Top 2 Tuesday: Read and Watch!

1.  Melanie Shankle's book on marriage is out today!!  I opted for the physical copy, pre-ordered it on Amazon a few days ago, and it arrived today.  It's supposed to be for our new family Valentine's gift tradition of everyone getting a new book and chocolates (Jo's chocolate will have to be delivered to him via me, oh shucks ; ).  BUT.  There's no way this can sit in my house unread for TEN DAYS.  That's just cray cray.


I get to hear Melanie speak next week and I'm SOOOOOO excited!

2.   I can't stop watching Mitt (3 minutes at a time, of course) on Netflix.  It's fascinating. 

Baby Dedication

Yesterday was such a special day.  We dedicated ourselves as parents to raise this precious baby in the church and in God's Word.  I love our new church family and it was such a blessing to feel eager for Jonah to be a part of that family.  We are so lucky for all the families Jonah gets to be surrounded by who can help shape his faith - his genetic families from both sides, our school family, our church family, and even in large part our neighborhood family and beyond into our community.  What a special place we have to help train up this child. 

For so many years I couldn't stay in a church service when they were having a baby dedication.  It was just too painful.  While we stood up there today, I prayed for the aching hearts of mamas without children.  Mamas who have either lost babies, or mamas whose babies haven't even been born yet.  Proverbs 31 describes the wife of noble character as loving her husband all the days of her life, and I believe a mama can love her baby all the days of her life too, even before she's met him or her, and before the rest of the world recognizes her as a mom.

I loved the words of our pastor as he prayed over and dedicated us, that we can't dedicate another's life but we can dedicate ourselves to serve this child well by providing him with the teaching and example of living out of God's truth.  I especially liked his specific prayer over our marriages.  I'm starting to fully grasp how actually not focusing on Jonah first, but on our walks with The Lord, and secondly our marriage, actually serves Jonah best.

Jonah received this sweet little New Testament as a gift.  

The sermon was so meaningful too.  It was about the armor of God, and it reminded me of when I was 9 and was baptized, explaining to my parents and church family that I wanted to be baptized because I felt the calling to fight as a soldier for God's army.  I knew there was spiritual warfare taking place and I was ready to pick my side.

But I think the true meaning of yesterday will be remembered in the fact that Jonah was dedicated on Super Bowl Sunday.  

There's a Bible I haven't seen yet:  the football fan's Bible.  I'm sure it's on a bookshelf for sale somewhere :-)

Back to our day.  Oma and Opa came over for lunch after the service. 

(I realize the grandparent names are probably confusing as we've gone through a few name changes recently.  Oma and Opa were previously Lolli and Coach, and prior to that Lolli and Pops, but they've always been Mom and Dad to Howard.)

(There was also a time during a grandparent name identity crisis that they were The Grandma Formerly Known As Lolli, and Coach.  Oma and Opa are a lot easier to say.  My breath thanks them for the change, and I'm sure Jonah will appreciate trying to learn 'Oma' more than 'The Grandma Formerly Known As Lolli.')

Back to our day again. Caesar salad and garlic bread, this  sausage and tortellini soup I got from Andrea's blog - mcanallyfamily.blogspot.com (I used Sicilian red pepper chicken sausage in mine), lasagna, pear cider and chocolate bundt cake with cappuccino ice cream and coffee for dessert.  Perfect food for such a chilly day.

We prayed for our lives and our interactions with one another to provide Jonah the best possible launching pad of opportunity for his faith, and our biggest hope of all hopes - that he would one day accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

After Oma and Opa left, Papa did the dishes and Jonah and I snuggled under quilts and read books.  It was a perfect day.

Here's a pic from our day, but this is an iphone pic of the display screen on the back of my 'real' camera, so it's horrible. I'll upload all my good pics in about 14 more years.

I hope you can still get some of the hilarity of Jonah's expression.  I think he felt pressure to entertain the entire church and it was just too overwhelming.  He did a great job, nonetheless :-).  

(And we were all pleased there were no bathroom sounds or burps made right into a microphone.)

And you would have never known it, but Howard felt awful that morning.  He wanted to be there for this though.  Such a sweet, dedicated Papa. :-)

Howdy

And that's about all I have time to say.  And yes, those are wrinkles by my eyes and gray hairs sprouting from a head I am 99% sure is mine.  But I'd say I look pretty darn good for 45.

That's all for now, but at least I didn't put my foot in my mouth...

Our little rooster

Jonah is so much older than he was 3-4 days ago.  He always seems to grow leaps and bounds when we go out of town or have out of town family come to us.  He is such a people person (if I'm around - if his mama's not in the same room it's a no-go).

My great aunt passed away this weekend and we were fortunate to be able to attend the service in Abilene.  I wish I were blood related to Elizabeth because she was the cutest, smartest, sweetest thing you've ever met.  She was 84 and lived a life of joy and dedication to The Lord.  It's just the way you want to leave this place.  Honorably.  Saved.  Known for your joy and service and incredibly cute figure and sense of style :-).

Jo was the only baby at the funeral and worked the crowd with his charm.  He did not know it wasn't an all out parTAY.  In the procession driving from the service to the gravesite Jonah was giggling with delight and energy telling me all about the fun he was having.  He couldn't contain it!  It was hilarious!  Not appropriate funeral behavior, but definitely a huge dollop of joy and life.

Jo and his Great Gape (my grandma):

Nonni and Poppy:

Back home

Baby's first selfie:

Jonah is grabbing really well now.  Ever since he was a teeny tiny newborn I've brought his little hand up to my mouth for a kiss while he nurses.  This is the new resulting experience:

Jonah also has a new sound now - the squeal.  He sounds just like a rooster.  It made our car ride extra fun :-).

We love our little grabby rooster.

20 Week Photos

Well.  I have finally gotten around to uploading these for you.  It's been busy what with all variations of first world problems like lamenting the fact that I don't have a napper so how can I make a phone call to my financial adviser before 5:00 and getting up into the attic to go through bags of pre-pregnancy clothing to find my black blazer because I thought it'd be a good idea to store clothes that (still) don't fit up there to declutter my closet but now I'm basically getting dressed in my attic and why oh why did my gift wrapping station behind my coat closet door become unsuccessful.  You know, the true anxieties of life.

So here you are.  Most are unedited because who has the time.  We started off smiley and posey and went a little downhill from there.  I can't say that no (stuffed) animals were harmed during the making of this photo shoot.

I wonder if I'll be able to get him to sit in this chair and do this when he's 14.  Or next month.

No.  I don't have an over-documentation problem.  Why do you ask?