Allergies

Maggie is extremely helpful and always cheerfully will get me a burp cloth, bib, diaper, or whatever I ask her for. The one thing she hates to do is throw away diapers (wet or dirty). She will carry it to the trash can if we ask her but she will gag and cough the whole way there. According to her she is allergic to stinky trash. She also says she is allergic to "poisonality." I like to think that means something like "toxic personalities" but we're pretty sure she means poison ivy. I prefer her word though.

We had Finn's six month appointment today and everything is great! He got three shots for about a million vaccinations, which I don't love, but Dr. Summar (geneticist) said he has to be up-to-date with his immunizations and can't be on any sort of delayed schedule. He's been a little wimpy all day but hopefully will start feeling better tomorrow.

This is sort of a boring post! Sorry! I'll try to drum up some funny stories or photos for the next one.

The Gracious Favor

This post has nothing to do with the photo below. I just thought the photo was funny. I thought Finn would hate the sunglasses and pull them off but he loved them and left them on for ten minutes before I finally took them off. He's standing on his own here with just a little help from me (you can see my hand holding onto his arm). He's almost six months and basically wants to stand all the time.
So here's what I really wanted to write today. Yesterday I was reading in II Corinthians and in the first chapter I was just gobsmacked by something Paul wrote. In no way am I comparing myself to Paul (I WISH!) but I felt like it was something I could have written after what we went through with Finn's hospitalization and feeling so many prayers for us and him. Here it is:

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
-II Corinthians 1:8-11

Okay, so obviously we weren't in Asia, but in my heart I felt "the sentence of death" for Finn. Dr. Summar told us that Finn was about five hours from death when we brought him to Vanderbilt. Quickly that "sentence of death" was countered with an almost palpable sense of all the prayers that were being said on bent knees, from friends and family as well as people we had never even met. On top of that, I have never felt so close to God as I did during those scary days. I knew I had no hope other than in Him and I felt completely dependent on him. The final part of verse 11 sums up Finn's hospitalization for me - that "many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many."

I know if you are reading this then you likely were praying for us back in March and April. I just wanted to remind you how much it meant to me and how I feel about you and the miracle that God worked on Finn.

Reasons Why

Here is one (of many) reasons I love Maggie:
She's in "quiet time" in her room and I can hear her singing a made-up song. The words are "the peas are not for you, no, they're not for you," sung over and over again. She makes up songs all the time and the lyrics frequently include the following words: "unto you," "Amen," and "Hallelujah." I guess you can tell she's started attending "big church" with us instead of just being in the preschool nursery.

Here is one (of many) reasons I love Finn:
Sometimes Grant or I will be talking and one of us will look over at Finn and he'll just be staring at us. As soon as we lock eyes on him he starts grinning like crazy, like he was just waiting for one of us to notice him.

And here is one (of many) reasons I love Grant:
Many of Finn's clothes have what seems like a million or more snaps on them. When I'm taking them off of him I try to keep as many snapped up as possible because they clank around in the laundry. I always re-snap whatever ones I unsnap, as soon as they're off of Finn's body (can you tell I have OCD?). Grant, on the other hand, seems to always unsnap every single one. I asked him if he wouldn't mind could he please try to re-snap them before he throws them in the hamper. Of course he said he would try. Yesterday I went to Finn's changing table and found a sleeper with about 20 snaps unsnapped. I asked Grant, "Why do you unsnap every single snap?" He said, "Well, I do have a reason. Do you want to know what it is?" And instantly I knew. I don't know why, but I just knew. I said, "Is it because it's fun to unsnap them all at one time?" And he said, "Yes! How did you know!!??!" It just was so cute and so typical of Grant that he would do something silly like that just because it was the more fun way to do it. That is one of my favorite qualities of his. The man just likes to have some fun and will find it wherever he can! (By the way, I'm sure I've never written the word "snap" so many times at once!)

Sweet Kids

Several months ago Maggie and Grant were sitting together at the kitchen table eating breakfast. This is a regular occurrence in our house as Grant usually lets me sleep in in the morning while he makes coffee and breakfast (crepes, pancakes, eggs, breakfast burritos- yes, I am spoiled). Anyway, they were talking about when Maggie is an adult and is married and all of a sudden a revelation hit Maggie. She said, "Daddy, when I get married, how will we eat breakfast every day?" When Grant told me I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.
Here is Grant reading Maggie a bedtime story. After reading her a bedtime story she BEGS us to tell her a story about when we were children. She actually begs us several times a day to tell her these kinds of stories, and when we say yes she actually squeals with delight. We must have been SO interesting as children. (ha ha)

We often talk about listening to your body - as in, are you full? Does your body say you are done eating or do you need more? Is your body tired? Do you need to sleep? A few nights ago Maggie was in bed but was still awake. All of a sudden she came into the living room and said, "I need to go potty." This is a pretty good trick because that's just about the only reason we let her get back out of bed at night. I told her she could go but she better really go and not just go play in the bathroom. She said, "My body is telling me I need to go potty." I said, "Okay, but don't flush because I'm going to come in there and check." (If you don't have kids you are probably grossed out by now. Sorry.) Instantly she stopped in her tracks and turned around and said, "Um, my body changed its mind. Now my body is saying I don't need to go potty. It's saying I better go back to bed."

Finn is doing super, too. We're just enjoying him so much. I don't say this to take anything away from how we felt about Maggie as a baby, but we were so neurotic with her as the first baby we were raising. I just feel so much more relaxed about Finn, even with his disorder and hospitalization, and I just enjoy every little thing about him. When I hear him waking up from a nap I let him play for a few minutes in his crib and then I just rush in there to get him. It's like a present to myself every time I walk in there and see his smiling little face.
His sign says, "I heart Aunt Lindsay." I thought she needed a little uplifting e-mail the other day. Wouldn't it make your day to see that smile?!