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on t over feed her sometimes she won t stop and it all ends up coming back up and until we see it again we have no idea how much she s eaten i know sick but she can eat as much or more than luke some days even with that she still only weighs 15lbs 12oz i think it s the 5 th percentile or so she lost alot while she was sick i think just a qualifier the video you are about to see is not pretty she has bed head and was seriously getting after the food posted by david and melody at 10 57 pm 0 comments saturday may 1 2010 luke s lovely singing luke loves to sing he loves music on easter we played christ the lord is risen today and he sang it for weeks afterward we got it on video below his alleluia is pretty good the second song he is singing is one that i sing to haydn when i put her to bed he hasn t heard much of that song so he doesn t know all of the words yet no matter he s still stinkin cute disclaimer don t mind my mom heckling me in the background she s always on me about not posting to the blog so here you go mom ppttthhhh posted by david and melody at 12 41 am 0 comments thursday march 25 2010 7 months our sweet sister s smile i don t know how i got this shot it s hilarious to me though it s alot like the matthew face she makes my cousin matthew she was only a few minutes old and my sister is telling me that she looks like matthew i love it i ll post a picture one day and maybe you ll agree yes haydn grace is 7 months old can you believe it she is such a happy laid back baby she rarely cries or gets fussy her favorite past time is watching luke she loves to watch him dance and laughs at him the entire time he loves to entertain her it is so great to watch them love each other because i know the fights will come but it is pretty sweet now she is crawling and has been for at least 3 weeks she pulls up to her knees in her crib so we ve had to lower it the child is very mobile and does not like to sit in my lap for long luke would sit and read with me for hours but then again he was late on mobility maybe that s my fault for holding him so much glad i did because he won t allow it now she still is not sitting up unassisted though it s crazy to me that she can crawl and pull up but not sit up the pictures above look kind of funny because she is on her belly i tried to sit her up and she just toppled over onto her face spectators thought i was a terrible mom i m sure but she seriously does not get upset at anything we think and hope that she has david s grandmother s personality very easy going we all know it s not my personality we call her our watcher she s an observer and just watches everything and takes it all in she rarely laughs but when she does it is so cute it s not a belly laugh just a cackle luke is good at bringing out the cackle but i can pull it out with a little game of peek a boo just to let you in on her sweetness a few months ago she started opening her mouth right on our cheek it s a little early for kissing but she loves smooches her first sounds are starting to come out she says da da da da and ba ba ba ba i just taught her to clap on my hand when i sing clap clap clap clap clap clap haydn likes to clap clap clap she loves to eat but only wants what we are eating she is so over the pureed food she wants texture and flavor she loves veggies and isn t big on fruit i was like this when she is hungry we all know it because she makes this spitting noise with her mouth i videoed it and will post it soon she is such a joyful child and smiles at everyone i love this about her we are so very grateful for our sweet haydn grace happy 7 months sweet girl can t wait to see what next month brings david s grandmother is 96 years old and occasionally has some dementia episodes a few years back she would randomly point out a person to david s mom or aunt and say that man over there is a watcher apparently she thinks that there is a conspiracy with the government and they place watchers around to keep tabs on people we laugh when she says this and now we have our own little watcher hopefully she won t report back to the government the ongoings of our home ha posted by david and melody at 2 51 pm 4 comments thursday december 17 2009 thinker today luke looked at me and said mommy i think i m going to put my hand on my chin like this insert example see picture above and think you go right ahead luke go right ahead where does he come up with this stuff posted by david and melody at 12 09 am 0 comments tuesday december 15 2009 attached luke s imagination is wild some times it s very fun to watch him come up with something or add to a memory lately he s been saying he s attached to something and can t come to us when we call him because he s stuck or attached stinker anything so that he doesn t have to obey this was a conversation in home depot the other day daddy come on luke luke i can t i m attached daddy attached luke ya to this sticker one of those floor advertisement things luke uhhhh uh uhhhh uh uhhhh uh the noise you make when you are trying to get unstuck uhhhh uh there we go there we go i m free let s go daddy crazy kid we love you posted by david and melody at 12 08 pm 1 comments sunday december 13 2009 santa well this is the year where the rubber meets the road when it comes to santa and secular ideological christmas i didn t expect it to hit me this hard all of a sudden i ve been questioning the whole santa thing and wondering how we should handle it i didn t have a problem last year at all we drug him to an awesome santa in chicago and sat him on his knee screaming for some reason this year is different maybe it is because he s older and the disciplining training teaching is in full swing we are trying our best to point to christ in everything we do with the kids so that one day they will come to know and love him as we do we fail miserably some days but god s grace is good and his mercies are new each morning we are just regular parents doing our best to raise our sweet children to one day know him by his grace alone they are saved and he has called us to lead them to him thus our santa dilemma begins david and i both grew up going to church and living in christian homes i can say that jesus was talked about here and there on sundays christmas and easter etc it rarely came into practice with discipline or other aspects of daily life we didn t have family worship or devotional time just mainstream christian broken homes this is not to say that they way we were raised was inherently wrong it is what it is the more we learn about the sacrifice of our savior and the glory that we are supposed to bring to him in our daily life and raising our children we begin to see a bigger picture than the baptist box that we grew up in we are trying to do things a little different with luke and haydn we want every thing we teach them to point to christ i say all of this because we both grew up with santa david and i have great memories of the mysticism of christmas as children my mom did the you better be good bit but his did not he had elves bring him candy in his shoes i didn t have a chimney so santa had to show up at my grandparent s house it was presented differently but both of us have memories of it my memory of baby jesus was categorized with santa jesus was discussed year round but we both recall santa being more exciting than jesus these are my random thoughts lately i don t want to lie to my children i grew up with the santa thing and wasn t damaged by the lie my mom told me but i know people that were david and i think that maybe the people that were damaged had more of the punishment side of santa presented to them you know the you better stop that or santa s not going to bring you any presents while in the grocery store in june there is just something a little creepy about the song that says he sees you when your sleeping he knows when you re awake he knows when you ve been bad or good so be good for goodness sake seriously a big red bearded fat guy watching you all the time is kind of creepy luke is scared of santa always has been i can only imagine how he would feel if he knew that santa was going to sneak into our house when we ve baited him with cookies i doubt he d sleep the night before for example we went to breakfast with santa at the local high school with some friends saturday morning it was going to be a trial run for our real sit on santa s lap picture this thursday we walked up to the front while a friend was sitting on his lap so that luke could see that she wasn t scared we didn t say anything just let him watch he still had no desire to get in line so we played the little games that were out for the kids after each booth someone would inevitably ask have you seen santa yet luke knew what they meant so he would reply i just saw santa he s over there i would have to tell them that we haven t seen santa but he did just go see him then after about the third occurance he said i saw santa but i am not going to get in his face my kid he s something else not sure i want to put him through another year of crying on kringle s lap if our goal in parenting is to bring luke and haydn to the throne of grace and teach them about jesus so that one day by grace they will be saved then how is santa omniscient when the triune god is the true omniscient one if our goal in parenting is to bring luke and haydn to the throne of grace and teach them about jesus and the true meaning of christmas is christ s birth then where does santa fit in santa is just a character like cinderella or mickey mouse maybe we should just teach the kids the difference between fantasy and reality without saying santa isn t real just call him a character this may help in the area of other children if our kids never hear the santa isn t real verbiage then maybe they ll just play along with the rest of the world without actually believing in santa and spoiling others beliefs it s so hard to be in the world and not of it we may just skirt the issue and let him draw clues from what he sees we won t perpetuate anything or tell him anything just let him figure it out on his own a friend told me about a conversation with her 5 year old recently i liked how she handled it makenna mom is santa going to come down the chimney mom i don t know makenna what do you think makenna i think he is mom why do you think that makenna because i saw somewhere that he does that mom oh ok we may just say that he s a symbol character of hope and giving we may just teach them about who st nicolas was and why some people believe will the wonder and excitement of christmas fade if he knows that santa is just a symbol or a character during this whole thought process a sweet friend let me borrow a book called treasuring god in our traditions by noel piper she made some good points fairy tales are fun but we don t ask our children to believe them celebrating with santa and manger will postpone a child s clear understanding of what the real truth of god is it s very difficult for a young child to pick through a marble cake of part truth and part imagination to find the crumbs of reality we want our children to understand god as fully as they re able at whatever age they are so we try to avoid anything that would inhibit or distort that understanding think of how confusing it is to a literal thinking uncritical preschooler santa is so much like what we re trying all year to teach our children about god look at the attributes of santa 1 he s omniscient he sees everything you do 2 he rewards you if you are good 3 he s omnipresent at least he can be everywhere in one night 4 he gives you good gifts 5 he s the most famous old man in the sky figure at the deeper level that young children can t comprehend yet he is not like god at all for example does santa really care if we re bad or good think of the most awful kid you can remember did he or she ever not get gifts from santa what about santa spying and then rewarding you if you are good enough that s not the way god operates he gave us his gift his son even though we weren t good at all god shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners christ died for us romans 5 8 he gave his gift to us to make us good not because we had proved ourselves good enough helping our children understand god as much as they re able at whatever age they are is our primary goal i think children are glad to realize that their parents who live with them all year and know all the worst things about them still show their love at christmas isn t that better than a funny old make believe man that drops in once a year i am not saying that we know the right answer yet or that we are even on the right track we are just trying to figure out what is right for us i guess that is all you can do luckily we have one more year before luke is old enough to truly understand so we will use that time to really pray about and decide how our family wants to handle jolly ol st nick any thoughts out there any book suggestions you may not agree with this post and that is fine it is more of a way for me to try to work through our struggle with santa feel free to post your comments but be nice wink wink and remember that we are merely trying to do what we think is best for our kids we all want that for them don t we posted by david and melody at 9 05 pm 4 comments advent calendar 2009 my mom bought us the pb advent calendar this year david and i filled the pocket with activities last night we are really excited to countdown to christmas with fun daily traditions this is what we are planning thus far december 1 neighborhood christmas tree lighting and hay ride december 2 buy and make christmas granola december 3 parade of lights december 4 go shopping for daddy s christmas present december 5 put ornaments on the trees december 6 nativity night put them out and read the story from the jesus storybook bible december 7 wrap presents and make homemade marshmallows december 8 watch the jesus series christmas movie with hot cocoa marshmallows the best cocoa ever december 9 sing christmas carols in the tub december 10 make sweetie cookies december 11 gingerbread house december 12 breakfast with santa at the local hs he won t sit on his lap but loved the games december 13 christmas horse and carriage ride december 14 go shopping for mommy s christmas present december 15 have a fire in the fire place and watch the boz christmas movie december 16 buy christmas presents for a needy family our teachers at school december 17 make gingerbread cookies angel visits mary luke 1 26 28 december 18 make rice krispy trees december 19 watch the best christmas pageant ever and eat popcorn december 20 daddy s birthday dinner december 21 read christmas books and drink eggnog not spiked ha december 22 make christmas cookies with aunt donna and kids december 23 drive around and look at christmas lights december 24 church and make happy birthday jesus cake open pjs christmas day open prese...