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!

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!

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!

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.)

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:

- 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.

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!

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.

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!!!

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.  ;)

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...

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.

Weight: 41 lbs.
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!

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.

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!!

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!

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!

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?!

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 that 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

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. :(

Potty!

Ack! Apparently we are now potty training! Elias has been practicing sitting on the potty for a couple weeks, but he's never actually tried to use it. But today he did! So apparently we are now potty training! Oy. Pray for us!

Slow Down, You Move Too Fast

Over the summer, I decided to do an experiment. I don't remember exactly why, but I decided I was going to drive at or below the speed limit. This may be unexceptional to many of you, but my practice before this was to always drive 3 or 4 mph over the speed limit (or more on the highway) - I considered that to be "safe" from getting pulled over. However, I think my conscience just started to bother me. I mean, whenever I'd see a policeman clocking, I'd have to slam on my brakes to try to slow down to the speed limit. And I always knew that if I got pulled over, I deserved the ticket because I was, in fact, breaking the law. So that's probably why I started the experiment. Now I don't worry at all whenever I see a cop - I just continue on my merry way! I was surprised at how easy it was to stay within the speed limit. Once I got used to it, now I actually find myself tending to go below the speed limit if I'm not paying attention rather than above it. The drivers behind me aren't always so happy at this, but I'm good with that. (Note: This isn't intended to be any kind of judgment or statement about the driving habits of my readers. You do whatever works for you. I'm just sharing what works for me. Please keep reading!)

The reason I'm good with that is because of the unexpected side effect this has had in my life... I find that I am generally a lot more relaxed than I was before. I don't have to worry about rushing around and trying to get everywhere at the fastest possible rate of speed. I plan to leave early enough to get wherever I'm going on time, but if that doesn't happen, I prefer to go the speed limit and just be a few minutes late. Nothing in my schedule is going to be a disaster if I'm not there at the stroke of the clock. And I'm really just enjoying time in the car more, I enjoy listening to the radio more, I'm just chilling out and enjoying the ride. Kind of the "taking time to stop and smell the roses" concept.

But I think this also speaks to the concept of enjoying the journey instead of focusing solely on the destination, and this is a theme in my life and spiritual life too these days. I want to slow down and enjoy the Terrible Two's instead of focusing only on the day Elias turns three (or goes to school or starts to drive or becomes a responsible adult...). And this is definitely a concept God has been working on in my spiritual life, too. I get so frustrated and discouraged whenever I have any kind of stumble or setback. I tell myself "You should know better by now!" But what God is telling me about this, first of all, is that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1). So any voices that are condemning me for failure are NOT from Him. But secondly, He never intended for our spiritual lives to be only about the destination, but to be a journey from birth to death. None of us will achieve perfection in this life, but we are all on a journey toward holiness that will end at Heaven. Have I moved forward in my spiritual walk? Am I more like Christ than I was 5 years ago? If so, then I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be, regardless of whether or not I still struggle and sin. We all do, and that's ok.

I've been feeling, though, like there's an even further spiritual application here, and I've been struggling to put my finger on it until I read this morning's (October 19) devotion in My Utmost for His Highest. I've selected the parts that were most meaningful to me to post here. Read the entire devotion here.

In our Lord's life, there was none of the pressure and the rushing of tremendous activity that we regard so highly today, and a disciple is to be like His Master. The central point of the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a personal relationship with Him, not public usefulness to others...
You have no idea of where or how God is going to engineer your future circumstances, and no knowledge of what stress or strain is going to be placed on you... And if you waste your time in over-activity, instead of being immersed in the great fundamental truths of God's redemption, then you will snap when the stress and strain do come. But if this time of soaking before God is being spent in getting rooted and grounded in Him, which may appear to be impractical, then you will remain true to Him whatever happens.

This also reminds me of the story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42). Jesus came to visit at Mary and Martha's house. While Martha bustled around trying to get everything just right to serve Jesus, Mary just sat at His feet. Martha got upset and asked Jesus to tell Mary to get up and help her, but Jesus said Mary made the better choice of how to spend her time. That's an old story in my world, but always one that gives me a reality check. Would Jesus tell me that I'm anxious and worked up over too many things, and I need to think about whether my priorities line up with His?

This is an exceptionally good lesson for me as a stay-at-home mom. As I'm getting perspective on it, I've come to realize that a lot of my depression that began after Elias was born was rooted in how dramatically my sphere changed. I went from being a world traveler, employed full-time, and free to come and go as I pleased, to being stuck at home most of the time making a paycheck of $0, with a total of two people in my daily sphere of influence. Culture shock! And I just felt unimportant, useless. I was unable to serve in the many ways I did before becoming a mom, and that left me questioning where my value came from. As I explore that question, God's answer is clear: my value comes because I am His. Period. And instead of seeing my time staying home with Elias as limiting me, I need to see it for what it is. It is a gift straight from God, a season where all that is required of me spiritually is to sit at Jesus' feet. Sure, I do a lot - I am in no way trying to minimize the contribution of a stay-at-home mom to the life and well-being of her family! I get that. But when it comes to ministry, serving at church, etc., that just doesn't fit into my lifestyle much right now. And what God is telling me is that's ok. The thing that is most important is to sit at His feet, to be rooted and grounded in Him, to relax and enjoy the journey that will ultimately take me into His presence.

Kite Flying

Elias' favorite movie right now is Thomas and the Runaway Kite. So he knows all about kites and kite flying, and it randomly occurred to me yesterday that I bought him a kite last year in the end-of-summer clearance, and we had never even opened it! So I found it and pulled it out, and we took it out flying today! It's a cool inflatable Elmo kite, so it was really easy to fly! Elias LOVED it! At first he just wanted to walk around the field holding the kite, which was exciting in itself.But eventually I convinced him to let me try to get it up in the air. We succeeded on only the second try, and it stayed up for about 15 minutes with very little effort. Here's Elias enjoying the kite:

Sweet times with my little man.

Unfortunately, he was playing with it when we got home and he popped it. So this maybe was our only fun flying experience with the Elmo kite... So I'm glad I have it documented! Hopefully I'll figure out how to repair it!

I Don't Feel Like Singing!

Here's the last post in my current Songs of Elias series. This one was just too funny not to share! In case any of you are tempted to think that our life is all floating around singing The Sound of Music with birds chirping and bunnies hopping around, here is one of the outtakes when I was trying to record his singing:

HA! You'll notice that he's pretty out of it - he still hadn't woken up completely from his afternoon nap... And he just didn't want to sing right now! Ok, dude. Gotcha.

Do Re Mi in His Sleep

As I said here, Elias loves the Do Re Mi song from The Sound of Music. He sings it all the time! I totally cracked up one night when he was singing it in bed before he fell asleep! So I filmed a little bit of it on the video monitor... You can't see much - his head is on the right side of the screen and he's laying on his back, if you want to try to watch him. But you can hear him singing, and you can see the red lights lighting up along the bottom of the monitor as he's singing. Seriously, he did this for a full 15 minutes - I just filmed a little bit of it!

To the Gym

We recently discovered that the fitness center at the university where Justin works has a really neat Family Gym that we can use. I can't believe I lived here for more than 2 years without knowing this, but I'm going to take full advantage of it now that I know! I'm making up for lost time! This place is so cool because it has all sorts of fun things I can take Elias to do, and it's indoors and free to use! Win-win-win! So we've been going there at least once a week since the semester started - we call it "going to the gym," and Elias has started to ask for it!

It has a big open gym with three full basketball courts, and we can use their balls to play. Elias loves to watch Mommy "shoot hoops," although there's more airballing than anything else! Then upstairs there is a big walking track that Elias and I like to walk around.Elias likes that it looks down onto the gym, so we can see anybody playing down there. There is also a big rock-climbing wall, which is definitely too much for us. However, they also have a smaller version for kids and weenies like me. It's only like 10 feet tall, but it's fun to try to climb it! And there are soft cushions to catch you if you fall, and Elias likes to flop and play on the cushions.
We have some friends who first told us about this place - David is a professor at the university, and Elias and I have become good friends with his wife Jodee and their son Ethan. Ethan is only about 6 months older than Elias, so they're on pretty much the same level. Ethan and Elias call the rock-climbing area "caves," and they like to explore the caves together. Cute!

The last time we met Jodee and Ethan at the gym, they introduced us to an activity that it would've never occurred to me to try with Elias - racquetball! Here are Elias, Ethan, and Jodee in the racquetball court:You can't play in the court unless you're wearing goggles, and so I was afraid that was going to foil our efforts to play in there. Elias has NEVER been willing to wear sunglasses or anything else on his face, and he was pretty resistant to the idea at first. But he watched Ethan put his right on and have fun playing and bouncing the ball in there, and after about 10 minutes, Elias finally submitted. How cute is he in his racquetball gear???
I wanted to get a picture of the boys together... Here is Ethan standing nicely for the picture, and Elias wandering away with the racquet. Sigh.
Anyway, we're thankful for new friends and for this awesome facility where we can come and play together!!

After the Race

After the race, Justin and I navigated to downtown Kansas City, where I had scored a ridiculous deal on Hotwire for a 4-star hotel! It was the Hyatt Regency Crown Center, which has the only revolving restaurant in Kansas City on its roof. The hotel was pretty full that night, so they placed us in an executive suite on the 39th(!) floor - it was equipped for conference meetings with a full 6-seat conference table in it! The coolest thing about the room was the view out our windows!Seeing as we were dressed in NASCAR gear, windswept, and covered head-to-toe in racing grime and debris, we opted out of the fancy schmancy revolving restaurant. Instead, we used the skylink to walk over to the Crown Center, an indoor 3-story mall that had several places to eat. We chose Fritz's Railroad Restaurant in honor of our little man at home. It was your standard burger joint food, but the cool thing about the place is that your food is delivered by a train!You pick up a little phone at the table and call in your order. A live person brings your drinks and other things that might spill, but then a little train comes along a rail that runs along the top of the wall and brings the rest of your food! Rather than trying to describe to you how it works, I found a video on youtube... So click here if you want to see it! :) I unfortunately forgot our camera, so these pictures were taken on the cell phone. Justin and I thought that either Elias would've loved the place, or he would've majorly melted down over not being able to touch the train. So we were glad to be able to just sit down and enjoy a meal together without the danger of anybody melting down!

In all, we had a great weekend, and we're so thankful for all the friends and family who made it happen!

NASCAR, Part 3: The Race

Have I mentioned how cool it was for Justin and me to be at a NASCAR event and how awestruck we were? Um, yeah. It was so neat being able to actually see a race! Before the race started, we went over to the garage area for the Nationwide cars and got to see them lining up to go out onto the track. As I mentioned previously, the Nationwide race we attended on Saturday is like the minor league of NASCAR, and the Sprint Cup race on Sunday is the major league and the one we usually watch and follow. However, there are several drivers that drive in both leagues, and so I had decided to root for two of the drivers that I like in the Sprint Cup: Carl Edwards and Joey Logano. Here is Carl's crew pushing his car to line up before the race:The drivers weren't in their cars yet - the crew would just push the car out to the right place. But that was neat in itself because a good driver needs a good crew to be successful, so these guys deserve as much respect as the driver!

Then we walked over to the grandstand and took our seats. Here's a view from our seats before the race:
We were in the 10th row, so we were right down on the track! So cool! Here's a video of the cars zooming by in the first lap of the race. Warning: Turn down your volume! It's WAY loud!

We wore earplugs the entire time because it was so loud! You may have also noticed in previous pictures of us that we were in hats and jackets - it was cool and windy. I was glad the race was in the afternoon because if it had lasted after the sun went down, I would've been too cold to stay!

Ok, so I must confess that it's easier to follow a race on TV than when you're there. Unless you pay $50 to rent one of their little video scanners that gives you commentary and lets you know what to look for, it's a little hard to know exactly what's going on. However, it was still exciting to watch them pass each other and spin out, and to root for my drivers. And lo and behold, one of the drivers I was rooting for, Joey Logano, actually won the race! It was an exciting finish and fun to watch.

After a driver wins a race, he celebrates by spinning his car around to make a lot of smoke with his tires - it's called a burnout. So here's Joey's burnout:

So it was such a great experience to actually be able to go to a race and see it all in person! I will definitely have a greater appreciation for what I'm seeing on TV now that I've seen it live.

Note: A friend gave us the tickets to this race completely free, and that was such a blessing!! Many, MANY thanks to Steve and his family who provided this amazing experience for Justin and me!!!

NASCAR, Part 2: FanWalk

The first thing we did when we got to the Speedway was take the FanWalk. You pay just a little bit extra, and you can walk through a tunnel under the track to visit the infield and see the garages, drivers, crews, and cars up close. It was stinkin' awesome. TOTALLY worth fifteen bucks!! This is the tunnel under the track:We walked around to the area where we got to see Victory Lane, where the winner goes to receive the trophy after the race.
And then we got to see the garage area and all the transport trucks.We weren't actually allowed to go IN the garage, but we got pretty darn close! They call the fence where the fans can stand Autograph Alley because sometimes the drivers, owners, and/or crew will come by and sign autographs. We didn't hang out long enough to get any, but it was neat to be so close!We were there during the time when the driver's for Sunday's Sprint Cup race (the major leagues!) were having their practice! So they would drive a few laps around the track, then come into the garage for an adjustment, then drive a couple more laps, come back in, etc. So we got to see our favorite drivers drive by several times! (Warning: Turn your volume down! These videos are loud!)

In this video, you see Tony Stewart (#14), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (#88), Jeff Gordon (#24), Jamie McMurray (#1), Jimmie Johnson (#48), Juan Pablo Montoya (#42), and J.J. Yeley (#36) drive by. Some of these are the biggest names in motorsports! And they drove not 20 feet from where we were standing! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

You can see in the above pictures that the very first berth in the garage from where we were standing was the Lowe's #48 - Jimmie Johnson's team. Jimmie is Justin's favorite driver, and he is THE single best driver in all of motorsports, so it was so cool that we were able to see his car and team so close! His crew chief, Chad Knaus, was standing on top of the big transport truck to watch Jimmie's practice. (Read Justin's 2007 tribute to Knaus here.) It was so cool to be able to see him in action! And then when practice was over, we actually got to see Jimmie himself get out of his car and walk over to the truck! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek again!
Too bad my camera snapped a half second too late to catch Jimmie between those two people! Ah well, here's Jimmie's left side anyway (mostly hidden behind the man in black in the center). Jeff Gordon, my favorite driver, was in a garage berth a bit further down the line. So I was able to see him walk from his car to his truck, but it was too far to even try to get a picture.

This was so awesome - Justin and I were totally starstruck! We looked at each other several times and said "I can't believe we're here!" We've been NASCAR fans for about 5 years now, so this is a BIG deal for us!

Note: A friend gave us the tickets to this race completely free, and that was such a blessing!! Many, MANY thanks to Steve and his family who provided this amazing experience for Justin and me!!!

NASCAR, Part 1: Sea of Humanity

It only took a few minutes after arriving at the parking lot of Kansas Speedway before Justin and I decided this is the coolest thing we have ever done together. Our minds were totally blown!We parked about a mile(?) away from the Speedway and just walked through a massive sea of people and cars to get to the track itself. We could not believe how many cars and people were there!Below is the preferred parking section for those who pay extra for box seats. Check out all the flags and tailgating tents! And it goes ALLL the way back in the distance, as far as the eye can see!The grandstand was PACKED, which surprised us because the race we attended was the Nationwide Series, which is like the minor league of auto racing. The Speedway's website says that the grandstand holds 82,000. Umm, yeah. There were at LEAST that many people there! Not counting all the drivers, crew, workers, and people camping in the infield! Un. Believable!I do not even want to imagine the crowd at Sunday's race!

Note: A friend gave us the tickets to this race completely free, and that was such a blessing!! Many, MANY thanks to Steve and his family who provided this amazing experience for Justin and me!!!

Awesome Weekend

We had such an awesome weekend!! My in-laws came into town and visited for a few days, then they kept Elias on Saturday and Sunday so Justin and I could have a little getaway! We went to Kansas City and watched a NASCAR race, so stay tuned to hear all about that! But Elias had so much fun with his Nana and Granddad, and he did AWESOME for the first time we had ever been away from him overnight! We're so thankful for the time Nana and Granddad gave us, and we're so thankful to have such a sweet boy that did so well without us!

Elias modeling Granddad's hat:
One of the highlights of the weekend for Elias was that Nana and Granddad bought him his first tricycle! It has a Thomas-theme, so what's not to love?? (Click here to see all the features!) He still doesn't have the hang of pedaling yet, but he loves to sit on it and push the buttons, and he's learning. I'm sure I'll post more about it as he learns! Thank you for loving us so much and for giving us such a great weekend, Nana and Granddad!

Do Re Mi

This post has been a long time coming, but I've finally compiled all the video footage I want to go along with it! A LOOOOOOOOOOONG time ago, Justin introduced Elias to the Do Re Mi song from The Sound of Music. First he was just playing the scale on the keyboard, then they started watching the clip of that scene on youtube. Well, Elias just REALLY took to that song, and he LOVES it! So a couple times a week, we'll put in the Sound of Music DVD and watch the entire Do Re Mi scene. Elias loves it! He's transfixed! And by now he has learned ALL the words, and he sings the song ALL the time.

I left in the ending of this video because it's so hilarious! This kid can jump tracks and go full throttle in a different direction... You have to be sharp to keep up with him! Instead of finishing Do Re Mi, he sings "All aboard and close the doors!" - the first line to the Thomas and Friends Sounds Song.

Anyhow he doesn't just know the words to the Do Re Mi songs - he has learned all the dialogue between the segments. If you watch this version of the Do Re Mi scene, there are subtitles with all the dialogue as well as the lyrics - this is the one we watch on the computer. Because of this, I notice little things in the script that otherwise I wouldn't have paid attention to. But Elias picks up them ALL. It's almost like he can read the subtitles - maybe just the fact that they're there make him pay more attention to the words he's hearing. Anyway, he can say every word in the whole scene! So funny! In the first part of this next video, he's shouting the syllables the way the children do at the beginning of the scene. Then in the second part, he's singing all the words to the end section.

My sweet boy!!! I LOVE that he loves this movie! Whenever we have the DVD in, we also watch the yodeling puppet scene of the Lonely Goatherd, and he likes that one too... He'll be yodeling next!!