"Our kids grew up together"

Now I'm beginning to understand the depth of the phrase "our kids grew up together." It's not just a marker of time, or an era, or even of which kids know who.

It's more like a bonding experience. Having timeouts during a playdate. Giving their kid a timeout at my house. Apologizing for the screaming of my almost 3 year old, who is learning to deal with frustration. Giving one another advice on the parenting stage we're struggling with. Encouraging one another through the phases we remember, or recalling something I read in a book somewhere that might help. It's all a bit like being in the trenches together. We're combat buddies.

House Blessing Party

We're moved in enough to have our house-warming party, which we called a house blessing party. We gathered to pray blessing over the property and home and to bless God for his amazing work in providing us the home.

A good number of friends came by, some even had to park on the street. Rootbeer floats and banana bread topped the afternoon. It was a good feeling to know we have so many friends here. Though we've been here three years, I still feel like I'm new in town sometimes.

RosieCheeks is saying Mama and Dada already! What a delight. She signed and said Dada at the same time which really clued us into the reality of her communication. She's eight months old and on the verge of walking too! She's been crawly for over two months and now can hold her balance standing, very briefly. So she's getting into thngs. WE had to train her to understand the word "no" which she learned very quickly.

Have an older brother makes her childhood different than Squeakums. As a mom, I spend a lot of time keeping him at bay. I perhaps am too protective of the baby. Maybe I shoudl let them duke it out and learn to play together rough 'n tumble. Squeakums is almost three and loves to jump off the couch, wrestle with dad, and kiss his baby sister.

We are celebrating our anniversary this weekend through a friend's generosity. We are enjoying a local B&B, with massages and hot tub! A YWAMer is watching our son while RosieCHeeks stays with us. She still nurses every few hours and doesn't take a bottle yet. Speaking of food...she has mastered swallowing now and is eating well. I presume she'll gain weight soon and get back up to an average weight. She is a joy to everyone and a beauty to behold. Even strangers say how pretty of a baby she is. We agree. ;)

Golden Anniversary

SO many things to write about. In our new location I may have some wifi access, which means more frequent postings. Yay~!

Last weekend was our golden anniversary. Six years on the sixth. And our big present was...moving into our new house! That was God's present to us. There were so many miracles along the way of GOd making it possible for us to buy a house here that I hope to write the whole story someday soon. Suffice it for now to say He gets all the glory.

The house was builtin 2005! Three bedrooms and one bath, a garage, small fenced back yard...great for safe kid play area. And a decent front yard with southern exposure where I plan to grow lots of veggies 'n stuff. We have a view of the bay and mountains. PLenty of sunshine comes in the windows. Energy efficient appliances. We're liking the new paint colors we chose...always a risk. And our kids are doing great at adjusting to the move. Doens't even seem like there was an adjustment for them.

Moving day marked the first real blizzard this winter I think. Though Friday night there were blizzard warnings too.

Our second night here we woke at 5am to a beeping appliance...turns out the snow drifts had blocked off the exhuast vent for the propane heater. CallaLily dug out the snow and let her husband stay in bed! Kudos to me. He gets up plenty for crying baby.

We are well and blessed. HOpe to post again soon.

Growing kids

They grow up so fast, faster every day. My little girl is six months old now. She's started holding herself up on hands and knees, ready to start crawling soon. And my squeakums is approaching three years. he's quite a climber. We encourage him to be active and climb most places, that others parents wouldn't! Like on the back on the couch for instance. I hope that by letting him be a little boy as much as possible, he won't go do risky things behind our backs. Or take naked time for instance. He's allowed to be naked at home as much as he wants. We have never had a problem with him stripping down out in public...until a week or two ago. He wanted to take his clothes off during a YWAM meeting. But daddy said no, and he obeyed. However, he then wet his pants within the hour. Being naked makes it easy for him to take himself to the potty. So we should have clued in to that 'signal' and taken him to the loo at that time.

We are really close to closing on our home purchase. It's hard to wait to hear back from underwriting...the final hurdle. But God has totally had this thing in his hands the whole time. We believe He is blessing us with this home. And so I keep waiting, trying to overcome my own thoughts. We've chosen colors for most every room, it's currently all the same off white blahhhh. Then there's a lot of little details we want to fix. But it's a great house, at an amazing price. God was holding it out for us in the right timing.