When she sleeps
while she’s eating,
my heart melts
and I yawn.

When she sleeps
while she’s sitting up,
my heart melts
and my back aches.

When she sleeps
with her hands raised,
my heart melts
and my fingers go numb.

And then she’s awake
and my heart is still melting
and I can’t help but smile
and stare at this little beauty.

In other non-melting news, she’s crawling!

Pre-grass:

With grass (and holy hosta growth!):

Pre:

With:

It’s Kentucky Blue Grass, if you care, which if your little piggies were
to touch this grass, you would care. It’s toe indulgence at its finest.

As I was deleting pictures off my phone, I found these from the day the
landscapers worked their tails off.

They dug; we stared.
They scraped; we marched.
They sweated; we snacked.
They lifted; we sat in piles of newspapers.

Even more grateful for their work now that we can play in the green.

When I took the Meyers-Briggs personality test, I came out as an E (extrovert). Not a partial E, not a mostly E, a straight-up-nothing-else-in-there Extrovert. Big surprise, right? James actually used to be a big extrovert as well (truly a surprise now!). He’s mellowed out quite a bit since college, but either way, Corban’s got the E gene too. He knows no stranger. His main goal anywhere we go is to speak and be heard. If someone is too busy or weirded out to reply to his incessant hellos, he’ll look at me: “Mommy, I say hi. I say hi uh-den (again).” When we sit on our front step to paint the sidewalk and people walk by, he demands their attention with his loud HI’s. In that environment, he is often greeted with a smile and hello, and let me tell you he grabs hold of that opportunity to tell them his life story! “HEYO!” “Hi there.” “I paintin da sidewalk. I usin chalk. I paintin. It’s su pooosed to rain. Den I ride my bike. (looks at me, no breath) Mommy, I say I paintin da sidewalk and I usin chalk. I say it’s su poooosed to rain. Den I ride my bike. I so nice, Mommy; I say hi. *looks around* Mommy, where da peepu (people)? I tant see da peepu!” Yeah, sorry, darling, I think they’ve already made it to the next block.

But you know what’s so great about his personality (and really, babies in general)? I’m forced into conversations and even some full-out relationships because of it! God has already used this little guy to encourage others with his friendliness, to slow me down to listen to others (although listening to the woman who called him The Jesus Baby was a little weird), to introduce me to those who desperately need prayer right now, and I’m sure more. We love how much he loves people, and we pray that God will use that heart in mighty compassionate ways in his future.

Corban recognizes places and products. He knows Owens and Walmart and Martins and Menards and gas stations and church and Drew’s house and Aiden’s house and Trey’s house and Reef’s house and the library and the park and the new park by the lake and and and! He also knows when we pull up to a drive-thru window, fries and chicken nuggets should be ordered. Healthy eating fail. We drive by the house below on our way to Trey’s house, and every time we do, Corban says, “I see Yoz!” This way that he remembers and places things is a constant motivator to me to put what is good before his eyes. To put God’s Word and Veggie Tales and kind deeds and godly role models in his path more often than Pat the Bunny and SuperWhy and whiny, disobedient characters (who are always supposed to learn what is good at the end but the end is too late for Corban’s young mind).

Lastly, Corban is a baller. He has mad skills with balls of all kinds in shooting and dribbling and scoring and passing and spiking and serving and putting. We’re always impressed (as are those around him). It’s fun because I grew up loving sports of all most kinds; we look forward again to seeing how the Lord will use these gifts to draw Corban to Himself…and bring those around him too.

Yeah. It’s a bit of a sappy post, but it’s a good reminder to me that this child that we are raising is his own person as much as I like to think he is mine. He was created by God in his own way, and God will use him in His own way. To view him as a separate entity from myself helps me keep perspective that we are training a unique soul, not a mini-me.

Which is a total joke for those of you who know me.

Of course I’ll still be watching kids here and there.
It’s in my DNA or something.
(Is there a babysitter gene?)

Just nothing formal or consistent, which is the exciting part!

I love watching other kids throughout the week.

And doing that makes me love this time alone with my own kiddos even more.

Happy summer to my teacher friends…and those still caring for the kids of others!

Her brother Corban also loved to play with said camera, and in fact found the urge to play with it overpowering his desire to love his sister. So he swiped it right from her hands.

This made Jaeda so sad that her mom had to intervene and had Corban give it back to practice the art of sharing.

Jaeda was relieved to see her beloved camera, so like any good emotional girl, she wailed sobs of joys and I missed yous…

…and paused long enough for the camera to capture those gator tears.

Mommy gave her a tissue to wipe her face,

which elicited such a joyful countenance the camera was immediately discarded.

She glanced at Corban’s silly photo-taking antics

and went right back to her tissue.

Even his dapper Blue Steel photo op was no match for her diverted attention.

But he just felt so bad about the distress he had caused her, he lingered to hug her one last time.

But she has little idea of his brotherly care for her, as ripping tissues obviously takes priority.

And explore. Aiden always loves to explore.

“AiDEN! It’s time to paint!” says bossy, task-oriented
Corban to exploratory, free-spirited Aiden.


Back to work.

Aiden much preferred painting the dirt to the sidewalk.

Practicing his artistic modeling pose.

Enjoy this beautiful weather, y’all!

 **link to sidewalk chalk recipe**

Corban’s speech surprises me every day with his complex sentences, increasing vocabulary, and insightful daily connections. He’s now got four verses memorized, and we’ve had fun finding the ones he knows in song form, such as with Slugs and Bugs, our latest favorite songs. He’s growing well into his role as the bossy firstborn: “Calm down, Jaeda.” “Say ‘dada,’ Jaeda.” “Be gentle, Jaeda.” He’s got several books in his memory as well, so sometimes we’ll “read” in the car by quoting books back and forth (oh the unforeseen side effects of reading a book 1,000 times in 1 week). Discipline is still hard sometimes, for sure, but it doesn’t feel nearly as bad as the beginning (age 1-2 years). I sincerely believe our consistency is paying off, praise the Lord!

Oh. Just thought I’d throw in a little more happiness. I found this beauty at my mom’s Mom Barn Sale this weekend. (Seriously, think of a barn that’s highly organized with loads and loads and loads of clothes and toys and books and household goods. A thrifter’s paradise!) It’s for our re-decorated kitchen, which we were thinking of doing this fall. Paint the walls, trim, cabinets; add a backsplash; get a new rug, towels, window treatment. Wow. It’s really unfair that it takes one sentence to type what will take us hours and hours and hours of work! Well, I told James I’d put this in my kitchen box, but he said, “We have it; let’s use it!” The problem is it now makes the kitchen incomplete. With our old kettle, it was just our old one that we’re using until we redo the kitchen. But this. This is part of the new. I warned him that he has just unleashed the beast. I think he shivered as he climbed through the trash looking for our old kettle. Too late, though, poor man. So our new kitchen may be coming this fall…or this summer…or next week. We’ll see how long I can last.

Love this pic of Big Sister Abby defending the ball for Little Sister Ruthie.

Check out that stride!

Get it out, Hoopie!

Is that a goalie or is that a ninja??

We also celebrated Mother’s Day. I know moms don’t take lots of pictures with their kids,
mostly of their kids. So I wanted to be sure I had at least one!

Or two.
Wow. I can’t believe they’re from me!

Poor Hoopie happened to be between me and my camera. *snap*
She’s gonna hate this, but I happen to love it. Wispy, freckly, happy.

Aaand since we’ve only ever bought two things for Jaeda (and they were both used), we decided to splurge and buy her spring church shoes. First thing to note: totes adorbs (ugh, I vowed to never type that); second: they’re 3s…and they’re too small! And we bought ’em at a Meijer, which doesn’t open here until June! Think they’ll accept a return the first day they’re open?

Here’s a little vision feast of a slice of my folks’ property.

Find the bumblebee below.

To the back left is the bottom edge of our sledding hill.
Just call Mr. Dugan ahead of time to make sure the cows aren’t out!

Folks that drive by call it The Hotel. It sure is a beauty!
(The mower’s broken; can you tell?)
50 acres to farm and woods galore to explore.
Talk about a living room view!

Thanks for visiting with me. Living in the city now makes that country air all the more sweet
(and all the more potent!). Can’t wait for our kids to enjoy The Farm like so many before them!

As a tinkering photographer of personal spaces and faces,
I tried sun bursting for my first time.
Kinda like how it turned out!

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