"However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace." Acts 20:24
I've been wanting to get a dresser in the Big Kids' Room for a few weeks now (this is what we're calling the room Enoch is in now because we plan to let our kids share it once they're out of the baby stages). Finally, I found the right one on a "swap" site where you can buy used furniture in our town. I love it because it's large enough to accommodate a changing area on the top, and it can easily hold lots of stuff in the 8 drawers. The other thing that I love is that it's made of solid wood and each drawer slides smoothly, not to mention that I got it for a great deal! :)
Little did I know though, that Enoch would love it far more than I do. haha! He is not allowed to open drawers on most furniture pieces that we have, so the fact that he can open and close the drawers on this dresser makes it super special. :) It's actually really good entertainment for him, and this mama thinks it's pretty cute too... so I thought I'd share a video. {I didn't say anything during the video so that he wouldn't realize I was recording him...}
We went bowling last weekend with a few friends and had so much fun! Granted, looking back I realize that I shouldn't have bowled since I was pregnant... not real sure what I was thinking throwing that 8 pound ball down the lane so many times! We played 2 games, and after the first one I was uncomfortable enough that I granny-bowled the second game.
The friends we took with us were new to bowling (one had never bowled before and the other had bowled one game in his entire life), so it was pretty fun teaching them and then watching them learn! Enoch was scared almost the entire first game (I have no idea why) and wanted to be held by either Mama or Daddy the whole time. Then we ate lunch and changed lanes, and he was a new man.. walking from person to person, playing with our friends (and the people in the lane next to us). Maybe the food warmed him up?
Anyway, here are some pictures from our game:
They mis-spelled a few names...
The classic bowling stance (this was the friend who had only bowled once before)
Victory poses (Hugh on the left, our other friend on the right)
Little Man enjoying the bowling alley during game #2
I can't believe that it has been so long since I've done an update on Enoch's growth and milestones! Here are a few of the things that I remember about this sweet stage:
Stats- 29 pounds and some change (with clothes), 30 inches tall, size 24 mos in most clothes, size 5-6 in shoes.
Teeth- Enoch now has 12 teeth!! (8 front and 4 molars, one on each quadrant) He is such a big chewer with all of those teeth too and can practically chew up anything we give him these days - even steak meat! My favorite thing about his teeth though is how all of them show when he smiles real big... melt this mama's heart all day long!
Movement- Enoch is walking!! He still prefers to go from object to object and isn't quite confident enough to walk independently much more than 10-12 feet at a time, but he really loves it and is improving everyday. I think the biggest help for this skill was Hugh's "policy" that Enoch would walk whenever possible throughout the day. Even though it slowed me down in my goings, it has given Little Man some much needed practice.
The squirrel...
Skills- Probably one of the biggest developments in this category is Enoch's ability to identify objects. Specifically, he's really getting good at pointing to animals when we ask him "Where's the _____?" Granted, he's still hit and miss on this sometimes, so I know his comprehension isn't perfect, but it's so fun to read to him these days! He really enjoys reading a book about Thumper from his Great Grandma Mary because it has lots of animals on each page and the animals repeat as you flip through the pages. In that book, he's pretty good at pointing to these animals: bunny, duck, squirrel, bee, frog. And last night he even started making a "zzz" sound for the bees when Hugh was reading with him. He's also gotten real good at knowing what a few other words mean like: nurse, juice, snack, squirrel, dog, naptime, read, book, etc. One other thing I'd like to remember about this phase is the now common point and grunt that Enoch does when he wants to know what something is. His little grunts are pretty cute, especially when he really wants to know about something!
Obedience- Overall, this has been a somewhat challenging area for the past few months. We've tried to be consistent in our commands and expectations as well as in our discipline, and Enoch has showed improvement. However, with his improved mobility and comprehension has also come a stronger and stronger will. {I'm definitely not claiming that he's super strong willed because I don't think that's the case, but I do think that as he grows more and more, we continue to see more of his sin nature and rebellious heart... but then again, that's the problem with all of us, so it's humbling to remember that I also have the same tendencies of rebellion and selfishness.} Right now, I'd say that our two biggest daily "struggles" (if you want to call them that) are 1) instant, complete, and happy obedience; and 2) not throwing temper tantrums. We handle the first with spankings when disobedience occurs and praise when instant, complete, and happy obedience occurs (this one keeps me on my toes and off the couch usually..). We handle the temper tantrums by putting Enoch in our lap, controlling any flailing body parts, and asking him to "calm down." Usually this takes 1-5 minutes (though I'm sure sometimes it's longer) and then we try to explain that just because he feels angry or unhappy doesn't mean that he should act angry by throwing a fit. Typically, I know that the tantrum is over when he will happily and calmly obey a simple command or two (such as "clap your hands"). Then we usually let him return to the activity he was doing when the tantrum happened or re-direct him to something different. {Usually, if more than one tantrum happens within a 10 minute period, it's probably close to naptime, and I'll take that as my cue that he just needs a break and some rest.}
Sleep- Speaking of naptime, Enoch is still taking 2 naps per day (generally). I tried dropping the afternoon nap and moving the morning nap back when he was right at 15 mos, but that didn't go so well (he was just not as well rested and content during the day), so we switched back to two per day until he's more ready for that transition. Bedtime is still around 6:30 (dinner at 5:30) but he usually plays in the crib for 30 min or so before falling asleep. Sometimes we will let him stay up a little later if we have something going on, but we try to limit that to once or twice per week, max. And Little Man is pretty faithful about waking up between 6 and 6:30 no matter what time he goes to bed. :)
Some new friends from China
Eating & Sickness- The past two months have been a roller coaster as far as sickness goes. A second ear infection (the first was in late 2012) caused us to go through 3 antibiotics (the 1st wasn't effective, he was allergic to the 2nd, and the 3rd hopefully worked... he just finished it). When the ear infection was bothering him, Enoch's side effects were high fever, loss of appetite, and crabbiness. Thankfully we are still nursing, so he got some nutrition through that, but he became an incredibly picky eater during phases of the ear infection saga. When this happened, we resorted back to simple staples like bananas, bread, juice water, and some good old string cheese. (We limited his whole milk consumption because we've heard it can make mucus infections worse.) This worked for the most part, and we tried to supplement some raw veggies like tomatoes, cucumbers, and avocados when he was up for it. Now we are pretty much back to normal, which looks like this (per day): 3 meals, 2 cups milk, 2 cups juice water, 2-4 nursings, 1-2 snacks. At this point, Little Guy is what we jokingly call a "recreational nurser" meaning that he still likes to nurse, but if you distract him when it's "time" to nurse, he will usually forget about nursing easily... especially if there's juice water + a snack involved... or a car ride. :)
One hard thing that is still slightly residual from the picky eating phase of sickness is refusing food. We tried to be gracious while he was sick and not feeling too well about him saying "no" to food we were offering him, but now we have had to work through his rather stubborn refusal of food. {For us, this looks like him eating a few bites of tomato and then deciding that he'd rather skip the rest of it and only eat the sandwich that's on his plate... so it's not so much that he doesn't like the tomato but rather that he sees something that looks better... we haven't ever really had to address this with new foods, and we would probably handle that differently.} The way we've addressed this (and I'm definitely not proposing that this is the only or best way for all kids!!) is to firmly tell him "no, this bite of tomato is next." If he still refuses, we set the bite down on the table (out of his reach) and continue eating our meal until he says "more" again. Then we offer the tomato again. If he eats it, we tell him "good job" and move on with the meal like normal (usually his refusal won't happen again now that we've worked on this awhile, but at the beginning of training it would happen multiple times per meal). If he refuses again, we just repeat the above steps. Sometimes this makes dinner take over an hour, but he has learned that Mommy and Daddy are serious about this, so I think it's worth the extra time to address the issue.
One of my fav pics of my boys
Funnies- A while back, we taught Enoch how to recognize who "dada" was... or so we thought. Hugh would say {over and over again} "Who am I?" and then respond "Daddy." Well Enoch caught on real quick and started answering "Dada" without Hugh helping him. Cute, right? Well, apparently Little Man learned this question from sheer memory rather than comprehension because after ingraining "dada" as his response, he will now answer "dada" no matter who asks him "Who am I?" We didn't realize this until it was too late though (because I wasn't really practicing this question with him and he wasn't great at saying "mama" at the time)... So now, when I ask Enoch "Who am I?" his steadfast and sure answer is "dada." haha! I realize that at some point he'll gain some comprehension about what the question actually means, and we're working with him on that, but for now it's quite hilarious!
Along the same lines, right now Enoch's words are quite limited (dada, mama, baby), but he really only says "mama" or "baby" when he's asked to repeat the word or just jabbering.. Anytime I ask him a question he pretty much responds "dada," so I sometimes ask him leading questions just to hear him sweetly respond "dada." Here's how some of our conversations go:
me: "Buddy, who's going to come home today and eat dinner with us?"
Enoch: "dada."
me: "And who's going to play with you after dinner?"
Enoch: "dada."
me: "And who's just the sweetest guy in all the world?"
Enoch: "dada."
me: "And who does Mommy love so, so much?"
Enoch: "dada."
{and this goes on and on until I run out of questions.}
Here's a cute video of Enoch saying a few words.. "gagaga" is his newest sound, so I'm pretty sure that "grandma" or "grandpa" will be coming soon in some form or fashion. :)
I canNOT believe that the third trimester is already here (I think there is debate about whether it starts at 27 or 28 weeks... either way, I'm already feeling some of the tiredness setting in)! Little Karis continues to grow and squirm everyday. I'm not sure if I'm carrying her much different than I did Enoch, but I do know that she is a little space hog! She is constantly kicking and pushing her way toward more room, especially if I lean forward, slouch, or hold Enoch in my lap. haha!
In case you're wondering, here are some stats from this pregnancy so far (I'm technically 27 weeks today):
Karis is around 2 pounds and 14.5" long.
I've gained around 10 pounds.
She squirms all day on and off, and I'm starting to see little body parts push out of my stomach with some of her larger moves.
Also, as I'm sure you can tell in the above photo, I went ahead and chopped my hair back into a pixie cut again to prepare for baby Karis' arrival. The whole long hair gig was just not my thing (at least during this phase of life) because it took too much time and work, and it was always getting pulled and/or in the way. So I went with something short and simple. It takes me a fraction of the time to wash it in the shower, and styling it takes 10 min max. We'll see how this short do holds up after baby (probably the hardest part is keeping it cut often enough), but for now I'm optimistic and loving the short length!
And speaking of getting ready for Karis' arrival, I've just started working harder at getting ready for labor and delivery. I've been thinking back to last time and setting some goals to help me better prepare this time (not that I wasn't prepared last time, but I'm just trying to learn from that experience). More on that in a later post though!
This is an eye-opening post by John Piper {We Know They Are Killing Children - All of Us Know; 01/22/13} on the Desiring God blog. In it, he lists 11 reasons that abortion is killing humans (as opposed to mere cells or inanimate objects). I think that each reason is well thought through and legitimate. I'd encourage you to go and read through each one {whether you are currently on the pro-choice or pro-life side}... there may be a few that you haven't yet considered.
I've pasted his introduction below, which is incredibly convicting to me... and saddening-ly true:
One biblical principle of justice is that the more knowledge we have that our action is wrong, the more guilty we are, and the more deserving of punishment (Luke 12:47–48). The point of this blog post is that we know what we are doing — all America knows. We are killing children. Pro-choice and Pro-life people both know this But before I show that, let’s clarify what the Supreme Court did forty years ago today. InRoe v. Wade the Supreme Court in effect made abortion on demand untouchable by law. The way this was done was with two steps:
One step was to say, laws may not prevent abortion, even during the full nine months, if the abortion is “to preserve the life or health of the mother.” The other step was to define “health” as “all factors — physical, emotional, psychological, familial and the woman's age — relevant to the well-being of the patient.
For forty years this has meant that any perceived stress is a legal ground for eliminating the child. We have killed fifty million babies. And what increases our guilt as a nation is that we know what we are doing. Here’s the evidence that we know we are killing children...
Click this link or copy and paste it into your browser to read the evidence he lists. http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/we-know-they-are-killing-children-all-of-us-know
Enoch and I went to the local dog park last Friday for lunch as a little treat. We enjoyed some tBell takeout and some beautiful February weather, courtesy of our gracious Father in heaven. I really like the layout of this dogpark because it makes watching the dogs pretty easy. I believe it used to be a softball field because there are dugouts and concrete bleachers. So we sat on the old bleachers to eat and then Enoch played beside them for awhile.
{This is currently one of Little Man's favorite ways to play -- investigating new things and shuffling back and forth. He usually does a good job of staying near me, and these days he loves to point and grunt at the things he sees, hoping that I'll tell him what they are. it's precious!}
I didn't take any pics of the dogs since all I had with me was my phone (and I didn't want to be a creeper), but while we were there we saw two german shepherds, one pit bull, one golden retriever, and a few other small mixed breeds. Almost all of the dogs were fun, playful dogs, so Enoch really enjoyed them running around and catching frisbees. :) The pictures I did get (and video) are mainly of Enoch playing (the dogs were slightly old news by this point), but you if you watch the video, you'll see some dogs running around near the end.
Here's the video.. bleachers are on the right, dogs are on the left. If you watch closely, he asks for "more" with his hands when he wants that rubber piece back, and then he says "yes ma'am" with his little head, which is one of his newest communication skills... oh yeah, and the stuff he's playing is with is just from the ground... I mean, he is a boy, right?!?!!
Steve McCoy gave some great, practical tips for parents in his post "Advice for Parenting Young Kids" last week. I especially appreciated his commentary under each tip. Check it out for yourself and see which ones you can add to your parenting suitcase. I feel like the one I'm working on now most with Enoch is first time obedience. And two of the ones that I am adding to my suitcase for later use are the five minute rule and pre-event preparation/conversation. Don't get me wrong though, picking is hard because there are many other good ones to choose from!!
Do you see him in the picture below... Look to the left... That's right, we have roughly 5 of these bad boys living in our backyard, and they just love to crack their acorns on our deck. Leaves a bit of a mess, but Enoch loves watching them (his playpen is set up in the family room with that big sliding glass door looking out onto the deck where all of the action happens)!! In fact, he has already learned the word "squirrel", and when I say it, he automatically looks out to the back deck to see them. ;)
I probably need to be careful though about how much I encourage him with these frisky little fellers because one of my friend's little boys actually ended up grabbing hold of one when he wasn't much older than Enoch is now (you can read about it here)... And those hairy little critters certainly do have some big ole teeth on them that this mama doesn't even want to mess with...
I am so excited to announce that we have finally chosen a name for our baby girl! Whenever we named Enoch, we took a whole weekend off for a retreat and used part of that time to focus on choosing names. BUT we haven't had that luxury this time around, so we've been tossing around names in our spare moments, and we were finally able to choose one last weekend. {... and I am so pumped that I just couldn't help but post this as soon as I had it typed, so that's why there's another early FFF post.} :)
For us, one of the most important factors in choosing a name is its meaning. We want our children's names to be full of meaning and depth, and when possible, we like for their names to have some scripture attached to them that we feel like can give our kiddos encouragement and guidance in life. One other thing we like to do with names is choose ones that can be conversation starters... usually this means slightly unique names that come from the Bible. Enoch's name has generated plenty of conversations throughout his little life, and I always appreciate the open door it provides into discussing faith, God, the Bible, etc. with the people who are open to talking.
As I already mentioned, Hugh and I were pretty laid back with choosing baby girl's name this time around, talking about it here and there in our free, quiet moments. I think I felt a little bit more of a rush to choose than Hugh though because after a week or so of talking about names, I had already picked out one that we had both initially liked and was starting to call her that in my head... haha! {As a side note, this name actually did end up being the one we chose!} In all honesty, choosing the middle name was the hardest for us, but finally, Hugh found a Scripture passage to tie the first and middle names together that we both loved, and that's what sold us.
"Karis" written in Greek
So, without further ado, since I'm sure you're on the edge of your seat wondering what name we have chosen, our baby girl's name is Karis Grace Medal. {pronunciation is like "Paris" only with a strong "k" sound at the beginning.} "Karis" means "grace" in Greek {the language the New Testament was written in}, and we both feel like grace is such a tremendous part of the gospel that we loved the idea of naming our baby girl Karis {not to mention that we both love the way it sounds and how unusual it is}.
Now you may be wondering why we are naming our baby girl "Grace Grace" {because in essence that's what it is..}, well that was one of my biggest hang-ups too, for a while. But Hugh kept insisting that "Grace upon grace" was a good name. And, when he showed me this passage, I was also convinced {focus on verse 16}!!
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. (John 1:14-16)
Well, there you go. That's how we decided on the name Karis Grace for our second born child. I am so thankful to have a husband who is willing to choose a name with me and who also enjoys the process as much as I do! We are so excited to welcome little Karis into the world in May, and we'd love for you to call her Karis even now when you think, talk, or pray about her. :)
As promised in my last post, here are a few videos from the past month. The first is Enoch giving Hugh a hug. This is pretty much one of the only times he's snuggly (as opposed to his general rowdiness), so I ask him for hugs a lot. :)
And this one is a pretty recent walking video (maybe 1 week old). In general, Enoch is doing a good job walking these days, but his confidence level is still slightly low (it is after all a new skill), and he isn't yet convinced that it's the most efficient way to get places, so his motivation is also slightly low. We have instigated a new policy in the house though (in hopes of Little Guy being a proficient walker before little sister comes).... the new policy is that anytime we would normally carry Enoch somewhere, we try to let him walk beside us holding our hand (unless we are rushing out of the door). This seems to be increasing both his motivation and confidence, as he really enjoys toddling alongside us down the hallways. :) He also REALLY enjoys getting to walk when we go places (like shopping), so I let him walk beside me when we are out and about sometimes too... not gonna lie, his little baby steps always pull on this mama's heart strings. ;)
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