James: 20 months

This is a strange milestone for James to reach to me, because this is how old he will be when he becomes a big brother (any day now, the midwives say...)!  Otherwise, not a lot of exciting things have happened this month other than playing a lot and having tons of fun!

We had cooler weather for a week or so (in late July and early August in NC!  Hooray!), so we played outside a lot and had several picnics.  James still loves to pick a carrot from the garden and eat it entirely.  He doesn't say "carrot," but he chomps his teeth and points to his mouth, and this is how he communicates that he wants to eat one!  Otherwise he seems to be getting pickier regarding food.  Though, he did try some pork tenderloin last week and loved it (rubbed with herbs and roasted)!  He ate every bite and asked for more.  His favorites are grapes, watermelon and strawberries.  Our staples include whole wheat pasta, beans, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, cheese, yogurt, spinach smoothies and avocados.  He is usually totally uninterested in most other meats and vegetables, and I have been too tired (lazy?) lately to be consistent in offering new foods other than what Stuart and I are eating.  Oh well, grace abounds and someday he will grow out of the picky toddler phase.





We have one new verbal word: "nigh nigh" for, of course, "night night."  I think it might be his sweetest yet. :)  I'm looking forward to having a smaller belly soon so that bedtime snuggles are less cumbersome and more comfortable for both of us!



He loves to play at the playground.  He has pretty much mastered the slide, and often even chooses to go all the way to the top and come down the big spiral slide by himself (though he prefers if I'm at the bottom to catch him).  He has started to be a bit bossy to other kids at the playground (and, well, everywhere that he sees other kids) and tells them "no no" all the time.  I try to just remind him to be kind and that we share with our friends.  He will certainly be a bossy big brother, like all good first children! :)



We've started pulling out some of our baby items to get ready for the new person joining us within the next week or so, and James has especially enjoyed his old zebra chair.  He is often found hanging out in it as shown in these photos!  He also loves to hang out in the new baby's room and play with the baby toys, climb in the rocking chair and lay in the crib pretending to sleep.





He is still the happiest boy I know, and I am so so grateful to be his mama every day (toddler tantrums and independence and all)!

James meets the Durham police

This morning James and I were in my room getting ready to go out to the playground.  I was washing my face when I heard this terrible, high-pitched noise.  I quickly rinsed my eyes so I could try to figure out what was going on, then I look over and see that James has found the little remote for our security system that we keep by our bed.  Apparently, the remote has an automatic alarm "panic" button, and James found it!  I quickly turned it off (what a terrible noise!).  I texted Stuart to let him know that James set off the alarm and we were okay, just in case our security company called him.  I didn't hear anything from him or the security company in the next few minutes, so I forgot about it.

We headed downstairs and started to get everything together and head out the door when James decides to throw a temper tantrum over his shoes.  I wrestle him to the couch so we could talk it over and put his shoes on.  In the midst of this, I just happen to look up out of our front window and see a police officer standing between the boxwoods in our front bed peering in!  I was very confused, so I just smiled and waved :)  He waved back and pointed toward the front door.  So, I leave James fussing on the couch and open the door.  He says, "We had a call from your security company - everything ok?"  I explained that James had pushed the button, but I didn't hear anything from the company, and that everything was just fine.  He said "I also noticed a disturbance inside - is everything okay with that?"  I was mortified - what kind of mother did this police officer think I was?? Thankfully, James walked to the door at that moment and acted terrified of the big man in the dark suit with all the scary tools around his waist.

The officer called his partner to the front door (who happened to be searching around in our backyard with his night stick out!) and then kneeled down and opened his badge to reveal a stack of "junior officer" stickers.  James thanked them with a kiss and was officially inducted into the force, then we sent the officers on their way, apologizing profusely for wasting their time!  Hopefully James' cute face made it worth their while.  At least now we know our alarm works and the police truly are called if we ever did need them!

Staycation

Stuart has three weeks of vacation each year, and usually we travel to Arkansas to visit our family.  However, this summer he ended up with two vacations very close together - one in July, and one in late August.  The late August vacation will be used for when new baby arrives.  He just had his week off in July, and it was so close to the end of our pregnancy that we decided not to travel and to just have a staycation.  It was bliss!  Stuart's cousin Sebastian came to visit for a few nights, but shockingly we have zero photos of his visit with us!  Sad face.  Needless to say James loved "Bash" and was not happy when he had to leave.



There was a lot of reading and napping on the couch.





There were some heavy lifting projects completed in the new nursery - blackout curtains up and ceiling fan installed (poor Stuart - ceiling fans are the nemesis that he conquered... but it was a very frustrating task!).



Stuart got some creative energy flowing and worked on recording some lyrics (and other parts? I don't know anything about it really...) for some music he's had cooking for a while.  Very good and restorative for him.





The weather was really nice and relatively cool (though rainy a bit on and off) with highs only in the 80's, so we played outside a lot.



James spent the night at Mema's house mid-week, so Stuart and I were able to (finally) celebrate our anniversary with some gift cards and cash we had saved to the movie theatre (because it costs an arm and a leg to see a movie!) and a gift card to our favorite fancy restaurant in town, Nana's.




The next morning Stuart and I drove to the beach (after sleeping in until 8am woo!) for the day while James played with Mema and P/Paw and the dogs.  The nearest beach is about 2:15 from us at Wrightsville Beach, which was quite crowded, but we decided we get to go so rarely, that we would just be happy to sit in the sand and look at the ocean, even if we were surrounded by people.  It had just stormed the day and night before we went, and you could tell in the waves.  They were rough!  Just 10 feet from shore I was knocked over several times and clawed my way back.  I protected my belly at all costs, and at one point was sliding with my face to the sand under the current!  It would have been really fun to play in... if I wasn't pregnant.  So I mostly sat right at the edge and watched Stuart.  He had a blast.



And here is a shameless photo of my giant white baby belly.  I had to wear a bikini because it is the only bathing suit left that fits me.  Yikes.  Glad we didn't see anyone that we knew ;)





Friday morning I had to go to a class to renew my BLS for work, so James and Stuart got to hang out and have boy time.  Stuart sent me the above cutest photo of James.  Sounds like they just ran around town and got some errands done and played on the playground.  Stuart taught him to go down the slide by himself (fearless).  On Saturday we had a big church potluck picnic (I organize and run things like that at our church, so they're always busy and long events for our family).  We met at Umstead Park in Chapel Hill, which has an incredible playground, and James spent most of his time climbing up and going down the slide repeatedly.  New favorite activity.  Sadly, no photos of that either.





And of course, because James saw Stuart doing this throughout the week, he wanted to do it, too.  Just like dad.  Stuart set him up at the Midi and he just sat there like a big boy and pounded on the keyboard.  Artist in the making.





We are so grateful for our productive and restful time before new baby joins us in a few weeks!

James: 19 months

This past month flew by!  I feel like we just celebrated the big half birthday, and already we're on to a new month!  Not much has changed by way of routines or temperament, so this will be a little shorter than most monthly updates.

James popped two new teeth through this past month!  He now has his upper two canine teeth, which makes for a full set on top except for the very back molars.  He promptly caught a cold right after the teeth popped through, so we had a week or two of rough naps/overnight sleep, but we're on the other side and he's doing great.

James enjoys reading, coloring, playing with finger paint, being outside in any way, shape or form (even if it's terribly hot).  He loves to play in water, climb playground equipment and go down slides backwards on his belly.  He loves other children, and always recognizes some of his favorites whenever we see their picture or in person (Maja and Emerson, my friend Becca's kids, and Ezra, James' BFF and my friend Casey's babe).

He loves to go out in the backyard with me and check on our garden.  We're starting to have lots of tomatoes and basil to pick!  And we're working on our colors, because he always goes for a green tomato to harvest!  While we're out there, sometimes I pull a carrot to see how they're looking (with a plan to harvest in the fall) and James loves to eat them!  If I give him a carrot out of the fridge, he won't eat it.  But out of the garden, he eats the whole thing!

He has started to be willing to eat more meat and has gotten more adventurous wanting to taste anything that mama and dad are eating.  So, we're continuing to work on expanding his palate :)  However, unfortunately reaching for our plates means sometimes he gets a handful of scrambled egg and subsequent hives!  Or he tastes something random and then breaks out in a rash and we're just not sure what it's from since he tasted so many things.  Yesterday, James had just a nibble of my peach and another nibble of my toast with sunflower seed butter and wild grape jelly from Aunt Jill and Grandad... all foods he has had before.  He promptly broke out in hives and then vomited!  So, his first anaphylactic reaction to... something?  Hard to say what it was.  It really scared me, and then I was really embarrassed about how scared I got because Stuart was so cool about it.  He was pitiful, but after some Benadryl and a long nap, it passed.  Praise God his airway wasn't involved, and thankfully we have EpiPens at the ready in case it ever is.  Food allergies are the worst. 

New words this past month:

No "neeee"

Pierce! "Pew"

Garage "graw" - similar to gate, but it's all about context

Boot "boo"

Outside "ow-sigh" or just "sigh"

Amen "mmmmmeh!"

Nana "Neh"

Garden "gaaaahr"

New animal sounds:

Sheep "baaaa"

Goat "maaaa"

Rabbit and Crocodile - chomps like eating something

Horse "neeeh"

Pig - snort through nose :)

Cat - high pitched "meeeeh"

Dog - sometimes sticks his tongue out like panting, sometimes high pitched "arr"

He loves to go around the house looking at pictures and through photo albums - both physical and digital - and name all the people and things he knows, and then point to the ones that he doesn't know how to say.  He loves to point to our Pierce family picture on the fridge and name Nana and Pop, then point to every single aunt, uncle and cousin to hear all of their names.  He really likes Alden and Will (our nephews)!  He can't say James yet, but he does say Pierce!

He loves to tell me to go outside to the garage (one of his favorite places to play) or to put the gate up at the bottom of the stairs.  He's a smart one, that Jamesy boy.   We like him a lot and can't wait to see him as he owns the roll of big brother here in about a month!

Lately

4th of July

Somehow I only managed to get these three photos on the 4th of July this year...







We went out to the Acrees' for an early dinner - ribs and veggie crudites for appetizers; burgers, corn and watermelon for dinner; brownies for dessert.  All was delicious, as usual.  Matthew and Meredith were there, and little dude Canaan sat at the dinner table and had his own little meal.  The babes got to play in the deck pool after dinner for a while before we had to head back home.  We didn't see any official fireworks, but Stuart and I participated in our own tradition that we started one week after we were married (our first 4th celebration together in Little Rock occurred the very evening that we arrived from driving all of my possessions from NC) - standing on the street and waving sparklers at passing cars.  In Little Rock, we lived on a busy street in the middle of town and had lots of folks wave and honk at us the first two years we did it.  Then, we moved to a neighborhood in Durham with very little traffic.  This year, we happened to have a kid whiz past us on his skateboard during our sparkler tradition, and he waved.  So, that's sufficient to comply with tradition expectations I suppose :)

Restless

If you have known me for any reasonable amount of time, you probably know that I have always seen myself working overseas in some mission-oriented way.  I don't usually write about this sort of thing here in this space, but feeling the call and having the desire to go work overseas has been heavy on my heart lately, and I want to remember it and how I wrestled with it during these young days as a mama and wife to a studly doctor-in-training.

"Sometimes [obedience to God's calling] looks like dreams buried and dormant while frost blisters the ground. It looks like seasons of upheaval and tilling and the ground on which you hoped to stand is rocked and shaken and you can only kneel, only bow lower. It looks like yearning to break through to light and always pushing further into it. It looks like tender limbs reaching toward majesty and the weight of glory shining on. It looks like so much unquenchable thirst. It looks like pruning and sheared loss." -Alia Joy

I ran across a blog post at aliajoy.com (read the full post here) that really resonates with my heart and seems to describe the restlessness I feel in my spirit.  Go read it, it is beautifully written and exactly the reminder I needed that being obedient to the Lord's calling isn't based only on whether you say yes or no to the call to go to the ends of the earth...  It also means remaining obedient to other Gospel-work during the seasons that you feel suffocated by middle class life in America, when you have trouble seeing the Gospel at work in your own community and workplace, when you want nothing more than to sell all you own and fly away to be a part of bringing the Gospel and healing and grace to the nations.

A few of you know that we have an opportunity to go to Zambia next May through Stuart's residency program at UNC.  And some of you know that we are so hoping to be able to go as a family and experience a month of life overseas as a family - babies and all.  Some of you are very fearful about that opportunity, and for others of you, the idea rocks your socks off with excitement for us.  My hope is that no matter your thoughts, that you would be praying for us to walk obediently to the life which we have been called to - motherhood, medicine, Gospel-work... and the possibility that those things would take us overseas.  Short term.  Long term.  We don't know, but we feel the heart tugs and know that God's timing and provision and callings are perfect.