Noah & Moses

We bought this Noah's Ark set for Jack the other day at an antique store. The lady claimed that it had been hand-carved in Africa. Not sure if that part is totally true but nonetheless Jack has a lot of fun picking up all the animal pairs and carrying them all throughout the house. I sat down with Jack and was explaining what each animal was and who Noah was. He looked up at me with such an intense interest, it amazes me how he really acts like he understands what I'm saying sometimes. I wonder how much he really understood. One minor mistake of mine was lifting up the Noah character and falsely telling Jack, "This is Moses". Luckily, Michael was sitting close by and quickly corrected me with "Noah". Oops. :\ Maybe I need to reread my Bible stories.

I've been thinking a lot this week about raising Jack up to be a man after God's own heart. One verse that I read this week is Colossians 2:8.

"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy , which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ."

There are so many opinions and family traditions based on what this world sees as good and right. Are the values of my home based on human tradition & the basic principles of this world or on Christ?

Jack turns 1!

We celebrated Jack's birthday last weekend with family & friends. Cupcakes, presents, playing with cousins. I don't think Jack could of asked for anything better!

The night before his birthday (June 10th), I lay awake remembering how I felt a year ago before his arrival. Our experience was a little different in that we knew we were going to have a baby at 7am on June 11th because of a planned c-section. Yeah, if I could not have had a c-section I wouldn't have. Jack had flipped upside down in the last few weeks of pregnancy, somewhere between 37-39 weeks. We tried to go in and get an external cephalic version, where the doctor manually tries to flip him around by use of hands & extreme tugging. Let's just say that Jack did not want to move and it was extremely painful trying to get him to do so! He was 8 lbs. 40z and would not budge. So we proceeded with a c-section.

I lay in bed remembering June 10th. I had no idea how much my life would change. I didn't know how many sleepless nights I would have. I didn't know how hard and trying it would be to be a parent. I didn't know how many dirty diapers I would change, owies I would kiss, songs I would sing, smiles I would cherish. I had NO idea how much love I would have for my little man. He is truly one of the best gifts of God's grace I could ever have. He has softened my heart, challenged me and forced me in many ways to turn to the Lord for strength.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17.

I think any parent can attest to this scripture. At least most days. :)

Exploring the Unknown

The season has arrived when Jack finds great happiness in opening every drawer, cabinet, box or trash can. It started off slow but now we are in full-on baby-proofing mode. I bought a few boxes of cabinet locks and proceeded to try to attach them myself. 2 hours later, I finished with one of our entertainment center drawers (the one where Jack seems to slam his fingers into daily). And yes, you did read that right, 2 hours! Let's just say that we now have about 5 extra drill holes in the drawer. Oops. And I found out afterward that I baby-proofed it so well that it is now ADULT-proofed because we can no longer open the drawer. Oh well, we don't watch any of our movies that much anyway.

The one area where we decided to not put any locks on the cabinets is in the bathroom. We figured we can just keep the door shut. Well, this works, except for when someone forgets to close the door or when we need to use the bathroom. For example, this morning I needed to get in there to grab a ponytail holder and the minute, I mean the MINUTE, I open that door Jack comes sprint-crawling across the living room yelling with excitement to get in there. The absolute joy he finds in throwing open the cabinet doors and grabbing our toothpaste, soap, brushes, feminine products (ahem, sorry) and other toiletry items is incredible. He doesn't really do anything with them except throw them across the room and make a huge mess. I was thinking about it this morning and I thought it must be like opening presents or exploring the unknown. Shoot, if I was him, I would probably enjoy pulling floss out of the box too!

Happiness can be found in the smallest of things. That is the lesson I have learned today.