Ups and Downs

Today has been a day of ups and downs. As a result I have a lot of things on my mind tonight. First the up.  Zoe laughed for the first time today. She was on the changing table in the laundry room and I started singing this silly song we made up with Josiah called "Scrub your body".  All of a sudden she started giggling. It was the cutest thing I had ever seen.  (Don't tell Josiah, but her laugh is cuter than his!)  Steve was in our bathroom, so I quickly called to him to come see her.  We also called my parents so they could hear it over the phone.  What warmth filled my heart to see the laughter in her eyes and to finally hear it out loud. God knew what he was doing when he gave us little things like this that bring such joy to our hearts.  It was much needed after the news that I heard earlier in the day. This is the down.  I found out today that a former pastor of mine who was my pastor when I was in high school, college, and through my early adulthood life has Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.  This disease is also known as mad cow disease.  (Oddly enough, the interem pastor that we had at our church just before this pastor was called had mad cow disease too.  He passed away in 1999, just shortly after being diagnosed with the disease. ) My heart is aching right now for him, his wife, and his family.  I grew up with many of them being a part of my life. His wife was my piano teacher, so was his niece.  His brother-in-law was our music director and my history professor in college.  His sister-in-law was my brother's kindergarten teacher and my co-Sunday School teacher. And it just goes on and on...  He and his wife were there for my family when my brother died and now it just might be the reverse.

My thoughts are reeling around in my head. I can't find a way to put them into words right now, so I am going to close. Please keep the Gaines family in your prayers over the next few days/weeks.  God can give them the grace that they need.  We know all things work together for good to them that love God.  What a great promise to cling to.

Did a whirlwind just blow through here??

   Sorry for the lack of posts as of late.  It seems as though there has hardly been a minute to stop and breathe around here over the last week.  Even as I am sitting here typing while listening to Josiah sing and play with his little piano, I can hardly wait until his nap time (which is over three hours away).  I am that tired.  But it was worth it all and I know I will catch up on my sleep over the next couple of days. Then it will all start over again!! :o)

    I will start with last Wednesday, the 16th.  I went with Heather to Concord Mills to do some shopping for the kids for next summer.  I came away from the Children's Place with 37 pieces of clothing for $120.  That averages out to be about $3.25 an item.  You can't beat that for new stuff!! (I actully bought $155 worth of stuff. I had accidently picked up 5 items that weren't on clearance, so I took that $35 worth of stuff back to the mall here and exchanged it for 11 things that were on clearance!)

    Steve's mom flew in that same day for a visit.  She had decided to come for Zoe's baby dedication that would be on Sunday.  On Thursday, Steve went to do the radio show, but then he came home to spend the rest of the day with us and his mom.  The fence guys were here working so that kind of put a damper on our plans to go swimming, so we ended up just hanging out here around the house.  My parents came over in the afternoon and we played some scrabble and had dinner together.

    On Friday, Steve's brother and sister-in-law took his mom out to the Mellow Mushroom for lunch. My parents agreed to watch Zoe, so I took this opportunity to go to the mall with Josiah for some mommy-Josiah time and also to find some last minute things, including shoes for Zoe for Sunday's dedication.  Josiah and I ate pizza at the food court. Or should I say Josiah ate most of the pizza at the food court. He ate all of his piece and almost half of mine.  It was thin crust, but still!! We ran around. I exchanged those clothes at the Children's Place. We looked for an outdoor umbrella. I tried on numerous outfits. Bought a baby gift. Then we headed home.  Once we arrived back at my parent's house, I realized that I never looked for shoes for Zoe. "You should have put it on a list", you say?? Well, I did. I just never looked at the list!

    Friday night the three nephews came over and we all went swimming in the pool.  Zoe sported her new bathing suit that I bought at Concord Mills.  Josiah had a blast.  His fun came not from swimming, but from being the "ball boy".  They convinced him to get the balls every time they landed up on the deck.  He loved it!! Steve's sister and her husband came that night to spend the night with us. They had to go pick up his nephew from camp on Saturday.

    We had lunch visitors on Saturday. 

 We swam for a little bit in the afternoon. Then I had to spend the evening preparing for Sunday lunch. We were having quite a few family and friends over for Zoe's baby dedication.  I made lasagna, and thanks to Pam and her recipe, a carrot cake trifle.  A couple of other people provided the salad, bread, and an eclair cake.

   Zoe was dedicated along with four other babies on Sunday morning at church.  It was a very special time. We are so thankful that God has given her to us and we want to commit her to Him and to raise her in the way that he would want us to. We are so thankful to have a church that is supportive of us and friends that encourage us along the way.

   Sunday afternoon/evening was a time of swimming, eating leftovers and other miscellaneous items we had in our fridge (Steve loves "getting rid of stuff" when we have people over) and watching "No Reservations."

    Steve's mom left on Monday. I did a ton of laundry and started trying to put the house back in order.  Josiah went to spend the night with Nana and Pawpaw. Steve and I went to play cards at his dad's house.   

   Tuesday I went with my mom to visit a couple from our old church. She had been my Primary Sunday School teacher and the librarian at my school when I was in 3rd grade. I haven't seen them in a quite a while.  We picked up Kernel Kustard and went to their house.  We had such a nice visit. Josiah was in rare form, showing off all of his skills including the newest - counting to five in Spanish. We stopped at Costco on the way home for a few things.  That evening I made a Walmart run for the things I needed for a dinner on Wednesday night.

   Wednesday I cleaned a lot of the house and made dinner for a group of our friends who are doing a book study with us this summer. We are reading "The Sacred Marriage" by Gary Thomas and discussing it.  

   And that brings us to today.....

    I am going to relax and take a nap. I am going to slow down and take time to really enjoy my children.  And that is all....

On another note: Josiah loves Zoe more and more all the time. He now demonstrates rolling over for her and tried to help feed her when she is taking a bottle.  Zoe is now sleeping through the night and for the first time last night slept in her pack and play. She has been sleeping in her swing up until now because she was spitting up so badly.  I am so happy to see her moving up!

Happy Birthday, Josiah!

My sweet little boy turned two yesterday. It is so hard to believe. People always say that if you blink, your kids will have grown up. I used to think they were kidding. Now I know what they mean.  Time goes by so quickly and we have such a short time with them.  I am really trying hard to enjoy every moment. Josiah is that joy! He always brings a smile to our faces with something he says or something he does.  I love this little boy soooo much!!

     We started off the day by going to the Children's Museum with Josiah, Nana and Pawpaw, and Josiah's friend Isaac and Isaac's mom Sarah.  Here he is in the car. We had been singing 'Happy Birthday' all morning. I think he is a little bit excited!

    We did lots of fun things at the Children's Museum.  Here is a little sampling:

             Drawing snow men.
"Making Donuts" in the Krispy Kreme shop

(I think this was their favorite!)
"Row, Row, Row your boat" with daddy.
Helping Pawpaw put the balls in the air tube.
Making puzzles with Sarah and Isaac.
Making a picture of a watermelon.
     After the Children's Museum we had lunch a Mary's, Of Course.  We sat outside in the breezeway.  The boys had tons of fun squealing at each other across the table! After lunch, we headed home for some cake.  Josiah had a Diego cake.  Steve told me that Josiah wanted a strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting, so that is what we had.  It was a lot of fun to make, although there were a ton of colors! Mixing them all up and changing tips and bags the whole time wasn't too fun.  I think next year he will get a soccer ball cake -- two colors--black and white!! haha

Here he is after he has just taken a HUGE bite of cake.  He did much better than last year when he just smeared the cake all over his tray! :)     Nana and Pawpaw got him a little vaccuum cleaner.  He loves to vaccuum and it makes it difficult on us if we are vaccuuming and in a hurry to get it done.  So, now he has his own and he can "help" us! Thanks Nana and Pawpaw! :)

We have a winner!

Since Zoe came out of the womb crying, we have tried everything we can to comfort her.  I tried giving her the MAM pacifiers that I bought before she was born.  She would spit it out.  Heather gave us some Soothies to try. Again, she spit it out.  I bought some NUK pacifiers. Spit straight out.  Today, she figured out what she likes -- her thumb.  She sucks on the left one with the right one up on her head. It is really cute! (p.s. I am not really in favor of thumb sucking, but if it makes her happy, we will go with it for right now.)

Girl loves her daddy!

Zoe is in a much happier mood these days.  It is definitely much more pleasant to hold her. She isn't always squirming and screaming in your ears. In fact, she likes to look in your face and smile at you.  Steve got to hold her tonight while she was in her good mood and I got some cute shots. Here are a couple.  It is obvious that she loves having her daddy hold her.