Fatherly thoughts 2: Right before our eyes ...

You crawled backwards the other day.

You seemed to be pretty proud of yourself as you smiled and slowly backed your way into the wall ... into the cedar chest ... and under the couch.

It's actually quite an accomplishment in the short amount of time we've had you.

When we first met you in Colombia at 6 months, you could barely hold your head straight. You couldn't sit up at all.

Now that you're well into your 8th month, you seem to be learning and growing faster than we can keep up with. You're wanting to stand on your own ... but that it is still a work in progress.

It won’t be too many more days before we have to put gates up around the house. You're definitely not ready for the stairs, and we don't want you drinking from the toilet, either. We’ve put safety plugs in the sockets. Your hair already sticks up straight enough as it is.

The days of putting you on the floor and expecting you to stay in the same area are just about over. Your mom was nearly in tears the other night after you suddenly grabbed the bottle away from her hands and wanted to hold it yourself.

We’re not quite ready for you to be so self-sufficient. Since we've only had you for about three months, we want to enjoy the baby phase as long as we can. The reality is that you’re going to keep growing, developing and doing new things whether we're ready or not.

As you grow, I’m sure you’ll do some things -- like crawling -- backwards at first. We don't always do things the right way the first time. That’s part of learning. We get turned around, mess up, fall, get back up and do it again until we get it right.

Your mother and I pray that we’ll be able to help you along the way as you’ll encounter plenty of new challenges and obstacles. Just a few weeks ago, we had you dedicated in church. We were proud to hold you in front of everyone and commit to raise you in a godly home.

It definitely won’t be easy to grow up in today’s world when Christian values are often made into a punch line. You’ll be bombarded with a variety of views on love, happiness and living a fulfilling life. Some of it might not make sense or seem a little odd.

We promise that we will do our best to point you toward what God has to say about it all in the Bible. We’ll cover more of the details later when that time comes.

I’m sure you will have many questions.You’re already pretty curious as you grab, pull at and try to eat just about everything that gets in your path. Just know, Laura, that we're praying for you every day. It’s the best weapon we have, and we pray that you’ll find that true for yourself.

But first things first. Let’s get back to practicing that crawling.

Our Little Valentine

This weekend we had the pleasure of our first Valentine's Day with Laura! She received several cards and a few gifts from family. When we handed her our card, the first thing she did with it was put it in her mouth. After I helped her open it and read it to her, she seemed to be really excited to just hold on to the card. She has quite a grip and it took a lot of force to finally get the card away from her before she ruined it!!

After we put Laura to bed, Shawn and I had a candle-lit dinner at our kitchen table. We had a great time and ended with chocolate fondue. It was a nice change to be at home and not have the crowd noise and slow service that often accompanies a Valentine's Day dinner out.

Laura has also gotten much more mobile this week! She is very close to crawling but gets one of her little legs stuck every time she tries to get into the position. Once she gets it unstuck, she ends up on her tummy. In the effort to get her legs back under her, she ends up scooting backwards on her tummy all over the room. She finds herself in very peculiar places (since she is going backwards and really has no control over where she goes). She has gotten stuck under the couch, the chair, and an end table. We are hoping she starts going forward soon!

Laura and I were also given a baby shower this weekend. My mom's friends all wanted to wait until they could meet Laura to have the shower. It was great to see Laura being held by so many women who prayed for her daily while we were waiting to bring her home. We received many beautiful gifts and had wonderful food. Laura was a little angel and we just loved every minute. Thanks Diane, Lynne, Betsy, and Cathy!!

A Week of Firsts

Laura was able to see her first snow this week!! We woke up and saw the snow on the ground and immediately thought..."we need to get a picture before this all melts!" It was a good thing, too, because it was all gone by lunchtime. Ahh, the disappointments of living in the south. We need to move to a cooler climate so we can have snow all winter!! Laura didn't really seem to know there was anything different outside. She didn't really seem to notice that the whole yard was white...but she sure smiled pretty for the picture!

Another fun first was Laura's first teeth-brushing! She was thrilled as you can tell:) I was talking with a dentist friend the other day and asked him if we should be brushing Laura's teeth. He said the technical answer was "yes" and that it could avoid some problems later in life. That was all we needed to know to give teeth-brushing a try. The toothpaste is a special non-fluoride type that babies can swallow. It tastes pretty sweet, so once Laura gets the flavor in her mouth, she is pretty good about keeping the toothbrush in her mouth. We only do it every other day or so...but hopefully we are building good habits for later in her life.

The last first of the week was Laura's first picture with a grizzly bear!! We took a trip on Friday to Bass Pro Shop on the north side of town. Shawn and I have both been to the 'mother ship' Bass Pro in Springfield, Missouri...and while the one here isn't nearly as large, it was still a fun outing. Laura didn't quite know what to make of the large bear (or the store, for that matter). She always enjoys riding around in her stroller, though, so for her it was a good afternoon.

I will leave you with one final picture. For everyone who has ever asked us, "Does her hair ever lay down?" -- here is a picture for you!

Super Steelers!!

For those of you who don't know...I am a HUGE Steeler's fan. I grew up just outside of Pittsburgh, though I didn't really like football when I was there. I did have the opportunity to go to a game or two at the old Three Rivers Stadium, but I didn't appreciate how exciting it was at the time. When I got to college and really starting enjoying football, the obvious team choice was the Steelers. No one could call me a fair-weather fan...I'm cheering during wining seasons and losing seasons. Fortunately, we've had a lot more checks in the win column the last several years!

Shawn, on the other hand, is a big St. Louis Ram's fan. And for those that don't know, Kurt Warner (now the quarterback for the Cardinals) took the Rams to the Super Bowl twice and won it with St. Louis once. This meant Shawn was rooting for the Cardinals last night. Too bad that didn't work out for him!! I won the battle, though, on what team colors Laura would wear. I mean she has black hair that looks perfect with a gold bow in it...red just isn't her color:) Laura was very excited to being experiencing her first Super Bowl. She waved my Terrible Towel and watched everyone respond to big plays on the screen. And then it was time for her to go to bed...

Laura usually does pretty well going to bed at other people's houses. We just set up her pack-n-play, give her a bottle and lay her down. She cries for a few minutes and then is sound asleep until we are ready to leave. Last night, however, there was just too much going on. There were 12 other kids at the party making a lot of noise! Laura fell asleep just fine, but about an hour after she went down, we were informed she was crying upstairs. Shawn tried to comfort her...I tried to comfort her. There was no comforting for Laura. Then came the big parenting decision. Do we let her stay awake so we don't miss any of the game or do we go home so she gets a good night's sleep? Well, as you can see from the picture -- Laura was up WAY past her bedtime last night!! She doesn't seem any worse for the wear this morning and we were able to see the rest of the game. Oh well, bedtime rules are made to be broken sometimes:)