So, Imanuel’s hair started getting a little long…

…and so was Micah’s (although you can’t see it in the picture)

But then his hair started falling out (-it has finally happened).  So, he was off the hook…heh heh.

Imanuel had no excuse.  It was time for the clippers to come out.

They did their job.

And here’s Daddy with the final touches…(the shaving cream on top of his head was Imanuel’s favorite part)


Here he is!  He wasn’t the happiest kid on the block, but he did pretty well after we resorted to bribery.  A yummy snack will always do the trick!

After washing up, he needed some time alone with Aroe.

They both appreciated the cuddle time.  And Aroe reassured him that he’ll survive after all…

Okay, so I decided to blog on the Mendezes’ visit with us (even though we don’t have many pictures to post as I would like!!).  It was such a HUGE blessing for them to be here.  After my brother, Justin’s baptism (March 8), we drove up together and they stayed for a week.  We don’t get much of a chance to spend time with other young families, so it was such a special treat to have them here- on so many different levels! 

First of all, the babies just brought so much joy to us.  It was so fun watching Elisa and Micah sit next to each other (especially on their bumbos) like they were old friends just passing the time.   It was also encouraging in a twisted sort of way to see that our baby wasn’t the only one with explosive #2s that would ruin an entire outfit in an instant!

Juan was such a great example and buddy for Imanuel.  First of all, Juan taught Imanuel how to pray.  Apparently Imanuel was listening intently every time Juan would pray because now he can pray by himself!  And, he says, “Dear Heavenly Father…” which is what Juan says.  Thank you, Juan!  I knew that Imanuel would have an extra hard time learning how to share, but Juan was so patient with him.  And to watch both of them “reconcile” when they had their “mine” moments was precious.  They were so sweet to each other as they would apologize and hug.  It was such an eye-opener to see that although Imanuel loved Juan so much, self was so strong that at times it would completely blind him to the fact that he was hurting Juan’s feelings.  It is just so hard for young children to think of others before themselves!  But, Kerri and I both agreed that it was such a perfect training ground for them to develop their characters…while we were there to regulate! 

Daniel and Kerri have always been such a great example of what a godly couple (and now parents) ought to be.  They’ve also inspired us to eat better and to be healthier.  We’ve always looked up to them and we know that time spent with them will always be uplifting. 

We’ll remember :
– making plans at the beginning of the week but hardly ever following them
– eating yummy meals everyday (and sending pics to Julie Klein for her virtual vacation)
– using the word “share” at least 500 times
– little/big brothers and a little sister photo shoot gone grumpy
– fitting 4 car seats, 4 kids, 3 adults, all the baby bags, and potluck food into the Mendezes’ van
– family pics on Lake Superior
– boys’ bubble baths
– Thai House Restaurant bill drama…
– and many many more (with pictures to prove it!)

If only we lived closer!    

Kerri, thank you for being such a virtuous wife and a nearly perfect mother!    You inspire me by your gentle and patient spirit and I believe I am a better mother because of you!  You have taught me so much, especially by your actions.  Thank you for the many conversations that we were able to squeeze in between the feedings, changings, worships, baths, playing…etc.etc. 

Daniel, what can I say?  You’ve successfully taught Juan Spanish!  🙂  But much more than that, you have such love and care for your wife and children (and us).  We appreciate your friendship so much (even if you keep trying to convince Israel to buy the entire line of Apple products…) and our kids are so fortunate to have such a fun-loving, sensitive, and intelligent uncle like you (who will teach them Spanish…??).

Praise God for friends that He puts into our lives to inspire, influence, and embolden us to be better Christians.

[right here would be the perfect place for the pic of the Mendez family that we took on Lake Superior]

During this worship, the boys decided to hold hands.

Uncle Daniel was able to get Micah to smile for the camera!

This was after a bubble-bath that they had!  They were staying warm in Micah’s bedroom.

By faith, there’ll be more pictures to come!  We love you guys!

Yesterday, Micah had his first taste of solid food…rice cereal.
 

He was filled with anticipation.  He had his game face on.

Manu helped his amateur kid brother put a bib on and picked out the spoon.

And he gave him his first few spoonfuls.

The verdict:  A Smashing Success!  He downed all of it!  🙂  AND, that night he still slept through the night even though I skipped his last meal.   The plan worked!

This afternoon, the boys got to sport the latest gifts they got while we were at the Minneapolis airport.  They will wear it on Friday evenings, (which in our house is Korean-vegetarian-sushi night).

Imanuel loves his Sabbath/Manu rolls!
*And the answer about the Manu roll – we pre-chop up all of the veggies inside his roll (as opposed to the long strips) so it’s easier for him to chew them.

Today, Daddy requested a double-decker Sabbath roll…

Micah likes his rolls processed (by yours truly).  We also started putting him in the exer-saucer so he can start exercising! 

So much has gone on since we came back from Florida! 

We had the Mendezes over for a week which was tons of fun!  We hope to post on it once we get some pics from Tio Danny.  But considering the fact that we still haven’t received pics from IMANUEL’S baby shower, we may post on their visit in a couple of years.  🙂

We also just came back from ACTS for Christ which was in Vancouver.  That was a fun trip as well.  Imanuel got to spend time with his buddy, Moriah Rosario and even learned her language!  No joke, he will bust out in this special tongue at least once a day and he sounds just like her!  Then he will say, “Baby Moriah talking.”  LOL.  Anyhow, it was nice spending time with the Rosarios, the Radiant Living peeps (Alisha, Melanie, Danielle, Jacqueline), Valmy, the Conways, the Meyers and others.  The meetings were such a blessing too.  I just wish we would have taken our camera (and that Jen was there – how sad)! 

Anyhow, we’re back now to the snowy U.P.   The good news is that I believe the melt-down is starting.   I cannot wait to be able to go outside with the kids.  We were just talking about how Imanuel will now be old/big enough to play in the tree house.  It’ll be a lot of fun.  Well, that’s all for now. 

Have a happy Sabbath everyone!  

The trip to our vacation started last Sabbath afternoon as we drove to Camp Sagola for the U.P.’s E-Zone Praise Report.  This was Israel’s first time attending since he was out of town during last year’s.  We had our car packed up since we wouldn’t be going back home for the next two weeks.  Israel invited some students from Tech to share how the campus ministry is going.  (BTW, they are now an official student organization!  Campus HOPE – Michigan Tech!  God is good…)  Well, good thing he invited them, because if he didn’t, it would have been an absolute disaster.  All of the other pastors had prepared Powerpoint presentations complete with statistics on their church(es) growth, goals for the next year, and updates on everything the church had been doing for evangelism for the next three years.  Oh yeah, and all of the pastors brought their church board members.  Israel didn’t prepare anything, nor did any of his board members come.  He was planning on just winging-it.  LOL.  So~, the students being there helped, although, Israel was still so nervous that he forgot to call on 2 of them.  Basically, they drove the 1.5 hours there to simply stand up in the front!  Despite all of that, God did bless the presentation and many people were excited about what is happening up in the Keweenaw. 

To make a long story short, by the next day, we drove down to Detroit and spent the night at my parents’ house.  On Monday afternoon, our flight took off to Orlando.  Israel had Imanuel on his lap (in first class- he got upgraded) and I had Micah on my lap.  (This was the last trip where Imanuel is under 2 – no more free flights for him!)  It wasn’t too bad.  Both kids took good naps on the plane and the flight was less than 3 hours.  We got to warm, sunny Florida and it was great.

The weather has been a bit fickle, however.  We’ve had to turn on both the air-con and the heater during our stay so far.  But we’re definitely not complaining!  It has been so beautiful to see flowers, non-frozen ponds, different species of birds (-not just crows), and green grass all around us.  It has made me think of heaven on more than one occasion. 

We’ve gone to some fun places so far.  We arrived on Monday and just settled ourselves in at our new home for the week.  It happens to be a nice timeshare-community called Oak Plantation Villas.  We found it at cheaptickets.com for a super-cheap price.  It’s basically a one-bedroom apartment complete with full kitchen, living room, washer/dryer, and full bath.  It’s surrounded by walking trails, lots of activities for kids, Internet access, and 3 pools.  We were pleasantly surprised.
 

The next day, Tuesday, was Israel’s birthday.  Now, to be perfectly honest, both of us completely forgot.  I felt horrible.  (So, I decided that we would celebrate his birthday on Wednesday.)  Anyhow, we spent the afternoon at Gatorland with the alligators.  (The good thing for all of the attractions that we got tickets for is that children under 2 are free.  So, Imanuel was able to enjoy all of the animals for free!)  Imanuel’s favorite part, though, was feeding the some African yellow deer.  Go figure. 
 
 
For dinner, we met up with Stephen Row (-he’s in his last year of law
school at UF) at a Thai Restaurant.  He came over afterwards and it was
nice chilling with him and talking politics.  (We watched the
democratic debate.)

On Wednesday, we celebrated Israel’s birthday with a cake and we did whatever he wanted to do.  And that happened to be going shopping at the outlet malls that were just a few miles away.  We went to the Converse outlet store and he wanted all of us to get matching pairs of Chuck Taylor’s.  I agreed, but the stipulation was that they all had to be from the clearance section.  We couldn’t find any shoe that had all of our sizes, so the boys got matching shoes and Israel and I got matching shoes.  That was fun.  🙂

Thursday was Sea World day.  We’ve been to Sea World San Diego and that was really nice.  We were expecting them to be similar, but the shows were so different!  Maybe it was because it had been a few years since we went to the one in San Diego.  Anyhow, it was nice.  The boys both took naps in their strollers so during that time it gave Israel and I a nice break.  They have this offer now that you can get a 2nd day admission free if you go within 7 days, so I think we’ll end up going on Sunday again. 

Friday.  We spend the morning tidying up our place for the Sabbath and then we hung out at the pool.  Israel and Imanuel actually went in and Imanuel got his first swimming lesson.  Micah and I just soaked up some sun.  When we got back to the room, Israel and Imanuel washed up and the boys took a nap.  Then after they woke up, we took a stroll in Downtown Disney.  We admired the amazing Lego sculptures that surrounded the Lego Store, we ate pretzels from Wetzel Pretzel, and we all shared a frozen lemonade.  Anyhow, after our walk, we went home to eat dinner and welcome in the Sabbath. 

On Sabbath morning, we spent family time together in the hotel.  Later on in the afternoon, we drove around to find a nice lake to feed some ducks and spend time outside enjoying nature.  It was a gorgeous day.  Israel mistakenly found the perfect place to do all of those things!  It was at Disney’s Caribbean Resort.  We actually had no idea where we were (except that we were on Disney property) and at the gate, the man told us that we were welcome to go in and check out the resort.  It was HUGE.  We passed through Aruba, Jamaica, Bermuda, Martinique, etc. etc…  Well, we found the perfect place for our stroll in nature.  We also found plenty of birds to feed!  We took a walk through Calypso Cay and enjoyed the exotic plants and flowers.  And imagine, we didn’t have to pay for a thing! 

After that, we went back to our humble hotel room to eat lunch and take naps.  In fact, during Israel’s nap (which he wasn’t supposed to be taking at the time), Imanuel got a hold of the baby powder and powdered the entire bedroom.  Micah was taking a nap in the living room (GOOD THING) and I was taking a bath.  When I walked in, Israel had apparently just woken up from his nap and he too was covered in baby powder and he didn’t even know it.  We have yet to decide what we’re going to do about that…

Updates on the kiddies:

Some of Manu’s new vocabulary words since we’ve been here:
Florida
Alligator Farm
swimming trunks
sunny glasses (LOL)
Micah Christian
Manu Alexander
knee cap (bc he fell and scraped it)
Chuck Taylor’s
orca whale

Manu’s best sentence he’s put together:
“Micah, don’t cry…Manu right here!”

Micah’s greatest accomplishment as of yet:
On Thursday night, he slept 12 hours at night (10pm-10am)!

We still have a couple more days to spend here so the fun doesn’t end yet.  We have really really enjoyed our stay here.  Orlando is the perfect place for families because there are so many different activities/attractions to choose from, airfare is cheap ($200 from Detroit!), AND, there are Walmarts, Targets, and plenty of yummy, affordable restaurants to choose from.  We’re thinking about making Orlando one of our vacation spots each year.

I think that’s enough updates for now.  We prayed that God would bless our plans for this vacation and we feel that He has by far exceeded our expectations!  He is faithful!  We have grown together as a family and have found the much needed peace and rest that we were looking for.   Thank you, Lord!

PS:  More pics from this trip can be found on our photo strip. 

Love from Florida,
the Ramoses

So, I can’t control the growth.  Micah is 3 months old, he weighs 20
lbs, and he is 25 inches.  Imanuel became a large baby too, but he
didn’t hit those numbers until he was around 6-7 months.  Micah is
officially wearing clothes that are for normal 1 year olds.  Do you
know how many times I had to take out and put away baby clothes in just
3 months?  Most likely not.  Here’s how it all goes down…

Before the baby is born, all of the new clothes needs to be specially
washed with baby detergent, folded, and organized by size.  Then, all
of the newborn clothes is put into the drawers or hung in the closet to
prepare for the baby’s arrival.  The larger clothes are put into boxes,
labeled by size (and seasons for places like MI), then they are left
there for the next few months until baby grows.  Typically the sizes
are as such:  Preemie, Newborn, 3-6 months, 6-9 months, 12 months,
12-18 months, 18 months, 18-24 months, 2 years…, etc.   Once you’ve
gone through one size, the process reverses.  You take the too small
clothes, wash them, and put them away in boxes…until either one of
two things happens:  You either give them away because you’ve convinced
yourself that you’re done having kids, or you keep them in hopes that
you can use them again. 

The second child requires some more work.  If you were lazy about
putting the previous child’s clothes away, there is a whole day sorting
again.  (Usually this is still during the excitement of finding out
you’re pregnant again and morning sickness hasn’t set in yet.)   This
is also the time when clothes that your previous child never wore (-
you had too much of one thing) or clothes that you didn’t like gets
given away or donated.   The size and seasons would also have to match
up. 

**  I was super-obsessive and excited about this that I literally went
through all of Imanuel’s old clothes, washed them AGAIN, and separated
them in two ways:  1) by size/season and 2) clothes that could be worn
if we had a girl.  So, the number of boxes doubled.  I mean, I should
have just waited a few more weeks to find out what we were having!  I
blame it on the hormones!  **

Anyhow, if you’re blessed to have another baby shower on top of all of
the clothes that (GRANDPARENTS,) family, and friends get you, there are
that many more clothes to wash, sort and add to the boxes.

Now, if a mother is lucky, her baby will ACTUALLY be newborn size when
he/she is born and will grow at a NORMAL rate with plenty of
opportunity to wear all of the cute clothes (and plenty of time to save
up to buy more clothes when needed).  She’ll come home from the
hospital to a nicely organized layette.

If you are Micah’s mother, your baby was in size 3-6 month at birth,
6-9 month by his 2nd month, and now as he’s reached his 3rd month of
life, he’s in 12 month clothes.  The newborn clothes weren’t even worn
and were immediately put away into boxes.  And since Micah was born,
I’ve rearranged and opened all of the boxes, including clothes that
Imanuel wore just last year (12-18 month winter clothes)!  We’re going
on a family vacation to Orlando, FL and so I’ve had to go through and
find 12 month summer clothes and 2-3 year toddler summer clothes for
both boys.  I’ve been frantically trying to make the most use of as
much of the clothes as possible.  But, it’s often been a losing
battle.  And poor Micah has been forced to try on way too many outfits
that were just too small.   

(To all the other mothers out there, please let me know if I’m accurate
with the clothes shuffle.  I think being a teacher and GYC Admin. Asst.
may have heightened my propensity to be an efficient-obsessed,
organizing-freak.  Being related to my sister probably doesn’t help
either.  But, I like to think of myself as being normal.  Of course if
it was up to the dads, I’m sure it wouldn’t be this complicated…)

So, all that to say, that Micah has not only strengthened my muscles
from being heavy (and becoming heavier too fast), he’s also helped me
practice my sorting and packing skills.  I’ve now become an expert. 
Thank you, son!

I thought it was time that I let out this.   Hopefully his growth will
plateau from now on.  But, I have this scary premonition that by next
year both of the boys are the same size.  Okay, I’m done now.  Here are
some new pics of Micah and Imanuel:

Micah is 3 months old…

Brothers – 20 months apart

PS:  After Florida, we’ll be downstate in Novi/Ann Arbor/Lansing area for (IR’s New in Ministry, Imanuel’s 2nd b-day and) Justin’s baptism!  Hopefully we’ll see many of you guys then!

Last Thursday, we braved the cold to see the snow sculptures on the campus of Michigan Tech (7 miles from our house).  The sky was perfectly clear and the sun was shining so it wasn’t THAT cold.  At least not as cold as last year – with wind chill it hit negative 40 degrees.  This year’s theme was something like, “Frightening Creatures with Chilling Features”.  Not a very appropriate theme for children, I might add…BUT, good thing Imanuel was more interested in playing in the snow.    And, the sculptures were quite magnificent nonetheless.  Here are some pics from that day:

Micah slept under a thick layer of blankets in the stroller.


The devil was even there.


We thought this one was the best that we saw.  It was Ghost Busters.  The problem was that I took this while we were driving by and cut off the best part – the life-size car was on the left side.  Both Sikhu and I thought Marshmallow Man was the Pillsbury Dough Boy at first…


These next few pics are in honor of Tio Juan who works for Monster.

Apparently in this picture, Israel thinks he IS the Monster Can.  Poor Imanuel is his victim.
 

This one was of a child’s nightmare.  It was quite scary.

This one was also very incredible.  It was about Van Helsing.  I googled it and I believe it’s based on a scary movie.

David and Goliath – and there even was a rippling brook with stones in it!  But it wasn’t that great.

Monsters!

It was a nice day to be outside. 

This week Mary and Paul Ratsara were also in the U.P. hanging out.  We had a great time with them!  They’ll be heading off to Brazil tomorrow.  Sikhu will be driving them to Minneapolis and then driving straight to Ann Arbor after that!  Please pray for all of their travels!  I think it’s supposed to snow more tomorrow too. 

 
Sikhu and Mary doing our seemingly endless pile of dishes…

Sandy, Mary, Sikhu and Paul eating one of our favorite noodles – Sapporo Ichiban Chow Mein.

It was Grandma Karen’s birthday on the 11th so we surprised her with a gourmet dinner.  🙂

Uncle Paul put Micah to sleep with his smooth dance moves…LOL

Manu had a BLAST meeting Auntie Mary and Uncle Paul and spending so much time with some of his favorite people in the U.P. – Auntie Sikhu, Auntie Alanna, and Grandma Karen.   Twas an exciting week.

And, we can’t wait ’til Daddy gets back from Texas tomorrow (actually today) because we have a special Valentine’s treat for him…

Oh my, I need to go to bed! 

So, the week’s almost up.  Israel has been at Ouachita Hills Academy/College (in Arkansas) doing a week of prayer there.  I wasn’t sure if I could handle taking care of the two kids (babies, really), the pets (Bentley, mostly) and the U.P. winter.  Well, I just have two more days to go and with some help from Alanna, Sikhu, the Lord and His angels, we made it.  And, like always, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  But, (Israel), that doesn’t mean I like doing it!  
Israel was gone during our biggest snowfall yet.  I’m not exactly sure how much we got, but we got at least a foot in a 24 hour period and that combined with high winds equaled us being snowed in.  I’m glad that Sikhu told me the storm was coming because I had
absolutely no clue.  She watched the kids for me while I made a Walmart
run to buy everything I would need for the week.  That was the last
time I left the house.  If it wasn’t for Alanna snow blowing our driveway, we wouldn’t be able to leave still!  But, we hope to make it to church tomorrow.
Micah is doing better with sleeping at night.  There was one night when he actually slept almost 9 hours.  But usually he goes 7-8 hours and then I have to rock him to sleep  until I feed him at 8am.   As for his weight gain, he’s still gaining!  I weighed him today (on our scale) and he was 19lbs.  I may end up calling our doctor to see what we should do.
Imanuel is talking more than ever.  Every day he actually surprises me with new sentences/phrases that I didn’t even know he knew how to say!  He’s a lot of fun.  His favorite things to do are play basketball (or with any balls), play with bubbles (thanks to Imo), watching his “videos”, and reading.  His favorite books right now are:  I Love My Daddy Because, I Love You As Much, Who’s My Friend, Noe y el arca, and My Bible Friends Book 2 & 4.  All of those books have animals in them.  He loves animals.
His favorite thing to eat now is – of all things – Halls.  Israel was sick the other week so he bought 2 bags of Halls.  He wanted to eat one because he saw Israel eating them and so Israel gave him one.  This week, he spotted the bag and asked for one.  I told him that it was “daddy’s” and that he would have to ask him.  So, Imanuel got on the phone and wanted to call Israel.  Pretty much almost once each day, he’s requested to call Israel so he could ask him if he could eat a Halls.  He acts like he’s a deprived child!  He loves to eat Halls, loves eating Children’s Tylenol/Motrin when he was sick, AND he thinks Micah’s nasty liquid vitamin,  Poly-vi-sol, tastes good.  Micah still gags every night when I give it to him.
Anyhow, I wanted to post up some updated pics too.  I need to end it here because Micah just woke up.  Here they are!

Imanuel and Bentley playing with bubbles.   Bentley likes to eat them.
(Imanuel is obsessed with that hat – it’s a size 6 months and it’s way too small, but he smashes it onto his head.)

Micah at almost 10 weeks.  🙂

PS:  We want to also congratulate John and Kendra on the birth of their beautiful baby girl, Madigan Joelle!  🙂  We are just so happy that everything went well.  Praise God!

At a New in Ministry meeting last year (where un-ordained boys become men [like David Shin]) Pastor Loren Nelson, our Ministerial Director (or immediate boss), talked about Sabbath traditions — things that he does with his family to welcome the Sabbath.  This was an important part of his pastoral experience.  I found out later during one of Pastor Jay Gallimore’s two visits to our place in the UP that he also had a Sabbath tradition: Teriyaki Stakes for the Nelsons, Pasta for the Gallimores.

Other friends of the fam, like GYC President Justin McNeilus and his wife Stephanie do a double tradition: Taco Dinner (passed from her side of the family on Friday) and Biscuits and Gravy Breakfast (passed from his side of the family on Sabbath).  Luke Whiting used to eat Fruity Pebbles on Sabbath when he was young.  I think Joelle had a special set of toys for the Sabbath.

Anyhow, Judy and I thought of a tradition that we could start for our family.  So that the kids could look at Sabbath as a special treat.  There have been some ups and downs to this endeavor.  The downs?  We’ve introduced drums to the worship service.  Judy (maybe it was me) got Manu some instruments for Sabbath family worship song service at our house.  And it included a drum.  We didn’t think much of it — “The drum is not a bigger sinner than the trumpet” — CD Brooks in I Want My Church Back.  Until Manu started dancing with Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho.  I think he got his dance moves from Grandma Namm.  The move is called “The fall down” and it’s a bouncey, pouncey, gettin’ down motion.
(Notice: the above comments regarding Manu’s worship experience has been written for comic value only and should not be interpreted in any way, shape, form, or sub-form as an indication of apostasy (apostasia in Greek) in his worship experience as a Seventh-day Adventist-church-dedicated baby)

On a good note…

One of our favorite Sabbath traditions is our Friday night meal.  Pastor Kevin Paulson gave us some crazy golden-gobblets for our wedding present.  They’re gold-plated.  Upon hitting some rough times (financially), we thought of selling them for mega loot cakes but resisted the temptation and held on to them.  So on Friday night, we pull them out to welcome the Sabbath together.  We also have what Manu calls “Sabbath Juice”  to go right into them.  We get the juice from World Foods in town.  It comes from some other country: Thailand, or some country in Africa maybe. 

This isn’t Mango juice.  It’s Mangue jus exotique! 

We got back the golden vessels that Neb stole from Israel.  Thanks Kevin Paulson!

Judy also invented the Sabbath Roll (I named it though).  Ingredients:  Avocado and some secret ingredients.  The Sabbath Roll is what I look forward to every week.  I eat three to four of them with some Thai hot sauce and soy sauce.  It is such a great way to start the Sabbath!  And Justin Namm, you better not be thinking of any fat jokes and comments. 

This is the Manu Roll.  I’ll give you a hundred dollars if you can guess why.  Only one guess.

The finished product.

I’m thankful for Sabbath traditions.  From great food to start the weekend to our three church preaching marathon every week, to Marv always waiting for me at the exit of our middle church to talk to me for a couple of minutes before I rush off, to our Head Elder’s long prayers, to parking across the street in the winters because of the snow in our parking lot, to sneaking in through the back at our last church and finding that Ernie left a bulletin there for me, to a nap while the kids nap to recover from the marathon, to looking forward to the next Sabbath with the family again and being sad when I miss a weekend at home. 

May the traditions continue throughout eternity with food at the tree of life and preaching marathons done by the holy men of God who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

The End.

PS: Judy’s “efficient” side kicked in and wanted to put these pics up so that she wouldn’t have to post later on….
 
 


More traditions: when I go through Amsterdam, I always get her the same flowers: Tulips.  (Guys getting flowers for girls at international airports: It’s a pain trying to clear customs with them and not all flowers get to go through… only ones purchased at certain places, so do your research.  Why do I go through all the hassle?  Take notes, fellas — that’s why I got married ahead of the class!)

At the peak of Micah’s weight outrage!  His head is bigger than Manu’s (whose legs are falling asleep and required that the photoshoot be cut short).

The new and improved “streamlined” Micah.  I erased the comment that I was gonna put regarding my expression.

Ripley’s Believe it or Not: Micah is actually wearing a turtleneck.  He’s sporting some Alice Park. 

Tom: These are not gang signs.  They are peace signs.  Manu, however, doesn’t have it right yet.  But he’s learning.  Bentley ended up killing wal-mart man (Manu loved him so much that he’s seen here [in their last picture together] sitting on him: an obvious sign of affection for a boy his age…daddy is behind him sitting on green man ball)

Hopefully he doesn’t become dependent on the swing, Judy 🙂

Since last Monday, I’ve been feeding Micah his last meal at 10pm and then waiting until 8am to feed him again.  It was a rough first few days because Micah would wake up 2-3 times (for sometimes hours at a time!) wanting to eat but I had to just hold him and give him a pacifier.  Well, I’m very happy to say that the past couple days, Micah has been sleeping 8 hours at night – from 10pm – 6am!  At 6am, I hold him and give him a pacifier.  I suppose I could have him cry it out, but it’s so sad for me to see him so hungry!  So, things are looking hopeful.  🙂  I can’t tell you how well-rested I felt after the first time he slept in until 6am.  I couldn’t even go back to sleep!   Even though Micah is 8 weeks old, it has been much longer than 8 weeks since I last slept through the night.  Pretty much the entire 9th month of my pregnancy, I was waking up to use the bathroom at least once a night.  So~, it has been a long time.  Sleep is such a blessing!

On a different note, Imanuel has been super-duper obsessed with the DVDs that LaLa got for him.  They’re by the Cedarmont and Brentwood Kids Company.  I like the content & songs – Imanuel is learning lots of Christian kids songs and he loves the ones on the zoo and the farm.  My only complaints are that I think they could have more of a message AND they were made like in the 80’s!  The kids are sporting jean shorts, hot pink skorts with flowers, the girls all have perms with poofy, curled bangs, and the zookeeper/farmer Rodney has a mullet and does back flips!  The problem is that all of the more current and newer kids videos feature kids jamming to “Christian” rock.  So, I’m thinking that we need to come up with some good Adventist message videos (& books) for kids.  It can be called GYC Kids Company.  🙂  Jen, I nominate you to be the president.  I know you have a burden for the books and you have good style.   I trust you will choose a good wardrobe manager for the kids’ outfits.  If we all combine our ideas/talents, I think we can come up with some good stuff!  Like I can donate my pets to be in the videos.  We just need to think of a song about Bentley – it can be about obedience.  🙂 

Anyway, we’re about to go to Walmart so I’ll have to herd the kids and get them ready.

Imanuel says “G’bye.”

This past Monday (yesterday), we went to Dr. Rajanee’s office for Micah’s 2 month visit.  (Thank you, Sikhu for coming with me and watching Imanuel!)  It was kind of a rough visit for him.  He had 3 immunization shots and an oral one.  Also, as a result of this visit, he was forced to lose almost 2 meals.   (You’ll see what I mean as you read on…)

Here was his breakdown of his physical measurements:
Height:  24″ (90%)  Head:  41cm (75%)  Weight: 17lbs 8ozs (>99% – off the charts!!)

Because he is so heavy, his doctor actually told me to skip his feedings at night!  She told me to make his last feeding of the day at 10pm and not feed him again until 8am!  Also, he would need extra tummy time.  He’s so heavy and chunky that it’s hard for him to hold up his head (which he should be able to by now).  Tummy time will help build his muscles so that he can do this.  LOL.  (It’s not funny, but at the same time, it is.)

So~ last night was the first night where I had to NOT feed him.  He did fine as long as he had a binky in his mouth.  The problem was that it kept falling out.  Anyway, he woke up again at 7am and I just didn’t have the energy to hold him over one more hour so I just fed him.  The crazy thing was that he wasn’t very hungry.  He ate a little on one side and then he just knocked out and I couldn’t get him to eat anymore.  Then the next time he woke up was at 10am.  He was then ready to eat.  This made me feel better because I realized that he physically can go 10 hours without eating.  This will definitely help expedite him sleeping through the night which is great for me.  I had been hoping to get Micah to consistently go 6 hours at night between feedings but after a trip to the doctor, it became 10 hours…just like that.  That was definitely unexpected! 

Other than that, things have been going pretty well.  Israel has been in Romania for the past few days (since Sunday) so it’s been me and the kids (and the pets).  It is going much better than I had thought.   I’ve had time to do all of my GYC responsibilities which was totally unanticipated…and as you can see, I’ve had time to reflect and write out this xanga page (- the boys are both asleep).  The good thing is that Imanuel goes to bed usually around 7:30pm and doesn’t call to get out of his crib until around 9:30-10am.  He just likes hanging out in there and playing with his stuffed animals.  Another crazy blessing is that Micah has been taking nice long naps all day and staying awake from ~8pm-11pm.  This has been great because I have been able to spend time with Imanuel during the morning, and when Imanuel takes his nap (~1-3pm), I usually have time to myself to get GYC and other chores done.  Later in the evening, we have worship and Imanuel goes down for bed at around 7pm, and then I have time alone with Micah until he goes to bed.   Thank God for helping me schedule the kids!  It’s still a full day, but completely manageable.  Of course it’d be nice to have Israel here with us.  Imanuel just LOVES to play with him and when he’s here, he spends a lot of time with the kids.  But God always takes care of us while he’s away – that’s for certain.  

Well, I’m going to bed now because I know in a few hours I’ll need to get up, put Micah back to sleep without feeding him, and then pump.  That all takes time. 

But, even now, being a mother of two is still the greatest thing.  No regrets…yet.  🙂          

Holding my chunky monkey.  So now both of us are on diets…  😉