Josiah sings and prays...

Josiah is adding new words to his vocabulary every day. He still has a lot of gibberish which we can't understand, but he is slowly becoming more intelligible, making all of us so much happier.

Recently, I started singing to him little toddler songs, like "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Old MacDonald". One of his favorites is "The Itsy Bitsy Spider", which he calls "Iddy Biddy". He loves doing the hand movements. I hope to capture it on video, but whenever he sees the camera come out, he completely forgets what he was doing and just wants to see himself.

The other favorite is "Jesus Loves Me". He calls it "Yes, Geez", and he does actually sing some of the words. "Yes Jesus Loves Me for the Bible tells me so" has become "Yes, Geez... Bible show". I love it.

He has also started praying. Usually, he begins praying while strapped into his chair waiting for dinner to be given to him. He knows that we always pray before we eat, so he must be trying to speed things up by beginning the prayer on his own. He bows his head and mutters to himself, sometimes offering up names of loved ones, usually just Grampa and Grampy, and he ends with a loud "Amen!" If the food hasn't appeared when he opens his eyes, he'll bow his head and try again.

It isn't just at meal time that I find him praying. Sometimes during his playtime, I'll notice a change in his stance and a lowered tone to his voice. He always seems to pray for Grampa and Grampy, and then he ends with a softer "amen", as if he's really just wrapping up the little chat he was having with God and that this little prayer time didn't require a response from anyone but our Creator. It is my hope and prayer that he will always communicate with God on his own, without any outside influence or expectation requiring it of him. Of course, we want to model prayer and its benefits in our own lives, but I hope that it genuinely transfers in his life to be something he can depend on to guide him through out his life.

Samuel 5 weeks

Samuel is now 5 weeks old. Life with this new blessing has been a bit exhausting, but so worth it. He is actually the "easiest" of the bunch right now becuase his needs are so easy to meet.The other two require so much discipline and creativity that I'm often drained by interacting with them. Newborns are phsically demanding, but that's all. Feed every 2 to 3 hours, burp, change diapers, cuddle. It's pretty easy to figure out.

I laugh at how we thought it was SO HARD when Silas was a baby. I was shocked that anyone had been through what we were going through and not only survived, but found other things to talk about besides how tired they were. Granted, Silas was a more challenging baby, but I think part of what made it harder was that we were so clueless. I didn't have an arsenal of tricks to try to soothe a fussy baby. And I was trying to "work from home" and take care of him primarily by myself, which was a complete failure. I was unable to get much done because he was a "high needs" baby and I wasn't ever able to rest when he was napping because that was the only time I was able to work. I do NOT recommend working from home. It just didn't work for us.

Samuel is pretty peaceful. He does like to be held a lot, but I have several baby wearing devices (my newest one is the Ergo baby carrier - thanks again, Faith!), which allow me more freedom to get things done. He is nursing well and has a pretty good eat, wake, sleep pattern going. And he seems to know that night time is for sleeping and goes back to sleep pretty easily after his night feedings.

He is a morning person and would like to be up at 6:30 or so, but I cuddle him in bed after his 5:30 feed and he usually goes back to sleep. This morning he was so cute, smiling at me everytime I opened my eyes to check on him. Still, I stayed in bed for was long as possible (until 7:30) and he was content to let me do so.

The transition to life with three has been harder than life with two. Josiah is a typical two year old and as such, takes up a lot of energy. When he was born, SIlas was 4 and 1/2 and so excited to have a brother. Josiah seems to like baby Sammy, but he doesn't "get it" like Silas did.

Another thing that makes it a little challenging right now is that we are all cooped up here. I haven't ventured out much yet, and Josiah and I are both getting a bit stir-crazy. (Silas has an outlet since he went back to school, but Christmas break was HARD). We are ALL extraverts and so staying home with just ourselves hasn't exactly brought out the best in any of us. We had another big snow last night, so it will probably slow us down even more. I took the double stroller out for the first time by myself last week to attend the mom's group that I lead at church, and it was so difficult pushing it through the mounds of snow in the parking lot that I think I need to just stay put for a bit.

If we have another baby, I'm hoping it won't be another winter one. Yes, I would like to have four. For me, the decision to have three is the decision to have four. I do not like having a "middle" child, probably because I was the middle. Steve says we have to get a handle on the three we have before we start talking about any more. I agree. But still, I think I want one more.