Luke dancing to Pete's b-boxing

A good weekend

This has been a good weekend. The kind that makes you sigh . . . when you have a free minute to sit down. Here's ten reasons why (in order of importance):
1. Ben started clapping today. (That's exciting news because the dr. is worried about him being further behind than he should be even as a preemie, and bringing his hands together is a milestone.)
2. Greg gave up some relaxation time to support me in my goals to exercise and get more sleep.
3. I exercised Friday and today. (I walked to Blockbuster today -- killed two birds with one stone!)
4. I got to take 2 2-hour naps. (Greg let me sleep instead of waking me up when he was supposed to.)
5. Heather is finally done with her volleyball season at Covenant, so she can hang out again in the evenings. They came over for dinner on Saturday.
6. Greg was off so we had the weekend together.
7. Greg bought me eggnog at Wal-mart! (He said, "I was going to buy you flowers, but I thought you'd appreciate this more.)
8. We actually finished a book in my Bible Study. (first time ever!)
9. Greg took the dogs to the vet and went to the grocery store -- usually my jobs.
10. Greg fixed the hot tub, all by himself -- I'm very proud.
Sigh . . .

Luke's pet peeve

Luke HATES to get a hair stuck in/on his hand. He yells "HAIR!" in a very whiney, loud voice until you get it off. I can't usually figure out what he's saying at first because it sounds like "here."

Tonight when he was in the bath I told him that tomorrow we are going to see Granmama and Granpapa and Auntie, and he said, "Wanna get out," and started climbing out. I had to try to explain that we are not going to see them until tomorrow, which means after he sleeps. "Noooooo!" he said.

Halloween 2007

We had such fun tonight. Luke, Ben, and I went over Alli's after I got home from work. We ordered pizza and put the boys in their costumes. Fuller was the man in the yellow hat.
Peter and Janet came over and Peter took Luke trick-or-treating with Damon and Fuller while Janet, Ben and I hung out with Alli, passing out candy. We weren't sure Luke would go happily or stay happy on the road, but he did!

This third picture is last year when we went to Alli's house too, but Luke was too little to trick-or-treat back then.

life nowadays

I have not been able to quite get back in the swing of things since we got back from Canada. I haven't been posting on my blog or reading anyone else's blog either. I've also been trying to go to bed earlier which doesn't leave me as much free time for stuff like that. I had been going to bed at midnight or later, and it's finally catching up to me -- I don't have the energy to do anything and have not been in a great mood. I've been aiming for Greg's suggestion: bed at 10 o'clock!

First entry for reading list

I started a new blog: childrensreadinglist.blogspot.com. The first book is Baby Loves.

Enjoying Reading with Luke

Luke has really started to enjoy stories. He will actually sit and listen to quite a long story. I'd kind of like to have a blog that tells what his favorite books are at which age. I may do that.

Tonight, I read him the Dr. Seuss book And to Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street. I was shocked when he listened quietly to the whole thing and then even more shocked when he asked me to read it again! I love books -- I would love it if Luke did too!

Back from Vacation

Well, we've been back from vacation for while (a week and a half), but still trying to get our lives back in order. Vacation was wonderful, but the last part with the wedding included lots of traveling, so we have been tired. British Columbia was beautiful (the picture is the view from our house there), mountains and ocean everywhere. Being with family was really wonderful too. We enjoyed staying in a house with Greg's two other siblings that have kids because our families all had the same basic needs. His parents and sister who was getting married stayed with a relative nearby. We miss them after a week of constant being together!

Luke had his 2nd birthday on Tuesday, September 25th. He's definitely growing up, doing lots of cute things. He tries to sing along with songs, his favorite being "Twinkle, twinkle little star," which he requests if I start singing something else. The other night when we tried to get him to eat his dinner, he said "it's yucky." It was hard not to laugh at that. He's started saying that one thing looks like something else he will name. He talks about 4 of his 5 cousins, including TC, Jojo, Macy, and Ella -- don't know why Aden gets left out.

The five finger prayer

I thought this was neat, especially for kids. It's called the Five Finger Prayer. I think I might use it with Luke. How To Pray

Pray for me and my toddler.

Pray for us! Luke is really trying my patience these days. A lot of the frustration comes from the fact that I don't know the best way to handle his disobedience. Each time I am required to make a decision: Is this one to ignore or discipline, and if discipline to what extent? I HATE making decisions and it stresses me out.

Luke's first football lesson

Greg and I had a date tonight and our friends Alli and Damon watched Luke and Ben. Fuller is not quite a year older than Luke and they love to play together. Check out the video Damon made of Fuller and Luke "playing football."

To the aquarium

Yesterday, Greg's parents came up to visit and go to the aquarium with us. Greg got me a family membership to the aquarium for my birthday. Luke really enjoyed looking at the "fishies" and we had a wonderful time with Grampapa and Gramama.

Greg's mom also brought a whole bunch of clothes for Luke for his birthday. Today he had on one of the outfits. He heard me tell someone else that he got it for his birthday (which is not until Sept. 25th) and he started saying to everyone "Happy Birthday to you." Greg taught him that on my birthday and he loves to say it. Of course, I think it's absolutely adorably funny and cute.

Happy Birthday to me!

Greg made my birthday very special. He made me cards from the boys, complete with coloring from Luke and a handprint from Ben. He planned a surprise party where friends and family met us at Kanpai for dinner. I love Kanpai, but it's a sacrifice for Greg to take me there because while he enjoys the taste of the food, he doesn't so much like the way it makes him feel. Janet made a cake and the family came back to our house for cake and ice cream. Luke called to say Happy Birthday and then the family commenced with our Herron birthday tradition of telling the birthday boy/girl what they appreciate about them. It was all very nice and I feel special and loved! Click here to see Alli's pictures.

The grief dive-bomber hits

Tonight, I am missing my mom. My birthday looms and a couple wonderful moms at work have been so involved lately with their daughters having babies. One mom will be out tomorrow because her daughter will be giving birth, and the other one was out today to go to a doctor's appointment with her daughter for her grandson. I sure do wish my mom was around to do some of those things, and especially to be so emotionally involved in relationship with me and my children.

I have to thank the Lord for a wonderful sister, supportive friends, and stand-in moms who take her place in such amazing ways, but I still miss her lots.

The title is an allusion to C.S. Lewis' writings in A Grief Observed where he describes grief as a dive bomber that stays away for a while and then hits with great force all at once.

Luke's new bed

Luke is SOOOOO excited about his "new" bed. Greg took the crib rail off this weekend and put up the toddler bed rail. Luke can now climb in and out of his bed by himself. He's done fine at night staying in it, but this afternoon, I went in their room during naptime because Ben was crying and found Luke in Ben's crib with about four toys trying to make Ben play with them. That was a little frightening, because Luke has no sense that he shouldn't crawl right on top of Ben, kneel on him, whatever is necessary to accomplish his goal. I put the side of Ben's crib all the way, so hopefully that won't happen again!

Me and my boys

Luke is doing such a great job of feeling confident in the pool with his water wings on. What's scary is when he takes them off! Ben sat up by himself today for a few minutes -- that was a first. Can't wait until we can walk away and leave him there!

Ben is eating "solids" and sitting up

Well, Ben ate "solid" food today for the first time. It was hardly solid, just breast milk added to the rice cereal. Actually, more like having some rice cereal with his milk. He seemed to enjoy it well enough. He's also able to sit up by himself for a little while. We can't leave him and walk away yet, but he's getting better!

Word

So the latest meme sweeping the blogosphere is the One Word Meme. Alli tagged me, and this is my first meme ever.

1. Where is your cell phone? Dunno

2. Relationship? Sanctifiying

3. Your hair? Red

4. Work? part-time

5. Your sister? Awesome

6. Your favorite thing? Pool

7. Your dream last night? None

8. Your favorite drink? Vanillacoke

9. Your dream car? Paid

10. The room you’re in? TV

11. Your shoes? Teva

12. Your fears? Pain

13. What do you want to be in 10 years? Surrounded

14. Who did you hang out with this weekend? Taylors

15. What are you not good at? Selling

16. Muffin? Chocolate

17. One of your wish list items? Babysitter

18. Where you grew up? Africa

19. Last thing you did? Pictures

20. What are you wearing? Shorts

21. What aren’t you wearing? Ring

22. Your pet? Cutest

23. Your computer? Addicted

24. Your life? Fulfilling

25. Your mood? Up

26. Missing? Husband

27. What are you thinking about right now? Approval

28. Your car? Van

29. Your kitchen? Outdated

30. Your summer? Short

31. Your favorite color? Eyes

32. Last time you laughed? Tonight?

33. Last time you cried? Today?

34. School? Finished!

35. Love? Unbelievable

I get to tag someone, so I pick Luc Herron, Lyds and Mama Cobb.

Ben rolled over to sleep on his tummy.

This afternoon, Ben rolled over to sleep on his tummy for the first time. He slept and slept too! I finally woke him up because I had put him down about 5:30 and at 8:00 he was still sleeping. I didn't want him to sleep through the night starting at 5:30, that's for darn sure!

Face Time

Can I tell you how awesome it feels to walk in the door from work and have my husband turn off the TV to talk to me!

Greg and I decided when we went to the Boathouse for our anniversary (yummy restaurant) that we would try to institute 10 minutes a day of "face time" now that I'm back at work, since we see each other so little on those days. We had a few rough days at first, because we didn’t have a set time for it, and I was asking him about when we could do it and he was getting annoyed. I imagine it felt somewhat like a parent reminding a child to complete their chores!

Heather had the brilliant idea to set a time. I had to e-mail Greg about that since I didn’t get to talk to him about it (the next time I would see him was the next day in the 30 minutes between when I got home from work and he left -- not great timing, and it would be the same for the next few days, which is why we needed this in the first place!) I didn’t have a chance for him to e-mail me back because the next day he turned off the TV at the time I suggested, we talked about other things first, and then talked a little more about the face time. It’s definitely better now and today it was so wonderful to walk in the door and have the TV go off and Greg seem to enjoy talking with me. I had no idea how much I was missing that time with him with this schedule of ours! Husbands, I highly recommend it, as I am a happy wife!