Fatherly thoughts: First words

Ok, I wasn’t there, but your mother called me the first time it happened.

Later that day I heard it for myself. Maybe you didn’t have a clue what you were saying at first, but hey, does it really matter? Style points don’t matter when your first word is Da-da. Sure, it sounded more like Dadadadadadada. It was close enough for me.

Your mother eventually gave in and admitted that Da-da was your first official word. She tried to convince me that you said it before Momma because “D” words are easier to pronounce than “M” words. Yea, we’re not buying that. Are we? One of my buddies said that’s just what mothers say to make themselves feel better … To be honest, I’m impressed at how well you’re doing with all of your babbling and recent attempts to say "hello," "Ok" and "conservatism." Ok, maybe not the last word.

Still, not bad – especially since most of your life has been spent in a Spanish-speaking country. You seem to be soaking up pretty much everything that comes out of our mouths.

That’s great … and a little scary.

I’ve been thinking more and more about the responsibility your mother and I have to set a good example when it comes to the words we say. Some of our friends have joked about putting a quarter in a jar every time they say something not so nice around their kiddos. Hopefully, we won’t have to resort to that – that could get expensive.

Laura, we pray that you will please the Lord with your words. The Bible talks about how the tongue is a difficult thing to control. Your mother and I promise to do our best to guide you in saying things that glorify God and build others up.

You already have blessed us so much since you’ve come into our lives. We look forward to more of the words you will learn like uh … football.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to everyone! We hope you had a wonderful day with family and friends while remembering the sacrifice and resurrection of our Lord.

Our day started out with Laura's first Easter basket. We decided that she was a little young for all that candy, so she had some practical gifts...a pair of shoes, some socks, a floaty for the lake house this summer, and some plastic Easter eggs. The eggs and the purple grass were by far the biggest hit! Laura has started this new thing when she is excited or amazed by something -- she opens her little mouth in an 'o' shape and makes a little gasping sound. It is too cute (and we just happened to catch that face on camera this morning)!

After rushing around to get out of the house on time, we headed to church and met up with Nana and Grandad. As we were driving, I looked in the backseat and noticed Laura only had on one shoe. I had assumed she had just taken it off and we would find it when we got her out of the car seat. Wrong!! We somehow left the house with only one shoe on her little feet. I was somewhat mortified -- luckily she had on cute (and clean) socks!

We spent the afternoon at my parent's house. Laura got more presents there from them as well as her great-grandparents. She had a blast opening the gifts and refused to take her nap. We had a delicious lunch (thanks, Mom!) where Laura got to eat lots of new foods...including jello, a banana smoothie made especially for her, and some coconut cake! We headed home after watching the final hole of the Master's and now Shawn and I are pigging out on our own Easter basket that was full of candy!

Springtime Firsts!

First of all, let me just say how happy Laura and I are to have Shawn home. He has been in India for work for the past 10 days and we are just thrilled to see his face around here again!!


To celebrate his homecoming, we all went to Cracker Barrel this morning for a family breakfast. Shawn and I really like to eat here on Saturday mornings, and now Laura has had her first visit as well. And just like most of us...she really enjoyed the rocking chairs out on the front porch! (You also might be able to tell that Laura got her first haircut this weekend...I had to trim her bangs because they were starting to hang in her eyes and bother her!)

Yesterday, we all went to a local mall for Laura's first visit to a baby petting zoo. We weren't really sure if Laura would like the animals since she is never really around any (except our friend's dogs), but we decided to give it a try. There weren't too many animals to pet...just some rabbits, sheep, goats, alpacas, and Shetland ponies. She liked standing up next to the rabbit cage, but didn't really like when we held her hand out to touch the larger animals. I think mostly she enjoyed watching all the other kids! She did have a nice visit with one of the ponies. Shawn got a cute shot of her nose-to-nose with it. She had no interest in touching the pony, but she sure enjoyed staring at it!

We are all looking forward to spring arriving for good -- it seems like we get a few days of really nice weather and then several days of blah! My tulips are starting to bloom, the dogwood is about to flower, and I see pink buds on the azalea...all signs that spring is in the air! Hallelujah!

Fun with Family

We have had a really nice week spending time with my parents (who live here in town) as well as my grandparents and aunt who were visiting from Missouri. It was so nice to see my grandparents with Laura. They are just in love with her and dote on her every move! It isn't too often that we all get to spend a week together, so it was a real blessing.

On Sunday, we all went to my parent's church. Laura got a little loud during the service, so she spent most of time in the nursery. I had to leave quickly when she decided to show off her vocal ability during the prayer time!! She was the only child in the crawler room, so she got a lot of attention from the nursery staff and really enjoyed it!

After the service we took a few pictures in the lobby. Please excuse the red phone behind us on the wall...no one was paying enough attention to the background as we were all trying to get Laura to smile. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, either, so it would be nicer to have a pretty backdrop! The first picture is of the 4 generations of mothers/daughters in our family. The second picture is with my grandpa and my aunt. She also just loves Laura...and Laura loves her too!

We're so glad that they all came to visit and hope to see them again really soon...maybe this summer when we can all go down to the lake and teach Laura to swim!