here are his pictures by the month for this quarter.    

Over the past 3 months we saw Levi start to grab a lot more things, mostly cloth things.  We joke that his burp cloth is his favorite toy.  And we watched him get his first teeth starting at 4 months (November 13th to be exact).  At his 4 month appointment he weighed 15 pounds and was 25.75 inches long.  Now at 6 months he weighs 17 pounds 6 ounces and is 27 inches long.  He now has 4 teeth (the 2 top ones just came in) and isn't quite sitting up yet but he can sit with support.  

A couple weeks ago, right around the beginning of the year, he started sleeping 6 hour stretches (8pm-2am).  He now is giving us some 8 hour stretches 8pm-4am but those aren't as consistent.

We just started rice cereal with him but he has a few little tastes of other solid food like sweet potatoes on Thanksgiving.  

Lydia Update, Six Years!

Similar to her big brother, the biggest change in Lydia's life over the last year has been how much she has grown in her reading.  Here she is with the first book she read all by herself.  She is reading much more than just three letter words and is getting pretty fluent in her reading.  Lydia started Kindergarten in the fall and is doing so well.  Her teacher said she is a leader in the classroom and she often puts Lydia in charge of her little reading group when they go their centers/stations.  Lydia seems to be pretty good at math.  She's counting by 3s and starting to absorb some of Dylan's 2nd grade stuff.  Lydia is also enjoying her Friday mornings home with Mommy and Levi.    

Lydia performed in her first dance recital this year.  I was in tears watching my "shy" one ham it up on the stage as she tapped to Spider Man.  Lydia continues to do dance and choir.

This year she also played t-ball on the Red Sox.  She was the only girl but loved it and is so excited to play baseball again this year with Coach Chris on the Red Sox.

Lydia became a great little swimmer this past summer - swimming about 4+ body lengths by herself and is hoping to join the swim team this coming summer.

Lydia went to Pine Springs Grandmas Moms and Tots with my mom this past summer and had a blast playing the bubbles on the slip and slide and making lots of friends.  She won the 'social butterfly' award for talking to all the kids.  Lydia doesn't discriminate and is friendly to all kids.  

Lydia gained almost 7 lbs. and over 2 inches this last year.  Still sucking her thumb.  She won't go to college doing it right?

Lydia is so loving - she gives us hugs and kisses without being asked to and if we get hurt she gives us hug or a kiss.  She still loves to snuggle and will sometimes just ask us to snuggle with her.  She also likes to play board games and do art projects - painting is her favorite.  And like every 6 year old girl on the planet, she loves Frozen.  Her ice skating birthday party tomorrow will be Frozen-themed.