Four Years Tall

We're proud of our sweet boy, who incidentally just finished preschool today and has his birthday on Saturday. We recently had a conversation about how Anna just had her one-year birthday. Caleb's astute observation was, "Mama, soon I won't be three anymore; I'll be four years tall."

I'm grateful for the progress Caleb has made this year and how he's handled this year's challenges. He is growing up in the blink of an eye, so I thought I'd slow things down, if just for a moment, with a recap of the past four tall years.

Fifty-two...

Not a dominoes game (umm, that's 42), nor the price of a new outfit. Not the number of cards in a deck, nor the number of toys on our floor after Caleb and Anna emptied her toy basket in the living room today before we left for church (but close!).

Fifty-two is the number of Tuesdays that have passed since our sweet girl officially joined our family and lay, blinking at us, swaddled in her hospital blanket. Anna turned 1 today! While she was oblivious to the significance of today (and probably wondered why so many different voices sang at her from Mama's phone throughout the day), I can't help but recount some of the events of her first year:

coming exactly on her due date despite the threat of induction, sleeping through the night early on, smiling with squinty eyes and scrunched-up face, squealing as she discovered what her voice can do, finally rolling over, refusing to continue to roll over, clapping (loudly!), crawling at 11 mo, tooth at 11 1/2 mo, fully mobile shortly thereafter.


I thank the Lord for the first fifty-two, and I can't wait to see what He has in store for the fifty-two's to come!

...But I'm Not Tired...

Anna has had a general willingness to rest and stay asleep without too much protest. However, now that she's mobile, it's a different story. She needs a much longer wind-down routine, and she doesn't like it so much when I prep her for nap and lay her down in bed. Today, after listening to her cry some in protest, play a little, then cry a little (checking on her all the while), she finally went to sleep.




Of course, I moved her to a more comfortable position, but only after snapping two pictures!

Roughing It

The end of April brought a special treat for Caleb...
his first camping trip!

Scott took several of our college students camping in the Mark Twain National Forest, and Caleb went along. We packed his sleeping bag, a change of clothes, snacks, and curiosity, along with a healthy dose of "do not run off from Daddy" and "do not touch spiders or other weird insects." We prepped him for the lack of bathrooms and talked about the smart way to be around a campfire. He was raring to go! The trip was to be Friday afternoon to Saturday noon. If not for the rain that came the first hour and a half, it would have been absolutely perfect. (Luckily, we packed Uno, Go Fish, and some other diversions). Caleb had SO much fun!

Here's a pictorial smorgasbord for you to feast on...

All I want for Cinco de Mayo is...

una diente por mi hija!

Anna cut her first tooth this weekend (bottom right center), and today it's really poking through for the first time! Bottom left center and Top right center are not far behind.

No more "Anna, the toothless wonder".

I'll post pictures when I can manage to catch her with them showing! (Good luck, right? That tongue is always out!)