Our Common Imperfection

Yesterday afternoon, I cut Z's hair. Z didn't want me to cut his hair. I gave him zucchini bread, a banana, and finally a popsicle, but nothing helped the fact that he didn't want his hair cut. Ben was high above us on a ladder painting the outside of our house. Though I hated to bother him, I asked for his help. He helped me hold Z's head while I finished with the clippers, then got the scissors back out to trim around his ears. As Z fought us it was clear I was at risk of cutting his ear if I wasn't careful. I was being as careful as I thought a person could, and when Ben said, "Watch out for his ears," I insisted, "I won't cut his ear." You know what happened? I cut his ear. Clipped the top with the scissors. Ben was upset, Z was screaming, I was beside myself. What an awful moment. We rushed him upstairs for his bath and within a couple minutes Z calmed down and played in the water. It bled just a little bit. It was going to be okay, I let myself cry.

In my tears I continued my conversation I'd been having with God since our walk in the morning. "Usually You feel my pain, You know what I'm going through, but I don't think You do right now. You never screwed up. How can you know what that feels like? You're our perfect Father, and I know you hurt when we're hurting and that's part of it, that our little boy got hurt, but it's more than that. You would never hurt your children, certainly not by accident." Jesus never screwed up on Earth, God doesn't screw up. It never dawned on me until yesterday that there really was ONE feeling out there that God didn't experience first hand. I hope these thoughts aren't sacrilegious!

So, as I gathered myself and even mustered the courage to finish the haircut in the tub, I continued my prayerful thoughts, "That's why we're all so frustrated with our parents at some point in our lives, isn't it? That's where they don't measure up to our heavenly Father's example. We want them to be just like you, but they can't be, not while we're still here on Earth."

So, my final thought I found myself thinking was, "So, what? We all are in the same boat here on Earth we're flawed parents with flawed parents. That's what draws us to You, isn't it? We all need your forgiveness and to show Your forgiveness. We all need You."

Perhaps not a life shattering epiphany, but a conversation of note, at least, in my prayers.

Becoming WV Natives

And we're back! How's everybody doing? We just got back from a week in West Virginia. We had a lovely time. Even though there was some rain, we got out on the lake everyday at least for a bit. Lots of pictures to share, so scroll down to see them.

I just checked our Baby Name List (button on the left side bar) and hold on to your seats! Elsa and Magdalene just over took Beatrice (who is now in 12th), Charlotte just overtook Naomi for 3rd and the big news, Nadia just overtook Meredith for first! Wow! There's some action for ya! Not that we're using this as much of a guide for name choosing, but it's fun to know what you guys think of our name list! Fifty five votes and counting! Thanks for your feedback!

Speaking of our little girl, whose name has yet to be chosen...I had my second ultrasound yesterday, which was so neato. Turns out she has super chubby cheeks! She made a few faces while we were watching her that looked just like faces Z makes! I hadn't told many people but my placenta had been low (almost previa they said), and I'd been praying for it to move up so I could have another natural birth, and the ultrasound showed that it did move up, so we should be good for that. Her heartbeat was like 137 during the ultrasound which is lower than Z's ever was measured in utero. Maybe she'll be calmer...:-). My little widget on the left isn't too far off estimating her weight at almost 3 pounds, as of yesterday she was 2 pounds 13 ounces.

My mother-in-law/midwife gave us a tour of the hospital we'll use this time. It has TWO rooms with birthing tubs in them, so that doubles my chances of getting one of those rooms when the time comes. There's several other perks about it too, not to mention it's slightly closer. Just being there seeing it all again made me so ready to have this baby! It was humbling though to see all the women at the office that were further along than I am. I'd been feeling as though I were as big as a house, but when I saw them, due in less than a month, I realized I wasn't all that huge yet. It'll come.

While at mom's office, we measured Z and he hasn't gained much weight, measuring in at 32.5 pounds and about 3 feet even. He has finally cut two of his two year molars that we can see. The two on top are mysteries as he'll bite if we try to feel for them and goodness knows he'd never willingly open his mouth for us at just the right angle to see. We won't talk about what I weighed in at, but my teeth are just fine. My SI joint/hip is giving me some trouble, but as long as I never lay on my left side, I'm fine. Oh, and this baby should be super duper hairy as much heartburn as I've had!

Z on the beach at our family cabin in WV. Within a couple minutes he was laying on his belly in the water like he does in the bathtub. Oh, the water is super warm as it's used to cool down a power plant nearby.

Z and two of his three cousins (Ally & Jenna)

Z and Jenna being fishies

Right before they left, Ben's cousin, Megan (who played in our wedding when she was like 12) gave Z a quick violin lesson and let him pluck the strings and have fun with it. She was great with him. She attends FL State as a Music Performance major, and is definitely the best violinist I've ever met!

I have lots of pictures of a propeller being put on a windmill, but I'm gonna post those another time. So, my camera ran out of batteries before our week was up or else there would be more pictures. Ben flew out and gave airplane rides to his family. It was lovely and we can't wait to go back!

Summer!

Well, we've had a busy weekend with Z's birthday, then our anniversary (11 years!), then the big birthday party for Z, his cousin Jenna, Aunt Biz and Uncle Andy in Mansfield. The biggest news is that Z spent his first night away from home on Saturday night. [insert **gasp!**] We had planned to have Ben's sister, Bekah, come over to babysit so we could go on a picnic for our anniversary. Then, when she and his mom suggested we bring him up to Akron to sleep over, we ended up ordering Indian takeaway and renting a movie ("The Producers"). The food was great, the movie "so-so". The experience of having your firstborn spent his first night away from you, not exactly priceless as you're constantly wondering how they are. He did great, no problems were reported. Below he's eating his current favorite treat (especially as he's working on those two year molars). "Want some?"

Yes, there's an owey on his nose. He got a really bad rug burn playing at his cousin's last week.

"One apple up on top..."

I was busy cooking and baking last week and made eight Stromboli and froze seven of them for after baby #2 arrives. Below is my first attempt at pretzel buns made with this pretzel recipe (the wheat version mentioned in one of the comments), which I rolled into bun sized balls, boiled for 3-4 min, rolled in the alkaline solution they mention, coated in egg white, sprinkled with Kosher salt then baked for about a half hour. Oh, and then I dipped them in melted butter. Ben can back me up, these were dreamy!

My best bag yet! I'm almost out of this fabric, and I'm kinda glad, I'd like to work with something different soon, but I made this for my sis-in-law, Biz for her birthday. It has four pockets (two in and two out) and is double stitched inside to reduce fraying. Oh to have a fancy serger that would eliminate fraying!

Z has been lots of fun lately, when he's not teething. He loves to play on this website (thanks Dana!), and says outloud the letters and their sounds along with the program. He's grown by leaps and bounds in his speech in the last month. He can identify many letters all on his own and sounds out many too. Our first shock was two weeks ago when he saw the "Scott" bath tissue in the bathroom (a giant multi-pack) and said, "Ssssss, Sssss, O, U" the two t's crossed together looked like a U kind of! Oh, and he sounds out C's like S's.

A couple of funnies, yesterday at the post office, he got antsy and so I set him up on the high counter next to me to get him out of his stroller. He was very good and played for a bit, then decided to lay down...on the counter. He just laid back. Cracked me up! Then just now (like five minutes ago) he discovered that if he punches in the air when he's facing the dogs (albeit 10 feet away) they'll run. So funny. It's like his super power. The dogs used to barely tolerate him, but now that he's not poking their eyes out, they instigate chasing games with him sometimes and let him pet them. This new super power shouldn't ruin the new relationship especially since he's not actually touching them and he still drops so much food when he eats, which is their main perk since we've had a kid. I almost forgot, he likes my growing belly, and lifts my shirt and his so we can rub bellies, so cute!