Friday, February 11, 2011
First Snow
This winter has been absolutely insane when it comes to snow and weather! We are truly blessed, however, that God has kept us safe and warm, and provided us with some sweet family time together when the weather outside is frightful! Our first big snow hit mid-January, and it was accompanied by sub-zero temperatures. Sooo, I waited to take Elias out in it until like the 4th day after it hit, when the sun came back out and it was warm enough to stand being out there! (Note: Remember this is the girl who was comfortable living in the West African DESERT for 2 years - I'm not a big fan of cold.) Elias REALLY enjoyed playing in the snow, though, and Daddy had fun throwing snowballs with him!
It may look here like Elias and Daddy are building a snowman together. But what is really happening is Daddy is building a snowman and Elias is crushing it as soon as Daddy gets anything built. Ah well. The point is to have fun together, and that was definitely achieved!
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Kitty Cat Love
After Christmas, I wrote about the toy cat named Mrs. B that Elias received as a gift and loved so much. Well, seriously, his affection deepens every day! We continue to be amazed at how much he love, love, loves this cat! I said in that previous post that we weren't going to let him sleep with her. Well, at that point, he really didn't mind telling her goodnight and leaving her behind. However, it began to cause him serious emotional distress to let her go at night, so we decided that battle wasn't worth fighting. So he sleeps with his kitty, both at naptime and at night. You can see her cuddled in his arm in this picture:
In fact, he's pretty much inseparable from her all the time. She goes with us to the store, to the library, everywhere. We don't let him take her into church because we know the other kids in childcare might want to touch her, and that would pretty much be the end of the world. Not going to subject a poor volunteer worker to that!!!
He's really getting into imaginative play these days, and so he "speaks" for her often. He meows pretty much nonstop, and sometimes he translates (or wants us to translate) what he thinks she's saying. Tonight we were playing with his plastic bowling pins, and he set her up so she could watch him bowl. Then, when he got a strike, he would say in a high-pitched voice "Meow! Good bowling, Elias!" HA HA HA!
He'll also have her participate in dancing or jumping or whatever activity is going on. At the library this week, she came in with us, and she participated by clapping and dancing at appropriate times during the songs. Then today we were watching Diego, and he had Mrs. B jump along with Baby Jaguar.
So he grows deeper and deeper in love with his kitty every day - Justin and I just crack up at the stuff he comes up with! I think we'll definitely have to invest in a backup kitty, though, in case anything ever happens to the love of his life!
In fact, he's pretty much inseparable from her all the time. She goes with us to the store, to the library, everywhere. We don't let him take her into church because we know the other kids in childcare might want to touch her, and that would pretty much be the end of the world. Not going to subject a poor volunteer worker to that!!!
He's really getting into imaginative play these days, and so he "speaks" for her often. He meows pretty much nonstop, and sometimes he translates (or wants us to translate) what he thinks she's saying. Tonight we were playing with his plastic bowling pins, and he set her up so she could watch him bowl. Then, when he got a strike, he would say in a high-pitched voice "Meow! Good bowling, Elias!" HA HA HA!
He'll also have her participate in dancing or jumping or whatever activity is going on. At the library this week, she came in with us, and she participated by clapping and dancing at appropriate times during the songs. Then today we were watching Diego, and he had Mrs. B jump along with Baby Jaguar.
So he grows deeper and deeper in love with his kitty every day - Justin and I just crack up at the stuff he comes up with! I think we'll definitely have to invest in a backup kitty, though, in case anything ever happens to the love of his life!
Monday, January 31, 2011
Book Review: Blue Like Jazz
Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality - Donald Miller, 2003
This book came out quite a while ago, and I remember friends reading it and enjoying it way back then, but for some reason I never read it. Then over our Christmas travels, Justin got it on CD and we listened to it in the car. We both really enjoyed it, and it impacted us a lot. (You can read his review here.) I wanted to read it again in print before reviewing it, though, because I'm more of a visual learner.
It's a collection of essays that aren't necessarily related to the others, so there isn't really a cohesive theme to the book. It's basically just Don Miller's spiritual journey told in bits and pieces. But I really enjoyed his perspective, especially living most of his Christian life outside the Bible Belt. I really identified, though, with a lot of what he knows and believes about God and relating to Him. In that way, I'm actually really glad I never read this book before now - I feel that after all I learned last year, I am uniquely ready to understand these things now more than I ever have been before.
Since there isn't a plot or theme, though, I can't really give any kind of summary. So instead I'm just going to give a collection of my favorite quotes. I highly recommend this book, though, and I'm thankful God led Justin to get it for us to listen to in the car!
"If I live what I believe, then I don't believe very many noble things. My life testifies that the first thing I believe is that I am the most important person in the world. My life testifies to this because I care more about my food and shelter and happiness than about anybody else." - Chapter 10
"Living in community made me realize one of my faults: I was addicted to myself. All I thought about was myself. The only thing I really cared about was myself. I had very little concept of love, altruism, or sacrifice. I discovered that my mind is like a radio that picks up only one station, the one that plays me: K-DON, all Don, all the time. I did not understand the exchange that takes place in meaningful dialogue, when two people sit down and tune their radios, if only for a moment, to the other person's station." - Chapter 15
So this is just a few of the really great thoughts and ideas I found in this book. A lot of it was really challenging, yet affirming. I definitely agree with his thoughts that being a Christian is about embracing Jesus, not embracing Christianity. And so that is a challenge to me, to sift through my life and analyze what I do and think - am I representing Jesus or representing religion? Great food for thought.
It's a collection of essays that aren't necessarily related to the others, so there isn't really a cohesive theme to the book. It's basically just Don Miller's spiritual journey told in bits and pieces. But I really enjoyed his perspective, especially living most of his Christian life outside the Bible Belt. I really identified, though, with a lot of what he knows and believes about God and relating to Him. In that way, I'm actually really glad I never read this book before now - I feel that after all I learned last year, I am uniquely ready to understand these things now more than I ever have been before.
Since there isn't a plot or theme, though, I can't really give any kind of summary. So instead I'm just going to give a collection of my favorite quotes. I highly recommend this book, though, and I'm thankful God led Justin to get it for us to listen to in the car!
"Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way." - Introduction
"I believe that the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil but rather have us wasting time. This is why the devil tries so hard to get Christians to be religious. If he can sink a man's mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God." - Chapter 2
"I can't explain how freeing that was, to realize that if I met Jesus, He would like me. I never felt like that about some of the Christians on the radio. I always thought if I met those people they would yell at me. But it wasn't like that with Jesus. There were people He loved and people He got really mad at, and I kept identifying with the people He loved, which was really good, because they were all the broken people, you know, the kind of people who are tired of life and want to be done with it, or they are desperate people, people who are outcasts or pagans. There were others, regular people, but He didn't play favorites at all, which is miraculous in itself." - Chapter 4
"I will love God because He first loved me. I will obey God because I love God. But if I cannot accept God's love, I cannot love Him in return, and I cannot obey Him. Self-discipline will never make us feel righteous or clean; accepting God's love will. The ability to accept God's unconditional grace and ferocious love is all the fuel we need to obey Him in return. Accepting God's kindness and free love is something the devil does not want us to do. If we hear, in our inner ear, a voice saying we are failures, we are losers, we will never amount to anything, this is the voice of Satan trying to convince the bride that the groom does not love her. This is not the voice of God. God woos us with kindness, He changes our character with the passion of His love." - Chapter 7
"If I live what I believe, then I don't believe very many noble things. My life testifies that the first thing I believe is that I am the most important person in the world. My life testifies to this because I care more about my food and shelter and happiness than about anybody else." - Chapter 10
Quoting his friend Paul on marriage: "One of the ways God shows me He loves me is through Danielle [his wife], and one of the ways God shows Danielle He loves her is through me. And because she loves me, and teaches me that I am lovable, I can better interact with God... I mean that to be in a relationship with God is to be loved purely and furiously. And a person who thinks himself unlovable cannot be in a relationship with God because he can't accept who God is; a Being that is love. We learn that we are lovable or unlovable from other people. That is why God tells us so many times to love each other." - Chapter 13
"Living in community made me realize one of my faults: I was addicted to myself. All I thought about was myself. The only thing I really cared about was myself. I had very little concept of love, altruism, or sacrifice. I discovered that my mind is like a radio that picks up only one station, the one that plays me: K-DON, all Don, all the time. I did not understand the exchange that takes place in meaningful dialogue, when two people sit down and tune their radios, if only for a moment, to the other person's station." - Chapter 15
So this is just a few of the really great thoughts and ideas I found in this book. A lot of it was really challenging, yet affirming. I definitely agree with his thoughts that being a Christian is about embracing Jesus, not embracing Christianity. And so that is a challenge to me, to sift through my life and analyze what I do and think - am I representing Jesus or representing religion? Great food for thought.
Monday, January 17, 2011
New Christmas Traditions
Ever since we got married, and especially since Elias was born, we've been trying to figure out exactly what our own family traditions are going to be for holidays. We're really trying to put a lot of thought into what holidays mean to us and how we want to celebrate. So this year for Christmas we started a couple new things, and I thought I'd post them on here. I found both of these ideas on Ann Voskamp's blog: A Holy Experience.
Gifts
Inspired by this post on Ann's blog, we decided not to give gifts to each other for Christmas, but only to give gifts to Jesus, Whose birthday we're celebrating. This year we did that in the form of Angel Trees, Adopt-a-Grandparent gifts, and donating food and toys to Share Your Christmas at church. In future years when Elias is older and more able to participate, I think it would be really neat to follow Ann's suggestion and actually pick gifts out of a catalog for such ministries as Compassion International or Gospel for Asia. But this is just another thing that helps keep our focus on Christ and not on the commercial aspects of the American traditions.
In thinking about these things and really focusing on what the holiday means to us, Justin and I both agreed that this was the most we've enjoyed Christmas together since we've been married. It is such a joy to really bring purpose and meaning in what we do!
Advent Tree
Ann calls it a Jesse Tree, but I prefer Advent since that's what we're celebrating. What we did was put up our Christmas tree the day before Advent (the 28 days before Christmas) started, leaving the front empty; I put up all our ornaments on the sides and back. Then, using Ann's book and ornaments, we did a little story/devotional each day and put an ornament on the tree representing each story. The stories walked us through the Bible from creation to Christ. 
This was our tree with all of the ornaments on it after Christmas. This whole idea was really, really special, and I think we'll plan to do this every year. It was just so neat to keep our focus daily on God's great story of love and redemption, meditating on what that little baby in the hay means to us all.
This particular book's devotionals were pretty deep, and Elias didn't have the patience or understanding to listen to them. He did pick up some of it, though, and he had fun putting the new ornaments on the tree every day! So I don't know if we'll try a different series next year or try this one again to see if he's old enough to get it then. If anybody has any recommendations, let me know!
Gifts
Inspired by this post on Ann's blog, we decided not to give gifts to each other for Christmas, but only to give gifts to Jesus, Whose birthday we're celebrating. This year we did that in the form of Angel Trees, Adopt-a-Grandparent gifts, and donating food and toys to Share Your Christmas at church. In future years when Elias is older and more able to participate, I think it would be really neat to follow Ann's suggestion and actually pick gifts out of a catalog for such ministries as Compassion International or Gospel for Asia. But this is just another thing that helps keep our focus on Christ and not on the commercial aspects of the American traditions.
In thinking about these things and really focusing on what the holiday means to us, Justin and I both agreed that this was the most we've enjoyed Christmas together since we've been married. It is such a joy to really bring purpose and meaning in what we do!
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Book Review: The DNA of Relationships
This is the first book I finished this year in my pursuit of nonfiction, and if you don't read any further than this, please hear me say that EVERYONE ON EARTH SHOULD READ THIS BOOK! If you're married, you should buy it and read it more than once. Old and young, men and women. There isn't anybody that would not benefit from the principles in this book.
I have to confess that when I first started reading, the first chapter sounded like such an infomercial: "Implementing the principles in this book will completely revolutionize every relationship in your life!" Yeah, right. But for real, you guys. I think it actually has the potential to deliver what it promises!
I'm not going to try to tell you everything, but the basic premise is just understanding how communication works in your relationships and learning to recognize what is happening when communication breaks down so that you can change your patterns. The most important concept for this is learning to understand yourself, which was really big for me. Each of us has some core fears that cause us to act and react in unpredictable ways, so when I came to understand what my deepest fears are (rejection and invalidation), I can now understand why I react so negatively to innocent things that shouldn't be a big deal. And then the next big part of understanding myself is recognizing that I am the only one that controls my actions and reactions. No one else can MAKE me angry or upset. I choose how I react to things that push my buttons.
Moving on from there, you can look at the people you have close relationships with and identify what their core fears are based on the way they behave. Then you can work to make your relationship as safe as possible by respecting their fears and treating them with kindness and understanding.
There is so much more to it than that, but you're just going to have to read the book for yourself! But seriously, this has really affected the way I handle myself, and I hope to get better at it with practice! Please let me know if you read this - I wonder if it will help others as much as it helped me!
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Reading My Vegetables
I love to read. I always have. I think this is a very good thing, and I see that Justin's and my love of reading is rubbing off on Elias, which is also a very good thing. However, I have a weakness in my appetite for reading, and that is that I love to read fiction and I'm just not so good at getting through nonfiction. I recognize that there is value in nonfiction, but I just don't have the discipline to make myself read it. I'll start a book and get through a couple chapters, but then just stall and not read another page even if the first few chapters were really good! I'll just pick up a fiction book and read my merry way along, leaving the bookmark in the middle of the nonfiction book. You may even remember that last year one of my resolutions involved reading more nonfiction. Yeah, that didn't happen. But all year long I recognized it as something I wanted to do. I just didn't have a plan.
So a few weeks ago I was talking with my friend Ashley about this subject, and she has encountered the same flaw in her reading life. So she suggested a plan that I really like! So per her suggestion, I'm requiring myself to read a chapter of nonfiction a day before I'm allowed to read any fiction. You may recall that I'm not making any resolutions this year, but it just happened that I started doing this on January 1. Pure coincidence, I assure you. But it's working very well so far! Some days I don't get my chapter read, and so I don't read any fiction at all. Other days I bang out my chapter before lunch and I'm good to go the rest of the day.
When I told Justin about my plan, he said it sounded like somebody making their kid eat their vegetables before they're allowed to have any dessert. And I think that's an excellent metaphor! My sweet tooth would love to eat nothing but ice cream all the time, but I recognize that my nutrition would be incomplete without vegetables and other healthy foods, so I make myself eat those. Then if I'm still hungry, I can have some dessert. What I often find, though, is that the healthy foods satisfy me and I no longer need dessert... And ya know, it may be that the same thing is happening with reading! Already I'm not "craving" as much fiction, and I'm content to just sit down and read whatever nonfiction book I'm working on. I actually borrowed a Karen Kingsbury (my favorite Christian author - seriously, you should read ALL her books!) book from the library over a week ago, and I haven't even started it yet! What the heck?! I'm going to have to make myself read it before it's due! Ha! Who would've ever thought that would be the case?! Not me, that's for sure.
So anyways, I'm going to be reading a lot more nonfiction this year, and if they're good ones, I'll be writing reviews on my blog. In fact, I already finished one that was completely awesome, so keep your eyes open for that in the next few days. Good stuff here, folks.
So a few weeks ago I was talking with my friend Ashley about this subject, and she has encountered the same flaw in her reading life. So she suggested a plan that I really like! So per her suggestion, I'm requiring myself to read a chapter of nonfiction a day before I'm allowed to read any fiction. You may recall that I'm not making any resolutions this year, but it just happened that I started doing this on January 1. Pure coincidence, I assure you. But it's working very well so far! Some days I don't get my chapter read, and so I don't read any fiction at all. Other days I bang out my chapter before lunch and I'm good to go the rest of the day.
When I told Justin about my plan, he said it sounded like somebody making their kid eat their vegetables before they're allowed to have any dessert. And I think that's an excellent metaphor! My sweet tooth would love to eat nothing but ice cream all the time, but I recognize that my nutrition would be incomplete without vegetables and other healthy foods, so I make myself eat those. Then if I'm still hungry, I can have some dessert. What I often find, though, is that the healthy foods satisfy me and I no longer need dessert... And ya know, it may be that the same thing is happening with reading! Already I'm not "craving" as much fiction, and I'm content to just sit down and read whatever nonfiction book I'm working on. I actually borrowed a Karen Kingsbury (my favorite Christian author - seriously, you should read ALL her books!) book from the library over a week ago, and I haven't even started it yet! What the heck?! I'm going to have to make myself read it before it's due! Ha! Who would've ever thought that would be the case?! Not me, that's for sure.
So anyways, I'm going to be reading a lot more nonfiction this year, and if they're good ones, I'll be writing reviews on my blog. In fact, I already finished one that was completely awesome, so keep your eyes open for that in the next few days. Good stuff here, folks.
Christmas, Part 7: Fun with Cousins
When we visited my parents in Ohio, my sister and her family also came up from Atlanta, and we all stayed there together. So Elias got to have fun playing with his cousins, Patriot (6) and Azlan (4)! He's not quite on their level of play, but he enjoyed watching them for sure! One of the things he most enjoyed watching us all do together was play Wii Bowling. He just thought that was HILARIOUS! So here's a video of that:
Whenever the ball would hit the pins, he'd jump up and down and yell "Ta daaa!" Such excitement!
Another day we went to a local mall to play, and they had a little train ride set up right next to the play area! (Talk about strategic placement!) So we certainly couldn't pass up the chance for the boys to ride a train together.
Whenever the ball would hit the pins, he'd jump up and down and yell "Ta daaa!" Such excitement!
Another day we went to a local mall to play, and they had a little train ride set up right next to the play area! (Talk about strategic placement!) So we certainly couldn't pass up the chance for the boys to ride a train together.
Sunday, January 09, 2011
Christmas, Part 6: Fiesta de Navidad
On Christmas Day, we traveled from Western KY to Cincinnati to visit my family. Since all of us had multiple Christmas celebrations, and the one at the Strimple house was the last one for us all, we decided to do a Fiesta instead of having a traditional Christmas dinner. So we made fajitas and nachos and homemade guacamole! Ole! Mom and Dad even surprised us by showing up with decorations that were borrowed from their church! In addition to wall hangings and a string of lights shaped like pinatas(!), they had two sombreros, and Elias thought those were great!! He wore one for about a full hour!
Feliz Navidad!
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Christmas, Part 5: Mrs. B
We have a wonderful and generous family that gave such wonderful gifts to Elias this year! However, for the first time, there was definitely one gift that stood out far above the rest to him...
A small beanie cat given to him by his Aunt Nicole and Uncle David. Seriously, home run here, folks. Elias has recently seemed to be very fond of cats, and he didn't have any cat toys. So when Aunt Nicole asked what to get him, I suggested a stuffed cat. So they got him this one, and he fell in LOVE. Immediately. As soon as he opened up the present, he just lay on the couch and cuddled her.
Seriously, he didn't move for at least 15 minutes. Just kicking his legs and cuddling his kitty.
So we asked him what her name was, and he immediately said, "Mrs. B." This is hilarious because it's the name of the cat in one of his favorite songs by Steve Songs: "And the Dog Says." The name is only mentioned in passing, and we've never talked about it. I didn't even know he remembered what the cat's name in that song was! But now she has a namesake.
So she has been pretty much a constant companion ever since. We don't let him sleep with her, but she does come with us to the store or wherever. He carries her around and sometimes incorporates her into playing with his other toys. She rides on Thomas or watches movies with him. At Nana's house, there is a toy shopping cart, and he put her in the front and pushed her around like she was his baby! How hilarious is this?!
Full disclosure: He laid her in the seat, and I sat her up so her hind legs were sticking through the holes - I thought it was hilarious!
But I've never seen Elias attach to a toy like this. Some days he seems more attached to her than others. Yesterday was definitely a Mrs. B day - she barely ever left his side. And he in fact cried when he had to tell her goodnight and go to bed. Parting is such sweet sorrow!
Note: I'm going on about how much Elias loves this cat, but I hope the rest of you who got him gifts don't think that diminishes how much he enjoys the rest of your gifts! We love and play with them ALL! Thanks to all of our generous family!
So we asked him what her name was, and he immediately said, "Mrs. B." This is hilarious because it's the name of the cat in one of his favorite songs by Steve Songs: "And the Dog Says." The name is only mentioned in passing, and we've never talked about it. I didn't even know he remembered what the cat's name in that song was! But now she has a namesake.
So she has been pretty much a constant companion ever since. We don't let him sleep with her, but she does come with us to the store or wherever. He carries her around and sometimes incorporates her into playing with his other toys. She rides on Thomas or watches movies with him. At Nana's house, there is a toy shopping cart, and he put her in the front and pushed her around like she was his baby! How hilarious is this?!
But I've never seen Elias attach to a toy like this. Some days he seems more attached to her than others. Yesterday was definitely a Mrs. B day - she barely ever left his side. And he in fact cried when he had to tell her goodnight and go to bed. Parting is such sweet sorrow!
Note: I'm going on about how much Elias loves this cat, but I hope the rest of you who got him gifts don't think that diminishes how much he enjoys the rest of your gifts! We love and play with them ALL! Thanks to all of our generous family!
Christmas, Part 4: Lights at Patti's
There is a famous restaurant in Grand Rivers, KY called Patti's. We love to eat there, but over the holidays it is impossible to get in without waiting for hours. So we just went in the evening and checked out their really huge Festival of Lights display. There were some really cool things there - some I'd never seen before! You know it's going to be a treat for Elias when a train is one of the first things we see...
This was definitely a fun outing for us, though, and worth the cold!
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Christmas, Part 3: Nana & Granddad's House
Our first stop was Nana & Granddad's house in Western Kentucky. We always have fun visiting their house, and this time was no exception! Here are some of the things we got into.
Since we discovered a love for coloring on plain notebook paper in the car, Granddad gave him a pencil and a pad of paper, and Elias sat as his desk and colored! How cute is this?? Notice this Dr. John S Tapp nameplate... Looks good in front of our Dr. Elias John Tapp, doesn't it?! ;)
Nana & Granddad have a whirlpool bathtub at their house, so Justin had the idea that Elias might like taking his bath in it. In fact, He. Loved. It. Major fun times here!!
Also, Granddad has gotten a new four-wheeler since we visited last, so Granddad took Elias out on it, and that was big fun!
Since we discovered a love for coloring on plain notebook paper in the car, Granddad gave him a pencil and a pad of paper, and Elias sat as his desk and colored! How cute is this?? Notice this Dr. John S Tapp nameplate... Looks good in front of our Dr. Elias John Tapp, doesn't it?! ;)
Nana & Granddad have a whirlpool bathtub at their house, so Justin had the idea that Elias might like taking his bath in it. In fact, He. Loved. It. Major fun times here!!
Also, Granddad has gotten a new four-wheeler since we visited last, so Granddad took Elias out on it, and that was big fun!
In the video, you can see that Granddad starts out slow on the driveway, and then takes him off-road a little. I left in the end of the clip, because you can hear Mommy's nervous laugh when Granddad takes him through a big dip. I'm such a weenie when it comes to mothering a boy!! Then it was Daddy's turn to take Elias! They had big fun!
Then one day we went into the city of Paducah just to explore a bit. We ate lunch at a neat seafood place called Whaler's Catch, then explored downtown a bit. They have a railroad museum, which we didn't go in, but we did enjoy the real train they have outside!
Honestly, I had no idea trains were this big in real life! Elias still talks about the train in Paducah. A dream come true for that little guy!
Christmas, Part 2: Fun in the Car
This year for Christmas, we took our usual family tour to Kentucky and Ohio, which was about 1,600 miles round trip. Sheesh. However, we have a fantastic family (on both sides!) that I would drive much farther to be able to see, PLUS we have an amazing child who does GREAT in the car. He never sleeps in the car, but he's generally content to just play and listen to music. Yes, we recognize how blessed we are to have such a great traveler.
When we crossed the bridges into Kentucky, I told Elias "Look! We just entered Kentucky!" and for the next 15 minutes he shouted "KENTUCKY!!!!!" Well, glad you're happy, kid. So then I pulled out the camera to record it, and I had to coax him to say it again. Creep. Anyway, here that is, plus some in-car silliness for your entertainment:
I must say that the coloring was a stroke of genius on my part. He has the little Tadoodles crayons - a cat, a bunny, and a bird - and he actually plays with them like dolls. He's rarely ever colored with them before. But he was getting a little squirmy, so I just pulled out a notebook and gave him his Tadoodles, and seriously, he colored for an hour. He covered pretty much every page in my notebook, but that's a small price to pay for an easy hour in the car!!
Note - Huh, how 'bout that? I went to the Crayola page to find the Tadoodles crayons so I could link to the product above. And they say the red crayon is a fox, not a cat. Umm, not in our house. The cat is Elias' favorite one!
When we crossed the bridges into Kentucky, I told Elias "Look! We just entered Kentucky!" and for the next 15 minutes he shouted "KENTUCKY!!!!!" Well, glad you're happy, kid. So then I pulled out the camera to record it, and I had to coax him to say it again. Creep. Anyway, here that is, plus some in-car silliness for your entertainment:
I must say that the coloring was a stroke of genius on my part. He has the little Tadoodles crayons - a cat, a bunny, and a bird - and he actually plays with them like dolls. He's rarely ever colored with them before. But he was getting a little squirmy, so I just pulled out a notebook and gave him his Tadoodles, and seriously, he colored for an hour. He covered pretty much every page in my notebook, but that's a small price to pay for an easy hour in the car!!
Note - Huh, how 'bout that? I went to the Crayola page to find the Tadoodles crayons so I could link to the product above. And they say the red crayon is a fox, not a cat. Umm, not in our house. The cat is Elias' favorite one!
Monday, January 03, 2011
Christmas, Part 1: Neighbor
I have to begin the tale of our Christmas adventures this year with our backyard neighbor. They are legendary in our neighborhood for going absolutely crazy with their Christmas decorations. Think Clark Griswold in his 80s, and that's Mr. Dalton. But their decorations really helped us get in the Christmas spirit, and Elias LOVED them! They began putting up their back yard decorations on NOVEMBER 8TH, so we were able to enjoy them for a long time too. This was the view from our rear windows (Click to enlarge.):
And they had their full front yard decorations finished by the Monday after Thanksgiving (Click to enlarge.):
Absolutely absurd. The above picture is without the lights on, so you may not get the full effect, but I think you can see better the sheer volume of decorations. I believe I count 14 inflatables in this picture... Add the 6 from the back yard, and that makes an even 20. Sheesh. Elias' hands-down favorite was the Santa in the helicopter on the far right of the picture. He would ask EVERY DAY to go see Santa in the helicopter. We went 2 or 3 times a week to go look at the display. There was actually a little more - a plastic nativity set, another spiral tree, and I think a Santa - on the other side of the driveway on the right, but I couldn't fit it into the picture.
So although I wouldn't want to decorate my own house like this, it was really fun having it in our backyard to just open up the blinds and enjoy! Elias still runs to the window and looks for the snowmen and lights. Sorry, bud. Not till next year!
And they had their full front yard decorations finished by the Monday after Thanksgiving (Click to enlarge.):
So although I wouldn't want to decorate my own house like this, it was really fun having it in our backyard to just open up the blinds and enjoy! Elias still runs to the window and looks for the snowmen and lights. Sorry, bud. Not till next year!
Saturday, January 01, 2011
2010 in Review: RECEIVE
I have had a completely life-changing year in 2010, and so I wanted to write out my thoughts about how much God has done in me this year. In thinking about all of it, I believe that the best word to summarize my year is RECEIVE. This year, God has taught me how to RECEIVE His truth in a way I never have before. I grew up in church and I know the Bible well, so I've never had a problem with doctrine or knowing WHAT truth is. My issue is really RECEIVING it in a personal way, and God has completely smashed that barrier this year - all praise be to Him! So below are the main areas in which I have been taught to RECEIVE this year.
LOVE
The biggest and most life-changing thing for me this year is that I learned how to RECEIVE love. I've "known" God loves me since I was little. God so loved the world (John 3:16) and all that. But I really came to know and believe and understand it in such a personal way this year. If you had asked me about God's love, I could've told you all the right answers before, but I learned this year that I wasn't actually applying it to myself. I didn't realize this before, but I was carrying around the false perception that my mistakes, failures, sins, and imperfections somehow kept me from being truly loved. I saw God's love as more just tolerance - He put up with me and let me be saved, but He didn't really like me all that much, and He was constantly frustrated and irritated by my screw-ups. I thought that when God looked at me, He would sigh and shake His head: "What potential she has, and she's constantly messing up!" I felt like God let me be on His team, but He would never actually put me in the game - I wasn't good enough for that.
But I was wrong about that, oh so wrong! And God in His precious tenderness decided that this was the year for me to RECEIVE the truth of how He really feels about me. In January of this year, I began a Bible study called "Do You Think I'm Beautiful?" with a precious group of women. God used that study and those women to completely rock my world and my understanding of who He is and who I am in Him. Do you want to know the truth? Here it is: God loves me. Oh, but not in the way I thought before!!! God loved me deeply even before He made me, and He crafted me with such tenderness and purpose to be exactly the woman I am. He knew my weaknesses. He knew my sins and my failures. And He loved me deeply, not just in spite of them, but WITH them. God's love for me isn't dependent on my performance or my faith or my service or my obedience or anything regarding me at all. He loves me because He made me; He chose me; I am His.
Someone who has never labored under the burden of such failure, shame, and guilt before may not understand the pure freedom and joy that comes when it is lifted! But oh, let me tell you! I feel almost like I can fly! There is such solid ground beneath my feet because I don't have to earn or prove anything anymore. I can rest secure in the fact that God has declared me to be beautiful, precious, and valuable even while knowing intimately my flaws and failures. He sees me, He knows me, He loves me, He forgives me, He protects me, He pursues me, He holds me, He calls me His own, He calls me His beautiful bride. I have no idea how He does it, but He feels this deeply and intimately for every single one of His children, and if you'll just let Him, He wants so deeply to show you how much it's true for you too! I am so thankful for a God who loves me so much He will NEVER let me go. I am safe with Him.
RELATIONSHIPS
The newfound safety I have in Him allows me to RECEIVE more freedom in my other relationships too. I'm no longer dependent on the approval and acceptance of others to define my value. Would you like to know what defines me? See the previous paragraph. There is absolutely nothing in that paragraph that is dependent on another human being, and so no human being can change my identity. That depends on God alone, who is eternal and unchanging. So this gives me the ability to love without needing to be loved in return, and that would make relationships a whole lot easier. I have definitely not arrived in this area, because old habits, fears, and reactions die hard. But I definitely know where I'm headed, and I want to honor God by allowing His love to flow through me to others, regardless of how I feel about them or how they feel about me.
FOOD
Another HUGE deal this year has been the beginning of my journey to understand my relationship with food and how to make sure it has its proper place in my life. Many of you know that I have struggled with weight and overeating my entire adult life, and it has been a real source of shame and struggle for me. A friend introduced me to an online Bible study course called The Lord's Table, which is for people with unhealthy relationships to food, and it teaches us to understand exactly why we relate to food the way we do. For me, food was my fallback. I ate when I was hungry, I ate when I was sad, I ate when I was bored, I ate when I was frustrated, I ate when I was lonely, I ate when I was tired... Anyone sensing a theme here? The basic premise is, though, that I would eat for comfort because I didn't want to feel hunger, sadness, boredom, frustration, loneliness, fatigue, or any kind of pain or discomfort at all. So I would self-medicate with food. Unfortunately, food doesn't satisfy, and it doesn't actually bring any healing or help for all the problems I was trying to cover up with it.
But what the Lord has shown me this year is that if I will open myself up to Him and RECEIVE His truth, love, and comfort into my life, I won't have to turn to food to just try to bury my pain. Instead, I need to take it to Him to actually have it dealt with.
So I will never diet again. I haven't been on a scale in about 6 months. Weight, calories, sugar, size... None of that is the issue here, and concentrating on it just distracts me from the real issue, which is my relationship with the Lord. As I learn to love Him more than anything, my eating will begin to line up with that, and all the rest will fall into a place that honors Him.
This is another long road, and I am nowhere near finished with this journey. In fact, I suspect this is going to be a lifelong struggle for me. However, what freedom there is for me to be able to recognize that it's ok! I struggle with overeating and with turning to food when I should be turning to the Lord. But He doesn't condemn me for that. He looks on me with patience and compassion, and He wants to help me find victory. In Him, I have hope and confidence that I WILL find victory. I'm ok with that.
HELP
This year I have finally come out of a very low season that has been several years long. It was mostly centered around the previous misconception I stated before about how I viewed myself and how I viewed God. I was living under such a mountain of failures, sins, and unmet expectations that I felt like I was suffocating. After Elias was born, I had the culture shock of becoming a stay-at-home mom, and I really just spiraled into a depression. Nothing was like I expected it to me, least of all ME - I wasn't the mother I wanted to be, the wife I wanted to be, the friend I wanted to be, the Christian I wanted to be... I felt like I was failing at everything I tried. Honestly, I couldn't picture living a whole life with the failures just piling up around me, and I wasn't sure I wanted to. But as you can read above, God completely set me free from that, and I am so thankful. But there were two essential keys to finding that freedom, and they both involved RECEIVING help. I went to my doctor who prescribed me an antidepressant - there was a difference the very first day I took it, and I'm still on it now. And I started seeing a godly counselor, who really helped me work through a lot of junk. I only see her occasionally now, but that's because God has done such a healing work in me that I don't need regular meetings anymore. But in both of those cases, I had to be willing to swallow my pride and RECEIVE the help that I needed from others.
So this year has been such a blessed one of healing, freedom, and RECEIVING truth and help from the Lord! I have absolutely no resolutions for next year besides to just keep my hands open to the Lord and RECEIVE whatever He has for me! I can't wait to see what He has in store!
LOVE
The biggest and most life-changing thing for me this year is that I learned how to RECEIVE love. I've "known" God loves me since I was little. God so loved the world (John 3:16) and all that. But I really came to know and believe and understand it in such a personal way this year. If you had asked me about God's love, I could've told you all the right answers before, but I learned this year that I wasn't actually applying it to myself. I didn't realize this before, but I was carrying around the false perception that my mistakes, failures, sins, and imperfections somehow kept me from being truly loved. I saw God's love as more just tolerance - He put up with me and let me be saved, but He didn't really like me all that much, and He was constantly frustrated and irritated by my screw-ups. I thought that when God looked at me, He would sigh and shake His head: "What potential she has, and she's constantly messing up!" I felt like God let me be on His team, but He would never actually put me in the game - I wasn't good enough for that.
But I was wrong about that, oh so wrong! And God in His precious tenderness decided that this was the year for me to RECEIVE the truth of how He really feels about me. In January of this year, I began a Bible study called "Do You Think I'm Beautiful?" with a precious group of women. God used that study and those women to completely rock my world and my understanding of who He is and who I am in Him. Do you want to know the truth? Here it is: God loves me. Oh, but not in the way I thought before!!! God loved me deeply even before He made me, and He crafted me with such tenderness and purpose to be exactly the woman I am. He knew my weaknesses. He knew my sins and my failures. And He loved me deeply, not just in spite of them, but WITH them. God's love for me isn't dependent on my performance or my faith or my service or my obedience or anything regarding me at all. He loves me because He made me; He chose me; I am His.
Someone who has never labored under the burden of such failure, shame, and guilt before may not understand the pure freedom and joy that comes when it is lifted! But oh, let me tell you! I feel almost like I can fly! There is such solid ground beneath my feet because I don't have to earn or prove anything anymore. I can rest secure in the fact that God has declared me to be beautiful, precious, and valuable even while knowing intimately my flaws and failures. He sees me, He knows me, He loves me, He forgives me, He protects me, He pursues me, He holds me, He calls me His own, He calls me His beautiful bride. I have no idea how He does it, but He feels this deeply and intimately for every single one of His children, and if you'll just let Him, He wants so deeply to show you how much it's true for you too! I am so thankful for a God who loves me so much He will NEVER let me go. I am safe with Him.
RELATIONSHIPS
The newfound safety I have in Him allows me to RECEIVE more freedom in my other relationships too. I'm no longer dependent on the approval and acceptance of others to define my value. Would you like to know what defines me? See the previous paragraph. There is absolutely nothing in that paragraph that is dependent on another human being, and so no human being can change my identity. That depends on God alone, who is eternal and unchanging. So this gives me the ability to love without needing to be loved in return, and that would make relationships a whole lot easier. I have definitely not arrived in this area, because old habits, fears, and reactions die hard. But I definitely know where I'm headed, and I want to honor God by allowing His love to flow through me to others, regardless of how I feel about them or how they feel about me.
FOOD
Another HUGE deal this year has been the beginning of my journey to understand my relationship with food and how to make sure it has its proper place in my life. Many of you know that I have struggled with weight and overeating my entire adult life, and it has been a real source of shame and struggle for me. A friend introduced me to an online Bible study course called The Lord's Table, which is for people with unhealthy relationships to food, and it teaches us to understand exactly why we relate to food the way we do. For me, food was my fallback. I ate when I was hungry, I ate when I was sad, I ate when I was bored, I ate when I was frustrated, I ate when I was lonely, I ate when I was tired... Anyone sensing a theme here? The basic premise is, though, that I would eat for comfort because I didn't want to feel hunger, sadness, boredom, frustration, loneliness, fatigue, or any kind of pain or discomfort at all. So I would self-medicate with food. Unfortunately, food doesn't satisfy, and it doesn't actually bring any healing or help for all the problems I was trying to cover up with it.
But what the Lord has shown me this year is that if I will open myself up to Him and RECEIVE His truth, love, and comfort into my life, I won't have to turn to food to just try to bury my pain. Instead, I need to take it to Him to actually have it dealt with.
So I will never diet again. I haven't been on a scale in about 6 months. Weight, calories, sugar, size... None of that is the issue here, and concentrating on it just distracts me from the real issue, which is my relationship with the Lord. As I learn to love Him more than anything, my eating will begin to line up with that, and all the rest will fall into a place that honors Him.
This is another long road, and I am nowhere near finished with this journey. In fact, I suspect this is going to be a lifelong struggle for me. However, what freedom there is for me to be able to recognize that it's ok! I struggle with overeating and with turning to food when I should be turning to the Lord. But He doesn't condemn me for that. He looks on me with patience and compassion, and He wants to help me find victory. In Him, I have hope and confidence that I WILL find victory. I'm ok with that.
HELP
This year I have finally come out of a very low season that has been several years long. It was mostly centered around the previous misconception I stated before about how I viewed myself and how I viewed God. I was living under such a mountain of failures, sins, and unmet expectations that I felt like I was suffocating. After Elias was born, I had the culture shock of becoming a stay-at-home mom, and I really just spiraled into a depression. Nothing was like I expected it to me, least of all ME - I wasn't the mother I wanted to be, the wife I wanted to be, the friend I wanted to be, the Christian I wanted to be... I felt like I was failing at everything I tried. Honestly, I couldn't picture living a whole life with the failures just piling up around me, and I wasn't sure I wanted to. But as you can read above, God completely set me free from that, and I am so thankful. But there were two essential keys to finding that freedom, and they both involved RECEIVING help. I went to my doctor who prescribed me an antidepressant - there was a difference the very first day I took it, and I'm still on it now. And I started seeing a godly counselor, who really helped me work through a lot of junk. I only see her occasionally now, but that's because God has done such a healing work in me that I don't need regular meetings anymore. But in both of those cases, I had to be willing to swallow my pride and RECEIVE the help that I needed from others.
So this year has been such a blessed one of healing, freedom, and RECEIVING truth and help from the Lord! I have absolutely no resolutions for next year besides to just keep my hands open to the Lord and RECEIVE whatever He has for me! I can't wait to see what He has in store!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Christmas Spirit
We're really having a lot of fun with Elias this Christmas season, and I plan to do a post after the holidays about the traditions we're starting with him in our home and how we're celebrating Christ's birth. However, he's also just at a great age where he is starting to be able to understand and participate in everything, and we're just having a great time! Here he is singing "Jingle Bells." Note that what he lacks in lyrics, he makes up for in enthusiasm! (He's shaking a snowman-shaped bell ornament in one hand, and a little jingle bell craft we made in the other.)
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Elias-isms
There are so many cute things that Elias says, and I don't want to forget them when he's all grown up and talking like a Rhodes Scholar! So I'm going to make a list of the ones I can think of to capture them for posterity:
I'm sure there are plenty more, but I've been slowly adding to this list for a couple weeks, and it's time to post it! I'll begin another post with any new ones I think of.
- He has a toy cell phone, and he combines "telephone" and "cell phone" to call it a "cellephone."
- He pronounces "Thank you" like "Gank you."
- Just like his mommy, he loves getting out and about each day - we both hate being stuck inside. So every morning about 10:00, he'll start asking to "Get in the car, go bye-bye!" We've usually always left for our daily errands by then, so it's rough on days we don't have anything to do!
- He loves to go with me to do the grocery shopping, and every day when we're getting ready to leave the house, he asks if we can go "Do some shoppin's." I confess, I taught him the word "shoppin's" - I didn't realize it would stick!
- He likes to cuddle, and when he wants to be held, he comes to us and says "Hold ya, please!" We're trying to get across the concept that it's "Hold ya," when we say it to him, but it's "Hold me," when he says it to us!
- As noted above, he refers to everyone in the third person, including himself. He calls himself "Elias John," which I think is precious. I've realized, though, that I model to him talking in the third person all the time, so instead of saying "Mommy loves you," I need to start saying "I love you."
- Both Justin and I have mentioned it before, but he sometimes calls Justin "Captain D's." We have no idea why.
- When asked "How are you?" he often replies "So big." This always gets a big laugh, so I'm sure it encourages him to keep doing it!
- He's taken to spouting out some of the phrases he always hears us say to him. Some of the ones that make me laugh the most are "Be careful!" "Don't touch!" and "Thanks for being patient, buddy."
- Speaking of patience, he knows every word to the old Kid's Praise song "Have patience." (Remember the old Music Machine album?? To listen to the fruits of the Spirit section, go here. Skip to about 0:41 to hear just the Herbert the Snail patience part.) So whenever he starts fussing because we're not doing something fast enough, I'll say "Be patient!" and he'll automatically start singing the song!
- He's starting to learn opposites like on/off, up/down, etc. but he hasn't quite figured out exactly how to word things. For example, when he's riding on Daddy's shoulders and wants to get down, he'll say "Daddy's shoulders off, please." And today he asked Justin "Window off, please" when he wanted Justin to shut the blinds.
- He is very polite, though, and almost always says "please" when he's making a request!
I'm sure there are plenty more, but I've been slowly adding to this list for a couple weeks, and it's time to post it! I'll begin another post with any new ones I think of.
In Mommy's Shoes
Since cold weather came, I've been wearing my purple slippers around the house. Elias calls them my purple shoes. So whenever he catches me not wearing them, he'll claim them for his own and shuffle around in them.
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
A Shutterfly Christmas
Many of you may have already seen people talking about the 50 free photo cards that Shutterfly is offering to bloggers who write about them on their blog. So here is my little plug!
I'm a big fan of Shutterfly and all the really cute photo products you can get there! I have given their photo books and photo mugs as gifts before, and honestly, when you have a kid as cute as mine, who WOULDN'T want a gift with his sweet face plastered across it?!?!
They have a whole lot of cute options when it comes to their Christmas photo cards, though, and I'm really looking forward to designing one to send out to our family and friends. They have a really neat feature on the left side of the page where you can narrow down exactly what you're looking for instead of having to browse through all 800+ of their options! My choices of 5x7 folded cards that use 3 or more pictures narrowed it down to 85 cards to choose from - that's manageable!
A couple of my faves:
So watch your mailboxes in a couple weeks, and you'll see one of these sweet cards with our good-looking mugs on them!
And if you're a blogger, there are only 2 more days to take advantage of this awesome deal, so head over here and sign up RIGHT AWAY!
I'm a big fan of Shutterfly and all the really cute photo products you can get there! I have given their photo books and photo mugs as gifts before, and honestly, when you have a kid as cute as mine, who WOULDN'T want a gift with his sweet face plastered across it?!?!
They have a whole lot of cute options when it comes to their Christmas photo cards, though, and I'm really looking forward to designing one to send out to our family and friends. They have a really neat feature on the left side of the page where you can narrow down exactly what you're looking for instead of having to browse through all 800+ of their options! My choices of 5x7 folded cards that use 3 or more pictures narrowed it down to 85 cards to choose from - that's manageable!
A couple of my faves:
And if you're a blogger, there are only 2 more days to take advantage of this awesome deal, so head over here and sign up RIGHT AWAY!
Walking Buster Doggie
Elias loves his Pound Puppy named Buster, and he enjoys an Elmo's World episode where Mr. Noodle shows us how to walk a dog. So I decided Elias might have fun if I tie a shoestring to Buster's collar and we take him for a walk. He loved it! It cracks me up when he says "This way!" to Buster, and you'll notice how "gentle" he is when petting his dog... This is (only in part) why we don't have a real dog.
He got a little tangled up there at the end, but I was proud of him for figuring out how to get out himself.
Side note about Buster: That Pound Puppy used to be Justin's when he was young! Sweet family heirloom. His name wasn't Buster until recently - Elias named him Buster after the little brown dog in the Boz the Bear show.
He got a little tangled up there at the end, but I was proud of him for figuring out how to get out himself.
Side note about Buster: That Pound Puppy used to be Justin's when he was young! Sweet family heirloom. His name wasn't Buster until recently - Elias named him Buster after the little brown dog in the Boz the Bear show.
Denied!
Elias and I like to play a game where he tries to throw the couch cushions over the back of the couch, and I play defense while shouting "Denied!" each time I prevent a cushion from falling. He thinks this is HILARIOUS, and I think it's pretty fun myself!!
100 Hoops
Justin is absolutely awesome at finding fantastic yard sale deals on toys for Elias. One of his home runs was a toy called 100 Hoops, an electronic basketball hoop that combines basketball with learning how to count. It has several different settings, but one of our favorites is where each shot earns 10 points, so you learn to count by tens to 100. Here is Elias playing it:
You'll notice, of course, that Elias cheats and just pushes the button in the net instead of actually putting the ball through. Ah well, at least he's learning to count the higher numbers!!!
At one point, you'll hear him ask me to "Put it up." We hang it on a higher hinge and I lift him up for each shot. That's fun, but Mommy can only lift her 40-pound boy that high so many times!!!
You'll notice, of course, that Elias cheats and just pushes the button in the net instead of actually putting the ball through. Ah well, at least he's learning to count the higher numbers!!!
At one point, you'll hear him ask me to "Put it up." We hang it on a higher hinge and I lift him up for each shot. That's fun, but Mommy can only lift her 40-pound boy that high so many times!!!
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
Autumn Leaves
I've had these pics/video of Elias playing in the autumn leaves for a full two months. I hadn't posted them yet, though, because I've been intending to get more video of the way he would play in the leaves. But I never did and now it's 30 degrees out, so leaf-playing is over for this year. Soooo, I'll post what I've got. And what I've got is majorly cute.
Elias LOVED playing in the leaves! His favorite thing to do what just sit and crush them in his hands - this is what I was waiting to get a video of. Here's a video, though, of him "throwing" the leaves at Mommy and laughing. Silly boy!
Sigh.
A full 2 weeks since I've posted on here. Actually I thought it had been longer, so I guess 2 weeks isn't all that bad. We went out of town for Thanksgiving, and I finally feel like I have my head back on straight! Of course, 2 more weeks and we're leaving again for Christmas travels. Ah well. I have a whole bunch of awesome pics and videos that I'm hoping to get edited and posted here in the next few days! Then it'll be another month before I post about Christmas. ;)
Monday, November 22, 2010
Box = Fun
I got a big Pampered Chef delivery a couple weeks ago, and we realized that the box was Elias-sized! So once I got all my stuff out of it, I put it out for Elias to play in, and he loved it!
For some reason, he likes to call it his "castle," and he also likes to put it over his head and play peek-a-boo. Big fun in a big box! In the video below, he's pretending he's Iggy the Iguana from one of his Diego shows, and he's "hibernating" in the box. Although it sounds like my idea in the video, he thought of it on his own first...
For some reason, he likes to call it his "castle," and he also likes to put it over his head and play peek-a-boo. Big fun in a big box! In the video below, he's pretending he's Iggy the Iguana from one of his Diego shows, and he's "hibernating" in the box. Although it sounds like my idea in the video, he thought of it on his own first...Sunday, November 21, 2010
Two-and-a-Half
Today my precious boy is exactly two-and-a-half years old! He is such a joy and delight! 
I wanted to take an official 2 1/2 picture, but I couldn't get him to sit still. So I held him in my lap and took a self-portrait, and I think it's really cute! I've been so curious to see how he's growing, but I've been making myself wait until this milestone to take measurements. So my very approximate measurements of Elias at 2 1/2 are below.
In other words, still huge. (On growth charts, his height is above the 99th percentile, and his weight isn't even on the chart.) :) He is also still so smart, and we remain exceptionally proud of him! Some other noteworthy things about him at 2 1/2:
- He is still a HUGE eater. The doctor has been telling us for a full year that his appetite will be decreasing anytime now... and we're still waiting for that to happen. Some days he eats more than Justin! I cringe to think about trying to feed this child as a teenager.
- He is also still not a picky eater. He eats almost everything we put in front of him, for which I am extremely thankful.
- He knows all his numbers and letters, and he can read them all too. He's beginning to learn phonics, for which I completely thank Super Why.
- He can count to 50, and he's learning the upper half of 100 now too. He also knows some counting in French and Spanish, and he knows quite a few words in Spanish too, for which I thank Diego.
- He still loves to read. Other favorite things to do are: watch TV, play with trains, work puzzles, build towers with large lego-type blocks, and roughhouse with Daddy.
- He can roll his tongue like his mommy!
- He only naps about 4 days a week, but even on days he doesn't nap, he stays in his room and rests on his bed for most of the time.
- He is a great night sleeper, going to bed at 8pm (How quickly he falls asleep depends on whether or not he napped that day) and getting up at 7am.
- His language is very good, and we're thankful that he's able communicate a lot of what he wants. Generally his only meltdowns are when he's tired and not thinking clearly.
- He has absolutely no interest in using the potty, although he enjoys sitting on it every day and reading his "Potty Time with Elmo" book.
Hmm. That's all I can think of at the moment. I'll add more as I think of them! I'm also compiling a list of Elias-isms, which is cute things he says, and I'll post that another time. All in all, I am so thankful and proud of our precious blessing, and I still maintain my claim that motherhood just gets more and more fun!
I wanted to take an official 2 1/2 picture, but I couldn't get him to sit still. So I held him in my lap and took a self-portrait, and I think it's really cute! I've been so curious to see how he's growing, but I've been making myself wait until this milestone to take measurements. So my very approximate measurements of Elias at 2 1/2 are below.Weight: 41 lbs.
Height: 39.5"
Height: 39.5"
In other words, still huge. (On growth charts, his height is above the 99th percentile, and his weight isn't even on the chart.) :) He is also still so smart, and we remain exceptionally proud of him! Some other noteworthy things about him at 2 1/2:
- He is still a HUGE eater. The doctor has been telling us for a full year that his appetite will be decreasing anytime now... and we're still waiting for that to happen. Some days he eats more than Justin! I cringe to think about trying to feed this child as a teenager.
- He is also still not a picky eater. He eats almost everything we put in front of him, for which I am extremely thankful.
- He knows all his numbers and letters, and he can read them all too. He's beginning to learn phonics, for which I completely thank Super Why.
- He can count to 50, and he's learning the upper half of 100 now too. He also knows some counting in French and Spanish, and he knows quite a few words in Spanish too, for which I thank Diego.
- He still loves to read. Other favorite things to do are: watch TV, play with trains, work puzzles, build towers with large lego-type blocks, and roughhouse with Daddy.
- He can roll his tongue like his mommy!
- He only naps about 4 days a week, but even on days he doesn't nap, he stays in his room and rests on his bed for most of the time.
- He is a great night sleeper, going to bed at 8pm (How quickly he falls asleep depends on whether or not he napped that day) and getting up at 7am.
- His language is very good, and we're thankful that he's able communicate a lot of what he wants. Generally his only meltdowns are when he's tired and not thinking clearly.
- He has absolutely no interest in using the potty, although he enjoys sitting on it every day and reading his "Potty Time with Elmo" book.
Hmm. That's all I can think of at the moment. I'll add more as I think of them! I'm also compiling a list of Elias-isms, which is cute things he says, and I'll post that another time. All in all, I am so thankful and proud of our precious blessing, and I still maintain my claim that motherhood just gets more and more fun!
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Thoughts on Airport Security
If you've seen some of my tweets recently, you'll know that I'm pretty upset about the new security screening measures that have been implemented at US airports in the past few weeks. For those of you who haven't seen the news about them, they are implementing two different new screening techniques. Like the previous security techniques, not everyone will have to go through these, but random passengers will be flagged for extra screening. In the past, that meant the flagged passengers would be checked with a hand-held metal detector, and sometimes a cursory pat-down. Now, however, the flagged passenger will have two options. They either need to go into an Advanced Imaging machine, which is a full-body x-ray that allows the security personnel to see under all their clothes and make sure nothing is hidden there. If they opt out of the x-ray machine, they will be subjected to an "enhanced pat-down," which involves the security personnel touching every part of their body. Every. Part. Here is a CNN article that summarizes a lot of the current debate.
I have several objections to these new measures, and I'm outlining them below:
1. Radiation = Potential Physical Health Risk
This is actually my weakest argument, so it might be strange that I'm listing it first... There's a method to my madness, so keep reading! If a person is flagged for extra security, they will be directed to the Advanced Imaging machine, which uses x-rays to allow security personnel to look under a person's clothes and see if they're hiding any dangerous items. There is obviously a privacy issue here, because this basically amounts to having a stranger scrutinize a picture of your naked body. However, I am also concerned about the radiation a person will receive in one of these machines. This is the TSA's website describing the x-ray machines and claiming their complete safety. This is a letter from the science faculty at UCSF expressing concern on this front, and I think it brings up some valid points. This is the responding letter from the FDA, which they claim answers all of the concerns from the first letter. I'm not a physicist or whatever you'd need to be to know the jargon, so I didn't understand much of the second letter, but I believe their claims that it answers the questions. However, it's common knowledge that too much radiation is harmful to the human body. So I would still be afraid for frequent travelers or people whose bodies are already weakened by age or illness - I'm just not convinced that it's completely safe for long-term use. Two major pilot's unions have also advised their airline personnel to avoid these machines, because pilots and airline personnel would definitely be the ones with most frequent exposure to them. That makes me nervous about their safety.
2. Personal Violation = Mental Health Risk
The people that choose not to go through one of the Advanced Imaging Machines, however, will be submitted to an "enhanced pat-down," which from reports I've seen amount to nothing less than sexual molestation. Here is one woman's account of her seriously disturbing encounter with airport security. She found it so traumatic that she is requesting the TSA to provide her with counseling services to deal with the emotional aftermath of the encounter. I saw on the news the story of one pilot who was so emotionally shaken after his physical violation at the security checkpoint, that he was no longer fit to fly his airplane. This is SERIOUSLY not ok.
3. Probability is Miniscule
I watch the news almost every night, so I consider myself fairly well-informed about the goings-on in threats to US air travel safety. To my knowledge there has only been one person who has ever made it onto a plane with an incendiary device hidden in private places - last year's Christmas Day Underwear Bomber. If there have been others, the security system that was already in place was sufficient to discover them. So is it really worth it to risk the physical and emotional health of millions of travelers as outlined in my first two points, not to mention completely violating their personal privacy, on the off chance that someone else may try something similar??
4. Won't Find Everything
I don't really know exactly where the Underwear Bomber was keeping his weapons, but I'm not convinced that even the new enhanced security measures would've found them. Neither the Advanced Imaging Technology nor the enhanced pat-downs would find something that a person is hiding inside a body cavity. Plus, not every passenger will be selected for the enhanced screening. PLUS, not every security line at every airport is equipped with the technology to do the advanced screenings. So the chances still seem like one-in-a-million that even the new enhanced measures would actually catch a would-be attacker.
5. Terrorists Still Win
This is what I feel is my most compelling argument against these enhanced security measures. I believe that a terrorist's chief aim is not death and destruction, but fear. Hence the name TERRORist. With these enhanced security measures, the TSA has made me exceedingly more afraid to fly than I ever was with the threat of a terrorist attack. And there are thousands of citizens who feel the same way I do about it, and are refusing to fly until the enhanced security measures are reversed. I know I certainly won't be flying unless there is absolutely no way it can be avoided. So since I, and thousands of others like me, am now afraid to fly, and our transportation opportunities are severely disrupted, and our airline industry will definitely suffer, and our freedoms and rights as American citizens are threatened, doesn't this just mean the terrorists still win? Seems like it to me.
I don't want to just complain about the current situation without offering a reasonable alternative. To me it makes a whole lot more sense to equip aircraft personnel to be able to handle any threats on their planes than to try to thoroughly screen every single passenger to prevent threats from coming on a plane. Not that the above "enhanced" measures even come close to doing this. But even if they did, they still involve traumatizing and violating a large number of ordinary citizens, almost all of which are completely innocent. So instead I say they need to seriously beef up the air marshal program, and why not have at least one air marshal on every single flight? And also, why not take advantage of the airline personnel that are already on the flight? Train pilots and flight attendants in awareness and defense. This is how the Underwear Bomber was foiled, and it just makes plain sense to me.
I have several objections to these new measures, and I'm outlining them below:
1. Radiation = Potential Physical Health Risk
This is actually my weakest argument, so it might be strange that I'm listing it first... There's a method to my madness, so keep reading! If a person is flagged for extra security, they will be directed to the Advanced Imaging machine, which uses x-rays to allow security personnel to look under a person's clothes and see if they're hiding any dangerous items. There is obviously a privacy issue here, because this basically amounts to having a stranger scrutinize a picture of your naked body. However, I am also concerned about the radiation a person will receive in one of these machines. This is the TSA's website describing the x-ray machines and claiming their complete safety. This is a letter from the science faculty at UCSF expressing concern on this front, and I think it brings up some valid points. This is the responding letter from the FDA, which they claim answers all of the concerns from the first letter. I'm not a physicist or whatever you'd need to be to know the jargon, so I didn't understand much of the second letter, but I believe their claims that it answers the questions. However, it's common knowledge that too much radiation is harmful to the human body. So I would still be afraid for frequent travelers or people whose bodies are already weakened by age or illness - I'm just not convinced that it's completely safe for long-term use. Two major pilot's unions have also advised their airline personnel to avoid these machines, because pilots and airline personnel would definitely be the ones with most frequent exposure to them. That makes me nervous about their safety.
2. Personal Violation = Mental Health Risk
The people that choose not to go through one of the Advanced Imaging Machines, however, will be submitted to an "enhanced pat-down," which from reports I've seen amount to nothing less than sexual molestation. Here is one woman's account of her seriously disturbing encounter with airport security. She found it so traumatic that she is requesting the TSA to provide her with counseling services to deal with the emotional aftermath of the encounter. I saw on the news the story of one pilot who was so emotionally shaken after his physical violation at the security checkpoint, that he was no longer fit to fly his airplane. This is SERIOUSLY not ok.
3. Probability is Miniscule
I watch the news almost every night, so I consider myself fairly well-informed about the goings-on in threats to US air travel safety. To my knowledge there has only been one person who has ever made it onto a plane with an incendiary device hidden in private places - last year's Christmas Day Underwear Bomber. If there have been others, the security system that was already in place was sufficient to discover them. So is it really worth it to risk the physical and emotional health of millions of travelers as outlined in my first two points, not to mention completely violating their personal privacy, on the off chance that someone else may try something similar??
4. Won't Find Everything
I don't really know exactly where the Underwear Bomber was keeping his weapons, but I'm not convinced that even the new enhanced security measures would've found them. Neither the Advanced Imaging Technology nor the enhanced pat-downs would find something that a person is hiding inside a body cavity. Plus, not every passenger will be selected for the enhanced screening. PLUS, not every security line at every airport is equipped with the technology to do the advanced screenings. So the chances still seem like one-in-a-million that even the new enhanced measures would actually catch a would-be attacker.
5. Terrorists Still Win
This is what I feel is my most compelling argument against these enhanced security measures. I believe that a terrorist's chief aim is not death and destruction, but fear. Hence the name TERRORist. With these enhanced security measures, the TSA has made me exceedingly more afraid to fly than I ever was with the threat of a terrorist attack. And there are thousands of citizens who feel the same way I do about it, and are refusing to fly until the enhanced security measures are reversed. I know I certainly won't be flying unless there is absolutely no way it can be avoided. So since I, and thousands of others like me, am now afraid to fly, and our transportation opportunities are severely disrupted, and our airline industry will definitely suffer, and our freedoms and rights as American citizens are threatened, doesn't this just mean the terrorists still win? Seems like it to me.
I don't want to just complain about the current situation without offering a reasonable alternative. To me it makes a whole lot more sense to equip aircraft personnel to be able to handle any threats on their planes than to try to thoroughly screen every single passenger to prevent threats from coming on a plane. Not that the above "enhanced" measures even come close to doing this. But even if they did, they still involve traumatizing and violating a large number of ordinary citizens, almost all of which are completely innocent. So instead I say they need to seriously beef up the air marshal program, and why not have at least one air marshal on every single flight? And also, why not take advantage of the airline personnel that are already on the flight? Train pilots and flight attendants in awareness and defense. This is how the Underwear Bomber was foiled, and it just makes plain sense to me.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Big Fun with Daddy
I had a friend ask me today whether Elias was a Mommy's Boy or a Daddy's Boy, and I really didn't have an answer for her. He's both! Elias spends so much time with both of us and seems to enjoy us both so much! He has to spend time with me by default, since I'm the one keeping him all day, but Justin does a REALLY great job of making sure to spend time with Elias and make sure Elias knows he loves him. He's such a great dad! One thing Daddy definitely does more than Mommy is physical play. Elias is just too heavy for me to be able to carry or throw him around! So Elias will ask me to "Go faster" (run around the room crazily while holding him) or "Swing" (swing him up to the ceiling) or "Go up and down" (do pushups while letting Elias lean on my back), and I have to tell him no - those are Daddy's games! Another fun thing Daddy has started doing recently is letting Elias ride on his shoulders!
Elias will run up to Justin and say "Daddy's shoulders, please!" and that means he wants to go for a ride. So sweet!
A few weeks ago, we got a package in the mail from Nana & Granddad that included a cute little collapsible frisbee. Elias LOVES it! So here is a video of him playing frisbee with Daddy.
He doesn't quite have the hang of throwing it yet, but he sure likes chasing it!
So my boys are so precious together, and I'm so thankful that Elias has a loving Daddy who spends so much time with him!!
Elias will run up to Justin and say "Daddy's shoulders, please!" and that means he wants to go for a ride. So sweet!A few weeks ago, we got a package in the mail from Nana & Granddad that included a cute little collapsible frisbee. Elias LOVES it! So here is a video of him playing frisbee with Daddy.
He doesn't quite have the hang of throwing it yet, but he sure likes chasing it!
So my boys are so precious together, and I'm so thankful that Elias has a loving Daddy who spends so much time with him!!
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Too Cool for School
If you clicked over to the link I posted for Justin's recent blog about Elias, then you've already seen this picture. But I couldn't resist posting it here too!
For the first two years of his life, Elias REFUSED to wear sunglasses or anything else on or near his face. But then we had that trip to the gym where we played racquetball with some friends, and Elias had to wear goggles for that. So once he crossed that hurdle of consenting to wearing something on his face, he has LOVED wearing his sunglasses ever since! He'll ask for them whenever we're riding in the car on a sunny day. And he looks so handsome in them too!
For the first two years of his life, Elias REFUSED to wear sunglasses or anything else on or near his face. But then we had that trip to the gym where we played racquetball with some friends, and Elias had to wear goggles for that. So once he crossed that hurdle of consenting to wearing something on his face, he has LOVED wearing his sunglasses ever since! He'll ask for them whenever we're riding in the car on a sunny day. And he looks so handsome in them too!
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Character Impersonations
Elias loves to quote scenes from his favorite shows, and he has started using different voices for the different characters! In the video below, I'm trying to get him to quote a scene from one of his Thomas & Friends shows where Buster the Steamroller is needed urgently at a job on a soccer field. He arrives at the field to discover he's needed because the field is full of molehills. So he exclaims, "Yay! Molehills! It's like a chocolate chip cookie, but green!" I don't usually have to prompt Elias to say the whole line, but he never performs for the camera... :) I think you still get the idea of the funny voice he uses for Buster.
Justin's Daddy Thoughts
You know that I have been seriously slacking on posting updates about what Elias is doing, and so I'm thankful that Justin was inspired yesterday to write a really great summary of what it's like to be Elias' dad right now! I'm definitely working on videos and pics from the recent months, so stay tuned for those, but in the meantime, read this to hear Justin's perspective!
Friday, November 12, 2010
Grandma's Book
I was browsing through our recent pictures to see what needed to be posted on here, and I discovered these from months ago that I had promised my mom I would post. Sorry for leaving you hanging, Mom!
My mom sent Elias a book that is so cool because it actually recorded her reading it, so all he has to do is turn the pages, and he can hear Grandma reading him the story! I think that is so precious!!! I love listening to it, too, just because I like hearing my mom's voice! And the book itself is really cute. It's called "Thank You, God, for Everything!" Here is a brief video of him reading it and turning the pages:
He has pretty much the whole thing memorized, and the funniest part is that he even memorized the title page and Grandma's message to him. So he'll walk around saying "Thank You, God, for Everything. A gift for Elias, read to you by Grandma. I love you!" How cute is that?!
My mom sent Elias a book that is so cool because it actually recorded her reading it, so all he has to do is turn the pages, and he can hear Grandma reading him the story! I think that is so precious!!! I love listening to it, too, just because I like hearing my mom's voice! And the book itself is really cute. It's called "Thank You, God, for Everything!" Here is a brief video of him reading it and turning the pages:He has pretty much the whole thing memorized, and the funniest part is that he even memorized the title page and Grandma's message to him. So he'll walk around saying "Thank You, God, for Everything. A gift for Elias, read to you by Grandma. I love you!" How cute is that?!
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
Hear Me R04R
Some of you may have noticed that I seem to have completely abandoned my blog. Well, that's not really intentional... It's mostly just a combination of being busy and lazy. I definitely still see value in posting on here to help keep our far away loved ones updated on how Elias is growing, and I do intend to keep doing that! It's just not high on my priority list right now, and I apologize to the grandmas who are pining for another E video!
One thing that has pushed blogging even further down my priority list is th
at I've started a new work-at-home job! My brother-in-law started a business called R04R (pronounced "roar") that makes affordable Android and iPhone apps for churches and ministries, and he has hired me to be their Social Media Representative. That means that I manage their Twitter and Facebook accounts and their blog. It's been about 3 weeks now, and it's going well, so I thought I'd let everybody know! It's not very time-intensive, but it's still another thing that I do in a day that keeps me from making the time for my personal blog.
It's a great business, though, that provides a really valuable service for Christian organizations! So come check us out, especially if you're in any kind of church leadership - and pass on the word about us too!
Our website: http://www.r04r.com/ - Click the Blog tab to read the blog!
Our Twitter page: http://twitter.com/#!/r04r
Our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/R04RApps?ref=ts
One thing that has pushed blogging even further down my priority list is th
at I've started a new work-at-home job! My brother-in-law started a business called R04R (pronounced "roar") that makes affordable Android and iPhone apps for churches and ministries, and he has hired me to be their Social Media Representative. That means that I manage their Twitter and Facebook accounts and their blog. It's been about 3 weeks now, and it's going well, so I thought I'd let everybody know! It's not very time-intensive, but it's still another thing that I do in a day that keeps me from making the time for my personal blog.It's a great business, though, that provides a really valuable service for Christian organizations! So come check us out, especially if you're in any kind of church leadership - and pass on the word about us too!
Our website: http://www.r04r.com/ - Click the Blog tab to read the blog!
Our Twitter page: http://twitter.com/#!/r04r
Our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/R04RApps?ref=ts
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
For Jessica
My sister wrote me an email yesterday about how I should appreciate the time I have with my little guy while he is little. Her boys have recently started going to all day school, and she went back to work, so I know she has to be missing all that special time she had with her little boys when they were little and she was staying home with them. I have recently been thinking along the same lines - I know this time in Elias' life will be fleeting, and I never know when our circumstances might change. So I've been trying to be intentional about actually engaging to sit down and play with him during the day, and I've recently resolved to have him watch less TV during the day and play with him more. So Jessica's email just added to that resolve. And in her email, she also suggested to have a little extra patience with my little one today, and do something special with him.
So in honor of Jessica, we did something fun. A mommy blog that I read suggested today to try pudding painting with little guys, since they often will eat finger paint. We didn't have any pudding on hand, so we tried it with applesauce!
The applesauce ended up not being a very good medium for painting, but we did draw some shapes in it. (I thought later that we should've tried it with yogurt. Ah well, next time.) And we had fun, which was the point! So thank you, Aunt Jessica!
And also for Jessica, I'm trying valiantly to be patient with my child who is refusing to nap AGAIN, which he does most of the time these days.
And also for Jessica, I'm trying valiantly to be patient with my child who hasn't used the potty again since the one time I posted about it weeks ago.
Man! Elias doesn't even KNOW how what a debt he owes Aunt Jessica today!!!
Note - I'm not really stressed out about the potty. It's just another thing I'm being patient about, and I wanted to update you all on the fact that it looks like we are NOT potty training after all. Currently I'm in the school of thought that says "He'll do it when he's ready." Ask me again in a year. But I am pretty stressed out about the nap strike. :(
So in honor of Jessica, we did something fun. A mommy blog that I read suggested today to try pudding painting with little guys, since they often will eat finger paint. We didn't have any pudding on hand, so we tried it with applesauce!
The applesauce ended up not being a very good medium for painting, but we did draw some shapes in it. (I thought later that we should've tried it with yogurt. Ah well, next time.) And we had fun, which was the point! So thank you, Aunt Jessica!And also for Jessica, I'm trying valiantly to be patient with my child who is refusing to nap AGAIN, which he does most of the time these days.
And also for Jessica, I'm trying valiantly to be patient with my child who hasn't used the potty again since the one time I posted about it weeks ago.
Man! Elias doesn't even KNOW how what a debt he owes Aunt Jessica today!!!
Note - I'm not really stressed out about the potty. It's just another thing I'm being patient about, and I wanted to update you all on the fact that it looks like we are NOT potty training after all. Currently I'm in the school of thought that says "He'll do it when he's ready." Ask me again in a year. But I am pretty stressed out about the nap strike. :(
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