Christmas, Part 2

On Christmas morning, we got up and opened stockings. Aidan got a Superman t-shirt in his stocking, which he was very excited about. He and Gresham pretty much play super heroes all the time...

Then we went to my parents' house to open gifts! Gresham and Aidan each got a Buzz Lightyear from Grandma and Grandpa that they are very excited about.

After gifts, all the guys went out to have a snowball fight before lunch. Now you can't do that every year in Texas!

Why is Aidan not wearing a jacket in this picture? Who knows... he only wears one when he absolutely has to, but the funny part is that he is always complaining about being cold. He likes to be warm, he just doesn't like to be slowed down by the bulk of a jacket. I guess it impedes his super hero lifestyle.

I thought this was an interesting action shot...

Christmas dinner, after warming up from the snow.

Today it is snowing again! This makes three snowstorms in December. All real snow, as opposed to the usual Texas ice. Gresham said that he does not like snow because it is too cold! He is ready for summer so that he can get out the inflatable pool again. I think I have to agree, Gresh...

Christmas, Part 1

This was the scene out our back window on Christmas Eve! When we heard that there was a chance of snow, we didn't really take it all that seriously since the tv weather people tend to exaggerate any type of storm. The snow started mid-morning and lasted all day. We started wondering if we were really in Texas!

When Jordan got home from work at lunchtime, he and Aidan went outside for a few minutes. It was still pretty wet at that point, so they didn't last long out there. By evening, the roads snow covered, but we decided to venture out for the Christmas Eve service at church. The drive there was slushy and slow because of the traffic. The drive home was more icy, but at least there were less cars! And it made for a memorable Christmas Eve!

Here is baby Owen on the long car ride to church! I sat by him and kept him entertained with the camera flash.

Our family of 5 by the church Christmas tree.

Then we came home for chicken tortilla soup, and the boys opened their gifts to each other. This has become our tradition for Christmas Eve. We were all disappointed that Jordan's mom couldn't be with us this year because of the weather.

And this is what it looked like on Christmas morning! A white Christmas in Texas! We overheard someone at church saying that the last white Christmas was in 1926.

More pictures to come...

A Mom's Thoughts on Christmas

2009. What a year!

Last year at this time, we were getting ready to have our ultrasound to find out the gender of our baby! We found out on Dec. 30th that we were expecting our third son. I figured that at this Christmas season, we would have a chubby little baby sitting and playing with his toys by the Christmas tree. I figured that life would have settled into a routine by now, and that we would be past the difficult newborn days. Well, it hasn't exactly turned out that way...

Instead we are riding the reflux roller coaster! Owen is a beautiful baby (yes, I can say that about a boy!) and we are so thankful that he is healthy. But reflux makes it painful for him to eat, and it affects him at pretty much every feeding. He starts out a feeding, only to begin arching and refusing the food after just a few swallows. Consequently, he has had trouble gaining weight and is in the 3rd percentile for weight. If he continues to gain weight this slowly, our doctor will refer us to a gastroenterologist. Every day revolves around counting how many ounces he eats (or refuses!). I do realize that many parents face much more serious challenges with their children, but it has still been just plain hard. It's hard for a mom to watch her son suffer so much, and not be able to do anything about it! Then there's the time required to feed a person who doesn't want to eat! I have run the gamut of emotions from wondering how I can possibly go on another minute with feeding an arching, crying baby half an ounce at a time to kissing his beautiful cheeks and realizing that no matter how hard it is, he's my son and I love him with all my heart.

A few weeks ago, our pastor was praying and thanking God that He is "too wise to make a mistake and too loving to do anything unkind." I have not forgotten those words because I need to cling to what is true about God. He is not unkind in allowing Owen to suffer. He is not wringing his hands and wondering what to do. He IS doing what is best in this situation, but what is best for us is not necessarily what is most comfortable. I have realized that when we are wrapped up in wanting our lives to be comfortable, we are acting like this life is all there is. We are on this earth for a short time! And if our current circumstances, though painful, are drawing us closer to our Father with whom we will spend eternity with, then what loss is that?

I have been thinking a lot about Mary this Christmas. I'm sure her newborn days were hard. She gave birth in a stable after all! Then she invested years in raising Jesus which culminated in having to endure watching him be put to death. It doesn't matter whether your son is 3 months or 33 years. No mother wants to watch her child die! What a privilege to be part of God's redemptive plan, but I'm sure there were many difficult moments.

And then there's the Incarnation. God in the flesh! Owen is helpless. There's reflux and teething and childhood illnesses and many things to face as part of life on this earth. And that's only as a baby! Jesus willingly took on human flesh to not only die on our behalf, but to live a perfect life on this earth. He is our compassionate high priest who understands our weaknesses. He is able to help us because He can relate to us.

In her book Keep a Quiet Heart, Elisabeth Elliot says, "God came down and lived in this same world as a man. He showed us how to live in this world, subject to its vicissitudes and necessities that we might be changed - not into an angel or a storybook princess, not wafted into another world, but changed into saints in this world. The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances."

It is my hope that Owen will recover fully from the reflux in 2010. But whether he does or not, the more important issue is that we fix our eyes on Christ and find Him to be more than sufficient for every storm.

Gresham Sings Christmas!

Here is Gresham singing "Away in a Manger" and "Silent Night." Well, sort of...

Listen for my favorite words: Loid (Lord) and sta-ees (stars)

Also, note the candy bribery which bought you this cute video!

Owen is sitting!

Aidan sure loves his baby brother!! He has asked me when we are getting another baby. I told him I'm not sure... we may not have any more babies. He responded with, "Well, you don't know Mom. We might get another one. Some families have a lot of kids at their house!"

Owen can sit all by himself! What a big boy!

Telling Time

Aidan is really into telling time right now, and is constantly asking me, "how many minutes until...?" I told him that he should ask for a watch for Christmas.

Today he came home from Grandma's house and said that he asked her for a watch.

Aidan: I want a digital watch, because I'm better at telling digital time. See? Right now it's 375.
Mom: Actually, that's how hot the oven is...
Aidan: Oh...

Another cute one of Owen...

Hot Chocolate

Aidan

Aidan has a journal that he writes in most days as part of his schoolwork. It has been cute to see what he comes up with. Most of the time he draws a picture and writes about what is happening in the picture. Other times I tell him what topic to write on. I don't tell him how to spell anything (usually) because I just want him to be comfortable writing and to be able to get his ideas down.

Here is a word from a recent entry: uthallsun

Do you have any idea what this word could be?

Here is some context:
"The castle guys are fighting the bad guy. The castle guys wun becouse they had uthallsun men and the other teem had one guy."

This one took me a minute, but he means "a thousand."

I get his spelling words from what he misspells in his journal. It works well, because he never forgets the words after that. He has never misspelled "castle" after learning the correct spelling! I do add in other words that he needs to know, like could and would, etc.

Another cute Aidan story...

We went shopping for a present for his friend's birthday party. We picked out two small Lego pirate toys, and Aidan was concerned because one set had 1 soldier figure and 1 pirate figure, and the other set had 2 pirate figures. Aidan was concerned because 1 soldier would never be able to defeat the 3 pirates! It's funny to see life from his perspective because I wasn't considering battle odds at all when picking out the toys...

At the party, he got a spiderman pencil. Our electric pencil sharpener broke, and our hand held one tends to tear up the pencils. When Aidan's Sunday School class was discussing what they were thankful for, he said that he was thankful that he could go to Grandma's house for Thanksgiving so that he could use her sharpener to sharpen his new spiderman pencil!

What a funny guy...

Owen is 6 months old!

Here is Owen at 6 months! It's hard to get a good picture of him because he is so wiggly. He's not crawling yet, but will probably will be soon! He can sit up for a few seconds at a time.

We tried giving him baby cereal a couple times, but he's not really interested. Aidan and Gresham didn't do well with solids until 7-8 months, so I'm not going to push it.

Holding the spoon was fun!

6 month stats:
14 lb. (4th percentile)
27.2 inches (80th percentile)
I forget his head size, but it was 35th percentile.

I'm glad that he is still growing well in height. Maybe his weight will catch up once he is over the reflux and teething, or maybe he'll just be tall and thin! It's too soon to tell...

He is a happy baby who loves to laugh and is interested in everything.

Costumes

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman! And, a boy in green long underwear!

Oh wait, he's actually a dinosaur! (The back of his outfit has felt spikes and a tail... I made it for him last year, and he wanted to wear the same thing again! Fine with me!)

We're still here!

I can't believe almost a month has gone by without posting! We are still here - just trying to keep our heads above water!

Our most recent (well, ongoing...) adventure has been Owen. I posted a while back that he has reflux. The past month has been the hardest for him so far with teething complicating his already poor eating habits. We had a couple weeks where he would eat only about 1 oz. at a time, except for in the middle of the night when he would eat much more. He would begin a feeding and then start arching his back and squirming and fussing after just a few swallows. This meant feeding him constantly to be able to get enough milk in him! He is doing better at the moment, and we hope it lasts! This past week he had an upper GI x-ray done, and his results came back normal. This means that nothing serious is wrong with his digestive organs, and he should hopefully outgrow the reflux.

So my days have been revolving around caring for Owen and squeezing in school for Aidan wherever I can and trying to spend some time with Gresham too! It has definitely been a trying experience, but I can truly say that I am learning more about the sufficiency of God's grace. Being in a place of total dependence on Him is a good place to be, even though it is not always comfortable.

Aidan and Gresham are doing well. Aidan is really mastering telling time and counting money, which is fun. He is also reading chapter books by himself now! By God's grace, he taught himself to read. I don't know what I'd do if he required a lot of help with school right now... Gresham is starting to recognize several alphabet letters and numbers. He cracks us up every day with the things that he says.

Jordan is really enjoying his new job and is doing great with it too. His position is a telephone sales position selling advertising to businesses. We are all loving his new schedule and having every weekend off. After 6 years in retail, we are so excited for him to be off for the holidays this year!

So that's the update on everyone... and hopefully soon I'll be back to posting lots of pictures and cute things the kids say... they give me lots of material, but mostly I'm too brain dead to remember at the end of the day when I have time to sit down and write!

More to come...

Gresham is 3!

Here is the birthday boy! He was too cute. We only let him open two of these presents at breakfast, and took the rest to his party at Grandma and Grandpa Packard's house. The long striped one was just too irresistible to him, and he started opening it twice before it was time!

Opening a construction truck book from Grandpa and Grandma Dees!

Aidan was happy to read Gresham's cards to him. Gresham wasn't that into listening, though... he wanted to get onto the presents!

Twice a year, the city of Grapevine has a day of free family activities at the historic Nash Farm. Aidan and Gresham have been looking forward to Nash Farm ever since April, when we missed the spring one because I was at the ladies retreat at church. Well, Gresham was thrilled when we found out the the fall Nash Farm was ON his birthday! He has been telling everyone - even strangers at the grocery store - about Nash Farm for the past few weeks. I don't think he even remembers the one last October, but he knew that it sounded fun!

Also, Jordan got to go with us for the first time this year! We are really enjoying his new Monday-Friday schedule at his new job. The weekends are so much more fun now.

The weather was cold and overcast. We would have stayed longer, but we were all freezing! The high was in the low 50's and it was very damp. The boys didn't mind too much, though.


I am so sad that this picture is not in focus! It would have been so cute!

Aidan just got this western shirt and hat. He would wear the shirt every day if I would let him.
He loves dressing up like a cowboy or like an Indian.

This was what was in the long striped package! Gresham has been wanting a guitar, and I saw one on clearance (I'm a sucker for clearance...) at Toys R Us. It's a real (well, semi-real) guitar, and he will be able to actually learn to play it at some point. I gave him a couple picks to use with it, and now they are both inside the guitar.

He had a construction cake... the close-up picture of the cake did not come out in focus either. Thanks to Grandma Evonne for getting the construction trucks for the top of the cake!

He had a great birthday!

A few random pictures...

I have LOTS of blogging to get caught up on, so I'll start with a few random pictures from the last month.

I put Owen in the saucer for the first time the other day, and he had this shocked look on his face the whole time! He had a great time chewing on all the toys, but got tired quickly. It's fun to move on to new things - he is sooooo active and is getting tired of just sitting in his bouncy seat!

We went on a quick one day trip to Shawnee (where I went to college) a few weeks ago. My aunt and uncle were in Shawnee on a business trip, so my mom wanted to take the chance to go see them while they were only 3 hours away (they live in Cincinnati). It was fun to get out of the metroplex for the day! The boys had fun seeing buffalo in a field and going to Super Wal-mart to buy a plastic bow and arrow set.

The beloved Raley Chapel... What a beautiful day to be on the OBU campus... Brought back memories of when Winderweedle and I snuck up to the steeple part while they were doing renovations on the building and had the door unlocked. It's a great view from up there (where the windows are)! Remember that, Winderweedle?

Kid Funnies

Wow, I'm on a roll with posting!

On Mondays, Aidan gets a dollar for his allowance. We went out yesterday and ran several errands. I told Aidan that if he brought everything in from the van (which would take him at least 5 trips) that I would give him some extra money. He happily agreed, and started working. The next thing I knew, he was hooking up the shop vac and vacuuming out the van because "he thought it needed it."

I told him that I would give him $1 for his allowance and $2 for cleaning out the car. All I had was a five, so I asked him to get his wallet. I told him that I would give him the five, and he would give me two ones back so that I would be giving him $3. He said, "Okay, let's see how much money I have now. I had $13. Now I have... $16. Every time we do this (me paying him with a five and him giving some ones back), I end up with more money, and I don't know how that happens!"

I explained the transaction again, and he understood the math better this time!

Then last night, Gresham hurt himself while Owen was napping and started screaming. If you haven't been around Gresham, you should know that his screams can shatter glass. I quickly took him into our bedroom and asked him to tell me what happened. He screamed, "I GOT HURT!" I said, "Show me how to say 'I got hurt' in a quiet voice." His response? "I GOT HURT IN A QUIET VOICE!"

And this morning at Bible time, we were reading about the wise men coming to see the baby Jesus. They came into Jerusalem. Aidan said, "Oh!! Is that Drew-slem like in the song I learned in my Sunday School class? Lord, prepare me, to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and Drew... It sounds the same, are those two things the same?" After a good laugh, I told him that the song is supposed to be "tried and true" and Jerusalem starts with a "J" not a "Dr".

It's a good thing they're so cute...

Owen's 4 month stats

We took Owen to the doctor today, and he was... (drumroll)...

a whopping 12 lb. 13 oz.! That's the 11th percentile.

The big news was his height - he grew 2.5 inches this month, and went from the 16th percentile to the 70th. He also grew in head size from the 4th percentile to the 24th.

He is definitely healthy, and I think that he will fill out more when he outgrows his reflux issues. The doctor is not worried about his weight at all, although he did say that it would be good if he fills out some to match his height better.

Do you know what this is?

If you guess that it's a backhoe loader with a broken back scoop, you are wrong. It's a... dynamite shooter! I'm not exactly sure where they got this idea. I think Aidan came up with it. The broken part on the back shoots the dynamite.

Usually I think that having little boys is better than having to play Disney princess or ballerina all day, but other times I don't understand them at all...

'Nuff Said

The picture is Aidan with a rifle and Gresham with a sword.

Owen is 4 months!

What a happy baby! He is so content most of the time. He can hold toys and chew on them now, and he also likes to suck on the edge of his blanket.

We'll find out how big he is on Monday, but he is pretty small for his age. Because he is not as chubby as our other two, he can easily roll over both directions and can grab his toes and put them in his mouth - something our other boys were never able to do! His reflux seems to be getting better, though, so I'm curious to see if his growth will pick up in the next few months.

Aidan can carry him around some, which he is very proud of! He told our babysitter, "I took two steps while carrying him!" Gresham has even come around and decided that Owen is pretty fun after all.

I told you, Mom!

Gresham: I want you to make dinner!
Mom: Yes, I am making dinner. (Chicken in the oven and pasta cooking on the stove while I am checking e-mail)
Gresham: No, you are playing on the computer. That is NOT cooking dinner.

(a different night...)
Gresham: I want to go to Cubbies!
Mom: You will go to Cubbies next year. You aren't quite old enough, and you aren't potty trained yet.
Gresham: Yes, I am potty trained. I am learning how to go on the potty, Mommy, and that is potty training.

Owen

A face to brighten your day!

Owen David is 15 weeks already!!

I'll try to get some better pictures of Owen tomorrow, but here he is doing his new favorite activity - sucking his thumb! This weekend he learned to roll over, get his thumb into his mouth, and laughed for the first time. It was a big weekend!

We also took him to the doctor last week after weeks of feeding issues, and found out that he has reflux (probably). They don't test for it, but the doctor thought we should try a low dose of the medicine based on his symptoms. It took a few days to master our medicine-giving skills, but now that he is actually swallowing the stuff, he seems to be improving quite a bit. His appetite is better and he is less fussy during feedings. Yeah!

What would I do without Gresham...

This post was originally going to be labeled "2-year-old for Sale" but I thought better of it.

Oh, Gresham. What am I going to do with you?

This week was Jordan's first week to be employed full-time since Owen was born. We are very thankful! And even more thankful that Friday is the first payday!

The kids and I had a tough week. I went back to school, so I was adjusting to life with all three of them, plus working again too. This year I am teaching two afternoons each week.

Gresham decided to pull out all the stops in honor of mom's busy week.

On Monday, we ran up to school to finish up some last minute details. Gresham and Aidan ran in the halls and slapped and fought. The secretary closed her door while we were out in the hall because she could not hear on the phone with my children there.

On Tuesday, Gresham threw a fit over wearing a pull-up. He wanted to wear a diaper.

Mom: You are wearing a pull-up.
Gresham: I don't want to!
Mom: You really should be using the potty. That's what big boys do. Can you imagine if Daddy threw a fit about wanting to wear a diaper???? Does Dad do that?
Gresham: No
Mom: Why not?
Gresham: Because it is not safe to do.
Mom: (thinking to herself) This is a pointless conversation...

On Thursday, he threw a fit because he wanted to eat oatmeal squares cereal out of the new box rather than use up the box that was already open. He spent 20 minutes fighting it until he finally obeyed and ate his now very mushy cereal.

On Friday, he accidently spilled a bowl of cereal and milk while playing with his imaginary bow and arrow at the table. The mess got on a couple of our school books (no harm done, though). While I cleaned that up, I sent him to wash his hands. When I went to check on him, I discovered that he had filled up the sink to overflowing with soapy water. I went to get a towel, and when I came back, he had pumped hand soap into his hair and was rubbing it in with a soggy wet baby hairbrush.

My friend Christy was telling me today about babysitting a couple of boys this week and how boys can be "inconvenient children." That describes him very well! He is stubborn and needs a lot of discipline, but many of his messes come from boy energy and curiosity. He isn't meaning to cause trouble, but the consequences of his explorations are very inconvenient for me!!!

6 more weeks until he turns 3! But he will never be 2 ever again... I'll miss the 2 year old voice and the ways he pronounces things and the little chubby body.

Time to go wake him up from his nap because it's after 4:30 p.m... I'm bracing myself for the tantrum...

My 3 Sons

Go away!

So, door-to-door solicitors have never been my favorite. That's why I talked my husband into quitting his job as one after 3 days of knocking on doors and zero dollars earned. (I do think he could have been successful, but it wasn't worth it... but that's not the point of this story...)

Today someone knocked on the door and rang the bell simultaneously. Usually, when the doorbell rings, Aidan screams, "I'LL GET IT!!!!!" so that any solicitor who might be there now knows that we are for sure at home. I have instructed both boys not to answer the door until I have checked to see who is there, but that doesn't stop them from making a lot of noise! So today I looked out the peephole and saw two girls, probably around age 18, who were dressed rather indecently. I wouldn't have answered, but as I was looking out they were ringing/knocking again, so I answered, half-expecting to find some emergency like a car striking a child in front of our house or something. Instead it went like this:

Them: I knew someone was home!
Me: Uh-huh
Them: Hi, I'm - wait, are you the lady of the house?
Me: Yes
Them: Gosh, you're YOUNG! Anway, I was just over talking to your neighbor, so and so, and...
Me: Goodbye!
Them: Wow, that was rude!

I'm not answering the door for people we don't know anymore!

It goes by so fast...

3 weeks

7 weeks

13 weeks - what a happy baby!

My silly silly Gresham

Yesterday I went to go get Gresham up from his nap. I sat down on his bed and he sat up. He looked at the open door and said in a very self-reassuring voice, "You opened my door, Mom. A dinosaur did NOT open it to come in and roar at me."

Then, later Jordan asked him to go get some socks from his dresser. He responded by telling Dad there was a monster in his room. Jordan said, "Well just tell the monster to let you in because you need to get some socks." Gresham went to the edge of the hall and called out, "Monster! Let me in, I need some socks!"

My favorite things that he says right now are sentences like this: "I want to read the book that I want to read." Or, while we were out one day, "After my lunch I want to go to the fountain that I want to go to."

He brings a lot of entertainment to our home!

Twelve Weeks Old

Gresham holding Owen lasted just long enough to snap this picture...

Twelve weeks old today! What a big boy!

Owen actually smiles quite a bit, but usually stops as soon as he sees the camera. He is totally distracted by looking at the camera... we'll keep trying to get a good picture!