Our journey

Saturday, October 11, 2008

And then there were 2...

Praise the Lord. He has given us another kiddo. He or she has been cooking for 12 weeks now. The estimated due date is April 24. Laura has been feeling a little nauseous in the afternoons for the past several weeks, but no puking, which is good. We are hoping that the beginning of the 2nd trimester will mean less sickness. We have had two appointments so far and everything looks to be going well. There is only one baby. Please pray for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy kiddo. Also, we decided that we are going to find out the sex on this one (not like we did with Selah). We should find out in about 3 weeks. We will let you know.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Two Helpful Pieces of Advice

One more comment about the video Ryan posted...if you think a 1 1/2 year-old naked dancing is too revealing, I have one better. While we were at the beach, where mostly Europeans were vacationing, a girl that couldn't have been younger than 9 years old ran around the beach completely naked. She had a faint swimsuit line, but she didn't seem fazed by her own nudity at all....I guess it was just Bethany and me that were a little concerned.

I wanted to share two great pieces of advice I have received in relation to parenting. Well, one is advice and the other is a pointer, but they have both been tremendously effective in making things flow smoother with my ever stronger-willed daughter.

The first is to have regular quiet-time for Selah. Of course, it would be great if she were sitting in her bed reading her Bible and praying for 30 minutes most mornings, but, as smart as she is, she's not quite there yet. I started putting her in the bed with a few special, quiet-time only toys and some books and told her she had to play alone for 10 minutes. She didn't really like it the first week and called for me almost the entire time or whined. As time has passed we've worked up to at least 30 minutes in the mornings on the days we're home. She gets excited about her quiet-time now and always takes a small snack and cup of water with her. She also seems to do a little better job of playing by herself throughout the day on the days we have quiet-time. It really is helping her learn how to play alone. I love it because I get a few minutes to rest or have my own quiet-time.

The second "trick" or pointer we recently learned from the Leathermans. When their son refuses to eat something they know he likes or hasn't ever tried, they offer to do the "[insert food name] dance" if he takes a bite. This is simply amazing. The dance involves a little jive, while sitting in the chair, with our fingers shaking about and we use a made up tune to say "Do the [insert food name] dance." repeated about 4 times. Since we learned the dance, Selah eats those last bites on the plate when she just wants to go play; she tries more new foods and rejects food less often. I don't mind trading a 3 second dance for dinner-time harmony. I'll try to get a video demonstration up for you to view.

Monday, October 06, 2008

Potty Song Exclusive

Selah is growing up. She has pooped in the potty twice and tee-teed several times. We bought a little potty about a month ago, but we haven't really started trying to train her on it yet. It looks like we might not have to try so hard. In recognition of this important milestone, I give you this special edition song, recorded live last night.

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Vacation with the Leatherman's



We had a great time over the past 2 weeks with our good friends from home. They arrived on Thursday night (2 weeks ago) and the next day we flew down to a villa close to the beach. Everyone enjoyed the beautiful beach a lot....I just liked it. I love to see beautiful beaches--I just don't love sand all over everything or getting cold when I am wearing my swimsuit, which I tend to experience on beaches. Selah was scared of the water the first day, but by the last day she was walking out ankle deep all by herself! She liked being buried in the sand and finding rocks. We tried to go to a near-by island where I'd heard the Greek Salads were awesome, but there was a port-workers strike all week so we couldn't get out to the island.

We spent the last 5 days in our city doing some site-seeing and relaxing around the house. Selah loved playing with Tye and learned lots of words from him. She is now giving us more commands in English than the national language--which is a change from 2 weeks ago.

The nationals in our city have been celebrating a nationwide holiday over the past few days and we let Selah enjoy it like we would if it was Halloween. she ate several pieces of chocolate in one sitting when we visited a few friends along with some chocolate cake. She has filled up on junk food right before dinner the past 2 nights in a row!