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:

He Sleeps!

If you know anything about Iain, you know he was not the greatest sleeper as a small fry. That was one of our biggest prayer requests the whole time I was pregnant with Cory - that he'd sleep well. And prayers have been answered! Cory is the best sleeper in the history of babies. At least, it seems that way to us after Iain.

For example, within a week of birth, Cory was sleeping a good four-hour stretch at night. Bliss! And last night...drumroll please... almost six hours! And in his own bed! He's amazing, my little sleeper boy. I do have pictures of him awake, but for this post, soak up the sweet sleepy baby.








Three notes: first, Iain is sleeping better than he ever has, too. Hurray! Second, for all the people from Tallahassee who know about THE BED, yes, in the picture of Cory on the green blanket, he is sleeping on it. He's a brave boy! And finally, the pacifier really seems to help him - but contrary to what these pictures show, he sleeps without it sometimes too, especially at night.

January Book List

This year, I'm going to try to record all the books I read, just for curiosity's sake. So here's January:

1. The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs. Well-written, thought-provoking, funny and snappy.
2. Blessings by Anna Quindlen. Fluffy fiction, not so well written, not my favorite. Wouldn't read it again.
3. 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper and Cecil Murphey. Very interesting story, horribly written. I was amazed that it could have been a NYT best seller. The first paragraph was a fitting introduction as it was as bland as the writing. However, I know this book has comforted and inspired many people, so I guess sometimes the message outweighs the medium. At least, for some.
4. Job. I'm reading through the Bible in a year, chronologically. So I read half of Genesis and then all of Job. The greatness and mystery of God juxtaposed against the know-it-all, formulaic mindset of man, as small as we are, was particularly striking this time through.

I think that's all for January.

One Week Today!

Cory is a week old today, so I thought I'd post some more pictures. He is the sweetest little (big) baby ever! He loves to snuggle, doesn't cry much, and just likes to sleep, eat, sleep, eat.... He's going to pass Iain by in size before we know it, I think. He's a good eater, and so far, a good sleeper (praise the Lord!). He likes sleeping with me, but he's doing okay in his bed, too. We're doing some of each right now.

Iain seems to really enjoy Cory, "sharing" his toys a little too enthusiastically, waving to him all the time (Cory "waves" back, which makes Iain laugh), and sympathizing with him when it's time to get a diaper change. (The one thing that makes Cory scream!)

Cory's birthday:


Brothers:



Cory has dark hair and eyes. Right now his eyes are blue, but I think they will change to brown. They are much darker than Iain's were. He's asleep most of the time, but when he wakes up, he's very alert and so much fun!


This weekend was a busy one for us: my sisters were all in town, as was Curtis, Jenna's fiance, and Jeremy's parents. We did lots of wedding stuff and lots of visiting. One of the goals was family pictures, but poor little Iain wasn't feeling well (he has a nasty cold still), so they turned out okay but not great. Nevertheless, here they are:

The whole clan:


Our little tribe:


Unfortunatley, not a single picture of us with Grammy and Papa turned out; Iain was too far gone. Please pray for him to get well soon, and especially for Cory to stay healthy. There's nothing sadder than a sick newborn! We're doing our best to keep the germs down, but there's really only so much we can do!

In closing, one of my new favorite pictures. It captures Iain so well. Jenna and Curtis were sitting, Jenna holding Cory, and I started to take a picture. Iain saw a camera and an opportunity, and here's what I got:


I sure do have a great family, don't I?

It's A Boy!

Corrin Daniel (Cory for short) was born yesterday afternoon, at home, at 1:26. He's a big boy, weighing 9 lbs 6 oz, and is 21 inches long. Everyone is doing well and we're very glad Cory is here! More details to come....

Waxing Philosophical

Iain has been pondering the meaning of life lately. Here's his conclusion:

Me: Row, row, row your...
Iain: boat!
Me: ...gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a...
Iain: CAT!

It's the same every time!

Cute Boy

I shouldn't really need to say there's no baby yet, because I'm sure you know you'd be seeing pictures by now if there was an announcement to make. But because I still keep getting asked those wonderful questions despite my sarcastic post of last week, I will put all your minds at ease and say, yes, I am still pregnant, no I haven't had the baby yet, yes, I am now ten days overdue, no I do not have to have a sonogram or anything else for at least a few more days. :)

Now for another topic... (hint, hint)



Iain calls this blanket "Nan" because I told him she made it. He has another blanket he calls "Lala" (as close as he can get to Yaya), and another he calls "Keh" (as close as he can get to Grammy - or as close as he wants to try to get!). Anyway, here he is with "Nan."

Funny Iain story: he tends to get his adjectives mixed up with his nouns. For example, I told him that a particular leaf he had found was big. Now he calls all leaves "bigs." The same with steps: we have one big step and one little step required to get from the house to the driveway. So one is called "big" and the other is called "lil-lal." And the one that always makes me laugh: electrical outlets are "bads." We told him that they were bad to touch, and now if anyone says the word bad in his hearing, he repeats it and starts pointing to all the outlets he can find in the room. So far he hasn't touched them yet, so I guess it sunk in!

More cute pictures:

He looks like a little Carribean drummer here, doesn't he?


And you gotta love the hat!


Iain has entered the Terrible Ones. He gets so frustrated because he wants to communicate and wants his way and can't always do/have either. So he yells and puts his head down on the ground like he's going to do a summersalt. Sometimes he spits, although we've been working to stamp that one out! :) Right now, I told him he couldn't get in the glider, so he's standing there yelling "UUUUUUUPPPPPPPP!!!!!" at the top of his lungs. Wow, that boy can yell! Lest you think I am neglecting my duties, I went over and sat with him in the glider to rock. Well, that wasn't what he wanted. He told me "down." So I put him down. That wasn't it either. He wanted me to get down so he could sit and rock by himself. Now he's playing with the Nan blanket, saying "nanananananan" and rocking by himself. And so go our days. :)

Ten Things to Not Say to a Pregnant Mother...

...and my sarcastic responses.

1. Haven't you had that baby yet? (Yes, I have. Now I'm just walking around with a pillow under my shirt so I can keep answering these delightful questions.)

2. Wasn't your due date last week/month/year? (Oh, you're right. I HAVE gone past my due date. I didn't notice.)

3. Why don't you just wait ten more days so the baby can be born on my birthday. You're almost there. (Is a response to this really necessary?)

4. So when are you going to have that baby? (Let me check my calendar. Yes, tomorrow looks good for me.)

5. Have you tried X/Y/Z yet? That'll get things started. (Yes, I've tried all the tricks. They don't work.)

6. You have to have the baby before tonight/tomorrow/next week because I have a schedule conflict. (Okay, I'll get right on that.)

7. This is nothing. I/my mother/my friend was three months late. (Because THAT is encouraging.)

8. You know, the longer the baby stays in, the bigger it's going to get. (Again, so encouraging.)

9. You don't look as pregnant as that lady over there. (Because it's possible to be a little pregnant. Right. Just like it's possible for your nose to be a little broken.)

Care to add a tenth? Rest assured that I will be just as sarcastic in answering it!

Bookshelf Finds

I just finished a book called The Year of Living Biblically by A. J. Jacobs. If I knew how to hyperlink, I'd send you to Amazon or something to see what the book looks like, but alas, I am very ignorant when it comes to doing stuff like that, so you'll have to find it yourself. Sorry!

Anyway, the book is about the author's quest to live by the Book, the Bible, as literally as possible, for a year. He wears white, doesn't eat shellfish, does unto others, etc. But by the end (spoiler warning here!), he still refers to himself as agnostic, saying that he has changed in that now he believes in the sacredness of things, but doesn't know whether or not there is really a God.

This got me thinking: can there even be a sacred if there is no God? If sacred means set apart, then yes, sacred and common can exist. That is, you can have the "set apart from" but you certainly can't have the "set apart to" unless you set it apart to a person or mankind in general.

It was sad though, the ending of this book. The author read the Bible thoroughly, probably knows it better than many Christians (to our shame) and yet at the end of his year, he was simply a better person.

However, I must say that I enjoyed this book completely. It is well-written, snappy, funny, and makes you think. I recommend it!

How I Spent My Christmas Vacation...

...by Iain Mark.
















P.S. no baby yet.