Happy Birthday Old Man!

Jamie turned thirty-three this week... Happy Birthday Old Man!! We celebrated a bit calmly since we didn't really know what the week would hold with the baby. We could have easily planned something a bit more rowdy considering the slow progress of things. We had a leisurely time - playing, hanging lights, baking a cake (Jonathan and I baked it) and decorating it, and eating sushi (Jonathan and I ate cooked Hibachi style chicken... no raw fish for us!). The decorating was a little messy...
Birithday boy getting a little help with the candles

Jonathan really, really liked the cake this time (much more than he liked it on his birthday)

Jonathan wanted Daddy's cake to be blue...

My mom and dad are coming today since we know that the latest day the baby will arrive will be next Tuesday. We will have Thanksgiving dinner this evening and then do some fun stuff until things change around here. We are glad to have some company for this holiday because a turkey provides a lot of food for three people.

Happy Thanksgiving! I pray that an attitude of gratitude will abound in your house...

Sarah

And the plan is...

My plans A and B have failed to work out in regards to this baby's arrival. Plan A was for the baby to arrive last Thursday or Friday. No dice. Plan B was Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. Unless things change a decent amount tonight and tomorrow - no dice there either. Onto something that wasn't in my plans: a Thanksgiving holiday baby or being induced.

We will be induced next Tuesday morning unless the child decides to arrive sooner. Why can't I be like the women whose children regularly come two weeks early? Oh well... as my sister said: there is a reason they stay in there for about forty weeks.

Moon Ball

We were driving the other day after dark and Jonathan said, "Mommy, look at the moon ball." We've read about the moon and it appeared to be roundish that evening so I guess that makes it a "moon ball".

Turkey Week

Remember the Guild themes of the week? They are still here - we just had a brief hiatus for two weeks out of laziness (by me). Our theme for this week is turkeys. I found this craft on the internet, and I am quite pleased with our efforts. To say that Jonathan loves glue would be an understatement. We have spent forty-five minutes on each of the last three days doing "crafts" that involve glue. This craft was perfect in the fact that there was a lot of gluing involved.

I also have tired of all of the crafts that become immediately useless once they are created. This has a greater life span... Jonathan and I can play with it now that it is completed. Observe the turkey play time with Jamie and Jonathan:

Three posts in one day - enough is enough! Have a good week and hopefully we'll have news of a baby SOON!

Brushing Mary's Teeth

Jonathan was given a Little People Nativity set when he was a newborn by some dear family friends. Last year he moved the people around a bit, but wasn't into it all that much. This year is a totally different story. He talks about Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, the animals, and he loves playing with the nativity. I missed the perfect photo moment, but captured it a bit after the fact with Jamie's help. Jonathan was in his room and was very quiet (often a very bad sign) so I peeked in to see what was amiss. What I saw was too cute for words...

Jonathan was brushing Mary and Joseph's teeth with his toothbrush. I had forgotten to put his toothbrush away from the night before and he thought that Mary and Joseph's teeth were in need of brushing. He was talking to them about opening their mouths wide and such. Wonder where he has heard that before? Recapturing the moment with Jamie's help
Mary "holding" Baby Jesus.

This is one of those precious moments that I hope to never forget!

Cardboard Toy Family

We make toys out of cardboard at our house. We could spend lots of money on a playhouse, but with the fun that this cardboard house has provided, it begs the question: why would I do that? Not to mention the fact that this box can be reused for this purpose before we recycle it.

In the bottom of the top photo you may have seen a glimpse of another cardboard creation. We also have a car ramp and a car garage made out of cardboard and tape. Very high class.

Christmas (before Thanksgiving?!?)

I love the decorations for Christmas. I have almost no Thanksgiving decorations. The baby is due to arrive the weekend after Thanksgiving which is when we usually decorate for Christmas. So, to insure that we don't miss the chance to put up all of the decorations that take up a lot of room in the downstairs storage closet - we did it early. I love real trees and plan to have one again in the near future, but we decided that our fake ones would have to suffice this year. We had a delightful time decorating the house this weekend. Jonathan is enamored with the ornaments on our tree. We have gotten wiser since last year and only put ones that he can play with near the bottom. The fragile ones are near the top.

In the midst of all of the fun - we only took two photos. Here they are:
Jonathan with Daddy and the first part of the tree. Jonathan giving me kisses and telling me that he loves me. LOVE that!

Happy decorating whenever that time comes in your house!

Sarah

Excitement about Babies and Other Stuff

Jonathan found a doll baby in some hand-me-down toys that we were cleaning for the baby. He has taken to the baby (maybe it is all of the talk of a new baby coming to our house?). He doesn't play with it in the way that I typically see children playing with dolls. It is like he thinks the baby is his new pal. He was coloring with markers the other morning and wanted the baby to sit right next to him. The next thing I saw was Jonathan holding the baby by the head with one hand and holding the marker in the baby's hand with his other hand. Then he said, "look, Mommy. Baby color with markers" and proceeded to color the paper with the marker that was in the baby's hand. He also wanted to share some of his crackers with the baby. It will be a challenge for him to understand that the new baby is not going to get up and play right away.

Jonathan calls himself Jonah. He likes the story of Jonah and The Big Fish in his picture bible. He used to call himself Jona (as if to cut off the last syllable of his name), but now I think he deliberately calls himself Jonah because he likes the story.

Identity crisis: Jonathan thinks that the snowman we put up for Christmas is Santa. Snowman/Santa... guess they both begin with S and are related to Christmas.

My mother dreamed that we had a girl, my dad thinks the baby is girl (he was wrong with Carla, so keep that in mind), and Abby thinks it is a girl (Abby has yet to be wrong in her predictions). We should know in the next two weeks or so.

Perspective

Jamie's travels have been put in perspective. Why can't I have perspective on things without having to be slapped in the face by bad news?

A friend from my previous job whom I worked with daily and thoroughly enjoyed as friend and colleague experienced an unspeakable tragedy yesterday. She is between thirty-five and forty, married, with a three-year old and a five-year old. She is pregnant with their third child. Her husband was having routine shoulder surgery yesterday to repair cartilage that had been problematic for a few years. He died of cardiac arrest on the operating table. No prior health concerns. A routine surgery.

Perspective, huh? Traveling seems a minor irritation in light of her terrible sadness. Keep Jodie and her girls: Evie and Lila, in your prayers.

Playing in leaves

We played in the leaves yesterday even though it was quite chilly. It wasn't raining and it wasn't terribly windy so the cold was no problem. Jonathan didn't like the leaves on his head. The three of us were playing football in the leaves... I chose to remain standing since getting up isn't a quick move for me anymore.

Jamie chose to play tackle football with Jonathan.

Our new camera is working great. No more large purple lines through the photos. We dropped our camera on the lens portion about a year ago and it miraculously survived. I think that the age of the camera and that trauma probably were the causes of its demise.

Baby 2 is two and half weeks from its ETA. I am hoping for it to come before Thanksgiving. We will be waiting for God's timing barring any complications. My doctor was very quick to offer an induction on the Monday before Thanksgiving. No thanks. Didn't like Pitocin last time, and would rather not go down that road again this time.

Few thoughts

On the evening of historic elections in our country, I am bucking the apolitical trend of this blog to say a few things pertaining to neither candidate because I am a moderate and see positives to both candidates.

No matter who wins, I will:
~ Not waste my time belittling the character of the future president of our country. He deserves our respect for being willing to serve in such a way and do a job I wouldn't do.
~ Discuss issues and not bash people. Issues deserve time to be discussed, but the INCREDIBLE amount of bashing that occurred towards PEOPLE during and after the last presidental election was disgusting. Not to mention the stuff that has already been said about the people currently running for office.
~ Encourage my child to thoughtfully ponder the issues as he grows. Hopefully he will grow up in a household where we intelligently discuss matters of concern. Putting nasty bumper stickers on cars and wearing disrespectful t-shirts just because one disagrees with the position of another serves NO ONE any good.
~ Still know that I serve a God who is bigger than all of the politics.

Sarah

Hide and Seek

One of Jonathan's favorite games is "Hide and Seek". He likes to "count" and rarely starts with "one". Usually he starts with "four". It must be his lucky number. Anyway... this video is of a game of hide and seek when Jonathan was the seeker (you might need to turn up the volume a bit for the first 5 seconds).

Jonathan Guild, MD

Jonathan was supposed to be a doctor this year for Halloween. Originally, he was just going to wear his costume from last year (I am kind of cheap - I know) but when I tried it on him the week before Halloween it was decidedly too small. Guess he's grown a decent amount since I checked on the status of the costume size in early September. A doctor it would be. Jonathan already had these cute little scrubs and we thought it would be easy to use his doctor kit and a few add ons to make it adorable.

He had other plans. These plans didn't include the hat, mask, stethescope, etc. We did manage to get the hat on him for a little while, but he didn't have much interest in trick-or-treating. He would have preferred to remain at Lauren's house (one of his best buds) and play instead of moving on to the next house. Mommy and the little doctor
Dressed like partners...

This photo says it all: he preferred to run around playing at the Bare's house. He wasn't all that excited about moving on to the next house.

Jonathan minus the hat (and everything else that made the outfit costumy)

In other news: well, there is no other news. Just us, hanging out, waiting for Baby 2 to arrive in four weeks (if I'm lucky: THREE).