Josiah's First Word!

Just in time for Josiah's 8 month birthday, he said his first word today!  We were playing on the changing table at 7:30 this morning after a rough night.  I had a big purple ball and was rolling it on his body and we were playing around with it as I said, "Ball!" repeatedly like the very enthusiastic speech therapist used to do with Tye.  Josiah pushed his lips together and said, "Mmmbah!"  And then he kept saying it, about five times.  "Bah!  Bah!" 

He's also signing "more" and working on clapping his hands.  When I try to get him to clap (he loves when we clap or when we make his hands clap), he puts his hands together and stares at them.  He just hasn't quite figured it out yet. 

We love you little boy Josiah!  We are proud of you and are excited to see you grow and learn. 

A Collection

 The next door neighbors came over for a visit today.  Josiah might like them a little bit :)

Have I ever told you that I really like this little boy?  I mean, I love him.  A LOT.

 And here is our little princess POSING for a picture!  Can you believe it?  Never mind that her pose was a moving one and she doesn't know how to stand or sit still.  Here she is with the puzzle that she does at least once every day. 

 Josiah, wake up and play with me!  (See the junk pile beside his bed?  I tackled that yesterday and it's all good and gone!  Right out to the hallway.  Now what do I do with it?  Seriously considering just throwing it all in the trash).

 They play together!  What fun!

I have many friends who just had their second child.  So baby number one is somewhere between 2 and 3, and baby number two is teeny tiny and needs mama for every thing all day and all night.  I am here to tell you that fun is coming!  And although your Baby #1 might stealthily try to poke at Baby #2's eyes any chance he/she gets, it is mostly filled with fun, laughter and hugs.  And tackling.  The love between these two siblings is growing and I hope with all my heart that they will be there for each other through thick and thin long after we, their parents, are gone.  Here's to brothers and sisters!

Psalm 23

I found these cute little ideas to do with preschoolers on the 23rd Psalm (The Lord is my shepherd...).  Maryn loves the story of the lost sheep in the New Testament.  She gets really emotional when she knows something or someone is lost.  So we talk a lot about how we are lost, and she is like that sheep, but Jesus wants to save her.  We love that story, and this Psalm. 

And Jesus.


http://www.daniellesplace.com/html/SampleLessons.html#psalms

Check back here tomorrow or the next day.  I did buy more storage and I have lots of pictures to post!

Adoption Updates and Questions

A Song for Jaydn, by Nathan Gaddis


The Lovetts' Blog, who are now in the Ukraine with their little boy.  Sarah is hilarious. 


Would you want to adopt internationally or within our own nation?  If you were seriously considering adoption.  I mean, really, really think about it before you answer.  Because I would have said a hundred other things before but as I grow closer and closer to actually possibly adopting someday, my mind changes.  I still don't know.  I'm glad God has a plan and I'm so thankful for these friends that share their stories with us. 

update, update, who has an update?

Friday:  My mom arrived at our house Friday afternoon after I completed a very long list of chores (including washing, drying, and folding ALL of our laundry) and to-dos for our Spring Luncheon.  I made TWO separate dinners, a spicy taco pasta for John and a less spicy taco pasta for the girlies (Maryn, my mom and I) without beans.  It was basically the same recipe, but it became a bit complicated when Josiah decided to skip his afternoon nap.  The meal turned out all right but it was kind of a lot of work for something that basically just tasted like Hamburger Helper.  Sigh.  After the kiddos went to bed, I put my mom and John to work taping popsicle sticks together for our Spring Luncheon craft.

Saturday:  It makes me nervous when I have a ton of things to remember, so I was totally nervous before this thing, and I was even more  nervous for John who I had asked to deliver a short message.  Not because I didn't think he'd do a great job, but I didn't know how well people would really pay attention.  John drank a couple pints of milk before the thing, however, and realized within a couple hours that the milk was long past expired, resulting in a few sickly episodes in the bathroom.  We sent him home and our friend Jeremy came to the rescue with a great message at the last minute.  It was a bit chilly outside, so we didn't have many outside games and I played a few rounds of Doggie Doggie, Where's Your Bone? with the kids indoors.  It was a huge hit.  It's a very easy game to play with three year olds, who, if you've ever worked in a preschool environment, do not play games very well at all.  You should witness a round of Duck Duck Goose at Awana Cubbies some day.  I dare you.  ;-)

Before the party, John, Mom and I made a hundred million sandwiches and we set up basically everything before the other RAs even arrived (I get antsy) to help.  My amazing, heroic mother brought all the meat and many of the other things with her after she stopped at the Amish Bulk Foods store in Orrville and Costco on her way.  I also had three friends in the neighborhood make this yummy, YUMMY dirt dessert .  I've had dirt dessert before, but this recipe is just. so. good.  Please make it if you have to take a dessert to any events in the near future.  Even if you can't put it in a cute little flower pot.

So, I guess the whole event went pretty well.  John was feeling better by 3:00 that afternoon and so my mom and I left him with the kiddos while we visited the used bookstore down the street and Papa Murphy's for some take-and-bake pizza.  After our pizza dinner, we all played Doggie Doggie Where's Your Bone and read some of Maryn's favorite books (Cookie's Week, The Animals of Farmer Jones, When the Rooster Crowed).

Sunday:  We decided to skip first service and go to a new Sunday school class and try to go to service after, during third service.  But we checked on Maryn after our class and she was standing in her classroom, staring longingly at the door and playing with her belly button.  So we got her and took her to service with us.  Which went extremely well aside from the screaming during prayer (NO MORE PRAYING!) and during worship (NO MORE SINGING!) and during the offering (I WANT THAT!).  On our way home, both children fell asleep in the car and took long naps at home (Maryn, 3 hours and Josiah, 4 hours).  I think Grandma wore them out (thanks, Mom!).  John and I sat and did NOTHING on the couch basically the entire nap time.  We watched the movie Seven Pounds (which I'm pretty sure I hated) and we watched the Jayhawks lose miserably to Virginia Commonwealth.   

Josiah is starting to C R A W L and is being moved to the big boy room next Sunday at church!  Yay!  We are so proud of our sweet, sweet little sweet baby.  He is soooo sweet. 

Monday:  When I got Josiah out of bed this morning, he gave me a big kiss right on my mouth and had lots of big smiles for me.  He has been teething (or something like that) for the last few days and our nights, especially Friday and Saturday night, have been kind of miserable.  But last night was pretty normal and I was so happy to find my same little boy in his bed this morning, ready to play. 

We had Preschool Monday this morning, which was kind of psychotic in a way...oy....Maryn was up at 6 this morning and therefore very grouchy.  And therefore very uncooperative.  Which I think influenced the other 2 year old girls that come,  because all three of them were just unwilling to share, sit, or do much of anything.  We're thinking of splitting them up next week and having the three little girls go downstairs for fun little girl things to do with the neighbor mom.

I am truly exhausted.  I desperately need a shower and was so relieved to wear a cowboy hat (in honor of farm day at preschool) all morning.  Now both of my children are taking naps, I believe, so I think I will sneak off for a shower.  TTFN and I hope you all have a great week!

WIN IT!

I was about to put up some cute pictures, but I have apparently reached my photo limit on this blog.  Now if I want to post pictures, I have to pay a whopping FIVE dollars.  Har har har...I guess I'll have to wait for "Prince Daddy John (Maryn's latest nickname for him)" to come home with the debit card.

Maryn is doing so much better.  She's actually 100% healthy now, I would say, except she has a little entitlement thing going on right now.  As in, she thinks she can get away with anything because she threw up.  On Sunday.  In other news, our neighbor has strep throat so I'm just sending out a prayer shield that will hopefully attack all germs in the 2000 square foot area.  Along with a good shield of Lysol to go with it.  The illness wasn't so bad at all, except that it's been in the 70s and so many things have been going on right in our backyard.  The other night, there was a giant barbecue with about 50 people, some I have never even met, and I missed the whole goshdarn thing.  I felt like a teenager missing the prom. 

And that has been my dilemma lately.  Contentment.  When I'm stuck in here with the kiddos, I feel like I should be out there.  When I'm out there serving my community (Food Line...oy), I want to be here.  With my babies!  And I've realized that my contentment issue is actually a faith issue.  If I truly had faith in God's sovereignty, I would know that where I am is right where He intends for me to be.  I need to open my eyes and glorify Him where I am, whether that's holding Johnniebear's hand as we chat on the couch, cleaning up vomit, or carrying boxes for a new neighbor. 

I texted John yesterday and told him I was going to be content wherever I was and with whatever I was doing.  Big  mistake.  Yesterday was horrendous.  Just crying, so much crying.  Everyone was crying.  Dinner took forever to make.  I messed everything up.  And so much crying.  Both kids screamed right through dinner.  It was insane. 

I'm reading this book.  It was kind of annoying at first because honestly, I don't need convincing that motherhood is a worthy occupation.  I don't put those "Yes, I work!" on my facebook statuses about all the junk mommies do day in and day out.  But words like these have been motivating me a little bit:

"In such ways, a woman is to dominate aggressively her environment, rather than allow her environment to dominate her.  She needs to work and play with a WIN IT instead of a SURRENDER IT mindset.  She must rule and subdue, rather than letting herself be ruled and subdued.  God has commissioned her to assert herself aggressively as a master over the teeming spheres of her life.  God has not assigned her to sit on a porch swing with a pink parasol daydreaming what she might do "if only" the obstacles weren't so complicated.  No!  She's to get out there and do it with all her might!"

-from Womanly Dominion, by Mark Chanski

I like books that talk to me that way.  Like a coach.  WIN IT!  SUBDUE THAT LAUNDRY, ERDMAN!  Take down that pile of puke, girl!  You go!  Now I'm gonna go buy me some track spikes and conquer some dinner. 

Great Wolf Lodge

 Kendra got much better pictures of us, but here are some bad ones I got anyway.  You can see more on facebook.  Sorry...I'm being lazy.  Actually, I just have a lot of other stuff to do besides blogging.  Anyway, our vacation with the Kendles was fantastic.  They were still kind of sick, so that was not fun--especially for them.  Great Wolf Lodge is a hotel with an indoor water park, a pretty big arcade, some restaurants, a cute little bakery/snack shop, some gift shops, etc.  It was perfect for our families because we never had to load up the car.  We just walked down to the waterpark in our swimsuits and then walked back for lunch, naps, rests, and went right back down to the waterpark again, and then walked to dinner.  Super, super easy.  And super fun!

 This was a pajama story time they had each night for the kids at 8:00.

 Here's my cutie pie boy. 

Maryn threw up all over the car on our way to church today.  The last time she threw up in the car, she had eaten a lot of pizza and then we drove on all these hills in Amish country.  So naturally she got car sick and vomited up pizza, which smelled like pizza.  Today her vomit smelled like pizza again.  But she hasn't eaten any pizza, so it really grossed me out.

Okay, both kids are crying.  More vomit coming soon, I'm sure.  TTFN

it's almost party time :)))

This new way of putting pictures on blogger is driving me crazy.  Speaking of crazy, this is what Maryn said to me today.  We were coloring a picture together.

"Mommy, help me color this picture.  You color, too."
"There's nothing left to color, Maryn.  We can't color the same picture because there's no room for my hand."
"Mommy, you are driving me crazy right now cuz you not obeyin' and you gonna get a time out and can go straight to your bed."

Okay, so anyway.  Top picture you see our friend Eli at Preschool Monday doing his Fruit Loop graph.  He was pretty much the only one that did it correctly, as all the other kids were eating theirs up.  Maryn is the biggest junk food junkie!  But she's a very talented colorer.  As you can see above. 

We are packing for a little trip to Great Wolf Lodge with our friends the Kendles.  It's going to be a great time!  Kendra and I have had a few interesting experiences in hotel rooms, from her bachelorette party to the night before my wedding...hopefully this trip does not involve ANY puking, as her family has been throwing up for the last few days.  Kendra, if I puke, that means you are officially jinxed. 

Did I really just say that?

"Eat your french fries on the floor.  Or else you'll get salt all over the couch and it will hurt our butts."

Lovett Update

The Lovetts are in the Ukraine today, and they found out that they are adopting a four year old little boy.  I don't think they have met him yet, but they've seen pictures.  PLEASE pray for them as they make this transition.  This will be a difficult few weeks, I'm sure, but also a time of blessing.  Pray for healthy attachments and lots of grace, peace, and mercy. 

Read their blog here. 

Josiah

Name:  John Josiah

Age:  7 months

Loves:  Mommy, Daddy, Maryn and anyone who will hold him.
Favorite Food:  Mum Mums
Favorite Drink:  Milk
Favorite Place:  Mommy's Arms

Loves to:  Swing, Play

Wants to:  Run and make messes

Tries to:  Woo everyone in sight with his shy smiles, silly noises and goofy grins

JOSIAH, who loves his sister,

Who has stylish hair, big eyes and two little teeth.

Josiah, who everyone loves.  Our fun little boy.

Preschool Monday

We started Preschool Mondays today.  I had four children here, ages 2 and 3.  Our activities mainly focused on dinosaurs and/or the letter D.  Here are some things we did.

Stegosaurus Picture:  We used cornflakes to create plates on the backs of our stegosaurus (see pic).

Make our own dinosaur:  We used some textured items to make the skin of our dinosaurs appear rough and glued triangles to their backs for spikes.  We talked about how plant eating dinosaurs might use their spikes (protection, intimidation) and how they might use plates (to appear bigger and more intimidating, protection).

Dinosaur Categorize and Sort:  We sorted plastic dinosaurs away from other animals (mammals, insects).  Then we sorted them according to what we think they ate, by looking at their teeth.  As we sorted we talked about what a sail might be for, or their long tails, claws, horns, crests, etc. (thanks to Dinosaur Train I semi know what I’m talking about).

Popcorn Letters:   

First, we did this song (to the tune of Three Blind Mice)

Popcorn kernels, Popcorn kernels

In the pot, in the pot                                     (Crouch down like a popcorn kernel.)

Shake them, shake them, shake them

Shake them, shake them, shake them            (Shake your body.)

Til’ they POP!  Till they POP!                            (Jump!)

The kids loved this song.  Then we put some letters in a popcorn box (two letter Ds and a few other letters), courtesy of Aunt Cathy, and acted out the song.  At the last POP, I popped all the letters out of the box and the kids tried their best to find the letter D on the floor.  It was great!  They loved that.

Bean Bag Dance:  Great song!  We also sang a Good Morning song and a Hello, how are you? song.

Puzzles and Drawing:  I honestly think puzzles was everyone’s favorite thing.  Hmph.

We found the letter D magnet and I let each kid find it on the board and place it in the thingy that sings the D song (from the Letter Factory…it’s a Leap Frog thing for your refrigerator).

We decorated Ds I had cut out on card stock with little dinosaur glitter things. 

Dinosaur Relays:  We put balls on kitchen serving spoons (I used a more difficult ball/spoon for the 3 year olds) and ran back and forth with them.  Another idea is to make dinosaur feet with shoe boxes and stomp around or do a relay with them. 

Five Little Monkeys:  We did this rhyme (I couldn’t find a good dinosaur one so I changed the words to this a little.  It should say “Mr. Alligator”), using some little monkeys I printed and put magnets on the back of for our magnet board.  They LOVED it.

Five little monkeys

Swinging in a tree
Teasing Mr. Dinosaur--
"You can't catch me." 
 Along comes Mr. Dinosaur
As quiet as can be--
SNAP!!!
Continue until all monkeys are gone

Away swims Mr. Dinosaur
As full as he can be!

It was a fun day and I've already started planning for next week.

bunch of stuff

Radical by David Platt:  I just finished this book and it is so good.  It's very easy to read, very convicting, very good.  Go read it.

Church:  We visited a different church today.  We love our church but it is very hard to serve there or truly be involved when it takes 25-45 minutes (depending on traffic) to get there and because we are a one-car family.  When we were sick, none of us got to go, so we missed an entire month of all activities.  Please pray as we make a decision about what to do, and where to go. 

Josiah:  My baby boy hasn't gone #2 in three days.  He is not a happy camper.  We tried prune juice about two hours ago, so we're hoping that works.

Maryn:  This is a picture of Daddy that she drew before church today, all by herself (we weren't even watching, promise).  She said, "Daddy has long arms."  He does have long arms.  She used stickers for eyes.  So clever.  He looks a little like ET. 

Preschool:  We are having friends over for "preschool" tomorrow.  I'm a little excited and nervous.  Especially since Josiah is still awake and screaming.  Poor little guy.

Let's hope I can get some sleep.

Cutest Baby

 Cheeks!

 Toofers!

Mmmh...Mommy!  I love you!  And I love oatmeal!

We had a date morning yesterday, and Maryn went to Caleb's house while Josiah went to our downstairs neighbors' house.  When we picked up Josiah, our neighbor said, "He's doing the funniest thing.  He answers questions!  He shakes his head no!"

And he does.  It is hilarious.  He's been doing it since we were in Tennessee, and it cracks everyone up.  So of course he continues to do it more.  He's also starting to wave (sort of) and is pretty good at repeating sounds.  But he's really good at copying motions and...he dances when there's music on.  Rap music is his favorite.

there was a little girl, who had a little curl...

 Above, you see Maryn at 10:45 last night.  I put her in her bed.

And here she is again, how I found her this morning at 8:30.  How did she end up here? 

Tennessee Part II (and a lot of bragging about Maryn)

So I wasn't in the best mood during my last post, but I'm a bit better now.  :)  I was just having one of those days, you know? 

Anyway, John and Donna (my John's dad and stepmom) just moved from New Hampshire to Tennessee, where John is the new director of a camp called Camp Wesley Woods, which is situated in a valley at the base of the Smoky Mountains.  If you remember our dating story, you may remember that I worked for John's dad at a camp in Ohio, and that is where my John and I met.  John's dad (John) is a camp directing genius (I'm not just saying that, either) and I am here to tell you that Camp Wesley Woods is already cool, but it's about to become much, much cooler. 

As a child, my favorite part easily would have been the beautiful creek that runs through the camp, complete with little waterfalls and apparently there's a bigger waterfall that we didn't get to see.  A big waterfall that campers get to rappel through!  How amazing is that?  So yes, Maryn was in heaven.  There was a dog, two cats, a pet snake, an injured owl that the camp has adopted and an injured hawk as well.  Maryn, I'm sad to tell you, is not much of a cat person.  She enjoys the idea of cats but had no desire to touch them.  And she was particularly freaked out by the Sam, the cat that was following us and Diesel, the cat that wanted inside Grandpa's house.

We visited the Knoxville Zoo, a giant used bookstore, and a few restaurants.  We mostly had good quality time with Grandma and Grandpa Erdman.  Donna made excellent food for us.  Josiah learned how to shake his head no and, once he got out of his ill little rut he was just as goofy as ever.  Maryn seems to have had a language explosion since our trip--I'm not sure if it's from being around so many adults, but her intelligence really does amaze me.  Sometimes I forget she is TWO.  But on the 26th, she will be 2 1/2.  Can you believe it?

Today, she fell off her stool while carrying a plate of vegetables.  She said in between some tears, "I fell off my stool and my vegetables went flying because my stool was backwards."  I am not kidding you, she said that entire sentence word for word, and maybe a stranger wouldn't have understood it all, but I did.  Tonight at dinner, we said the Lord's Prayer, which I usually say it for her and let her complete the sentences (like the last word).  But she took over, very clearly annunciating, "as we forgive those who trespass against us."  I might have sat staring at her in disbelief for five minutes.  Experts are really correct about the memories of little children.  Now that she can really talk, I am amazed at the memories she has stored up in there.  Amazed.

The bad part of her abilities is that, to outsiders (as in, not family), I think she comes across as a really big brat.  But I think it's because she honestly speaks and sometimes acts like a 3 1/2 year old, but she IS only two.  She's two with a lot of energy, a lot of boldness, courage, a strong will, etc.  So I sometimes feel a little bad for her (and embarrassed by her behavior) because people, myself included, expect a lot from her. 

It was good to be around family for a few days where we could just be ourselves and do our thing!  And Maryn has had a pretty good few days.  Love that girl. 

 

Tennessee Trip to Grandma and Grandpa Erdman's

 This post has taken a few days to write because our internet is so slow.  I've just about had it.  I also just spent an hour cleaning the kitchen and so naturally, the rest of our house is a wreck.  But at least both kids are sleeping.  And at least our kitchen is clean for the next hour...till I make dinner.  Josiah just woke up.  I'll make this quick. 

 Well, we had a lot of fun.  It took us 4 1/2 hours to get there and 4 1/2 hours back, with only one stop each way.  Stopped at a McDonald's drive thru and a gas station, so those don't even count as stops.  That's the way John does things.  I hope you can sense my enthusiasm.

Anyway, the visit itself was a lot of fun.  Josiah was still getting over his cold, but by day 2 he was back to his normal self and semi sleeping on his own, but he mostly shared a bed with me while we were there.  Fortunately, we had lots of helpers so I was able to sleep in a bit. 

Maryn has a new best friend, and his name is Grandpa.  He will pretty much drop everything to do whatever she wants.  "Grandpa, come play in my room!"  She shouts all the time.  They made a little room for her (for other kids too, I guess, but she's pretty much it for now).  It was stocked full of the very best toys and puzzles.  PUZZLES.  She is crazy about puzzles.

 She's crazy about the creek.  And the frogs.  And the camp.  John's dad and Donna live at a camp!  How cool is that?

Okay so seriously, both kids are crying now.  Later.

My little boy

Goooood Morning, Sunshine!

For some reason, Maryn screamed every time I picked up my camera yesterday.  That's why she's crying in this photo.  Anyway, she was helping me fold laundry and rolled the wash cloths like this, ran up to me and shouted, "Mommy, look!  Enchiwadas (enchiladas)!"  It was so cute I just had to get a picture. 


Yes, that's marker on her face. 

I was up until almost midnight with Josiah, was up with him again at 3, and Maryn woke up at 5:30.  John left for work at 5:30 and  Maryn screamed and screamed for half an hour.  My head hurts, I'm exhausted, and I have a ton of things to do today--including holding a little button while the washer spins our laundry because the little button is broken and can't do it on its own.  And our air/heat is broken.  Four and a half hours of sleep isn't that bad, right?  God help us all. 

Kian Update

My friend, Danielle's baby boy, Kian, who was born with a very rare medical condition, died last week on February 9th.  They are comforted by the knowledge that their baby is in Heaven now, but they are suffering a lot of pain and sorrow.  Please pray for Danielle, her husband and their family.  I worked with her sister down  in Florida and their family has had a rough few years. 

Thanks, friends!