Belated Father's Day Ode

Jonathan has the best daddy... that also means that I have the best husband. It is several days past Father's Day, but never too late for an ode to the man:
Just a few (of the many) reasons to love Daddy:
1. He and Jonathan wrestle and rough house. Jonathan loves this and my style of rough housing is much inferior to Daddy's style.
2. Jonathan runs to the door when he hears the garage door, yelling, "Daddy, Daddy!"
3. Jamie talks to Jonathan all of the time - there will be no shortage of words if Jonathan inherits Jamie's outgoing and talkative personality.
4. Although I'm certain that crafts aren't Jamie's thing - he'll do them with Jonathan out of love.
5. When he's gone he calls often to see how we're doing.
Happy Father's Day to my hubby and the BEST DADDY ever!!
Sarah and Jonathan

The Little Climber

Jonathan loves to climb, climb, climb! He also really likes the Burley bike trailer and his helmet that goes with that. The other day he wanted to go for a bike ride, so he got in the trailer and pointed at our bikes and said , "bike, bike" "please". I was just finishing my shower today when I heard Jonathan leave the bathroom and open the armoire in our room. I quickly moved out of the shower to see what he was doing. When I peeked around the corner -here is what I saw:
He had climbed up into the armoire and was attempting to crawl on top of the TV (no photo of that since I had to quickly thwart that effort).

He likes to crawl in corners and "hide out" sometimes. Maybe it is the "fort" mentality. I used to LOVE to build forts as a child and so did Jamie. My mom has some fabulous photos of my sister and I in our forts.

Sarah

Red, red, everywhere!!

We were on a walk yesterday and we heard the ice cream truck making its way toward us. I had the brilliant idea to get Jonathan a popsicle. Brilliant in that he LOVED it. Not so good in that he had it in his hair, on his legs, socks, shoes, EVERYWHERE!!! Jamie isn't a big fan of "sticky" so this was a bit challenging for him. We took Jonathan immediately out of his clothes while he was standing outside and took him right to the bath. He also thought it was fun to put some on the sidewalk and then lick it from there. Yucko!

Tonight we got sno-cones and we were ALL very sticky after we were done. I managed to spill it all over my shirt and shorts. You would have thought I was the 1 year old child.

Hope none of you are floating away as the Midwest braces itself for flooding, flooding and more flooding...

Sarah

Is Safest Always Best?

WARNING: If you do not like reflective commentary... do not read.

The title of this blog comes as a result of a conversation I recently had with a friend of mine regarding car seats (and by my observations of a few mothers' reactions to me at the playground). She is making a choice with her daughter that is deemed the "safest" by the transportation gurus of America. I did not make that choice. I chose a safe option, but decided that the small 10-15% improvement in safety wasn't that great a benefit and posed more problems for the three years that it would likely be occuring. Am I a poor mother for making that choice?

I make other choices that aren't the "safest" for Jonathan. I let him ride his tricyle without a helmet and he can get going pretty fast for a kid his age, I allow him to climb on things from which he could fall (although not high things from which he could break his neck or other appendages), we play in the rain when it is cold and have a great time, and he eats dirt and sand and I don't really try hard to stop it. He could fall and get a bloody lip from climbing, he could get quite scraped up from riding his tricyle like that (and has), and he could worsen a lurking germ by playing in very cold puddles. I know that. I choose to take those small risks because I want him to be a risk taker. A calculated risk-taker, but a risk-taker, none the less. It is not an easy choice, and I am not being a lazy or ignorant mother for choosing those things. These are choices I am making with the long term in mind. You can say "i told you so" if he gets hurt. But, I still choose risks. The kamakazee on his tricyle
Playing in the puddles when it is fifty degrees...

Those who choose the "safest" option as determined by other mothers and fathers across America are making a choice that is always commended. I agree... those kids are less likely to be injured and will be safer than my kid. I simply challenge the notion that I am making a less acceptable choice as a mother. Let my kid be the daredevil. That is OK by me. I have prayed about the choice to allow him to take small risks like this, and am trusting God with the things that I cannot control. So - safest mothers and fathers... carry on. But, don't think less of me because I choose differently.

Sarah

For Such a Time as This

Jamie changed his tune on the "baby pool". He previously stated that he didn't want a little kiddie pool because it would kill the grass. Today it was over ninety and he changed his mind. There are still some weeds in the backyard so what better way to kill them than to place a large plastic pool on top of them? So, we got an inflatable pool. Oh the wonder! Oh the delight! Jonathan just loved it. And, the water wasn't all that warm - he kept playing with the water trickling out of the hose. Then, Jamie got in with him and the two of them had a whee of a time.

This video is one of was my favorites as of late. Our camera battery was dead all weekend, but thankfully I charged it this afternoon and captured this precious moment on video.

Today was the first meeting of a new church in the town where we live that we are going to be a part of. God has reiterated the lesson of patience as we looked for a church these past 8 months. This church seems to fit us, and I am excited about this in a way that I haven't looked forward to anything here since we've moved. We've done tons of delightful things as a family, but it is very clear that God designed us for community and we've missed that greatly here. Maybe we are here for such a time as this to help start this new church?

Enough of the philosophy for this blog...

Hope you had a good weekend!
Sarah

A Year in Review

In reflecting back on the past year it is amazing to think of all of the changes that our family has seen.
Last year at this time:
1. We were living in a different city in a house that we had poured sweat and love into making our own.
2. Jonathan was 7 months and was just learning to crawl.
3. I was still working 2 days a week as an Instructional Coach.
4. Jamie had just had his first day with Medtronic as an associate therapy consultant.
Now:
1. We live in a house that we like, but that is not a labor of love.
2. We live in a city 4 hours away from our previous home.
3. Jonathan is now RUNNING fast and is 19 months. He is also talking up a storm and becoming more animated in his "conversations" all of the time.
4. Jamie just finished his first year with Medtronic and has received very positive feedback on his performance.
5. I am now a stay-at-home mom and am expecting baby #2 in late November/early December.

Take a look at how the little man has changed:

He loves our shoes... here he is in my slippers about a week ago:
Last summer at the pool near our house:

The little Hawkeye last summer, walking with our fingers: Our family on the last day we had together in our previous home:
The J-man, about 2 weeks ago outside of our new home:
Later ~
Sarah