Saturday, September 24, 2011

Apples, 2011

Lydia's been getting more and more into playing little games like Hide-N-Seek and Peek-A-Boo. In this photo, she kept peeking out from behind the bannister while Jenn was working in the office.

We've been experiencing our first wave of real, genuine tantrums. The kind that involve screaming, thrashing, hitting and the like. There have been three over the last three days, and while there are points during the events where we want to actually laugh, when viewed in total, they're kind of scary. It's unbelievable to think that a 3-and-a-half year-old boy could have so much disturbing behavior wrapped up in him. For those who want to argue that we're not sinners, than man is not a fallen creature, I point to the toddler tantrum-thrower to show that all humans have a dark, dark side to them. Jenn and I are in the process of learning how to manage and curb these episodes. Hopefully they're just a phase.

Today was our annual apple picking day. It turned out to be a great weather day, and Lincoln had a blast picking apples and he even got to eat one right off the tree! Our plan for the after-nap portion of the day is to make applesauce and an apple pie. This combined with the Apple Pie Donut he had at the orchard ought to cap a good day of treats for Lincoln.



Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Monarch

The butterfly emerged! Metamorphosis is amazing.




Thursday, September 15, 2011

Swimming with Noodle

We crammed a lot into our Wednesday yesterday. Lincoln had his second swimming lesson of this round, and he was awesome. In fact, he was the only one in his class that showed up, so he effectively had a private swimming lesson. This meant that he had to stay on task the whole time, and it meant the he was pretty darn tired by the end.


Then we went to the Akron Zoo! The kids took good naps during the afternoon.

Last weekend was a fun time. Grandpa Doug, Lincoln and I went down to Leesville Lake to do a few odds and ends, but it turns out it was just a way to get me out of the house so a bunch of friends could come over and give me a big surprise when I got home. It was a very neat time, and Jenn put a lot of thought and love into the event. BBQ Pulled Pork and two cheesecakes were on hand and we all had a great time.
On Sunday we hiked the Cross Country Trail at Kendall Lake. It's amazing how green everything is in mid-September. In the bottom right photo, Lincoln is standing in front of the Mossy Log. It's almost completely overgrown!

Friday, September 9, 2011

Monday, September 5, 2011

Chrysalis Forms


We were certainly given the caterpiller in the nick of time. Sometime between 9:00am and 11:30am he shrunk down, dropped something from his head and formed his chrysalis. Metamorphosis is amazing. It's a good thing he evolved that way. (/sarc)
Lincoln was a good helper for me as we cleaned up the basement today. He put all of his toys away without any complaining, and he even wanted to help with the sweeping.

Then tonight he had a bubble bath. Lydia was fascinated with seeing Lincoln emerge from the bubbles completely covered by them and she hasn't stayed in one spot like that since she started crawling.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Lincoln Goes to Blossom to see Bugs Bunny!

Lydia is saying words. That's right. I mentioned "bye-bye" in a previous post, and she's added "dog," an occasional "da-da," and this evening after Jenn always finishes her Goodnight Moon story time with, "Night-night, Moon," Lydia pointed to the book and let out a "nie moo." Jenn and I were independently thinking that she knows many words in her mind, the limiting factor is just getting them out. Once she figures out how to form the words, we're anticipating a verbal explosion. Time will tell.

Last night was Lincoln's latest night ever as Jenn and I took him to Bugs Bunny Goes To The Symphony at Blossom Music Center. Jenn and I have been to this show a couple of times now, and after showing Lincoln some old Looney Tunes over the past couple of weeks, we felt he was ready for the big time. He had a blast! We stayed for the whole thing, even the fireworks at the end, and he got to bed around 11:30pm. Yikes! The orchesray played the score for "The Rabbit of Seville," "What's Opera, Doc!" and many others. This is the second show we've seen at Blossom where the orchestra played the score for a motion picture, and Jenn and I decided that we'd go to see just about any movie if the orchestra played along with it. They're simply fantastic.
Today I put the ladder on Lincoln's bunk bed. We decided that he's a careful enough kid that he could handle it. He's gained a ton of confidence even today on the ladder. Honestly, it's Lydia that we'll have to worry about... she's a crazy climber already! Anyway, he looks like such a big boy climbing the ladder. It was one of those, "Our son is growing up!" moments for Jenn and me.

Katie Ruhl, a friend of my parents and a member of their church and small group, had a Monarch Butterfly caterpiller that she wanted to give to us so we could see it form its chrysalis and emerge into a butterfly. My first response had little to do with the butterfly. It was, "My goodness, my parents have such good friends that they think of the grandkids of their friends. How cool is that?" Then I thought about the caterpiller and the fact that I hope we don't kill it, and how cool will it be for Lincoln to see what will come, and I hope I can get some good photos of it. So here he is now...
I'm not sure if I mentioned it in a previous post, but our home study was approved, and now we're in the immigration-phase. This takes a while, so we're in a holding pattern. No big deal, it's just the way it is. We continually pray for "our baby in China" and that "God will prepare our home for the day the baby comes to live with us." Feel free to join us in this prayer.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Rainbow

We payed a visit to Szalay's today to pick up some fruit and corn. We can measure Lincoln against the John Deeres!

Flashback 2010:
I didn't think Lydia would turn out to be as good of an eater as Lincoln was at this stage, especially with the way she started out, but she's been very, very impressive with both her wide array of tastes and with the way that she picks up bites individually and chews them (usually) one at a time.