The Mega Epistle

There seems to be no blogging time around here of late. Partially that has to do with the fact that whenever I sit down at the computer nowadays, I have my own personal fan club of one clamoring around my ankles, longing to push buttons and be all kind of helpful. Sigh. The other reason is that I got behind, and then a little further behind, and then way behind, and all I seem to want to do is stick my ostrich head in the sand and pretend I never blogged in the first place. Grin.

So here’s some catch-up, and hopefully I can stay caught up.

May 23-25: Mom and Dad came out on Friday, Dad helped put up my beloved beloved beloved moneysaving clothesline.

He had some devoted helpers with that activity, as you can imagine.

On Saturday, we packed up and headed to PA, to see my cousin Jay Beery get married. We drove back that evening, with my Aunt Mollie and Uncle Danny in tow. Everybody came along to church on Sunday, and left after lunch. We had a great time.

May was also the month of snot. Israel teethed about an entire month. This was a picture to attempt to appreciate at least the upper half of his constantly snotty face. :)

Praise the Lord the teeth finally all came in. Now he’s happily toothy.

The servants hard at work. At least somebody gets something done around here!

May 31, 2008 was the day that Gabe and Israel’s Great Grandpa David Miller died in Hutchinson, KS. He was years old. Ironically, that day is also Granddaddy Charles’ 54^th birthday. Tim flew out to KS for the funeral, and I decided to trek home for child care help to VA. I did some stuff around the house on Monday, and attended a graduation party in the evening, and then trekked out on Tuesday, driving back Thursday. Despite the traveling (insert haggard look here), it was worth the extra help with the boys.

Israel loves to cuddle with Grandma.

Driving the golf cart.

We also got to see Mom and Dad’s new lab puppy, Maddie, named after Gabriel’s imaginary friend. CUTEST puppy ever in the whole wide world.

The boys were also big helps in the flower bed. Notice the plant Israel is sitting on. :)

Dumb Mommy cannot RESIST the idea that somewhere, somehow, there is an overlooked shortcut through Washington, DC. We hit Washington at rush hour. I finally, stubbornly found the road I was looking for, and it was a painfully long, hot, sweaty experience. Perhaps there is humor in the remembering. Perhaps I just sweat in remembrance. The AC conked out about 50 miles down the road towards home. We stopped at a McDonald’s and had ourselves a well-deserved picnic.

There’s been some hot hot hot June days, where the kiddie pool has gotten lots of use.

On June 10^th, the combine came and harvested the barley behind our house. That field has provided a lot of exciting farm experiences so far. :)

Gabe exploring the freshly cut field.

June 16^th was our seventh anniversary.

We went out on the 13^th to celebrate. We went out for Indian food, as is our tradition, and then went to see Iron Man. We had a very nice time. Thanks, Kim Y., for babysitting!! :)

June 20^th, we zipped home for the Beery reunion BBQ at Mom and Dad’s. Gabe and Tim had a good time helping Granddaddy make his yummy yummy chicken.

Here’s the Beery clan.

We were only missing one family. It was good to see everyone. We drove back Sunday AM.

Tim’s cousin, Jeremy, and his wife Sarah, were visiting that weekend to attend a wedding here in DE.

We had a great time catching up.

This week was Vacation Bible School. Gabe LOVED it – just like I knew he would. He adores doing things like that, especially when there are lots of other kids around. I helped with snack, and it was a lot of fun to see him having such a good time. Here's the boys helping me make cookies the other day.

Phew. So I’ve been busy, too, see?

Boys:

At 18 months, Israel was 29 pounds. At 3 ½ years, Gabe was 31 pounds. :)

People often comment how they look nothing like one another.

Gabe:

Gabe is full of funny sentences. The other day he thoughtfully informed me that he wanted to be a superhero. I told him the only superhero there was was Jesus. He said that yes, he wanted to be a superhero. Yesterday, he told me that he wanted to be a preacher…like Bob (our associate pastor). :) Apparently Bob the preacher has something that Daddy the preacher must not. :) Laugh out loud. The other night he wanted a story about Goliath and the three little pigs. :) I wasn’t so sure I had heard that story before. He loves the story of David and Goliath. He still doesn’t pronounce his “L’s”, pronouncing them instead as “Y’s” – ie. “yook” instead of “look”. He also has asked me several times recently “why is your tummy so fat?” This is an ok question to ask his pregnant mommy in his three year old lingo, but I sure hope I never hear this fly out of his mouth to the wrong person at the wrong time!!! He is looking forward to the new baby coming, and wants to name it Sam. :) There’s some Gabe-love your way, Sam.

The other week we were talking about the new baby coming. I told Gabe it would come after his birthday. “When it comes out of your tummy, will it be all covered in cake?” he wondered aloud.

“Cake?” I was confused.

Tim grinned. “Birthday cake.” Sure enough, that’s what he meant. Why not? Cake and baby are all in that tummy together! :)

Gabe is currently obsessed with tornadoes. He calls them “tormatoes”. We finally got highspeed internet again, and he has to daily watch tomato videos. It started after we had a thunderstorm the other week that included a tornado watch. Now we have lots of talk about tornadoes.

His other caution these days is “the edge”. I don’t know where this concern came from. He would ask for stories including someone going too close to “the edge”, or remind me while I am driving not to go too close to “the edge”.

He has been talking about Nana Carol, Grandpa Norm, and his cousin Tyler, too of late. After he talked to Tyler on the phone recently, and excitedly informed him that it was “almost Christmas again!” (referring to when he can see Tyler again), we felt sorry for him and thought maybe the boys and I could make the trek to IN, where Tyler currently is. But the scheduling unfortunately didn’t quite work, and I guess it might be a while. Sorry, Gabey Baby. :(

Gabe flip flops between really enjoying playing with Israel, and being very frustrated/upset with him for getting too close to whatever he is playing with or eating or being too loud or all kinds of other sibling frustrations.

He loves playing with other kids, and being around other kids, and has really been enjoying Cannon for that reason.

People often ask with a startled smile on their faces if his voice is always so high pitched. He has a piping little voice. People think he looks like his Daddy.

Israel:

Israel is still a squeezy little sweetheart. He understands a LOT of what we say, but uses a limited amount of words. Tss (shoes), Tss (cheese), Tss (Snooch), choo (juice), da (light), da (hat), no, eah (yeah), Nana (Mama), ca (car), ow (ouchie). He is good at communicating despite limited language. He LOVES shoes. He talks about shoes in pictures. He has steadily been sleeping through the night of late, and not waking up anymore. 18 months to do that, same as Gabe. He hit a toothbrushing roadblock the past few weeks, where he decided he HATES getting his teeth brushed, after he had previously LOVED it. Nothing changed toothbrush wise or toothpaste wise in between. Just him. He has also recently gotten a lot pickier with food. He used to eat anything and everything very very happily. He LOVES to be held and sung to. He loves the “Mommy Loves Her Baby” song. He is very comforted with physical touch. He does not like for things to be out of order or spilled. He loves routine, and loves his bedtime routine, happily running down the hall, pointing at the fan to be turned on, then for the humidifier to be turned on, and then he can go into his crib.

A lot of people comment on how blue his eyes are. Most people say that of the two boys, he is the one that looks like me. In VA, everyone says he looks like Quentin when he was a baby.

He LOVES these picture books that Mom made for Gabe and he - it is one of the few books that hold his attention span the entire way through. And all 7 times after that. Wide eyes.

This week he has been driving me a little ding-batty. He has so many opinions on things and can get so frustrated and especially when he is hungry or tired he is a mess. Lots of screeching and wailing and throwing himself down in utter despair. He is not the lightest little child, either, so if he is in your arms when he is in a fit of despair, it takes some arm strength.

The Flibbertigibbet: :)

This is me at 25 weeks pregnant.

Feeling good, looking more pregnant, baby moving around a lot, not much to complain about – only nosebleeds and needing naps. 15 pounds gained so far. I hear both sides - I look really little to be this far along, and then today someone said she doesn't know how I'm going to make it to October. Tim and Mom both think I look really pregnant for 26 weeks. To myself, I look just pregnant, and not vastly. Yet.