Road Trip to Charlotte

Last weekend we took a road trip to Charlotte to visit one of our favorite bloggers (who also happens to be family). It took us 11 1/2 hours to get there by van so I did my duty and took a turn driving.

By far the most exciting part of our trip was the drive-thru safari park where you could feed the animals out the window of your car, like this zebra.

All 9 of us managed to get in the front 2 rows of Uncle Micah and Aunt Carolyn's van and, amid much screaming and shedding of tears mixed with squeels of delight we made our way through the park. There's a fine line between exciting and terrifying for small children like us, and when you have Uncle Micah along who's always looking for a good shot of video, I was glad I was on Daddy's lap.

Kate showed me how the petting zoo at the end of the safari worked.

And I actually tried it!

Daddy's holding our second empty bucket of animal food. Uncle Micah lost the first bucket no more than 2 minutes into the park in a confrontation with a very large cow/bison/deer animal who tried to get his head in the van with us.

Daddy and his boys - Cole 2 years old, Tyson 2 months old

Cute things I want to remember about Cole from the last year:

1. How I wish we knew what "Mot-Neh" meant. He's been saying it for months and we still can't find the common situational thread to figure out its meaning.

2. His little feet pattering around the house.

3. How he went from wanting to have every last item in a collection in his hand all at one time 6 months ago, to now wanting to only pick up one item at a time. If you ask him to put all the packets of gum back in the pantry he will make 10 trips if he has 10 packs, no matter if he could pick up more than one at a time. If he accidentally picks of 2 of something, he carefully puts one down, takes the first one, then comes back for the second one.

4. How proud he is of being able to say a new word. Rooster and Horse have been particularly exciting accomplishments recently.

5. How he went from saying "No" to every question 6 months ago, to now nodding "Yes" (he won't say the word) to almost every question - except "Do you want a bath?" and "Do you want to go to bed?"

6. How he feeds himself. He starts out trying very carefully to use his spoon or fork, then usually gives up and eats with his hands. Even things like applesauce, pudding, and yogurt he likes trying to eat with his hands. But for the times he eats with a utensil he is very careful and does very well with them.

7. His obsession with dogs and trains. He can hear a dog barking a mile away, stops in his tracks and looks at me with wide eyes and says "DOG!"

8. Thomas was trying to teach Cole to say "Love you" several months ago and for some reason Cole always said "Bye!" every time you'd ask him to say it. That always got a tickling from Thomas so now I'm not sure Cole will ever say it correctly. After a few weeks of yelling "Bye!" he went to whispering it, so every time anyone says "Love you!" he loudly whispers "bye" and then waits with anticipation to be tickled if Thomas is around.

9. His "Silly Eyes" and "Silly Laugh."

10. His love of puzzles. He has 7 of them and does them religiously every day, usually several times a day.

11. How he hides behind the curtains and will wait a very long time for you to realize he's hiding and come and tickle his feet that are inevitably sticking out.

12. How he collects as many sticks at the park as he can possibly fit in his hand and hauls them around until he finds another one, then rearranges them, then gives up and drops them all only to start the collection again when he finds another stick too good to pass up.

13. Watching him tinker on his plastic ride-on car with Thomas's tools.

14. How much he loves ketchup to dip food into - especially grilled cheese. He learned this delicious combination from his monther :)

15. How he says "More!" while smiling and pointing very carefully to the section of his plate where the food he wants more of was (before it went in his stomach).

I love my son! He makes me so thankful to be a Mom every day.

Our Sweet Brindha

Another small break from the goings on of our own kids to share a glimpse into the life of our dear Brindha Mani in India.

I (Christina) started sponsoring her through Compassion International when I was 17 and she was 7. She is now 17, the same age I was when I started sponsoring her! We have written back and forth about 5 times a year for 10 years now and we have gotten to "watch" her grow up through her letters. If you've considered sponsoring a child, I can't encourage you too enough! We've also sponsored Didas Minja in Tanzania since he was 6 and he is now a big, strong 14-year-old. He draws us a picture to go with every single letter he writes (about every other month) that always gets hang time on the refrigerator :). This is Brindha's latest letter to us:

Praise the Lord

Dear Uncle and Aunty, I received your letter and 4 pictures. Thank you so much for your lovable heart (translation is sometimes a hoot :)). Cole is growing fast and he is so chubby and I like to pinch his chubby cheeks and kiss him. I'm praying for that wonderful day and a very big congratulations to you both for becoming parents to your second child. I hope by the time you receive this letter you may have had a newborn baby. I am eagerly looking forward to hear the gender of this new child. My prayer is that you have a girl baby becuase in my family similarly there is one son and one daughter for my parents. I like to have the same members, a boy and a girl, as your family. Always I praise and thank God for strengthening our relationship between these years. I moved to 11th grade and in 10th grade I scored well and now am going to my higher secondary school by train. It takes nearly 20 minutes to reach my school. Did you get to meet your brothers and their families? (referring to our beach trip). My tight hugs to Cole. I love you. Yours, Brindha

Consider sponsoring a child to give them the educational, spiritual, and physical necessities that you and I have been so blessed to have here in America. It has been such a blessing to us!

Around our new house

You may have noticed we've been MIA for a number of weeks. That would be in large part due to the fact that Tyson was born, Mommy and Daddy sold their house, and we moved when Tyson was 3 1/2 weeks old to our new pad in Clinton. We're just renting it until we find a house we like enough to buy. Mommy says that if any of you are considering similar life changes, try not to do them all at the same time. Let me show you around our new life:

This here is my BIG little brother. We affectionately refer to him as "Little Jabba" since he's not hurting for poundage.

He weighed 7 lb 12 oz when he was born and was 14 lb at his 6-week checkup. I've started eating more because it's becoming clear to me that I'm going to have to beef up so I can still keep him in submission when he gets a little older. He needs to know who's boss.

This is one of the best things about our new place. This window seat in the kitchen, and I have one in my room. I haven't fallen off yet either to those of you clicking your tongues at how dangerous this might be. Mommy says "live and learn" so I walk on it, dance on it, and give shows like I'm giving here. These are known as my "silly eyes."

My love of books continues. The rocking chair is now in the living room so it's perfect for me to climb up and have a good read. This is "The Jesus Storybook Bible and this is my favorite page - it shows Noah and a whole bunch of animals like an ant eater, sloth, toucan, animals you don't get to see in those "tame" little kids books. Momma says if you want a kids Bible, this is the one to get. Every story from the Garden of Eden to Gethsemane is written to point to Christ and God's great love and sacrifice for a lost people. It's my fave to page through.

Come visit us! We're always looking for friends or an outing, and I even have a lake with DUCKS and GEESE to walk to. I'd be happy to show you around :)

Mamena and her darlings

Mamena (our great-grandma) loves me and Tyson to pieces.

She always has Goldfish at her house and I always get a generous portion when I go visit - sometimes I get multiple generous portions - she knows the way to a little man's heart

Man Outing to the Zoo

Daddy took me to the zoo with several of my little buddies and their Dads a few weeks ago. Where else could I sit on a huge alligator like this? I love my Dad.

Brothers....Friends :)

Many thanks as always to my good friend and master photographer Erin Fults at Acorn Studio for the pictures: www.acornstudiophoto.com

My sweet baby boy - just a few days old

Cole was overjoyed to get his hands on Tyson. These pictures are the first time he's been allowed to hold him :)

Cole's smile here sums up his feelings for his brother even as I post this when Tyson is 7 weeks old now (only a few days old when the pictures were taken). Aunt Lauren got them these adorable matching shirts.

This is a hug but I can't help but think it's practice for a headlock later in life.

My other sweet baby boy - 21 1/2 months old.

Tyson's Birth Story

Written the day after he was born:

Tyson's birth could be summed up as "merciful and short." It certainly was mercifully short, but there were also several things about it that were God's hand of mercy other than it being short.

Last Thursday I went for my routine doctor's visit and was shocked to hear that I was 3 cm dilated, almost 100% effaced, and Tyson was fully dropped. I didn't feel at ALL like I was about to have a baby, he wasn't due until the 31st, and since we're in the midst of selling our house, doing inspections and negotiations and looking for a new house, I wasn't exactly quite ready for the news Dr. Wolfe gave me that he thought Tyson would come in the next few days. So I went home and waited and tried to check off the last few things on my "to do before Tyson arrives" list. Sunday afternoon we went out looking at houses and I had 2 or 3 contractions during those couple hours, and then as the evening went on I had a few more, but they weren't painful or even uncomfortable and weren't regular. I didn't tell Thomas b/c I knew he would worry himself sick, but by 10:00 I was having a mild contraction every 15 minutes or so so I called Carol Ann, my doula, to ask her at what point she wanted me to call her if I went into real labor in the middle of the night. She said when they got to be 10 minutes apart and stronger I should call her so she'd have time to drive to Jackson from Meridian. We went to bed and I slept until 2:00 only waking up a couple times to feel a contraction even though they still were very mild. From 2 to 2:45 I timed them and they were coming every 6-9 minutes apart but still weren't stronger. They only met half the criteria she had given me but I figured I better call her anyway, so I did and she said she was going to rest a little more and I should call when they either got closer or stronger and then she'd leave for Jackson (she actually decided to go ahead and come back just in case I had a quick labor :)). Thomas had woken up and heard the conversation and of course there was no going back to sleep for him, so we decided we may as well bring Cole to his parents' house since we were up anyway, and then we'd come back home and wait until it was time to go to the hospital. I still wasn't convinced I was really in labor b/c even though the contractions were 6-7 minutes apart at this point, they still didn't hurt and I didn't even have to breathe through them. We took showers, pittled around getting ready, ate breakfast, and decided that we may as well pack my stuff in the car while we were packing Cole's in the car and that way we wouldn't have to do that when we came back home. We debated in the beginning whether I should go with Thomas to drop Cole off or just stay home and rest, but I didn't want to be alone and by the time we left the house at 4:15 the contractions were every 4-5 minutes apart and were now strong enough to need to breathe through. By the time we got to his parents' house they were painful but we stayed a few minutes there and sent out some emails since we'd decided that we may as well just go to the hospital b/c they were now 3-4 minutes apart and getting stronger. When I was laboring with Cole this is also the point that we went to the hospital and I still had 5 hours of labor after this, so we were in no hurry thinking we would have plenty of time.

We got to the hospital about 5:15 and after wandering around on the 3rd floor and the 4th floor, we figured out L&D was on the 5th floor and started getting checked in. The contractions were now probably 2-3 minutes apart and much more painful, but I knew Carol Ann was almost to the hospital and would be there soon to help me cope.
You might think that having accomplished 1 unmedicated natural birth with Cole would've given me some sort of mental fortitude and confidence that doing it a second time was no big thing. It actually worked opposite that. As soon as the contractions got painful and the memory of the pain was revived, I lost most of my mental control over my fear of the pain. All I could think about was, "I remember this now. This is terrible. Why did I ever choose to do this again? I can't do this, I don't want to feel the pain, this is TERRIBLE!!" It wasn't even that the pain at that point was terrible, it was the anticipation of remembering how bad it GETS. We got in our labor room at 5:40 and the nurse asked me how my pain scale was. I wanted to say an 8 but figured I would have a couple hours more of it getting worse and worse so I better say a 5 to give it room to get horrendously bad like I knew it would. I was still planning to walk around the halls like I had with Cole and sit on my birth ball, etc, b/c I had no idea how far along I really was and figured I'd be in labor a few more hours. She asked me to change out of my clothes into a gown and I said, "Do I have to? I'd like to walk around awhile." She said that I did have to b/c she needed to see how dilated I was, so I changed and she checked me, and from there it was pretty much a whirlwind. This was at 5:45, I was 7-8 cm dilated and she left and came right back and said she had called Dr. Wolfe and he was on his way and to say please not to do any exercises to make the labor speed up. Then I heard them calling to prep the room for delivery. DELIVERY! The contractions were very painful at this point but DELIVERY?!? I was shocked, but she assured me that I really was that far along. Each contraction got worse, Carol Ann got there, I could hear lots of activity behind me (hanging over the back of the bed had worked well with Cole so I did that again), and was a little unnerved that it was happening so quickly and that Dr. Wolfe wasn't there. With Cole it got worse and worse until I actually delivered him. The "transition" phase that you go through that supposedly you get a little relief from when you start pushing was not something I ever experienced with Cole. It just got worse and worse and worse until he was born. But with Tyson I DID get some relief from the contractions being horrendous once I started pushing. They told me to try to wait b/c Dr. Wolfe wasn't there yet, but I wasn't even pushing, Tyson was just COMING anyway. I couldn't control his very speedy descent down the birth canal, although this time, unlike with Cole, I was able to control how hard I pushed. The small bit of relief from the contraction pain after I moved past Transition gave me just enough of a mental lift to concentrate on trying not to push him out too fast. With Cole I pushed as hard as I could the whole time b/c I was in "rabid dog" mode and felt like I was going to die or lost all mental soundness if he didn't get OUT, and I tore pretty badly in the process. So this time around I was trying very hard to push slowly so there would be enough time for all the stretching to happen and maybe I wouldn't tear, so I put all my energy into that. I needed no energy to actually push b/c he was coming out no matter what, so I could focus just on trying to control his actual coming out rather than getting him there. My water broke right before he crowned, same as with Cole, and was clear, thank the Lord!


Let me take a moment to tell you about the WONDERFUL L&D nurses I had. They were so supportive, did exactly what I asked for comfort measures, and were just all-around fabulous.
40 minutes after we got in our labor room, there was no stopping the arrival of Tyson Luke and I told them that he was coming and I couldn't do anything about it even though Dr. Wolfe wasn't there, so the nurses got me to lay on my side like I did with Cole and they delivered the little munchkin like pros at 6:19 AM, no tearing! This is just as much a testimony to their skill in delivering him as it is to the good that controlling your pushing is. I was still in shock and disbelief that he was actually being delivered since I had been in what I would consider to be painful labor for only an hour and a half, and hard labor for 40 minutes, but there he was! I was so happy that it was over, particularly b/c I felt like I had lost most of my mental focus as soon as the contractions got painful and the fear of the pain was most of what I could think about. But it went so quickly that I ended up just kind've hanging on for the ride b/c he had a plan to come OUT and to do so QUICKLY and hanging on for the ride was about all I COULD do other than controlling the pushing to try to avoid tearing. It was over so quickly that I felt like I enjoyed the post-birth much more than with Cole where I was crying hysterically and trying to come back from the brink of mental breakdown. I got to hold Tyson as soon as they suctioned him out, what a joy! And we were able to have a private transition this time, so he was in the labor room with us for his whole 4-hour "transition" period where they usually take them to the nursery. He nursed great, I got to see him get his first bath and get all checked out, they weighed and measured him down the hall and then I could hold him skin to skin for the rest of the time. God was so gracious to us for Tyson's birth. Our decision to go ahead and pack the car when we did and for me to go along to drop Cole off were certainly the hand of the Lord since had we not done that we would've been in the throes of hard labor in the car speeding to the hospital, trying not to push him out on the way! I started pushing probably 20-25 minutes after we got in our hospital room, so our time margin was very narrow even though we had not the faintest idea that we were cutting it that close. I had a great experience and great recovery with Cole, but this one has been even better and I am so thankful to the Lord for his gracious hand in that. We're loving having Tyson on the outisde with us, he's a great little eater, no breastfeeding problems, and we are feeling wonderfully blessed and still a little in shock at how everything happened. God is good!

Twins 22 months apart?

Tyson - 1 week old

Cole - 2 weeks old

Fill 'er up!

This worked so well when Momma did it...the hose must be clogged...