Oh How Things Have Changed

It's been almost a year since I first wrote about "My Little Clean Freak". I was so excited to finally have a child interested in keeping things clean and orderly. I could always count on Micaiah to put his clothes away, after he wore them, and tidy up his toys. Give the kid a dish cloth and he would dust for days.

And then one day he turned into...well...a boy. I'm not sure when it happened exactly, but at some point he morphed from a mommy pleasing little toddler into a "real" boy. This is not to say that boys can't keep things clean. In fact he still retains his need for order. He still lines up all of his cars and likes to help with laundry, we just do things a little differently these days.


Making sure the washing machine is empty.


Yes, he is naked. I would excuse myself by saying that we were potty training, but I don't think we were when this was taken.



And then last, but not least, Micaiah's new favorite - Bumper Vacuums.

So though things are not quite as simple as they used to be, they are a whole lot more fun.

One Month Down

I can hardly believe that it has been almost a month (tomorrow) already since Zayin entered this world. Everything has been a complete blur. He is, for the most part, a very sweet and easy-going kid.



But, of course, he is still a baby and babies are lots of work. People keep asking if 1 to 2, 2 to 3, or 3 to 4 is harder and I'm not really sure. I still think 1 to 2 was the hardest transition for me to make. By the time you have others you are already used to dividing your time between kids, but I am curious what everyone else thinks. What was the hardest transition for you? How are some ways that you have dealt with adding subsequent children? Ok, not only am I curious, I'm looking for tips. I know only a couple people read this blog, so if you know people with several children that have some good ideas, feel free to send this on to them. Thanks. I'm looking forward to what everyone comes up with.

First Bath

I've been meaning to post this for about a week now, along with some other things, but I am just too tired for words. So here are some pictures instead.

It's a Boy!

We're home! This is our second day home with our new bundle of boy, and Jeni asked me to post an update. So...in case you haven't heard, this is how it went down...

Tuesday night we returned home from college group. Jeni had been having contractions about 10 minutes apart - but this was nothing new. We went to bed despite the activity. Jeni had gone to bed with contractions many times, only to wake up in the morning disappointed that nothing materialized. At 12:10AM she was still working on sleep and attempted to roll over to find a less uncomfortable position when she heard AND FELT a loud pop! She cried out in pain and soon discovered her water had broken. Somehow the combination of the rolling over and the baby stretching was enough to break her water...AND break her tailbone. We just didn't know it at the time.

During the brief (depending on who you ask - don't ask her) ride to the hospital, it was clear she was in the throes of deep labor. We got to the hospital at about 12:35AM. When the nurse checked her, the baby was all but out the door. They desperately tried to get her to breathe easy and not push so the doctor could get there - yeah right! Fortunately the doctor arrived "soon" and after a couple of pushes, Zayin Jude came into the world! He was born at 1:00AM - she was in labor for less than an hour!


I know you're gonna ask, so Zayin is pronounced just like it looks - "ZAY - in". Think "sayin". You can wiki or google Zayin for the meanings and significance, but in summary it means sword and sustenance and represents completion and rest as the 7th letter of the Hebrew alphabet. See Ps 119:49-56 for the "Zayin" section. Jude means "praise".

We're home and still struggling to reverse Zayin's days and nights. Our first night home was terrible! Jeni is also on crutches - not from the broken tailbone, but because her pelvis separated during labor. Not fun for her - not that a normal recovery would be fun.

Micaiah was the most excited one to see Zayin in the hospital (his face lit up and he exclaimed "I LIKE IT!").



Charis already has it planned out - she thinks she is gonna have to raise the other kids herself! Thankfully (for their sake) she will not have to. Since we've been home all she wants to do is play old Super Mario Bros. games with me.



Anya thinks he's just so cute and loves to hold him until her 3 second attention span runs out.




They are all still a little amped from all that parent-less time, but we are SO thankful for my parents, Jeni's mom, Noah and Sarah, and David and Monica, who all took shifts with the kids.

That's our past week in a nutshell. Once we get Jeni a donut pillow to sit on, she'll no doubt do some blogging of her own - which will probably involve correcting a lot of what I just typed. Thanks for all your prayers and support!