Baby poop

After my last, considerably more serious post, I (Katie) just want to rant about BABY POOP! Somehow, I had forgotten the magic, the permanence of baby poop, and how much it makes me crazy….how is it that, or rather, what makes it so incredibly resistant to every stain removal technique that I might possibly try?!?! Does anyone have any magical techniques for removing that orangey-yellow stain that is currently permeating much of Evy’s clothes as they soak in various buckets in our laundry sink? Let’s just say, she’s an every 3 or 4 day pooper, and when she FINALLY decides to let it loose, she completely showers herself (and sometimes me) in poop…the only way to clean her up is to remove all clothing and put her in the tub. Besides throwing the clothes away, does anyone have any ideas of how to remove said stains?
P.S. I will save y’all from attaching a picture to this post. You’re welcome.

My primary mission

If you read my last post, you saw a dilemma that I (Katie) have been facing for a few months now–I am trying to reach out to other moms. Since beginning to hang out at parks with Blaise, I have met so many moms who are incredibly lonely and go to playgrounds desperate for some type of companionship. Because of our community at church, I typically don’t feel that same need, but I can recognize the desperate pull from other lonely moms. As such, there have been a few who I have been trying to reach out to. Yet, I’m really struggling between this balance of mothering well and being missional. Blaise clearly observes the world around him, whichever environment I put him in. His observing those kids at yoga’s behavior resulted in a whole slew of other issues that we hadn’t been struggling with until he saw other kids getting away with their sin. As I’ve been praying about this in the past week, and studying the book of Titus, I’m convicted that Blaise is my primary mission field. While I want to reach out to other moms, and will continue to do so, Blaise’s life and future is directly a result of how well I am training him today. I cannot take that lightly.

A few passages in Titus reinforced that point…To start out, I felt a weight of responsibility when rereading the Titus 1 qualifications for an elder which include (v. 6) the statement that an elder (aka Jon) must be “a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.” Ouch–does that describe a 2 year old or what? Now I know that verse probably refers to children in later life, but how Blaise is trained now has direct bearing on that later life. In further reading, we find out that Paul is directing Titus to put elders in place in the various churches to deal with “many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers” who are infiltrating the churches (v. 10). Again, rebellious certainly describes my child, not to mention him being a talker–for example, when addressed about something that he is doing wrong, Blaise tries to change the subject to trucks, planes, anything that he thinks will distract Mama or Daddy from the issue at hand.

For my own behavior, I found conviction in the next chapter regarding what a young woman is supposed to learn from her community:

4Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

From this passage I see that my first role is to love my husband and children, followed up shortly by being busy at home. While I know the importance of missional living from other sections of scripture, I don’t see that as part of my primary life’s work, according to this passage. This is convicting to me because I struggle with the need to put ministry first, over my kids. I don’t like letting other people down, particularly when I’m late to volunteer in the children’s ministry on a Sunday because I’m dealing with disciplining Blaise, or when I have friends who are waiting for us at the zoo–I want to save my face in front of my friends, and not let them down. But in reality, Blaise is my primary responsibility and I have to put other people and situations on the backburner if I’m going to attend to those moments with Blaise that can come up rather inconveniently.

In coming to this conclusion, I found this passage from L. Elizabeth Krueger (Raising Godly Tomatoes) really encouraging:

My Change to Consistency
I remember a specific day years ago when my oldest three children were still young. I was talking to a friend on the phone, and I remember telling the caller that I could hear my little daughter jumping on the couch in the other room, and that I “really should go stop her….” Then it hit me. Yes, that’s exactly what I needed to do in order to begin seeing some lasting results in my efforts to raise godly children. I needed to stop talking to my friends on the phone, and go correct my daughter every single time she needed it. That would be true consistency, and I hadn’t been doing it.

So, I decided to change. I resolved to make consistency my top priority. I stopped running unnecessary errands, stopped over-indulging in my hobbies, stopped making excessive social phone calls, and set my mind diligently and consistently, on training my children. I continued with the normal mandatory tasks of life, such as basic housekeeping, laundry, and cooking, but even as I did those things, I kept in mind that my children were my top priority, not a fancy dinner or a spotless house. I gathered my children close to me so I could always see and hear them, then I stopped what I was doing and promptly corrected them, every time they needed it.

At first there were numerous corrections necessary and I had my doubts about the strategy, but very soon there was noticeable improvement in the way they responded to me. The worst was over after only a few days, and hardly any major disciplining was needed after the first few weeks. By the end of the third month, I had a new family. They had, in just that short amount of them, acquired a whole new respect for me and for my words. It was a miracle, produced mostly the simple consistency that God instructs us to use!

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.
- I Corinthians 15:58

11For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. Titus 2:11-14

Training my child, part 1

Blaise is finally at the age where he sorely needs to be trained and I (Katie) am at a loss with what I “know” from watching other moms and my own childhood. He is relatively obedient…sort of. I would say that compared to the average 2 year old at the park, he is obedient, yet compared to a godly standard of obedience and respect he is very far…isn’t that how so many of us view our Christian walks? In comparison to the average “do gooder american,” we are way better, but in comparison to what God would have for our lives, we are in sad and sore shape.
It all came to a head last week when I took Blaise to postnatal yoga with tot. I have been meaning to go for a while, but finally just made it, and was going with a new friend that I met at the park. I have been getting to know her a little bit and she is very nice, and per my desire to outreach, have been trying to spend some time getting to know her. She has a baby girl and a 2 year old boy. Unfortunately, her two year old boy is very very very poorly disciplined–hitting and tackling other kids, hitting her, talking back and throwing fits. Blaise was paying attention. Further, at yoga that morning, most of the kids were that way–hitting and biting, and playing rough. I brought Blaise home that day and Blaise was already yelling “NO” at me, not to mention completely disregarding my words. What to do, what to do…I try to be consistent in parenting, but this was a whole new ballgame. I stayed home with Blaise on Wednesday and tried to work through this. Then, I took him to library story hour on Thursday, and he would not listen to a word I said, as he yelled “NO” at other kids who came at all near him, ran over to the computers and pounded on them, and would not come to me when I called him. Something had, has, to be done.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma

I (Katie) just finished reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma. This was a fascinating book about how Americans get our food and the meals that we create from it. The first way we get food is what most would consider “normal”: the industrial foodchain starts in the corn fields and mass-meat production factories, and ends up in most of our grocery stores. In between, farmers use chemicals, animals are given antibiotics and growth hormones, meat is mass slaughtered and we take it all for granted because we shop for what’s on sale at our local store. The second food chain covered in this book is the trend for the organic–which actually encapsulates two mentalities. The first is industrial organic wherein food is mass produced on huge farms, just like in the industrial foodchain, yet without the use of chemicals in the form of pesticides, antibiotics and hormones. The second organic foodchain is considered “beyond organic” where farms are smaller, produce and animals are entwined in a feedback loop of sorts so that chemicals are not really the issue–the focus is more on local, seasonal production, sustainability, quality, or labor standards. The third and final foodchain is that of the hunter/gatherer where the person hunts for, forages or grows most or all that they eat.

The author, Michael Pollan, examines each of these foodchains by examining the industries as a whole, as well as individual farms and farmers within the industries, and traces specifics down to the end meal. For instance, in the industrial foodchain, Pollan buys a steer that he then pays to have housed and fed (corn), visits it while it’s being raised, and learns about how it’s slaughtered (although by federal law he cannot actually view the slaughtering techniques), and then eats his meat at its likely end result: McDonalds.

I went into this book with a few of my own biases, although aware that our pocketbook does determine a lot of our meals. Living in Seattle, organic food in general is touted, as well as local and sustainable food. I also have started gardening and when that has been successful, have enjoyed really delicious tomatoes and green beans from our garden, not to mention the money that it has saved us as we eat a LOT of produce. However, I also do some of my shopping at Costco because you can’t really beat 4 lbs of bananas for $0.98….After reading the book, I think a lot of our food choices are going to change but it may be a difficult transition….Pollan himself does not give an end conclusion to which foodchain is “right,” per se, but notes that everyone makes specific choices/sacrifices. He finds the hunting/foraged/grown meal to feel the most satisfactory since he is intricately linked to every part of its production, yet observes that in general that type of eating is not sustainable or practical for many people in today’s society.

A few passages/ideas stuck with me enough on reading this book that I wanted to type them out here:
1. “One-fifth of America’s petroleum consumption goes to producing and transporting our food” (p. 140, section 1, ch 4). This thought was particularly stunning to me in light of today’s oil prices, which have risen considerably since Pollan wrote this book in 2006. It is a huge reason to buy locally, or grow/hunt one’s own food. And yes, when I draw that to the conclusion of how I eat, besides shopping at farmers markets and supporting community based agriculture, I am thinking of raising my own chickens.
2. Processing food originated in convenience. “These technologies were blessings, freeing people from nature’s cycles of abundance and scarcity, as well as from the tyranny of the calendar or locale: Now a New Englander could eat sweet corn, or something reminiscent of it, in January, and taste a pinapple for the first time in his life. As Massimo Montanari, an Italian food historian, points out, the fresh, local, and seasonal food we prize today was for most of human history ‘a form of slavery,’ since it left us utterly at the mercy of the local vicissitudes of nature” (p. 151, Section 1, ch 5). Unfortunately, while curing meat, canning, freezing, pickling, etc were all initially using and preserving nature, after WWII a third age of food processing began wherein the goal was to “improve on” nature–ie creating margarine instead of butter, juice drinks instead of fruit juice, cheez whiz instead of cheese, cool whip instead of whipped cream, etc. Pollan then goes on to note how all 4 of these mentioned super-processed foods are based on corn as the key constituent. So humanity, instead of being diversified by many of our processed and industrially available foods, are actually streamlining our intake to corn.
3. Organic industrial isn’t necessarily all that much better than regular industrial. While they don’t use chemicals in their farming, “industrial organic farmers often wind up burning more diesel fuel that their conventional counterparts: in trucking bulky loads of compost across the countryside and weeding their fields, a particularly energy-intensive process involving extra irrigation (to germinate the weeds before planting) and extra cultivation. All told, growing food organically uses about a third less fossil fuel than growing it conventionally, according to David Pimental, though that savings disappears if the compost is not produced on site or nearby” (p. 299, section 2, ch 9).
4. Pollan does see the immense growth of corn as a huge environmental issue, as it wears away a large part of our healthy farmland without the diversity of crop rotation. Instead, industrial farmers add chemical nitrogen and other additives to the soil to try to beef up their growth potential. During the non-growing season, much of this land is often dirt-barren which Pollan notes is detrimental to the atmosphere. He writes, “in fact, grassing over that portion of the world’s cropland now being used to grow grain to feed ruminants would offset fossil fuel emissions appreciably. For example, if the sixteen million acres now being used to grow corn to feed cows in the U.S. became well-managed pasture, that would remove fourteen billion pounds of carbon from the atmosphere each year, the equivalent of taking four million cars of the road. We seldom focus on farming’s role in global warming, but as much as a third of all the greenhouse gases that human activity has added to the atmosphere can be attributed to the saw and the plow” (p. 321-322, section 2, ch 10).

Pollan made a lot of other observations in his 600+ page book, but those were some of the ones that were particularly interesting to me…I also enjoyed the chapters on sustainable farming more than the rest of the sections, as far as learning a lot about how farms could be run if people were more focused on quality, health, and biologically entwined systems, rather than on mass producing a particular food item. My bookclub is going to read this book for our August discussion, so I’m excited to see what they take away from the text, but in the meantime, I just thought I’d post these thoughts. Let me know if you read the book and what you think of it.

37 weeks, day 7: birth

Many of you know that we had Evy yesterday morning, but I (Katie) thought I would write out the details since Jon posted some pictures to our flickr account. Warning: these are the full details as I remember them so if birth stories gross you out–maybe just read the next sentence and skip the rest of the blog entry. Evangeline Grace, to be called Evy (pronounced Eh-vee), was born at 9:28 am Wednesday June 11, weighing in at 7 lbs even and with a length of 21 inches.
On Tuesday night we had an appt with Charlotte, our midwife. She checked me, and I was only 1.5 cm dilated and not effaced at all…she didn’t think that I would birth for at least another week and so we weren’t planning on waking up on Wednesday morning in labor. I woke up a little before 4 am on Wednesday with a strong contraction. I laid in bed and had about 4 more of the same strength, spaced out every 18-20 minutes. A little after 5 am, I noticed that the contractions were much closer together and mentioned it to Jon–they were coming at about 4 minutes apart. We couldn’t remember all the signs that we were supposed to be looking for, so we grabbed our handy “Pregnancy Childbirth and Newborn” book and read up on the stages of labor. Seeing as how my labor with Blaise lasted all of 4 hrs and 12 minutes before he came out, we decided to call Charlotte after they were steadily 4 minutes apart for most of the hour–we called her just before 6 am.
After calling Charlotte, we thought we’d better set up the birthing supplies (we had bought two shower curtains for the occasion, as well as a birth kit). We moved some furniture out of the way, closed the living room curtains and laid one shower curtain on the floor. After the kitties had batted at all this for a while, we decided we’d better put them away, so locked into our bedroom they went. I had done about 4 or 5 loads of laundry the day before so in between contractions, we folded clothes to get them out of the way–in case Charlotte needed more room for any things she might be bringing. During contractions, I grabbed Jon’s arm and leaned on him and he kept track of the time/frequency/duration of each one. I tried laying down but didn’t feel very relaxed during the contractions. By 7 am, I needed to be in the same room as Jon so we finished up the laundry and I sat on the living room chair.
Charlotte and her two assistants all arrived at the same time–a  little after 7 am. They brought in a few small rolly suitcases of emergency supplies, and then Charlotte checked me–I was 2.5 cm dilated but totally effaced–she was really surprised that I was so effaced and said I could probably move pretty fast. She periodically also checked on Evy’s heart rate and it was strong all morning–even during the delivery. I laid on the shower curtain on the floor for a while and also sat in the living room chair trying to rest…I was pretty tired. Blaise woke up and started talking in his bed at about 7:45 am. At 8 am, Jon called Leah to see if she could come get Blaise and take him for the morning/day–depending on how long the labor went. We left him in bed talking until about 8:30 am and Jon got him up and ready for Leah, who picked him up a little before 9 am. (Apparently, he had a really fun morning running around at her house, pointing at trucks out the window, and then they walked over to the park to play for a while…she brought him home at about 12:45 pm so he could take a nap at home).
After Leah left with Blaise, I was standing and swaying a little bit and Charlotte offered to check me again–I was 5 cm dilated at this point. This part is a little foggy for me because of the intensity and length of contractions (they were 2-4 minutes apart and lasting about a minute each time), but Charlotte had said something to the effect that she could probably tilt my cervical opening up a bit and she had me bear down, which broke my water, and then the pressure from Evy’s head also pushed my dilation to 10. That was at about 9:10 am. While I had been quiet up to this point, conscious of our renters downstairs and Blaise in his room, I started yelling (which consequently gave me a sore throat for the rest of the day). The pain shot through the roof at that point as I started pushing. Jon was by my head for part of the time and was very encouraging, and Charlotte and her assistants (being Christians) were also very encouraging and said things like, “your body is doing exactly what it was created to do,” which was very helpful. Somewhere in there I did have the thought that this is my curse–pain in childbirth. Ugh. Evy came out at 9:28 am, Jon caught her as she came out and then put her right up on my chest–much different from Blaise’s birth where I didn’t end up holding him for an hour or so (although Blaise did get to snuggle up on Daddy’s chest during that time). I had a few minutes of rest then delivered the placenta. Despite the pain and the fact that I have episiotomy scar tissue that I could have ripped along, I found out that I hadn’t torn at all (PRAISE GOD!!!). That’s a huge blessing.
After a little while of holding Evy while laying on the living room floor, I moved to our bedroom (releasing the cats to hide nervously with the commotion going on), and Charlotte checked Evy out. She and Amy (one of the assistants) had been periodically checking our temps and blood pressure and heart rate since the birth. They stayed until about 12:30 pm, cleaning up and checking on us, and then took off to finish their day of clinic up in Everett. 
We are so grateful how God worked things out in this birth because we were nervous about the home birth. Two of our main prayers were that we would know very clearly when we were in labor and needed to call Charlotte, and that we would have time for her to get to our house since she had about an hour’s drive, not to mention any time she needed to get ready to come over. But God worked things out so that we called her in time, and she was here with plenty of time to guide me through the labor and delivery. Thank you to those who were praying with us about these things. I was also really nervous about having Blaise around, and having Jon be at work where he would have to take a cab home, so the fact that it happened early enough in the morning that Jon didn’t even go into work, and that Leah was able to come get Blaise were huge blessings, as well. God is good all the time. All the time, God is good.
Ever since the birth, we’ve been resting up at home….eating, changing diapers, doing laundry. Blaise has been sweet with his baby sister, but also a bit avoidant. He’s unsure of her, and I think he will feel better when things get back to normal–like me being able to pick him up again which I’m not supposed to do for 2 weeks.
Thanks to everyone for your well-wishes.  We look forward to your meeting Evy in person.

36 weeks, 5 days

And waiting. Just had a midwife appointment–and incidentally they are finally weekly now, on Tuesday nights–and I am still pregnant. In case you were wondering. Sometimes it’s funny to drive to Everett just to hear our midwife measure and check and point that out. I am, however, 1 cm dilated. With Blaise I was 2-3 cm dilated for the entire last month so I guess that doesn’t say much except that at some point, this baby will come out. I am very tired today since I had 3 boys in addition to my own to care for, so I will sign off now that the waiting grandmas have the update: my midwife has confirmed that I am still pregnant.

Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day is an interesting holiday…growing up I didn’t think much of it, and while I can remember doing a few special projects in elementary school, I don’t remember making a big effort to buy cards, presents, etc (Sorry Mom). Granted, Father’s Day was about the same level of holiday (occasionally celebrated but considered more of a Hallmark holiday than not), but still–now I’m a mom and thinking about all that that entails. Perhaps Jon will give some thoughts when Father’s Day rolls around this year.

On NPR on Friday, one of the news segments was about how much a stay-at-home mom’s annual salary would be if she got paid for all the tasks that she did (apparently someone did a study, data analysis, or something like that)–$117,000. That salary would pay for everything from cook and housecleaner, to childcare provider, counselor, financial advisor, personal shopper, nurse/doctor, teacher–those are a few of the tasks they mentioned. They also noted that it entails at least 100 hours/week of work, and that overtime was unpaid. When I heard their segment, Jon and I were in the kitchen and I looked over at him and said, “looks like you couldn’t afford me.” He snickered. It must have been at that point that he remembered to get me a card. Teehee.

Actually, I have loved being a stay-at-home mom. In the first few months that I was home, I was going a little stir crazy–I admit. I couldn’t get out of the house with Blaise’s constantly evolving schedule and inconsistencies. While I did make it a point to shower every day, I found myself wearing pajamas most days (since they were comfortable and I was constantly having baby juices leaked all over me) and that contributed to my general feeling of depression and wondering if I would really stay home with my kids instead of working. Some days Jon would get several frantic phone calls at work because I just needed to talk to an adult who cared about Blaise’s screaming and schedule…and most of my friends were working or taking care of their own x number of kids so it felt like I didn’t have many other people to talk to–I wished someone (who lived nearby) would be in the exact same stage as me so that we could sympathize or at least know the other person was there. I remember getting dressed was probably the first on the list of things that helped this dire situation….if I had “going out” clothes on then I would be more likely to get out of our extremely small house. And then just getting out made all the difference in the world. However, as tough as those first few months were, Blaise grew and, as Jon noted the other day, for a stay-at-home mom, I’m not home all that often. When we’re at the park on a beautiful day or running around at a museum, it is pretty fun to be a mom! And every time Blaise looks up at me and contentedly says “Mama” and then happily goes back to what he’s doing, I think being his mom is the greatest job in the world. Of course, it’s a little tougher when he sets his chin, throws his shoulders back, and defiantly says “NO!” when I ask him to pick something up that he dropped…but we work through those situations too.

As we prepare for baby #2, I am curious how different this year of mothering will be. I think I will get out of the house more since Blaise will be stir crazy, and also because the summer will be open before us. I think I can handle it because I’ve taken care of families of 3 or 4 kids before, so 2 seems not that bad. And then I wonder if that’s true since sometimes things are harder with your own kids since there isn’t a time when their REAL parent gets home–you’re doing your 168 hours a week. Alas, only time will tell…in 6ish weeks we’ll find out what this little lady is like, and how Blaise adjusts to having a baby sissy. Here’s hoping for the best.

Happy Mother’s Day.

We’ve finally given in…

We have started a professional blog (for our photography). You can check it out at jonandkatephoto.com/blog. Right now, it’s not all that exciting, but we’ll start posting there semi-regularly (probably more often than we do here). Also, please check out our website: jonandkatephoto.com. We’re currently in the process of updating our branding and putting some newer pictures up.

If you or someone you know is getting married, having a baby, or just wants to document their life, please have them contact us!

Proof that the end of the world is close

We took a trip to the pet store this morning, to buy some more cat food and let Blaisey point and screech at the “wildlife” and what did we find, but a “pet jogger”. This is confirmed proof that the world will end soon. Last time I checked, dogs like to go on walks, not be pushed around in a tent on wheels by their “parents.”

Just this week, I heard a dog behavior specialist interviewed for an hour on NPR and one of the first things he talked about was how the biggest mistake people make with their dogs is to treat them like people/children. Seems to me, by treating dogs like people we’re just speeding the evolutionary timeline on the way to dogs with opposable thumbs. We’re already going to be in trouble when the dolphins get thumbs (be warned of coarse language)… do we really want to add dogs to the list too? But, if you’re not worried about the future of humanity you only need $129.99 + tax to take one of these beauties home.

A day in the life of Blaise (18 mo old)

Blaise seems to be settling into his boyhood instead of being a baby…although he points at other kids now who are his size (or even bigger) and calls them “baby”—since he can finally say the word. But his face definitely is looking more like a little boy instead of a baby, and he’s running around and seriously observing big kids that we see at the park and the zoo.

As of March 7, Blaise weighs 25 lbs, and his length is 34 inches. He is busy running all over the place, finally wearing big boy hard soled shoes. In the last month or so he has decided that he LOVES to read, and occasionally Jon practices flashcards of the alphabet with him. He repeats a lot of the letters after Jon says them, which is really cute.

He is a big time fruit eater—particularly apples, pears, grapes, and blueberries, with the occasional banana. He also loves raisins. He likes tomatoes and peppers, but most other veggies we have to somehow disguise—like sneaking it in with cheese. He doesn’t like to try new foods, even when we tell him it is yummy (like, hey Blaise, taste this bite of ice cream, and he screams “yucka, yucka!” while ducking his head and acting like we’re torturing him). He LOVES dips—peanut butter for apples, ketchups for burgers/chicken, salsa for chips….putting ketchup on his meat is how we get him to eat meat, and he often will go over to the fridge to ask for “burger,” which is what he calls ketchup. He also LOVES cheese of all kinds, and drinks quite a bit of milk each day which he calls “milka.”

He starts each day at about 7:45 am, either by saying “dada” or “knocka” repeatedly. He loves when people knock on the door, so we often knock on his door a couple of times before going in his room to get him up. He is always standing in his crib, holding onto the tag of his blue striped chenille blanket, and pointing at the window saying “opa” or “cur-cur” so that we’ll open the blinds. On the floor next to his crib, he has thrown his two lions (big one is Roar, the small one is Grr), his kangaroo, and his blue teddy, who we then hand back to him, he kisses each of them, and drops them in his crib. He also sleeps with his green fuzzy blanket with animals on it, and his brown bear quilt that Mema made for him.

He gets his cup of milk first, and then grazes while we eat breakfast, eating fruit, pieces of whole wheat bread, cheddar, and perhaps a few bites of my scrambled eggs. Depending on our morning plans, I sometimes just pack a snack for him and he eats that around 10, instead of having a big breakfast—that cup of milk tends to fill him up. We spend the morning playing at home, walking to the park, going to the store, going to the zoo, or any number of other activities. He loves the store and the park best, I think, because he always walks right over to the top of the stairs and says “up” when I tell him we’re going to either of those places. He also likes to walk with Auntie Leah at Greenlake, and he loves to go to church and play with the other kids in the nursery. He eats lunch sometime between 11:30 and 12:30.

He is awake and super fun until 12:30 or 1 pm. His nap lengths completely vary between 1.5 and 3 hours. He usually wakes up chattering. On nice days, we walk over to the Maple Leaf Reservoir park or Northgate Library/Park, or sometimes we just sit and read book after book after book. He is usually pretty hungry when he wakes up, so he has a big snack then—around 3 or 4 pm.

Jon gets home around 5:30 pm on most days, and Blaise is SOOOOOO excited about that. On the days that Jon works late or has late meetings, Blaise is constantly looking for him and asking for him. They typically play (read books, stack blocks, drive cars, roll the ball) while I make dinner. Blaise does great sitting down to dinner with us, and always grabs our hands and bows his head to pray before we eat. While Blaise often showers with us in the morning, he sometimes takes an evening bath too, just for fun splashing around.

At bedtime which is 7:30 pm, Blaise picks out three books, and we read and snuggle. We pray for him, while he rests his head on one of our shoulders and touches the other one of us with his hand, and put him in bed. Since the longer naps have started, he has a harder time falling asleep, so he has been known to be awake talking in bed until 9 or even 10 pm. And he sleeps through the night which is wonderful.

All in all, it’s a fun day to be Blaise at 18 months…he’s super happy, learning his words, has a great memory, and is very sweet and snuggly. He loves people and smiles all the time. The people at church always tell us that he is one of their very favorite kids to take care of because he is so happy and easy going. The director of children’s ministry, Eric, heard Blaise cry last week when he was sick, and was shocked because he had never heard Blaise cry before.

We love him lots!