NCAA Bracketology

HA! Well after a strong start in March Madness, I am out... The only team of the final four that I called is North Carolina. And I have them losing in the Championship game to Kansas.

There's always next year.

Ben, on the other hand, is going strong. He had seven out of the Elite Eight and four of the Final Four. He's got North Carolina slated to win it all.

I'm excited to see how it all turns out!

NCAA Tourney

Although I don't follow sports, I do enjoy filling out a college basketball bracket each spring and following along as my picks go down.

Tonight, I'm feeling quite gratified: 8 of the 8 teams I've picked so far have won!

I don't expect this to last long, though. I have 3-seed Kansas slated to win the tournament.

Robins!

While James was eating lunch today, he announced, "Red birds, Mommy, red birds." I looked up expecting to see a cardinal on a branch in the woods behind our house. Instead, I saw three robins' red breasts as they danced from tree to tree.

Spring is coming! Spring is coming!

Christmas 2008

Now that I've announced the arrival of spring, it seemed an appropriate time to post pictures from Christmas 2008. Haha!

This year, we enjoyed the sweetness of a 2 year old's wonder and excitement in all the festivities related to the season. From the train around our Christmas tree to the presents on Christmas Day, the trip to Lancaster and the lovely visit with Uncle Andy & Aunt Lizzie and their adoreable dog, Lily, what wonderful memories we made!

On Christmas Eve, we hosted Ben's family for dinner. James and his cousins sat at their own table. And when it came time to say grace, these three held hands without our prompting.

Before Ben and I went to bed on Christmas Eve, we set up the living room.

It's not really clear in this picture, but there is a very small electric train on the table in the left of this picture. Ben's mom had found it among some things that belong to his grandparents. We decided to make a little train board and set up a circle track for James on Christmas morning.

Here is James coming down with Daddy on Christmas morning - hardly a surprise to anyone who knows this boy - his eyes lit on the miniature train instantly.

Enjoying a brief coffee and apple cake break in the early-morning present opening.

And back to more presents...

Helping James open his big present...

What is it, son?

TRAINS!!

Hmmm... this is a lot to process... there are 130 piece to put together. Where do I begin?

Here is our attempt to capture James and his cousins on Ben's side... Ha! 5-year-old Anna was very cooperative. James, who NEVER sucks on his fingers wouldn't take them out of his mouth for anything. What can I say? He's two?!

After Christmas, we enjoyed a wonderful visit to Lancaster to spend the weekend with my mom and dad and my sister and her family. We were sad that my brother and his wife and two boys couldn't be with us.

We came back from Lancaster so that we could have an evening with Ben's sister Lizzie & her husband, Andy. James adores their dog, Lily.

Oh the fun of the new train set! With some help from Mommy, James' wishes for bridges and "tunnels" came true!

Random Pics

I haven't posted pictures in forever. So today, I'm adding quite a random selection from last December, prior to Christmas. Enjoy!

All by himself, James brought all his farm animals to the feed trough.

Shortly before Christmas, James developed another set of ear infections. He spent a lot of time sitting on the couch, "reading" books - even by himself.

Gotta love it - James stomping around in Mommy's brown boots - on the wrong feet of course!


In the beginning of December, we went to my nephew Devin's birthday party in Hershey, PA. This is James with his Grammy & Papa and cousin Lani.

And this is my Mom & Dad with eight of their grandchildren (left to right: Lani, Devin, Camden, Halle, Garret, Weston, Braeden, James). My sister's five are dressed alike. My brother Greg's two boys, Devin & Garret, are standing beside my dad.

James with his daddy enjoying a warmer day in December.

Gospel Moments

Some days I am simply amazed at God's kindness in giving us James. 

I still stand in awe that despite the doctors' clear diagnosis that we would not be able to conceive on our own, God chose to open my womb and granted us a son. Every day I ask for more children. But every day, I wonder at God's gift to us in our precious boy.

Recently, James has again allowed me to sing The Gospel Song. For several months, whenever I tried to sing it, he would fuss and cry and not stand for it - a regular reminder of his unregenerated heart. But now, not only does he let me sing it, James sings with me - and sometimes instead of me! And then he begs for "Jesus Song" - Jesus Loves Me - which he has only heard a handful of times, but can already sing many of the words. He says, "wash 'way sins, Mommy" when he's begging to get to the second verse. How I love to sing him this amazing truth:

Jesus loves me

He who died

Heavens gates to open wide

He will wash away my sins

Let this little child come in

How I pray that our James will one day (soon) trust in Jesus as the only One who can wash away his sins. May he trust in Jesus' blood shed on the Cross as the only way to be washed whiter than snow and to have access to the Father.

ABC 123

I regret the lack of posting and pictures recently... it gets so cold in the basement (where our pictures are stored on the PC) that I just can't bring myself to go down there very often or stay for very long. So I haven't posted about Christmas  - or anything else recently. 

But James' speech has been progressing lately, so I have a story or two. Keep in mind that this is the boy who had just eight words in September. And only began using two-word phrases at Thanksgiving.

Before Christmas, Ben took James to the Hobby Shop to have them repair the train engine from the set-up beneath our tree. On the way home, this happy little boy spontaneously burst into song, "happy choo-choo do do... happy choo-choo do do..." (yes, to the tune of Happy Birthday). Currently, he likes to crack us all up by dropping his chin to his chest and lowering his voice as he says the "choo-choo." What a ham!

One of James' Christmas gifts was Hullabaloo by Cranium. He's still too young to really play, but the music makes you want to move. So on Wednesday afternoon, although we had a huge train track laid out on the living room floor, James started saying, "toys 'way. pay game." And then he began to dissemble his train track and put the pieces in the bag where we store them. I bustled around picking up some things of my own. A few moments later, there were still tracks on the floor, but James climbed up in a living room chair and said, "sit. wait. Mommy hep." I had to laugh as his ultimatum dawned on me. 

Our 9-yr-old friend, Eliza, comes each Thursday to serve as a mother's helper. Another one of James' Christmas gifts was a dome/teepee/tube maze. Yesterday we pulled it out for the first time. 'Liza was excited. James was beside himself. After we set it up, Liza chased James through the maze again and again. Then she got an idea. She hid. When he came through the maze and turned all the way around without spotting her, he called out, "Shysha, ah you?" When Ben came home last night, I suggested to James, "Show Daddy what you & Liza did today." James responded, "hide seek dowdares, Daddy" and proceeded to take his Daddy downstairs to show off his new maze.

Since James began walking the stairs, I have counted each step with him as he makes his way down. Early on, he would say, "six" at some point on the stairs - especially when I hadn't begun counting yet. In the past week, he spontaneously began to say, "eight, nine, ten," as he was stacking blocks or putting tracks into the bag. I love when I hear him say, "six, eight, ten, nine, 'leben."

This past week, our boy started singing the ABC song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. He has heard the ABC song a good number of times in his life since I would sing it while washing his hands. He also has a toy that sings it. But Twinkle, Twinkle totally surprised me. Of course, he misses half the alphabet, and last week started out singing, "a, b, c, d, a, b, c's" (I guess e, f, g, sounds a bit like a, b, c). This week, while putting train tracks together, he's been singing, "a, b, c, d, h, i, chay, qu, r, s, t, oo, fee, duhbuh, x, y, see." When I help him with it, he can say every letter.

Periodically, I hear him singing, "tinkol, tinkol didda dar... upah ss-ky" while he's playing. Occasionally, he commands, "upahbov dar, Mommy" - a mandate for me to sing for him. And how can I resist bursting into song?

I just love this season!