Paper bag boy

Sometimes, Andrew reminds me of a kitten.

go baby go!

Though I'm not a morning person, my little men are at full throttle from the moment they hit the floor. Here's a clip of their latest and greatest: head-to-head racing.

Big Boy

Two days ago on Hannah's birthday, Elijah took his first steps. Greg gave him two plastic eggs, then backed away, and he took 10 or 15 steps towards him. Since then we haven't really been able to get him to take more than a step or two, because he's too smart and knows our tricky ways now. I wasn't able to grab my camera fast enough to record thish event for all of you, but I do have another "first" here:

Neighbor drips

Ok, I've got several new kid videos, but I'll release them one at a time so you'll have something to look forward to. I had to show you all this one first, because it's just so unbelievable.



Have you watched it? Ok, then read on:




Soon after that, the neighbor came home to discover that he'd left some meat thawing in the sink with water running over it....when he went out to the store. The meat had thawed, sagged down into the drain and clogged it. The water was making his kitchen into a lake, as well as ours. By the time an hour had passed, Greg had emptied those buckets three times each. Thankfully, everything dried out just fine, and nothing of ours was damaged. At least it wasn't the toilet again. Now, if that had happened while we were out, we would have been pretty upset (we kept a bunch of important things on the counter, but have since found safer homes for them). So everything turned out fine in the end. Thank God! Also, we got to meet the neighbors.

You asked for it...

Wave and kiss:


Goodnight My Father (missing the second line, but he remembered most of it) =):

Handmade = Treasure The Moments

Here is Andrew, getting ready for his nap. He's sleeping on a fleece pillow that my friend Emily made for him, the blanket tucked around him is from my friend Idella, and the crocheted one next to him is one I made last year.

All little children that I have known recognize and appreciate handmade. As I was settling him for his nap just now, it got me thinking. The development of our children as people depends on our hands, our care, our time. When Andrew asks me to sing Goodnight My Father* to him one more time, or insists that I repeat the "ABC's" starting at "QRS", when he begs me to pray for him just a little longer (= cuddle time) and screams if I shut the door before he gets a chance to say "I love you too, Mommy", I am investing in a man. I am handshaping his character.

I read today in the book Beautiful In God's Eyes (by Elizabeth George) that "...50% of a child's character and personality development takes place by age three, and 75% by age five". The laundry needs to be done, there's little fingerprints on the walls, my dining room set is sticky, the floor is wanting a good scrub, my hair isn't fixed, I haven't put my makeup on yet...but my children need me. Getting the Stuff done is important. But investing my time, treasuring the moments with my babies, is always first.**





*Goodnight My Father is a song Barbara Cuomo taught me in Sunday school when I was probably 6 or 7. She handed out the lyrics on these little pieces of paper. I think she wrote it herself. I put the paper in my bottom drawer and still had it when I moved out to Tulsa in '01. The lyrics are a little choppy, and some of it may have changed a little with my memory, but it has comforted me in more situations than I can count. It's a beautiful prayer, and I'm so glad that Andrew loves it too. Maybe I'll put up a video sometime of Andrew singing it so that you all can hear how it goes.

Here are the lyrics:
Goodnight my father, put thoughts of Jesus in my head
Holy Spirit comfort me, put angels all around my bed
And fill my dreams with the things that please you
I long to hear Your sweet voice, it is so peaceful.


**To balance this, I assure you that I realize: Greg comes before the kids, God comes before Greg. =)

The Boys Ride Out

Greg is amazing. He agrees to do things I'd never do. Like, for instance, taking the boys out on each of their respective vehicles together -- Elijah on the four-wheeler and Andrew on his tricycle. Brave guy. Elijah needs the button pushed the whole time too, so he has to hunch over for the entirety of the walk. The boys love it though. Check out this little video for a super cute action shot.

(I especially love the riding away shot of the little peachy head and sticking out ears, while Andrew speeds away in the distance.)

Jelly in his belly

Andrew, Elijah and I just got back from a walk to our the office in our complex. They had a package there for the boys from their Poppy (Pete). When we got home and opened it, the boys discovered that it was full of jelly bean eggs! Pete also sent along some extras in a bag for Greg and I, and Joy if she was still here. (Isn't he thoughful?)

I turned around for a moment to load this picture into the computer, and noticed that Elijah had gotten quiet. When I found him he was sitting on the floor with a stunned look on his face and green drool all over his yellow PJ's. He was sucking on his first jelly bean. Woops. I didn't realize that he could figure out how to open the eggs. He is beyond pleased with himself. Ah well.

Andrew and Elijah say "thank you so much, Poppy! You know what we like!" Now excuse me while I go stash them over the fridge before the boys clean the whole box out in one go. =)

Video!

It feels strange to have such an empty house. We had a wonderful time with my family (if you read Greg's post, you already know that). I am so glad and so honored that they actually made the time and were able to come and check out our lives down here. My dad wasn't able to come with my mom and the kids, but he will be working on Caleb's new house (oh, BTW he bought a house in North Carolina) in May, and then renting a motorcycle to come down here for a little visit. Should be fun! Andrew will be besides himself with excitement when he sees his Grandpa "Poppa" ride in on a bike!

I haven't been posting too much because of all the excitement of the visits, but I'll try to catch you all up a little at a time.

Joy was able to stay with us for 4 or 5 weeks after my mom and everyone else left, which was awesome. She was a huge help to me, cleaning, cooking and just hanging out. We recorded a Johnny Cash song together on my new little sort-of-home-studio. We also attempted to write a song, but it ended up a little more like a Fiddler On The Roof jig, so we trashed it. We have not given up on our quest to become JoyFaith -- The Next Big Thing, so look for us on a billboard near you.

One day I had Joy make datenut bread (Mary Simchera's fantastic recipe), and gave her some clean, large tin cans to bake it in. Joy hasn't done a heck of a lot of quick bread recipes, so she didn't realize that you never fill something more than 2/3 full. (If you didn't know that, make a note of it!) This is what happens when you ignore that rule:

It may be hard to see, but the entire can is covered in baked on bread. The stuff inside was still good, but it took her about a half hour to get the bread out of the two crusted cans. Yummy.

Last weekend, Sarcy flew in from Michigan. It was so wonderful to spend time with her, as always.

On the last day that Sarah and Joy were here, we attempted to rewrite Moon River as Sock Knitter, but hit a mind block. If you have any lyrics for me to spoof on that song, I'm going to be recording it hopefully next week, and sending it in to one of the major Knitting podcasts. (Does anyone know of any copywright issues for spoof songs?)

Here's two short video clips from today:

(Note the static in Elijah's hair at the end)


(Quick disclaimer: I thought Greg had said Andrew could go down hills fine.)

When I had Greg watch this after we got inside, we were actually crying we were laughing so hard. In case anyone is wondering, a knee is slightly pink, but no other injuries were sustained.

The blues

Sarcy's coming today! I'm leaving in a few minutes to pick her up from the airport.

Greg tried to dye Andrew's hair blue today.



As you can see, it didn't take very well.


Ah well. That dye was from when I made my hair blue at Cornerstone about 4 years ago. Maybe it'll work with some newer stuff.