marcy's 28th!

Last night we celebrated one of my best friend's birthdays. Marcy and I have known each other and have been such great friends for 10 years now. Actually Marcy's birthday probably marked the 10th year I had known her, as we met at the beginning of freshman year at Carolina. It is hard to believe it has been 10 years since I first stepped foot on that beautiful campus. We enjoyed a fun dinner at Cantina.

from left: Jessica and Beau, Kim and Wade, Marcy and my Adam above her, and then me and Marcy's Adam above me

It was so neat to reconnect as we have such a long history of friendship (among all the girls - I have actually known Jessica and Kim since middle school and all the way through college as well). We are all in such different stages of life now: newly married, married and newly pregnant, newly dating, and married with 2 kids (nothing new about that one). We had a fun night of fellowship reminiscing, telling stories, enjoying great food, and celebrating one great birthday girl. Happy 28th Marce!

cooking whirlwind

I was a cooking machine this morning - I made 3 chicken pot pies this AM (1 for us and 2 for friends with newborns at home) and my first batch of homemade granola. In an attempt for 20 minutes of peace to finish up the pies I attempted to get the kids to watch a video. Caleigh loves Curious George and also loves to watch a show when she gets to from time to time - but Andrew not so much... I sit him on the couch like a big boy and hoped for the best.

He sat still for about 90 seconds and then decided his goal on Monday was to master climbing on to and off of the couch. The practicing several times (and falling several times) really entertained him and I was able to finish this cooking fete. Everything turned out wonderfully (except for my kitchen which was an absolute disaster).

the case of the missing battery

Hint... it is not in the picture below (praise the Lord!). So on Thursday night we had the first of what we suspect to be many unexpected trips to urgent care/ emergency room with our little guy. Andrew is all boy and we expect no shortage of blood, stitches, injuries, etc. Thursday afternoon was nothing special - it was raining and so the kids and I were home playing on the floor. Andrew would periodically walk away from where Caleigh was playing beauty shop with my hair (which I actually love, expect for when Andrew was trying to join in by whacking my head with a giant round brush and then ripping it out of my hair... and even that I love because it is so funny and so boyish). At some point in the afternoon he was carrying around a little travel alarm clock and I didn't really think anything of it. I packed up the kids because they were spending the night with my parents while the kids played some more. Adam got home and we took Caleigh to potty one last time and at that time we saw that the little alarm clock was laying on the bathroom floor and the back of it was open with the battery missing. We looked everywhere for the battery - (especially knowing Andrew's tendency to hide things) - we scoured every cabinet, drawer, trash can, shoe... we looked under every piece of furniture we own, in each toy chest or box, in the shower, in Andrew's diaper, under every couch cushion. The battery was gone. I was 97.9% positive that he did not swallow it - he doesn't have a tendency to put things in his mouth. But... it was a AAA battery which is pretty small yet probably still somewhat difficult to swallow (I would think). I was around Andrew all afternoon expect for small periods and I would have expected if he did swallow it that I might have noticed him coughing or swallowing a lot or something. But the fact was the battery was completely gone and the only explanation was that he put it in the potty (pretty likely) and it got flushed or he swallowed it (less likely, but still a possibility). I called the pediatrician and the said that basically I had to take him to urgent care or the emergency room to get a x-ray to verify that he did not swallow it (b/c it was a battery - his stomach acid could erode the outer covering and cause battery acid to burn his esophagus and stomach lining, etc). So we took our first trip with him to urgent care and got this awesome x-ray taken. Andrew did well for the x-ray and the kids were both remarkably well-behaved. As soon as the x-ray tech saw his x-ray she said, "there's the battery" (the bright spot near his hips). In my mind I'm thinking that is too big and too low to be it but I was still a little freaking out... and then she realized that the bright spot was from the snap on his shorts. And there is no battery in that cute little x-ray (don't his little tiny ribs and cute narrow hips look so adorable?). All in all it was a pretty quick trip, we got some peace of mind, and praise the Lord - he did not swallow the battery.

old videos

In honor of Andrew being (almost) 14 months I wanted to post a couple of videos that I LOVE from when he was between 12 and 12.5 months.

I love this look at Andrew and his love for balls of all shapes and sizes. I marvel at how God makes boys and girls so different at such young ages. As soon as Andrew picked up a ball it was as if he immediately knew how to play with it, how to throw it, how to roll it. It seemed like we had to 'teach' these things to Caleigh. I remember sitting on the floor with Caleigh when she was a baby and trying to teach her how to roll the ball back - but with little A it's natural.

This is just a glimpse of some playtime with Andrew while Caleigh is still napping one afternoon. I love how at the end he sees himself in the mirror and then looks behind the mirror to see if the baby is there. So cute!

This is a video from our trip back from Chapel Hill and it is a little showcase of Andrew's "tricks" at 12.5 months. Try not to get motion sickness while watching it...

sweet cals

We got back from vacation on Saturday, August 7th after spending a great week with my family at Lake Murray in South Carolina near Columbia. My brother was the official photographer so I am waiting to post his pictures.

I was thinking today about a conversation that Caleigh and I had on vacation. Caleigh shared a room with Andrew on vacation (just like at home) - he was in a crib and she was on the bottom bunk of bunk beds. At home she has a handle lock on the door so that she can't come out of the room unless we open it from the outside, but she didn't have this on vacation and thus struggled a lot with getting out of her bed, opening her door, and coming downstairs or in to one of our bedrooms. Unfortunately she received several spankings for disobeying.

Once after she came out of her room (with the excuse that she had to potty) she didn't get a spanking and as she sat on the potty we had a sweet conversation.

me: Caleigh, when you disobey Mommy it makes God sad. It is called sin. All sin makes God sad. Mommy sins too.

Caleigh: "Mommy sin too? Mommy get out of her bed and disobey?"

me: (laughing) Mommy does sin and disobey God. Sometimes Mommy gets angry and that is a sin or Mommy is mean to one of her friends and that is a sin. All sin makes God sad. But you know what? Because of Jesus, God forgives us when we sin. [Thank you Lord that when we confess our sins you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.] Who helps you obey?

Caleigh: "God." (she already uses this as an answer for so many things - typical Sunday School response, but correct)

me: That's right Caleigh. When it is hard to obey you can pray and ask Jesus to help you obey. So when you go to bed we will pray and ask Jesus to help you stay in bed and obey Mommy and Daddy.

I love her little heart and the way it is making connections - the main way that she sees her sin is through her disobedience. (Which is the main way I see my sin too. Without the law given to us in the Old Testament we would not have even known what sin was - see Romans 7) But on vacation her main disobedience was getting out of bed - so naturally she thought that if Mommy sinned too then Mommy must get out of bed. It really was so funny but so sweet to see her sweet little heart.

bats live where?

Caleigh and I have been having such funny conversations lately. I was asking her yesterday where several different animals live - such as bees, monkeys, turtles, frogs, birds, elephants, etc and she answered each one perfectly... until we got to bats.

me: Caleigh, where do bats live?

Caleigh: Bats live in Babies Crawled Away.

me: No, Caleigh where do bats live? (because I didn't really understand what she was saying)

Caleigh: Bats live in Babies Crawled Away.

me: Oh, the bats live in your book, The Day the Babies Crawled Away.

Caleigh: Yes, bats live in Babies Crawled Away.

One of Caleigh's (and my) favorite books right now is called, "The Day the Babies Crawled Away." We read it a lot. And there is a line in it that says "They crawled into a cave. You cried, 'Babies behave.' But the babies loved bats so the babies just waved." And Caleigh now thinks that bats live in her book - missing the cave part. Hilarious.