The Stocking Story

After joining Nathaniel's family, I took on a new appreciation for the concept of a Christmas stocking. For years and years, Nathaniel's Grandma Belva was able to make each grandchild a personalized Christmas stocking. This is Nathaniel's stocking...As a continuation of the stocking tradition, I finished a project that I had started years ago, which was actually a kit given to me by my Grandparents May. Here's the finished embroidery work though it still needs to be turned into a "stocking"...With the help of Nathaniel's Grandma and the use of her strings, I picked Abraham's stocking pattern and dove into my very first large scale cross-stitch project, which I just recently finished.

With her encouragement, I was able to do a bit of customization to the stocking pattern in the form of eliminating a year that was supposed to appear under Abraham's name, adding vining in place of the date, and adding a scripture reference (Is. 9:6) at the bottom just under the wolf ...So far, we've got 3 down and 1 to go! I don't know when I'll start the baby girl's, but as long as I finish it at or around the Christmas that she's 2, I feel like I'm doing pretty good. I plan to meet up with Nathaniel's grandma to seek hands on instruction for turning the flat stitched design into a stocking. Its been fun to continue on one of Nathaniel's family's traditions and to be able incorporate my stocking from my Grandparents into the mix as well.

Little man is growing up...

For a while now, I've been working on refurbishing the toddler bed that I used when I was little. On Tuesday, all the pieces came together and we took the plunge! We weren't sure if we would have him use the bed the same night that it got set up or if we'd let him get used to it in his room first, but he was pretty excited about it so we just made the switch that very night. (Stay tuned for pictures of the kids' room. :-))

This is Abraham his first night in the bed (post-moving-to-bed-rather-than-crib-trauma). He had a bit of trouble falling to sleep, but he did better than when we went camping! (He got moved to the middle of the bed after the picture was snapped...)

Here he is this evening at about 10:15 pm. He didn't even try to get out of bed tonight and was asleep within his normal fall asleep time.

Now we just have to pray that it continues! :-)

Berry Picking

The video posted yesterday is of our berry picking trip to Applewood Orchard in Lakeville. It was really fun! We have loads and loads of delicious strawberries that we've been munching on.

A little explanation to go with the video: We thought, "Oh nice...a wagon...Abraham will have a fun time riding in the wagon on our way out to the strawberry patch and back." Abraham thought, "Okay, looks like he just holds the handle behind himself and then walks forward...yep I can do that...its MY job."

He refused to 1. ride in the wagon, 2. let mom or dad pull the wagon, and 3. get help pulling the wagon! He did a pretty good job. And because Nathaniel is so smart, we actually were able to help him along a bit (note the wheel kicking part of the video). What a cutie!

Here are some pictures from berry picking...

Abraham's a workin' Boy!!

Lucky Me!!

Ever since I've known Nathaniel, he's worn Lucky You cologne when he wears cologne. He doesn't wear it all the time, but I absolutely love it!! So, every time he puts it on, he usually comes and visits me for a kiss or four. :-)

Abraham is a very attentive little guy who will pick up on the smallest things, like the fact that every time Nathaniel puts on cologne, he is in the main floor bathroom in front of the mirror. Nathaniel started "sharing" cologne with him a couple of months ago and Abraham really enjoys it when he gets to be like Daddy.

Last night, I gave Abraham a foot bath in the sink because he had been playing in the sand and we didn't have time for a full bath before bedtime. As I washed his feet and legs, he opened up the medicine cabinet mirror. He played with pretty much everything on the first shelf. As I was getting him standing and drying his feet, He made his "sheee sheeee sheee" (with hand motion similar to squirting by the neck) indicating that he wanted me to reach the cologne from the top shelf.

I obliged him and gave him one little squirt and quickly rubbed it off with a damp towel so as not to intoxicate my child on his way to bed. He liked it and smiled really big. Then unexpectedly, he dove into my arms from standing position on the bathroom counter and puckered up!! He gave me about 3 big Abraham smooches! I was laughing so hard I could hardly contain it.

I had known that he liked to be like Daddy and wear cologne, but I hadn't thought that he'd picked up on the association between the cologne and the kisses!! :-) How lucky am I?

Children's Videos

Occasionally, I'll show Abraham some children's clips from youTube. Today, the stimulus behind it was making sure I had the words right to Patty Cake, Patty Cake Bakers Man...we did...and then I diverted my attention to a couple other clips before his very short attention span for such nonsense made itself evident. Check out this awesome version of the incy weency spider!!

The Summer of the Perpetually Skinned Knees and How a Chicken Can Help

Abraham has skinned his knees about 4 times already this summer. Each instance is quite the ordeal and happens just as the scabs from the last scrape are almost gone. Of anything painful that ever happens to him, the skinned knee makes him cry the loudest and longest.

Today, as Abraham and I were on our way to the park, he fell and skinned his left knee--badly enough to draw blood yet again. I sat down on the walk and just held him and comforted him for about a minute, but he was still crying quite loudly.

The resident of the house nearest where the accident occurred poked her head out from behind her privacy fence and asked if her barking dog had scared him. I said no and that he just skinned his knee. She was glad the crying fit wasn't a result of her barking canine and retreated back inside of her fence.

Immediately after her departure, I changed my strategy. He was hurt, but probably mostly needed to be distracted at this point. So, I started talking about the park and the slides and swings. I talked about how it was a beautiful day and the sun was shining, etc.--all while attempting to put him in the stoller, which he decided was a horrible idea. We were then left to stand on the sidewalk as he didn't want to walk either. My pregnant body can only carry him for so long, so I just held him as I decided if we should go home or to the park.

I had just decided to head home (3 or 4 minutes into his crying) and turned around only to see another resident of the block coming towards us in her pajamas. As she got closer I saw that she was holding, of all things, a chicken!! She said, "I think someone needs a distraction." And held the chicken out for Abraham to pet. He immediately stopped crying. I said, "Abraham, its a chicken!" The friendly woman then introduced the chicken as Babette. "Babette, the chicken," I said to Abraham. He smiled and reached out to pet the bird.

As quickly as she came, the friendly chicken-bearing pajamaed neighbor disappeared back to her house. Abraham was completely in awe and definitely not crying anymore. I was able to set him in the stroller and we talked about chickens the whole way to the park, where we had a lovely time playing on the slide!

(These chickens are at the MN zoo...it was the only chicken picture that I actually took...)