Our Joie

 
Nora is now 17 months old and big for her age. She's in the 80th percentile for weight and 77th for height. After all the trouble she had gaining weight in the beginning we are thankful for her robust health now. Robust is a wonderful word to describe our daughter. She has a zest for life and a fearless determination that is both a blessing and a curse. She loves babies and cars and the two men men in her life: Daddy and Iain. Her vocabulary is immense! As I recall, Iain was still fairly quiet at this age, but Elinor is adding multiple words a day now. Here is a sample:

Daddy
Mama
Ee-ya: Iain (sometimes you can hear the final consonant)
Mee-wa: Mila (Daddy has taught her this word even though she has no idea what it means)
baby
bop-bop: drink
bwankey: blanket (she is nearly inseparable from this lovey)
ba-car: bug car (she loves to "count" VWs with Iain as we drive around town)
fWOWr: flower
hungwee: hungry
pwettee: pretty
peepo: peekaboo (the game)
pee boo: Peekaboo (our dog)
bosh: baseball (This is the name of Iain's favorite player. Whenever a game is on TV Nora says: bosh!)
uh ho: uh oh
oosh: shoes
foo: food
ish: fish
mo mee: more, please
ba: ball
ni ni: goodnight
hew wo wo: hello
hi
bye bye (she will say this automatically if I say "Talk to you later!")
NO!!!!!!!!! (she loves this one)
Yesh: yes (sometimes accompanied by both arms straight up in the air)
Oush: ouch
dentl: gentle (we've been trying to teach her this as she loves to wrestle and hit!)
eye
no: nose
mou: mouth
whee: slide
gey dow: get down

She is our little firecracker! We love her sparkle and vibrancy and pray for wisdom on how to direct her strong will into the Lord's will. I love that she'll always be strong and not be afraid to tell people no, something her Mama isn't very good at. She is a great argument for genetics as she takes after her Great-Grandad, Grandpapa, and Daddy in looks and personality. She is her Daddy's girl and it is a delight to see them enjoying each other so much. We are so blessed by our little surprise!

Life, Interrupted

Its time to come back to the blog. Yes, I'm busy. No, I'm not sure who reads this. But I have a terrible memory and I need to express what God is doing in my life. So I make no pledges of fidelity or regularity in posting, but I am not dead yet and neither is this blog. :)

Tomorrow is Iain's 5th birthday. What a sweet celebration. It's just good to sit and bask in the goodness of the Lord that I have a smart, funny, sweet son who loves trains, tow trucks, ambulances, and VW Bugs. A boy who is as full of contradictions as I am, wriggling and complaining in church, and yet also making up his songs of praise to Jesus. A boy with chocolate eyes and an electric smile. A boy who loves his two sisters with all his heart even though the youngest hasn't even arrived yet. From roughly 80 cells created by strangers, to a freezer, to my womb, to the contemplative little boy that I hug and kiss every day, who tells me he loves me "a million eighty-four, a million eighty-four, a million eighty-four" every night at bedtime.

Thank you Lord Jesus, for remembering my son and watching over him all the days of his life. Thank you for this beautiful gift of love and grace to me. Help me to teach him Your ways. Amen.

Worship 24/7

"I think I find most help in trying to look on all the interruptions and hindrances to work one has planned out for oneself as discipline, trials sent by God to help one against getting selfish over one's work. Then one can feel that perhaps one's true work--one's work for God--consists in doing some trifling haphazard thing that has been thrown into one's day. It is not a waste of time, as one is tempted to think, it is the most important part of the work of the day--the part one can best offer to God. After such a hindrance, do not rush after the planned work; trust that the time to finish it will be given sometime, and keep a quiet heart about it."


-- Annie Keary, quoted in Elisabeth Elliot's Keep a Quiet Heart

Summer Sampler

Here are a few highlights from our crazy-wonderful summer:

Uncle Allan and Aunt Christine visited with cousins Daniel and Fiona. Aren't baby feet the sweetest?

Iain turned 4! We had a party at the park and Mama made a firetruck cake for the big day at home.

We camped at Yellowstone and drove through the Grand Tetons. I got to see my Uncle Greg on that trip!

Iain played T-ball for the first time and LOVED it!

We traveled, swam, went to a baseball game (Elinor's first!), visited with friends, enjoyed fireworks, and...

painted the house!

It was a full summer, rich with blessings.

Quiet Days

I have the blessing of having my husband home during the summer. He is a teacher so although my kids are still too little for school our life runs by the school calendar. Summer is a bit of chaos. We cram in travel, visits, projects, and enjoy a bit of spontaneity, albeit with a well-stocked diaper bag in tow! Throwing the routine out the window can be a little slice of heaven, but it is only enjoyable for a season.

So while I'm a bit wistful for summer's joys, I'm welcoming a return to quiet days.

I've been enjoying my new breadmaker quite a bit. I got it at a yard sale (another summer delight!) and it has proved invaluable. The house really does smell amazing when it is baking and everyone loves the bread. Somehow I was under the impression that a breadmaker was a complicated device. It isn't.

Last week I managed to get all of Brian's shirts ironed for school, as well blueberry pancakes and muffins frozen for breakfasts.

Of course today is Monday and it looks like a cyclone has hit the house. I'm beginning to learn that this isn't a failure on my part, but just the nature of life. Things move from order to disorder. And there is something fulfilling about being the person in life who brings order from chaos, and leaves the places you have been more pleasant and homey than before you were there.

So now it is time to be off. Time to tend my crying baby, tuck my oldest in for naptime, and tackle the mess. Today my heart does it with it joy. Some days, I plod along, crying to the Father to help me keep plodding. Each kind of day is a sacrifice of praise.


The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Galatians 8:6-10

Little Girls Are Tutu Fun

So, how has it been with you?

Iain has turned four, and is going through a marvelously funny phase. He is trying to figure out the world and his interpretations are often just a bit off. After playing in his room for 10 minutes, he will come up to me, and in all sweetness and sincerity, ask "So Mommy, how has it been with you?" I love this fledging effort to communicate and to show interest in my life.

Other favorite words of mine:
wegular (regular)
'tend (pretend)
stunk (skunk)-- it is surprising how often this word comes up when you're talking to a boy!
mooshy (kiss)
El Nor (Elinor) I think this sounds like her luchador name. 
Nowa (Nora)
popiskles (popsicles)
passage (package)
kirch (church)
guhl (girl)
dinostore (dinosaur)
andimals (animals)
tached (attached)


His best little stuffed buddy, Henri, has become Iain's son, as has Piglet. Piglet wears on of Nora's old onesies that reads "Mommy's Wakeup Call". Currently Henri is wearing a plastic bib and we have been told to be careful how we hold him, because he just ate.

Iain heard a knock knock joke recently and got a big kick out of it. Then he made up his own:

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Iain.
Iain who?
Iain Douglas.

We both thought this was pretty funny, but for rather different reasons.

He also enjoys singing loudly to his sister. I think it is sweet that he wants to soothe her, and though his technique is a little unorthodox, she seems to like having him yelling in her face. His favorite song to sing is "Noly Boly Alice" which is a corruption of my cheesy nickname for her, "Nora Borealis".

Lately he has been having regular conversations with Daddy. They usually start out with "So, what should we talk about?"  Recent topics have been firetrucks, ice cream, airplanes, mountains, trains, and the river.

Elinor is now taking formula in addition to breastfeeding and has also been eating baby food. She finished an entire jar of peas in one sitting at lunch today, which is a first for her. She is small for her age, but is finally putting on some weight which we are very glad to see. She loves people and her absolute least favorite thing in the world is to watch someone (especially Mommy!) walk away from her. She knows her own name, and the words mommy and daddy. She can sit up by herself for (very) short periods of time.

The biggest news in Nora's world is that she can move herself purposefully now! She has a funny little inchworm crawl that I'm sure will very soon morph into full-on crawling. I can't believe she is mobile already. Look out world!