Noa, while coming at me with her toy stethescope:
“Here, Mommy. Let me check your heart-beep.”
Catching up with blogging -
With Gloria’s arrival in October, we also enjoyed the arrival of other special guests in our home.
Aunt Martha. What fun to have her around for a long weekend!
Mary Stuart and Joel came and we got to celebrate Mary Stuart's birthday all together. Noa waited all week to make MS a special strawberry cake.
Uncle Joel, Aunt Martha, and Baby E (Lily)
It was an extra special weekend to be together because Lily was baptized. I love this beautiful family and miss them so much right now (they're in Belgium for a month). Looking at these photos makes me long for their quick return to Florida.
We had a fun picnic all together at the park. I'm pretty sure this was the moment that Mom and Maggie swore they saw a gator in the water and Joel and Jonathan were exasperating them by staying in and trying to see what it was.
the girls loves this big tree that provided shade for our picnic...
...and the daddies and uncle helped them climb in it.
Earlier that weekend, we met up with our good friends, Stewarts and went to the pumpkin patch. This is a fun American fall tradition and it was my and my children’s first time to experience it. Does it count that the pumpkin patch in Florida is on a sand volleyball court?
I like this photo because it shows what a tiny BEAN Gloria was then!
Isabel was sweet to pull the littler girls around in a wagon.
All the bigger kiddos together.
One of the best parts of October was having my mom here for 2 whole weeks.
Mom, with 5 of her 9 grandchildren.
Isn't she beautiful? She's wonderful too.
Since long before Gloria was born, Noa had talked about making a birthday cake for our new baby with Baba. So, finally, the day before Baba left, she helped Noa to make a birthday cake.
Making the birthday cake.
She also made us a really special final dinner.
It ended up being a birthday cake for all three girls. Very fun.
We were so sad to see her leave, but so thankful for her love and sweet service to our family in the time she was here. I've said it before, and I will say it again: I don't want to have new babies without her close by. Eric calls her "an enabler". She makes it easy (or easier, anyway) to have kids. We're thankful for that. 
Even though it was so sad to see our visiting family leave, we are so thankful that we (usually) get to live so close to Jonathan, Maggie, Annie, and Lily.
One of the last fun things we did in October, to celebrate the fall, was to make caramel apples. The girls LOVED this treat, and really enjoyed making them with me.
my little kitchen helpers unwrapping the caramels for me.
Noa: So. Mom. How was your good day?
This phrase is usually said when she comes to sit by me on the couch while I nurse (she always crosses her legs before she says it), or at a mealtime conversation lull, or, most recently, this morning when I was in the shower and she came in use the toilet. As I washed my hair I heard it from her potty perch.
Just making conversation, just checking up on me. I love my growing girl.
Our house is a mess right now – literally and figuratively. There is laundry – so much laundry – to be put away. In the meantime my neat little piles that I folded last night aren’t so neat after a morning of play. It was at the top of my to-do list… but it’s 2:11 now and with the bedrooms full of napping children, it’s still not away.
The little bodies in this house are a mess too. We have enjoyed 3 days of laying low at home (except for an exciting trip to the pediatritian on Monday morning) with Noa, and now Martha, with pretty bad coughs. It’s nice having these days, though. And I can’t complain.
This is what Noa is wearing today:
Yes, those are baby legs, my shirt (from the clean laundry pile) half tucked into princess panties, a blue beaded necklace, and sparkly red hairband. See what I mean? A MESS.
To be completely honest, though, I’m a mess today too, only my mess isn’t quite as adorable and you won’t be seeing any photos of it.
In other random news:
I won some starters from Cultures for Health back in the fall and have just gotten around to starting them this week. Right now I have some yogurt culturing on my dresser (the warmest part of our house), and I am rehydrating some water kefir grains. I am going to start my sourdough starter soon, too. I don’t have any success stories yet but I am excited about the possibility of cheaper, healthier, and more probiotocs in our diet.
Bath time is becoming a favorite way to pass the time, especially on these days we are home and not hanging out with friends. Yesterday Noa decided she needed some glasses to wear in the bath to “help her see underwater.”
Eric will finish Hebrew 1 this Friday and then have a week before the new full semester starts. Since last Monday he has learned the Hebrew alphabet, learned how to read it, learned a ton of vocabulary, and can translate several verses from the Old Testament. Wow. I can’t help but wonder what it will be like next semester when he will have both a Greek and Hebrew classes going… crazy!
It’s 7:42 now. Gloria cried a lot this afternoon. I am thinking she may be teething. She wouldn’t be the first of my children to teeth at 3 months…
I needed to ask my parents a question this afternoon and so I called at 4:00pm, which is 6:00am there. I love it that I know 6:00am is a great time to call because they will both be up and they will be together, reading their Bibles. Afterwards, Eric said, “wouldn’t it be great if our kids knew that if they called that early, that’s where we’d be?” It reminded me of my marriage-long goal to get up with him when he does and have those quiet times side by side. I’ve gone through seasons where we have, but in these months of tiny babies and sometimes wakeful nights, I find myself giving into the laziness and desire for another hour (or two) of sleep. I miss it, though, and Eric’s words have echoed in my mind the past few hours to make me want to get back into the habit – and make it true, lifelong habit.
I mentioned before that Sachiko leaves soon. Actually, we only have one week left with her. And, actually, we will need to share her a lot this week as there are so many people who have come to love her and are vying for final moments with her. Please pray she has a great last week and knows how much she is loved and will be missed.
Tim, a former teammate from Japan comes into town tomorrow. We’re excited to have him and pray this will be a refreshing time for him. He’ll be here till Tuesday. We’ll hang out with other Japan friends who are in the area while he’s here. It should be great fun.
Alright, enough randomness. I’m off to finally put those piles of clean laundry away.
Well, our Glo-girl was 3 months old last Tuesday. It’s hard to believe how the time has flown and it’s such a joy to see her little personality come out. I think I am enjoying her babyhood so much, maybe even more than the other two, as I know how fleeting it is, AND mothering a baby is just so fun and easy. Well, easy compared to mothering our older two.
When I found out I was pregnant with Gloria, I really questioned the Lord’s timing in giving us our third child. With a move and entirely new stage of life looming, not to mention two still-very-young other children, I had a hard time trusting that a third baby wouldn’t send me over the deep end. Well, as always, hindsight is 20/20 and I see so clearly how the Lord knew exactly what he was doing. In the day-to-day gruel of training and caring for my toddler and preschooler (it’s wonderful, but grueling in many ways), He knew how these sweet baby coos, cuddles, and smiles would delight me and brighten even my toughest days as a mom.
He knew that sometimes I would need to see Martha’s kind concern when her baby sister cries and Noa’s gentle baby-talk as she tries to get Gloria to smile to remind me that He is working in their little hearts even at a young age.
He knew I would need the moments to just sit and enjoy my kids, whether with a book or a song, and often, stopping what I am doing to nurse the baby affords a perfect opportunity.
He also knew he needed to keep me humble and desperate for him. Granted, I felt pretty hopeless and needy much of the time with only two kids. Still, in these 3 months of learning to love well our three daughters I have found myself crying out to the Lord more than ever in my life and finding Him to be sufficient. His mercies are new every morning, his grace abounds, and he is trsutworthy and faithful! How I praise him that, through Gloria, he has already brought much glory for himself in our family. He has also brought about so much good and joy for us. I can’t wait to see how He continues to do this!
At three months, Gloria is a great eater! She is only nursing 4 times a day (sometimes 5 when she wakes up early) but she is growing like crazy. At her 2 month check-up she was 13lb6oz and has gotten even heftier since then. She’s long too, or at least I think she seems so long. She’s not a tiny baby anymore at all, and may even be bigger than her sisters were at this age.
She is sleeping pretty well, going to bed around 7:30 or 8:00 and waking up around 8 or 9. Since we’ve been home, she’s been waking up in the wee hours of the morning, usually at least once. I try to nurse her but usually the only thing she wants is to cuddle with us and so she spends the rest of those nights in our bed. It’s not ideal and I am determined to break the habbit once Sachiko leaves (in only 9 days 
)and her crying won’t disturb anyone. For now, I enjoy the snuggles with my sweet-smelling sleeping babe.
She takes 2 long naps in the morning and afternoon and sometimes one late-afternoon catnap. She has gotten very good at going down and hasn’t needed to be held or rocked to sleep for a while now.
She loves her paci (nor surprise there) but also likes to suck and play with her hands. And as soon as someone’s face comes into view, the paci is outta there and the smiles/giggles/cooing gets going. She is always ready for a little chat with anyone who will listen, even if it’s the animals hanging on her baby gym that she just started grabbing this week.
She’s continued to roll from her belly to her back and is so close to going from her back to her belly. She has also started to scoot on her back with all the kicking she does.
She has started to sit in the high chair at meals with us and seems to really enjoy being part of the family in that way. She loves being able to see faces. She still loves being held and doesn’t mind helping Daddy with his Hebrew as long as he holds her like a football and doesn’t mind some drool on his shirt.
She really is thriving, for which we are so grateful. Praise God! And we are just loving every moment with our Glo-girl.
We just received a baby monitor, which is a novel idea to Martha. Whenever she hears Gloria stirring or crying on it, she runs over to the receiver and yells into it:
“O-tay Beebee! O-tay!”
Ha! Glad those things aren’t really 2-way.
