Another Trip

We made another weekend trip! After saying we weren't going to try it again for a while (because of Iain's fussiness), we decided in the spur of the moment to go to Atlanta. Pastor Tim, our pastor from FSU Wesley was preaching Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday morning. We had a WONDERFUL (if busy and crazy) time! It was good to see him and other Wesley friends again. We stayed with Jeremy's uncle Larry and aunt Lisa who very hospitably put us up in their home at the last minute. We were happy to introduce Cory to everyone. :)

Kelly, Shamona, and Cory:

Kristen and Iain:

Bridget and Iain:


Saturday afternoon, we spent some time at a park in Atlanta, letting Iain run off some energy. He had fun and it sure was cold!



We met some interesting children there...the girl who kept repeating "hello, it's dirty" to Iain when he tried to touch her ball... the two little girls with the pompoms on their hats who stood around waif-like and stared... the boy who ran his bike into Jeremy's legs in an attempt to get some attention.... At least our son is normal....

A Thousand Pictures are Worth Some Words

In other words, I have so very many cute pictures to share, that I will hardly write anything on this post - just enough to tell the story. Enjoy my beautiful boys!

Iain happily making valentines... and Cory watching, with crayon just out of reach. Iain really loved the smily face stickers - especially the blue ones!



We went to Alabama over the weekend to go to a reception for Jenna and Curtis (my sister and her fiance). Jenna rode with us from Tallahassee on. It was a long trip, especially for Iain. He fussed (and YELLED) a lot - but he also helped Jenna plan her wedding, as you can see.



Cory turned one month old in Alabama, on Feb 15. A whole month for our sweet baby! Here he is on his one-month birthday:




More Alabama pictures, including some of Iain tasting his first pecan which he picked up from the ground himself and Byron (Curtis' brother) cracked for him (or shelled?). Iain loved it! (In the second pecan picture, Iain is saying please.)






Jeremy and I both got to shoot a .38 special and Jeremy shot a 9mm too... and yes, he told me the names of both so I'd sound knowledgeable and impress you all. Capers, Curtis' other brother, gave us lessons.


Cory is now officially a cloth diaper baby:


And a sweet, sleepy baby:



And a smiling, babbling baby:



..with a very silly brother:


Last night, Lauren, Pete and Noah came over for dinner (spoonburgers, yum!). Iain and Noah had so much fun laughing, babbling, and playing together. Then they turned into monkeys:



From left to right: Jeremy, Iain, Noah, Pete. What good taste they all have!


And some of my new favorites.
My snugglebugs:



And perhaps my favorite picture in the world:

Slowly Getting Better

Iain is very slowly recovering from his cold. Finally. He's had it for three of Cory's four weeks of life. Yikes. But praise the Lord that Cory is still well.

We had a good visit with Grammy and Papa last weekend - unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera with me to anything... this is the only good picture I got. Iain and Papa are looking at pictures of... guess who?... on Papa's camera. Notice Iain wearing Cory's hat. :)



We had a good time playing outside with Phyllis and her kids. Iain and Jaan especially had fun on Iain's toy car:




Iain has recently started climbing up onto the footstool in the living room, raising hid hands above his head, and proclaiming: "big, big!" He loves that he can look out the window on his own, too.



These days, if I try to get Cory to smile (tickling his cheeks, saying "smile" in a ridiculous baby voice), Iain comes up and shows me that HE can smile. Here's what I get:


And Cory turned four weeks old yesterday! Here he is, sleeping sweetly on his four-week-birthday.


P.S. As I was feeding Iain dinner just now, I tried to spoon some peas and corn into his mouth. He pointed at the table and said "dinglebat." Apparently that means, "Please, dear mother, I should prefer to eat my vegetables directly from the table using my fingers, but thank you for the consideration." His language is much more succinct.

Government, Dress, Roaches: A Reminder of the Fall

"Government, like dress, is a badge of lost innocence..." wrote Thomas Paine. Ir ead this quote in high school, in Mr. Smith's history class. Don't know why it always stuck with me, but it has. I was reminded (loosely) of this quote when a certain incident involving a cockroach took place in our home last week.

It was a big cockroach. Really big. The outside, palmetto bug kind, which are usually smaller. I think this was the Goliath of palmetto bugs. Anyway, Jeremy came to rescue Cory and I, to keep us from being carried away on the back of a bug to rival Kafka's, and of course, my little animal-lover Iain came too. Jeremy squashed the bug with his shoe and flushed him away. Iain looked startled at the sight, and then started to cry and came to me. You see, in the past, when dealing with the occasional spider or rolly polly, we have very humanely carried the visitor outside, letting him go free in the plants by the door. I haven't wanted to make Iain scared of bugs by reacting badly to them. He loves telling the stories of bugs we have rescued, pointing to the ground and saying "pide" for spider, and then pointing to the door to show where the spider went. But roaches are really fast and really gross. Even if I could catch him alive, I wouldn't want to. So this guy ended up squashed, and Iain ended up sad and a bit traumatized. In the Garden of Eden, this never would have happened.

A bit of innocence was lost.

Government, like dress and roaches killed in front of one-year-olds, is a badge of lost innocence.

February Book List... in progress

So far:

1. Bouncing Back from Pregnancy by Dr. Sherri Lerner. Pretty much a re-write of Body by God by her husband, but tweaked toward post-partum recovery. A good resource for nutritional and exercise information.

2. A Bit on the Side by Wiliam Trevor. This book of Irish short stories was really good. It is one of Haylee's lit books for college, so I read it for fun. I really enjoyed almost all the stories and his writing is fantastic!

3. Levi's Will by W. Dale Cramer. Coming on the heels of A Bit on the Side, the writing was disappointing. The book had a lot of information about the Amish that I didn't know, which was cool. It was long - too long in my opinion, but a decent story nonetheless.

4. Elegant and Easy Bedrooms by Dylan Landis. In an effort to educate myself in the basics of making a home beautiful. I checked this book out from the library. No good. Not helpful. Too bad.

Compare and Contrast

It's been a busy week for us. Iain is still sick (or sick again) and is pretty miserable. Please pray for the poor little guy to get better, and for Cory to stay well!

Other than the sickness, we're enjoying being a family of four. The boys and I have been spending a lot of time outside walking or playing in the backyard. Here they are enjoying nature (and plastic slides!):



Cory had his first real bath last week. He was nonplussed. But look at this picture of him along with this one of Iain's first bath.
Iain:


Cory:


And Cory is smiling already! His first awake smile was at me on the first of Feb. Unfortunately I didn't catch that one on "film." But here's one from today. This is Cory, 22 days old.


And Iain, 33 days old:


Sleping smiles next. Cory is two and a half weeks old or so, and Iain is about three weeks.
Iain:


Cory:


And finally, just because he's so cute: