Random Fun

 John ran in the Boosterthon Fun Run to raise money for his school.  It was freezing that morning, but he was determined not to wear anything over his Boosterthon shirt.  They marked off each lap on the shirt as he ran.  He was also determined that the rest of us be there at 8:30for the run.  It was NOT easy, but we all had a great time and thawed out eventually.  I didn't expect much out of John since running isn't really his thing.  He usually says he's tired after a lap or two around the cul-de-sac, BUT he finished all 35 laps, which was over 2 miles!  I was so proud of him!  And he had a great time.  I thought he looked so cute with his tiger hat and mustache gloves.

 Eve ready for dance class

 We got this bow for St. Patrick's Day, and she let me put her hair in a bun.  I thought it looked so pretty.

 We pulled out an old hat that Papa gave John.  Poor Jake doesn't have the hair or skin tone for the sun.  Fortunately the hat didn't seem to bother him, and it's pretty darn cute!

 Just a cute chunky picture

 Ellie actually let me put her hair up the other day.  She usually makes a bold refusal.  When she and Eve realized their hair was the same they startede jumping around and dancing.  I hope they always enjoy each other that much.

I never knew teeth pulling was a spectator sport.  John's top front right tooth has been loose for quite a while.  He was trying hard to pull it one day and the girls loved watching.  It was all I could do to take a picture without getting the heeby jeeby's.  I joked with him that I wanted it to come out March 16th so we could see who got to it first, the tooth fairy or the leprechauns.  It's still there, so we'll have to save that question for another year.

Development

One great thing about having a terrible memory is that I don't remember at what age our kids, or our friends' kids, did anything.  There's no comparison here, and I can be amazed with child development all over again. It really fascinates me.  And, of course, I always watch and think my children are brilliant.  Here are some new developments...

Jake - Since I mentioned it at his 4-month well check, there hasn't been any evidence of Jake rolling over.  Today, though, he rolled over at least 4 times.  Each time I missed it, but nobody was in the room to help him, so there was no denying it.  He can definitely roll back to front now.  He's also reached a thigh circumference big enough to get stuck in his bumbo seat.  When I pick him up, I have to give him a little shake to get it to fall off his bottom.

Ellie - Ellie is showing a little bit of interest in potty training!  We had a day at home, so I let her wear panties on a whim.  She had a few accidents, but was willing to go to the potty when I asked her to.  The next day we were out and about, so I just had her in a diaper.  She asked twice to go to the potty, and kept her diaper dry (not clean, but dry) most of the day.  I think when she decided to do it, she'll figure it out pretty quickly.

Eve - Eve actually took Ellie to the potty several times!  She is such a good helper!  She also has started some reading exercises.  On a whim (I seem to be having lots of these), I started writing word roots on an erasable board, telling her how they sounded, then adding a letter to the beginning.  She LOVED the game and was so very proud that she was starting to read.  A few days ago I wrote John's popcorn words on note cards for her.  She either knows or can sound out more than half of them already!  John has enjoyed helping her with the game and trying to teach her to read (between the two of them, I've almost got this house running itself :) ).  I also tested her on her letter recognition, and she knew them all except lowercase "q".  Awesome!

John - On a comical note, John is coming home with things he's learned on the bus that are just slightly wrong, which makes it cute rather than a problem.  He asked Eve, "Do you know how to spell I-C-U-P?" rather than, "Do you know how to spell i-cup?" and getting her to spell it.  He also came home singing, "I'm sixty and I know it" rather than "I'm sexy and I know it".  I did have to put a stop to that one when Ellie started repeating it and it sounded like the real words.

John is studying 3-D shapes in school.  He's learned most of them before.  I was drawing them on the driveway one day last week.  He looked at them a few seconds, and can now draw a cube, cone, cylinder, and pyramid free-hand.  That was shocking to me!

John is also reading amazingly well now.  He's supposed to read or be read to 20 minutes a day.

He has started spending his 20 minutes reading to Jake.  It's just about the sweetest thing I've ever seen.
One last thing, although I wasn't able to post the video.  Today we went to the playground and there was a girl playing on a bar that had had gymnastics training before.  By the end of our time, John was climbing so that his knees were over the bar, dropping down so he was upside down, grabbing the upright support bars, then flipping over backwards and landing on his feet.  If you ever wondered why I have so many gray hairs coming in...

Gardening

My favorite harbingers of spring, the daffodils, are dwindling.  We are having more and more spring-like days, and our finding our faces to be a bit sunkissed by the end of the weekend.  Last weekend we planted our garden.

Child labor at its finest!

Here's our starting point.  We planted sugar snap peas, cucumbers, zucchini, spinach, lettuce, and asparagus.    Planting the garden and watching it grow is always so fun!

SHHHH! Don't tell Katie I'm Posting!!!

Friends and Family,

So begins another adventure.  Last year, it was participating in a half-Ironman race, which was a wonderful experience.  This year, my Christmas gift was something bigger, and better.  You see, Katie gave me the gift of time and space to allow for me to go with my local church on a short term Mission to Kenya for 9 days at the end of April.

A few questions must come to your mind:

1.  Is Katie crazy?  Why would she let Buck go for 9 days and leave her home with 4 kids from April 19-27? 
2. What type of Mission is it?  Where in Kenya? 
3. Why Kenya?  Haven’t there been thousands of missionaries to go there?  Hasn’t Christianity ‘taken’ there yet?  
4. How can I help?

First of all, if you didn’t know it by now, Katie is crazy---she married me!  But more so, she is faithful in God’s sovereign plan, and has been encouraging me to do something like this for the past 2 years.  Her ability to nurture her family, come along side me to help lead and support our family, and her desire for me to grow spiritually supersedes the discomfort of being a single parent of 4 wonderfully crazy kids for 9 days. 

Total angels, right?  Did I say crazy kids?

Secondly, I am participating in a Medical Mission Trip, because I am a doctor…

I am not a doctor, nor in the medical field.  Our team is comprised of 18 people, some doctors, dentists, nurses, physical therapists.  However, there are a handful of us who are going who don’t do that, but will be able to come along side and help where and when and how we can---whether helping in the pharmacy, helping the dentist pull out teeth when needed, as well as just be there and let God do His work (through us and to us!)  So, we’ll be travelling only in Central Kenya, with our home base in Nyeri, at the Westwood Hotel.  Nyeri appears to be at the west side of Mt. Kenya, north of Nairobi.  I believe we’ll be working at Kiawara Baptist Church, which is about an hour away from the hotel. (Kiawara probably won’t show on maps, it is a new district).  We’ll likely be doing some other day trips elsewhere to serve, but will come back to Nyeri every night.  Our last day,  we’ll take a break and be able to do a bit of shopping and seeing the beauty God has created in Kenya in one of the natural preserves.

Thirdly, yes, there have been many missions to the country of Kenya.  And yes, as we go, we are trying to spread the message of the Gospel.  According to cia.gov factbook, Kenya is 82.5% Christian.  Seems like “we’re good here,” right?  Did you know that according to the same data source, the USA is 78.5% professing Christians?  Like in the USA, there is more to the story than in the numbers.  So spreading the Gospel verbally is important.  However, not only are we doing so with our words, but also with our actions.  Here is the good news; we are RECEIVING just as much of the Gospel as we will be giving!  Our church, Grace Church, has been partnering with the local church, specifically with Bernard Kabaru and the Fellowship of Baptists of Central Kenya (FOBOCK) in reaching out through multiple avenues.  I could write them all here, but I’ll encourage you to read more at http://gracechurchsc.org/culturallyengaged/ce-world/kenya/.    

Finally, here is what I am asking.  Please pray for me, for Katie and the kids, our team and their families, for those who we’ll help, for those who will help us, and for our Mission.  Jesus tells us in Matthew 28:19 to “…go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” (NLT)  Pray that we will do this with a humble yet passionate heart, with the strength and skill that only God provides, and that we will help further His Kingdom.

Love to all!

Stephen/Buck

PS If you would like to contribute monetarily, you can do so by sending a check to Grace Church 2801 Pelham Road Greenville SC 29615---in the memo line put “Kenya Missions---Buck.”  Money goes to plane ticket, food and housing, as well as medicine.  I am allowed one bag (a camping backpack) for me, and 2 HUGE bags of medicine for the mission.

PSS  If you would like me to bring you back something, let me know (coffee is always requested).  Those two bags with medicine? Empty on the way back unless filled with Kenyan goodies.

PSS For those of you who didn't know, yes, my given name is STEPHEN!    

Silly Ellie

I'm always saying that what Ellie says is so much funnier because of the way she says it.  Unfortunately I can't capture that on the blog.  The way she cuts her eyes also adds to the humor.  As  a sidenote, she also has an impressive mastery of the stink-eye.  I always tell people she was born with it.  The very first picture we took of her on the phone to announce her arrival, she had the stink eye.  I made Buck take another one that didn't look so mean.  Anyway, one thing she says that's so funny in her little voice is, "I won't".  Whenever we ask her not to do something that she's CLEARLY about to do, she says in the sweetest, most innocent voice, "I won't".  Like I said, hard to capture without her sweet little voice.
Somewhat related, but somewhat different, a funny story.  The other night I was putting the kids to bed.  Just before we said our prayers Ellie started singing a song.  She was making it up as she went.  It was about brushing your teeth, and probably whatever alse came to mind.  At the end, she finished with (as I heard it clear as a bell), "Ahhh SH&#!".  Her language is always pretty clear to me, but I was taken aback a bit.  Surely I hadn't quite understood correctly, so I asked her what she said.  She repeated it again...as clear as day, "Ahhh SH&#!".  I asked at least 5 or 6 times, not making a big deal about it, but just in a confused, "I didn't quite catch that" way.  Each time she repeated it more clearly than the last.  I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out what else she could be saying, or where she had heard that.  Fortunately Eve walked in right then.  I asked Eve what Ellie was saying.  Without skipping a beat Eve replied, "All set!".  Whew!

4 Months and Counting...

 And time continues to fly by!  Jake is 4 months old now.  He smiles all the time and laughs a bit more.  The easiest way to get him really laughing these days is to laugh.  Jake went in for his well visit yesterday.  Apparently he rolled over twice from back to front, but I didn't see it, so I'm going to continue to live in denial.  He's still very laid back, and rarely every cries, but within the past week or two he's asked for a little more attention, which is totally fair.  He's also, within the past few days, started to talk a lot...and LOUDLY!  Stats at 4 months are length 26.5 in (94th percentile), weight 17 lb. 12 oz (88th percentile), head 16.5 in (57th percentile).  He's quickly running out of room in his 6-9 month clothes.  I realize that in the pictures he looks completely bald, but he does have hair all around about 1/4 to 1/2 in. in length.  I think it's going to take quite a while to fill in and be visible.  I'm still not sure what color his eyes will end up being.  What I do know, is Jake is a super sweet bundle of joy.

 Jake's got some big shoes to fill!

John and Ellie were pleased with their little joke.  I thought it was pretty cute myself.