Maeve, 2 Year Visit

This week Maeve had her 2 year well visit ( a little late!)  She was 30 lbs and 3 feet or so... (super accurate).. 

The doctor's visit was hilarious.  Maeve is 99% potty trained and wanted to be naked for the visit.  She refused to keep a diaper or underwear on.  She ran around in circles the entire time laughing at herself.  When the doctor came in Maeve started talking away and Noah started interpreting for her (which is entire unnecessary).  When the doctor told her to open her mouth she did and then proceeded to examine the doctor.  The same with ears and nose.  The doctor loved the encounter and said it was quite rare to have a 2 year old be so compliant. 


As a 2 year old our little girl is quite the talker and speaks in complete sentences that really stun me sometimes.  She is very ornery but always with a wide smile on her face.  When you instruct her to stop whatever behavior she is doing, she puts herself on the step and moans in a teenage sullen voice, SOOOORY MOM.  She pouts and huffs, hides behind doors and under chairs, all to make her point when she is not happy about the situation.

She, along with Noah, LOVE to be out and about and do not like to be home.  She often stands by the door and says "In the car!!!" 

She is incredibly loving and gives great hugs and kisses and walks around the house saying "love you mom, love you dad" all day long. 

She is fascinated by her big brother and wants to do whatever he is doing.  If he says "more milk" she says the same.  If he has a toy, she grabs it from him yelling "MINE" so she can have a turn.  She has a great fondness for purses and shoes (really?) and is not discriminatory... all purses and shoes are created equally whether they are cloth shopping bags or Paul's lawn mowing shoes.  At the pool recently she went from blanket to blanket stealing shoes and I had to chase her and return them all!


She has such a strong spirit and she is certainly a fighter and we couldn't love our 2 year old girl any more!!!

Chef Noah

This week was Vacation Bible School at church.  There was a morning PreSchool and an evening PreSchool and Elementary.  Because I was working there, Noah attended both. I think my kid was made for this stuff... it's as if curriculum writers are gearing this directly toward him!

The theme was Shake It Up Cafe.  The kids learned about 5 biblical festivals and how they were a secret ingredient in God's recipe.  It is so awesome to see kids shouting and singing to the Lord, with so much joy in their hearts!  Often Noah would come up and I would swirl him around during the opening songs.  Noah danced the days away and was really sad when we didn't head back to church today. 

Each night after everything was over, I had to make sure each child was picked up and that the church was cleaned up.  Noah sat quietly and played with a box of old toys under a table.  One night I just stared at him endlessly, thanking God for this amazing son.  I wish I could capture some of these moments forever....I wish that I could keep a little secret box of these moments and transport myself back there whenever I wanted. 

Also, as a part of the festival for the Last Supper, the kids took their fingerprints and made a cluster of grapes on a stone tile to have their very own coaster.  The theme for that day was "Remember Jesus Often."  Noah is beyond excited to have his very own coaster to use and recites the theme when he sees it.  I hope and pray that he can always have such joy for God!

The Diving Board

Noah has been doing swimming lessons since 6 months old... 2-3 sessions per year, some summer courses and through it all we have not been able to get him to move into a confidant swimmer.  He loves the water but has been too easily distracted. 

So, we heard about a friend who tried the program at West Chester University.  Their son was deathly afraid of the water and by the end of 2 weeks was swimming happily. 

We just completed our two week program and I am very pleased!  I thought in my head it would be a sink or swim program where they throw them in and make them figure it out.  I was so pleasantly surprised... it was the complete opposite!  Each teacher only had 3 students and the entire first day was spent hugging them and swirling them in the water.  Another positive aspect was that there were absolutely no flotation devices.  At all of his Y lessons their were backpacks that kept them afloat and in my opinion hindered them.  So day by day the children gained more trust and confidence.  By the end of the first week Noah could swim on his back across the pool.  The second week they worked on jumping into deep water and safely getting to the closest wall.  They also began the transition from back to stomach swimming but did not push that aspect.  They encouraged them on their stomach but each time they got scared or tired they could easily flip to their back to gain control. 

The big goal for them was to be able to jump off of the diving board in the university pool.  Noah was THRILLED to be able to do this and was able to safely make it back to the wall and climb out.  We went to the public pool after lessons on Friday and he kept going off the diving board alone again and again. 

It made me cry tears of joy to see his confidence in the water.  I had hoped that he would be swimming on his belly across the pool but I feel like the skills he did receive were wonderful.  They run the program all summer without advertising and over 1000 kids participate with a 99% success rate for kids being able to swim across the pool unassisted. 

It was sometimes challenging for me, however, because I had to sit on cement bleachers for 50 minutes with Maeve each day.  Most days she did just fine and colored or played with stickers, but some days she wanted desperately to be in the water!  I think we'll have lots of those challenges coming up where she wants to do what he is doing.... but at least she'll have something to strive for!!!

In the meantime, great job Noah, we're proud of you!!!

I Scream, You Scream

On the fourth of July we went to a picnic at my Aunt Carol's house.  She got Longacre Ice Cream!!! It made me so happy to eat Longacre again!  It is the dairy right near Mensch Mill, the camp I used to attend.  The kids loved it too!!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Maeve! Lollipop Party!

My sweet baby girl turned 2 on June 20th and last Sunday we celebrated her birthday with a Lollipops and Polka Dots Party!

Maeve lots lollipops.  I know they are terrible for kids and we try our best to avoid them, but this child is truly obsessed!  She calls them "lollitops" and they bring her such joy! So, we decided to run with what she liked for her party.  Her invitations were lollipops announcing the date and time. 

The sweets table was set up with a lollipop tree, sugar cookie lollipops, cake pops, oreo pops, dum dum cupcakes, lollipops and lots of other sweets!

The party was from 2-5 so Maeve was still sleeping when everyone showed up.  We ended up waking her eventually but she wasn't interested in waking up!  She hid on the hammock for quite a while.

I gave her some time but when she didn't snap out of it I asked her if she wanted a lollipop and she bounced right up!  Look what an oreo on a stick will do for you!

Maeve was a happy camper most of the day.  She ran from person to person and shared her charm. We finally sang Happy Birthday to her and she was happy to eat her cake.  Of course she then said Happy Birthday to everyone at the party!

In addition to the sweets table we tried to stick with the theme.  For food we had meatballs on a stick with thai peanut sauce, marinara sauce, or sweet and sour sauce.  This was AMAZING.  It sounds so simple, but by putting some meatballs on kebab sticks it changed the whole dynamic of the meatball.  We went through an enormous amount of meatballs because people could take a stick and walk around.  There was less mess and more ease.  I will always serve meatballs this way in the future!

In addition, we had round food... blueberries, grape tomatoes, grapes, and oranges. 

After cake it was time for Maeve to open her presents.  I think she has gotten used to getting owls because she guessed owl for every present!  She loved this little horsey from her great grandma.  It was filled with quarters which Maeve quickly decided to eat!

She got cute nesting owls homemade by Tiara Yaz!

Happy "sweet" birthday to my amazing 2 year old girl!!!!!!

Jamaica 2011

From June 13-21 I spent my time in Spur Tree Jamaica.  We traveled with 19 people from OPC to do mission in this remote village in the center of the tropical Island.  This was no beach vacation!!!!

We arrived in Montego Bay on June 13th to be picked up by a rackety bus that would drive us for almost 4 hours on tiny roads riddled with potholes on back mountains.  It was a treacherous ride to say the very least.

When we arrived at our church camp we were pleasantly surprised.  It was a gorgeous plot of land high in the mountains with very adequate facilities.  The rooms were tiny but it was just fine.  There were over 100 teens attending this trip from various churches throughout the US.

Below is the basketball court which was a favorite gathering place for everyone!

We settled in the first night and braced ourselves for the week ahead! Our group was broken up between 10 different work groups all with different jobs.  My job was a pastor's house at a church (Wales New Testament Church).  We were building the house so that the church would no longer have to pay rent for their pastor to live.  The house was high on a hill overlooking the church and the valley.  We carried 5 gallon buckets of cement and cinder blocks all week long.  It was very hard work but it wasn't complicated.  It just took some mental stamina to keep up. 

This is the manse we were working on:

The church had a preschool for children 3-5 and so we were serenaded all day with their songs: Jesus Loves me and He's Got the Whole World.When the children saw us they would come running with shouts "White People!!!" as many of them had seen very few white people.  They wanted to touch our hair and hold our hands.  It was very very sweet!!

The above picture is the view from the manse.  The water is a standard pool that most buildings have to collect rain water.  Almost all homes use some form of rainwater for all water needs. 

The picture below is the room we created this week.  It is a water tank.  It will go underneath a bathroom and allow water that is collected to be pumped up.  We kept calling it a pit and were corrected because a pit is where you go #2 outside.  Wonderful!

Julie, Turner and I on the worksite.  Notice all of the bars hanging out of the house.  Almost every home in Jamaica had these bars because almost none of the homes are finished!  The re-bar helps them to line up the next room they will work on.  Homes are built one room at a time and could take 10 years to finish.  Families do not have mortgages, but instead work on their homes as they can afford supplies.  We were told that the work that we did will equal to four years labor for the families we helped.

On Saturday we had a 3 hour trip on the same buses to the coast.  We spent the morning climbing the falls at Dunn's River which was awesome!  This is a stock photo because it was too hard to take a camera with you!

The falls cascaded like this for about 1/4 mile and you start at the bottom and hike up.

Many of the kids did them over and over.  I found my spot on the beach by the blue carribbean sea!!!

After we left the falls we took a bus into the city of Ochos Rios and visited a local market.  We had a nice leisurely lunch by the beach and got to barter for our goods. 

Sunday morning we got up and headed to the local church.  Church began at 11AM and we were home by 3 (and it was a 5 minute walk!).  It was a similar style of worship but slower and more impromptu singing.  Everyone was exhausted from the week and so church was rough!

Here is our group shot before church:

Each night while we were there we had awesome worship and preaching.  We were visited by local preachers, we had adults share messages, college kids share testimonies, lots of great music... it was very meaningful.  The Son Servants organization has a practice of doing foot washing on the last night as a way of humbling yourself to be a true servant.  It was wonderful...

The trip was really meaningful for me in many ways.  I loved being a part of another culture for a little bit.  I loved seeing so many kids grow in their faith and make new commitments to Jesus Christ.  I was able to really spend time in devotion and prayer.

Some other random observations

I didn't eat for most of the trip.  We had a lot of soggy meat and cheese bread for breakfast which I passed on.  One day we had anchovies mixed with eggs.  Lunch was always PB and J.  Dinner was white rice and some sort of mystery bony meat.  I ate white bread and white rice all week.  

The soil was red.  My legs were so stained that no matter how hard I scrubbed it didn't come off.

Water really does run out.  On day 2 we ran out of water in the camp.  That meant no toilets, sinks or showers.  They managed to get it running again but we had depleted almost all of their resources with our overconsumption.

Our worst possessions were the Jamaicans dreams.  We donated our nasty work clothes and 4th string shoes on the last day.  No matter how gross or how many holes the items had they were snatched up as if they were designer clothes.  The head mason on my worksite had shoes with no toes or heels because they had worn away.  Poverty was a way of life.

We visited an infirmary which is the bottom run of the social ladder.  This is where people go to die.  We each had to take a day and visit with the residents, sing with them, read them the Bible and pray with them.  This was very challenging for many of us as most of the residents were straight out of a World Vision commercial.  But what we all learned was that each person has a sweet spirit and needs love and care.  A blind lady named Linda hugged me for an hour and told me she loved me.  A sweet man named Herbert sat blind in both eyes with his bags packed waiting for someone to pick him up.  But, if even for a tiny bit of time, we fulfilled the commandment to care for the sick and the outcast. One of our young men struck up a game of baseball with the men... I wasn't there that day but I imagine that it was a dream come true for those neglected gentelmen.

I am still struggling to reintegrate.  I'm trying to make some more time for quiet in my life... less time for facebook and my iphone.  I'm trying to seek the joy that so many Jamaicans had that evades so many Americans.  I'm trying to think again about how to appreciate my life and how to teach my children to appreciate their lives.  The gap between the cultures is astronomical.... there is no way to even dream about finding middle ground, but my hope and my prayer is that wherever my heart lands after this trip that it will be closer to the God who gave me this amazing life to live.  

A warm send off

Well, I leave in the morning for 9 days on a mission trip in Jamaica.  I made a video for Paul to show the kids if they get sad.  Toward the end, Paul must have been bummed he wasn't included...