Playing in the Rain

We had huge downpour this afternoon. It was a warm day and there was no thunder or lightening so I put Aliza in her rubber boots and raincoat and sent her out to play in the rain. She LOVED it. And she was drenched when I heard the first clap of thunder and made her come in (which led to very loud protesting).

We have a new friend in our house, Boz. He likes the rain and sings about he rain and he uses an umbrella in the rain so Aliza thought she needed an umbrella too.

It's so fun to watch her learn new things. And Josiah now has toys hanging from his bouncy chair. He thinks those are pretty neat. His hearing must also be developing nicely because Aliza made him cry with her squealing for the first time today. Oh the joys of having two!

What a Weekend!

This weekend the 4 of us made our first trek to West Virginia to visit Jeremy's family. Josiah did really well for the first 3 hours of the trip, but both ways the 4th hour was utterly miserable with his screaming and Aliza trying to comfort him----(read with increasing intensity)----"siah...siah....SSSSIIIIIAAAAHHHH" She was only trying to be heard above his screaming and then by the time we hit Camden Ave, Aliza was imitating Josiah's breath-holding wail. That sums up the driving part.

Our excuse for going was for Karen and I to attend her church's ladies' tea. They call it a tea, but it is more of a luncheon. This year the theme was the 50's. They had the auditorium set up as a drive-in theatre complete with cars from the 50s, popcorn concession stand and diner for root beer floats. A small group in the church hosts this event every year and it is amazing. Elvis came in full costume and sang several songs (the most elderly ladies especially enjoyed him!), the entertainment was Price is Right (apparently it started in the 50s) and the craft was decorating wood cutouts of our initial (I guess they wore letter sweaters in the 50s). I'm pretty clueless about the 50s as you can tell!

Our tea time became quite somber when a lady at our table received a text message that her son had been in a motorcycle accident. I had just met her and she told us that she was a mother of eight children and told us about her oldest son (4th in the line) who had a motorcycle that he really wanted to race and how much she did not want him to do that. Quickly after the text message she received a phone call and her husband walked in looking very pale. Ultimately her son died that afternoon from multiple internal injuries.

Well, I was going on not-enough-sleep and a very early morning and I spent the rest of the day wanting to cry and hold my babies as close as possible. Watching someone basically find out that they lost their child in an instant made me think how quickly life can be snatched away. We aren't guaranteed another day. It made me think about how I always need to be prepared to face eternity at a moment's notice. There may not be time to settle with God or others on earth before our time is up. Don't hesitate a moment longer! If you are uncertain about eternity or don't have peace about dying--don't rest until you do!!! That is my lecture for today! =)

A Wednesday Evening at the Heslop House

The house was quiet and I was almost worried, but then I realized that everyone was happily engaged in an activity that they enjoy.

Josiah is sleeping. We've been teaching him how to sleep and he is a very good student.....more on Babywise theory later. (Janel, there is hope today. I'm totally pumped!) He's been making more and more happy noises when he is awake and his smiles are coming more easily now. And, yes, he did sleep through the night last night.

Aliza is watching Boz, her new favorite DVD character. It is a Christian Barney and teaches preschool concepts with Christian values. It is fun because she can tell us all about the songs and stories.

And Jeremy took his camera outside to take pictures. That makes my heart soar! It wasn't a very rational conversation on my part, but I told him he was working way too much in the evenings and we needed him. This week he has been available and tonight he did something he enjoys. That means he is relaxing too! Maybe he got some neat nature shots that I can post later.

Salisbury Zoo

Saturday was Earth Day at Salisbury Zoo. It was a beautiful day so every other family in Salisbury thought the zoo sounded like a good outing also. I've never seen so many strollers in one place! Aliza walked and walked and walked. Her cheeks were bright red after an hour, but she didn't have a shortage on energy. She has talked about all the animals she saw since....I finally figured out that "gos" are flamingos. That was a relief! She was even telling me that they were pink like her shirt....she must think I'm really stupid at times. =)

Christie, the hat Josiah is wearing was Graham's. Josiah will wear it all summer. Thanks!

Jeremy's parents were here from Thursday evening to Saturday so they got in on the zoo festivities. Aliza sure enjoyed having them here. It won't be long until I have no peace once she knows that they are coming.

Wow!

I laid Josiah in his bed at 8:30 this evening which means that I have had 2 hours ALL TO MY SELF!!! Unheard of. I actually did a scrapbook page (it was pretty plain. i'm out of practice.) and now I'm headed off to bed.

Josiah slept for 8 straight hours last night. Horray! AND the last couple days he has been sitting happily in his bouncy chair for 20 minutes once or twice a day. Yes, that means supper preparation must happen in twenty minutes. =) But it's really cool. He looks at the light or fan or some colorful object and once in awhile lets out a happy little coo.

Picture Post

Baby Dedication

In our faith tradition a baby dedication is a time where Jeremy and I commit to raising our child in the Christian faith, the church commits to supporting us in that endeavor and the pastor prays a prayer of blessing on the child. That's what we did today.

Dad talked about how it is important to pass on the stories of faith to our children and then he told the story (creation, sin, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, kings, Jesus, resurrection, etc.) to us and pointed out where King Josiah fit in the Biblical timeline.

While I was pregnant I prayed that the child I was carrying would be a leader, choose to follow Christ, be a soulwinner, and have a joy and passion for living. Late in my pregnancy we chose the name Josiah which means fire of the Lord. Before we settled on the name we looked up what role King Josiah played in history (we didn't want to name our child after an evil king!) This is what we found.... (an excerpt from The Student Bible)

Judah's slide to destruction was interrupted by the amazing rule of its alltime best king. Josiah came to the throne at age eight, but received good counsel from the high priest. In 31 years he carried out the most extensive religious reforms Judah had ever seen. He removed and destroyed the altars, idols, and symbols of ungodly worship from the temple, and destroyed pagan centers throughout the land. In a thrilling sequence of events, he oversaw the rediscovery of the Law of Moses and acted immediately on what it taught. No king equals Josiah for his sincere and devout practices.

Pastor Dad's blessing on Josiah was 2 Kings 22: 2 "He (King Josiah) did what was right in the eyes of the Lord...not turning aside to the right or to the left."

Spring Evenings

We had two lovely spring evenings. Aliza helped Jeremy continue to build the swingset. She was quite the big helper. She was busy screwing screws and sorting nails and screws. She chattered the whole time and was talking about screws today. Now she has a slide. It was rainy today so she didn't get to go out. Last spring we spent every evening outside. I can't wait to do that again. (Don't point it out to him....but when Jeremy is outside with us it means he is not working inside!)

I was ordering pictures tonight and came across this picture of Aliza and it brought back good memories. We told her to "stand here, hold the flowers like this (in front of her) and say cheese" and this is what we got. =) She's too cute.

On a completely different note, I've been thinking about a quote my Mom used on us. She made it up, I think....or maybe a wise person said it to her....I don't know. "Your lack of planning does not create an emergency for me." In other words if we forgot about a school assignment she was not going to go to the store to buy supplies or stay up late to make sure that we got it done. We had to plan ahead. (I think she used this on my younger siblings more than me. haha) Anyway, I think I'm going to start employing this quote in my life, not with my children yet, but in other circumstances. It is easy for me to do triple backflips to please someone else or do what would make them happy even if it causes me a lot of stress and headache. I think at times I need to take a little better care of my mental state and stress level.

That's about as deep as my thoughts get these days! Time to give Josiah a dream feeding in hopes of good sleep tonight.

Puzzles

Jeremy recovered this picture from yesterday!

Today was a much better day. I didn't hear any squealing in the house. Nap times didn't overlap by much, but I got to spend over an hour alone with Aliza while Josiah slept. That calmed her down a lot.

This is how you can most often find us recently. Aliza loves watching/helping me put this puzzle together.

The pillow is my spot. She still bring this pillow for me to sit on. It was a necessity at the end of my pregnancy. Now it is just really cute to know that she wants me to sit and then runs to find the pillow and bring it to me.

This puzzle is pretty complicated. Aliza sits on my lap and watches me put it together then she sits on top of it and points to various items for an explanation. After that she puts all the pieces, one by one, back in the box and then dumps it out to do it agian. Today she put the bottom row of pieces together by herself and she knows where the turtle, octopus, clams and some other fish go.

Josiah is a pretty good sport, but he doesn't like to sit in his chair for too long. It is such a balancing act to give both of them good attention.

One Difficult Moment After Another

Well, today was one of those days. It's easy to blog about happy moments, but not exactly a realistic view of my world. So today stunk and as soon as this is posted I am headed under the covers....and they are going to be pulled up over my head so that I don't hear any baby grunts! =)

Josiah is waking up twice a night. I don't fall back asleep well after 5am feedings.

Jeremy worked in Delaware today a 2.5 hour drive one way. It was a long day.

I had a dentist appointment and the hygenist was snooty in her lecture on the need to floss daily. But my Dad did a great job keeping both the children!

After a long conversation with a friend last night (thanks Janel!) I felt pumped up to be really consistent in discipling (ie training) Aliza. We tackled high pitched squealing today with time out as the consequence. She was in time out 3 times in a row and then tested me again in the late afternoon while I was feeding Josiah. Yes, I put Josiah down. He screamed and Aliza was in time out. She got the message.

Josiah didn't sleep more than 1/2 hour at a time today.

By supper time I was doubly exhausted and needed Aliza to be still. So I packed them up and headed to Chick-fil-A drive through to pick up supper. That backfired. The drive through line was really long and Josiah screamed whenever the car was not in motion.

When I was ready to leave for Chick-fil-A Aliza put her boots on by herself! One small step towards independence.

I had a great picture of us putting Aliza's favorite puzzle together, but I deleted it without meaning to. Maybe I'll get another one tomorrow.

Well, maybe it doesn't look so bad written down, but believe me, it was a difficult day! I'm glad it's over. Good night!!

Josiah--5 Weeks

Josiah was 5 weeks old yesterday. His little cheeks are all filled out. I was trying to catch one of those cute reflexive smiles today. My camera is too slow, but I almost got one. =)

In the first picture Jeremy was talking to him and he cooed for the first time. I call them happy noises (I guess because they make me happy).

The Best Feeling

The thing I love most about Jeremy being his own boss is that some mornings he can go to work late just because. Today was one of those mornings. It was 9am and all 4 of us were cuddled up together in our bed. That is the best feeling in the world.

It was a doubly good feeling because Josiah slept from 9pm-6:45am!!! Hopefully it is a trend, but at this point it could very easily be a fluke. But we increased his bottle from 4oz to 5oz last night and it did the trick. Josiah is one hungry, growing little boy.

Leave Jeremy a Comment

Apparently I have not followed blogging etiquette. I did not put a link to Jeremy's blog on my list....not because I don't think he is important. So boost his ego a bit by leaving a comment at http://jheslop.com

I'm also accused of not appreciating his facebook profile. If your husband had an application on his phone where he received immediate updates from facebook (which is almost constant) and he reads and responds to them all the time....would you appreciate his facebook???

On the Town with Two

I've had a terrible cold this week. I don't know if it's really cold or related to high amounts of pollen in the air. All I know is that I'm miserable. I called in sick at the 5:30am feeding this morning. Thankfully Jeremy is understanding even when he doesn't feel very good either.

But, alas, a cold didn't stop Josiah from needing formula so yesterday I made my first solo trip to Wal-Mart. And today I took them to play at the mall with Elizabeth and Aiden. Today was the first time I loaded them in the new stroller for two. It took forever. I'm sure I'll get more efficient. I almost ended up in a bad situation when I had them both back in the car to leave and couldn't figure out how to fold up the stroller. I tried to call Jeremy, but he wasn't available (he later admitted to ignoring my phone call...) so I had to be independent and figure the thing out.

Josiah is wide awake...we are wishing he was asleep.....it's getting late.