Glad it's bedtime

Today was not an easy day. Not that I'm expecting them to be easy with Dwayne working and coaching so much, but oh my- the patience that is required for parenting! I don't have the energy to type it all out here, but it involved a lot of creative negotiating, baby bouncing, deep breaths, and paper towels. Lots of paper towels. Pee, milk, water, poop, oh man.

I've been hanging out at Josiah's preschool on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, since he was traumatized the first time I left him there on his own. So, Abby and I have become the unpaid help at Little Blessings! The teacher is happy to have me there and encouraged me to stay and let Josiah adjust before I gradually work my way up to leaving in short stints. He doesn't look forward to going and the first 10 minutes are pretty sketchy for him, but eventually he warms up to everyone and stops worrying that I'm going to leave him there and has a good time. I sensed today that he was more comfortable with his teacher, and we've been invited over for a playdate to one of the other boy's houses next week. I think it will be even better if he has a friend there that he looks forward to seeing.

We have also settled into a church here. We've decided to go to Central Community Church. It's a Mennonite Brethren church just down the street from our place. It's about 450 people- 150 of them are kids. Lots of pregnant women, babies, and toddlers, so our family fits right in there. It's certainly not faultless, but I won't waste my time looking for the perfect church that doesn't exist. We're excited about plugging in and getting involved and loving people there. I love their mission statement- "Hope and strength for the journey." They're very intentional about discipleship with lots of cool things like spiritual retreats and classes on mentoring and such. From what I can tell they also have a good focus on missions, which is important to me. We're already part of a small group, which started on Saturday. There are 5 couples, including ourselves and we'll be meeting Sunday nights at one another's houses. We're excited about that and looking forward to getting to know all of those folks better.

Well, like the apt title says, I'm glad it's bedtime. I'm going to go sleep- hopefully through the night, as Abby has gone 3 nights in a row from 10pm until 7am! Mercy.

Smiles caught on camera

We finally caught a few heartwarming smiles on camera and wanted to share them with you all. We managed to capture some of the laughing on video too, so as soon as we figure out how to post videos on here, we'll post those too. =)

A very accurate shot

You know how sometimes you take pictures of your kids and it doesn't always seem to accurately portray what they look like? Well, this shot was taken of Abby last Friday, and it was such a real shot of how she looks, that I had to put it on here for everyone. This is our beautiful baby girl.

Could he really be this grown up?

Well, Josiah went to his first day of school today! He started in the 3 year old program at Little Blessings Preschool. He will go every Tuesday and Thursday morning for 2 hours. He's been so nervous lately about Dwayne and I leaving him places, I imagine because of all the change in his life and the unfamiliar places we've been. We haven't been able to leave him in a nursery at any church for months. So, I was concerned about how he would do today. He asked me if Abby and I would stay, and I had already talked to the teacher about it ahead of time. So, Abby and I stayed around the building, but not in the room- feeding and walking and bouncing... It was a long 2 hours for me, but Josiah seemed to breeze right through it. He did just fine without me in there, so I'm hopeful that he won't panic when I leave him on his own on Thursday...

We decided to take his picture on our front steps for his annual "first day of school photo." He's proudly wearing his Bob the Builder backpack. I really can hardly believe how grown up he seems.

Fall fun

On Saturday the Alliance church held their annual fall fair with food and fun activities- all free for the community. We took the kids and had tons of fun. Josiah had his first pony ride on a very gentle little horse named Jax. He also had his first dose of cotton candy! Those were just a couple of the highlights. Abby slept peacefully through much of the chaos of the morning.

Our growing girl

At Abby's doctor's appointment and at her 2 month immunizations she was weighed and measured. She's already over 13 pounds and about 24 inches, which puts her around the 100th percentile in height and weight. She's a healthy girl! Like her doctor said, "She's clearly thriving."