No such thing as luck

She loves Peter Rabbit

2012-01-24T14:55:00.000-05:00

One of Emma's favorite book to have us read to her is Peter Rabbit. She got the audiobook for Christmas, and knew when to turn the pages even without a page turn signal. Turns out, she knows a bit more of the book than simply where to turn the pages.

(its a little harder to hear her over the shake cars in the background!)

We LOVE how much she loves books!

Snow

2012-01-23T14:57:00.000-05:00

We had our first snow over the weekend! It actually wasn't much of a snow...about half and inch to an inch of icy slush...Emma and Will had so much fun sledding and looking outside at it though, and Will kept saying "no! no!" (snow)

Near the end of this clip you can hear him say "snow"

Emma is 3!

2012-01-15T12:42:00.001-05:00

Emma turned 3 on Friday and we had her birthday party on Saturday. She had so much fun on her birthday, especially since she had been anticipating it for so long!

Her birthday morning was very fun - with a surprise in her room when she woke up (bunk beds for her baby dolls), a trip to Starbucks to get a special drink and cake, and time to play on the computer at the library. We also had a special evening staying up late with Emma to watch Finding Nemo for the first time!

The party on Saturday was so much fun...thanks to all of the family members that were able to come! Here are a few pictures from the day.

Emma's cake - Charlotte's Web

(She ate Wilbur)

(and half of a chick!)

See what's in Charlotte's Web??

Emma with her packages...she was SO excited!

Gotta love that cake!

Happy Birthday, Emma! We are so blessed to have you in our lives. Since you were first born you captured our hearts. When you turned two, you looked like such a big girl, but this last year has matured and grown you into a little lady. You are compassionate and caring, a loving big sister, a sweet and affectionate daughter, and you have a sweet love for Jesus. We are so thankful for three years of life with you and are excited to see what this next year brings!

Love,

Daddy and Mommy

A Longer Video

2012-01-10T14:59:00.000-05:00

This is such a sweet video of both Will and Emma. You get to see Will talking - he's learned so many new words lately! And Emma is slightly obsessed with Becca's pastor's son, Kohl. They send each other "I love you" videos through Becca, haha!

Cheese!

2012-01-06T15:32:00.000-05:00

Take a look at this handsome boy.

Curly!

Too cute!

Will learned how to say "cheese" while taking this one

Oh goodness, sometimes their cuteness is too much!

Our Family is Growing!

2012-01-04T08:14:00.000-05:00

This year will surely hold many new experiences for our family, and we hope that one of them will be adding to our family through adoption! We are planning to adopt through the Delaware Foster Care System. We have a lot to learn, so you can be praying for us as we go through this new and uncharted territory.

A few details:

-We still need to decide on an adoption agency - our goal is to finalize this so we can move forward by the end of January.

-We would like to have a child younger than Will, but would be willing to consider a child older than him as long as they were younger than Emma.

-Also, we do not want to be "foster parents" at this point in our lives - that is, we know we will have to be approved as foster parents, but want to be in a situation where any child that comes into our stays as part of our forever family.

The cost of a foster care adoption is usually minimal, but there will certainly be other things to consider like probably upgrading from our Accord to add room for another car seat. We'll be sure to post about any fundraising we do! In the mean time, do you shop on Amazon? If you click through any of the Amazon
links on this blog or Thrifty Living and make a purchase, we will earn a small commission. I've also added a banner on the sidebar. We are putting aside any money earned this way for future adoption expenses.

It's exciting to see how God is working in all of our lives right now. Emma asks us every day to pray for "another brother and another sister"!

Counting the days

2012-01-03T09:44:00.000-05:00

Emma's birthday is just around the corner, so we made a paper chain to help her see the time until the big day!

She is so cute and very excited. I put a few more details on Thrifty Living.

Emma says...

2011-12-30T14:31:00.000-05:00

"Hey Mommy, do you know what is the best thing I like? Tomatoes and ice cream."

At lunch one day, Will was dropping food on the floor. Emma's comment: "He thinks it's hilarious."

Emma and I were sitting together reading books when her stomach growled loudly.

Emma: What was that noise?

Mommy: I think it was your belly.

Emma: No, I think it was your belly!

While walking downstairs to have breakfast:

"What special things do we have today?"

Snapshots of Christmas

2011-12-27T13:14:00.000-05:00

Our Christmas, mostly summed up in photos.

Martin and I both battled nasty colds.

Our Nativity scene. Usually missing Baby Jesus for any number of reasons. Favorites include Emma putting him in a diaper, blowing raspberries on his belly, and Will just carrying him around.

Gifts wrapped!

Some favorite ornaments...

Both kids love pressing the button so the Star Wars theme plays on the Millennium Falcon.

The Ravens, play-off bound again.

A Charleston, SC basket from last year's vacation.

Martin's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Grandpa's train around the tree.

First stop Christmas morning, surprise balloons in Emma's room. We had fun playing together before heading downstairs.

Stockings (how many hundred hours of cross-stitching...)

Will learned to go down stairs!

Listening to the Star Wars ornament.

Posing

Will was a wrapping paper tearing pro this year.

"A new Jesus Bible!"

"vrrrrrrooooom"

Listening to the Christmas story on the new Jesus Storybook Bible audiobook.

Special gift...

New trains!

Will's car ramp

We are so thankful for all the family we got to see this weekend...hope we didn't get any of you sick too! A wonderful Christmas!

So Sweet

2011-12-21T11:28:00.000-05:00

The other day, Will fell asleep just a few minutes before we made it home. Since it was time for lunch, I figured that he would wake up when I took him out of the carseat and brought him inside. Will continued to sleep like a champ, even with me rubbing his back and trying to wake him.

I stuck him on the couch so I could get started on Emma's lunch, and was sure that he would wake up any minute. While I was in the kitchen Emma went over to the couch, crawled up next to him, and proceeded to snuggle with him - still sound asleep!

He didn't budge as she hugged, kissed, and then started pulling up his eyelids...so I gave up! Nap time!

Cutting down the tree

2011-12-19T07:35:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we went back to Hickman's Christmas Tree farm to get our tree. We went with Grandma and used her van to bring the tree home. It certainly wasn't going to fit in the back of our Accord!

Our tree!

Watching Daddy get to work with the saw.

Since the tree was a little crooked at the bottom, we cut it up about a foot or so, but a branch made it difficult to go straight through!

Emma got to help Daddy saw through the last bit.

Beautiful berries!

Heading back to the car with our tree!

We got it tied down tight,

and posed for a photo. Thanks for being our photographer, Grandma!

Book List

2011-12-08T13:49:00.000-05:00

Its been several months since I did a little recap of the books I've read, so I'll try to be brief.

Fiction favorites:

The Confession of Fitzwilliam Darcy - A fun little book, the story of Pride and Prejudice from the viewpoint of Mr. Darcy.

Unnatural Death - Another Lord Peter Wimsey novel, this one was my favorite so far!

Jane Eyre - I can't believe I had never read this great classic. I loved it. Long, but a really wonderful story.

Thorn In My Heart - The first novel in a series of historical fiction set in late 1700s Scotland. Its a retelling of the Biblical account of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel.

NonFiction Favorites:

Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language: Hereditary Deafness on Martha's Vineyard - A fascinating book that Martin and I read aloud to each other. There was an unusually large number of people born deaf in the early years of Martha's Vineyard settlement. No one considered these deaf handicapped, rather, everyone learned sign language as a result of communicating with the deaf in their community.

Pour Your Heart into It - The 1999 story of Starbucks by Howard Schultz. Really interesting stuff about coffee and business. I'm looking forward to reading the new book Onward sometime next year.

Miniatures and Morals - The Christian novels of Jane Austin. Leithart analyzes each of Austin's novels, pulling out the Christian implications of her writing. His opening remarks about "real men read Austin" are superb ("The mere fact that her novels give men an opportunity to see romance through the eyes of an uncommonly perceptive woman should be enough to recommend them.")

Honey for a child's heart - A fantastic book about the importance of books and reading to children. The second half of the book is an extensive annotated book list broken down by age, starting with picture books.

The Money Saving Mom's Budget - This book is released in January, I was given an advance copy to review. Lots of great stuff, not only about managing your money well, but also managing your time, cutting clutter (both physical and mental), and being content with what you have. I'm giving away a copy on Thrifty Living (ends 12/9).

My newest coffee buddy

2011-12-07T07:24:00.000-05:00

Remember when this munchkin came begging for a taste of coffee?

Just the other day Will started begging for a taste of his own.

Can you handle that big mug? Of course.

He kept "drinking" after his little taste was gone. Then walked over to me and climbed up in my lap to drink some more.

Love it!

Happy Little Man

2011-12-06T07:20:00.000-05:00

Those last few pictures of Will were so pitiful, I had to make sure to get some cute ones of him up quickly!

Playing with some of our winter sensory bin items:

Cheesin!

Sweet boy!

Outtakes

2011-12-05T13:01:00.000-05:00

In preparation for making a Christmas card with good pictures of the kids, I've been working for a few ~~days~~, er, ~~weeks~~, ok actually months (!) to get a good picture of Emma and Will together. Here are a couple that probably won't be on your card this year!

(If you're noticing the theme of Emma being thrilled while telling Will what to do...us too!)

A cute one! But blurry...boo.

A perfect picture of Emma holding...oh, the doll baby :-)

And then poor Will was just done with pictures.

Apparently Mommy didn't get the memo yet...

And neither did Emma. She kept giggling and poor Will was pitiful!

Oh kiddos! Thankfully, we do have pictures better than these. But I'm holding on to those until a little bit later!

Our Advent Calendar

2011-11-30T14:32:00.000-05:00

We wanted to start doing an advent calendar this year now that Emma is old enough to really understand what is going on at Christmas. There are so many options out there, but I really wanted to make something that would emphasize Jesus, be full of fun Christmas-y activities, and (of course) have sweet treats.

I found a couple that I would love to buy, but I am content to check them out after Christmas to see if I can get them on sale. So this year we are using glass jars to hold each day's advent activities...and I love how it turned out!

Here's a look at all 25 jars:

The most important thing I wanted was to have a Scripture to read every day. We'll be reading the Christmas story from Luke, and working on memorizing several verses. I started with Emma just a few days ago and she nearly has Luke 2:11 memorized already! Now we have to play catch-up.

I found a bunch of ideas online, but in the end came up with most of my own Christmas activities.

The top jar of popcorn is "make a popcorn garland".

I'm pretty sure we won't have enough snow to build a snowman in Delaware in December, so we'll make snowmen out of toothpicks and marshmallows!

Mmmmm...Peppermint sticks!

I used a glass marker to write the number for each day on the jars.

Emma has been asking several times a day for the last week if its time to start opening the jars. We can't wait to get started tomorrow!

Saying Bye to Daddy

2011-11-23T13:45:00.000-05:00

Emma has become quite the early bird most days. We think it has a lot to do with her wanting to see Martin before he heads to work. She loves to blow kisses with Daddy, and wave to him as he drives away.

Watching Daddy's car (her hand is over her mouth doing a kiss)

Blowing her kiss.

Sweet girl!

Our Thankful Tree

2011-11-21T15:02:00.000-05:00

We've been doing a bunch of Thanksgiving activities for Tot School lately, and this one turned out great! There are so many variations of "thankful tree" for Thanksgiving, but I really liked the craft portion of this one from 1+1+1=1.

The base of the tree is a paper towel tube. We don't really use paper towels, so I taped 2 toilet paper together. Then Emma used watercolors to paint the tube brown.

We used tape again to fasten the tube to the white paper so that it stands upright on its own. Then I used scissors to cut strips down an inch and a half or so. Nothing too scientific here! These are the branches!

I printed out a leaf template that had four different types of leaves. I used the white leaves to trace on colored construction paper and cut out a bunch of colored leaves. Emma used watercolor paints again to paint the white leaves. Over the last week or two, we've been talking about things that she is thankful for, and then writing them on a leaf. She has needed a little help thinking of things besides what she sees right in front of her (bowl, paper, crayon, etc). Then we glued the leaves to the "branches" of our tree...the finished product!

She thought of this one all by herself!

Will was one of the first things she wanted to write down :-)

Food...and Pizza...she is a Dunphy to be sure!

With a spoon

2011-11-17T13:07:00.000-05:00

We've been giving Will a spoon or a fork with meals lately, and he is, to say the least, thrilled.

He does a pretty good job getting the spoon in his mouth.

Since he's getting two more molars, the spoon is a great teether in between bites too!

Thrilled is way too reserved of an emotion.

Ferocious perhaps?

A Photo Essay: By Emma

2011-11-09T15:14:00.000-05:00

Emma got her hands on the camera recently and proceeded to take a number of pictures before I realized that she even had the camera! Of course, she wanted to see them all, and once I flipped through and showed her, I realized that they were actually pretty decent, especially considering she is not-quite-three.

Her pictures also gave me a little glimpse into her world - how life looks from her perspective a little closer to the floor. And of all the things she could photograph, she picked out what was most important to her and snapped those things.

First up, bread rising in the sun.

Emma loves helping make bread. The act of bread rising is fascinating to her.

The bin of new library books.

Emma would read books pretty much all day long.

Will's new Zoo toy.

The two of them have so much fun playing with this together.

Will.

Her most favorite "play thing".

The little rocking chair.

Perfect place for reading books or rocking her babies.

Our large cardboard box boat.

Imagination at its finest.

Her toy vacuum.

It makes noise and collects fuzz. What's not to like?

A picture of some clothes I was preparing to sell.

She imitated me taking pictures of things to list on eBay.

Our living room.

A little messy, perfect for playing.

HOME.

Daylight Saving Time

2011-11-07T07:33:00.001-05:00

We all love it, that weekend each year when the clocks turn back and we get to sleep in an extra hour. How refreshing! How exciting!

How early the children get up!

We had a much easier time getting up early this morning, but of course, so did Emma and Will.

Thankfully, this is the first time change that has really affected them, but we are sure it won't be the last!

Just another day...

2011-10-25T13:51:00.001-04:00

It's been a challenge to get some pictures with just my phone, but these two turned out pretty good!

My sweet boy!

And Emma enjoyed writing in the flour that I left on the counter when I made bread. Of course, she enjoyed some dough and flour too!

My Morning Coffee Buddy

2011-10-20T06:58:00.001-04:00

One year check-up

2011-10-18T14:07:00.001-04:00

It's always interesting to guess where the kiddos are going to be on the charts when they go for check-ups. No real surprises at Will's one year!

He is right at the 25th percentile for height at 2 feet 5 inches, and is just under the 25th for weight at 21 pounds. His head size shot up quite a bit, now around the 80th percentile. Our doctor commented that it is just to hold all his brains!

We had a wonderful birthday party on Saturday and were so thankful that so much of our families could make it! Sadly, our camera met a rather untimely and unexplained demise in the middle of the party, which has made blogging even more challenging!

But, since it would be a pity to post without a picture, here is a repeat: the birthday boy in all his glory!

Will is 1!

2011-10-13T08:15:00.000-04:00

October 13, 2010

The weather had just turned cooler and William Paul decided it was time to make his appearance. We were at the hospital just 2 hours before he was born and signed the "you can deliver my child" papers while holding him in our arms.

Our sweet boy, just 30 minutes old.

Will weighed 6 lbs 11 oz and arrived 4 days before his due date.

First family of four photo

From day one, Will has been completely doted upon by his big sister, Emma.

November

Will has always been a strong kid. He held his head up very early and started rolling over at 4 weeks old.

He began to smile near the end of the month, more than a week after showing us his rolling skills.

December

Will got a lot of use out of his fuzzy bear suit between cutting down our Christmas tree, taking walks in the stroller, and even going outside in the snow. He loved to be in the middle of whatever we were doing.

January

Will started looking less like a newborn and more like a baby. He also began to spit up more and more and be very cranky during feedings. He spit up blood more than once, which prompted us to have him examined by the GI specialists at AI Dupont Hospital for Children. Diagnosed with moderate to severe acid reflux, Will ended up taking Prevacid to help with the pain. Thank God for medication!

Will also gave us quite a scare in January. An ambulance ride to AI and a few hours in the ER because of RSV. He was a trooper and put up with all the nebulizer treatments and saline drops and we are so thankful for how well he pulled through.

February

Once we got the reflux medication figured out, Will was able to return to his happy, content self. We love that sweet smile!

And he fully embraced his role as the little brother. He laughed and smiled for Emma and loved when she played with him. He also started eating rice cereal and LOVED it!

March

Will began to try and sit on his own, but mostly enjoyed the Bumbo seat. He wore his Orioles gear proudly too!

April

Will perfected his sitting skills in April, got a tooth, started scooting around on the floor while on his back, and babbled non-stop! He also began eating more variety of foods and loved every single one.

May

While Will worked on three additional teeth, we traveled to North Carolina twice...to see Aunt Becca graduate and for Evan and Jeanine's wedding.

Will started trying to crawl, but it mostly involved scooting backwards!

June

Will began to make forward progress with his army crawl/scoot at the beginning of the month, and by the end of June was making great time all around the house. He also got a ton of teeth, which really made him start looking like a big boy!

July

To beat the heat, we spent many mornings out back in the shade with a little tub of water. Will loved splashing and playing in the water with Emma. He started pulling himself into a stand and this is still is favorite (dangerous!) way of bathing. He is a total dare devil and has no fear of falling.

He even convinced himself he could walk...he would pull up to a stand, then let go and lunge forward without moving his feet, totally face-planting every single time. And loving it!

August

Will and Emma started really playing together in August. He would follow her around and try to take whatever toy she had (like a good little brother?). They both love music, and Will especially enjoys our family worship time at night before bed. He started taking steps early in the month...3 here, 6 there, and by the end of the month was purposefully walking where he wanted to go.

Near the end of the month Will started signing more!

September

Last month Will really blossomed into a big boy. He looks much older. He interacts with us using several signs, and he understands much of what we say to him. He gets very upset when he does not get his way! He still loves to eat, and plays the dropping game in his high chair.

October 13, 2011

Our big boy still looks so much like his newborn pictures...amazing!

He has a wonderful laugh and beautiful smile!

Over the summer, Will's hair lightened a lot, and it is looking curly in the back.

He is a confidant walker.

Loved brother,

and cherished son.

Will,

This first year of your life has flown by so quickly, and we have loved watching you grow and develop from a helpless newborn into a rolling and cooing infant into a stumbling toddler and now a sweet and fearless boy. God has used your little life to make us trust in Him more and to show us that He is in control. You've made our lives full in a way we never could have imagined before you were born. We love your kisses and your running start hugs. You are full of energy and love life!

As you grow over this next year, we will be constant in prayer for your safety and hope that you learn a little caution! We look forward to seeing you and Emma grow together even more. We will seek God first and foremost and do our best to lead you closer to Him through our example. Happy 1st Birthday, Little Man!

Love always,

Daddy and Mommy

Apple Picking

2011-10-12T14:32:00.000-04:00

Last week we had a great trip south of Dover to Fifer Orchards.

Emma was super excited to pick apples!

Will enjoyed the sights from the backpack while Emma and I picked apples with our friends.

After picking apples we spent time in the Fall Festival area at Fifer. We went through a corn maze, enjoyed some huge slides (they put ArmourAll on the slides every morning...they were fast!), played in the hay, and did rubber duck races. They had several of these tanks set up. You used the pump to push water through the shoot and push the rubber duck along. They were awesome!

All the kids!

It was a great trip!

What a difference a year makes!

2011-10-06T13:54:00.000-04:00

A year ago, just days before Will arrived, we did a pre-baby photo shoot. We thought it would be fun to get some pictures one year later of our big boy!

October 7, 2010

Emma was so little a year ago!

Now she can't imagine life without her little brother.

Mommy waiting for baby to arrive.

Mommy and big boy

Walking with Daddy.

Sacked Out

2011-10-04T13:32:00.000-04:00

The kids were wiped today...I guess I wore them out! They both went down for their naps early and passed out.

For some reason, Emma decided to curl up on her floor this afternoon. Why? Who knows!

Will fell asleep in the exact place I left him when I laid him in his crib. It was took dark to get a good picture unless I used the flash...and he slept right through the whole thing.

Too cute!

Tot School

2011-10-02T21:26:00.001-04:00

Emma is 32.5 months

Will is 11.5 months

Tot School via 1+1+1=1

We've been enjoying a lot of fall activities over the last two weeks. Unfortunately, I lost several pictures when our computer died, but I'm hoping that will be only temporary once we get them off the hard drive.

We have several fall books from the library that we've been reading every day. We really like It's Fall. It has beautiful pictures and is a great introduction to the change of seasons. Footballs and Falling Leaves is a counting book with great fall themed items. We also liked the simple book, I know its autumn.

To talk about the different things that happen when the seasons change, we took a nature walk. I put a piece of clear tape on Emma's wrist with the sticky side up and she picked up different things to stick to the tape along the way. She loved finding leaves, flowers, and sticks to put on her tape, and I loved seeing what caught her attention. This was a lot of fun and I'm sure we'll do it again soon.

We found a caterpillar one day and kept it in a tub with some leaves for a day or two. Emma thought the caterpillar was the coolest thing. She is totally unfazed by bugs and loves to poke at them and pick them up.

We didn't keep the caterpillar for too long, and Emma loved getting to put him back outside.

I found this great tree printable from First School. We scrunched up different colors of tissue paper to make leaves for the tree.

I don't have a picture of the finished product, but we put a bunch of "leaves" on the ground under the tree also. It turned out really cute and is hanging in our art gallery.

Another great printable from First School is this acorn sheet. We keep it inside a plastic page protector and Emma uses a dry erase marker to do a number of activities. Counting by dotting the acorns, circling, coloring, and then practicing writing numbers. She did all of these numbers on her own!

I'm so excited to see Emma wanting to trace and actually doing it. She is so pleased with herself and did a great job. I'm hoping to do some more tracing with letters in the coming weeks!

Tiny Tot School

Will has really enjoyed our sensory bin, especially the leaves. He likes the texture of the leaves and really likes to put them in and out of different containers. I don't seem to have a picture of this yet.

He also added to his signs with "all done". This one is not a favorite sign since he loves to eat so much, but this is a really cute photo!

He is showing a lot of interest in our wooden puzzles even though he can't actually do the pieces yet. He has the concept, though, and likes to put the pieces on the puzzle boards.

We had a fun time with Daddy this weekend. We went to an area of Middletown that has big trees and hills and collected leaves, acorns, twigs, and flowers.

Emma loved talking about the different things we saw and both Emma and Will enjoyed having time outside and spending time with Daddy.

That afternoon we also took a hay ride at a local farm and enjoyed some other fall activities, including apple cider!

Big Helper

2011-09-30T07:16:00.000-04:00

Our computer is dead for the time being, so I'm borrowing one to get a few posts up. Yesterday morning after we had just finished up breakfast, I ran upstairs to grab something. Upon my return I found Emma "helping" Will finish his breakfast.

She had climbed up in my chair, grabbed the bowl of oatmeal from the center of the table (and so probably climbed on the table to get it), and was spoon it near Will's mouth. Despite the appearance of him eating the oatmeal in this picture...

most of her bites ended up on the floor (look closely, you can see it on the floor!). She thrust a spoonful toward Will and the two of them would giggle at each other. Then Will would grab the bite with his hand and throw it on the floor. More giggles would (naturally) ensue.

Despite the mess (and there was quite a mess), I'm glad I grabbed the camera instead of just shooing her away and cleaning things up. Emma is a compassionate and caring girl, and wants to help me with everything. Will adores her and thinks she is hilarious. I quite agree.

More Signing

2011-09-20T15:00:00.000-04:00

Will recently started signing milk, putting his "words" at three...more, eat, and now milk. Funny how they all involve eating, huh?

Watching Emma and Will both learn how to communicate has been so much fun. I remember thinking and wondering with both of them if they would ever get it. Those weeks and months of repeating more after every bite felt so long and pointless. And then, one day, they both just got it. The sign was there, it was obvious, they did it with purpose, and we were thrilled! Maybe signing milk or more isn't huge in the grand scheme of parenting, but those little achievements are sweet moments along the way, and we will not ever forget them.

I know that sometimes life with kiddos seems mundane and monotonous. Do not open the cabinets...Food stays on the table...Only two sheets of toilet paper...Be kind and share...Another poopy diaper...Another load of laundry...Vacuum again...Pick up the toys...You name it. But somewhere in the monotony of it all there is joy instead of drudgery. Everything is more important that what I'm actually doing. All to the glory of God is more than simply a nice slogan or mantra. It has to be the way I live in the unspectacular times or its worthless in the spotlight moments.

Maybe signing milk or more isn't huge in the grand scheme of parenting, but those little achievements are sweet moments along the way. We will never forget them, and try to always thank God for them. A breath of fresh air on this long way home.

Tot School

2011-09-16T14:26:00.000-04:00

Emma is 32 months

Will is 11 months

Tot School via 1+1+1=1

We've had some nice Tot School time over the last two weeks, despite the kids' stomach bugs, my being out of town, and then today Will knocked his chin and stuck his teeth into his tongue. Poor kid has three holes in his tongue. One is fairly substantial, but the other two are smaller. He's doing ok, but I'm sure things are pretty sore!

Emma has been enjoying number recognition activities. These free printables came from TLSBooks. Emma used a highlighter to pick out all of the 1's, 2's, 3's, on up to 10.

We split this up over several days, which helped her to keep straight which number she was looking for on the page. I'd love to do this again and stick the pages in plastic page protectors so that we can use them more than once!

We did several activities with numbers 1 and 2. Emma used stickers to make the numbers follow a pattern I made on a paper for her.

We also used cut and paste number sheets from ABCteach. I cut the numbers out for Emma and we worked on recognizing 1-5, as well as putting them in the correct order.

She was instructed to color the numbers and she opted for tracing them yet again. She did a pretty good job, too!

After we worked with the cut out numbers, Emma used a glue stick to paste them in the correct order at the end of the week.

We also used the back of some of the number recognition sheets to work on tracing some more letters. Emma did some tracing but ended up drawing circles around most of the numbers.

Emma is still our tomato loving girl! One of her favorite things to do is to help with the garden, especially the picking! The tomatoes usually don't make it in the house...this one is headed right into Emma's mouth (in one bite!)

We pulled the muffin tins back out this week. Even though it was mostly for Will, Emma had some fun with them too. We worked on putting the correct color blocks in order.

This was challenging for her because she had to turn the blocks to find the right color before putting them in order. She got a lot better as we worked on it!

One rainy afternoon we made microwave Turkish Delight. This was our second time making this recipe, and it was much better this time! I cut the recipe in half, so I altered the microwave cook times in order to compensate. We made lemon flavored Turkish Delight this time. Emma really wanted to color it blue, but I convinced her that yellow would make more sense.

She was a great help pouring, counting, and even did a little stirring.

We did a couple together activities, including playing with shaving cream.

This is such a great finger paint.

And we did a special afternoon bath that was mostly an excuse to try out glow sticks in the bathtub!

Hard to get a picture, but you can sort of tell that they were putting them into a large cup.

Tiny Tot School

Will loves music! He is so cute when we pull out the different instruments and crank up the music. He dances and bangs and even stomps his feet to the music.

Inspired by this idea of baby play with apples from Lightning Bug Literacy, I pulled out our bag of apples with the muffin tins.

He seemed to know exactly what to do, although he preferred to throw the apples into the tin instead of simply placing them.

He had so much fun doing this that when we put it away for another activity...

this face showed up really quickly! Poor Will. (We did some more with the apples)

We did a couple variations with the muffin tins since Will liked them so much. Large beads...

and balls...

Mom's Favorites

Oh, blue highlighter!

And take a look at that beautiful girl!

Big boy enjoying the swings!

Emma-isms

2011-09-15T15:00:00.001-04:00

Emma is quite the talker. (No, really?) Her gift of gab is usually pretty cute, so we try to write down many of her little one-liners. Like at bedtime recently...

"When I do this" (she squints her eyes shut) "you are dark"

And overheard while having a snack of animal crackers...

"I will eat you, gorilla!"

(yep, that's our girl!)

Peanut butter and jelly is a regular staple at lunch around here. It didn't take too long for Emma to notice that I like to put chips in my peanut butter and honey sandwiches and she wanted to try it too. One day I made her sandwich and stuck chips in it as a surprise, which she really enjoyed. She told me,

"I think there are chips in here. I feeled them when I took a bite and I like the noise they make."

I think Great Pap-Pap would have been tickled about that one!

Sometimes we are amazed by the truth that comes out of her mouth. She ran up to me a few days ago while I was making dinner and said,

"I am happy that Jesus is alive!"

We are teaching her catechism questions and answers, one of which is Can you see God? She answered correctly, "No, but he sees me." And then she added, "I might look for God."

Martin told her "we are supposed to seek God" and I asked, "Where would you look for God?"

Without hesitation she told us. "In the Jesus Storybook Bible."

Spot on, kiddo.

Women of Faith this Weekend

2011-09-08T13:56:00.000-04:00

I am so excited for this weekend! Mom and I are heading up to Philadelphia for the Women of Faith conference. It will be just the two of us, so Martin will be spending some time with Emma and Will. I was given tickets to Women of Faith as part of Book Sneeze, and I am so thankful for the opportunity to write about our experiences this weekend.

I've never been to a Women of Faith conference before, but I have heard some wonderful stories from other who have enjoyed going for several years. In fact, I get to meet up with a good friend from college who is also going to be at the conference in Philly...exciting!

I am really looking forward to this special time to spend with Mom. We have never been able to get away together like this before! It will be a great opportunity to worship together, to hear speakers teach truth from God's Word, and to get away from the business of life.

The schedule for 2012 is already available. There conference travels across the country, so there are many opportunities to be a part of this awesome weekend.

Disclosure: I was given two free tickets to the Philadelphia Women of Faith conference in exchange for blogging about the conference and featuring the WOF badge on my blog. All opinions are my own.

Racing through the House

2011-09-07T13:43:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a really rainy day around here, and by the afternoon we needed to burn off a bit of steam. I cleared a path from end to end of the downstairs and set up Emma and Will with their racing toys. Will used the lion and Emma used the shopping cart.

They chased each other back and forth, laughing, falling, and crashing into each other all over the place.

No surprise, Emma won the "races"

I love this one! Cute from behind

I'm sure we'll be doing this again soon, rain or shine!

Tot School

2011-09-02T13:48:00.000-04:00

Emma is 31.5

Will is 10.5 months

Tot School via 1+1+1=1

We haven't had a focused Tot School post for most of the summer; hopefully the new school year will help get us back on track! Thanks to Pinterest, we've been enjoying a number of new activities, including Magic Milk Paint.

All you need is a little milk in a container, a toothpick, dish soap, and food coloring!

Drop food coloring into the milk. Get close to the milk so that it doesn't spread quite as much (like the yellow, not the blue). Dip your toothpick in dish soap and then poke it into the food coloring....the surface tension is broken and the colors spread....so cool.

I used too much milk the first time and it did not work really well, so Emma painted with the colored milk for a while before we tried a second time.

Here is how it is supposed to work - awesome!

A new skill we are working on is cutting with scissors! Emma really enjoys cutting, and has gotten much better about understand the concept, where her fingers go, etc. She usually cuts magazines or old coupons.

This is another fun art project that I found via Pinterest. With blue painter's tape, I made a letter E on a sheet of paper. Then I told Emma we were going to paint all around the blue E. Before she started on that, she traced the letter E....first time she has ever been able to trace a letter, and she received no prompting!

The tracing complete, she went on to paint (with watercolors).

The finished project! So cute, we are going to make another one soon!

Here it is hanging in our homemade art gallery!

Emma can do all of her puzzles on her own right now, including the large floor puzzles. To give her a little more of a challenge, I dump several wooden puzzles together and she works them simultaneously. She is still very quick! Puzzles are one of her favorite activities.

We've had a great time playing outside more now that the weather has been a bit cooler. Emma loves things like chalk and bubbles, and she recently learned to peddle her tricycle all by herself! We've also been playing with outdoor balls...throwing, kicking, and making up our own silly games.

Tiny Tot School

Will is into everything since he is now walking (usually running) across the room! It has helped a lot this week to have focused activities for him to do also. We love tot school!

Thanks to ideas from Carisa, Will has been having a blast with ping pong balls!

He seriously cannot get enough of them. We just keep switching up the "prop" toy that he plays along with the ping pong balls. Here we paired them with nesting cups.

And some outdoor play with the ping pong balls. He loved digging through the grass for them!

Emma couldn't resist helping.

What is it about ping pong balls? I don't know, but he loves them!

Will is starting to get more interested in books. His favorite (by far!) is this version of Hallmark Guess How Much I Love You, read by Pap Pap and Omi. It is so cute to see him sit and flip through the pages. He recognizes the book enough that he gets frustrated when the board book version does not read to him!

Will also discovered that our big "boat" box doubles as a tunnel. He even introduced Emma to this idea, and the two of them chase each other through to the other side of the couch.

Mom's favorites:

Will and the ping pong balls,

and Emma with a big old belly laugh!

Walking boy!

2011-08-29T15:35:00.000-04:00

Here is a quick clip of Will! This is about the normal length of his current jaunts across the room.

Book List: Through August

2011-08-28T07:48:00.000-04:00

I've read some great books lately! Here are a few of my favorites...

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Mystery: The first book in a series about an 11-year-old chemist (who specializes in poisons) and helps the police solve mysteries in her small English town after World War II. These books are hilarious and great mysteries! I've also read the second book, The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag, and I am currently reading the third, A Red Herring Without Mustard.

I really liked Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, a book about a Chinese-American with a Japanese-American best friend during WWII in Seattle. The book started a little slow, but I fell in love with it a few chapters in.

A re-read from last year that I just finished was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I love this book! Its written completely as letters, which is really different than most books. This is another post-WWII book (apparently I read a lot from that time period!).

Non-fiction favorites over the last few months are Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families & Churches, and Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches. Adopted for Life is a wonderful book about the spiritual and theological meaning of adoption as well as practical and physical adoption here on earth. Loving the Little Years is the most practical book about parenting small children that I have ever read! It is 20 short chapters, perfect for reading when you only have 5 minutes at a time. I've read it twice in 2 months and it has changed how I think about and prepare for our day-to-day life.

That's all for now! I love getting new book recommendations, and I can't plug Goodreads enough. Its totally free and a great way to see what your friends are reading and get recommendations for new books.

"More"

2011-08-27T11:47:00.000-04:00

Will is now a signing champ! It took him until he was 10 months (Emma started signing more at 8 1/2 months), but that is still fairly early I think. He is so excited that he can sign now!

He gives us this huge cheesy grin when he puts his hands together. Actually this picture is rather restrained. He totally loves signing.

The first few days of signing he responded much better when Emma encouraged him to sign more. She loves helping him learn to sign!

In the week or so since he started signing more, Will learned how to clap and will sometimes wave now! He is getting to be such a big boy!

Emma and the Ball Machine

2011-08-26T08:36:00.001-04:00

Its always great to get toys that grow with kids instead of the kids outgrowing them in a few months. Emma loved the ball machine for a while, but we put it away a few months ago as part of our toy rotation. It has recently come "out of retirement" and is a hit with both Will and Emma. Although Emma sometimes plays with it differently than Will. For example:

And just in case the photos are unclear, here she is in action:

Gotta love it!

Baby Steps

2011-08-23T15:11:00.000-04:00

About a week and a half ago Will starting his next great adventure...steps! Not stairs steps, but baby steps. He's taken three or four in a row now, but usually his steps are one and a half and then a face plant. It's been a challenge to get a picture of him actually walking, but here are a few (blurry) shots.

Start off standing (item in mouth is optional, of course!)

There's a step! And probably a face plant afterwards.

A face-plant like this one, most likely. Although he is pretty well set up to catch himself with his hands I suppose.

I think I'll walk over to Emma...

Will loves to stand. He has pretty good balance and will stand and play with a number of toys now. He is really loving this ball popper!

Will also does a great job picking things up while he's standing by himself.

Look what I found!

Such a big boy! We'll work on getting a video of him soon!

Baseball!

2011-08-19T14:20:00.000-04:00

We recently went to a Wilmington Blue Rocks game with several friends from church. The Blue Rocks are the local minor league team in the Kansas City farm system and the same league as the Frederick Keys.

We sported our Orioles gear, naturally.

Emma gave the Blue Rocks' mascot a high five!

And she loved getting to bring her glove along to the stadium. That glove has been to a ton of ball games in its lifetime; it was my first glove too!

Will and Daddy...same smile? I think so!

Looking forward to many more ball games as a family!

Happy Birthday, Joshua!

2011-08-15T13:57:00.000-04:00

On Saturday we celebrated the first birthday of our Godson, Joshua! The party was on the actual day, so while Joshua turned a year old, Emma turned 31 months old and Will turned 10 months old. God knew we needed to simply dates apparently!

Joshua was thrilled about his hat.

But everything was all better once he eyed up that cake!

And dug in, of course!

Yum Yum

Joshua and Will went for a quick dip in the pool afterwards, just before the rain started.

Will and Uncle Kevin

Emma really enjoyed her special watermelon soda!

Cheese!

Joshua did a pretty good job opening packages too. He and Will are checking out a new truck.

The kiddos all got dressed up for the occasion. Joshua went as Charlie Brown, and Emma and Will were Leia and Luke. They were all so adorable in their outfits, but after the fact we had very few pictures of them in the costumes!

Here is the best full length view of Emma and Will

Karene made Joshua's Charlie Brown shirt, Emma is wearing my angel costume from 25 or so years ago, and Will is looking super thrilled in his moisture farmer duds.

It was a wonderful day with family and friends celebrating Joshua's first year!

Mommy Date Day

2011-08-09T20:33:00.000-04:00

Monday morning I took Emma and Will out for a special date day! We had been home most of the weekend and I at least was getting a little cabin fever. Its so hot that we haven't been playing outside much, so we headed to the mall (and the A/C).

A blurry shot of us before we headed out the door!

(Incidentally, I realized after the fact that most of the pictures from the day were slightly blurry. Mall lighting is not the greatest.)

First stop: Barnes & Noble!

Will sat in the stroller and Emma sat next to him while I read books to them.

Emma loved counting the animals in this book...each animal had a dot on it that you pushed down and it made a popping sound...like the tops of fountain soda lids.

Will thought he was one of the big kids playing at the train set!

We packed lunch and ate in the food court. Emma was really excited for her PB&J.

And Will loves bananas!

After lunch we stopped for a bathroom break. We were waiting at the family restroom because they are the only ones with changing tables. Both of the family restroom doors were locked. A man and his son came out of the men's room and told us that they had waited for a long time and then realized that no one from the mall had unlocked the doors in the morning....so no change table! Thankfully, our Phil & Teds stroller was up to the challenge. We parked it in a large stall and laid the main seat all the way down so that I could change Will. TA-DA!

Next we walked around looking in a few stores, but mostly just Emma and Will riding and us talking about the different things we saw. We stopped for a sample of tea too, which Emma loved!

The fountain is always a favorite spot to stop. Since we are usually just walking by quickly, stopping to get out and sit on the steps is a real treat.

Will took the opportunity to chew on his cup a little.

We found this cool mirror and took a picture!

The new-ish play area in the mall is right by the fountain. Emma had a blast going down the slide and climbing on the different objects. The floor is nice and squishy, so Will was able to crawl around also.

Both of them are sitting in this racecar. Will was probably trying to escape out the back. This was the best picture I got of him because a little boy who was probably about 2 thought Will was his new best friend and followed him around everywhere, crawling alongside and on top of Will. Will didn't skip a beat because that's what Emma does to him half the time, but this kid was not nearly as used to little ones as Emma.

We finished things up with a quick trip through Target. I had a few grocery items to get and I tortured Emma and Will a little bit by looking at the clearance racks until they started getting fussy. We made it out to the car where Emma was super excited to get to sit in the front seat while I fed Will. Both of them fell asleep on the way home...plum tuckered out!

It was so much fun to get out without having a real agenda. I am really looking forward to some cooler weather so that we can do more trips outside again. Just for fun, take a look at this post about a date with Emma last year about this time!

Reflux at Nine Months

2011-08-05T08:11:00.000-04:00

This week, we went back to the Children's Hospital for Will's 9-month check up with the Gastroenterologist. They don't check him with any tests since he is doing so well on the medication, but the determination was to keep him on Prevacid and check him again after he is one.

Nearly all of the time it is impossible to tell that anything is going on with him. He's the most happy and pleasant kid to be around. He spits up so much less now, though even this past week he still had a few projectile ones - yuck!

A week or so ago we forgot to give him his medication one morning and he was super cranky...fussy, no nap, not happy playing...once he got his meds he was fine the rest of the day. Poor kid. But at least we know there is still something going on and that the Prevacid really, really works!

Will weighed 18 pounds 13 ounces at his check-up this week. Back at his regular 9-month visit he was still 15th percentile for weight. He jumped up to about 30th percentile for height, and his head towers above everything else at the 75th percentile!

So cute!

Bedtime

2011-08-01T20:00:00.000-04:00

Our bedtime activities have always been pretty minimal, though things are certainly more easily prolonged getting both Emma and Will ready at the same time.

Before Emma could say all the words we got into the habit of singing the Doxology (Praise God aka Praise Father Son) as we said goodnight. Now we have to field requests for multiple songs each night, usually including Amazing Grace, Holy, Holy Holy, How Great is our God, Take my Life, Glorious Day. We keep bedtime songs to worship songs and pick two or three to do. If Emma wants to sing any others we let her after we leave the room (and yes, we do listen at the door to hear her sing many nights!).

Will lights up when we sing and often makes his baby noises along with us. They especially like to lay in Emma's bed together while we sing! Emma tells us, "I want Will to sleep in my bed tonight."

They enjoyed sleeping in the same room while we were in Vermont. We would go check to see if they were sleeping because everything was quiet, and they would be sitting up in their pack and plays smiling at each other. It looks like they will be all ready to share a room someday!

Taking the Wheel

2011-07-30T07:58:00.000-04:00

Both Emma and Will got a sailing lesson from Grandpa and a chance to drive the sailboat! Of course, Will thought it was a great toy...

Go Will, Go!

Emma was all business.

She was very excited to turn the wheel, but obviously, took the responsibility seriously!

There's that smile!

A beautiful day and a great time!

New Skills

2011-07-28T08:21:00.000-04:00

Will's crawling morphed to hands and knees about 2 weeks ago...he can really motor! He and Emma and playing together so much now. It is really sweet to see how they love each other and love to interact. They have had a lot of fun with this box lately too. Sometimes the best toys are the simplest!

Sailing, Sailing

2011-07-26T10:03:00.000-04:00

We enjoyed going out on the sailboat several times while we were in Vermont. Even though it was hot, there was a nice breeze out on Lake Champlain. We didn't do a day sail since we were not sure how well the kids would do, but they enjoyed our times out on the water.

Emma loved climbing up and down the ladder inside the boat. And Will is chilling with Grandpa.

And playing peek-a-boo!

Emma and Daddy having fun.

Wait...a picture of me?

Will, enjoying himself...

Emma and Mommy!

Emma and Will got to take the wheel too....but those pictures will have to wait until tomorrow!

(No) Bridge to Vermont

2011-07-25T07:15:00.000-04:00

Our route to Vermont takes us across a bridge that connects New York and Vermont. Sometime last year, the bridge was checked for safety and failed....so miserably in fact that they blew it up. What!?! So while construction is ongoing, a free ferry takes you from New York to Vermont and back.

It only takes 5 minutes or so to cross to Vermont, but since you are supposed to turn the car off (and it was really hot), we took a quick trip up to the observation area.

You can see the bridge progress behind us!

And in the background here you can see the dock for the ferries (to the right of my head)

The new bridge...

Up close!

We had about an hour left in our trip at this point....poor Will protested going back in the car seat. But it was a nice short break with quite a view!

Verrrrrmont

2011-07-23T14:55:00.000-04:00

We got home last night from a week in Vermont. The whole drive up in the car, Emma kept talking about Verrrrrmont....it was too cute! We picked the hottest week of the summer to travel; it was in the 90s going up and the 100s coming back.

It took us between 9.5 and 10 hours to make the trip each time, which is not too shabby with little kids, especially since Emma stayed dry and used the bathrooms at our stops the whole time! Emma and Will are interacting more and more every day...sometimes they hold hands in the backseat:

As we drove through New Jersey (which I'm sure has its beautiful spots...just not the road we take north!) Martin quipped, "If there's a bright center of the US, we're in the state that its farthest from". (Jersey, don't be insulted, its just a clever Star Wars parody)

Emma enjoying her invisible ink book...

And having fun with pretzels!

We enjoyed ourselves, but it is always good to get home. We are doing our best to stay cool today!

Nine Months Old

2011-07-13T08:24:00.000-04:00

Will is nine months old today! (Which incidentally means that Emma is 30 months old....officially two and a half!) We'll find out all of his 9-month stats on Friday when we go for his check-up.

Will loves to eat! Actually loves might be an understatement. He also eats a ton. And ton is definitely an understatement! Some nights he eats more table food for dinner than Emma! His favorite foods include avocado (below), beans, chicken, banana, peach, yogurt, egg yolk, watermelon...well, basically anything. He has never rejected a food. In fact, his least favorite things to eat are cheerioes and kix. If they are on his tray with any other table food, he will leave them until last and even let them sit and beg for more "regular" food!

We think that Will is left handed! I am particularly excited, as I think of having a lefty pitcher in the family... He always feeds himself with his left hand, and while I'm sure the doctor would tell me that its too early to tell, Emma always used her right and he has always used his left. Perhaps it has something to do with his lefty Great Pap-Pap and his lefty Great Uncle Bill??

Will's newest skills are pulling up on everything. He is happiest when he is standing. He recently started doing this too:

Maybe he'll go from an army crawl to all fours??

Bath time has become quite a challenge because of Will's desire to stand. At least in the little bin of water he's not going to hit his head on anything!

Standing!

And sometimes Will thinks he can walk. He lets go with one hand and lunges forward....

His cruising skills are still pretty slow. He mostly stands and reaches for something, but is starting to shuffle his hands and feet to walk along.

He is a truly happy kid!

Emma and Will have begun to really play with each other. They will sit on the floor and make each other laugh, playing on their own. Here Emma is spraying water in Will's mouth...he could not get enough of it, and they both thought it was too funny!

Will recently enjoyed his time at the Children's Museum. They have a great play area for crawlers!

We love you so much, Will! Its been fun to see all of the amazing changes in your life over the last several months. We can't wait to see how you continue to grow and pray that God will help us to continue to faithfully love and parent you.

Love, Daddy

and Mommy

Summer Fun

2011-07-09T07:38:00.002-04:00

We've been enjoying time in the backyard in our pool in the mornings while it is still in the shade. Both Emma and Will love playing in the water and it is so nice to be cooled off in this heat!

Kellen came over and enjoyed the pool to a few weeks ago

Will looks a bit like a drowned rat.

Ever the big sister, Emma loves to "help". Don't know anyone else who was ever like that ;-)

And another cute one of Will!

A First

2011-07-08T19:52:00.000-04:00

Wednesday night right before bed I banged my foot into the bathroom scale. It hurt like crazy but it was late so I just fell asleep with a cold pack on it. In the morning it was really stiff and when I tried to walk I could not put any weight on my foot at all....problem! The third and fourth toes hurt the worst, and are probably broken. The joints in my toe and ankle are really stiff and sore and were probably jammed by the collision.

Forty-eight hours later, I am feeling MUCH better. Still icing, elevating, and trying to rest, but thanks to some early morning calls on Thursday, I've had help around the house from a friend and my mom. Since there isn't much a doctor can do for a broken toe, I didn't have it checked out, but its probably safe to say that I've gotten my first broken bone(s). Somehow I made it through 15+ years of softball and never broke anything!

Emma keeps telling me that her foot hurts "wrilly wrilly bad Mommy"...sympathy pains I guess!

Jesus Loves Me

2011-07-01T15:15:00.000-04:00

This morning when I went to get Emma from her room for breakfast I heard her singing (the small bright spot in the middle of the picture is light coming in through the crack under her door)

Reminds me of an early video of her Aunt Becca singing the same song!

Towel Kiddos

2011-06-28T13:15:00.000-04:00

After bath is a fun time...usually everyone is acting silly and ready to have some fun. And these adorable towels make for some fun pictures!

Silly Emma!

Will is on the move (of course)

Runaway Lion! (yes! he's under there!)

There's a better look at Emma...playing peek-a-boo with Will.

Much more forward progress

2011-06-25T10:43:00.000-04:00

Since the original "crawling" video, Will's moving skills have improved greatly. It only took about 4 days for him to figure out how to really get moving. This was a few days ago, but is much closer to reality now!

Double Trouble

2011-06-24T07:52:00.002-04:00

Its been really fun to see how Emma and Will enjoy each other so much now. They sit and play ~~together~~ next to each other, and smile and giggle.

Emma dishes out tons of hugs and kisses to Will, and he gives them right back.

Music time together! Enjoying playing on their pianos.

There's Will, holding on to Emma!

Love this one. Goofy and silly Emma next to adorable smiley W

4 Years

2011-06-23T09:19:00.000-04:00

Usually poetry doesn't do much for me. This particular poem by Anne Bradstreet grabbed me in high school, long before we ever met, and its always been my favorite.

To My Dear And Loving Husband

by Anne Bradstreet

If ever two were one, then surely we.

If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee.

If ever wife was happy in a man,

Compare with me, ye women, if you can.

I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold

Or all the riches that the East doth hold.

My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,

Nor ought but love from thee give recompetence.

Thy love is such I can no way repay.

The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.

Then while we live, in love let's so persever

That when we live no more, we may live ever.

Teeth

2011-06-22T13:52:00.000-04:00

Will is quite a toothy kid. He's got three times as many teeth as Emma did at 8 months. Right now #6 is coming through the gum, and that will be the 5th tooth in 6 weeks!

Here's a look at those top teeth:

What a cutie!

The Sights and the Eats

2011-06-18T08:35:00.000-04:00

We kept things really low key going into our trip, with no real plans. Our innkeeper gave us some suggestions, and since we know Chestertown, we stopped by a few familiar places.

We drove around a good portion of Kent County, including a road called Lovers Lane. So Martin pulled the car over and picked me some lovely lilies from the side of the road!

We enjoyed lunch at Play it Again Sam's in Chestertown...Avocado BLT and Roast Beef and Brie sandwiches!

Dinner at Waterman's with a beer and seafood...

On the way home we stopped at Lockbriar Farms to pick blueberries and raspberries.

A few of the sights: St. Paul's church Kent, dating back to the 1600s.

A look inside:

In Rock Hall we found this vacation home that looked like a lighthouse!

Such a great trip!

Getaway!

2011-06-16T20:47:00.001-04:00

Today we got back from a two-night stay at The Inn at Michell House, a bed and breakfast on the Eastern Shore - an early anniversary celebration! Many thanks to Omi, Pap-Pap, and Grandma for staying with Emma and Will so that we could make the trip and have the time on our own.

The view across the pond by the Inn.

Our room was beautiful! A canopy bed, fireplace, paintings and period decor...it was great.

There was a wedding under this arbor over the weekend.The Inn is in the background.

We had amazing weather the whole time. It was perfect for sitting outside and reading.

Enjoying the hammock and time with each other!

Every 5 minutes

2011-06-11T14:42:00.000-04:00

Will loves playing on his own now. Its great to see how well he entertains himself and is getting so much more independent. I decided to take a picture of him every 5 minutes during his play time the other day to try to capture what it looks like from our end of things.

Start: basket full of toys.

5 minutes in: basket and Will have both scooted, still a few toys inside.

10 minutes in: basket is mostly empty and a little more scooting

15 minutes in: Where's Will?

Oh there you are, Will! Book corner time!

20 minutes in: Will is tuckered out! Time for nap!

Sometimes, its a princess kind of morning

2011-06-10T07:20:00.006-04:00

(Also known as needing a headband)

She's got great taste in music

2011-06-09T09:03:00.000-04:00

First off, sorry this is so dark. I happened to look over and see Emma in action, so hopefully her expressions are visible enough!

Her observations about Steven Curtis Chapman:

"His guitar is orange"

"He jumps a lot"

"I want to see the airplane again" (it was the concert about the missionaries in Ecuador)

Outtakes

2011-06-07T14:04:00.000-04:00

Sometimes Emma and Will are totally photogenic and we end up with tons of adorable pictures. And then other times...well, here's some recent outtakes!

Don't get me wrong, they're still cute...

But I'm probably not sticking any of these up on the wall!

Forward Progress

2011-06-03T13:15:00.000-04:00

Will loves to get up on his knees and also does a great "Spider-Boy" on his toes and fingers. He just started making forward progress with an army crawl this week. Its slow going, but he loves the freedom of going where he wants! I tried to get a smile out of him at the end, but as you'll see, he was totally into his toy and could not be bothered!

Book List: through May

2011-05-31T15:56:00.000-04:00

I've not done a great job recording my books here, but I am still in love with Goodreads! It is such an easy way to keep track of the things you are reading.

Last time my favorites were all non-fiction, and I was struggling to find some fiction that I really enjoyed. I've since discovered a new favorite author - Dorothy Sayers. She was a contemporary of Lewis and Tolkien, and wrote some fascinating thoughts on education in The Lost Tools of Learning. I've really gotten hooked on her detective stories though. Her characters are delightful and the stories are masterfully crafted and full of twists. So far I've read Whose Body? and Clouds of Witness.

I also really enjoyed reading Men of Iron, by Howard Pyle. This was a re-read in that my mom read it aloud to us when I was homeschooled, but I had forgotten most of the story. I love the way Pyle writes about the nature of boyhood and the transformation of a boy becoming a man.

I also found a great book about bread-making, Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. We have really enjoyed this bread - it reminds me of the bread they serve at Carrabba's! I'm not doing as much bread baking now that its so hot since the oven needs to be on for about an hour at 450!

Any great recommendations for books?

Little Ball Player

2011-05-27T09:28:00.000-04:00

Emma loves listening to the O's on the radio and of course, loved going to softball games. Now she's got my old glove to use. We play catch and this morning learned about taking ground balls!

Although I'm pretty sure I never played baseball in a nightgown!

Moving Around

2011-05-26T07:55:00.001-04:00

Will loves to be on the floor, playing and rolling around. He's not crawling, but he is getting close!

On his tummy, then

push-up, then

on the knees, then

rocking back and forth, then

stuck!

And loving every moment!

Strawberry picking

2011-05-25T09:40:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we visited with Karene and Joshua in PA. It was great to hang out, and we enjoyed going strawberry picking together.

We had to take a hayride out to the field, and those ended up being the only pictures we took!

I guess we had our hands full! Emma did better with picking red ones without yellow spots or bug holes at the end than at the beginning. And Will desperately wanted to help; he kept grabbing leaves and trying to eat them.

Weekend in Charlotte

2011-05-24T07:48:00.001-04:00

We've gotten spoiled by everyone taking so many great pictures....our camera did not get pulled out the entire trip! Facebook blew up with about 300+ pictures last night; these are some of our favorites!

At the rehearsal dinner

Emma enjoyed herself this weekend...even getting to drive!

It was a wonderful ceremony. The Pastor spoke from Genesis 1: God created, it was good, God created, it was good, then, it is not good for man to be alone!

Till death do us part

You can see the photographer getting the shot in the previous post!

Nearly four years ago it was our turn!

Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters!

Mom and Dad...dancing! (and looking fine!)

Will had such a blast being the center of attention, especially with all the ladies. And the 3 teeth he's been working on all popped through.

Emma hated every moment...can't you see the torture on her face...and Uncle Evan's?

And Pap too...hated the whole time!

Congrats again to Mr & Mrs Watford! We pray for you to follow Christ's sacrificial example to us as you embark on this wonderful journey!

Congratulations!

2011-05-23T07:51:00.001-04:00

We got back late last night from a wonderful weekend in Charlotte, NC celebrating the marriage of Evan and Jeanine Watford!

They released doves at the end of the ceremony....so cool!

Now it's back to real life....laundry and unpacking today. I'm so thankful I got the whole house cleaned before we left!

Time is flying!

2011-05-18T06:45:00.000-04:00

Can you believe that May is over halfway over already? Crazy!

I was able to get the camera hooked up to the computer for some of the photos I've been hanging on to for a few weeks now.

Summertime looks good on Emma!

Will loves the swings (and the slide...by himself!)

Sweet boy. Still just that one tooth showing.

The other day these two were playing together really well, and with Darth Tater no less. Emma told me that Darth Vader needed "his hat....and his blue shoes...and his flashlight!" (lightsaber) Will was equally excited about the "flashlight" and made sure to get a good chew in on it!

Some photos

2011-05-13T15:31:00.001-04:00

This my third or fourth attempt at getting this post up, thanks to some crazy issue with blogger. So I'm burned out on retyping updates. Here's the SUPER short version.

Our netbook is getting fixed. The weather is nice. And so are picnics.

Will eats a ton. He very very very much loves to eat. I think I actually understated the point. When the computer is back there will be a video of his enthusiastic "MMMMMMMM" every bite.

And he's a chunker. And getting probably 3 teeth. Poor kid.

Hopefully back with more later...it was a less than stellar nap day and man, can these kids poop!

Sacked Out

2011-04-27T07:14:00.000-04:00

Will has turned into a killer napper.

Our Easter

2011-04-26T08:50:00.000-04:00

We went away over Easter weekend to visit with the majority of our families. It was wonderful to celebrate the resurrection together!

Sunday afternoon we had wonderful weather in Hagerstown and were able to update our family pictures!

Omi and Pap Pap with Emma and Will.

Emma, Grandma, and Will

Oma with her great grandchildren!

Great Uncle Bill and Great Aunt Chris!

Book Review: Then Sings My Soul: Special Edition

2011-04-25T07:47:00.000-04:00

My latest free book from BookSneeze and Thomas Nelson was Then Sings My Soul Special Edition. This book is a compilation of 150 great hymns of the Christian faith. Each song is paired with a short story about the author, the specific hymn, and the influence that each piece has had throughout the years. The Special Edition features Christmas and Easter hymns specifically, coupled with "all-time favorites".

I really enjoyed this book! I think many times we are too quick to move on to what is new and exciting. There is something special about singing songs that Christians have sung for hundreds of years. And while I was familiar with most of the hymns in this book, there were several that I had never heard before.

Many of the songwriters in this book are heroes of our faith, and while we remember their songs, we know very little about their lives. Now went I sing What a Savior! I know that it was one of the last that Philip Bliss wrote before he died. And Silent Night was written for guitar accompaniment because the organ in Oberndorf, Germany was broken on Christmas Eve, 1818. And Holy, Holy, Holy was found in a trunk after the death of its author, Reginald Heber.

Of course, the story behind the song is not always spectacular, and some hymns I really enjoy ended up a little disappointing. But I think even that reinforces the humanity of the people that God uses to spread the Gospel.

Four out of 5 stars.

First Softball Game

2011-04-22T15:20:00.000-04:00

The Middletown high school softball field is very close to our house, but we had never been to a game until yesterday. I took Emma and Will in the stroller to see the girls play.

Emma was born for softball it appears! As soon as we pulled up she kept saying "I want to play, I want to play!" She watched intently the whole time we were there. She even wanted to stand and watch like a lot of the other fans.

After every pitch she would ask "where's the ball" so I'd tell her, "the pitcher has the ball"

We got a lot of foul balls right near us...Emma liked saying "heads up!"

And she's been asking to go back ever since we left the field.

Yeah, I think we'll do that, munchkin!

Remembering

2011-04-20T08:13:00.000-04:00

The Hartman clan, c. 1985

Dad, Pap, and Great Pap-Pap (holding me)

My Pap would have been 80 today. So thankful for great pictures like these to help us remember and even more thankful for 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18!

Will's Six Month Stats

2011-04-15T14:12:00.000-04:00

Will's six month check-up today proved to be unfortunately eventful - he is back on the nebulizer. Apparently Will didn't completely escape our bout with illness last week because he was wheezing at the office today. We have been keeping such close tabs on him that it seems it must have just gotten like this. He does have a cruddy nose today, which is also a new development. Good news is ears are clear and he is still as happy as ever!

He weighed in at 14 pounds, 14.6 ounces (10th percentile) and is 2 feet, 2 inches tall (25th percentile). And then there's his head (above 50th percentile). His weight looks good and he shot up in height since his last visit.

That's our adorable little man!

Six Months Old

2011-04-13T15:10:00.000-04:00

Today Will turns six months old! Its been a wild ride for Will so far, with reflux, being sick, etc, but things seem to be settling down a bit now.

He is a super happy kid, and we are so thankful for Prevacid! His reflux rarely bothers him now, and even the spitting up is less. He is really gaining weight now, and we find out how much he weighs Friday at his check-up.

About 2 weeks ago this showed up:

A tooth! (Yes, just one!) He looks so adorable with his one little tooth, and it feels like #2 isn't too much further behind.

Will has a great laugh. If you haven't heard it, you probably haven't seen us recently because he is always laughing and smiling these days. He throws his head back and laughs, and loves to be tickled.

Will is already a big O's fan, as you know. Emma is teaching him to say "Go Orioles! Boo Yankees!"

He still has an abundance of toe fuzz. Not the cut-your-circulation off variety anymore, but the blue variety.

Will enjoys checking out whatever Emma is doing, so the trains are a blast. His new favorite way to hold himself on his belly is literally on his belly. He flails all four limbs and rocks on his tummy. He tries to crawl by getting his knees up under but doesn't go anywhere. On his back its a different story...he can scoot across the room, or pull a 360.

And those toes are the best built-in toys. He loves his feet and pulling socks off. He managed to pull his pants off once too!

Over the last week, Will has gotten much more stable sitting up! He still throws himself back from time to time, but the balancing is much, much better.

And this kid can talk! He babbles non-stop, probably trying to keep up with Emma (who often provides translations for us). He also loves music, and tries to sing along!

Will is an eating machine! He has solid food twice a day and eats two servings of food at dinner. He has mostly had rice cereal and oatmeal, but recently started sweet potatoes. He has his mouth open as soon as the spoon leaves the bowl, so its likely that he doesn't even taste the food!

He is a sweet cuddle bug! He loves to snuggle up in our arms, and of course, loves when Emma smothers him.

He also gives lots of kisses! Will loves Mommy's hair and Emma's hair too. He grabs hold of our heads to give kisses and loves when Emma gets her face up in his so that he can hold her hair too.

(Another look at that tooth)

Happy 6 month birthday, Will! We love you so much and are excited for the changes that come in the next 6 months too!

Feelin' Stronger Every Day

2011-04-09T12:50:00.000-04:00

We are so ready to be done with being sick around here! This week we all have been feeling like poo, but like the song goes, we are feelin' stronger every day.

Here's a few pictures from yesterday of our little goobers being so stinkin cute!

Emma loves to give Will full body hugs. He doesn't seem to mind either.

Family

2011-04-07T07:30:00.000-04:00

This is a cute one...

But really, I like this one way better!

(Just a little closer to reality, right?)

It's that time of year again!

2011-03-31T13:14:00.000-04:00

Opening Day!

Will is standing! Ha, he really does love to stand, but was doing a bit of leaning too.

The O's are in first place today, and so all good Orioles fans know to get our celebrating in now! Of course, we are expecting great things this season, so we plan to be talking about first place a lot over the next few months!

Will is going to get to go to his first game this year!

And Emma still has a perfect winning percentage at O's games! We hope to keep that up!

Orioles Magic, feel it happen!

Mini Family Vacation

2011-03-30T15:17:00.000-04:00

A few Saturdays ago, Martin worked some overtime so that we could take a day during the week to have some fun as a family. Yesterday we had a great time together, especially with our first trip to Xbos!

Emma was very apprehensive at first, and really off and on throughout the time there, but she has talked about it non-stop since we left.

We took turns crawling around with Emma in all of the tubes and going down slides. It took some convincing for Emma to go through, especially some of the tunnels, but she was very brave.

One of the tunnels looked like a train on the outside!

Emma found the Batmobile!

It was a great day, and we were so thankful for the time together!

Emma and Will

2011-03-28T22:16:00.000-04:00

Will was ready for some pictures; Emma wasn't quite sure yet.

He convinced her!

So sweet!

Will is starting to get a little bit of chub! He weighs almost 15 pounds now!

Tot School

2011-03-25T14:20:00.000-04:00

Emma is 26 months

Thanks to 1+1+1=1 for Tot School!

Our ongoing Tot School activities include:

practicing letters out loud (she can recognize all but 4 letters)

practicing numbers out loud (she counts to 11 or 12 on her own)

Catechism (working on Who made you? God What else did God make? She says "the heavens and the earth"

Memorizing Proverbs 3:5 - she can say the whole thing when prompted with "Trust..."

Potty training - doing much better! goes #1 & #2 and started telling us instead of just going when put on the toilet.

It has taken me all week to get this put together because we have all been sick with colds...we are so ready for spring and warmer weather!

Color sorting...

Sidewalk chalk on our 70 degree day! Emma asked specifically to do this outside.

Reading with Daddy...from our favorite book, The Jesus Storybook Bible

Emma had a great time reading books with her friend, Caleb last week!

Some of our favorite books from the library are by Iza Trapani. She wrote extra verses to several nursery rhymes and Emma especially loves the books on CD so that she can sing along on her own. We've been reading Shoo Fly, Row, Row, Row Your Boat, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and I'm a Little Teapot. You should really check these out! They were favorites of mine from the daycare, and I'm so glad that Emma is really enjoying them too.

While at the daycare, we emphasized the difference between art and crafts...art being something that the child does on their own without help or suggestions and crafts being more "directed art". Our art usually consists of painting and some coloring with crayons, pencils, pens. This week's craft was coloring a baseball field. I showed Emma where the green (outfield and infield) grass should be and the tan infield dirt and told her to color inside the lines...and she did a great job! I was really impressed with how meticulous she was to keep the colors in the right areas.

Since baseball season spring training is well underway, I've been making sure that Emma is properly prepared for the regular season! She is able to point out all of the bases!

Mom's Favorites:

Sweeties hanging out together!

And Miss Emma taking off her socks to check for fuzz (of course).

Emma asks to watch a movie

2011-03-19T12:10:00.000-04:00

We have not watched Narnia for a good month or two, but out of the blue Emma asked yesterday, with a pretty detailed description!

Book Review: Flight of Shadows

2011-03-18T14:04:00.000-04:00

I was provided with a free copy of Flight of Shadows by Sigmond Brouwer through Multnomah's Blogging for Books. This review is my own opinion.

This story was fast-paced and interesting, and I really enjoyed many of the social and political themes that were woven into the novel. The book is a futuristic novel, but hearkens back to ancient Rome in many ways as well. I was unaware that this was the second novel in a series when I requested it, and there were no indications on the book itself that said it was book #2, which I found somewhat confusing. That being said, the book worked fairly well as a stand-alone novel. I'm sure I would have understood some things more quickly if I had more knowledge of the back story, but it was kind of exciting to not know exactly what was going on.

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. It was hard for me to put down and I really enjoyed the different characters. Even so, I would recommend reading the book #1 first.

Books

2011-03-17T14:36:00.000-04:00

It's no secret that one of my favorite things to do is read! I really wish I had kept better track of books that I have read in my life. Last year I did a pretty good job of keeping a list updated, and I've added all those books to the "books" tab right under the header of the blog.

This year I am doing way better about not only keeping track of what I read, but also writing a few sentences about each book. I'm using Goodreads to keep things organized, and I'm loving it. I have the app on our iPod touch which makes it really simple. Goodreads is free and you can find your friends via Facebook or email who are also on Goodreads...you should come find me! Its a great way to get recommendations for new books.

My favorites from this year so far have been Choosing to SEE: A Journey of Struggle and Hope (by Mary Beth Chapman, Steven Curtis Chapman's wife....AMAZING!), Same Kind of Different As Me (a true story), and Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just (by Tim Keller). I've read some fiction, but none that has made my "favorites" list at this point...gotta get to work on that!

Spring is Coming!

2011-03-15T11:53:00.000-04:00

Time for Crocs outside...

flowers poking through...

Baby Legs...

and of course, baseball season!