Passover 2014

I feel like I'm a pretty relaxed mom about most things, but I've always been obsessed about my kids' sleep and keeping them on a schedule.  I'm a little less anal with Maya, but still would rather her get 3-4 hours of nap time each day, and one good nap at minimum, even if we destroy her morning nap with activities or church.  

On Saturday after our church egg hunt, Cas, Coady and the kids headed home for lunch while Alex stayed with me to clean-up the church.  Maya fell asleep in the car, but when they got her out 20 minutes later, she wouldn't go back down for a nap.  After lunch, Cas, Collin, Coady and Alex went to the park - my boys on their scooters, the young couple jogging, and then returned home to swim.  In that nearly two hour period I tried everything to get Maya down for a nap but to no avail.  Of course on her way to Passover she caught a 4 minute snooze in the car, but headed in to family photos, Passover Seder, and dinner with less than thirty minutes of napping on top of her bad cold.  

It was a recipe for disaster, but my resilient little girl hung in there, happily snacking away and banging on the table during the Seder, and even offering a few smiles during photos as long as she was in my arms.  Oh this beautiful, happy girl - we are so grateful she's in our family!

My youngest cousin Jackson is INCREDIBLE with Collin!  The only way we got Collin inside for Seder, leaving the new shooting rocket that Uncle Larry gave him, was to promise him that he could sit by Jackson at dinner!

Matching Brownie and Collin -

Typical reaction to photos.  You can kind of see his "Jesus is Risen" temporary tattoo from our church egg hunt on his arm for our Jewish Passover Seder!

Our family in our yellow -

Our family plus Alex and Coady -

I don't know why we don't start with the group pictures - by the time we add in my parents, my kids are done (and apparently so was Cas and my dad!)

The family at Passover 2014 -

Oh this boy, I am so thankful I get to be his mom!  He recited the first of the four questions at Passover.  And then he flipped through super-hero books while we read through the rest of the service, telling the story of God's deliverance.  I say it every year, but I love, love, love Passover and its rich symbolism for my Christian faith!

My naughty boy - with my hand coming in to grab him.  The cake was another bribe to get him to sit quietly through the dinner.

Collin found the afikomen, Maya fell asleep in the pack and play, and Cas and I got to have a few adult dinner conversations before heading home.  Another great Passover!

Our anticlimactic egg hunt

Our church just moved to our permanent building in January, and so I asked the children's ministry director if they were going to have an Easter egg hunt at the church as a fun outreach event for our church's new neighbors.  She checked with the pastors, and they thought it was a good idea and could I take the lead.  Good lesson for me - to be ready to lead any events I suggest in the future!

And oh this egg hunt caused me to lose a bit of sleep, mostly because of its ambiguous number of attendees.  We put fliers in 600 backpacks of the nearby elementary school students, had our student ministry pass out fliers to neighborhood homes the week before, and had signs along the street.  We could have had 25 kids or 400 kids, and so we ordered 300 breakfast tacos, had our congregation stuff over 1,000 eggs, and prayed that people would feel loved and get to hear about our Risen Savior.  

My sweet brother and sister-in-law agreed to serve as volunteers, and because most of the volunteers from our church were bringing their kids, I was so thankful to have some helping hands that weren't also trying to corral their own children.  On the Saturday of the event, our house was up by 7:30am, and Alex and I were out the door by 8:30.  By the 10am start time, we were all gathered, the church was set up, the bubble machines were spitting out bubbles, the temporary tattoos were being applied, and the sidewalk to the church was being covered with chalk.  The main thing that was missing were the neighborhood families!  Including parents, we probably had 100 attendees, and I'd guess 85 were members of our church!

I was disappointed we didn't have a great neighborhood turnout, but the kids who attended didn't mind, since they all went home with about 30 eggs apiece!  

My poor girl was ready for her morning nap, but we snapped one photo of her first egg hunt - 

My concerns that we could have a stampede of  300 kids in the playground didn't remotely play out.  I had set up a schedule with rounds of hunts by age group, which we stuck with, though we clearly could have put everyone together -

I had asked the volunteers to wear yellow - again in case there were hundreds of participants, so we'd be easy to find.  Not necessary for the egg hunt, but necessary for a coordinating picture - 

Cas and I couldn't have done it without Alex and Coady.  Alex was non-stop helping at the church, and Coady took my place as caregiver for the kids since Cas was working the welcome table.

It was a full weekend - with the surprise party Friday night, egg hunt and Passover Saturday, and farm for Easter Sunday.  After the egg hunt, I tried to take a nap with Maya, but unfortunately she never went to bed which meant neither did I.  Alex and Coady ran to the park with Collin and Cas on their scooters and then came back for a swim.  Saturday night, following Passover, Uncle Alex and Aunt Coady got to spend the night again, and this time I snapped a quick picture of their bedtime story (Fergie got in on the action too) -

The Croup Attack Surprise Party

Sweet Maya had a bad cold the week leading up to Easter, and finally on Good Friday, I took her to the doctor.  She had a virus coupled with the croup cough, but thankfully, her croup didn't involve wheezing or difficulty breathing.

So after our morning doctor visit, we went to gymnastics and then spent the rest of the afternoon waiting for Uncle Alex and Aunt Coady to arrive, with Collin shouting for them to hurry up and get here when he realized I was on the phone with Grammy.  They barely had time to set down their luggage before Collin was strongly encouraging them to get their bathing suits on and go for a swim.

Though the pool was still a very cold 71-degrees, their thick blood from this Indiana winter withstood the frigid water.  Alex trying out the slide -

Collin racing Coady.  Bless his heart, we have to get him in swimming lessons; he tears up the water but barely moves -

Collin went down the slide with Aunt Coady -

Big splash -

Blue lips with Daddy before we convinced him to get out -

After the swim, more family came over for a surprise party for Aunt Debbie.  My cousin, Jasper, had organized, decorated, and brought the food.  Our only job was to get my aunt over to our home a little after 6pm.  Then Jasper called to say that her mom was about to go on a walk so we needed to get her over to our house now or we'd be waiting a long time to say "surprise."

So Cas called with a worried voice to say that Maya had the croup and was having trouble breathing so I was taking her to the ER.  We felt terrible for the lie.  In our defense, my aunt was hosting a dinner for 40 the following night plus hosting several overnight guests, so we knew if it wasn't a really good reason, she'd tell us she'd come over later.  So my wonderful Aunt Debbie who has truly come to our rescue so many times - when Bruno was having seizures and Cas was out of town, when I went in to labor with Maya, when I got stuck without a car at an offsite work meeting and was going to miss pick-up at Collin's school - thought she was coming to our rescue again.  Throwing on clothes to take Collin to a park, she arrived at our house in minutes and was totally shocked by the friends and family shouting surprise, especially considering her birthday was almost 4 weeks away!

We had a great time with family, eating pizza and cake, and celebrating our selfless, loving and fun Aunt Debbie!

We saw Collin when he was scarfing down pizza and cake, but the rest of the night he was playing with Uncle Bobby, Jackson, and Uncle Alex and Aunt Coady.  Tumbling and wresting with Alex, who he'd call "chump" and Alex would talk trash back, calling him "Palooka"

 Collin saw this picture on the computer and said "I destroyed him to the ground."

It was a great start to an awesome Passover and Easter weekend.

Collin's first awards ceremony

In college I volunteered with an AWANA (stands for Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed from 2 Tim 2:15), a children's ministry program at my church.  And 13 years later, my son has completed his first year in the program at our church.  

AWANA helps children memorize Bible verses while watching puppet shows, playing games, and singing songs.  Collin - along with Cas and I - memorized 20 verses in the Bible.  It was fun to watch his confidence grow over the year, and in January, they split his class by age so he ended up as the youngest kid in the 4's and 5's class.  

Here he is near the center of the back row at their awards ceremony, singing the Cubbies song.  

Getting his award and ribbon . . . and looking like such a little boy (as opposed to a toddler)

Back at home he was proud of his new ribbon and also his "longest sidewalk ever."  We got the blocks back out for Maya to crash towers, but she's so fast that Collin was getting frustrated with how quickly she would knock them over - before he had time to put more than one or two on top of each other.  So he built sidewalks, refusing suggestions or help from me, and then walked his fingers down the colors.  He's got a mind of his own!

I wish we did a better job remembering all the funny things he says, but here are some that have entertained us recently:

• "Let's make this night even more special-er . . ." when he's asking to stay up late, read another book, get another dessert, etc
• "There's a boy in my gymnastics class named Pecan."
• "Boogers are stinkier than poop, right Daddy?"  Overhead from a boys bath time conversation
• "I'm not shivering because I'm cold, I'm shaking because I'm so excited" as his lips turned blue from spending too long in our chilly pool.

Clapping for herself

The kids and I were coordinated for church on Sunday, so after the service we ran outside before lunch to try and get one good photo.  And our backyard finally has grass after months of sand.  We are such dorks with how excited we are about grass - no landscaping, just the basic green earth!

This was the first photo snapped and the ONLY good one.  

Some out-takes -

Maya cruising.  Like Collin was at her age, she is capable of walking but won't take any steps without holding onto someone or something -

A kiss from sweet Collin -

Happy kids -

Showing off her new trick.  Maya can wave hi and clap on command -

And a video we took on Monday of three tricks -

 

What the video didn't show was while she has the duck quacking sound, if you ask her what sound a dog or horse makes, she'll quack for them too.  So a work in progress, but it's fun to see how proud she is of herself, with huge grins anytime she performs!  Between Collin, Cas and me, she is cheered on countless times throughout the day when she's showing off.  

Maya's Baby Dedication

Oh Maya, our sweet second child.  Our prayed for, cried over, long-awaited second child.  In typical second-child fashion, her baby dedication was a smaller affair than her brother's (part 1 and part 2!), but she is no less celebrated in our family!

In early April, as part of our church service, Maya and two other children were dedicated - which just meant that as parents, we committed to raising her in a home that teaches our children about the Lord.  Here we are before the service began - 

I suggested, and Cas agreed, to include Collin in the service.  I had romantic notions that Collin would remember when we had prayed that God would allow me to get pregnant and that he'd have a brother or sister - a prayer we said together from before he was two years old.  And so I envisioned this being a meaningful ceremony with him, as we dedicated this baby we prayed over in our family to God.

I should have known as I watched my four year old dance like a maniac to the worship song and fidget in the pew for the whole 7 minutes he was in the adult service, that Collin wouldn't appreciate Maya's dedication as much as Cas and I would.  Our family and our pastor -

We cannot express how delighted we are to have Maya in our family!

We were up at the front of our church probably no more than 5 minutes, but it felt like 30 as Collin acted like a clown and Maya started to fall apart.  Church always falls on Maya's morning nap, so while it is extremely rare for her to have a pacifier unless she's sleeping, it was either the pacifier or a wailing baby dedication.

And for some reason Collin decided to gnaw on Maya's leg.  The mysterious brains of four year old boys!

Encouraging him to stand up rather than sit on the stage and then crawl on the stage over to the instruments.  So much for him valuing this ceremony of his baby sister!

Praying as a family -

While Collin looks like he's having fun, this is because he and Maya were babbling to each other during the prayer.  He didn't understand why Maya could interrupt the prayer with her loud "baa's" but I'd shoot him serious looks when he echoed her!

Maya's baby dedication reinforced that:
1.  We are so, so thankful to our God, who alone creates life and gave us this precious child
2.  We are so, so in need of a Savior - based on Collin's repeated disobedience and my frustration with his behavior, we have a lot of opportunities to teach of God's grace in our house
3.  We are so, so grateful to be part of a church family that is committed to teaching the Word of God, loving our neighbors, and growing in community with one another

Strawberry Picking turns Stick Collecting

On Sunday, Collin woke up with stomach bug symptoms, and we all braced ourselves and washed our hands obsessively.  Thankfully, he was the only one that caught it, and though he was feeling better Sunday evening, we kept him home with Cas while Maya and I headed to my grandma's to celebrate my uncle Dick's birthday.  

Maya and I were the last to arrive and I delayed dinner even further with this photo opp.  I thought it was worth it!

We told Collin that he could either come with me to take lots of pictures or stay home and watch Finding Nemo.  I just omitted the part about after pictures, we'd be celebrating with the family and topping the night off with cake.  What he doesn't know won't hurt him.  The birthday boy with Maya looking on - 

A few days later, Cas headed to Chicago for work and we headed to my parents' house to play.  My mom took off work on Friday and we had planned to hit up a library story hour and park during the day.  Instead we let Maya take a long nap and then played in their backyard, visiting with their neighbor and the neighbor's new puppy. 

After lunch, Maya and I took naps, and when I woke up to see how Collin was doing in his room during rest time, I found him cuddled up with a towel on my parents' bed.  As soon as my dad got home from work, they grabbed a pile of books and started reading!

Later that afternoon we headed to the high school stadium for a playoff soccer game.  My best friend's husband coaches for one of the teams, and we went to cheer them on.  Maya was happy waving to the soccer fans and eating Cheerios in the stands.   

Collin was happy running up and down the ramps with the other kids and cheering with the help of the big foam hand.  He heard a parent yell "heads up" at an appropriate point in the game, and grabbed onto that expression, continuing to yell "heads up" throughout the game no matter what was happening on the field.  At one point, a parent yelled in Spanish and Collin attempted to repeat the phrase.

The next morning while Maya napped, Collin, Grammy and I headed to a nearby farm to pick strawberries.  Both my kids like strawberries, and Collin appropriately calls Maya "a strawberry eating machine."  Posing surrounded by rows and rows of strawberries -

Collin's "oh my goodness" expression -

Happy to spend the morning with my mom and my big boy -

After he picked a handful of strawberries, he moved on to his true love, stick collecting.

Collin with his stick, Grammy with our full basket of strawberries -

Back at my parents' home, we played in the front yard until it was time to head home and see Cas.  First time in the tree and feeling very proud of this brave feat -

Swinging on the front porch with my happy girl -

She rediscovered her tongue and stuck it out all weekend -

Typical reaction to seeing the camera pointed in his direction

With all the strawberries, we decided to make strawberry shortcake, but we didn't have a box mix for angel food cake.  After reading a few involved recipes online, we found a shortcake recipe on the Bisquick box and decided it was good enough.  Trying his first bite of strawberry shortcake -

Sugary things generate genuine smiles -

Toasting the dessert with fellow berry-picker, Grammy -