Taking their family from three to six . . .

Jack was 2 1/2 weeks old when I found out that our friends Chad and Cristi were expecting triplets. I vividly remember that I was pacing around our bedroom trying to get Jack to stop screaming when Kyle walked in and announced the good news. Initially, I was terrified for them. Afterall, I was in the midst of the first four weeks of Jack's life and was working almost full time. The thought of meeting the needs of 4-year-old Carli as well as three infants was overwhelming. But I know a couple of things for sure. First, I have every confidence that they can handle it. Second, they will have a lot of people to help. Third, they get all of the joy that Jack brought to us . . . multiplied by THREE! I'm not saying it'll be easy for them, but I know that they will be triply blessed. I wasn't really sure if "triply" was a real word until I typed it and the spell check didn't flag it.

We had a shower at church for the Hammonds last night. Here are some pictures from the party.

Is she pregnant?

Yes, yes she is.

The big sister

Carli and Lanie

Nothing says "Welcome" quite like . . .

One of my pet peeves is really bad church signs. You know what I'm talking about, right? The signs with sayings on them meant to bring passersby to their knees in repentance? I wonder how many people have driven by the church that has one of these clever little adages on it and decided that it was the place they should be on Sunday morning. I mean, once you read, "What's missing from CH--CH? UR!" how can you not be drawn in?

I took pictures of several when Kyle and I were up north last year, but this sign was my favorite and it had two different sayings, both of which were equally bad. I hope you find them as amusing as I do . . . and if this happens to be your church, I really mean no offense.

Oh, and don't forget . . . exposure to the Son keeps one from burning.

I was not right.

I wasn't wrong . . . I just wasn't right.

We had plans to go out to dinner with our small group tonight. I'm not going to lie to you - I didn't want to go. I really didn't want to go. I'm sorry if you're reading this and you're in my small group . . . please don't take it personally.

I just didn't think I was in the right frame of mind to be social. Jack didn't sleep well all week. He did sleep well last night but, of course, I couldn't sleep. I really do love the people in our small group, but I was just tired and cranky and if I was going to have a child-free night, I wanted to stay and home and sleep. To top it all off, we were meeting at a barbecue place to eat. If I'm going to spend money to go out to eat, I didn't want it to be at a place I didn't like. I was sure that I wouldn't have a good time.


Fortunately, the night turned out way better than I had anticipated! We had so much fun! Kyle and I both commented on the way home that we needed the night out with friends more than either of us realized. It was great to have an entire evening without saying things like, "I'm gonna get your belly!" or "Does someone have stinky pants?" Though the guy that passed me on the way to the bathroom in the back of the bookstore did, in fact, have stinky pants. Also, I LOVED the restaurant.

All in all, it was a great evening.


We picked Jack up from Kyle's mom's house and he just now went down to bed (at 10:30). One of two things will happen now: 1. He'll sleep later and with less interruption or 2. He'll be cranky all day tomorrow. I'm hoping for #1.


By the way, The restaurant we went to is called Mat's and it's on the corner of Mechanic and Cortland in downtown Jackson. I highly reccommend it.

Home improvement

I took communion at church on Sunday. This was the first time since Jack was born that we had been at church for communion Sunday. So, when I went to nurse Jack two hours later, I flippantly made the comment, "Time for communion." No one else really thought it was as funny as I did. At least I didn't sit there saying, "This is the body of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . " as he ate. I know, I know . . . my salvation is in jeopardy.

Life has been boring over the last week or so. Still busy, but just uneventful. Kyle and I are thinking about tackling a few home improvement projects (as our budget allows). We're thinking about painting the entry area at our house. I was going to call it the "foyer," but that makes it sound much larger than it really is. It flows through a hallway into a living room, so we're trying to decide if we should paint it the same color as the living room, or if we should re-paint the living room to match a color that we choose for the hallway.

For those of you who know us best, you'll know that painting is something we're familiar with. The living room, basement and master bedroom have all been painted multiple times, with our bedroom in the lead at 4 times (and we're actually thinking about changing the color in there too). I'm just very indecisive. It's hard to tell from a 3" x 3" square of color how a room will look covered in that color! We also need to do some landscaping on the outside of our house. We've been here for 2 1/2 years and haven't done anything but clear out all of the dead trees and bushes from the wooded lot that the house was built on.

Kyle was outside doing some work this weekend and we met our next door neighbors. We hadn't ever met them before because their house is just a vacation home for them and they're only there one or two times a summer (which is when we're usually gone). They were nice enough but they started telling us a story about the "idiots" who were at our house trying to burn toilet paper out of our trees last summer. Whoops . . . that was us. We just smiled and nodded. If they wanted to hear about idiots, we could have told them all kinds of stories about their grandchildren who stayed at their house over Mother's Day Weekend.

My parents came to visit on Sunday. They had a lot of fun playing with Jack and he loved having them there, as usual. Here are some pictures:








I'm trying to find time this week to take his 3 month pictures, but that's proving to be harder than I thought it would. Maybe tomorrow . . .

The best day yet

Today is Kyle's birthday. It is also the BEST day Jack's had EVER. He slept well, ate well, smiled a lot and traveled well.

Jack was so happy all morning that we decided that we didn't need to sit in the balcony at church. We sat in our usual old area of the sanctuary. He sat on my lap and just looked around and observed during the opening announcement time and singing. Then, he fell asleep in my arms during the sermon. We went to lunch at the Beach Bar following the service and got a little fussy, but calmed down within a minute. He went 5 hours between feedings!

I took him with me to a bridal shower today. It was the longest trip the two of us have made alone. Kyle rigged up the little toy bar that goes over his bouncy seat to hang over his car seat. He played with that for about the first 30 minutes of the trip. He's really started to grab things well . . . but I was so excited when I looked in the rear view mirror and saw that he had a toy elephant in each hand and was banging them together and squealing with excitement over the fact that he could make that noise! Then he kept grabbing their ears because they made a crinkling noise. Ok, maybe that's not genius status, but I am ready to start downloading his college applications.


I've never seen him smile as much as he did today! He was so happy. He fussed a total of about 10 minutes combined all day. It has been great! I wish every day were like this one.


Happy birthday, Kyle!

Going to church . . .

We took Jack to church for the first time today. Well, for the first time at our church. He had only been to church at camp up until this point. It went much like we imagined it would . . . ending with one of us holding him in the foyer until the service was over.

First of all, we tried on three "church outfits" before we found one that still fit. There are two outfits that he never even had a chance to wear because he outgrew them so fast. The last time we put him in them, they were way too big.

When we arrived at church he was asleep. We made our way to the balcony (with all of the other parents of small children) and he stayed sleeping through all of the opening songs. As soon as we were all seated, he woke up. He wasn't loud or fussy . . . just awake. So Kyle hold him for a few minutes when we heard it.

Let me back up and give you some important background information. Doctors say that when a bottle fed baby has a full diaper you can smell it and when a breastfed baby fills his diaper . . . you hear it. As soon as we heard Jack start his "I'm pooping my pants" grunts, Kyle and I just looked at each other and laughed because we knew what was coming. In no time, there was a rumble from below and everyone around us knew that Jack (or at least I hope they knew it was Jack) had filled his pants. Kyle took him to the bathroom to change him.

He returned a few minutes later with a freshly changed baby and I decided I could hold him for a while. As soon as I took him, he spit up all over me and the pew. After that, he got fussy.

Kyle walked him around in the foyer and the fireside cafe until church was over.

The rest of today was difficult. He was inconsolably fussy. He cried for most of the afternoon. He was great at camp when we were at dinner, but continued to be fussy when we got home. I don't know if it's diaper rash, something I ate, his congestion . . . I just know that there's something wrong with him. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little bit easier.

Sleepless

I can honestly say that I can't wait to have a baby here to wake me up several times a night. Why? Because being woken up means that I was sleeping in the first place . . . which is something that is not happening now thanks to the carpal tunnel claw. At this point, I would pay good money if there were something that could take the numbness and throbbing away.

I thought maybe it would happen last night. Katie (my sister-in-law) and I walked from the camp back to her parent's house and then I started having pains a few hours later . . . not really contractions, but definite pains. Unfortunately, they stopped.

I'm so cranky right now due to my lack of sleep. I'm about ready to open the door, let Murphy run out and pray that she doesn't find her way home.

Anyway, here's something I read this morning out of Romans (the Message version) that I really like and have decided to use for staff training . . . well, staff training next year when I don't have a newborn:

"If you're a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don't call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it's something only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift."

As frustrating as it may be, my hope is that my life is full of jobs that are too big for me that I could never do by myself no matter what. I have a feeling the biggest one of those jobs is less than a week away from arrival.

The sermon series at our church for the month of May is called "Building a kingdom household." I know that the theme wasn't picked out exclusively for Kyle and I but it's been so encouraging and challenging during this last month of pregnancy as we think about how we want to start this family off right and our responsibility as parents. You can download the sermons here: http://www.springarborfm.org/media_sermon_archives/ I heard the ones on May 13 and may 27, but not the 20th (though I'm sure it was just as good).